The Toto Solution

When we moved into our house 5 years ago, it had these whirlpool toilets. I call them whirlpool because the water would spin round and round for 10 seconds before finally flushing. And if you're like me, you don't necessarily enjoy watching the contents spin with uncertainty followed by a "Whew, that was close." So three years ago I replaced 3 of our toilets with Kohlers and life was good.

In those same 3 years, unbeknownst to us, our then-preschooler was starting to eat more. Our now-first-grader clogs our toilets at least once a week. He's batting .500 and I'm the one developing calluses with all that plunger action! We tell him to eat more vegetables, to flush as you go, and even to pinch them off into smaller sections... Nothing worked. Last week we went to my sister's house and he clogged her toilet too! I can't tell you how embarrassing it is to be plunging someone else's toilet. Fortunately it was only my sister, but imagine it being at some house party of someone you hardly know.

A year ago my friend remodeled his house and introduced me to the Toto toilet--they bought 5 of them. Seeing that his family is a hearty group of meat eaters, I knew his toilet would easily fulfill our needs. I had never heard of Toto because it's not carried at Home Depot (not even Expo). He had to mail order his toilets from the midwest where they were rated number one among Hometown Buffet customers.

The secret of the Toto is that it has a large 3" flush valve (versus the 2" in "normal" toilets). This means that the 1.6 gallon of water leaves the tank 50% faster and stronger. I compare it to pouring milk out of a plastic container (with a round opening), to a carton (with a large square opening). The second secret to Toto is that the trap (poop chute) is 2 1/8" versus the 2" trap found in normal toilets. I know 1/8" does not seem much, but that extra eighth of an inch (combined with the 3" flush) just might make the difference between free-flow and log-jam. They call this "Power Gravity"

Yesterday I went to Sincere Hardware in Chinatown and bought my first Toto. They had about 15 models to choose from. Some had commercial grade flushing (G-Max) and some were self cleaning with ionized water (SanaGloss). Some even had a built in bidet! I just picked up a simple one-piece (good for boys) called the Ultimate on sale for $218. It comes with the Soft-Close toilet seat that closes slowly and will never make that loud "smack" sound when you accidentally drop the seat. It also curves inward to form fit your bottom (kinda takes getting used to). It took a total of one hour to install and haul away the old. One-piece toilets are the best! Even its box served a purpose as the boys used it to make a secret hideout to shoot dad.

I can't wait to use this Toto and see if it lives up to its reputation. Hopefully it will perform its duties gallantly and will not need to be replaced by the stronger G-Max. As for the Kohler, it will rest peacefully at my mom's house where it can lead an easy life, serving the needs of small women. All in all a very satisfying day indeed. Everyone is happy. Simply Craptastic!

No Leftovers

After 3 days of working through lunch and overtime, today I indulged myself with a nice 2-hour meat-feed.

This morning I got an email from my friend Suzanne (an XCI in jr. high). Today, she's visiting my company's cafeteria. You see, Suzanne is a recently-certified hard core county health inspector. She can spot rat droppings and smell urine a mile away! And she'll get all in your face if you don't wash/rinse/sanitize dishes correctly. In order to preserve our friendship, we no longer allow her into our house (j/k) After chatting a bit, she convinced me to save the lunch I brought (leftovers) and join her at Black Angus where she had a coupon for $7.99 prime rib. Yum!! As a bonus, an old high school friend, Tina, along with 2 former coworkers from Nightfire would be joining us. How could I resist??

It was good to see everyone, and they all looked great. We were catching up each other and shared about other friends and coworkers (many of which I only remember by name now). They even had me singing that Chaka Kan song "let me love you let me rock you chaka kan..." (in my younger days, I was able to recite that whole song.) I stuffed myself as the lunch quickly came to an end. Since we're all working in San Jose now, there's no doubt we'll do it again soon.

So here I am back at my desk reflecting on the last few hours. With the lunch sitting like a rock in me, I'm unable to move. My eyes are tiring as I slowly slump in my chair. I notice an IM from my wife telling me that her mom brought Burger King food for lunch. My initial thought was, "Huh? I would expect mom to bring dim sum or some other chinatown dish, not burgers!" (But hey, we never turn down free food, especially when it's delivered!). But why was she telling me? It's not like I can enjoy any of it... Was she somehow ribbing me to imply that, unlike me, she doesn't have to eat yesterday's leftovers?? Ha! I immediately sent her a pic of MY meal! Yeah, feast your eyes on what I had!! Real meat! Real onion rings! A few moments later she replied, "Wow, was it good?" I did not answer. I'm sure we can talk about it tonight over dinner... as we finish our leftovers.

Target: XCI

I've had the weekend to think about my so-called "target audience." I've been reluctant to tell too many people about this blog because I was not sure of its direction. But one thing I've noticed, 80% of my targeted readers are former CIBCers (XCI, my acronym for ya'll). So chances are, if you are reading this, you are an XCI and still know many people there. So that's it, I want to make this blog a place to find your pals. Like Cheers, a place where "everyone knows your name."

Blogging takes commitment and lots of brainpower. I fear as my brain loses power, I may be unable to continue this blog on a consistent basis. My initial goal is to blog at least 2x/week this initial month and 1x/week long term (yeah, I know, ambitious). So to help keep it current, I would like to offer YOU the chance to be a guest blogger for a day. Perhaps you have something to share: your vacation, what's up with another XCI, something cool you bought, or you just want to let people know you're still alive, send me a note and I'll gladly post your thoughts. I believe the main secret of keeping this site interesting is to NOT talk about myself so much, but about others I encounter or things you might be interested in. We'll see how it goes, I still have a lot of Mac and shopping topics in my mind for future posts.

Anyhoo, I have a few get-togethers coming up and I plan to take some pics and maybe even get some stealth interviews. Stay tuned.

And if you have any ideas or suggestions for me, I'll gladly take them. That's it for today.

Also, to subscribe to this blog, I recommend signing up for Google Reader.

Recovering from the Holidays

Ah, Friday finally. This is the first full week that I have not fallen asleep at work. Maybe because I'm adding more hot sauce to my chow mein, or maybe I'm just finally catching up on my sleep. Either way, looks like life is resuming normalcy. Traffic is getting bad, my inbox is filling up, and I'm down to my last candy cane.

I love the holidays. A bunch of get-togethers, tons of junk food, and all the bosses are on vacation. We have our annual rituals: hotpot dinner and NY Eve MJ (11 years straight!). In the 9 evenings between Christmas weekend and New Years, we attended 4 parties and hosted 2 dinners, cooking for 25 and 30 people! My kids played until 3 am and I could care less! My only worry was getting people to keep eating so I wouldn't have to pack it away.

We see childhood friends that visit only during Christmas. They lose some more hair, gain some more weight, and you can't recognize their kids. But in reality, they haven't changed. We still laugh uncontrollably as we retell stories, dig out old pics and listen to Debbie Gibson and Lisa Lisa. No mention of any bad news, problems or conflicts. Everyone strives to keep the spirit joyous and uplifting. The nights would last forever, but yet it all seems to end too fast.

I love that show on VH-1 called "Bands Reunited" This guy, Ahmed, would find all the surviving members of a particular band from the 80s and reunite them for a one-night-only performance in Hollywood. Each member would share their feelings for each other, as well as their thoughts of why they disbanded. My favorite bands featured were Berlin, Scandal and ABC. You get to see what they're doing now--some have even left the music business altogether. But when given the opportunity to relive that one moment on stage with their bandmates in front of their fans, how can they resist? It's magical!

That's how I view my holidays. Fortunately for me, I can relive those moments on an annual basis. But now, it's back to work.

My First Blog (ever)

It's the start of a new year. Time to start something new.

With inspiration from two friends, I've decided to start a blog. Of course the biggest question before starting a blog, is to determine your audience (if any). I think for now, it will just be maybe a few distant friends (distant enough where they can't insult me face to face).

Why blog? I'm often sitting here at work staring out the window like a trapped prisoner longing for some external stimulation. Being a government employee, my creativity is sometimes restricted (to meet ADA and other standards). I can view this blog to be a form of expression to unleash my pent up frustration, but I'd rather think this is my attempt to help people make their lives better, happier. Time will only tell if I have succeeded.

Who Fong Paid. What does that mean? In the Chinese literal sense, it means "Who floated an air biscuit?" -- My kids often ask this when they smell something... For me, I shop on Craigslist a lot, so it can mean "Who Fong Paid for ___ on Craigslist." I can talk about my latest transactions and hot deals. Also, I often meet up with long lost friends, so it can mean "Who Fong Paid a visit to last week?" I can use this blog as a virtual reunion for buddies.

So there goes my first post. Hopefully, life will bring upon exciting things for me to report on. Happy reading.