Citrics Problem

No luck with citrics the whole summer.  No matter what I buy – oranges, tangerines, clementines, they are all super dry.

I normally don’t mind a little dry oranges but those are so dry that it’s not even edible. And there is no flavor at all. Let’s say an orange. Normally, when it’s dry, it’s only one side. The other side is usually still okay. So in the spirit of not wasting food, I would bite off the non-dry side, trying to eat as much as possible. But this time, the whole thing is so dry and the flavor is just non-existent that I gave up trying. Had to toss them out.

I even tried and buy from fancy Longos.  Not as bad but similar problem. They are barely edible but still don’t taste good at all.

Don’t know what’s wrong with the citrics this year. It’s not a particularly dry year, I don’t think. I normally like oranges/clementines as one of my regular fruits but after multiple failures, I am wary about buying any more citrics. Is it just my bad luck or is it happening to everyone??

My Phones

My phone’s on/off button has been broken for a while. So I can’t turn the phone on if the screen is off and I can’t use it. The way to turn it back on is to plug/unplug it to the charger. Another way is to wait for ppl to call me then the screen activates so that I can answer the phone. Needless to say, this is not very useful at all.
Luckily, 詹占 had the exact same phone as mine and has moved on to a new one pretty much when mine fell apart so I could inherit a ‘new old’ phone.
Everything’s ok until the phone went for a swim in the toilet a few months ago. Since then, the USB isn’t quite working – I can’t transfer files between the phone and computer anymore. But other than that, the phone is basically functioning.
但係，好境不常，phone #2 suddenly can’t be charged anymore. Guess the USB plug finally had it.
So basically, I have

1. Phone #1, can be charged but the on/off button is broken. So if I leave the phone on, then it just drains my battery.
2. Phone #2, can be used but can’t be charged.

Because of that, I have to bring two phones and two batteries with me most of the time. One for using. One for charging. I also had to switch the batteries between the phones all the time, too. So stupid.
My 3-yr phone contract is finally up today. And I could get a new phone with a 2-yr contract but I am kinda waiting for the Nexus 6 to come out. 詹占 has moved on to Nexus 5 but discovered some issue with the sound capture when recording video.  Apparently, it’s a hardware issue so I don’t want Nexus 5.  But then there isn’t any announcement on the release date of Nexus 6 yet.  And it might never come. I have been trying to follow all the rumors on some tech/gadget websites but so far, everything’s just rumors.  So, I’m holding up, still using the two semi-broken phones in the meantime until either a new Google phone comes out or my semi-broken phones turn into completely broken phones.

Soon

Less than 3 weeks to go.

Mom is arriving in less than 2 weeks. Still not sure about her flight schedule yet. Haha… Will be ok. I’ll go pick her up somehow.

House is still a mess. Still sleeping in the basement. The reno is mostly done, only a couple little things to wrap up. And then it’s the big clean up and moving things back upstairs (will mostly done by  詹占. Hor hor… one nice thing abt having a big belly!).

Ordered a bunk and one mattress for 小J from WM. Also a little kid sized dresser from IKEA. We decided to go cheap on these purchase due to the super low cash flow at the moment. Hopefully it will last him for a little while. Buying good quality stuff for him may not be the best idea anyway since he may wreck things too quickly at this age. Dresser is lying around on main floor in various boxes, waiting to be assembled. Don’t know when the bunk and mattress will arrive yet. Hopefully not too soon cos we don’t have any space to put them until we get upstairs more or less organized. Garage is already filled to the top. (clearing even just the 2nd floor only made us realized the amount of CRAP we own… Better not moving house any time soon…)

Still have to pack the GO-bag. But everything is kinda hidden in various places right now that I’m leaving the packing till after we move things back in place, hopefully soon.

Still haven’t got names picked out yet.

The one big step that I have done to get ready was that I bought a size N package of diaper (wow… so much work!).

We’ve also retrieved the bassinet that we’ve lent/given out after 小Ｊwas done with it.

Not sure where the baby car seat is. We won’t be allowed to leave the hospital without one.

Haven’t dug out all the little clothes yet. They are stashed somewhere in boxes in the basement. The boxes are labeled so it should be relatively easy to find. It’s just a matter of getting all the stuff out of the way and actually go look for them. Ideally, we should wash these clothes that have been put away for a while. But practically, it may not get done…

Lots of work in the office waiting for me to wrap up. 4 projects in line. I believe I can finish 3 of them and 1 is a lost cause. Unfortunately, my manager is the one who’s the bottleneck and holding everything up. Someone really need to whip her ass a bit to get her to move faster. I know she’s trying her best and she’s really overloaded. But if she doesn’t do her part so that I can finish off these projects, guess who’s going to suffer when I leave things hanging?

It could be next week for all I know. 3 weeks is just an estimate.  小Ｊwas early by 2 weeks. Better not come out until my mom’s here cos no one’s going to look after 小Ｊotherwise.

Toilet Paper

Hate it when public washrooms provide those super ultra thin toilet paper in big huge rolls like below:

First of all, the toilet paper is so thin that one needs to extract lots so that it can be stacked to a reasonable thickness in order not to have whatever went thru the hands.  So if the thinness is for the sake of saving paper, it’s not working cos user will just pull out tons anyway.

Second, due to the ultra thin nature, there’s no strength associated with these toilet paper. Together with the fact that the rolls are so big and heavy, when user pulls on the end, it simply breaks into tiny little pieces and the huge roll is not rolling to let out some more. The end results are:

1. Some ppl somehow throws these little pieces all on the ground and therefore making the toilet stall very untidy, with an impression of being dirty, even tho it might not actually be that dirty.
2. These little pieces are not usable and mostly ended up being thrown into the toilet without being use and user have to pull out some more.  Again, counter-productive if trying to save cost.
3. Major annoyance to the user.

Even if I try to use these little pieces that break off, it’s very difficult and I have to pull out a million little pieces.

Why can’t the provider:

1. Use normal thickness toilet paper.
2. If they really want to use these ultra thin paper, could they put them into smaller rolls so that ppl can actually pull out the toilet paper?

I have to agree, some ppl pull out tons regardless of thickness anyway. Therefore, I don’t mean that the provider needs to provide the best quality of toilet paper out there cos there will be too much waste by those ppl. However, I think normal thickness isn’t too much to ask for.

House of Cards

Have always wanted to watch this series but was worried that once I started, I’ll always be 心思思狂追。

Finally started. Watched one episode so far. Not much happened but it was only episode 1 so it’s mostly just an intro. Still quite enjoyed it.

Always like to watch Kelvin Spacey. Even when he’s playing the evil/bad guy, he somehow has his way to making the audience root for him.

Watching it with 詹占. It’s a bit tricky cos then it means that I will have to wait till both of us are free to continue. But it’s also a good thing cos it means that I can’t just 狂煲，helps to keep me on track.

Can hardly wait to watch some more!

House Reno

Again.

This time is the 2nd floor.

Hired someone to do it this time cos we can’t do it ourselves this time – need to level the subfloor.  There are a few little things that need fixing as well.

Trying to get this done before the arrival of #2.  Took this chance to do it since 小J needs to switch room anyway.

My mom is not impressed by the fact that we are doing reno while #2 is still brewing. Pure superstitious-ness. She said that we should wait till #2 is out. But honestly, that causes more practical problem. We kinda had that happen when 小J was out when we decided that we need to change the main floor flooring before 小J became mobile and hurt himself over the popped nails. I ended up turning into 遊牧民族, taking 小J out of the house everyday to avoid the dust and noise, while 小J needs to nap somewhere in the library and places like that. And because we were out, 變相小J瞓時我都無得瞓. 攰爆.

We would like to get it done end of summer but unfortunately, the contractor delayed the start date a few times and it’s finally getting started this week. If we didn’t ask again and again abt the possibility of getting it done in September, the contractor was going to do it in the beginning of Oct… Was a bit annoyed by how he drags on and on over the start date.

In the rush to clear up the 2nd floor, it was a good time to toss some useless stuff away. One of the stuff that got into the ‘give away’ box is a digital photo frame that I gave 詹占 as an xmas present one year… It was something that got looked at every time we went to stores like Future Shop and stuff. So I bought one. But then we have only used it less than 5 times all these years. Most of the time, it sits in its original box. 詹占毫不留情的說要 get rid of it. I wonder if he rmbs how the frame came into existence. Oh well… it indeed is useless to us tho so it’s good that someone is 狠心 ar.

Sleeping in the basement these days, with 小J sleeping down there, too. It’s kinda fun. Almost feel like we are in a hotel. Heh.

Hopefully, the reno will be done on time. We still need to move everything back up (poor 詹占 had to do all the heavy lifting all by himself, with the ‘help’ of 小J) and to buy 小J a new bunk.

And hopefully, our new floor will not be squeaky no more, which will help to sleep train #2. Fingers crossed.