And we're back!

Things are back up to speed and speaking of speed... this new modem is awesome! Beforehand, with the "borrowed" modem, I tested speeds up to 15mbps and now it's up to 22mbps! I can't wait for the next UFC fight so I can download... er hmm. That's illegal and I would never do that, right? Haha. In fact, what big files can you really "download" these days that's not illegal? I mean, you could probably download mp3's after paying for them from Itunes, but that really won't test the new speeds I've got. What are mp3's now? 5mb? That's less than 4 seconds! Lame. Maybe I'll go download some useless Microsoft add-ons for fun just to see what speeds I get. =P

Now it's time to go surf the free HBO channels!

And... the free cable is gone...

Well, not much to say about it at this point except I was very very bored the whole day. Thought about walking around the city, trying to familiarize myself with the neighborhood, but it's been raining non-stop since yesterday so I just stayed in the apartment. Although, on a good note, I was a lot more productive with housework and stuff without internet. ;)

Scheduled an appointment for tomorrow to hook up everything and hopefully I won't have to deal with Comcast again for a while. At least they're giving me free HBO for a year with no contract. Bad part is it's not free and actually more expensive than I thought it would be!

On another note, July 4th weekend will be pretty fun! Our good friends Daniel and Joanne are coming to visit us and Joanne offered to show us around town while she's here. She actually used to live right across the street from where our apartment is with Cat Ng! All in all, I'm excited to have them stay with us!

Weekend in Maine

Hi guys! So this weekend, we decided to head up to Maine with our good buddies, Mary and Jason! We only stayed for a night because I had to go get ready for Monday's first day of school, but that one day was really fun! While driving, Brian and I were talking about how we were in the farthest connected state in the US from California. We even had someone look at our car and point at the CA plates o_O!!

Jason's parents have a home in Maine along the lake, and it was so cute and homely! They had an extra room for us to stay downstairs... but Mary and Jason didn't mention how cold it gets down there. Luckily, they gave us a very warm comforter, and I had Brian around to cling on to. He calls me a koala bear at night... =*( Oh! Jason's mom is such a wonderful cook! After we came back from dinner, she had these yummy homemade brownies and homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Brian was in heaven!

On Saturday, we went to Freeport to visit the outlets. We really went all out on things we "needed" for the coming winter season. We visited maybe only 4 stores but came out with 3 big bags from North Face and Cole Haan. We decided to stop there because if we entered any other stores, we might've been in really big trouble when the bills came in! Afterward, Jason and Mary brought us to a yummy lobster lunch spot along the water called Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster.


I think I really confused Jason with the peace sign! Haha


While driving around in Maine, a lot of the scenery was so lush that it reminded us of the set for Twilight haha. It also reminded me of Disney's Pocahontas, causing me to randomly sing songs from that movie to keep myself entertained on our drive back to Boston.

We had such a wonderful trip and can't thank the Vienneau's enough. Catch you guys next time!

First Thing on Our Fridge!

Miss you guys!

Free cable!!!

Woohoo!!! Free cable tv and internet!!! Let's back up a couple of days...

I believe living in the 21st century pretty much means you should be surfing the internet a little at least every day. At LEAST a couple of minutes a day, right? And usually, it should be on a high speed internet connection. 3G phone access shouldn't count!

So what's the first thing I think of doing when we move to Boston? Set up an internet account! With that thought process, I investigate what options I can choose from. The apartment complex gives you a piece of paper telling you what most renters use and it lists Comcast for cable tv and cable modem. So I check the pricing and tally up the pricing to be around $100 a month for both. WOW! Way too much for our budget. At that point, I check Verizon Fios' site to see if we're eligible for their fiber optic lines. After giving them a call, they inform me that they only offer DSL (wtf?) and Dish satellite (double wtf??) for tv services! What the heck is DSL and Dish doing on the Verizon Fios menu?? I want their fiber optic services! I quickly tell them I'm not interested and call Comcast back just to sign up for internet.

After spending 30mins on the phone with them, the phone salesman tells me that the former tenant hasn't cancelled their services and I can't sign up until he does. O-M-G. Is that why there's still a Comcast cable box and a modem in the corner of the apartment? I quickly plug in my laptop hoping for free internet but nope. Nothing comes up so I ask the salesman if she's sure the previous tenant hasn't cancelled. She confirmed he hasn't and told me that she tried to reach the phone number he left on record and he didn't answer. She then said I can ask the apartment manager to call in to override the previous tenant's services so I can start a new account. I call the manager and he's out until June 16th. >.< This is starting to get really annoying.

Back to step 1 and I do some more research on Fios. Instead of calling in and talking to the out-sourced Indian representatives with the thick accents, I check out their website instead. (Sorry, this is not racism. It's the truth that 99% of the human population have a problem understanding what they say! They probably have problems understanding each other when attempting to communicate in English!) What's this? They offer Directv as an option instead of Dish? SWEET! I LOVE Directv! I can also request getting their HR24 DVR as those are WAY faster than the HR23's I have back in Arcadia! I go through the process of ordering and they offer an awesome deal! Not only would their faster internet and Directv package be $30 cheaper, they give you Showtime for a whole year and a FREE wireless router/cable modem! That would mean I don't have to buy a modem (or rent Comcast's for $7 a month) and a router ($50+)! I like saving money! It means I could spend more money on other fun stuff!

At this point, Directv and Verizon Fios set up days to come install the stuff and I'm estatic cuz I miss watching the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup finals, Formula 1 and just plain surfing the net! First guy that comes is Omar from Directv. It's starting to rain, so I help him unload what needs to be installed from his van and we head to the top floor to see how we can access the roof. After we carry all the big ass equipment up there, the apartment complex's handyman Paul stops us and goes "Wait. What are you guys doing? You can't install that stuff on this roof cuz no one's allowed up there for insurance reasons. Sorry guys." FML ONE HUNDRED BILLION TIMES! My dreams were CRUSHED! I've been so giddy about getting tv and internet access that that's all I've been thinking about the night before. Anyway, I apologize to Omar, tip him a $20 for his troubles, call Verizon and DTV telling them the apartment complex won't let me install stuff so they say they'll refund me whatever they charged me.

I go back up and I remember why this handyman Paul was here. We called management and left a message saying our toilet was leaking cuz it wasn't seated properly so he showed up to fix it. He also replaces all the light bulbs with energy efficient ones and his buddy helps me properly install my AC unit in the window. At this point, I was chatting with Paul and he felt really bad about the Directv thing and my sob story about Comcast so he goes and checks where Comcast installs their main unit in the building and he "plugged" in a cable that goes to our apartment. I check access again and nope, still nothing. Anyway, Paul gives us some good news that our windows are old and he takes measurements of all the windows in the apartment and said he'll come back in a week with brand new spanking windows to make the place a little nicer looking. Yay!

Fast forward a couple of days and Mary says "Why don't you try plugging the cable modem again to see if we have access. Didn't Paul do something?" Fine fine, I'm bored. I might as well try again. I go to plug the modem back in and notice another cable line to use! I try it and voila! Access! Yay! I quickly order a router from Amazon so we'll have wireless in a couple of days. Then I thought, if the modem works, wouldn't cable work too? I just need to get a HDMI cable to test this out. So we go to Best Buy to "borrow" a HDMI cable (I love their return system!) and go home to try. SICK! We have cable tv! WHOA! This cable box is a DVR unit!!!! This is so awesome! So right now, I'm super excited about having a DVR unit to record shows, fast internet access, and not having to pay a single cent for this stuff! This is so cool! I just hope the previous tenant keeps paying for this stuff for a while before he notices that he's paying an extra $100 a month for services that I'M enjoying! LOL!

Anyway, I had a bunch of stories to type but this one stuck out the most cuz you have no idea how much I've missed watching the past sports events. Hope you guys enjoyed my essay!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

For the past several days, we've made multiple trips to Bed Bath Beyond, Costco, Ikea, and Target. These stores are all evillll! We keep seeing stuff we "need" and end up buying more than we originally planned. We even unexpectedly ended up at Crate & Barrel! I mean, these things are considered necessities, so I don't feel so bad until I add up all the receipts. I'll save that for another day.

Today, we went to Bloomingdale's to purchase these UGG boots. Even though I never thought I would EVER wear UGGs, I've been told that these are essential during the unforgiving Boston winters. Plus, I have a gift card here, so it's like free shoes ^_^. I was leaning toward the color "Toast" since that's the color Brian and the sales associate liked, but the only one left was the one on display. I'm a big germaphobe, so I didn't want to buy it. Some people try on shoes without socks! So gross! Brian got annoyed and told me that was a stupid reason. Haha, but I forgot to tell him that the boots were also scratched until we left. Afterwards, he became more forgiving for dragging him out to the mall. Now to order them online, but I can't seem to decide whether to buy the boots in Black or Toast. Any opinions would be helpful!

Back to watching Bruins vs Canucks. Woo go Bruins!! Uh oh... I'm becoming more and more like a Bostonian...

Day 3

I always knew furnishing a place was pretty expensive, but this is getting ridiculous! Two days of shopping, and we're still not done. To top it off, it was insufferably hot today, reaching up to 96°F with tons of humidity. Then we had thunderstorms and lots of rain, but it was still hot, which was unexpected and weird. In California, it gets coldddd when it rains. I guess the evil weather gods in the sky hate us, wondering why we moved from California to Massachusetts. Even the Macy's workers who set up our bed gave us weird looks when they found out we moved from SoCal.

Since it rains here more, Brian thought people would drive better in the rain. Nope... they are just as bad as Californians, so he was pretty peeved until he saw this car. It cheered him up pretty well. He asked me if I knew was it was, and I said, "a GT3??" He replied, "No... a GT3RS!!" Sheesh... I was close enough! Apparently, not many were sold in the states, and it's pretty rare to see one.

Oh and we saw this yesterday. This storage facility means serious business!! Bahaha...

Speaking of yesterday, we left Mary Vienneau's house in the morning to transport all our stuff to our new apartment. My Accord was shipped here and had so much crap in the trunk already. Although we couldn't see through the rear window (I don't think that's safe, but oh well Brian's driving ^_^), we somehow managed to fit ALL of our stuff into the backseat of my tiny car - 4 50lb gigantic duffel bags, 2 heavy carry-on luggages, Brian's large camera backpack, and 3 huge packages from Macy's containing down pillows and a comforter. That was the easy part. Lugging all that stuff up to the 5th floor of our complex was a PITA! It took so many trips! I felt quite bad though. I'm so tiny and feeble, so Brian had to do most of the work. >.< What would I do without him?! <3

First day!!

Patty and Brian thought it was a great idea to make a blog about our life in Boston. I think Patty said that she wanted to see the domestication of Brian, but I don't think that will happen anytime soon haha...

Anyways... after experiencing nightmarish traffic on the 110, waiting in an extremely slow check-in luggage line, and almost missing our flight, Brian and I finally made it to Boston!! We apparently arrived in the middle of a heatwave. We miss California already! >.<

Special thanks to Mary and Jason for being so accommodating during our move across the country. We couldn't have done it without you guys!! We are beyond grateful!! We also want to thank everyone for coming to our good-bye bbq at Patty's and then our Korean bbq dinner on Sunday. It was so good to see all of you before we left. We will miss you guys!!

Okay time to unpack a few stuff and get ready to sleep in a bit. Goodnight!!