I saw dad in my dreams

Last night, I finally didn't take my Baclofen.

For a while now (or depending how I felt), I relied on muscle relaxants to ease my back especially after doing too much heavy lifting. In my case, dad needed a lot of help so it put a lot of stress on my body. 

After dad passed, my body and brain was under extreme stress and hurt (it still is). Every night I was exhausted but I couldn't sleep. So off I go, popping a pill. After a while, everything turns black and I don't wake up until the next morning. Dreams were non-existent. It was just pitch black every night.

Last night I was tired, but felt I didn't need any pills so I just dozed off.

I did wake up a couple of times at night for whatever reason. But this time I couldn't fall back asleep. Because this time, I finally dreamt about dad. I had waited for this moment for a while and was angry as to why I didn't have any dreams about him. But at last...

I had a vivid dream.

It was during the daytime at home. It was a nice, summer day with sunshine and a bit of a breeze. 

The windows to the family room were open. The white curtains were fluttering lightly in the wind, against the sun. In reality, we haven't opened those windows in years. 

I was in the hallway when I noticed this figure just outside of those windows. I saw someone dressed with a black suit, red tie with a white shirt and a green vest. 

It was dad.

He had on the exact same outfit in the picture that we had just picked out for him for the funeral.

At first it startled me because I was wondering why dad was on the outside of the house and not inside. Secondly, why didn't he say hi and hug me? 

I ran towards the window, calling for him.

He saw me, but he started to slowly walk away.

I ran even faster, to please wait for me. By the time I got to the window, I peeked outside and he was gone. I couldn't find him around the corner of the house.

Then I woke up. 

I haven't slept since that moment. It's been replaying over and over in my head. The last time I had a vivid dream was years ago after M passed away. 

I've been trying to decipher what this all means. The sunshine, the wind breeze, the curtains fluttering in the wind...it's all symbolic of the Holy Spirit, that God is here in the present. When one door closes, another opens. It's almost like going from earth to the heavens. This is especially symbolic given that our windows haven't opened in years. But now that it's suddenly opened, this would make sense.

The best verse that was provided to me: Revelation 21:4-5 --> And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me "Write, for these words are true and faithful." (NKJV).

It is true that there is no further pain or suffering for dad. This era is now over for him physically. When I saw him in my dream, he looked peaceful and not in pain, and he was dressed in a suit. He looked comfortable. 

It's still a struggle trying to wrap my head around the reality of it all. Nothing really prepares you for losing someone so close to you after so many years. Yes, we are all going to die physically - there is no escape. But I mean NOTHING prepares you for the emotional toil that comes after the death of a loved one. The grief hits at anytime, and anywhere. And it's ok to grieve. It doesn't mean you just say bye and move on with your life. It means learning to move forward with their memories engrained in you. 

In earthly words, I pretty much died on September 22nd. Nothing I do will bring back my dad, just like how I couldn't bring back M. All I can do now is to embrace all the love he had given me all these years, and continue to keep those memories alive as I continue to live as best as I can on this earth, until it is time to meet God, and I can finally see dad again.

Dad...

September 22 will be a day I'll never forget. 

Today is the day my dad passed away from complications of liver cancer, at 6:42pm. He was surrounded by my mom, brother and I. We were all there when he took his last breath. I am blessed that I was able to be with him until the end, just like how he had been there when I was born in the beginning. Not everyone gets to experience this, and for that I am grateful.

Heartbroken and devastation are understatements of how I feel at the moment. 

I knew he had been sick for a while, but he kept persevering through the tough times, as if he didn't even have issues, but I knew it was slowing him down. He had been in hospital for almost 6 weeks. 6 torturous weeks, which involved constant aspiration pneumonia, failed attempts at NG tubes, GJ tube insertion, aspirating constantly on his saliva, and then of course all the doctors ordering exuberant amounts of antibiotics because they all had no clue what was causing his aspiration. Was it the immunotherapy? Was it something else? No one could tell me. 

As a daughter, it is difficult watching your loved ones slowly drowning in their own saliva. When that happens, deep suctioning using a catheter is required and not all nurses are trained for that. Unfortunately I couldn't rely on staff to suction him all the time, so I used my expertise to help him breathe. Let me tell you, it is a horrendous experience for both. It's the most uncomfortable feeling for anyone to get any tubes stuck down their throats while awake. As a daughter, I wanted to save him and this was the only way to keep him breathing, so I had to help deep suction within boundaries. Too little of it and he would have difficulty breathing. Too much and it could cause more damage and more phlegm in the airway. 

I'm grateful for the nursing team for taking care of my dad as best as possible. But no thanks to one particular doctor. 

I pray that dad is now in a better place, pain free and no longer suffering.

I love you dad <3

No more captive whales...

Today, we celebrate the last remaining 6 whales that are being transported from Marineland to various aquariums in the USA and Spain.

Canada no longer has any further whales (orcas, belugas) and dolphins held in captivity. This marks the end of whale breeding and captivity.

Humans are the WORST to ever exist on this planet. All this started because fishermen would get paid thousands to capture these beautiful creatures, all for human entertainment. Money is the root of all evil. 

Imagine you get captured as a 2 year old, to swim and perform in a bathtub for the rest of your life. You get torn away from your family, and put into a tub full of other 2 year olds (all from different backgrounds), and are told to perform. The only way you get rewarded is if you do what you're told, and boom, you get a fish in your mouth. Congratulations. What a way to live a life.

This is exactly what the orcas had gone through for the past 50 years. The marine parks exploded in the 80's with many captured whales around the world, all set to perform and entertain guests. Yes, whales are very smart and people don't have to prove that. We can already see it in the wild. Why must you capture them to perform tricks in front of guests? Ohhhh right, so you as a corporation can get paid millions (yes, I'm looking at you SeaWorld and Marineland).

I'm so glad Marineland has finally shut down. It's a bitter sweet moment - as kids, we are all mesmerized by these gigantic beauties. I mean, which kid is lucky enough to take a boat into the wild and watch whales sky hopping in front of them? Probably not too many. Marine parks were the closest thing you can get to them. I think if they had created it as a sanctuary, then it would be better. But for entertainment purposes? Absolutely not.

When Keiko (i.e Free Willy) became so popular that kids all over the world wanted to set him free, it wasn't as easy as everyone thought. They had to build a huge sanctuary for him to train him how to hunt in the wild again. Because keep in mind, Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to various marine parks (including Marineland in 1982) where he was forced to perform. Keiko spent many of his years in captivity versus in the wild. You can't just throw a whale back in the wild, expecting them to adapt. After staring in the Free Willy movie franchise, a petition came to set him free into the wild. 

Considering these are highly intelligent mammals, they are also very high emotional animals. They have their own 'language' that they communicate with their own families. They cannot just join any random pod that they encounter in the wild because they wouldn't be speaking the same languages. And that is exactly what happened to Keiko when he was released into the wild.

Eventually Keiko experienced about a year of free wild life before succumbing to pneumonia in December 2003.

It's bitter sweet that these remaining belugas and dolphins are being sent to another aquarium instead of a sanctuary. But the reality is there is no such beluga sanctuary. No where in the world have they built one yet. Why move these belugas?

Because Marineland was threatening to euthanize all the whales if no one would take them. They actually used euthanasia as a bargaining tool because they didn't have enough money left to pay for the care of the whales. Can you imagine if hospitals did the same thing? If you don't take your family out of here, we will euthanize them because they're taking up a bed and we're losing money. Yeah, it's not going to end well. 

I wish I could say let's celebrate, but it is bitter sweet. It's not a solution either to release them into the wild because many of them were born into captivity and have never even hunted before. They wouldn't survive in the wild because they would get hunted by other predators. 

I'm glad Marineland has gone bankrupt. Ever since the original owner passed away, everything has gone to sh!t. I don't think it was his vision to have Marineland turn out the way it is today. Corporation greed. 

So far one of the beluga whales (Peekachu) has passed away soon after arriving to Chicago's aquarium. It hasn't even been a month yet of relocation. My heart hurts for each of these belugas. All we can do for them is hope for the best.

10 months later...

It's crazy to think that a year ago, I was not able to stand or walk for more than 2 minutes at a time without my leg burning up. 

A year ago I slept on the floor, upside down, flat on the floor, anything to try and alleviate the back pain that I was experiencing. Nothing worked. Not even Hydromorphone could take away the pain.

10 months post surgery, things have progressed well. I still continue to do my monthly physio sessions, although lately it has progressed to my knee. I think with prolong use of a cane, it actually stressed out my knee more. I'm not using a cane anymore thankfully but now I deal with the after effects. 

I continue to try and work on my core. Honestly, it's hard having my brain tell my body to USE YOUR CORE whenever it comes to picking things up or turning a patient. I never rely on my back to do things as much because I know it could reherniate. But considering last year I couldn't even suck in my core without sending electric shocks down my leg, I'm taking the opportunity from now on to use my core.

I don't experience any sciatic pain anymore thankfully. Although sometimes I do feel a very light sensation, almost like my leg going cold. But I also felt that last year too. I know I have to be careful if I ever need to reposition someone in bed or give them a boost up in bed because sometimes the brain bypasses all that and just goes straight to moving them up in bed, WITHOUT engaging the core. AND you will feel that pull in the back again. Not good.

Made that mistake once, and you won't ever make the same mistake again.

Carrying heavy items? Same thing, I use my leg muscles, squat a bit and then engage the core. I don't bend the back anymore lest I want to reherniate again. 

Gardening? This I'm still learning. I have a tendency to squat down and pick at the weeds. I did that recently and I can feel my back muscles aching for days. I can tell it's the back muscles and not the discs though so at least that I can distinguish. Same with my legs. I can definitely feel them. I should not squat for that long anymore to be honest. 

I used to crack my back all the time to release some tension. Unfortunately I cannot (and should not) crack my back anymore going forward, as I don't want to dislodge my remaining disc. 

Heating pad is still my best friend. It definitely helps to relax the muscles. It's torture during hot summer days though because the heat would keep me awake. 

As time goes on, I have learned to adapt to new ways of saving my back, and protecting it. Although I have been cleared to wear high heels again, I choose not to. I would have to relearn how to walk in them again. 

As for medications? I've reduced it to just one. Baclofen. The doctor wants me to take it 3 times a day as needed. I only limit to once at night if needed, because I cannot function during the daytime with it. It's especially useful after a very labour intense day where all the muscles are super tense. But just like with any medications, you can't rely on it forever. The longer you take it, the more your body gets used to the doses, and then you have to keep increasing the doses. 

Most days are pretty good I would say. There are only far and few bad days since the surgery, and it's probably because I overexert myself on whatever tasks. It's crazy how the human body can take so much but yeah, don't push yourself past the limit. Always listen to your body. 

Less than 2 months and it would be 1 year since surgery. Hang tight for another update.

Can't Trust GTR peeps

This doesn't include friends who own a GTR (you know who you are, it's very few of you). 

This is not my story, but on behalf of another friend who had this experience and is trying to get her money back. 

She was looking to sell her fenders last year. Lo and behold, some of her so called GTR 'friends' (we shall call them Shrimp and H) had a mutual friend who was looking for fenders (we will call him Saeid). Saeid drives a white GTR with all these carbon decorations all over the place already and has a fiancee, and generally well off. 

Shrimp suggested my friend to sell the fenders to this Saeid guy at $1500, and the guy agreed. However, after a certain time, Shrimp then told this guy it was slightly overpriced. Then the guy had the audacity to FORCE my friend to give it to him quick because he really needed it. 

My friend, being the sweet person that she is, was promised that the money would go through so she had it shipped urgently to Saeid. It's been almost a year and she has not seen any of this money.

All her messages to all the guys above have gone unanswered, or avoided. They have screenshotted her messages to each other, and instead of being a man and dealing with it, they're just a bunch of limp d*cks and avoiding the entire situation. 

This girl worked frigging hard for her money. You guys don't understand it. You guys don't understand the struggles that she had to go through to get where she is today. To leave her out hanging dry, that's not what real friends do. That's what fake friends do. 

And then they have the balls to still message her inviting her out to meets or drives. But they still wouldn't acknowledge the money payment from their 'friend'. This is why the GTR community is such a joke. It is full of jesters, idiots and fakers. I would know because I had to deal with one myself. 

She had even reached out to a Battalion30five member if those guys can be posted, because of what they did to her. Battalion's response? Oh, we can't do that.

Of course, Battalion30five is another one I couldn't trust either. I got kicked out of their club for no reason, and I was there just to admire people's rides. So why am I not surprised that they don't stand up for us women? Are we that dramatic? Someone didn't pay so technically they stole the parts.

To the trio who have hurt my friend, you guys will pay. 

Random Things

Welp, here we go again. A post about everything and anything.

First off, I finally went and did my allergy test. It started off with the skin prick test, which tested me for my usual allergens (grass, ragweed) and they also tested for latex and green kiwi. The grass one went reactive very quickly and got really itchy. I was relieved the latex turned negative. Then again, it's been more than 10 years since I touched anything latex (gloves). 

The green kiwi turned negative. I was reading that about 25 to 60% of commercial kiwi extract comes out as a false negative, versus bringing in a fresh green kiwi to do the test (this would yield about 93-95% sensitivity result. I had no idea I was suppose to bring in a kiwi as they never informed me, but anyways they were only able to use the commercial extract, which during storage it would actually degrade. Hence why the high false negative results.

Next thing up: to do the blood test for both latex and kiwi. I went to the nearest Life Labs at 0745am, when it opened at 8am. And damn, there was already a line up. Thankfully it didn't take too long before it was my turn. I signed up for the Life Labs login to get results. I checked about 2 weeks later (as these results take much longer than peanut allergy tests as kiwi is not a very common allergy). Lo and behold, it shows.....negative.

Now, this blood work was only testing for IgE levels in the blood, not kiwi specific protein variants. This would be a separate blood work on its own. Also, OHIP does not cover such tests, so I ended up paying about $79 to get these 2 blood tests done. If you have any work insurance coverage, you can easily get it reimbursed. 

Hmm. Strange. BUT interesting enough, the lab work does have a warning to say to not always trust the result, as the patient's experience is the most accurate.

I had to look up how often a kiwi blood work would yield a false negative or positive. False negatives occur in 10-20% of all cases. There is still a chance it could be missed, but of course the only way to find out is to do those specific protein variant tests (or the Compound Resolved Diagnostics test). I'm not sure if I would need to go this CRD route but otherwise, the next follow up is in September. My allergist had reminded that if these come back negative, to still not eat the kiwis in the meantime. Aside from those 2 separate incidents, I have not had any similar experiences while eating other foods. So it is a possibility that it's just a really bad reaction. Nonetheless I still won't take a chance to eat it.

So now we wait, for the final conclusion in September.

Next up:

I was reading this news report about this 11 year old kid and how he took $2000 from his family's emergency fund, to go buy Roblox gift cards from Walmart. 

The parents had the audacity to blame it on Walmart for not stopping a transaction initiated by a child. And this is why our world is going to sh!t. 

First of all, this kid STOLE money from the family emergency fund. He didn't ask his parents to borrow 2 grand (what kid would ask their parents for that much money anyways), so he stole it. And then went to buy gift cards. Big retail companies don't care about the age, they only care that you can afford to pay for shiet. 

Second, the parents blaming Walmart for not stopping the transaction? Why you blaming Walmart? No. You should be teaching your child to not steal from family. Like heck, don't steal period. When I read that, the first thing I said was, these parents have NO accountability for their child's actions. Instead, they look for someone to blame (aside from themselves). 

I just thought that was a waste of space to even write an article on it. The parents probably thought they could stop big companies from doing transactions with kids or to have companies question kids when they use large amounts of cash. But no, instead it makes them look stupid. 

Here, I'll parent for you. Punish your kid. Take away his access to online gaming. Make him do chores around the house and teach him that with each chore, you would only pay $5 to get it done each time. But considering he stole 2 grand, he won't get paid until he reaches 2 grand worth of chores. And for God's sake, TELL HIM STEALING IS WRONG. 

Then I read another article about some chick who had bought a used Subaru (a 2024) but it was still under warranty. She decided to do her own oil changes because she's a car chick, and her dad had taught her how to do the basic car repairs. Ok sounds great, good for you.

But when the car started having issues, she took it to the dealership to find out what happened. It turns out there was a lot more engine damage than expected, and when the dealership asked for the oil change receipts, she admitted to the dealership that she did her own oil changes.

Of course, the warranty work got denied.

So then she went to the news agency to complain and hoped her car would get warranty work completed.

First of all, you take risks when you do your own work WHILE your car is under warranty with the dealership. It doesn't matter if it's just simple oil changes. If something happens with the engine, dealerships will look at all the various services that you had attempted and will do whatever it takes to deny the warranty work ESPECIALLY if you did it yourself, or you took it to a non-dealership shop to have work done on it.

Again, another waste of space in the news. While the car remains under warranty, get whatever done at the dealership. Once the warranty is up, then you can do whatever the F you want with your car. No strings attached. It seems like people would go to the news to complain about ANYTHING at this point. Oh, this coffee shop didn't toast my bread enough. McDonald's didn't put enough milk into my coffee. My job doesn't pay me enough.

People are stupid.

Which leads me to...why do people cross the road so slow.

I'm not talking about the elderly or those with assistive devices. I'm talking about the young ambulatory adults who has the capability of running, but when they cross the road, they're all having a good chat and pausing in the middle of the street laughing. Meanwhile, there are cars waiting to make a left turn while you laugh your ass off about monkey poop. Yes, that's happened to me lately, along with the stupid tards that drive on the road. The countdown continues and yet, these yutes continue to laugh and walk so slow that even my grandma (who is dead) could crawl out of her grave faster. 

By the time they were almost done crossing the road, the light was about to turn yellow. Being in the Cayman, it has such great power that after I turned, I pretty much redlined it in first gear. The flat 6 sound just came to life and I'm pretty sure I scared a few people nearby. You just can't get that raw power and noise anymore.

Who wants to hear an EV make alien noises? Honestly, every time I hear an EV back up, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Or I'm about to be sucked up into a spaceship. It's weird.

And that's the other thing. With so many hybrids and EV, there's no noise. What are we going to do with an entire generation of elderly Baby Boomers who are hard of hearing? They can't hear sh!t when a car is coming. That's dangerous. The risk of getting into accident will go up. 

In conclusion, get a catless exhaust system like Akrapovic. Now the elderly will be able to hear a car approaching. 

CNE is back!!! Not like I'll go to it, but wait did I just see that entrance fee is $25 plus tax??! What?! And on top of parking, which is probably $60 now. Taking public transit is probably the best bet. But damn. $25?? I remember when it used to be $5 after 5pm. Or entrance fee being less than $10. No more of those times.

The rides are still the same old beat up ones. The food is just as gross as before. The games are super overpriced (last year I heard it was $10 to play Whack a Mole. WHAT?). Yeah, I just have no interest to attend anymore.

BTS. They're back!!! Ok I don't know many of their songs, just some. But I respect how they performed in the rain at one of their concerts last week. Being at the Rogers Stadium, it's such a weird set up but it is what it is. I wouldn't want to walk so far for a concert and I'm not a diehard fan that I must go to their concert. I enjoy random clips of it on IG. 

Lastly, I have been exhausted lately (along with the rest of the family) as we had to deal with a family emergency lately. It's weird being on the other side of healthcare. It's one thing as a health care professional to tell a patient's family to make informed decisions, but it's another thing to be at the receiving end. Ultimately, we just want the best for our family. We become the advocate for them when they cannot speak, and we will do whatever it takes to get them back home, alive and healthy.

It is true, once you're admitted to hospital for a prolong period of time, the chances of one getting more weak and sick increases tenfold. If you can (and if safe to do so), aim to get them out of hospital as soon as you can. 

Advocate. Take care of one another. Don't let the medical system determine what is the right thing to do. Ultimately, it is your choice and you make the informed decision. Stay safe everyone.

BAB - Giant Mocha

Ooops...I did it again.

No, I really did.

After I got the giant Kuromi last fall (before my back surgery), I swore to myself that I would not get another giant plushie. There's only so much space at home that I can fit gigantic plushies. Secondly, giant plushies are heavy. I don't think I have the strength yet to carry it through a mall. I have a giant Pikachu as well (the ears stick out of the Cayman when I drive), and now Kuromi. There's just no way I would find another cute plush.

Until Mocha came along.

Build a Bear has been on a roll with Sanrio characters. You can find all characters in the regular size plush. The giant versions include Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, Chococat, and now Mocha. Mocha was released on January 22nd of this year. 

While I was still recovering and slowly going back to work in January, I randomly started scrolling the BAB website. Lo and behold, I see this giant Mocha. I don't know much about the character, except that it's best friends with Cinnamoroll. Is it a dog? A rabbit? I had no idea, but it was cute. The price? It was fluctuating between $190-195 Cdn. Basically the same price as what I got Kuromi. I couldn't justify paying north of $200 for another giant plush.

However, because I was bored many days, I saved that website on my phone and would randomly check on it. Hoping for a miracle maybe? Aside from boredom, I really had no intention to just buy it.

So every other day from January until end of July, I would randomly check the BAB site with Mocha. Near the end of July, I decided to check the website one more time. And to my surprise, there was a notification! What! What do you mean?!

I clicked it and it said "50% off all giant BABs on August 1st".

WHAT. SAY IT AGAIN?

50% off giant plushies (only exception is Disney characters, such as Stitch). There's just no way. Impossible. Why do they have to tempt me like this? 

And even better is, anything purchased over $100 is free shipping to Canada. WHY YOU GOTTA TEMPT ME MAN.

There are 2 options with these giant Sanrio characters. You can either just purchase the plushies on its own, or buy the bow that goes around its neck (which is an extra $11). With 50% off, the plushie only would be about $97.50. Then you'd have to add the shipping, tax and duties on top of it. You might as well just add the bow for a total of $108, then you get free shipping. Surprisingly the tax and duties were not too crazy. 

Thankfully August 1st is a Saturday and I was off work. So what did I do? I set my alarm for 2:30am. I didn't know if the sale would start at midnight, LA time. But I didn't want to take a chance. I was going to go for it. 

I woke up at 2:30am to hit the website. Thankfully I had saved it the previous evening and it was already in my shopping bag. I made sure to check my credit card information, the delivery address etc. Then I pressed buy. I received the confirmation email and I was super happy.

Then I realized....I forgot to click off "unstuffed". Yeah. Bad idea. Unstuffed is actually the best way because 1) you won't get a massive box delivered to your home, 2) less risk of your box being mashed up and 3) I read that when you order 'stuffed and ready to play', the stuffing inside is quite tougher compared to stuffing in store. The problem with BAB is that once you order it stuffed or unstuffed, there is no going back.

Nonetheless I still tried to ask their AI chat person if it was possible to change it to unstuffed but I was out of luck. See, this is why you don't order sh!t at 3am because you could miss one tiny detail. 

BAB's website is also not the greatest. I'm reading that with any large sale drops or debuts, people would order whatever plushies and you won't know that it's out of stock until you check out. You would get an error message when you attempt to check out and it will just bring you back to the BAB website. It takes them probably a day or two to finally update the website as 'out of stock' if something does sell out. People on Reddit have complained about this but BAB has not fixed this issue. 

From the date of order until delivery day, it took about 2 weeks (this includes one national holiday here). Overall, wasn't too bad. 

You can imagine my surprise when Mocha finally arrived in this massive box. Thankfully the box was very secure, not damaged like what others have reported. It looked immaculate. Hubby recorded the unboxing and I didn't realize but I squealed when I took her out the box. 

The first thing I noticed? The stuffing. Yeah, it's no joke the stuffing is a lot harder than the stuffing in store. I guess if you like your plushies very firm, having it stuffed before delivery is the right way to go. But if you want your plushie nice and soft, it's better to go to the BAB store and get it stuffed there. It also feels much heavier than Kuromi, all because of the stuffing I'm sure.

The thing you miss out on if you have it stuffed for delivery is you don't get the experience of stuffing it yourself. You don't get to do the heart ceremony or 'bathing' it in store (this helps to get rid of excess threads that hang off the fur). As I said, I was drunk on lack of sleep when ordering otherwise I would've ordered it unstuffed, as my original intention. 

I also read that it's still possible to get it stuffed in store if you don't like the original stuffing. The 2 options are 1) you cut the thread and remove the stuffing yourself or 2) bring it to BAB and have them unstuff it and then stuff it again. It's such a process and I haven't had the time to do this but I'm hoping to just unstuff it at home first, then take it to BAB to get it re-stuffed again. I can't stand the firmness of it. 

Alright, enough talk, let's get to the good stuff.

I'm about 5 foot 6 and Mocha is over half the size of me.

                                         Mocha and Kuromi getting acquainted with one another.

Honestly, that 50% off deal was so worth it. BAB has about 2 sales that happen every year for giant plushies. The first is Black Friday. Second is sometime in the summer (in this case it landed on August 1st, but sometimes it could be in July - you will just have to check back to the website). 

I didn't realize that I waited 7 months for a massive sale. This is the first win in a really long time. So HECK YES to celebrating a sale! I would've attempted to buy Kuromi at 50% off Black Friday sale but if I recall, Kuromi sold out before November 2025 and has remained sold out since then. 

The Details:

Build a Bear

Company: Sanrio

Character: Mocha 

Height: 36 inches, or 91cm

Weight: 105 ounces, or 6.56 lbs (2.97kg)

Regular Price: $195 Cdn (without the bow), $205 Cdn (with the bow). Free shipping to Canada but need to add tax and duties.

Sale Price: $108 Cdn + tax/duties = $123.98 Cdn

Pros: 

-SOOO KAWAIIII

-very soft fur

-love the pink bows

-it's massive

Cons:

-it's massive

-getting it stuffed before shipping is not the greatest as the stuffing makes Mocha quite firm. Order it unstuffed, then have it stuffed in store if you want a more softer feel (this goes with ANY Build a Bear characters)