Hearts in San Francisco

If you haven't already noticed, more than 20 fiberglass or interlocking steel hearts have been popping up on city streets of San Francisco these past few months. The official launch date was February 14th to be exact (how thoughtful!). There will be more hearts to come... a total of 130 of them will be appearing on street corners, plazas, and sidewalks throughout San Francisco. The project is called "Hearts in San Francisco," which helps boost the tourist industry by allowing visitors to "see" and "leave" their hearts in San Francisco. The hearts are decorated by local artists with different themes. The hearts are on display until September 2004. After that, the City will choose a few of them to be auctioned off. The proceeds will benefit the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center. More information on this can be found at Hearts in San Francisco's website.

I knew about this City project on the San Francisco Chronicle a couple of months back. I decided that it would be a very nice weekend activity to "find" all the 130 hearts. Afterall, I have until September and it was a really great way to explore the City. So my husband and I ventured off today to find our first set of hearts. We found 7 hearts in total!! Here are the hearts we found ... believe me, there will be more to come!

Heart #1: The Silver Heart - located in front of the now-closed DFS Galleria, across the street from Union Square on Geary Blvd.

Heart #3: This heart was located in front of the Four Seasons Hotel on Market, near 4th St.

Heart #2: The Fern Heart - located near 555 Market St. between 2nd and 1st St.

Heart #4: The Ethnic Heart - found on Union Square.

Heart #7: Mom's Heart - located on Union Square.

Heart #5: Strawberry Heart - located in front of the McKesson Headquarter building on Market St. near New Montgomery St.

Heart #6: This heart was found in front of Macy's, on Geart Blvd, across from Union Square.

Half-day Fridays

It has been a long while since I took a day off from work and didn't go anywhere. I was supposed to take today off as vacation to recuperate from my trip, but I ended up working at home instead. I actually am grateful for the luxury of being able to tele-commute although I'm not allowed to do that too often. It was nice. I went out to lunch with my parents and even did a little grocery shopping. I love having the ability to take off for a few hours from work to run errands. Today was such a beautiful day that it reminded me of those good old days when I had "half day Fridays." I used to work 9-hour days Mondays through Thursdays and 4 hours on Fridays. I really loved those Fridays when I get to leave work right after lunch. I always ended up shopping though, which became a very expensive habit after a while. But the ability to have a head start on weekend road trips or to be able to take afternoon naps was something I really enjoyed and missed. Now, I work 10-hour days everyday and no half-day Fridays! So unfair!

Aloha!!

I find it absolutely impossible to work in Hawaii if you have a view to the outside world. What I mean is that when you somehow get a glimpse at the beauty of the beaches and blue sky, you won't be able to concentrate at all. Can't imagine having to work in a window space where you can actually have an ocean view. The beaches and weather are so beautiful here that it may be a torture just to have a window office. Well, during my time here, I managed to sit in an area tucked inside, so I wasn't able to see the light of day. That way, I can actually concentrate on work and stay awake during meetings. 4 non-stop 12-hour days are just enough for me though. Tomorrow I hope to have a nice stroll along the beach before I hop on the plane back to San Francisco. There are still a million things that I need to do for work but I'm practically handicapped because I'm using dial-up and the files take about 1/2 hour to pull up. Oh well, I guess those just have to wait!! I just need it to get it off my mind!

No Purchase Necessary

I am confused on the phrase "No Purchase Necessary" attached to game contest rules. Just this morning, I saw an ad on a big chain grocery's website promoting a Match & Win game. The How-to-play games instruction was as follows:

"Buy any four items from participating products and receive a game piece at checkout. Match your game piece(s) to the corresponding boxes on the game board. Collect all the game pieces to complete a row on the game board and you're a winner!"

The prizes include Complete home makeover, 2004 Honda Pilot SUV, etc, etc. But then, as always, at the bottom of the contest rules I spotted those 3 confusing words: "No Purchase Necessary." So there they were. How is that possible? How can I receive game pieces without purchasing? Can I write to the company and simply "ask" for the game pieces? How does it work?