CC's Random Thoughts
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Sunday, July 31, 2005
Immigration Status
Current Mood:
Just went to the USCIS (the new name for the INS) website and checked on how the Memphis office was progressing on Green Card applications.
They're now working on applications dated December 22, 2003. They're only like, 11 months away until they get to MY application :-).
Labels: Immigration
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5:16 AM |
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Where's my blog list?
Current Mood: 
Hmm, this is strange. The list of other people's blogs that's under my "Other Blogs"heading is gone. I used a service called blogrolling to maintain that list. I tried going to their website but it can't be found.
I wonder if there's just something wrong with the server or if they went out of business. I'll give it a couple of more days. If the website doesn't come back I'll have to re-create the blog list from scratch.Labels: Blogging
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4:58 AM |
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Saturday, July 30, 2005
One of our favorite movies
Current Mood:
Steve and I have seen "Team America" at least 5 times, and we STILL find the jokes hilarious :-).
If you've never heard of the movie, all the actors are puppets, a la The Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. Basic plot: Terrorists are endangering the world's safety and it's Team America's responsibility to stop them. Team America recently lost one of their team members on a mission, so they get an broadway actor named Gary (the guy in front) to replace him.
One of the most famous parts of the movie is the puppet sex scene. It's sick :-). There's lots of swearing too--definitely not a movie for kids. Lots of politics in there as well.
But I love it because when you look past the irreverence, it's actually a brilliant parody of action films. And you soon realize as you watch it, only people who have a true understanding of the action movie genre and all its tools would be able to pull it off. You learn even more when you watch the dvd's special features. I think it's a really impressive project--Trey Parker and Matt Stone (same guys who created South Park) did a great job :-).
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2:56 PM |
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New browser
Current Mood: 
There's this new internet browser that I've been using instead of Internet Explorer. It's called Avant, and it's really cool :-).
It's got a lot of features, but let me tell you two of my favorites :-).
You know how Internet Explorer fills your taskbar with buttons when you're viewing more than one window? I hate that. The neat thing about Avant is that you only have one button on your taskbar, but you've got tabs that allow you to jump from window to window (think of the worksheet tabs when you use MS Excel--it's like that). I know this feature exists in Netscape, but the problem with Netscape is that sometimes it doesn't display web pages properly. Avant allows you to view web pages the way Internet Explorer does, but it has the tab feature for which Netscape is popular.
My second favorite thing about Avant is this: you know how, when you go on the Internet, there are certain websites you check everyday? Let's say for example you check a news website, your web mail, and your bank's website daily. If you're using Internet Explorer, you can certainly mark those links as your favorites, but you'd still have to click on each of those links individually. With Avant, you would put all those links together in what is known as a "group." Then you just click "Open All Links in This Group" et voila! All your sites open in their own separate tabs. That's just cool :-).
Avant is free, of course :-). And CNET gives it a 4 stars out of 5 rating, so you can be confident that the experts like it too :-).
If you'd like to check it out, here's the link: http://www.avantbrowser.com
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7:49 AM |
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You know you're a grownup when...
Current Mood:
You know you're a grownup when you actually enjoy doing the laundry because it means that you don't have to think about work :-).Labels: You Know You...
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7:24 AM |
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Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Putting my foot in my mouth
Current Mood: 
Steve was making dinner last night. I was walking by the kitchen and towards the bedroom when I stopped and started looking at the carpet.
"What?" Steve asked.
"I smell poo," I said. "Did one of the dogs go poo on the carpet?"
"No," he said. "You smell poo?"
"I smell something that's like dog food."
"Are you smelling my roast beef?"
Relieved that it wasn't poo, I said, "Oh yeah, that must be it."
Ever have that millisecond of awareness where you realize you just said something really, really stupid?
The look he gave was classic :-). "See if YOU get any roast beef tonight."
He's an awfully good sport, though :-). Now every time the dogs go poo he asks me if I smell roast beef :-).
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5:43 PM |
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Monday, July 25, 2005
Hmmm
Current Mood:
Hmm, I don't know if this sounds like me... got the test from Meyan's blog :-)...
Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake)
You're Elle Driver! Sly and evil, you can manipulate people in order to get whatever you want. You're usually alone, but that's the way you like it. You hate having others nearby to order you around (unless it's Bill, of course... but even then you're still hesitant).
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6:23 AM |
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Saturday, July 23, 2005
All this and funny, too :-)!
Current Mood:
Steve was feeling domestic yesterday so he did the laundry, the ironing, cleaned the bathroom (and I mean scrubbed the tub and the toilet til they shone), and vacuumed the entire apartment! When I came home from work, I was amazed at how much he had done. He's taken care of an entire weekend's worth of chores on a Friday.
Poor thing's exhausted though, and understandably so. Great thing is, all the weekend chores are done so we can do whatever he wants this weekend :-).
And I'm not completely useless either--I ironed the last load of laundry (okay, that doesn't sound like much, but I felt I needed to defend *my* domestic skills, because there's not much there :-)).Labels: That's My Husband...
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7:29 AM |
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Friday, July 22, 2005
Lazy day shots
Current Mood:
I took these pictures during my day off and thought I'd post them :-)...
Jack trying to keep cool by laying on the tile instead of the carpet
Steve smiling up at me while holding the chair I'm standing on :-).
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2:21 PM |
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Ahh, that's better...
Current Mood: 
I think I've finally recuperated from being awake for about 37 hours. The funny thing is that I still slept the same number of hours as I usually do, but I slept much deeper. Even the nap that I took later in the day was only an hour, but it was deep.
Steve said that it only took me like, 2 minutes to fall asleep last night. He goes to sleep later than I do, but he always joins me when I'm getting into bed and keeps me company until *I* fall asleep.
What's kind of funny is that, even though I had the day off today, I still did work stuff :-).
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5:55 PM |
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Tuesday, July 19, 2005
6 hours to go...
Current Mood: 
...31 hours awake and counting...
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11:33 AM |
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Monday, July 18, 2005
My work schedule
Current Mood: 
My work schedule for Monday and Tuesday is pretty crazy.
I went to work today at my usual time, 5am.
I learned at 9am that I would need to co-facilitate two training classes: one is from 9pm-6am and the other is from 9am-6pm.
So essentially, I will be working from 9pm tonight until 6pm tomorrow night. That's about 21 hours.
I get Wednesday off, though :-).
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5:20 PM |
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Sunday, July 17, 2005
A husband of many talents
Current Mood:
In Manila, a haircut costs about 4 dollars. That's from a seasoned stylist, and your hair gets washed before it gets cut. Here in the US a haircut is at least 15 dollars.
So you can imagine my hesitation of going to a stylist just to get my bangs trimmed.
"Honeeeeey 
? How good are you at cutting bangs?"
He did a great job, I must say :-). He even knew that he had to cut my bangs at a slant because I part my hair on a side.Labels: That's My Husband...
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6:08 PM |
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Saturday, July 16, 2005
Weeee :-D!
Current Mood:
Back in Manila, I used to play the keyboard all the time. I haven't really had a chance to play the piano or organ ever since I got to the US, so I've really missed it. Steve and I saw the prices of keyboards at Best Buy, and the cheapest one started at around $700.
So imagine my delight when we found a Yamaha keyboard at Costco for $135 :-)! As soon as it was payday we went back to buy it :-). I spent the rest of Friday and early morning Saturday practicing with it with headphones on :-).
It's a great machine, definitely worth it for the price :-). It even came with a keyboard stand :-).
Labels: Arts
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7:19 PM |
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
Back to normal
Current Mood:
Back to work at 5:30am... It was a little difficult getting up today (my body's like, "Night? Day? Make up your mind!") but I'm glad that my schedule is back to what I'm used to :-).
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6:09 AM |
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Just a little longer
Current Mood:
...Two more hours... just a little more and I can go home and get some sleep :-)...
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3:56 AM |
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Monday, July 11, 2005
Schedule change
Current Mood:
On Tuesday, I'll be training a class overnight. I'm going to have to get my body used to overnights again.
At least it's just one day.
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5:51 AM |
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Saturday, July 09, 2005
An evening at the Japanese Garden
Current Mood:
Steve and I went to an exhibit at the Memphis Botanic Garden on Thursday. The exhibit featured kimonos and ikebana, and the last event of the evening was a candlelit tour of the Japanese garden where you have guides telling you about the different symbolisms all throughout the area.
I was told during the Ikebana exhibit that there will be lessons starting in the fall. It's only $10 a lesson, and they provide the flowers. It'll be good to take it up again :-).
As Steve and I walked through the garden, we ran into Adam (a co-worker and friend), who introduced us to some of his friends who were at the garden as well.Labels: Arts
Posted by Unknown |
7:26 AM |
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You know you're addicted to coffee when...
Current Mood:
You know you're addicted to coffee when, after drinking a cup, your perspective does a 180 :-).Labels: You Know You...
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6:38 AM |
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You know you're under the weather when...
Current Mood: 
You know you're under the weather when it's the weekend and you're not excited about it.
{thinks about it some more} Okay that also applies to "You know you're cynical when..." or "You know you're a grouch when..." but I'd like to think I'm just under the weather--at least that's a temporary state :-).Labels: You Know You...
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6:25 AM |
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Friday, July 08, 2005
So obviously a set up
Current Mood: 
You may have heard of the ABC TV series "Dancing with the Stars." If not, it's kind of like American Idol, only it's about ballroom dancing.
There are 6 celebrities who are paired up with professional dance partners. Every week, each couple is supposed to present a particular dance style. One week it could be cha-cha, the next week it could be the foxtrot, and so on. 50% of the score comes from the judges, the other 50% from the audience who call in and vote. Each week, a couple gets eliminated.
Well for the entire show John O'Hurley (guy who plays Peterman, Elaine's boss, on Seinfeld) has been the perfect picture of elegance. You watched him and his partner and you knew they were deserving to be the winners. At the grand finale, the championship was between John O' Hurley and Kelly Monaco, who stars in General Hospital--which belongs to ABC.
Guess who won.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that John O'Hurley and hs partner were cheated. Lots of viewers aired their thoughts here.
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7:55 AM |
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Dining area concept 2
Current Mood:
Hmm, I seem to have lost my last two entries: the one where I mentioned that although Steve and I took a look at the dining set pictured below, it wasn't very comfrotable so we decided not to get it.
Anyway, I created a new dining area concept with the new dining set that we found that WAS comfortable (which was also about $100 cheaper). Here's what it'll look like:
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7:45 AM |
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Yipes, has it been 5 days?
Current Mood: 
Goodness, I hadn't realized that it's been 5 days since my last blog entry. I have a lot to make up for.
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7:02 AM |
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Sunday, July 03, 2005
Dining area concept
Current Mood:
I was leafing through this week's ads and I found things here and there that we could use to develop our dining area. We already know we want Mucha prints, but what furniture goes with that? Well since Mucha was art noveau, I figured I'd stick with that theme and use a stained glass lamp, and a dining set that had a combination of curves and lines.
I thought it'd be fun to get all those images and put them together in one picture to see what it would look like. Here's my concept for the dining area:
Posted by Unknown |
11:49 AM |
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Sundays
Current Mood:
Isn't it amazing how much we behave like our parents even when we're not trying to?
Sundays are like that for me. Back in Manila, Sundays were always "old music day." Dad would play music from the greats like Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, the Platters, Louis Armstrong...you get the idea. Then he would sit in the living room and listen to the music--maybe have a small glass of brandy.
It's Sunday and what am I doing? I'm sitting here, relaxing, drinking a cup of coffee, and listening to Yahoo Radio's Martini Lounge channel: right now it's playing Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's They Can't Take that Away from Me.
Posted by Unknown |
6:17 AM |
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Saturday, July 02, 2005
Much of Mucha
Current Mood:
While we're on the topic of art, I found other "set of 4" works by Alphonse Mucha (pronounced moo-kah, by the way :-)). I still like the 4 times of day best, but I wanted to show you some of the other stuff I found. 
Flowers
Les Saisons 1896
Les Saisons 1897 (if we can't get the 4 times of day, I'd like to get this version of the Seasons instead)
Les Saisons 1900
Labels: Mucha
Posted by Unknown |
10:25 PM |
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Why we like Kinkade
Current Mood:
If you've never been to a Thomas Kinkade gallery, you have to go to one :-). He's known as the "Painter of Light," and that's because his paintings, when you view them in a room with a dimmer, just look so COOL when you turn down the lights.
If you want to see a sample, go to www.thomaskinkade.com. On the home page is a "virtual dimmer" that shows you what one of his paintings look like at different light levels :-).Labels: Arts
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10:30 AM |
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Friday, July 01, 2005
Ahh, perfect :-)...
Current Mood:
Doesn't that just look cozy? :-) Add incandescent lighting, soft classical music and a cup of coffee, and you have a good idea of how I spent the rest of my Friday evening :-). It was fabulous :-).
Posted by Unknown |
8:24 PM |
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The bathroom
Current Mood:
Thought I'd show you pictures of what the bathroom looks like :-)...
We decided on the room's color after we got the shower curtains :-). It's lavender-blue :-).
I saw the color and thought, "You know, Van Gogh's Irises would look great here." The image on the right is what I really wanted, but the image on the left is the only version we could get.
Lots of counter space--you can see the rest of it in the reflection :-). We also added a vase of silk irises to complement the painting :-).
Posted by Unknown |
7:48 PM |
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You've GOT to be kidding me!
Current Mood:
Saw this on the news today--this was so unbelievable I just had to post it. A 646 pound catfish (for our Filipino readers, hito) was caught in Thailand. This is the largest freshwater fish on record. It died soon after, though.
But good grief, look at THAT! Makes you wonder what ELSE is growing in gigantic proportions underwater. 
Photo courtesy of the National Geographic pressroom
Posted by Unknown |
6:49 PM |
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You're a geek when...
Current Mood: 
You know you're a geek couple when you both prioritize getting a wireless internet router over a dining set :-).
It's really cool, though :-). Now Steve and I can BOTH surf the web at the same time, and my laptop's internet connection is wireless to boot :-).Labels: You Know You...
Posted by Unknown |
5:42 PM |
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