Spring is Here

It's a dreary, rainy Monday morning. I don't like the rain much, but I welcome it b/c we need it. I also remember the phrase "April showers bring May flowers" since childhood, so I am hopeful that there will be more sunny days to enjoy next month.

I can't help but be amazed at the constantly changing landscape in our neighborhood... or even in our very own backyard. I took this picture two weeks ago of the tree in the back of our house. I looked out the window this morning, and saw that the very same tree is now bare of any signs of pink, replaced by leaves that will stay until winter hits at the end of the year.

I also took a picture of the trees on our street, just to capture how colorful (or pink, rather) it gets in April. The nice pretty flowers will stay on the trees for another week or so before they get blown away by the wind, not to return until the following year. This was taken at about 7am on Friday morning, on our way to the bus stop. You could see M's and my shadow on the ground.

Playing Hooky with SW

It was nice taking the day off to hang out with SW on Friday, and we picked such a perfect day to do it too. The time just flew by so fast that we didn't even have to give our original concern of not having enough things to do a second thought. The day started off a little later than we had planned, since SW was suffering from major allergies and had to stop by her aunt's office (who's a doctor) to pick up some medicine. We had breakfast at New South Wind Coffee Shop on Division Street, then ventured off to a jewelry store in Chinatown to look at some diamonds - not that any of us could afford anything these days, with the price of precious stones and metals just skyrocketing. Then after that, we walked down to the Seaport and sat by the pier for a while, taking in the view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the green murky water in front of us (ahh... gotta love that polluted East River). We then made our way to Carmines Seafood Restaurant (located at the seaport, with no relation to Carmines in midtown). Unfortunately, they didn't have the scungilli she usually orders, so she had to pick something else off the menu, and it turned out tasting bland. Our entrees also came with a salad, and when she got to the bottom of it, she found a dead fly in the midst of the oil and vinegar. Needless to say, the meal was disappointing, but at least she didn't get charged for it, and neither of us got sick from the food.

After lunch, we took the 4 train up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and walked around. There was an exhibit on the rooftop of Jeff Koons' work. This one's called the balloon dog (for obvious reasons)... very cute:

And this next one is called Coloring Book. SW said that if you look closely, you should be able to see Winnie the Pooh and even Piglet on it, but I don't have the artistic eye to see it:

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Met, which wasn't even that long (maybe about 2 hours), before I had to head down to Port Authority to meet M for our long bus ride home. It was great being out of the office, catching up with SW, revisiting the sights of Manhattan that I've missed so much, and just taking in the warmth of the sunshine before the clouds took over the next day. We should all play hooky once in a while... good reminder to enjoy the simple things in life that we too often take for granted.

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. In my mind though, every day should be earth day. Why dedicate only one day, or one week, out of the entire year to go green? We should constantly be thinking of ways to protect the environment. Here are some things we can institute into our lives now:

• For you drivers out there, keep your tires inflated and your cars tuned up. No need to waste gas warming up in the winter time - today's vehicles don't need it.
• Go paperless. Pay your bills online... will also save you the postage stamps.
• Ask to be removed from junk mailing lists. According to greendimes.com, we use 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water to produce junk mail for just one year... and it's not even mail we want to get!
• Turn off your lights when leaving the room... will also help you save in your electricity bill.
• Don't run your dishwasher half-full. Make sure you have a full load before running it (and the same goes for washing machine).
• When you're not using the tap (i.e., while brushing your teeth, shaving, washing dishes, etc), turn the water off; don't keep it running. You can save up to 8 gallons of water a day simply by turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and at night.
• Use (and re-use) a ceramic mug at work instead of your Company's styrofoam or paper cups.
• Save paper - print on both sides. The US alone uses 4 million tons of copy paper annually, about 27 pounds per person. Even with recycling, a considerable amount of paper ends up in the landfills.
• Turn off your computer, printer, and desk lamp when leaving work.
• This sounds silly, but use a manual can opener instead of an electric one (for you lazy folks out there). Electric can openers require more resources to build and take up more space in landfills. Typical 175-watt brands use .01 to .18 kWh per month. That doesn't sound like much, but if every American used one, that would be 36 to 648 million kWh of power, costing us $36 million.
• Remember to recycle! It doesn't take a lot of effort to separate out your garbage, and it goes a long way to help protect the environment.

Check out http://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php for more ways on how to go green.

Back To The Grind

Mondays are always tough for me - no matter how busy or how boring the past weekend was. I dread getting up in the mornings and facing the reality that a new work week has started. And apparently, this morning, it was tough for M as well, since he woke up late and I had to drive him to the bus terminal. Despite it being Passover today and people supposedly off from work, there were a lot of cars on the road on the way to the bus terminal. Good thing M told me to take a detour and go a longer route, otherwise who knows how long we would've been stuck there. I remember one time, we were stuck for over an hour - and it's only about 7 miles between our home and the bus terminal.

This past weekend was neither busy nor boring. I drove out to NY on Friday night - heard last minute that my uncle from CA was in town with his wife (she had some conference to attend), and the family was having dinner with them in Chinatown. My dad had originally convinced me to come out Saturday to spend time with them, but since M was already working in the city, and it was easier to find parking on a Friday evening than Saturday morning, I figured we might as well just come out for dinner Friday instead. And surprisingly, traffic was pretty smooth all the way to the Holland Tunnel. We went to Congee Village on Allen Street, and waited probably an hour to get seated. I can't believe how crowded it is there - and it's not even as if the food is particularly good; it's just regular Chinese food. My 3-year old nephew was the highlight at the dinner table. It's amazing watching his reaction to the things he likes/ dislikes - the different facial expressions he lets out are truly priceless. He was such a happy toddler playing with my uncle - merely using a quarter and some tea cups from the restaurant. So much money is spent on toys these days, when hours of entertainment can be had from something so simple.

On Saturday, M and I had to bring Dr. X in for an oil change. We were promised a complimentary oil change by the General Manager when we first got the car (too long of a story to get into now), so M complained and they honored the request. It was nice to have our car serviced and not have to pay for it. Plus, they gave her a car wash and vacuumed the inside. Afterwards, we went to run some other errands, including grocery shopping - which we haven't done in weeks. I can't remember our refrigerator ever looking as full as it does now. M spent the rest of the afternoon outside doing landscaping (what a guy!), while I took a nice afternoon nap and then made dinner. We had beef stew that night, with carrots, potatoes, onions, and daikon. That was the first time I added daikon to stew, and it turned out really good (but I'm a fan of the vegetable, so I probably would've liked it regardless). M's having leftover stew for lunch today, and we still have enough to eat for dinner tonight.

M had to go to work on Sunday, so he left right after church service. I stayed until after Sunday School and choir practice, then took the train up to 34th Street and roamed the streets in my 3-inch stiletto boots while waiting for him. If I had known I was going to be walking so much, I would've opted for more comfortable shoes. I even went shopping in hopes of finding a pair of comfortable shoes I could change into, but everything was too expensive (or I was too cheap), so my feet paid for it. Then we had dinner with SC (now SG) and her hubby that night at Nyonya Malaysian Restaurant. It was great catching up with the newlyweds. I must make it a point to meet up with old friends more often. It's just tough with every weekend flying by so fast... and here we are again, back to the grind.

Enjoy A Day Off

Today is such a beautiful day that I want nothing more than to play hooky and spend the afternoon wandering outdoors, breathing in the smell of freshly cut grass, soaking in some sun, and bottom line - not being stuck indoors working... especially after reading KF's blog on how she took the day off yesterday and just spent it walking around Queens. But instead, here I am, staring at the computer screen, typing away at this blog while reluctantly doing some user acceptance testing on a system scheduled to go live next month (system is extremely slow... must multi-task).

On the bright side, I am taking next Friday off to spend with SW. No concrete plans yet, but we might hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I haven't been to in ages, and just walk around the city - something else I haven't done in ages. She told me they raised the admission price to $20 - I can't believe how expensive it is now! When I use to go there for required school projects, I remember the admission fee being a donation, where you can give as much (or as little) as you want. Being the poor student I was, barely old enough to work (legally), I use to just give 25 or 50 cents, eventually working my way to giving $1 by the time I was in high school. Ironically, when I graduated college and started working full-time, I no longer had to pay any admission fee to the Met since my company always offered free admission. And that is the case to this very day (although I don't take advantage of it as often as I should). In any event, that's something to look forward to next week. Hopefully the weather holds up. However, getting stuck in morning rush-hour traffic is the last thing I want, so I'll probably suck it up and pay $20 to take the bus out with M that day. It'll be kind of cool to commute into NY together. At least that way, it'll guarantee he doesn't get stuck sitting next to some fat or stinky person. =P

The temperature is 70 degrees today, and heard it's going up to 78 tomorrow. I love it! I'm so glad spring is finally here! Hope you all get a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather outside!

Tax Day

Taxes are due today... hope you all got yours done in time (or at least had an extension filed). M and I waited until the last minute to finish ours up. We started it weeks ago, but between our laziness and getting sick, we didn't get around to finalizing the numbers until Sunday night. I printed out the forms yesterday and M will make copies and mail them out today. Net of the refund we're getting back from the Federal and NJ state, unfortunately we still have to dish out some cash for NY state. Another reason why it sucks for M to work in New York (aside from his long and expensive commute). Note to self: must remind M to look for a new job!

Everything is so accessible via the Internet these days - you can just look something up in a minute's time instead of flipping through hundreds of pages of instructions. However, despite the advances in technology, the IRS still wastes billions and billions of paper printing out tax forms and instructions each year. What a way to kill the environment. And with any new rules or regulations that come out, it seems like they take that opportunity to make everything sound more convoluted. Here are some interesting tidbits:

• Number of words in the Declaration of Independence: 1328
• Number of words in the US Constitution: 4,400
• Number of words in the Bible (King James version): 783,137
• Number of words in the IRS tax forms and instructions: over 7 million

And here's a Snapple "Real Fact" #128: Dragonfiles have six legs but cannot walk.

Bird's Nest

For some reason, birds love building nests around our property. Last year, the birds claimed one of the trees in our backyard for nesting. That left for great entertainment when friends came over for a barbecue. Who knew people could get so engrossed over a bird nesting its eggs? I was amused just watching my friends crowd around the tree, fingers pointing and eyes peering up at the nest as they take in the wonders of nature. They didn't stay long enough to watch the egg hatch, but once it did, the nest was soon abandoned.

This year, we found another nest at the front of the house, up on top of a wreath we have hung on the wall near our front door. For the past couple of weeks, I'd see the bird in the nest when I go out to pick up the mail, and more often than not, the bird gets scared and flies away. M says the same thing when he leaves for work in the mornings (most other times, we'd leave through the garage, so it wouldn't be a problem). Then on Saturday, I saw a small broken egg shell on the ground near the bird's nest. With the air duct cleaning crew coming in and out of the house, they must have scared away the bird, who may have accidentally kicked its own egg out of the nest. The poor thing! M got the ladder, peered into the nest, and saw that there was one egg left. So now we have to be more careful coming in and out of the house through the front door. When M went out the front door this morning, he saw the bird in the nest, and it actually didn't fly away. The bird probably realizes that it needs to keep the egg warm and couldn't leave. M had to tiptoe his way out to the driveway. We don't want any more casualties, so we may resort to using the garage door until the egg hatches. I just hope the bird doesn't get scared when the mailman comes around with the mail. Ahh... the things we experience living in the burbs...

Spring Cleaning

This past Saturday was dedicated to spring cleaning - and we didn't even plan it that way. We hired some guys to come clean our air duct and didn't realize how much dust was festering inside those walls. It was quite nasty - seeing all those dust balls flying into the air while the guy used this vacuum thingy to blow all the air down the chute. There were no panel openings in the duct, so apparently, these things have never been cleaned since they were put in. We've been breathing in dust and other germs building in our ducts for the past 40 years. Fun stuff. Maybe that's why M gets sick so often (and why it's finally hit me). It was not cheap either - the "$99 special" they advertised turned out to be over $300. Of course, they took this opportunity to add on all these extra 'amenities' that probably wasn't necessary, but at this point, you're too tired to argue over something you did not ask for but that they did anyway.

When they were done, we had to clean up their mess, where all the dust bunnies were left on our carpet, walls, floors. I did all the vacuuming and M cleaned the floors. Then the sprinkler guys came, so M went out to watch them turn on our sprinklers and check everything. One of our pipes underneath the sidewalk is broken, so that's going to cost us another couple of hundred bucks to fix. They also raised the price to turn on our sprinklers, so that was another $100 down the drain. I tell ya... the cost of owning a home can be quite painful.

Then in the afternoon, M was out in the back pulling out weeds and other unwanted matters growing out of control while I stayed indoors trying to nurse my cold. That pretty much took us to the end of the day. Unfortunately, we didn't get to cleaning our master bathroom (which hasn't been used since our main bathroom was fully renovated, so it's quite gross in there), but I suppose there's always next weekend. At least we're off to a productive start!

Sickly Me

Eghh.... it's a good thing I didn't get on that flight to Dallas yesterday, otherwise I probably would have been infecting everyone sitting near me with my cold. I don't know what happened, but I just got progressively more and more sick yesterday. Maybe it was the staying home that did it. Maybe being around sick people has finally caught up to me. M thinks he passed it on to me, but I doubt it... if I was going to get sick from him, I would've gotten it long before now. All I know is that I'm feeling miserable today. I woke up with a major headache, felt achy all over, and my nose is all congested. I kept blowing it this morning, and stuff wouldn't stop coming out. I can't believe how much mucus could be trapped in there! Hopefully this will pass. If not, I'll have to leave home early to get some rest. At least I don't have a fever... yet. The weather's getting warmer now; I can't believe I'm getting sick.

AA Flights Canceled

M and I were watching the news last night, and saw that a bunch of AA flights were cancelled due to wiring issues on their MD-80 fleet (you can read about it on Yahoo news). I told M that happened to my coworker, but I checked my flight earlier that day and it was still scheduled to depart on time. Then this morning, I logged in, hoping to check-in to my flight online. That was when I noticed I was no longer assigned a seat on my departing flight, and thus, it didn't allow me to check-in. I thought that with all the cancellations they had, additional passengers were put on this flight, so they gave my seat up. Just to be sure, I called up AA. I couldn't get through for the first five times or so. When I finally did get through long enough to put in my frequent flyer number, I was told by the electronic voice that my flight was canceled. No other information offered... just that my flight was canceled and agents were busy assisting other customers. Before I had a chance to select any other option, I was rudely hung up on... and the same thing happened the following few times I called. I finally resorted to calling CWT, our company's travel agent. After being put on hold for about 20 minutes, I was able to talk to an agent who was not surprised about the call (she's probably been fielding canceled AA flights all morning!). She said my only alternative was to cancel this flight, ask for a refund back, and try to book a new reservation with another airline. The only flight available was on Continental leaving later this afternoon, costing close to $1000. I couldn't justify paying that much for a flight just to attend a one-day meeting, especially since I didn't even have a huge role in the meeting, so I told her to just cancel the flight as well as my hotel reservation. I then called up my boss and explained the situation to her, and told her that my other coworker whose flight also got cancelled, did book the $1000 Continental flight (supposedly, he received "approval" when I spoke to him, though I don't know whose approval he got, since my boss didn't know about it). My boss said that if I really wanted to go, I could, but I told her I didn't think it was worth it. She agreed, and told me to just work from home today. So here I am... being very productive too... aside from this blogging. =P

Next Vacation Planning

We are eight days into the second quarter of the year... time to plan for our next vacation =). Now that most of my quarterly deliverables are done and over with, that leaves some spare time for researching on our next trip. The next one will be a small weekend getaway for our third wedding anniversary. We haven't decided on the location yet, but M received a Yankees booklet in the mail last night, and in it listed the minor league schedule, so we were toying with the idea of going to a AAA game in Scranton, and maybe spending the weekend in the Poconos or something. It'll be cool to see the players up front, especially the ones who have the potential to eventually make it to the major leagues. If not, the finger lakes region is always an option. We already went to Skaneateles our first year... we'd have to find another small town to venture off to this time.

Today was one of the rare occasions where I actually got to talk to M during working hours. He just spoke to his friend who is currently working in Hong Kong right now. That got me thinking... it's been over three years since I've been to Asia... maybe we should pay his friend a visit. It's suppose to be M's turn to pick the location for our next trip, but I know he's not going to, so I looked up some flight prices to Hong Kong for late August/ early September, and found a direct flight on Continental for about $850. It's not terribly cheap, but not totally unreasonable either. If the price doesn't go up by the time we actually make up our minds (of course, that could be months from now), I think we might just end up going there! We'll have to enlist his friend in helping us plan a 4-5 day excursion outside of Hong Kong... maybe Vietnam or Thailand. Hey, if anyone has any suggestions for our next vacation spot, feel free to add a comment!

In the more immediate future... I have to pack when I get home tonight. It just dawned on me that I'm leaving for Dallas tomorrow when I received the automated e-mail from AA telling me to check in for my flight. I'm only going for a day... attending a scorecard meeting with one of our wholesalers... will be back Thursday night. I spend more time traveling than anything else, but it's good to match the face to the name for this guy I'm in contact with all the time. Plus, it's two days away from the office. And that's two days less the external auditors have to bother me.

Early Rise on a Saturday Morning

It's not even 8am on a Saturday morning yet. I'd normally still be lying in bed, hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock every 10 minutes, unwilling to get out of this safe haven. But for the past couple of nights, I haven't been sleeping very well. This morning, I woke up with a million thoughts running through my head, mostly about this series of career workshops that my church is hosting (and which I am organizing), so I decided to get out of bed and be productive about it. I started putting together an agenda for our meeting this Sunday, and also a quick survey form for people to fill out to see how effective the workshops are. Now that I'm done, I am sitting here wide awake.

The other reason for my insomnia is that M has been sick... and I mean very sick... not just a common cold you get one day that resolves itself the next. He hasn't been to work this entire week. He hasn't been sleeping well either, so when he gets up, moves around, or snores, that wakes me up too. M went to the doctor on Tuesday, and they prescribed him some antibiotics, but then he got a fever that night, and the next night, and the day after that. He's been drowning himself in ibuprofen, but the fever just keeps returning. The doctors are useless when he calls... they keep trying to prescribe him something else that doesn't even match his symptoms - and that's when they actually call him back. He's been so miserable, and I feel so helpless b/c I can't really do anything for him. He says he's better when I asked how he felt this morning, but I just hope the fever doesn't return.