Monitor Woes

Hubby's computer monitor, the hand-me-down that we got from my friend A, decided to retire over the Thanksgiving weekend. It has served us well for almost 3 years (not to mention the years that she spent with her original owner) so it just seemed kinda appropriate to me that it went with a loud *bang* yesterday - without any sparks or burning smells, thank goodness.

I guess I should also look to this as a blessing, that the monitor chose to go out in time for Cyber Monday.

Hope that hubby finds something that he likes in the price range that I like.

Thanksgiving 2009

Hubby and I spent Thanksgiving at home by ourselves this year. We were supposed to have dinner with friends but we decided to decline the invitation when we realized that we were both feeling under the weather - I have the sniffles and hubby has a sore throat. We didn't want whatever it is that we have (or hopefully, don't have) spreading around.

Not having prepared anything at all, we defaulted to just having a hot pot dinner of soba noodles, squid balls, shrimp balls, mini buns, kani, and thinly sliced beef at home. It wasn't bad, considering that everything was "last-minute".

We have so many blessings to be thankful for this year but everything else has been overshadowed by the arrival of Swe-Cha, whom we are expecting around Christmas time. Thank you, Lord.

Panic Buying

Hubby and I went baby-shopping last weekend. With the amount of goods that we purchased, you could say that we went panic buying, it took us a few trips to bring in our purchases into the house. I don't really care about the walk to and from the car as I needed to get some exercise in as well - as if the shopping wasn't enough! Haha!

It did enter my mind to try and postpone some purchases for a few days and see if we could get better deals on Black Friday. But images of pregnant ladies running around the baby store and grabbing everything they could get their hands on and me running around with them ? Possibly even fighting over the last item available ?

Uh.. no, thanks. Wouldn't want to risk getting injured and having to consult a Hawaii Personal Injury lawyer (if I were in the state of Hawaii) just to save a few bucks. I'd rather keep my sanity. It was an amusing thought, though.

Thankful

Received a phone call today, I was nervous at first but it turned out to be a nice surprise.

Once again, my life is a living testimony to His power. God provides.

Good service

I came across this article of a "Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip" and remembered the experience hubby and I had dining out last night. I was not in the mood to prepare dinner and wanted to go out to have my new favorite sandwich at the local Friendly's.

Hubby got home late, as usual, and we got to the restaurant at around 8:45p. By that time, I was famished - remember, pregnant lady speaking here. We were able to put our orders in immediately after being seated as we already knew what we wanted. 30 minutes later, still no sign of the food.

The manager must have noticed how I was rubbing my belly, or how I was wincing from the hunger pangs or he must just plain realize that we weren't getting good service. He apologized and said that there was a big takeout order that had just preceded ours and the kitchen was getting swamped. He offered us some side salad in the meantime and we accepted.

Times like these make me realize how important good management and customer relations is. Those side salads he offered us couldn't have cost much and the veggies would've probably just wilted and wouldn't have been kept for the next day anyway. We went home full and happy. Oh, I should also mention that the manager offered me an extra scoop of ice cream with my happy-ending sundae too (now, THAT raise my spirits up, along with my glucose levels).

Mood: happy.

Coming soon

Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of my favorite authors right now. I first heard about her when I came across her book in the library - I did post a few entries before about borrowing books and DVDs from our local library, remember ? Can't believe that her newest book in her The League series will be available soon, December 1, to be exact.

I'm hoping that I can contain my excitement until this becomes available in our local library - I am operating in recession mode, after all - and I wouldn't have to resort to buying my own copy from the bookstore. Can't wait to see what happens.

Below is a trailer of her latest book, check it out :)

But then again, maybe it would be best to wait till mid-December or a bit nearer to my delivery time to start reading the entire series again. I'm a fast reader anyway and should be able to get through each book in a matter of hours at the most... it'll make for good entertainment when I'm twiddling my thumbs in the hospital - I'm kinda smiling as I'm re-reading my post right now as I'm thinking that books might be the last thing on my mind after I give birth this Christmas. In any case, I've always found time to read and I'm sure that being a new mom won't be that much of a problem.

Again, it's http://www.Sherrilynkenyon.com if you do want to check out her other series.

eBay Seller

I've been sorting through our clutter at home and saw a lot of things that we have been targeting to sell thru eBay for a long time now but have just not gotten around to doing so. It seemed liked such a hassle because we didn't know how things really worked and if it was really as easy as the FAQs described the process to be.

Anyway, last week, I finally decided to try and start off with a few items that were worthless to me. I figured, even if they sold cheap, I'd call it a day and not have to feel bad about losing money on the fees.

On a whim, I posted 3 coupons that were almost expiring (note that ebay policy states that coupons are free, bidders are actually paying for your time and effort in clipping the coupons and listing them) with varying auction lengths. One ended last week and got sold for $3.50. Another ended this morning and got sold for $5.50. And the last one ? Well, no takers yet.

To think that I was about to shred them.

Dreams

It's almost Black Friday season again and we are faced with a lot of temptation. We have been very good kids (haha!) and have been able to resist the sales and the temptation to buy stuff for the house.

Our mantra has always been "we'll have to move to a bigger house anyway" so we always end up pushing off any purchases that we had been thinking about - among those we have pushed off buying are a new couch, LCD TVs, DVRs.

So anyway, seeing these black Friday ads have gotten me thinking again... so what happens when the stars align for us (i.e. we find a new place we can afford, we are able to move, I still get to work from home, and possibly, still afford to not sell our old house ?) AND we get a chance to move ? Real Property Management is the answer. Hope we get to rent out this condo and keep it on as an investment.

*smile*

Thankfully, dreams don't cost much.

Sweetness

I visited my endocrinologist last Monday and I just have to say this before I forget - I love how he handles his practice, I never have to wait more than 5 minutes and today was no different. I was literally in and out his door. When I got in, his previous appointments had just stepped out and were walking out and I went right in. Galing.

Doc checked out my (real) scores - I have to admit that I was sorely tempted to put in fake numbers a few times when I saw that my sugar levels had spiked up - and said that there was no need to put me under medication as I have my levels under control most of the time.

The spikes ? Well... I will just have to keep a closer watch on what I eat.

On a happy note, I don't have to go back to him again until March next year. I also need to take another glucose test one week before I see him, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll pass that test by then. I promise to be a good girl and watch what I eat and exercise.

On an even happier note, I just discovered a yummy meal that still gives me good glucose levels two hours after my meal. It's a Friendly's create-your-own meal and I like to start off with the Steak and Mushroom melt sandwich (which I just found out from the website today is NOT a permanent item on their menu, argh!), I skip the fries and pair the sandwich with freshly brewed iced tea and sweeten it with Splenda. I also get to have a happy ending sundae with 2 scoops of their no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream and a no-sugar-added fudge topping.

SARAP.

And let me end my post by declaring that we are on the last stretch! We should have our baby in our arms before Christmas.

Being online

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hubby and I are techies, hubby more so than me, but I have to acknowledge that my livelihood - my source of income, as I work from home most of the time now - is largely dependent on having good internet bandwidth at home.

Work aside, we're still very much dependent on the internet - our Tivo DVR downloads the playlist and program guides from the web (connected via wi-fi to our router), we are constantly monitoring emails all day, and I even get on the internet when trying to decide and / or preparing our meals. And let's not even start talking about our VOIP phone lines - we're heavily dependent on them for keeping in touch with our family back home.

It is with these factors in mind that I am very interested in checking out charter ultra fast 60, hubby and I are always on the lookout for better (and by this, I mean, cheaper but faster) options. Charter ultra fast 60 is currently a big hit in the Saint Louis and Southern California areas and service is currently being rolled out into the Northeast (yay!). Hopefully, my building gets a chance to be connected to their service and we don't have to be limited to our cable tv & internet provider and a DSL internet provider that's becoming more and more popular these days. After all, hubby is an internet-connection snob and does not even want to entertain the idea of getting a DSL connection because it's so much slower than cable.

Surprise Baby Shower

Our friends threw a surprise baby shower for us - well, hubby knew about it but I didn't - last weekend. I thought we were going to M & R's house for the Pacquiao fight and was so happy when we were greeted with a "surprise" when I got down to the basement.

At the risk of giving out too much information (hehe), I berated hubby about not giving me a heads up. You see, I needed to go to the bathroom. Bad. And being surprised isn't necessarily a good thing when in that situation. Thankfully, there were no other surprises.. and most importantly, I didn't give a "surprise" back to my friends.

That would've been a riot.

:P

Power supply

I've been waiting and waiting for an FTP transmission of a virtual machine from our Manila office. This VM was requested by one of our programmers in the US a few days ago, I wouldn't go so far as to say that this guy is demanding, but he does have his expectations and woe to those who disappoint.

In any case, it seems like each time we transmit huge files meant for this person, something ultimately goes wrong in Manila. Last Friday, when we first started the transmission, power went out in the office building. We transmitted as much as we can, until the UPS went out.

Before helpdesk went home for the weekend, power came back on and he was able to resume the transmission. But guess what ? FTP servers were scheduled to go under maintenance that weekend so it went offline again.

Sigh.

I tell ya, one of these days, the office (or the building) has got to get one of these generac generators as a backup power supply.

Usog

You know what they say about "usog" ? That sometimes, when you have a good thing going, it's better not to mention it ?

During my last pre-natal checkup, my OB measured my tummy and pronounced baby to be growing as expected. She then told me, "you don't have any stretch marks, that's very good."

Sure enough, just days later, I noticed a whole lot of stretch marks on the bottom part of my belly.

Na-usog. Hmp.

H1N1

After lining up at a nearby town's pharmacy for 2.5 hrs, we were able to get H1N1 vaccinations. Yay!

Thankfully, hubby was able to leave work on time today (instead of his usual 7 to 8p) and got to us around 20 minutes before we reached the front of the line. Talk about good timing ;)

And yes, A and my H1N1 vaccinations were preservative free.