Community Blog

The guys do it all the time, but they always get secretive about it. This Labor Day weekend, send them on a trip somewhere and gather the gals for a GIRLS NIGHT IN! Turn off the phones and lose all contact from Mars.

Here are some fun ideas and themes for things you and your friends can plan. All you need is your apartment and some nearby restaurants to bring this night to life.

Sushi Night— Set up a hibachi bar on your dining table or on your balcony/patio. If you’re big on sushi, you can be

the facilitator and teach your guests how to roll their own. If not, you guys can fish around the whole sushi experience together. Order some a mix of Maki, Nigiri and Sashimi rolls from a nearby Hibachi place and have a buffet-style sushi sampling (Our Recommendation is Harumi Sushi in Cupertino).

Pizza and Play Night— You many not be in NY but you can recreate the tourist experiences of being in Times Square, right in your living room. Turn your kitchen into a pizza bar; make your own personal pan-sized dough and have a bar of toppings to suit your guests’ tastes. Next, pop in a Broadway (or play) inspired film for you and the ladies to enjoy. Classic Dinner and A Movie!

Grill Party— Who said that the grill was just for guys? Our poolside and clubhouse is a great backdrop to invite a couple people over! Grab some fruity cocktail mixes, summer vegetables and desserts and get down on the grill. Dress up a small table  and enjoy a pool-side view while conversing around the grill. Hats off to the Ladies this weekend!

See some more girls’ night ideas and don’t forget to invite us!

Source- My Home Ideas

Just about anything can be insured today. And for good reason! Even though you rent an apartment, your ownership of your unit, as well as the things in it, still need to be protected. The truth about insurance is, when bad things happen, it covers liability

between both you as a renter and the property as well.

The things that you as a renter should protect are those incidents that you don’t see coming. If someone above you sets their apartment on fire and your unit gets the blaze, guess who’s responsible for your stuff? If you’re uninsured, you will be! Not the property or your neighbor. How would that feel?

Most opt out of any “insurance” because of the dreadful premiums and deductibles that come with getting a decent amount of coverage. They also think it’s a waste to pay to protect something that they don’t see high risk from.

The Verandas, and the rest of Greystar properties offers affordable and useful renter’s insurance for all tenants living in our properties.

E-Renter Plan is an insurance plan that covers you and your things. The best part about it is, the annual cost is only $200. Count up the value of all your stuff….I’m sure it’s worth more! So if that 2,000 laptop gets stolen, $200 will have replaced it with a new one!

The plan also covers bodily injury for the policy holder (up to $100,000) and 5 other roommates. An emergency living expense account is also available for those hard times.

Get a quote for your household now! Visit us in the office or give us a call if you would like to contact our representative or have anymore questions about your renting options.

Our Blog also hosts a direct link to our E-renter plan for the Verandas! Look for the icon on the right side of the page!

HEY SCAVENGER HUNT PLAYERS!!!

So you know that we had to make the game fair for everyone that was involved.

Teams of 3 people had to be able to have the same playing field and difficulty of teams with 5 people!

With that being said, we have individual kids who are interested in playing as well as smaller teams, who are interested in joining up with other smaller teams!

IF YOU HAVE A TEAM OF 3:

1. Come to the Leasing office by 6PM today!

2. Request to add more individuals from our list of single players or express interest in joining with someone else’s team tomorrow!

THE REWARD: Your team gets to knock 5 tasks and 5 items off your designated list tomorrow!!!

REMEMBER: Your Clues will be posted here at 9AM Tomorrow. You will have to COME TO THIS SITE to get your clues!  We won’t be handing them out, so make sure your team is together and ready to get hunting!!!

For more information, stop by the office or contact Yasmin at 408-257-9941.

School starts soon, and before it does, we have this last summer activity that’s not only going to be unforgettably fun and competitive, but VERY rewarding!

Get into teams of 5 (get your friends from outside of  the Verandas too);  and sign up in the Leasing Office for our Summer Scavenger Hunt! So far, we have 3 teams and counting! You too can get into the action if you register by Friday August 20th at 6PM!

The team that wins will be receiving 5 tickets to Great America!

RULES

-          Duration – 9 AM – 6 PM. You have all day to complete!

-          Teams must have at least 3, no more that 5, and can have one guest outside of apartment complex.

REQUIREMENTS:

o   Must have camera that can take lots of pictures and videos

o   A backpack to carry items

If they don’t have a camera, backpack (or something to carry) they won’t be able to play.

Stay  tuned for more details…Subject to Change

THE GAME

We’re taking a turn in suspense–instead of having clues delivered to our resident teams, individuals will have to check this blog site on Saturday Morning at 9AM for the posted clues! It wouldn’t be a scavenger hunt if you didn’t have to search now would it?

When you’ve retrieved them, get on your way to finding the clues with your team! You will then report back to the Verandas Leasing Office when you’ve got it figured out!!! You will have to beat the other teams and beat the time (12noon) as well.

Check our Facebook page for notifications on updated information that will be posted here on the blog!

Have you heard of Vampire Power? No, it has nothing to do with blood-sucking movie characters, but has more to do with phones, chargers and a high energy bill. Also know as phantom load, Vampire Power, is energy being sucked of your wall sockets my accessories, such as, cell phone chargers—even when your phones not plugged in to it. Believe it or not your charger can use 9-10 watts of energy per day if it’s charging nothing. The high electric bill is ringing back in your head now, I’m sure…

Chargers are typically equipped with a sensor to determine when a device is attached, but in many cases that sensor has to be powered by electricity in order to work [1]

Thanks to AT&T who recently released the ZERO charger, a USB powerless accessory, we can now charge cell phones and USB enabled electronics with 0 wattage. The charger is completely efficient when not in use and works off 5 volts and 1 amp.

Buy the ZERO charger or any ZERO USB cables now and get 40% off purchase price (only good for a limited time).

FAQs…

As an energy conscious community, we think this is something our Verandas residents can use to cut back as cell phone/iPod/computer charges are 5-10% of all our energy bills.

Source-Earth911.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• Meet Phantom Power: The Real Vampires Around You (socyberty.com)

The 24^th installment of the most popular “stuck-to-your-couch-for-3-days” game has hit stores! You don’t have to wonder, because everyone knows its Madden 11!!! Almost at the quarter century mark, many ages and people alike, waited anxiously for the time mark to hit so they could be the first to pre-order and get their hands on the classic game.

The 2011 game of Madden is sick—cancel all your plans because you’re not going to want to get up from the couch OR give up the controller.

The game this year is too realistic and it’s due to the new aesthetic of the game:

–Better Game Controls (no more mashing on the L2/R2 buttons to make your QB go faster…yes there’s a few who believed that would work)

"It's More Than Just A Game"

–Quicker Game Times (friendly bets and competitions are greatly recommended with this feature…besides your lady wont’ be so annoyed if she has to wait for you to finish “one more game” before you guys can head to dinner)

– Streamline Play Calling

Look forward to playing with six top 99 overall rating players; they perform just as good in the game as they do in real life! Quick pick team maybe!

Look for the game cover with Drew Bees, available on PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox (360) at one of these local GameStops:

20735 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA‎ – (408) 996-0549‎

3580 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, California‎ – (408) 261-9011‎

322 West El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA‎ – (408) 735-1619‎

Related articles by Zemanta

• “Madden NFL 11″ Launches on Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, iPhone and iPad (mashable.com)

Did you miss the Dairy Queen Miracle Treat Day yesterday? Tons of people took a little ice-cold treat break to help support DQ and their philanthropy to Children’s Miracle Network. While I paid my debts with a DQ treat, everyone that came into Dairy Queen yesterday, ordered one of the infamous blizzards–$1 or more went straight to the proceeds.

They have raised over $81 million dollars since their commitment to help injured and sick children.

That alone made my Blizzard melt for National Treat Day yesterday. The day may have gone, but it’s not too late to treat yourself to some cool today (especially with the heat index) and treat a young child in the process.

Two locations close to Cupertino, CA are accepting donations for the Children’s Network  in-store:

Dairy Queen- 500 Showers Drive Mountain View CA (650) 941-1371

Dairy Queen- 2255 Winchester Blvd Campbell CA ( 408) 866 2390

To Go or Not To Go—That is the question! Hopefully everyone’s answer will be the first choice! No matter how refined (or not) one thinks they are, everyone has come across a work of Shakespeare’s. When we were in school, we read it, made plays off it and even scene modern movies that have been inspired by it.

The most popular of course is Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, but there’s other great works that sometimes aren’t as publicized.

Take advantage of Cupertino’s August event, “Shakespeare in the Park” for a modern depiction of the play “ Two Gentlemen of Verona,” put on my San Francisco Shakespeare Festival.

The story is about two best friends who are gentlemen of Verona—but when youthful love comes in the air, jealously, lust, betrayal and sneaky cheating takes over. Women go through hoops to win men back and men sneakily plan to steal the women that are trying to win the other man…(this should have been the play where “Oh what a tangled web we weave” took precedence)….

“With three outrageous outlaws, a misbehaving dog, and fun 60’s tunes in the mix, Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona a zany comic caper that’s sure to delight the whole family.” [1]

The show plays on August 14^th 2010 at 7:30PM. The event takes place at Memorial Park Amphitheater and is completely free for peasants and paupers (okay maybe we’re getting a little too Shakespreary).

I love a Shakespeare play, how about you?

Steve Carell is laughing his way to the box office this summer’s hottest blockbusters. He’s holding the torch with the ridiculously funny “Despicable Me” so let’[s hope he doesn’t ruin his happy streak with Dinner for Schmucks.

If you’ve followed Carell in the TV comedy, The Office, then you’d probably imagine, by the nature of the name of the film, that there will be lots of “dry-humor-that’s-so-incredibly-stupid-it-makes-you-pee-your-pants” kind of scenes.

We’re basing our decision on the comparison to Carell’s first hit blockbuster “40-Year-Old Virgin.” If  Dinner for Schmucks is anything close to the shenanigans of  “Andy Stitzer,” then the movie may be worth your 110 minutes!

Let’s not forget Hollywood favorite Paul Rudd, who co-stars alongside Carell. His character, Tim plays the static role who ends up in a spiral of misfortune on behalf of Barry, (Carell’s Character).

For a schmuck of a laugh I can picture seeing these two on the silver screen. Do any of our residents feel like it’ll be a weekend pick?

NOW PLAYING: “S” for Slapstick Comedy

Click your heels three times and say “There’s no place like home”… Where will you be?

As much as we want you to say that you’d be here at the Verandas, the answer that will suffice is Memorial Park Amphitheater.

Why? Of course, to watch The Wizard of Oz! Cupertino’s free summer series, Cinema at Sundown, features movies that families can all relate to.

For sure the 1939 version of the film will be something all members of the family can remember. Many a dance recital, musical, or even Halloween costume have drawn inspiration from the movie.

Many kids may have seen more modern versions of the movie, but the original story of Dorothy, Todo and her misfortuned friends began with actress Judy Garland and cast.

Grab a blanket, follow the Yellow Brick Road and end up at Memorial Park, this Thursday July 29^th at 8:30PM.

Next Page »