December 2007

After almost a week of being with an extremely grumpy baby, the nice-r Andrea is back. Poor baby must have really felt bad because of her colds.

She’s now playful and sociable (well as sociable as Andrea can be at least). Thank goodness!! She was so cranky for the past couple of days it was giving me premature wrinkles. You know how when kids get sick they always look for their moms? Well Andrea definitely lived up to that statement. She wouldn’t let go of me…it was insane.

Now she’s a little bit more willing to be put down and to interact with others.

Heaven.

I know so many men who are so confused as to what best to give the women in their lives. And we women are confused as to why men seem to have such difficulty in figuring us out.  With all the difficulty my guy friends have been having, I realized it’s time for me to offer a tip or two.

One question men have is this. Do women want sweet and thoughtful homemade gifts or do they want expensive junk?  The answer is not so simple. It depends on how rich you are. If you are quite a rich guy and you can afford to buy a girl a car and you do buy her a car… it’s not going to be as romantic as a guy who saves up all his money just to buy a girl a pair of silver earrings. 

So how should you romance your woman if you are a bit well off? Preparation and creativity is key.  Buying someone a dozen red roses will not be as sweet as creating a surprise before delivering those dozen roses. How about writing a long letter delivered to her by the MMDA officer who happens to stop your car along EDSA? Making her feel like you exerted extra effort is key.

There are so many tips on how to romance your wife or any other women in your life on this website and I sure hope you men out there are exploiting all of these resources. That way you wouldn’t need these tips on surviving a breakup

Andrea’s errr feisty personality is really beginning to show. She has shown, in more ways than one, that she’s not one baby to mess with.

Situation #1: We were in a shop when she spotted a 1 yr and 3 month old baby (6 months older than her). Andrea ran towards the baby, stopped a few inches in front of the baby and held the baby’s face. The baby screamed and ran away. Andrea ran after her and once again tried holding her. This is a milestone. First act of terrorizing another human being: Dec. 24, 2007

Situation #2:  Andrea is at the stage of being extremely clingy to me. She would cry whenever people would even attempt to pry her from me. When I start walking towards the crib or her stroller she suddenly holds on tight. One of our maids decided to trick Andrea by quickly grabbing her from behind. When she did this, Andrea hit her on the face and then tried to bite her. WOW!!  So kidnappers beware, Andrea knows self-defense.

Situation #3: I have an annoying habit of cleaning Andrea incessantly. Whenever I’m carrying her, I’m poking at her nose, her ears, etc. I just need to make sure Andrea looks presentable. Andrea usually is okay with this but sometimes she finds me annoying. This morning I was trying to clean her nose so I was pinching her nose and suddenly she grabs my nose and does the same. Okay Andrea, I get it…Don’t do unto others.

This afternoon, while walking back to my car from the grocery store, I heard a loud crash. When I turned around I saw a car with it’s fender falling off and it’s hood all skewed.  A car just slammed into a delivery truck.

I shook my head in empathy. I know the hassle these people will be going through. Not too long ago a man slammed his car against mine and I ended up being sued and having to appear in front of an arbiter.

Over 3 years since that accident, the case still had no resolution.  Lawyers here generally see these cases as a waste of the clients time and they only take on the cases cause it leads to easy money.

I wish we had people who are specialized in these kinds of cases and who are knowledgable in handling these situations like austin car accident attorney or rather the Austin Car Accident attorneys. This is their specialty and you can be sure they have handled these kinds of cases in the past.

These lawyers also come from a company with a good reputation which is rare in that field.

Sigh…why don’t we have these things in the Philippines?

My friend Vicki has two kids both of whom look exactly like her husband. She would jokingly ask her husband “Are you sure I’m the mother?”

I kinda feel that way about Andrea when I look at her. She looks so much like Ruy and it’s completely crazy. I would often call her Ruy Jr as some of you already know.

I am beginning to see bits and pieces of myself lately though. If you would look at her first picture 4 posts down, it looks a bit like my baby pictures…but then when you look at the rest of her pictures it’s all Ruy…hahaha. 

Of all the things Andrea could get from me, why did she have to pick my attitude…why?

Andrea has these marks on her face and I’m not sure if it’s from bedbugs or allergies or just from the heat. I don’t know what bedbugs are or what they look like but I know they cause rashes. I have no way of knowing if Andrea’s crib really has bed bugs or not so I just want to clean it thoroughly. I know there’s some sort of steam cleaning bed bugs or rather steam cleaning for bed bugs.

I hope we have time to do it before I go back to work.

That’s what you can call Andrea and myself. We’ve been so grumpy lately as we’re both sick. I don’t know how Ruy can stand it actually but he is somehow able to manage it. 

Andrea is being absolutely horrible. She barely sleeps and just keeps on crying. I keep on telling her “Honey I can’t give you what you want cause you don’t even know what you want.”  She’s extremely cranky and we’re basically tip toeing around her right now.

It’s so tough cause we can’t give her anything because of the drug recalls in the US several of our doctors have already warned us against it so I’d rather not risk letting Andrea take anything.

I hope she gets better soon…a cranky baby leads to a cranky Mommy…poor Ruy

From the time I was a kid, I’ve been hearing the brand name Ingersollrand. My mother is a dentist and Ingersoll Rand air tools are commonly used in her field. These equipment don’t come cheap in the Philippines, in fact they are considerably pricey but my mom would insist on getting them. I guess the brand speaks for itself that’s why people see the value in investing in such equipment.

First Ruy caught colds. Then Andrea had her vaccination which caused her immune system to go down which means she got Ruy’s colds. Now my throat is starting to itch and I’m feeling a bit weak…I’m pretty sure I’m coming down with something as well.

I feel bad cause I feel like my family’s unhealthy. Ruy and I have already agreed to stop eating junk food starting January 1 but I’m beginning to wonder if we might possibly need some nutritional supplements as well.

I don’t know why but I feel like it’s a failure on my part when my family’s sick. =(

Hey everyone. Happy Christmas!! How was your Christmas? Was it Naughty or Nice?

We had a crazy Christmas as Andrea had to go to the hospital for 2 hours on Christmas eve. Everything’s okay though so we’re so grateful for that.

Thanks to everyone who gave Andrea gifts. She enjoyed eating them all.

But more than enjoying the gifts, what Andrea really enjoyed the most are… the wrappers!!

So what about you guys? How were your Christmases?

Does anyone here know a lot about insurances? I’m looking into different companies but I am not quite sure what I should be looking at when researching. I also want to know what is a reasonable mortgage life insurance. I really don’t understand most of these things and I feel practically retarded when I read the different brochures…ayayay!

I cannot sleep!! I’m feeling so tired yet I cannot sleep. I’m 4 episodes away from finishing the season 3 of America’s Next Top Model (my constant sleep inducer) yet I cannot sleep.

I am on leave the whole day today by the way. I went to HR and found out that I have 8 leaves left. That’s already removing the 4 day mandatory leave for next week. So it means I have a whole lot of leaves but only one more working day left. Aaarghh

Andrea’s about to wake up so I guess I better prepare for that. Ciao!!

My grandmother had her haircut and the hair dresser accidentally nipped her ear. Her ear bled and the hair dresser just tried to stop the bleeding. That’s it, a few apologies and nothing else happened.

People in the Philippines don’t really take these injuries seriously enough as we don’t have well known lawyers who can assist us in these lawsuits. The people in Nebraska have Nebraska Personal Injury Attorney/Attornies who can help them out.  This is a law office which has successfully represented people who have suffered personal injuries. 

Maybe if we had such lawyers here, people like those who take advantage of the unprivileged like those from my previous post would think twice before doing so.

I saw this news online and I can’t help but feel frustrated.  How many times must this show be exposed before people start realizing their hypocrisy?  I hate how they take advatage of the innocence and the hope of the poor. Notice how every time they face a controversy they suddenly have a new millionaire.

Kawawa naman ang mga Pilipino, palagi na lang pinagsasamantalahan nang mga inaasahan at pinagkakatiwalaan nila.

A lot of you may not be aware of this, but I was supposed to take up my masteral 7 months after I found out I was pregnant. When I found out I was pregnant, this plan flew out of the window. I still regret not being able to go through with this.

I am very happy with Andrea and would not trade her for anything in the world. I cannot deny that I still have that nagging thought at the back of my mind yearning to continue my studies. The only thing that’s stopping me is logistics. I cannot handle having to drive to school, to work and then taking care of my blog, my daughter and my husband.

I’ve been researching for online universities as these seem to be the perfect solution for me. Online Learning is now universally recognized and is a wonderful solution for working moms like myself. The difficulty is in finding a reputable online university. Fake sites are a dime a dozen so one cannot be too careful. 

Capella University seems to be one of the best, if not the best, out there. It has garnered recognition and awards and offers undergraduate, graduate and ceritificate courses. I really hope I find the time to do this. Education is very important in this day and age and I know this will benefit me in the future.

*Information from this post is brought to you by Blogitive

I hate it when people ask me things expecting me to understand what they’re talking about and looking at me as if I’m stupid if I don’t get what they’re saying.  Take our contractor for instance who was asking me things about plumbing fixtures . Why would he think that I would know anything about this. Do I look like someone who studied plumbing 101 in college?

A lot of my guy friends complain that it’s so hard to find gifts for girls. I do not understand this sentiment.  It is infinitely harder for me to find gifts for boys. I have to really research and look around just to find something for Ruy and more often that not I end up resorting to just asking him what he wants.  And when I do, you know what he says? “ANYTHING!” …aaaaaaarrrggghh

A few days before Christmas and I’m still completely at a loss as to what I should give Ruy.  This is so unlike me. I think motherhood has somehow made me self-centered. I’ve already bought 2 gifts for Andrea….that’s all! Nothing for my nephews and my godchildren. I’m awful I’m telling you…just awful!

Ruy is extremely easy to please yet I’m having a hard time thinking of a gift for him.  I think he would like these memorabilia from movies. Ruy’s a sucker for these things and the site I saw offers really wonderful ones. Not only are they autographed by the actors they are also rare. These are not the kinds you find everywhere, these are serious collector items.  I can just imagine Ruy giddily looking at these things. 

I’m sure Ruy would adore the the Star Wars 30th Anniversary memorabilia which is autographed by the actors. It even has Carrie Fisher’s signature. Ruy is one of those men who are mesmerixed by Princess Lea. Don’t ask me why please, I don’t understand it as well. This is definitely perfect for Ruy. The only drawback is one piece costs as much as my car…waaah. It’s definitely worth it but unfortunately I don’t have the budget for it.

I went home pretty late 2 days ago. Andrea was sound asleep and I gently layed her down her crib being very careful not to wake her up.

Ruy was not at home and so I was the only one there to take care of Andrea. 

30 minutes after, Andrea started fidgetting and I knew she was already hungry. I gave her her bottle and then left. That’s usually how it works with us.  Andrea holds the bottle and then  slowly goes back to sleep.

I checked on her 15 minutes after and I saw the bottle with the nipple unscrewed. The bottle was at her foot, the nipple elsewhere and milk spilled all over her bedding. I was at a loss as to what I should do. Andrea was still sleeping soundly seemingly unaware of the mess she has created. Moving her would of course wake her up, while not moving her could bring her pneumonia and ant bites.

I couldn’t call the yaya cause she was sleeping in the room downstairs while we were on the 2nd floor. I got a washcloth, and wiped Andrea’s entire body, before changing her pjs. At this point Andrea was wide-awake and quite happy to be on “Mom and Dad’s” bed. I couldn’t change the beddings of her crib as I had nowhere to leave her. I couldn’t leave her on the bed when she’s happily standing up and running around the bed. I had no choice but to let her sleep on our bed….of course sleep came 2 hours after this entire incident.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t sleep because I was feeling paranoid. I half expect Andrea to roll off the bed or Andrea to wake up while I was asleep and crawl off the bed. These thoughts were very powerful instruments in suppressing sleep.

I realized how stupid I am for not scheduling a vacation during this season. Our company has a mandatory leave starting Dec. 22 -Jan. 2 and that’s a whole lot of time for me not to be working. I’m hyperventellating now just thinking about it. What do I do during this period?

I decided to research online and try to find possible vacation places and rates. Everything’s so expensive now!! The only site I saw which offers reasonable rates for Hotel Reservations is interestingly enough called Hotel Reservations. This site has everything from motel, hotel, resort rates. I sure hope I find something soon.

Where are you guys going this season?  

There are thousands upon thousands of weight loss programs out there and some of them seem to be just repetitions or copies of existing programs. While others are just so unique that you have no choice but to take a second look and let your curiousity take over. This is precisely what happened to me when I saw this new Magnetic Diet. I  looked at it and said “What!!?”. I think this new diet deserves more than a second look and you can be certain that I’ll be researching more on this. Maybe this is my solution to a sexier body.

I am feeling sooo lethargic today. I seriously am in need of coffee. I don’t know why I feel this way as I actually had a decent amount of sleep last night. Somehow it doesn’t feel like I have been getting enough rest. I wonder why?

Aside from not feeling like I’ve had enough rest I also feel like when I’m awake I am not able to do EVERYTHING I’m supposed to do.  WHY WHY WHY? I seriously don’t get it. Am I overdosing on America’s Next Top Model? I have just finished watching seasons 1 and 2 and am about to start season 3 tonight.

I swear Jen, I know you hate Tyra Banks but this show is just too funny. You have to watch it please.

I don’t know if you’re all aware of this but RUY and I share a blog. It’s this little project of ours which turned out to be quite a success. How do I say it’s a success? We’ve had it up and running for over 3 months, we have a decent base of readers and we enjoy doing it together. It’s like our 3rd baby (First is our dog Sushi, next will be Andrea and then our blog)

We’ve been talking about getting our own domain but we’re not sure how we should go about it. We don’t want to waste our backlinks and connections but at the same time we realize that having our own domain might be more beneficial for us in the long run. I’ve already looked at this website  http://www.webhostingchoice.com to look at our options.

Does anyone have any advice for non-techie people like us?  

I have completely ignored Christmas. I have not prepared for anything, bought any gift (except for Andrea’s) and I only have a handful of days left to prepare for everything.

I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I think I’ve gotten too caught up in the drama of work and marriage life that I’ve completely forgotten this tradition. I am not really proud of myself for doing this, I would love for Andrea to have a great Christmas tradition, something she’ll remember as she grows old and something she’ll be able to share with her kids when she grows up.  I don’t have something like this that’s why I really really wanted this for Andrea.

I hope it’s not too late to salvage our Christmas

Here’s an early Christmas Greeting from my small family:

ENJOY!!  

Christmas Message

I’ve been trying to come up with ways of saving more and I decided that the best way to keep track of my spending is by posting it here. That way if I fail in my attempt to save the whole world will know I failed…how embarrassing is that right? So here’s my spending for the day:

100 - Massage in the office

195 - dinner (Spicy Tuna Salad)

 21 - Sago’t Gulaman

 50 - Headband

100 - Parking

——————————— 

466 — WAAAH no wonder I’m poor. I spend so much. I’ll do better tomorrow. PROMISE!

I feel so sleepy right now. My mind is slowly drifting away into my little fantasies. Let me share my fantasy with you.

I am in a spacious room, a lot of closet space, HUGE bed with a memory foam mattress and fresh sheets with 500 thread count or more. Small box of Truffettes de France on the Side Table.  There’s a vase with beautiful flowers which I can look at any time I want to. I would have magazines and fresh orange juice.  There would be NO clutter anywhere.

I would have candles lit all over.

I can wake up anytime I want.  

I am wearing a robe.

I have a set of Amazing Grace Products to use.

Wow.  What about you guys? What are your fantasies?

Desperate times usually calls for desperate measures and that’s why people end up clutching at straws and doing things out of desperation which usually makes their situation worse. One such situation which people might consider dire and desperate is being swallowed up by debt.  Luckily there are some companies which offer bad credit loans for people who are not doing so well financially but still need the best option out there. This company will allow you to screen all the lenders to find one which suits you best.

Desperate Times need not be so desperate after all.

Have I told you guys that Andrea has 3 baby cribs and one baby bed? It’s insane isn’t it? Trust me, Ruy and I didn’t go crazy shopping for baby furniture, it’s our parents who did.  The first crib was bought by my in-laws when Andrea was born. It basically stays in our room but in a few months it should be permanently fixed in Andrea’s room. The second crib was borrowed from my nephew. My grandmother insisted on having that crib in her house so that Andrea has room to play whenever she is there (which is practically everyday)….then my in-laws said that Andrea has no room to move when she’s in the sala so they bought another playpen for her.

The baby bed? It was actually my sister’s toddler bed.

Every day of the week I leave Andrea at my grandmother’s house. She’s there with her yaya, my grandmother, my grandmother’s sister and another maid. 

I have mentioned time and again just how grateful I am to have this kind of support stemming from my family and Ruy’s family. I have peace of mind knowing that Andrea’s well taken cared off ALL THE TIME. There are just some things people do that annoy me and I just have to share this with you all.

 Andrea’s seperation anxiety is reaching it’s peak now. So much so that she would hold on to me even when she’s drinking milk in her crib as long as she sees me dressed up already.  All books advise moms to tell their babies that their leaving to make the children feel that they are not being abandoned. I try to do this with Andrea when she’s awake.

Andrea was tearing up when I was about to leave so I said goodbye properly and then left. I then heard my grandaunt say “Wala na si Mommy mo…ano…wala na”…in a taunting voice.

I don’t get it! What was the point of that? I didn’t react today as Andrea doesn’t understand it all…but I’m not going to allow that when Andrea already understands what’s being said. The last thing I need is for my daughter to feel a complex just because I go to work.  I never felt that with my mother despite the fact that she worked practically 7 days a week and I don’t want Andrea to have any issues. Aaaargghh now the question is how do I teach an old dog new tricks?

My little girl who has more attitude than hair. =)

If you would look at my bookshelf (that’s if I had a bookshelf) you would see rows and rows of self-help books. I am obsessed with making myself better in terms of achievement, behavior, thinking etc.

It’s so easy to fall into self-deprecating thoughts and damaging behavior and to be honest I’ve done this one time too many.  One thing which really helped me is my weekly session with a shrink who employed hypnosis. I don’t know how or why but it helped me a lot.

I’m dying to go back for these sessions but unfortunately time and money are not abundant right now. Luckily I chanced upon a wbesite which offers hypnosis downloads. When I first saw it I didn’t understand what it meant, upon further inspection I saw that they have canned hypnosis for a variety of problems and situations. This is wonderful as it will allow you to do it at your own time and at your own pace. The fact that one download costs so much less than my sessions with my shrink makes it SO MUCH BETTER! I am currently overwhelmed with the variety of sessions they offer that I can’t choose one right away but I’m leaning towards something already.

They also offer a No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee which is something very brave for them to do. I can only assume that they are that confident with their product.

http://www.instant-hypnosis.com/

Jen, what do you think? Is this our solution to a va-va-voom body?

This morning I went to this small shopping center where I ran some errands.  I basically paid credit card bills, water bills, mobile phone bills etc.  I was literally drained at 11:30 in the morning. How can one be so tired a few hours after waking up? 

I am not complaining about my situation…despite all the drama I LOVE my life! I have a job I adore and one that keeps me wanting to go to work and I have Andrea. Ruy and I are also constantly working on making the marriage thing work. Another blessing is the fact that we have a wonderful support system in our extended families. My in-laws are wonderful and are always trying to help out and my family will insist on helping out even when it’s not necessary (yes they’re kulit that way).

I sometimes feel like my life is just a continuous pattern of trying to get everything done, trying to meet deadlines, trying to make the budget fit while trying to keep everyone happy. It’s tiring and frustrating at times. I rarely hear people complain about their lack of time to be just them. It’s not about shopping or going to the parlor…it’s about being YOU. I chanced upon this magazing called Working Mom (the latest issue) and started reading it while waiting for my number to be called…there’s this article that tugged my heartstrings in all angles. It completely captured what I was experiencing and feeling. Let me give you guys a clip from the article:

The office is actually the one place I recover some of the old me. I can run projects with brisk efficiency and take a client to a restaurant without having to cut up his food. But that’s the office. I’m in trouble if work is the only place where I can relax.

“My life is here somewhere,” I thought realizing that I didn’t want those single girls’ definition of fun — I wanted mine. — Joy Perez, Working Mom Magazine Dec. 2007-Jan. 2008

I wish I could share the rest of the article with you but I don’t want to plagiarize anything. This woman captured what I have been going through lately and I swear I want to hug her. It’s nice to know you’re not alone

When I was in the US, my friend directed me to this particular which sells Phone Cards specifically for the Philippines. It allowed me to spend hours on the phone without breaking the bank. I was looking for something similar when I went to Paris. I had a disaster with my Mobile phone’s global roaming and it ended up extremely hard for me to get in touch with my family.

It was a giant pain I’m telling you and I looked around and around Paris but I couldn’t find a store selling these kinds of phone cards. I am now beating myself on the head and wondering why I didn’t look for stuff online.  If I did I would have seen this site which offers international phone cards. Look at how affordable all these rates are!

I think I’m going to show this to my cousins in the US. This would save them a few hundred dollars in a month.  I mean look at this, for 20 dollars they would be able to talk to their loved ones for 412 minutes!! That’s almost 7 hours.  I think this is the best deal out there and I hope people get to take advantage of this during the Christmas season.

 INSTRUCTION:
1. Posts 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don’t forget to read the archived post and leave comments.

Link 1 must be about FAMILY : not so little
Link 2 must be about FRIEND : porto
Link 3 must be about YOURSELF : too old
Link 4 must be about YOUR LOVE : significant other’s tag
Link 5 can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE : andrea’s walk to remember

Please feel free to snag this as well

Learning something from school is sooo different from actually doing something. I have taken up several units in Management and Business and although it’s very helpful, it cannot compare to actually experiencing it first hand.   Now that I have to actually do the things I’ve learned about I often find myself looking for guides to help my. I bought several books on business performance management and they are luckily helping me very much.  I seriously can’t wait for the formal training this January…

Ruy and I both work long hours which means that time with Andrea is a rare commodity.  I am always fearful of Andrea not knowing us enough or feeling like we’re not there. That’s why I really look forward to the times when we can play and enjoy each other’s company. It melts my heart when I see that Andrea not only recognizes us but actually prefers us over other people. It feels like we’re doing something right somehow when these things happen.

I realized that money talk has become a permanent fixture in my blog.  I wish I didn’t have to think about money much I think it is very unbecoming. I also believe that not talking about money is also tantamount to being dishonest. Everything is moving so fast in and around the Philippines that people are feeling more and more insecure about their financial welfare.

I understand that more and more people are understanding the need to save and invest in order to protect their income. I  would be very honest and tell everyone that I am practically a moron when it comes to investing and the like. Thank goodness for the internet and all the helpful sites offering information on these things. 

I have made a lot of money mistakes which I think I could have avoided have I been better informed and advised.  I would like to think I know a bit better now and hopefully in 2 years time, there would be less posts here worrying about money.

“I was born standing up, and talking back…”

 This seems to be true with Andrea. She wouldn’t stop walking and moving around and standing and pushing herself to her limit. Much to the chagrin of my entire family’s sensitive nervous system.  Today, while asking to be carried she decided to climb up her playpen. She was able to hoist herself halfway up the net of the crib before gravity grabbed hold of her. Can you imagine a small baby doing this?

I almost screamed.

I have sooo many files stored in my laptop. Pictures of Andrea, files for work. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do when I lose these files. I thought I could protect myself by getting 2 4gb flash disks…but guess what? One of the flash disks caught a virus and VOILA all my files was gone in 5 seconds.

I can’t risk going through this again and so I’m trying to find a way of backing-up everything I have.  I have heard of online backup and this is looking like a good option. It’s so much more economical than getting a physical hard drive plus you have the option of accessing your files wherever you are. It would be very important that this is a stable company, imagine the risk of putting all your files in a server then having that company close without any warning. I would cry if that ever happened to me.

During my research IBackup keeps on popping up and it’s looking very attractive right now?  It has won several awards and supports Open File Backups. Have any of you tried this service?

Andrea turned 9 yesterday and we’re beyond shocked at how fast everything’s going. Here’s a picture of her trying to grab her cake.

Her personality is really showing. It’s obvious that she’s extremely strong willed and I’m happy about that. I don’t want a pushover for a daughter. I’m sure this will come and bite me in the ass someday (when she’s a teenager and would refuse to follow me probably) but I’m still sooo happy that Andrea’s what she is.

Jen has tagged our home as the House of Ruru. She’s referring to the fact that Ruy has turned our home into a sort of restaurant with all his fancy cooking. Yes Ruy is a good cook and he’s also very adventurous and experimental when it comes to cooking. 

Jen was suggesting that we put up a restaurant and as much as I would love to do that, the thought of it scares me. We can’t be as risky as in the past as we have Andrea to think of now.  The fact that there aren’t a lot of companies in the Philippines which offers Small Business Financing doesn’t help our cause much as well. If we had something like EZUnsecured which provides easy processing, fast funding and awesome service maybe we’d have a better chance of setting up a restaurant.

If we’re only oozing with money this would be a fun venture that we could undertake. Meanwhile, we’ll just have to contend ourselves with dining for two in the House of Ruru

Guess who got her Starbucks Planner today? Guess who guess who?

ME!!!

I am sooo happy even if I’m not going to use it at all. I’m actually giving it to my grandmother who likes these things. I have stopped pretending that I use a planner. I end up forgetting it by the time February rolls around.

This was a tag from Jen.

5 Things Found In My Bag
–Cell Phone
–Wallet
–Plastic Envelope with random papers, receipts, prescriptions, notes, etc.
–Company ID
–Leather Wallet Containing Calling Cards (mine and others)

5 Things Found In My Wallet
–Credit cards
–ATM cards
–Random Frequent Shopper Cards (SM, Mercury, BudgetLane, Shopwise, Coffee Bean, etc)
–Insane amount of receipts
–Driver’s License

5 Things Found In My Room
–Ruy (hahaha)
–Computer
–Lamp
–Andrea’s Toys
–Ruy’s Insane Collection of mess =) (i say this with as much love as possible)

5 Things I’ve Always Wanted To Do
–Be a make-up artist
–Stay in a hotel without TV and PC (I’ve done it already but I still want to do it)
–Be able to eat foie gras and truffles all day without gaining weight
–Be a consistent blogger
–Be wonderful with excel

5 Things I’m Currently Into
–Working
–Andrea and my small family
–Being better at everything
–Be a better manager
–Be something my family can be proud of

5 People to Tag for This Meme
Ruy
Jen Tan
Van
Litzie
Tinggay

I scheduled a meeting with my boss this week. I am aching for feedback. It’s true that I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful working and personal relationship with my boss. I can tell him pretty much everything and we’re pretty much seeing eye to eye in 88% of the things we talk about. I also respect him enough to follow him during the 12% of the times when I don’t agree with him.

I asked for feedback because I’m afraid of being stagnant. I don’t want to be stuck in a rut just because things are working. I want to continually improve and find out how I can improve.  I also want to pick his brain about Business valuation errr evaluation I mean and Business strategies. I’m quite excited for this meeting….wish me luck!!

To say that my car is in tip-top shape would be an understatement. Let me tell you about the situation of my car. First, the windshield was hit by a stray rock while driving down Balara. Next, the front was hit by someone while I was parked. Lastly, I was hit by an ambulance on the side.

My car has indeed been bruised a lot and I would gladly accept car donations from generous sponsors. Hahaha…

If I only had the money, I would give up this car to this company which accepts car donations in order to fund the production of videos for kids and teens. At least my car would be going to a good cause. Unfortunately I don’t have much money so I guess I better stick to my original plan of asking for car donations. =)

I have been a very very bad blogger.

I have around 10 unanswered comments. I haven’t blog-hopped. I don’t know what’s happening with everyone. No wonder Santa’s looking so grumpy. I definitely won’t be getting gifts this year. Hahaha

Sorry guys, work went beyond crazy last couple of weeks. I’ll try to be a better blogger starting now. I’ll do my opps, then i’ll answer your comments, I’ll accept and acknowledge the awards then I’ll blog hop. =)

Andrea has received several gifts from myself already for Christmas but I can’t seem to think of a gift for Ruy.  For the past couple of years I’ve given him watches several times. I don’t know why this is so but it seems to be the trend with my gifts for Ruy (while he in turn keeps giving me wallets). Following this informal tradition, I’m looking into these Franck Muller watches which look very nice. What do you guys think?

I met several women today and each of them had their own business. From the start I’ve always known that I was not the type to go into business. I just didn’t have the heart and probably the mind for it. I deliberately avoided all business courses when I was looking through colleges.  Meeting these women however made me reconsider my mindset.

I’m know trying to find something I can pour my heart into. If I were to go into business it would have to be something I really believe in and something I’d enjoy. To be honest, I’m not quite sure if I’d have the patience to do  market research and accounting but I’m not going to discount the idea just because of these.