jongela.com » Life

Fall time deals

jon — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:25:27 +0000

Another surplus sale! Lake Washington School District had a surplus sale, so naturally we had to go. We woke up at 6am and stood in the cold for an hour, but it was worth it! We ended up getting a fairly new projector for $25, a big box of tessellation tiles and blocks for $5, and a long reach stapler for $1.

Summer 2011

angela — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:33:27 +0000

It was raining dogs and cats today so I guess that means one thing: Summer is officially over and our Northwest Autumn weather has returned . We had a pretty eventful summer this year! Main highlights:

1) We took a big Chau family vacation to Florida

2) Jon got his hands on a $99 HP Touchpad

3) We bought a condo and moved in

Our Florida vacation was heaps of sweltering fun. I think we were able to see 90% of what there is to see in Florida in 10 days. First, we flew into Tampa and drove to Sanibel Island (a family favorite) where we spent Jon’s birthday. We mostly enjoyed the beach and collected a bunch of shells there. Next stop was the Everglades where we made a quick stop to take a boat tour that featured a bunch of wild dolphins swimming along side the boat and a mosquito infested alligator swamp. Then on the way to Orlando we made a mini detour to Ft. Lauderdale to check out the university where my dad is getting his PhD. Of course, once we got to Orlando we got our Disney time in. We ended up spending 3 days in the parks. It was my niece’s first time going so that was especially fun. Our main objective during the trip was to see the Juno rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Luckily enough the launch was only delayed by an hour so we got our chance to see the rocket as it started it’s journey to Jupiter! Our last travelling day wrapped up at Sea World which oddly enough turned out to be my favorite. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Shamu.

I don’t really have any comments about Jon’s TouchPad purchase, but I’m sure he’d be willing to write a special post raving about it if anyone’s interested

The move was the highlight of the summer for me. After all of the house hunting, packing, moving, cleaning and unpacking I’m definitely glad things are winding down and have decided I never want to buy another piece of furniture again. I was reminded what a blessing it is to have great friends and family. We moved from the third floor to another taller third floor place and we had a lot of stuff. There’s no way we could have done it ourselves and lots of people spent the majority of their Saturday helping us with the back breaking work. A big thanks to all of those who came to help out! Also, a special thanks to my Mom and Dad who took a couple of days off work to come to Seattle to help unpack, assemble, purchase, install, cook great food and clean! Mom and Dad came and we got a lot done, but also had a fun visit.

Well now that we’re mostly settled in our new habitat and most of the boxes are cleared away it’s time for the fun times to begin. Hope you all had a great summer and are doing well!

What we’ve been up to…

angela — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:08:32 +0000

Well, once again we’re guilty of not updating the blog . We have been busy little bees though. In April we spent the entire month training for a 5K race that was sponsored by Microsoft. At first, I think we were just doing it because it was free, but then we got really into it. We were really pumped! I emailed the coordinators and got the race route map and we ran the course everyday after work, rain or shine. We even tracked our times on a little white board. The first day that we tried it it took us (it was admittedly me slowing us down with constant whining) 5o whole minutes, which is kind of embarrassing, but by race day we were pretty sure we could do it in under 38 minutes. Not Olympic quality, but an improvement worth being proud of. A few days before race day I found out that I hadn’t signed up for the race properly and was pretty despondent, but Jon, being a vigilant hubby took the time to find the phone number of the coordinators and made sure that we would be able to run the race! Hurray for hubby! We woke up bright and early on race day, they had different waiting areas based on estimated time for the participants. I was pretty sure we couldn’t run it any faster than our best speed, but Jon pushed for us to wait in the 35 minutes and under category. The race itself was great! Jon didn’t want to run ahead of me, but I definitely think my pace was holding him back. About 3K into the race, Jon got a phone call on his cell phone and he actually took it and was talking as I ran along side him wheezing along. He was just calm and natural, I don’t think the other person even realized he was running a race! In the end, we both beat our best time. Jon finished in 35 minutes and I finished in 36. Even though we weren’t close to winning the race (the fastest person did it in 17 minutes) I’d have to say that felt like one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve ever had. There’s nothing better than the feeling of working towards something really unpleasant then doing better than you thought you possibly could!

Besides the big race, we’ve been busy doing odds and ends. I got a big haircut that I’m loving, we had a visit from our brother in-law from Baltimore and over Memorial Day weekend we took a road trip down to visit Jon’s family in Boise. The summer is just starting up and we had our first day over 70 degrees since last August this weekend. We’re definitely getting warmed up for lots of summer fun!~

Angela’s new calling in life

angela — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:19:07 +0000

I think I’ve found my new calling in life. VELODROME RACING! We had a beautiful spring day yesterday and Jon and I made use of the not often seen sun. We set out on a bike ride without a set destination and ended up biking down some unknown trails. About an hour and a half into it we decided we’d head over the Marymoor Park then head home. That’s when we discovered the velodrome! It’s a bike racing course that has sloped ends just like a car race track. It was soooo fun. I ended up biking in circles for an hour. When we first got there we were both pretty shakey because the slope was really steep. Jon had to stop to take a call, but I kept at it and eventually managed to make some laps on the sloped portion of the track and as I passed Jon I said “”Hubby look at me! I’m going to be a velodrome racer!!!”. I’ll definately be advocating for another visit as soon as the weather is good enough again!

Oooorange!

angela — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 06:59:42 +0000

Jon and I went on our honeymoon to Southern California. We went to all of the big theme parks including California Adventures where I found my favorite ride, which no longer exists :’(, the Orange Stinger. Who could resist swinging around in a gigantic Orange? Who cares if all of the other riders are 10 years old or younger? Thinking about that huge orange always brings back good memories, so for FHE this week Jon and I decided to construct our own replica using the K’nex set Jon got me for my birthday a while back. It turned out pretty well, the swings rotate and all. We even made a loading dock and ice cream stand just like the real thing.

Spinning Orange (click for video)

Birthday madness

jon — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:01:13 +0000

Our loot from the REI garage sale

It was my birthday last week. I’m 26 and I’m really feeling the effects. Despite my quickly aging body, we were able to go out and do some fun stuff.

REI had a “garage sale” with tons of heavily discounted items. We got there half an hour early and there was already a huge line. Once they started letting people in, it was a mad house! Unfortunately since it was our first time, we weren’t able to find anything worth grabbing. But then people started throwing back the stuff they had grabbed but didn’t want. That’s when we raked in our kill! Yea yea, call us vultures–you’ll be laughing until you see the deals we got!

This is what we got (in no particular order): inflatable sleeping pad, two pairs of ski gloves, a pair of hiking boots, a pair of Nike shoes, a pair of sandal-shoes, and a pair of baby sandal-shoes. Let me give you an idea of the greatness of these deals. The particular line of gloves we got sells for $160. Ours were in perfect condition and only cost $34! And the boots? They normally sell for $185. The pair we got look like they’ve been used once and we paid $20 for them. What great deals! Watch out for my listings on eBay!

For dinner, Angela made a meatloaf cake. It tasted so good!

That evening, we had a bunch of friends over from our ward and it was a really good time. We had ice cream cake that said “Happy Birthday Princess” and I got to wear a pipe-cleaner tiara. Woot!

Bikes~

angela — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:43:59 +0000

Well, a couple of weeks ago Jon and I thought we’d step up our exercise game and get bikes so that we could save on gas $ and get a little bit of a work out at the same time. I know from the pictures they look pretty cool, by my bike was only $60 at Fred Meyer. Jon’s is a little higher end, but’s nothing Mr. Armstrong would be drolling over in envy. The first day that Jon and I went out biking was mildly traumatic, it was pouring rain and I hadn’t ridden a bike for at least 5 years. By the time we were on our way home I had a seriously bruised bottom and told Jon that I refused to ride anymore until we got a better seat for my bike. The next morning Jon bought me the most fabulous bike seat in the world! It’s like riding on a cloud! So now that we’ve got hot new wheels we’re riding them pretty much every where. *ding ding*

Vegas!

jon — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:25:50 +0000

Las Vegas!!

We took a trip to Las Vegas for my cousin’s wedding. It was a really fun trip, but the heat and dust was ridiculous. We found ourselves planning out where we were going based on where there would be air conditioning and how hot it would be.

We decided to try some fancy hotels out since they are heavily subsidized by people who think they can beat statistics. Our first hotel was Palms Place and is now my favorite hotel ever! Just look at the pictures!

Relaxing on the couch

Proof that we're cool

Palms Place bathroom

At the Palms Place pool, they have seats _in_ the pool

'Do Not Disturb' signs? Pah! Here, it's all electronic!

On our last night there, we stayed at the Bellagio.

Our room at the Bellagio

Fancy bathroom at the Bellagio

Our window view of the fountain at the Bellagio

Night view from our room

Crazy plants

Raking in the free amenities!!

There’s a much larger Filipino population in Vegas than here, so I was excited to get some good fooood! We went to a Filipino buffet, but unfortunately we didn’t take a picture. But we did go to Jollibee (the equivalent of McDonald’s) twice!

In front of Jollibee

Posing next to the Jollibee bee

Our Jollibee food

Buko-pandan!!!

Lots of flavored tuna! Unfortunately they didn't have Spicy. =(

We visited the Atomic Testing Museum and the Mormon Fort Museum.

Atomic Testing Museum

Scared of the bomb

Mormon Fort Museum

We toured the Hoover Dam. The tours and everything were really well-organized, probably because so many people tour the place since they’ve seen it in the movies. The tour was grossly over-packed with “dam” jokes. All the engineering and thinking that went into it was pretty amazing. They said the upkeep of the dam was entirely self-sufficient from the energy generated there. They didn’t say whether tourism contributed, but I estimate that they give tours to about 500 people per hour…and they charged $10-30 per person.

It's huuuuge!

In front of the dam

Angela in front of an intake tower

Hoover Dam generators

An eventful trip to Vancouver

jon — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:16:54 +0000

A family I knew from my mission lives in Vancouver now

This Saturday we took another quick trip up to Vancouver. We met up with a family I knew from my mission that had moved to Canada. It was fun to catch up on how they’ve been and find out all the news from the people I knew in the Philippines. It turns out there’s a huge Filipino community up there. We got Mango Tang, Balut, and Yakisoba! We’ll definitely be going more often!

I don't have a picture of the balut because I haven't eaten it yet.

Front of the temple

The same day was the last day of the open house at the Vancouver temple. It was a really good experience and I was really impressed with how organized everything was. When we went to the chapel of the church building next door, they put us into tour groups and gave us a tour guide. It was cool that there were lots of church members as well as locals taking the tour. The temple was really nice. Somebody asked the tour guide what type of wood they used. Our tour guide said that he didn’t know exactly what type but that it is the best quality: “The best things belong to God. So we don’t mind giving them back.”

At the front of the temple

It’s a small world in the church. After the tour, we ran into a family from our ward. Then we (re)met a guy that we had first met about three years ago. I also met some people who know the Lacestes that we had lunch with earlier.

On the freeway heading home, we heard a loud screeching noise. We looked over and saw sparks flying across two lanes behind a car. They traveled for about 1/4 mile before they stopped. We realized what happened when we saw that their rear tire had fallen off and was rolling down the freeway.

Angela’s birthday down under~

angela — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:12:57 +0000

Well, I’m officially old. I turned 24 yesterday and as usual Jon planned a great birthday surprise for me. I was totally in the dark this time and my closest guess for what he planned wasn’t even remotely close. We drove up North about an hour where Jon had found a KANGAROO FARM!!!! It was the strangest place. They had all sorts of animals that you could feed and pet. The first animals that we got to see were a collection of chickens and other birds that were just wandering around the place. My favorite animals were this giant turkey and these chickens that had down feathers all the way to their feet that made them look like they were wearing fuzzy go go boots. I’d never seen a real live turkey that close and it was sort of scary, he definitely looked like he could handle himself. We also saw this cool looking duck that had a red bill and all black feathers, he looked like a little gangster. They had some gorgeous peacocks wandering around too that were really pretty.

We waited for a few minutes and then the tour began. The first animals that we got to see were a family of ring tailed lemurs. They were really cute and could jump from the ground to the tour guide’s shoulder so fluidly it was really amazing. We also saw some special breeds of pheasant that they had. Next it was the big item, kangaroos! They had the kangaroos in an enclosed area and gave us each a little bread so that we could feed them. They ate right out of our hands and were surprisingly friendly. I always thought kangaroos were sort of mean, but these ones were pretty docile. We even saw some mommys with little joeys in their pouch and we got to pet them and feed them too. They also had rabbits and tortoises thrown into the mix. The wallabies also shared the same enclosure as the kangaroos. I never really knew what a wallaby was until I saw them. They’re just like kangaroos, but more furry and chubbier looking. They also had these really strange animals in there, I never really got the full name something like Patagonian Capris or something, but I dubbed them guinea deers because they look like guinea pigs with little deer legs, so weird! After the kangaroos they took us to see and feed a ton of other animals. They had mules, donkeys, more chickens and goats in one area and we fed them these alfalfa pellets. Then we headed over and saw this miniature horse, which I guess is different from a pony. We also got to see an ostrich and two emus, but they didn’t let us feed them (probably because they’d peck our eyes out or something). The last animals we got to feed were some alpaca llamas. They were pretty gentle and the tour guide coaxed some of us to feed them from our mouths. I tried it…wasn’t the best experience of my life, but I escaped unscathed. When we went back to the starting point of the tour we all got to hold a baby joey and take pictures with it. It was really neat and he was soooo cute.

After we were finished at the farm Jon took me to Outback Steak House just to complete the Aussie theme of my birthday. We both had really good meals and I even got a free ice cream treat.

I’d say overall it was a grand adventure and a really fun birthday! Too bad birthdays only come once a year