Who's helping me then?

While waiting for the Veteran's parade, I went over to Amazon to inquire about our broken Amazon Echo. I was chatting with a rep and asked if I can get my device fixed. 

He asked me standard questions and information regarding my order. Only thing was, a part of the conversation went kinda bit frustrating and funny at the same time. 

Maybe upon realizing his mistake. I was then referred to another department. My device was off warranty but they did give me a 15% discount towards a purchase for another Amazon device. 

Even with a faulty item, #Amazon was still able to deliver. He did say too that "That's part of Amazon's fulfillment". 

Pirates vs Zombies

Our costumes this year were easy. Happy wanted to be a pirate and Adi for some reason wanted to be a Target employee. His reason: because they carry walkie-talkies.



However, we did not want it to be too simple!  So added a twist and made him to be a zombie... from Target! Anna and I wanted to step into the dressing part too since it was an easy DIY costume. We even came up with a back story for him on how he became a zombie.



We did our trick or treating by Mater Dei's parking lot where they had "Trunk or Treat" event going. There were activities and tons of kids. And it was just walking distance from our house so we did not even have to go far.







On our way home, the kids decided to the do the real trick or treat: knocking on everyone's door in our neighborhood. Now this was their first time, and even ours. We weren't even expecting that most houses would have candies.

It took us about less than 2 hours to get things done and by then it was already dark outside/  To our surprise in that short time, their bags were filled out all the way to the brim all from our tiny neighborhood. They even handed out their own candies to other kids that they passed along the way.



And when we got home, we had to let them know that 80% of their candies will be given out. They were happy since they both know it was too much candies and they don't get to eat much, too, anyway.  Like I always say, it's the act and feeling of having earned all these candies that satisfies them. Not having to eat and over indulge in the sweetness.

No more long drives

Din Tai Fung has come to San Diego

 Anna saw this on Facebook and immediately made reservations. We would drive all the way to Irvine just to eat there.



These are one of those places we eat at. A bit pricey and has small servings. By small serving means normal in Asian standards. Were we get to finish all the food we ordered and rarely taking some left overs home.

Only thing that would suck is, by October, La Jolla UTC would start charging for parking, which pissed a lot of customers.

Im starting to loose faith in you......LG

When we bought our house a few years back. LG was our first choice in all our appliances. I've had a good experience even before I was back in PI. 

It was a lil bit hard on the wallet having to buy just one brand, and it took us a while. We we're happy and satisfied. Until 2016 when the fridge broke down. It was only 4 years old back then, and the compressor and capacitor gave in. To make things worst, it was already off warranty. 

We then had to purchase an extended warranty which cost $399 for a year and that would cover from parts to labor. Took around 3 weeks to get it fixed. And during this time, we had to purchase a chest freezer from Insignia (a Best Buy brand).

And then a year later, our overhead microwave broke down. And to our surprise, it was only 3 years old and off warranty. But this time, it was not worth buying the extended warranty. This was very disappointing, considering that LG was supposed to be a very good brand.

A few days ago, the fridge starting to act up again. Ice started to melt inside the freezer. Overnight, it was dead. This sucks now, since the extended warranty has lapsed again. And upon reaching out to LG, they said they'll cover just the condenser and we have to pay for everything else through their authorized repair guys.

I then proceeded to call the repair shops, and the estimate they gave me was around $450-$600 fro everything and this already includes the free condenser. So I called LG and inquired if they would let me avail the extended warranty but lo and behold, the agent said that they don't offer that anymore.

And now my choices are either to have it fixed and might end up with another broken fridge or just buy a new one. I'm definitely choosing the latter. 

By now, I'm not loosing my faith, rather lost it and I/m not even gonna look back to buy any LG electronics in the future. It's just a waste that I had to resort to buying new stuff, when these things should last you at least 10 years. I paid good money, I expect quality.


Update January 2019: Was not expecting for LG to reach out to us through our website. They did contact us and made some arrangements.  I appreciate the effort and thankful that some big corporations still cares how their products affect consumers.

Quickie

A month ago, Archie told me he's heading to LA for a few days and we decided to meet up. Been a while since we saw each other.

We now have an excuse to head over to LA and eat. Do a few sight seeing on the side and enjoy the all day traffic (the last one was just sarcasm).



We're supposed to be there at around 9AM so we can get things done early, but we all know that's impossible since it's a Friday, and we're talking about LA. Traffic is just like air. It's everywhere. We picked him up and just decided to head on for lunch.



We got at Ook Kook at exactly 11:45AM before the crowd started showing up. For now, this is our go to place in LA when it comes to AYCE Korean bbq.

We now have to walk all that meat off our body, and went over to Staples center. We did the usual, looked around the stadium and took pics by the bronze statues. There's really nothing to do there so we head towards "The Walk of fame".



It was pretty warm that day. And by the time we're done taking pics around, it was already 5PM. we then had to drop Archie off and call it a day.



And yet, on our way back, we can't just head home empty handed. So we then decide to stop over by Portos. Hate going here. Every single time, we'd go over board and just end up buying boxes upon boxes of bread.



This day was filling, tiring, fun and sweaty. It was a good quickie.

Another reason to love Amazon

After watching The Greatest Showman a few weeks ago, both kids are now obsessed with its soundtrack. We have iTunes for our music library, unfortunately they'd rather listen to Alexa with our Echo devices. 

They've been listening to the tracks, but Alexa was only able to play samples and bits of the songs. Feeling bad, I felt that I should do something since music plays a big part in our household. 

We have Prime and I felt we're not maximizing the full extent of it. I discovered that there's Prime Music and that there's an IOS app. Upon downloading and logging onto our Amazon account, it showed me all the CD's I've purchased in the past years. And to my surprise, it gave me all the digital copies of them all!

I then bought a physical copy of The Greatest Showman soundtrack and was ecstatic to see the digital copy. But I was doing these all during my lunch break at work. I was bit frustrated since what I can do is very limited given that I am not home at the time.  

Come night time, the kids were so excited that they can now listen to every music of the soundtrack. Alexa opened new doors again. A huge array of music playlist. Songs that we listen to and some even comes with lyrics. Karaoke mode at the gym? We even set Alexa to play our playlist  to wake us up in the morning.

This maybe old news for a few, but there are still some out there, like me, are just missing so much. Smart homes are here to stay. And this would be another reason to love Amazon.

SDCC 2018: Day 1

First day of the Con. And I know it's gonna be brutal since I have both kiddos with me.

               

Jurassic World booth by Mattel

                       

Sideshow Collectibles booth

                      

SDCC reveal and exclusives

Q-Fig Thor vs Hulk

                       

Pinkie Pie (Kotobukiya) & Pennywise prototype

Saluting the end of day 1

And a swarm of Marge Simpson's

The madness begins

 The constant argument and yelling coming from these two little copy of me and Anna are grueling. The mere mention of Comic-Con sends them to a frenzy that I'm starting to doubt myself whether I'd be able to handle the punishment for the next four days.

 

 We're getting ready to pick up the badge today and already, they want to dress up. I'm running a scenario in my head how all three of us be able to enjoy the Con. It's definitely gonna be something this time compared to last years.

Overflowing

Lifelines comes in different forms, ours is the constant caffeine thats supplied by Nespresso. And we kinda needed an excuse to go to La Jolla to get our pods.



Ordering it online and waiting a good 2-3 days wont cut it