Open Letter Tuesday

Dear Employer,

I know all about "other duties as assigned" but is it truly necessary for me to pick you up from the gas station where you have dropped off your vehicle for state inspection, considering this gas station is 2 blocks from the office and it is sun shiny and 75 F outside? When I drop of my vehicle for state inspection, I take it to the guys 1 block away and I walk back. After all, it's such a lovely day, out.


Dear Employer's dog,

You're a nice girl and I like you. But I know where your mouth has been. Please, please, please do not place your hot dog tongue on my pants. Pants are not for licking. Pants are also not for rubbing your face on. I appreciate your attention, but I spent 15 minutes this morning de-cat-hairing these pants and dog hair is not part of the ensemble I had in mind this morning.


Dear Husband,

Thank you for being such a sweetheart and saying those nice things you said this morning. As you know, I hate waking up in the morning, but waking up to the sound of the squealing ironing board and hissing iron is what I look forward to. I suppose I could be a better wife and iron your shirt for you, but you seem to do such a good job. Thank you for being such a good ironer, I mean husband.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold! Princess Mia Bella giving some laptime to the man of the house. Who's really in charge here?

Finally got the nerve up Part 3

100 things about me - Part 2 - 51 to 75.

51. I was in Northern Ireland in 1980 when John Lennon died.
52. I was in Belfast in 1994 when Kurt Cobain died.
53. I was in Houston when Princess Di was killed.
54. Even though I wasn't a big fan of her music, the death of Aaliyah, really upset me. I was in Houston when she died.
55. 9/11/01 made me realise I wasn't ready to die.
56. I flew to Singapore on 10/11/01. It was an uneventful flight.
57. On this trip, I went to Singapore with a girlfriend of mine from Houston, and we did all the touristy things and went to all the touristy places. The whole experience completely exhausted me and I swore to myself that the next person I bring home, better bloody well be the man that I am going to marry, because I can't take much more of this.
58. I met my husband on 12/10/01.
59. On 3/11/04, Ray and I went to Singapore so he could meet my parents.
60. On 7/16/04, Ray proposed and I accepted. yay!
61. We were married on 10/2/05. double yay!
62. We're newlyweds. :)
63. When I was younger, I never thought about what my wedding would be like, but I did have the idea that I would be married by the time I was 27 in my head. Needless to say, 27 came and went and I was not married, nor did the prospect of marriage even seem likely.
64. I'm glad I'm not 27 any more!
65. On boxing day of 1990, my mother, my sister and I went to Little India so I could get my nose pierced. This was not too painful. It hurt less than getting my ears pierced.
66. In 1995, I went went to Johnny Two Thumb in Far East Plaza with my good friends A and L to get my navel pierced. This was incredibly painful. The piercer said he was done, but he wasn't completely done. I sat up and immediately passed out because I forgot to breathe while he was stabbing, ahem, piercing me with the needle after I paid him to do it.
67. I actually wanted to get my tongue pierced but A talked me out of it. Can you imagine?
68. I've always wanted a tattoo but I'm scared to get one. Just thinking about getting one makes my heart pound.
69. I prefer tea over coffee. I only like black tea and rarely ever drink other types of teas, fruit teas, herbal teas etc.
70. When I say tea, I mean hot tea with milk, or in my case, Silk soy creamer.
71. I like to eat pizza with a knife and fork. My husband says it makes me look like an elitist when I do this!
72. In 1998, I visited the indoor observation deck of Tower 2 of the World Trade Center in New York. Amazing.
73. I have a bad habit on not being able to do one thing at once. While writing this list, I could be checking my bank balance, writing an email, updating my blog template, making a phone call and looking at cat blogs. It's a very bad habit.
74. I got braces when I was, um, 24. I still don't think my teeth are straight enough. Bottom front are getting crookedy now. I wish I could get braces again to straighten the buggers out.
75. My husband has the most perfect teeth I have ever seen. I envy his teeth. Americans always have perfect teeth, don't they?

Davis v. Hedrick

In Houston, the media gives you the impression that Chad Hedrick is a golden boy of speed skating. That he is some sort of prodigy that has arrived in the speed skating arena to claim his rightful victory. At the beginning of the Winter Olympics, there was much to do made about the fact that he only just picked up ice skating, switching from inline skating, after having been inspired by Derek Parra in 2002. It is an accomplishment that he is skating in the Olympics four years later. I know how to roller blade, but I don't think I could pick up a pair of ice skates and be in the Olympics in 2010, you know.

Shani Davis, on the other hand, has been ice skating and competing on the ice since he was 6 and according to his website has been skating on ice for 17 years. Now I can't comment on who's a better skater or who had a tougher time making it to the Olympics and so on, but it is apparent to me that the US media is making a big deal out of the fact that Davis is black and excelling in a sport that until now, has had no black contenders. The Houston media is unashamedly pro team Hedrick as he's from the area. They are making a big stink about Davis not wanting to skate the team pursuit and therefore dashing Hedrick's chance at going for 5 gold medals.

What they don't tell you is that all skaters have to submit paperwork to the US governing body by Dec 31, 2005 telling them what events they intend to skate. Davis never even intended to skate that event and was only asked to join one week prior to the event. If he had skated on the team pursuit, he would have taken away another US athlete's opportunity to skate at the Olympics.

Davis is not the first athlete to undergo such scrutiny in the media. The Williams sisters and Tiger Woods also went through the same type of coverage whereby their race was reported on first before their talent or skill was considered legitimate.

Today I read an article with the headline, "Gold medalist Davis suing Chicago". I thought wow, he's from Chicago, why would he be suing his hometown. Well, come to find out, the article is about a lawsuit filed against the former police superintendent in 2003 about an incident in 2001. The lawsuit alleges that Shani and two other men were stopped by police because of their skin color.

Interesting.

Of course this lawsuit would not even be reported about in the national media, had Davis not been a medal winning Olympic athlete who just happens to be black and currently in media frabicated feud with a white athlete.

I don't think Davis is against the US skating team. I'm sure he has had issues with the US Skating governing body, he makes no bones about that. But at the same time, what athlete is going to say to his team mate, "Hey man, why don't you take the gold, I'll get it next time"? Come on, it's the Olympics! Hedrick showed his poor sportsmanship after the 1500m race when he scowled off the ice after winning bronze.

I'm rooting for the US team in any sport this Winter Olympics as obviously there is no Singapore contingent, but it's just too bad that the guy that I was rooting for in the beginning, the guy from where I live too, turned out to be such a jerk.

Saw it on the Chron

Washington Post says, "Italian Upstages Davis, Hedrick"


The New York Times says, "Italian Bests Davis and Hedrick in 1,500"


BBC says, "Fabris skates to 1500m gold glory"


NBCOlympics.com says, "Italian thrice"


Davis' hometown Chicago Tribune says, "Davis wins silver behind Italian"


Yahoo says, "Italian Upstages the Shani & Chad Show"


Austin American Statesman says, "Italian upstages the Shani & Chad show"


USA Today says "U.S. speedsters finish 2nd, 3rd"


Dallas Morning News says "U.S. speedskaters settle for silver, bronze"


Houston Chronicle says, "Hedrick wins bronze in 1500 meter race"


Houston Chronicle says, "Hedrick falls short"

The Chronicle article was the first one I saw. It gave me the impression that a) Hedrick was the only American athlete to medal in that race and b) that Davis did not medal at all. Useless is the Chronicle.

brilliant

Have you seen this? It is funny, but having a vice president who shot someone is not funny. None the less, enjoy.

Alamo

The Houston screening went well. It's always interesting the type of people that turn up for the movie. You never can tell. The people that do come are so passionate about the subject it's gratifying just to know that someone cares. Most people stayed after to talk to Ray. V. Cool. Also scored an amazing chocolate milkshake at the Alamo. Even though it was like 39 F outside. I don't care. I want my chocolate ice cream.

Yay!

DH came back from L.A. on Sunday. He said that the screening was successful and he was satisfied. Angelo Moore of Fishbone turned up at the screening unexpectedly. DH interviewed him and he is featured prominently in the movie. There is another screening tonight in Houston. I'll let you know how that goes. Today has been an interesting day. For some reason, I have been suffering from chocomania. I was driving around earlier daydreaming about desserts. Just thinking about mmmm, some chocolates, or maybe some beignets or a hot fudge sundae and then I thought of hot chocolate and decided that what I really needed was a chocolate crossaint. I happened to pass by a Starbucks, but they didn't have any chocolate crossaints.

I stopped to get gas where I was proposed to by a homeless guy who happened to be passing by. I scrutinized him closely and saw that he didn't have any chocolate crossaints on his person and declined gracefully. After which I called DH to relay the incident and he told me to stop by his office, which was around the corner, I did. There were no choc crossaints there either. He told me there might be some honeybuns in the little shop they have. hmph!

On the way back to the office, I stopped at Randall's. No bloody choc crossaints in this whole bloody red state. So I bought some Lindt truffles and tea. Both of which I'm enjoying right now. ahhhhh.

Break a leg!

DH travels to Los Angeles tonight to attend a screening on Saturday of his documentary, Electric Purgatory, at the Pan African Film Festival. So glam, right?! He started working on this doc in 2002 and finally finished in 2005. I'm very proud of him. Making movies is seriously hard work. It is starting to make the rounds on the film festival circuit and we are hoping that it will be picked up by a distributor. Ahem, shameless self promotions starts......now. It's going to be screening in Houston on Monday, (as if you didn't know ::points to the right of the screen::) If you can't come to Houston, it'll be screening in April at the Singapore International Film Festival! Come out and support your local independent filmmaker!

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella takes a swipe at the paparazzi that dogs her life.

Well, it's Thursday

And I'm supposed to have the next installment of "100 things", but I don't. Possibly because I'm quite mind numbingly dull and I can't come up with 100 things. Well actually because, I'm not in the right frame of mind and haven't thought up my next installment of 25 stunningly witty things about myself. There you have it.

Pepino's!!

I love my husband, he's so sweet. I came home to candles and roses and chocolates! He got me 1 Flake bar and 1 bar of Dairy Milk, which he knows are my favourite after Time Out, which you can't get here. And, it was the imported Cadbury's not the one made by Hersheys which is yuck. I was so excited because I wasn't even expecting a gift. We went to dinner at Pepino's which I love, love, love.

We get there and the place is pretty full, and they have a special menu for Valentine's Day. It was a four course set meal with salad, pasta, entree and dessert. We were however able to convince Pepe to make for us, Chicken Parmigiana and, yes, you guessed Eggplant Parmigiana! They were fabulous of course. We brought a bottle of wine with us, which happened to be the tastiest but apparently cheapest Australian Shiraz we could find ($3.99!). It was Banrock Station and was very good. I laughed when we got the bill, because the corking fee was more than we paid for the wine! We had Tiramisu for dessert which was yumyum. After the wine and the dessert, my DH started doing the head nodding thing he is famous for. Why? Who knows. But you gotta love him!

The bestest Valentine's evah!

Oh, the horror of spam.

OK we all get spam. Some spam is stranger than others. Today I got a piece of spam, to one of my work emails, no less, that was just plain ridiculous. I received an invitaion to the The Beautiful Room. It sounded so ridiculous, I just had to find out what the hell The Beautiful Room is. Apparently, "The Beautiful Room is the first social community designed only for attractive people. Our members are hand-selected and are not only beautiful on the outside but are also beautiful on the inside. The Beautiful Room brings together like-minded, local, real, attractive people to socialize, network, date, party, or simply relax together. It is an exclusive, discreet community where membership is by invitation only. Every member is screened on appearance and personality before an invitation for membership is offered." Oh. My. God. What crazy nonsense talking BS is this? So for scientific research I had to investigate further, but in order to do that you have to sign up, so um, Ms. Mia signed up. She is naturally beautiful because after all, her full name is Mia Bella, meaning My Beautiful and she is a Princess. After submitting her particulars, Ms. Mia had to upload 2 photos "for review by the Qualification Board. The review process is private and nobody but you will know the results. The Qualification Board is comprised of three people who will base their decisions solely on the photographs you provide. A majority vote is necessary for an invitation to be extended to you. It is suggested to provide the maximum number of photos." I believe her photos will slay the judges and result in an immediate invitation to The Beautiful Room. We should know in 2 to 3 days.

On Second thought

I can't wait to get home!

Happy Feb 14th!

Hee hee, it's Valentine's Day so I'm "obliged to get in the spirit". This is our first V-day as Mr. and Mrs. :) I never used to be a fan of V-day and I still think it's overhyped and commercialized. But I think now, it gives me an excuse to show off my DH and give him some extra love. We don't have any special plans made, I expect we'll spend the night in. That's fine by me. As long as it's not me, DH and Perez Hilton, or Hoops Hype or RealGM or well, you know what I mean. xoxo

Random thoughts

Tomorrow is V-Day! I'm not one for lala flowers, but I will take some chocolates. Or ice cream or cake. Man, I wish I had some dessert right now. Why am I such a chocofiend? Last Thursday, DH and I went on a superduperdate to the MFAH to see the Basquiat exhibit. It was very cool. I have never really seen any artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat before. It all seemed a little beyond me. Very choatic and hard for me to understand. I did see one painting that jumped out at me and that was Trumpet. As soon as I saw it, I thought, I like that one. And that was the only one! After perusing the Basquiat paintings, we moseyed on over to the Glassel Collection of African Gold which led on to other Gold exhibits. We wondered all over the place because Thursday is freeday at the museum and I've never been to alot of the exhibits in there. We need to do it again. After our lovely visit, we met a friend of DH at Brasil on Dunlavy. Being broke and wanting something sweet, I ordered a hot chocolate, something I've not had in at least 7 years. Oh man, let me tell you, the hot chocolate at Brasil awakened somesort of chocolate demon in me. It was devilish in it's chocolatey goodness. And, we had chocolate cupcakes with our hot chocolates. It was just wonderful. I made a mental note to have hot chocolate more often. Man, that was some good hot chocolate!
Oh, and I saw a lotus today. Same one. Twice.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella napping in style. 

Finally got the nerve up Part 2

100 things about me - Part 2 - 26 to 50.

26. When I was in Ngee Ann, I never thought about going to university.
27. Ended up going to university after all, in Texas!
28. At uni, I was often chatted up by guys speaking Ethiopian. Aparently I look very Ethiopian. Not starving Marvin Ethiopian but classic regular Ethiopian. I don't have any Ethiopian in me.
29. My first car was a 1985 Honda CRX that I bought in 1995 with 93,000 miles on it. I had it for 5 years and put 60,000 more miles on it. That car was a champ! Except once the cassette player broke while driving from Austin to Round Rock and I couldn't get the tape out.
30. Once, in 1993, while being driven from Sydney to The Farm, some 4 hours in a direction I can't remember from Sydney, by JP and TN, the cassette player broke in that car too. At the next stop, JP gauged the cassette out of the machine with a screwdriver. I think so we could listen to the radio.
31. At that same farm, the boys went fox hunting, and killed two. They brought them back to skin them. Skinning foxes stinks. Literally.
32.I don't eat chicken, beef, pork or turkey. I have been known to very rarely eat lamb. I eat fish. I try not to eat shellfish.
33. I love all kinds of vegetables, I'm a very picky eater.
34. I used to be addicted to drinking Coke, but gave it up because Dear Husband, fiancé at the time, stopped drinking it to lose weight. He lost over 20 lbs over 6 months. I lost 10 lbs.
35. I love my husband.
36. I'm a bit of a rambler.
37. I'm a stickler for the truth.
38. I love chocolate anything. I try not to have it in the house cos I would just eat it.
39. I like cake.
40. I don't like dessert made from staples like bread, rice or beans.
41. I'm painfully private and writing this list makes me nervous.
42. My husband's name is Ray. He's a filmmaker.
43. He made a documentary on the hisory of black rock called Electric Purgatory that's screening in Houston on Feb. 20, 2006.
44. Making movies is hard work. That's why I'm not a filmmaker, I just married one.
45. The first city I arrived into, in the U.S. was Austin, TX. Austin was my first impression of the whole country. It was a great first impression, but not representative!
46. I went to university in Denton, TX, which was a bit of a shock, coming from Singapore via Austin.
47. One of the first things that struck me when I went to university was the common use of illegal drugs and underage drinking. I was 20, the legal age in SIN is 18, but it's 21 in the Texas. Not so fun.
48. I was a nerd in university. I studied a lot and partied little. What a bore!
49. Once I left my apartment to go to class with my cow house slippers on my feet. I had to turn around and come back and put real shoes on.
50. I was driving back to my apartment in the famed CRX when they announced the OJ Simpson verdict.

Now that's real

I'm a Real World addict. MTV's Real World, that is. First of all, we never had MTV in SIN when I was growing up. I left SIN in 1994, we didn't even have cable yet. We had SBC! Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. No MediaCorp nonsense. Just bloody Ch. 5 and Ch. 8 and Ch. 12 (I think, that was the "arts" channel) and 2 Malaysian channels, right? And maybe another channel...TV3 (TV tigaaaaa!) Remember?

When I came to the U.S. I fell in love with MTV. I love it. I watch it all the time. I love watching Real World, the original reality show, and all the incarnations of it. Last night, I flipped on a show I had never seen before: There and Back, Ashley Parker Angel, a reality show about the dude, Ashley, formerly of the boyband O Town, neither of which I'm familiar with. In last night's episode, his very pregnant-about-to-pop girlfriend was expressing how she's tired of being miserable and just wants to have the baby, already. Ashley decides to arrange for her to have a belly cast done, something that she said she wanted done, and they go do it. Ol' girl is happy and having fun and gushing niceties to Ashley, "thank you for doing this, I had a good time" etc. Until they are halfway home in the car and they get a call from the belly casting place saying that they left their digicam their. That's when ol' girl loses it and starts shouting at Ashley telling him how irresponsible he is for forgetting the camera, now they have to go back and add another hour to their journey and so on. She was furious and just berating him. It was awful to watch. Finally Ashley just breaks down and says that he's doing the best he can and he can't tell her what he really thinks because he doesn't want to upset her because she's pregnant. You could see the pain in him. The whole thing just made me feel awful for every time I shouted at DH for whatever nonsense reason. I apologised to him on the spot. He was sleeping in front of the TV, so I woke him up and said sorry. He accepted and went back to sleep and then asked me later if he had been dreaming.

I know I can be a grump and I have a bad temper. I'm conscious of it and am making a more conscious effort to change this behaviour. One day at a time.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella shows us the aftereffects of enjoying her catnip covered chili crab toy.

Finally got the nerve up.

100 Things about me. Part One - 1 to 25

1. My real name is Kerry.
2. That is my second name, not my first.
3. My first name is Lynette.
4. I was called Lynette for the first year of my life, or so, until another little girl named Lynette moved to our street and my mother declared that "there can't be two Lynettes on one street" because she didn't like the name my father had bestowed upon me. From then on, I was called Kerry.
5. My father named me Lynette because when I was born, I was small, like a kitchenette.
6. I was born in Singapore on my mother's birthday in 1973.
7. I am a Libra.
8. I have one older sister.
9. She's not talking to me right now.
10. This quite upsets me, but I'm helpless to change it.
11. My favourite toys when I was a child were Matchbox cars.
12. I never had a barbie doll, thank God.
13. I fell off my bmx bicycle when I was 12 and fractured my skull.
14. I took French as my second language in Secondary School in Singapore and got an F9 in French for my 'O' Levels.
15. I took French as my second language in University in the U.S. and got an A every semester for 4 semesters.
16. I prefer American French to Singapore French.
17. I also scored an E8 for Bible Knowledge in my 'O' Levels, my mother was quite alarmed.
18. I am the first person in my family to go to university.
19. My father thought I would fail my 'O' Levels. I did not, other than French, of course.
20. I went to Ngee Ann Polytechnic after 'O' Levels to study Mass Communication.
21. I was one of 10 'O' Level students accepted that year.
22. For kicks, I joined the freshman orientation beauty pageant in 1990. I won and was crowned Miss Ngee Ann. (snickers)
23. My best friend was crowned Miss Singapore/World when we were both at Ngee Ann. (she snickers)
24. I learned how to ride a motorcyle before I learned how to drive and got my license in 1991.
25. Some of my closest friends today are the friends that I made in Ngee Ann. We are all of mixed ethnic heritage.