Because it's better

Hair Cut!

2012-01-15T13:16:00.003-06:00

After many months, possibly even two years, I have gotten my hair done. I had so much hair cut off, that Horea is going to donate it to the place were hair donations are received.

RIDICULOUS amount of hair.

Oh this is making me feel silly happy. This is the cut that I was planning to get before Rania was born in 2010.

TWENTY TEN, people.

Then Rania came four weeks early and everything went to hell in a handbasket.

I declare 2012 the year of taking care of ME and this is the first big thing that I've done for me. This is huge for me. I've so programmed myself to take care of everyone else and do for others without doing for me.

That shit gets old, people.

So this is the look with it straightened. When I wash it; it's going to get hella shorter and this makes me want to squeeeeee!

Thanks to Ray for getting me the gift card to get my hair done by Horea. I told him that my next appointment is for Feb 25 and I'll be looking for more getting-my-hair-done money then.

Happy wife, happy life.

Princess Mia Bella is 8

2011-09-15T21:47:00.001-05:00

On September 14, 2004, Mia chose us to be her people. She appeared on our street after the dude she was living with moved out and left her behind. I'd never had a cat before and quite frankly, was never fond of cats. Mia, is no ordinary cat. She is the smartest animal I've ever met and I'm grateful to have her in my life. In the early days, I used to think that if I had known having a cat would be as fun and easy as having Mia, I would've got myself a cat long ago.

Happy 8th Purrthday Mia. You're a sophisticated ladycat who has many more adventures ahead of you.

8 months, week 4

2011-08-19T23:09:00.002-05:00

Rania is 8 months and 4 weeks old. Minus 4 weeks because she arrived 4 weeks early. I've decided that I want to start writing again although I'm not too sure what my topics will be. There'll be a lot of baby talk, or rather talk about babies.

That is what my life is right now.

Baby. Toddler. Husband. Work. Cats. Husband. Baby. Baby. Toddler.

It's not so crazy this time around and I'm actually feeling like a human instead of a zombie.

I'm going to start up with baby steps and see where this takes me.

KG Personal Education 6 Oct 2010

2010-10-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

Things I learned today.

1. Don't go to the farmer's market hungry and have free samples of Indian food. You'll buy up the Indian food guy's stall.

2. You always remember who's birthday it is when it's October. Today is Robert's.

3. Don't ask what's in the guacamole.

Really all I needed to learn today.

Kiran Year ONE

2010-03-11T05:11:00.000-06:00

Dear Kiran,

Today you're one! That's pretty amazing. This time last year your dad and I was waiting for you to get here. Then you got here and it was crazy. I know the first few months were tough for you being on the outside. It was tough for your dad and I too.

You've come so far and now you're on the verge of walking, which we know means that you're about to start RUNNING.

We love you.

Happy Birthday Kiranbean.

Three generations

2010-01-26T14:38:00.000-06:00

Kiran meets her auntie and grannie in Singapore.

lovelove

Please mark your calendars

2009-08-30T06:51:00.002-05:00

Please mark your calendars. I have just had five (5) hours of uninterrupted sleep for the FIRST time since March 10, 2009.

Glorious sleep

2009-08-09T11:36:00.002-05:00

Glorious sleep, originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

Can you hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing when this child sleeps?

I CAN.

It's been a while since I blackberry blogged.

2009-08-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

Ya, it's been a while since I blackberry blogged.

Or blogged period or full stop (haha).

Yup.

Since we last chatted, been sick two more times - stomach sick (lordjesustakemenow) and then another damn cold. You know I think I've had a fucking lifetime worth of sickness in the last two and half months. It's been ridiculous. I'm convinced it's due to lack of proper sleep. Still haven't had not one stretch of five hours of nonstop sleep since March 9, 2009.

Someday.

I never got sick not one time when I was on maternity leave with Kiran and we would go to the Womans Hospital of Texas every week twice a week and hang out with other moms and babies. I was possibly sleeping the same amount then but also not working full time. Love my work, but it's difficult when you have such a young baby that's not developmentally ready to sleep through the night.

Sometimes I wish I was in Denmark where I'd get one year paid maternity leave or the UK. Hell, even Canada or Singapore (four months paid). Just think of all the sleep I could get. I know I'm tired cos when I sleep and actually dream of myself sleeping.

How crazy is that?

Soon, soon.

So. How are you doing? I heard you...

2009-07-12T10:23:00.001-05:00

A lot of people have been coming up to me lately asking me some variation of "how are you doing? I heard you had a rough time" or "I heard you went through some things".

I don't know if they're referring to me being physically sick or mentally ill. I always automatically think that the must be referring to my mental state and mumble something like, "yeah I really lost it and I'm still looking for it."

Nervous giggle.

Um. Yeah

So if you see me and you want to ask me how I'm doing, be sure you *really* want to know and please let me know what part of me you're referring to.

Just pumpin' and reading dooce.com

2009-07-06T13:55:00.002-05:00

Yup.

Cos that's what I do. I recently discovered dooce.com (yeah, I know, right?) Well, I'm an absolute fangrrl now, cos I saw her on Oprah and I read her book and I'm a reading her blog all the time now.

It makes me feel like I'm not the only one.

And I need that.

Pretty sure that I'm certifiable

2009-06-28T15:28:00.007-05:00

OK.

So I went back to work and lasted the week (yippee!). And then went back the following week and am sick again.

FARK.

And so is Kiran. Little sniffle here, little sniffle there.

I have a sore throat and a scratchy dry cough.

I'm not really impressed with this turn of events. Trying to stay strong but it's getting harder.

Good day today. I baked the cookies for Ray that I was gonna do on Father's day but didn't get a chance to. They are YUMMY!!!

I declare Sundays to be No-Limit-Cookie-Days. That's right, no limit!

Munchin is almost four months old. Can you believe it? Compare this photo of Kiran at 3 months

Now

Then (almost 3 months)

Then-then (a week old)

The one where you go back to work and everything is fine and then you get sick and then have to miss about as much work as you had worked.

2009-06-11T13:14:00.005-05:00

I started back work on May 18. First day was AWFUL. I'm not going to lie. Work was easy. Dropping Kiran off at the daycare was AWFUL and not at all like leaving the cats at the kennel. That's all I have to go by and let me tell you; it's just not the same thing! Shocking.

First week goes by, I'm feeling good. I'm pumping at work, keeping up production, though slowly becoming convinced that the ladies at the daycare are just stuffing the baby with food everytime she squeaks. I'm pumping more and more and they keep asking for more. The child DOES NOT consume these quantities at the frequency with which they're feeding her when she's at home. Slowly beginning to despise these ladies.

May 24, Kiran and I both have a cold - daycare cooties! Kirandoc says she has an ear infection and prescribes antibiotics. I'm working it with extra liquids and huffing vicks vaporub.

May 29 and I'm still coughing and then it starts to get ouchie in the bastard boob (BB), you know, the boob that always give you trouble. With everything. Doesn't sit right, too big or too small or just plain trouble. I have a plugged duct and it hurts. A lot. Whole weekend, no relief from the BB, baby can't relieve it, pump doesn't relieve it. BB is now bringing down the other boob; The Champion Boob. Production is going down in both boobs and I'm not happy. I call La Leche League on June 1 and talk to the lovely LLL leader who tells me everything I already read on the internet and also some very kind and encouraging words that I really did need to hear. BB is feeling a little better.

June 2 - the fever starts. Oh my god in heaven. I don't know what happened but the fever swooped down and snatched my out of my life and my sanity. It brought with it chills and aches and a bone rattling cough and misery. Misery so thick and heavy that wraps its arms around you and won't let go and you are praying for The End to come.

Call my doc on June 3 and tell her I think I have mastitis. She calls in a prescription for antibiotics and I start taking them.

June 4, the fever is still there. I go to see my GP, except, she is in Hong Kong, so I have to see the doc next door. He tells me I'm very congested and gives me a breathing treatment in the office (which does nothing) and prescribes a z-pack for me.

Taking both antibiotics faithfully and go back to work on June 8. I don't even make it to lunch. Go see my gyn who checks out the parts and gives them all clear. If I'm still feeling bad she says, get back in touch with them or go see the GP. Advises me to go home and rest.

That night, as I'm sleeping soundly, I'm awakened by the most excruciating pain in my upper back that I have ever experienced in my life. And remember, I just had a baby. This fucking pain was unbelievable. Right below my right shoulder blade. Most intense pain.

By now, z-pack is finished, other antibiotics are finishing, I still have a fever and this pain is making me want to kill myself, I go back to the GP who is back from HK (yay!). She does a blood test and a chest xray and tells me I have a "cloudy patch" where I'm feeling the pain. I have some sort of infection. She gives me an antibiotic shot in the office. We have to wait 20 minutes before she'll let us leave in case I have a reaction to the shot (I didn't) and a prescription to another antibiotic. She wanted to put me on a different antibiotic that would prevent me from breastfeeding but I refused. She gave me an alternative.

This pain is KILLING me.

So I start taking this new antibiotic. And the prescription for 800 mg ibuprofen they gave me when I left the hospital after delivery for this unholy pain.

I just remembered that I never filled that script for the vicodin.

Man.

I should have filled that prescription. I'm sure I could find it if I looked hard enough.

June 11, no more fever. Pain is still there, though is giving me a reprieve for right now.

I'm so sick of being sick.

I'm really mad at the GP that saw me when my regular doc was out of town. I really feel that he wasted five days of my live. If my regular doc was there, she would have put on the right path sooner.

Poor Raymond. He's had to ferry Kiran to daycare at crack o' dawn o'clock and then go to his work and then pick her up and then come home and look after me.

Yesterday, my work sent me food from Jason's Deli. The delivery guy rang the door bell and I'm all like "why are you here?" and "is this for the upstairs neighbour?" as well as "who is it from??!" not to mention, "please hold, my cat is about to run out".

Because I TRUST NO ONE, especially when it comes to food delivery.

Thank you Schipul for the food. I really really really appreciate it. I'm sorry I've missed so many days of work, especially since I just started back. ~sigh~.

8 and a half weeks of motherhood

2009-05-10T08:59:00.005-05:00

OMG and WTFrenchToast.

It's been eight and a half weeks since the munchkin arrived on the scene and turned everything all inside out and outside in.

Today is Mother's Day in the US. I'm not that excited though I am waiting for @rgayle to return with beignets, so I guess there are some perks to it. Even though I've been mothering 1 dog (dearly departed) and two DEMON cats for the past five years, it's not until the human baby arrived on the scene that it warranted making a beignet run for. Heh, not that I'm complaining!

Also for the first time, I have photographic evidence that Kiran and I togetha. For the first time evah!

**Update**
Beignets have been consumed and they were delish! Ray gave me a card from him and a card from Kiran that was addressed to "Mommie". OMG that made me cry.

ME.

CRY.

Black Stone Kerry.

What the hell is happening to me?

Then I opened the card from Ray. I turned the envelope over and he had written on the envelope, "My pen is hot ass."

I kid you not. I will post proof as soon as possible.

Apparently something about the pen smudging or blah blah blah.

Thank you Raymond. I love you.

If the child gets eaten, it's not by dingoes

2009-05-03T16:01:00.003-05:00

Kiran bits - foots, originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

I'm just saying. If the child gets eaten, it's not the dingoes that ate her.

It's me that ate her.

Look at that foot! I just want to slather some Nutella on it and eat it.

Omnomnom.

Six week post partum follow-up visit and how they don't want any unplanned pregnancies and my epiphany

2009-04-29T14:11:00.006-05:00

The wolfette is 6 and a half weeks old today and is absolutely REFUSING to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a stretch today.

This makes me very tired.

Yawn.

I had my 6 week post partum follow-up visit today. I foolishly scheduled the appointment for 9 AM. That would have been fine in my pre-wolfette life, but now, it's hard to get anywhere before 10 o'clock with a wolfette in tow. (Case in point, it took me three days to write and publish this post)

We finally got there a few minutes after 9. We settle into the waiting room and I whip out the boob to silence, I mean feed her. Because this is America, or maybe a public doctor's office, no, mainly because this is America, I drape a covering over the babe/boob, lest any one in the gynaecologists office waiting room be offended by me breastfeeding my baby. Hey, you never know. Just cos you're at the gynae's doesn't mean you're down with a boob in your line of sight. Unless, of course, it's your mid-morning snack.

They call me in and I continue feeding her. The nurselady says, "Let us know when you're done and we'll take your blood pressure and weight".

"OK."

Wolfette finishes and I put her back in the carseat and sprint out to pee. Time is of the essence here (and everywhere else for that matter), gotta take care of business while she sleeps.

Nurse come in to take my BP (good) weight (Woot! WAY less than @eloy will EVAH be)

Then she asks me what form of birth control I'll be using.

"Uh, wha? I don't plan on ever having sex again."

"Does your husband know about this?"

"Not yet, but he will."

"Uh huh."

Waiting, waiting for the NP to come see me. She finally arrives and that's when Ms. Fusspot starts to stir. I'm going through my list of questions when NP asks me what form of birth control I'll be using.

"Um, ya, I don't plan on ever having sex again."

"Does your husband know about this?"

"Not yet, but he will."

"Well then."

They are really serious about planned parenthood here.

The wolfette begins to awaken. End up having to cuddle the squeaking grrl while the NP is inspecting the "parts".

I believe this is my new life. Breastfeeding in the dentist chair, holding her while I'm in the stirrups. It all takes a bit of getting used to.

Which brings me to my epiphany (thank gawd, you're thinking, cos this is one helluva long post, cheese and rice), where I realised that

1. My whole life has changed - ya, I knew that it would change but I couldn't quite imagine how it would change and how it would affect me.

2. It's hard saying goodbye to the old me. For reals. I never thought that it would be as tough as it has been, afterall, I'm me and I can do ANYTHING. Let me tell you, having a baby really turned that on its ear.

Some days are better than others.

I've never been able to ever allow any vulnerability or weakness to show cos, you know, I'm a "real tough chick".

Ya, well, I have to let it show through cos it's the smart thing to do. I'm a make it but I do have to keep reminding myself that I will and that I'm making it everyday.

OK.

That's the end of the long ass post. Please discuss amongst yourselves.

Represent!

2009-04-21T20:34:00.002-05:00

Kiran lounges on the Boppy pillow.

How could you not love that face?

LOVE IT.

So not crazy

2009-04-20T01:03:00.002-05:00

OK. I've decided that I'm not crazy, well, at least not that crazy.

I just read "It sucked and then I cried: How I had a baby, a breakdown and a much needed margarita" (cover to cover in three days) by Heather Armstrong. Now *that* woman was crazy (certifiable) but oh so brave in her insanity. (Thank you Heather)

It's been five weeks since Kiran was born and I can honestly say that I was completely not prepared for the absolute horror of postpartum. ABSOLUTE HORROR.

If you ask me now about having a baby, I will say DON'T DO IT people! RUN! Run away!

No one can really prepare you for what it is really like. I can't even describe it. I don't think I have a bad baby or a colicky baby. I think I have a normal baby. Normal newborn babies scream. All. The. Time.

Yeah, you're thinking you know that babies scream, but unless you've actually had a child, there's just no way to express how the screaming, the what seems like non-stop screaming makes you feel.

Well, let me tell you, it makes you feel like you want to punch babies (no babies have EVER been punched by me) and that makes you ca-ray-zee. That makes you scream and slam doors and cry. And then feel guilty for slamming doors and crying and feeling crazy. As well as for wanting to return the baby, except that there's no one to return her to because she is yours. Which of course just leaves you feeling like a horrible shell of a woman masquerading as a mother.

Well now.

On the bright side, my horrid rash has left me. The doctors didn't know what caused it but I do. Obviously, I'm allergic to screaming newborn babies.

The screaming has gotten less and now there new more gentle sounds and sometimes, sometimes, there's a beautiful, pure smile that makes you forget about the screaming for a little while.

The other thing that could help you forget is a drink. Or well maybe a while lotta drinks. But I can't have a drink because I have elevated liver enzymes which are supposedly unrelated to the rash but I really think it is. I hope these enzymes go down so I can have a glass of wine or at least a Tylenol for fuck's sake.

You know that's not too much to ask., now is it?

So there you have it, people. I'm just a little bit crazy.

Right?

Chocolate through the mail

2009-04-16T17:21:00.001-05:00

Who sends chocolates through the mail? Um, well, Suzanne does!

Woot!

Why does she send chocolates through the mail to me? Cos I asked peeps to and she ACTUALLY did!

Woot woot!

The chocolate was from Starbucks and it has some coffee in it and its dark chocolate so it has some extra caffeine in it with coffee and yes I have just had some of this chocolate.

Thank you Suzanne!!

Hungry like the wolf

2009-04-16T00:04:00.000-05:00

Cheese and rice, I'm hungry. I saw on the Today show that when you don't get enough sleep, you eat more than you would if you got enogh sleep. I think it was Jillian Trainer Chick from the Biggest Loser who was talking about it, though it may not have been, cos let's face it, I'm not even sure what day it is right now.

If it's true, then it doesn't bode well for me. I'm hungry all the time and EATING or thinking about eating. Right now, I'm thinking about eating a nutella sandwich. It's been days since I had one and days since I was having two a day.

I assure you, I will have one as soon as I'm done writing this.

Which is right now.

Oh yeah, bebe is fine and also hungry like a wolfette.

Gotta go eat something now.

I will not feed my baby to dingos

2009-04-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

OK. So it seems that my last post made some people in my real life a little nervous. Don't worry IRL peeps, I will not feed my baby to a dingo. I will continue to say how I feel, though, cos if I stop doing that, then, I really might start looking for a dingo...

In other news, Ray and I watched the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD and are now practising the five "S"s to calm a crying baby.

1. Swaddle
2. Side or stomach position
3. Shushing
4. Swing
5. Sucking

I have to say, the shit actually works.

We need to get a good sized blankie for swaddling cos apparently the 17 blankies that we have are all the wrong size. We have a new fangled swaddle contraption, but it doesn't work that well on Kiran. I think mainly cos she's so lean and long.

She is starting to discover her world around her. Looking at stuff and following you with her eyes. She also has beautiful periods of quiet alertness.

The cats are not at all interested in Kiran, though Tigey did let me know how he feels about formula feeding by peeing on the Similac bag that they gave us at the hopital.

Tigey says Breast is best!

No return address

2009-04-07T10:21:00.003-05:00

Kiran is four weeks old and what a flipping four weeks its been. This motherhood shit is flipping hard AND it hurts.

Shoulders hurt. Fingers hurt. Thumbs hurt. Wrists hurt. And of course boobs hurt, specifically, the pointy tip of the boob, and the one boob hurts more than the other. WTF is up with that?

That's just the physical pain. The emotional anguish is much more painful. What with daily feelings up misery coupled with despair and a sprinkling of joy with maybe two drops of happy. I spent much of the first few days turning the little one over and around trying to find the Return To Sender address but there was no address to be found.

Dammit.

In the meantime, I've taken advantage of the excellent and FREE post-partum services offered by the Woman's Hospital of Texas. The have a weekly New Mom Lactation group, Pregnancy and Post-Partum Depression Group, and a New Parents Group. I've been going to all three (you don't want me to go all Andrea Yates on your ass, now do you?) and yes that means that I've been packing up Kiran and driving to the Hospital twice a week to see the outside and talk to other adults or at least, you know, look at other adults talk to each other.

Trust me, all my single ladies, this is no small feat considering the child has a pathalogical HATE of the car seat. If you were standing by a window outside our house when we are putting Kiran into the car seat, you would no doubt call 911, Texas Department of Child Protective Services, the FBI, and maybe Animal Control (she sounds like a cat sometimes).

While I'm not torturing Kiran by putting her in the carseat, I am feeding her (every two hours, 24 hours a day) and waiting and praying for her to go to sleep. The kind of deep sleep where I can lay her in the crib and she doesn't wake up five minutes later screaming.

Which is what I'm doing right now. She's on the boob and I'm cradling her and typing this on my Blackberry. What? You did'nt expect me to be at a computer do you?

Hopefully she be asleep soon so I can get out of bed, wash my face, brush my teeth and have some breaky cos I'm starving. And, oh yeah, pee.

OK. I think she's ready. I'm going to attempt to swaddle her.

Pray for me.

OMG her thing thing fell off

2009-03-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

OMG.

Her thing thing fell off.

I mean her umbilical stump thing thing (so gross) fell off.

Thank the Lawd it was her father that discovered it and not me.

Sweet

mother

of

pearl.

I'm still recovering from the horrifying ordeal.

Please send chocolates.

Photos of Ms. Kiran

2009-03-18T11:46:00.001-05:00

Our baby girl is one week old today. I can hardly believe it. ONE WEEK already! Holy cow! We are getting into a routine here and getting to know one another.

Everyday I learn something new about her. I hope she is learning the same.

Baby Gayle is here

2009-03-12T17:15:00.000-05:00

Hello!

Kiran Eliza arrived last night (March 11) at 11:54 PM. She is gorgeous, 6 lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long with a head full of curls.

Photos will be uploaded soon! I am over the moon and Ray is so proud.

Words really can't describe the joy.

38 weeks pregnant

2009-03-04T20:45:00.001-06:00

Thirty eight weeks and still preggo! Baby is supposed to be the length of a leek now. At the 37 week doctor appt, my weight was three pounds less than the week before. I'm certain that the nurse was reading the scale wrong. This week's weigh in still has me less than three weeks ago. It's a conspiracy.

This week I am also "a good 3+ cm" dilated and

and

and

90% effaced.

Wowzah!

Doc said that if I haven't gone into labour by next visit that she will "massage the membranes" to get things going. All of which sounds gross and painful.

I mean, I know the pain is coming. I don't really want to have to experience any unnecessary pain, you know?

So now we wait for baby to decide on when to appear.

Watch for tweets!

36 weeks and then some

2009-02-17T18:56:00.004-06:00

Wow!

Had a doc appointment today. I'm now to visit with the doc every week until the big day. The doc said that I'm already at one to two centimeters!!!

Holy french toast!!!

She also said that I could be walking around at one to two for a while. The bub-bub is in position and hanging out. She doesn't think I'm going to make it to my due date on March 18. (poor @rsabrsula) @longstation said that I wouldn't make it either and I think he knows a thing or two or three.

Ray and I are really excited about this.

I will be packing my bag to have on standby and keep it in my boot.

AND

the doc said that I should get a footstool for work. Too bad she didn't say I should get a personal masseuse and a chef and a chocolatier.

Right now I'm using my subwoofer or my UPS as a footstool, but I'm sure I can find something a lil' more comfy.

Oh yeah, gained another five lbs, but still not heavier than @eloy! and that's all that matters.

35 weeks down, 5 weeks to go.

2009-02-11T20:33:00.000-06:00

Whoa.

A lot has happened since my last post. I've been going for my pre-natal checkups every two weeks. All has been going well. I had a visit on Tuesday last week and they said I gained four pounds in since the last visit two weeks prior.

I was appalled.

I have to confess that there were many cupcakes/muffins consumed in those two weeks. I'm not going to be able to keep the pace of that kind of weight gain. I've only gained 20 lbs the whole pregnancy and four lbs in two weeks is just fidiculous.

Ray and I went to a birthing class (on superbowl sunday, no less). The class was a good class but it did freak me out. You know, just a lil' bit. There's just some things that you never think about when you think of birth. Part two of the class was this past Sunday. Not so much of a freakout. I enjoyed the relaxtion portion of it the most.

This past Saturday, we went to a breastfeeding class. I enjoyed the class, Ray said that he'd never thought he could get tired of looking at boobs.

True story.

The nursery is almost done! And by done, I mean we have all the furniture assembled and ready. We just need to decide on where everything will go. Not too fussed about decorating. There will be no painting and such. There might be some wall hangings and things.

I'm super excited. We still have some last things to do. Ray keeps on about having the hospital bag packed cos you never know.

Hello! FIVE weeks left till the due date!! Will I make it or will the baby come early?

I'll be OK with being on time thankyouverymuch.

29 weeks

2009-01-02T22:28:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year folks! I just had a chance to read the lastest post at Princess Melissa and she talked about having 82 days to go.

I'm like 82 days to go? I wonder how many days I have till my due date.

Well guess what, people? It's 75 days.

S e v e n t y

f i v e

d a y s.

Holy French Toast!!

I need more days! I've been pretty chill but this 75 days business is freaking me out. A lil'.

Worse still, tomorrow.

Oh tomorrow, it'll be 74 days. And the day after that?

Eek!

Happy Birthday Jesus

2008-12-25T10:08:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday Jesus, originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

Merry Christmas y'all!

Photo of Stahlman Lumber in Houston, TX.

Christmas universe

2008-12-24T11:42:00.000-06:00

Christmas universe, originally uploaded by Kelvin_Leong.

27 weeks and oh so glam

2008-12-23T16:28:00.003-06:00

photo by Albert Hughes III

Wore my lovely purple glam wedding party night dress to the office Christmas partay last Friday.

The last time I wore this dress, we were in Turks and Caicos. This dress has led a very glamourous life!

26.5 weeks

2008-12-15T18:40:00.002-06:00

So we're back to the miracle.

Ray and I had returned from Singapore. We were going forward with our mission. I had bloodwork done the day after we returned. A week or so later I went in to have an HSG which is a test where dye is injected into your uterus, ahem, if you have one, and a radiologists looks via x-ray at where the dye is flowing to see if there any blockages in your fallopian tubes. Oh and they let you watch too.

I was nervous about the test, but it turned out to be no biggie. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. The radiologist chick said that I had good looking fallopian tubes and uterus. I thanked her and told her I worked hard for them.

I was relieved to hear that all my parts were looking good. I had a follow up with my specialist doc to go over the bloodwork and result of the HSG. She said that everything was normal. We went over the next steps: a different set of meds to make me have a cycle, then when I start, another set of meds that would stimulate ovulation. I would have to come back during the potential ovulation dates for ultrasound of the ovaries to see if they're ripe. If they are, then two options:

1. IUF - in utero fertilization. Essentially, they get a sample, separate it out, doc said that they would put the prettiest and the fastest swimmers together, and then that sample is delivered as close to the egg as possible. Go for the gold, boys!

2. Try naturally.

Jeez.

Even writing about it now makes me cringe.

I was not looking forward to these next steps. They just seemed so clinical and unnatural. The med that I would have to take is a chemo drug being used off-label. I did not want to do that. I was so expecting for everything to get harder and more expensive and to fail in the end.

After the test result review appointment, they had me do a blood pregnancy test. Negative.

It's June 26, 2008. I go home to wait for my period to start. Not literally but you know what I mean.

I'm due July 4. Nothing, which isn't unusual. I feel like I'm about to start so I wait a week for good measure.
Nothing. I'm not surprised. I still feel like I'm about to start so I wait another week.

One thing I do remember is I noticed that I seemed to have some new veins visible across my chest. I've always been able to see the veins on my chest, but this seems new.

I have medicine to take to make me bleed (without ovulating). Before I can start that medicine, I have to take a home pregnancy test.

Sunday, July 22, 2008, just after 7 in the morning. Pee on the stick and mooch about waiting for it to be ready. Pet Mia while I wait. Got my little stopwatch going cos I have to be precise. Instructions say two minutes, I wait two minutes.

Two minutes up and I look at the thing and it has a plus sign. I don't understand. I look at the instructions. I look at the test. I look at the pictures on the instructions and I look at the test.

I go back into the bedroom and say "Raymond. Get up. You need to see this." He glides out of bed and follows me into the bathroom.

I show him the plus sign. He looks at the paper and the test.

"What does this mean?"

"It says I'm pregnant."

"You need to call your doctor."

"I can't call today. It's Sunday. I'm going to take another test."

"No. Don't do that."

"Why?"

"In case it's not the same result"

"Rubbish. I have to wait, I don't have any more pee."

So we go about our Sunday morning. I'm instantly nauseous (nerves) and jittery.

Later in the morning, I take another pregnancy test and had the same result.

OMG.

What does this mean? How is this possible? I haven't ovulated without medical assisstance since Jan of 2007.

On Monday I call my regular doc. They are excited and tell me to call my specialist doctor. I call the specialist doctor and they want me to come in for a blood test. I go over lunch.

The doctor's office calls me on Tuesday and says the result is positive and they want me to come in right way for an ultrasound. I go and they do an ultrasound. The radiologist isn't allowed to talk to you. She's poking around. I'm straining my neck to see what she's looking at. I can't make out jack.

She switches mode on the machine and then there's sound. WTF is that? She's poking around, poking. And then it happens.

"Is that the heartbeat?"

"Yes"

"Is it OK?"

"It's hard to pinpoint because it's so small."

"Oh"

OMG!!!

After the ultrasound, I have to wait to see the doctor to go over it.

After forfuckingevah she comes out beaming, "how do you feel?"

"Stunned."

She's very pleased, confirms the pregnancy and shows me the ultrasound photos of the lil" peanut. She calculates that I'm at 6 weeks which confuses Ray and I to no end given the timing of the HSG and the blood pregnancy test but whatevah! We have photographic evidence!

Then she says, "it's too early to tell, but there is a chance that it may be identical twins."

Are you fucking kidding me? What crack is this woman smoking at work?

"What? It's too much..."

"it's too early to tell, don't get too attached to that idea"

"OK"

And I float out of there with my peanut pictures and go back to work.

And act "normal".

Now that my brain knows my body is pregnant, it tells my body to be nauseous and starving at the same time. I'm tired and going to bed at 8. I'm trying to conceal this but I'm sure I'm doing a piss poor job.

Two weeks later I go back to see the doc, they do another ultrasound and confirm that it's NOT twins.

Doc is happy and sends us back to regular doc for follow up.

And so I'm released into the wild with this amazing thing that happened. Ray and I are in shock. It takes about a month for us to come to terms with all that has happened.

I still have moments where I can barely believe what happened.

It's weeks before we tell anyone, even our family. Well now, everyone knows.

Proof that I can be a good wife

2008-12-11T13:49:00.003-06:00

Here's proof! Breakie in bed for hubhub on his birthday a couple of weeks ago. :)

25.5 Weeks

2008-12-07T20:16:00.003-06:00

I had the sudden inclination to read a blog that I used to follow but haven't visited in months. I was really excited when I read that the blog author is pregnant cos, you know, I'm pregnant! She's about as far along as I am. I haven't read her blog in over a year so I had to go back and read the archives - the pre-wedding honeymoon, the wedding, their journey to getting pregnant.

This is the part that really spoke to me. Ol' grrl's path was very similar to mine. I know I'm not the only person going through whatever I'm going through but actually reading someone else's story has made me feel connected with her (not in a creepy cyber stalker kind of way, in a woman to woman kind of way). Ray wants me to reach out to her, but that would be creepy and cyber stalkery, don't you think?

So instead, I decided to blog, cos nobody reads this thing anyway (fingers crossed hoping nobody will actually read it cos it's way personal)

Ray and I were married in 2005. We decided to start (secretly) trying in Jan 2007. I'll be honest, I was terrified at the prospect of being preggo; being a mom to another human (as opposed to dog or cat), and in the back of my mind, I always knew that I would have trouble.

I went off the pill, had one cycle and then nothing. Eight weeks, ten weeks pass and nothing and definitely not preggo. So begins the journey of doctor visits, blood work; wait and see and medicines. The initial diagnosis was Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome which wasn't cool but at least I had validation for the feelings that I had about feeling that it would be difficult getting pregnant.

In October of 2007, we started a new medicine, to see if this would get us on the way. Again, mentally, I wasn't ready. We had three cycles of this medicine but nothing, so we went back to the Doc in Jan 2008. At this point, it's been a year of secretly trying with no luck. My doc wanted to have Ray's boys checked out. He was mortified. I knew that there was nothing wrong with his stuff. I knew that it was all me. As expected, his boys checked out just fine. Ray was totally relieved.

After a year, I'm feeling pretty broke down. People everywhere are getting pregnant and it was really difficult for me to deal with. 2007 ended with my mom in hospital and a conversation with her on new year's eve where she was essentially saying goodbye to me. Her health continued to roller coaster through the beginning part of 2008. Emergency phone calls, repeat admission to hospital. Dealing with that and the pressure of trying to conceive - it was just too much. I had completely lost all faith - in myself, in my body, in the universe.

Ray was also going through his own health issues that culminated in a trip to the ER. We were both fucking basket cases. Just a fucking disaster.

My regular doctor had referred us to a Reproductive Endocrinologist to suss me out. Great. Now I get to go the specialist doctor where all the broke down women go. Which by the way is right across the hall from where all the "sat on the public toilet seat and got preggo" or "looked at my husband's penis and got preggo" normal ladies doctor's office is.

More bloodwork, more very expensive tests. All results were normal. In the middle of it we sucked it up and went to Singapore in May.

Seeing my parents was definitely very sobering. My mom's health is definitely poor and it has taken a toll on my dad and the rest of family. It was a weird visit. The day we left to come back to Houston, my mom was admitted into hospital again for the fourth time in 2008.

Fuck.

Back in Houston, there are daily phone calls to Singapore; another phone conversation with my mom where she asks me if I understand that she's dying.

I'm just totally shattered. How is anyone supposed to cope with all that shit? Seriously?

Finally (June 2008) my mom is stabilised physically and mentally and finally embarking on a route that will eventually get her back to where she needs to be. She is soooooooo much better now and we are so grateful.

During this time, there are more doctor visits and another very expensive (read as "not covered by insurance") test. All results are still normal.

Around this time, I also remember exclaiming in dramatic despair to Ray that it would take a fucking miracle for me to get pregnant.

Well, turns out that's exactly what happened. I will get into that another day though.

22 Weeks

2008-11-12T19:38:00.000-06:00

Bub is the size of a spaghetti squash this week, about 11 inches in length and almost a pound in weight.Wow!

I feel like I just woke up and have a pregnant belly. It's unmistakable. I'm just amazed.

Bub is moving frequently and I'm able to feel it. Very, very cool!

21 weeks

2008-11-06T12:50:00.003-06:00

We're at 21 weeks right now. According to Baby Center.com, the lil' bub bub is the size of a carrot. It's hard to believe. I've been picturing a carrot floating around and it's funny.

I'm just beginning to feel the movements of the bub and that is very cool!

Birthday yay!

2008-10-19T16:39:00.005-05:00

This year I get to turn 35. Woo hoo!!

In honour of my birthday I will share with you all in internet lands the biggest thing that you probably don't know about me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
wait for it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I will always count Bon Jovi as one of my top ten favourite bands of all time.

Always.

Yay!

Doctor's office rant

2008-10-18T07:56:00.005-05:00

I must preface this whole rant, and believe me, it's a rant; with saying that I never expect anything to be free, but I do require that it be fair.

The last time I was at my gynae's office, the cashier lady asked me if I had gotten my letter from them yet about the payments. I said "no, what payments?" She said, "Oh, it's the payments that you'll have to pay for the baby and once you've paid, you won't have to pay for the doctor visits anymore."

No, I hadn't gotten that letter yet.

I got it last, last Friday.

It wasn't really a letter, more like a statement that detailed the

estimated charges for delivery by my doctor (~$2200)
the amount of my insurance deductible that had been met (according to them, none)
the amount that my insurance would cover after the deductible had been met
the amount that I was responsible for after the deductible had been met
The total amount that I was responsible for (>$1600)
When it needed to paid in full by (12/18/08)

I can't even type the cuss words (my mom might read this one day, sorry mom!)

I was mad because I've already spent over $2000 in medical expenses this year so surely some of that counted towards my deductible. I just couldn't believe that they wanted me to pay this amount of money in that amount of time (my own naievty, I suppose). You know how when you get so angry, you just cry. Ya, that's how fucking angry I was. Perhaps a tad bit emotional? Isn't that what pregnant ladies do?

So I called my insurance company on Monday and I spoke to Elizabeth (very sweet lady) and asked her how much of my deductible I had met. She said that I had met $896 of the $1500 deductible. A ha!

I called up the doctor's office and spoke to a lady, who after much, "cajoling" shall we say, finally released her name to me. Also Elizabeth, but not like the Elizabeth from the insurance company. (side note: when I ask you for you name, it's because I want to say "Thank you, Name"; for fuck's sake; just tell me a name) Told her that I

got the "letter"
spoke to the insurance and they said I've met $896, why does the letter say that I met zero?

Doctor's office Elizabeth said that she would check on it and call me back.

She called me back the next day.

She said that the insurance deductible resets every year and because the delivery is anticipated in 2009, my deductible would have reset and I wouldn't have to pay the full deductible again.

Fair enough.

So I asked her, "If these charges are applying to the 2009 deductible, and the services that you are billing me for aren't even going to occur in 2009, why do I have to pay this in 2008?"

I got transfered to Barbara.

Barbara plainly told me that it is the policy of the clinic to have all their pregnant patients pay their delivery charges by their fifth month because that gives them enough time to find "alternatives" if they can't make the payments.

At this point, I had to get off the phone with Barbara because, frankly, I wanted to cuss her ass out. I know she's not personally responsible, but I've been a patient there since 1998, my credit score is something like 728 and I pay my fucking bills, people. On time. In full. Every month.

It's not the money.

It's the principle.

So I just had to take a moment.

I talked to some peeps, who had not heard of this "pre-pay" business, including my insurance agent and the folks at the insurance company who concluded that although it was ethically questionable, it wasn't illegal.

I called the doctor's office back Monday and spoke with Venita. I really enjoyed speaking with Venita, she's the only one that I spoke to at the doctor's office that made me feel like she gave a damn. Thank you Venita.

I really don't have a problem paying the charges, I don't agree with the policy that they have or the terms that they were proposing. I was able to ask Venita all the questions that I had and we both came to a payment agreement. I definitely still feel like the doctor's office has the upper hand in the deal, and the patient really is at their mercy.

That's how the situation was resolved. As you can tell, I'm still a little bitter about the whole ordeal.

Oh well. Life goes on. There'll be more bills to come, I'm sure.

Oh, I can't wait till my next appointment there.

Third Wedding Anniversary with Ray!

2008-10-04T13:14:00.004-05:00

Ray and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on 2 October, 2009. We had dinner at our favourite spot, Pepino's. It's a family owned restaurant and we've been going there for a few years now. It's BYOB but this year we didn't bring a bottle with us.

Don't know if you can tell from the photo, but that's my lil' avocado in there (16 weeks)!

We had an excellent, excellent dinner and they gave us complementary dessert. Tiramisu of which I ate ALL cos Ray is lactose intolerant (score!). They also gave us free champagne, which is when I had to explain that I am preggo and that's when all they owners got so very excited.

They started regaling us with stories of their wedding and pregnancy and advised me that I need to start reading to the baby, doesn't matter what it is, just read aloud (I prolly should be reading aloud as I type) and to drink a tall glass of milk before bed. So sweet. We really enjoyed our Anniversary dinner - thank you Pepino's!

Positive

2008-07-20T07:23:00.000-05:00

Almost over

2008-06-01T10:37:00.000-05:00

Our visit is coming to a close. I'm sad about this. It seems like it went by too fast as always.

We have one more day before we leave.

I hope it's a good one.

Singaporegrrl in Singapore

2008-05-26T01:03:00.000-05:00

Whoa. It's been two and a half years since I've been to SG. That's a long ass time.

Some things have changed (what are they building over Orchard MRT station?) and some things have stayed the same, like the immigration officer at the airport who refused to respond to "Good morning" or "how are you?" or "thank you".

This dude is a visitor's first impression of the entire country. I guess they have the chatty immigration officers stationed at the "Other Passports" desks, so only Singapore Citizens get the silent treatment.

As we cleared immigration, I said to Ray, "welcome to flipping Singapore!"

Gave the cats a bath

2008-03-31T13:25:00.002-05:00

Holy cow! I gave the cats a bath yesterday. Each cat was bathed separately. I can't even begin to visualize the pandemonium that would be bathing two cats at one time.

...visualizing...visualizing...

no.

Seriously.

I had no idea that bathing cats could be so strenuous. I mean, I know it's difficult, but I didn't know it would be like a work out.

I'm sore today and my hamstrings are hurting. I'm limping around like an old(er) lady.

For shame!

:)

The ides of March

2008-03-15T13:11:00.002-05:00

Howdy folks. February is over and we are in the middle of March. Today. I've been away for too long.

Tofu Nation had her baby girl.
Sujen and Amanda had their baby boy.
My sister's dog died.

I've been sick, then well, then sick again. I'm on the mend now. I've been reading and thinking and day dreaming and it's time to do some writing.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-01-29T20:22:00.001-06:00

Houston for Christmas

2007-12-22T11:30:00.000-06:00

This photo was taken in December of 2005 on Orchard Road between Isetan and Wheelock Place.

Ray and I will be in Houston this Christmas. I'd rather be in Singapore but when I'm actually there, I'd rather be anywhere but.

It will always be "home" but it seems a lifetime away. I've been in the US for thirteen years now.

Christmas universe, originally uploaded by Kelvin_Leong.

I miss my peeps and I worry about my parents. Life goes on.

Even in super multi cultural Singapore, we still say Merry Christmas, so Merry Christmas, y'all!

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

2007-11-21T19:07:00.001-06:00

Happy Gobble Gobble Day y'all!

This link is not for the faint of heart.

It's not a coincidence

2007-11-14T14:05:00.000-06:00

It's not a coincidence if it happens to you three times in a row, right?

A couple of Fridays ago, I went with Hubhub to celebrate his, his cousin's, aunt's and mom's birthday. They all have birthdays in November.

We went to Grand Lux Cafe (part of the Cheesecake Factory chain). The first thing I did when I got seated was order a glass of wine.

Once the other people arrived, we ordered a bottle the house red, Ravenswood Merlot. It took a long time for the wine to come. When it finally arrived we went through the whole ritual and the waiter poured the wine and we started drinking it. After about 15 minutes I noticed that the bottle at the table was actually Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon, not Merlot. The better wine, I know, but not what we ordered. We let the waiter know, he apologized and said that they wouldn't charge us for the more expensive bottle that was delivered.

Two days later, I was in Dallas with four other friends at Spaghetti Warehouse and we again ordered a bottle of the house red. I can't remember what it was, but it was a $12 bottle of wine of something.

The waiter delivered the wine, ritual and pour and we start drinking the wine. TLRM notices that the bottle on the table isn't the house red but another bottle that's twice the price of the house. She tells the waiter and he graciously tells us that they won't charge us for the more expensive bottle that was delivered.

Four hours later, we're rocking out at the Crowne Plaza (whoo the Big D, y'all!) and we order another bottle of wine. The wine comes, we enjoy and after a while Tiffany goes to pay the tab.

She's takes a while.

When she comes back, she's ticked because they gave and charged us for bottle of wine by the same brand that was twice the price of what we ordered.

What the?

If it happens three times in a row, it's not a coincidence.

Right?

Woefully neglected blog

2007-10-30T21:16:00.000-05:00

Too busy to blog because I'm doing things like this.

Spelling, spelling

2007-09-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

I'm a bad speller. I once had a teacher tell me that I was an enigma in that my grammar is better than my spelling. I'm not sure if that was a compliment. I blame my mother on my ineptitude for spelling. It's hereditary, she is a very smart lady but a terrible speller. I get confused with the e i thing; relieve, receive; it's all very confusing to me.

Some things I know how to spell.

I know how to spell (and pronounce) quay.

I know how to spell queue.

I know how to spell bouquet.

I'm slightly appalled at the misspellings that I've come across lately. And I'm not even talking about the flavour/flavor, honour/honor spelling conflict. I've come across certain misspellings over and over and over that I've had to stop and ask, "Is that the American spelling of that word?" because I don't spell that word like that.

Hurricane forming near Gulf

2007-08-21T08:47:00.000-05:00

Keep your gas tank full

How'd you like to see that on the Freeway info signs on your way to get your eyebrows threaded at the salon.

A little unnerving, no?

On National Day

2007-08-09T07:32:00.000-05:00

Happy National Day!

Wish I was at Sembawang Park.

Sitting on a bench

Looking out at the water

Drinking a Coke.

As seen on TV

2007-07-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

I found this on Faz the Cat.

Politics Explained - with Cows.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit
opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with
an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

THE ANDERSEN MODEL
You have two cows.
You shred them.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.

You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

None Escape the Laws of God, 2007

2007-07-14T13:56:00.000-05:00

Artist - Forrest Prince
wood, license plates
91 x 60 x 29
From the collection of Laura and John Fain

I took this photo at The Big Show by the Lawndale Art Center. I was attracted to the piece, I think because it's made from found objects, or maybe because of the license plates.

When I took this photo, it was a fluke that it came out the way it did because of the flash on the camera. I got really lucky on this one.

Chocolate Mousse

2007-06-30T14:48:00.001-05:00

Chocolate Mousse, originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

I love chocolate.

What is NF?

2007-06-13T11:30:00.000-05:00

I went to the monthly meeting for the Houston Chapter of Net2 (Net Squared) last night. The guest speaker that we had was Reggie Bibbs. Reggie has a condition called neurofibromatosis (NF). NF is a genetic disorder of the nervous system that causes tumors to form on the nerves any where in the body at any time. Reggie started a campaign, called "Just Ask", which I personally think is just brilliant. He had some t-shirts made with his logo and slogan, "Just Ask!" on the back. I saw Jason at work wear a shirt and I said,

"Hey, Jason; just ask what?"

And he told me all about Reggie and NF and Reggie's flickr site; blog and website.

We also got to hear from the president of the Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation, Suzanne Miller. Suzanne's daughter also has NF, though she doesn't have any outward symptoms.

I didn't know much about NF, but I found out last night that it is more prevalent than cystic fibrosis, hereditary muscular dystrophy, Hungtington's disease and Tay Sach's combined.

Wow!

The purpose of NetSquared is to use technology to effect social change. Last night's meeting definitely enlightened me on a social cause that I knew close to nothing about and showed me how inspirational one man can be.

It's just not right

2007-06-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

I think I just got the dumbest bill, evah.

The bill from Sprint was for $3.40.

Well first. let me back up. A bill from Sprint came addressed to me. This is unusual becase the cell phone bills from Sprint usually arrive addressed to Hubhub.

So the bill came, I let it hang around for a few days and then I opened it. We have Sprint PCS and have the plan, Sprint 50 at Home which allows us 50 minutes on free long distance on Sprint. I have never received a bill from Sprint for the land line before. We don't have any other long distance carrier. I use Gorilla Mobile to call internationally.

I looked at the bill to see what the charges were for. Well apparently, hubhub had faxed some documents to his entertainment lawyer in New York. The call to New York were free, the charges were for rubbish fees like

Carrier Cost Recovery Fee
In-State Access Recovery Fee

for a total of $2.98 and then tax on that $2.98 bringing the total to $3.40.

This irritated me just enough for me to call Sprint who told me nicely that even though there are no charges for the actual calls I still need to pay the other fees.

Gah!

It's just the principle of it.

Three day weekend and the luxury of the book

2007-05-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

Yay! for three day weekends.

Boo for rain on all three days.

Yay for finishing two books and reading one entire (v. short) book.

I finished Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shiplely and Will Schwalbe. I received an advanced reader's copy of this book at SXSW.

I also finished Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, the same dude who wrote The Tipping Point.

Last book that I read was the One Minute Manager.

I went to Borders today and bought two more books:

Generation Me
Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions, and Cash

And I still have Blue Ocean Strategy that we're reading for the Book Club.

It's good to read. It's even better to have time to read.

Too much work

2007-05-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

I got an email today from a chick at Urban Living. (no link love from me). Ray and I had gone cycling a few Sundays ago with some friends and stopped in to be nosy at some open houses.

I left my info, because you never know when you might be in the market for a half a million dollar, four storey, town home with a roof deck.

So I got this email from this chick today and she spelled my name wrong. How much effort does it take to spell a prospect's name right?

I know I have one of those tricky, unisex names, but it's not an unusual spelling, not like the way she spelled it, any way. A version that I've never seen.

I wrote my name down on the form in all caps as well, just in case.

AND my email address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com.

What more could I have done?

Lest I forget

2007-05-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

Lest I forget what it looks like.

For the love of BJV

2007-05-01T20:54:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I've had this blog for almost 18 months now and I've not mentioned Bon Jovi once.

I came home and hub hub was DVRing American Idol because they were featuring songs from BonJovi. They showed clips of Jon and David practising the songs. You might ask yourself, is this really blogworthy?

Whatever you think you know about me, you really don't, unless you know how much I love Bon Jovi.

There.

I said it.

Out loud.

I grew up on BJV.

From
to
through
and
Loving Bon Jovi built character. You don't think so? What's the first thing that came to your mind when you read Bon Jovi? Did you snicker? It's one thing if you're actually from Jersey, but I'm not. It'd be different if I was like True Jersey Girl, but I'm a singaporegrrl.

When I was 19 I worked for a concert promoter in SG who was organizing a music festival on Sentosa. The promotions company was Christopher Cole Promotions. The headliners were Bon Jovi. They were touring to support Keep the Faith and this was the first time that they performed in Singapore.

Working for the promotions company entitled me to a AAA pass, so, not only did I get to see my boys perform, I got to meet them and conversate with them. You might be expecting to hear some scandalous story of partying like a rock star with rock stars. There was partying but don't forget, this was Singapore circa 1993.

The only person that I didn't get to meet was Jon. He was quite elusive. Anyone out there who wants to facilitate a meet and greet for me with JBJ, please go right ahead.

For the love of Mini

2007-04-30T21:22:00.000-05:00

I love the Mini. It is one of my favourite cars. I've test driven the new Mini and it was a super fun drive.

There are loads of Minis on these streets in Houston but I've never seen this guy.

I really don't know what to make of it.

I mean, this is Houston. Home of of the giant highways with giant trucks. I just can't see this two door, yet surprisingly roomly 4 seater, Mini as a taxi. It just doesn't make sense. I'm chalking it up as an Art Car.

Curse of the Serpent

2007-04-30T13:14:00.000-05:00

I know many of you know about Shaw Brothers, the Hong Kong movie studio that had their Distribution base in Singapore. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Shaw Cinema in Singapore as well. Here is some the history on Shaw Brothers and the Shaw Foundation.

What you may not know or heard of is this long lost unreleased movie that was presented at our Monday Morning Meeting this morning.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you,

"Curse of the Serpent"

Time is up. Protect Darfur

2007-04-29T09:55:00.000-05:00

Today is the FOURTH anniversary of the bloody conflict in Darfur.

According to the Globe for Darfur network, in the last four year the conflict has:

Spread to two other countries (Chad and the Central African Republic);
Led to 16 un-enforced UN resolutions;
Provoked 60 statements of concern from the EU but zero action;
Killed over 200,000 people;
Forced 230,000 people to flee the country;
Cut off an estimated 900,000 from aid;
Made two million people homeless; and
Ruined the lives of over four million people.

The Globe for Darfur, a global network of dozens of different organisations is calling for the imposition of targeted sanctions to force all sides to respect the ceasefire, end attacks on civilians, allow the deployment of an effective international peacekeeping force, and stop attacks on the aid operation.

In particular the group is calling on the U.N. to impose asset freezes and travel bans on individuals continuing the violence and to enlarge the arms embargo.

“The government of Sudan has played the international community for fools and our politicians have fallen into every trap they’ve set. Despite more than two hundred thousand deaths, two million made homeless and two new countries becoming embroiled in the war, the international community continues to delay decisive action. Today we’re saying time is up, the people of Darfur need protection now, ” said Larry Rossin, a spokesperson for the Globe for Darfur.

What can you do?

working, working, working

2007-04-26T21:33:00.000-05:00

Working in the day.

Working in the night.

No. Time. to. blog.

Well I got the window fixed.

2007-04-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

So here's what happened. On Monday evening, hub hub and I went to another Brilliant Lecture athe the Hobby Centre. This lecture featured Kofi Annan. On Tuesday morning, I left the house to go to work only to find my car had been broken into.

The driver side rear panel had been smashed, the driver side window had some nicks on it but was not broken. I know from personal history that this window in particular is unbreakable. Nothing was stolen.

Either this was a botched burglary or just a random act of vandalism.

I went to work and called around to get quotes and I quickly found out that the quarter panel on a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse is probably the most expensive piece of glass that you can break on this vehicle. I called the place that replaced Ray's window on his vehicle when it got busted last year. (Again it was another, break in with nothing taken incident) and they quoted me $300.

Gah!

For kicks, I called the dealership that is right by the office. The said that the part alone was $220 + $180 for labour.

Good Gah!

Neither place had the glass in stock and both said that it's hard to come by. NN at work said that she had a recommendation to this place and gave me the number. I called Oscar at Uni Glass who had me talk to Junior who said that he could get me a used quarter panel and install it for $165.

Now that's what I'm talking about, man.

I went to the shop this morning as just before it opened at 8. Posted all over the shop were signs stating that they do not accept credit cards. This was a bit of a problem.

I went in and waited for Oscar. He was loud man with a very rough bedside manner. I told him that I had spoken to Junior and was here to get my quarter panel replaced. I said I notice that you don't accept credit cards and I wonder if I can write you a post dated cheque as my payday is on Friday. (As always, straight to the point) He asked me if I could go to the ATM. I gave him the most pitiful look I could muster and said no. He looked at me and he said that was OK. I was about to speak but couldn't because he immediately got on the phone. I went to sit on the couch in the waiting area and just mulled over what had just happened. I felt bad even asking if they would accept a post dated cheque.

One of the guys came over and asked for my keys, I said I needed to check with Oscar first. He finally took a breath and I asked him if he would prefer I come back on Monday, he said it was up to me, I said I didn't want to take advantage of his good nature, yes, I actually said that, but I don't have the cash right now, but I'll get paid on Friday. He said loudly that as long as I have a in-state cheque and Texas Driver's Licence, he can take my cheque and that they don't deposit the cheques until Monday anyway.

Thank you.

I gave my keys to the dude. They fixed it in 30 minutes. I wrote my post dated cheque, took a stack of their business cards and left.

If you need glass, go see Oscar:
Uniglass
1500 Hopper
Houston, TX 77093
(713) 862-1919
(281) 449-0808

Before

After

The Unbreakable

Wordless Wednesday - well maybe one word

2007-04-18T07:21:00.000-05:00

Bliss is a red iPod nano

2007-04-14T16:53:00.000-05:00

Aaah, isn't it gorgeous.

Thank you Ed, thank you Glen, thank you HappyKatie, J, Kim, and Jason. Thank you Schipul.

From the moment the trio of red iPods appeared in the office, I have been coveting one. Ed explained that he would be using them to reward employees as he saw fit, and I knew instantly that I just had to have one. This is my very first mp3 player of any kind.

I have no shame. I wanted it and I knew I would have it. I worked my ass off to get it. I've been playing with it. I love gadgets. This thing is a dream, smooth as buttah.

I'm a happy gadget grrl.

[grin]

I'm not the only one who sees him, right?

2007-04-11T20:18:00.001-05:00

I'm not the only one who sees him, right?
Originally uploaded by happykatie.

No, happykatie, you're not the only one who sees him.

44 MPG

2007-03-29T21:12:00.000-05:00

I love personlis(z)ed license plates. I don't have one myself, but I love deciphering the ones that I see on the road. I saw this gem on my way home from work today on this lovely Toyota Prius.

Well, I definitely don't drive a hybrid and I definitely don't get 44 miles per gallon. I love the fact that the stickers on the back of the car run the gamut from endorsing the US Air Force to the 100 Club, supporting the Democrat and Green Party and Humanism.

Can one person really believe in all of these different groups?

I think so. I believe in the Prius, in KPFT in the Green Party, in Humanism and also Objectivism. and, oh yeah, Darwinism too.

Happy Purrthday Lando!

2007-03-28T21:26:00.001-05:00

Chillin'
Originally uploaded by divakitty.

Happy Purrthday to my fave bun, Lando. Lando is three years old today.

Pretty in Pink

2007-03-26T21:17:00.001-05:00

Magnolia Cafe on South Congress
Originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

In the Magnolia Cafe on South Congress in Austin, TX, over the first weekend for SXSWi2007 we had dinner with Dan and Annika.

I had never seen the glorious art of the Glitter Diva, Sue Zola. The art was just fabulous.

This one hung over the table we sat at. Isn't it gorgeous, dahling? Of course, as soon as I saw the Hello Kitty, I had to whip out my camera and photograph it for the Tofu Nation.

Wordless Wednesday

2007-03-20T22:48:00.000-05:00

SXSWi2007 update

2007-03-11T10:55:00.000-05:00

Saturday was an absolute blur, there are so many panels to attend and things to learn and people to talk to that it is exhausting. I have been taking loads of pictures but I can't upload yet.

My most exciting thing to report is that I met the founder of Dogster!!

So cool. We chatted briefly and I gushed about how I love dogster.com and catster.com and that Mia and Ragamuffin have their own pages. He was very gracious and asked me to email him the links to my pet's pages, so he could check them out.

More to report later.

Connections Part II

2007-03-10T13:33:00.000-06:00

[live blogging]Live from Austin, TX at SXSW Interactive Festival. It's been a long time since I've come home to Austin.

I am standing at the public kiosk to blog this little snippet. Austin is still my favourite city in Texas. It was the first city in the whole United States that I experienced when I arrived on 5/10/94. Austin was my first impression of the whole country.

The company sponsored a group of us to come out to SXSW to learn and bring back the knowledge to share with the rest of us. DH is also here attending the Film Festival of SXSW.

Photos and juicy blogging to follow shortly.
[/live blogging]

Connections

2007-03-01T11:42:00.000-06:00

**This post contains certain facts, then when it was first published, caused some controversy among some parties involved. I initially edited this post to remove certain aspects of it that were causing conflict. I have since had a change of thought and have republished the entire post in it's original state. This post is a historical record of actual events. If you are unhappy with this post, feel free to contact me directly to discuss.**

You never know how you are connected to different people or different places. This is how I am connected to Sidney Poitier. I work for Ed Schipul who owns Schipul, the Web Marketing Company. My husband Raymond is a filmmaker. He was introduced to Natalie J, Radio Personality from Houston’s own KCOH by Ed who has known Natalie for a long time. Ray and Natalie started talking and she invited Ray on her radio show to be interviewed about his film, Electric Purgatory. In the course of getting to know each other, Natalie found out that Sir Sidney Poitier was scheduled to speak at the Hobby Center on February 26, 2007. She researched the Hobby Center website to find out who the organizers of the event were and discovered that the event was being put on by the Brilliant Lecture Series. Natalie called up the organizers to see if she could get a Press Pass to film the event. She was able to get the Press Pass. She needed a cameraman. She called Ray. Ray, in turn was able to get a free ticket from Natalie for me to see Sidney speak.

I took my free ticket and strolled into the Hobby Center and made my way to my free seat, Mezzanine Right, Row C, Seat 3. I was there by myself while Ray was downstairs with the rest of the press. Sir Poitier spoke about life, living, his beginnings, what it is to be useful. He spoke with such ease and contentment about his life. He told stories about the people that he encountered in his life that changed the course of his life and how he was never always aware of the impact that these people had at the time they were impacting him the most. He was beautiful to watch and listen to. This man is 80 years old (and 6 days he added) and he is truly an inspiration.

After his talk, there was a brief Question and Answer session where he took questions from the audience. All of the questions were fielded from the main part of the auditorium and most of the questions were asked by students. They ranged from Elementary age through to college. And then it was all over. I walked out, taking my time, knowing that I would have to wait for Ray to finish his camera work in the main auditorium. I made my way down the staircase to the main floor where I ran into another local filmmaker Marc Newsome. I hung around with Marc discussing the great talk by Sir Sidney. Marc ran into some friends of his and wandered off with them.

There were two sets of doors into the auditorium; both were watched by Hobby Center Volunteers. As the people cleared from the Hobby Center; the volunteers drifted away from their posts. After a while, the main hall had emptied and I strolled over to the one set of doors that I had seen people going in and out of. I opened the door and walked in. I walked into the main auditorium, where I discovered that they were having a reception on the stage. I called Ray on my cellphone. He answered and I said, “I’m in the main hall. I’m in; I’m in.”

I walk slowly to the steps to the stage, make my way to the bar and snag lovely glass of cabernet sauvignon. Wondering through the crowd, I notice a familiar face. I’m not good with faces but I realize that it is the ex-mayor of Houston, Mayor Lee Brown. I wonder around the crowd, taking in the scene.

Ray finishes his camera work and comes out from back stage. There is a line forming to a roped off area. Ray has a drink and snags some hors d’oeurves. We try to get in the queue for the receiving line but one of the minders tells us that the line is closed. We banter back and forth but she’s firm on not letting us in the queue. No worries. The man is 80 years old (and 6 days). We wonder over to another part of the stage and watch the people greet Sir Sidney. After a while we note that the Queue Minder has left her post and we get back in the queue and make our way to Sir Sidney. The whole time; I’m desperately trying to think of something profound to say to the man when I get up there. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to think of anything amazing. When I got up to Sir Sidney, I shook his hand and his energy completely overwhelmed me. I thanked him for being an inspiration to me and to my family. Even recalling the moment now, I feel the energy. It was definitely an amazing experience.

Ray and I then walked over to the stairs in front of the stage. We took in the scene one last time and slowly walked out of the hall, down the stairs to the underground parking, into the car. I will remember this night for the rest of my life.

Daylight

2007-02-22T20:58:00.000-06:00

I got to leave work early today. It was the first time in at least 2 weeks that I got to leave while there was still daylight. But I still had to sit in traffic though. There is loads on construction (of course) near the building where I work. At approximately 1:32 PM, we lost our internet connection. Apparently someone in the construction had cut through the connections and the whole building and who knows what else lost their internet connection.

The saddest thing is this has actually happened to me before. When I worked at my previous job, construction workers did the exact same thing on a different freeway, cut through the communications cables and left us without internet and phone.

Now, when you work for an internet company, there's not a lot that you can do when your internet goes down.

We had an impromptu training session on Collective Action; Game Theory and the Nash Equilibrium. All very heady stuff but definitely enlightening.

The best part of the afternoon was when we played the Prisoner's Dilemma with the betrayer having the opportunity to gain $75 if the opponent stays silent. According to past experience from my boss, he has never had to give out the full amount money because everyone has always chosen to either stay silent against each other or betray each other.

Not today.

I volunteered to play and chose to betray. My opponent chose to stay silent and I went home with $75. {grin}

Thank you to the construction workers who cut the line this afternoon.

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-02-16T07:44:00.000-06:00

Princess Mia performs the age old art of head licking on Tiger BF. Tigey thoroughly enjoyed his head licking.

Have you ever?

2007-02-12T22:09:00.000-06:00

You know, when you live in a different country from which you grew up, you tend to miss certain things about the country you grew up in. For me, it's usually the food, I mean, of course it's The Food, what kind of Singaporean would I be, if I didn't talk about the food but I also miss the drinks.

One of the things I used to miss most was Tiger beer. I've never really been much of a beer drinker. When I first got to Texas, I used to drink the odd Shiner ever now and then, but wishing I had a Tiger. I would always buy it duty free on my way back from Singapore to the States and ration it out. I think I drank it more for the fact that it was familiar than the fact that I really cared for a beer. It was special because you couldn't buy it in Texas. And then I read that Tiger Beer was going to be distributed in the United States by Anheuser Busch. Woo hoo! That's great, I thought, we're going to be able to get Tiger in Houston and then, I promptly forgot.

That is, until now. While traipsing along in our neighbourhood Kroger, I happened to cast my eyes upon the following:

Cue the music.

Roll the music.

Ready in

3

2

1

Crazy things that you can't stop thinking about

2007-02-06T20:07:00.000-06:00

Hubhub and I have been having an ongoing "discussion" about the phrase "I could care less". I first heard this phrase when I was at school in Denton. It took me hearing it in context a few times before I came to understand that it is supposed to mean "I couldn't care less". I attributed it to being a Texas thing. I feel strongly that the correct usage is "I couldn't care less". Hubhub feels strongly for "I could care less". It's really keeping us going over here.

Ever since I read that book by Lynne Truss, I have become super sensitive about word usage, grammar, and of course punctution.

Excuse me, while I pause to accept the award for dullest blogger, evah. Thank you.

Back to the argue-er-discussion. So I googled the phrase to see what I would find of course: couldn't care less

I found this lovely gem from Dictionary.com:

Which is correct: I could care less or I couldn't care less?

The expression I could not care less originally meant 'it would be impossible for me to care less than I do because I do not care at all'. It was originally a British saying and came to the US in the 1950s. It is senseless to transform it into the now-common I could care less. If you could care less, that means you care at least a little. The original is quite sarcastic and the other form is clearly nonsense. The inverted form I could care less was coined in the US and is found only here, recorded in print by 1966. The question is, something caused the negative to vanish even while the original form of the expression was still very much in vogue and available for comparison - so what was it? There are other American English expressions that have a similar sarcastic inversion of an apparent sense, such as Tell me about it!, which usually means 'Don't tell me about it, because I know all about it already'. The Yiddish I should be so lucky!, in which the real sense is often 'I have no hope of being so lucky', has a similar stress pattern with the same sarcastic inversion of meaning as does I could care less.

And there you have it. It boils down to the British version vs. the American version. It's a running theme in this household!

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-02-02T07:46:00.000-06:00

Today, we have a veritable celebritycat: Zeus of Zeusexcuse. See how he mesmerizes us with his smouldering stare? Don't let him hypnotize you into doing his bidding. He is a very powerful cat.

Gratuitous Quiche

2007-01-31T20:54:00.000-06:00

Whoa.

Behold the amazing quiche.

On the left we have the "Draped in Bacon" and on the right we have the "Drenched in Portabella". Both quiches were made from scratch by the amazing ARS. The Bloody Mary that appears in the background was made by moi.

ARS decided to have some choice ladies over for brunch at her place one lovely Saturday, a coupla Saturdays ago. We had some good drinks, good times, and the food was amazing. Aside from the eating, our mission was to rescue this guy (pictured below) from his foot shackles.

Poor roboreptile arrived screwed into his box. He remains shackled because we can't find a screw driver with a thin enough shaft to fit through the plastic holes to free him.

Soon my friend. Soon.

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-01-26T07:22:00.000-06:00

Super speedy cat. Tigey may be "The Big Guy" but he's also "The Fast Guy".

Holy cow, its Thursday!

2007-01-25T20:57:00.000-06:00

Holy Cow. I can't believe it is already Thursday. The week has flown by. Work has been insanely busy, making it hard to stick to my blogging goals. Yes, I have blogging goals. I also have TV goals. Sadly, I'm not meeting those goals either.

Looking forward to the weekend for some time to chillax. On Saturday, I am attending the Crispin Porter + Bogusky Creative Luncheon that the Houston Advertising Federation is hosting. I had not heard of CP+B before, but they are the firm that created the campaigns for KNOW HIV/AIDS and the truth campaign. Really smart stuff. It promises to be a really interesting luncheon and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be bringing my camera, of course.

Mondays are mad, Tuesday are fast

2007-01-22T21:00:00.000-06:00

Mondays are mad. This Monday was very busy. Tomorrow promises to be just as fast, but with a twist. I have a meeting scheduled with new clients of ours who just happen to be an expat association group in Singapore.

Aren't they going to be surprised when they find out that the Project Manager in the company that they hired in Houston, TX that will be handling their project is originally from Singapore?

I think it's funny, but that's just me. :)

The price I pay

2007-01-21T17:13:00.000-06:00

Like many women, I go get my eyebrows threaded every two or three weeks. The salon that I go to is in the Little India part of Houston. The salon is called Aisha's and they do a great job. If you are not familiar with threading, it is a common hair removal technique that is used in Asia and the Middle East. The thread is twisted and the threader, shall we call her, rolls it over the offending hairy area of the threadee. It's not particularly painful and the hair removal happens pretty quickly. I haven't had any experience with waxing my eyebrows, so I can't give you any comparison. It feels like a bunch of hairs are being ripped out by the root at once, which is exactly what is happening, of course.

I really don't have any problem or pain with my eyebrows being threaded; it's the other parts of my face that kill me. I blame my hairiness on my Indian heritage. When it's time to get it done, I make the appointment for my eyebrows and upper lip. Upper lip, of course, refers to my the mustache. Ack! Once I'm there, the lady usually asks if I want to also do here or there (refering to another offending hairy area(s) of my face). I usually do the here but not the there.

Well, today I did the there.

Sweet mother of pearl.

It's not cool when the threader lady's thread is just snapping and she is grunting and sighing. It's just not cool.

OK. Breathe in. Breathe out.

I'm not that hairy. The there that I speak of were the sides of my face, which being part Indian, you know, are lovely and a little hairier than most. They don't bother me, I have had them done in the past, but it hurts, and I'm a wuss; so I haven't had them done in a while. Well today, I decided that I was going to suck it up and do it.

That shit hurt.

And it was kind of shocking when she was done because they were all bright and completely hairless. So now, new for '07, I'm going to commit to doing it on a regular basis so that it won't be so painful and shocking whenever I get it done. I gave the lady who did my threading a fat tip for her troubles. Actually, I think I gave her the fat tip to buy her silence.

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-01-19T07:10:00.000-06:00

Say hello to Tigerlily Bellyflap. He's a big guy and he is on a diet. He doesn't care much for being on diet but he does like his box bed. He is a very sweet gentle natured guy.

Knit street art

2007-01-18T19:36:00.001-06:00

IMG_1392
Originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

It's cold in Houston now. I took this photo downtown in front of the Wortham Theatre on Boxing Day. It's not the first time I've seen wooly street art in Houston. It's cool. Anybody know the group that is responsible for it?

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-01-12T07:18:00.000-06:00

Meet Lucas. He lives on the second floor. He belongs to a girlfriend of mine and he is a sleek, stealth, stalker of electrical cords*.

*Lucas has never been injured.

Current reading list

2007-01-11T20:35:00.000-06:00

In keeping with my plan of reading more, here are the books that I am currently reading;

The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Winning by Jack Welch

The End of Poverty is a book that I picked up for myself (how boring am I?). The other two books were prescribed, so to speak, by work. I'm still wallowing through the Getting Things Done book, it's hard to get that one done, but it is teaching me things about being better organized in order to get lots of other things done, but it is kind of dry.

I'm just starting the Jack Welch book. It is in line with our company goal, visualization or maybe theme for the year. We will be reading it as a company. Should be interesting.

How dirty is dirty?

2007-01-09T07:12:00.000-06:00

I have a silver car. I have a filthy silver car (FSC). I took my FSC to the car wash on Saturday. You know, it's the kind of car wash that you have at the gas station, the drive thru kind. I roll through the drive through car wash and come out after the lovely car wash. I stop to dry my back windscreen/windshield. I step out of the car and it is still filthy. The dirt must be baked in.

How dirty is this car?

It's filthy.

Friday Cat Blogging

2007-01-05T07:45:00.000-06:00

Behold! Princess Mia Bella poses with her lovely diamond necklace that was given to her by her Sweetheart.

New for '07

2007-01-03T20:09:00.000-06:00

What are your plans for '07? My plans include:

Read more books
Blog more
Stay in better touch with my peeps
Love more
Teach more
Learn more

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T11:09:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas y'all. It will be a quiet one this year. Be safe and take care.

Finally, something to blog about

2006-12-16T17:48:00.000-06:00

[live blogging]
Hubhub gets lights for tree!

So I've been lollygagging around all day. And by lollygagging, what I really mean is I've been formatting a hard drive and clean installing XP Pro and its 117 updates on a computer for a friend. During the time when I'm waiting for the next prompt on the install, I decided that I would blog a little.

But I couldn't think of anything riveting to blog about. But now, a ha! Inspiration has struck. About 5 PM, Ray (hubhub) decided that he was going to go buy lights for the Christmas tree. He just got back about 10 minutes ago complaining that all the shops had sold out of Christmas lights and that he finally found lights at out neighbourhood hardware store. And thus the light installation begins:

Remove lights from box
Shout at cat who immediately runs up to suss out what the dangling toy in Ray's hand is.
Start putting lights on tree
Shout at other cat who has sauntered over to snoopervise.
Find that plug on lights do not reach the socket
Finagle power strip to reach lights plug.
Determine that more lights are needed.
Dash off to previously mentioned hardware store to buy more lights before it closes in 12 minutes.
Come back from hardward store with more lights and extension cord.
Gently suggest to wife that she get dressed as we are supposed to be meeting cousin J for dinner at 6.

Wife says, "But it's 6 right now."

Hubhub says, "I know, why don't you get ready?"

[/live blogging]

More Good Eating.

2006-12-10T19:23:00.000-06:00

I went to visit JAM at her family home today. They live just outside of Houston and it was a fair bit to drive up there. After a while, we decided to go out to lunch. JAM drove and I got the pleasure of riding in this.
Isn't it beautiful? It's her dad's car. Drives like a dream. Very very nice. Then we got to the restaurant. I ordered the Vegetarian Special.

Behold.

OMG, the food was good.

Celebrating Ray's Birthday!

2006-12-10T19:09:00.000-06:00

Ray's birthday was good good fun. We invited a few good friends and went to Cafe Adobe, a great Tex Mex restaurant that has the best margaritas I've ever had.
It was a double celebration because my bestest grrl JAM had just returned from working overseas and was able to join us for dinner.
We ate and we ate, and then we ordered desert. Sopapillas and a Shirley Temple, especially for Ray because he was reminiscing about how he used to get those when he was a kid.
I'm not really sure what a sopapilla is, maybe like a crispy square doughnut of sorts, but hollow, served with whipped cream and honey.

Good times, good times.

Happy Birthday hubhub!

2006-11-30T06:55:00.000-06:00

Today is DH's birthday! Happy Birthday hubhub! I can't wait to celebrate with you this evening with all your buds and this weekend in NY.

lovelove,
wifey

The countdown begins

2006-11-26T08:38:00.000-06:00

Safe travel home, MDSJ.