FLIP + CHING

Happy Anniversary

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Ching under Life.

Today is our sixth wedding anniversary. Go us! Anymore we’ve gone from buying each other gifts to just taking a nice trip together. The last few years have been celebrated that way culminating in our fifth anniversary trip to Couples Ocho Rios (now known as Couples Tower Isle) in Jamaica last year.

This year we’ve decided to lay low. For one, we’re still recovering from our somewhat impromptu Vegas trip. Two, we’ve got a possible cruise (Brian says it is for sure but I haven’t received an update in a while) during the week of my birthday. That’s coming up in a couple of months.

Anyway, Brian’s riding mower blew up (literally) about two weeks ago which sent us on a lawnmower hunt. I was looking to spend less than $100 so I checked Craigslist and various avenues. Brian got a bonus from work recently (not a big one, about $1K after taxes) but we have been so pragmatic lately (except for when we bought Chris, his wife, and Jan lunch the other day — which wasn’t so practical, but they are wonderful people and we wanted to do something nice — plus it was TJ’s, my most favorite burger joint in the world). Every single cent that doesn’t get spent on gas, eating out, going to the movies, or the occasional poker tournament gets paid to our car, house, or my student loan. We are vigorously paying off our debt so that in a few years (well, 10 years if you count our mortgage) we will be completely debt free (unless of course, we get our wish for a home upgrade, lol — right now it’s way behind schedule).

But I digress.. We were still wanting to spend as little as possible on this lawnmower. After all, Brian eventually wants a RoboMower (like Doug’s) but that will come much, much, much later.

We ended up getting him a 22″ self-propelled Toro (same brand as the old riding mower) from Home Depot. Remind me to tell you my Home Depot story later. Anyway, we spent like $300 after tax — more than we wanted to spend but that was the best deal we could find. We couldn’t find any used ones, unfortunately. There were some $239 ones at Lowe’s but they were completely sold out. Ugh.

Here are pictures of Brian’s new lawnmower..

We are calling it his “Happy Anniversary” gift. LOL. I told Lance about it and he said, “What do you get?” I said, “I get my lawn mowed every week and that’s good enough for me.”

Speaking of mowing the lawn, he actually fired it up and mowed the lawn that day. This was on Thursday. I am so glad he did because it has been raining all weekend and if he would have waited the lawn would have had to wait another week. He says it works great.

So anyway, that’s the story of Brian’s new lawnmower. Next time, I’ll share my Home Depot story.

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Sheryll is in California

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Ching under Sponsored Post, Travel.

I found out last week (after a surprise call from Pia) that Sheryll is in the US. Pia when to visit her in Santa Rosa, CA and they called me. I really wanted to go visit her. It has been 10 years since we’ve seen each other so you can imagine. I would have had to go over the weekend (they leave on the 24th and I have three days of training next week) because all of my vacation time is tied up for the rest of year. I really thought about it and tried to figure it out. I couldn’t figure out a way, though, because I’m super busy the next couple of weeks and plane fare is through the rough and I would need a rental car (Santa Rosa is about 2 hours away from San Francisco) and accommodations, adding even more expense. It’s hard to plan a low-cost trip on such short notice. I want to see her and all, but not to the tune of $1200. Ugh. I wish I would have known sooner so that we could plan ahead.

In talking to Sheryll, however, it sounds like they are already planning a follow up visit. She’s thinking of returning in December (around her birthday) or maybe next summer. I’m thinking that we will just catch them on their next trip. It would be a great excuse to visit San Francisco. It has been a decade since my last visit and Brian has never been there. I actually found this web site called Trusted Tours & Attractions, which has information about various tours, attractions, and activities. I was looking at things to do in San Francisco in particular so that Brian and I could turn the visit into a full-fledged vacation. Actually, while we are at it, we might as well visit Jane and Joy in Los Angeles. Trusted Tours has a things to do in Los Angeles resource also.

By the way, the web site offers tours and information about many other cities not just San Francisco so be sure to sign up for Trusted Travels eNewsletter. You can get tickets for the Metropolitan museum of art in New York for example. That’s another place that I’ve been dying to visit.

Trusted Tours has the best online travel guides so I’m bookmarking it for future reference. It will help me out a lot for future vacation ideas. I’m really looking forward to Sheryll’s follow up visit after Christmas. As soon as she books her flight, I’m going to start putting together a trip itinerary for Brian and I.

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Cheating on Bebot

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Ching under Babies, Toys, Wishlist.

File this under great service recoveries of all time…

Can you believe this is my car’s engine compartment? Everything was so clean and shiny. Brian and I were really impressed. Eddy’s totally delivered on their promise to “thoroughly detail” my car. They were not joking. They cleaned Bebot inside and out.

It looked like they took all of our junk out, cleaned the car and then put our stuff back where they were. I know because things were moved around somewhat. The floors and interior had gotten dirty from leaves and dust and stuff and everything was spotless when we picked the car up. The car seriously looked better than the day we bought it. That’s a huge compliment considering the car was bought brand new.

Of course, it rained the other day so I only got to enjoy my clean, shiny car for a couple of days at best. Isn’t that always how it goes? LOL.

I did feel a little guilty, though, because we almost didn’t want to get our own car back. We really enjoyed driving and riding around in the ’08 Prius. It made me feel very eco-friendly. LOL.

I have always thought Priuses looked ugly. I’m not a big fan of the hatchback trunk and the compact body style. After you realize how much gas you’re saving (or how little gas it consumes), it kind of grows on you. Plus, I think it’s shorter than my car but the interior is far roomier. It is surprisingly spacious inside. We fit Brian’s parents in there with us and we all had plenty of leg room.

I like how quiet it is, the cute power button, the backup camera, the design of the interior compartments (efficient use of space), and the gas mileage (naturally). I am totally sold. I’m not not much of a car person, though. In fact, I know nothing about cars so Brian will probably be able to share a more informed, educated review of the vehicle. All I know is that our next car purchase (probably in 2010 when the Priuses are manufactured in the US and improve to 70-80 mpg) will likely be a Prius because we really like it a lot. [ SIDE NOTE: It’s a good thing we are not in the market for one right now because there is a seven-month waiting list at Eddy’s. ]

Here are some pictures of the one we got to drive last weekend:

Yeah, we put gas in it though we didn’t really need to… That’s because we are nice. We did put quite a lot of miles on it with all the driving all over town that we did. Brian and I guess that we could probably go to Kansas City and back on a half a tank. I kind of wish we still had it for our road trip tomorrow.