Snowman Watch

This SNOWMAN cup was the only cup left in the office kitchen.
It's like he is the last kid to be picked at games.
So to make it interesting for us afternoon tea drinkers, we (as in Tracy and I) decided to move Snowman and see how long it will take for someone to use him or move him somewhere else.

Day 1 - Snowman in the cupboard.

Will he still be there tomorrow? Tune in!

Quote of the Day

"There is no cure for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval."

- George Santayana

2013

May the new year bring us all Peace, Love, and Prosperity.

New York Minute

I woke up one morning realizing that it has been a while since I’ve had a good telephone conversation. Work phone conversations excluded. I am referring to the hour-long conversation about everything, anything, and most of the time – about nothing. Where the conversation starts with “hey, what’s up?” then evolves to reminiscing, then to future dreams and plans, and without realizing it, the conversation had gone full circle.


It has been a while since I’ve been involved in one of those crazy, chaotic conference calls where our phone’s three-way calling feature was fully-utilized. Conversation nowadays has been dwindled down to forwarded e-mails and one-line messages and comments.

Has life been really that hectic for all of us that we can no longer spare a few moments to do those kinds of communication? Or has social network sites, emails, and SMS killed our ability and the need to do so? How did we end up reducing our lives into a New York Minute?

Reading Project

Last September, the Lexington Public Library came out with a list of "50 Books to Read in Kindergarten." A week or so ago (yes it took me that long to catch up...) I picked-up one of the free posters and started a reading project with Emma. Our goal is to read all 50 books before she even starts Kindergarten. The list was very helpful since we have read almost all of Marc Brown's "Arthur" books and it is a very daunting task choosing a book of the hundreds on the shelf.

Below is the list of the said books. The ones in bold are the ones we've read so far, the italicize titles are the ones we are about to read. As you can see, we have a long way to go!

The 50 Books

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen/Jerry Pinkney
Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont
Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss/Tiphanie Beeke
A Splendid Friend Indeed by Suzanne Bloom
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Strega Nona: an Old Tale by Tomie de Paola
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming
Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox
Corduroy by Don Freeman
How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza
The Snowy Dayby Ezra Jack Keats
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric Kimmel
Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester
Swimmy by Leo Lionni
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall
Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper/Loren Long
The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Mother, Mother I Want Another by Maria Polushkin Robbins/Jon Goodell
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Down the Road by Alex Schertle
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Spicy Hot Colors by Sherry Shahan
Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Pete's a Pizza by William Steig
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Sims Taback
My Kindergarten by Rosemary Wells
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Don and Audrey Wood
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen
Harry, the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Identity

"Hey Emma's Mom..."
That's how I've been called lately.
I have been reduced to being just Emma's Mom.

I'm not complaining, I love being Emma's Mom.
It's just really been more noticeable now since Emma
actually have friends.
All of a sudden, I am no longer me.
I am just an extension of my child.

Is this a generational thing or is it societal?
Laziness perhaps? Or did we just stop caring?

Growing up I've always called my friends parents as Tita (Aunt)
and Tito (Uncle), Mama, or Aling (Mrs.) (insert mother's name),
and Mang (Mr.) (insert father's name).
That's just how I was taught to call adults outside the family.
I don't ever recall referring to any of them as "So-and-so's Mom/Dad."

I have been trying to teach Emma the same thing.
The rule of thumb is, close friends are referred to as Tita or Tito.
Acquaintances gets the Ms/Mrs or Mr. treatment.

Of course, as I am finding out too, everything that we try
to reinforce at home, tends to stay at home.
Just like a couple of Sundays ago.
Emma asked me, "why were you talking to Sam's mom?"
Me: "You mean Ms. Peggy?"
Emma: "That's her name????"

R.I.P.

Four years ago they both came into our lives.

They were both given to us by wonderful and

generous people we dearly love.

They have captured a lot of events and Emma firsts.

How sad that on the same week they both bade us farewell.

To our Canon PowerShot A310 and our JVC videocam- THANK YOU.
Thank you for 4 wonderful years, even though you both decided to die
during Emma's 4th birthday celebration week.
We have enjoyed your company and really appreciated everything you've done.

Now that they are both on their way to the great electronic shelf in the sky,
we have to go back taking pictures like the old days.
You know, use a film and have them developed.
All I need know is remember where we stored our good ol' Canon ELPh.

I'm in a BAND!

My friend Ty posted it first on his site, then Maitz followed.
I like to do what they do...so I did it.

-----

1. Go here. The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go here. The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go here.Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Go here.The first ten links you end up in (minus the .coms) are your 10 song titles.

----------
Here are my results -

Band Name: 860s BC
Album Title: for excellence, not perfection
Album Cover: Click here

Song Titles:

One Ring Zero
DP Review
The Inquirer
Jaundiced Eye
Smart Projects
Plan-it-X
WMUA
Urban Geek-o-Sphere
Warning Signs
This Boy is Toast

Coolness!

Long overdue

This is for my friend Nikki.
I have been trying to find the right words to use,
nay, the right approach for this post.

Unfortunately, I was never good in creative writing.
So, I therefore conclude that a more direct approach is more appropriate.
No sugar coating, no flattery,
just the truth and nothing but the truth.

Nikki was right!
She really knows her stuff well...too well.
I've known her since 2nd grade,
and she's seldom wrong on certain things.
Specifically on things that she has first hand knowledge of.
I never should have doubted her knowledge and wisdom.

Nikki's right.
I was wrong.
I am tucking my tails in between my legs.
Hiding my horns beneath my hair.

There, I've said it!
I have made my public admission.
It is done.

Question

Emma's question of the month -

"Are you happy?"

A simple and very innocent question from a child.

A hard question for an adult to answer.

Soon...

I will update my blog-
Soon.

Hopefully, I will have something to write about-
Soon.

I will go to sleep -
Soon.

For now check-out Ty's site for our Atlanta pics.
Do it now coz he will make them private-
soon.

I Am Done!

I received my HP #7 the morning of July 21st.
Started reading it on and off around 3 PM yesterday.
Finished at 2:25 AM - July 22.

For the sake of those who are still reading or about to read it,
I won't say much...except...
I was expecting more out of this last book,
and it fell short of my expectations.

That's all I can say for now.
I have to wait for my friends to be done with theirs.

So you know who you people are...
Hurry up and finish the book!!!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

**If you have not read the book and you plan to see the movie. STOP reading now!**

I just saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

YES, I did wear my "Marauder's Map" shirt to the movies.

See ----------------->

The movie version of Book 5 is

just BRILLIANT!

Best HP movie by far.

Imelda Staunton's Dolores Umbridge was excellent.

She got Umbridge to perfection.

Saccharine sweet with fangs!

The girl who played Luna Lovegood was quite good too.

She really caught Loony's oddness.

Young and innocent, yet very wise.

Gary Oldman as Sirius and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape-

just plain wonderful! Even Daniel Radcliffe has improved!

(By the way, see the latest edition of Details magazine.)

Then there was the most talked about Potter's first kiss,

which for me was bittersweet. This was also the demise

of the Potter-Chang love angle. If I remember it correctly,

the one who tattled to Umbridge about the D.A. was

Cho Chang's friend. In this movie the tattle tale was Cho Chang.

They all found out later (through Snape) that Cho Chang was

given Verita Serum by Umbridge, yet even with that discovery,

Cho and Potter are done. We all know what happened in Book 6...right?

There was also a scene where Harry and Neville was standing side

by side in front of the mirror in the Room of Requirement after

the D.A. session. Bellatrix LeStrange (talk about CRRAZZYY!)

just escaped from Azkaban and Neville was telling Harry that

Bellatrix was responsible for what happened to his parents.

Obviously Neville would want to avenge his parents, which

he actually said when they were in the Room of Prophecy.

I think that the scene was quite cool. It was like the director's

indirect way of referring to the prophecy that is only obvious

to those who have read the book. Since the only part of the prophecy

that was included was the part mentioning "marked as equal" and

"one cannot live while the other survive" or something like that.

It also makes one wonder how important Neville is going to be

in Deathly Hallows.

So who else...

Ginny kicked-ass! Talk about being a powerful witch!

The Weasley Twins rock!

When they unleashed their bag of tricks and flew out of Hogswart,

I was about to jump out of my seat to cheer them too.

Then of course came the battle in the Prophecy Room.

I don't need to give you details.

All I can say is that I was CRYING like a baby!!!

From the time Sirius and the rest of the OotP came in to the rescue,

all the way to the end...I just CANNOT stop crying.

Tears were running down my cheeks.

My head was starting to throb coz I was really trying hard not to cry.

But I just really cannot stop!

Can you just imagine what a wreck I will be when I watch the movie version of the next two book? As my friend Maita said - towels are in order!!

Finally, I know my friend Tyrone will agree on me on this one...

There should have been more of Nymphadora Tonks!

We want Tonks!

We want Tonks!