Category: advice and tips

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advice and tips finance fun

Got CT Scan yesterday

I have been coughing for over a year. It’s very hard to get insurance pre-authorization to get CT scan in the US, according to my primary care doctor. She said if I am willing to self-pay, it’s not too expensive. So yesterday I took the plunge, I went to Metro Imaging directly, paid the fee from my credit card, and got my scan. I used to see this CT scanner on movie/TV, and see my daughter Yoyo did it once. Now it’s my turn. A bit of mixed feeling though as I did not want to hear the bad news. The scanner looks something like this. It’s also interesting I used to work for Siemens 🙂

Siemens CT Scanner

The good news is the results is negative (I got results right away, I think this is the way medical testing should be). The bad news is I still need to figure out why the cough persists? There are two theories: allergy or acid reflux (from stomach to throat).

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    advice and tips finance

    Missed Allgiant Air ALGT

    I was doing some soul searching on investment recently. And I came across this Allgiant ALGT. I traded it on its IPO at $25 12-08-2006. It’s trading at $158 as of today 01-13-2015 (about 8 years later). Why did not hold on this winner while trading the other losing stock named Heelys???

    (click on the image to enlarge)

    ALGT_ipo_120806

    ALGT_price_01_13_2015

    Categories
    advice and tips kids

    Couple deals : Charmin bath tissue and Huggies diaper

    Charmin and Bounty at Target
    $4.50 off regular price for 30 double rolls, $5 eGiftcard when one buy 2 (can mix and match). Here is the link to get to Charmin. Use Target Redcard to get 5% off and free shipping.

    Huggies Snug and Dry Plus at Costco
    $6 off large box (was $38.99 for size 3), here is the link to size 3. I ordered one box a week ago, and it arrived today. So far it seems work for my younger daughter. I recall we used mostly this diaper from Costco for our elder daughter. This promotion runs till Jan 25. Limit 2 boxes per order. Costco offers free shipping for this.

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      advice and tips kids

      Diapers, diapers, diapers

      Baby Sophia is almost 5 months old, and she is on size 3 diaper (16 to 28 lbs). I recall she was born at 7 lbs and 3 oz, quickly reach 10 lbs which also outgrew new born size diaper. Similar thing happened to size 1 diaper, she reached 14 lbs at 2 month mark, and now we have both new born and size 1 surplus diapers 🙂

      Things slowed a bit since 2 month, she was about 15.5 lbs at 4 month checkup. Nonetheless we used all size 2 diapers (12 to 18 lbs), and started size 3 (16 to 28 lbs).

      As to diaper brands and type, we used huggies natural new born, pampers swaddler new born, huggies snug and dry size 1, a store brand size 1, huggies little smuggler size 2, and pampers swaddler size 3.

      Thinking switch to huggies snug and dry size 3 in the future, that’s what our elder daughter had most of time, and it sells for $39 per 210 at Costco. A bit cheaper than pampers swaddler.

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      advice and tips fun

      How to set bluetooth on Toyota Sienna minivan

      2012 LE, basic radio.

      Set the language from Spanish to English
      (it says Corolla, but it works for Sienna as well, as they have very similar audio equipments).

      Setup bluetooth

      My tip: so I followed the instruction 1 and set up bluetooth audio for my iPhone 5s with the minivan, and later on I tried to add the bluetooth phone, and I was not successful during the step where the phone tries to connect to the bluetooth audio (car multi-media). The fix is to forget the car multi-media in the iPhone, and set up again for both phone and audio (“device type” in the car audio prompt).

      (update 03-12-15) I had to pair my iPhone 5s bluetooth again with sienna, after iOS 8.1.3 update. Forgot this “forgot the car multi-media” tip initially 🙂 Note again select “phone setup” and “interior bluetooth audio”, this way it will work both for phone and audio.

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      advice and tips finance

      Trying to be frugal, ready for Kindergarden

      I have been in “austerity mode” since late Sept., and so far my main approach is “shop at Aldi, and global food market”. I found Aldi has most of the grocery and basic daily stuff, while global food market has the fresh veggies and sea food. Occasionally I shopped at Sam’s club, Target, Trader Joe’s and Chinese grocery store for specific stuff: bottle water, paper towels and fruits at Sam’s, Hawaii King rolls and baby diapers at Target, pot sticker and beans at Trader Joe’s.

      Aldi has changed quite a bit in recent years, when I first came to the US as a “poor” graduate student, sometimes we joked Aldi is for the “poor people” (it seemed we excluded ourselves”). Not anymore. I found a lot of people shop at Aldi nowadays, in the Aldi near our home (Olive and 270), which is previously a Borders’ book store. It was mostly busier when I go there. Sometimes I go there too much (like 3 times in one afternoon). It was almost like some people indulge on the trip at Costco. I do have the Costco membership, but found myself have not been there for months 🙂

      On a separate note, my elder daughter is 4 years and 9 months old, and we are getting ready for her to go to kindergarden in public school next fall. The school will be very close to our home (school boundary map). Our younger one, is already 4 and half months, and can stand her head up. In this holiday season, there are always friends gatherings, and we always talked about kids, education etc.

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      advice and tips fun

      Found out why I missed 25000 miles Alaska Airlines from credit card

      I signed up the BoA credit card 50,000 miles promotion last Dec. But I forgot to spend $1000 in the first 3 months, I spent $995 in the first two months and then stopped. The reason was I thought I had reached this limit. But I forgot one thing: to check my spending at both BoA and at Alaska Airlines websites. I did not go to the latter because I thought I did not have the mileage plan number.

      Today I found out on my credit card I do have the number. But the 3 months has long passed. They now offer 25,000 miles for bonus opening their credit card.

      Categories
      advice and tips kids

      Chinese kids

      Saw this discussion at mittbbs.com (发信人: waluzz78 (哇鲁庄镇), 信区: Parenting). I think I agree.

      ======
      最近跟国内来的访问学者或旅游的家庭往，感觉国内的孩子很活泼自信，跟大人打交道
      也很自然。跟他们相比，我们周围在美国长大的10岁左右的小孩，包括我们自己的孩子
      ，显得更木讷，尤其不擅长跟大人打交道。我琢磨了一下，觉得原因是孩子在美国长大
      ，只想用英文说话，而在家里父母用中文跟他们交流，他们虽然能听懂，但不愿用中文
      回答，久而久之，跟大人的交流也变少了，而中国父母跟美国家庭的来往有限，孩子们
      也缺乏跟美国大人的来往，结果既没学会中国人待人接物的方法，也没学会美国人的方
      式，基本上只会跟同龄人打交道，在成人面前就显得很木讷。想起夏天一个孩子班上搞
      得跟老师告别的party上，美国孩子即兴侃侃而谈表达对老师的感激之情，几个中国孩
      子唯唯诺诺的回避发言，当时以为是性格所至，现在看应该是生长环境造成的。国内长
      大的孩子普遍就大方多了。现在很想亡羊补牢，改善一下孩子的社交能力，我能想到的
      就是多带孩子参加活动，尤其是美国人为主的活动，因为让孩子学中国人待人处事已经
      不切合实际了，只好人他们学习美国人的方式，自己也只好step out of the comfort
      zone了.也许加入country club是个办法。以前觉得那里中国人太少了，加入是受罪.不
      知大家有什么好建议。
      ======

      Categories
      advice and tips fun

      Trying to beat the coffee habbit

      Lots of headache first few days. It’s getting better as time goes. The reason I am trying to do that is it (the coffee) appears to make me go to restroom much more often. I want to eliminate this one factor to see if things get better.

      A second reason, is I don’t want to dependent on one thing (coffee is addictive). I recall last summer when I was in China, and I could not find coffee in my hometown and my wife’s hometown, and I got headache. Eventually I was able to find the “American style” iced coffee and a bakery and certainly at McDonald. I think I need to reduce my coffee intake, and if I can stay alert without it, that will be the best.

      Categories
      advice and tips kids

      Made same mistake again: stocked up too much new born and size 1 diapers

      When we were expecting the second baby, we vaguely recall the baby quickly grew out of the “new born” size diaper, so we did not stock up this time. When the baby came home with us, we already had a box of 88 pieces of Huggies natural, and being a person like to stock up things, I bought two 88 pieces Pampers new born. In about a month, our baby grew to 10 lbs, which is the upper limit of new born, and we still had about 40 pieces left.

      Now baby is about 2 months old, and approaching 14 lbs (13 lbs 6 oz as of 2 month check-up), we still have a box of 92 pieces unopened. We bought a box (192 pieces) of Huggies little snugglers size 1 from Sams’ club before the baby was born. And a friend brought in 92 pieces Huggies, another friend gave us the “diaper cake” which probably had 50 pieces.

      So here is our mistake again: stocked up too much new born and size 1 diapers. The good thing is we can always give it to friends who are expecting new baby 🙂