Time away from work. A full week of eating, sleeping and playing. Time to possibly blog or at least read my Chinese astrology books (written in traditional Mandarin so I take triple the amount of time I'd take to read any book in Mandarin since I have to not only grasp the different characters, but also the specialized words that sometimes apply strictly to this field of study).

We are in Cancun for vacation with his 'rents. They generously invited us along to their annual vacation at a timeshare property and I am grateful for this respite from work. It certainly does not hurt that the resort has all food and alcohol provided (including room service!), complimentary tours to the nearby Mayan ruins, man-made inlets where kayaking and snorkeling can be enjoyed, jacuzzi in each bedroom, complimentary hydrotherapy treatment, no children under 18, the option to enjoy the food+facilities at any of the other nearby resorts, and an extensive menu of spa and beauty/salon services.

Of course, my body had to pick Day Two of the vacation to start the monthly bleeding. So I'll just have to make do by stuffing my face silly with food. 
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kidding! (In case my mummy reads this)
I won't just stuff myself with food. I'll at least take the complimentary twice-a-week pilates and salsa classes. =D

I am a horrible child. I forgot to call my dad on Fathers' Day to greet him and my godfather. The Liang-side family were all gathered at my parents' place for a Fathers' Day celebration and instead of timing my call to catch everyone at the same time, I completely spaced. My only consolation is that I mailed a card to my dad well in-advance so I am hoping he got that in time.

Fortunately we didn't space out this morning with Wen's dad. On the way to the airport to drop off Wen for his work trip to the Philippines (yes! Philippines!! And yes! Without me!!!), we called his dad to greet him.

Both our fathers (and in fact, both sets of parents) have different personalities but both share one thing in common. They have a deep sense of responsibility to the family and a strong work ethic. Here is a toast to all the Fathers in the world who have made personal sacrifices to be the Provider. And especially to the Fathers in the world who are such a shining example of success (as a son, husband and father) that their daugthers will forever compare, subconsciously or not,  their husbands to.

Work has been overwhelming and it does not seem like I will be getting any additional support in the near term. Our sales department is basically a one-point-five-man team and there was word as early as when I was first hired that they would increase the staff strength. They have added one more person to the overall sales team but they also have plenty of new products that should keep that sales person busy.
 
I have been putting in my best and trying to balance my delegation/supervision skills. Since I started work, I've frequently clocked 10-hour days and worked on weekends. I barely have time to eat my lunch let alone time to polish my skills by taking relevant courses offered at work. There is also hardly any time to go out and network with customers that provide the invaluable word-of-mouth advertising; a significant source of leads for my products.

Hopefully the industry conference that I will be attending in about two weeks will be a good break to gather new insights and build support networks..

I was on my way to a dental appointment last Thursday and as I walked towards Sutter from the Powell Bart station, I found the entire block of Powell from Ellis to O'Farrell completely cordoned off. There were police cars, fire trucks and plenty of gaping passersby.

Apparently some one was trying to commit suicide by jumping off the H&M building. After staring around for a while, I finally figured out a short cut through the O'Farrell garage so I didn't have to walk around the entire block (my knee was definitely in no shape for extra walking). As I returned to Powell street after crossing through the garage, I took out my camera and turned around to snap a few shots.

Back in the days when the Tan family cousins used to meet every Sunday at my grandparents place, I remember playing imaginary games where I'd be selling homes (basically floor plans I drew), another cousin would be selling food and someone else would be selling something or other. We'd each have our little corner in my parents' bedroom (we were living with our grandparents) selling our stuff.

Yesterday afternoon, Wen decided to change the Plan A room layout after much discussion and I we finally compromised on Plan B. I agreed to have the sofa placed in such a manner that you would not be able to see visitors coming in the front door but it would at least allow us to place the TV on the side of the window that had poor views. Not the best fengshui or practical approach (not being able to see people entering) in my opinion, but the best option considering our floor plan.

Wen decided yesterday, after moving around some of the unopened furniture boxes, that we could not have the dinner table immediately behind the sofa because the room was not long enough. He insisted we needed a Plan C; to move the dinner table against the window which would leave a wide squar-ish gap to the right of the living room near the hallway to the bedrooms.

I was clearly against the idea but he did not get the hint (and I usually give pretty loud hints). I felt that the new 'square' area would be useless space. More importantly, I felt we were wasting time arguing changing plans for the floor plan when we had not even built one of the furniture pieces (from Overstock) that would help determine the best layout. We finally got cracking on building the console.

Everrrywhere.

My left knee is still very stiff so even simple things like helping to set up the furniture we just bought becomes a complicated process. And the multiple trips we have to make to fill up the car with our barang barang? All Wen. Poor thing.

Our official move-in day is Monday May 12th. Wen has the week off because of a major conference he was involved with last week. I have the day off because I've been working an average of 10-12 hours per day for a long time now. We've hired movers but they will be helping us with the bulky stuff. We're trying to move the random things that we will need almost immediately after we move in.

I had to go to the office this morning for a sales event.

Time to pack, clean, and unpack.

Although I have a reasonable eye for color and design, and even studied art for a year back in secondary school, I am far from knowledgeable when it comes to artwork. So, instead of racking our brains (and budget) for a nice piece of art for the living room, we decided to paint the walls for accent and eventually add a mirror to the main wall.

I called two painters and eventually settled for Nick Mejia. He comes from three generations of professional painters and emphasized that he does both big and small jobs (and we are certainly a small job). Nick spent quite a bit of time just helping us to figure out what colors and what walls we should paint. We ended up painting a little more than we intended and were almost tempted to paint a few more walls just because he did such a great job.


Need a professional painter in SF? Here are his contact details:
Nick Mehia
124 N. Railroad Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
tel: (650) 342-1728
cell: (415) 971-8763

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We have been trying to keep our purchase a low-key event but at this point, most, if not all of our friends (and coworkers) know so there is really no point in avoiding the topic. We are officially debt-ridden homeowners.

The entire process was a painful one and I have to confess that Wen was the one taking charge of everything. All the PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes & Insurance) details, the transfer of cable and electricity, etc. He managed all that on top of a full-time job and a full load of classes. No wonder he seems to have lost weight while I am still hovering at ... *cough*cannot-reveal-my-weight*cough*.

Since we have been living in rented apartments all these years in SF, we haven't really bothered to get nice furniture. For example, the futon we have in the living room was from my college days in 1999. And the TV, discarded at Wen's office a few years ago, has been dying for a while now.

All that means we need to set aside some money for furniture. One of our favorite window browser-shopping place to-date has been Overstock but even with a very cautious finger, we are still racking up a decent charge.

(read more...)

As the realization sinks in of our new home owner status, I wonder if perhaps we are just a little masochistic about being poor.

Ahhhh.... the days of being able to go out for a sushi dinner without too much worries about the cost were just too short-lived.