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Arcadia

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Everything posted by Arcadia

  1. My Citibank account has a “personal banker” assigned. Whoever is the assigned banker would get notifications. I don’t pick up my phone unless the call is from my doctors or dentist. I do get emails from the assigned banker, think they call it the relationship manager. The emails are generic for your info kind of emails on promos so I am not annoyed by them.
  2. The Canada geese are year round in California. In some areas there are so many of them that they became a nuisance. They can occupy an entire football/soccer field. https://calrice.org/california-geese-101/ “Throughout the year, there are six different species of geese that can commonly be found in California. ... With the exception of Canada Geese, which can be found in California year-round, all of these geese spend their summer in Alaska, Northern Canada, and the Arctic only migrating down to California in the winter.” https://www.mv-voice.com/news/2007/08/16/get-our-goose/ “Years ago the Canada geese came to Shoreline Park. They never left. The birds, as many as 800 of them, leave large droppings. And by abandoning their parents’ migratory ways, these geese have created a year-round problem for golfers and other users of Shoreline Park.”
  3. Small first aid kits in my backpacks and in my purses. Powerbanks because my iPhone 6s battery and my hotspot battery can’t last a whole day out. I bring my coffee in my Yeti rambler when going out so it is either in my backpack (while accompanying DS18 to community college) or in the car cup holder (while running errands). I have scissors and nail clippers in my backpacks, the nail clippers because I tend to chip my nails. We have scissors and nail clippers in the car as well. ETA: also Hot Hands in winter and spring. I have given a few away to fellow volunteers when the wind chill was much stronger than they expected.
  4. @Eos DS19 rarely sees his roommates since they keep to their bedrooms. However, they are all quiet, respectful of the shared kitchen, and do cook. One of his roommates use the microwave rice packs you can find at Costco and Korean supermarkets to pair with stew he cooks. A roommate’s mom brought the instant pot (the one with separate air fryer lid), as well as pots and pans for communal use. Her kid actually cook the least among the four of them. Coincidentally all are asians. I was a party girl in college but we kept the partying to the communal game room and the TV lounges. The only time we partied near the dorm area was after exams and before everyone leave for home. Mostly, we went out to party on Friday or Saturday nights.
  5. We don’t have itemized deductions where I am from and because it’s such a tiny nation, the IRS is also the one collecting property taxes.
  6. @Roadrunner my kids like the fact that fall quarter starts in late September because our school district starts back in mid August (8/13). So from mid August to mid September is a good time for road trips for us.
  7. Thanks. My husband prefers not to do that.
  8. The community college he picked for dual enrollment is also on the quarter system and he likes it. He finds semesters too long for his outsourced high school classes. He gets bored easily. Besides, being on the quarter system means he has one more chance per year of getting the classes he wanted. It also means we pay three smaller bills instead of two bigger ones. California State University system is on the semester system. UCB and UCM are on the semester system. The rest of the seven UCs are on the quarter system. UCSF does not have undergraduate programs and is on a quarter system for their postgrad programs.
  9. Something else that make our withholding for Federal dramatically wrong is that the W-4 does not take into account bank interest. We put more money from savings into CDs last year so Federal tax owed is higher than we expected.
  10. My country of origin is a tiny nation. The government knows everything so my dad doesn’t need to do anything, just click nothing else to report on his tax form and file.
  11. Mine is having finals for Winter quarter this week 🤣 Spring break is next week. His academic year ends on June 14th. Fall quarter starts on Sep 23rd. ETA: he has already renewed his suite this January for the next academic year. He is in a four bedroom two bathroom suite.
  12. Years ago, a kid was doing door to door panhandling in my neighborhood. His father was nearby. A few people called the non emergency police line to do a welfare check on the child. Turns up the father and son were staying in emergency housing nearby. The father was given a warning. Few months later, it happened again and police was called.
  13. The creek behind my condo complex
  14. The wild canadian geese in my neighborhood loves swimming in my condo pool 🤣They fly over the gates.
  15. I’m so sorry but there has been recalls for food that has mislabeled or undeclared allergens. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/taxonomy/term/14
  16. My smaller sample cans came from my obgyn clinic while the larger sample cans came from the maternity hospitals. However, the mom have to ask because of the WHO initiative on breastfeeding. The maternity nurse told me they are not allowed to offer any free samples because they are supposed to encourage breastfeeding only but they can give if the mom request. My neighbors were giving away unopened samples too because we could request samples from Enfamil and Similac here in the states and they would usually give at least two small cans.
  17. Teething? My DS19’s baby teeth came in early and fast. He had the full set when he turned one. My DS18’s teeth came in early but not as fast. My relatives who were breastfeed had ebm at times so mom could have uninterrupted sleep so they had bottles early. All have preferences for favorite bottle teats. Also, take a look at the teats size. Mine were on EBM and formula and they get cranky when the teats are the wrong size. They outgrew the newborn teats very early. They were on 8oz (240ml) bottles when they were less than 2 weeks old. FYI Assessing the flow rate of different bottles and teats: An Australian context https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/rbwh/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/disc-0050.pdf
  18. The wasabi at sushi places are adulterated wasabi, so if that happens to be what she is sensitive to, the ingredient list is long. Like I like the taste of wasabi but am sensitive to sorbitol e.g. https://www.sbfoods-worldwide.com/products/search/002.html#:~:text=Horseradish%2C Sorbitol%2C Food starch modified,(FD%26C Blue%231). ”Horseradish, Sorbitol, Food starch modified, Rice bran oil, Sugar, Salt, Water, Wasabi, Artificial flavor, Citric acid, Turmeric, Xanthan gum, Artificial color (FD&C Blue#1).”
  19. If your daughter tried soy sauce or wasabi for the first time or rarely, might be worth checking for that too. For what it’s worth, for me and some oncology department nurses I know, we have sensitivity to latex and bananas but not to avocados.
  20. https://www.traderjoes.com/home/announcements?category=recalls&id=1786019328 https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/wenders-llc-recalls-trader-joes-nuts-50-less-sodium-roasted-salted-whole-cashews-because-possible “Wenders LLC of Dublin, CA is recalling specific production lots of Trader Joes Nuts – 50% Less Sodium Roasted & Salted Whole Cashews – (SKU Number – 37884) Lot# T12139, T12140, T12141, and T12142 because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella … Product was sold in the states of AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, LA, NM, NV, OK, OR, TN, TX, UT, and WA at Trader Joe’s locations. The product can be identified by the country of origin, India or Vietnam and the “Lot No:” printed on the back panel of the plastic pouches Trader Joes Nuts – 50% Less Sodium Roasted & Salted Whole Cashews (SKU Number – 37884) No other Lot No:s or products are affected by this recall. Lot No# Best Before Date T12139 Feb 21, 2025 T12140 Mar 01, 2025 T12141 Mar 08, 2025 T12142 Mar 10, 2025 “
  21. I called since there was no reply to my email. So although I did the booking, the flight credits is tied to the passenger. Since the cancelled ticket had the first name split into first name and middle name for my DS19, the customer service representative had to key in his RR number and match the names manually. Now the flight credits are in his account.
  22. I react to sodium tripolyphosphate when washing frozen shrimps from Safeway supermarket. We stopped buying packaged shrimps that have that ingredient listed. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/dining/shrimp-additives.html “Tripolyphosphate and sodium bisulfite are considered safe in low doses by the Food and Drug Administration. However, about 1 percent of the general population in the United States has a sensitivity to sulfites. Tripolyphosphate is generally added to shrimp after it’s been peeled, so to avoid it, try to buy shell-on shrimp and peel it yourself. (Save the shells for shrimp stock.) This is not true of sodium bisulfite, though. You could also read the fine print on the packaging: Chemicals are required to be listed on labels, which you can find on bags of shrimp pulled directly from the freezer case. As for the piles of shrimp on ice you find at supermarkets and fishmongers, the only way to know for sure if they’re chemical-free is to ask — and hope the person behind the counter knows the answer.”
  23. Shrimp allergy come and go for my husband and his nieces. They can take one or two shrimp without problems now. My dad’s shrimp allergy went away permanently. In my case, a bed bug or mite bite would trigger rashes that look like hives.
  24. We have been paying federal tax for the past few years because the withholding is either not enough or way too much. Part of his pay is in stocks so it is really hard to get the withholding amount to be correct. We get back almost the same amount in California state tax. I think for my husband's case, there isn't an easy way to increase withholding for federal tax and decrease withholding for state tax. So when we increase the withholding by $500 per paycheck for example through his employee portal, we can't designate that to go to federal only. HR Block down the road quoted us close to $100 for federal tax for just W2. We rather use TurboTax online. Ours is simple, just W2, stocks and bank interests, so its easy to get done once all the documents are available.
  25. We took those sample size 3 ounce cup, cut a straw in half, and gave it to them at that age, with adult supervision. Straws don’t block their view, mine are busybodies even at newborn.
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