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.

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.

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

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

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.

Pool equipment connected

The patio is still being worked on. The last full-size tiles are in place; from here on out, any remaining stones will need to be cut. For that reason, it was good to see our contraction bringing in a tile cutter – certainly an upgrade from the little drill they have used up until now.

The pool equipment is mostly connected. We enjoyed the changing LED lights for a couple of nights, and rumor has it that the jets in the hot tub were connected for a little bit as well. We are looking forward to getting trained in the coming week.

John and Olivia continued their talks with the landscape designer and gardener and got some numbers for the remaining work. Quite a mouthful, and not sure what to do…

The weekend was spent in Boston celebrating Rob and Patricia tying the knot. Great weather and a lot of walking in the historic part of town. Good to see the east coast friends while exercising the dancing moves.

Closer and close…

Water in the pool!

Despite the Sunday rain, the plaster crew showed up Monday morning around 6:30. They prepped the grounds and fired up the equipment at 8

The plastering took only two hours; by 10:30, a nice little pool of water had already formed at the bottom. It would take another 35 hours before we could turn off the water, and at that time, almost 33,000 gallons had passed through the three water hoses.

We were a little concerned with the green color, but once we added a bit of chlorine, the water turned blue and very(!) inviting. Sadly, we cannot use the pool for 20 days while the plaster cures and the chemicals settle.

The patio team is weeks behind. We have been told “next week” for a few weeks, including this week. The saving grace is that we are working with a landscape designer and a gardener that will need time before we can put the turf down. So we’re probably looking at another four-to-six weeks before things are signed, sealed, and delivered.

Water – and lots of it!

Last week without water

The last two weeks have been primarily tile work. At this point, probably 65% is covered. The crew was supposed to wrap this coming week, but we doubt they’ll make it in time. 

The pool equipment was installed Friday. It’s not taking up much space but is not particularly pretty to look at. So we’re looking for someone that can build an enclosure for it. 

This week is the last week that the pool will be without water. The plaster will go in Tuesday, and the water will start flowing and soon as it’s a little dry. The water can’t stop once we start, so we’re hoping there are 30,000 gallons available to us. It rained this weekend, so we feel pretty good about it. 

This past week we met with Sarah – a landscape architect who will help us pick flowers, bushes, and trees. We are excited to see initial plans this coming Wednesday.

One side of pavers left…

Light at the end of the tunnel

On Friday, the contractors poured cement in the area that will soon be our patio. Up until then, they had done a good job with drain, base rock, and rebar. We’re quite happy we upgraded the planned drain to what’s known as a slot drain – the look will undoubtedly look better than traditional drain scattered throughout the area.

Now that the base has been set, they can move on to setting the tiles. They estimate it will be a three-week process. Once that’s done, only the turf remains.

We still need plaster in the pool, and the pool equipment is (also) still missing. They have held off installing anything should the pipes suffer a puncture during the recent excavation. Now that the cement is in place, they’re free to move ahead.

Since the last update, it also bears mentioning that John picked up COVID somewhere between here and Singapore. Overall it’s been mild, and from all we know, no one caught the bug from him.

Concrete base for the tile being poured

Mostly Work Underground

Our patio contractor finally started on Monday and has made steady progress all week. They connected our downspouts to the main drainpipes and leveled the grounds as much as possible. Friday, we had base rock delivered, which will serve as the foundation for the concrete.

Our gardener finished building the retaining walls, including rebuilding what the pool contractor did a hack job of putting back together when parts of it collapsed while pulling a gas line.

John was off to Singapore for a few days to meet a new employee and interview a candidate. All went smoothly, although wearing a mask for a 16 hours flight got old relatively quick.

Penny turned a sharp corner Friday and was celebrated at the club by friends and family.

Slowly but surely…