Happy birthday to me! Part I

As the clock struck twelve, Julie didn't turn into a pumpkin ^_^ but she did get to enjoy a home-made ice cream cake from Eric and lots of happy birthday wishes from Carol!

A nice walk on the Golden Gate Bridge

As a New Year's resolution, Eric and Julie have decided to get healthy and exercise more for 2009. The first thing we did is to tackle the 1.7 miles (3.4 miles round trip) walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a sunny afternoon. Eric made sure Julie was bundled up while Julie made sure she remember to put batteries and memory card in her camera.

Although it was a picture perfect location and a picture perfect day, Julie and Eric didn't quite make it to the end of the bridge... next time, next time.

A great deal?

As we approach Eric's dissertation completion, we started to think about how to integrate the computer into our entertainment system without ruining the aesthetics of our living room. Julie spotted this very nice and compact office cabinet at Crate and Barrel.

However, if we purchase this desk = no new tv...

Being the resourceful gal she is, she started searching online for a similar cabinet.

The cabinet from Staples looks exactly like the one at Crate and Barrel but much much cheaper. With such a great deal, Julie and Eric decided to order 2 of them. Since it is an order over $100, they also got free next day delivery (what a steal!!).

When the cabinets arrived, Eric quickly got to work. Take piece A and screw it on to piece B, then turn the unit around and push in piece C....
1+ hour later...
Huston, we have a problem...

There seems to be a small issue with the drawer railings... noticed on the left side there is a thinner railing on top and thicker railing on the bottom and on the right side there is a thicker railing on top and thinner railing on the bottom (mistake by the manufacturer... not that Eric can't follow instructions). Unfortunately, the piece on the right and left are the earlier pieces of the puzzle... so Eric had to take the whole thing apart. 1 hour later, Eric drilled new holes to reposition the railings.

Not too bad, Eric and Julie thought, since the units were so cheap.

So, the next day, Eric set out to put together the second unit. 1+ hour later, as Eric lift out the last piece of the cabinet ( the desk top) from the box, he noticed a LARGE chip on the table top...

After calling Staples, they instructed Eric to take the cabinet apart, put it back in the box, and they will deliver another unit the next day... It took another hour to take the cabinet apart.

Third time is the charm right?

Close...

After the third cabinet was put together, Eric and Julie realized that the cabinet doors were warped... after sitting on the doors for a day, now the cabinet doors close and the Foristers have their new entertainment system ^_^


Lesson of the day: Eric is an expert in putting these cabinets together, so give him a call if you want to get one of these units... ^_^

a very foggy day

The last few days of 2008 was extremely foggy in San Francisco. Fog horns of the cargo ships going by the Bay Bridge were going off all night. It was exciting at first to see the Bay Bridge slowly disappearing in this dense fog but the fog horn soon got old and kept us awake for awhile.

As the sun slowly peaked out during the day, the dense fog quickly disappeared. This allowed us a nice view of the New Year's eve fire work from our window.

What is new year with out some nice hot chocholate right?!

Happy New Year!!!

The Flight of the Worker Bees

December was a busy month for Eric. Learning to be a manager is hard.

Other difficult situations include a coworker who went home with a fever and ended up having emergency surgery in the ER due to a perforated intestine. Hopefully he gets well soon. Another good example was the pregnant lady who worked until she started having contractions - and then wrote a three-page email summarizing everything she had worked on before she went to the hospital to deliver her baby. Mother and baby (and case team) are doing fine now.

[post by Eric; illustration by Julie]

Caramel, Caramel, Everywhere!

That's right! we had caramel for Christmas dinner ^_^ ... ha ha just kidding. This was the pre-Christmas dinner caramel covered marshmallow making party. Doesn't it look like it just rained caramel. This year even though the Orleans couldn't join us for Christmas, Julie and Eric had a lot of fun making these with Eric's family.

Merry Christmas!!!

Josie and Tim's Big Day

Congratulations Josie and Tim on finally tying the knot. It was the coolest inter-racial banquet we've ever attended. To be non-biased to their Chinese/Korean heritage, they chose a middle-eastern banquet hall. That way, no parents got the food they wanted and, as Eric's dad always says, nobody's happy unless their complaining (but Julie and Eric weren't complaining about the wonderful roast kebobs and numerous appetizers; even better than Zankou chicken!)

From 12.20.2008 Josie and Tim

Lot's of pic's by Julie (Eric's video was too big to post)