christmas eve dinner at sam and alice's ... by.cristina sun.dec.25

merry.christmas.everybody!

lists... by.cristina fri.dec.22

to do...
» brave the crowds this weekend and do some last minute christmas shopping
» organize what we're bringing to christmas eve dinner at sam and alice's
» rearrange our study into a second bedroom for my parents visit
» plan what we're going to do with my parents during their visit (restaurants, shopping(!), tourist attractions, vancouver trip, etc.) - peter and i aim to get them to enjoy it here so much that they stay longer hihihi
» complete finishing touches on our condo (picture frames, window treatments, decorative items, etc.)
» pack for our trip to los angeles
» confirm booking for lana's dog boarding during our l.a. trip.

to smile about...
» my work schedule has become a lot less demanding and i actually get to leave the office at a decent hour and have a life :-P
» i was given my own cubicle this week (i was sharing a 2-person cubicle with a developer) and i've completely surrendered to my desire to personlize it ... *grin*
» our vacation has started and peter and i have the next 16 days off work!!
» we'll be seeing my parents in less than a week (whoah, i can't believe it's been 8 months since we last saw them)
» we're heading to los angeles on dec 28 to visit disneyland and universal studios, and staying 3 nights & 4 days at the hilton ... woohoo!!

the blackout before christmas by.peter mon.dec.18

The Microsoft Filipino community’s “Holiday” Party was planned for last Thursday evening, so on our way to work that day we dropped by Krispy Kreme and picked up 2 dozen doughnuts for the party. On the radio there was an announcement that a big storm was expected to hit Seattle that evening. We didn’t think much of it, despite feeling the occasional strong gust of wind push our car on the highway. When I got to work, an email was sent out saying that the party was cancelled due to expected bad weather. I thought it was a bit of an over-reaction to cancel a party because of a little wind. Instead of trying to finish the doughnuts myself I left them in the kitchen and broadcasted it over the CFS email list. The swarm of engineers came and went and nothing was left in the boxes. I made sure to stand at least 3 metres away from the horde.

At lunch I met up with the Aussie guys as usual. One of the Daves (there are two in the group) was leaving for the airport to fly back to Sydney after lunch. I offered to give him a lift to the airport and it was an hour round trip in busy traffic with a little rain. The rest of the day at work was rather uneventful.

When I left work to pick Cristina up, it started to rain really hard. The water wasn’t being drained fast enough and water was starting to flood some roads. At one point in the trip the rain was so heavy I couldn’t even see the road or the car in front of me. It was like I had run the car into a wall of water. Despite the weather, we decided to drop by the shops in Issaquah to do some shopping. We looked specifically at the Wii and the iPods. The Wii, as usual, was out of stock but we were undecided on the iPod. So we got home with nothing but treats for Lana.

While we were at home we decided the 4GB iPod Nano was the most suitable MP3 player for Cristina so I headed out to the nearby shops again to get it for her. On the way to the shops I noticed several neighborhoods were all blacked out. Luckily, ours and the shopping area were still fine. I picked up Cristina’s new toy and headed home but on the way back every neighbor I passed had lost power – including ours. Apparently, Cristina had been playing the Sims 2 and the power suddenly cut off and she was left sitting in the dark until I got home. I found the emergency torch and lit a few candles. Cristina was so eager to play with her new toy she wanted to stay up and wait for the power to return. That didn’t happen. Friday morning I checked the alarm clock and saw that the power was still out. I wanted to check if campus was affected or not but there was no way to find out. My laptop was still running on batteries but our cable modem required power. The irony is that we wouldn’t have a problem if we were on dialup. We have three cordless phones in the apartment but they don’t work without power. Again, the irony is that a normal phone would work. Lastly, our mobiles had no reception because the storm probably also took out the towers. So without knowing what to expect, we still made our way to work.

The 4GB iPod nano

Traffic was a crawl the whole way since none of the traffic lights were working and there was not a single police officer to direct traffic. There were tree branches and leaves everywhere. There was a layer of green all over the road which made it look like grass was growing on it. It took about an hour to get to Cristina’s office, which happened to sit on the only block on the eastside with power. So off she went to work. I continued to the Microsoft campus to try my luck. The parking was mostly empty and half lit with emergency lighting. I tried using my keycard to get in but without power none of the doors were working. The only way into the building was via the foyer entrance which was kept open with a wooden block. The building was practically empty and half lit with lights running on generators. None of the computers were running and office lights were off. So I headed back to the only place I knew that had power - that one block in Bellevue. Luckily there were two Starbucks on that block so I made my way to one and staked my claim of a couch near a power point - prime real estate during these times. I pulled out my laptop and checked the Seattle Times to get updated on the news. Apparently up to 750,000 homes and businesses were affected by the blackout caused by storms with winds in some areas passing 100mph. I was able to get reception on my mobile there so I tried calling some of the others to see how they were doing. I couldn’t get in contact with any of them. Unfortunately, a few of the guys had opted to use VoIP as their main line which doesn’t work in a blackout. Another problem is that mobile phone coverage in Seattle, specifically the eastside, is much worse than Sydney and many of the guys happen to live in coverage blackspots. I eventually got a call from Bo and told him to meet me at Starbucks, which was beginning to look like a refuge for those who couldn’t live without internet.

I called Cristina to have lunch with us but she declined as she was busy playing Jenga with her officemates. There were a few restaurants on the block but most of them were already overflowing with people. Bo and I settled for a Thai restaurant and managed to squeeze inside, away from the chilling wind. We waited for about 30 minutes for a seat and probably another 40 minutes for the food to come out. While we were eating, more people turned up. Some people had driven almost an hour to get to Bellevue with their families because there was no way to cook at home and no restaurants open anywhere else.

Cristina’s manager eventually let her go home early, which was just a consolation given that they were the only company operating that day. We were going to go to the restaurant to get her some lunch but someone yelled out that the restaurant had run out of food. Instead of hanging around, we decided to head home. Bo decided to camp out at Starbucks.

Lucky for us, we had plenty of canned soups in the pantry which I bought a few days ago just for emergencies. So there I was on the cold balcony, heating up two cans over the gas BBQ, which we brought over from Sydney. Heating those canned soups I felt a surge of primal instincts kicking in. I felt like a caveman. It wasn’t long before I found myself facing the wind and beating my chest. “Grrr…me hunt Campbell’s Chunky soup!!” But my ears got cold so I went inside and watched the BBQ from behind the glass door.

Canned soup ... on the barbie!

In the evening we decided to go out and see if power was restored anywhere. All the neighborhoods were still dark and the shopping area was without power. We noticed that there was one shop still with lights – it seems Fred Meyer had decided to open their stores with power from a generator. We parked our car in the dark parking lot and made our way in to stock up on more emergency supplies. I don’t know what Cristina thinks ‘emergency’ means but the first thing she did was run to the dog food section. I looked at her totally flabbergasted and her response was “What’s Lana going to eat?”. My response was: “I know what I will when the food runs out” :-P. Eventually we made our way around to the canned foods section and saw that it was totally raided. From where I was standing, there wasn’t a single can left on the shelf. Cristina leaned over and discovered a few cans left because none had bothered to look deep in the lower shelves. So we made our way home with more supplies. It was more canned soup for dinner and we used the remaining power on my laptop to watch a DVD.

It was the second night without power and temperatures outside were dipping below freezing point. Fortunately for us, our water is heated by gas and that kept our apartment relatively warm. Other people were not as fortunate and their homes were only a few degrees above freezing. Shelters were being set up throughout Seattle for people who didn’t have access to food or warmth. People started to burn wood for heat and to cook which started to produce a haze in the air.

On Saturday power hadn’t been restored so we decided to head into Microsoft campus to see if there was power there yet. It was a good sign to see traffic lights working around the campus. As we made our way to my office, we noticed several people had brought their families and were camping out in the meeting rooms. There were also people taking showers in the change rooms because there was no hot water at home. We were there to charge our laptops and phones and to use the internet. When I went online, I noticed that two other Aussies, Sam and Brendan, were also at the office. We all met up in my office and shared survival stories. Alice & Sam have a pet lizard which was suffering without heat so I suggested they go home and bring the lizard into the office. Sam and Brendan returned with Alice and their lizard in its tank, which they set up in Sam's office. Bo also came round and the the six of us headed into Bellevue to get some dinner.

Settlers of Catan - Cristina's latest addiction

On the way to dinner, we noticed Bo’s neighborhood had power so we decided to head back there to hang out after dinner. While we were there, we played Settlers of Catan. Surprisingly, Cristina and Alice loved the game so much that we ended up playing past 3am. Throughout the evening I kept calling our home, hoping to hear the answering machine to indicate power had been restored - no luck. So Cristina and I came home to another night without power.

On Sunday we received a call from Alice to tell us that they got their power back and to invite us over for dinner and to stay the night if we wanted. When I told Cristina that they had bought Settlers of Catan she was more than eager to go. Bo and Dave joined us and we all had pasta for dinner that Cristina and Alice had made – a nice change from canned soup heated over a BBQ. We also tried playing the Munchkins card game but it was difficult for the girls to stop mocking us. While we were there we called our place and were warmly greeted by our own answering machine. Alleluia!

After 3 days without power, the blackout was finally over for us.

cfs christmas holiday party by.peter tue.dec.5

Our CFS Holiday Party was held at the Bellevue Art Museum last Friday evening. Given the timing it was clearly a Christmas party but, in the spirit of political correctness, no references to Christmas was used. It was a fairly formal occasion with a buffet, jazz band and waiters. There was also a drink bar that was carved out of ice complete with an ice windows logo. To keep guests entertained there was a treasure hunt that involved visiting the various artworks on display and finding answers to various puzzles. It would have been faster to just pull out my laptop and search for the answers on the internet :P.

There was also an area of the gallery set aside as a makeshift casino for those who equate holidays with gambling. Since the state gambling laws, there was no real money exchanged. Instead, each guest was given $1000 in monopoly money (that’s pretend money, if my parents are reading this). We exchanged our monopoly money for gambling chips and Cristina and I learned how to play Roulette. The rules were simple and the whole game was all about probability and statistics. After experimenting with several approaches we settled on a winning combination and left the chips on the table. With each round we collected the winnings until we ended up with $3500 profit. Maybe we should give up our day jobs and move to Las Vegas.

lana's new coat by.cristina sun.dec.3

she's ready for those winter walks :-)