Smurfy's Blog

I only went to one Black Friday event at Vacaville outlet years ago. After that, I never wanted to go again! I prefer to sleep through the night instead of being in a crowded place where people go crazy snatching stuff from the shelves. So far, there have been more incidents at Wal Mart than other stores during Black Friday. At one Wal Mart, there was a shopping rage incident where customers were fighting over some stuff and this insane woman pepper sprayed other customers! At another Wal Mart, some people were almost robbed by some guy waiting for them outside the store.

I haven’t heard of any incidents at Macys, Bloomingdales or Neiman Marcus. So why did most of these bad incidents only occurred at Wal Mart? Does Wal Mart only attract ghetto people? I don’t know but so far I haven’t heard of any incidents at Kmart which also sells products at lower prices like Wal Mart.

Today on Black Friday, I received this by some guy who is in favor of the Occupy Protest: “EAT LOCAL, SHOP LOCAL, SUPPORT LOCAL, BANK LOCAL, Keep your Money in your community”. Didn’t some of these Occupy Protestors vandalized small local businesses in Oakland? Seriously I can not sympathize with them. If they advocate for small local businesses, do NOT vandalize their property! If they protested against BART, do NOT support BART by taking BART to go to Oakland for the Occupy Protest. As I mentioned in my other blog, some of these protestors don’t know what they are really fighting for. I find that there really isn’t any great purpose for this Occupy Protest other than to cause chaos and make cities clean up after their stinking mess. If they are into supporting local shops, small businesses, etc, then move out of the big cities and find a small town! I am sure there are some protestors fighting for a real cause. It is just certain protestors give other protestors a bad rep.

I pretty much stayed home all day today because I had to work. My company doesn’t close the day after Thanksgiving. A few hours ago, I was playing with my cat Smeagol. Whenever he gets excited or frightened, his tail gets so fuzzy like a raccoon’s tail!

Smeagol’s tail is usually skinny like this

After he gets excited and becomes very active, his tail gets all fuzzy

On KRON 4 news, there are two reporters that talk about all sorts of topics such as shopping deals or people behaving badly. One of the reporters is named Henry Tenenbaum. He looks like a friendly guy and all but when I watch his feature on TV, boy he makes me fall asleep! I never found any of his features on TV interesting. For instance, watch this video and check it out for yourself

You falling asleep yet? (yawning)

Another KRON 4 news reporter is Stanley Roberts who does the ‘People Behaving Badly’ segment. Some of his segments are OK like people running red lights or healthy people parking at a handicap parking spot. But sometimes, his segments doesn’t make sense. Watch this video and you decide.

After watching that ‘People Behaving Badly’ episode, I think it is more like people being irresponsible but doesn’t make them bad people. I think the bad person here is Stanley Roberts taking videos inside people’s vehicles! 🙂

Elite TV
Our old 60″ Sony TV has been broken for many months now. Since we couldn’t use it anymore, my husband and I have been fighting over one TV which is the 55″ Samsung located in the family room. We have another TV in our master bedroom but I prefer to watch TV downstairs so I can go to the kitchen anytime. I am always in my kitchen than any other rooms in the house.

After my husband spoke with Sony, they will not fix our old 60″ Sony TV because it is old and they no longer carry replacement parts. Since they no longer carry replacement parts, they gave us two options: free 60″ refurbished Sony TV or get a discount on any new Sony TV models. My husband decided to get the free 60″ refurbished Sony TV. It just got delivered today.

However, we won’t be keeping that refurbished Sony TV because it isn’t really what my husband want for the family room. I think my husband will sale the refurbished one.

He decided to buy the Elite TV which is 70″ and has 3-D feature built-in. It also comes with two 3-D glasses.

My nieces watched 3-D TRON Legacy and they said it was cool. 🙂
I’ve seen parts of the TRON in 3-D and yeah it is pretty cool with 3-D.

Now what will we do with our old 60″ Sony TV that doesn’t work?

Coach
I actually like the Coach holiday website. They used Coach tags to create people, animals, cities, cars, etc. Go to Coach website. Once on the Coach website, go to the bottom left and select any one of those holiday links. On the holiday page, there is a zoom button that you can click on to see a close up of the ‘tag’ people. I can look at this page for quite a long while. It’s kinda neat. When I look at it, I imagine myself being King Kong and messing with these ‘tag’ people. 🙂

Occupy Protestors
I am getting sick of seeing the Occupy Protestors on the news. They have the right to be mad at banks for being greedy, college institutions increasing tuition and so on. But to vandalize places and cause chaos will not help them win any sympathy from me.

Some of these protestors are stupid. Before the Oakland Occupy Protest, these idiots held a protest against BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) because they dislike how BART police handle certain situations. During the BART protest, they destroyed BART property and prevented the working class from taking BART to go home. When the Oakland Occupy Protest was getting underway, one of the news channel mentioned that these same protestors decided not to protest against BART because they needed to use BART to take them to Oakland! Seriously, if you protest against BART today, then don’t use BART tomorrow you moron! If you still need BART for transportation, then don’t be part of the protest! How come they didn’t drive or take the bus to Oakland? See, they are just dumb people. It just seems like they don’t really know what they are fighting for. If they dislike BART, they should not support BART at all by paying for the ticket and riding the train. At the nail salon place I go to near my home, the salon person who was polishing my nails asked me ‘how come the protestors are all hippies?’ 🙂

We get the SF Chronicle every Sunday. In the Style section, there is this model wearing some snow clothing gear. When I look at the model, she looks pretty scary because of her messy hair and dark eye make-up!

SNOW CHIC!?? It is more like SCARY CHIC to me! Here is a closer look of her face

Who wants a foot massager for Christmas? I have one. I bought mines from Costco years ago and it massages my feet pretty well. The foot massager advertised below is sold at Kohl’s. If you look at the foot massager carefully, doesn’t the foot massager look frightened to you?? 🙂 Is it afraid of disgusting, stinky feet?

What do you think of when you see these baby dolls? Do you think they are cute and pretty and fun to play with?

Well, see what happens when you play with these dolls! They actually say bad words! Not so cute anymore, right? Kinda hilarious… play the video from this link
you-crazy-b-ch-talking-dolls-curse-cause-uproar-132

Today is Nathan’s first one-to-one meeting with Cathy (speech therapist). In her office, she had some toys available for Nathan to play with. Nathan isn’t shy to grab a toy but he was quiet at first with Cathy while she was trying to play with him. Eventually he warmed up a little and started saying things like ‘oh oh’ and ‘up’.

Other than evaluating Nathan’s speech, Cathy is also observing his actions, expressions, etc. She says he is so detail oriented. She saw that Nathan likes to keep the little car toys in a straight line like as if to make a train. She also observed that he has good hand coordination after seeing him put the little toy people into the car.

During the meeting, Cathy asked us how many words we think Nathan knows. So we guessed about at least 20. Some words he knows are:
mommy
daddy
bo bo (my husband’s mom)
eng (my husband’s dad)
mui mui (Nathan’s 2 yr old cousin)
up
down
oh oh
cat
cow
apple
purple
bubble
car
ball
monkey
train
choo choo
milk
tv
phone
bib
bath
bowl
spoon
chair
flower
tree
plane
hi
bye
eyes
nose
ears
mouth
open
big
book
bear
blanket
pillow
… more words I can’t remember…

He can’t say some of the words above clearly, but I would be able to understand what he is saying… after all I am his mommy. 🙂 For instance, he says flower as ‘wower’ or says spoon as ‘spo’.

But the words he says often is ‘mommy’, ‘up’ and ‘oh oh’.

Nathan is realizing who I am now. Before he would call everything mommy and he used to call himself mommy. Now, he actually knows who I am. If he wants my attention, he would say ‘mommy mommy, up’.

After the one-to-one meeting, we headed to the parent class ‘It Takes Two to Talk’. This is our last session of that class. After this, Nathan will continue to have his one-to-one meeting with Cathy then eventually start meeting with Mary (educational therapist).

Since we had a 30 min break between the one-to-one meeting and parent class, we stayed with Nathan at the day care and just watched him play.

While I was watching Terra Nova which was recorded on my Tivo, Nelson was in the garage. He had his music on and so I thought he was using the treadmill to workout. After few minutes later, he was calling me. What could he be calling me for? Clean towels to wipe his sweat off? Water?

So I go into the garage and see this! He made Nathan’s BOB stroller light up like TRON! 🙂

The light even flickers!

Nathan’s hair has grown since I last cut it. Last time he had a hair cut was before we left for our Alaskan cruise which was this past Aug. So it has been a good 3 months without a haircut.

One morning he woke up with a very messy hair! Not sure if he was messing with his head while he was still inside his crib or his hair just became very messy while he slept.

After seeing his hair like that, it was time to give him his haircut!

Nathan after haircut.

Few weeks ago, we got Nathan a kids happy meal from McDonalds. The happy meal usually comes with a toy but since it was Halloween that time, McDonalds gave away Halloween buckets. Ever since Nathan got this bucket, he has been using it as his hat and shoe! He removed the handle from the bucket himself.

He even wants to bring it wherever we go

Can’t believe one tiny boy can make a big mess! 🙂

This year, I have been hooked on new shows that I haven’t watched last year or in previous years. A few of those shows are Nancy Grace and Ghost Adventures. After following the Casey Anthony case, I have been religiously following Nancy Grace show. This woman is very tough on TV. If she asks you questions and dislikes your answers, she will tell you. She isn’t afraid to speak out what’s on her mind. I have kept myself up to date of issues she has been reporting except for the court case regarding Michael Jackson’s death. I wasn’t too interested in that one.

The other show that has been on the Travel Channel for years has been growing on me. The show is called Ghost Adventures. After watching the marathon and new episodes of Ghost Adventures, I have been hooked on it. I have been hooked on it because I find the show very comedic but not because I believe in ghosts. I find it funny to see tough men taunt spirits or ghosts then scream like little girls when something scary happens! I find their show hilarious at times. Their travels is what makes it also interesting for me to watch. The GAC guys (Ghost Adventures Crew) travel in different parts of the world visiting ghost towns and haunted places. It is kinda nice to know where some of these so-called haunted places are located.

Other shows that I have been recording often on my Tivo are Housewives of Beverly Hills and Keeping up with the Kardashians. Women in these shows are so fashionable and I love seeing what handbags they wear. Yes, I love handbags! Since both of these are women shows, they are very high on drama which makes them interesting to watch.

There are shows that I have been watching since their season 1. However, I find them not interesting anymore perhaps the story is just getting boring. For instance, Sanctuary on Syfy Channel. The episodes are getting stupid or I just don’t get it anymore. I still record it using Tivo hoping some of their episodes would spark my interest again, but so far, watching it makes me fall asleep or I fast forward it to the end.

Channel that I would not have known until we had Nathan is Sprout Channel which shows Sesame Street, Thomas Train, Super Readers, Pajanimals, etc. When I turn to the Sprout Channel, I sometimes sit down with my son and watch his shows with him. But when the Wiggles come up, I lose interest. I find the Wiggles very corny and very boring. I just don’t get what that show is all about! And why would a group of guys call themselves the ‘Wiggles’?

I tried my new paraffin bath. It does really help relieve muscle tension on my hands and made my skin smoother.

First, I place paraffin wax inside the bath and allow the wax to melt

Second, once the paraffin wax is at a comfortable temperature, I place one of my hands inside the bath and allow the wax to cover my hand and wrist

Third, after immersing my hand into the warm, melted paraffin wax, I place my hand inside a paraffin liner to cover my hand

Fourth, I my put hands inside a mitten that came with the paraffin bath. The mitten helps keep the warmth of the paraffin wax on my hand

I keep the warm paraffin wax on my head for about 8 – 10 mins. After 8 – 10 mins, I use the paraffin liner to help remove the wax off of my hand. Since the wax is pretty smooth, it wasn’t hard to get it off my skin. After the treatment, I simply wash my hands with lukewarm water then apply hand lotion.

Melting the wax takes longer than doing the paraffin treatment on my hand. It takes about 1 hr for the bath to melt the wax. So if I want to do a paraffin treatment, I would have to melt the wax an hour early.

There is a saying ‘Age is just a number.’ Is it really? I will need to start buying anti-wrinkle cream!

The worst thing about having a birthday is being another year older. The best thing about having a birthday is getting free or discounted stuffs! I signed up my email address at various websites like Anthropologie, Gap, Starbucks, Godiva, etc. A week before or during the week of my birthday, I got a postcard from Starbucks for any specialty drink for free, free entree at Pasta Pomodoro, $15 off from Banana Republic, 10% off from Godiva, 15% off from Anthroplogie, 15% off from Crabtree & Evelyn, $10 off at Victoria’s Secrets, etc.

But certain stores got really cheap this year. For instance, in previous year, Cold Stone Creamery gave me free ice cream. This year, I have to buy an ice cream before I can get a free ice cream! I might as well get my free birthday ice cream from Baskin Robbins. In other stores, I have to spend over $50 just to get $10 or $20 off. Why would I want to do that? Other businesses never bothered to send me $20 off anymore like Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. Last year, they gave me $20.

The only thing I don’t like about these freebies/discounted stuff is that for most of them I have to PRINT them out and show it. Why not just show the email from my iPhone? I don’t want to waste paper. At Peet’s Coffee, I can just show them my free drink email through my iPhone.

This morning, my husband and Nathan gave me a birthday card. You can clearly tell where Nathan signed the card. He couldn’t decide which color to use so he used different colors.

Nelson bought me a birthday cake with Disney Princesses decoration 🙂

So what did I do so far today? Worked! I only worked until 10am this morning and took the rest as day off. I also went to the 5th session of ‘It Takes Two to Talk’ class. In class, Cathy showed us another video of a parent communicating with her toddler and we discussed what the mom could have done to facilitate communication better with her child. Then we did more role play where again I pretended I was Nathan and I ask Cathy what I could have done differently when communicating with my son. Next week, my son will begin his first session one-to-one meeting with Cathy then head off to our last session of the class.

After class, I got my free drink from Starbucks. Since it was free and I can get any size, of course I got the biggest size they got.

Back at home, I received my paraffin bath from Wal Mart via FedEx! It only cost $20. I can’t wait to use it. 🙂 Since it was cheap, I hope it doesn’t break down on day one. I am just excited to have it. It is like Christmas for me already!

It comes with the bath that melts the paraffin wax, three paraffin waxes, two mittens and plastic bags to wrap your hands with. The paraffin wax it came with is unscented. After I use up these waxes, I want to get the ones that smells like lavendar.

For dinner, we ate at Texas Roadhouse. At times, the Texas Roadhouse waiters do a cowboy dance for the diners. Here is Nathan dancing along with the music.

This morning, I had a manicure appt near my home. When I opened the garage door, some idiot was blocking our driveway. This ugly Avalanche truck belongs to a family member of our next door neighbor. My neighbor has like over 10 people living in that house and they have about 6 – 7 cars. I know he has 4 children and a wife. I don’t know how are the rest of the people in that home related to my neighbor.

Our street has other empty spaces for parking and not sure why our neighbor’s family always has to block our driveway. Did we do something to them? Did we ever block their driveway? Or are these people just without manners and courtesy to others? Or are they just assholes?

Since they keep blocking our driveway, we just can’t always reverse straight out of our garage. We would have to turn our car in a slant position in order to get out of the driveway.

Our neighbor has blocked our driveway a lot more this year than in previous years. I told my husband this has got to stop. Nelson doesn’t want confrontation. So instead of talking to our next door neighbor, he wrote a note saying to not block our driveway. But leaving a note alone would not be enough since it is obvious to me that my neighbor is totally inconsiderate. I would have loved to see that ugly Avalanche truck get towed instead of leaving a note. I think under the CA motor vehicle section code 22500, cars are prohibited to park in a private and public driveway unless you are unloading passengers.

By the way, here is the license plate number of this ugly Avalanche truck. So if you see it on the road, give them the finger!

Going to the salon today was supposed to be relaxing for me. But I kept thinking about that ugly Avalanche truck. My birthday is next week and I thought I do something special for myself. So I decided to get a spa manicure which includes a paraffin dip. The paraffin dip is placing your hand into melted, warm paraffin wax. After dipping your hand in paraffin wax, the salon person wraps your hand in plastic with a towel over it.

Having a warm paraffin dip is supposed to hydrate, nourish and rejuvenate your skin as well as relieve muscle aches. I actually felt the heat relaxing my muscles. After having my spa manicure, my hands felt great. Surprisingly I got a $10 discount for this service because the lady felt bad I had to wait long for the paraffin wax to melt. I didn’t mind the wait though. It was nice just having time for myself for once after working and being a full time mom. I was still happy to get a discount though. 🙂 The lady told me (well she said it is bad for business) but since she was nice, she told me I can buy the paraffin kit and supplies at Wal Mart and have this treatment at home. I am actually thinking about buying it but I would have to work on one hand at a time. She told me I can have my husband give me the paraffin dip. I said no way! He might end up burning my hand or have me give him a paraffin dip! 🙂

Back at home, we decided to put on a low emission firelog into our fireplace since it has been a chilly day in my area. It has been raining too. Our cat Smeagol even joined us in the family room.