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.

Spring Break

I decided to give myself a "Spring Break" and went to Utah to spend Brittany's Spring Break with my family. It was a fun and much needed break. For my first full day there, we went to the aquarium.

The new butterfly room at the Living Planet Aquarium was cool!

Brian with a butterfly on his nose!

Here we are ready for a 3-D movie about penguins!

That night, we went to the open house of the Jordan River Temple. It was going to be rededicated after having some renovations done, so we had the chance to walk through and tour it.

On Wednesday, my mom, Brittany, and I headed to St. George! We went to the temple, saw The Greatest Showman, did some "hiking," and of course, did a ton of shopping! It was so much fun!

Brittany and I after doing baptisms for the dead in the St. George Temple. Apparently, it was one of their busiest days ever!

Mom posing with the beautiful flowers at the temple

Before going to the movie, we got lunch at the Crepery. Brittany and I both got savory crepes and wish we would have gotten sweet ones. The hot chocolate was pretty good, but tasted and smelled like a chocolate chip cookie.

The view from our "hike"

On Friday, we headed back home from St. George. We celebrated my birthday early, which was fun! I left late that night for a red-eye back to California.

I requested going to Sweet Tooth Fairy for my birthday treats.

I also gave my dad his birthday present! Some cute skull lights that I found at Bed Bath and Beyond and had to get for him!

Brittany got me the book and the mints I wanted!

A cute ring dish and a Pioneer Woman Cookbook!

My Grandparents came for dessert. It was so good to see them!

Plenty of leg space on the flight home!

Blog history

I sometimes think back to years ago when I first started blogging. I started my first blog back in January 2014. Originally, I didn't know what I was going to do. I look back to one of my earlier posts and it is not even bitcoin related. Still, most of my early posts were about bitcoin, and I decided to specialize since who would want to read about my boring life?

After blogging about bitcoin for a few years, some people wanted me to write about my personal life. I was dismissive of this at first. But I eventually gave in and made this blog (with Brooke as a co-author). It has been rewarding to talk about some of my travels and experiences and hopefully the sentiment towards reading about it is similar.

So I have decided to launch a fourth blog (by the way, you probably don’t know about my third blog, which is intentional because it’s semi-anonymous). Let's see how this one goes. This is a political blog with 2 other co-writers. They have yet to post anything, but hopefully that will change soon.

In other news, life in San Jose is going pretty well. The rent is pretty crazy out here (over 2 grand a month), but life goes on. I have been on a few more work related trips to smaller towns in California, so I’m getting to explore more of California that I haven’t seen before.

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!!!

Portland trip plus

Portland Trip

So I recently got the chance to go to Portland on a business trip. It was pretty enjoyable, the client I went to was actually just north of Portland in Washington, so I got to go to two new states. It’s funny, I have lived in California most of my life, but I never made it across the border to Oregon. 

I flew in pretty late, my flight was delayed, and it was also raining. I mean, I guess that is to be expected, but it is different to actually experience it. I got some food advice from the concierge at the hotel, and then went off. On my way, I ran into some food trucks that looked pretty good. There was a homeless guy, probably in his 20s, on the corner by the food trucks. He asked me if I could buy him a sandwich. I was a little surprised. I don’t like to give money to beggars as you don’t know what they will do with it, but buying a sandwich seems like a fine thing to do. I didn’t want to over-commit to anything, so I said one second, and looked at the prices of the truck. A Gyro was 5 bucks so I went back (it was just a few feet) and agreed.  So I chatted with the guy, his name was Daniel. He used to live in Seattle, but wanted to move to California. He made it as far as Portland before he ran out of money. I told him about how I am from San Diego, and recommended it to him. With the rain surrounding us, I knew Portland wasn’t the best place for this guy. As we were in line, another homeless guy passed by asking if anyone would feed him dinner. I thought it would be weird to start paying for all the homeless people in Seattle. Daniel told me not to worry and everyone gets their own. We chatted a little more as we waited for our food and then parted ways.

The stay at the hotel was otherwise pretty uneventful, I watched “surviving disaster” on the TV. It's kind of a tradition of mine to watch reality TV in a hotel, stuff I normally don’t watch. And then I had to wake up at 5 in the morning, which is super hard for me as a night person.

I also got to visit the cute town of Camas, Washington, which has a nice small town vibe, lots of really nice people there.

FresnoTrip

I also recently went to Fresno on a business trip. The name didn’t ring a bell, but when I arrived to the city, I realized I had been there quite a few times to go to Yosemite and Kings Canyon. We stayed at a Motel 6 and it was really not a very good motel. I wanted to use the internet, so I had to walk to the front desk and buy a piece of paper with a code on it. The person that cut the codes didn’t line the paper slicer correctly, so the code had a cut in the middle of it, spanning all the numbers. The TV was also super small, which made my reality TV tradition less enjoyable. The bathrooms also didn’t have toiletries, excluding two very small bars of soap.

On the way back, we stopped at a cute little farmers market. They had exceptional prices on produce. They even had something called Melogold, which is a Pomelo grapefruit hybrid, it tastes like a grapefruit but isn’t tart. It was nice.

Christmas in Utah

This year, Ricky and I had our first Christmas together in Utah! When we first got married, we were in Utah for the wedding and reception on December 19th, right before Christmas, and then we headed to San Diego for the honeymoon, Christmas with Ricky's family, and a San Diego reception. The next year, we had Christmas with Ricky's family in San Diego again because his grandparents were moving and it would be the very last Christmas with them in their Van Nuys home. We wanted to be there for that. But this year, we finally got to have Christmas with my family! It was a wonderful trip! I want to share the few pictures that I did take and document what we did!

On Thursday, our first full day there, I went shopping with my mom and sister. We finished Christmas shopping and we got some groceries. Brittany and I made dinner, white chicken lasagna soup, a recipe I've been wanting to try for awhile! Then Brian, Brittany, Ricky, and I met Lisa and Travis at the Hogle Zoo for zoo lights! It was fun! There were lots of fun lights, and we got to see some animals that are more active in the night. Although I didn't get a picture, the polar bears were my favorite. They were running around and being so fun! I have never seen them so active! I think they were enjoying the weather!

They had a light of the lion drinking fountain!!!

After the zoo, my family went to Christmas in Color, which was a drive-through light show. It was pretty crowded, so there was quite a wait to get in, but it was really cool!

Singing light bulbs!

On Friday, we went downtown to eat dinner at Little America and to see the lights at Temple Square. Dinner at Little America was delicious and the window displays at Grand America were fun. There was also a huge gingerbread house there this year that was awesome! Staying in or eating at Little America at Christmastime has been a tradition for my family for awhile, but lately it's getting so much more popular and crowded. Temple square was packed as well! Despite the crowds, we had a great time!

So much gingerbread and rice krispie treats!

On Saturday, Ricky and I went to visit Uncle Dean! It was so fun seeing him again!!! When we first got there, he put us to work, just like old times. Then, we went to dinner at Mandarin in Bountiful, which Ricky and I had never been to before, but wanted to try. It was really good! And because we called ahead, we got seated right away when we arrived. It was so crowded, but the service was great and we really enjoyed it! After dinner, we drove around Becky's neighborhood to see the lights and decorations, and then we visited Becky and her family. It was fun to visit. Uncle Dean is doing so well, and it was so good to see him again!

Sunday was Christmas Eve. We went to church for sacrament meeting, which was the only meeting held since it was Christmas Eve. My mom was actually one of the speakers, and did so well! It was fun being in my home ward again. It's been awhile! After church, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family. We ate dinner, did a talent show, acted out the nativity and sang, and then opened presents.

Monday was Christmas Day. We opened presents in the morning. Then Ricky and I got to Skype with Ricky's family and his brother Alex who is on a mission right now. We got to talk to Alex for like an hour, so it was great! Then we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas day with my dad's side of the family. We had lunch, then we did our white elephant gift exchange! Then, we "kids" (Lisa, Travis, Brian, Brittany, Ricky and I) played a game downstairs just like old times.

I got my dad an essential oil diffuser

And a cute skull pillow

I got my mom a presto salad shooter and a cookie sheet

Brian and Brittany got Ricky soda and candy and Brian got me gel pens!

Brittany got me a coloring canvas!

This is what I got Brittany! It's from a shop on Etsy called Sydni Stitches.

Ricky and I had a flight home the day after Christmas. It was such a fun trip, but went so fast! It was so fun being with my family for Christmas and doing all of the traditions I remember from growing up.

Two Years!

We've been married two years today!!! Here is a short video I made to remember these first two years of our marriage. I'm excited for many more to come!