April 20, 2006 7:07 PM Thursday, Jacksonville, Florida           

Three strikes

The past few weeks have been rough in our household. Here’s what took place within the last three weeks.

Tuesday, April 4, after I got off work at 5PM, went to pick up some dairy and sea foods at the grocery store; got home; opened the fridge and was shocked to see everything inside the freezer was thawed!

I had to take off work that Thursday, April 6 as we made an appointment with the Sears service repair to come out to check the fridge. The repair man found out that there was a short circuit that took place that day thus it burnt out part of the compressor unit and few electrical wirings. I was told they had to order the parts and the waiting time was within 3 to 5 business days. So for the time being we were without the refrigerator for more than a week! The estimated repair cost: parts and labor was $598. I hesitated at first as I can’t seem to justify the cost of the repair is 1/3 of the price of our Kenmore 23.1 cu. ft. Side-By-Side Counter Depth Refrigerator? But I suppose repair cost doesn’t get any cheaper than this anywhere you go.

We got the parts Tuesday, April 11, so my mother-in-law had to come over Thursday, April 13 as early as 8AM since we had an appointment that day with Sears Service to fix the fridge. The schedule was set between 8AM-12NOON. Shortly after 12, MIL called me at work telling me she spoke with Sears Customer Service and found out the schedule was actually between 8AM to 5PM. Imagine the agony she had to endure that day with no food to eat… not even cold water to drink? So then I decided to take off work again after lunch to relieve her. The Sears repair man showed up 15 minutes past 5PM! My mother-in-law swears never to use Sears Service again. She was so dissatisfied and so was I but I was more glad than anything else because our fridge was finally refurbished.

Sunday, April 16, DH and I agreed to grace the early Easter Sunday Mass at the Holy Family Catholic Church with our presence. Then right after the service we headed back home because we invited my mother-in-law and brother-in-law to come over for BBQ. While DH did the preps for the cook out, I decided to finish the laundry. Unfortunately, after the second load, our Front Loading Kenmore Washer broke down. So I had to haul all the unfinished and dirty laundry to my mother-in-law’s house. Fortunately, her two friends next door were kind enough to allow us to use their washers so we got the laundry done in due time.

At 3pm, given the fact that we were in and out of the house for the cook out, DH had to turn off the A/C to conserve energy. Then he fired up the charcoal grill in the backyard and made a tasty chicken breast, wings, legs and gizzards barbeque. He also made some steaks, baked potatoes and grilled some veges. Cookies, shortcakes with strawberry fruits and jellies were served as a dessert. Yum!

After the meal, we turned the A/C back on; set the thermostat to 68 degrees F and we all cooped inside the house. However, around 8:50pm, the temperature gauge showed a reading of 81 degrees inside the house while it was 70 degrees outside. I grumbled, Darling, it’s warm in here!!! DH got up to check the A/C and in a despondent tone of voice he said, "Sweetheart, I think we have another problem. The A/C doesn’t  blow any cold air anymore.” I squealed with exasperation, “You mean Darling the AC broke down too?!?!?!?!?!” What the heck is going on?!?! I am telling you, I felt the blood rush into my head and my blood pressure reading probably hit the highest point. I was very frustrated but DH was able to comfort and calm me down. I had to call Marie in an unholy hour just to vent some more…

Monday, April 17, DH had to take off work as he made an appointment with the Florida Home Air Conditioning and Appliance Company to come out to check our A/C. My mother-in-law had other appointment to attend to that day so she can’t do it. The repair man found out that the A/C Suction accumulator needs to be replaced because it was leaking badly aside from the system is low in Freon. The Service guy had to order the parts and re-scheduled us for another appointment three days later. The estimated cost for parts and labor was $614. I suppose that’s a lot better than getting a less expensive new A/C for $5,000 eh?

Tuesday, April 18, my mother-in-law had to come over again to wait for the Repair man to come out and check our washer. This time she hired Atlantic Coast Appliance Service to do the job. The repair guy arrived at 9:15AM; scheduled appointment was between 9AM - 12Noon. She called me on the phone right away to let me know she’s so pleased with the service and warned me one more time NEVER to use Sears again :-). Do you know what caused the washer to malfunction though? This string bra support was found stuck inside the pump that suctions out the water. I discovered later that the other pair of the bra support in one of my tank tops was missing.  I don’t quite understand though how this string got push down the pump through the tiny holes inside the washer.  Good thing it didn’t ruin the pump completely otherwise we would have spent more than $500 for parts and labor again. Rather we paid $77only for the labor.

Wednesday, April 19 was another appointment for Florida Home Air Conditioning and Appliance Co to fix the A/C. I had to take another time off from work because my mother-in-law’s calendar was booked for the rest of the week and DH can’t get a time off that day. I am just glad my boss is so sympathetic with me to approve my time off request anytime. The appointment was set between 9AM – 5PM however the repair guy finally showed up in our doorstep at 6:30PM. Piskot!  I mean had I known the repair man is going to come out that late at night, I could have gone to work and not waste my leave time for nothing! GrGrGrGr!!!

The big mistake we did this year was, we declined to renew our home warranty service last month  (which covers all home appliances including A/C)  because we thought it was just a waste of money. Imagine paying $988/year for it? Besides we never had any appliances break down in the last 7 years not to mention we bought brand new home appliances right after we moved in to this house last year because we decided to leave all our old household appliances in the condo when we sold it.

I also made such a fool out of myself towards the end of last year when I turned around and requested a refund of $512 for the 5 year extended warranty service I paid extra for both washer and dryer in January 2005. Know what? Now we spent more than the cost of a 5 year service warranty in just one shot of service.  Is this some kind of a karma or what?  I should have known better because I also sell extended service warranty for computers and stuff when I was working as a salesperson... and believe it or not, those who refused to buy extended warranty, most often than not, have more troubles with their laptops after a year.  Ooh well… Sh*t happens!

Nonetheless, everything is now squared away hence we are back living a normal life. I do hope we’ll get more good luck next...

Behind the saga

DH related this occurrence with me after the entire saga was done and over with. He recalled while he was driving to and from work prior to these entire misfortunes we’ve gone through, he saw a black cat crossed his path on three separate times and three separate locations. Although he pays no heed to this superstitious belief that “if the black cat crosses your path, it is bad luck".  However at the back of his mind he actually thought about it but eventually he let loose the thoughts anyway. After all, he never believes any of these urban legends or superstitions. Until now, he still thinks the incident is more of a coincidence than anything else.

On the other hand, I got this message from the Chinese cookie the last time we had to order a take out Chinese food. It says, “Unexpected turn of events will bring you richness”. I’ll beat for a million dollar lotto from now on ;-) Wish me luck because if I win, I’ll definitely split the money to the poor children!

 

April 02, 2006 9:23 AM Sunday, Jacksonville, Florida           

 

Spring Fling

Daylight Saving Time begins for most of the United States at 2:00 AM today, the first Sunday of April. Then, the time reverts to standard time at 2:00 A.M. on the last Sunday of October.

Remember this Spring Forward, Fall Back!  It means that the clock is turned forward from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM on the 1st Sunday of April which marks the start of a Spring season.  On the other hand, the clock falls back from 2:00 AM to 1:00 AM on the last Sunday of October which marks the beginning of a Fall Season.

Daylight Saving Time, for the U.S. and its territories, is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, most portion of the State of Indiana, and the state of Arizona.

So, folks in the Philippines, please remember that our time difference is now 12 hours so that means that if it is 8:00 PM of Sunday here, then that would be your 8:00 AM  Monday. I am 12 hours behind.

Spring is here

~Wow~ the surroundings are much greener and are multihued as flowers continue to bloom everywhere. I would have loved this season if it is not for my allergy to pollen. I am a mess with all these allergic reactions: a runny, itchy nose tied with incessantly sneezing. My eyes have this burning sensation and are awfully itchy despite taking the doctor’s prescription med for allergy! This week, I have another doctor’s appointment: one for ophthalmologist and one for our family doctor.

My cleaning frenzy

DH has already started to plant the seeds of different vegetables in our garden whereas I am a little eager to start growing flowers again in the frontage of our home but more importantly, I am more anal about spring cleaning--making our home spotless and immaculately neat and clean from top-to-bottom. Actually, I already spent 12 straight hours of dusting, vacuuming and steaming the carpet one weekend. At first DH was trying to talk me into employing the Sears Carpet & Upholstery Care In-Home Service but I can’t seem to justify paying $300+ for it much more since I am able to do it by myself by renting Publix Rug Doctor/Steaming machine for $30/per day. Of course the result of my effort couldn't complete with Sears’s in-home service because we all know these guys are using the most advanced cleaning technology for steaming. But hey the carpet is going to get soiled again after couple of months anyway so why fret?

Our hover vacuum cleaner is more or less 10 years old now though it still works ok but it doesn’t seem to do the job well plus its creepy--old and heavy!

One of my mother-in-law’s Christmas presents to me last December was this cordless Electrikbroom Quickstick from Oreck. I so like this little guy because it is quite handy as there's no cord to get in the way plus it’s small enough to fit the hard-to-reach places under the bed and under the side tables. This type of vacuum though is good enough for quick cleaning on all surfaces as it doesn’t really clean the carpet as much as the big vacuum cleaner does. So I went online to check out different vacuum cleaners. I didn’t realize Oreck vacuum cleaners  are those pricey until I stumbled in their website.

   Try our Oreck Vacuum cleaners FREE for 30 days. If you don't love it, you don't keep it.™
 

Well, after trying both XL Ultra and XL 21 and weighing the pros and cons, I decided to keep the XL 21 model. DH was more stunned than anything else when I was trying to charm him to approve by spending for a vacuum cleaner worth $750.00 ($699.99 + 7.5% tax). I mean knowing me as the most penny-pinching person in the planet; at first he couldn’t believe I was actually serious about spending that much money for a vacuum cleaner. But hey, when it comes to my cleaning frenzy, I am all for it ;-). Seriously, I think it’s worth the money though considering the many neat features the other models don’t have let alone the 21-year warranty and at the same time once a year free tune-ups for 21 years!

The most convenient feature I like with this vacuum is, it has a built-in profiler which means once its switch ON, it moves forward by itself. Yaay! HighTech ;-)

Plus with my purchase, I got these two freebies:

The Oreck cordless iron and the compact canister vacuum cleaner which makes my domestic chores a lot easier to engage in.

 

 

I am probably gonna be just content to be a God mother for the rest of my life :-)

Sunday, March 5, I became the official God mother to my best friend, Marie's... the only God son by choice that is because I volunteered myself to be one.  I am not saying parents have no rights to choose their kids God mothers/fathers but wouldn't it be better if some of your family close friends offered to take part in your son/daughter's Christian faith? I suppose most Filipinos glorified the practice of having so many Godchildren without really looking into the responsibility it entails.  You know, if we get lucky to have a kid, I would opt for volunteer God mothers and God fathers! Just so you know though, I don't welcome the idea of having so many God parents as much as I don't like to be a God mother to so many children because to tell you the truth, I seriously take the responsibility of being a God mother as a serious commitment to God and to the kid's parents.  So guys from now on, don't chose me as one of your kid's God mother because I have a handful of godchildren already ;-) 

On Weight Loss

The month of March was another bust in our diet regimen! I tell you, it’s kinda hard to resist the temptation when offered with variations of the high fattening foods and luscious desserts right there in front you while everybody binges on them. The downbeat thinking comes to mind that if I indulge myself with no restraint to these types of foods ONCE, it wouldn’t hurt but apparently it did because I’d dotted the effect few days later.

After we came back from that four-day escape from Orlando, I told DH, “that’s it… no more bingeing until our next wedding anniversary in September!” so he conceded!

However, last weekend, March 26, I attended Will and Lynette's celebration for their second baby's dedication to the Christian world at the First Filipino Baptist Church here in Jacksonville.  I could have skipped the reception but you know how that goes.  My mind was telling me to leave and have a good portion of lunch at home but my hunger pangs kicked in especially after I saw the varieties of Pinoy delicacies on the table. So there I overindulge myself again. Darn it!

Well, losing weight doesn’t have to mean an endless parade of just bland foods, soups and salads. I knew I could still eat what I liked if only I could just control my tendency to overindulge especially with rice, bread and other forms of carbohydrates and sugary desserts but sometimes I couldn't help it! I am such a pig!

Needless to say, something has to change in my daily routine. I chided myself to get off the comfy couch and get my groove on!  So for a little over a week now, well for the first few days anyway, I got up at 3:30 AM to exercise! I sure did! For a while, I did cardio-work-out for 40 minutes; cool down and rested for another 30 minutes or so and then went back to bed to get some more sleep until 6:20AM.  On top of that, I also did a good 35-minute Pilates work-out for ABS and Arms at night. Wednesday and Saturday, I give myself a break. There are some days that I am too disinclined to work-out but thought it would be easier to exercise than completely give up all the foods I relish. You see, I don’t buy the idea of having to skip meal or just eat one meal a day to lose weight. I still eat 3 meals a day but I have to make a conscious decision to eat healthy foods and in portion. Easier said than done eh? But hey, you noticed I dropped 2 lbs from my last month weight? That's better than gaining a pound or two isn't it? 

Midyear Job Evaluation

My mid-year evaluation was released last Friday and I am thrilled to see the result: Exemplary  Performance which means I'll be expecting another raise at the beginning of a new Fiscal Year this year :-) 

Happy Sunday everyone :-)