Archive for the year 2010
For Those Who Think I’m Evil
Posted on May 27, 2010 by Ching under Life, Money, Videos.
I actually gave in to Brian last week. I’d been trying to hold out on turning our AC on until June. Last week, however, I’d had enough of Brian’s incessant whining. I finally agreed to turn on our AC and leave it on. I rather liked the $60 power bill we had last month. I doubt it will ever be that low again until fall. Ugh.
I don’t really do much to save on energy, but holding out on using your AC makes a huge difference. This is because ACs use the bulk of home energy consumption. I never set our AC lower than 78 degrees, another point of contention between Brian and me. He likes it at a constant 72 degrees. Believe it or not, those 6 degrees amount to a lot of dollars — specially on hot summer days.
Anyway, here are some tips on how to reduce your energy consumption and become more energy efficient. What about you? What are some things that you do to save money on your energy bill?
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Brian Denies Being Superstitious
Posted on May 27, 2010 by Ching under Life.
Brian denies being superstitious, but he carried a “lucky” coin with him for over five years. The other morning he got completely messed up after realizing that he had lost it. So messed up, in fact, that he left our sack lunches sitting on the kitchen counter. We had to buy lunch from the Walk Way Cafe that day.
He thought that he dropped the coin during our bike ride through Wilson Estates on Monday night. The next morning is when he realized it was gone. That night he was still hung up on the missing coin that he wanted to bike the same route to search for it, just in the off-chance that it’s still there. I’m always up for biking so I agreed. No such luck on finding the coin, though. On the bright side, we did burn some calories biking. There’s always a silver lining.
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Brian Has Trust Issues
Posted on May 25, 2010 by Ching under Web.
Brian has trust issues, specially when it comes to online interactions. He thinks I am too naive. He freaked out on me tonight because I was communicating with @Cox_Will via DM on Twitter.
@Cox_Will had asked if we wanted him to set up the premium channels on our account because they’re currently running a promotion where you can get two premium channels for free for 30 days. So I asked Brian if I could go ahead and have him call us to set it up. “You didn’t give him any of our account information did you?!” Brian barked at me and then promptly gave me a lecture on how there are scammers all over the internet and how I shouldn’t be so naive. I told him that this @Cox_Will person worked for Cox and that I remembered him messaging us on Twitter before when we had problems getting our service transferred. Brian was like, “I can set up a Twitter account and tell everyone I’m with a company and you’d believe me. I will get all of your information. If we get our identities stolen, it will be because of you.” Blah blah blah blah…
I know that to give out any information over the web. Duh?! I wasn’t even going to give out our number. My plan was to call the Cox customer service number. I just hadn’t figured out how to ask for @Cox_Will. Would the customer service representative I get on the phone know who I’m talking about?
Anyway, since Brian nixed that whole idea I’ll just let him do it. We only really need HBO and we don’t absolutely have to have it for a couple of weeks. Just need it in time for the True Blood season premiere. =P
P.S. Even though @Cox_Will‘s Twitter account isn’t a “verified” account, I was able to confirm his identity through my friend/coworker Isaac. He used to work for Cox and they knew each other from when Isaac was a supervisor over there. I don’t think that makes a difference to Brian, though.
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I Bike Douglas
Posted on May 23, 2010 by Ching under Date Ideas, Things to Do, Wishlist.
Brian and I almost didn’t make the I Bike Douglas event today. As we were about to leave, we realized that my bike’s back tire was out. Brian suggested that we stop by Bicycle Exchange on the way. They have a location on Central, right by the Canal Route exit.
We had to wait a while for the tire to be fixed, but it wasn’t too long. While we were waiting, Brian checked out some bikes. I think he wants a new one. After talking about it, though, I think he will be fine with a new bicycle seat and handle bar.
I love that Brian is just as logical and pragmatic as I am. Replacing the handle bar and seat should be pretty easy. Besides that, it’s way cheaper than having to buy a new bike altogether. Although, he did find this one bike that he liked. I just have to keep him from buying it. =P
Since we had to make a pit stop at Bicycle Exchange, we were too late for the 2:30 pm bike tour. The lady at the WDDC office was nice enough to tell us where there were going though, so we could try to catch up. The group was easy enough to find. You don’t often see a large pack of bicyclists riding around downtown. We caught up with them at Century II.
Here’s our tour guide being interviewed by a local news station.
This is me with my 15+ year old bike. It’s the same one I’ve had since high school. I should probably buy a new bike, but I’m too cheap. Besides, my bike still rides fine (except for the seat, which is a bit uncomfortable), and it doesn’t look run down because I hardly ever rode it. I think this is the first time that Brian and I have gone biking in over five years.
The second bike tour at 4:00 pm took us through some interesting alleys. The theme of the bike tour was photography, so we had ample opportunity to take photos at each stop. (I didn’t bring a real camera. I just used my phone instead.)
Thanks to Chad Molen for taking this photo of me taking a photo of the fire escape.
Here’s the fire escape photo I took. This is my favorite out of several tries.
Since this is the first mention of Chad Molen in the blog, here’s a proper introduction. Chad Molen is Brian’s coworker and friend at Viega. I think he used to be over customer service. I’m not sure what his current position/job is, though. The only thing I know is that he seems to be into a lot of the same things Brian and I are into.
One of the perks of participating in these sorts of events (for me) is meeting new people. Here’s a photo of Brian chatting it up with one of our fellow bikers.
I really enjoyed the bike tours. I would be too afraid to ride around downtown otherwise. You’re talking about someone who is afraid to cross the street walking, let alone doing it while on a bike. There were a couple of times when we were riding on street with the other vehicles that I was afraid I’d get run over. There was comfort in riding in a pack, though. Brian pointed out, they’d have to run everyone else over as well. That’s highly unlikely.
I’d like to get into biking more so that I can be more comfortable and unafraid. But then, I’ll probably need a new bike. My old bike is good for occasional biking. If we go bike riding a couple of times a week then I’ll want an Electra Townie bike so that I can ride upright, rather than bent over like on my bike. It’s a lot easier to enjoy the scenery when you’re riding upright. Actually, it would be cool to have two bikes: one for cardio and one for leisure/sight-seeing. Maybe after we get a house and have ample garage space and I have extra money (that last one is the biggie; I’m just way too frugal to buy a bike when I have a perfectly good one that I can ride around in; I might do it if I had some extra cash, though) I can get me my dream bike.
For now, a new bike seat should suffice. My butt really hurts from all the riding around we did yesterday — one of the downsides of not riding regularly. I’ve been told that the more you bike, the more your butt gets used to it.
What about you guys? Do you enjoy riding bicycles? Where do you go biking? Let’s get together and go biking sometime!
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Kansas Underground Salt Museum
Posted on May 21, 2010 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel.
Had a chance to tour the Kansas Underground Salt Museum the other day. It was really cool. So cool that I want to take Brian.. and Brian’s dad… and Brian’s mom… I think everyone should check it out at least once. =P
This is a picture of me, cheesing like a nerd.
A gigantic salt rock. Not for human consumption. Most of the salt they mine is intended for use as road salt and not table salt.
George Clooney’s Batman costume on the left and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze costume on the right.
Dean Cain’s Superman costume from the TV series Lois and Clark.
Brad Pitt’s shield from the movie Troy.
Isaac, Ginger, Angie and I were getting some souvenir salt rocks from the salt pile in this photo. Jimmy and Victor are in the next photo.
One of the ancient mine relics.
Many thanks to Isaac Perez and Pam Patrick for taking photos. Unfortunately, I’d left my phone in my car which was still in Wichita so I couldn’t take any photos. Otherwise, I’d have been taking photos right there with them! =P
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