Cover ups ?

I got a call today from someone who said that I need to call this number to confirm a security issue with my bank. I don't trust any calls like that... so I went through the normal route via the customer number.

Once I got through, the customer rep confirmed my identity, and then mention that they need to verify something with my card. Which is good - that means it was the bank indeed had some issue - and it wasn't someone phishing for more information.

Once I had got things verified, I ask, well, why do you need to do this ? The rep quickly replied with that - there was a breach in the merchants that I had purchase product with. Then it seems that she quickly avoided all the potential questions I had and just ended the call.

What was that about ? I think there is a cover up somewhere...

Tho - I did hear a cheer in the backgroup.. perhaps she was getting ready to go participate... and party.

A tasty can of soup

I am lazy. Tho I've aspired to do many things - there was really never a urgent need for it.

Case in point - cooking. I've aspired to cook. I've used to do that, but it has lost my interest as I get busier... So I seek alternatives. And in doing so, I figure I write down my thoughts on tastiness and remember it on this blog.

Today, my alternative comes in the form of a can of soup for lunch.
Product: Campbell's Select Harvest - Light - Italian - Style Vegetable.
Notes: I've tried the Select Harvest - Roasted Chicken with Rotini & Penne Pasta. It was good but the Chicken in the can soup still tastes like Chicken in a canned soup... that rubbery, dry, tasteless bits of thing .. ugh. I don't believe I've ever been impressed by any meat in a soup from a can... somehow - the processing just sucks all the good texture and flavor out...

Today's soup - is actually quite good. Not too salty.. nice chunks of veggies. Light tasting.. has a good celery taste to it. Adding some black pepper to it (and for me - an egg to boil it with) makes the soup good. This is something I probably would get again.

Wellness calendar ?

Obviously blogging everyday won't work. This is really all about changing habit.

Just got a wellness calendar from GG . I laughed.
Staring at me on my desk (at work) are

• A bag of tail mix (b/c I get hungry)
  
• 3 different type of tea and more hidden behind
  
• a bottle of calcium supplement
• a bottle of vitamin supplement

Per my doctor's order to take calcium... So , being one forgetful person like myself, I thought - perhaps I'll remind myself to take these when I am at work . At least - that "out of sight - out of mind" won't work there.

The two bottles stared back at me. I noted. Yup - not once did I take them... as they each progress past their expiration.

Another chunk of money down the drain...
I just don't like supplements...

What if I really blogged every day ?

In case you haven't heard - the world's first blogging plant "midori-san" started blogging about a while ago...
An English report : http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/10/midori-san-the-blogging-houseplant/
The actual blog: http://plant.bowls-cafe.jp/index.php

If I were to blog everyday - perhaps it will be - Ying's wellness status updates?

Like today would be:

• Sleepy.
  
• two cups of coffee + 2 cups of tea.... more possibly.
  
• Second cup of coffee is especially nice.
• Presentation - not quite ready but it'll do.
  

kinda day.

Travelocity support sucks.... even for an idiot

After the really great North West trip, it was time to face reality. And the first step is to sort through my bills. (after spending sometimes hunting down my password).

On one of my bills, I noticed that I was being charged by the hotel I stayed at. Generally, this is nothing to be shocked about, but since I made the reservation via Travelocity, I figured that I've already paid my dues there (as I've via Expedia)... was I being double charged??? The charge itself is also a bit higher than what Travelocity had quoted.

So I called Travelocity. Wait time wasn't too long before I reached a person. At the same time, I searched thru my credit card bills to see whether I've been charged by Travelocity before. As I started talking to the support guy, I realized that I've not been charged previous. So why is it charged more ?

The support guy, sounding a bit annoyed.. said that - if there were discrepency, I should've call Travelocity right there, right then. Ok. So, I stressed that how would anyone know that's what needs to happen ??

He got more annoyed. He said - how about I offer you $25 Travelocity credit for you to use and this is just something we don't deal with.

(This was going back and forth for a while... )

I was annoyed.
" So how long does that $25 dollar last? "
"$25 will be available to use per year, but it can only apply to purchases of hotels stay 3 nights or more"
"No Thanks. I don't think I want to be your customers anymore"

So there goes my relationship with Travlocity. A long relationship indee !

So after that chat - I looked at my Travelocity notice a bit more closely... and noticed that the amount that they quote "excludes taxes and fees". Oops. A quick calculation shows that - the extra that the hotel charged was the "taxes".

Ok. So I was an idiot. But, I am still annoyed at the support guy who was just annoying over the phone. He really just want to get rid of my questions... If he had explain the cost - stressing that taxes and fees not included... I might have noticed my mistake.

Still - I probably won't bother with Travelocity in the near term.

Coffee... need.

I am assuming that I have not totally recovered from my small jet-lag... as a result of my vacation. Signs like - sleeping past 7:30am .. and wanting to sleep past 8am... is just a bit "unnatural".

Even my "lull of the day" time moved - from right after lunch to about 2 hrs later...
As I stared at my screen... trying to comprehend what the heck I am doing... trying really hard to spell something correctly... its all all failing.. with red squiggly lines telling me that I am wrong. Very wrong.

My only hope was the Sundary shop.

As I yawn my way toward it... I couldn't remember whether it opened at this time or not. Dreading that it might be closed... and that I might have to suffer the breakroom coffee... I walk closer. Happily - the door was wide open. But as I walked in... it was empty. (no its not a dream) No one was there - to take my order for a much needed Americano... (or even drip!) Agh!!!! "Anyone there?" ... echoed..

I walked out. Still sleepy.

Walking a bit.. saw someone I know heading also to Sundrary shop...
"Its open but no one is there"
"Oh - but its not closing time yet - and there is that little back room where she sometimes sits"
"But I checked and no one was there"

Turned around and walked in to the Sundrary shop again...
"There she is" - as if by magic, as if nothing was wrong.. the cashier was there.

I must had missed her somewhere....

I got my coffee... :)

The moral of the story is that - don't trust yourself when you are sleepy.

More than 1 year in blogging...

I was looking at my profile and realized that I started this account Aug 2007.

That means, 1 year has passed, 45 blog posts, many weddings attended later....

• I am still with Sprint - despite the fact that I started this blog to grip about them. The iPhone lure is not so strong as I thought it would be.. but a better phone with a good reception would make me much happier.
• My yard is still a mess - despite the best intentions of cutting, trimming, close encounters with composting.
• No more soccer this year, but decided to pick up curling.
• My dog Brandy is not in so good of shape. 16 years + and somewhat going.
  
• I've uploaded much less to flickr than compare to last year.
  
• Somehow gas prices is really high... ($4+)
  

Ugh. Time really did fly....
Time to contemplate on how I'll mange my 2100+ pictures from my vacation...

ANT & ant

One of my favorite sites for code development is gotapi.com. Its a great site that consolidates a bunch of computer language references in one place.

This morning, I noticed the advertisement on the site..


Natural language processing still a bit ways to go :)

Old lady is a mean neighbor

Today I decided to mow my yard - it was long over due, and life has been busy.

So I go about my usual inspection of the yard - to check for stuff I don't want to mow over (namely dog poop), and came upon a pile of dead branches in my yard, right next to my neighbor's fence.

A pile.

Initially I thought - oh no, did my tree die. Then thought, ok, maybe my neighbor is pissed at the tree that has grown next to her fence, and decided to trim the part that went over. So I inspect the branches a bit.

Nope. That's total yard waste from the vine that grew around her patio. Neatly cut. I don't even have scissors that sharp.

I was pissed. OK. So not only did I find cigarette butts in my yard from her, now this. I admit that my yard looks bad, but its no a dumping ground for her junk.

Looked around, I picked up the pile (that kinda stuck together) and tossed it over into her yard. Then immediately I regret it knowing that she will know that I tossed it over.

Whatever. Actually - as I thought about it, I thought, next time when something like that comes over, I am going to ring her bell at 11pm and hand her the stuff she dump into my yard, politely, asking if her granddaughter had left it. I'll just be polite and return her stuff for her.

Remind me that I need a camera. Next time I am taking pictures. :) including those of watering the lawn if we ever had water restriction. Because I am sure she would do it.

We know our evil postman ...

This was what I found in my mailbox when I got home yesterday :


Ugh.

When Amy used to live at my place, she had a suspicion that our postman doesn't like her. Like sometimes she won't get her mail or such.

Once, I believe she even got a little note (not as formal as this one) - that her car is blocking the neighbor's mail.. I think.

Our suspicion was confirmed with another neighbor across the street - who also got a note threatening to have her mail suspended if she doesn't move her car out of the way from the mailbox. She - luckily - had move out of the neighborhood a few years back and never had to deal with our postman again.

So what now ? I don't really mind my neighbor parking in front of my house... but I am not sure why can't the post man just walk out and put the mail in the mailbox. Isn't that their job ? irregardless rain or snow ?

Some option I think :
1. Photocopy the above note and add a nice note and put it at my neighbor's wiper next time I see the car parked in front of my house.
2. Chris said to call the Post office general to see if that's the case. I am sure that would result in many un-delivered mail....

Hmmmm.... what to do.. what to do...
Maybe I should just always have my mail picked up...

What to do with left over curry ?

Last week was a particularly busy week with friends visiting and organizing a potluck, in which I cook - not one, but two - huge pots of curry, which resulted in leftovers.

During the week - we've been eating out at our old favorite places, and thus all my leftover curry has been neglected. It was only on Monday - that I remembered that I would need to work on those leftover ! (otherwise I would waste food again .. which I am trying not to do)

What to do with left over curry ?? One of the things I liked when I was in NYC was these curry puff pastries that they sell at bakeries in Chinatown. I figure, perhaps its not too hard to make ? Browsing the websites online yields some baked instructions...

Ingredients :

1. A box of puff pastry sheets.
2. left over curry
3. Cayenne pepper powder .
   
4. Some salt.
5. One egg, for egg wash.
   

These are kinda the steps I took...

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degs. Tho, the pastry sheet box said 400.
   
2. Thaw the pastry sheets. Follow instructions for thawing. I over thawed them.
   
3. Mix 2,3,4 so that the flavor is more intense.
4. Cut the sheet into 3x3 squares (4x4 might have been nicer)
5. Fill the squares with curry mixture (small spoon full) , seal it, and put fork marks all around it.
   
6. Add egg wash on top
7. Bake it - till it looks done.
   

Ok, not too scientific , but good enough. How bad can it be ?

I baked it till the curry kinda oozed out... partially b/c I didn't seal it well, and partially b/c I put too much stuff in there... (goal = use curry)

Ugh.

I pulled the pastries apart, and set them on the table top to cool over night...
and ta da ! This actually tasted good in the morning.

Yard waste recycling - not done right.

I am particularly fond of recycling - the more stuff I can recycle the better. One of the things I like to recycle is yard waste. Last year , I raked up enough leaves to fill up my no longer used 30 gallon garbage can, and more. Those were all recycled... I was happy.

When spring came, I decided to use my 30 gallon garbage can again - to fill it up with weeds that I've been digging up as they pop out of the ground. No harm done. Just not too much weeds to fill up that tank.

I gradually add more stuff as I work in my yard... since spring.
And today - I decided its time for recycling.

I lifted the lid to add more weed, and - almost swarm of fungus gnats swarmed out. Ack! My last yard work waste must have included a bit of those gnats !

So gross.

I closed the lid quickly... and hope maybe my garbage guy doesn't get grossed out.

Next time - I'll use a bag.

Cheap / Not Cheap ...

So - once in a while Chris and I would drive up to NYC and work remote from my parent's place. We would work downstairs and have homemade breakfast :) This is one of those weeks.

This morning - Chris came down stairs and told me about a dream that he has:

Chris: "So I was dreaming that I was shopping w/ you , and a friend of yours. Don't remember who it was. We were in a store and she came out with two huge shopping bags - on each hand. "

"She asked : should I buy this cheap things or should I buy this not cheap thing ?"

"She goes on : cheap / not cheap , cheap / not cheap , cheap / not cheap ..."

(by this time I couldn't figure out where this was going)

"So I woke up, and found a bird chirping outside - cheap ... cheap .. cheap ... cheap ... "
"Stupid bird made me have a shopping dream"

HA.

I re-told this story to my mom in Chinese later on the day, and before we got to the punch line, particularly at the cheap part, she quickly said - oh that's Yen....

Probably something lost in translation....

Dog booty ?

My dog is getting really old... and one of the problem of getting old is the fact her hind legs is really weak, and causing issues when she want to stand up - especially right after she wakes up.

So... I decided that she needs help - to get a grip. I wanted to look for things I've seen that covers the dog's feet up - w/ a little bit of robber padding to help with the grip.

So I searched: "Dog booty" in google.
Not getting too many results (and some weird results) I complained to Chris.

Chris : why are you looking for dog booty ?

me: Well - b/c Brandy needs it.

Chris : huh ?

me: you know - those things that wraps around her paws to give her grip.

Chris: Oh you mean booties !

me : ... then - what's a booty ?

Chris: That's butt. Why are you looking for dog butt ?

me < --- speechless.

and proceeds to complain about the English language... and look for dog booties.

Brandy will get her booties while I am in town :)

I am afraid of your pantry

A conversation this morning...

Chris : Is the tortilla chips in your pantry still good to eat?
Ying: I don't know.

Ying thinks about it a bit...

Ying: I think the expiration date is June 6th, but I am not sure whether its for this year or last year.

Chris makes a face ... for a long time.

Chris: I am afraid of your pantry.

Chris makes an attempt at the chips...

Chris: Still crunchy.

Chips being consumed with a jar of salsa which Ying doesn't remember that she has....

I deflated my down comforter

This morning - in a clean the house mode - I decided to wash my down comforter.

There were many signs that pointed to me that this is not a good thing to do - but I ignored them totally... The first one being the Dry Clean only tag.

In the middle of stuffing my comforter into my washing machine - I thought - hmm it might not fit. My first instinct is - to stuff it in. Didn't I wash another comforter in the same manner before ? Or was it the same one ? My memory escapes me in the morning.

OK. Then. Filling up with water, add detergent. That's the point of no return. And... the comforter floats. Refusing to be soaked in totally in to the water.

Decided to let it run and see what happens. The comforter resisted the agitation (as its still somewhat floating) - and it looks as if the washer can't do anything about it... ack.

Decided that this doesn't work... Let the comforter soak and decide what's the next step. The detergent is already in.. so rinsing must happen..

Skip the washing cycle to rinse and spin dry... Figure - Let me just get the soap out of the way and perhaps the spin cycle will get ride of the extra water.... and yes it did.

And... there is one deflated down comforter in my washing machine.

Remind me not to do it again.

懶懶的新年 ...

Chinese New Year happened, and I was lazy. Called mom , aunt, and pretty much it. Laziness sometimes becomes me. Eat eat eat... food food food. This is the real time of the year to really eat good stuff.

I decided that this year, I should send a mass email out to friends and family, and just wishing them Happy New Year. No cheezy red color eCards (tho they are nice to have) . This is very very generic. Its something that took me a while to craft, b/c I have no clue how to type Chinese into my computer - cut and pasting happened, but looking exactly like something a machine can spit out.

恭喜發財!! 新年快樂 ! 祝大家身體健康, 萬事如意. :)

Perhaps not too generic. It does look pretty :)

Oh - and it took me a while to find the word for my name... 穎

In 4 minutes .... a blog entry

Random thoughts for consumption in 4 minutes :

1. CNN is looking more and more like QVC. Just right as I was picking up a cup of tea, I observed :

• Similar tone of speaking (fast, and direct)
• Bottom and side panels for more information (even on the same side)
• A head shot. (close up)

2. First computer error of the day is : I should start keeping track of these things, potentially keep a streak of - days where no error happened.


Joy.

Perfection-ist.

I think I am a perfectionist. BTW - there is another word for that starting with "a" that I alway use, but with a quick google search to ensure the correct spelling - returns no work friendly results . Heck , suppose I clean up my writing a bit.

I was working on a presentation in power point - thinking, wouldn't it be nice to figure out how to line the two pages up, so that my back / forward paging doesn't jump too much within the contents?

Something like how you can take a graphical editing tool, and line your objects up. Well, I want to line things up across pages.

Then I realized only people who look at power point for way too long think of such things...

But - isn't power point the perfect time waster for perfectionist ? the amount of time - to tweak the message - just right.

New Year! 2008

Its 2008, and its already middle of January.

Thinking back to the years when we are consciences of - the new millennium. Counting the days to Year 2000.. the 2000 days to 2000. The Y2K panic. The many wedding of 2000. It coincide with year of the golden dragon, and so it was also a year of many babies.

It didn't kill us. Tho 2001 is the correct new millennium.

2008, now its just another year. Probably another busy year.

Some amt of new years resolution is in order :

• Be healthy and do some exercise.
  
• Eat better quality food. Perhaps re-asses my frozen food collection ?
  
• De-clutter.
  
• Learn something.
  

Vague enough for me....