Tired
26/09/2008
While I was umming and awwing about when to head back to Singapore, the F1 whizzes right past me. Argh. I’m a little annoyed I forgot about it. I’m not a big fan, but it would’ve been fun to be there for the buzz. Anyway. I guess it’ll be next year then.
Am a little tired today. Tried to sleep early, but was woken up by a very inconsiderate SMS at 4am my time. About getting pecans and pistachios, from my Aunt who was visiting a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know about you, but 4am finds me neither amused nor willing to remember to buy f**king X pounds of nuts to bring back to Singapore. Last I heard, there isn’t a global nut shortage and I’m not about to buy something here and lug it 25,000 miles home simply because it’s cheaper. It’s not cheaper, because it doesn’t factor in my time and f**king inconvenience. Ditto for the shopping list she wrote on a little post-it stuck to the monitor by my dinner table. So please folks, don’t make your friends or family lug stuff for you across the world because it’s $X cheaper. It’s NOT. If you can find it where you are, don’t be effin’ inconsiderate.
4am and a house full of tissues does not make me any more willing to acquiesce to what I find ridiculous and unreasonable requests. Especially after, in my view, I’ve been more than hospitable.
I don’t know how I got from lodging provider to shopping and shipping assistant and immigrations knowledge base. What am I? The internet??
Its especially annoying because I have to wake up at about 6 in the morning to get ready to drop KF off at the Caltrain station. And I’m trying not to nap in the day so I’ve a full day to blog, read, knit, experiment with the plants, cook, clean and run around to do stuff that I enjoy doing before I have to go and pick KF right up again. It’s a good thing it’s Friday, at least we’ll be sleeping in tomorrow.
Regardless, even if I were sitting at home doing absolutely nothing. The request is highly predatory, in-effin-considerate, and out of line. It shows exactly how little regard the requestor has of me, or my time and trouble. And before you go oh-oh-ing with excuses, let me just reiterate, that the SMS and the post-it are more than just the “if-it’s-not-too-much-trouble” kind, it’s laden with expectation. And besides, if you really care about someone, why would you put them in the position where they might have to inconvenience themselves or potentially disappoint you?
Is it really so hard for people to be self-aware?
Anyway, enough about that. Back to doing something I enjoy.
the violence of summer
23/09/2008
Summer is officially over, and this is the second Autumn I’m spending here. Strangely, in SF, autumn (or Fall like they call it) is the hottest season. The hottest months in the year for my area is August, September and October, like an Indian Summer, if you will.
Taking full advantage of the healthy sun and mild weather, I decided to get a move on my Fall planting in the backyard.
I’ve been meaning to do something in the backyard for a while, but something or another would get in the way. It’d be too cold to go outside, or by the time I cleared the inside of the house I had to clear the weeds that overran in the garden, or I had visitors when the weather was great and I would rather be shopping or sight-seeing.
I have to plan a little more carefully for the winter this year, now that I’ve the time in the world and the backyard to talk about. I don’t want to do another massive backyard clearing again, and I really want it to look nice and colourful to outdo my neighbour Snoop. The neighbours on the other side, The Curlies, have a gardener who comes in almost once a week, so it’ll be hard to compete with that garden. The Curlies also have a super lush and green backyard, which probably means a lot of water. I’m not exactly the water-everyday type, so my plants are mostly the drought resistant type.
Anyway, the terraces in the backyard have been sorta cleared, and space earmarked for different plants. I’ve cleared a patch right in the middle for the bulbs – some Hyacinth, tulip and probably some flowering annual in between. Around the sides of that, I’ve planted the Lavender Hidcote seedlings intersperced with some native wildflower seeds. I’ve set aside a windy row for some red sunflowers later on (though those should’ve been planted in Spring, so I might plant the hyacinths there instead).
On the slopes, we’ll have some helleborus. Those fellas are supposed to be super drought and cold resistant, so it’ll be ok at the edge of the backyard where I can’t really reach them. Will be happy if they grow wild too, cos I hate that disgusting Nasturtium that creeps over from Snoop’s. I hate that smell it gives off when I chop it off too. I just hate that plant.
I’m also expecting a batch of Autumn Crocus, though I’m not exactly sure what to do with it yet. Perhaps I’ll divide them out and plant some indoors too. I’m thinking my bulb plot might be a little lonely, since I’ve only earmarked the tulips and hyacinths to be there. I’ll need some summer flowering plants there too or I could pop the dwarf lavender around the area I guess. Ergh, I don’t have enough seedlings then, I wanted the lavender for the window sill.
Once I settle the plants outside, I should be able to just leave them to do their thing, with regular watering, though, and concentrate on the plants indoors. Am going to try to container garden indoors for the winter, and will be starting with a succulent patch.
Altogether a pretty productive day.
Back from Radio Silence
21/09/2008
Quick Updates:
I got myself a nice birthday present – it’s gray and small and moves and now I’m mobile.
My uncle and aunt came back and left, having done their part to prop up the US economy.
I had to clean the house before they got here, and then clean it again after they left.
I caught nasty malware, rougeware and viruses, so KF had to clean up the PC.
I’ve been banned from installing stuff on the PC till further notice.
I’ve to backup my crap onto the NAS.
I’ve to change my passwords.
I’ve to reinstall windows.
I discovered a channel on TV that shows Korean dramas dubbed in Mandarin. The sucky thing is that it only shows a particular disc of Lovers in Prague over and over again. I hope next week they pop in the next disc.
I’ve to catch up on my shopping!
I’ve to catch up on my knitting.
that went well
07/09/2008
The inspectors visited, and seemed duly impressed (I think – but I won’t be sure until I hear the aftermath of the report they file with Zee Mom and Dad).
I tried to bribe them with a home cooked dinner, but it was a total bad-idea-v-w moment. HAHAHA. You know dinner is not going down well when they’re eating still crunchy broccoli with marinara sauce and wasabi mayonaise!
We drove them to the airport this morning so they can catch their connecting flight to Denver, CO. That went well, and they’re expected to return on Friday afternoon. So I’ve a few days to clean up, I suppose.
the inspectors are arriving
06/09/2008
My uncle and aunt are arriving at SFO in 3 hours. I thought they were staying at a hotel tonight but when I called home last night (mistake!!) I was asked to host them if possible.
Crud.
Fervent, frantic cleaning and clearing up to follow, along with questions about my life (or lack of gainful employment). Bracing myself.
window to the world
04/09/2008
After years of sitting on it (not literally), not being bothered, procrastinating and sometimes being downright cheap, we finally got ourselves a TV.
It’s not that we never had one, but the places we’ve lived in always had one. So we lived with them cathode ray tubes for a little longer than most others. At one time, we were watching TV on a 20″ PC monitor – that worked too.
Well a couple of weeks ago KF started itching for a new TV. I don’t know what brought it on specifically, it could be the old CRT in our room and the pictures slanting downwards to the right of the screen, or something like that. But anyway, something set him off on a whirlwind flat panel display frenzy, and what ensued was a roller coaster of emotions. On his part. (I leave most of the technology/electronic purchases* to him and I’ll not let it be said I’m a micro-manager. * except for cleaning appliances).
He started doing his research and like all other Sensors dived neck deep in research on the various kinds of flat panel displays – their advantages and disadvantages. Then once he made up his mind – LCD with LED backlighting – he started hunting around for deals and finally found one he was happy with. It was a Samsung 40″ display and it was available on Amazon.com through Crutchfield. I put it in my shopping cart for fun.
The next day, he decided to check it on Crutchfield directly, and found that for the same price as what was offered on Amazon, Crutchfield was bundling a Samsung motorised wallmount to go with the TV. Beautiful! He was giddy as a schoolgirl! Stoked, he bookmarked the page, and vowed to get it.
Of course, we procrastinated.
And a few days later, the offer disappeared, and he went into “damn-I-should-have-got-it” mode. All I heard for the next week and a half was how we lost out on a great offer. He went to crazy lengths to check other sites to see if he could mix-and-match a similar deal for the price. No luck. He checked back at Crutchfield repeatedly.
And then, the offer snuck back onto the Crutchfield site, because all I remember was a guilty confession the next morning. KF sat me down at breakfast, and said, “You ready?”. And I thought he’d bought me a car. Turns out he got the TV. He started giggling again till the next day when Crutchfield called to say, they’d made a mistake, they had the wallmount and shipped it, but it seems they can’t find the TV! Disappointed, he cancelled the order.
Anyway. There was a little more to-ing and fro-ing between him and Crutchfield, while they played “Do We Really Have This in Stock?”. Eventually, we established after a couple days that, they didn’t, but they were getting a new batch of the TVs and we were first on the list. We’ll get the wallmount first, and the TV should turn up in a few weeks.
Great!
Fast forward a week later, the wallmount arrives, we get a call from Crutchfield telling us the TVs have arrived.
Fast forward to today. The TV finally arrived at about 1.30pm.
We had lunch and went to work. Finally, at 5.30pm, we did it. Wallmount up. TV up. DVD player, hooked into it. Perfect.
KF doesn’t spend a whole lot, but when he does, I guess he enjoys it. He gleefully proclaimed that he had to sit through weeks of me ordering stuff online and signing for my packages, but all he had to do was make one order to blow all my other purchases out of the water.
Lucky for him I can’t buy a car online.
