35pucks

If there's any one thing to add to a garden to really enhance the ambiance, it would definitely be a water feature.  But what about a water feature that doesn't use up any of your own electricity?  That's where the solar fountain comes in.  I bought mine a few years ago, so it's looking quite aged as you can see, but it's still working and I get to hear the constant sound of running water in my backyard, as long as the sun is out, of course!  The one I have has interchangeable fountain heads where you can get a shower type effect.  My shower effect was a little too wide for the dish I was using it for, so I just found a piece of old tubing and stuck it in the fountain to get the effect you see in the picture.  This way the water will stay in the pool without having to constantly refill.  See below for similar Amazon fountain.  Here's the link.. This fountain looks pretty much the same as the one I bought a few years ago, so I believe it's probably...

  Sometimes things get older and fall apart. It happens all the time. As I've posted in the past, I love my solar lights, but that means they always need to be outside and in the sun in order to function properly. What that means is after weeks and years of the sun beating down on these things, they fall apart. I have some lights that are starting to fall apart. They are lights that are in a shape of a flower. The solar plates and the LED lights are fine, however the plastic shell that forms the flower have been crumbling. So what do you do with it? It looks a little strange with just the light itself. Here's what I did. I had an old IKEA lamp that wasn't usable anymore. I trashed it, but I made sure to keep the light cover of it (I don't know the technical name of it... let's just say the white cover part! haha). As you can see in the picture, below, I put the solar light inside the lamp cover and it made it glow nicely at night! Check out the video too! T...

This just make me laugh inside. I love it!  We were about to head out on our little mini vacation and my wife asks me if I saw the sign my son put up. If you can’t read it, is says “cameras watching.”  I guess he just doesn’t want any bad guys to show up! That’s the best!  

 Have a great weekend everyone!  Go and enjoy the outdoors, even if it's in your own yard! 😁

So by now you should know I have an obsession with solar lights- especially for the backyard.  Yesterday, I happened to mysteriously come across these lights while I was buying something else on Amazon.  As you can see in the background of the picture, I there's an orange flame light (to the left).  I got this light over a year ago.  Sadly, one of them broke and I had this one left.  I was quite excited to see that these lights were on sale!  I thought a blue flame would be awesome to add into the light mixture.  Do I love it?  I love them!  I may have to get more "regular" orange lights too in the future. Where to find these lights? Here's the link:  https://amzn.to/3whpqix   I just love how it adds color to all the lights! :)

 Here’s an Amazon order that I absolutely love! (click the link below)  A few years ago when we moved out of our condo (with no backyard) into our current house (with a backyard), I discovered that I had an obsession with solar lights!  This is one of the lights that I love.  I got these on Amazon, but this wasn't the same seller, however, the lights look similar in design, so I believe it's the same maker, but just a different seller.  See below the picture of the use of one of them. https://amzn.to/3A8WdHY  One of the reasons I love these is because they change color.  It gives a nice blue-ish and purple color, along with others.  If you see the little plant on the left in the background, they can light up your plants nicely with a colorful glow.  Now look at the picture below.  One of my favorite reasons for having solar lights in the yard is security.  Before having any lights in the backyard, I never liked looking in the backya...

 Beginning of what? Well, another school year. One started preschool yesterday and the two older ones will start tomorrow. How do I feel? Good and bad. Bad because we got to drive everywhere and pay a ton now for gas! (Currently hovering around $5/gal) good because we can try to do more around the house. Of course we’ll miss the kids as we had a summer full of mini vacations, which they loved! Trips to Monterey and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom were the highlights. Local drives always come in handy especially when you can’t fly anywhere (for us because of many kids!). But finding a local and driveable place is golden and the kids love staying at a hotel cause it’s all about the feeling of being on vacation!  

 Ok, it's been a while since posting anything.  Obviously, much has happened in the past two years since COVID has started.  There's another addition to the family, we've experienced having COVID, and plenty of other things.  Perhaps one of the biggest things that happened was that we purchased the house that we're in.  So now we finally get to do some upgrades to our place.  The projects that we got to do ourselves, well, surprised us a little how well it turned out!  One of the tasks was to remove the wallpaper in our kitchen.  We had this grassy wallpaper and when scraping under it, we discovered another layer of wallpaper.  Our home is old (built in the '40s), so it was interesting to see the "history" of the walls.  One product we used was this: https://amzn.to/3JVhN6Y This thing was amazing! It saved us so much time.  We were trying to use a spray and scrape off the wallpaper.  That was taking too long.  Luckily, my ...

One simple thing I've used to help entertain the kids is showing explore.org .  My co-worker showed me this a few years ago and I've loved it since.  It's a website that has a lot of live streams.  Streams include calming outdoor environment, a variety of animals, and even aquariums.  It can serve as educational talking points for your kids too! That's it!  Stay safe!

Today starts a new era.  It's the first day of the shelter-in-place of Bay Area residents in order to slow down the spread of the Corona virus.  Last night was one of the oddest feelings you can have before going to bed.  It felt as if we were in some Cinderella movie where once midnight strikes, your life will be forever changed.  I guess that's kind of what happened- life is changed.  Kids have no school for at least three weeks, must stay away from others at least six feet, and many places are closed.  It is nice to still be able to go out of the house and be outside- also able to go to parks if needed, as well as buy gas/groceries. The challenge? Home with all the kids all day long.  No break at all- maybe when some are napping, but otherwise extremely thankful for my wife (S) and how much she has planned and prepared the kids for the day.  Still, it makes for some longer days but I guess it just means bonus time with the kids! Overall, it's...

The past few weeks of dispatcher training- Training has been quite a roller coaster.  In the beginning, I found it quite enjoyable because I was able to sit back and absorb all that was going on and seeing how the dynamics of the team works.  It's incredible how the team that's on works together, helps each other, and knows their stuff so well!  I told a lot of them that they are amazing at what they do.  As training goes on, it gets more involved where I'm actually taking calls and getting on the air, communicating with the units.  This is where the roller coaster heads a little downward.  As I get more involved, I'm finding where my issues are and where areas that need improvement are.  There's so much to be learned, I feel like I'm a little fish trying to drink the ocean, and perhaps, I'm feeling like I'm too spread out where I'm trying to cover so much, but can only progress in tiny, tiny increments in each thing I'm learning.  In turn, I f...

2/27/2015 Starting Sunday, 2/15/2015, I started a job which would probably be one of the toughest challenges I've taken on.  This journey all started a few years ago in 2013.  I applied for the Emergency Services Dispatcher job for Alameda County.  I was invited to take the test, and honestly a little surprised to learn that I've been invited to the interview stage.  I did that, but didn't make it into the hiring group, but was ranked high enough to stay in the hiring pool for a year.  Eventually, I took on a job with 24 Hour Fitness as a tax administrator.  During my time there, in June 2014, I was contacted by Alameda County HR asking if I wanted to re-interview for the same position.  What the heck- I did, and 8 months later, I'm working there! The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of memorization of codes and processes.  This was a task that seems impossible, but I think I'm now seeing it as a little more doable.  My trainer ha...

2/27/15 Just recently, it was time to resign from my position at 24 Hour Fitness as a property tax administrator.  I enjoyed my time there starting from halloween of 2013 till 2/12/15.  Being in the corporate office was an eye-opening experience.  I'm so appreciative of my boss, who I viewed as my father-type figure at work and guided and taught me along the way.  Doing business personal property taxes was not the easiest thing I've done in my life.  I do like math, but only simple math.  When it comes to finances and accounting concepts, I'm definitely not the best at that.  The other co-workers have been great in showing me along as well.  I respect every single person I've met there because they work so hard and apply all their knowledge to the work they conduct.  It's amazing to see how all the gears turn in each department.  Everyone has a specific role and gets it all done.  I do miss my cube and space I had- the dual-screen ...

Yeah- I like to post a lot of things that bother me... or it kind of sounds like complaining..haha.  Maybe it's my attempt to create a world that caters to me.  How selfish of me!  Well, here's my list of things that bug me when I'm on the road: 1. People cutting into your lane right before the exit off ramp . This especially annoys me when they have all the time in the world to get into that lane, and then for some reason, they HAVE TO go in front of you just to exit when there's absolutely no cars behind me.  I don't get it.  I guess it goes along with the phrase I like to use when driving- "everyone always has to be first."  I am convinced that at least 75% of drivers always has to be first in line, which leads to my next one: 2.  Impatience at a red light, at your expense . When I'm the only car at a red light, and there's a few lanes going straight, there's always the car that eventually makes it to the red light that's in the sa...

Another little cheap thing I've found.. If you're into lotions and all those things without the chemicals, a simple and cheap solution is going to Target where the travel products are.. and find a little jar of Vaseline.  Use that as lotion.. for only a little over $1.  And to me personally, it actually feels better than using lotions.  Maybe petroleum jelly is better..?

From 9/29/12 Why the number 35? Here's why..   Since I was a child, I always wanted to have a favorite number.  I wanted a number that had a meaning or significance behind it.  But I never really had any number to consider because I wanted to have a unique number.  The number 3 would be an easy one because I'm a third child, or the number 6 because it's the day of my birthday.  Too common of a thing.. It wasn't until, high school or college (can't remember exactly) when I gave in to a "common" reason for having a favorite number.  I went with sports athletes. So who may have worn the wonderful number of 35 you may ask? Right around that time is when I starting playing ice hockey, and I realized that I loved to play the position of goalie.  Yes, people say you have to be crazy to play goalie, so go ahead, call me crazy!  I love it!  Well, at that time, the San Jose Sharks goalie was Evgeni Nabokov, so naturally, he is...

From 10/1/12 You know how there's always those little small things in the day that bother you, but by the end of the day, you totally forget what they are?  Well, I'm going to attempt to capture those little bothers..  Let's see what we come up with!   -web browsers: They seem enjoy causing problems with inconsistencies.   Chrome- I edit an email one way, but once it gets sent, it totally formats it another way.  It was what I always used cause it seemed to be fastest, but the editing and everything must have been skipped in trying to make it faster. Firefox- Too many updates!  It seems like almost once a week, there's update that causes you to just sit there for a few minutes.. updating... updating.. Internet Explorer- May be my go-to browser.  I know in the past, it's been a lot slower and there was too many extra features which slowed it down.   -technology: If there's anything that's ever proven itself unreliabl...

From 11/2/12 In 2010, when the Giants won the world series, I was on a cruise to Mexico.  It was great because there were a good amount of Giants fans gathered in a lounge room, and actually there were Giants fans scattered all throughout the ship watching on different television sets.  But for me and my group of friends, we were in a lounge, floating on the Pacific Ocean.  There was an excitement in the ocean air and sure enough, the Giants won that clinching game and we celebrated on the ship.  It was a great moment!  We celebrated on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, heading away from the country which where the World Series was held.   In 2012, when the Giants won the world series, I was able to watch up to the 9th inning at home.  I was hoping the game would have ended by the 9th because I knew I had a hockey game at night.  Just my luck, the game was tied after the 9th and I had to take off to Oakland to get ready for my game.  As I w...

From 11/7/12 Shopping at the Dollar Tree (the store with the green tree).  It's convenient and nice if you can find the right things.  So far, the worst things in the Dollar Trees are the always seemingly long lines, which I really don't understand because isnt' everything a dollar?  Are people asking for price checks on items?!  Anyways, I know items sold aren't exactly the best quality by far, but there's still some items that can be of some use.  Here's my list of those things..   -duct tape You may not get a lot from a roll sold at a dollar store, but if you just need some for a quick fix, go here.  It's a little thinner than most popular brands, but especially for things like art projects or something not heavy duty, dollar store is your place!   -safety goggles Believe it or not, the dollar store cares about your eyeballs!  For simple protection this litle piece of plastic will at least protect your e...

What are some things that bug me?.. 1. When people add the phrase "may or may not" or "can or can not". For example, when someone says.. "Thanks for the invite to the party! I may or may not make it."  That doesn't help explain anything at all! 2. My terrible memory.  Why can't I remember things.. sometimes.   3. I can't remember what #3 was...