Top 10 things we learned this year:
1) When they estimate 3 and a half weeks to remodel your bathroom, double the estimate; then double it again, then double once more for good measure.
2) And double the cost
3) Cat endocrinologists are just as expensive as people endocrinologists (and just as important)
4) A new 24” Apple iMac isn’t nirvana, but its pretty damn close
5) When you really NEED your friends, and your friends’ friends and your friends’ friends’ friends, they will be there for you.
6) 40 Rocks!
7) Always get the unlimited ride pass on the NYC subway system
8) We can’t explain our dog’s behavior
9) When they say hot tubs cost “pennies a day”, they mean it – many, many pennies…
10) Everything happens for a reason, even if you can’t understand why at the time.
Happy Holidays!
As always, we start with warm wishes out to our friends near and far. We hope you enjoy a great holiday season and find much happiness in 2007. For those who don’t have the stomach to wade through an entire run down on our year in review, please know that life in San Francisco continues to be good and we feel very fortunate. Also do check out our 2006 photo pages!
Life on the hill in 2006
How can a year that seemed so full go by so fast? It’s been busy, exciting, occasionally frustrating, but mostly fun. These year-in-review letters may seem to be a study in vanity, but writing and posting them always makes the entire experience seem tangible. Whether or not anyone actually reads this, writing it is nearly cathartic! So, if you choose to make like a Lee Nail™ and PRESS ON, thank you. We’re happy that you want to know a little more.
We’ve been in our little house in the Corona Heights neighborhood for about 6-1/2 years now. Each year we seem to take on one big wish list project to improve the place. This year we picked our most challenging to date: a bathroom. The exiting bathroom next to the bedrooms would have looked old & tired in your average trailer park. None of the fixtures matched, the tub and shower doors were in rough shape and ventilation system in this windowless room was ineffective.
The space is small, just 5’x7’, but we decided to keep the footprint of the room. The room was gutted to the studs and our “4 week project” began on April 1st. Jonathan Waller tiled the floor with a rich, reddish slate with radiant heat underneath to keep our toes warm. The tub was replaced with a shower pan and a tall frameless glass enclosure. The walls were tiled floor to ceiling in a glossy travertine tile with a green glass tile stripe all around. Shower-heads on both sides are fantastic!
We replaced the old vanity with a blasted glass counter over a beautiful cabinet. A solid V-shaped carved travertine bowl sits atop the glass and really looks and works great in that small space. Finally, two mismatched wall mounted medicine cabinets were replaced by a whole wall mirror with a recessed frameless mirrored medicine cabinet set into it. The old jumbled and cramped space opened up into a clean and functional bath that we really love.
Of course, aside from the new space, all renovations also result in a laundry list of lessons learned. Daniel and I learned a lot! Most of all, hire a project coordinator who you love and trust. Mark Pellegrino was that treasure for us. He took care of us every step of the way and made sure that the fun of updating the house never became SO frustrating that we soured on the project itself. God bless you Mark (we’re still married)!
The Boys
Yes, we refer to our two cats and the dog as “The Boys”. It has been an, ahem, “exciting” year in the household, but gratefully everything has turned out really well. In February, our 5 year old cat was diagnosed with kidney disease caused by blockages between his kidneys and bladder. Our pets are all so young, we hadn’t even really considered what impact their failing heath might have. It all happened very suddenly and was devastating. George was referred over to an amazing pet hospital in the city and we explored all of his options. Ultimately, we chose a pharmaceutical therapy over surgery. It was a rough few weeks, but George is our fighter and damn, he earned his reputation! He made an amazing comeback and we have appreciated every single day with him.
Benny? What can we say, he’s our rock. Our big, fat rock. He’s just as fun and lazy as he has ever been.
Jocko. After this year, who hasn’t heard of Jocko? He’s been busy. On the first day of the bathroom renovation, a contractor set off the fire alarm and then opened the front door. Jocko, already anxious about the demolition going on downstairs, freaked out and bolted out the door. The guys had to choose between chasing the dog down the road and meeting the fire trucks that were already on their way to the house. After a nerve wracking few hours, Mark Pellegrino and Daniel found him at a nearby dog park hanging with a few other pooch friends.
If that weren’t just enough drama… While the two of us were off on a vacation to Mexico, Jocko was at the park when a tree branch broke free and fell near him. We’ll never know exactly what happened after that, but suffice it to say he bolted in fear and disappeared. For almost 2 weeks, we had no idea where he was. It was a horrible experience, but the silver lining was the amazing outpouring of support from the entire community. Within days, our call for help went out to hundreds if not thousands of people who were keeping their eyes out for our wayward boy. Newspaper ads were published, posters hung and a dozen or so of our friends joined us on an all day canvass of the entire City. We had two possible sightings, but nothing concrete. Finally, we received a call from San Francisco Animal Care & Control. They picked up Jocko on some City owned land in Diamond Heights where he had apparently been hunkered down for the entire time! This lot is only about a mile from the house and in an area that we searched multiple times. He was in great shape and was even still wearing his collar and red raincoat. He did have an encounter with a skunk at some point and it took a long time to rid him of that memento of his trip. So he’s back no worse for the wear and we have this story to tell. We only wish we could find out what happened during that time. Most of all we’re grateful that everything turned out so well. To everyone who supported us in the search and encouraged us with kind words, Thank you!
Work
Neither of us have big changes to report. Dave is still West Coast Director for Metaformers, a consulting firm supporting primarily businesses that run PeopleSoft software. With a couple of big projects in Los Angeles, Dave is traveling more these days. Daniel is still with Oracle, but was promoted to Group Manager this year and greatly expanded the scope of his responsibilities. Anyone who has picked up a newspaper this year knows that there is a lot going on at Oracle these days and Daniel’s workload has increased accordingly.
Why do we work if not to make time to break from work? We had a few big trips this year plus a whole lot of fun getaways.
We started with a week of skiing in Telluride, Colorado for their 5th annual Gay Ski Week. It is a very small event compared to more established places like Aspen or Whistler, but the mountain is amazing and we met some fantastic people. Our friend John came with us and we all rented a ski-in/ski-out condo up in the Mountain Village. Getting a full week away up in the mountains is a fantastic way to really disconnect from life and the air up there, while thin, is great! Telluride is more remote than the other Colorado resorts, down near Durango and Four Corners, so it never feels crowded. It also helps that the airport there is the most frightening little airstrip in the country. It is the highest commercial airport in the US and the runway ends. Literally, it just ends, right off the end of a cliff.
Daniel’s grandmother in France had a bout with cancer and a broken hip recently. She’s recovering from both, but Daniel and his sister Agnes made a trip over to Reims to spend time with her and the rest of their family in May.
We make it a point to be back in Wisconsin for the 4th of July to spend time with Dave’s family. This year, Dave went out a few days early to set his folks up with a houseful of 21st century gadgetry. We worked out a new Plasma TV, DVD player, Personal Computer and a wireless broadband network. Once all the work was done, Daniel flew out and we got out for some fun in Wisconsin summer weather. We spent a night in Appleton and hooked up with a group of Dave’s friends from when he lived there. We visited family in Madison and splashed around with the relatives at their lake cottage up in Iola. Most of all, we enjoyed time with Dave’s parents at their home. Well, we also went driving back and forth to the new Starbucks that they finally opened up in Central Wisconsin, a mere 40 miles away.
In the late fall, we ventured to New York City for the 30th birthday celebration of Karine, Daniel’s cousin. We had never been to the Big Apple together, and the excellent company and Indian Summer weather combined to make the trip a memorable getaway.
The Cruise! Neither of us ever cruised before (on a boat). Over a year ago we booked an RSVP Mexican Riviera itinerary on the Diamond Princess out of LA. Our friend Harry Lit also set this up as “Lazy Bears at Sea”, an extension of his wildly successful Lazy Bear Weekend up in Sonoma County. It was an amazing adventure, one we will be repeating soon! The boat and her crew were incredible. There were parts of the ship that we were still discovering a the end of the trip. Events were held non-stop, so you could either just lie by the pool with your friends or have a jam packed itinerary. We chose something in between. The ship stopped at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We stopped in all the ports and even did a tree canopy tour out in the forest outside Puerto Vallarta. Mostly, we enjoyed the amenities on the ship. Daniel did pass a kidney stone on the trip, which was awful but thankfully short-lived. Our friends Paul & Randy from Palm Springs had the cabin next to ours and we opened up the divider between our respective balconies.
2006 Holiday Update
