Happy Halloween
October 30, 2008
Short update from yours truly.
Tomorrow is Halloween, the ang mo version of the Chinese “Hungry Ghost” festival/month, you get my drift lah. And what do these angmo go out and do? They wear costumes and knock door to door asking for candy. Hmmm the Cina version is to stay IN the house, AWAY from all the roaming spirits. So what does that say about the angmo’s? 
Yes, they are insane. I’m just being a smartass, don’t take me seriously. (Hi honey 
)
Speaking of the honey, Rob has a new blog up. Yeah I know, like he updates the one his has now often enough right? 
Well this new blog has some nice features. I personally like the Yahoo smileys. It’s so much easier to blog with, as compared to my where I have to type in the html code of the smileys location blah blah blah. Too much work! But at the same time I like incorporating the Yahoo smileys in my post.
His new blog is on WordPress which I find very fascinating and have wanted to convert over for the longest time but never had the time to do it because it’s going to take quite a lot of work on my part. (Whew, that was a really long sentence. Try reading it with one breath. I did, that took work! Heh 
). I’ve linked his blog and the address is http://www.windycityblogger.com/
I’ve been busy editing chapters and re-reading them. I try to take the criticism as constructive as possible and try to think light of the situation and ALSO laugh at myself for the mistakes I make.
I had a ice blended cappucino during dinner so I will be up for a while. Might as well use this caffeine buzz on the thesis. Til then, have a great weekend all.
GrrRRrrr spellcheck
October 10, 2008
Taking a break from my travel posts. Many random things…
First, I need to vent out some frustration. Earlier today I was so proud of myself for wanting to resume my blogging duties. *glares at Carolyn*
So I was editing pictures and came to a total of 48 pictures for my next post. It’s about the aquarium in MOA. I uploaded them to my Photobucket and one by one copied and pasted EACH html code for the photos. Fourty-eight times ok? Then I had to resize the pictures to fit in my template, one by one but that wasn’t hard at all. It was the switching from one page to another to copy and paste the html codes that was hard work. FOURTY EIGHT TIMES I HAD TO DO IT!
Ahem…
Anyway, when I was done with the pictures, again I was so proud of myself for having such great patience with it lah. I wrote some text and essentially I was done. Then I have no idea WHY but thinking it was a good idea at the time, I clicked the spell check button on Blogger. Guess what happened?
ALL MY PICTURES WERE GONE!!!!!!! !#^#!&#*@$!!#%!$!@#&#%(#*@
What was left was the URL for the pictures. My html codes for all the pictures….GONE!!!!!
My copying-pasting 48 html codes FLUSHED (!!!!!!!!) down the toilet and joining its fellow useless CRAP.
So what did I do? I went back into Photobucket and copied pasted the codes all over AGAIN. By picture number 30 I realized that I could’ve fixed the problem by pasting a different code in HTML mode that was supposedly “spoiled” by the spell check. *sigh* I am such a doofus sometimes.
In essense, I copied and pasted html codes 76 times today.
I guess it was God’s way of saying “KNOCK IT OFF!!!! GO WORK ON YOUR THESIS!”
Worked on the thesis I did, after of course getting my pictures back. Thanks for that “little” push” God. *looks up*
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I have so many things to do lah.
I haven’t even unpacked totally from my trip (So much for taking a break from my travel posts). Don’t get me wrong I have unpacked the neccessities and washed the dirty clothes. It’s the new stuff I haven’t unpacked, as in the clothes, shoes, bras, underwear etc. There’re in two luggage bags, sitting downstairs in the corner of the dining room. *sheepish grin* I’m glad mom hasn’t nagged me about those yet. I suppose she understands the lack of space in my little room.
Oh speaking of mom, I found out a couple days ago that October 7th was my parents’ wedding anniversary. They have been married 29 years. When my mom brought it up during dinner, my dad was oblivious. His response was “Really? It’s today? How many years has it been? Really? 29 years?” and then continued eating his beef noodles. We never really celebrated their wedding anniversaries so we just kinda shrugged it off like no big deal. I wished them happy anniversary and that was the end of it.
The more I think about it, the more it IS a big deal. Twenty nine years isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Being married and seeing each other almost everyday for the last 29 years. They fight like cat and dog at times but they are still together until today. Twenty nine years. In a world where failed marriages are so common, I am glad and certainly proud that my parents are still together and love each other, even though they do not profess it, at least not in front of me.
I hope to have the same long marriage, if not more. I look forward to building a life together with Rob one day. It’s a shame that there are people out there who see marriage as an end to their life, as in their single free life. I don’t see marriage as an end to anything. I don’t see marriage as something that ties you to someone. I don’t see marriage as something that guarantees you “company” as you get older. I see marriage as a starting point of the next chapter in life, corny as it may sound. Marriage is another symbol of love for each other and wanting to make it forever.
Hmmm do I hear complaints of me getting too mushy already?
I guess for some people when they see their significant other at a daily basis they tend to take things for granted. Or maybe they just haven’t found the right one yet. Oh well, everyone has a different mindset to things.
It’s about 10 now so I should stop my random mushiness and continue to “beef” up my thesis. It’s got to be “perfect”!
Mall of America
October 7, 2008
**I’m so tired today. I went to bed close to 4am because I was working on the thesis. I figured since I was on a rampage I might as well keep going until I got dead tired. Heh I’m now paying for it.**
In Minnesota we stayed at Homestead Studio Suites and Hotels. We got an awesome deal from hotels.com and got a free $50 gas gift card. For the price we paid and the distance to MOA, it was really worth it. The room came with tons of amenities but we didn’t use them much as I was busy dragging Rob around the mall, map in my hand and all.
Oooo! I just noticed Rob in the picture. Heh Hi honey! ~waves~
Pretty flowers outside. Oh how I love summer time there
Anyway we had to check in the hotel first as there was a time restriction on check-in time. We arrived at Homestead just before 7pm. We went up to check on our room and was pleasantly surprised.
With a full kitchen. I love the breakfast bar!
We didn’t unload our stuff because I HAD to shop, even for just a couple hours. Can you blame me? I had been sitting in that car for about 8 hours in total, excluding the time we were eating or taking pictures.
This flock of geese were just walking around in the middle of the road like nobody’s business. Many cars had to stop and so did we (!) for them to take their sweet time to get on the grass! So tua liap hut meh??? (For your understanding Robbie, I’m basically questioning their importance )
MOA wasn’t that hard to find from the hotel. It was just over a highway and down and there was THE mall, THE largest mall in the USA. If I didn’t know any better, I may have peed a little over the excitement when I saw the huge building.
Almost a picture of myself in the mirror
MOA is so big it has over 12,000 parking spaces. Oh let’s not forget the huge outdoor parking right in front of the mall itself.
MOA is so big it that 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside the Mall! I’ve seen the Statue of Liberty and I can tell you it’s not small! I could even see it from the plane when I reached Newark International Airport.
MOA is so big that the total store front footage is 4.3 miles (6.88km) and the walking distance around one level (There are 4 levels) is 0.57miles (almost 1km).
MOA is so big it has 520 stores to shop in and if you remember, I once found out that if you spend 10 minutes in every store, it would take you more than 86 hours (or almost 4 days, with no sleep) to complete the MOA shopping marathon.
MOA is so big it has 3 Starbucks, 2 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and 3 large foodcourts. It is so big Rob and I got lost, not just once, not twice, not thrice but at least 5 times during our 3 day marathon. It’s especially confusing when you walk from one end to the other and see a Starbucks at that “same” corner you saw it at the previous side.
MOA is so big, it has its own theme park, called Nickelodeon Universe. Believe me, Berjaya Times Square KL cannot compare.
It also has an aquarium, a LEGO Imagination Center, Dinosaur Walk Museum, A.C.E.S. Flight Simulation, and NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway.
I bet most guys reading this are foaming in the mouth seeing those LEGOS, remembering the good ole days when they were building space ships and planes out of tiny plastic bricks.
MOA is SO FREAKING BIG that they have a wedding chapel. A WEDDING CHAPEL! Who the heck goes to MOA and suddenly gets the urge to get married? “Hmmm I’m tired of shopping today, let’s go get married baby!” Huh??? Are there really people out there who do that?
The wedding chapel also comes with a bridal boutique, selling just about everything one needs for his/her wedding. The dresses on display were very pretty though. Heh I have to admit I was almost *tempted* to walk in there.
Must camwhore!
Victoria Secret store. Life is Pink is Life. I like that statement 😉
The best part of shopping for shoes and clothes in Minnesota, and MOA in particular, is that there is no clothing tax!!! The first store I looked for was Old Navy. I always loved their clothes but at times they may be a little overpriced. But I suppose that’s because its a branch under Gap Inc. I did find some great deals, USD13 capri jeans and USD8 tops of which I bought 2 each. HEHEHE
By the way, the Old Navy store had 2 floors
More MOA posts coming. Come back soon!
Roadtrip Part 2
October 2, 2008
It took us about 5 hours before we reached the border of Minnesota but we still had quite a ways to go before reaching MOA. We crossed a bridge and there was THE sign.
Minnesota welcomes you!
At this point I was really happy and excited while Rob was really close to throwing me into the river we were crossing. HEH Here’s why…
S: We’re in Minnesota!!!!
R: Yes we are
S: So where is the Mall of America?
R: Ummm honey, we just reached the border.
S: I know, we’re in Minnesota!
R: MOA is a third of the way up the state
S: Oh ok, that’s not too bad. How far are we?
R: Pretty far…
S: Ok….how long of a drive left?
R: 3 or 4 hours
S: What?! But we’re in Minnesota!
R: …….
(Ten or fifteen minutes later….)
S: Are we there yet?
R: No…
S: How about now?
R: No…
S: Now?
R: No
S: NOW????????
R: NO!!!!!!!!
S: Why not?
R: 
Repeat the above conversations, oh let’s say about 10 times, throughout the journey. I’m sure at SOME point Rob would’ve driven off a cliff somewhere. Lol.
It should be noted that I’m actually not THAT annoying. I was having some fun and trying to make Rob laugh because most of the time he had the look going as he was concentrating on the driving. All I wanted was to get a from him.
The scenic, although longer, route took us across the Mississippi River. That was the whole purpose of the scenic route.
Side note from Rob “The first time we crossed the river, you didn’t get the pictures you wanted. So I drove back to Wisconsin for a couple minutes, turned around and crossed the bridge again so you can have your pictures, remember???”
Heh, thanks honey. I owe you one.
The view after the bridge was so breathtaking that even the pictures doesn’t do much justice.
One of the many dams along the Mississippi River
We stopped so many times during the first hour or so on this track across the Mississippi River, one of the longest rivers in the United States and fourth longest in the world. I remember reading somewhere that it runs through like 10 states.
On a highway lookout stop
Oh so pretty!
Not so pretty but must camwhore a bit lah!
Along the Mississippi River are naturally formed and man-made lakes. Lake Pepin is a naturally occuring lake and the largest lake on the river. After reading up some information about it on Wikipedia, I’ve been zooming in my pictures to see if I caught a lake “monster”. Apparently, there have been sightings of Pepie, a version of the Loch Ness Monster throughout the years in that lake.
Anyway, no such luck lah. Thought that if I did capture a picture of Pepie, I could make some money selling the picture to a magazine or something and be rich! 
Lake Pepin
We stopped by a town called Winona for a quick bite at McDonald’s. At this point I remember asking Rob, “Are we going to get to MOA in time before the stores close? I wanna go shopping!”. Of course he laughed at my eagerness to shop and I also remember him using that against me.
S: Oooo let’s stop and take a look here
R: If we keep stopping you’re not gonna get a chance to shop today
S: Oh…ok. Let’s keep going.
R:
We kept driving and driving until we saw this nice little town by a lake a little over an hour later. There were many sailboats on the lake. I couldn’t ressist, we HAD to stop and take some pictures. I think the town is call Lake City. Heh how creative.
I think the most we spent there snapping pictures was about 30 minutes. I would have loved to dip my feet in the water or something but shopping at MOA was my ultimate goal for the day. 
Ahhh women…Lol
And so about 2 hours later (and after checking in our hotel room), we saw this…
NO not the “Right Turn Lane” sign. Look BEHIND IT, at the humongous building
MALL OF AMERICA!
The journey started at 9am and we arrived at MOA just before 7.30pm. The roadtrip was SUPPOSE to take 6-7 hours but with my constant shenanigans “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now? Now? Are we there yet? How far is it? How long have we been driving?”, “Oooooo! Look at that!” or “STOP!!! Picture op(portunity)!!!” or “Honey, I gotta pee” or “Baby, I’m hungry” or “Ummm I really need to stand up…my ass is killing me!”, it took us about 10 hours. *sheepish grin*
Pre-departure jitters
July 19, 2008
In less than 30 hours I will be jetting off to see Rob. I am excited about this trip but at the same time I have been stressed since the last week or so. I have not been sleeping well for the last few days and pimples are popping out everywhere on my face. I keep double-checking on the things I am bringing.
It’s also hard to pack with just one suitcase. Do I really need to bring those extra 2 tops? Or should I just bring the bare minimal and buy what I need when I get there? Should I bring a scarf with me for those cooler nights? Or is that totally unnecessary? It’s summer time for God’s sake! But Rob said some nights can be cooler so what do I do?
Grrrr I blame the American airline industry for imposing the USD25 on the second luggage that you check-in. I keep having to weigh my suitcase on my scale and it’s not the most accurate one. I worry what if my suitcase is over 50 lbs and they wanna charge me USD100 for excess baggage? So what do I do? I take out some clothes from my suitcase and shove them in my bagpack. I am also bringing my old laptop with me so nobody will feel the need to steal it. It’s so beat up! That bag is getting heavy too.
I won’t be sitting in the last row of a section in the plane. I always liked that more because I can have the backrest all the way down and not worry about making the person behind me uncomfortable. So I worry about that too, what if I can’t sleep upright for the 24 hour flight? If I’m too tired, what if by the time I get to Newark I’m so tired that I miss my flight to Chicago the next day cause I overslept?
I’m SO driving myself crazy. I’m feeling sleepy now, let’s see how long it takes for me to fall asleep tonight!
I got heard!
July 6, 2008
After my last post about MFM I decided to email them and make a complaint. Within a couple hours I received an email from one of their representatives, offering me RM50 in gift certificates. I was initially impressed but after giving it some thought and talking to Rob, we realized that the RM50 could not even cover my meal there with the parents.
But I was already impressed that they even bothered to contact me back. I mean, when it comes to the service industry in Malaysia, the standard is certainly not there yet, so I wasn’t expecting anybody to respond to me, and so quickly at that. Nonetheless, I emailed this representative back saying I should accept the apology even though it hardly covers half the cost, plus I’m pretty sure my dad wouldn’t wanna go back there ever again.
Again I was surprised by a better offer. This guy offered me a complimentary meal with my parents at any MFM of my choice in Kuching. I certainly am NOT going back to the one at Boulevard. Now I have to convinced my dad to go and set a time and let this guy know. He said he will arrange the rest for me (how nice!). He also assured me that my next experience dining at MFM will be a lot better. I have to give him two thumbs up.
Once I arranged everything and dine in at MFM, I will blog about it and give you the whole scoop. Til then, TWO MORE WEEKS!
24 more days to go!
June 27, 2008
Yes, I’m still counting the days to my trip. As each day passes, the excitement feels like it’s going to burst into a gazillions colours and shapes and forms, mostly bright shades of yellow, orange, red and pink. That’s about the only way I can describe my excitement. I’m not only staying two weeks, I’m staying FIVE WEEKS! It is going to be awesome!
Everything is confirmed with flights and hotel stays and whatnot. Roadtrip is in place, nothing will stop us except for nasty weather and/or broken car. *cross fingers* Mall of America (the largest mall in the U.S of A) here I come! Some fun facts I heard from Rob. If you spend 10 minutes in each store at MOA, you would finish cruising the entire mall in FOUR days. FOUR FREAKING DAYS, non-stop, no sleep, 24 hours a day! 96 hours of continuos mall-trotting. I keep imagining how big it is and how big my mouth will open once I see it from afar.
Anyway we’ll be in Minnesota for about 3 days so I’m definitely going to make the most out of it! We are really looking forward to this roadtrip. That way we can torture each other in the car for about 6-7 hours which is how long we, well Rob, will be driving according to GoogleMaps. Personally I think with my constant “Oooo!! Look! Sssstopp! I gotta take a picture of that!” or “Honey, I need to pee and/or poop” or “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now? Now?”, it will put us about 8 hours. LOL
To save money we’re already planning on buying groceries and eating in a couple times a week. But the first week will definitely be a pig-out fest as I miss the food there so much. Thereafter I am perfectly happy with making pancakes together for breakfast or cooking him my specialty corn soup and rice. I have also perfected the art of steaming fish and chicken with my almost-daily healthy eating. I think I’m getting quite good with it.
Well I’m going to hit the showers. Very hot humid day.
Au revoir~~
Free hotel room
June 20, 2008
I got a free hotel room for one night near Newark Airport! WOOOHOOO! I am SO good! Yes I’m very VERY VERY freaking proud of myself. So what did I do to deserve a free room?
Rob suggested I stay at Howard Johnson for my one night layover and me not knowing what’s good or not I was pretty much leaving it up to him. Anyway, he was about to book me a night through hotels.com and I curiously wanted to know more about Howard Johnson so I went to their website to see what it’s all about.
While I was reading I heard Rob talking to himself through the process of booking me a room and he mentioned how much it was going to cost. I checked how much it would cost to get a room directly from Howard Johnson’s website and to my surprised they charged MORE. Strange I thought. I would think if customers buy directly from you, they would get the best rate right?
I continued browsing the site and came across a banner saying “Best rate guaranteed or it’s free”. I read it out to Rob and he was like “Huh??” We couldn’t believe it, there HAS to be a catch. After much deliberation and persuasion from my end, Rob called Howard Johnson to make a “reservation”. Thirty minutes later, he emails Howard Johnson making a claim for the free room because he “found” a better rate at hotels.com “after” making reservations.
And then the next morning he got an email saying they are giving him a FREE ROOM! How easy was that?!?! All we had to do was try and it worked! 😀 We just saved over US$100 so that means more shopping money for me. I can’t wait!
So here’s my tip. When you book hotel rooms online, make sure to check different sources. Hotels.com is a pretty good site and always always checked at the hotel’s website before purchasing anything. You never know what kinda deal you’ll get. 😀
Oh yeah, on a totally related note, about 4 more weeks to go!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait!!!! Ok, I feel better getting that outta my system.
Needless to say I am scrambling trying to lose weight and dieting like crazy. I made steam fish for dinner tonight. The result wasn’t bad at all considering it was my FIRST try. Will post up pictures later. I haven’t tasted anything artificially sweet in over two weeks! I miss coffee, I miss cakes, I miss ice cream! I miss chicken skin!!! Even the ad on tv about KFC is making me hungry.
Alrighty, back to reality.
Less than 6 weeks to go!
June 12, 2008
Today Rob bought the remaining domestic flight, which is the returning flights from O’hare to Newark. Prices finally came down to $149.50 including tax today as compared to $194 yesterday. We’re so glad. He also made reservations for my one night stay at Newark (if things work out we might get it for FREE!) and for the 4 weeks I’ll be staying at In Town Suites. We’re almost done with everything. All that’s left is a few nights near the Mall of America roadtrip and the first few nights when I first get to Chicago. I’m pretty sure we’ll be done with everything by the end of this week.
On a totally unrelated note, Streamyx SUCKS BIG TIME! I keep getting disconnected during the last 3 days. Calling customer support doesn’t seem to be helping much because as always they try to blame us users for whatever, asking us to check wires and settings and whatnot. ZZZZZZZZZ Technicians came today, fiddled here and there then left. They said they will send someone else over to change the phone wires entirely. I waited until 3pm and no one came. I called the local Telekom and got the cellphone number of the tech who was suppose to come. I then find out that he’s jam-packed today and won’t be coming today. Oh how nice of them to let me know. *roll eyes* He said he was gonna come over tomorrow morning but I’m going shoe shopping so SCREW THEM.
It’s ridiculous how they expect us to always be home for them EVERYTIME. What about those who are working? What? As long as no one’s home, they won’t fix their service? It really pisses me to no end that it’s pretty obvious the problem lies with them and their equipment, so why not fix their damn ports and whatnot instead of claiming we changed settings on the modem/dialer/whatever. A$$holes.
A few tips for Streamyx users if you don’t already know. I constantly call customer service when the connection is unstable i.e. pages load slow, frequent disconnection and ask them to reset the port. If they seem reluctant, be bitchy and loud. They will reset the port eventually. Oh, if they ask you to unplug and replug the modem or wires, tell them you already have and do not need to go through this ridiculous step EVERYTIME and stop treating customers like they are stupid. Threaten to cancel subscription or talk to their supervisor or email the director/CEO etc and your problem gets fixed faster, like first thing the next morning if you call at night. This is from my personal experience.
So like I said, I’m going shoe shopping tomorrow so I better get some things done (I’m still waiting for my nails to dry) and get my “beauty” sleep. Goodnight!
High maintenance
June 2, 2008
Many random things for this post…
We had a couple units of air conditioners installed in the house today and they were drilling and whatnot, making it hard for me to focus on my work. So I messaged Rob…
S: so ummm i cant concentrate
R: I’ll give you a dollar if you lean out the window and spill some cheap perfume on the installer
S: a dollar? i’m not that cheap hmmmmphhhh *Looks away*
R: Its a dare bet honey, i didnt ask you to flash him
S: nope, i aint doing nothing for a buck hmmphhhhh *tosses hair*
R: Ok ok, a mcflurry
S: anything else?
R: 2 flurrys
S: 5 and you have a deal
S: am i too high maintenance for ya now honey?
R:
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A couple days ago I noticed an increase in my page views. I later on found out that I have been getting a lot of hits from an online forum site. Apparently, someone was interested in my shoe post a couple years ago. I also got some comments from the users that they are now reading my blog so a great big shoutout to the girls of paranting.net!! *waves*
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Now that June is here, excitement is escalating with Rob and I. Yesterday he purchased the ticket from Newark Airport to O’hare Airport so you can imagine my excitement. You guys are probably sick and tired of me babbling over my trip but I really cannot help it. I get the feeling that June is just going to sweep by without me realising it. That’s good and bad. Good because I get to see Rob sooner, but bad because I get very stressed out to finish the thesis as much as I can.
Anyway all that’s left to do is book my hotel stay for a night at Newark before flying off to Chicago the next day. I will arrive in Newark Airport around 7pm and there aren’t any flights to Chicago after that so I have to take a flight the following day. It’s a bit spooky to be on my own for a night but I suppose that will be my little mini adventure. Heh
I have planned out my food menu for my first day in Chicago so it’ll be great. It consists of IHOP for breakfast, then off to Woodfield Mall to get Baskin Robbins’ Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, and dinner at Chili’s with Molten Cake for dessert. 😀
Because of all the yummy food I will consume while I am there, I am in the midst of TRYING to lose weight before going over. I rather lose weight, and gain it back while I am there than coming back FATTER. Lol
It’s late, my bed is calling me. Will write soon.