Cat Sitting

We are cat sitting for our friends' cat. Her name is Butterscotch. Butterscotch had lost her right hind leg from an accident. To make the story short...Butterscotch was actually being cared for by my mom's friend. And since that friend was moving out of town, she was looking for a new home for Butterscotch. My parents were going to take her in, but our old cat, Mau, who's now gone to kitty heaven couldn't bear the sight of another cat. So I asked my friends if they were interested since their cat just passed away. Now being the Godmom (ha ha), she's now under great care while my friends are away for a week. Here is a pic of her. She's so chubby...

Black Friday

This Black Friday isn't that Black Friday (Friday the 13th)! I am talking about the Friday right after Thanksgiving. Here in the US, we call it Black Friday. It's supposed to be the craziest and busiest shopping day in the entire year. Lots of stores open early to attract holiday shoppers and most of everything would be on sales. People line up before the stores are open at 5am (some even open late on Thursday for the same purpose)! By 5:15am Friday, the great bargains (mostly large items including TV's, computers...) will all be gone.

Every year, we check what'd be available to buy from each store. Even plan our route to see which store to go first...but when the sun rises...we cover our heads in our warm blanket...and say to ourselves...next year...maybe next year...

Lost & Not Found

Has anyone seen my car key??? I lost it with my remote control... It comes with a light blue strap that has "Doraemon" on it...if seen, please contact me. :'(

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! Although I am not 100% sure what we are celebrating for (something about the pilgrams)...I am just happy that I have today and tomorrow off. And instead of turkey, we had steak tonight. ;) So the turkey should thank us really.

Playstation 3

After a long wait (or so they all said), the Playstation 3 was finally released here in the US/Canada last Friday (Nov 17th) at 12:00. Thousands of people waited on line for days in the cold and rain just to get their hands on one. For gamers, the Playstation 3 seems to be the best thing ever. And it's worth every penny and every second spent (but don't they say it every time when a company brings out a new video game console???). For others, the Playstation 3 is the fast pass to some quick cash. The 60GB version, retailed at US$599 (20GB at US$499), were bid up to as much as US$2800 on eBay last week. But if only these people have a bit of patient...the price has already dropped to around $1000 this week which includes free shipping, a free controller and a free game. And we all know, in a year or so, there would be a Playstation 4, XBOX 720, WII 2, etc... No one would wanna be seen with a Playstation 3 then...

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving (Thursday the 23rd) is coming up. I got both Thursday and Friday off. Trying to see if there is any "last last last min deal" for us to have a getaway. Flying is so expensive now. Although sometimes the tickets are cheap, after adding the government taxes and fees, plus the 9/11 security fee and the fuel surcharge, the price could double from what you are original quoted. Luckily the price for gasoline has gone down some, so it's easier on people's wallets.

My family doesn't celerbrate Thanksgiving. We still look at it as a holiday and get together for a "nicer meal". The must have for Thanksgiving -- turkey -- is too big for us, so usually we use chicken as a substitute. Ha ha. What's fun about Thanksgiving besides getting two days off is Black Friday: The day after Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday). That's when a lot of the stores get huge Holiday sales. It's said to be the WORST day to shop because prices are dropped and everyone goes to get their Christmas shopping done. I would try to avoid the mall unless I wanna feel festive and squashed.

Kitchen Cabinets

Woohooo, we finally ordered the kitchen cabinets today. We'll have A LOT OF fun assembling them (thanks to them being IKEA). There are over 100 packages. I will just have to imagine them as Christmas presents when opening them, that'll make it more enjoyable. Ha ha.

Got some meatballs from IKEA. I just love their meatballs. They are also now serving soft ice-cream. $1 a cone. I just love IKEA if only their check out lines are shorter. They are as long as the Great Wall of China. It's scary!

Well, in a couple weeks time, we'll be going back for a sofa bed, a drawer chest, a bathroom vanity, some handles...

Has anyone seen my mind?

I think I have lost it!! :'( My memory is getting worse by the second, sometimes I really think if my head isn't attached to my neck, I'd have lost it as well.

Case #1:
Yesterday afternoon, my dad called me and told him there would be no dinner at home as he and my mom were going out to dinner. I was so busy and my boss was sitting around, I didn't call Gary immediately. Then after work, I went to pick up some photos for my parents, then headed home. When I went into the house, it was empty and I was like "what the...?" Then I remembered I wasn't supposed to be going home for dinner! :S

Case #2:
A couple weeks ago, I got some S'mores figurines for my friend. Since we both o ordered something from the UK, so I was waiting for the parcel to come before sending her everything to save on postage. The parcel from the UK finally arrived and the S'mores figurines were nowhere to be found. I remember putting them away separately from mine, but I couldn't find them anywhere!? The worst was that I didn't even remember whether I had sent them out. She of course has never gotten them...but isn't it scary that I even have doubts about whether I had actually sent them off and they just got lost in the mail. :O

Case #3:
Whenever Gary takes the express bus, I can pick him up at the stop which is only a couple blocks away from the house. But when Gary takes the subway home, which he usually does, he transfers to the bus and in that case, I wouldn't pick him up as the stop is far and out of my way. Anyways, today after work, he told me he was taking the express bus. I asked him if he needed me to pick him up and he said he'd call me later. Later I got home and was talking with my family in the living room. Gary called and asked where I was; I told him I was home. He asked again and I repeated. Then after I hung up (thinking he was going to transfer to the bus), I suddenly remembered he was taking the express bus and he's only blocks away and probably expecting me to pick him up. I totally forgot about that. :'(

So if you have seen my mind, please contact me. I have simply just lost it.

Maldives

We'll be going back to Hong Kong in Jan. While we are there, we'll take 6 days (4 nights) to visit Maldives. My parents have gone long time ago and I have only heard good things about the place. We have finally booked our trip and we'll be visit Kani (Kanifinolhu). The island is exclusive to the resort we are staying at. I have asked for a lagoon suite (the one over the water) that's furthest from land. So we will be away from all the noises at night.

LET'S sheetROCK & paintROLL

The stop order has been lifted. I hope they'll go full force working on the inside of the house. The contractor said it'll take a month! Maybe it's possible to be done by Christmas. But who knows? He said it'd be done in 2 1/2 months. Ha ha.

Got 5 free McDonald's breakfast sandwich coupons from the McD Monopoly game. Today is the last day and my friend Will and I just used two. We are going to get the other three in half an hour. So he could have them for lucnh. ROFL

I love bargains!

Been getting some bargains around town. Old Navy has such a great deal. All sale items receive an additional 50% off. Babysuits are 98 cents each (some 48 cents). I got a couple of T-shirts for $3.50 each! Have raided three of them already. Hope to hit another one tomorrow.

Printed a coupon (30% off) for Aeropostale. Went to the store and a lot of their items were already 50% off original price. Saw a jacket that's marked down to $39.99, so got it for $28. Saw another plaid one which I wasn't sure if I should get it since I wasn't planning on getting two jackets. Gary told me just to take it to the register to see how much it was. Turned out that it was only $24.99, so got it for $17.49. Woohoo! I just love bargains!

Then a friend told me about a coupon code for a free 8x10 print from Walgreens. I placed an order of a polar bear pic that I took when we went to the Bronx Zoo a couple weeks ago. You just can't beat anything that's free.

Besides all the great deals, we saw The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D this afternoon. I saw it when it first came out, but I don't remember anything about it. I think it's better than the Corspe Bride.

Lucky Friday

This morning when I got back to the office, I was told that our computers couldn't connect to the server. Therefore we couldn't access any of our files. My friend and I had no clue how to fix it (so did our boss) and we were not going to even attempt for good reasons. ;)

I spent the whole morning cleaning my desk. Threw away two bags of old drawings. Managed to make a couple of phone calls before lunch time arrived. Then the so-called-All-In-One-office manager-Sun-of-the-boss came back, I could see the sparkles in my boss' eyes. They were filled with hope, joy, faith...Unfortunately (fortunately?) he failed him... So we were told to go home at 1:30pm. Woohoo!!!

It'd be nice if the server stay "disconnected" for a couple more days. :D

House

Time for some updates on the house... I spoke with the contractor yesterday and he said as soon as the stop order is lifted, it'd be a month before we could move in. I am not holding my breath though as I don't wanna get all excited and also don't wanna pressure him to finish. There are still a lot left to do. The whole interior (it's only wired and "piped"), the concrete porches, the deck in the back... So much to do, but if they wanna work on it, they can really work fast. I am hoping to move in before Christmas... One can only hope, right?

Last night when going home, the flooding was soooo severe they closed a couple of parkways. Of course the one I used was one of them. I was forced to take the local streets and gosh! Was I lost? I had NO IDEA where I was and where I was heading. With the rain still coming down, traffic, lack of road signs in a small town, I was driving around in Mt. Vernon for 45 mins without knowing whether I would get out of the dark! But finally, I saw the sign!

Yep, the sign of Interstate 95!

A new investment...

Forget about real estate, germ stones, stocks & bonds... I believe everyone needs to invest on a boat or a raft or a plank or a lifesaver or the like. It's been raining non stop here. With floodings everywhere every time it rains, cars are forced to operate like boats crossing the temporary rivers and streams. Woohoo to SUVs!

Excuses...

I have been giving myself an excuse X 10 not to write in this blog everyday... Nothing interesting has happened, too tired... But the main reason is: I cannot type in Chinese. Since we've packed away our Chinese writing pad (another excuse)...I have been typing the English words in an on line dictionary and copy/pasting the Chinese characters to compose my previous posts. Yes. Hard work! Slow and stupid too. So to see if I will be more persistant in writing, it's time to make changes. After all, I did keep a diary for 7 years... So I am not going to give up and just admit I am lazy. :p

Anyways, I have just received an email consisting a link to some 語文基準試試題, they are quite hard for someone who's left Hong Kong for so long (yet another excuse). I only scored 70% on both tests. If you have time, try it and let me know what you get?

http://perception.cityu.edu.hk/qm/perception.dll?name=scope&password=guest&sessionfiltered=4296264976783701