Gardening

11 March 2014     •     Comments Off on Gardening
Family Stuff

Yey! I’m finally able to blog again. Thanks to my hubby, Marc, for sorting out my uploading problem. I didn’t have the time to fix the server permissions on my blog. Lucky for me, I have a husband who loved me enough to fix my server configurations during his free time! Okay, so maybe “because he loved me” is stretching it a bit. It’s more likely that he’s finding my lack of updates a waste of domain name registration payment. Either way, I’m thankful 😛

So, what have I been up to the past year? Aside from the usual “busy with work” thing, Marc and I found a new hobby together: Gardening!

My Garden

To be honest, I never really considered myself having a green thumb. I tried to grow a rose bush during the first year of my marriage, but it was beyond fail. It didn’t even last a week before it withered and died. My next attempt was a basil plant, but somehow I totally forgot about it and left the poor thing to die. You can understand why I was so hesitant when Marc decided to buy our first plant to grow together. It was another basil plant. I tried to dissuade him from buying — I didn’t want to be a serial basil plant killer! Read more

Awakening of the hibernating book worm

5 September 2012     •     Comments Off on Awakening of the hibernating book worm
Daily Dose Family Stuff

I was around 7 years old when I first learned to read. I wasn’t exactly the quickest learner — my classmates in the first grade were long into reading more complex sentences before I could even string two words together. But my late grandma was patient, she taught me to read diligently. It wasn’t long before I fell in love with reading.

Book Cabinet

As embarrassing as it is for me to admit, I got addicted to the Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley series. Love Stories. Nancy Drew. Christopher Pike. A few classics like Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Little Prince, When Worlds Collide, The Joy Luck Club, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and my all-time favorite: To Kill a Mockingbird.

I probably amassed quite a collection of books back then, but lost most when we moved. I didn’t read much when I started working (at a call center for 6 months, then eventually to having my own home business), until I got hooked on Harry Potter. I probably bought only a few other books besides that series for the past five years, but the need to keep sane from the all the work deadlines lured me back to reading. I was starting to amass another book collection when my husband Marc finally got fed up seeing my books everywhere, and got me my own book cabinet 🙂 Read more

How about a sneak peak?

19 May 2008     •     2 Comments
Family Stuff Tech Things

Sometimes, when things aren’t really done yet but already nearing completion, I can’t help but give a sneak peak. Yes, I’m excited (probably a bit too excited), but you can’t blame me. For somebody living in a one-room flat, this is a great improvement.

Everything is still a bit of a mess (we’ve had desks and cabinets customized, these won’t be done until the middle of the week), but the kitchen is more or less complete. Take a look!

Although it looks like just one house on the outside, Dad had the place renovated so Marc and I will have a “mini house” within a house of our own (separate kitchen, laundry, office, living room, bedroom). Anyway, more photos coming soon! For now, you might want to check out another sneak preview… A preview of Kutitots’ upcoming new design. Read more

Letting go

8 February 2008     •     9 Comments
Daily Dose Family Stuff

For me, letting go is probably one of the hardest things a person can do, but should do. Screw me over and I’ll never ever forget what you did. I’ll eventually forgive you, but you can’t expect that things will ever be the same again. I can forgive, but I never forget. It’s just the way I am, and I’ve long accepted that.

Old books in my old room

But when it comes to material things and other sentimental stuff, it’s a different story. If I can get rid of clutter, I’d get rid of it—not unless the story behind it made such an impact in my life that getting rid of the thing would be an insult to my memory. I’m the exact opposite of my mom when it comes to things… She likes to keep things even if they’re just taking up space and have no use just because they had some sentimental value.

My dad is like me. So are my sister and Marc. And that, makes moving to a new house twice as hard. Read more

Thank goodness for blogging

24 November 2007     •     2 Comments
Daily Dose Family Stuff Tech Things

Before Paypal became fully operational here in the Philippines, I have always received my blogging earnings through check payment. Marc and I had to open a dollar savings account when I started monetizing my blogs about a year ago—besides, we needed a dollar account for clients who preferred paying through bank wire as well—and I deposited all my dollar blog earnings there (well, maybe except for those earnings I got from local direct advertisers).

A check I deposited usually took about three weeks to clear, aside from the fact that it takes about another two to three weeks for the check to get delivered. Until then, I wouldn’t be able to do anything with the check I received. Marc and I basically just left our dollar account be, and spent the earnings we got from our web design business for daily expenses.

We don’t normally spend money from the dollar account mainly because we’re just too lazy to withdraw from it 😀 It’s not like an ATM account, where you head over to the nearest machine or use your card to pay for purchases in stores that allow EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). You will have to go to the bank during banking hours (9am to 3pm), wait in line to withdraw the dollars, then have it exchanged to Philippine Pesos before you can actually spend it. If you wanted to exchange your dollars at a higher rate, you’d even have to go to a money changer. Hassle, isn’t it? Read more

Change of environment

19 October 2007     •     4 Comments
Family Stuff

The psychiatrist of my younger sister, Joyce, had long advised us that a change of environment will be good for her. The family decided about two or three years ago to sell our house and move to a new one—we were pretty strapped for cash at that time, and the maintenance of a commercial property was a bit too much. But when an interested buyer came, we changed our mind, for the simple reason that we didn’t need the money anymore.

The house where Marc and I live within my family’s duplex

About a week ago, my family decided to finally sell our property. For real this time, and not just for monetary purposes. It was because of Joyce that we came to this decision. Read more

Husbands and household chores

21 May 2007     •     14 Comments
Daily Dose Family Stuff

My husband, Marc, is now officially unemployed. He’s still waiting for his last pay (which, we honestly think would just be a few cents since our loan would be credited from it), but so far, I think we’re holding up. Financially, at least.

Our web design company is doing quite ok, and though it takes about a month for dollar checks to be cleared, blogging is also helping. But the thing is, I’d have to work extra hard now in order to accommodate more design projects—laziness just isn’t an option. Marc’s the one who attends client meetings and all those organizational stuff so my work flow won’t be disrupted and I won’t get too tired, but the workload just doesn’t allow me to have some time to do household work.

Our dirty laundry reached incredible heights when Marc and I finally decided that we got to do a bit of role-reversal until we get organized in this new setup. To be honest, I’ve relaxed my work schedule a bit when I got married. Marc had a regular job then, so we didn’t have to worry about cash flowing in. But now, we only have two sources of income left, our web design company and blogging. And frankly, I’m a bit overwhelmed with the sudden change in work schedule that I’ve been frequently forgetting major things (but yes, my memory for minute details is still intact). Read more

I concede :)

22 March 2007     •     7 Comments
Family Stuff

Sometimes, you just need to know when it’s time to concede.

The past month had been pretty busy for me. Atop of client projects, there’s the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards. I don’t think running an event like this comes close to the stress of planning a wedding, but pile of work + event is stressful enough to make me light up a cigarette every now and then. I don’t think I’ll ever have the heart to get back the smoking habit, but sometimes stress can just be a tad bit unbearable.

Being a co-head organizer for the Blog Awards, there’s nothing for me to concede to. But when it comes to household work, there sure is. My parents brought me up to be “a fighter,” a person who will not back down when the going gets tough. But sometimes, it’s really advisable to agree to a ceasefire. Read more

Never send a man to do a woman’s job

27 February 2007     •     11 Comments
Family Stuff

I know it’s only been less than four months since we got married, and we’re both still adjusting. So pardon me for saying this, but I think I found it out the hard way that you really shouldn’t send a man to do a woman’s job.

Maybe it’s just my husband, but for some reason, I always end up with modified results of my grocery list every time I send him shopping. Tell him to buy chicken breasts, he brings home chicken legs. Put “2 cans of coconut milk” on the list, and he buys three! I can’t remember even a single instance when I sent Marc to the grocery and he brings home exactly the ones on my list.

I remember Markku asking me at the Ituloy AngSulong party last Friday how marriage is suiting me. My answer? “OMG, you’re not going to believe the pile of dirty dishes we have at home!” Markku was, as expected, amused. I mean, yeah, why in the world would we leave dirty dishes piled up for three days right?

Ask my husband. And he’ll tell you that it’s because washing only a few dirty dishes is “not challenging.” Ok fine. Dirty dishes, I can live with. There are times that I just couldn’t take seeing the pile of dirty dishes anymore that I eventually wash them myself.

But I don’t really know what to make of this: Read more

Another reason for me not to get sick

3 February 2007     •     3 Comments
Family Stuff

I’ve said it before that I’m practically not allowed to get sick, considering the amount of work that I usually have to do. Well, it seems that I found another reason not to get sick:

Mt. Dirty Laundry

I had huge piles of laundry waiting for me yesterday after a week of sniffling, sneezing, and blowing my nose till kingdom come. I knew that I’d be washing more clothes when I volunteered to do my family’s laundry (they don’t have a maid right now, and my dad needs all the help he can get doing the chores), but I always made it a point to wash dirty clothes at least once every two days, so I have never really seen such a huge pileup like this before.

Five simultaneous web projects I can handle, but this pile?! Seeing that huge a pile just makes me want to go back to bed and sleep.

Well, ok. Maybe I kinda did bring this upon myself. It’s probably my tendency to be compulsive about rinsing the clothes that made doing the laundry tiring. I prefer to do the initial rinse by hand. That way, I’d be able to rinse out what the washing machine can’t do. Clothes that aren’t rinsed well smell really icky, and I don’t like wearing stinky clothes.

Now let’s just hope my dogs and I don’t drown ourselves under these huge piles of laundry 😛

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