Pregnancy Adventures: Things I did not know about pregnancy before I got pregnant

Just found out today that our friends Nate & Marissa are expecting, due in July---yay! This got me thinking to writing a brief post about things I didn't know about pregnancy before becoming pregnant...many things I discovered earlier on but couldn't talk about since I was still in the "non-safety" zone of the first trimester...so hopefully I can jog my memory a bit here. Now, there were a few things I knew about like how you shouldn't smoke, drink alcohol, etc...and some things I learned through some of the few friends that have had children in the last couple of years...but there are a number of things that I did not know until I got pregnant, got the "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book, and really started learning about the do's and do-not's of pregnancy. Here they are:

• No more hot baths. I knew that pregnant women weren't allowed in hot tubs based on all the signs posted around hot tubs...but I never really translated that to hot baths. Now, I LOVE my hot baths...but once I started asking about it, my OB was like "well, try to keep the belly out of the bath" or "keep the temperature not too hot". I'm like "what? what's the point then?" Now, I know there are many opinions on this...and like with almost any of the "do-not's" of pregnancy, it's more about doing things moderately and not excessively. Still, I can't help but worry about the temperature of the water when I take a bath now and try my best to just keep it short and not make myself sweat too much.
• What I shouldn't eat/drink. Now, I knew about things like tuna, raw sushi, alcohol, etc...but these are the food items (that I care about) that I didn't realize I had to essentially remove from my diet during these 9 months:
  • Lunch meat (this is one where I try to be "moderate")
  • Hot dogs (I'll admit I ate one German sausage while visiting Leavenworth)
  • Alfalfa sprouts (wah--salads and sandwiches aren't as good w/o sprouts)
  • Oysters (in retrospect, this should have been obvious)
  • Bananas -- this is just a Chinese thing---my mom and aunt practically ripped a banana out of my hand over Thanksgiving...I'm not really sure why bananas are banned. Again, this is something I'm more "moderate" with.
  • Caffeine -- I really had no idea about this. In reality, the advice is no more than 200mg of caffeine a day (a standard tall latte at Starbucks is about 75mg for reference) As a result, though, I've basically stopped drinking coffee (which was really tough for me initially) and have just substituted with an occasional chai latte or uncaffeinated herbal tea. It probably doesn't hurt to chill out on my bad caffeine habit anyway.
  • Unpasteurized cheese -- I LOVE cheese. Now, I have to look out to see if any cheese is pasteurized or not. Fortunately, most cheese in the U.S. is pasteurized...but what in the world do pregnant women in France do? Again, I'm sure this falls under the "be moderate" category...but it's not like there are any major cheeses I love that I can no longer eat. I just find myself paying more attention to it.
  • Items with "raw eggs" such as hollandaise sauce, tiramisu, mayonnaise. This is another "be moderate" for me....but again, most of these items are things I rarely indulge in anyway. Supposedly, pregnant women should also avoid runny eggs (such as sunny-side-up) but again, I tend to eat scrambled anyway so haven't thought much about it.
• Don't touch the cat litter! This is one that's worked in my favor. Pregnant women are susceptible to an infection called Toxoplasmosis. As a result, when you're pregnant, ladies, time to tell the husband to pick up after the cat.
• Dyeing your hair. Here's another "be moderate" for me -- but supposedly, pregnant women should be careful about the amount of hair dyeing that may do during those 9 months...and if you are to do it, better to do highlights rather than all-over hair color. I would also throw this into the "hold off on this during the 1st trimester" category but otherwise, I'm sure it's fine. Again, I have no plans for this.
• Lighten up on that reflexology! This I'm a bit bummed about. There are apparently pressure points in the feet that can lead to premature contractions...as a result, MOST massage therapists will either totally NOT touch your feet...or they will only give it a pretty light massage.
• Got acne? Just deal. Now, I knew that Accutane was forbidden during pregnancy...but I figured that I'd just dab the occasional salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide over-the-counter acne treatment when I'd break out...but apparently, those are things I have to be careful with (not enough conclusive studies I believe...so some would say this is just hogwash). I think this also falls under the "be moderate with" category but I've just been too worried to choose my vanity over the baby's health.....and that lovely "pregnancy glow" that women get? Well, ladies that have a history of acne--expect it to get worse!

That's about all I can think of for now. Now, I'm not sitting here avoiding everything like the plague and truly take the advice to just do things moderately...but it's been really fascinating for me on this journey to learn about what pregnant women should or shouldn't do, can or cannot do, etc.

Only in recent weeks have I finally started feeling her kick...and just in this last week was I able to physically feel her kicks on my belly. Just a few days ago, Matt was able to feel her kick for the first time which was so awesome. The kicks come and go and they vary from a very light tickling feeling to a big jab right in the middle (it's a weird feeling, kind of like a major gas burp but in the wrong place and obviously without the gas) It will be eerie when she gets big enough that I can start actually seeing waves of baby movement on my stomach.

I still have a weird aversion to meat, particularly in the evenings. The feeling comes and goes but at times, the taste of meat can make me absolutely nauseous. One observation I made, though, was that I can almost always eat meat when made with an Asian-like preparation, such as Thai or Chinese...but for example, I wasn't able to eat much turkey during the Christmas dinner because it just sat with me the wrong way. I still can't enjoy a good steak and can only eat beef when it's stir fried with broccoli or chow fun it seems. Strange eh?

I'll sign off this post with a lovely baby picture of our friends Betina & Justin's recently born daughter, Madeleine Poppy, who came to this world on Dec. 19th---she's so cute!

Hello from sunny Florida!

Happy Holidays from Florida! It is so nice to be experiencing some sunshine down here...the weather has floated between the 60's and 70's...and will hopefully get warmer when we head down to Key West next week for New Year's. We spend every other year down here with Matt's parents who have a house down here. It's been a relaxing vacation so far and pretty easy! It actually started off with us taking public transportation to the Seattle airport for the first time ever-- a combination of bus and lightrail: the bus stop right in front of our house drops us off inside the downtown bus tunnel where we get off and just wait for the lightrail. Total cost--$1.75 (free for me since I already have an ORCA card through work). Sweet! Door to door -- about an hour..not bad! The flight went without a hiccup and then we were in Florida.

Of course, we had mortgage related drama...AGAIN...the day before leaving. I don't know how we coincidentally got ourselves into this predicament (remember, the day before leaving for Thanksgiving break, we had to sign papers for the house). Well, I refinanced the condo and the closing for that happened the day before we left. Around 4pm, I finally got a phone call saying "can you be in Kent in an hour?" Sheesh. So off to the bank I went, got a cashier's check, quickly stopped by the grocery store to pick up food and random gifts for a white elephant potluck we were attending later, and then off to deal with rush hour traffic down to Kent to sign papers. When all was said and done, we turned to each other and said "well, hopefully nothing goes wrong tomorrow since we're on an airplane all day!". Sure enough, I got an email in the morning from the escrow company, frantic because they realized they forgot to have Matt sign ONE document. One document! I then called them:

ESCROW: "are you at the airport?"
ME: "yes, but my flight is leaving in an hour"
ESCROW: "what airline?"
ME: "Southwest..but I'm not dealing with security again"
ESCROW: "our notary will go to you....hold on..."
[pause]
ESCROW: "okay, we're just going to email the doc to you and have you sign and scan it back"

Thank goodness that was acceptable! There was no way we were going to deal with leaving security just to meet a notary to sign one document with our flight leaving in an hour! Once we got to Florida, fortunately, Matt's parents own a printer/scanner so we were able to take care of everything that night. The next day, we got the official "YOU'RE FUNDED!" email--damn straight I better be!

All in all..very happy with the rates we ended up getting: 4.5% for the house and 4.625% for the condo (and keep in mind, I had to refinance it AS an investment property) All is well!

I had the walkthrough the tenant also and I think it went okay. I felt bad as he did notice the semi-crappy job on the walls (I decided not to paint as I thought spot painting with random "looks-like-generic-off-white-wall-paint" would just make it worse) I left him the walkthrough inspection papers...so we'll see what he writes when I get home and see the mail!

Anyway, I need to wrap up as we're leaving soon..afterall, it's football Sunday and apparently the Patriots game is not playing on local TV so we've got to leave the house...and I think Matt's mom is going to spend the afternoon with me in Venice. I just want to soak in some sun.

Onto new digs...

Whew! What a weekend with our move. We started bright and early at 7am with the professional movers who were awesome and moved so fast. Despite that, the whole move still took over EIGHT HOURS (yikes!). We just have so much stuff...it's going to take forever to unpack! We have our basics: master bedroom setup, TVs turned on with cable, and wireless internet flowing already. Our focus this week: unpack and prep the condo for the new tenant who will move in this weekend. It's eerie looking at this condo that I've lived in for 6 years -- my first place -- standing so empty the same way it looked when I stepped in the first time. Fortunately, there's not much left to do -- the cleaners and carpet cleaner came today. All that's left is touch up paint and random dings...which I honestly have a fear of dealing with. I've never been great with spackle and paint...and it's just one of those things that I can't bring myself to pay someone to deal with (the little odd jobs that is). I'm hoping this tenant doesn't mind my amateur-ish job of cleaning up the walls.

Already we're noticing subtle differences in living in this new house, such as how much quieter it is at night and just how huge the house is. We have to literally yell at each other in order to be heard on different floors---we've already separated our TV watching so that Matt can watch his football full on downstairs while I'm comfortable in the family room watching whatever I please. The most noticeable difference are the people in the neighborhood when going to the grocery store. Gone are the homeless teenagers, drunken all-night partygoers and that same heroine addict that we saw wandering up and down our street all the time. Here, there are just lots and lots of families and children everywhere.

We just met our next door neighbor tonight who came over with some chocolate chip cookies to greet us--I don't think I could invent more ideal neighbors for my parents to love: a Chinese couple with 2 young children, the woman speaks Cantonese (from Toronto) and they're both in the medical industry. Nice!

Can my life be any busier right now?

Sorry I've been quiet -- it's just been so darn busy! Well, since my last post, we DID close on the house on time (woo hoo!) although there was drama til the very end. When we went to sign the escrow papers, I signed the first two pages using my regular signature. At that point, the escrow lady said, "You should sign your entire whole name" (including middle name), even though it's not my real signature. For the rest of the documents, I did...and she didn't think it was necessary to re-sign the first 2 pages. I should've questioned her on that.....because the next day, WHILE we were in Vegas, I got a frantic call from her telling me that I needed to resign those pages AND that I needed to sign them on legal paper. Great -- that's easy for me to do at my parent's house in Vegas. Fortunately, I found a UPS store nearby and for approx. $2, I was able to print out the pages, sign them and re-scan them at the right size. Sheesh.

Thanksgiving was great as usual -- lots of family, tons of eating Chinese food and just overall relaxation. One thing we did which we hadn't done in a long time --- Aaron and I took our cousins to Circus Circus, which was our favorite casino to go to when we were children because of the child-friendly arcade. It was incredible how different it is compared to when we used to go there but there were still a lot of the classic games. We probably spent nearly $20 playing the "roll the ball into the blue/red/yellow holes so your horse can move as fast as possible" game so that our cousin could win a huge stuffed cow to take home. Mission accomplished.

Since returning, I've now also kicked off another loan process...moreso, I'm finally refinancing the condo since rates are awesome and we're going to hold off on selling it for awhile. Back to scanning tons of paperwork....

Our big move to the house is this coming Saturday (when we've hired the movers) and we've just been packing like crazy ever since. Although our "official move" was last Saturday -- per my parents, the 5th was an auspicious day for moving and the 12th was a bad day. To make it "official", Matt and I had to go to the house and bring in a houseplant, a container of rice, boil some water and then announce together "we've moved in!". Hee Hee. We had to spend half the day there anyway because we got deliveries from Sears, Macy's and Crate+Barrel that day--yay! Our master bedroom is setup and looks awesome now...which is great in that when we do move, we don't have to stress about putting the bed together in order to fall asleep that night. (our current bed will become the guest bed) I'm taking the day off tomorrow to complete packing---feels so close but there's still so much random stuff! I guess the good thing about packing and moving is the forced "have I worn this in the last 2 years? do I really need this?" We have trash bags full of clothes that are going to donation now. What's crazy is that we have a huge storage area full of boxes of stuff that we packed away for the purpose of putting the condo on the market---so in a way, that helped minimize the amount of packing we have to do now.

On top of all this, we have 1 week after moving out to prep the condo for the new tenant!!!! I have cleaners and carpet cleaners scheduled...and all that remains is random paint touch-ups...oh, and preparing some sort of move-in checklist.....oh, and making copies of the keys. I will miss this condo -- lots of great memories here. Most of all, I'll probably miss living right in the heart of the city, being able to step out onto my balcony and see the Space Needle and all of Capitol Hill walking past me. Given, we aren't moving far away and are still in the city of Seattle...just in a quieter, more residential area.

Lastly, we actually have some very exciting news to share, which I've kept very quiet on this blog: we are expecting a baby girl on April 26, 2010!!! Yup, I am now a bit over 20 weeks pregnant (half way there!) and it has been such a journey. We are completely thrilled over the news and can't wait to have a lil' one in our arms. The pregnancy so far has been wonderful: absolutely no morning sickness (apparently ~60% of women will experience morning sickness---one coworker of mine due 2 weeks before me threw up 5-6x/day and has "only" been throwing up 1-2x/day during the 2nd trimester--eeks!!) and my energy level has surprisingly remained pretty high. The only weird things for me were sensitivity to smells (during the 1st trimester, walking into the cafeteria just made me want to gag) and occasional food aversions (a filet mignon tastes like rubber to me---a filet! and I LOVE steak!). In the last couple of weeks, my belly finally "popped" and I think (I hope) I transitioned from the awkward "man, did she eat too many ho-ho's?" to the "wow, she's obviously preggers" phase. As a comparison, here's a picture of me at 20 weeks (this week) compared to when I was 6 weeks:



Also, here's a recent ultrasound photo -- this was taken at 17 weeks, 4 days (so right before Thanksgiving):


I have another ultrasound coming up next week so if I get a better picture, I'll post that too. That will probably be my last "full body" ultrasound...because the next ultrasound is somewhere in the mid-30's week? Anyway, the point is, the baby is big enough after 30 weeks that it's too big to fit within an ultrasound photo.

So now that I've spilled, this blog will soon become more and more filled with pregnancy stories and then soon baby stories. Don't tell me I didn't warn you!

So you can see: there's a lot going in my life right now! Buying a house, finalized a loan, refinancing the condo, learning to be a landlord, packing and moving and oh yeah, making a baby at the same time! It's all crazy and but it's all wonderful wonderful and I'm enjoying every step of the way!

Things are looking up

Just a brief update -- as of last Thursday, got the deposit and lease signed with the oncologist! Matt and I are ecstatic about this tenant and hopeful that he will stay with the unit for awhile. We met his two sons who are the nicest, well-mannered kids---which helped with our fear of rowdy boys bouncing around the place. What's even better: our new tenant was trying to break the lease on his current apartment (he's moving because it's much too small for him) and lucky him: 2 days after giving notice, his landlord already found a replacement tenant! So because of this, our tenant moves in literally 1 week after we move out --- no double mortgage payments!! We were prepared to possibly be paying 2 mortgage for 1-3 months, so to not have it be an issue at all is a huge bonus.

All that remains is closing on the new house. The loan documents were approved by underwriting late Friday so hopefully this goes to escrow first thing tomorrow morning and we can sign all the documents during the day......which we need to do because we leave first thing Tuesday morning for another Vegas Thanksgiving!

This is a good problem to have....

Well, we've only gotten 2 inquiries so far from the condo in the last 3 days....but lucky us, they were GREAT inquiries! The first was an oncologist with a great job, steady income, etc and loved our place. He dropped off his rental application the next day. The second was a married couple -- also steady jobs, incomes, good credit history and they loved it so much they filled out an application on the spot. We feel so lucky that both sets of applicants are rock stars. Such a tough decision!!! Who do we choose?! (and yes, this is a good problem to have....) We decided to go with our gut instinct and chose the doctor. He's swinging by tomorrow evening with his sons to check out the place--assuming his sons like (which he feels confident they will), he'll move in. He's confident enough that I know he's already given notice at his current apartment. I won't say we have him for sure until I've got a signed lease agreement and a deposit check, but I feel really good about him...and even if he didn't work out for whatever reason, we have this awesome couple as a great alternative. So exciting!

Speaking of this topic, I got a call tonight from a friend who's moving out of the country pretty soon (keeping mum until they make this news public....) and also looking into renting their place. I sent a long e-mail tonight with what I've learned in the last few weeks---in addition to sending some sample lease documents, I wrote:

As for tenant background screening, I ended up really liking SmartMove the most. It's a service of TransUnion and provides a pretty awesome secure environment for potential renters to enter their personal information without having to leave it with you (like their social security #). The resulting report is great -- you get both a credit and criminal report that's pretty thorough. What you don't get is any rental history. You can choose either for you to pay the fee or for them to pay the fee which I also found convenient. Now, even though the renters had to fill something out online, I still liked having them fill out an application form as it allowed me to ask questions I wouldn't otherwise get answers to from a basic credit and criminal check, such as "when do you plan to move in? how long would you live here? what's your residential history? give me personal references, etc.." The combination of having the application and using SmartMove was very helpful. Had I researched which website I was going to use ahead of time, I probably would've not asked for a SS# on the application form.

Other recommended websites I was given:

* http://www.e-renter.com This looked pretty thorough but they have this lame feature where if you want a credit check, the potential renter has to log in and then pay $1.99. Because of that, I didn't like this site. I know others that have used this site and liked it.
* http://on-site.com This also came recommended but after I signed up, they wanted me to fax something in to prove that I owned the property that I wanted to rent. Wha-a-a-? Super lame. Just a hurdle that was enough for me to not continue anymore.
* http://www.tenantverification.com I didn't check them out, so no comments...but supposedly you can get rental history from here.


As for advertising, all I did was put something up on Craigslist and I was really fortunate to get 2 (successful) inquiries within an hour after posting. Sadly, no one else has contacted us about the condo ever since...so I'm really happy that of the only 2 inquiries we got, they were all super awesome candidates that loved the place AND decided to apply. If I didn't hear from anyone or got dissatisfied with who I heard from, I was going to:
- lower the price on Craigslist
- start advertising at Microsoft
- ask someone to advertise at Amazon

I sought out advice from many friends that are landlords and most of them said that craigslist alone ended up being sufficient for finding great renters. The number one advice I got was to go with your instinct and rent to someone that you feel good about.

Anyhow, that's about the extent of research I've done so far. I didn't look into Property Management companies (though we did think about it) because I also got a lot of advice from folks that it was pretty easy to do on your own...but a consideration to do if you were moving out of the city (like you!). I can absolutely see the convenience and I would probably use one if we were leaving Seattle. I only spent one evening poking around at a few companies out of curiosity and found, typically:
- if you use their services for tenant screening and advertising of your property, they will charge either a flat fee or something like 50% of your 1st month's rent
- for management services, it's typically 10% of the rent
- the greatest convenient service I found was one place that would not only collect rent but also pay your mortgage for you to ensure everything gets paid in time (and just bill you separately). I thought that was pretty sweet

Again, you can always try to do this on your own at first...and then decide at a later time to use a property management company. Up to you. That's the way we are thinking---we'll try to do this on our own and if it's a total pain in the butt, we'll start looking into this. Thinking back now, knowing that it would've cost me more than $1000 to use one for the purpose of advertising, background screening, etc., I'm VERY GLAD I decided to do this on my own. Advertising was free and easy (craigslist), background screening was super easy with all these websites (like SmartMove) and I liked being in control of putting together the leasing documents. It would not have been worth $1000 at all.

Things are wrapping up soon....

It's been a busy few weeks wrapping up the home purchase, mainly in getting loan documentation all together. Man, I don't know if it's this lender I'm working with or just strict new Fannie Mae rules (probably the latter) but the amount of documentation I have to show compared to when I bought the condo in 2003 is insane. Anything that is even slightly off I have to sign a letter with a statement describing the issue. It's all worked out and nothing is going to stop this loan from going through (whew!) but man, it's been really interesting comparing the current experience to 6 years ago.

Yesterday, we had a walk through of the house with the builder, just to point out minor little cosmetic things that need fixing (fortunately, most of the issues are extremely minor---little paint chips or a sticky closet door). It was really exciting to go through and learn more about the house -- like that all of the main floor doors and windows are already pre-wired for security and that the family room has already been prewired for a home theater system so that we don't have to drill any more holes.

In the last couple of weeks, we also started shopping for some of the key things we will need immediately, like a refrigerator, washer/dryer, a new king bed and family room furniture. It's been exciting and we feel great about what we've picked out. There's certainly more we will need to buy over time (i.e. sitting room furniture, dining room, etc..) but those are lower priority and we'll just get those over time... I think I'm most excited about the washer/dryer as I've never had a front-loading washer ever. The current one in the condo is just a basic unit and does the job fine...so it was exciting just seeing what options exist out there in current, newer units.

Also, finally put up an ad for renting the condo today---and got the first inquiry about it only 30 minutes after posting! I ended up showing the unit this evening to one potential renter and have an appointment tomorrow with another. Hopefully all works out so that we have a renter soon! We were hoping to have a renter by Christmas...but man, if we have a renter by Thanksgiving, that will be awesome.

Is it almost November already?

I have really neglected this blog. So terrible of me. So I'm just going to ramble on random updates and thoughts.




First, probably the biggest news in our life right now: we're moving! Yes, we bought a house in the Bryant neighborhood and we are really excited. The house is absolutely huge with lots of room to grow in---definitely a home for the next 10+ years. As always, there was much drama around our home buying. We actually first put an offer on another house in Greenlake and was in the process of countering when another offer swooped in that completely trumped ours. We were sad but that was perhaps a sign. So we turned around the next day and put an offer on another home that we had been eyeing also for awhile. To our luck, it all worked out! We reached mutual agreement and completed inspection just today which went really really well. If all goes well, we'll close by the end of the month and start moving in at the start of December.

So what happened to the condo? Well, sadly, despite many showings, not a single offer. Nada. Just a terrible market to sell, especially for condos. It's okay, we were almost prepared for that and just feel fortunate to even purchase a home despite not selling the condo. Likely, we will take it off the market next week and then seriously start looking into preparing it to rent out. I'm hoping we can just hold onto it, renting it for awhile until the market picks up again. Ideally, we can get renters in by January---so let me know if you or someone you know would love to live in a hip 2 bedroom loft near the bars and restaurants of Capitol Hill!

Oh, one thing I'm excited about and hope our timing works out well ---- you know how the homebuyer tax credit ends Nov. 30th? Well, apparently the Senate is not only tossing around the idea of extending it but also EXPANDING the program to existing homeowners! Basically, as long as you've lived in your home for 5 consecutive years in the last 8 years and you're upgrading your home (your principle is higher than your current), you qualify for a $6,500 tax credit! Woo Hoo! The senate will be voting on this next week at the earliest so I'm keeping my eye out....

Halloween's around the corner and we are hitting Bonza Bash again, courtesy of Miss Katie who won the costume contest last year, winning free tickets. I still have no idea what I'll dress up as though there are some ideas...just depends on how creative I feel last minute.

Speaking of Halloween, well sorta .... seen a few "frightful" movies lately:
- Zombieland was AWESOME. I think I still prefer Shaun of the Dead but Zombieland is a great movie.
- Paranormal Activity wasn't bad for a $11,000 movie--and I was surprisingly not as scared as I thought it would be. Creative story, kudos to the filmmakers.

The house we're getting has been pre-wired with Cat 5 wiring. Cool! But I feel dumb -- how does one set up a network with all the Cat 5 wiring? Do I just hook the cable modem to one outlet and then boom, it works?

Lots of researching needing to be done in the next few weeks: refrigerator models, washer/dryer models, security systems, Cat 5 wiring, furniture, etc... FUN FUN!

Thoughts on the HTC Hero

I wrote this over a month ago and never published it...for sake of getting it out, here it is...
-------------------------
I recently had to get a new phone because of work---or moreso, I could no longer use my work number as my primary number. Fortunately, I still kept the same number that I've had for 10 years; however, with it now being my primary number, it got me interested in checking out a non Windows Mobile device for the sake of just being familiar with what else is out there. I'm in a contract with T-Mobile so that limited my choice of phones. I at first decided to go with the MyTouch 3G, which is all the rage at TMo right now. This is actually the HTC Magic, a version of the Android that comes without a slide out keyboard, is smaller and pretty slick. Software wise, it's not much different than anyone else running Cupcake (latest version of Android). I personally really liked the hardware and thought it was slick...but I found it annoying to not have a native Exchange calendar app (only supported Email) and I'd been staring for weeks at the HTC Hero, the new, slicker, fancier cousin of the HTC Magic. I knew I could get the Hero through Expansys but at the expense of it being 2G (being a world phone, it's not on the same frequency as any US-carrier 3G network) and it costing a bit more....but I finally bit the bullet, purchased it and returned my MyTouch today. I thought I'd share my initial impressions of the phone to you. Now, being that I'm a Contacts PM, I'll probably make note of a lot of the features in Contacts which I find interesting. There are tons and tons of reviews out there from your favorite gadget blogs which talk at length about hardware, the homescreen, navigation, etc.... I could talk about it, but I won't just because you can read up about that everywhere. Instead, I'll focus on the software that I find interesting.

Before beginning, I just want to say I find it fascinating how much HTC has changed on top of the Android platform -- just shows the amount of extensibility and skinning that can be done. So much has changed that this is not even a Google branded phone -- simply an HTC one, and I believe that's one of the reasons it's possible that it natively supports Exchange Mail, Contacts and Calendar (woo hoo for me).

What I have set up: Exchange Mail, Contacts, and Calendar; Google Mail and Calendar; Social networking integration for Facebook, Flickr and Twitter; a number of apps.

The features of this particular phone that made me pick it over other standard, Android devices:

• social networking integration



• Sense UI



• 5mp camera



• standard 3.5mm headphone jack



• browser supports flash



• multi-touch in a number of apps, including email and browser (not in the maps app, boo)



• support of Exchange calendar, contacts and e-mail natively
  

The social networking integration within the contacts app is interesting -- the app itself has been overhauled such that it doesn't look at all like the standard Android Contacts app. Upon opening the app, some standout features:

Facebook and Flickr integration in the contact card
Whenever I look at a contact card, I can see the Facebook picture and birthday for that person (I can choose not to). I can also see the most recent status message and all of their Facebook and Flickr photo albums. In addition to that, it will show any text messages, e-mails (but only through my Exchange account--weak) and phone calls I've shared with the person. Too bad there isn't Twitter integration--seems like an opportunity miss, especially since I'd signed into the phone with my Twitter account. (fyi, the only use of that is to sign into the native Twitter app "Peep" that HTC includes in the phone)

I'm at the top of the list
Because I've signed into Facebook, it immediately detected my profile and put myself at the top of my contacts list. There's not much there except for my photo and birthday but I can add some add'l information for myself--- I actually already have a contact card for myself but I can't connect it with "my" Facebook card because the dialog they use to connect your device contacts to your Facebook contacts is limited to only your Facebook friends.....and...well, I'm not my own friend on Facebook. Get it? Again, a slight miss...but the thought is there.

Contacts list

The main contacts list has the following views:

• Alphabetical list of contacts



• All of your "favorites"--which will be synced from Google contacts. There is also a Favorites widget that can be added to the homescreen.



• Contact groups --- from Google, these are the groups you create. From exchange, it's just the categories of contacts.



• Updates and Events. This is probably the most interesting screen. At the very top, it detects if there are any contacts that match your Facebook contacts -- if so, there will be a notification to say that there are "links detected"---if you give it a blessing, it'll connect the matching contacts. By doing this, it doesn't sync down all of your Facebook contacts--it will only connect Facebook information to those contacts you already have on your phone. In the middle are events -- any noted birthdays or anniversaries of your friends. Finally, at the bottom are various "updates" which seem to consist mainly of status messges and photo updates.

There were initial complaints about this phone when it was first released, mainly being that the UI was too slick for the hardware, negatively affecting performance; however, last month HTC released a patch that really improved the performance. I have to say that it's like night and day and the device is really usable now.

There ARE some notable bugs that I haven't had time to really check out. Not a major huge deal but annoying when I do care, namely:

• MMS seems broken. I have yet to receive or send a MMS despite it looking like an option.


• Downloading ANY attachments in Exchange e-mail flat out doesn't work. My workaround, sadly, is to forward to my Gmail account where I can easily do so.


• The native Peeps (Twitter) app sometimes just stops refreshing and won't retrieve any more tweets. I have to log out and then log back in to get it to work. It fortunately hasn't happened too much...but I've found it frustrating when it has.

Other than that, the device works just spiffy. I've been pretty happy with it so far!

Decisions Decisions....

Matt and I have been talking for a long awhile about the desire to eventually move out of the hip urban loft condo and into a house. Yes, a house. It's with mixed feelings, of course, as we totally LOVE our condo in the city right now -- walk everywhere, in the heart of Capitol Hill, easy access to the highway, etc... but we recently decided that now is the time to finally move forward. For the last few weeks, we met with a real estate agent and lender and started prepping our condo to put on the market. By prepping, that means renting a storage unit and packing up a TON of random stuff that we don't necessarily need for everyday and removing any clutter from our unit. After meeting with a staging consultant and getting some advice, we rearranged our furniture and have set up the place to be ready to sell! We've also started checking out open houses so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's an interesting market as it's not a great time to sell but it's an awesome time to buy....so while we may not get what we'd like for the condo now, we'll be able to get a whole lotta house for a lot less than that house was worth just 2 years ago. Well, the photographer came last weekend and our listing will go on the market in the next day or two...and I'm naturally having last minute anxieties about making sure the price is set right....hence, the decisions to be made. We'd love to sell and buy a house in the next few months...but are also mentally okay with that not working out and trying again next year. As a result, we want to price it in a way that gives us that room but is also an attractive offer. So many factors! Anyway, we just got back the photos that will be used in the listing and are IMPRESSED (yay HDR!). We can't help but think "dang! we live here!" Here they are!

Caribbean Cruise

Sorry it's been awhile and I never posted about our trip to the Caribbean. It was a fabulous vacation and we really enjoyed taking our first cruise together. The weather was great the whole time and we enjoyed the water, the beach, the sun and all the food. I think I've converted Matt to a cruise lover! Anyhow, the pictures will speak for themselves:

Day in San Juan	2nd Day in San Juan + Boarding the Ship	Days at Sea	Aruba – snorkeling!
Scuba Diving in Curacao	Tour in Dominica	St. Thomas/St. John	Last Day in San Juan

2nd largest aquarium tank in the world

Wow. This is located in the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

Hola from San Juan!

After a very long flight from Seattle, we arrived in San Juan early afternoon to beautiful, sunny and VERY HOT weather. Our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas begins tomorrow, and we arrived a day early as a precaution. We've had a chill day involving lots of great food, some beach time, walking around El Morro and checking out the casinos in our hotel and next door. Taking advantage of the free wifi at the hotel right now, I've uploaded pictures taken from today -- check it out! Tomorrow will be light as we just grab a bite to eat and hopefully have more beach time before heading to the pier to begin the herding-of-the-cows boarding of the cruise ship....but we are really looking forward to it.

Today has been a walk through memory lane -- for those of you that know, my family has a timeshare here and I spent much of my childhood coming here every March. When I grew up, I took advantage of the place and brought a bunch of girlfriends here...and later visited again. It's probably been a good 8 years or so since I was last here and it's been fascinating to see how much the city has grown. Isla Verde, the neighborhood where the timeshare is located as well as our 1-night hotel, is so much bigger than before--there are now many more hotels and eating establishments. That said, it's great to see many of my favorites still standing.

Frozen Custard comes to Seattle!

In Kansas, there is frozen custard EVERYWHERE. I remember this even in high school as the trend started picking up...you couldn't find an ice cream shop except the Baskin-Robbins in the strip mall...but you could find a few frozen custard stores. I'd been wondering if it was just a midwest thing as I never saw such a store on the East Coast or West Coast. Well, about a month ago, after having dinner at Spinasse up the street, Matt and I noticed a sign for a frozen custard place and wondered.........well, it finally opened! Old School Frozen Custard is just up the street---I can't wait to check it out. As part of its grand opening, free cones from 3pm - 10pm this Saturday!

my body hates me

Over the last 24 hours, I got sunburnt over lunch in the sun (just sitting there for 40 minutes in the Microsoft commons!), then attended an intense Circuit Training class at the ProClub and then suddenly had the inspiration to bike 30 miles home around Lake Washington. My body hates me. It feels good but man, my legs are like jello. Here was my route:



In other news:

• My dearest friends, Jigna and Matt, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Kiran, on May 9th---congratulations! I went and visited them on day 2 and she was so precious!
• Another couple we love -- Jessica and John -- got married up in Friday Harbor on May 16th. We had a fabulous weekend in the San Juan Islands, renting a log cabin with Matt & Asayo and also hanging out a bunch with Katy & Lenny. While there, we biked into town, saw a camel and spent a lot of time hanging out with Jessica's relatives from Tennessee! Some picture to check out:
  
  • Weekend in Friday Harbor
  • John & Jessica's Wedding
    

• The weather in Seattle has been unusually warm -- it'll be in the upper 80's today! No wonder I got a sunburn. I'm putting sunblock before going to work....bizarre.
  
• For the 2nd time, Matt and I decided to attend the Secret Film Festival as part of SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival)---I'd love to tell you about the movies we've seen, but...they're secret!
• Remember how I had to replace my tires? Well, one month after getting the new tires, my rear passenger side tire went flat AGAIN! I brought it in and got it replaced for free...but a weird coincidence.
• For Mother's Day, my brother and I secretly flew to Vegas and surprised our mother by sitting in her bedroom until she got home. It was a fun weekend, filled with karaoke, bowling, yummy food, Cirque du Soleil and swimming in the pool together for the first time. Here's the video of us surprising her:



• My favorite quote from the weekend with our mother was when Aaron and I were teaching her how to plays craps in the Palazzo casino. Afterwards, we asked what she learned: "when Aaron rolls, better bet "Don't Pass!"" Ha Ha.
• I'm in love with 2 new recent neighborhood joints: Molly Moon's Ice Cream and Oddfellows Cafe for brunch
• Matt is graduating soon!!! 2 more weeks!
• To celebrate his graduation and our upcoming anniversary, we've recently booked a Caribbean Cruise!!! We're going on RCI's Adventure of the Seas, leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico and visiting Curacao, Dominica, Aruba and St. Thomas...at the end of June. I've never been on a cruise without my parents and it's probably been a good 10 years since my last cruise...this will be Matt's first. I'm really looking forward to a bunch of relaxation, sitting by the pool with a dacquiri in hand, scuba diving in Curacao and ice skating! Yes, there's a freakin' ice skating rink on this boat.
  

Truffled Gnocchi Goodness

Last night, before heading to the symphony, we got dinner at the Art Restaurant & Lounge in the recently opened Four Seasons Hotel downtown, about 2 blocks away from Benaroya Hall. Overall, great experience---the service was superb as one would expect from the Four Seasons. The ambience and decoration was modern and simplistic, much like the rest of the hotel. The view mostly phenomenal were it not for the huge Public Storage building right in front--it is right on 1st Ave so there are water views aplenty. The menu consisted of food either from the "the counter", which was literally a counter in the middle of the restaurant with a couple of chefs making the food onsite, or a few main entrees. The counter items were appetizer size but could easily be shared for a tapas-style meal. Many of the choices looked appealing and I'd like to return to try more. We opted to get the Truffled Gnocchi and it was absolutely delicious--fairly simple with shaved truffle on top. It was light, fluffy, smelled and tasted delicious.

We then each ordered from the main entrees---Matt got an aged steak and I a lamb steak. I thought the lamb was wonderfully seasoned, and the garnish of mint, yogurt and honey really added to the flavor. Matt's steak was also well seasoned, but not evenly seasoned. Also, while the portion was perfect for me, Matt felt the steak could've been a larger portion. That said, the food was great and the service expediant enough to ensure finishing dinner in an hour for the symphony. We'd love to return, especially to check out the "lounge" part, which has a smaller bar menu, reasonable in price. The chef apparently came from the recently closed Cascadia that was in Belltown. He brought with him Cascadia's famous mini-burgers, which are only offered in the lounge. We'll definitely check it out!

Anyhoo, as if we couldn't have enough, we had made plans to attend a potluck at a friend's place this evening and still hadn't decided what to make until this morning, when we got the idea to try to make truffled gnocchi on our own. At the dinner last night, we had debated about how gnocchi was made exactly and how much potato was in the flour. This was a great opportunity to find out...and we're psyched about the results. Part of the motivation was to have truffle oil be infused in the gnocchi dough itself, rather than being dependent having it be part of the sauce. We used a "Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelles" recipe online and it came out great. We were extremely satisfied with the results--below is the recipe as well as added tidbits or changes made, followed by a few pictures of the process:

Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelles

SERVES 4

The secret to making these pillow-soft gnocchi (from Boston's Sportello) is to knead the dough as little as possible; if it's overworked, the gnocchi become gluey and tough.

FOR THE GNOCCHI:
1 lb. russet potatoes (about 2), unpeeled
1 1/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. truffle oil
1 egg, beaten

FOR THE SAUCE:
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
10 oz. mushrooms, preferably chanterelles, roughly chopped Chanterelles weren't in season when I went to the store, so I substituted with oyster mushrooms which tasted just as great (and are considerably cheaper!)
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup peas, fresh or frozen We used frozen and it was fine
2 tsp. finely chopped fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp. finely chopped chives Got these but forgot to add--it's just garnish so not a necessity

1. Make the gnocchi: Boil potatoes in a 4-qt. saucepan of salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. It's best to boil the potatoes in their skin to prevent water from getting into the potatoes, otherwise, the potatoes will be too watery. I'd also read the advice to put the potatoes in the water before it begins boiling so that the skin doesn't break. Drain the potatoes; let cool slightly and peel. Work potatoes through a food mill or a potato ricer onto a lightly floured surface. We used a potato ricer which worked great. Sprinkle the flour and salt over the potatoes and mix together with your hands. This part will be sticky (take off your rings!) but just mix it enough so that the flour and salt are evenly dispersed. Form a mound and create a well in the center; add truffle oil and egg. Gently knead dough until it just comes together, adding a little more flour if it begins to stick.

2. Lightly flour a parchment paper–lined baking sheet and set aside. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to a 1/2" thickness. Cut into 1/2"-wide strips. I decided not to roll the dough mainly because I tripled this recipe since I was making it for 12-13 people. I just kneaded it to a large ball and then took out chunks to make rolls out of. Roll each strip between your hands and the work surface to form ropes. Cut each rope into 1" segments. Working with one segment at a time, roll it down the back of a small fork so that the tines make ridges on the surface of the dough. This isn't totally necessary--supposedly, the ridges and indentation that is the classic form of gnocchi helps it hold onto sauce better...but this can take more time to do. I did it for about half of the gnocchi I made for the heck of it, but you can certainly skip doing this and the gnocchi will still turn out great. Transfer gnocchi to the prepared baking sheet; cover with a kitchen towel and refrigerate until ready to cook.

3. Make the sauce: Bring a 6-qt. pot of salted water to a boil. Heat oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until light brown, about 5 minutes. Raise heat to high; add cream, peas, and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until cream reduces by half. It didn't feel like the cream sauce never reduced to half...maybe 20%. Ultimately, when we added it back to the gnocchi, it thickened. We also added just a teensy bit of truffle oil to the sauce--probably less than a teaspoon. Season mushroom sauce with salt and pepper and remove skillet from heat. Boil gnocchi in the salted water until they float, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to mushroom sauce, add chives, and toss to combine.

Rolling gnocchi dough


Cutting up the gnocchi


Gnocchi pillows

got me some tires

so I've mentioned that I've had some bad luck with my car this month---well, in addition to my recent parking spot snafu where I swiped the door and mirror, I'd also been observing a slow leak in my rear passenger wheel. After filling it with air a few times, it would deflate much too quickly...so I brought it in to be looked at it. Turns out: there's a nail in the tire that's awfully close to the sidewall, so a patch wouldn't hold because of its proximity to the sidewall. As a result, I needed to replace the tire. Unsurprisingly, the dealership quoted me something ridiculous for ONE tire---about $300! One tire! So I made an appointment at Discount Tire upon recommendation from a few people (Costco would've been the next choice)....and going there, I was anticipating needing to replace all the tires because I'm around 38,000 miles and have never changed the tires. As I suspected, the tread on all tires was around 4/32" which was getting dangerously low. Figuring I'd need to replace the rest soon eventually, I got 4 new tires. *gulp* So now, with the recent tax bill, the new tires and my pending auto body work, my bank account is not happy.

Until the last couple days, I've never known anything about changing tires on cars---i.e. when to change, what tread depth matters, good sites to shop at, etc. It makes me wonder how dangerously run-down I let the tires on my old Acura Integra go considering I owned the car for 8 years, drove it back and forth between Kansas and Massachusetts for at least 3 of those, and never changed the tires. Ha.

going to Portugal?

I recently learned about a friend going to Portugal and she asked for tips. I know I've written up tidbits for people over the last 3 years (since we went in 2006) but I couldn't find any of the notes I've ever written...so I thought I'd publish what I wrote about our experience for future reference:

We loved it (naturally, since we got engaged there) My husband proposed to me from our hotel in Cascais and we loved much of our stay. We visited in mid-May, so similar time of year--and hence why we didn't go down south to the beaches. Our 2-week itinerary was:

Lisbon - Belem - Sintra - Cascais - Porto - Braga - Douro Valley - Buscaco Forest - Fatima - Ourem - Lisbon

We covered a lot of ground and loved it. The Douro Valley is gorgeous and will feel like a getaway---so glad to hear you're going to head out there since it's true wine country (Porto has all the port wine lodges where you can see the barrels aging, but none of the actual vineyards). I'll go through each city with top things to see and do.

LISBON & BELEM

The heart of Portugal, of course, so there's a lot to do. Get ready to put on good walking shoes as there are lots of hills in this city! Highlights of things to see and do here:

• Listen to Fado singers at Café Luso in the Bairro Alto. There are tons of fado restaurants so you don't necessarily need to go here, but we enjoyed it. We did learn that there tend to be 2 sittings--something like 7pm and 10pm. We went with the later one and were glad we did, because there was a huge group of cruise ship passengers at the earlier show! As a result, we got a much more intimate dinner and show.
• Ride the Tram #28 through the Alfama district
• go to "A Ginjinha" and try ginginha with cherries! It's like a sweet liquer, which is typical of Portugal. I think this bar is in the Rossio district.
• go to the Castelo de Sao Jorge - the views are amazing. This is a must visit.
• if you get a chance, go up one of the Elevadors--like the Elevador Santa Justa for another great view of the city
• take a walk along the Baixa, sit in an outdoor café -- get a croissant mixta and a café com leite while people watching.
• other great neighborhoods to walk around: Bairro Alto (artsy, lots of bars at night) and the Alfama (much older neighborhood, narrow windy streets)
• if you end up liking the glazed tile art (called azulejos), there is a museum of Azulejos located in the Alfama neighborhood
• if you go to Belem (can be done in a few hours):
• visit the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Belem--great example of architecture from Portugal's 16th century (and the delicious pasteis of Belem are just steps away)
• along the waterfront, you'll easily see the Torre de Belem and Monument to the Discoveries

SINTRA & CASCAIS

• visit the Palacio Nacional which is in the heart of Sintra and one of the top reasons to visit, Sintra.
• definitely visit the Palacio de Pena which is at the top of this hill with GORGEOUS views. The Palace itself is whimsically decorated and there are lots of beautiful picture opportunities
• I never visited here, but there are old remains of a Moorish castle nearby also that is also popular to visit. If you have limited time, I recommend the national palace and pena palace for sure.
• Cascais is just a cute seaside town, and not much touristy to see. However, it's beautiful since it's along the coast and you can stand there looking out in the ocean. We stayed at and got engaged at this great former fortress called Fortaleza do Guincho (GORGEOUS AND ROMANTIC), which is located next to Guincho Beach, a popular beach for windsurfers.
• go to Cabo da Roca which is just slightly north of Cascais. We visited it when we were driving from Sintra back to Cascais, but you could do it the other way too. The drive there is great. Anyhow, it's considered to be the westernmost point of continental Europe and has a beautiful view of the ocean as well.

PORTO

• we stayed in a hotel along Cais da Ribeira (Pestana Porto---it's really old and it's fun to see old paintings of Oporto that show the hotel), so we stayed primarily in this area
• the main thing to do in Oporto is to cross the bridge over to Vila Nova Gaia where all the port wine lodges are. The view over there is incredible as you'll recognize every brand of port you've probably ever had. Be sure to check on when the wine lodges are open though as there are days when they are not. My opinion is that there isn't much to do in Porto except for this, so I'd limit the stay to 2 days at most....so plan accordingly to be there when all the port wine lodges are open. You'll find that once you go on one tour, all the tours are very similar---so it's up to you if you want to continue taking tours.
• the only other thing we did was walk up to the Cathedral (the Se) where the views were quite beautiful

BRAGA

• we primarily went here, to be honest, because my husband's mother's maiden name is Braga and we wanted to visit...but you can totally skip. We only stayed one night. It's an old Catholic town that's quaint with a couple of pretty sites, but nothing to go out of your way for.
• on your way out to the Douro Valley, highly recommend you stop and visit the Bom Jesus do Monte, which is Portugal's most photographed church with its series of winding steps

DOURO VALLEY

• [sigh] we wished we had stayed out here longer as it was just relaxing and heavenly. We stayed at the Casa de Casal de Loivos, a B&B in Pinhao which was wonderful. The owner, Manuel, is a hoot and the view from here is spectacular. (decently cheap too at 100 euros/night)
• you can go to the vineyards and take tours--many of them offer self-guided walking tours too.
• while we didn't do this, we saw a lot of people take river boat tours. Some people would even leave their cars, take the boat cruise to the Douro Valley, stay a few days and then return. Of course, you're then limited to where you can walk...and the Douro Valley is definitely more of a driving place to get from one point to another.

BUÇACO FOREST

we didn’t actually stay here, but on our way back down south from the Douro Valley, we took a tour and decided to drive through the Buçaco Forest and eventually arrived at the Buçaco Palace which is GOR-GEOUS. If anything, the visit here is worthwhile just to see this palace. We had joked that if we had decided to get married in Portugal, this is where we'd do it because the palace and grounds were really beautiful.

OUREM & FATIMA

We decided to stay in Ourem for a couple of days to rest before heading back to Lisbon. This was probably one of our favorite places we stayed at -- the Casa Alta Royal Lodge. It's literally run by this priest from San Francisco--and while it's very Catholic in nature, they don't impose religion to you whatsoever. The rooms are great with beautiful views and it's a very personal experience.

While there, we got a tour of the area, including going to Fatima, which is fascinating since it's considered, like, one of the most religious places in the world. I mean, there are people here who will crawl on their knees while doing hail mary's. It is famous because the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared before 3 young children, who then confided 3 secrets. If anything, the amazing thing to see here is the Shrine and Basilica of Fatima -- it's HUGE!!! It's one of the largest in the world and thousands of people pilgrimage here yearly.

In the area, we also saw the cathedrals at Batalha and Alcobaca as well as out to Nazare to see the coastline...but these are just bonus places to visit.

credit card checks

You know those pesky checks you get from the credit card companies so that you can transfer a balance or pay something big off? You know, the ones that typically have some low APR? Well, like most of you, I shred those up and throw them away as soon as possible. But this last week, I had something big to pay off.

A few weeks ago, we got a letter from the IRS saying we owe a TON of money. I freaked out at first and thought it must surely be a mistake. But no, after digging around some big, we realized that our tax preparer made some grave mistakes from our 2007 take return and that indeed the IRS was correct. Much to our chagrin, our tax preparer was SUPER LAME and never returned any phone calls or emails about this mistake. At the very least, we just wanted some acknowledgement, an apology and an offer to make an amended tax return to the IRS--this was really reasonable and something almost every tax preparer does. But no, she just completely ignored us---how unprofessional. (her name's Denise Earl of Mobile Taxes---all you Seattlelites, stay away from her!!!) Fortunately, a coworker's mother is an accountant and she most pleasantly offered to help AND without being asked of her, she created the amended tax return we needed. Rock on.

Moral of this story is we ended up having to write a big check, and this was the one time we needed one of those credit card checks so that our bank account wouldn't freak out. The IRS installment plan is lame with huge fees and interest rates, and the opportunity to pay via credit card incurs some sort of 2.49% charge due to a legal ruling that the IRS can't pay for the credit card company charge (although I hear this may've changed this year and that you can deduct the cost of this in your return...note to self for years to come). Anyhow, couldn't find one of those checks and ended up just biting the bullet and writing a check direct from the bank. We dropped the check off Saturday morning....that afternoon, the mail came along with a "special offer from Chase". Ha. What karma.

random updates

A bit late reading this, but guess what is the First Family's favorite sweet treat?  Seattle's own Fran's Chocolates Smoked Sea Salt Caramels in Chocolate!  And yes--these were the same yummy treats we included in our wedding favors.  Neato.  Apparently Obama prefers milk chocolate while Michelle likes the dark.  I love these and could overindulge in them easily.

Today, we went to the symphony to watch Joshua Bell perform who was as amazing as I expected.  Some of you may remember him as the virtuoso behind all the incredible music in the movie The Red Violin.  He was also the subject behind an interesting social experiment hosted by the Washington Post last year, placing Bell in the middle of a D.C. subway during rush hour, playing violin just like every other street musician.  He played Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole today with such fervor and passion...it was an honor to see him.

A few days ago, I totally swiped the side of my car due to the dumbest accident.  I was leaving work and reverse turned out of my parking spot, neglecting to see the huge concrete beam situated on the left side of my car, at the rear.  As a result, with me reverse turning the car, I smashed my side mirror and also swiped the door.  Grrr.  I can live with this for the time being, but will need to take the time to get a few quotes from some auto body shops to get it fixed.

Last week, Microsoft unveiled this new area called "the Commons" which is located in a new section of land which has been under construction for, oh, at least a year.  The Commons is meant to be similar to a college campus commons area...and man, it really is.  I was surprised to see tons of food options, including Caffe Vita, Pike Place Market Deli, Steamers, Mayuri, Spitfire Grill, a noodle bowl, Asian grill, a soup and salad station and tons more.  On top of that, there are lots of retails spaces, including a Ski+Bike shop, Watson Kennedy art gallery, a credit union, a post office, mobile operators (such as T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.) and even a Mode Salon + Spa!  Plus, have I mentioned this new area is right next to my building?  I can walk over in less than 5 minutes.  Woo hoo.

I got my hair colored today--I haven't been happy with the brown color I got in December (too light for my taste) and wanted to go darker again.  I love the color I have now, which is like a soft black with a tinge of red.

I can't believe spring is almost here.  I'm so eager for the summer to be here---for now, I'm heads down at work, cranking out specs.  Busy busy time.

cold then hot then cold

God, the weather in Seattle is so wacky this time of year.  April is really so unpredictable.  One week ago, Monday, it was so cold that it was *snowing* in Seattle (and again, it rarely snows within Seattle city limits, much less in April).  Fast forward to yesterday and today, when it was sunny and in the lower 70's.  Man, the weather was so great and so liberating.  I LOVE Seattle when the weather is great.  I decided to take advantage of it by going on a bike ride, my first ride of 2009.  It was a great ride as I went from Capitol Hill up to Greenlake and back, stopping to take photos, enjoy watching people, wander through a Sunday market, etc...  Here is the route I took, all in all probably around 14 miles roundtrip.

I took some photos along the way just to document what a great day it was.  Check them out here!  But alas, the fun will only last so long---by Wed or Thurs, it's supposed to be back in the lower 50's and raining.  Boo hoo.

reality show rant

If you know me, you know one of my guilty pleasures is a reality tv show. It's been awhile since I've put my two-cents in, so here goes:

American Idol
It's about time Megan left--I don't know how she lasted for so long. I do think she has an interesting voice but she just always chose the wrong song. If she sang "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse last week, she probably would've lasted another week. My predictions for the next 3 to get voted off, in no particular order: Scott, Anoop and Matt. Final 3 will be:
Allison - amazing voice, always delivers
Danny - he's been a fan favorite but I feel like his performances are starting to sound the same
Adam - he's grown on me as he has amazing vocal talent, the question is if the AI audience will appreciate his style. I know that many ppl thought he bastardized "Ring of Fire" but I personally thought it was brilliant.

Amazing Race
I'm happy there aren't any really annoying bickering couples (compared to previous seasons). Sad to see Mike and Mel get eliminated as they were such a cute father-son team. I do find it interesting that, with the exception of the NFL cheerleaders, the remaining teams are all familial---brother/sister, brother/brother, sister/sister and mother/son. I guess if there was one team for me to root for, the Asian part of me roots for Tammy and Victor.

Dancing with the Stars
I haven't been watching this regularly, but my guess is that Shawn Johnson will win. Melissa Rycrosft looks great but is it fair that she has a significant dance backgroudn (Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader) and isn't really a celebrity? I'm shocked that Steve Wozniak lasted as long as he did.

America's Next Top Model
ah, the drama...I skip through so much of this show just to get to the photographs which I always find fascinating. I think it'll come down between Aminat and Celia personally. Celia's surprised me as when I first saw her, I didn't think much, but she's got a great walk and has taken pretty great photos so far. I also really like Fo and love her look, but she looks short. Allison's cute and I love her eyes but agree that she needs to give a face other than the deer-in-headlights look. Natalie is gorgeous and I can see her in Victoria's Secret--put her there to get a few years in before going more couture. Teyona, Thalia and London are boring me...

Celebrity Apprentice
I don't watch this show at all anymore, but I happened to catch one episode this week while at home--the episode where teams managed a hotel for 24 hours. I guess my only commentary was that it was funny-then-depressing to see Dennis Rodman slowly spiraling down the more and more he would drink. To see his team members comment on his drinking problem and then for him to defend himself by talking about his basketball career was really sad.

Hmm, I guess that's it because I don't watch Survivor, Bachelor or anything else anymore.

Chinese Herb Powder drink

This is what I'm now drinking 3x a day...yum...er...

it's been a long while

I'm still here and it's just been a very long 3+ months since I last blogged...probably one of the longest dry spells I've ever had. A combination of Twitter, Facebook, work and being busy overall has kept me away....but no more. I'm vowing to return to my blogging and get back to regular updates. With that out of the way, here's my life since my last post:

First off, it makes me sad seeing the very first picture shown at the top of my last post because it's this great photo of me, my mom and my poh poh (maternal grandmother) in L.A. to attend my gung gung's (maternal grandfather) funeral after he battled cancer for many years.  Well, I'm writing right now from the comfort of my parent's home in Las Vegas after another short weekend trip to L.A.....and this time it was for my Poh Poh's funeral.  Her death was much more sudden and unexpected, but you know what they say about when a spouse goes, it's oftentimes that the other spouse follows soon after.  In a way, I'm happy for her because she's now reunited with my grandfather and she was terribly depressed after his funeral.  Still, to lose 2 grandparents within 3 months is really tough.  My grandmother's death was even tougher to deal with...perhaps because I was able to have more conversations with her...perhaps it's because it's that female bonding thing.  I again gave a speech and over this past week, we've had to sort through her stuff.  One memorable moment was going through the things in her kitchen and finding this really old cheesy ceramic cat that I gave her when I was really young.  I knew she'd always kept it but seeing it just drove it home even more that she's no longer here.  These two deaths in recent months have made me more introspective and thinking about what I want to get out of life. (perhaps that's another reason for my blogging absence)  Never an easy thing...that said, I've really enjoyed how it has brought family together and allowed me more time to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, etc...I really appreciate all that time.

Hong Kong over the holidays was a blast and typical of most trips: lots of food, eating, shopping and seeing relatives.  This was Matt's second time visiting and it was like he'd visited many times before, even brave enough to go to a food stand by himself to order his favorite cheong fun or char siu bao.  Here are pictures I took of the trip as well as a set that's focused on all the food we ate (which always makes me salivate when I view this album!).

In other news...

• Two very close friends of mine are preggers!  Jigna is due in May and Phoebe is due in July.  It's interesting knowing that as we get invitations to fewer weddings, I'm going to start seeing a lot more close friends with kids.  A few of us co-hosted a baby shower for Jigna a couple weeks ago and it was a blast.
• Work has been insane---I did escape the major layoffs at Microsoft; and, in fact, I got a promotion and there's a lot more investment being put in my functional area now!  This area went from about 1.5 program managers in December to 7 plus a lead now!  It's a really exciting time in my area and it's really invigorated how I feel towards my job.  There's a lot of work and I expect some serious hours (especially over these next 2 months), but I'm so looking forward to it.
• In snow sports, I've actually had a chance to head up to the mountain 3 times this season: twice to go snowboarding and once to go snowshoeing.....all to Snoqualmie.  It cracks me up knowing that 5+ years ago, I shuddered at the idea of going to Snoqualmie and wanted to be "more hardcore" and heads out to Stevens or Crystal.  Now, I'm just happy going for the day and being able to be at home by 5pm.  Is that a sign of me being in my 30's?
• Matt turned 39 this year and we celebrated with a delicious "Truffle Feast" themed dinner at the Herbfarm---check out pictures of all the great food we had.
• Last year, I had won an auction to get private yoga lessons for me and 5 friends...so I finally redeemed it and converted the living room into a yoga studio for 3 Sundays in a row.  It was such an awesome experience and so great to experience with good friends.  We're looking at seeing if we can continue this experience and open it up to more friends in a larger venue.

Anyway, as mentioned, I'm in Vegas now with my parents, and Matt's parents just arrived last night...so we are all hanging out together for the first time since our wedding which is great.  We've got a full weekend, with our parents checking out Neil Sedaka at the Orleans Hotel tonight...and then tomorrow, walking tour of the strip and then Penn & Teller.  My mom and I just visited a Chinese herbalist as I think my hormones are all whacked and I want to get centered and balanced again, so I'm willing to try anything.  He gave me 2 big packets of mixed powder to take 3x a day with a crazy strict diet.  I can't have any of the following during this treatment:

• Coffee, tea, milk
• Oranges, orange juice, any fruit juice
• Soda, cold drinks, iced drinks---only room temp drinks allowed
• Nuts, Mangos
• Anything salty, sweet, spicy, fried or BBQ'd

Seeing that I'm in Vegas now, I'm going to start this when we return to Seattle on Sunday...should be interesting to see how it works!