Hair pins

I blogged about the hair pins that my sister got me in my CA Vacation Recap post and Mylene asked for pictures :) pero syempre, here's a short background muna:

I was attending a wedding and wanted to do something with my hair. I decided to grow my hair out months and months ago because I originally wanted curls.

I got myself a 1 inch styling / curling iron one time and scoured YouTube for how-to videos. I started experimenting on my own hair afterwards but found it difficult to get the look that I wanted. I wanted sexy hair but it wasn't easy. Even after numerous tries, it was still hit or miss with me, sometimes I'd get nice curls, sometimes naman gulo gulo, as if I went through an air tunnel or something.

One day, I was going through You-Tube again and looking for how-to-fix-your-hair videos and came across a series of films on hair sticks.

I wanted to get something like this (see picture on left, that's a geisha stick from LongLocks.com). The videos make it seem easy but I didn't want to spend for something that I wasn't sure about.

I decided to skip the online purchase and would just keep my eyes open for any stores that might sell them. Basta I didn't want to spend extra on something that I wouldn't be happy with anyway.

A few days into my vacation, my family and I went malling and came across this stall being manned by 2 pretty Korean ladies. They sell all sorts of wigs, hair extensions, pins and other accessories. Everything was so pretty! Their display on hair extensions caught my mom's eye so she dragged us over there to look.

I was checking out their wares when this lady came up to me, unpinned my hair and decided to put my hair up in an up-do. I started to protest, but she didn't mind me. I remember hearing her mutter "wow, you've got a lot of hair" but she kept twisting and twisting my hair anyway.

Then, she pulled out these pins, I didn't know what they were at first. They reminded me of the old-style bobbie pins that my mom / aunts used to pin up their hair when they were in their teens (think beehive hair).

Basically, the lady pulled my hair into a ponytail and started twisting. She kept twisting and twisting and then when she got to the end, she folded my hair in half and tucked the bottom portion behind the upper half, pinned my hair and it looked a little something like this:

Of course, the whole look could've been cleaner if I had tucked in the loose strands or sprayed something to set it... but this is how it came out.

I used 3 pins in the picture. Sis actually bought 5 pins for me, so when I attended the wedding, I had 5 flowers in a line that started from the top of my french twist down to the bottom - very very secure.

Note ah, the wedding was outdoors and near the beach so there were strong winds.

Practice lang and watch the videos :)

Annoyed

I ordered a Micro SD card from Buy.com last 6/10. The media arrived on the evening of 6/23. I opened it and tried it and it worked. Two days later on 6/25, as media cards are apt to do, it stopped working.

I emailed Buy.com to request for an RMA # and this is the response that I got:

Thank you for contacting Buy.com regarding order #xxxxxxxx.

Unfortunately, we are not able to honor your request for a Return Merchandise Authorization number (RMA#) as the 14 days return time frame is over. However, some product manufacturers offer warranty replacement or repair services.

Diba kainis ? When do you start counting the 14 days ? It took 13 days for the product to get to my house (and I can prove that by the tracking information available on FedEx) so I only had 1 day left to test the product ? Tama ba yun ?

I didn't want to waste my energy complaining anymore. I went directly to the manufacturer's website, Kingston.com, and submitted an RMA. Ayun, I received one, free shipping pa. Hopefully, I get my replacement soon - my SD card has a lifetime warranty.

3 years in the making - Phase 1

I remember the first time I went out to "try" and buy a new range/oven. I say "TRY" because I didn't come home with one... in fact, I didn't get to buy a new range until 3 years later - today.

When I got this place, it came with original double oven range. Given that this building might be around 20 years old, this oven range should be around that age too.

It was fine, really, except that the left front burner was burnt out and couldn't be repaired because according to the manufacturer, this model was obsolete and there were no more replacement parts available.

Shortly after moving in, the right front burner died too and for the next 2.5 years, we made do with the 2 back burners.

In 2005, I decided to replace the entire thing and fell in love with those new smooth glass top electric ranges. I must have blogged about my entire shopping experience somewhere... but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't. I remember feeling drained each time I try and buy a new stove.

You see, there were too many questions. I knew that my stove was 30 inches wide and that it was electric. That was it.

Do you have an outlet ? a 220v outlet ? is it hardwired ? what kind of socket do you have ? oh, you want a microwave range hood ? do you have a 110v outlet ?

I was aghast at all the questions. I should have an outlet, right ? After all, I have a stove right now and it runs. Apparently, some installations are hardwired and don't have a socket at all. Hay, nako. The salesguy tells me that IF they come to deliver my appliance and that the old one is hardwired when they pull it out, the delivery guys won't touch it. They won't put it back anymore and will leave me with both appliances sitting out in the middle of my kitchen.

Nightmare central! It was the same in every store.

So I decided to wait till I get married and then this can become my husband's problem *evil laugh*.

2007. Hubby comes over, looks at the stove and we go out to try and buy a new one. It was the same experience all over again but I wasn't surprised. I keep telling him, "see ? see ? I told you it was hard."

Oh, yeah, I have to mention this too. It was difficult for us, almost impossible, to know the answers to those questions because we had to take a peek behind the current stove to know what's behind it. The hard part is that it seems like the big hulking thing we have has not been moved in the past 20 years so it's stuck. 2 strong people (hubby & me) couldn't pull it out.

It wasn't till April of this year, when brother-in-law came for a visit, that we were able to successfully pull this out and see what's behind.

Eto pa, bro-in-law has gotten interested in Feng Shui these past 2 months, he showed us a video that explained that each burner stood for something - wealth, knowledge, children and one other thing (I forgot). The 2 broken burners in our stove was for knowledge and children. Ayun, natakot tuloy ako, so we decided to just replace the entire thing. Maybe, we could get preggy after this :)

Early tonight, we drove to Home Depot to look around. Wala. Pangit.

Best Buy... nope. They didn't have a lot of models on the floor. Pangit.

Sears was our last stop for the night and boy, did we make a Sears Sales Rep happy tonight. We came in, browsed through the aisles for less than 5 minutes and found one that we liked. We glanced around for a sales rep and put in an order. We were there a total of 10 minutes, tops, and that includes the entire sales process.

220v line? yes
socket ? stove is hardwired, but we will handle this (we can easily disconnect / connect this)
110v line? yes
socket ? no, but we just want the micro-hood mounted, we will take care of the wiring after

Galing! I felt like I was in the lightning round of a quiz show.

When we were done, the sales guy said "wow, you guys know what you want and know what you need, you were quick to make decisions."

We smiled but in my mind, I was thinking "yeah... it only took us 3 years."

Excited na, can't wait to get this delivered this weekend. Ang bilis no ?

Typhoon Frank

Hubby and I went to mass last Sunday and were alarmed when we heard the priest say "and we would also like to pray for the people in the Philippines who were affected by the storm, a lot of them were killed,..."

I couldn't wait till mass ended. I was antsy and anxious and couldn't really sit still and concentrate after hearing that. Immediately after we stepped out of church, I called my Mom and thankfully, she answered after the first ring - this was a relief because their broadband connection at home acts up sometimes and it makes it difficult for calls to get in (voip).

To cut the long story short... our families are fine, annoyed by the day-long power outage, but fine nevertheless. They expressed concern about the ship (ferry?) that sank, they heard that there were 800 people on board and as of the time that we were talking, only 4 have been rescued.

:(

Chicken Ala Croissant

We bought a huge batch of croissants from Costco while the in-laws were visiting and when they left, a lot were still left over.

In an effort to try and finish up the leftover croissants, we wanted to prepare a dish that would go well with bread - Chicken ala King topped the list. This recipe is a variation from Diana's Kitchen.

1.5 tbsp butter
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/8 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup half and half
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 pcs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cooked and diced

1. Melt butter in a saucepan.
2. Add mushrooms and bell pepper, cook for 5 minutes.
3. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Continue stirring and cooking until smooth and bubbly.
4. Gradually add milk and chicken broth. Stir constantly.
5. Cook for 10 minutes. If you'd like a thicker sauce, blend 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water and add to sauce a little at a time, untile desired consistency is reached.
6. Cook for a few more minutes, then add chicken.
7. Heat through.
8. Serve.

Verdict: yummy! although the lack of color did bother me a little, we think that there should be reds or oranges ?

shocked.

It's 2pm on a Friday afternoon and it looks like I've run out of things to do. Well, it's more like "I've run out of things to do but it's too late (alanganin) to start working on another project." This is quite good, actually, because I worked throughout last weekend and I am looking forward to getting some rest starting today.

I am writing this post because I am still reeling from the news that my Dad gave me a few minutes ago. Without going into too many details, let's just say that it involves someone dear to us - an unmarried girl - and pregnancy.

When I first heard the news, my first thought was... "gosh, a baby ? sana ako na lang."

Hubby and I have a theory that we like to joke around with every now and then na it's easier for unmarried, still-in-school women to get preggy - of course, we do take care when we say this, baka merong ma-offend eh or mahiya. Pero in a way, I do believe that this is true... siguro it's easier to conceive when there's no pressure, no ?

So anyway,... our prayers go out to this dear girl...
... that she gets the courage to tell her family
... and that her family receives her news with love, understanding and grace
... that she gets the support, encouragement and courage to go raise her child
... that the child will be loved and well-cared for, regardless of the circumstances of its conception.

CA Vacation Recap 2008

Weeks have come and gone since I last posted, those days went by really fast and I've been busy all day (and night) until right this minute.

I had a hectic week at work before I left to go on vacation, with a potential client asking for a presentation of one of our products. Vacationing with my family wasn't stress-free either. I've noticed that since I've gotten married, I've been using hubby as a buffer against everything that bothers me - even my family :-P - so being away from him was stressful as well.

Between regular school, kumon, Chinese lessons, karate-classes and playtime at home, my nephews have a very busy schedule and we all pitched in to help relieve my sister and brother-in-law who have to juggle all these activities for the kids in addition to their full work schedules.

I had quite a few amusing conversations with the little one - the 4 year old - and I'll be posting them in the next few days so I can keep a record. Will probably show these to him when he grows up so he'll see how he was when he was a kid.

On my last day in California, I got to attend a good friend's wedding. This is the only picture I have, courtesy of Edson (a high school friend, hubby's barkada). This was taken while we were relaxing outside in one of the hotel shops just before we went in for cocktails.

Aliw rin. I wish I could've taken pictures of my hair, my sister gifted me with really nice (and medyo expensive) hair pins. I practiced for 2 days prior to the wedding and I can now do a very nice & clean french twist all by myself.

My only regret is that I wish I could've spent more time in California. I have 2 other good friends who've settled there and I haven't visited them for the longest time.