Browse Month: February 2008

green noises

On Monday, we tried to reserve a zipcar but none were available next door so the next best choice was a Prius just around the corner. I thought it would be fun to try out a hybrid but it turned out to be a little awkward. It uses a little rectangular pseudo-key that inserts into a little slot and has a START button. Once you push the button, nothing happens…at least not for a few seconds when you finally hear something that sorta sounds like an engine. When you drive the car, it’s soooo quiet. But then it makes random sounds like a light honk, a squeak that sounds like a little mouse is in the trunk, and another strange creaking sound. The engine stays on for only a few seconds at a time and it’s a takes a little getting used to when you’re idling at a red light and the engine turns off. It’s hard not to think that the car has turned off or has broken down. I’d say that it’s really an ideal car for driving around in SF since it doesn’t have much power when you accelerate and feels kinda unstable at 40 mph.

Anyway, now I can say that I have had a true experience with “going green”. Not only are we participating in car sharing but we’re sharing a stinkin’ hybrid. All I need now is a composter in my kitchen and a solar-powered TV! I hate myself.

At home with House

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Weekends are so great. Sometimes the best ones are when you spend them at home in your PJs. It was raining outside so I stayed indoors for most of this one. I took care of some house chores and played with my computer while watching the entire Season 2 of House. I watched episodes here and there before but there’s something very satisfying about watching all the episodes in order with no commercials.

This evening, after two days of hanging out at home, we went to Michelle and Ryan’s for dinner and to watch the Oscars. I consider it like the Super Bowl of entertainment. I watch it because everyone else does even though I have no idea who is involved each year and who has a chance of winning. Ryan tried to trump Jes’ super-whitey Pot Roast dinner from last week with ribs and corned beef with cabbage, which were all very good. We also got to see Jack who was showing off some of his new tricks like opening his mouth really big instead of laughing out loud. Check out these other photos of Jack that evening.

Higher Maintenance

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On Thursday evening, I got my first grown up haircut. Although I was perfectly happy with my usual low-maintenance-Plain-Jane-Supercuts hair, I was itching to get something that I could actually style if I really wanted to. So, Susie referred me to a place down the street and made an appointment. I got one of the rookies but I thought she did rather well AND my cut was only $55 instead of $85. She cut off about 5 inches, cut some “seamless” layers for texture, and made some almost-bangs for me.  My hair looked better in the chair before I walked home in the rain so the “after” photo doesn’t really do it justice.

So far it’s been easy to manage and it’s long enough for me to tie back for work. It even passed the puke-avoidance test on Friday when I had it in a ponytail. Excellent. Now if only I can only get my hands on a blowdryer and learn how to use it.

Just like new…

My macbook got a little upgrade this past week. I was limited to only 60 gigs before, which made it difficult for me to work with so many photo files each week. I now have a 250-gig hard drive to play with and it’s so liberating. My admin also installed Leopard, which has some pretty neat features. I spent my rainy Saturday afternoon reinstalling my applications and getting it back to working order. I also got to clean up my files a bit, back-up some older files on the server, and spiffed it up with some new icons.

Oh yeah, and if you haven’t noticed, I changed my theme last weekend. I thought it was time for a new color scheme and some purty cherry blossoms. It’s almost spring, y’know.

I wish I was there.

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Here are some photos that my dad sent me from Thailand. It sounds like they’re having a great time so far and I SO wish I was there with them. They’ve been hanging out with family and friends and traveled to Ayutthaya and Chiang Rai already. My mom called and said that the weather has been muggy and warm but then again, when is it NOT like that over there.

Anyway, thanks for the photos and updates, Daddy! Only 2 more weeks left!!

So far so good…

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We’re at the tail end of Week 3 of our “We Have No Car” Experiment and it’s going ok so far. We’ve been using the zipcars next door and it’s pretty convenient. It did, however, start out with a little hiccup a couple weeks ago when we reserved a car on a Saturday morning (to get me to the airport). The reservation site said that the car was available but when we went down to get the car, it wasn’t there. When we called, the operator said “Uh, I guess it’s out for service.” Hm…it would have been good for them to tell us that ahead of time. Since there weren’t any other cars available, I ended up having to catch a cab for $35. Boo… Luckily, Jes was able to get one to pick me up the next day without a hitch.

We gave it another go this weekend and had a good time watching the clock. We reserved the car for 2 hours and headed out for some shopping. We “zipped” over to Best Buy, which took only about 20 minutes since we knew exactly what we needed to pick up. Next was Costco, which was just across the street from Best Buy and we managed to get everything we needed within about 30 mins. We even took some time to dilly dally around the possible purchase of a laptop. Next stop was Whole Foods where we dashed from aisle to aisle and were out of there with 25 minutes left. So, we went to Safeway on the way home to complete our shopping trip. As we got back into the car, I noticed that we had a whole 14 minutes left! So we went through the drive-thru at McDonald’s to pick up a little lunch. When we arrived back at the lot, it was 2:56 pm. Perfect.

Our third experience was this morning. It was President’s Day today and I had to work. Since there wasn’t going to be an employee shuttle today, I reserved a car for an hour and convinced Jes to drive me to work. He was not happy about the early morning wake-up on his day off. Anyway, it was just enough time to get me over the bridge, drop me off, head back over the bridge, and Jes even got to pick up an Egg McMuffin for breakfast.

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Out of the four cars parked in the alley, we’ve tried the Mini Cooper, the Matrix, and Yaris. So far, the Mini is my favorite but it costs $11/hr while the others cost $8.75/hr. So, taking price into consideration, my favorite so far is the Yaris. Of course we haven’t driven the Scion xB so we’ll see how that compares.

So far, the reservation process is really easy and convenient. You can also call them to extend your reservation if no one is waiting for the car back at home. It definitely makes you value your time and helps you shop more efficiently. It’ll either save us money because there’s less browsing but it can also cost us more if we get impulsive. We’ll just have to see…