Ridiculous or Reasonable?

I grew up in North California and would like to stay in this area. Unfortunately.. the real estate is extremely expensive here. :(

I saw a new community coming up and on sale. It said "Townhomes" so I went to go take a look.

Stopped by and asked what's open and the cost.
There was a 3 bedroom / 1150 sqft for $750,000 which I thought was not too bad (yea.. isn't it nuts). After looking into units on their map, they were all connected and sharing garages, etc. like a condo, not a townhouse.

So I asked if it's a condo or townhouse and the reply I got was "it's a townhouse style condo" I just blurted out "it's $750k for a condo?!" and the realtor replied "of course it's CUPATINO. GOod educatioN!" I was also told HOA is $450/month. Quite high so I asked if I get a pool or gym and the answer was no, but I do get insurance and I can use the pool across the street.

=( Seeing from one way, it's totally stupid I'm even considering to pay this much for a space in the air. But I felt this way 2 years ago when I was considering a 1 bdrm condo for $350k. That same condo is now worth $500k.

It feels like the longer we (renters) wait, we lose out.

I spend a lot of time saving $5-50 here and there..., but I feel like I'm being ripped off $200-300,000 on real estate. It's frustrating.

Coinstar Offering Gift Certificates

After read this post by SharonL

I got my bucket of change and headed to a Coinstar machine.



Yes, it's a CD-R 100 pack spindle cover used as a coin jar.



The coinstar machine.



$77.79! Wow! and of course I chose an Amazon gift card. Always shop there so good as cash!
and many many left over Golf Land / D&B / some asian coins came out of the coin jar. rr. spindle.

Thanks SharonL!

Worst Woot of 06

A co-worker saw this on Woot and couldn't stop laughing.
He bought it and replaced another co-worker's workstation while he was out.

It's so ugly and annoying that it's funny. The eyeballs wiggle around.

Exploring Seattle

So I am now back from a short trip to Seattle, WA.

To sum it up, very beautiful place.

Where should I start... I guess the rent-a-car.

The Enterprise rep asked me where I work and after he heard where I work, he asked if I wanted to buy his condo (seriously) and that I should be taking out the Infiniti G35 because I "am a balla" (his exact words). I guess the first thing that comes to people's mind when they hear Google Employee is.. "rich". I am not rich!

Anyways, I asked to take the lowest class car, but he offered me the Nissan Altima for $7 more a day.. I took it! Oh.. and I did use a coupon for a free day from our favorite Entertainment book.

My review : feels cheap inside and quite noisy, but felt nice and strong.

Also rented a Garmin GPS. I was totally impressed with the goodies they had on here and how fast it was. Many casinos, food places, every hotel around the area. Great great..


BUT! It kept moving around on it's own, changing the street I was on, losing signal. Not recommended if you are planning to use it in an area with a lot of streets close together.

This is a view from downtown Seattle. Almost every intersection, you can see the ocean. Very nice.


The Pike Place Market. It was okay... these people are all waiting for the guys there to throw a fish. Apparently when anyone makes an order, they throw around the fish and everyone's waiting for them with a camera to do that.


Ordered Fish & Chips, crab meat, and fried scallops. Total came to $21+ and I was quite... upset at how small it was.
Scallops - mm so juicy A+
Fish - ... this is.. good B-
Crab - C+
Fries - soggy fries F

I apparently walked by the first Starbucks. Missed it though DOH!


The space needle was okay. There are cafes and gift shops and just 360 degree sight seeing areas up at the top.

So for the heck of it, we typed "Nintendo" on the GPS and it showed us where the headquarters was! Having a long history with Nintendo products, we had to check it out.


It was a Sunday so no one was in.


I think this was the coolest thing we found in Seattle



I'd drive one. The license plate was Pika 2 and Pika 4.

Then we sniffed around Microsoft.


Very pretty campus. On a weekend, people were still hanging out.


Guess where we headed to next.


We looked up.. Bill Gates (the richest man in the world)'s home on the internet and see how close we could get to it.


He lives in a VERY VERY nice area. Many huge homes and all have lake view. Very quiet green area.


So..... this is what we saw and.. pretty much ends our tour to Bill Gates' home.

We also stopped by the Starbucks headquarters




People inside were dressed VERY nicely. Now I see why people refer to bay area people as badly dressed.

We attempted to go to the main office, but didn't make it passed the lobby.

The mistake we made in this trip was discovering the Indian Casino. It was so close by.. we decided to stop by to waste some time.. wow.. the first night. we ended up staying until 6am. I mean.. no break. Just continously playing Blackjack / Craps
We went back the next day.


and the night after..


I ended up losing about $400. Sad times.. I tried to make myself feel better by watching the high rollers lose $1000s. It's sooo bad. I need to learn how to stop.
If I am winning money, I continue to play thinking I'm playing with their money.
If I am even, I contnue to play thinking I need to win something.
If I am losing, I continue to play trying to get my money back.
Sigh....

Drove by this in Bellevue. I'm not sure if this was the headquarters. A lot of Coca Cola trucks.


Went on a dinner train ride that took us around Seattle/Bellevue area.


Don't know why but it dropped us off at a Winery. Maybe they were paid by the winery to do this. I didn't read / hear anything about this =P


I also stopped by Amazon and was able to browse inside because I had a friend working there. Sorry no pictures. The office was very normal though. You have to pay for your sodas, 19"ish dual LCDs, and cubicle style offices.

Some cars parked in the parking lot were nice though.


I fell in love with this place. It's an asian grocery market, but with EVERY possible asian food there. Pho, korean BBQ, Udon, Pad Thai, Pearl Tea... wow.. they have it all. I can really come here everyday.


The library.. was THE best library I have ever seen. This was the.. 5th floor, supposedly a floor where everyone can use the internet. So what you see on the right is everyone quietly using free internet. The elevators / escalators were neon green. Very futuristic. Love the architecture.


Airport so beautiful... =*)


... this was a long post.

A Little Purchase Happy

It has been a while since I posted last.

I got in a very bad cycle... where I work really late and still attempt to go to work on time so I sit at work super tired.. and take a nap after I get home.. and work late to make up for not doing much during my work hours.

Anyways.. onto the important stuff

Random Fact : Safeway sandwiches are such better buys than Togos or Subway. They give you sooo much more meat and the sandwiches are huge and fresh. This was for $4.99. I put a golf ball so you can compare the size.


I got my free Audi 32mb USB drive! This deal is mentioned here
http://www.spoofee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31149
Audi > Microsoft in terms of doing what they say.


I just wanted a simple watch so when I saw that $29.99 deal at Amazon Friday sale, I decided to get it. Nice case!


Scrubs season 3, Barnes and Noble - buy 2, get 1 free. I sold the other two to co-workers so I got mine for about $10 =)
http://www.spoofee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34461


Sylvania dolby digital speaker system with DVD player for $99.99 shipped!
I can't wait to try this out! For $99.99, I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed.
http://www.spoofee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34768


I use to play DDR a looong time ago. When I saw this.. I had to get it! It's definitely not as challenging as the real one, but the music is funny and it's cool watching Mario/Koopa dancing on the screen. =P They totally modified the music from ice climber and other mario series.


Gosh.. I'm so tired. I'm flying to Seattle in a few hours.. and I have not packed yet. rrr.

Feel Lost on Weekends...

My current work feeds me breakfast, lunch, and dinner so during weekends.. if there is no event or anyone asking to go out to a restaurant... I feel so... lost.



I started to starve around 9:30pm.. so I started looking for a place to eat.. Starbucks was open so I grabbed a turkey sandwich and Chai tea latte.

Very sad dinner. Maybe I'll stop by Jack and the Box later. =P