Oakland Trip

A few weeks ago, we went to Oakland to attend the Oakland temple open house. The temple has had some work done on it and will be rededicated soon, so it was open to the public for tours for a period of time. We hadn't been to Oakland in quite a while and had never really explored Oakland by ourselves before. I think we were both surprised by what a fun and cute place it is! It was super humid and very green, so it reminded me of the east coast a little, just with how green it was! It seemed so much greener than San Jose! San Jose is so dry like 11 months of the year. Even with all the rain this year, it's only been green and pretty for like a couple weeks in January or February. Anyways, we drove to Merritt College where we could park, then we got shuttled to the temple in a school bus.

In the school bus

On our way to the temple

The tour started in the stake center next to the temple, which is huge! It had a big auditorium where we sat and watched mormon ads while they took group by group out to head to the chapel where the tour would start with a video and an introduction from a tour guide.

Just watching the mormon ads in the mini conference center

The stake center was just so huge, it had this courtyard and two stories

Then, we followed our tour guide over to the temple. He showed us through each room and talked about what the various rooms are for. Afterwards, we admired the view and walked over to the visitor center.

The view from the temple is amazing!

The flowers outside the visitor center were so pretty!

The Christus in the visitor center

Here is a video of what renovations were done to the temple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd0x3PP0zNM&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3zDaZ_ZA_vK6iz8lq9ssPqw0ZliQoP0_U-prIAIeTjEPvCumVrkNHYoHg

After the open house, we went to get food at this cute Mexican place. It was a really cute atmosphere, but Ricky thought the tacos were a little overpriced for their size.

Driving home in the rain

Overall, we decided that Oakland is a cool place and we think it would be really fun to live there!



A few unrelated updates and links for you:

-Ricky has started a podcast! I am so impressed with him and how legit it sounds. It is really fun to listen to, so give it a listen here: anchor.fm/thefruglife

-We love using mypostcard to send postcards to family and friends. Ricky came up with a link you can use to get $3 free, so you can send your first postcard free! Here's the link: https://www.mypostcard.com/en/invite/ANOTHERBORINGYOUTUBECHANNELXCRG

-Lastly, you might remember that we mentioned in a previous post (awhile ago) that we had some exciting news coming up. That news will finally be announced in September!!! (No, I'm not pregnant)

My 26th Birthday

My birthday weekend started on Friday when I got out of work. I had a staff development day at work so I got out of work earlier than normal! I got home and got a birthday package from my family - a scooter! This is just what I wanted for riding to work! I wanted to take it out right away and give it a go. We rode over to the Habit Burger Grill to get my free birthday burger!

The next day we went to San Francisco. We went on a small hike and explored some nice views of the Golden Gate Bridge. We also got pizza!

Sunday was Easter, but we didn't do too much to celebrate, besides church.

Monday was my actual birthday! I rode my scooter to work, which was very enjoyable and much better than walking. After work, Ricky and I went to Denny's for my free birthday meal. It's a fun little birthday tradition although Denny's isn't really the best. Overall, it was a pretty good birthday, and a fun birthday weekend!

Labor Day Staycation

Brooke and I had a few gift cards to movie theaters. So for Labor Day, Brooke and I finally saw a movie. We have been planning and trying to go quite a few times, but it hasn't worked out. Last time we tried there were no good seats left! So we gave up.

This Labor Day, we saw Crazy Rich Asians. We had to go at 11:05 as the tickets were only $7 then, but increased to $12 after noon. We ordered on fandango for some reason because we thought we could pick our seats. Well we couldn't, and they charged us an extra 3 bucks! We still had to use a kiosk to get our tickets and it was probably harder than just paying for them right there!. Oh well.

The movie was really good. The soundtrack was great, my favorite was the song Yellow but in Chinese. The movie had some great actors in it. Specifically, the actors who play Professor Chang in Community and Jian Yang in Silicon Valley. The movie was just so immersive, I thought I would walk out of the theater and be in Singapore! That is only a mild exaggeration, after all, the last time I watched a movie, I really was in a foreign country! I thought I mentioned this in my Mexico/San Diego trip post, but apparently I didn’t.

Brooke wasn’t feeling well after the movie, so we went home and I made soup. The next day, Brooke ended up going to the movies with some people from our church, and ended up seeing the movie again! She says she enjoyed it more the second time.

The anti-vacation

So last weekend was long due to Memorial Day. Brooke had to work Saturday, so we thought we might have some sort of a stay vacation. We thought about going to Santa Cruz area, but ended up deciding against it as there surely would be tons of people visiting. We ending up deciding to see a movie. So we looked at the movie options nearby. Brooke and I ended up agreeing to watch Solo, which I had a mild interest in seeing because it has Donald Glover in it.

Brooke really just wanted popcorn. Sadly, it seems there aren’t any dollar theaters in San Jose area. I guess that is the nature of the crazy rent prices here.

Anyways, we got to the theater, and the matinee tickets were $10.75 each. Which seems a little pricey, but I was ok with it, we did after all have a $50 gift card - or at least I thought. When we used the gift card, we still had to pay 11 bucks. It ends up the $50 gift card was really a $10 gift card. We were originally promised a $50 Coldstone card, so when we got the Cinemark card we were a little disappointed (after all, we don’t go to movies all that often). Apparently at this place you need to pick your seats out in advance. All the good seats were taken, so we had to sit in the front left row. I didn’t realize how close this would be to the screen. The screen was so big and sooo close. It was larger than my field of vision, so I couldn’t even see it all at one time. I thought about the neck strain I would have sitting here. I thought about the 20 bucks the seats cost, and I decided, no way. So we went to customer support to exchange our tickets for the next showing, and sure enough, there were only seats in the front row. So we got a refund instead. So instead we walked around the mall and looked at Target. We couldn’t really buy much as we walked to the mall from our apartment.

So that was our Memorial Day weekend. Really kind of an anti-story. So that's the story how we didn’t go on vacation and we didn’t even see a movie.

We are in the process of moving all our Youtube videos to a new website, Dtube.

Check them out here:

https://d.tube/#!/c/edwardo340

MY 25TH BIRTHDAY!

This is a little late, but I wanted to post about what we did for my birthday this year! Part of my birthday celebration was being able to go to Utah and visit my family at the beginning of the month! I have a blog post about that here! 

My birthday was on a Sunday this year, so Ricky and I weren't able to do our normal birthday tradition, which is to go to Denny's and get the free birthday meal, and then go to Firehouse Subs and get a free birthday sandwich. Those deals only work on the actual day of your birthday, and since we don't go out to eat on Sundays, we had to figure something else out for my birthday this year. 

What we did is I signed up to get emails from the Habit Burger Grill, and then I got a free burger offer sent to my email to use the month of my birthday! So we celebrated the day before my birthday by walking over to the Habit Burger Grill and getting a free burger!

My parents also had fresh cookies sent to our door that day! It was such a delicious surprise! We got so many cookies and they were huge! They were also warm and fresh, SO GOOD! We both loved the chocolate chip ones the best, but I also loved the snickerdoodles!

We took a picture only after we had tested each one!

On my actual birthday, Ricky and I went to church and taught our Primary class like normal. One of the girls in our class gave me brownies and a card she had made! That was so sweet and made my day!

And then a boy in our class dropped off a card and some mini bundt cakes that were delicious! I felt so loved!

Also, Ricky made me my favorite meal -- fried rice!

It was a fun birthday weekend, and I just felt so loved!

Mr Wonderful and the not so Wonderful sales pitch

Since Brooke went on the last trip all by herself, it feels like it has been awhile since I’ve been on an adventure. Since my next planned trip isn’t until June, I thought I would share a mini adventure Brooke and I went on.

We got to see Kevin O’Leary speak, you know, Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank. He gave an amazing presentation, it was really interesting. He commented on some of his investments in Shark Tank and we looked closely at one in particular. He also gave us some of his rules of investing. But the presentation wasn’t all good, there were two speakers before him.

I think Brooke didn’t quite know what to expect at this presentation, and I didn’t either. I worried that Kevin O’Leary was going to sell us timeshares or something. So the first 2.5 hours of the event was a sales pitch, and goodness it just went on and on. Not to mention, I have been working in Sunnyvale lately, just on the opposite side of the freeway from the Great America hotel where the event was going to be. I drove down to pick up Brooke from her work in South San Jose, which was an hour in rush hour traffic. We got to the event in a rush. I also had thought there was going to be food at this event for some reason (spoiler: there wasn’t), so Brooke was hungry. I was very bored in the presentation, as it really was a sales pitch for a class on learning how to trade options. This included some very basic definitions of some financial investments, and as a former finance TA I wasn’t super impressed. I jotted some thoughts down at the event:

So as I sat in the workshop, I noticed people getting out their phones and taking pictures of the slides on the screen. It was the most basic financial information. Like just the definition of calls and puts on the screen.

After a whole presentation on using options to invest and make big money, and much waiting we finally heard from Kevin O’Leary (at like 9:30 pm). All of Mr. Wonderful’s advice contradicted what the last speaker said. The last speaker said diversification is overrated. Mr. Wonderful said diversification is the only free lunch in the stock market. Mr. Wonderful spoke on using fixed income securities for at least 35% of your portfolio, whereas the last speaker emphasized you need a 15% rate of return to build wealth (which only the riskiest of fixed income securities would offer [like government of Puerto Rico bonds level of risky]). The list goes on and on.

In the choice between the self-proclaimed multi-millionaire and Mr.Wonderful, I think I will follow Mr.Wonderful’s advice.

San Jose Apartment Tour

Many people have been asking for pictures of our "new" apartment. It's not so new anymore, but I finally took pictures of the apartment to post!

Living Room/Study:

 

Here is the front room/living room

Ricky spends the most time in here since it is also "the study." Don't mind his organization method (throwing all of his papers under his desk)

Ricky at his computer. I found his desk on Facebook Marketplace. We went and picked it up from someone who sold it to us for $30.

When Ricky's at his desk, this is my spot! However, we definitely had to compromise and take turns with this chair during General Conference! We got it from my grandparents and it even has massage!

Our TV stand that my dad made for us!

Kitchen/Dining Room: 

Our kitchen! Everything's brand new since our apartment was newly remodeled before we moved in.

Our dining table.... I definitely need to decorate those walls!

Bedroom: 

My side of the room! When we first moved in, we realized there is no built in lighting in the bedroom (or the living room), so we lived in the dark for a bit and eventually went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got this lamp. We love it!

It's hard to show how cozy the lighting is, but this is definitely my favorite little corner of the apartment (especially when we have the heater on).

Story about my nightstand: A few weeks after moving in, we went on a walk around our apartment complex and saw this nightstand by one of the dumpsters. We thought it would be perfect for our bedroom, and hauled it back to our apartment. It really is perfect!

My desk is in the bedroom. Ricky has always had a desk for his desktop computer, but this is my first time having my own desk! I love it! It is my work desk as well as my sewing desk. It used to belong to my grandparents, but they let us take it!

Laundry Room:

When looking for an apartment, one of my top requirements was having a washer and dryer in the unit. It is SO nice to not have to leave the house and carry huge loads of laundry to a laundromat. Our laundry room doubles as a storage room and a coat closet!

 Bathroom:

Lastly, our bathroom

 I hope you enjoyed this little "tour" of our apartment! We really are loving it!!!