Leah’s Cafe

If there is anything good can come out from the recent cancer scare, it scared the big boy into action! :-)

I have nagged and nagged about including me in his employer provided health care plan, and since I am not there in IL yet and it never seems urgent, he just kept procrastinating it. Actually all he had to do just tell the human resource personnel about his intention and provide some basic data about his wife.

When the first pathologist’s report came back recommended further investigation of possibility of cancer, he sprang into action and got me on his health insurance plan within three days!

If we were gold coins collectors, we might be able to sell them to pay for the medical bills, but too bad we aren’t. Even a simple surgery and the subsequent diagnostic tests to identify malignancy has cost us more than 10k out of pocket. At least he knows cancer treatment without insurance coverage can wreck us financially and reason for many of the bankruptcy cases filed in America!!

How much would you pay for this toy car?

The big boy collects them, a few plastic containers of them. He just sold this one for slightly more than USD200.

Who would pay so much for a toy car?

Apparently, the Ebay listing generated quite a lot of bids. That means many big boys would pay this kind of money for a toy car!!

And, this boys all think they are savvy collectors! Crazy or not?

I have not yet seen the entire collection of toys that the big boy has as they were kept at the storage and now kept at his parents’ basement. Toy cars do not interest me at all, but I am more curious to know how much the rare coins that he has worth!

Was at the ATM machine withdrawing money, keyed in the PIN and amount to withdraw, got the beep beep sound and it said “wrong PIN” on the screen. Scratched head, keyed in PIN another time, got beep beep and “wrong PIN” showed up again.

OMG, I forgot the PIN numbers after not using it for a month. I dare not try another time, as the machine would swallow the card after three unsuccessful attempts! I would be in big trouble if the ATM card get swallowed, it’s not issued by a local bank and it belongs to the big boy !! I hope he remembers the PIN because he was the one who said birth dates are easy to hack and set it up with a string of hard to remember, unrelated numbers. :-)

It’s two more days before Valentine’s day, but decided to open up the Valentine package anyway.

A card, a green bag and a box of Hershey kisses (chocolates) from my Valentino!

I called the red bag green not because I am color blind, though it looks like a small pocket book, it can turn into a shopping bag, thus  an environmental friendly bag that reduces the use of plastic bags. :-)

Included in the package also a few books that I have bought earlier, thinking that the big boy could bring back here as he was going to come back. He must also accidentally mail the Lunar New Year stamps  for the year of rat even though being told no one collects stamps any more. :-)

The mail man was here about noon yesterday, while I was talking to the big boy on the phone. He handed me this package.

Whoa, the big boy was able to get the package out, mailed it and it arrived before the Valentine’s Day! I am going to say thank you and keep my mouth shut about everything else and not to nag about the bigger gifts for the US postal service. :-)

Did a search on the net and found some discount coupon codes for winter jackets and coats that I have thought of getting for the big boy as Valentine’s gift. But, he said he doesn’t need a winter jacket or coat, as he has a few of them already. Headache, headache, really don’t know what to get him.

Of course the big boy will always appreciate anything that provides entertainment, if i can’t think of anything else, will just buy him a DVD or I can always grab him a game or two with the Gamefly coupons. If you want, go over and see what other coupons you can get. They have a wide range of baby stuffs, women stuffs and lots of other things.

My friend Anna is organizing a Valentine’s dinner and inviting all the couples in the church to join her and her husband for a romantic dinner and dance. She has booked the upper floor of the magnificent Majestic Hotel in town and got a very good rate for the candlelight dinner. It’s a pity that the big boy is not here and we won’t be able to join them.

Well, though we are currently being separated physically by circumstances, we still do exchange gifts on Valentine’s day. The big boy usually gets me some romantic Valentine’s gifts (a.k.a. junks), whereas he usually gets practical gifts from me.

Haven’t decided what gifts to get him. Did find some Bestbuy coupon codes and Target coupon codes online. If I decide to order things from Bestbuy or Target, this online shopping coupons will be handy to get great gifts.

My consolation for this year’s Valentine’s Day is : this is going to be our last year of being separated on Valentine’s day and the reunion has a date.

This picture must be taken last year around December (see the Christmas tree?). He was back to Illinois for 2-3 months. Before he went back there, he was about 190lbs.

I think in this picture, he was already putting on at least 10 lbs. With a height of 6ft4in, he looked rather slim except for the beer belly. In fact, he claimed that he never was this slim since he was 20. That’s what 2 years of tropical weather and constantly in the sauna did to him, he lost at least 30 lbs living here.:-)

Fast forward to December 2007.

He weighs 230 lbs right now.He needs to get on a diet, don’t you think so? :-)