Trina's page of Blogginess

To be fair, I should make the disclaimer that I took this picture in Pleasanton when I was picking up my MINI from the dealership. But, it was 94 degrees in San Francisco yesterday, which I believe set a new record. It's slightly "cooler" today - high 80s. Still for those of us who are weather wimps and don't have air conditioning (pretty much everyone in SF) that's just too hot!

Labels: san francisco

This is a sign that was on the store front of "Under One Roof" on Castro Street today

I'm so proud and happy to live in San Francisco and in CA today!

Calif. Supreme Court rejects gay marriage ban.

We're one step closer....

Update:
We just got back from having dinner in the Castro. As we left the restaurant, we saw that the city had just blocked off Castro Street for an impromptu celebration party! This was the very early stages of it (around 7:45pm). I expect it'll be going on for a long while. I love this town. :)

Labels: ...and the woman who loves them, san francisco

This has been a pretty strange week.
All the plans that I originally had have been thrown out the window.

First, there was the leak in the pipes in the kitchen. Besides the immediate and major issues this has brought about (the plumber can't come out to fix it until sometime next week, so no hot water upstairs, plus there's the gaping hole in my kitchen ceiling downstairs), I also had to cancel two appointments (one personal, one job-related) that I had for that day.

It's been nearly impossible for me to reschedule either one of them, because I don't know for certain which days I need to keep clear for the plumber to return, and for the contractor to patch up the ceiling.

I knew that today was clear, so I kept my appointment to bring my MINI into the Pleasanton dealership. I somehow managed to get a large (and growing) crack in my windshield, and my passenger side window isn't rolling down/up. I brought my car in this morning, knowing that I'd have to leave it overnight for the new windshield to cure. I got a call from my service advisor telling me that they're really backed up, and that they won't be able to have my car ready for me until Friday. (and don't get me started on how much these repairs are going to cost!) Thankfully, they arranged for a courtesy rental car for me, (a Jetta) and I won't have to pay anything for the extra day.

However, this means that I had to rearrange my schedule for the next two days as well. I was really hoping to schedule one of my missed appointments for Friday, but won't be able to do that now.

In the meantime, my parents met me in Pleasanton (about 45 minutes away) to join me for lunch (aren't they great?). We then drove separate cars to San Francisco. They had intended to pick up their VISAs for their trip to China that they dropped off last week. They both thought that they were supposed to be ready today, but as it turns out, they both somehow got the day wrong, and they won't be ready until tomorrow. That means that they have to drive back to San Francisco tomorrow (about an hour drive from their house) and that today's trek was all for not. Poor Mom and Dad.

The good news was that they joined me in picking up my 7 year-old niece from school, and bring her to hip hop class with me. That was great fun, and put us all in better spirits after the somewhat disappointing day.

When I brought my niece back home, Dick called me from Seattle telling me that his flight back home tonight was canceled, and that he'd have to spend another night up there, and catch another flight home tomorrow.

Again, none of these things are very bad (okay, the kitchen pipe thing is pretty bad) but they've all made this a really odd week of mishaps and have made it impossible for me to plan anything for at least a week.

I don't like not being able to plan.
I'm a planner.
boo.

Labels: A day in the life, just trina

My cousin is on the road for work this week, so I pitched in to help
by taking one of his daughters to her hip hop class today.

I'm tired

It's been a long morning. Oh, wait, it's the middle of the afternoon now! yikes.

Let's see, where did I leave off?

Oh, right - our contractor sent his guy to buy some tarp to block out the space. He did, he came back, he taped up the plastic barrier in the kitchen. Then, he started to tear down the ceiling.

By this time, the plumber came, and they discovered that the pipes underneath the upstairs condo's kitchen (the one that leaked onto our downstairs kitchen) were very old galvanized steel pipes that had indeed sprung a leak (a small hole) (bad). When he went down to the basement, he discovered that some of the pipes down there had been replaced with newer copper pipes (good). He suggested that rather than trying to replace the galvanized pipes between the floors, he could run new copper pipes outside the house to connect the copper pipes in the upstairs kitchen and laundry room to the newer copper pipes in the basement. This would enable us to disconnect the old galvanized pipes altogether.

We plan to remodel our kitchen(s) someday in the next few years, so it doesn't seem to make sense to tear through the floors/ceilings/beams now until we're ready to do something more permanent in the near future.

Unfortunately, the plumber is booked this week, and he won't be able to do the work until sometime next week.

This means that we won't have any hot water upstairs, and that downstairs looks like a minor disaster with pieces of the kitchen temporarily in every room. (not to mention that I have a hole in the ceiling of my kitchen that is roughly 6' x 6'.)

The beams in the ceiling above the downstairs kitchen are still quite wet, so we need to give them several days to dry out thoroughly. The contractor did a decent job of cleaning up the kitchen once he was done with the ceiling, but I spent another hour cleaning it further so that it would be in good enough shape to use over the next few days. I also took the plastic down so that the room will get more circulation, and will hopefully dry out faster.

Luckily, we do have two hot water heaters, so we will still have hot water (and a full bathroom) downstairs.

So, that's the scoop. It's a bit of a mess, but I do realize that it could have been much worse.

Labels: His 'n Her Condos

Oy. This was not the way I was planning to start my day.

I woke up around 6:30 this morning to the sound of water running. In my sleepy state, I had assumed that my neighbor was taking a shower and that I'd simply never heard it before.

But something told me that I'd better wake up...

And when I did, I realized that the sound was coming from downstairs in our house.

I walked into the kitchen, and that's when I saw it...

Water gushing from the ceiling onto the floor.

I ran upstairs, got a couple of large tubs to catch the water, and some towels to mop up the water on the floor.

I'm not sure how long this had been going on, but there was a lot of water on the floor, and the pergo floor that we have in that part of the kitchen had already buckled up where the water was.

Dick was supposed to wake up at 7:00 this morning, to leave at 7:15 to catch a flight out of SFO. I woke him up a little early, hoping he could help me out a bit before he had to leave.

We realized that the water was warm/hot, so we turned off the hot water heater for the upstairs unit and also drained the hot water heater with a hose. This stopped the water flow.

We're assuming that a pipe burst between the floors. It seems as if the hot water pipes go along the floorboard (upstairs) in that part of the house, and down the side walls to the basement. (where there was also a reasonable amount of water.)

I put in a call to our contractor who worked on our bathroom remodel. We figured he'd have all the resources to help us out, and we have a nice relationship with him and his crew. He came over 10 minutes after I called (bless him) to assess the situation. He was just as baffled as we were as to what had happened. (Ah, the joys of old houses...)

He just sent one of his guys to the hardware store to get some drop clothes and tape to block off the area, then they're going to cut through the ceiling to get a better idea of what's going on. He also put a call into his plumber who should be here in the next hour or two.

So, that's the situation so far. What a wacky way to start the day. Marcel is happy because I was supposed to bring him into the vet for a check-up this morning. I had to cancel that, as well as a work meeting that I had for the afternoon.

Silver lining:
(because you always have to think about those...)

It certainly could have been worse. The ceiling and the floor will have to be repaired, but nothing else was underneath the leak. No electronics, furniture, etc., that could have been ruined by the water. Since we live in two condos, we also have the luxury of having two hot water heaters. If we need to keep the hot water off for a while in the upstairs unit, I still have hot water if I need it downstairs. Likewise, I have an extra kitchen upstairs complete with a refrigerator, stove, microwave, etc., If we're out of the downstairs kitchen for a few days, we've got the backup kitchen. :)

So, that's the report from His 'n Her Condos for now. (and it's still only 8:30am)
I'll report back later in the day...

Labels: A day in the life, His 'n Her Condos

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there!

A very special "Happy Mother's Day" to my Mom - one of the most amazing people I've ever known. Her capacity to love unconditionally, to give selflessly, her positive spirit, and her abundant amount of energy have always set a great example for me, and anyone who knows her.

I couldn't imagine having a better Mom.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

I love you!


Barb with her girls at Disneyland, 1972, Disneyland, 2007, and with her family at ILM in 2007

Labels: family

One of my clients has an e-commerce store hosted by Yahoo's merchant services. We've had it up for a couple of years now, and I believe that they have had great success with it so far.

This week, we switched to their upgraded software which enabled us to have a few new options as far as design goes. I'm pretty happy with that, because the design options are fairly limited when you use their tools. (we use their online tools so that my clients can make as many changes/additions to their site as possible without having to go through me.)

Anyhow, here's the new look:

Unveiled's e-commerce store

They are a great store in Walnut Creek. If you're getting married, throwing a baby shower, etc., they have all kinds of stuff that you might want or need.

Labels: web design

Ayumi and Paul

Last night, we spent a wonderfully fun evening with my friend, Ayumi, and her boyfriend, Paul.

Ayumi's birthday was on April 24th, and mine was on April 28th. This was a belated birthday celebration of sorts. I realize that I have several friends who are Tauruses (born between April 20th and May 20th). We must all be drawn to each other.

I turned 38 this year, and Ayumi turned 30. At some point in the evening, Dick mentioned that he was born in the Tiger (in Chinese Astrology). Paul said that he was, too.

That's when Dick started to put all the pieces together: People who are born under the same Chinese Astrological sign are separated by increments of 12 years. (there are 12 signs/animals in total.) We had made the assumption that Paul was not yet in his mid-30s yet, so that meant that he must be..... 24 years younger than Dick! (gulp!)

Ayumi and Paul acknowledged that Dick was correct, with Ayumi stating that she was dating "a younger man". He is 8 years younger than her.

Dick said, "Oh, well, Trina is 8 years younger than me!"

...and then we remembered that Ayumi is 8 years younger than me...

So, that means that each of us were born 8 years apart.

The coincidence boggles the mind.

BTW: both Ayumi and Paul are musicians and singer/song writers. We intended for them to come over afterwards to sing some jazz with Dick. However, we got sidetracked with Rock Band! OMG - so much fun. And, by the way, as someone who is not a musician, and who does not sing at all, it was SO cool to play with 3 other people who could all sing really well!

Labels: friends, funny ha-ha