Introduce Me as Your Wife Dammit
Posted on March 10, 2003 by Ching under Life.
I’ve never ever wanted to be a geek so badly in my entire life! All of the cool geeks are at SXSW having fun. I wish that Brian and I could go at least just once. Sadly, I don’t think that he’ll go for it. I could play up the film segment of it. I still don’t think that he’ll go for it. Maybe if it was Sundance?
[ Don’t bother clicking on it (Sundance link). Their site is broke for some reason. The page just keeps twitching and won’t load. /]
So anyway we signed our loan today. Oh yeah — didn’t you hear? We had to take out a loan to pay for our new air conditioning unit and furance. It wasn’t too bad, though. Fahnestock is doing a special right now where you get the furnace free if you pay for the AC unit and coil and all of the other stuff they charge you for.. Our total $3100. Normal people would have been able to take that from their savings — not us! We are so far in debt that we don’t have anything extra to even shoot over to a savings account. So everytime shit like this happens we have to charge it or get a loan or something, which puts us into even more debt. It’s a vicious cycle! At this rate I’ll never be able to have children!
[ Have pity on me and click on the “Make a Donation” button at the left to make a donation to the “help Ching get out of debt so she can start having children” fund. Every penny will be greatly appreciated. I promise I won’t spend it on anything foolish like another coatrack — err, Bowflex! /]
After we signed our loan papers at the Intrust Bank loan office downtown, Brian and I walked around the corner to Picadilly Express. I’d forgotten how inexpensive their food is! It’s good food, too! So it’s a really great value! For the same amount of money that we would normally spend at a fast food joint (about ten bucks) we both got rotisserie chicken and two side dishes (I got mashed potatoes and some kind of chicken noodle casserole — looks yucky but tastes yummy — while Brian got mashed potatoes and corn).
It’s not as good as the rotisserie chicken at Red Rock Canyon Grill (about $25 per person — entree only; salads, starters/appetizers and desserts are a la carte; plus potent potables and gratuity are extra) but it’s definitely ten times better than any kind of chicken that you can get for the price that you pay.
Speaking of paying, here’s the fun part. Out of the blue the cashier lady just goes “I know you from somewhere,” to Brian Not “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” mind you, which is the way that the statement is normally presented. She was pretty freakin’ sure of herself. Well, kind of — I’m not sure how to describe it really. She didn’t form her statement in a questioning way which signifies certainty but she didn’t speak it with confidence either which implied some doubt.
Anyway, I didn’t believe her at first. I thought, “Yeah — whatever.” She was no where near our age bracket and she looked like a church-going bible-thumper (I’m totally stereotyping her by the way that she looks here — forgive me, I do that from time to time). There ain’t no way that she’s met Brian before. Well, not in this lifetime at least.
So naturally when she pulled a rabbit out of her hat, I was both impressed and surprised at the same time. “Your name is Brian right?” she persisted. “That’s right! How did you know that?” I asked with my eyes rounder than a billiard ball. Picture a two year old who has discovered a present with no name on it. I was totally intrigued.
“I knew it! I knew that I’d known you from somewhere, she continued. “I’m Marlissa’s mom.” Marlissa being an ex-girlfriend of Brian’s from several years ago.
I’d met her (Marlissa, not her mom) before. Well, seen her at least. I never got introduced (Brian is just terrible about this sort of stuff). I think it would have been awkward anyway because it was at a Subway by my old job (yep, another lunchtime run-in) and she was on the other side of the counter.
She and Brian didn’t acknowledge each other at all. Well, they did in a way.. She made our sandwiches and took our payment after all but you wouldn’t have known that they knew each other before. Brian didn’t tell me that she was one of his ex-girlfriends until after we had left.
Her mom is definitely way more cordial than she is. From the limited information and experience that I have had with both of them, I’ve observed that the at-one-time crack-head Marlissa (Brian said that when he was dating Danielle — another one of his ex-girlfriends — Marlissa’s dealer lived a couple of houses down and they’d see her drive by — she actually even stopped once, I guess this was when she had a more pleasant disposition but drugs can do that, turn otherwise disagreeable people friendly) and her mom have very little in common except for their genes (maybe).
As Brian and I were driving back to my work, I asked him why he neglected to introduce (after they had their nice “how have you been” chit-chat) me just out of curiosity. He goes, “Why?” His point being that it was totally unnecessary. She was immaterial — they hadn’t seen each other in five years, probably more, and they’d probably never see each other again. I had no reply really. I just get KSP sometimes. Picture Felix when he feels he’s being ignored.
“I don’t know baby,” I finally replied. “I just wanted to be introduced as your wife dammit!”
[ Anyway, he knows I’m not being serious. I just wanted to give him a hard time. /]
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Bowl For Kids’ Sake 2003
Posted on March 8, 2003 by Ching under Life.
We had such a blast at Rose Bowl East while bowling for Big Brothers Big Sisters 2003 Bowl for Kids’ Sake today! There were lots of people who showed up — some who even joined in at the last minute — but, sadly, my supervisor Stacy was MIA. I’m not sure what came up but it would have been lots more fun if he was able to come. We still had a ton of fun, though. Here are some of the photo highlights..
Sarah, Ashley, Sam, Wade, Brian and I all met up at the Hooters next to the bowling alley for a quick snack before the event. Stacy and Travis were also invited but they were no-shows. As it turns out, Stacy was a no-show for the whole bowling thing.
Sarah, Ashley, Sam and I had to bowl sans one team member. I thought it would’ve been cooler if he was there but it was general consensus that it was good thing that he didn’t make it. Sam said he would have been nervous and Sarah said she wouldn’t have been able to drink otherwise. Sarah, who is not even 20 yet, took full advantage of the “no-carding” situation and drank enough beer for a basketball team (just kidding — she only had five bottles of Bud Light). I, on the other hand, skipped drinking altogether and decided to take my chances with the “non-alcoholic” raffle. I foolishly put all three of my free beer tickets in thinking that, with everyone drinking their asses off, I was a shoe-in. Had I known that (A) there would only be one winner selected and (B) my odds of winning the lottery were better, I would have used my beer tickets and drank myself happy just as Sarah and the rest of the smarter people did. But that’s okay because we were already loud and obnoxious enough as it was and me drinking wouldn’t have helped matters any.
There are more pictures below. Move the arrow over the picture to read the short captions.
And there are even more pictures in the 2003 BFKS gallery. Click here to view them all.
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Furnace Woes
Posted on March 6, 2003 by Ching under Life.
I find it kind of ironic that the coveted (as in “wait-list” popular) and super expensive Louis Vuitton Murakami bags means the exact opposite in Tagalog. Here’s a crash course in the Tagalog language: MURA = cheap; KAMI = us or we. Translation? We are cheap! But with prices starting at $1500 these bags definitely are far from it. I guess it’s not the artist’s (Takashi Murakami) fault that his last name has a less-than-favorable translation in Tagalog.
Furnace update.. Believe it or not, we’re still in the cold. The past couple of mornings we’ve been greeted by frigid 40 degree temperatures inside the house. It’s a wonder the pipes haven’t burst yet. The good news: warmer weather has been forecasted for the rest of the weekend. Yippee! We might just open our windows (except Brian has this phobia of open windows, it’s a long story–tell you later) because we’re supposed to be basking in 60 degree temparatures here for the next few days. The bad news: Brian met with the rep from Sears last night and he estimated about $2400. Brian spoke with a rep from Fahnestock this morning and they’re doing a free furnace special if you purchase an AC unit and he got a phone quote of $2900 for everything. Brian and I figure that for just $500 more we could get our AC, which is probably going to go tits up here in the next few months anyway (with our luck this will happen during the hottest part of summer), replaced too. Someone from Fahnestock will be coming tomorrow, as well as reps from two other places. Hopefully we’ll get some better prices.
Anyway, Brian is really getting tired of waiting. He was really going to go with Sears. From past experience I know for a fact that Sears prices (in almost everything they sell) are usually always higher than their competitors. At least I’ve convinced him to hold off until we’ve heard the other bids. Thank God for warmer weather! I don’t think I could’ve stopped him if the freezing climate persisted.
“We’re freezing our butt off while we’re waiting for a good price,” Brian complained on the phone with me this morning.
I was all, “Don’t talk to be about freezing your butt off — you haven’t tried showering in the morning! I’m seriously re-thinking the importance of my personal hygiene.” Brian busted up laughing! He knows that I can’t go a single day without showering. I just have to shower before I leave the house. He, on the other hand, can go for long periods of time without showering. If not for the times when I ask him to shower with me, I think he’d forget to.
It was so cold inside the house this morning that I didn’t want to step out of the shower! There’s only so much hot water in the water heater tank, though.. But we only have to endure this for a few more days. By next week we’ll hopefully have a new furnace and a new AC unit to boot!
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Homeowner Hell
Posted on March 4, 2003 by Ching under Life.
We are literally in homeowner hell — little did we know that the temperatures there would freezing cold.
Brian and I went to Shooters today to meet his dad, grandparents and Don for lunch. It’s one of our favorite places to go because you get to play pool for free with your lunch. Their food isn’t bad either so it’s not a bad deal at all.
Anyway, after having some fun Dave and Don came over to check out our problematic furnace. We thought that if we could figure out and fix what was wrong with it, we’d save quite a bit. All of the heating and air businesses in town are on freakin’ overtime right now, with it being cold and all. Here’s a picture of the three of them, prying and inspecting, trying to diagnose the source of the problem. I call this set of pictures “frustration personified” for obvious reasons..
See what I mean? Anyhow, I talked to Dad today because they had asked me to email them some documents that I tweaked for Tito Ope’s lending business. I told dad that we were presently trying to figure out what’s wrong with the darn thing.
“You mean it’s still not fixed?” he asked. “I thought you called the repair people already.”
“They were going to charge us $150 just to check it out so we thought we have Dave and Don look at it and see if we could figure out what was wrong with it ourselves.”
I guess my parents can’t really relate. They’re not filthy rich or anything but they’ve got more disposable income than they know what to do with. Don’t even ask me how much they’re getting back on their income taxes this year! It’s enough to buy a brand-new Hyundai. We, on the other hand, are probably going to sink all of ours (we haven’t even filed yet and it’s already spent, as usual) and then some on a new gas furnace. Life is the pits!
Dad recommended RepairClinic.com but when I went there I couldn’t find any information on gas furnaces. They had every freakin’ house appliance listed except for gas furnace, which is really typical. Sometimes I feel like I’m just the unluckiest person in the world.
We’re on our own I suppose. As for me, the eternal optimist.. I just tell Brian not to worry because I have a plan.
He goes, “What are you going to do? Give the repair man a blow-job?” For the record, I’m really good at that. If they had blow-job olympics I’d probably win the gold every time — but that’s not what my plan is. “I don’t think that’s going to work, baby.”
“I was thinking that we’ll just have to rob a bank a la Bonnie and Clyde,” I joked back.
Seriously, though, there’s a saying that goes “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” I believe that.
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Homeownership is the Pits
Posted on March 4, 2003 by Ching under Life.
Being a homeowner is the fucking (and I fucking swore I would never cuss in writing — ever) pits! This should make you realize the gravity of the situation..
A few weeks ago I woke up and I was getting ready to hop in the shower. I turn it on and wait for the water to get warm — I’m not freakin’ stupid, of course I’m going to wait until I’m sure that it’s warm. After a minute I stuck my hand under the stream and it was still freezing cold. I thought, “It’s just taking a while; I can give it a few more minutes.” Ten minutes later it’s still freezing cold!
Naturally, I woke Brian’s ass up! At least I didn’t get my entire body wet with that freezing cold water — just my hand — but talk about a rude awakening! As it turns out we didn’t have any hot water because the pilot light on the water heater had gone out. After reading the instructions, we were able to successfully relight it. Of course, I had to spend the day all icky-sticky and stuff because I didn’t have time to shower — we had to go somewhere (I can’t even remember where now, but we had errands to run that day). I didn’t get a chance to take a shower until later that night.
That whole experience pissed me off but it was just a minor inconvenience. Shit like that happens from time to time. It was no big deal really.. Except that I hate not being able to shower in the morning [BRIEF DIGRESSION: Brian likes to shower at night. I like to shower in the morning. On our days off, however, I make him shower with me. It’s not like I twist his arm or anything. He actually loves it because I shampoo his hair and he gets a head-neck-shoulder rub out of it. It’s been a ritual of ours ever since we’ve been together, even before we actually started living together. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t such a short digression — sue me!]. At least, it didn’t cost us anything.
So that’s my water heater story.. Now our furnace is out. We hadn’t noticed it until recently (when we started to have lots of snow and extremely low temperatures). I mean, we try to keep the thermostat at 65 to 68 degrees anyway to try and keep our gas bill down but the other day we notice that the temperature inside the house was 56, the thermostat was set to 68 and the heater wasn’t going. So we check this and we check that — Brian even replaced the battery on our thermostat, thinking that could be the problem — to no avail. We know it’s not the thermostat because when we set it to AC, it works just fine. The problem, based on our uneducated guess, is somewhere inside the furnace. This time it’s going to cost us. Since we can’t figure out what’s wrong with it, we’re going to have to call a heating specialist and we have to pay them just to come to our house and check it out! Even just to look at it and find out what’s wrong is going to cost us! How crappy is that?
We’re going on three nights in these arctic conditions but we’re making do. We’re actually going to try to see if we can figure this out and fix it ourselves. Brian’s dad is going to come over tomorrow to check it out. Of course, Brian just wants to replace the stupid freakin’ heater.. He thinks we can get it replaced for less than a grand (maybe in the 70 when our house was first built). I heard it can cost almost $2000 — our tax refund (which we haven’t even filed yet, so we ain’t getting it back anytime soon) isn’t even that much!
You want to know something really jacked? We’ve been enduring somewhat cold temperatures inside the house (to most people 65 is pretty cold) because we’ve been trying to reduce our gas bill and that was fine but now that our furnace is out and we’re forced to endure it — not by choice but by necessity — the feeling has completely changed. I mean, before we could increase the temperature if we wanted to but we chose to keep the house cold. Now that we don’t have a choice it feels ten times colder! I know that a lot of it is psychological, though. We’re not freakin’ going to die or anything.. We have space heaters and blankets for crying out loud.
What really sucked, though, is that our bet is still going on and I had to work out in 50 degree temperature. That’s the crappiest part! Brian has such an unfair advantage! He felt so bad that I had to work out in these conditions that he told me I didn’t have to but then my competitive side kicked in and said, “Of course he’s going to tell you that! He wants to win!” So anyway, I figured I can’t make excuses to not work out. I’ve been doing that all this time. It time to start fresh.. To turn a new leaf.. I really hope that I can keep this momentum going..
Speaking of hope — the freaking furnace better be fixed soon! And let’s pray it doesn’t set us back a fortune!
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