Archive for "Shopping"
Jenni is Officially a Cougar – JK
Posted on November 25, 2010 by Ching under Family, Health, Shopping.
I’m posting these photos in honor of Jenni’s 30th birthday. She looks like she’s 12 but, as of midnight tonight, she’s really 30. I guess, just like Dr. Begnoche, she is Dorian Gray-ish that way. =P
I normally have several options for working out on Sundays. I can either do Step and Iron at the East Central Genesis at 10:15 AM, Step and Core at the North YMCA at 1:00 PM, or Zumba at the North YMCA at 4:00 PM. Jenni decided to have her birthday lunch at noon, though, which made it difficult to do the 10 AM or 1 PM workouts. I guess I could have done the Zumba, but I was feeling rather unmotivated that day.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from last Sunday:
This is a photo that Brian and I took of our ourselves using Jen Teves’ iPhone 4. We were playing with her front-facing camera. It really makes taking selcas so much easier. I think my next digital camera will need a front display screen.
An awesome photo I took of Jenni and Q. I actually managed to make her look wholesome. =P I think she should make this her new profile picture on Facebook.
The two Jennifers: Jenni and Jen Teves. This was taken before the other Jennifer, Jennifer Cannady, arrived.
Jen and Armando brought the most delicious tiramisu cake. Yum!
Here’s another picture of the cake without the candles.
Gotta post this photo of Jenni and me, just for mom.
We got Jenni a Stoli gift set for her birthday because we’re sick like that.
Logan and Jenni – another possible Facebook profile picture.
Mom and dad showing us that they know how to salsa.
Mom and dad — you guys really need to come out to Suede with us one night! How about next Friday, December 3rd? No Suede for us tomorrow night because we’re going to be in Kansas City this weekend. I’m dragging Brian to Midnight Magic at Legends (Village West). Since he’s being such a good sport about it, I’m rewarding him with a couples massage at his favorite massage place (Serenity) when we return. See, I’m really not the evil wife that you think I am. LOL.
We’re busting out the flannel-lined jeans for the first time this season since Legends and Country Club Plaza are both outdoor malls. We’re also wearing sneakers. I figured since I’m missing my regular Thursday night Zumba class, this can double as my workout. We’re going to be doing a lot of walking after all.
Speaking of working out, I felt really guilty for barely working out last week and then skipping on Sunday that I had to make up for it by working out three days in a row. I did Muscle Pump (45 minutes) and Step (45 minutes) at North YMCA on Monday night, followed by an hour of Zumba at the Downtown YMCA on Tuesday (Thanks for trying it with me, VH!), and then another hour of Zumba at the East Central Genesis yesterday (Gina’s class). I think I really earned my Thanksgiving “pig out” this year!
Anyway, I was hoping that VH would be my workout buddy. Brian doesn’t really like my fitness classes and only reluctantly goes with me because I beg him to… I need an honest to goodness workout buddy like I had in my friend Divina years and years ago. I thought VH could be it, but she already has a set workout schedule. Unfortunately, it includes Yoga (something she loves that I’m not really too fond of). Don’t get me wrong. I like Yoga because it makes me feel like I’ve just gotten a deep tissue massage afterwards. It makes your body feel really good.
Except, I had the misfortune of trying an advanced Yoga class a couple of weeks ago. You know me. I’m not that flexible. Well, I was trying to imitate this old man behind me, while doing one of the Yoga poses (it’s one where you start out on your hands and feet – downward facing dog? – and then you take an arm off the floor and then stick one of your legs up and out; I don’t know what it’s called and I’m pretty sure I was doing it wrong), and I fell over. Brian and I both busted up in quiet laughter. Brian was smart and kept both feet on the ground instead of trying the more advance move so he managed to keep his pose even though he was struggling from laughing at me. I was an idiot and tried to copy the guy behind me, though. I figured, if he could do it then I could too. I was wrong. It was pretty embarrassing, actually.
The worst part is that Brian and I kept cracking up while trying our best not to laugh. It took a good 30 minutes before I was finally able to regain my composure. Needless to say, I’m not going to be doing Yoga for a while. At least, if and when I try it again, it will have to be a beginners class. LOL.
Gosh, I totally got sidetracked on this blog. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Happy 30th birthday, Jenni!
xoxo,
Ching
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The War of the Providers!
Posted on August 17, 2010 by Brian under Reviews, Shopping, Wishlist.
Ok, let me start at the beginning.
Several weeks ago (before I left for Germany) my wife decided that she wanted the HTC HD2 that T-Mobile had just released. Unlike me, she did not do her research and find out if the phone was worth the buy. She has liked Windows phones since her first one and she refused to change even though all of the Windows phones that she has owned have failed her in some way.
So we looked and looked and suddenly like a beacon from heaven, Wal-Mart has the HD2 on sale for $50.00! Ching took this as a sign from God that she was meant to have this phone, ok not really but you could see the gears working in her head. I caved and let my baby have what she wanted. I did provide a small protest and point out that all of her other windows phones were crap, she replied with “but this one is different”. So, we made the buy and off we went. She was happy, I was happy that she was happy and for the next few days she set everything up and it looked like all was well.
I get back from Germany and my wife says “Something is wrong with my phone”. I knew this was going to happen. We look at it and then decide to call T-Mo for support. Their first reaction, “let’s do a factory reset, that usually fixes the problem”. I was not keen on this idea. They did this with one of my wife’s other Window’s phones and it screwed it up. We had to reload the whole OS, this was not a good idea. I protested a little but the tech assured me that this was the only solution. I reset the phone and the problem went away. However, a dozen other problems sprung up. After a little over a day, we realized that we were still in the buyers remorse period and we took the phone back, reversed the upgrade and moved on.
We cut to this Sunday. I convinced my wife to stop by the T-Mo store and take a look at the new Vibrant. It’s the latest and greatest that Samsung has produced and is shaping up to be the baddest on the market. The wife absolutely loved it. She was impressed with all of it’s features and was impressed with it’s operation. We left the store and she said. Lets see if we can get it cheaper than 199.99.
This is a great idea since We have been with them since 2000, ever since they were Voicestream. I have never wanted to cancel my service. Hell, everyone I know and talk to is on T-Mobile service. So I called and told them that I was interested in that phone. They quoted me the price and I said. “I’m not on a contract, I get a 12% discount through my company on Verizion, I should just go there”. Like the rep is supposed to I get sent to the retention department.
This rep asks me what I am looking for and I repeat the speech. I basically said, “I am not interested in special rate plans or discounts on service. I simply want a phone cheaper than what I can get from any other provider or from walking down to Wal-Mart” (Wal-Mart currently has the Vibrant for $150.00). She say, “let me see what I can do”. She comes back a few minutes later and says “I can give you that phone for $149.99 on each line but only if that phone stays in service for 30 days. Basically you will pay full price up front and then we will give you the $50.00 after 30 days to each line. Plus, I will lower your Data plan by $10.00 dollars per line for the life time of the account”. I sat there in silence. The rep did not listen to anything I had said. I had already told her about Wal-Mart. I had already told her that I could get two droids for free and that I was not asking for free, I was just asking for something better. Shortly after that, She began to argue with me about the merits of getting the data discount. I advised her that I was just going to go to Verizion (which I still think I am going to do) and she proceeded to tell me how much more it was going to cost me. She did not know that I already looked at the plans, calculated the costs and found that after the 12% discount I was going to actually save $5.00 a month. I pointed this out to her and she just sat in silence. After that I just told her to never mind, I would call back when I had another service provider. Instead of offering me something better, she said “OK, have a nice day” and disconnected.
I know they can offer better, I have a friend that just got one for $99.00 through T-Mo, and he didn’t even have to do anything. I don’t understand what their problem is. I know what they can offer, I know what I can get. Why do they have to play these stupid games with me over this crap.
I think tomorrow I will escalate to a supervisor. I am tired of all of these silly reindeer games. If I cant get satisfaction then it’s time for a change. If they are going to make me pay over $100.00 for a phone then I am going to go someplace else.
Stay tuned tomorrow boys and girls when I reveal who is the best service provider and who sucks big…Ok, I got a little carried away there. But seriously, Stay tuned, there is more.
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Buyer’s Remorse
Posted on July 31, 2010 by Ching under Life, Shopping.
I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night on Thursday (Friday morning). I think it was a case of buyer’s remorse.
Brian and Jen (Teves) and I went to Black House White Market on Thursday night to look for a dress for me to wear to Carmen’s wedding. The sales rep was so nice. She picked out several dresses for me to try on. She even grabbed a couple of necklaces, a pair of spike-heeled shoes, and a belt to help me accessorize. She put all the stuff in the dressing room, changed some of the dresses for the correct size (I have to wear a larger size in WHBM; I think it might be dresses in general), helped me in and out of them, and was just all around helpful. She made me feel a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. After all her trouble, I couldn’t bare to walk away without buying anything.
I liked all of the dresses that I tried on. Correction. I loved all of the dresses that I tried on. I could only get one due to my limited budget. I got the dress pictured above. Brian tried to rationalize the purchase by saying that the dress looked fantastic on me and that he thought that it actually cost more because of how great it looked. He felt it was a bargain at $180. LOL.
I can usually count on Brian to be the voice of reason. I wished that shopping that night would have gone something like this:
“I like this one.”
“How much is it?”
“It’ll probably be around $180 with tax.”
“That’s too much, baby.”
“Okay. I will just wait for it to go on sale then.”
I was counting on Brian to pull the breaks, but I think that the normal Brian took a vacation or something and an impostor took his place. Shopping totally did not go as I expected. I think I want the pragmatic Brian back.
“Why didn’t you stop me?” I asked Brian the next day.
“It looked good on you and you wanted it.”
“But it was a lot!”
“You’ve spent that much on a dress before.”
“Yes, but it’s been YEARS!”
I was really awful in our credit card days. Not quite as bad as the girl in Confessions of a Shopaholic, but pretty close. It’s funny how when I didn’t have any money, I just charged stuff that I wanted but couldn’t really afford without any care or remorse. Now that I have some extra money, I don’t want to spend it. LOL. Brian and I have been really frugal ever since we got rid of all of our credit cards. We decided we never want to be in debt ever again.
The dress purchase, even though I really like it and Brian thinks it looks great, was a departure from our frugal ways and quite frankly a little frivolous. I’m going to need to work harder at resisting temptation in the future. Remind me to stay away from WHBM for a while. =P
Here are some of the dresses that I’d worn to weddings in years past.
I’m sure there are tons of other pictures, but I’m too lazy to sort through the 30,000 in my Flickr photostream. I’m going to have to label these pictures better in the future.
P.S. I thought I could get more mileage out of the WHBM dress by wearing it to all three weddings that I have to attend in the coming months. Mom who is a major clotheshorse said that would be a bad idea because then I wouldn’t be able to tell whose wedding it was by looking at old pictures. When I was looking through my pictures online, I realized that she had a point. The only reason I knew which weddings were which was because I remembered the dress that I wore (see pictures above). Right then I thought, I need to go buy two more dresses! Thankfully pragmatic Brian was back from his vacation and told me to wear the same dress (there’ll be a different group of people at each wedding so it’s not like they’ll notice I wore the same dress more than once — not that there’s anything wrong with that) and just make sure I label the pictures. Voila! I’ll know whose wedding it was without having to rely on what I wore. Sounds good to me!
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Find Everything Fast
Posted on June 25, 2010 by Ching under Shopping, Tips.
Ever gotten frustrated at the local supermarket because you can’t find anything? If you shop the Dillons Marketplace at Central and Rock Road or the one in Andover, have I got a treat for you! Check out these Marketplace maps!
This one is a map of the Central and Rock Road Dillons Marketplace. You can pick up a copy of this map at the store, right by the entrance. You could also click on the picture above to enlarge it, print yourself a copy and never get lost again.
By the way, there’s a store directory inside. I’m posting it here so that you can it print out as well. Now, you can’t say I haven’t helped you out. Reading my blog is useful after all. =P
Here’s a map and directory of the Dillons Marketplace in Andover so that those of you who prefer to do your grocery shopping there don’t feel left out.
I will post a map of the West side Dillons Marketplace also (as soon as I can get my grubby, little hands on it) so that the West-siders don’t feel like I’m discriminating against them. I want to help make your shopping experience easier, no matter what side of town you live in. Happy grocery shopping!
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Ching Buys a New Bra – Hilarity Ensues
Posted on May 28, 2010 by Ching under Shopping.
Everyone knows that Victoria’s Secret has a huge semi-annual sale in June and December. Well, the June sale is going on right now. I actually got my semi-annual sale preview catalog several weeks ago. I’ve ordered and received my stuff already. My stuff being some bras and panties to replenish the ones I’d outgrown and given away. After the large 50-gallon garbage bags full of lingerie that I’d gotten rid off, I was down to only a few necessities.
Thankfully, my wonderful husband allowed me to purchase some stuff from the semi-annual sale. Last month’s shopping trip to Dillard’s yielded only a couple of bras and a couple of underpants. Spending the same amount this time got me a bunch more stuff through the Victoria’s Secret semi-annual sale. I have to be really careful, though, because I can sense the unwelcome return of my underwear fetish.
I really shouldn’t go back to my financially unsound habit of just buying lingerie because I don’t have that color or because I think it’s cool. I need to stick to the bra strategy of only buying the essentials. After being bombarded with the “Hello, Bombshell!” commercials, I just couldn’t help myself. When I saw the Miraculous bra in the semi-annual sale, I just had to have one.
How can you resist a commercial directed by Michael Bay? For someone who effortlessly gets conned into buying random stuff from infomercials, I was an easy target. It’s a miracle that I didn’t buy every single color of Miraculous bra available.
When my package arrived yesterday, I eagerly slashed the package open to show Brian my goodies. I mostly just got the basics, except for lacy black demi bra for special occasions and the Miraculous bra which I purchased more out of curiosity than anything else. Those were the only two frivolous items. Honestly.
All of the bras were pretty average and unremarkable, but the Miraculous bra was just plain weird. I’d never seen a bra with so much padding. I probably could’ve used the bra in place of my pillow and been just as comfortable (probably more so). The amount of padding was just astonishing. As someone who normally stays away from padded bras, it just looked so unnatural to me. I immediately regretted buying it because I couldn’t see myself wearing the thing.
I tried it on and pulled my shirt over it to show Brian just how unnatural it looks. They weren’t kidding in the commercials about adding at least two cup sizes. It makes me look like I’ve had breast enhancement surgery. Not surprisingly, Brian actually likes it. I just can’t get myself to wear it with a straight face because everyone who knows I’m normally flat-chested will surely know something is up.
It’s a bra that will take some getting used to, for sure. On the plus side, I think it’s great to wear for self-defense. It’s got so much padding that someone could punch me on the boob and I wouldn’t feel a thing. If it doesn’t work out as a bra, I guess I could always use it as a helmet. We have been biking a lot lately.
What about you? Have you tried the new Miraculous bra yet?
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