Role redux?

I know I'm among the very few, but last night I caught the second episode of the new NBC TV series "Kidnapped". Yes, the storyline is nothing new. Yes, it supplanted "Law & Order" from its longtime slot. But the primary actors in the series are all very good: Jeremy Sisto, Timothy Hutton, Dana Delany and especially, Delroy Lindo.

Because I'm a big fan of trivia, especially in movies, I noticed a few references from previous films of the actors. Whether or not this is intentional, I don't know.
1. Timothy Hutton's character's first name is Conrad. Conrad was Hutton's character's name in his Oscar winning performance in "Ordinary People".
2. Last night, as Jeremy Sisto's character Knapp is walking along Manhattan chatting with an informant, there was a large sign in the street scene showing "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." The family bodyguard, Virgil, is Mykelti Williamson, who portrayed Bubba in "Forrest Gump".

Josh and Amy tell me that ABC's "Boston Legal" does this with constant references to William Shatner's previous TV roles (Kirk, T.J. Hooker) constantly.

To me, it's a clever device that's fun and keeps fans on their toes.

Tissue parade

I caught a cold Friday. Because of my allergies, I often confuse the start of a cold as a bad allergy day. On the drive home from Michael's (Bloom) gig in Half Moon Bay, I was still in denial even though I was grabbing tissues every 3 minutes. By the time I got into San Francisco, the wads had taken up most of the map pocket in my car. It wasn't until I woke up Saturday with sinus pressure and a sore throat and came to the conclusion this is now a cold.

On top of that, my left eyelid and forehead have welts which give the impression I lost a boxing bout. This happened very early Thursday morning, after a buzzing mosquito woke me up, probably looking for another area of my body to attack. I also have welts on my left wrist and right shoulder. The last time I swelled up like this from insect bites was in high school, only a lot worse. My right eye completely swelled shut and my lower lip looked like I had a collagen injection overdose.

Despite these maladies, I will be out the door (obviously not so bright-eyed and bushy tailed) Monday morning to go to work.

Dining table on hold

Today I called Michelle at Sphere Designs to check on the status of the dining table we ordered about 2 weeks ago. It was supposed to be in sometime or around September 15. She called back while I was returning from lunch.

The table was supposed to be have been shipped from the factory today, but wasn't included in the shipment. The next order won't be ready until next month. As a result of the error, she offered 2 options: a) deliver immediately a medium table (ours was large) to use temporarily until the large one comes in; or b) immediately credit $100 off the purchase.

Since we still have the kitchen table from our old place, I decided to wait until the large table comes in and accept the $100 credit. No big deal, we'll just keep the old table for a few weeks longer. Plus, what was originally $499 is now $399. Michelle offered compensation without any prompting on my part, which is how we all should be serviced.

Happy b-day, Pop

Today is Dad's 71st birthday. I usually call him to wish him a happy birthday. Because of his limited command of English, the conversation is no more than a few minutes. He then puts Mom on the phone for me to find out how things really are. My phone call today wasn't any different.

For the second time in about 3-4 years, both my parents forgot about today. No, I'm not worried that they're suffering memory loss. It's just that both of them like my brother Sherman don't like to make a big deal about their birthdays. I think it's a cultural thing, as Chinese value the importance of family over individuals. On the other hand, it can also inhibit a person to speak up for himself/herself.

Mom's birthday is in less than a month. I need to make sure I call. One year I forgot and Dad called the next day to remind me. It caused a slight tarnish in my otherwise scary recall abilities. Not to worry, it remains intact. I got yesterday notification of 2 possible matches of people I once knew previously. One was the right person, the other wasn't. I knew this because the high school and current residence matched what I remembered. The other wasn't as the birthday was different.

Just don't count on me as your star witness at a murder trial.

Treadmill tale

This morning I went to the gym in Foster City rather than at the USF Koret Center as I usually do. This was because I wanted to go into the office, cleanup and organize the piles of paperwork that have accumulated on my desk since taking on the Treasury and Cash Management duties last month.

Since our move to 8th Avenue, I've cut back on gym visits from 4 to 3 times a week. It's been good because the time I would have used at the gym has been spent browsing for our condo, plus my muscles haven't been as sore. I was probably overtraining and wasn't allowing enough rest time between workouts. As a result, I've been running faster and longer on the treadmill and have more strength on the rowing machine.

When things with the condo settle down, I plan to go back to 4 workout days, but the 4th visit away from the gym. I'm not sure what it will be, but I've read it's beneficial to cross train to prevent burnout. I'm not a spring chicken anymore, so I'll do whatever works for me to continue exercising.

Nine Eleven

Many of us will have his or her own memories of September 11, 2001. Up until then, it still was a significant date (Josh's and Amy's wedding anniversary, Lisa's former wedding anniversary, and my ex-roommate Humda's birthday).

Sherman, my parents and my grandparents live in lower Manhattan and did in 2001. My grandfather passed away last year. Lisa and Joe called me that morning to make sure my family was OK. I had just talked to Cindy in Ohio to find out if she heard anything. She would an hour later and everyone in my family was OK.

Later that week, I got a call from Mindy, who would become my manager at my current job. While Mindy is no longer here, my 5 year anniversary is October 1. This will be my first job where I have worked 5 continuous years.

Tiki Arthur-Bloom

This afternoon, Lisa and Michael hosted a brunch from their home in Half Moon Bay. Although they moved back to the Bay Area in late January, this was the first time all we got to see Casa de Arthur/Bloom.

We also got to meet their newest addition to the household, a gray tiger striped cutie named Tiki. She first appeared during their garage sale and never strayed far from the house. Michael and Lisa took her in a few weeks later and is now a permanent resident. She's about 12 weeks old with very soft fur and is very social. When Lisa brought her up to meet the other guests, she laid on her bed and calmly listened to the numerous conversations in the room.

Our kitties, Che and Jawa don't handle strangers well. Both of them have tried to stay put in a room of strangers, but their "fraidy-cat" instincts have them bolting to our bedroom within a few minutes.

Anniversary

Today is my 23rd anniversary of my move from Columbus, OH to San Francisco, CA. I actually arrived in San Francisco about a week earlier, but I consider my anniversary on the first day I started my job at The Sharper Image. This anniversary is significant because I now have lived in San Francisco half my life.

In 1983, I was staying with my cousin Wilgee and his then girlfriend (now wife) Amanda in San Bruno. About 3 weeks later, I found my first apartment in the Outer Sunset district. The rent was only $350/month, and I got a quick lesson in parking etiquette when I got a nasty note on my windshield. This was because my car partially blocked a neighbor's driveway. I got visitors non-stop for almost 2 years. It started with Cindy and Connie, Stan and his friend Ray, Mary, Sherman, and numerous other relatives.

For the first few years, my mom always hoped I would consider moving back to Ohio. Despite tight finances in the late 80's until mid-1993, I stayed put in San Francisco. The last time Mom ever asked me about coming home was immediately after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I was actually on a plane that day to visit my family. She thought maybe the earthquake would scare me home. It did exactly the opposite. I remained glued to the TV at Cindy's house until 2 am, wanting to know if everyone I knew was OK. It became clear where I considered home.

I love my life here. I don't want to live anywhere else. I'm far from wealthy but I make a decent living in a job I really like. I share my life with a geeky car enthusiast and 2 adorable kitties. My dearest friend Lisa moved back to the area at the beginning of this year. I am a new homeowner in a wonderful neighborhood in the best city in the world. I have it about as good as it gets.

Sony Vaio VGN SZ240

After having wireless access for less than 2 weeks, I've gotten spoiled and want more. I just ordered and customized a new Sony Vaio notebook tonight from SonyStyle.com. With leftover money from escrow, I decided it was time to fork out the greenbacks. Here's why.

1. My current Vaio is over 5 years old.
With the wireless card, access to the internet is still slow.

2. I lose connectivity at least 3-4 times a session.
Especially when I blog. It's been extremely annoying to see the connection window pop up throughout the session.

3. Customization enables to include only the features I want.
Features I don't want or need are piled on the notebooks I saw online and in stores. For the Vaio model I want, including only the features I want keeps the cost down (at least $500). This is exactly what I did when I bought my BMW325i, saving almost $3K in asking only for what I want.

Building the notebook will go into production on or around August 28. I should have the new notebook after the Labor Day holiday.

I know, I know, I said we'd buy a new dining table and office chairs. This is still our plan. But I couldn't wait anymore. I've been at the SonyStyle.com website everyday for the past week. I went to CompUSA in San Bruno yesterday after work to see the Vaio models.

I originally wanted the FJ series because of the fancy colors (raspberry, bright blue, green). But the FJ series doesn't enable me to customize with the Intel Duo Core Processor and Windows XP Professional. Then I was interested in the FE series because of the cost. But when I saw one of them at CompUSA, I thought it was big and ugly. The unit looked like an unsuccessful cross-breed between a Dell and Macbook. This is when I decided to customize.

So, finally, in the next few weeks, I'll have a new, much faster computer.

Fancy schmancy

About 3 weeks ago, I made a trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a few basics for our new bathroom. This would be our first night spent in our new home and want to make sure our first showers would be furnished with shiny new supplies.
One of them was a shower caddy.

I spent at least 15 minutes looking at shower caddies. I bought the largest, prettiest caddy I could find with special slots that hold shampoo bottles upside down. I got it home and tried to put it up. Couldn't get one of the two suction cups to stick to the tile. I e-mailed the manufacturer, explained my plight, and 2 days later, got a nice e-mail saying they would send out replacement suction cups.

It took nearly 2 weeks to get the suction cups because they sent them via UPS. I ended up re-routing online the package to be sent to my work address. I got the package the next day. When I got home, I pulled out the first of 3 sets of replacement suction cups. The first one, like the previous one, wouldn’t stick to the tile (arggggh!)

Then I managed to find a way to get the suction cups to stick. I pushed in the suction cups against the tile, sans shower caddy. Ah ha! I got the cheapest but critical pieces to stay stuck to the tile! Ego now enormously inflated, I attached the caddy to the suction cups. I now have the stainless steel monstrosity firmly in place against the tile wall.

Finally! Or so I thought. I pulled one of the shampoo bottles from the end of the tub and tried to put it on the lower shelf. I couldn’t get the bottle to stand upright on the shelf. I then moved the bottle to the top shelf, but it couldn’t stand it upright there either because it hit the shower head (not as depicted in photo).

The caddy is now in a plastic bag in the hallway. I plan to exchange it for another caddy tomorrow at the Bed, Bath, and Beyond near work. This time, I’ll only consider caddies with a lot of clearance space for tall shampoo bottles.

image courtesy of Bed, Bath and Beyond

Internet access

A big thanks to Josh for coming over yesterday to do above and beyond the call of duty. He not only got me connectivity for my dormant laptop, he got me wireless access with the router and network card he bought as housewarming presents. It's great to have gadget freaks/geeks as friends.

Bosch dishwasher and wireless connectivity. Life is sweet!

Summer solstice

As I was leaving work this evening, my co-worker Rich mentioned that tomorrow is the longest day of the year. Go outside and enjoy. There hasn’t been much fog in San Francisco this week so we should get to see a decent sunset.

Even though I love fog, the part that bums me out after tomorrow night is that daylight diminishes continuously until December 21. I remember on a trip to Banff, Alberta in late June 1997 that the sun didn’t set until 11 p.m. Incredible.

If only we were in Alaska right now. The sun won’t set until midnight.

J.T. Snow update

While watching tonight’s Giants/Angels game, the trivia question of the evening asked was “Who won Gold Gloves as both a Giant and an Angel?” For me, this was an extremely easy question (and listed on my blog last night). It was nice to hear Giants announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow mention J.T. was one of their favorites as well.

Duane went on to say that J.T. got put on “assignment” today. What this means is the Red Sox have 10 days to trade or release him. I hope a team will pick him up. But I can’t think of any team at the moment that needs a role player with J.T.’s specific skills.

Former Giants Kirk Rueter and Marquis Grissom were also designated for assignment before making the painful decision to retire. Snow, Rueter and Grissom were all well-liked and consummate team players. But like those longtime employees we don’t want to see laid off, this is a business, and sadly, we have to see them go.

There has been discussion that J.T. may return to the Giants, but it’s not likely. New utility players Mark Sweeney and Jose Vizcaino are more versatile than J.T., as both play more than one position and have done well off the bench this season. Travis Ishikawa has also gotten some playing time and appears to be groomed for 1st base full time should Lance Niekro’s nagging injuries continue.

Whatever happens, good luck to J.T. I’ll be following your status for the next few weeks.

I'm Gumby, dammit!

I haven’t blogged in awhile and it wasn’t because I was ill or on vacation. I’ve been operating from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. non-stop this week. Monday – laundry night. Tuesday and Wednesday - gym night. Tonight – condo meeting. Tomorrow – haircut and color.

I know I could have made this less stressful by skipping a gym night, or not insisting on cooking a dish last night for our potluck lunch today. But when the CFO said my Pad Thai tastes great, then I'll cook all the time. This only has meaning for people like me who enjoy cooking. I only wish I had more time to do it.

Then tonight’s condo meeting went on about an hour too long. The problem is that we had 2 parties on conference call. Neither had the agenda Pam sent to our condo group website, and there was a tendency to ramble. It looks like the closing date will be mid-July. Our move out date is July 31. We’re cutting it close, but I’m fairly certain we’ll make it.

Work continues to keep me busy and I prefer it that way, but it can be too much. For the past 3 years, I haven’t been able to take more than a week’s vacation. If I take any time off, my work will sit there because I really don’t have a backup person. The longer I’m gone, the more work I have to do when I get back. My vacation hours will stop accruing if I keep going at this pace. I try to prevent this by taking off a Friday here and there.

My next Friday off is the end of this month. Can't wait.

photo courtesy of presentationresources.net

Oh. I see it now.

Take it from Josh to tell me why he likes my phone so much. He commented on yesterday’s entry about my inability to transfer pictures from my phone using Bluetooth. Well, I found it a few minutes ago. It was very simple.

From the “My Stuff” menu, I go to: Pictures>Cameraphone>Send>Bluetooth. I didn’t bother to go there. I attribute this oversight to the same fatigue I’ve been suffering for the past week. Tell me anyone is going to read an 87-page manual before turning on the phone and not want to play with it.

I also read the battery could have reduced capacity the first few weeks the phone is in operation. Let’s wait and see.

I should shutup and go to bed now. Before other brain functions begin to suffer needlessly.

Bitch and moan

I told myself this evening I’d do a blog entry, only to find I’ve bitched and moaned with nothing written worthwhile. It’s been the same at work. Fatigue kills creativity.

Kevin called today and confirmed what I already figured out, 5 of the units in our building are now under contract. It’s good news, but all I want to know is (and have been for over a month), when the hell do we get to move?

The Slanted Screen

Today we headed to the Roxie Film Center on 16th and Valencia in the Inner Mission district to catch the documentary, “The Slanted Screen”. Written, produced and directed by Jeff Adachi (current SF Public Defender), it addresses and examines the stereotypes of Asian-American males in film.

I only found out about the film on Friday at work. I was in the lunchroom grabbing a yogurt out of the fridge and decided to browse through the Datebook (entertainment) section of the San Francisco Chronicle. When I checked the screen times, only evening times were listed. I didn’t want to be in the Inner Mission during evening hours, so I checked SFGate.com to see if they listed daytime hours. No luck there either.

I really wanted to see this film. Especially since I read that veteran actors Mako and James Shigeta were interviewed for the documentary. So I went to Google, entered “Slanted Screen” and found the website. I already prepared myself to wait for the DVD release. I e-mailed the address listed at the website to let them know to contact me once the DVD became available.

Within 2 minutes of my e-mail, I got a response back. It was from the writer and director himself, Jeff Adachi. WOW. I was talking to a celebrity. He said there were 5 screen times on Saturday and Sunday, which I replied back and asked when they were because we’d make time to go. I also wished him luck on his Q&A Friday night at the Roxie. Jeff replied back again very quickly, and said thanks for the support.

As a film lover, it was great to see so many movie clips during the documentary. Actors such as Sandra Oh, Ming-Na, Tzi Ma, Daniel Dae Kim, and Lucy Liu wouldn’t have the roles they have now if Nancy Kwan, Bruce Lee, Mako and James Shigeta didn’t pave the way for them.

image courtesy of “The Slanted Screen”

Frito bandito

Yesterday I went to Costco to pickup a bag of Tostitos and guacamole for today's Finance department potluck at work. I didn't want to take the bag home and so I left it on the kitchen counter by the toaster and microwave ovens. I kept thinking I should leave the bag in my cubicle. I rationalized that because it wasn't an open bag left on the center table, it wouldn't be considered food for everyone else.

As an "asset protection professional", I should have known better. This morning the bag was gone. I checked the cabinets, hoping someone would have put it away for safekeeping. It only cost me $4 for the chips, but the hassle to drive out to the market and buy another bag is what I was hoping to avoid. Luckily, Cynthia, the Accounts Payable manager, was going to Safeway to buy lettuce and tomatoes and offered to pick up chips for me.

If I find out who you are, I want my $4.

Gently down the stream

Tonight was gym night. Visits to the gym at first were exclusively the treadmill and elliptical. So that I could get some variety in my workouts, I tried out other equipment such as the stationary bicycle and stairmaster. Neither I liked very much.

I tried rowing about 4 months ago and find I really like it. It’s not stressful on the joints as running on the treadmill can be, and I get much more of an overall workout rather than just my lower body. I now find myself not working out so much on the elliptical. This helps avoid exercise burnout and helps me vary my workout routines.

Rowing gave me an excuse to watch on TV (at the gym) the Giants clobber the Astros 14-3. Barry Bonds is still stuck on career home run 713. He’ll break Babe Ruth’s record soon enough, but it’s not pretty. It’s painful to watch him run, especially with Steve Finley beside him in the outfield. Bonds and Finley are about the same age, but such a contrast in their physical conditioning.

Finley already has 7 triples this season. A triple requires someone to run full speed on the bases. Steve does it with ease. Home runs (except inside-the-park) only require a jog and to touch all bases. If you look at photos of Bonds and Finley 15 years ago, Finley looks the same. Bonds, considerably heavier.

Barry’s godfather Willie Mays has to be muttering, “Oh, Barry. Say it ain’t the steroids…”

image courtesy of topendsports.com

Microclimates

It is such a relief to find that we’re finally rid of the rain. Our regular spring/summer weather pattern has returned. Because the temperatures can vary 10 to 20 degrees, I am always clicking the thermometer in my car to check the outside temperature.

When I left the office today, it was 76°F. Driving north on Highway 101 to San Francisco International Airport, it went up to 82°F. I continue north to Highway 280, and this is where I always get the biggest temperature drop. At the Westborough exit in South San Francisco, it drops to 69°F. I drive another 7 miles or so and reach the 19th Avenue/Golden Gate Bridge exit.

It is now 63°F and the fog has come in full force. The temperature dropped a total of 19 degrees on a commute that is a bit over 22 miles. My sunglasses (always on retainers) and air conditioning are now off. The car windows are open. Another reason why I’m still a San Francisco resident. I love fog.

photo courtesy of travelblog.org