Moments in My Life

Two Tuesday ago, we went to Victor Park with Brandon’s classmate from Parenting Class at Torrance Adult School. We arrvied at 10:15am. Actually we were late as I was trying to get Brandon to go to potty before we leave home and it took forever. It was a fine warm day. The park is rather new, probably put up less than a month ago. There are two playgrounds. One is a toddler size and another one which is higher probably for older children.

In the beginning Brandon run around the toddler’s playground. Then he followed his friend to the bigger one and I followed him. We went on the tunnel slide which he really likes. There is a sharp turn in the tunnel and that is the reason why I have to go down with him. He also started to learn how to climb the ladder type of stairs. He did fine until the last step. He was unsure where to put his feet. So I always follow him behind and hold on to his butt. I am very scare that he might miss a step and fall down.

That day wasn’t our first day at the park. Our first time there was on a Friday evening and the playground was really crowded. Brandon wasn’t up to it and we only stayed like 15 minutes or less. This time around, we stayed for 45 minutes before we left to eat lunch at Pat & Oscars. It was the first time I had a meal outside with him alone. We had a good time by ourselves. We even packed the leftover for our dinner that day.

Toddlers playground.

Toddlers playground.

The bigger playground for older kids.

The swings.

More swings.

The tunnel slide which Brandon likes.

Mommy and little boy at Victor Park.

Today I am writing about Disney California Adventure Mission Tortilla Factory. We like to go on this ‘ride’ or ‘exhibition’ whenever we visit Disney California Adventure. They give our free tortillas whether is the flour or the corn, depending which kind they are making when we are there.Usually, there is not much of a crowd waiting in line at the entrance. When we first enter the factory, we will be shown a video clip as an introduction to Mission Tortilla. Brandon loves to watch this clip even though it is probably his tenth time watching it. The clip is short, may be less than 3 minutes. The clip shows three elementary school children introducing to the crowd about the history of tortilla and how it came to California.

When the video clip is done, another door will open up and the crowd will be ushered into the second room. In this room, there are 4 window boxes with holograms showing how they made tortillas in the olden days. We usually skip this room by walking straight into the next one.

The next room is where you can observe in person how the factor transforms the dough to a real tortilla. There are two big machines, one for flour tortilla and another for the corn tortilla. The flour tortilla machine is much bigger than the corn’s. We like the flour tortilla the best. Brandon loves it too. At the top of the flour tortilla machine, there is a big bucket with a prepared dough. The dough is then shaped, rest, raised, pressed, baked and packed. At the end of the line, each visitor will be given a piece of the tortilla. YUMMY! Also at the end of the line, there is a kitchen where they showcase what you can make using tortilla. Sometimes a chef will be there, but sometimes only the food will be display. They also have free Mission Tortilla recipe books and cards available for anyone.

The Mission Tortilla Factory from outside.

A close up of The Mission Tortilla.

Another view of The Mission Tortilla Factory.

The video clip on a LCD screen.

A wall mural in the first room.

The second room with the four window boxes that has holograms.

The tortilla machineries, flour tortilla (on your left) and corn tortilla (on your right).

A chef was there at the kitchen and offered to help us take a family picture with the flour tortilla machine at the background. You see Brandon was still eating his free flour tortilla.

This Monday was our first Mommy and me swimming class at Victor E Benstead Plunge in Torrace. I had signed up last week online for a two weeks term of Mommy and Me class offered by the city of Torrance at the public swimming pool. The class will be held daily for two weeks, from 8/18 to 8/29. Each class is only 25 minutes long, from 11:15am to 11:40am. The pool is an Olympic size pool that has been divided into three sections and it holds three different classes at the same time.

Yesterday was our first class. Brandon didn’t like the water much initially. We sat by the pool to prepare to go in, but he wanted to leave already. And once inside the pool, he crabbed me so tightly and didn’t want to let go. The 4 young school age instructors are friendly but we didn’t receive any personal attention from them. It was fine with me as it may terrify Brandon if they come too near anyway. We were told that each day will be a new skill learned. Kicking in the water was our skill for that day.

Brandon began to enjoy the class when he knows how to kick. It was not that bad, but the moment we were into the class, the lifeguard gave us a horn to let us know is time to get off the pool. WOW … that’s a short 25 minutes I thought. Everyone was out of the pool and moving into the Women’s changing area. There are only 3 bathrooms. I didn’t bother to bath, just change and we left. I gave him a bath only when we got home.

We will be there again today at 11am. We’ll see what new skill we will learn this morning.

We went to Disneyland this past Sunday.  It was the first day after the long summer black out dates for our annual passes.  California Adventure had opened a new ride, called Toy Story Mania during the summer.  Alan was excited about this new ride and had wanted to take off Monday 8/18 to visit.  But that plan was cancelled because I had signed up a 2 weeks daily swimming class for me and Brandon which begins on 8/18.  It was perfect for us to go on Sunday anyway since we didn’t have other plan for it.

When we arrived at California Adventure at 10:40am, the line for this ride was only a little over 60 minutes long.  How did I know how long the wait is?  Because as each check point, they have a sign that says, “From here to ride - 60 minutes wait.”  We quickly joined the line to wait.  Want to continue or not, we’d decide later. 

I knew Brandon was not going to like to wait that long and do nothing.  He didn’t even know what ride it is.  But luckily, Alan went all the way to the front to check if we were on the right line.  He found many many ceiling fans above some of the waiting/queing huts. 

So while Bradon was enjoying the ceiling fans, we walked with the line.  It moved rather quickly.  I was also feeding Brandon his lunch.  It was 11am already.  Luckily, I had brought some char-siew cheung fun which I bought from a to-go Chinese dimsum place at Cerritos. 

When he was done with his lunch, we had just reached the half point, “From here to ride - 30 minutes wait.” Brandon didn’t really give us any hard time except he demanded for us to carry him most of the way during the last 30 minutes wait in the line.

This is a 4D ride and require to wear the 3D glasses. We took our glasses from the bin when we were almost on the ride. Brandon didn’t want to wear it. When it was our turn to ride, I told him to look around to see others wearing it. He then let me helped to put it on him. I personally love the ride. Not sure if Brandon really likes it. He was sitting by himself next to me. While Alan has to sit behind us.

The ride is based on the Toy Story 2 Adventure. The objective of the ride is to shoot and get as much point with the spring-action shooter.

Each moving platform has two cars on it. Each car will take 4 persons (2 facing forward/2 facing backward).

When we are inside the ride, there are screens with different animations (such as ‘Green Army Men Shoot Camp‘ and ‘Hamm & Eggs‘)and . We have to shoot the target points by pulling the spring shooter. In the beginning, I was pulling rather slowly. Then I tried pulling it none stop and the darts continuingly coming out and it was like a ‘machine-gun‘. It kinda tired out my arm at the end of the ride. Sometimes when my dart popped a balloon, air (sometimes water) would squirt to my face. That’s 4D experience. If I remember correctly, there were 5 different animations. I was too busy attending to Brandon, using my left hand to play his shooter while my right hand on my own. We like the ride and will go back again next time if the line isn’t that long.

At the end of the ride, Brandon scored 8300 while Mommy got like 136000. May be if Brandon is not next to me, I will be able to get higher score. That’ll be next time.

My friend had recently bought a new Mini Cooper for his wife. The car has been brought back to the dealer at least twice within 4 months of the purchase with the same defect. Since he lives out in the Corona area but the dealer is out here in Long Beach, he has to drive very far to drop off the car to get the problem fixed. Luckily for him, the dealer loan him another car to drive for the day, or else he would be stuck here in Long Beach and probably had to take an unpaid day off from work just because of that.

I was wondering if the car might be a lemon. Don’t you just hate it when you thought you bought a new car but then you got a lemon instead? I didn’t know until just now that California has a Lemon Law. According to the Lemon Law facts found on California Lemon Law attorney website, the purchaser of the vehicle can seek refund or replacement of the vehicle if the vehicle:

• Been taken in for service on four (4) or more occasions for a defect that substantially impairs the use or value of the vehicle;
• Been taken in for service on two (2) or more occasions for a defect that is likely to cause serious injury or death; or
• Been in service for thirty (30) or more cumulative calendar days. 

If you don’t know how to get the process started, just visit CLP Consumer Law Partners, Inc.. They specialize in handling California Lemon Law. They will be able to help you find out if you are eligible for the refund or replacement of your vehicle.  Call them at their toll free number to get a free consultation.  You can also submit your information online and someone from their end will get in touch with you promptly.  Don’t ever get stuck with a lemon. Get help from the California Lemon Law firm.

We went out with another mommy and her boy to La Romeria Park this morning.  They were already there when we arrived at 9:50am.  We stayed till 11am.  I can see my son is start learning to play with another person.  Brandon loves others to chase after him.  He was trying to get Colin to chase him but Colin preferred to play with the other older kids at the playground. 

Brandon was on the slide, climbing the stairs … he is not a swing person.  He has shown no interested in it at all.  I tried to get him sitting on one, but his legs was pushing hard not to get inside.  I am guessing he didn’t like the ‘roller coaster’ feeling when the swing comes down. 

We played at the playground a little while and then went to the grassy field to run.  Brandon was running all the way.  I have to bring him here more often and let the running and playing tired him out for a good afternoon nap. 

We came home around 11:25pm.  Fed him his lunch.  I made fish porridge prior to the park outing this morning so I didnt’t have to prepare the lunch when we got home.  I just need to feed him.  He likes the porridge and finished two plates fast. 

It was at 12pm when I called MIL to come over but she has a guest.  It is now 12:30pm.  I will probably give him a bath at 1pm and let him nap at 1:30pm.  Will see how the napping goes.  I get a little worry everytime when nap/bed is around the corner.  *cross fingers*   

I was born and raised in Malaysia and I have never known anything about hard water until I came to Los Angeles. My skin is not comfortable with the hard water and everytime after shower, I have to put on body lotion. It is a hassle. I really prefer the soft water feeling on the skin and I feel it is much cleaner when we wash with soft water.

So next time when we got a new home, we will definitely install a water softener. We can’t install it now at our current home because it is a lot of work as this is an old home and water pipe system wasn’t prepared for a water softener unit. So we would need to do a lot of re-piping work to install a water softener.

Since I am not an expert in this area, I may sort the help from the professionals at Expert Water Solutions. I didn’t know that I can request from the municipal water company for a copy of the water report until I read their website. According to their water hardness map, Los Angeles has very hard water between 10-14 gpg.

Let me briefly introduce to you Expert Water Solutions.  This company specializes in all area of water treatment including well water treatment, water filtration and water conditioning from residential to commercial. Their line of products includes water softeners, all type of filters (iron, carbon and others), chemical feed pumps, drinking water filter and more. They offer free water test and all you need to do is to give them a call at their toll free number.  I’ll be sure to have my water tested before purchasing a water softener so I know which type of water softener is best to suit our city water.

Our home was built back in the 1950s. It has pretty amazing amenities including a 2 cars garage, 1 bathroom and an attached 3/4 bathroom to the master suite. But one thing that they missed out for homes that were built during the 50s was the insulations. So our home has no insulation. The insulation below the roof was added by the previous owner.

In winter, our central heater runs all day and stops only slightly in between operating. This means we pay a lot of our heat/gas especially during the winter months. We are actually trying to find a better type of insulation so our heat won’t leave the homes during the winter time. One of my friend actually recommended spray foam insulation like those offered by New Jersey insulation. What I didn’t know is that with foam insulation, my gas bill may be reduced by 40%. Foam insulation will fill up all the cracks and crevices that regular insulation will not. I may look into having it done for this winter as I know the gas price has gone up so much, we need to reduce the cost by having a foam spray insulation installed below our roof.

We have cooler July than other years.  In the morning the sun won’t come out until around 10am.  It is usually breezy and chilly until noon.  Usually July will be the hottest month ever but this year, my Hubby told me they had a HOT June but July is much cooler.  Average temperature for this month is probably around 78F-82F for my area.

Well, I am not complaining.  I really like this type of temperature.  Not too hot or too cold to deal with.  It is only for the South bay area.  Most other parts of Los Angeles are still hot and very sunny.  Just that we are lucky we live in the cooler part of LA.

There are so many costumes and we have yet to decide what we should dress Brandon up as this year for Halloween. The first year, we got him a caterpillar and last year, we dressed him as an octopus - very cute! We usually go out for trick or treat at this specific area in South Torrance. The homes are usually decorated very nice for Halloween. I am almost a witch all the time. I have the witch hat, a orange color broom, and a dark piece of fabric which I cut here and there to make it look like an old witch rag. Hubby always in his regular cloth, may be this year we will be able to get him to dress up as someone or something.