Better to see you with, my dear...

Ah, I figured out the reason for the fuzziness of some of the photos posted here, so I reposted the ones from the recent condo renovation and the Japanese wedding pictures from last year.

Out with the old, in with the new...

Things which have broken down and/or have needed to be fixed or replaced:

Item	Date	Comments
Robomower battery	Late winter 2007	Even after replacing the battery the previous year, this one also needed to be replaced. We decided to get the quick charge device so that we could charge the battery inside. Even though I was following the instructions previously to leave the battery charging all winter long, the instructions on the quick charger say to charge once a month during the winter.
Lawn	Summer 2007	I had pretty much been struggling with having a nice lawn ever since we got our house. While for the most part, I was able to have the broadleaf weeds under control, the crabgrass and other grass weeds were a pain. Then, this past winter, even broadleaf weeeds were taking over, especially the backyard. However, I found a great product which kills everything except bermuda grass and it works wonders. The lawn looks great. Unfortunately with work being busy, I have not had time to do anything with the lawn in the fall and the weeds have come back, but I am not as concerned anymore about having a nice lawn. When I do have time, I try to give my lawn a regular feeding of corn gluten and molasses and avoid using chemicals when not necessary.
AC	Late summer 2007	Second time within new house that we've needed repairs on our AC
Blood pressure machine	October 2007	I had been using one which my mom left at our house but I was wondering about its accuracy, so we got a Panasonic one at Sharper Image. It's a large one not intended for taking on trips and is pretty much completely automated.
Garage door opener	October 2007	Actually our garage door opener has not been working properly for years! But it finally actually broke and would not work anymore, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. We feel amazed now that we can open the garage door with a touch of a button!
External drive	November 2007	Replaced old one with Buffalo 4TB TeraStation Pro NAS.  Unfortunately, DVArchive program seems to have problems with NAS, so I'll need to come up with another solution.
Mobile phone	December 2007	Old one did not break but needed upgrade. Settled on the Sony Ericsson w580i.
Domains managed at Namecheap.com	December 2007	Was getting tired of risk of undelivered mail. Customer service would not respond to my inquiries. Mail forwarding service on GoDaddy.com seems too limiting. I ended up going with PlusRegister.com
Whirlpool Refrigerator (starter for the compressor)	December 2007
Hitachi TV	December 2007	Coincidentally enough, the plan was to replace the Hitachi TV with the 42" Panasonic plasma TV currently in the family room, and to get a new HDTV in the family room. Originally, I was going to get a rear projection TV because those are almost 1/2 the price of plasma/LCD. However, I was told this purchase would have to last 10 years. After a stop at the nearby electronics store, although the picture from the rear projection TV was good, it was no comparison with the plasma/LCD. Checking for employee prices, I found I could save 33% off the price of a big plasma TV. Our alcove for the entertainment center is only 52" wide, but coincidentally enough, I had started to think of what can be done with a rear-projection TV which fits exactly in the alcove... And for the ability to slide it out so it can be rotated. Then the idea was that the rear-projection TVs these days are not so deep that it could potentially sit outside of the alcove... but this idea is better with a plasma TV and an articulating arm mount. We ended up with a 58" plasma. I now have to get the mount ordered and find an installer. (Update: I ordered the arm but they changed the design a little bit. I was able to keep the wall piece in place (it fit both old and new mount) but then switched out everything else. The new mount is holding the new TV and the old mount was placed in the bedroom. The installer I used was the same guy who installed my original mount: Eddie Galan. He did a very thorough job and I would not hesitate to use him again. His website is http://www.dallassurround.com
Internet service provider	December 2007	Questionable whether Comcast broke but we have now gone with Verizon FIOS. Cannot argue with 15Mb download / 2Mb upload. This ought to help with VoIP and streaming videos. As a consequence, we are also getting FIOS TV which replaces both Comcast and Dish (for TV Japan). On occasion, we would get reception problems on digital cable where certain channels would basically not be viewable. No fun discovering months later that something you recorded cannot be watched and the show is no longer available.  Not a great start to Verizon FIOS though. On the day following installation, we were having sporadic interruptions in the Internet service. I called the support phone number, ended up getting disconnected a few times and rerouted to the wrong place due to their automated voice system. Finally got through to the right number but was on hold for about 45 minutes. (The guy said they were just busier than usual.) After trying some things, service went down when we were on the phone and he suggested sending a technician out. He thinks it has to do with the box outside of our house. Actually, since then, service has been ok.
Linksys wireless router	December 2007	The good news with Verizon is that they also provided a wireless router/modem. I was planning on replacing my Linksys wireless router because of limitations to its software. For example, it had no way of setting a fixed IP address based on MAC address... So even though my ReplayTVs had fixed addresses, it would assign a new IP address every 6-7 days and then eventually fix itself... but this caused problems with ReplayTVs having consistent IP addresses for reference and I would often have to reboot a ReplayTV in order to see a TV show on it from another ReplayTV. Also, the Linksys router had some limitations to the number of forwarding ports it provided. Both of these limitations are addressed with the Verizon router, so I don't need to go out and buy one myself. Yay. However, it took quite a while to configure the new router and all the devices.
Copper phone line	December 2007	When I ordered Verizon FIOS, I also ordered that the phone line should be connected to their fiber optical cable, but somehow the guy who installed the Internet and TV did not have that on his work order. Anyway, after a few hours (literally) on hold with Verizon, I finally got the work order for the new phone line... There are those of you who know the problems I've had with my home phone system... For conference calls taken from home, I've tried everything from Skype to running up a $300 monthly bill on my mobile phone. From initial indications, it looks like the new phone line solves all that.
Seagate hard drive	December 2007	While trying to set up an interim solution for our media archive (for all the recorded shows we have not watched yet), I was setting up one of the 400GB Seagate hard drives when it made an awful noise. Then suddenly, it wouldn't work anymore. Fortunately Seagate has a 5-year warranty for their hard drives and this one was only one and a half years old. They have strict rules about shipping the hard drives back, though, and unfortunately, I still had one of their boxes from a recent purchase. I've received word that they are shipping the replacement. Yay! (Update: They sent a 500GB drive to replace my 400GB drive. Yay! But they sent a SATA drive instead of a PATA drive. Boo! Oh well, I was planning on getting some SATA drive adapters anyway.)

More condo renovation

I don't know if this is an annual thing but I visited my mom in Florida again to do some more work on her condo. Unfortunately, due to work, I had conference calls practically every day. In fact, I wanted to take two weeks off but ended up scheduling to work two half-days. However, I ended up working much more than that and during this period, I attended 15 conference calls. Not much of a vacation!

Bathroom

Before and after: Lights in bathroom were only from overhead fluorescent lights which stopped working. No more light problems with the new fixture which should also make it easier for my mom to change light bulbs when needed. However, since we are using compact fluorescent light bulbs, they are supposed to last many years.


Since the picture of the lights do not do it justice, here is a product picture (which I still don't think do the glass shades justice):



Before and after: The shower curtain did not do the best job of keeping the water out. The shower door provides a nice seal.


Kitchen:

Before and after: The counter was crowded because the microwave took up valuable counter space. By making a microwave shelf, more counter space is available.


Before and after: The microwave was a "perfect" fit, even though I had to install the shelf twice. I had not properly considered the height of the microwave when installing the shelf initially.

Other accomplishments on this trip:

• Due to my previous handy work, the new front door was a little difficult to open and close. I sanded the frame a bit and had to reprime/paint, but now the door opens much easier than previously. Also, although not due to me, the kitchen door was also difficult to open and close, so I also sanded, reprimed/painted the kitchen door. The inside of the kitchen door was also looking a little shabby, so I sanded and repainted the interior of the door.
  
• To make the dining/living room look less cluttered, moved the computer desk and large coffee table to the guest room. Not only does it make the dining/living room look more spacious, there’s less furniture which can get cluttered. Even if this area gets cluttered, with fewer furniture pieces left, it should be easy to tidy up in case of guests. In case the guest room gets too cluttered, the guest room door can be shut.
• To allow my mom to work on the computer in the guest bedroom, put a TV in there so she can watch TV while working on the computer. I brought a small TV which we had in Texas and put it in her guest room. Since it would be most convenient if she can watch anything from ReplayTV, I had to connect the cable from the ReplayTV unit in the living room into the guest bedroom. Unfortunately, almost all the underfloor wiring I did when we installed the laminate flooring is not working. I had to put up a new coax cable. Along the ceiling, the cable is still expored, so I will need to cover it with crown molding on the next trip.
  
• Put together the kitchen cart so my mom can have more storage space in the kitchen. Originally I wanted my mom to get a dishwasher for the empty spot underneath the counter, but she really needs storage space… I happened to have a kitchen cart from the container store which is an exact fit, so I brought it to Florida and put it together. Not only does she get extra more storage but the kitchen cart has a cutting board type top so she can use it for extra counter space, too, when needed.
• Put together the bathroom cart so my mom can have more storage space in the bathroom. In her vanity, the previous owner had put up shelves where the vanity chair should go and covered the shelves with an ugly folding door. The problems with it were (1) the folding door is ugly and (2) with deep shelves like that, you have a difficult time accessing anything in the shelves, so it quickly became an unusable storage area. By building a cart somewhat similar to the kitchen cart (but lower), she can pull out the cart to access the contents or actually simply pull out the drawers.
• Turned the bathroom switch/outlet combination upside down. With the switch/outlet combination, the outlet was on the bottom. I had previously given her a Sentina motion-detector nightlight. The nice thing about it is that you can set it up as a nightlight which is on when it detects motion. This was set up in the bathroom and would work well when she walks into the bathroom in the middle of the night. (Due to the way the bathroom is set up, it is shared with the guest room and the light switch is actually near the guest room bedroom, not her bedroom.) However, the motion detector part of the nightlight was pointing down since it could not point up due to the light switch… and would not show as much light in the room. By turning the switch upside down, I can now have the nightlight facing up, which actually makes it unnecessary to turn on the bathroom light if you don’t need so much light to do what you need to do in the bathroom… if you know what I mean.
• Put in new spikes in her golf shoes. She often waits too long before replacing spikes which make it a much more difficult job taking them out. She now has two more pairs of golf shoes she can use.
• Sanded a 2-step folding ladder/stool. Unfortunately this had seen better days and was covered with paint, caulk, etc. Sanded it down, so my mom can apply a new coat of stain if she wants or just leave it with the sanded look.

New "home office":

Things for future trips:

• When I decided on a clear glass shower door, part of my reasoning for that was because there was no light above the bath area and I thought it would help to get as much light into the bathing area as possible especially since the previous overhead flourescent lights seemed to be on their last leg. However, I am now rethinking whether the clear glass was the best option. I'll have to see if we change the way this looks. Yes, it looks spectacular when clean, but...
  
• I need to put up crown molding in the bathroom and living room to cover up some of the handy work.
• I still need to work on the threshold at the front door.
• I should put up some weatherstrip on the front door and kitchen door.
  

Land of our ancestors

The title is just from a Mastercard commercial where the son takes his father on a trip to Norway because his father always wanted to see the land of their ancestors. While visiting Norway, they discover that their ancestors were really from Sweden, so they then book a trip to Sweden.

Anyway, it seemed like visiting the Nordics something we were both interested in. I thought that Norway would be good because of the scenery. We had no idea how spectacular it would really be until we got there. Our overall trip was approximately 7 days in Norway, a couple of days in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a full day in Zurich, Switzerland. While in Norway, we rented a car and made quite a trip, driving to Bergen, and then up to Geiranger, and finally passing through Lillehammer before returning to Oslo.

This was an extremely expensive trip as the weak dollar makes almost any overseas trip expensive. In fact, based on an article from CNN earlier this year, of the top 10 most expensive cities in the world, Oslo was #1, Copehagen was #3, and Zurich was #8. In fact, 8 of the top 10 were European cities with Tokyo and Osaka completing the top 10 (in positions #5 and #6 respectively).

Unfortunately, while we were in Norway, we saw rain the first 5 of 7 days we were there... but it could have been worse. It could have rained 7 out of 7 days... And the days it did rain, it did not necessarily rain all the time. In fact, when the sun finally broke through, we had heard comments like it has been about a month since the sun was seen, so it seems like the weather was even more rainy earlier in the summer.

Besides the spectacular scenery, the thing which surprised me the most was the food. I did not necessarily have high expectations but the food, in particular seafood, was fantastic.

Kyoko does a much better job of organizing pictures and she even documented what each picture is. Here is a link to her Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyokorin

I may update this entry later as I have not said nearly enough about our trip.