Dining Set!

November 6, 2021 10:06 am

Erin gave me a table and chairs she was replacing back when I was in grad school. We’ve been using that table ever since. I bought replacement chairs in 2015 because the chairs I received from Erin had essentially fallen apart by that point. But now it’s time for something new!

A new dining set (large enough to eat dinner at while putting food on the table; and to play games at without running out of space) has been on our list for a years and we finally worked our way down to it. We put an order in with Canadel through a local distributor (Roney’s Furniture in San Leandro) at the beginning of June.

In the past we bought our nightstands and dresser from Roney’s and were really happy with the non-pushy workers, their knowledge of the products, and quality of the furniture. So it was our first stop looking for a dining set.

I made a reconnaissance trip by myself to get the preliminary information about how ordering a dining set works from them and what options are available. They directed me to the Canadel website which has all the customization options with a visualizer showing what your finished product would look like. Super handy for visualization-challenged people like us. We played around with that and narrowed down our ideas.

Then we made another trip to Roney’s to finalize decisions and put our order in. Roney’s happens to be just around the corner from a Ghirardelli Factory Outlet, so when we reached our decision-making breaking point (stains, fabrics, fabric colors, chair styles, table-edge styles, table-leg styles, etc.) we went and got ice cream to reset our energy levels.

We made our decisions, placed the order, and were given an estimate of 2 months due to everyone’s logistics being all messed up. And then we waited.

And waited.

2 months came and went and Jess called for an update. No information except that the manufacturer hasn’t been able to make it yet.

2 more months came and went and Jess called for another update. Manufacturer still hadn’t made them yet, they’ve been waiting on a part. But they hoped to ship it by the end of October.

The end of October was busy for us with Jess’ parents visiting, Heather’s birthday, and Halloween. So Nov 2 Jess called again to ask if there was an update and the worker at Roney’s told her it was coming off the truck that very moment. They would inspect it first, but would we like to schedule the delivery for the next day? Yes!

Not shown are the two counter stools. Same color and fabric.

The table has a leaf which stores underneath and nice metal-geared tracks on which the halves slide apart.

The worker at Roney’s steered us toward these chairs. Actually he steered us to a different design first as the most comfortable dining chair ever. And it was incredibly comfortable, but it had these wing-tip points at the corners which would almost certainly get dug into drywall (especially in our not palatial space) or hurt when run into by children.

So we asked what was similar, but without that pointiness and he suggested these. They are still super comfortable. So much more comfortable than the chairs we had. Spending extended periods of time playing games should be quite pleasant now.

We didn’t think it was going to be an issue when we ordered in June, but we’re very excited to have our new furniture in time for Thanksgiving. And it should last us for every Thanksgiving we have from here on out.

Halloween 2021

9:07 am

Just some quick pictures from Halloween.

I made another Halloween trifle. Brownies, orange-colored vanilla cream, more brownies, Cool Whip, and decoratives on top (Reese’s Pieces, gummy worms, candy corn, and candy eyes).

Heather was a dragon and Corinne was a bat.

Both girls did actually help clean out the pumpkins this year for the jack-o-lanterns. Heather’s design is cat eyes wearing a mask. Corinne designed the goofy face in the middle. I designed the cat face. (I executed all the designs.)

And here’s the house decked out:

Ghosties hanging from fishing line, faux-fire lights in the sconces, flicker bulbs strung up in the pergola, and this year’s new entry: the inflatable dragon (hiding in the back next to the garage side door).

Hakone Japanese Gardens

October 30, 2021 9:18 am

Jess’ parents drove out and visited us from the 19th to the 24th. On Friday I took the day off of work and we drove down to Saratoga to visit the Hakone Japanese Gardens while the girls were in school. We thought it’d be nice to actually meander around rather than be dragged about with constant complaints of it being boring. We were right.

Jess and I had watched a Great Course on Japanese history and we both agreed we liked the aesthetics of the gardens and then found there are a handful of such gardens in the Bay Area (which has a pretty long history of Japanese immigration).

It was cloudy (it actually rained every day her parents were here, the only rain we’ve gotten in 10 months) so my pictures are rather muted, so nothing spectacular. But I still enjoyed the trip.

We sat in a waiting pavilion for a few minutes which had a large window (that’s one of the pictures in the gallery). I went outside to try and get a picture of Jess with her parents sitting inside through the bamboo, but the dynamic range was too much for my camera and I couldn’t keep it still well enough for an HDR shot, so this is what I have. Now just imagine all the bamboo is rich green instead of blown-out white.

I had intended to set up a group picture of all of us before they left, but it kept slipping my mind until it was too late.

The girls enjoyed their visit. They warmed up to “Papa” and “Bubbie” much more readily than we had expected. Corinne was super happy to have more playmates around and Heather happily showed them projects she’s working on and read them things from books.

Before their visit we had asked Heather if she’d be comfortable with them visiting during her birthday. She was a little upset at that idea and asked that we keep her birthday to just us. So they scheduled their trip to move on to their next stop at the beginning of this week.

Their next stop was in Utah and they intended to drive highway 50, “The loneliest road in America.” But the storm system made a mess of the Sierra Nevada passes. One was closed due to flooding and the others were covered in snow and ice. Traffic wasn’t moving at all on them when they were leaving and there were chain requirements in effect. So instead they drove south through Las Vegas.

And a Kitten Named Phoenix

October 9, 2021 4:42 pm

Two weeks after we picked up London from the shelter Jess brought home another kitten, Phoenix, that she couldn’t live without.

She’s a total scaredy cat. She hid behind the dryer in the laundry room for most of her first 48 hours at home. Then Jess used cardboard to block it off and forced her out into the rest of the house. It took several days, but she eventually became more comfortable in the house. She’s still a scaredy cat though. She’ll let Jess and me pet her if she’s in the right mood, otherwise she’ll bolt if anyone gets close. After the girls go to bed, and the house calms down a bit, she’ll come sit next to one of us.

She and London had a difficult time at first. London was not interested in having a new cat in her territory. There was a lot of hissing and we’ve been keeping them separated to try and make the bulk of the house into neutral territory. And we seem to be making progress. London has switched to being more playful and less aggressive. Phoenix still mostly runs away though.

Here’s each of them today after chasing each other around for a while:

A Kitten Named London

September 18, 2021 4:56 pm

A couple weekends ago we went to the county animal shelter and looked at the cats and kittens they had that were looking for homes. We picked out a tuxedo kitten (~3 months old) and Jess brought her home on Wednesday after she was spayed.

The girls have been ecstatic. Heather went into research mode and checked out books from the library all about cat behavior, how to play with them, how to care for them, and how to train them.

Her name in the shelter was “London” and we decided we better keep it to avoid an endless argument about what her name should be.

She came from the shelter litter-trained (yay!), with most of her vaccinations, and micro-chipped. But she seems to have picked up an illness before coming home because she’s been sneezy, a little snotty, and a little lethargic. But we had her checked out on Friday and she seems to be doing a little better today. The vet prescribed some antibiotics and she gave my leg a good scratch while we were trying to give her the first dose (one of her hind legs got loose), but we’re figuring out the trick to getting it done without blood.

She likes me (or at least my body heat) and will happily snuggle up on my lap or against my legs while she naps. She’ll happily nap next to Jess too. She’s still getting used to the girls and the girls are still getting used to her. They’re a little too excitable and fast moving to make her fully comfortable.

Here she is sleeping next to me this morning, before her flower collar arrived: