Sunday, October 21, 2018

Summer 2018

Time for another quarterly update. Life had been pretty much all work no play over the last three months, with human-created deadlines after deadlines. As boring as life had been, I still managed to accumulate a good bit of photos on my phone. Time for a quarterly spring cleaning with a 'Summer' blog update. =)

Sept 12-14 (Wed-Fri): 3d2n Conference in Orlando
This was my first time attending this conference so I was definitely excited to travel to Orlando, and most importantly, seeing some familiar faces.

Everything was pre-arrange with a shuttle bus picking us up from Orlando airport. 


The conference was held at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek. There were probably more than 1000 of us at the conference and everyone had a room to ourselves so you can imagine how huge this hotel is. Pool and golf course view from my room but the only time I spent in the room was to sleep.

Spent most of our 3 days freezing in this room.

Fortunately the contents were quite interesting...

...with snack and coffee breaks to keep us awake

Dinner in the hotel on the first evening...

...followed by more drinks at the lobby/bar till midnight. Auditors are well-trained to stay up late.


2nd dinner was at Universal Studios City Walk (but only finger food)...'Private Event'. =P

Visiting Universal Studios after park hours - Checked. Visiting a flooded Universal Studios - Checked. Having the park to ourselves - Checked. 

Free rides on Transformers and Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with a bunch of auditors.

Minion was getting lonely (and dancing alone) so I decided to get a photo. Taking a photo with minion in Universal Studios without standing in line, I'll take it. =P

Private event finally ended at 11pm. 


Personally, best part of this conference was to see all these familiar faces. From Penang to the US, we've all come a long way. =)

Celebrated our Birthdays

Aug 19 (Sun): Celebrated our birthdays with the family. Thanks SIL and BIL for the food and presents, and MIL for the cake!

Aug 20 (Mon): Part two of birthday celebrations.

Traveled for Work

Aug 22 (Wed): Sheraton Suites Galleria - Atlanta

Aug 23 (Thurs): Presidential Suite @ Sheraton Birmingham, Hotel

Aug 28 (Tues): W Atlanta Midtown

Sept 20 (Thurs): Hilton Charlotte Center City

Post-Audit & Review Party

Aug 27 (Mon): Atlanta Braves baseball game with the Atlanta team


Meal Prep Continues

Weekly shopping routine...healthy cart vs. naughty cart.

Aug 19 & 26 (Sun): Fried rice with Spam and peas, stir-fry veggies, pan-fried potatoes, beef & potato stew, sweet & sour pork, and egg sandwich.

Sept 2 & 9 (Sun): Mussels and mushrooms in tomato and tomyum soup, stir-fry veggies, potato cake, spaghetti and meatball, egg sandwich.

Sept 16 & 23 (Sun): Stir-fry veggies, pan-fried potatoes, bakuteh, beef stew, egg sandwich.

Sept 30 & Oct 7 (Sun): Seafood mussels soup, stir-fry veggies, pan-fried potatoes, beef stew, egg sandwich, Campbell's wicked thai soup.

When it rains, it pours
Sept 5 (Wed): Went to the client's site for a meeting and got stuck in the elevator when I was leaving, had to use a ladder to get off the elevator.

Sept 8 (Sat): Found out I had a flat tire when I was going grocery shopping. Took 30 minutes to change it all by myself and unfortunately the damage wasn't patch-able. 

Sept 10 (Mon): Decided to change all 4 tires because the old ones are 6 years old and are worn out already. Bye bye $427.

Sept 4: Hubby realized a small wet patch on the ceiling, plumber came and found out that the sink pipe had a minor leak so we decided to fix it. Bye bye $811.
Sept 19: Had our annual HVAC check and was told the water pressure in our house was way too high, probably resulted in the previous leak so we decided to install a water pressure regulator. Bye bye $435.
Sept 23: Noticed the water wouldn't stop flowing into the toilet bowl and figured it was the due to the old toilet valve. Went to Lowes and bought a new one for $8 to replace. 

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. All these unexpected expenses happened back-to-back within one month costing total 'damage' of $1,680. =.= Looking on the bright side, I was able to meet my new credit card minimum spend much earlier and was able to get a higher sign-up bonus for spending $1,000 more than the original minimum spend required.

Can't help but to pick up some stuffs on sale when Uniqlo had free shipping. =P

Gotta be more thrifty and save some money now that we're 'broke'! =P

Last one before I wrap up this 'summer' post, self-reminder not to 'kill' myself for work. =P