Live With The Nerds
Don't Be One
February 2001
This past weekend was definitely hellish, Thursday my plane was late, so I was
late meeting Miyo at the sonics game, then the proceeded to sleepwalk into a 20+
point whipping. Miyo may be on a losing streak ;)
That night it was snowing so I had to park at the bottom of the cul-de-sac, later
(around 2am) I went out to make a snow bunny/pikichu. The next day we were supposed
to go to my grandmother's funeral, but because of the snow we postponed, outside
someone knocked the head off my bunny, must've been the snowboarders (we had 8" or
so of snow). So my sister and I made another, larger, snowman, with hair, only to have
it fall over about an hour later due to the warming trend and the drizzle. Finally
that evening we managed to get out of the house and have dinner with the family.
Saturday morning it was off to the cemetary, the ground was snowed over so they held
the service in a masoleum, I think they're gonna bury her later when they can actually
dig the grave. Most of the service was in chinese, and I barely recognized my own name,
in fact the obit was all in chinese, (phonetics) although some of us disagree about what
the correct spelling should've been ;)
That night it was a sonics game with ken, they played a bit better but still lost a game
the should have won -- so far the only one I know for sure that is on a winning streak
is Lo, so we'll see next time if that holds true.
Sunday was volleyball, got to see Chuck & Marisa, can't believe she's playing already
after having her baby just a few weeks ago. Was supposed to have dinner with Patty but
she was under the weather, then it was gonna be movies with Elaine, but she ended up
at a reception for too long, so I just vegged out for the evening.
Monday was a test of patience, the plane was late, but they needed San Jose traveller
volunteers to be bumped, so I took the offer (round trip ticket, and 1st class flight
to SJ at noon) and had to kill about 4 1/2 hours in the airport before I got home. I was
supposed to work a bit on the townhouse, to prep for all of my appliance deliveries but
the workers decided to be overly secure and locked the door from the house to the garage
so I was unable to get in. Even worse, the plumbers promised to be there at 8am the next
morning, and didn't show up till 8:45, right around the same time as the appliance delivery.
Tuesday I find out that the gas lines were in, but not complete, so nothing could be
hooked up, good thing the
range was on back order. Also, they put a hole in the exterior overhang of my garage,
when they were supposed to stay internal to my unit, their wall guy patched my interior
wall and ceilings pretty well, but I'm not sure that outside is up to the HOA folks
comfort level, they'll be checking it later to see if they'll just let me paint it
as is. At least the inspection is done, and I have a new waterheater too.
That night it was off to dinner with Ron and June, it was nice to see June again
since its been a few months since I met her at Ron's party. I remember her being interesting
(and cute, even if she is reading this ;) but she claims to "have issues", those might
be fun to investigate, but I think some of the things I heard might have even surprised
Ron, cuz he never seems to ask some of those questions (how can you not know if someone
has had a bfriend for the past 4 years or so?) oh well, I'll have my guys call her guys
and we'll see what else I can find out, maybe even enough to warrent a bio entry.
Wed the range showed up, and they got it hooked up and running, and I got to have
lunch with Kiz, and show her how the colors (that she helped pick) turned out. We're
both still really busy, but at least she's making some time -- now if she'd just stop
seeing that other guy in SF ;).
Today the installers
did the hood and my dishwasher, now the kitchen (and laundry) are complete, all I need
to do is test them out. On the plus side, the only thing left is the floor, and that
looks like it's coming along very well. I even got to run the cable line under the floor
before it gets put down -- after destroying one of the smoke detectors (battery operated)
that decided it was time to just make noise, 11pm good thing my neighbors are sound sleepers
don't know what cause it to go off, but I couldn't fix it so I just took it down, at least
the hardwired alarms didn't false too.
Tonight I went up to the city to have dinner with Tracy who's in town just hanging out
with her guy (yeah, the one that hasn't proposed yet ;) that was fun, its been months
since we've had time to catch up, and it was fun to get to the city again, even if my
car is acting a bit wonky (brake light circuit, fuel gauge, surging on idle time for a
tune up)
This coming week I'm off to ski, so no updates for sure, and I'll miss out on taking
pictures of the floor "in progress" but after I get back I'll be packing like a madman
for the move. Skiing should be a pip, I signed up for the 1 day snomobile ride into
Yellowstone since they're banning snowmobiles next year, oh and I'm in the same condo
as Cheryl's favorite friend Jim (from Sun Valley) and Nancy's ex-boyfriend whooop-de-doo
well at least Bar's going so I'll have someone to ski with.
The painting looks pretty good, it really brightens up the place, now just gotta get
the floor in and schedule the dsl work. Then I finally have to give notice and really
start packing. Today I got almost all of my tax materials in to my cpa, and I got most
of my 401K's rolled into my new IRA -- quite the financial worker bee lately, now if
my stock would just pick up some, I might actually be able to pay for all the work I've
been doing on the house.
I've been taking pictures of the work just about daily, however I still need to put up
the pages from my back log of pictures, hopefully I'll get to do that this weekend while
I'm in seattle, then I can start on the most current stuff.
Last night I had dinner with Cheryl & Kent at Le Petite Bistro in Mountain View for
Cheryl's early bday dinner, service wasn't that great, but the food was pretty good.
This past weekend Shannon had a party and actually remembered to invite me, it was pretty
fun, her roommates know a lot of people, and there were lots of costumes (come as your
worst "date") interesting group, especially when they've been drinking for 3-4 hours.
The work on the house looks like it'll be going till mid march, so I'll probably end up
staying at the apartment till April 1, and even then I may not have a full weekend to move
since I've scheduled some travel and skiing. Speaking of which, I signed up for the
snowmobile ride to yellowstone while I'm at Jackson Hole for the week -- wasn't going to
since I'd rather ski, but I hear that they're closing the park to snowmobiles after this
year, so it's now or never. Doesn't look like I'll have time to ski before the trip though
so it's probably a good thing that I have one day off to snowmobile.
Continuing the stressful streak, I found out that my grandmother passed away last Friday
at the nursing home, so now my next trip back (this coming weekend) will include a service
for her. At least she went peacefully, too bad though, she had alzheimers so she never
knew who we were for the past few years anyway.
The only planning things I have left are the actual electrician scheduling, and picking a
cleaning service to make sure all of the bathrooms (including the nicotine one) and kitchen
areas are clean enough for me.
Saturday was traffic safety class, to hide that point I picked up when I got that speeding
ticket. Nothing special there, just the same old "you all drive just like the people
that tick you off". Then it was off to Home Depot to pick up the new plugs and switches
for the house, then I painted the garage door trim so that it would match.
Sunday I met with the floor guy to pick out the size of the boards, I decided on
4" boards in the rooms and 3" boards elsewhere. Then I tried to play some vball,
but got there too late, so all the teams were full. Instead I started to replace
the plugs and switches in the townhouse, the first room went really slow, it didn't
help that the porch light 3-way switch was not wired by color. By the time I finished the
bottom half of the house it was past midnight so I called it a day.
Today I met with a cleaner for an estimate, tried to track down all of my missing mail
(it seems that they mailed it to SF to put the forwarding stickers on it), and ordered
my appliances. I'm getting a low-profile GE fridge, a kitchenaid dishwasher, a GE gas
range, and the mid-range Maytag Neptune washer and dryer. Hopefully it'll all get
delivered before the floor is finished so it won't cause too much damage.
I also managed to squeeze in dinner and a movie (Finding Forrester) with Kiz since
she's gonna be pretty busy later in the week, but at least she makes time to get together
huge brownie points even if she is dating some guy in SF named Tom (I finally got her
to devulge some secrets ;) Afterwards I went by the townhouse and finished up
almost all of the sockets and switches and it only took til 1am. Now I just have to get
one more pair of 3 way switches then I'll be all done.
Went to Caroline's going away party last week, dinner at Roy's, excellent food, and since
Rod knew the staff, free appetizers and no corkage fee. Good thing too, cuz we probably
brought a dozen bottles, including a bunch of older wines that my brother used to
collect -- some were good, and some were toast, but I guess that's the fun of it. Afterwards
it was off to Sonic for some karaoke, its definitely not going to be as fun
without Caroline around here -- but now I have someone to stay with at Maui.
Speaking of my brother, he and his wife stayed the weekend with me while their place
was being fumigated -- small world story, was mentioning it to the office manager
at my chiropractor, and she asked where their condo was ... cuz she was their neighbor
and was out of the house for the weekend too. In any case, I think the mess was a bit
much for Pam cuz she actually managed to vacuum all of the exposed carpet on the first
floor. Next time, at the new place, it'll be much better ;)
Mama Mia was fun, nothing like front row center and it was pretty lively, later we had
dinner at The Cosmopolitan Cafe and a bit of pool before heading out to Tom's party. At
the party there was so much food we ended up with a second dinner and dessert, mostly
dragon boat folks, but they were pretty funny playing Taboo.
Much news on the house front, got the kitchen and bathroom floors in, and then the new
garage door. Finally got a painter (what an ordeal, the estimates were 3K apart, but the
one I wanted reworked his estimate to get more in line) he'll start next wed. So then
I could schedule the hardwood floor guy for just after Valentines day. As long as the
gas line varience gets approved on the 13th I'll just about be good to go, still have to
give notice at the apartment though.
Today Kiz spent about 1 1/2 hrs helping me pick colors at the townhouse, its a good thing
she has design experience but it'll be
interesting to actually have color on the walls instead of rental beige -- still, the
painter may have some suggestions when we meet tuesday before he starts the work. This
evening I went to check out appliances, got estimates for just about everything, however
it looks like I may need to have an electrician convert the 220V to 110V for the gas
range (for the light and warming bin) and exhaust hood. Hopefully I won't need a variance
for that too.
Well I'm way behind on pictures, maybe this weekend, but I had scheduled replacing all
of the outlet and switches sunday hopefully everything will go smoothly. At least I have
the last aloha sunday pictures ready to go, and a full set of the new place.
Jeez, feels like forever since I've been updating this, but its only been an extremely
hectic week. For those of you who tried to access my site on 2/19-2/21 my DSL was down
for a bit. Speaking of which I still need to arrange it's move to the new townhouse. Work
is progressing nicely and I'll probably move at the end of March (I already gave notice
at my apt complex) just in time for my sisters to visit for a bit before we're all off
to LA for my mom's (belated) bday party.
Last night the HOA board approved my gas variance, so I was all ready to go this
morning but it didn't happen. Seems I was a bit too efficient, I actually called the
day before to verify, and the scheduler pulled my order to check, and then, by mistake
she put it back under thursday instead of wed. So now they're gonna have barely enough
time to do the work and have it inspected before the appliances arrive on tuesday.
Today the electrician came by and ran the wires for the range and the hood, now all I
need is the gas and the range delivered and I'm good to go. The painting is coming along
nicely, although the colors are a bit lighter than the samples, but thats a good thing
given how dark everything was before.
The painting started today, and things are a mess, but the progress looks good. Most of the
ceilings are done, as is the downstairs area and boy that white really brightens things up.
I managed to cut in the cable in the wall, and hang the box on the opposite wall, now
when the floor guy starts we'll be able to run the cable under the floor. I even found
some florescent lights for the master bath, but the unit buzzes somewhat so I may
end up replacing it. I think there is something wrong with the kitchen florescents
though, even replacing the tubes didn't help, maybe theres something wrong with the
master ballast, or maybe I'll be replacing that too.
Still in hectic mode, lots to do for the house. Managed to have dinner with
Miki & Jack, at a pretty good Teppanyaki place in Menlo Park (whos name escapes me)
Busy busy busy, managed to actually see a movie with Kiz, but she wasn't up to dinner,
but since we went to see Chocolat, it was almost like dinner.
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