Karen's Condo Renovations

New blog!

2008-07-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Since there won't be any more condo renovations and we've been blogging as a married couple, I'm transferring this blog to: http://benjaminandkaren.blogspot.com
Thanks for reading!

Brother and Sister

2008-06-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

My brother and sister came for a short visit last weekend with their significant others. We had a lot of fun hanging out (drinking espresso martinis and playing Cranium) and shopping. On Saturday, we went to Carmel to get away from the 100+ degree heat in San Jose. Not only did we get cooler weather, we also got caught in a thunderstorm! The weather was so bizarre...and of course I had just washed my car the day before. Luckily the rain didn't last that long and we were able to enjoy the rest of our day.
Pebble Beach Lodge/an obese squirrel on the 17 mile drive

Benjamin and Karen/Chris and Kathy

Staci and Tony

Playing hooky

2008-05-09T20:58:00.001-07:00

IMG_5874_crop
Originally uploaded by b3nj1

Karen and I took today Friday off! We read that the whale watching was especially good this year after a couple of lean years, so we thought we'd check it out.

We headed out on Thursday night for dinner at Casanova in Carmel. On the way, our new Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS gave us creative directions. It came with an introductory subscription to FM traffic updates. Since 101 was a bit backed-up, the GPS thought we'd benefit from taking every exit ramp and then immediately re-entering the highway. We opted to rough it traveling at the speed limit in the carpool lane. :-)

Before dinner, we had some drinks at Hog's Breath Inn in Carmel. Then we walked over to Casanova. We ate there on our honeymoon last September and loved the place! It came highly recommended by a foodie friend of mine, Roman. It was still great, but not as fabulous as last time. The spinach gnocci was so freakin' good! Karen's rack of lamb was seasoned well, but a little over-cooked. I got the seafood linguine which was a bit bland and also over-cooked. For dessert, the warm chocolate cake was very tasty.

Friday morning, we went down to Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf for a whale watching tour with Monterey Bay Whale Watch. We had checked the weather before leaving San Jose, and knew to expect cloudy and cold weather. We had four-five layers on, but six would have been nice. Burrr..

We saw three clusters of whales. The second group was a mom and calf along with two other adults. They did some synchronized dives for us!

I snapped a bunch of pictures, but had some trouble with the lighting. I used my Canon 40D with an Canon EF 70-300mm lens. I set the camera to shutter priority at 1/500s in hopes to minimize motion blur. I think I should have gone a bit faster, and also set the ISO to ~800 instead of auto to coax the meter to pick smaller apertures. I think that would have given more forgiving focus. Most shots are not sharp :( We'll just have to go back!

While on the topic of gadgets... A little while ago, I got a compact GPS logger so I could geo-tag my pictures. I got the Holux M-241. It's the size (and spitting image of) a film canister, and it is really good at locking to the satellites. (The thing locks from the middle of our house!) I just fire it up and put it in my pocket. So, all the photos have their location attached, and you can see them on a map in flickr.

Our New Pets

2008-05-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

No, we didn't get a dog...or a cat...not yet anyway. :) For now, we've adopted a couple backyard pets - Mr and Mrs Dove and Ralph the Squirrel. Of course we have names for our pets! I think it's the same set of doves who were around last year. They recently returned and built a nest in one of the eaves. When we first noticed the nest, Benjamin tried to get rid of it by knocking down all the branches. Can you believe that?! I felt bad, all that hard work those two birds put into building their home was shattered. The doves were persistent though and they rebuilt their nest in the same spot (and I made Benjamin leave it). The only creepy thing is that Mrs. Dove likes to peer into our bathroom window when she's sitting up there.

Sunday Hike

2008-05-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

We went hiking this afternoon at the Arastradero Open Preserve in Palo Alto. It was an easy trek with some great views, a cute little lake and fun photo opps for Benjamin and his big camera. I always forget how close we are to nature despite living in such suburban sprawl. We saw various birds (woodpecker, quails, red winged black bird), butterflies and lizards. There are supposed to be fields of wildflowers but I think we were too late in the season...next year! Here are a few National Geographic-esque pictures Benjamin took:

Visiting the Four Bears

2008-04-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

We visited Paula, Alex, Josie and baby Dana this weekend. It was fun catching up, we don't see them often enough. Dana is an adorable baby! Josie is such a good girl and she looks even bigger now that she's the older sister. After visiting at the house, we decided to go out to dinner. It was Dana's first time out and both she and Josie did great! Click here for more pictures.

Howdy Mate

2008-03-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

So Benjamin and I spent this past weekend doing our taxes. I am traumatized. :) It's the first year we're doing them together and things got kinda complicated. I guess that's a sign of getting older. I sure do miss those 1040EZ days! I realized that I need to do a better job at keeping track of my stuff in Quicken. I spent a lot of time looking for old receipts and documentation while Benjamin had everything in order and at his fingertips. On a more happy note, we're taking a trip "down under" this fall! We're going to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef and visit my brother and his family in New Zealand, I can't wait to see the triplets! We scored two FREE tickets through my American Airlines frequent flyer miles - all those work trips definitely paid off. Award travel to Australia is very hard to come by so I think this vacation was meant to be. Now we have to get our Advanced Scuba certifications this summer. :)

Meet "The Sames"

2008-03-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Karen and I met our alter egos on Flickr!

Karen's blog needs a new title

2008-02-13T21:35:00.000-08:00

Karen finally convinced me to contribute to her blog. Just wait for the hits to plummet...

A couple weeks ago, Karen and I visited my family in Georgia. It was great to see my parents, my brother, his wife and kids, my sister, and her kids. While at my brother's, Karen and I rode his 4 wheelers. I think we'll have to get some because Karen really had fun! :-)

A friend, Joshua, recently moved from CA to GA, so we got to see him. We were made suitably jealous by their new home. The house is beautiful and spacious. Karen and I have been talking about adding a bit to our house and have started talking to contractors. After we're done, our house might be the size of Joshua's basement :-/

As usual, I shot a ton of pictures while in GA, and some are shared up on flickr. Kids (and pets) are much more fun to photograph than adults. We adults always seem to complain about how we look. The kids are especially photogenic, so no problem.

Speaking of flickr... it's awesome, but has a few shortcomings from my perspective. I wanted to find a good online backup solution, and since most of my data is photos, I looked into picasa and flickr. I decided on flickr because they store unlimited photos for a reasonable charge (~$25/year) and they have several ways to organize photos (tags, sets, archives). Picasa is more expensive and seems less flexible. Picasa software is seemingly nice (as long as you don't mind corrupted MakerNotes on your images), but there are many tools out there for flickr (like downloadr to bulk download pictures off flickr).

The true beauty of flickr is that they expose an API, so the shortcomings I've found can all be worked out with a few lines of code or by others' tools. I've written a little tool that I use to:

Prepare photos for upload
- Remove the "OwnerName" tag since I put my name and phone number in my camera. This is a common complaint in the flickr help forums.
- Add "machine tags" so that I can uniquely match a photo stored on flickr with the version stored on my home machine
- Add additional tags. Typically for generic tags, like "Christmas", because we add specific photo tags, like "Karen", on the flickr website. Their interface is pretty good for tagging.
Upload the photo to flickr
- There are other uploaders out there, but I didn't like any of them. Plus, having my tool take care of it removed a step in the flow.
- This gave me the opportunity to optionally re-upload (replace) photos on flickr without losing any of the flickr state (views, comments, notes, etc). That's been useful as I repair photos that the Picasa software has corrupted.
Fix the upload time on flickr
- Other uploaders use the current date/time for the "upload date". Seems logical, but instead, I'd rather have the upload time match the time the picture was taken. This is especially true since I uploaded all my photos (about 16k - not all are public though) from newest to oldest, so flickr displayed my oldest photos first since they sort by upload date. This feature allowed me to fix all the dates of my already uploaded photos. Flickr's selection of upload date seems a common complaint in the flickr help forums.
Backup flickr content
- Now that we're using flickr, there's a bunch of new data created there. We tag and group our photos on flickr. We change the titles and descriptions, and there are comments and notes on the photos. So, the tool can pull this content back and apply it to the photo (title, description and tags fit nicely in IPTC/EXIF fields) or store it locally (notes and comments don't fit so nicely, so I just keep these in xml).

The tool is very customized to my needs, tastes, and usage, but I'm considering sharing it. It addresses some common complaints (OwnerName & upload time). I need to do a little cleanup/documentation before that though.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

We spent new year's up in Truckee with a bunch of friends (thanks, Fostinos!). On the way up, we watched Jeff's final cyclocross race of the season in Livermore. It was really cold and muddy, all I have to say is that cyclocrossers are hardcore..and maybe a little crazy. We spent our time in Truckee hanging out, drinking, watching movies, playing Wii - it was so much fun. We also had a chance to visit Benjamin's cousin Aaron and his family who also live in Truckee. Cheers to a prosperous 2008!!

Jeff's cyclocross race/posing in Truckee:

Jewelry Making Lesson

2007-12-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

While we were up in Oregon for the holidays, we visited our good friends Jennifer and Wayne We had such a great time catching up, drinking wine, playing Wii and...making jewelry! Jennifer has an impressive "lab room" full of jewelry-making tools and materials. She showed us how to stamp, oxidize, polish, assemble and create the little bead charms. At the end of the lesson, I had helped create four necklaces, including the one pictured on the left. These will make great gifts for the mom's in our family. For a non-crafty person, I had so much fun! I really think Jennifer could make this her full-time job, she is so talented and creative. Check out her finished jewelry projects!

Stamping jewelry/Benjamin boxing on the Wii

Jennifer and Wayne making jewelry/Willy the cat

New England Sunset

2007-10-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

I was in Boxboro, MA (45 mins west of Boston) last week for work. It was beautiful - the leaves are starting to turn shades of orange and red and it wasn't too cold yet. I managed to snap a picture of this amazing sunset on my phone.

Hitched

2007-09-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

We did it!

(photo courtesy of Jewels and Cy)

The Final Countdown

2007-08-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

It's our last weekend as a "single couple"! We tried to come up with some exciting adventures to partake in but all we could think of was: clean house, do laundry, run errands and catch up on work emails. Yikes! Sounds like we're already down the path of being an old married couple. :) We need a plan to bring some work-life balance into our lives.

The wedding plans are pretty much done. We are relaxed, excited and ready to party!

Fishing and Wine Tasting

2007-07-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I had our bachelor/ette parties last weekend! The guys went to Santa Cruz for some deep sea fishing while the girls took a limo up to a few wineries in the area. Afterwards, we all gathered back at the house for a bbq. Thanks to our friends Jeff and Sara for planning, we had such a great time!

Photo albums: fishing, winetasting

Virtual Scuba

2007-06-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Check out Benjamin's first underwater video! This was recorded with a regular old Canon Powershot...we may need to upgrade our camera soon.

Dominica - Part 2

2007-06-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

After our time in Roseau, we drove to the eastern side of the island for a change of scenery. We chose to stay at Beau Rive Hotel which had received stellar reviews on tripadvisor. Beau Rive is like a home away from home...in paradise. Mark, the owner, is from England and built his dream on Dominica about four years ago. The hotel has only 6 rooms, each with high ceilings, simple but modern decor and breathtaking views all around. Mark and his small staff do all of the cooking, we were presented with delicious breakfasts and dinners made from the freshest local produce. Home-made yogurt with guava jam, fish pie, vegetable curry, wonderful desserts and plenty of tropical fruit (mangoes literally fall from the trees onto the road!) Mark's pets: 3 dogs (Millie, Winston, Florence) and cat (Puss) also lived on the grounds, it was nice getting to know the whole clan during our stay. I would love a dog like Florence someday soon (hint, hint, honey..). Unfortunately the weather took a bit of a turn and we experienced some major storms which meant a lot of time reading, playing Scrabble and just lounging around - definitely not a bad thing! We managed to drive up and down the coastline to explore Turtle Beach, Red Rocks, Emerald Pool, Jungle Bay Resort (mediocre massage, but fabulous view and ocean sounds in the room). One of the more interesting places we visited was Indigo Art Gallery. The artist, Marie, built her natural studio and home into the mountainside - it's like a big tree house. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom made a visit to Marie when they were filming Pirates of the Caribbean and she had no idea who they were. They even wrote in her guest book! Our initial impression of Dominica was that it's a 'poor' island - most people live in shacks and don't have cars. When we asked Mark how people are able to survive, he said they are by no means living in poverty. In fact, Dominica has the highest number of centurions per capita. Life on Dominica is stress free...people grow their own crops and eat fish caught from their backyards. It's no wonder they live such long (and rich) lives.

View Picture Album

Florence the dog/Turtle Beach:

Eastern coastline from Red Rocks/Emerald Pool waterfall:

Driving in Dominica

2007-06-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Driving in Dominica can be a daunting task, ask Benjamin! Not only is it left hand drive on the island but the windy, pot-holed roads are only big enough for one car. Here's a little (narrated)clip of our experience:

Dominica - Part 1

2007-06-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our vacation in Dominica (Dom-in-eek-a), a small island in the eastern Caribbean..not to be confused with Dominican Republic. It was amazing! We chose Dominica for its rustic beauty, pristine scuba diving and lack of tourists. While it's a Caribbean destination, you won't find 5-star resorts, white sandy beaches and gourmet restaurants here. Dominica is referred to as the "Nature Island" with waterfalls, rain forests, rivers and lakes galore. There is so much to do and see! For the first part of our trip, we stayed on the southern part of the island near Roseau (the biggest town) at the Evergreen Hotel. We did four days of scuba diving with Nature Island Dive which was such an incredible experience. We saw many types of vibrant coral and sponges and the beautiful clear blue water was full of interesting creatures including sea snakes (eww!), eels and tons of colorful fish. Benjamin's favorites were the peacock and scorpion fish. We bought an underwater camera case for one of our cameras which worked pretty well. Nature Island Dive is a family owned business and we happened to be their only customers that week so we had the whole boat to ourselves. Our personal divemaster, Tony, was really cool - we learned a lot about the island from him. Several shows were taped on Dominica including Pirates of the Carribbean 3 and the new reality show Pirate Master, which Tony worked on the set of. By far, Dominica has been our most impressive diving location, it's going to be hard to top!

View Picture Album

Trafalgar Falls/colorful sea anenome and sponge:

News

2007-05-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've written...things have been quite busy around here lately. I have an exciting announcement to make: Benjamin and I are engaged! The wedding will take place in September so we've been busy planning. I'm lucky Benjamin has been such a huge help throughout the process, he's definitely made things less stressful. We're also getting ready for our upcoming trip to Dominica, a small rustic island in the Caribbean. The scuba diving should be fabulous as well as the hiking (they have a boiling lake!). We'll try and work in some relaxation while we're there too.

Korea & China

2007-03-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

I finally downloaded the rest of my pictures from my trip to Asia. After Singapore, I was off to Korea for a day of meetings. I didn't have much time to do sightseeing but managed to squeeze in a traditional dinner and walked around the neon city. After Korea, I headed to China. Shanghai was a huge surprise to me, it's a lot more modern than I thought it would be. I've only been to Guangzhou (a city in southern China) and the two are completely different. Shanghai has many western looking buildings due to intenational settlements back in the 19th century. I visited our China office and explored a couple univerisities in the area. One of my old co-workers is on a 2 year expat assignment in Shanghai so he took me around the city which was really nice of him. All in all, it was a productive trip but I'm so glad to be home!

Seoul, Korea/Shanghai, China (People's Park)

Shop (and eat) til you Drop

2007-03-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues was gracious enough to invite me to a local-style Singaporean dinner on Friday evening. "Hawker" shops are open food-courts with no a/c and many vendors selling various local dishes. We had hainanese chicken rice, bbq stingray, and an oyster omelet followed by shaved ice desserts with coconut milk and fruit toppings. All of these dishes are inexpensive - around $3-5 SD ($2-3 USD) and very tasty! I spent the rest of the weekend checking out different areas of Singapore using the MRT (mass rapid transit) which was very clean (of course!) and highly efficient. I love the subway, I wish we had a better public transportation system in San Jose. I visited Sentosa - Singapore's island resort where there are beaches, an underwater world, butterfly park, golf course, and many other activities suitable for a family on holiday. After exploring Sentosa, I walked around VivoCity which is one of the newest shopping complexes here. You would not believe the amount of shopping and eating to be had in this country. Everywhere you turn there are stores and places to eat. I also had the opportunity to go inside a Hindu temple, which was an interesting experience. It was neat to see the different statues and priests performing rituals/prayers. Tomorrow I'm off to Korea, but only for a day so I won't have time to do any sightseeing.

Land of the Merlion

2007-03-16T00:47:00.000-07:00

I'm currently on a two week business trip in Asia to visit our local offices and various universities in Singapore, Korea and China. It's an exciting time for us as we expand our programs into the AsiaPac regions. I've been in S'pore for 5 days now and am having a wonderful time. Everyone here is so nice and the city is very organized and clean as you would expect. Weather's in the 80s and humid, with on and off rain showers. The KT office is located in the north part, which is about a 30 min taxi ride from downtown. Since English is the main language here, I can get around easily. :) So far I've been able to squeeze in a little shopping, lots of eating and a nice relaxing spa treatment. I'm looking forward to the weekend where I plan to explore the city.The photo on the left is of a Merlion (cross between mermaid and lion) - Singapore's national landmark statue and tourism logo.

View of the city/Singpore's famous Chili Crab (yum!):

Foot bridge/Boat Quay:

Happy Baby

2007-02-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

We visitied our friends Paula, Alex and baby Josie last weekend. Josie is getting so big! She is such a cutie and very well behaved. Here are some pictures of Josie chilling in her new soft pink chair and hanging out with Auntie Karen and Uncle Benjamin. :)

Freezing in Phoenix

2007-01-16T21:41:00.000-08:00

Jennifer and I met up in Phoenix over the weekend for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. This race works out perfect because our friend Sharmin lives in the Phoenix area so we get to spend time with her as well. It was great to catch up and hang out with little Alex who is 9 months old already! She is so cute. Believe it or not, it was freezing cold in Arizona. It was a mere 28 degrees the morning of the race, I wore four layers of clothes and was still shivering. I was happy to finish in decent time despite my lack of training..I was probably motivated to run faster in order to get out of the cold!

Oregon and Georgia

2007-01-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

We made it back (barely...but more on that topic later) from our holiday travels! Benjamin and I spent the last 10 days in Oregon and Georgia visiting both of our families. First we went up to Oregon where he got a grand tour of the great Beaver state. When we arrived, I showed Benjamin around the OSU campus and then we met up with our friends Jennifer and Sharm (and their husbands Wayne and Chad) for dinner. It was great to see everyone! We spent Christmas Eve in Sweet Home, the small town I grew up in and then on Christmas Day we celebrated at my sister's house. I think Benjamin might have been a little overwhelmed with a full house, plus we made several trips to different cities to visit extended family. Needless to say, everyone loved him! And of course the triplets had a ton of fun playing with and climbing on Uncle Benjamin.

A couple days after Christmas, we flew from Portland to Atlanta. Benjamin's parents gave me a grand tour of Atlanta, it's a really cool city. Then we spent a couple nights at Benjamin's brother's house which was about an hour away from the city in a very, very small town (smaller than Sweet Home). It was nice and relaxing. We had a lot of fun hanging out and playing with the kids. Benjamin has such a great family! Unfortunately our vacation had to come to an end and it was time to leave. When we got to the airport, we found out that our flight to Dallas was delayed by a few hours and we'd miss our connecting flight. Since it was New Year's day, all the flights were booked so our only option was to stay an extra night in Atlanta and fly out the next morning. At least they put us up in a hotel. We finally made it home safe and sound and trying to get back into the swing of things at work. Happy New Year! Cheers to a fabulous 2007.

Keep the Yuletide Gay

2006-12-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

My friend Jenn and I went to see the cutest theater production - Keep the Yuletide Gay in Palo Alto at the Dragon Theater. The venue was super quaint, probably about 30 or so seats. The play was was about a group of single girlfriends (plus one gay friend) who have an annual Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchange. On this particular year, one friend is engaged and the rest of the gals go to extremes to keep her from marrying the wrong guy. It was a fun storyline, the characters were vivid and the acting was excellent. I highly recommend seeing it if you're in town - it's playing through December 30.

'Tis the Season

2006-12-10T22:32:00.000-08:00

Yep, the holiday season is upon us...there's a bite in the winter air, traffic is getting worse and stores are flooded with crazy shoppers scurrying around to find the perfect gifts for people on their lists. Call me Scrooge, but it seems to be taking me longer each year to get into the Christmas spirit. Since Benjamin and I will be traveling, we opted out of a tree and instead decided to decorate the fireplace mantle. The scent of fresh garland and cinnamon, hanging stockings and lights definitely help me feel more festive. Don't get me wrong...it's not that I don't enjoy the holiday season, I just sometimes get annoyed at how commercialized it's become. For the past couple years, I've pleaded with my family to refrain from gift giving. I thought I had them convinced this season...until I called my sister last week and she reluctantly informed me that we are in fact exchanging gifts (and "Oh no! What are we going to get everyone??") We go through this every year - trying to figure out what to give our family members is quite a daunting task because the reality is, we don't NEED anything! We should all be thankful for what we have, which is a lot - good health, food on the table, a roof over our heads and a loving family. I think next year I will propose that we get gifts for needy families instead of each other. My company is participating in the Family Giving Tree and there are so many people out there who are asking for warm clothes and grocery store gift certificates. It breaks my heart to think about how some families can't even afford to stay warm or have a decent meal and here we are stressing about what to get each other. I hope we all take a moment this holiday season to think about the non-materialistic things in our lives that we are grateful for.

Triplets Take Disneyland

2006-12-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

My brother, sister-in-law, and triplet nieces are visiting from New Zealand! They will be in the states for about a month and a half. Grace, Hope and Joy just turned 7 so my sister Kathy and I thought it would be the perfect age to take them to Disneyland! We flew down to LA over the weekend to embark on our adventure. Although exhausting, we had such a fun time. On Sunday, we took the girls to Knotts Berry Farm without the parents. Whew, it was a bit of a handful with only 2 adults supervising 3 children. Luckily Grace, Hope and Joy are well behaved. Check out pictures from the trip. It amazes me how fast kids grow. It seems like just yesterday that they were learning their abc's and now they can already write short stories. I can't wait to see everyone again over Christmas!

Kauai - SCUBA!

2006-11-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is what we were waiting for...our first dive since getting certified in Monterey last spring. Not to mention, it would be our first dive in the tropics. We got up at 5am so we could make it to Fathom Five Divers in Poipu by 7am. We signed up for a boat dive - it's the only way to go. There were 2 other couples on our boat (Chris and kris, Erik and Erika...yeah, we felt left out). Fathom Five took great care of us - they had everything set up when we arrived. All we had to do was put on our gear and backflip off the boat into the water, easy as pie. No carrying all that weight around and getting into the water awkwardly like you do on a shore dive. The first site was Sheraton Caverns - it was awesome! The water was so clear (even down at 60 feet), it was like swimming in a huge tropical aquarium. We saw all kinds of colorful fish and lots of sea turtles, they are very friendly and come right up to you. Benjamin spotted a Moray Eel sleeping in a reef - he's good at finding creatures. The second dive was less reefy and had a sandy bottom, not quite as exciting but still very cool. We saw some frog fish and more turtles. Check out our underwater pictures (thanks to Erik and Erika who took lots of photos and shared them with us). We can't wait for our next diving excursion already!

Kauai - Waimea Canyon Hike

2006-11-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

After seeing the Waimea Canyon from a helicopter, we couldn't wait to get out there and hike it. We decided to do a 12 mile trek that covered three different trails and took about a total of 6 hours. The trails were pretty muddy due to recent rainfall which made for tricky manuevering, especially downhill. The first part (Nu'alolo Trail) took us to Lolo Vista Point which offered AMAZING views of the Na Pali coast and Nu'alolo Valley. See pictures. It was surreal, like you were on a different planet. So peaceful and breathtaking, I wanted to stay there forever. But we had more ground to cover. The next few miles were along the Cliffs Trail...we needed a weedwacker for this one! The plants were as tall as I was and you had to literally move them out of the way to forge ahead. It had started raining at this point so we were pretty drenched. Once we made it through, we connected up with the Awa-'awapuhi trail which would eventually lead us back to the main road...it was pretty much all uphill. We were beat by the time we finished and then we had to walk another 2 miles back to where our car was parked. What a day! We were a bit sore afterwards, but those views definitely were well worth the trek. Next posting will be about our SCUBA diving adventures (woo hoo!).

Kauai - Helicopter Tour

2006-11-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Aloha! We had such a fabulous time in Kauai. The weather was perfect - in the 80's with a few showers here and there. The island has a different feel than Oahu and Maui, it's a lot more laid back. Vast vegetation, mountains and minimal commercialization. You definitely need a car to get around. We stayed on the north part of the island in Princeville and it took about 1.5 hours to drive to the south which is about 45 miles or so.

I'm going to recap our trip in several separate blog entries so you don't have to read a novel. :)

Day 1
Arrived in Lihue around 2pm, picked up our rental car and drove up to Princeville. Checked in at the Cliffs resort and settled in. We really enjoyed staying here - the property is a condo vs. hotel so we had a full kitchen and a washer/dryer which came in quite handy. One of the first things we noticed about Kauai are the wild chickens running around...they're big birds!

Our pimp convertible Sebring/Wild Kauai rooster:

Day 2
Got up at the butt crack of dawn to drive down to Koloa for our helicopter tour. We went with Inter-Island which is the only company that has doorless helicopters for maximized visibility. It was a blast! The views were incredible. Our Italian-accented pilot, Luca, was a great narrator. He showed us breathtaking views of the entire island, including craters, waterfalls, Na Pali coast and Waimea Canyon (the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" as Mark Twain called it). Much of Kauai can only be seen by helicopter. In fact, you can only drive about half of the island - the rest is accessible by hiking, heli or boat. After the helicopter tour, we had brunch at the Princeville Hotel (pricey so-so food, but amazing views) and then went snorkeling.

Aboard the door-less helicopter/Na Pali coastline:

Jurassic Park waterfall/Waimea Canyon:

View more pictures

Stay tuned for the next installment... Mahalo!

Pokeokeo

2006-11-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

That's "turkey" in Hawaiian! Benjamin and I leave for Kauai tomorrow morning for a week long vacation in the tropics. We didn't want to miss out on a home-cooked Thanksgiving family dinner so we celebrated early with Jeff and Sara. We had quite the feast with a roasted turkey and all the trimmings...Benjamin even made a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top!

Speaking of families, Benjamin's parents made a visit a couple weekends ago all the way from Atlanta. They are such nice people! We had a great time showing them around the area, including some places neither Benjamin or I had ever been to - like the Rose Garden and Japanese Friendship Garden where we took lots of pictures. I'm excited for our trip to Georgia next month, I've always heard Atlanta was a fun place!

Sexiest Man Alive

2006-11-11T07:23:00.000-08:00

I may be cheesy, but I love my honey!

When I Grow Up...

2006-11-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? For the longest time, I wanted to be a lawyer. Then I came to my senses (no offense) and decided I wanted to work on Wall Street, so I picked Business as my major in college. After my first finance class I realized I would never be happy as a number cruncher but I did enjoy my psych classes, so I decided I would be a clinical therapist. Scary thought, huh? I even switched my major to Psychology for a while. When I found out that I would need 8 years of grad school in order to help people with their problems, I switched back to Business and stuck with it. Ultimately, I ended up University Relations. Like most HR professionals, I didn't pick this field...it just sort of fell in my lap. I have to admit I have a pretty fun job but there are days when I still think about what I really want to be when I grow up. If only I had access to this funny video back in kindergarten!

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

We carved our first pumpkin tonight! Benjamin did most of the cutting since we didn't have one of those special carving tools. It looked too dangerous for my tastes using a regular knife. Benjamin did an awesome job! Now we're ready for the trick-or-treaters. By the way, did you notice the sweatshirt I'm wearing in the picture? That's right, Oregon State Beavers!! If you weren't aware, we beat USC on Saturday 33-31. It was a major upset for the Trojans who haven't lost a game in four years!

My Last Marathon

2006-10-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I ran my fifth and final marathon - the Nike Women's up in San Francisco - with my good friends Niki and Jennifer. If you read my blog, you'll know that I couldn't wait for this thing to be over. I was burned out on running. The longest distance in my training was 15 miles (it's recommended to go up to 20-22) and I hardly ran at all the last couple months due to my hectic travel schedule. Ironically, out of all the marathons I've completed I felt the best after this one - not much soreness, pain or agony during or after. And I finished in 4:53. I think I'm onto something with my "less is more" training regimen. It helped to have support from my friends Sara and Drew and my honey Benjamin during the last half. Thanks guys for coming out! They were able to follow along most of the course on their mountain bikes. It's nice to see familiar faces when you're out there. The event was a lot of fun despite the hilly course. Nike provided a lot of frills - oxygen bar, chocolate station, Tiffany finisher's necklace and most impressive of all...free shoes! There was one caveat with the free shoes though - you had to stop and change out of your old ones at mile 23. They were promoting their new Nike+ running shoes with the built in iPod nano which is a pretty cool system that tracks your workout stats. I wouldn't normally recommend stopping so far into the race, let alone wear brand new shoes during a marathon, but I couldn't resist the temptation of free shoes. Given that this was my final 26.2 mile race, you'd think I'd be overwhelmed with joy and relief after it was over. Not so. Some sick and twisted part of me wants to do it again. But then I think about all the training and that 'winging it' probably isn't the best strategy especially now that I'm older and more vulnerable to injuries. I think I'll just stick to half marathons for the time being.

Hanging out at the Expo/I found my name on the wall of participants!

Finishing Touches

2006-10-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Benjamin and I worked on the condo. Nothing too major, just finishing up what I had started with the baseboards and paint last year. I had left the dining area and kitchen unfinished mainly because I couldn't figure out the angles of the bay windows, but also because I was a little burned out with home improvements. Benjamin cracked the whip and said we needed to finish it up so that Jeff and Sara wouldn't have to look at trimless walls any longer. He's a better landlord than I am! Now all that's left to update are the bedrooms and master bathroom. The A's game was on while we were working and there were two Detroit fans sitting in the living room, it was very sad. The A's couldn't pull off the win so the Tigers are headed to the World Series.

Cute as a Button

2006-10-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Check out this adorable picture my friend Paula took of her baby! Josie is 4 months old now and getting cuter every day. It's amazing how fast babies grow, one day they can't hold their head up and the next day they're crawling around. One of my old co-workers told me that her little neice started walking at 6 months! That's crazy. It seems like just yesterday when my triplet neices were toddlers and now they are seven years old. I can't wait to see them in December, they will be visiting from New Zealand. My sister and I are taking them to Disneyland! I was in Ann Arbor for an event at the Univ of Michigan this week. Everyone was ecstatic about the Tigers winning the first two games of the series against our A's. Last night was a close one but we still ended up losing. Now, the A's face the Tigers in Detroit and the odds are against them. They are going to have to pull out an Oregon State-style victory. Let's go A's!

13.1 down, 26.2 to go

2006-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

I ran the San Jose Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon on Sunday as part of my "training" for the Nike Marathon which is coming up in a couple weeks. It was pretty fun, the course was very flat and took us through different parts of San Jose that I hadn't seen before. I finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes, not too shabby for such a slacker! My best half time is 2:08 - Santa Barbara, 2003 - when I was training quite vigorously. So of course, for better or worse (probably worse), Sunday's performance only validated my procrastination habits and "less is more" running mantra. Although I was relieved when I crossed the finish line, I had to supress the anxiety and pain that kept creeping into my head when I reminded myself that I'd only be halfway done at this point in a couple weeks. Thanks to my Benji for being our chauffeur for the day. :) The rest of the weekend was pretty calm, except for Saturday when I ate it going downhill on my new Craigslist mountain bike. Benjamin says my loose kickstand caused the crash, but I think he's just being nice. My first bike ride and I already have battle wounds, I'm getting old! On Saturday we celebrated Cyrus's birthday at Kyoto Palace where they cook your food in front of you with flare. Fun times!

Birthdays and Gardens

2006-10-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's officially fall - the weather has dropped about 20 degrees and it's raining out! Being an Oregon native who quickly acclimated to the CA sun, I'm not a big fan of precipitation but I was actually happy to see and hear the drops coming down today, it's rather refreshing and makes me want to cuddle up on the sofa with a cup of cocoa (and my honey). We celebrated Jeff's birthday on Friday evening at Los Gatos Brewing Company; he's usually in Michigan over his birthday, so it was fun to actually be able to celebrate with him this year. On Saturday, we went to Paula's surprise 30th birthday party which was also a good time. Today we went to the farmer's market with John and Carolyn and then visited their community garden. There were some pretty impressive-sized vegetables growing, it made me and Benjamin want to start a garden of our own...but we'd have to demolish all the concrete in the backyard first. Hmmm, I've always wanted to try using a jackhammer!

Movies

2006-09-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to go to the movies but there just doesn't seem to be anything out that's worth seeing. We were happy when we finally found Lucky Number Slevin after roaming the aisles of Blockbuster. It was a decent flick, kind of hard to follow at first but kept you guessing until the end. On Saturday, we went to the Gilroy outlets with Jeff and Sara. The outlets can be quite a headache on a weekend but we were efficient shoppers and made it out of there in a timely manner, with some purchases of course. Afterward, Benjamin and I made our first Indian dinner (from scratch!) and it was pretty tasty. Jeff and Sara came over to join in on the feast and we watched another movie rental - Something New. It was about as cheesy as they come, but we had a few good laughs. Today, I went running and then lounged around for the rest of the day. I love relaxing weekends!

Here are some pics of our trip to Oregon in July. My good friend Jennifer got married in Bend, it was a blast!

Tumalo Falls (remains of a forest fire caused by a reckless campfire)

Timberline Lodge (where The Shining was filmed) and Mt Hood

Wayne and Jennifer - the Newlyweds!

Weekend Recap

2006-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Benjamin went to the motorcycle track over Labor Day weekend so I was left to entertain myself for a couple days. Jeff and I went to the A's game on Sunday. It was a blast, we had excellent seats 12 rows back from home plate. We saw the players up close and there was a kid next to me who kept trying to get autographs so I was able to get some pretty good pictures. The A's ended up beating Baltimore 10-1, woo hoo! After the game, we went over to the Fostinos for a small get together and dinner at Fiesta Del Mar. It was good to see everyone! On Monday, I was supposed to run 18 miles but that didn't quite happen - I just wasn't in the mood. Why the heck would I run that far? I'm training for the Nike Women's marathon which will take place on Oct 22 in San Francisco. It will be my second year running this particular event, and my fifth marathon overall. For some reason, running just isn't fun anymore and it's become more of a burden than something I look forward to doing. I think I'm in a running rut. Knowing I can finish 26.2 miles without practice like I did back in June (not a recommended method but do-able when you've procrastinated) combined with my current lack of motivation has made training fall a couple notches on my priority list. I've decided that this is going to be my last marathon...it's time to retire my running shoes and find a different hobby! I've always wanted to do a triathlon so I'm going to take up cycling for awhile and possibly learn how to swim at some point.

I'm trying to get Benjamin to be my guest blogger but he seems skeptical. I think I should also change the title of this blog since it's not really focused on condo renovations anymore, although I still have plans to take on a couple small projects soon.

House (of sin) Warming Party

2006-08-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I hosted our first party last night! It was great to have our friends over to check out the house.

Fostino Wedding

2006-07-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Our friends John and Carolyn got married on July 22. The girls met up with Carolyn the morning of the big day and kept her company while she got her hair and make-up done. She was such a beautiful bride! After her appointments, we drove Carolyn down to the Fortino Winery in Gilroy where the wedding took place. Gilroy is about 20 degrees warmer than San Jose and we were in the middle of the big CA heat wave - it was around 118 degrees when we arrived. Yikes! Good thing the bride's room was air conditioned. We helped Carolyn get dressed and then got ready ourselves while she and John went down to the barrel room for pictures. The ceremony started at 5pm, followed by the reception. It was the quickest ceremony I'd ever been to, probably about 5-10 minutes long. It was great! The reception was a lot of fun. John and Carolyn provided margaritas from Fiesta del Mar (their favorite Mexican restaurant) and boy, were they potent! We all danced the night away. It was great to see everyone and celebrate with the Fostinos on their special day. View more pictures

Burning Rubber

2006-07-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to be a race car driver. Today, I got my chance....well, sort of. I took my Acura out for a little action at Thunderhill track in Willows which is about 90 miles north of Sacramento. I signed up for a novice/instructional course with NCRC (Northern California Racing Club). Benjamin races his motorcycle at Thunderhill, so he was able to give me pointers and prep me for track day. We started with a classroom course in the morning where I learned the basics and then we broke out into our 20 minute track sessions. I had a seasoned driver sitting in the passenger seat with me at all times. It was such a blast! The first few laps were pretty slow, trying to get a feel for the track and familiarize myself with the different turns (there are 15 of them). The sessions after were progressively better. I picked up speed, learned correct cornering techniques (brake, turn in, apex, exit) and started feeling more like Mario Andretti. It was such a fun experience, I'll definitely do it again! Photos courtesy of bkd photography

Louie Family Vacation

2006-07-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

A mere three days after I moved into Benjamin's, our first house guests arrived! My brother Tony, sister Kathy and brother-in-law Chris, came into town from Oregon for a little vacation. Yep, it was a Louie family invasion. Poor Benjamin, he was such a good sport putting up with the crew. He had met Kathy once before, so it was nice for the rest of the fam to get to know him too. Next up are the parents but that should be a peice of cake. Don't worry honey. :) We went to Alcatraz - it was my first time in the entire 6 years of living in the bay area. It was quite interesting. They also wanted to visit the Winchester Mystery House but luckily Benjamin and I got out of that one. We ate way too much, including a delicious dinner at Slanted Door in the city and dessert at La Fondue.

Tony cooking in Benjamin's new kitchen/group pic in front of La Fondue

Kathy at Alcatraz:

We are the Champions!

2006-06-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Oregon State pulled off the final win against UNC in the NCAA College World Series last night! It was a close and exciting game, from what I heard. I know, I'm a horrible Beaver Believer - I didn't even watch the game. Luckily I have good friends like Jeff Patton who text messaged me every play in the last inning. The Beavs managed to hold off UNC with guys on 1st and 3rd in the 9th and won the game 3-2. This is such a huge victory for Oregon State, I can't imagine how crazy the town of Corvallis is must be going. My friend Sara's brother and a group of his pals took a spontaneous road trip to Omaha to cheer on the Beavs this week. They even made it in the Oregonian! GO BEAVS! *photo courtesy of osubeavers.com

Go Beavs!

2006-06-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

My college alma mater, Oregon State University, is playing for the NCAA College World Series championship title! This is big time for the Beavers, they've only been to the CWS three times in the history of OSU baseball. After a devastating 11-1 loss to Miami, the Beavs turned themselves around and beat Univ of GA and Rice to advance to the championship against UNC. The series is best two out of three. The Beavs lost on Friday 4-3 but rallied today and beat the Tarheels 11-7 (back from a 5-0 deficit). It was awesome!
Be sure to tune into ESPN on Monday 6/26 at 7pm EST to root on the Beavers. I even have Benjamin doing the famous Oregon State cheer, hand motions included ("O-S-U..Oregon State...Fight! Fight! Fight!). He looks so cute doing it too. :) In other news, I moved into Benjamin's house on Saturday! We spent all of today organizing and cleaning. The house is looking good and the new kitchen is fabulous! *photo courtesy of oregon state athletics

Love Shack

2006-06-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's some juicy gossip for your inquiring minds...I'm moving in with Benjamin! Yep, we're shacking up. We've actually been semi-shacking up for the past three months while his house was being renovated. It's amazing how well we get along. Benjamin has no bad habits (as far as I can tell); he's clean, he cooks and he even puts the toilet seat down. I just have to figure out a way to keep him away from my ice cream. Anyway, it was perfect timing because my friend Sara was looking for a new place to live. She's going to move into my room and be Jeff's new roommate. Of course I will miss Jeff but Benjamin's house isn't far away so we can visit often. We move this weekend, I'm very excited!

Jennifer's Race to the Altar

2006-06-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

It's official - I think I'm crazy. So back in January while running the Phoenix half marathon, I came up with the idea of having my good friend Jennifer's bachelorette party in San Diego during the Rock and Roll marathon (which was on June 4th). She is an avid marathon runner, so it was totally up her alley. I had signed up for the marathon but then didn't have time to train for it for various reasons (travel, Italy, procrastination, laziness), so I decided to be on the "road crew" with my friend Sara who wasn't running either. Well, when I arrived at the hotel on Friday night, they had picked up my race packet at the expo. Turns out one of the other girls couldn't make it on the trip, so we had two extra race packets. Hmmm...no sense in wasting the $70 registration fee right? Sara and I decided to go ahead and run! Neither of us had done an inkling of training but what's the worse that could have happened? Maybe we'd walk the majority of the race. Or maybe we'd get a cab and go to the beach. There's no rule that you have to finish. We got up the next morning, walked to the start just in time for the gun to go off and on our way we went! The San Diego Rock and Roll was my first marathon back in 1998. It seemed like the course was a little different this year. It wasn't all that exciting - lots of freeway running and shady neighborhoods. The best parts were running through downtown, the Gas Lamp district, University Ave and by the ballpark. There were local bands playing throughout the course to keep you preoccupied. Sara and I both finished in 6 hours. Not too shabby for zero training and deciding to do it at the last minute! After the run, we went out for some bachelorette party fun. I was pretty sore the next day, but no worse than other marathons I've done. Next up on my running agenda: San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon and Nike Women's full Marathon both in October.

SCUBA Certified!

2006-06-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo, you're reading the blog of a PADI certified SCUBA diver! Benjamin and I passed our final tests last weekend in Monterey with flying colors. I was a little nervous because I had come down with a cold right before the trip. You're not supposed to go diving if you're even the faintest bit sick due to the pressure in your ears. I wasn't about to bail so I sucked it up and went anyway. Luckily, my ears equalized fine for the most part. Shore diving, especially in Monterey, isn't all that glamorous. We had to assemble and put on all our gear (about 50 lbs worth) from the beach, walk to the shore, and then put on our fins while we were in the water. Needless to say, our backs were a little sore. The water was cold - about 55 degrees - so we were decked out in two 7mm wetsuits, a hood and gloves. Visibility ("vis" in diver lingo) was awful, probably about 1 or 2 feet max due to students kicking up the sediment. We were able to swim around and once we got away from the test site, the water was a little clearer. We saw a lot of kelp, starfish and even a crab! The first day was tougher mainly because we had more skills to complete over three different dives. I felt a little nauseous in between, probably from bouncing around in the waves. The second day consisted of just two dives covering one skill each. Afterward, our group went to a pizza place to celebrate the completion of our certification - it was kind of sad to say goodbye, we had somewhat bonded as a group. Benjamin and I are thinking about taking the Advanced SCUBA course so we can go down to 100 ft (our current certification only allows 60ft). Supposedly, the cool marine life hangs out around 90 ft. I can't wait for some boat diving in the tropics!

Venice the Menace

2006-05-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Our last stop in Italy was the sinking city of Venice which was about a four hour train ride from Florence. While it was probably our least favorite place, I'm glad we went so we can at least say we've been there. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible (or "ha-rrible" as Benjamin would say), but it was just a little too touristy and hard to find your way around. Most people who know me would say I'm directionally challenged, map-illiterate and an overall bad navigator. I agree. Venice was my worst nightmare, I felt like a mouse trapped in a maze. Good thing Benjamin has a good sense of direction! Water taxis/busses take you up and down the Grand Canal, but we mainly walked around on foot. Venice is known for their Murano blown glass, Burano lace, and carnival masks. We visited the Rialto Bridge, San Marco Square, Peggy Guggenheim's Modern Art collection and went on a gondola ride.

Some interesting facts about Venice:
1. Population is roughly 60,000
2. The city has over 100 churches
3. ...and over 400 bridges
4. It's a pedestrian only city - no cars, bikes, or scooters!

More pictures of Venice

David Does Florence

2006-05-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

From Siena, we drove to Florence (about 40 mi) and dropped off our rental car at the airport. During the taxi ride to the hotel, our first impression was: "What a dirty city!" The buildings all kind of looked old and dingy. It didn't feel like there was much personality. Of course, we kept an open mind since Florence supposedly offered the best gelato and museums in Italy. We would have to see for ourselves. We checked into Hotel Alba (no Jessica though, darn it!) which had an elevator that fit a max of two people. The streets and sidewalks were much narrower in Florence than in Rome. We saw the Duomo, Medici's Palace, San Lorenzo's market (lots of leather goods, big gaudy belts and extra-large MaryKate and Ashley sunglasses). We also visited the Uffizi (art gallery) and Accademia (the David), where photos are not allowed but Benjamin managed to snap one anyway.

Our favorite things about Florence:
1. The David - words cannot even begin to describe this Michelangelo masterpiece
2. Gelato - stracciatella (vanilla w/choc. chips) for Karen and pistachio for Benny
3. Trattoria Trebbio - our favorite restaurant (we loved the bread soup and lamb)
4. The evening scenery - especially the bridges (see picture below)
5. The drunk Americans outside our hotel who were yelling "We need a Whopper!" at 2am

More pictures of Florence

Florence bridge/Piazza Santa Maria Novella:

Duomo/Hotel Alba's tiny elevator:

Under the Tuscan Sun

2006-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

We picked up a rental car in Rome and drove to our next destination - Tuscany - where we would spend the next four nights. The cars in Italy are very small. We lucked out with a "bigger" car called an Opel. It was diesel, a stick shift (as most cars there are) and pretty decent overall. On our way to Siena (our homebase in Tuscany), we drove through the rolling green Umbria region and stopped in Perugia. Thanks for the recommendation, Gina! If you've ever had the luxury of tasting Perugian chocolate, this is where it comes from. Unfortunately, I searched long and hard but still didn't find the factory. Perugia was a very cute, laid back town. After walking around and eating some gelato, we got back on the autostrada and continued toward Siena. Driving in Italy was surprisingly easy and quite fun! We explored several hill towns while we were in Tuscany - San Gimignano, Volterra, Pienza, Montalcino. One day, we took a day trip to the Cinque Terre (Italian Riveria) which was about a three hour drive from Siena. The Cinque Terre was beautiful and very peaceful. There are five small towns nestled in the hills overlooking the Legurian Sea. You can hike between each of the towns - we hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza which was supposedly the most difficult...it wasn't too bad. The views were absolutely breathtaking. Once we got to Vernazza, we chilled out by the water. People were sitting around reading, enjoying the scenery, eating gelato or just enjoying each others' company. It was one of the most relaxing days I've ever experienced. We saw a European guy wearing the same exact pair of Diesel shoes that Benjamin had on! He was also wearing a Speedo (Benjamin unfortunately wasn't).

More pictures of Tuscany and Cinque Terre

When in Rome...

2006-05-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I returned safely from our two week vacation in Italy. We had such a great time, it was hard to leave and come back to the real world. The flight to Rome wasn't too bad, we flew from San Jose to Chicago (~4.5 hrs) and then Chicago to Rome (~9 hrs). On our outbound itinerary, we had access to the AA Admirals club which was pretty nice - free drinks, food and internet access. Our plan was to stay awake on the Chicago leg and then sleep on the way to Rome to avoid jet lag. Benjamin had to keep waking me up; once the plane takes off, my eyes close - especially at 6:30am! A couple of delicious airplane meals and a few uninteresting movies later, we arrived in Rome! We took a train from Leonardo da Vinci airport to Termini (the main public transportation station). From there, we could have hopped into a cab to our hotel but we wanted to be adventurous so we decided to get on the Metro; it looked pretty easy - there are only two lines (A and B). Not so. In theory, it looked easy but figuring out where to actually catch the metro going the right way was a different story. Afer a couple runarounds, we made it to the hotel! Rome is amazing. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, but it turned out to be my favorite out of all the cities we visited. Pretty phenomenal to see how a city built itself around so much history. You'd be walking around and in the midst of high end clothing shops and trendy restaurants, there would be a massive building built in the days of Caeser. We hit up all the big sites - Vatican, St. Peter's, Borghese, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain. Most of these areas were filled with tourists even though it wasn't "busy season". Speaking of which, if you're thinking about going to Italy, I highly recommend early May. The weather was perfect (70s and sunny), we only had one evening of rain the whole time we were there. While it was nice to see the historic and religious venues even though neither of us are religious, we really enjoyed the different piazzas and not-so-touristy areas like Trastevere. We frequented Piazza Navona, specifically Tre Scalini for their tartufo. A tartufo is a ball of chocolate gelato rolled in dark chocolate chunks, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It was out of this world. We probably ate a total of at least five during our stay in Rome. Our favorite restaurant was Cul-de-Sac near Campo di Fiore. We went there twice for their tapas style dishes and delicious extra-crusty-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside bread. Of all the places we traveled in Italy, Rome had the best bread by far. And the wine, oh the wine...so good and so inexpensive. It was cheaper than Coke so we had a liter of vino della casa rosso with almost every dinner. We also enjoyed the Italian caffe, which everyone said was to die for..we agree. Due caffe espressos, porfavore. I'm pretty sure Benjamin went into caffeine-addict remission on this trip.

More pics of Rome

Bathroom Makeover: Phase 2

2006-04-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

After what seemed like 27 more trips to Home Depot and working weeknights and all day Saturday, we finally finished with the bathroom! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Benajmin for all his help and apologize for being such a slave-driver girlfriend. :) Over the last few days, we grouted the tile, put in baseboards, changed all the cabinet hardware, installed a new faucet and matching towel rack and paper towel holder, and last but not least...put the toilet back in.

Grouting is fun!

Tiles before and after grouting. I'm happy with the color I chose (natural grey), it seems to match pretty well.

You won't believe the deal I got the light below. $15 at Costco! Yes, you read that correctly - $15. It was the deal of the century, I almost fell on the floor when I saw the price. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out very well but it's a nice brushed nickel with frosted white globes. We had to buy bigger baseboards (5 inch) for the bathroom in order to cover up the marks from the old hideous rubber trim. We had to cut a notch to fit the toilet pipe. Luckily, Benjamin has a plethora of tools including a miter and jigsaw.

I found a nice set of Fontaine brushed nickel fixtures, which included the faucet below (sorry Sharmin - I didn't get Kohler) on http://www.overstock.com/:

As with Phase 1 of this project, Benjamin was in charge of the toilet stuff. He replaced all the parts, so it's new and improved. My...what a big wrench you have!

Next up on the home projects list is fixing up the master bathroom. After all this work, I might be in the mood to start next year. :)

Birthday Bash

2006-04-26T16:36:00.000-07:00

Carolyn and I had a joint birthday party a couple weekends ago at Campo di Bocce in Los Gatos. It's a big milestone for me this year! I'm very excited to be turning 30. :) Thanks to everyone who could come out and celebrate with us! And a special thanks to John and Sara for planning such a fun and fabulous party.

Bathroom Makeover: Phase 1

2006-04-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I started renovating the spare (Jeff's) bathroom. It's a project I've been wanting to tackle for a while. With Jeff coming back from Austin at the end of the month, we decided we should get started this weekend. Woo hoo, let the fun begin! I'm such a meanie, putting Benjamin to work while he's sick. What a wonderful boyfriend. :) On Friday night, we took out the toilet. Or rather, Benjamin took it out. It didn't look so bad, but still...eww. We also painted the walls and cabinets. I'm not sure I like the paint I picked for the walls(Tropical Tide by Behr). I was trying to go for a turquoisy color, but this appears more blue on the wall. We'll see how it all looks once we put the white cabinet back up. That's the cool thing with paint, you can always change it! Painting the oak cabinets was such a pain, next time I think I'll just buy new ones. On Saturday morning, we demo'ed and prepped the floor by ripping out the linoleum and plywood and installing backerboard. On Sunday, we laid the tile. I found some really cool 1" hexagon tiles at Tile Fantastic (http://www.tilefantastic.com/). They had the best selection of specialty tiles. The tiles came on 12 inch mesh sheets making installation quite easy. We only had to cut a handful of the tiles using nippers which is much more convenient than getting a wet tile saw for the bigger tiles. We also found pre-mixed thinset at Home Depot so we didn't have to hassle with stirring up the adhesive. That was nice! Now all that's left is grout, baseboards and other minor finishing touches (new faucet, fixtures, etc). Final pictures will be posted soon.

Zen of Diving

2006-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our final scuba pool session. I'm relieved to report that I didn't freak out this time! I actually had a lot of fun and am looking forward to our ocean dive. I just had to keep reminding myself to stay calm, breathe, and focus. It's all mental. Our class was a little behind so we had to stay an extra hour to complete our remaining skills. Four hours in the chlorine was a little brutal. We packed in a lot, some of which included: fin pivot, controlled emergency descent, taking off/putting on our weight belts and bcds underwater, no-mask swim (my least favorite). I also experienced what they call the "Zen of Diving" for about 30 seconds. This is where you control your buoyoncy and breathing so that you hover in the water, like you're flying. It was awesome! I'm sure I didn't look very graceful, especially since my weightbelt was on lop-sided and kept causing me to rotate to my right side. Benjamin and I are ready for our final test in the ocean next weekend. Monterey will be freezing cold, good thing we'll be wearing 7mm wetsuits, hoods and gloves. After that (and Italy), we'll have to plan a trip somewhere tropical!

Hiking the Grand Canyon

2006-04-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

My friend Niki and I did some hiking in the Grand Canyon last week. It was amazing! We took the park shuttle to Hermit's Rest (south rim) and picked up the trailhead from there. We only had enough time to do a day hike, so we couldn't make it all the way down to the Colorado River. Actually, we probably could have if we'd started earlier in the morning but they don't suggest doing it in a day. Instead, we hiked to Dripping Springs (7 miles round trip, est time: 5-9 hrs). Started at 7000 feet, went down to 5000 feet and back up again. Seeing Dripping Springs was a bit anticlimactic, I think we were expecting something bigger. It was literally dripping....slowly. The uphill return killed, what a great workout for the glutes. It only took us 3 hours round trip! Hiking into the canyon was unbelievable. Next time I'd like to try backpacking for a couple days down to the river.

Breathing Underwater

2006-04-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Benjamin and I are getting scuba certified through Diver Dan's (www.diverdans.com). The course is three weeks long, twice a week (classroom on Mon, pool on Wed). We will do our final test in Monterey in a couple weeks. Last week, during our first pool session, we learned how to assemble our BCD (buoyancy control device), put the tank on and all that good prep stuff. It took quite a while! We finally got in the water and started doing some basic skills like taking the regulator in and out of our mouths and clearing our masks. Breathing underwater is an awesome feeling! It took a while to get used to it though, especially since I've trained myself to be a nose breather with running. Anyway, we had our second pool course tonight. We learned how to breathe from our buddy's alternate air source, switch from snorkel to regulator, breathe without our masks on and take our masks on and off underwater. I was feeling pretty good up until we had to do a descent down the deep end. I started feeling like I couldn't breathe and was flailing around. I think I was freaking out...I used up quite a bit of my air during that exercise. Next time I need to relax and stay focused. I think I'll feel more comfortable with practice. Good thing my buddy Benjamin is in control. Although, he might be trading me in for a new buddy soon if I don't shape up!

A's Spring Training

2006-03-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

I've been traveling the entire month of February, mostly to the freezing cold east coast. Makes me appreciate the bay area weather even more. I was happy to "lay over" in Phoenix over the weekend on my way back from Boston (my final trip for the spring). Paula and I have always talked about going to Spring training and this year we finally did it! She and Alex flew in and we all stayed at Sharmin and Chad's. They are all ready for the baby, the nursery is completely furnished and decorated adorably. We went to three games, two at the A's 'home' stadium in Tempe vs. Milwaukee and Anaheim and one at the Brewer's stadium in Maryvale (aka. ghetto barrio). The weather on the first day was extremely hot. It was 80 but felt more like 90 with very little breeze, I got a nice farmer's tan on my right arm. The next two days were better, our seats were behind home plate and a little more shady. Paula was able to get her picture taken with Ron Washington (3rd base coach), Ken Macha (coach), and Dan Johnson (1st baseman). She almost got one with her all-time favorite Mark Kotsay but was interrupted by the National Anthem. Kielty even threw Paula and Alex a ball!

Pitcher Zito's good side/Paula and Dan Johnson

Paula and Ron Washington/Paula and Macha

Party Light

2006-01-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

I finally put up a new light in the dining area today! As some of you may recall, the original fixture was a hideous wooden ceiling fan with brass accents that was not very easy on the eyes (see below). The monstrosity was not easy to take down - I had to have my friend Sara help hold it up while I dismantled it. I think the thing weighed over 50 pounds. You can imagine how happy I was to toss it in the dumpster! Finding the perfect replacement was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I found a modern looking light at IKEA but unfortunately after a lot of fiddling around, it turned out to be defective. I looked around Home Depot and Expo and still didn't find anything that I liked. Finally, I resorted to overstock.com (go figure!) and ended up purchasing a very cool looking brushed nickel chandelier with red blown glass shades. I'm proud to say that I put it up all by myself! My arms are a little sore from holding it up, but I think I did a pretty good job...it hasn't come crashing down yet! The new light adds to the ambiance - it's brings a little more of a party/romantic mood to the place. Yep, just what I needed.

Party mode:

Fun in Phoenix

2006-01-15T17:03:00.000-08:00

Jennifer, Sharmin and I partied it up this weekend! Jennifer and I decided to run the PF Chang's Rock-n-Roll half marathon in Phoenix on Sunday, 1/15 (thanks Sharm for letting us stay with you!). It was a blast! I flew in on Thursday, picked up Jennifer on Friday and chilled with Sharm. We went to a spa, did some shopping, and had some drinks at Bar Smith-Welch. :) Sharmin wasn't really drinking in the picture above, she was just mixing drinks for us!
This morning, we woke up at 6am to get ready to leave for the run. We got to the finish area at the ASU stadium where we were supposed to catch a shuttle to the start area which was 30 minutes away. The half marathon started at 8:30 and the last shuttle was scheduled to leave at 7:30. We arrived before 7am. Plenty of time right? Wrong! The line for the shuttle was wrapped around the parking lot, there must have been at least 1000 people waiting. The line was not moving at all. Everyone was wondering what the heck was going on. Finally, one of the volunteers came by and said they were doing the best they could and that traffic was causing the buses to be late. Wonderful. We finally made it to the front of the line and got on the shuttle at 8:45. We got to the start at 9:15. It was hilarious, they had started dismantling the start line. We missed out on all the elbow to elbow action which was nice, but it just wasn't the same without the crowds. It was so weird to just start running right at the start. We had to do a lot of weaving in and out of people since we didn't start with our corrale.
The run was great! It was the first time Jennifer and I ran together and we had a blast! We took a lot of pictures along the way and even got on stage with one of the bands. Even with all our goofing off we managed to finish in 2 hours and 16 minutes! I was very happy since I hardly trained and did a lot of drinking prior to the run. :) Gotta carbo-load right? Jennifer is getting married in August. I'm planning her bachelorette party - we are going to run the Rock-n-Roll San Diego (full 26.2)! I can't wait!

Happy New Year!

2006-01-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve was a blast! A small group of us went over to John and Carolyn's where I made some delicious Pomegranate Martinis (recipe below, courtesy of Oprah and Rachael Ray). Then we walked to downtown Mountain View to see what kind of celebrations were going on. We ended up at St. Stephen's Green where the bouncer was nice enough to let me in without an ID (I was dumb and accidentally left it at home). We drank and danced the night away - yes, even Jeff and John were out on the dance floor busting a move. :) Happy 2006 everyone!

Pomegranate Martinis
2 shots Absolute Citron
1 shot Cointreau
1.5 cups Pomegranate Juice
1 cup ice
squeeze of lemon
splash of sparkling water (optional)
serves 2

Kid (&) Rock

2006-01-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to see my good friends Sharmin and Jennifer from college when I was up in Oregon for Christmas. Sharmy lives in Phoenix with her husband Chad..they're expecting their first baby (a little girl) in May! Jennifer had a nice surprise for us upon our arrival at the airport...a big, beautiful, fat rock on her left ring finger! She and Wayne (the luckiest guy ever) had just gotten engaged! I am so happy for the both of them! I can't wait to become Auntie Karen and party it up at the wedding celebration!

Holiday Housewarming Party

2006-01-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

We put a little housewarming twist on our annual Holiday Party this year! The housewarming part was quite belated since we moved in over six months ago. I was happy to finally invite people over to check out the new place. We celebrated with lots of wine and holiday goodies. It was great seeing everyone!

Goodbye Grandma Curtains!

2005-11-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Well, Grandma finally left the building and she took those hideous curtains with her! I am SOOOO happy to be rid of those ugly things. I might have a burning party soon just to make sure they never end up in anyone else's hands. Come to think of it, I should have received a discount for letting the previous owner leave them behind. Anyway, I ordered my new blinds (2 inch faux wood) from www.justblinds.com. They were really reasonable - around $20-30 per window with free shipping. I only made one measuring mistake with the kitchen window..it's about an inch off. So I have to remember not to pull any of the strings otherwise the whole apparatus will come crashing down! I'll just have to order a new one. Installing blinds is actually a pretty easy task once you get the hang of it. It only requires a drill. One tip is to hammer the screw in part way so you don't risk drilling your finger. It's quite easy to do since you're working at such a weird angle. If any of you are going to pay someone to install your blinds, call me first..I'll do it!

I also got rid of the apartment style vertical blinds and replaced them with some snazzy, modern looking sliders from IKEA. They are super cool and make the place look brighter and more refreshing. The only bummer was that the rod only came in one size which was just a tad too short for the length of my sliding glass door. So I had to buy two rods and busted out the hacksaw to cut off a foot-long peice. Unfortunately, I didn't have that vice thingy or whatever it's called where it holds the peice you're cutting straight, so I ended up with a crooked rod. Being the perfectionist I am, I had a friend recut a new peice (thanks Kevin!). It looks much better now!

26.2 miles to a Tiffany Necklace

2005-11-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

I completed the Nike Women's marathon on 10/23 up in San Francisco. It was my third 26.2 mile race! Only this time, the finisher's medal was actually a cute Tiffany's necklace packaged in the famous blue box, served to me by a tall, dark, handsome stranger in a tuxedo when I crossed the finish line. Too bad I wasn't looking my best, all red-faced, sweaty and limpy. Oh well. The race course was beautiful - started in Union Square to Embarcadero, through the Marina and Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway along Ocean Beach and around Lake Merced. This was a rather "posh" race - there was an oxygen bar, chocolate mile, pedi-care station and cell phone zone where a guy would dial whomever you wanted and actually run next to you until you were done talking. Not your typical hardcore marathon. I ran the whole way with my friend Amie. Unfortunatley, our training plan was lacking due to busy work and travel schedules. We didn't do many hill workouts and there were a few doozies along the way. We ran up them all...oww. Needless to say, we were huring pretty badly during the last 5 mile stretch. It hurt to stop. It hurt to walk. It hurt to run. Let's just say I was a little sore afterward..ok, a lot sore. It didn't help that I had to get on a flight to Boston after the race, I wouldn't recommend traveling after running a marathon unless you have access to vicoden or some other form of prescription painkillers. It was a blast though, I'll definitely do it again next year. I hear there's a different Tiffany necklace each year. By the way, I saw on eBay that this year's necklace auctioned off for over $300. Hmm, maybe I should sell mine. Nah, I worked too hard and endured way too much pain during those last 5 grueling miles at the end to give it up for money.

Tigers and a Canyon

2005-10-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

I went to a Detroit Tigers baseball game after a recruiting event at University of Michigan. They ended up beating the Chicago White Sox 3-1. Comerica Park is pretty nice, it reminded me a lot of the Giants stadium, except for the fact that food and drinks were cheap - I bought a 24 ounce beer for only $8! Granted, my only choices were Labbatts Blue and Bud Light, but I wasn't in a position to be complaining. There are also beer vendors who sell large refreshing 24 ouncers in the seats, so it works out well if you're too lazy to walk back up to the concessions. Detroit could pass for Gotham City once the sun goes down. It was kind of eerie to see the skyline during the game as the sun was going down. I was waiting for the bat signal to flash up in the sky. You can tell that Detroit was once a bustling city back in the day, it was sad to see all the buildings vacant and boarded up. I really hope the city can be revitalized. My next stop was University of Arizona. After the event, we drove to the Phoenix area and stayed in oldtown Scottsdale. The next morning, we went running..I only lasted about 20 minutes because it was so hot outside I thought my lungs were collapsing. Then we drove up to the Grand Canyon which took about 4 hours. It was definitely worth the trip. What an incredible sight it was!

Hippies and Rednecks Unite

2005-09-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

I've been on a "US Tour" for work and have visited five universities in the past two weeks (Wisconisin, Cornell, MIT, Michigan, Arizona). Whew, that's a lot of travel! It's a bit exhausting, but the nice thing about my job is that I can fit in some fun in between cities. I spent last weekend in the big state of Texas for the Austin City Limits music festival (www.aclfestival.com). I almost canceled my trip due to Hurricane Rita. It was all over the news that Austin was out of gas and water due to the massive amounts of people fleeing from Houston. The meterologists had escalated the storm to a level 5 (it turned out to be only a level 1) and my travel agent called to see if I wanted to change my plans due to the possiblity of diverting flights into and out of Austin making it difficult to leave. Hmm...what to do? I decided to take a chance and went ahead with my plans. I met up with current and old co-workers so it was kind of like a reunion. ACL is a three day concert extravaganza held in Zilker Park consisting of 8 different stages to suit all genres, as well as food and art booths galore. It was awesome. I'd never seen so many people in one place in my entire life. Apparently AMD is trying to move to the Barton Springs area of Austin which is considered "sacred" - natural cold springs. There were lots of "Keep Austin Weird" people protesting, wearing anti-AMD shirts at the concert, while watching their favorite bands play on the AMD sponsored stage. It was rather amusing. Some of the bands we saw included: Death Cab for Cutie, Jet, Oasis, Wilco, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay. They all sounded amazing. The Gallagher brothers of Oasis got into a couple fights which was quite entertaining. They played a lot of their old stuff which was great. I'm not a huge fan of Coldplay (the headliner), but they really put on a good show as well. Chris Martin was very engaging with the crowd and at one point he climbed up onto some scaffolding so he could get a better look at the audience. They played for an hour and a half and I recognized almost every song. I was highly impressed. The only downfall was the heat (100s) and humidity. And the dust. It was rather disgusting how dirty were were at the end of the night. I felt like that Pigpen character from Peanuts. On the last day of the festival, it had gotten so dusty that people starting walking around with bandanas or painting masks around their noses and mouths. I'll keep that in mind for next year. The mass exodus at the end was a little overwhelming, just imagine 65,000 people (many of them highly intoxicated) trying to get out out of a narrow opening. Morbid thoughts started going through my head mostly involving the possiblity of getting trampled. ACL rocked, I'm definitely going back again next year!!

Spectacular Stainless Steel

2005-09-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

If you have been checking my blog at all over the past month or so, you probably have come to the conclusion that I'm either working on a huge fabulous upgrade or I'm lazy and have been doing nothing at all. The truth is that work has me traveling a lot and I haven't had much time to focus on home improvement projects lately. The people at Home Depot miss me, I just know it. I was able to visit my favorite store last weekend and successfully made a couple purchases. I bought a new dishwasher and fridge (stainless steel of course!), both made by GE and Energy Star rated. The new appliances will cost less than $40 each in energy bills per year to operate...I wonder how much of an improvement that is from the original 1983 models. See Jeff testing out the new fridge below (note that we have multiple uses for the vegetable crisper drawer).

After the installation guys left, I decided it was time to try and put in the beautiful new Kohler kitchen faucet (model: Forte brushed nickel w/pull out spray head) that my friend Sharmy sent me as a housewarming gift. I thought it would be best to read the instructions first since I would be messing around with the plumbing under the kitchen sink. It didn't sound that difficult, maybe a total of 10 steps or so. I made it to the first step - shutting off the water supply and then I had to call in Jeff. I'm so lucky to have a handy roommate, his mom taught him well! Jeff got under the sink to loosen the old leaky faucet which had rusted all the way through to the sink itself. It was quite nasty as you can see:

The kitchen is now one step closer to being finished. I'm still contemplating on whether or not to paint the walls and cabinets. I might also get a new stove/microwave combo; although my current one is growing on me, it's quite retro looking don't you think?

Living in Style

2005-08-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!! My place is somewhat taking the shape of an actual home instead of a never-ending construction site. The living room is finally in decent condition. It's such a good feeling being able to come home and not worry about tripping over one of the many tools lying around on the floor. Did you know that you can find some really good home decor items on overstock.com? It's my new favorite online shopping site. I do feel bad for kicking Jeff's old couch out (sorry, Jeff), but at least we have a garage to store it in. By the way, if you know anyone who is looking for a couch and/or coffee table, let us now! The place is definitely coming together. What do you know...I may be even be able to have friends over soon. :)

Here are some before and after pics:

New Tile Floor

2005-08-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo, Tile Day had arrived! First and foremost, I would like to thank my wonderful friends, Paula and Alex, for helping me out with this project. Especially Alex since he pretty much did all the work - Paula and I were his assistants but we were helpful too. I definitely couldn't have done it without you guys. I'd also like to thank my friend (and soon-to-be co-worker) Alan, who thought he was just visiting San Jose for a fun new hire event but got roped into "volunteering" to help out. We started bright and early at 7:30am on Saturday morning. Yes, you read that correctly, 7:30am. First, we had to finish ripping out the the plywood backerboard in the kitchen and pull up all remaining staples. That took us about 2 hours. I'm surprised I didn't find any hate letters taped to my door from angry neighbors, we were so loud. I learned that I really like the "cat's paw"-a tool that was quite useful in pulling out the staples and very fun to use. I thought about buying one for myself, but I just didn't think I'd put it to good use. I mean, how many times will I need to pull out staples that are nailed to the floor?

Once the floor was cleaned up and ready to go, we nailed down the backerboard and Alex determined the appropriate tile lay out.

Then it was time to cut the tile (thanks, Patrick for letting me borrow your saw!!) and mix the mortar adhesive stuff. We ended up using "speedy set" which dries in an hour versus regular mortar which takes 24 hours. That meant that we (or rather, Alex) would have to work fast otherwise it would dry up and we wouldn't be able to to move the tile if it was crooked. I wouldn't recommend using speedy set unless you absolutely have to. It was rather stressful.

After the tile was set, we started applying grout. This was a pretty messy process. I felt like I was a kid playing in the mud. Doesn't it look like fun!?

After a long day of work and only several trips to HD, I finally had a brand new floor. It was so worth it! Here are the before and after pics:

Demolition Derby

2005-07-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

In preparation for tile day, I started ripping out the linoleum tonight with the help of my nice roommate Jeff. I have a newfound respect for those who have careers in manual labor. Maybe I'm a wimp but after about a measly hour and a half of work, I had endured my fair share of pain and suffering along with battle wounds: 4 scratches on my legs, blisters on my fingers, a sore bum from accidentally sitting on the crowbar, and a backache. Poor Jeff even had a bloody scrape on his knee. I'm such a horrible "landlord", putting him to work and making him live in such a dangerous, messy habitat. I didn't realize how many layers of crap were covering the floor - linoleum from circa 1996, underlayment, linoleum from 1985, and plywood backerboard (or whatever it's called). It was fun and relatively easy to tear off the first 3 layers, but prying off the plywood backerboard proved to be a difficult task. We spent the majority of our time attacking the stubborn plywood with various tools and forms of demolition - crowbar, hammer, screwdriver, pounding, kicking, prying...you name it, we tried it. Don't worry, I made sure my downstairs neighbor Mark wasn't home while all of this was happening. I had to take a break - I was hot, sweaty, and tired. While sipping a Michigan beer and wiping sweat off my forehead, I stepped back to take a look at what I had done to my floor and wondered if I was doing the right thing. Maybe the linoleum wasn't so bad afterall. Oh well, too late now. Back to work on the plywood. After further digging, it turned out that the sheets of wood were stapled down with one inch hefty industrial strength staples...no wonder it was so tough to break through. Excellent, those will be a joy to pull up. We managed to finish taking out the plywood in the entry way, but decided to stop since there is a noise ordinance for the condo complex and it was getting late. Plus, we didn't want for our neighbors to hate us, afterall we are still newbies.

In Over My Head?

2005-07-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

As you can see to the right, one of my "upcoming projects" is laying tile. I'm planning to rip out the old hideous linoleum in the kitchen and entry way and replace it with some nice looking ceramic tile. I was ecstatic to start this mission...until I found out how much work is involved! I thought you could just slap on the new tile with some special glue and voila!...you've got yourself a new fancy looking kitchen floor. Wishful thinking. After talking to several tile installation veterans, I learned that it was going to be a bigger project than I thought. First, you have to remove the linoleum (no problem, I can handle a crowbar!). Then you have to lay down Wonderboard, which are 1/2" thick sheets of cement based material used as a backing for the tile. Of course, there will be another saw involved to cut through the Wonderboard because it naturally won't fit perfectly, but that's OK because I've come to realize that I actually like using power saws. After drilling the Wonderboard down, you're ready to start laying the tile. This is going to be the fun part! First, you should plan out how you're going to lay the tile. You'll have to cut some of them with a wet tile saw. Jeez, how many types of saws do they make anyway? It seems like you need a different saw for every little thing you do; someone should really invent an "all-purpose" saw that can be used for ALL home improvement projects. Sorry, I digress...where was I? Oh yes, so once your tiles are ready, you have to mix the thinset (adhesive) and spread it on top of the Wonderbread, I mean board. I've also heard that you can spread it on the tiles individually so you don't get frantic and worried about it drying out too fast if you're slow at laying tile. I think I will choose this option. You also have to put down 1/4" spacers in between each tile for the grout. Once the floor is tiled, you can fill in the space with grout. Then all that's left is grout sealer and the curing process, which is basically spraying the grout with water over the next couple days. I hear this part isn't necessary but probably a good idea to preserve the life of the tile, so we'll see how ambitious I am. Whew! I actually feel better after writing out all the steps although you are probably bored out of your mind by now. All I have to say is that I'm very thankful to know people who know about this stuff (and have tools).

Looks like I'm going to have another fun shopping extravaganza at the HD on Friday night, maybe I can make a new friend in the tile section this time. If any of you have tips to share on this project, I'd love to hear them! And Jeff, if you are reading this, I apologize in advance for the big mess I'm about to make of the kitchen. Brace yourself!

Here are before pictures of the kitchen/entry way floor.

The Miter Saw

2005-07-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

First of all, thanks to my co-worker Kevin for letting me borrow his big fancy tools for my baseboards project and giving me a crash course on how to cut perfect 45 degree angles using the miter saw. Oh, and also for taking the time to come to Home Depot with me to pick up and transport the boards. :) OK...I admit that when I was first introduced to this saw, I was a little scared. Don't laugh - you have to remember that I am NOT a handy person by nature and tools (especially electric ones with sharp edges) are a foreign concept to me. While Kevin assured me I would be fine and it was easy to use, I was a bit skeptical. He made it sound and look so easy, but what do you expect coming from an engineer. After walking me through one sample, Kevin left and I was all alone in the garage. I think I just stood there and stared at the saw for a few minutes before snapping out of it. What were the instructions again? Was I supposed to use the left angled 45 degree cut for inside corners? Or was that for outside corners? Was I supposed to cut to the left or the right of the beam?

Cutting baseboards definitely requires trial and error. Let me emphasize the lots of error part. I figured out that it was really important to measure multiple times and to cut conservatively. After a few practice runs (and many trips downstairs to the garage), I finally got the hang of it. I became friends with the saw and was soon cutting boards like nobody's business. I was so excited when I put two pieces together on the wall and they actually fit!! Now I love the miter saw thingy so much I might just have to get one for myself....hmmm.

Painting Party

2005-07-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

OK...I'm a little worried that the highlight of my Friday night consists of going to Home Depot. Even worse, I know the guy working behind the paint counter by name - Joel. I suppose that's because he helped me out on 3 different occasions within a 2 day timeframe. What can I say...picking a paint color is quite difficult. There are so many colors to choose from, in addition to the type of finish you want. Flat? Glossy? Semi-glossy? Eggshell? Paint by number? Just kidding on the last one, but it would be nice. I finally decided on a purply-grey color with a flat finish for the 2 accent walls in the living room (Ralph Lauren "Parma Violet" to be exact). I was so excited....I love purple! Unfortunately, when I brought the paint home, I decided it looked too dark. I didn't want to be living in the bat cave, so I took it back and had my friend Joel add 2 ounces of white - much better! I chose an off-white for the other walls to lighten the room up (Behr "Antique White").

Prepping is the hardest and most tedious part of painting. All that taping, ugh! If any of you want to paint anytime soon, I have supplies galore you can borrow (brushes, rollers, tarp, etc). I learned a helpful tip from my friend Alia - use grey primer under deep colors. That way you don't have streaking and you can use less coats. Ripping out the baseboards was pretty fun and exhilirating...I could NOT wait to get rid of those hideous things. What a waste of a tree.

Some friends came over to help out, it was a girl's painting party (plus Jeff, my roommate). Thanks to Jenn, Eugenia, Jeff, Nicki and Melissa!! More pics to come...

My New Condo

2005-07-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well...I never thought I'd actually do it in the bay area, but I bought a condo! Being a first time homeowner is the craziest, scariest thing I've ever done. One must be partially mental to deal with the stresses of the offer process. Luckily, the mental part came easy for me and I managed to find a place relatively quickly without a lot of hassles - thanks to my very cool friend and realtor, Amie Chilson. I highly recommend her!!

My new place is a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo built in 1985. As you will see in the pictures below, everything in it is original - and I mean EVERYTHING...check out the gynormous microwave/oven combo and the wooden baseboards. The person who owned it before me didn't seem to be into the whole interior decorating thing, so there's a lot of potential for upgrades and making the place look more like a home rather than an apartment.

Being the independent woman I am, I've decided to take on all of my home improvement projects myself. Well, OK...maybe I'll have some help from friends. Seriously, how hard can it be? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to start a blog to document my projects so my friends and family can see the progress I'm making. And there will be pictures to prove I did in fact do all the work!

Stay tuned...my first job, which is currently in progress, is updating the living room - painting, replacing baseboards (this involves the use of a big saw) and decorating! New pics will be posted soon.