VDay

A supervisor brought in a bunch of cookies for VDay!

While we avoid going out on a day like today due to crowds and what not, I did spent a bit of time shopping for my mom and saw that Crumble - a cookie place was still open so I thought I'd get a box of cookies to surprise my husband as this was my last week before the start of my diet. The Dubai chocolate was definitely good but so rich, we could only take a few bites, snickerdoodle is still a classic, the rest were good as well but the icing was sweet for my taste

Honey Cup again!

Well since I started my diet, I'll just take picture of it, one of the nicest supervisors brought a box of these lovely pastries. They smelled heavenly! 

Discounted meal - Feb

Very satisfied with the food selection this month! I'm starting a new diet and loading on protein so no carbs on my plate. The proteins are breaded fish, St. Louis style ribs, oxtail stew and jerk chicken. Surprisingly they were all good, nothing too salty or dry but I did have a hard time eating with utensils and having to resort to using fingers instead. The fruit salad was yummy too, not sweet at all

2g2g: Coffee Bean

The coffee bean close to us is the best when it comes to 2g2g, they are consistently generous with their surprise bags and what we get in return is much more in retail value than advertised. 

Here are surprise bags from two separate occasions

Buldak carbonara ramen

I got 6 packs of these buldak ramen at Sam's at a discount and made 4 to share with my coworkers for lunch. Spicy but on so creamy and addicting!

Idli and Sambar at Bakersfield

I missed breakfast at the hotel because the neighbors were so loud in their activities and I couldn't get a decent sleep until later in the night. 

Woke up much later than anticipated so I started looking at the food apps to see what good deals I can find in the area. Enter Aroma of India by Ming Ave - they have a few BOGOs but all vegetarian dishes which was fine by me as it's been a while since I last had idli and Sambar. The item pictured in the middle is mighty spicy chili peppers fried in batter. Everything was delicious, idli was fluffy and sambar was flavorful and have plenty for dinner and leftovers too.

Hyatt Challenge

Recently I signed up for a fast track to Globalist challenge with Hyatt, been trying to do this for quite some time but wasn't able to since it requires a company/corporate email that are registered for the challenge with Hyatt to participate. By chance I stumbled upon a post about this and I thought why not try again since I don't have anything to lose and to my surprise, my new work email worked! Thankfully we have a trip coming up and that kinda fueled me to complete this challenge as I will have around 2 weeks worth of stay in Asia and will only need 20 nights total to complete the challenge so it sounds completely doable.

So I had to rebook some accommodations that were previously booked so I could stay in Hyatt properties to count for the challenge. My trip will have 13 nights covered as a couple days will be staying at my parents residence. Which leaves me 7 more nights that leads me to this impromptu getaway. The closest Hyatt properties that are affordable for this "mattress run" as the folks in the points/miles group would call it is in Bakersfield a total of 8kpts/night or $185/night. Or I could opt for 4kpts/night plus $75. I have a little extra points to cover 2 nights so full points redemption it is. 

It was my first time in Bakersfield, I left at 10pm and arrived a little after midnight but went to a supercharger closeby to charge the car since this trip was planned at all, completely last minute. It took about 30mins to charge to 70% from 20%, I'm not sure why it was charging so slow as it's rated as level 3 or 250kW. Anyway charging after midnight is cheaper than during daytime so it works out, will write up on the hotel and trip next.

So with the accelerated globalist challenge, Hyatt gives you Explorist status for 3 months. Here are the perks for Explorist, and with Globalist will have everything listed which will be much added value on our future stays which I'm hoping to do in the next couple of years as I'm also working on getting Southwest companion pass.

Fav Salad

One of our very favorite salads is from Stonefire Grill - chopped salad with either brisket or chicken. This is one of the very few places that we didn't mind paying full retail $35 with tax for a family size! Yum

Honey Nut

I have another promo that's expiring with GrubHub so I thought I'd get a treat at honey nut. Didn't realize that they close at 3pm so they were waiting for me to pickup the pastries. I ordered 2 creme brulee cruffin, but they only had one so the staff asked if I would like a replacement instead of refund. Yes please - she gave me two options to pick from but ended giving both for the inconvenience so Yay!

Filipino feast

Have 2 DD promos that's expiring by month's end so to round up the week, I placed it for pickup at island pacific. I love their pancit, this time around their rice was kinda mushy. The sinigang with milk fish was definitely sour but love it with veggies. Others were good but I always find their food on the greasy and salty side. Can't complain all came up to around $28 and have plenty of leftover to take to work for lunch