This is how we do it

There's always two outcomes with holiday/office parties. Either it would tank or be the talk of the town the next day. Lately, our parties have not been how it used to be.  Too much drama, issues with contributions and even people not getting along because they don't want certain people showing up. Basically, our parties became the millennial era. Easily offended and not satisfactory to everyone's needs.

A year ago, JD had a little party of their own for Christmas, an "Ugly sweater". It was a small group and Anna was the only one invited. No biggie in my part. And then the group decided to include guys and expand their guest list.

Me and Anna came in strong with our ugly sweater and swept the competition. But that's not the issue here. The party became how we did our parties a few years ago. It's the one where you just chill, enjoy, chat, dance, sing, basically do what your heart contents and more so, NO DRAMA.

The DJ played real music, one's that don't mumble the lyrics and ones that you can actually dance to it like a normal hip person would do.

It may not have the overflowing of food like it once had, but it was not even relevant. Alcohol was flowing and that invigorated the thirst of these party animals. There's hope on the horizon. We're slowly trying to put the pieces together and get to enjoy life once again outside the stress of work.

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.