Year of the Tiger 2022

I haven't been doing this lately but I am reminded to check it out whenever I encounter adversity.

Since March of this year. Our team has had 3 resignations. N left in March, M left last week and in 2 weeks, G will be leaving. 

The good news is that they've all left to pursue better opportunities. The not-so-good news is that I'm now the most senior "expert".  

Poor J, my manager, in 2 weeks, I'm going to be his best SME and that's really not much. 

Somehow, pulling out my horoscope and seeing it written as such makes me feel a little bit better. 

It talks about opportunities and such, I know there seems to be plenty for all my friends,... I just hope that there's some for me. 

Wish me luck. 

PSEG Gas Line Upgrade Update

March 23, 2022

PSEG came and started working on upgrading our gas line to a high pressure line. 

They dug up part of the curb and some pavers in our front that led to the garage where the main gas line leads into our home.

 

They were done with the upgrade less than a day and left our front looking like this. 

We were told that a contractor was going to come by afterwards to re-set the pavers. So we waited. 

... and waited.

... and waited some more.

Meanwhile, we've had a few (strong) rainy days since then and we've been getting puddles in our basement. Thankfully, the puddles have formed in the area where we have our heavy-duty steel shelving units set up so we had nothing on the floor. We just had to do a lot of wiping and cleaning.

Husband and I have talking about calling PSEG to follow up on repairing our pavers but between work and other things, we couldn't find the right timing to call. 

Last week, someone from PSEG came by and took a photo of that dug-up area. Husband goes to talk to the PSEG crew and was told that their original contractor had reported that "pavers were not available" as a reason so they came over to check. Obviously, the pavers are all there and have been there since they dug them out in March. 

PSEG says that they have replaced their contractor since they found many anomalies and today, a different contractor came and made repairs. 

Hopefully, no more puddles in the basement.

Gotta hand it to PSEG. I'm pleasantly surprised that they did keep track of this and came to follow up even if we had not made any complaints yet. 

Toilet Fill Valve

Bathroom #2's toilet has been continuously running for weeks. 

It started off with a slight trickle that you can barely hear if you're nearby and by week 2, it had worsened to a stronger and continuous streaming that I could hear all day from my home office which was a room away.

I did score a good deal for Kohler Genuine Part Gp1138930 off of Amazon for $15 and got the husband to replace it last Friday.

Thankfully, it wasn't a big job, he was done in around 10 minutes. 

P.S. I was honestly amazed at how fast the husband completed this job. I consider myself handy around the house (relatively) but anything related to toilets make me nervous because of that unfortunate incident when I accidentally cracked one while trying to update the lever.  

I still avoid any toilet-related repairs even though it has been 13 years since then. 
 

Takeout containers

We've been saving takeout containers all these years because I couldn't bear to just throw these (reusable) ones away just after using them once. 

Unfortunately, there hasn't really been much demand for them. I do bring them when we have group parties or gatherings so that people can use them to bring home leftovers instead of using foil and baggies to wrap food but we haven't attended parties in a long time - not since the pandemic started in 2020 anyway.

A few years ago, someone reached out in a community page about containers because she was prepping Thanksgiving meals to give out to the homeless. I must have donated 100+ containers to that person at that time. Hindi na naulit. 

Fast forward to yesterday when I saw this post on a local Moms group. I know it sounds OA but my heart gave a little leap and started fluttering. 

I felt like, "YES!". All my life, I've been prepping for this day.

So I quickly reached out to the poster, turns out their church regularly feeds 150 every Sunday and they're starting a supplemental program to distribute hot soup and chili to the needy. Hence, the soup containers. My contact also mentioned that if we had other sizes and flat containers, she'll take that as well. 

 

Salt and Pepper Pork Chops

I've been on a quest to get good Salt and Pepper Pork Chops. We've been getting them from our Chinese restaurant on Sundays but I haven't found one that's perfect. 

N.C.'s is fatty.

Q.D.'s is sometimes too spicy for the husband. 

Husband also does not like the bones that are all over the meat pieces.

and last night, I finally made MadeWithLau's Daddy Lau's Salt and Pepper Pork Chops and I am still in awe because I have not made anything *this* good in a long long time.

I prepped this dish in the exact same way that they showed in their video, making sure to pound the pork pieces with the back of my knife. The pork came out really nice and tender. 

The taste and seasoning was perfect. 

Columbia

I splurged on a Columbia coat for Swe-cha this year because we have been getting very cold days ( temps in the 10s - 20s) and his usual winter coat that I get from Costco just isn't going to cut it.

The coat is really nice and thick. I am assuming that it feels comfy too because Swe-cha has not been complaining. 

Unfortunately, after washing it a few days ago, it came out of the wash looking like this, there was a rip just below the armpit along one side. 

I was so hinayang so I started checking out Columbia's warranty policy. Turns out they have a limited lifetime warranty - I actually read about people sending 12 year old coats. 

As it turns out, since it's only been a month since we got this, this coat is still within the return period and the service rep I talked to sent me a pre-paid postage label. 

I've since reordered the same item. Hope that we get the new one before the deadline for sending this ripped coat back (Or that we get warmer weather by then so Swe-cha can use his Costco coat). 

Draft Covers 2021/2022

We woke up to 18 degree weather today and my first thought was "sulit na the Columbia jacket I got for Swe-cha". As the day  went on, the temp did climb a little bit to a high of 38 F and boy, despite the heater running full blast, the house was FREEZING.

And with that, we finally hauled our lazy bottoms up and started putting up our vent draft covers.

I don't know why we keep putting off these covers until the cold becomes unbearable. I bet we'd be saving so much energy if we put them up early - perhaps, even as soon as we're done with the AC season. 

I was also still dealing with the laundry left over from my family's visit. I started with the bath towels and sheets last week and continued with the comforters today. And it being 18 degrees out, the basement was unbearable. I also did feel a huge draft coming into the basement from the window beside the freezer. 

I swear, when I opened the freezer to pull out gyudon for dinner, I couldn't tell which was colder - the air coming from the freezer or the air/wind blowing in from the window draft.

... and yes, our basement still has to be finished. I do count a major win today in that I finally convinced the husband to help me fashion a window cover for that drafty window.  I planned to use plastic window / door sealing sheets initially but thought cardboard might be a sturdier option. We've lost a light source so I guess we'll deal with this in the spring. 

In any case, the basement immediately felt less cold and I bet this is going to do loads of good for the upstairs living area too.