Top Ten 2018

10.  Backyard Project:  It is gratifying to see our backyard turn from a demolition site into something functional and aesthically pleasing.  The design credit goes to Yu-fen who managed most of this effort.  She had help from some of her professional contacts, including landscape architect and structural engineer.  We were guided through the construction by Jamie Cabrera who made all the difficult decisions and innumerable trips and work for us.  Victor Porres and his team did all the heavy lifting, and pouring and installing.  I tried to stay out as much as possible - which was my main contribution (although I'll take some credit for the embedded concrete lights that I can turn on with Alexa).  The first payoff was celebrating Kaiden's 4th B'day out there - more events to come! 

9.  Special Events.  They say that events are more precious than material gifts so this year was especially rewarding!  This past year I was invited to front row and luxury box seats at a Warriors play-off game thanks to Dan Tauber.  Yufen scored U2 tickets in San Jose.  And thanks to Adam, Kaiden's best friend Thomas' dad, for Opening and Closing day tailgating for the surprising Oakland As.  Kaiden will have to learn to pace himself.  Yufen also organized a wonderful camping trip with friends, including Glendy, who lit up our Napa campsite in a glamorous fashion.  Also thanks to Michael F for Miss Saigon, Michael and Karen for 10 years of hosting Thanksgiving!  and Bo and Florian for continuing New Year's Day traditions.  More events to inevitably follow later... 

8.  Karen and Guy's wedding.   Speaking of Special! ...  I used to always have an entry for weddings, often with multiple people.  So it was especially nice to get invited to Guy and Karen's wedding.  We have become friends with many of their friends - since they invite us to all of their frequent parties, including New Year's - so it was a great night right here in our backyard - Piedmont!  A great night and really great to see them find each other - the best compliment I can give is that there love and affection for each other inspires me - along with their joy for travel, and their love for family and friends.  Congrats Guy and Karen!!!  

7. Health and Kaiser - I spent too much time at Kaiser this year.  Thankfully, both trips had a positive outcome.  The first involved me and my annual physical this past summer.  My dad had a heart attack and quadruple bypass when he was 52 so I have always been conscious of it.  As a routine measure my doctor ordered an EKG which took about 2 minutes and I went home thinking all was fine.  Several hours later at about 3:30PM on Friday, I get a call from my doctor saying he wants me to go to the ER right away and that they will know what to do.  He said my EKG results came back indicating an issue.  I go there and they immediately treat me as if I have a heart attack.  Throughout the course of the weekend - consisitng of many tests and which culminated in an ambulance ride to Kaiser SF for an angiogram (I wanted to take an Uber) - I had to keep reminding myself that I was fine.  The final verdict was positive - all my arteries were perfectly open.  The only issue was that one of my arteries had tunneled through the heart - likely a congenital issue.  So the EKG picked up what looked like a blockage as every time my heart beats that artery gets squeezed.  Nothing to worry about, and peace of mind attained.  

The second was far scarier as it involved Kailee shortly after Thanksgiving.  Somehow her intestines had folded in on themselves in two places and caused a blockage.  It took 4 long painful days to diagnose and a surgery to remove that part of the intestine. I wrote about it on Facebook, in case anyone wants more details.   I'm happy to report that she has recovered fabulously and is looking forward to going back to school after a month absence (two weeks on the DL and two weeks Winter break).  Many thanks once again to her doctors (esp. our friend Dr. Ping), nurses and everyone on Staff for the care she recieved. Thanks to Dr. Devi for her advise and support - it was re-assuring!      

Friday AM                                                           Monday PM

6.  Business - The main rental business continues to flourish with the good fortune of a strong economy.  We have successfully raised rents in this market and that is flowing through to the botttom line.  We are careful to let too much flow to the bottom and make sure to improve our properties.  This has the benefit of allowing us to keep happy tenants, increase long term value of the properties and allowing people (me) to stay productively busy.  We feel justified that this use of cash is better than letting it sit in bank accounts or increasing our taxes.  We are grateful for our tenants, as most of them have been with us for sometime.  We also value our relationship with Jamie without whom we couldn't function in the Bay Area and Jimmy and Chera and their team in Vegas.  We remain grateful to our investors who continue to trust us to manage their investements, provide support when needed and especially Michael A. for serving as the de facto Board.  Congratulations to Hemant for taking Prajapati Associates to new heights and in a new NY office close to Rockefeller Center!   

On the growth front, I spent a good deal of time exploring new business opportunities with Michael F.  Michael and I have the great prior non-resume experience of hosting two Survivor weekends - two of my favorite endeavors.  We make a great team and we started a Short Term rental business.  This follows my experience of hosting guests in our in-Law unit and the Squaw Condo.  The Company rents out homes and our lease allows us to sub-lease out the homes on a short term basis ("AirBnB").  We grew the business from nothing to 4 properties, and we had a profitable first year!   We learned a ton and have made many operational improvements that will enable us to scale.  

5.  Summer Visits.  It's nice to get visitors.  This year my brother came to visit and one of the highlights was going to a baseball game with 3 generations of us.  One weekend in the summer was particulartly eventful as Jimmy and Shane, along with Patrick's daughter who was studying came over as did my first cousin's daughter Kriya who is going to college in Florida.  We also had Brian and his daughter Alex (a next generation Yalie) that weekend.  Steve S. and Kate also visited later in summer.

On the flip side, Yufen and the kids spent 6 weeks visiting family in Taiwan, after my experience the prior year I stayed home.  Many thanks to Jamie, Natalie, Cole, and Carlos for adopting me (and Jojo has a small brother in Kaiden) - I'm adding Cabrera to my name!  And thanks to Fred for letting me drive one of his Porsche's to the Booneville vineyard and staying with his family.    

4.  Trip to NY.  I had not been back to NY in over two years which for me was the longest period away since moving to America.  The catalyst for the trip was our Upen Mama and Devila Mami's 50th Anniversary party.  Our family tree is twisted so that Upen Mama is actually my father's uncle although he is younger than him.  Consequently, his cousins Ankur and Bijal are younger than me and we are close, notwithstanding Ankur's choice of college.  Ankur and Bijal did a great job putting together the cruise around the island and getting the family and friends of his dad's generation and the next generation of millenials all together.  My favorite millenial line of the night came from Anisha (now a Oakland neighbor) - "just Uber to our AirBnB afterwards".

Also memorable on this trip was seeing Hemant and Sangita's newly built house.  They travel all over the world and their home, minimalist in style, is full of fixtures and furnishings from around the world.  It is a great reflection of their personality.  Also keeping with the Architecture theme, my brother and I also walked Highline and saw lots of the development taking place on the West Side.  Also old fashioned hair cut and NY PIZZA!!!

3.  Kids.  Most of my photos and postings tend to be about the kids - as well as they should be.  Kailee and Kaiden continue to be dazzle me everyday.  We have two very different kids with unique and special personalities.  It remains a challenge trying to figure out how to be good at this parenting thing.  Not sure if I am doing it right, it remains a balance of keeping them happy while also instilling a sense of being (becoming) useful (a la Thomas the Train).  A quick video below and shout out to Jaleel and Nasira for resuming the winter ski trip. 

2.  Tenth Year Anniversary with Yu-fen.

Yufen and I celebrated ten years of marriage this past year.  I'm forever grateful of the life we have together, even if I don't express it.  There were so many items this past year big and small, ski trips - CO this past year, way too early surprise birthday party with friends some of whom I haven't seen in a long time, setting up the Anniversary night - that in most years I would have created separate  items for those items.  However, this year I'll just wrap it all up with - I LOVE YOU!  

<--HA, SURPRISE

1.  Thanks everyone for great year - here's to 2019 and more of everyone's smiles and good nature!