Originally posted by jetta:Hi all, it's been a while. Hope everyone is well and doing fine.
LIT: Thanks for asking. It's been a cooler than usual summer for us in SoCal. Mildest it's been for 3 decades (I think that's what the media said). Aside from the hassle of the move and everything associated with that, it's been all right. Kids are settling into their routine at their new school, I've been getting more hours at work (which I dislike), etc.
The house, well, it's been keeping me super duper busy.Mum came for a short visit, I painted the entire exterior of the house, dug up the dirt in the entire back yard, planted grass from seed, decimated the bamboo forest planted by years ago, etc etc, Too much to go on, don't want to bore you with details. :P
Hope your Sg hols went great. How are things with you?
wow....sounded like a very eventful summer for you!! upkeeping a house is hard work....i don't mind cleaning the house...but i'm totally clueless and hate doing yard work.
my trip back to singapore was good. i was there for 6 weeks and spent all my time catching up with families and friends...and pigging out everyday. gosh, i put on quite a bit of weight in SG. i checked out some of the new places like Ion, 313@somerset, orchard central & also celebrated National Day at marina bay sands. so much seemed to have changed even though i had only been away for 10months.
i stopped over in london for 2 weeks before returning to the states end August. i found and moved into another new winter rental within 2 weeks after i got back. i had moved out of my previous rental before i left for SG and had moved all my stuffs to a storage facility. so spent quite some time moving my stuffs out of storage and into my new rental and unpacking.
i had a bunch of SG friends who visited me and stayed with me for almost 2 weeks. that kept me really busy. finally have some quiet time now to check the forum....
it's getting cold over here....i was in new hampshire, vermont last week and the colors haven't really changed. i still see a lot of greens and only some yellows/oranges. over my side (southern massachusetts)...the leaves are all green still.
Welcome back stateside, LiT!
Hey all, it's fall. What cha all up to?
Hey LiT. Wah, busy x 10! How's the new rental? Hope it's warmer than the old one and cheaper to maintain.
went for a date at the grove, man its like a magical wonderland! on the otherhand failed math. rofl
I love The Grove! What a beautiful mall! We saw Mario Lopez taping a segment for his show. I was there to kill time, not to shop. We took Mum to a taping of the Price is Right. Man, that thing took all day!!!
Originally posted by jetta:Hey all, it's fall. What cha all up to?
Hey LiT. Wah, busy x 10! How's the new rental? Hope it's warmer than the old one and cheaper to maintain.
ya...2 months flew past just like that since i got back to the states. hardly any time to breath. we are taking every opportunity that we've got (& left) to go on roadtrips to nearby places in new england to enjoy the foliage...I LOVE LOVE LOVE FALL!!!! more friends visited us last week....can you believe how everyone chooses to visit at the same time?!! *faint*
the new rental is FANTASTIC!!! the house is right on waterfront...we've got a terrifc view all round. it's a much newer construction (relative to the century old house last year), smaller but very airtight so it heats up really nicely...although the weather seems to be warming up (crazy new england weather!!) last couple of nights, i had to sleep without my blanket. my rent is a little higher than last year but my landlord is paying for my water/cable/internet/phone/yard maintenance/leaf clearance..& my gas/electric bills seem lower....so it's still a great deal!!
bad news is....i still haven't gone for my driving test. kekekeke...have been procrastinating since fall last year....really bad!! have been pushing myself to practise everyday...and aiming to go for the test hopefully end of November before the snow comes =PPPP
Originally posted by jetta:We took Mum to a taping of the Price is Right. Man, that thing took all day!!!
ahhh.....my fav program!!!
Happy for you LiT. Your rental sounds like a way better deal than the previous one. Do you know how long you'll be here for this time?
Re: Price is Right. I was surprised to learn that they don't pick contestants at random. The producer "interviewed" us 15 at a time, asking questions like what do you do? etc... We have 10 seconds or so to answer his question. We lef the house at 7, got there at 10, got in line, didn't know if we'd even get to see the taping until 2. (During this break, we went to the Grove, saw Mario Lopez at work, found a really quaint food court, ate, etc. Got into another line, got interviewed, entered the studio at 345. The taping started at 410 and it all ended by 530. By the time we got home, it was 10pm. Goodness!
Oh that food court I mentioned, so international! They even had a shop that boasted Singapore/Indonesian/Malaysian fare. I ordered the laksa for $10.50. I was robbed! It tasted terrible!
Originally posted by jetta:Happy for you LiT. Your rental sounds like a way better deal than the previous one. Do you know how long you'll be here for this time?
Re: Price is Right. I was surprised to learn that they don't pick contestants at random. The producer "interviewed" us 15 at a time, asking questions like what do you do? etc... We have 10 seconds or so to answer his question. We lef the house at 7, got there at 10, got in line, didn't know if we'd even get to see the taping until 2. (During this break, we went to the Grove, saw Mario Lopez at work, found a really quaint food court, ate, etc. Got into another line, got interviewed, entered the studio at 345. The taping started at 410 and it all ended by 530. By the time we got home, it was 10pm. Goodness!
Oh that food court I mentioned, so international! They even had a shop that boasted Singapore/Indonesian/Malaysian fare. I ordered the laksa for $10.50. I was robbed! It tasted terrible!
wat...the supposedly random pick is fake!!...so the pre-selected participants have to pretend to pump their fists in excitement when drew says "come on down!"...chey
can you folks on the west coast find the laksa noodles in chinatown/chinese grocery shops??? if yes, i think you are better off making the laksa yourself. $10.50 for a bowl of lousy laksa is really bad..... =( unfortunately, i can't find the laksa noodles here...
my lease is from sep-mid june 2011. then as usual, we'll either go back to singapore or go somewhere else from mid june-end august. if my landlord is kind enough to let us store our stuffs in his basement when we are away and be flexible with the move-in date....we might just rent his house forever...heh heh
They had a couple of people on the show whose sole job was to rile the audience up. They had us a-hooting and a-hollering all the time. We clapped until our hands were sore!
I only tried the laksa just to try. I thought SD was expensive, it's worse in LA! Back here, I rely on Prima for my laksa fix.
Hope your lease works out.
brr....minus 6 today.....winter is coming....... :(
Originally posted by littlestream:brr....minus 6 today.....winter is coming....... :(
Yikes! Does anyone here have a gas heater? Is it normal for it to stink so much when it's on?
Originally posted by littlestream:brr....minus 6 today.....winter is coming....... :(
haha....we are also expecting temp to drop to minus 2-3C later this evening....
@jetta: it does smell a little (musty/dusty smell) but if it stinks....maybe something is being "cooked"??? =P
Holy cow! Is it that cold in Canada already??
It was a little chilly here this morning (around 35 deg. F) but it warmed up nicely into the day. It got up to around 55 deg. F by the time I got back from work, so I took advantage of the warmth to change the oil and filter in my car.
Originally posted by lostintransition:haha....we are also expecting temp to drop to minus 2-3C later this evening....
@jetta: it does smell a little (musty/dusty smell) but if it stinks....maybe something is being "cooked"??? =P
It smells like gas. We had a tech come out to check it out. I asked him questions but either he didn't hear me (I did repeat my questions) or he just was tight-lipped. The guy was Russian and grunted his responses. Grrr. The smell lingers and doesn't dissipate after the heater is turned on. Just to be sure I'm going to call for service again.
The weather's gone berserk again. After so many cool and wet days, yesterday's weather swung the other way. It was so hot, just walking outside you could feel your skin burn.
Originally posted by jetta:The weather's gone berserk again. After so many cool and wet days, yesterday's weather swung the other way. It was so hot, just walking outside you could feel your skin burn.
Oh crap. Did the nuclear power station at San Onofre go critical and start spewing radioactive material into the atmosphere again?
How is everyone dealing with fall? I am battling rhizomes, grrr. Trying to dig up wild bamboo roots.
low usd plus so many good deals, time to change cars!!!!
So the city picked up the leaves/pine needles that I'd been raking for weeks last Monday...trouble is it was the first day of the scheduled pick up and they decided to start in our neighborhood instead of another part of town as they had in previous years! None of the maple leaves that had fallen in the side yard had been raked yet because they were still falling and I assumed I had a couple more weeks. The city workers came and went so now those leaves will have to be taken to the dump...no fees involved, just time and trash bags.
Hate it when that happens. Look on the bright side, least you don't have to pay fees.
The city should have known better when they scheduled the pick up days. Is there any way to get them to schedule another pick up in a few weeks' time?
On a (winter) related note, we had our first snowstorm of the season over the weekend. The massive storm system that swept over the upper MIdwest dropped about 14" of wet, heavy snow on the Twin Cities, beginning Friday night. It was not fun shovelling all that crap from the driveway.
the last batch of leaves are still stubbornly stucked on the branches despite the crazy winds...the whole front/backyard is a mess with the remaining of the fallen leaves. my landlord has got TOO MANY many leafy trees! his leaf guy is coming end nov to clear everything....hopefully, the last leaf would've fallen by then.
we had sleet last week...but nothing major. temperatures are fluctuating between high20s to 60s from day to day....strange the new england weather. we started using heat early oct...and i just got my first heat bill and it's only USD50! wow....considering what i was paying previously. hopefully, my heating bill will continue to stay low. am thinking of going florida for part of the winter....anybody heading that way?
my trash/recycling collection schedules also vary. sometimes the guys come so much earlier than their regular timing and i'd miss the collection...and then i'd have to hold on to the trash/recycling for another 1 or 2 weeks *stinko*. and i hate to leave my trash out the night before as i don't want the animals rummaging through my trash! so now have to make myself wake up early on trash/recycling collection days just so to put them out. especially miserable on cold mornings or when it rains/snows! miss the days of rubbish chutes!! =P