Piano Maheym!

Well, in the month that we have owned a piano, we have had two in our home. On the first piano, the lid that covers the keys completely warped on one side. The keys on the right side could be seen. We asked for a replacement. The replacement piano's color is a little lighter. Not too much of a problem to me (Yoshiko doesn't like it). Anyway, the second piano has some major dings and gashes in it. Guess what?! We get another piano this week!!! Three pianos in a month and a half. That's sad. Anyway, the salesman who helped us said he would go to their warehouse and hand pick a new piano for us. Let's cross our fingers and knock on wood that the piano is mostly perfect.

Another fun day

Man, I keep having fun days! This morning, Yoshiko was a little late starting for school. You kind of expect that after being up all night doing homework. I help her with what I can on those mornings (unless I'm too tired to wake up from my crazy schedule). This morning, as Yoshiko was leaving, she asked me to email her those several assignments she had worked on all night. You see, the computer takes an unbelievable amount of time to boot up. There are so many programs that have been put on the computer that start running with the booting up. It literally takes 15 minutes before you can use the computer. Yoshiko couldn't wait that long, or she'd be late for class.

About two or three minutes after Yoshiko left, the computer made a loud beep followed by a horrendous noise. Then came the blue screen of death (as my friend Roy calls it). I was scared. I have never had this happen to me. I tried calling all my techie friends. No one answered. I finally got a hold of my Uncle Ron, a programmer. He told me that if the disc crashed, it would be near impossible to recover any information. I immediately called Yoshiko and gave her the news. She said the same thing I was thinking--take it to the Geek Squad.

Geek Squad was no help. They told me it was definitely a mechanical failure and that they would not be able to recover the memory. About that time, Yoshiko called me. I haven't heard her cry like that since her grandpa passed away. It was not a good moment. To think that we had lost all the pictures we had taken since the beginning of January--a whole quarter of Ren's life up to this point--was unbearable. So many memories lost. Luckily we had backed up all the pictures up to January.

About that time, a friend called and told me to bring the computer to him. Somehow, we were able to boot up the computer. We got about a quarter of our not backed up pics copied to his hard drive. That friend pulled out the disc, and you could hear something rattling around inside. Not a pretty sound. I left after that. My friend tells me now that he hasn't been able to get it to boot again. I hope that he can get the rest of the pics. At least we got some.

Looks like it's about time to invest in another hard drive (or maybe another computer lol). We just needed this computer to last another five months. We'll see, I guess. All this, and I was once again unable to finish the work on my car to get it registered. Hopefully nothing eventful happens tomorrow so that I can pull the parts I need from the junk yard. Well, till the next post (which will probably be about my b-day last week).....

Signed, sealed, delivered!!!

So, the piano was finally delivered today. Man, was Yoshiko happy. She played for about three hours straight. Except for the five minutes she let me play, that is. But that's all she let me play. I think that's all the piano playing from me she could handle. I told her, that's why she needs to teach me how to play. haha. In the pic of Yoshiko playing below, you can see all her music on the floor to the side and behind her. Yoshiko would play a piece, put it down, and immediately pick up another and start playing it. I think I may have to buy her more piano music. I also think I should buy more bassoon solo music because they usually have good piano accompaniments as well.


We did find three problems with the piano: one note sticks (the hammer doesn't come back completely), another note sounds like the wire is loose, and the lid over the keys looks a little warped. The piano store is having someone come and tune the piano in a couple weeks, but I think I'm going to go talk to the store about the warped lid tomorrow.

Representin, yo!! Finally

I went out to check the mail just about 10 minutes ago, and to my surprise, was a large envelope addressed to me from Real Salt Lake. No, I didn't get drafted by the team, but I did get a most covet of items by the non-XanGo die-hard fans--the brand spankin new jersey. These haven't even gone on sale in the stores yet, and I have a personalized one. In fact, I got it for half off the regular price just because I'm an employee of XanGo (the biggest sponsor of Real Salt Lake). I have an old away jersey and have been wanting a home jersey for a while. Now I'm representin in style!!

Ain't it pretty.

Oh, and just as a little extra pic, here's Mr. Ren representin the Atl Braves. I've been a braves fan since I can remember. I'll make sure Ren is too ;)

Summer semester

I love Summer semester (I'm sure my sarcasm can be heard loud and clear). I only have school two days a week, but I start at 7:45 am and go straight until 1 pm. I don't think I would have a problem going to school that early, except for the fact I usually work until about 1 am and then don't get home and in bed until after 2 am. Waking up at 7:15 am doesn't work well with me most mornings. But I haven't done too bad so far (knock on wood).

Summer semester is crazy because you take 15 weeks of material and cram it into a 7 and 1/2 week block. The first block I'm taking 6 credits of business classes plus an upper division private lessons class for my music degree. My early morning class is Business Law, which is taught by a judge. The class is crazy. So much material. The teacher thinks it's too much for so little time. But you gotta do what you gotta do ;)

The funniest thing about Summer semester is how cold it is inside the school. UVSC is one big building (there are actually 8 main buildings all connected by hallways--really nice in the winters). Even though it's almost 90F outside, it can't be more than 65F inside the school. I may have to wear a jacket next Tuesday. This is totally opposite of the junior college I received my associate degree from. They just opened the windows, and the classrooms were never cooler than 85F. I think I slept through most of that Summer semester. Thanks mom for taking good notes. I don't think I could have passed that semester without you.