Heard from Lyle...

"I have 3 words for you, Dad... DON'T MAKE FUN OF MY BROTHER!"

He got mad when people laughed at him after he said that.

Officially Empty

Popcorn: 0, Checking Account: 1

"Haha!" said my checking account.

I recently blogged about our finances. Specifically, I talked about how we're running on fumes.  Anyway, the fumes have officially run out now. My heart gave a leap - poor heart, it keeps getting startled nowadays - when I checked both credit card accounts and sorted through ouor recent mail this morning

Egad!

$$ for card 1 due on the 14th.

$$ for card 2 due on the 7th.

$ monthly condo maintenance fee at the end of the month 

$ Car insurance payments due on the 9th

$$ life insurance premium

- utilities

I crunched the numbers and no matter how much I've been saving and scrimping, there's no way we're gonna be able to afford to pay off the total without dipping into the supposedly-do-not-touch* account - which, by the way, is also almost depleted. There's really nothing to worry about because we're still at the $0* debt level, except that the "do not touch" backup account is $0 balance too. Haha!

I'm not complaining. All these purchases were legit - half of card 1's total is part of the new car'sdownpayment. We maxed out the amount that we can put on the card as per the dealer's policy, we did this so we can maximize the cash-back rewards on our card. Card 2's balance is mostly my family's plane fare for their July visit. I did get back the charges that I disputed last month, but that barely made a dent in the statement total.

I've been living in America for several years now but this is the first time I realized how easy it is to get buried in debt. Today is the first time that I can truly say that I can empathize with those who owe so much. I've always made it a policy to pay off my bills at the end of the day and I've always thought that this was enough to curb our spending.

Hindi pala.

This month just proved to me how easy it is to go through your money, no matter how kuripot you are, no matter how much you watch your cents & dollars and no matter how hard you think about your purchases. 

I hope this doesn't come as too much drama because we're still a long way off from being destitute but to those who are struggling to make ends meet, I know how you feel.

---

*Edit:  I just realized that we're not at the $0 debt level because we just took on this auto loan for the 2nd car. Sigh. So correction, we're at the $ xx,xxx debt level. For now.

Congee Village

Hubby has been looking forward to this trip. Family friends recommended the Congee Village a long time ago, but they only remembered the Chinese name so we didn't find this place until we accidentally walked past it during my brother's visit a few weeks ago.

Bro took a picture and this was what it looked like when we walked past it. Needless to say, we didn't even want to try. Note that they have a sort of waiting lounge inside, there were too many people and they spilled over to the sidewalk.

We dropped by again on a weekday night and the wait was better - 15 minutes. We ordered rice baked in bamboo, sliced pork and century egg congee and fried squid with salted pepper.

The baked rice wasn't what hubby expected but the squid and the congee did not disappoint. The congee came sizzling hot and the pot was filled to overflowing, I had been craving for congee and I loved it.

Note that they also serve my favorite shark's fin soup but as I'm staying away from shark right now, I'll probably put a hold on that craving in the meantime.

My take on the Hayden - Katrina videos

So Hayden Kho's sex videos are still popping up the internet and everybody has his thing to say. Politicians and all sorts of (women's rights) groups are coming out and HK is being condemned. I thought I'd come out with my thoughts too.

I'll start off by saying that HK is a pig. He is vermin. Filming intimate moments w/o the other party's consent has got to be one of the vilest things that one can do. It's a violation of other people's rights to privacy. He deserves a good hard kick in the privates - and hopefully, a video of that gets circulated on the net too.

On the other hand, I find it hard to be sympathetic to Katrina because after all, she was in the wrong for being in that relationship in the first place. If HK is a pig, then Katrina is the vilest sort of woman on earth because by going on with HK, she is betraying another woman - someone she personally knows, who employs her - a sponsor, and someone who is supposed to be her friend. Ang kapal ng mukha that she can openly look at, talk and meet with Belo with the knowledge that she is doing Belo's man behind her back. KAPAL!

Having videos of intimate moments publicized seem like a very harsh punishment for KH, but then again, it does seem appropriate for the situation. She takes up and has sex with someone's man so now karma has caught up with her and dealt her with a harsh blow - she and everybody else finds out that the man is a pig. 

If you think about it, Katrina brought this upon herself when she made the decision to take up with someone else's man. She's sexy, pretty, popular. Is there even a shortage of men? Why take someone else's guy? 

I find it unfair that KH is now portrayed as a victim. After all, wasn't she an accomplice who later on got betrayed? The only possible victim or loser here is Vicki Belo and I say "possible" because,  from all accounts, she seems to have gotten back with HK despite all the things that he's done. VB must not see herself as a victim after all if she's willing to overlook Hayden's indescretions.

As for Hayden, while I would probably watch with glee if women were to line up to kick him in the badoodles, I am totally opposed to the politicians & Katrina's requests to PRC to have his medical license revoked. What does filming sex acts have to do with his skills as a doctor? Isn't that up to his patients if they'd feel comfortable seeing him or would rather see someone else?

Why revoke his license? Let the public decide if they want to see him or not.  

Remember that sex video of Mahal that came out a few years back? I don't remember PNP asking anybody to come in to answer questions. I don't remember Bong Revilla coming out to defend Mahal. heehee. Unfair, no ? *grin*

Now, I wonder, why did Belo take HK back ? He's probably very talented ;-) 

Gotta look for those videos.

Fumes

I was asking a friend who recently started a new job how things were. He said "eto, okay naman, nakakapanibago na parating merong laman yung checking account namin," and that made me want to check our checking account too.

So I log on. 

and gasp.

and faint (almost).

and I checked our credit card statements.

and almost fainted again.

We always make it a point to pay off our credit card balances when the statements arrive, this way we don't carry any debt. Our CC bills for the past few months have been ginormous because we've had to pay for some extras that we charged to the card:

- the bath lights and exhaust fans my uncle ordered (uncle paid me cash already)

- bro's purchases (bro paid me cash)

- Business travel expenses (company reimbursed me already)

- theater tickets with bro / hubby and pasyal expenses

- plane tickets for bro's visit (mom reimbursed me)

- plane tickets for mom, dad, achi & 2 boys' tickets (mom reimbursed me)

And then for that recent DP on our car purchase, I maxed out the checking accounts.

Oh, and let's not forget those fraudulent charges that were made to my account all the way from Spain. Unfortunately, I've been charged for these (I'm on automatic payment) even though they're being disputed. 

For those items that I've already been paid for, the money either went into my wallet or into a separate account so the account that normally funds the credit cards is feeling the burden.

For now, we are running on fumes and there's this delicate juggling act. Hopefully, the fumes last us till next payday and I won't have to touch any of our savings.

Out of the mouth of babes

I have this aunt who is very inquisitive (translation: chismosa). She likes to be in the thick of things and would always ask around and fish for information.

So yesterday, she was pumping my brother for information about a cousin's wedding. My brother, not wanting to get in the middle of things, played it safe and just said "i don't know" to all of the questions.

- Who's making the entourage gowns ? I don't know.

- Why are they getting for hosting services ? I don't know.

You get the point :)

Eventually, aunt got exasperated and said to my brother "how come you don't know ? He's your cousin!" and my brother replied "e you don't know it either and he's your nephew!".

So Aunt changed the topic and asked about me. How is Popcorn ? How does she look ? Is she fat ? (tingnan nga to, kelangan pa talaga tanungin kung mataba ako. bwiset.)

This was when my nephew - my precious, oh-so-lovable nephew - jumped into the conversation and said "Aunt S, why do you like asking questions when you already know the answer ? You just saw my A-i when Aku was not here yet." 

My nephew was referring to our visit to California last December. Everybody saw us, even aunt. Onga naman, why would she ask my brother how I looked (chismosa talaga, grrr!) when she just saw me herself a few months ago ?

Aunt was supalpal and didn't ask anything else. She said "smart talaga si Lyle". 

True :)

On Temptation

My brother has been here in the US for several days when we heard the bad news.

One of his office staff didn't come in to the office one day but left a confession letter. She stated that she stole the missing cash (a lump sum of a little over P50k was missing) and that she was very very sorry. The auditors would later find out that this girl has been skimming from their funds for a long time.

Her parents, equally apologetic, said that their daughter has not come home and they have yet to hear from her.

Now, the question is, what to do?

My uncle, who heads the enterprise, was reluctant about filing a police blotter. Kawawa raw and the parents promised to sell some things in order to generate the cash to pay for their daughter's theft anyway. If not for my Mom's persistence, a complaint (police blotter) would not have been filed. Mom hates to be the bad guy but really, if you don't prosecute these offenses, what kind of message are you sending out to the rest of the company?

Brother, not surprisingly, was much affected by this because he feels responsible. I couldn't resist pointing out that command resposibility aside, he was really partly to blame becase he was too trustful of his employees and could've implemented stricter procedures, especially when it came to handling cash.

Bro tells me that he trusted this girl because:

1. she's religious (Christian), very active with Singles for Christ

2. been with them for years

3. is a cousin of my brother's secretary (so at the very least, there's a hiya factor involved)

4. her monthly salary isn't small and the amounts she's being trusted with isn't that much larger than her salary (salary at P2ok, stolen lump sum was at P50k)

To which I replied:

1. Aren't Christians supposed to be forgiven anything so long as they repent? I don't want to get into a religious discussion  but I'm just pointing out that a person's religious beliefs does not necessarily prevent them from sinning.

2.  Oo nga, she's been stealing for years too.

3. Poor secretary, am sure she's really embarassed. Sa totoo lang, I'm just trying to stop myself from commenting on her (the one who stole) friendster page na "ikaw ba yung magnanakaw?".

4. A person's income doesn't really matter when they're in a bind. We once had an employee who stole P200k in cash, she earned a monthly salary of P50k and was in her mid 50s (i.e. it would be difficult for her to find a new job if she got fired). The thing is, the people who steal don't really expect to be caught - well, except for this girl who left a confession letter, haha! She probably did not expect to be prosecuted.

If it were up to me, cash / money matters should always be treated seriously. Because so long as everybody knows that you're vigilant when it comes to the accounts, nobody would even dare contemplate stealing from you. So when you're being lax, you're actually tempting people to steal, in a way, diba? 

If people are in a bind (translation: kapit sa patalim) and you make it so easy to steal from you, who wouldn't be tempted ?

Dad and I talked about this when shoti left for California and I tell my Dad that I hope that this serves as a lesson. Bro should be more attentive and not be so lazy in checking up on the accounts because this "lesson" didn't come cheap. Besides, he wouldn't want to tempt another person into stealing, would he ?

Ewan ko nga why brother is so trusting. Maybe it's because I'm not and he's sort of the yin to my yang. You can't blame me for being skeptical because I've suspected and actually proven theft a couple of times in my professional life. Hindi nakakatuwa.