Although I have a reasonable eye for color and design, and even studied art for a year back in secondary school, I am far from knowledgeable when it comes to artwork. So, instead of racking our brains (and budget) for a nice piece of art for the living room, we decided to paint the walls for accent and eventually add a mirror to the main wall.

I called two painters and eventually settled for Nick Mejia. He comes from three generations of professional painters and emphasized that he does both big and small jobs (and we are certainly a small job). Nick spent quite a bit of time just helping us to figure out what colors and what walls we should paint. We ended up painting a little more than we intended and were almost tempted to paint a few more walls just because he did such a great job.


Need a professional painter in SF? Here are his contact details:
Nick Mehia
124 N. Railroad Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
tel: (650) 342-1728
cell: (415) 971-8763

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We have been trying to keep our purchase a low-key event but at this point, most, if not all of our friends (and coworkers) know so there is really no point in avoiding the topic. We are officially debt-ridden homeowners.

The entire process was a painful one and I have to confess that Wen was the one taking charge of everything. All the PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes & Insurance) details, the transfer of cable and electricity, etc. He managed all that on top of a full-time job and a full load of classes. No wonder he seems to have lost weight while I am still hovering at ... *cough*cannot-reveal-my-weight*cough*.

Since we have been living in rented apartments all these years in SF, we haven't really bothered to get nice furniture. For example, the futon we have in the living room was from my college days in 1999. And the TV, discarded at Wen's office a few years ago, has been dying for a while now.

All that means we need to set aside some money for furniture. One of our favorite window browser-shopping place to-date has been Overstock but even with a very cautious finger, we are still racking up a decent charge.

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As the realization sinks in of our new home owner status, I wonder if perhaps we are just a little masochistic about being poor.

Ahhhh.... the days of being able to go out for a sushi dinner without too much worries about the cost were just too short-lived.

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When you are thousands of miles away and you miss both the births of your very first nephew and niece, you can only hope that they will recognize you from your Facebook profile.

My niece, Estelle, celebrated her full month over the weekend and there were apparently three large celebrations with family from both sides plus friends. Evan is running around and growing up fast. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them when I next return to Singapore for a visit.

Separately, things are busy for me both on the work and home front. The hubby and I are going through a major life transition. We are still in the process of working out the details so it is still not a set-in-stone deal. At the work front, it seems my work is getting recognized and I am getting permission to attend expensive conferences for my training. Unfortunately, the work load is not letting up and to top it off, because the weather is getting nicer, a lot of the customers like to smoke outside (there's a bench and trash can just outside my office so my office often gets filled with second-hand smoke even though my windows are all closed. It's not surprising that I am fighting off a sore throat and cold.

My husband is the only student with a 4.0 in his class so it was a foregone conclusion that besides getting an invitation to the business honors society, he would also be awarded the MBA scholar award. It doesn't hurt that the award comes with a small cash prize which was just about enough to cover for the business honors society lifetime membership fees for the both of us.

We went to the award ceremony for the business honors society. I missed my ceremony last year because I was in Hong Kong representing my college at the HKUST Business Plan Competition. Can't say I miss much since we are both not crazy about ceremonies although the food was quite yummy. We were heading for dinner after and I couldn't resist stuffing my mouth with the hors d'oeuvres.

Here's us pre-ceremony...

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I have been asking myself why I have not been blogging as much. Besides working 12-hour days almost every weekday and more hours on the weekends, I think the larger reason is that I have been very open on this blog and now that I am in a front-line job, I need to be extra careful what I have out there on the worldwide web.

Case in point: During my marketing days in Singapore, I came across a blog that commented on the company I was working at and decided to send an email letting the blogger know how I came to her site and that I found her content interesting. Instead of a welcome, I received a response that was basically complaining about a buying experience she had at my company.

Another case in point: I have a couple of social networking accounts and my potential clients are trying to add me as their contact.

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One of the topics I learned as part of my many Chinese Astrology courses is how some couples have luck cycles that are similar while other couples have luck cycles that are conflicting. Master Lo said that Li Kashing is one example of a husband whose luck is good when the wife is not so lucky (e.g. bad health, etc).

Would you rather go through equally good and bad patches with your spouse/partner or would you rather be doing well when your spouse is down on his/her luck, and vice versa?

It's 12:10am 1:10am now with the loss of an hour from daylight savings... I am not sure what triggered this thought/post but I'm feeling too sleepy to continue. ;-)