Lovely Day

There's light behind that bad-luck cloud!

It's in the high 60's today and bright and sunny. Tomorrow is December 1. Crazy. But I'll take it!


The house is starting to come together. Got a bunch of stuff in over the last few weeks, but it's still all a bit of a mess so no pictures yet. FINALLY found a rug that we like; initially we bought it for the dining room but it's a little too big for in there so we decided to put it in the living room instead. I'll take a pic once everything is set up but here's the rug for now anyway.

W.'s been wheeling and dealing on stuff for the house since Thanksgiving weekend. We got a 55" LCD TV from Best Buy for less than the lowest online price because he developed this great relationship with the sales guy. On top of that he got a sweet deal on his new stereo speakers and other components. Got new speakers for the refurb'ed price PLUS 10% off, as well as a subwoofer for about $150 that originally cost over $700. I think I'm taking a backseat as the financial leader of the family! We also picked up a PS2 during the post-Thanksgiving sales so we can play some of our old favorite games.

The money is flowing out like water.... At least we decided against replacing my Civic for now!

Blah, blah, blah

Been too tired and too busy to give much of an update lately. Besides, I don't think anyone's reading this thing :P

First, an update on the car. I picked it up yet again after they replaced what turned out to be a faulty speed sensor in the transmission. Yes, a faulty speed sensor in my brand-new transmission. Fine, I get it, the check engine light stays off, and I'm good to go.

Until the next morning when I manage to back it out of the garage but can't get it to move forward once I put it in drive. This is the worst it's ever been; I've always been able to get the car to hobble around at 25 or 30mph at least. We're talking dead stop here and I was blocking the private drive that my other neighbors need to use to get to the street. Finally, after revving the car to 6500rpms (dangerously close to the red part of the tachometer at 7000rpms) I finally manage to get the car back into the driveway. Had to have it towed back to Honda AGAIN.

When I walked in I told the service guy, "No offense, but I'm really sick of seeing you guys." I mean, c'mon, I'd been there 3 or 4 times already in a matter of days. Got back into the same stupid Chevy Cobalt rental and drove away. Turns out they hadn't tightened a bolt enough and the transmission fluid had leaked out. It's really lucky that I made it all the way home with that problem and it didn't manifest itself until the morning when I was safely in my driveway. I miss my Honda service people out in Menlo Park; they were great, none of this shoddy work crap.

Nonetheless, we did decide to put off the new car purchase for now. The Civic seems to be driving OK again (finally) and the prices weren't as good as we expected them to be this time of year. I pretty much decided I wanted an A4 but they weren't budging much on their new or certified used prices so I said forget it. Incidentally, car shopping isn't much fun. Thank goodness for W's gearhead brain to protect me from doing something stupid out of a sheer desire to just get the buying process over with. So, hopefully the little Civic will hang in there for a bit.

On the bright side until very recently the temps here have been in the 60s. Definitely atypical for New England in November. It's dipped into the 40s during the day in the last couple of days, but it's supposed to go back up a bit I think. I'm glad the area weather gods are taking it easy on me for my first winter back on the East Coast.

Did you all have a nice Thanksgiving? It was great to be with my family again for the holiday since I haven't celebrated Turkey Day with them in six years. I made two pies: pumpkin and chocolate cheesecake. Both went over pretty well. I also made 44 sweet potato and bean burritos...yum! We all ate a ton on Thursday only to get together again for more food on Saturday to celebrate little cousin J.'s fourth birthday. He's a little monster--way too much energy, short-tempered, and willful, but with a dimple that never fails to charm.

Blah, more bad luck

I left work early on Friday to go pick up my car with brand new transmission #2 in it. I was pleasantly surprised that it was ready after only 1.5 days of work on it. When I get there after a not-so-scenic detour up the Mass Pike (stupid blocked roadsigns), I finally get back into my Civic, drive it around the rotary, only to have the check engine light come on. OK, not ideal, but I figured maybe they just forgot to reset it after working on the car and it should be a quick fix. I hadn't gotten very far yet either so I just circled back around to the dealership. Then they tell me that they're closed and no one can look at the car until Monday. What?! You don't work on weekends?! Apparently they only staff a couple of people to do oil changes on weekends. $@#*#!!! So annoying!

So now I'm back in the stupid little Chevy Cobalt rental. At least Honda is paying for that since they didn't have any loaners left.

Rewind to Thursday...we finally got a bunch of furniture delivered. Dining room table, 8 dining room chairs, kitchen table, 4 kitchen chairs, and a coffee table with ottomans that tuck under the table. Yay, furniture! Boo, defects! Literally 50% of the stuff we got had problems with it. Major scratches on the kitchen table leg, 3 out of 4 kitchen chairs are pretty uneven and tip back and forth, 4 out of 8 kitchen chairs have dings and scratches on the legs, imperfections on the surface of the coffee table, and threads unwinding on one of the ottomans. All the pieces are from Jordan's Furniture. Hmm, might have to revisit the wisdom of shopping there. The delivery people should have taken all the defective stuff away but they insisted we deal with customer service instead. Fan-freakin'-tastic.

Fast forward to this weekend. Saw some friends at the Harvard-Yale game (Yale kicked our butt, apparently, but as long as the tailgating is good who cares?). Most of them were old co-workers from my first job out of school--good people, good memories. Then we spent all day today test driving cars. Subaru Impreza (they didn't have an automatic WRX--yeah yeah, hush all you stick drivers), Saab 9-3, Infiniti G35, Mazda 3 hatchback, and Audi A4. We were supposed to go check out the Acura TL and TSX too but they closed at 4pm and we missed it (who closes at 4pm just cuz it's a Sunday?). So far, the A4 wins hands down. So I'd be following in the footsteps of D., D., and M. back in SF/LA. We'll have to see how I like the Acuras though; off to test those tomorrow after work I guess.

OK, everyone out there send out some good luck vibes to me so this black cloud goes away!

A run of bad luck

I wonder if a black cat crossed my path on Halloween, cuz the last few days have felt like there's a rain cloud just hanging over me.

The other night as I left my office and was just starting to merge onto the freeway for the short drive home, the transmission on my Civic started slipping. This means that I was able to go about 25 mph while revving at 4000-4500 rpm's. Not fun. The sad part is, this has already happened to this car once before. When I first bought it (used) I drove it about 2000 for a total of about 25,000 on the then 5-year-old car. Luckily I had a great service advisor at Honda back in California who advised me to call Honda of America since the mileage was so low and the corporate office actually agreed to cover the entire cost of replacing the transmission. I was actually really impressed with how they were standing behind their product. They footed what would have been a $4000 bill to me (and I had only paid about $10,750 for the car). I thought I was done with that nightmare. Now here it is, back again.

I called Honda of America again and this time they'll only cover the part and I have to cover the labor, which means I'm out about $700. Grrrrrr...what happened to Hondas being bullet proof?! I mean, this car is supposed to keep running until the wheels rust off. That was kind of the whole point when I decided to buy it over a luxury car in the first place. Everyone at Honda--the corporate guy, the service advisor, the service manager, and the salesman we talked to about trading it in--all commented about how unusual it was for a Honda to have such a serious problem, never mind having it happen TWICE. My only solace is knowing that it's through no fault of my own as an operator--the car is an automatic so there's no way I messed it up. *sigh* We decided to go ahead with the repair because I'm handing the car over to my sisters so they can learn how to drive and finally have a car to beat around. But, seriously, what are the chances of this happening to a Honda once never mind twice?! Grrrrr......

Then today was supposed to be furniture delivery day #1. The dining room table did arrive, but sans the hardware to put it together! So now we have a disassembled table sitting on our dining room floor, waiting for the hardware to hopefully arrive via overnight mail tomorrow. The dining room chairs and the kitchen table are supposed to come tomorrow--let's hope the cloud over my head goes away by then.

S.F. trip recap

Brrr...it's starting to get pretty chilly around here, but mostly early in the morning and at night. During the day it's still been hitting the 60s for the most part, which is pretty great for New England. It's too bad I didn't get any pictures of the fall leaves before the season passed; they were gorgeous and it was great to see it all in person for the first time in years.

The weather was surprisingly gorgeous in S.F. this weekend. I was expecting rain, fog, and chills since it's November, but instead temps were in the 70s and R. & J. could have had their wedding outdoors!

The weekend pretty much revolved around food, and lots of it. As soon as I arrived in San Jose, W. and I headed over to meet our friends for dinner at our favorite bay area Korean restaurant, Korea House in Santa Clara. There were nearly 30 of us at dinner and the waitstaff were real troopers about dealing with our huge group. They even gave us several free beers since we ordered so much food. When I saw the spread on the table I thought we'd spent a small fortune, but somehow the bill worked out to only $20/person. Go figure, guess the boys weren't pulling their weight that night! Mmmm...kalbi....

After getting some much-needed sleep and grabbing a dim sum brunch with some other friends, we hit R. & J.'s wedding. They chose a really unique venue, Broadway Studios, which is a performance space with a stage and a big dance floor. You can rent it out for events, but I don't think they usually do weddings there. It's right over one of our favorite clubs from our partying days, Velvet Lounge :) R. did a great job decorating it and other than being a little crowded during the cocktail hour, it was a great space. We had a ton of fun catching up with old friends over dinner (except for the part when M. almost made me cry by saying how much our friends miss us and telling us to move back). Thanks for a great party, R. & J., and congrats again!

On Sunday we got a chance to see S. & R.'s new house in San Mateo. We're so excited for them and their purchase together. It's a fixer-upper, but he's got the technical/mechanical skills and she's got the creative talent to turn it into a great home. I can't wait to visit it again the next time we're out ther, which should be in July for L. and R.'s wedding (good thing we have all these weddings as an excuse to go back to the bay area!). Actually, I take that back; while we were out there W. already planned his Tahoe time for two weekends in March so I guess we'll be back then :)

I closed out my trip with, yes, another big meal. We hit the Sunday all-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Satsuma and it was even better than I remember it. R. liked it so much he started crying--heehee! Gotta lay off that wasabi a bit. W. dropped me off at the airport afterwards and then went on to play volleyball with some more friends before getting on his separate flight home the next day.

The red eye home was as painful as ever, but well worth it for a fun weekend catching up with friends. I can't wait to do it again.

I'm goin' goin' back back to Cali Cali...

Yay, I'm off to S.F. this afternoon to attend a friend's wedding on Saturday. W. left yesterday and he's staying a day later than me so he gets a little more time there. We miss our friends out there so it'll be really good to see everyone. Because we're going to be up in the city mostly, it's actually going to be kinda chilly, which is always a bummer when you're going out to California but we'll live.

Had a nice conversation with W's cousin S. last night. She gave me a bunch of links for furniture/design/rug places to take a look at for inspiration and she might even be able to get us a trade discount for some of the remaining items we need. I think looking at new ideas will be good for me as I need to get re-inspired so I'm not so frustrated with waiting for furniture to arrive and going out to look for more.

Wanna know how many furniture stores we've been to since we moved here? Probably not, but let's see if I can remember most of them anyway:
1) IKEA
2) Macy's (where the couch is from)
3) Bloomingdale's
4) Mattress Discounters
5) Brookstone (not a furniture store, but it's where we got our Tempur-Pedic mattress)
6) random discount furniture place #1
7) random discount furniture place #2
8) random little store recommended by someone online that turned out to be tiny
9) Jordan's Furniture (local chain store with HUGE locations--one has a trapeze school in it, two others have IMAX theaters. Got our kitchen table there and will probably get our coffee and end tables there too)
10) City Schemes
11) Jennifer Convertibles
12) Bassett
13) La-Z-Boy Furniture
14) Arhaus (where the dining table came from)
15) Domain
16) in Home Furnishings
17) Roche Bobois (uber modern, uber expensive)
18) Mitchell Gold
19) Circle Furniture
20) Design Within Reach
21) Crate & Barrel
22) West Elm
23) Italian Design
24) Boston Interiors
25) Restoration Hardware
26) Ethan Allen
27) Thomasville
28) Leather Creations
29) Zeba Rugs
30) Dover Rugs

And there are one or two more odd ones in there I think that I forget the names of. And there are only more to come since we're still on the hunt. How fun :P

Warm fall days

Woo-hoo, according to the weather info on MSN.com it's actually warmer in Boston today than it is in Palo Alto; 69 degrees vs. 64. Gotta enjoy it while I can before the winter hits here and I start freezing my butt off!

We're going back to S.F. this weekend to attend a friend's wedding. Can't wait for the mini-vacation and to see all our friends again, even though I'm only going to be there for about two days. W. is staying a couple of days longer than me since his office is out there anyway. At the very least we know we'll be seeing a few of these friends again in February for our Vail, CO snowboarding trip. Fun!

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

Man, I'm getting old. I still love birthdays though; I just think they're so much fun :) W. is taking me out for dinner in a little bit. My co-workers got a cake for me and even sang happy birthday (they sang pretty well too--that's a surprisingly tough song to sing). All in all, a good day so far, albeit MUCH tamer than the last few birthdays in S.F. Happy Birthday from afar to my October Babies crew!

Our first furniture delivery and our second Cali visitor

We finally got our first piece of new furniture delivered. Boo for delays; hooray for the couch finally being here, and in one piece. It looks pretty good in the room, and we're really happy with the decision to go with the brown leather. Now I need some accent pillows and a throw blanket to dress it up a bit. A rug, couple of arm chairs, coffee table, end tables, lamps, TV, and entertainment unit would help too :P We're working on it....

The kitchen table and chairs are due to arrive either this week or next. I won't be too sad to see the green folding table go (though we're really grateful for the loaner, mom!). Then it's the super cool dining room table that arrives next in mid-November or so. It's much cooler looking in real life than in this pic. It's 55" square with a butterfly leaf that folds into the table so no storing an extra leaf under the bed (my parents have a traditional table like that and it's a pain to store and protect that extra leaf for the one or two times a year you actually use it). And we didn't get those chairs. They had cool ones at the store but they were something like $450 a piece so we went somewhere else and got chairs for about $110 each instead.

We also had our second visitor from California here for a visit this past weekend. Well, P. actually came up from Philly where he's currently at business school, but he's part of the Cali crew. W. filled in on Wharton's B team and P. wasn't kidding when he said it was b-school B...not the highest quality v-ball we've ever played, but W. enjoyed just being on the court again. I played one game, got a few good digs in, was happy. The Wharton team kicked Harvard's butt, which made P. happy. Why are people always out to get Harvard??? :) Then, in a dramatic and yet anti-climatic ending to the tournament, as Wharton met up with Kellogg in a heated game 2 in a best-of-three match with Wharton trailing by one game but up nine points in game 2, all the lights in the gym went out and a couple dozen of us were left in complete pitch blackness. Turns out we were way behind schedule and the gym was ready to close, so that was that. They couldn't get more than one measly light back on so they decided to call it a tie. What kind of project management skills do these HBS students have anyway? They also had forgotten to schedule refs for the playoffs and were begging some of us to stay.

There's a lot more of you S.F. folks (and even some of you more local people) that haven't come out yet...we're waiting with open arms, a porch light on, spare beds, and good times!

Office casual

There hasn't been much that's post-worthy going on lately, hence no updates to the blog. Yesterday, though, I learned something cool about my office that got me so excited W. was laughing at me all night. The big news is......I can wear jeans to work! You have no idea how happy this makes me. At least I haven't really had to wear a monkey suit much in the last few years but I have never, ever had a job where I can wear jeans to the office! Not even when I worked at a startup in S.F. This is a big plus; the new job is looking better and better :)

We were also supposed to get our first furniture delivery yesterday, a couch from Macy's. At 8:30am though they call me to tell me it's not coming because the couch is damaged and now it won't be here 'til next week. Kind of a bummer, would have been nice to have our first real piece of new furniture in the house. Luckily though since W. works from home no one had taken time off yesterday to wait for the delivery. Having someone at home for stuff like this is pretty cool. W's been able to meet with contractors, repairmen, etc. during the day when otherwise we'd have to wait forever to get a weekend appointment.

Oh, and P. is coming to visit from Philly this weekend. I just saw him last week when I was in Philly for a conference, but it'll be great to have another visitor here in Boston. He also asked us to play in the volleyball tournament he's in town for. The Wharton "B" team is short a couple of folks so we're filling in. Should be fun, since we haven't played since we moved to Boston. But then again, P. said, "Well, it's b-school 'B' level" and W. said, "So more like rec?" P: "Uh, yeah." OK...we'll see how it goes.