31st Anniversary

Lunch at Fairmont Hotel Fountain Restaurant. Anita purchased a discount from Travelzoo.com for $29 - it's good for 2 starters and 2 entries.
The reservation was for 12:30, we left the house at 12:00 and got there at 12:20. As all parking at the hotel are valet based, we left the car at underground garage valet stop and went to the restaurant. We were seated right away - there weren't many patrons at the time. I ordered Spiced Prawns and Tarragon Roasted Organic Chicken Breast while Anita had Dungeness Crab Cake and Grilled Eggplant & Vegetable Involuting, as always, the starters were excellent although the entries were not that bad :-)
We finished the meal in less than 30 minutes, the bill was $51 plus $4.71 tax in which tax was our only obligation, we tipped $10 for the service. A parking voucher was delivered to us along with the bill. Although valet parking was included in the discount deal, I still gave a $5 tip for it.

2011 Movie experience

You Again: High school classmates reunite (1/12/2011, UA838 SFO->NRT->TPE)

Life as we know it: Strangers care for infant of deceased mutual friends (1/12/2011, UA838 SFO->NRT->TPE)

Unstoppable: Runaway train (2/9/2011, UA838 TPE->NRT->SFO)

Secretariat: About the triple crown horse in 1972 (2/9/2011, UA838 TPE->NRT->SFO)

Win Win: A lawyer's high school wrestle team coaching experience with a wrestler, his mother, ada grandfather(4/5/2011, SantanaRow CineArts)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams: A documentary about the Chauvet Cave in southern France in 3D (5/13/2011, Santana Row CineArts)

Midnight in Paris: A dissatisfied Hollywood screenwriter vacationing in Paris travels back in time to the 1920s and met many literary icons and artists (6/3/2011 - Camera 7 in Pruneyard Campbell).

Empire of Silver: A documentary of the late 19th and early 20th centtry banking (silver based) family of China (6/10/2011 - AMC Mercado)

X-Men First Class: A prequel of X-Men film series, depicting evolution of mutant talent/power (6/17/2011, Camera 7 Pruneyard Campbell)

Super-8: A group 0f youngsters shooting films with super-8 camcorder accidentally uncovered government cover-up of alien. (6/20/2011, Santana Row CineArts).

Beginner: A man reflecting on the life and death of his father while trying to forge a new romantic relationship with a woman (7/1/2011 SantanaRow CineArts)

Horrible Boss: Three guys from different companies helping each other avenging their bosses' horrible treatments (7/8/2011 Santana Row CineArts).

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2: Finale of the Harry Potter adventure (7/25/2011, Santana Row CineArts)

Foot loose: A remake of the 1984 film, story about a young dancer fight to revoke a small town's ban on public dancing (11/16/2011 Bluelight Cupertino)

The Artist: A silent movie about a silent movie star struggling to transform to accept/make movies with sound (12/27/2011 Santana Row CineArts)

plhome2 and plhome3 pass phrase

xxxxac

Sink plumbing and faucet installation

12/26/2010:
The IKEA faucet took about 2 hours to install, major challenge was to figure what exactly the graphs in the installation manual meant - there were almost no descriptions in it. Test run went well, may have to adjust the water flow somewhat later. Since we decided to remove the disposal, using existing plumbing or reinstall a new one became an issue, each option has its own challenge - components are not all available if I want to modify and make use of existing plumbing, and
12/30/2010:
After pondering how to tackle plumbing issues for a couple days, I found the best solution - use existing plumbing with some old and a couple of new parts, it turned out to be OK.

Induction cooktop installation

12/24/2010:
Went and got Granite sealer, cleaner, polisher, and epoxy from Lowes. Since the thickness of the countertop is much narrower that the metal mounting brackets, I had to be creative to make it work - made make-shift supports for the cooktop - glue (with the epoxy) two small wood pieces to the side of drawer cabinets and below the countertop to make more contact area for the cooktop support brackets. Clamps were used to assure a strong bond.

12/25/2010:
Secured the wood pieces glued with long screws to the cabinets. Add several screw holes to the mounting metal brackets so that they can be attached to the wood pieces added, now I have enough surface to glue the metal mounting brackets to the countertop cutout.
Clean the countertop with DuPont Granite and Marble Cleaner, applied DuPont Granite and Marble Sealer - waited 30 minutes before wiping off the excess. DuPont Granite and Marble Polisher made the countertop slippery but not really more shining than before.

Ran into a little problem with the electrical connection; The junction box was placed too close to the cooktop, and the cooktop flexible conduit was not really flexible and thus can't reach the junction box properly. It took me a long while to figure out but finally bent the conduit more so that it can reach the junction from a different angle (bottom instead of the right hand side).

12/26/2010:
Connect the cooktop electrical wires (red, black, and green) to the junction box, switch on the breaker and boiled some hot water - voila, it worked. It turned out the control is fairly easy to use, just need some getting used to - cleaning the ceramic top maybe more challenging.

Kitchen Countertop, sink, etc installation - 12/23/2010

12/23/2010:


The crew (5 in 2 trucks) arrived at 8:15 in the morning, after covering the floor with paper and cloths, they moved the larger piece (which houses the sink) into the kitchen carefully. Cements are used to secure the granite to the cabinets below. The window and back splash pieces were carefullt measured and made right outside of the garage, ot tookk a while to get use to the 8-inch back splash; the window piece was made so beautiful that it blended the window and the countertop nicely. The sink was first fitted to sit on top of the cabinet (with some trimming of the cabinet top) then glued and secured underneath the countertop.

After finishing the sink piece, the crew left to get the cooktop piece and would return the afternoon but didn't say when, we later found out (John from UMG called) that the cooktop piece was broken so they had to remake it. The crew returned at about 4:00 with the cooktop piece, it was about 1/3 of the sink piece and thus easier to handle. Jose (the head crew) measured carefully (with my input) where and how much to cutout for the cooktop, it took only 5 minutes to make the cut, the rest was gluing the back splash and caulking, they were very very focused on doing a good job, their attitude and workmanship absolutely surpass that of you know who. The cooktop was tested and it fitted well. Because of the thickness of the countertop was only 3/4" but the metal supports were 1", I had to find a way to make the supports fit well. Glue and additional wood pieces were needed.

The kitchen looks nice with the new countertop even though we still have the old cabinets.

They even hauled away our old sink (after getting OK from their boss) after we inquired the possiblity, the old sink was really heavy for me to handle, now I don't have to worry about how to get rid off it.


Need to get glue/epoxy to install the induction cooktop, also need to get Granite sealer as well cleaner to make the countertop last.

Fall 2010 Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley

Dates: Saturday, October 23, 2010

Your assigned time: 8am – 5pm or until the project is completed

House Address: 587 Water Witch Way, Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park, San Jose, CA, 95117

The homeowner is 92 years old and has lived in San Jose since she was born. She has 2 children, one son and one daughter. Her son lives in San Jose, but her daughter does not; both are in their 70s. The house is about 33 years old and she moved here when her mobile home and the park were new. She was married twice. Her first husband, who was in the Air Force, passed away when he was 37 years old; her second husband passed away in his 60’s. The only source of income for this homeowner is Social Security and a small pension from her second husband. She has had a heart attack before, she also fell and broke her shoulder, and has severe arthritis in her back which causes pain in her arms and hands. She is in need of assistance in the kitchen, bathroom and some exterior repairs as well.

Parking: Parking is limited in the park. It is recommended that you park in the Century Theater parking lot on Olsen behind the Winchester Mystery House and walk into the park. This home is all the way back and to the left at the last street.

Clothing: Old clothes (may get dirt or paint on them). You will receive a t-shirt at the site to wear and take home. For the safety of our homeowners and volunteers, everyone on site must wear the Rebuilding Day t-shirt.

Recommended items to bring:

· Sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, and sensible, closed-toe shoes

· Water bottle (Water coolers will be available at every site for refills.)

· Tools that are helpful but not necessary:

Hammers Brooms Hand tools and saws

Small ladders Work and rubber gloves Etc…

From 8:00 - 1:30