dana820.blogspot.com

Spent Christmas day at my aunt's house and here's a fussy photo of their tree. So here's a usual story -- I ate too much, I was lying on the couch because I was sleepy (from eating too much) for about an hour before we left, and it's now almost 3am post-Christmas day and I'm wide awake. [smile] Our Christmas day feast included potato salad, pancit molo , baby back ribs, steamed fish w/ herbs, grilled fish, roast chicken, chicken estofado rice, and pasta. And there's more that I did not eat like ice cream, fresh lumpia , and fruit salad. Then here's an unusual story -- We did not celebrate Noche Buena (traditional Christmas eve dinner) and we opened gifts like two hours before Christmas. This left a slight "Bah, humbug!" feeling -- only a slight feeling -- but, yeah, it was there. [frown] Maybe it was that I did not get to eat ham last night like I expected... Oh well. There's still ham in the fridge (I think) and I will have a go at it before...

I am snacking on Wheat Thins crackers (had a handful before I took this photo, btw) with a cup of Joe. It seems unreal that Christmas day is less than 48 hours away. I guess that fact is starting to get a reaction since I've been in a blogging mood lately (notice that I've posted almost every day this past week). Like, I want to put as much as I can in before the year ends. Last night, we had talented carolers at our door. They were four teenagers - one played the guitar, another one played the violin (yup! the violin!!!) and the other two sang while they were holding music sheets. Oh, they were good. They sang three songs and it was very pleasant. Usually, when we have carolers who are organized and this talented, they would inform us beforehand - to let us know that they're coming - and kind of, ask for our consent. So, last night's entertainment was a wonderful surprise. I suppose they already planned to come to our house because they didn't stop at any of the ot...

Funny title haha but then again, maybe not. [cheeky grin] But that pretty much sums up what I had yesterday. OK, this is going to be mean but it makes for an interesting post, I think, like food that just wasn't good at all. I did finish the sandwich, though, so that it wouldn't go to waste. I am not someone who tolerates throwing food away... unless it was spoiled, of course. The burnt toast tickled the tongue in a gritty way... not good. The bit of mayo did lessen the saltiness of the ham a bit but it would have been better if there were greens too. Plus, the crumbs flew all over the place with my first bite. Good thing that I pushed them books away to make room for the plate. It goes without saying that I did not make the sandwich and that makes this post a mean commentary. But hey, if I'm going to talk about the good, I'd have to talk about the bad too, yes? This IS just another personal blog post so I'd better shut up about defending whatever. Yeah... back to...

Ah... lovely cool weather's here so it's time to break out some serious moisturizers. I have been putting on lotion several times a day for a few weeks now because of this nice weather. It's cold but not so cold that you'd have chapped lips or blue toes. It is just cold enough that your skin gets dry but not cold enough that you'd have to wear a sweater. In a few months from now this lovely weather will go and I will have to wait until December again to enjoy it. So, I think going back to this post during the heat of summer 2009 will make it more bearable. :)

Just went through my second-to-the-last Hebert's candy bar last night. We received a boxful of it as a going-away gift from friends. I used to think that there is only one bar that I can finish in one sitting (since I'm not much of a sweets fan) and that is a Nestle Crunch. Now, I'm going to add Hebert's Fully Loaded Rocky Road bar to this very, very short list -- only two items on there, so far. [salivate] Oh, and I like the Godiva dark chocolate bar too. My sister went in a shop inside a mall (shop was LV, I think) and came out with this Godiva in hand. I cannot finish a dark chocolate bar in one sitting though so that can't be put on the list. Of course the kind that Godiva makes, well, a little surely goes a long way.

OMG, it's 26 degrees tonight -- loving it! I am feeling the pressure of trying to get as much in my friend's in-house accounting books before the year ends. My goal is to complete them "as of June" and from the looks of it, I just might do it too. That is still a "maybe" though but setting a goal is always good. I know that sounds terrible since there is that annual thing (LOL) by April next year -- nyee... But I think their current BIR liaison's all right. I mean, I was expecting that they'd ask for the "as of September" reports last November but they didn't. I suppose they were considerate enough to understand that I was on hiatus for three and a half months and that they won't get anything in-house for a while! LOL But come April 2009, I've no excuses. NO EXCUSES, I tell you - I mean, I tell me !!! Huh?!? :P

Thought I'd put in a picture now so... hehe. But what I'd really like to write about is what I want for Christmas!!! Since I got what I wanted for my birthday after I wrote about it then, I figure, I'd write about what I want for Christmas here too!!! Now, it's highly probable that I'd be getting this for myself this year but... what the heck! I'd still write about it! There's only one thing I want (so far!) and that is The Script album cd!!! :D OK, glad that's out of my chest. LOL

My darling nieces received their Christmas presents from moi already -- last night! My sister called and said that the gifts arrived na . LOL Man, I was expecting them to get there in about a week but they arrived just three days after I ordered them! Cool! Anyway, it was so good to hear my 3 year-old niece saying, "Thank you, tita dada" and "Merry Christmas". Awww... it melts my heart. Obviously, she opened it already! Ate said that darling was all "Wow" and "pretty"! I got her a dressy top. :D My younger niece is still a baby so I would've loved to see my gift on her (got her a funky bib with skulls and bones!). Unfortunately, I was already in bed so we didn't get to video-chat. This is definitely one of the reasons why I love Amazon -- I'm able to send my darlings presents na without any muss and fuss with my Mturk earnings. :D

This has happened for two days this week - not on consecutive days too so it's not beginning to be a habit, thank goodness. But it feels terrible and right now - I just did it again last night/today - I am feeling... terrible. How do I describe it? Like, I'm awake but my head's not in it and my eyes are all heavy or something like that. On these two occasions, I had an early dinner like around 6pm. I went to bed at midnight and I remember not being able to sleep for the longest time. I was really tired by then because I'd be working on the books or writing or doing a different kind of work entirely. I'd be in bed and I was comfortable and all huddled under the covers because the weather has been wonderfully cool recently. So, not being comfy wasn't the problem. I think it would already be dawn (maybe between 4am and 5am) when I'd finally fall asleep. Both times that this happened, I woke up at 8am -- all hungry. I'd have breakfast but still be tired (obv...

OK, I received this Goldilocks brownie as a pasalubong and I thought it'd be interesting to compare it with RR's (Red Ribbon) version. So... it's bigger than RR, there's more nuts. This Goldilocks brownie is sticky and oily like there's too much butter (or shortening, whatever) but it tastes good. This bar was enough for two servings. I ate half of it with a fork, on a plate, the first night and the other half, again, with a fork the next night. Yeah, yeah... I'm not a big dessert eater, OK. :D My verdict on Red Ribbon and Goldilocks brownies... RR, hands down. Goldilocks was good but RR was better. :D Like I have nothing to do!!! LOL OK, I do have work so... later!

I'm feeling sick and I can't concentrate on my bookkeeping... wanted to "write" about it or anything else, though. See, when you're doing the books (mortal&pestle -- not with any software), you have to concentrate. Or else, you'd be crossing out errors over and over again and you'd have no more space and your pages will look dirty... and I don't like dirty. The worst thing that can happen is that when you're doing the totals later on, you'd get that .01 error and you'd have to go back to find it... that's such a terrible waste of time. If you've done it right by concentrating in the first place, that would never happen. Not that it's happening to me, right now, but if I went on with this while I'm feeling sick, it's inevitable. I got this bad cough and it comes and goes but right now, I feel that I'm too aware of my breathing because there's phlegm... ewww! Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, I also used "Sens...

Yes, I use Firefox 3 and yes, all I know about managing Firefox tabs (and it was all I was using too) is "Ctrl-T" to open a new tab. And no, there were no choices for it under the tools=preferences menu -- switching tabs, that is. When I searched about switching between them, all I saw were discussions about older versions and that "Ctrl-Tab" was for managing between tabs. (Well, I did open just one Mozilla forum so that's not ALL there is, I'm sure.) Okay, so that works - YEY! All I need to do now is to get used to it and I think that wouldn't be hard to do at all. :) What also works is "Ctrl-PageUp" and "Ctrl-PageDown". The first switches between Firefox tabs to the right and the latter to the left... though it does go back around so you can use either one of them. I guess I was too aware that I was going for the mouse when I wanted to shift between tabs that's why I looked it up. And it does make it easier for me to work online...

Okay, I haven't been shopping for a while but finding out that this little thing costs Php109 (a little over $2) is a shocker, to say the least! Well, it is one of my must-haves so I'll just shut up about it. It's like $4 if you buy one in the States (though with different packaging) so that's a consolation, I guess. I was so disappointed that one of my online, disposable-income sources stopped paying through Moneybookers because they changed to Paypal. That was so upsetting because now, I have to verify my Paypal if I want to have my money deposited to my bank. I guess I'll just have to use that for online shopping and not cash-on-hand (if you know what I mean) any more. :(

I've noticed that it's already dark here by 5:30pm. Actually, someone else talked about it so... yeah, it is pretty dark by then. Well, it's been cooler lately so that's good, makes one want to sleep in.. a lot. LOL I've also noticed some discomfort on my right wrist... carpal tunnel?? NOT! Thank goodness! I just looked it up and I've experienced none of those symptoms. It's probably just from clicking on the mouse a lot... from playing Diner Dash, I suppose. Or maybe it's my position -- I moved the monitor a little to the right and it's at an angle too. I should be keeping the keyboard where it's in front of me but sometimes I forget and turn it at an angle too. I figure that's making me stretch my wrist more to the right to hit "Enter" and "Backspace". Oh well... I wanted more space on the table kasi . Well, back to working then... LATER!

Here's another kind of choco cake roll from Red Ribbon. They thought the last one was so good (ditto!) that they bought another kind of chocolate roll last night. See how shiny that icing is... and how rich that cake is... and btw, it really is not THAT sweet at all (unless all you eat is the icing, of course!) I didn't ask what the name of this roll was, but it was fudge-y and oh-so-yummy. On a different note, don't you hate it when you ask for coffee in the morning and you get decaf?!? I was like, don't give me decaf when I want regular coffee!!! Oh boy... So, I drank a full glass of Pepsi max, straight, just now to get my caffeine fix today. Now, my head hurts and I want to crawl back to bed. It's probably my high blood pressure pumping away and not the Pepsi that's causing this. Oh well, that's enough rant for today... :)

This is re-heated adobo from last night. It's chicken and pork adobo. It's salty, sour and slightly sweet... yummy. There are whole peppercorns on there too. I guess they leave them whole so that we wouldn't bite into them - good idea. :)

We had a very early dinner tonight - 5:30 pm, to be exact. And to think that I just had a cup of KFC chicken-macaroni salad an hour before that. Let's just say that I took one bite of meat and a couple of vegetable pieces for dinner. But I sure didn't pass up dessert! It's a slice of Red Ribbon chocolate cake roll. Judging from the messy plate, you can tell that this is my second piece. Red Ribbon makes the best cakes, I think. This one's moist (all their cakes are!), not too sweet and decadent! And yes, my head is spinning from the sugar rush. :) Now, I'm going to get a cup of decaf so... till next time!

I painted my toes black last night... It's a slow, relaxing weekend so I thought of painting my nails. Aside from that, I've managed to read about this thing called "myLot" too. It looks interesting - people post their opinions, start discussions and the like. Yesterday, my mom made this bitter gourd (ampalaya) cold side-dish/salad that I ate with roast chicken. What's great about my mom's cold ampalaya side-dish is that it's sweet and sour with just enough bitterness (very slight, to say the least) to even the flavors out. She said my lola taught her how to make it so I think I better write it down -- for posterity's sake... She takes a bitter gourd and thinly slices it, think paper-thin slices - that's how she does it. She soaks it in water with some salt for a while, maybe, ten minutes or so. She takes a handful of the paper-thin ampalaya slices and squeezes out the water. She holds it under running water and squeezes it some more. That's ab...

I passed a document yesterday that took me a while to finish (half the day, actually). When I submitted it, I felt really satisfied... not that it was the first time... feeling satisfied, that is. When I do submit articles, there's a good sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. But since yesterday's document was more "academic" than what I'm used to, it felt really good to pass it on. Right now, I'm feeling excited about this new thing that I started a few days ago. It pays out in two weeks so I can finally see if I successfully receive my dollars -- that it goes to my peso bank account without a hitch. Obviously, my transcription affiliate has put my name at the end of their part-timers' list since I have not received any work since I came back from my hiatus. I guess it's okay because I do have to catch up with bookkeeping. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for my friend's other accounting files (they've dropped off some of it) to b...

Okay, it rained most of the day yesterday but it's, again, sweltering today. I've been talking a lot about the weather lately, I've noticed. It's because I've nothing else to talk about!!! How sad is that?!? Since this is supposed to be my WAH experience blog, I've got one new thing going on right now. I've still yet to see how this turns out - if and when I get paid - so, I don't want mention its name pa. It's all about writing reviews and so far, so good. I see my account earning dollars but, of course, I've yet to receive a payout -- the most important thing about a work-at-home job. I've got to dab sweat off my forehead now so... later!

It's sweltering for a few days and nights now. Yeah, "nights" that are supposed to be cool so that you can actually work well. Is this a global warming effect -- tropical countries become sweltering countries?!? Anyway, I was up at around 2 in the morning earlier and it was still humid! I just can't believe it and I don't remember the temperature being this high. Usually, it'd rain after this kind of heat but lately, no rain. [sigh]

If your computer's been infected with a virus or other nasty stuff, many people would much rather have their hard drives formatted right away than try to deal with it first. I was one of those people when I thought I could just call someone and they'd hook me up right away. But that's not always the case - I do hate to fester on working with fake alerts, viruses, trojans, etc. for more than a day waiting for the techie genius to come right over. It was a couple of days ago that I, unintentionally, exposed my precious computer when I should've kept from searching for a free game online. Me - the uber-paranoid, I-get-my-money-by-working-at-home-with-this-computer-so-back-off person... yeah. So my antivirus did catch some of it but not all of them. Anyway, working went to chaos with the infamous and fake "your computer is not protected so go to our site, buy our stuff and it'd all go away" crap. It even covered my desktop with this clickable image in red that...

I'm a bit heady from the lechon paksiw I had a couple of hours ago - that doesn't sound too good. I feel really full and I don't intend eat any more tonight after that. It's only 7pm and I feel sleepy already... nyee. I'm gradually settling back to work. I've managed to send a few articles and catch up on bookkeeping. I'm still waiting for the accounting documents that'll be coming in - months-worth of documents - hopefully, by next week. From what I can see, I can report back to transcribing next week too. I am excited about that... The weather's terrible... it's so hot and sticky during the day, then it gets cool at night. I don't know, I just think it's worth mentioning. Since we're close to Christmas, I'm pretty sure the weather's going to improve.

Traveling with a physical mobility issue is very challenging. When we made arrangements for international flights, one of the first things we made sure of was putting in a wheelchair request. Flying from Manila to Florida with two stop-overs (it was cheaper that way!) allowed me to assess how different airport assistance was in three countries. So, I'm just going to write those down now so I don't forget 'em next time we travel. MANILA to FLORIDA At NAIA, Manila, I had to walk from the drop-off area to the check-in counter inside because they said that the room where the chair was coming from was closed pa. Good thing we brought my walker/rollator too. A rep came with the wheels and when he saw us, he apologized. He said that it should have been taken out when we asked for one. Apparently, the guard outside didn't know how to follow up on that. The rep assisted us all the way to the boarding area. I was surprised to see a lot of travelers on wheels. It was assuring, in ...

Turns out, my bro-in-law had a photo of the bread we had at the Cheesecake Factory - what kind is it kaya??? I even went to the place's website and it didn't show the breads they serve on the menu, sayang. Speaking of bread, I find that I like brown breads more than the white ones. The worst I've had was butter bread from the grocery - blech! I don't think it goes well with anything and it wasn't any good eaten with anything too. Possibly, there's better butter bread out there... Not being a fan of chips and dips, I was very happy to find that I love tostitos dipped in sour cream and then, tomato salsa - that's consecutively, lol!

I've been wanting to eat at the Cheesecake Factory since I've seen its outlet at Disney World - seeing people leaving the place with the trademark striped boxes and plastic bags... yeah. Anyway, we've been shopping for almost half the day at Sawgrass Mills when we stopped and rested on a bench right in front of - yeah, you guessed it - this place. At first, we thought about having just dessert like a cheesecake slice and coffee but shopping does make time go fast so we ended up having dinner here in stead. I ordered one of the day's specials - the cream of chicken soup. It was either that or the fish which was whole (assuming that it was what the other table ordered, which was too big, as usual). I've learned that I could not eat all of a single serving meal at a restaurant here so I ordered something that I knew I could finish. It was a good and hearty dish!!! It went well with the brown bread that they served - yeah, I still don't know what kind of b...

It's a good-looking dsc-w90 sony cybershot and I've yet to make effective use of it. Now that I've got a digicam, I don't know what to do! There wouldn't be a problem if I wanted to post photos of my darling nieces on here though. lol! So far, I've played around with its settings - nice options there. I've also noticed that I'll need to use a memory stick adaptor to upload shots. That is, there's no usb cable option??? I'm not sure about this yet. I've got the box but I didn't really notice if there's supposed to be a cable accessory with it - I had it put up somewhere (where my niece couldn't reach it - neither could I!) before I really took a good look at it. We are going out this weekend and I'll see if I can take shots worth talking about then. I've got someone hooked on mturk after they saw what I got out of it -- used books, kitchen container, usb flash disk (yeah! that's new!). It's great that I'm here i...

I took an online survey from Global Test Market today. I registered last year (it's free) and I received a couple of invitations between then and now. It's just that this was the first survey where I met all their classification requirements. It's not that often that organizations would include international survey-takers like moi so it's a nice surprise. There's like a minimum of a 1000 points that one should get before they get paid and I am so far from that, lol! I guess US residents are most targeted so... Well, it's a nice side-thing for other WAH moolah, I guess. Most survey sites I've seen were restricted to US or Canada residents too. I would've loved to get a piece of that. Hopefully, soon, there'll be more that'll want to know what we (non-US, non-Canadian) residents think. Here's to hoping...!

It was my sister and bro-in-law's sony point-and-shoot and I love it!!! It's my first digicam and it's got nice features... the only thing better would be if they gave me a pink one! lol! But it's like dark blue black so that's good since I don't like the same old silver ones that you see everywhere. See, they're planning to get a fancy SLR one so they gave me their old camera... they're so nice. :) We had relatives here last week for their vacation and they treated me to Walt Disney World. Wow, I didn't know that tickets were that expensive - it was $75 for one person, one park (no park-hopping). We went to disney's hollywood studios and it was fun. It was hot, then it rained... it was an experience! lol! My niece enjoyed Beauty and the Beast -- me too!!! Yeah, it took me back to my childhood. Me, memorizing songs from the movie by playing the cassette tape that we had back then... So, that's like two or three more parks of disney's to ...

Yes, we did do something nice for my birthday (yey!). I blew candles, err, a candle - because I took too long to come out of the shower - on a choco fudge cake with the sweetest thing written on it with piped icing. Yeah, it's the regular HBD but I LIKE... no, I love it!!! lol! So, they sang me a "Happy Birthday" and we went out to dinner. We had dinner at a place that closes at 10pm, ergo, we were the last ones out. It's just that we drove out at 9pm and the place where we're supposed to eat was closed already. Being late just meant that I had more time to guss up which I like very much. lol! My stomach's stretched out with all the food... aagghhh!!! I'm sleepy but I don't want to go to bed yet. I don't want to have any nightmares, you know, that thing about sleeping when you're full? Anyway, we could've had cake when we got back from dinner but because of an accident, we only managed to salvage a quarter of that lovely choco fudge with t...

We lost power last night at around midnight and it came back up an hour later. The winds were really strong and we saw rain fall like sheets from inside the house. The effects of Fay were worse in other parts of the state like in the Keys and the west side. There were news of twisters in some towns too. We also heard about a storm that's hitting Manila right now (we have TFC kasi). I guess we have the same storm season in Florida and the Philippines. I hope the weather will be fair when we come home from this hiatus. I helped a little (What's smaller than "a little"? That would be how much I helped!) with painting the family room and kitchen here. It's now a "sable hay" color with a maroon-like accent wall -- very nice. They put primer where they were going to put a much lighter new color so that the old color wouldn't affect the end result. I did some priming on one side of a wall, like a fourth of the wall to be exact. lol!

It's said to be a tropical storm as of now but so far, so... fair - the weather, that is. Yup, I've been here in Florida for a couple of months now and Fay is all over the local news today. It's forecasted to pass by tomorrow and over the next few days. Hope it doesn't evolve into a hurricane. There's no rain here right now but earlier this afternoon, there was some heavy rain, wind and thunder. News said that classes are good to go tomorrow... that's good to hear. We're pretty far from the Keys (where it's reported to hit first) so I hope it doesn't get too harsh here. The weekend's almost over and an important occasion's coming up this week -- my birthday! lol! Okay, I am excited but I highly doubt it that we'd be doing anything special. Okay, I'm going to watch the Olympics now...

If you're looking to know more about my transcribing/transcription affiliate, this will be interesting... I emailed them this week about, you know... Anyway, when I mentioned that people have been asking about them (via this blog, of course) they said that I can mention that they're looking for part time transcribers - but only those with experience . So, those who are interested can check them out at abctranscriptions [*see update below]. So, that's about it... later! * 8th Feb 2011 Update - Sadly, I haven't seen any activity from them in over a year. I also checked their website and it's no longer active.

Not having much typing to do during this hiatus, I figure that I should keep my fingers "keyboard-ready" for when I go back home and start doing general transcription again (just hope that the job's still there!). I've been playing typer shark online to do just that. I must admit, it's okay and keeps me from getting bored too. Still far off from that 60 WPM goal of mine, playing typing games online can sure keep these fingers warm and toned! lol! "Toned fingers"... that's funny! lol! I wonder what other typing games there are online... Now, I keep away from the typing tutorials because they can be pretty boring. So keyboard games are always a good alternative, yeah. Hope I get a digicam soon so I can write more interesting posts...! When that happens, I'm going to have to think about writing about transcribing with pictures than just talking about food. lol!

Mturk has been my "when I get the chance" thing that I sporadically work on during this hiatus. And when I get more time here on the computer, I've been organizing tax reports that my friend's been sending me since I've been away. I've been using google docs on the latter that, by the way, takes a lot longer than if I were using MS office. Turking is hardly working since I've only been doing polls and image-moderating. Hey, there can only be so many days to go out and go galavanting on a many-months-long vacation. So to keep from getting too bored, turking is a good way to spend the little time when I do get to use the pc here. I did try writing pieces for my writing affiliate - I think I've only managed to send one article since this vacation started - and there's a notepad with some words on it here that I just couldn't get done. Needless to say, I don't (couldn't, is more like it) get to use the computer a whole lot here. Oh well, I ...

The Grimms book that I ordered on the 15th arrived today. I love the feeling that my mturk earnings are actually materializing. Anyway, the first story that I read was the Cinderella one - the original title's not this Disney name, it's Ashputtle - and oh was it gory! lol! There were toe-cutting and heel-slicing and eyes-pecking... ewww. lol! For a used book, it was in very good condition. It took about a week to get here from when it was shipped. It was shipped on the 16th, by the way. We went to out yesterday - just to the mall in Boca. Got two tops - actually one's a top and the other's a short dress but it could pass off as a top. So, here's the weird part -- I got to shop at the "kids section"! It would've been great to always shop in that size since prices are cheaper when it's the kids' section but most styles are hardly appropriate for my age. It just so happened that I saw a fairly mature-looking top by chance there and it only cost $1...

They fixed the pc here a while ago but unfortunately they had to reformat so a few applications were lost - one of which is MS office. My friend sent me their VAT report for June in Excel and I needed to get it ready for the accounting books. What I've started using is the "google docs" spreadsheet to work on it. So far, so good. It keeps the document online or "in the cloud" so I needn't download it (not that I can since MS office's not installed) and it makes it more convenient. My first snag was how I could add more data into the spreadsheet. It's because I couldn't go over the alloted space from the print area in the original document. After a few tries, the solution was to copy/paste the original data into another worksheet that's tabbed in the same file. It also auto-saves so I needn't worry about it getting lost. So far, some limits that I see with this online feature is that I can't undo more than the last action and I'd h...

I've just ordered another used book from amazon this evening. See, last week I ordered a complete-collection-brothers-grimm book (with all it's gory-glory! But I forget the title). That first seller contacted me right away and said that it had water damage and asked if I'd prefer a partial refund with the book or a full refund. Given the seller's description of the damage, I asked for the full return of my money. It was all of almost $7 of my penny-per-mturk-work so I got to have it all back! lol! Anyway, I received the full refund yesterday and I've again ordered the same book from another used book seller via amazon. I'll know by tomorrow of my order's status. The pc here is working fine now but it's very unlikely that I can remotely continue my transcription work with my affiliate though. I already figured that that would be the case. I can choose to dread the work that would be waiting when I return from this hiatus/vacation - but I don't. Well, ...

I've mentioned (more than a few times) that I'm not a big dessert fan. But lately, the highlight of our dinners has been - yup - desserts. I loooove apple pie w/ ice cream. We get pies from the grocery and some have been "blech!" while some have been "oohh yeah!!!". We've been pretty excited for a while there when we'd get a different pie every time we go to the store. But after having the "blech!" ones more than a few times, we've decided to stick to the ones we've come to know and enjoy. Tonight's dessert was banana split. OMG! So yummy. I was supposed to take a picture but I've no way of uploading it from the mobile phone that I'm using right now. Anyway, we had butter and pecan ice cream from - I forget the brand, Dreyer's maybe - and rocky road from Edy's. I had the rocky road with my banana while my sis had both with hers. She also put a scoop of strawberry sorbet in her bowl... I thought, "That wouldn...

As of earlier today, the pc here has been out of order which prompted them to buy a new one. We're expecting it to be delivered today... But it's good that the old pc here is working fine now. I just hope it doesn't shut off on me before I finish here. A couple of tourist-y spots that we've visited were City Place and NASA Kennedy Space Center. We had an early dinner and some shopping at the former and we went on the tour bus at the latter. There's wildlife at NASA here and we were lucky to catch a glimpse of two alligators and two manatees peeking from the water. I thought I also saw an eagle flying from the second stop on the tour while we were on this tower. Cool. Oh, I managed to send one article to my writing affiliate - the first one since I've been here - last week. It's been approved too. Yay! Maybe soon I can send more... maybe. It's their independence day today... the 4th of July. Too bad that it's raining though, I guess they...

We've been to Ross (?) and yes - stuff there are very affordable and pretty nice too for around $8-$30 per item of clothing! Anyhoo, I got three skirts from there. Those are two white sort of like peasant-types and one black & white one. I'm wearing one of the white skirts right now. The day's not yet over and there're already colors on it - stains (? Hope not! lol!) The first was at breakfast when we had eggs and microwave-heated chicken nuggets. It was my fault when a nugget got away from my fork (haha!) after I dipped it in ketchup. The second was courtesy of my darling niece who was so nice to offer me some cheeze puffs. She was already digging in the bag and has been licking her fingers for a while there... then she said, "Here, Dada!". GREAT! I intended this skirt to be my while-at-the-house skirt so it's okay. Stains - welcome!

The book from amazon that I ordered I arrived less than two weeks later, they said. And I've been reading it too since I've been here on holiday. I will be ordering more books from now on... hehe. This used book is in good condition too. Nice. So far, I've been to the beach, church, Target, Albertson's, Macy's... Oh, yeah, and to the Filipino Independence day celebration north of here last weekend. It rained that day. It's been raining quite a bit this week during the afternoon. We've been told that we'd be going to do the more popular tourist spots soon - that's fine with me, it can wait. I'm trying to write more pieces for my writing affiliate - that doesn't care wherever you are - but I've had to sneak in to use the computer. Ergo, I've nothing done. It's because my little niece is a formidable foe when it comes to things she has been calling "mine" and that's almost everything in here. But she's so adorable a...

Being awake at night and asleep till noon has made the dateline jump fairly manageable. It's been a couple of days now that I've gotten up at 8 or 9 am. Ah... I like it. Now, about the food... So far, all I've eaten is Filipino food. "When will I get to eat any other kind?!?" I thought. Well, last Sunday after church, I did get to eat American food - pizza. lol! Not that that's strange except that (it goes without saying that American cuisine is a "mix" of some sort but) there's one thing that - I think - sets it apart... the PORTIONS! Oh, and the portions are HUGE! I could be set for an entire day with a serving of pizza, a side dish and a soda. Well, I could put that to the test... not anytime soon, but later pa. lol! This hiatus of mine is set for three months so I've got plenty of time to do what I think I want to do. lol!

My vacation has officially started today. And here's something to kick it off - Red velvet... yum. My cousins actually bought the cake for my mom's birthday. I just snuck in a piece. lol! Is it a "hiatus" when you stop doing something for a long time? It is, right? OK, I'll be on hiatus (that sounds strange! lol!). My transcription affiliate sent me audios today. It was weird reminding them of my plans again like that. But everything's fine now - they said sorry. I said sorry too - I was sorry that I couldn't do it and that they had to redo the list (it was a long list too). I hope my transcription skills don't get rusty... Well, I'll just have to make sure that they don't now, do I? Yup! Oh, I'll be looking for a foot pedal as well. Well, I'll borrow one first and see how that goes and then I'll get one. OK, I'm getting a cold now - how's that for starting a hiatus??? Hiatus... sounds strange after a while.

BEB - Buffalo wings, Egg, Bacon - YUM! Buffalo wings were from last night... they look good! Spicy, meaty, messy. lol! What was left was like 3/4 of the fried rice. I don't know, I just felt like eating all the protein on my plate. A friend of mine is getting married this month and I made them an AVP (audiovisual presentation) - actually, I made two - that they'd show during the reception in addition to the "on-site" wedding AVP. My first effort was around three months long since I've been doing it on and off with my WAHJs. When I showed it to my friends, the verdict was -- boring! Nyee! So, I had to (and desperately wanted to) spruce it up a bit - did more frames and effects and colors. None that are "tacky" though, I don't like "tacky" effects like hearts and stars. lol! Anyway, I did that for when I started to get the hang of Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (it's an old version). And that was just yesterday. It's like, not thinking about ...

Transcription In the spirit of being a reliable WAH worker [grins], I've finished and submitted my last transcript ("last" meaning, before going on vacation) a few hours ago - again, before the deadline. [grins more] I am so relieved... That's one down and two to go -- Oh, not quite pala! I guess I'm still waiting for a re-affirmation of what we've talked about a while ago (like four weeks ago) about still having a spot on the transcription team when I get back. Well, she's on holiday right now so I guess that's why there's no feedback on the recent email that I sent. It was a simple schedule notice... sort of a "just in case you've forgotten" thing. I hope she didn't forget - I hope, I hope. Bookkeeping I've said that I wanted to finish my friend's first quarter books before I go. But from the look of things, it's not likely to happen. I'm just getting as many things done in that department as possible. I needn...

Now, why in the world would I post pictures of my hand? It just so happens that I noticed something unusual tonight... I've got callous thumbs! Well, both thumbs have callouses on the joints. I reserved the right to zoom in on the thing since it looks nasty when you don't know that it's a thumb... yeah, yeah. lol! So, are they from bending too much while I transcribe? Oh well, that's a worker's hand right there. But to be honest, I feel that my right hand's pinky is the finger that's being working its butt off (not that it has a bum...) when timestamps should be in the transcript. See, it's got the Enter key, backspace, arrows, etc. to span out for. Oh, I've noticed something really cool... I found out how to type in the pipe symbol "|". It's by pressing shift-backslash. That's the key below Enter and after Shift for qwerty boards. Cool. OK, enough with the segue... back to transcription.

It is a used book but the point is that I've actually reaped my turker reward again. It cost a penny and the shipping charge was $3.99, so that's $4.00 total. My mturk earnings was enough to cover it... those pennies added up well. lol! Again, I've sent it to a US address so it'll be delivered faster. I expect it to arrive soon. So excited. See, it's from "thriftbooks" that's a separate dealer who works via amazon so I don't know how long it'll arrive. They said to expect it between May 24th to June 12th. That's so much better than having to wait 4 to 12 weeks if I had opted to send it here. Also, what I've found out about amazon is that some independent dealers don't accept amazon gift certificates for purchases. For example, "The Body Shop" doesn't accept them. I tried to buy these towel exfoliants that I bought my mom last Christmas -- I wanted one for myself -- and when I got to the cart, it said that the dealer ...

Bloody bread, anyone? I've been talking about food a lot. I guess it's because I've been doing so many things lately that talking about food makes me full already. Or maybe, it makes me hungry. I'm not sure anymore. That's strawberry jam on the bread, btw. Oh, yeah... I am somnolent, again. That's a person who experiences drowsiness/sleepiness, mind you. That drug that I'm taking really packs a punch! MAN! I started to take it at night but, unfortunaately, it's still working after I wake up... Well, it's good that its working! It's just that somnolence effect that's bothering me. Hopefully, my body will adjust soon. Yawn!

Yeah, here's OJ and a pancake for merienda today. They were so sweet to cut it up for me. Goes to show that they think I'm a sloppy eater! lol! And thanks for the plastic fork... Put it all in a styro box and I'm good to go too! lol! It makes me think of what I think is the best breakfast - ever! I like garlic fried rice, a poached egg, and for the meat... Purefoods corned beef or Chinese sausage or canned sardines with tomato or a fried sweet sausage sans the skin or tocino... YUM! I like eggs when they're poached than if it were fried. We usually just crack an egg directly over a pan with boiling water but I've seen somewhere that you can actually cover the yolk when you do it this way - It's by stirring the hot water very forcefully so that it'd be like a whirlpool. So when the egg drops into the water, it would spin too. What happens is, the egg white will cover the yolk as it cooks. So that when you put your fork into it, the yellow would just ooze out...

What a pain it was to have our street - yeah, just our street! - to have a blackout last Friday. See, it was raining and we heard a bang from somewhere and our power went out. The power went out everywhere but it came back up again after like two minutes but ours didn't. Turns out, the garage or the car wash down the street got hit by lightning. Anyway, Meralco got us up almost seven hours later. For me, that meant lost revenue. Yup, I passed up an audio that day. Oh well, at least I got to catch up on my friend's books. My goal is to finish my friend's first quarter accounting before we go on holiday. Oh, and my friend decided to have her BIR liasion to do the taxes this month. That was so brilliant of her! She thought that since they'd be doing it while I'm away, better start now so that I can see if it's okay and that if they had any questions, they could still call me at home. Well, no call and the report's done! Great! Oh, we had shrimps cooked in oil, ...

Like my goggle specs?!? lol! An optician (?) came over last Saturday and measured me for prescription glasses. It's sooo bad... but bad eyes run in the family, what can I say? That's the price of being nerdy. lol! When I saw this pair, I knew that I wanted them. They're so black and thick and round... haha! Anyway, it fits my face perfectly. These came this morning and my only complaint is that my lashes brush against the lens when I blink. Oohh.. long lashes. lol! It says, "I'm busy, don't bother me." It can also say, "I want to look nerdy eh!" Or it can say, "Okay, class....!"

This is a sample of what I'm not supposed to be eating - white bread with mayo and cold ham. Not that having cold ham's bad, it's just that the combination's not so great - it tastes great - but not "healthy" great. But froggy up there likes it... lol. I also bought something last Sunday... USD100 . What's unexpected was that at our meeting then - as we were wrapping things up - I asked one of the guys if they can come with me to buy USD. So, my other friend was like, "How much do you want?" I said, "I don't know, USD100?" And he's like, "I got a USD100." And he pulled it out of his wallet. He probably got more in it too. I was like, "Great. Why do you carry dollars around?" But the conversation after that was pretty long so... I'm going to skip it because it's VERY late and I got to sleep. I've this new medication that has an adverse effect - somnolence. Turns out, it meant sleepiness and drowsin...

I had a merienda/dinner meeting last night and we had roast chicken (lechon manok) for dinner (merienda was spaghetti and toasted whole-grain bread slices, yum!). Turns out, they also bought like 2 kilos of lechon manok here at home. Obviously, there's a lot of leftovers. Looks like this is going to be a chicken week... cluck! cluck! I have a couple of presumptions why my friend still hasn't dropped off the accounting docs luggage here yet. One, that she's trying out to see if she can do the tax report herself and have me look at it later to make sure it's right. Or two, that they're still sorting it out - ergo - I'm going to have to cram again this weekend since it's due next week. The latter is probable while the former's just possible. Hmmm... Anyway, my gracious transcription affiliate declared a busy quarter starting this month. So true. Too bad that I couldn't cash in on any work that'd be given out next month (and very likely, two m...

My client sent my pay to Moneybookers last Thursday and I withrew it to my bank on Friday. The transaction charge was $2.79, by the way. But $2.50 was shouldered by my client so it's okay. The pay showed up in my bank account on Tuesday -- three business days! Yay! So here I was... on my way home from the doctor's yesterday. I've been weighed and I was 90 lbs. Yay (again!) But still got to stick to the DASH diet though... sigh. What's interesting was that yesterday, my doc asked if my work was stressing me out... DING! DING! DING! I think he's right. Also, I've got to wrap things up before we go on holiday too so I think that's added stress right there. I've already told my clients about my plans... I had to let go of one client since the work that I do with him has daily deadlines. He thanked me for telling him in advance. Of course, I am a reliable WAH person (lol!) so I told everyone about our vacation in June last week pa. My transcription client t...

Okay... it's more like, "it rained during the afternoon these past two days". lol! But the point is, it rained! Oh, glorious rain! Yesterday, the heat was almost unbearable at noon. In the afternoon, it rained! And it's not just any ordinary rain - there were thunder and lightning too! I was so happy that it dropped the temperature but I was also nervous that the power might go out -- it didn't. Thank goodness for that. Today, it was not that hot at noon. And this afternoon, it rained. And now, there's no more rain and it's still cool. Yay! I'm getting a feeling that all this talk I just did about the rain is going to bite me in the bum - that we'll have a typhoon soon... Oh-oh.

So happy - my latest client just sent my foreign currency pay (as agreed) thru Moneybookers (MB) yesterday. I am excited to see if I can successfully withdraw it to my bank... waiting... waiting... though I know it could take a few days, lol! I'm still excited though. [grinning] Well, the pay's not really remarkable and I think it's fair considering the work involved there. The peso seems to be appreciating - or not? Of course, it changes but hopefully, the exchange rate will be good when the transfer to my bank pushes through. [sigh] There's a lot to do this month - the merry month of May! I already talked to my friend and made arrangements for someone else to take over their monthly tax report while I'm away. Yup, from the look of things, our vacation this year is starting to take shape... the shape of Shamu, perhaps? lol! As for my other WAHJs, my transcription affiliate is willing to wait for me when I come back. Yay! I even wrote a lovely, pleading (lol!) emai...

I've not been a very productive content writer for my first affiliate lately. I've said that the "idea barrel's" saturated. So here's my solution -- reading. During those "off" times, it's best to read stuff about your topic. It's because I found out that when I do get my writing mode "on", the words just start to come out. Take, for example, the article that I just submitted a little while ago. I have read about this topic before but during that time, I just couldn't get a unique idea about it. And now, I started to think about it and words just kept flowing. And I like how that makes me feel. The weather's nice too. It's fairly cool, looks like it's going to rain. I could've had a hotdog sandwich earlier but I didn't want to spoil my appetite. We have one of those pre-packed salads with fruit, chicken, seeds, greans and I hope it stays fresh for later. This one has sesami vinagrette on the side and it's...

Yesterday... And now... it's gone! It wasn't there anymore when I woke up yesterday. Yay! The skin's pink though but that's normal. I just discovered that the headset inside my mobile's box - that I thought was just a headset for hands-free calls - was more than that. lol! After almost eight months, I started to go over the clutter that I have here. And I saw the box that my phone came with. I didn't throw it away because the warranty sticker's on it. Anyway, I was googling if my mobile can be used for international roaming. Turned out that its gsm's only at 900 and 1800 which are for Asia, not anywhere else. All right, so I looked over specs on the nokia site online and saw that one of the holes on my phone was for the headset. OK, I plugged it in. Nothing new there... Eureka! I went to the radio enhancement module and it said "Turn on radio?" Yey! It was a headset/antenna in one! That's so naive of me not to try it out when I actually bou...

For 15 pesos, I get to keep my insides cool with halo-halo. I've said that I'm not a fan of most sweets but I bought it more so to drink it than to eat its ingredients. And it does the trick... my insides are cool. Oh, I ate bits of banana, pinipig, sago, and some of that green and red gelatin. I did not, however, eat the red beans and nata de coco. And here's an interesting find... chickpeas. I may not be a big halo-halo fan but halo-halo with chickpeas? But when I tried it, it was sweet. OK, it works. lol! By the way, the scab (yeck!) on my chin's starting to peel off. I'm not trying to hurry it but from the look of things, it may be totally gone in a few days. Yay! The skin under it is pink and I don't think it'll become a scar. Half has already pulled away from the skin and the other half's still attached to the skin. Oh, skin... skin... skin. lol!