Tag: 545 Darrell Road

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Summer time in Hillsborough

It’s been a while since we last checked in. Since we last wrote, Olivia and her family sailed from Barcelona to Lisbon. Some arrived in Barcelona early, others departed Lisbon late. Most were back in California by July 5th.

At home, John and Duke enjoyed each other’s company. So much so that John was later accused of making Duke chunky, having put him back on his previous diet consisting mostly of rotisserie chicken. Anyway… lots of walking, lots of visits to the beach, and the bay, where Duke managed to find a leopard shark, correction, a dead leopard shark on one of their walks.

These little vacation pockets with very few people in the house are a good opportunity to catch up on the smaller-and-smaller list of things we need to take care of, and Manuel and his crew were here for a week treating all the outside woodwork. The outside looks so much better and should be OK for at least five years.

Eli went to Italy to visit a friend while the rest of the family was in Spain. She had a great time on the coast (La Spezia) and even made it out on the water in a family-owned boat. She was lucky to see one of her cousins in Copenhagen during a layover on the way back.

We continue to have construction in our backyard, and the dust from digging and the winds have been rather significant. The dust is everywhere – on the side of the house, on the cars, on the pool cover, and more. We have written the city, asking them to pay for at least one cleaning a quarter. Let’s see – we don’t have a great track record with them, although they have decided to take another look at our claim from the fallen tree. Their insurance company is still recommending that they deny our claim, so we don’t have high hopes for a positive outcome. For us, anyway.

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Weekend in Hawaii

On Friday, John and Olivia went to Hawaii for the weekend. While it was partly to relax and enjoy the island, two other action items were on the agenda. One was to inspect the condo for water damage from a recent storm. The other reason we will get to a little later.

It was great to be back on the island of Oahu and visit the local restaurants – some new, some old. The weather is typically very nice and comfortable in June, which was also the case this time. John still managed to catch a cold lingering by the time this is published.

Adriana wrapped the school year at the end of last week. She’s busy with Cheer, art projects, and working above the local hospital and Dizzy Lizzy’s Baked Goods. Up next is Pia…

Our garden is looking great. John and Olivia went to find some pincushions at a very nice nursery in Berkeley. They only bloom once a year, and we might have missed it this time, but hopefully, they will look great next spring.

As mentioned above, there was one more reason that John and Olivia went to Hawaii. The flight from San Francisco to Honolulu brought John past 3,000,000 flown miles with United Airlines. That’s a lot of flying, and it was a bit anti-climactic to receive a pen at the gate together with a thank you. Anyway, it’s done, and it remains to be seen if John will ever board a flight again 😉

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Copenhagen, beer festival

On May 2nd, Olivia and John went through a Warriors game at the Chase Center in San Francisco. It was the first game in the playoff series and, sadly, a prediction of things to come. The Warriors lost. Not by much, but still. It was fun to be in a sporting event at the arena. Olivia and John had only been there for concerts before.

Later that week, John went to Denmark with Chris, a good friend, and former Akamai colleague. John arrived Thursday morning, immediately visited his mom, and later had dinner with Gurli in Central Copenhagen. 

Chris arrived Friday morning, and after he had some breakfast and a shower, they went to central Copenhagen to walk around. Later that afternoon, they booked an architectural bike tour of the city and had four great hours with a local architect who showed both old and new architecture.

The main reason for visiting Denmark this time was the Mikkeler Copenhagen Beer Celebration event at Øksnehallen. It’s a two-day-long affair split up into four segments. For John and Chris, the fun started at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. After paying a hefty entrance fee, you could walk around for four hours and taste beer from all over the world. Unfortunately, there were many rumors that this year’s event would be the last. However, it’s part of a ten-day beer week in Copenhagen, and if it survives, it’s definitely worth a visit. 

The Sunday was spent on a couple of rented bicycles, riding through much of Copenhagen and the surrounding areas. Weatherwise, the wind had finally died down, and it’s such a fun and safe way of getting around. The bike rental itself was a challenging experience, and threatened to put a kibosh on the whole thing, but it all worked out in the end.

The pool is still giving us trouble and driving us nuts. The latest is that the motherboard controlling the heater and pumps is faulty and needs to be replaced, luckily under warranty. Hopefully, that will cover the remaining issues and set us up for a fun summer. Sadly, we had another downed tree from what looks to be damage from the larger tree that fell in February. That case has still not been closed. The city is taking its sweet old time processing the claim. On a brighter note, we got the Pergola installed. We moved all our garden furniture under it, making it a nice place to sit when the sun is out.

This past Thursday brought a welcome reunion with many of John’s former Akamai colleagues. The San Francisco office on Market Street is shutting down, and everybody was invited for a last farewell. John has many fond memories from that office, and it was great to see people who he had interacted with daily. Earlier in the week, Fastly organized an evening at the AT&T ballpark. John took his cousin Nick to see the Giants beat the Phillies. Cold as always, but still a good time.

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Weekends with Adele

On March 25, John and Olivia were lucky to see Adele perform on the last evening of her “Weekend with Adele” show in Las Vegas. It was great, well-planned, and almost exclusively built around her well-known songs. She seemed to master the stage quite well, so it was hard to follow her when discussing her stage fright and anxiety. Nevertheless, it was great to experience Adele live, and it was great to get away for 36 hours.

Weather-wise, it seems that the storms are over. So we took full advantage and (finally) got the gazebo/pergola installed at the pool’s far end. John lost unreasonable hair trying to understand the assembly instruction that combined English and Italian fairly randomly. But eventually, it was all put together, and we are delighted with how it ties the far end together. We also fixed the remaining items from the fallen tree and even cleaned the area behind the fence. We submitted the paperwork today and hope the City of Hillsborough will cover our expenses.

The pool is in great shape. However, we are looking forward to adding salt, which can older happen when the water is a bit warmer. The water is clear, and the hot tub is heating relatively fast now that the start temperature is above 40.

John spent most of the week in Las Vegas at the National Association for Broadcasters trade show – a.k.a. “the NAB show”. There were 65,000 attendees – slightly more than half of what was there before COVID. It was great to see customers and existing and former colleagues.

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Adriana Turns 16

Adriana turned 16 on Wednesday. She celebrated during the weekend, although one of her events got rained out for the third time in a row. They left Friday afternoon all packed and ready for a weekend in Carmel, but the power went out, and they decided to come back to celebrate at home instead. They made the best of it, and 12 of us celebrated her at Left Bank in Menlo Park on the day itself.

Although there were several great gifts, the best one was that she passed her driving test Thursday morning. Although it comes with initial nervousness – especially on Olivia’s part – it’ll help all around and bring an extra bit of freedom.

The weather at home continues to be challenging. We have had powerful winds, and cleaning leaves and removing branches seem almost pointless. The winds were very powerful throughout the Bay Area on Tuesday, and like many other people, we lost power early in the day. As the night came, more than 300,000 people were without power, primarily due to downed power lines. Finally, we got the power – and heat back – after 36 hours. Unfortunately, many had to wait longer.

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Ready for spring!

The winter weather that brought snow on both sides of the bay also brought lots of wind and rain, and our house and garden have taken a severe beating the last couple of weeks. Last Monday, one of the city’s trees couldn’t take it anymore and fell, taking out a good chunk of our fence. Unfortunately, it also hit our new shed and damaged its roof and sides. From looking at the tree trunk, the tree was unhealthy, leaving the city to cover the repairs.

John and Olivia managed to get away for a weekend in Carmel while Adriana skied the slopes of Lake Tahoe. They had a great time, but it was cut short by the fallen tree and the risk of more coming down.

We have had a lot of activity around the pool and spa, and things are moving in the right direction but not without work and coordination from several parties, including us. We emptied the pool on the 23rd, and the sides were washed, cleaned, and treated with acid the day after. It took 24 hours and a lot of water to fill it again, but the ~72 hours were well spent, resulting in a pool that looks much better.

The spa also got some love. It’s been acting up several times, leaving us unable to heat it. Luckily the system set out while one of the pool technicians was there, so not only did we confirm that we were not crazy, it brought a good indication of which piece of hardware needed to replace. The pool company took care of that on Friday, and we’ll run tests in the coming week.

Last Sunday, most of the family – 16 of us – met at Kokkari in San Francisco to celebrate Adrian. Another corner turned. He came by for a birthday café latte the day before, but it was good to see everyone and give him that present – that’s what he treasures the most.

Downed tree that hit our new shed
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First Car for Adriana

Last weekend John and Olivia went to pick up a new car for Adriana. Olivia kept it hidden for a few days, but it was too much of a secret once Wednesday came around and sat in the garage when Adriana came home from school in the afternoon. Like with her sisters, this will undoubtedly free up Olivia’s time, and Adriana is already a self-proclaimed “great driver.”

John spent the weekend in Denmark while chasing that 3MM award with United. He spent time with his mom and saw great friends on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, Denmark had some of the worst winds in six years while he was there, and it was sometimes hard to walk outside when not protected by buildings. Still very cold there, but lovely to be out after 15+ hours on planes.

The winds have also been strong at home. We cleaned the yard more than once and are still looking for an excellent leaf vacuum for all the oak leaves that lands on the turf. Unfortunately, the pool sage continued, and we had to write a stern letter to get the acid wash of the plaster scheduled. We will have an update next time. The hot tub is also giving us trouble, and we can’t wait to get is all fixed. The pool cover is also acting up. “Aicham!” to quote Mr. Kim from Kim’s Convenience.

20230219: View from 8F – Copenhagen to Frankfurt
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Mouth surgery for Adriana

The rain finally seems to have stopped. There’s more in the forecast, but nothing like what we got the first couple of weeks of ’23. The water was hard on our landscaping, and there will be lots of repair work over the next few weeks. The back fence also took a beating but overall, we were lucky compared to many other places and homes throughout California.

On Monday, Adriana had four wisdom teeth removed. It was a rough three hours, but she did pretty well once home. At least for the first two days while the strong medications were still available. She had a dry socket treated Friday – cloves brought almost instant relief. She’s delighted it’s a closed chapter.

The surgery coincided with the Hillsborough Water Works making good on their promise to tear down the two old water tanks in our backyard. Unfortunately, the demolition was not for the faint at heart, bringing an almost unbearable noise. How Adriana slept through some of it is a testament to the effectiveness of the medicine. The noise lasted all week and left a big pile of twister metal and iron that needed transport away from here.

Over the weekend, John spent 24 hours at the condo in Hawaii fixing TVs, Internet, and appliances. The weather wasn’t too inviting, so staying indoors and crossing things off the to-do list was easy.

2023-01-22 | One of the two water tanks being torn down
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Prepping the garden

We’re still waiting for the pool water to do its magic and harden the plaster. The calcium deposits are still present, and we can see tracks from the pool robot. We trust the company behind it, and they’ve told us to be patient for a week or two. It does look a bit better but also darker than we had expected.

Outside that, the pool and patio are pretty much finished. However, we need the coping done, and there’s a tile that, unfortunately, was chipped, which will also need replacement.

The garden is coming along nicely. Plants and trees were ordered Tuesday and will be delivered on Monday. The crew found good spots for the existing pots and worked hard to get the Buddha head water feature back in place and connected. Josh and his team got the electrical feed rigged, and we got the fire table and BBQ set up. Things are slowly getting back to normal.

We had the house power-washed. Looks so much better without all the dust, marks, and spiderwebs. The Christmas lights went up the day after although we’ll leave them off for a few more weeks.

Power-washing the house

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First dip!

We finally had a chance to jump in the water this weekend after John completed training on the equipment. Adriana was first in with a bunch of her friends – John and Olivia followed once the sound level was more reasonable. The hot tub works great. We’re not sure what to think of the changing LED lights, but needless to say, they are a big hit with the younger generation.

The patio crew is done and all that remain is a deep cleaning of the tiles.

The landscaping crew showed up early Saturday morning and removed pretty much all the plants and trees in the backyard. Not the easiest thing to watch, but they were not happy there, given the large amount of shade. We’re getting different trees that should do better and plants with more color. We’re very excited to have found a great designer to work with, and we’re excited to get a fuller garden to enjoy.