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spilled on my shirt. i smell of coffee. sana taste central starts shipping outside mm soon. i could use that 20k trolley... in my dreams. local ikea warehouse, are you in the works? a white leaning/ladder bookcase might be purchased if and when. form and function. please do not run a fat blue cable in here. pangit . small victory when i convinced someone to get rid of a big black garbage bag full of very old and funky pillows na we'll never, ever use again. it was ugly and suffocating - it was on a shelf, the first thing you'd see - it sucked the joy and light out of me from the space. so, the room is nice and cool? thanks. it's true because we've been mindfully throwing clutter out; been doing it in small batches. it doesn't look like much but you can feel it. the end goal is to make it look clean, open and even pretty. it's a process. baby steps. diy. good decorating doesn't happen overnight.

11/24/13 sunday caught the free shipping deal on zalora philippines tonight, no minimum purchase required. sweet. x'mas gift-shopping is done. {package received 11/26. excellent.}  12/2/13 monday bought another year's av subscription for the machine last night. that's it, no more online purchases for the rest of this year {i hope}... unless it's something i really need... but no, i'm good. that's it. time flies. it's past 9 p.m. weather's been nice. we're not sweating. meralco bill's a b*tch: +700 just like that! nothing's changed, consumption's the same. a/c hasn't been touched this year. the chart they have printed on the bill, that spike, where did that come from?!? incredible.

nov. 8, 2013, friday getting ready for {what's being called} the worst typhoon of 2013 named yolanda. they put and secured covers over the veranda, and hid pots and pans that were on a long table at our outdoor kitchen. drinking water - check! food - check! batteries - check! transistor radio - check! flashlights - check! it's 5 p.m. it's raining and i hear gusts of wind. it's 9 p.m. the rain stopped but it's still very windy, very windy. temperature-wise, the long-stored balabal is fished out and now wrapped around my shoulders. nov. 9, 2013, saturday it rained again at dawn. it stopped by mid-morning. the sun came out. still windy. shower-burst in the afternoon. it's 9 p.m. a little windy. no rain. nov. 10, 2013, sunday yolanda moved on. we are ok but, sadly, many are not. donate to the philippine red cross

wanted to get someone their present before they fly off again because they're not coming home for christmas this year. found nice things online at quirks . made up my mind on: 2 gifts, 1 thing for the house and 1 thing for my wall. signed up last weekend. received the activation/invitation email monday . checked out and paid monday night . on tuesday before noon , received email asking if i wanted to pick another design or receive a refund for one item that was sold out -- i chose another design. tuesday evening , received tracking info. wednesday morning (today) the package is here! seamless transaction with quirks. excellent. quirks used xend. i believe packages sent through xend have been delivered to my house the next day. they're good.

Recent blood test results were normal apart from being slightly hypo on fasting blood sugar (that I was made to believe was not a cause for concern). The point is lipid profile was all good so we called it in to ask if it was ok to reduce the statin (been on 20mg od since March) but people were distracted on the phone so we didn't get straight answers. Now, me thinks I'll be on it for a very long time. Poor kidneys.

last week... someone's tablet froze and they asked me to fix it. "no problem," i said. i held the power button down until it shut off (pressed longer than 10 secs). they were relieved and grabbed the tablet. i said, "no, please wait." a few seconds later, it turned on by itself, good to go. "you can take it now," i said. hard restart. the bidet spray was dripping at the head. i unscrewed the head and squeezed the trigger. water gushed out, pushing rubber out too. so, the rubber was loose. we turned the water valve off. i gingerly patted the parts dry and tightly put it back together. we turned the water on. i held my breath, squeezed the trigger (water ran ok) and then released it (water stopped running). no leaks. high-five.

9/10/13 Tuesday Fudge it. Went ahead and ordered prescription eyeglasses online , last night. My poorly made one is stressing me out, breaking me out. 5:30 p.m. Winnie called from the shop to tell me that I need to change my order from mid-index to high-index lenses. I expected it. I was switching between the mid- and high-indexes last night because my prescription is in the high negatives. They'll let me know how much more it's going to cost me tomorrow. 9/11/13 Wednesday Winnie called and it will be 3000 on top of what i already shelled out. Excellent. It will be for the super-duper thin lenses, jargon is high-index 1-point-something. I asked them to email me the details. No more goggle lenses? Can't wait. 9/12/13 Thursday No acknowledgement of payment and email reply re:details of the extra charge so I called them. Payment was received and my order papers already sent to the lab, but she'll get back to me when they get the papers back. 9/17/13 Tuesday Rec

8.22.13 Thursday. Pissed off Turned computer on, booted, logged in, few minutes in, hardly started - nothing running really - when it restarted by itself. It booted ok. I didn't log in but clicked "restart" instead so it can fix itself. It, again, booted ok; logged in, saw prompt re:"recovered from serious error" report - typical report when it restarts itself. Then a few, maybe two, minutes later, it froze. Manual restart -- error, can't boot, system32 config missing, repair with os disk, etc. Manual restart again -- nada, no post: fan on, cpu light on; but no beeps, no display. Repeated off/on attempts produced same results: fan runs, no beeps, no display. No joy. (The man told me later that I shouldn't have kept turning it off/on. I'll keep that in mind next time.) Reminds me of last year but without cmos error: October 2012 cmos battery change and hardware cleaning when we discovered the mobo's bubbled capacitors. Recommendation back then

Two days of non-stop rain and we have floodwater in our street -- the water was high enough to get in part of our garage this morning but it went down before noon. Other places are sadly, badly affected: impassable roads, flooded homes, motorists needing rescue, households moving to emergency shelters. It's still raining right now but very lightly. They're calling this storm, Maring. It's dark, rainy and gloomy.

oh, was so happy because my package from amazon.com arrived. compared to my past experiences with their expedited international shipping, in 2009 and 2010 , this latest purchase and philippines delivery was -- wow! timeline/details: * july 30, tuesday - ordered one cd-rom (game) sold by another seller but "fulfilled by amazon" with expedited international shipping. * august 6, tuesday - package delivered by dhl. hurrah! that's only five business days . excellent. the total expedited international delivery cost increased to include a separate "import fees deposit" of $4.18 -- this showed up during checkout. it was most probably added when they switched to dhl (i remember my previous packages went through a local receiving company). and this time, tracking was available: i knew when it left the states and when it arrived in manila; i knew that it was out for delivery as early as monday morning on august 5 but it was raining badly then so i assumed th

this morning, a cat was meowing and scratching at my window - from the inside! obviously, it managed to squeeze in through the metal frame and close the glass panes behind it so it was stuck between the glass and screen. it was big and orange. i thought it would at least be panicking that it was trapped but no, when it heard me, it looked at me, purred and sat down like it was satisfied! so, we opened the glass panes and it squeezed out the same way it came in. with the excitement of the day over and told, here's food --

hello, package -- timeline for this order Friday, madaling araw - checked out and received email confirmation Saturday, hapon - delivered via xend i think this has been my quickest, completed zalora online order to date. nice. so, they're shipping orders in my area through xend again. they're charging 200 pesos for deliveries outside MM now (still free for purchases 1000 and above). zalora cart combo i was supposed to shop two weeks ago but i couldn't get past the order summary/payment page. that has happened before and when i asked zalora philippines about it, they said one of the possible reasons was that an item in my cart was not available even if their site stated otherwise. so, two weeks ago, i was taking out and putting items in my cart to get a combination that would go through payment but no joy so i stopped trying. i went back friday - the stuff i needed were still "available" - happily, the order went through OK in one go.

last tuesday's silog -- the puppy's growing fast. she's eating a lot. she can stand, lean on and put her chin on the bed already. still no garbage collection so this is still here . when the local robinsons supermarket stopped selling the kdo sugar-free coffee mix, we started buying the only sugar-free mix that they had -- great taste white. first, there was a box of 10 sachets. then, the box was gone replaced with a plastic pack of 10 sachets. now, they don't stock it in packs - they're selling individual sachets instead! parang sa sari-sari store lang .

it was raining when i woke up. pulled the blanket over me and went back to sleep. it was what we would call stay-in-bed weather. two hours later i was up and hungry. had fluffy scrambled eggs, two pieces of tuyo , rice, coffee and a bottle of water. read on the kindle for a long while to let that big meal settle before i took a nap. i couldn't help it, i had to lie down again, the weather made me sleepy. i don't know how long i was out but next thing i knew, it was time to get up. so, i was up and about. had a bath, another meal - vegetables, grilled tilapia, rice, water, and homemade biko for dessert. there was an incident outside with the puppy and a big cat - the cat attacked her! she rushed in whining and hobbling with one leg obviously hurt. she didn't appear to have a break or wound so we calmed her down with soft words and cuddles. she hobbled back out but wasn't crying anymore so that's good. we'll check her leg again tomorrow.

played with a puppy after brunch. made a toy for her from an old canvass tote. we rolled and tied it up so she'll have something to chew on. she likes to grab things with her teeth and pull. the rainy season has eased up the harsh temps from the past months, though flood and heavy traffic have become problems in many business districts. i was planning on going out soon to a government office. in my case, planning an outing is stressful already, now i have to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain on the intended day. happy to report that the ant problem is going away. a few ants make an appearance from time to time, but the bed has not been swarmed for two days straight. i am getting rid of old accounting textbooks. they have been unopened for more or less a decade so they will have to go. it's one pile (there's more but this is a start) but the bin outside is too small so we're waiting for the garbage truck to come by on collection day so we can just ha

ants are biting me, i have to get up. it's too early but i'm itchy from the bites. i'm pissed. i see them come, not too many at once but two or three every few minutes. the ant-squashing begins. as i go about this important duty, i decide on breakfast -- canned ligo sardines. it's saltier than i remember. i'm not very happy with that. i spend an hour on the kindle before trying to sleep again (while keeping an eye on my bed for ants and squashing them accordingly, of course). by the way, it's raining and not very humid today which is nice. i really have to take that nap! but i can't. hello, mosquitoes. the rain must have brought them out. how am i supposed to sleep now? my legs are getting peppered with welts. as far as getting any more sleep today, i give up. remember the salty ligo sardines earlier? well, now i'm hungry. i'm thinking jollibee. i go to jollibeedelivery.com (as guest, c.o.d.) and order up chocolate sundaes, sodas and an ama

the memory card that came with my nokia5800 started acting up after using its usb cable to transfer our vacation pictures. a picture or more, or a music file would be corrupted when i access the gallery; it's every time i access it, even through the file manager. it was frustrating. it was a mess. i had to format it. i did it last night. haven't taken any pictures or put music in yet, but so far, the phone's recognizing it ok. anyway, if it breaks again, i'll need to get a new microsd card - a reliable, branded one like sandisk or kingston. oh joy.

every room in the house is like a sauna, a SAUNA! it's so hot and humid. it's worse from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the place is crawling with ants. hate it when they get on the bed. they bite, they keep me awake. i think i'm suffering from tennis elbow. ow... ow... ow...

went to 'the mall at wellington green'. i requested it specifically because they have complimentary mobility scooters (just leave an ID and a $10 returnable deposit to use one for 3 hours). when we got to the visitor's center, all the scooters were gone so we decided to check again after lunch. good thing too because i do not think they would have allowed a scooter inside the restaurant, it was cramped in there. after lunch, scooters abound at the visitor's center - take your pick. Not that there was much of a choice, they were all the same color and model. i hopped in one, left my wheelchair behind and off we went to scour the mall. lunch was at cpk. had to wait to be seated. they were busy and we weren't a small party. ate lettuce wraps, pizza, this jambalaya fettuccine-- this chicken milanese (chicken buried under the arugula)-- and cakes. had a sangria too-- was carded. the server's reaction -- huwaaatttt???!!! hysterical. Updated 5/23/14

went to seaworld in orlando. spent the whole day there. we rented a mobility scooter from outside (from a company called 'walker mobility') and took turns riding it -- that was a clever decision; otherwise, i think we wouldn't have enjoyed our stay; there were many bags to hold, many shows and animals to see. one of which was this guy. oohh, i was so close-- hello, sea lion. clyde is his name-- didn't miss the shamu show-- closed the park with 'shamu rocks' too. i want a mobility scooter.

the kindle cover we saw at best buy was for paperwhite, without a magnetic snap to keep it closed; it was $34 -- mahal, di na . don't know if the difference in dimensions of a paperwhite and touch (wi-fi) were insignificant that a cover for one would fit the other. anyway, got one off amazon for less than $10 AND it has a magnetic snap to keep it closed (around $15 with standard shipping). this kindle cover is by Acase and so far, it's holding up. it's affordable, fits the kindle touch (wi-fi) OK and it does its job. can't beat that.

i mentioned we went camping at marco island last easter. one sleepy afternoon, too early make dinner, we drove maybe 30 minutes to naples pier to watch the sun go down -- it was beautiful. naples beach was nice but was full of people that day. we walked to the end of the pier to soak it all in. lots of people on the pier too. many were there for the famous naples sunset just like us; some were fishing along the sides. you could tell there were lots of fish from tiny air bubbles bubbling on the water; saw more than one seagull dive and come up with their dinner. there were many dolphins too. the sun went down, slowly. we started to walk back. we stopped and looked at it again once in a while. then the sun was gone. people clapped and cheered. it was infectious. we clapped too.

still talking about my recent vacation... most shops were open till 9 p.m. from monday to saturday (on sundays, they're only open until 6 p.m.). one night, after a 7 p.m. dinner (i still noticed that there's light out at 7), we went to best buy and bought a few stuff (just a few, other things i needed i got off cheaper at amazon). we stopped at a 24-hour steak 'n shake before heading back. they ordered their 'originals' - medium well, no pickle, with pickle, lettuce, tomato, and so on - and strawberry milk shakes. i had a bowl of their 'genuine chili'. we took home most of the chili. umay. nice lady server put extra crackers. i should have ordered a cup because i only wanted to try it. the leftover? we made chili cheese dogs later that week. still umay.

We went camping at Marco Island, Easter weekend. Most of our group slept at the campgrounds while a few of us - literally unable to sleep on anything below knee-level - slept at a hotel, at Red Roof Inn. I'm glad we did that because during the two nights we were there, temps dropped to 50°F ( 10°C)... brrr! We had breakfast at the IHOP next door. My eggs benedict-- Biscuits and gravy (with eggs and hash browns on the side) -- The "Senior Rise ‘N Shine"-- I love breakfast.

we recently had a short but fun vacation. the weather in southeast florida was nice while we were there. i could sun-bathe any time and not break a sweat. i only did that three times though and yes, i quickly got a tan line and suffered a little sunburn. it was even cold out on several occasions, like when we went to this park in the middle of the afternoon. cold winds with warm sunshine felt good on the skin.

RE: Bookkeeping Finally, done! Not doing this anymore. Peace!

Saw my doctor this week. I need a bigger pill box/container! Merienda was at Floating Island in MMC. We shared a Monte Carlo {250}, BLT {210} and Carbonara {240}. Monte Carlo sandwich. There were four. Elevator down to MMC's Tower 2 basement parking area. After the consultation and small talk, we looked for the restroom with a handicap-friendly stall*. We were on the first floor {one floor above the lobby/entrance; like in Europe} of Tower 1; they pointed us to Tower 2. Towers were connected so we didn't need to go out the building. We passed Floating Island, turned left, hoped it wasn't a dead end... et voila! Spotted the sign and yelled, "Restroom!" White coat in front of us yelled back, "Restroom! There!" High-Five! No, we didn't high-five but we could have. *That "handicap-friendly" stall at Makati Med was AWFUL. It's too small and the door swings inward -- it wouldn't close when the wheelchair's inside! So

Had blood drawn early this morning at a small hospital a few blocks away. Picked up breakfast on our way back. This tocilog was P43 and delicious. It was nice at 7 a.m. this morning; was cold and windy. No sun though even after 9 a.m. Didn't catch some rays, but at least it didn't rain. Man on TV said it might rain this week. Two med tech boys had a hard time finding an elbow vein to stab. To pass the time, while one worked, the other asked a question about me like I wasn't there. "How old is she?" I raised my head, looked him in the eye and answered. Maybe it was my Disney World baseball cap or someone fawning over my shoulder telling me it's going to be OK, but I wanted to surprise him... which didn't happen... He stared back with a blank face. Didn't even crack a smile. He didn't care. It was too early in the morning not to care. Maybe his failure to find a vein got him down. The other one he called "master" finally scored blood wit

you'd think after years of taking the same prescription, you'd get used to it with little to no side-effects. surprisingly, for the first time in many moons, i'm feeling yucky tonight. i think it's from the meds but it could be something else.* i'll just assume it's the meds, for now. i'm going to bed. *Update ~ Yup, it's not the meds. Hello, Miss Flo.

Whisked cooled all-purpose cream like crazy ; spooned condensed milk in, whisked ; tasted ; spooned more condensed milk, whisked ; repeated until it tasted ok to me Laid chocolate grahams in tupperware ; spooned black coffee over them so they're just wet, not soaked {used strong coffee: a little more than a teaspoon of instant in half a cup of hot water} Spooned a thick layer of the sweetened, puffy cream on wet grahams ; laid more grahams over that ; spooned coffee over that ; repeated until i used all the cream Sprinkled crushed + crumbled grahams on top ; put the lid on ; left it in the fridge to set and chill After dinner... 35 minutes later... voila! Mmm.... layers. I'm thinking two more dinners till we wipe this out. NEXT TIME ~ Make grahams layers thicker, one over another should work, the coffee should make them stick ; more crumbled grahams on top for crunch

stream-of-thought not patient but tolerance must be observed. how heavy something is depends on how long you hold it. curiosity can get tiring from a child, what more from an adult? it's not a contest, don't try so hard to win. sometimes a hint isn't enough. lying or ignorance works but then you feel like an ass for letting the meanness take over, it slips in and out. practice what you preach. you can't make someone want to change by yelling. reasonably explaining what was wrong is more effective than your barking. barking = in one ear, out the other = it's loud nonsense. you don't even feel better after, bully. decisions are stupid, not people; everyone has a breaking point. i forget who said that by judging a fish by how well it climbs a tree, the fish will forever think it's stupid. but you are acting stupid for judging. everyone can only take abuse for so long. labeling people is demeaning and ignorant. many tv shows on a downward spiral on ethics and

might not be able to play a guitar anymore. it is sad. {myositis}

cats. we're over-run, or we will be soon. they're strays. they chase, fight and mate. it's close to obscene, the noises they make.

"Congratulations! You have a fine sense of pitch." Me? Cool. Click to see larger image Test yours .

Mangoes are in season! Or are they in season all year-round? My left elbow hurts. Put my weight on it yesterday and it might have pinched a nerve. I'm in a fun, silly mood; started learning the words to BNL's "One Week". Watching prices on Amazon. Missed the chance to get a rollator at $70. It's now priced at $90. When that drops again, I'll grab it. Won't be sent here though, will be delivered to a US address {super saver shipping, woohoo!}.

a mobile PA did the rounds with a blow-horn this afternoon. the neighborhood will have no electricity from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow. if midday tomorrow will be anything like today, we'll prepare to sweat. it's starting to get humid at noon, but it's not so bad that i'll think summer has come too early. we're seeing ants in the usual places though - near the sink, the bed. i don't know how they get in my bed. they're red and they bite. took us two days to polish off a conti's cake. it was mango-something (bravo?). super nice people brought us sweet dessert, too bad it was a quick visit. can't wait till we see them again.

hate my eyeglasses na. it's only 8 months old but i knew this was coming . might come down to ditching them and wearing contacts all day, every day. they wouldn't correct my astigmatism but i think those are better than these specs. [puts contacts on] ok this doesn't work. astigmatism's too bad. [bears it] will have to get a new prescription from a different optical shop. liked the people at the previous one but these eyeglasses they made... not ok.

Since October 2012, my Zalora Philippines orders have been delivered by a Zalora messenger (previously, was through a 3rd-party courier). Nice to know that my area is being serviced this way. So, the timeline of my latest completed order: Jan 22, 2013, Tuesday, 2 a.m. - Ordered / paid for / received order confirmation Jan 24, 2013, Thursday, morning - Package delivered by Zalora messenger Excellent! They changed their terms to date: # Shipping is free only for purchases above Php1000. # If paid with CC, they may ask for credit card and ID verification (saw this in the confirmation email; called them about it and they said there's a rise in CC fraud cases). I don't think anyone likes the part about the credit card verification - totally takes the convenience out of online shopping. Also, no one wants to email an image of their CC and ID out - scary. So, it might be better to call first to see if your transaction went through OK; might find out that you don't ne

camote tops from our garden! boiled, cooled, added vinegar+sugar+water dressing, garnished with tomato+onion slices. even better if left to marinate in the fridge. so, how was my day? weather was a little cold. day was typical. but body clock's a little cuckoo lately, must be the cool weather.

My Noche Buena plate... Two dinners in one night? Bueno! New Year's Eve, we had more food and hot chocolate {waited till it cooled a little before drinking so I didn't barf like last year ; lesson learned} Hello 2013. Ten days into the new year, I think I caught up with work so that's good.

loved ordering in from max's restaurant. food would be delivered hot and in 30 minutes. then again, i did not order later than 6:30pm... until new year's day... new year's day, we called before 8pm and asked for 2 orders of lumpiang shanghai and 1 order of veggie lumpia bites. the veggie lumpia bites were delicious {not umay -oily like i had before). both lumpiang shanghai orders were lukewarm and soggy: one order tasted ok, the other one was sour and inedible. sad. next time i want food from max's, i will not call later than 6:30pm.

a few days before christmas, we had guests who cooked lunch for us; they were really nice. i wasn't in the kitchen but i heard they brought their own spices, curry and were excited to see turmeric in our pantry (good thing too because we didn't know how to use it). basically, they worked with flavors from south asia. they cooked shrimp, chicken kebab, beef and fried rice with pineapple (that i didn't get a chance to take a picture of). food was delicious and spicy -- loved it.