Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

- Blogging on my life events & whatever that comes to my mind!

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Monthly Archives: January 2008

Favorite snack at the moment

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That’s it, it is this muruku snacky thing that I cannot go without every day.  What’s written on the package “The snack with the crunch & the punch”.  Damn straight it is.  I brought these packets of muruku, courtesy of my sis, all the way from Ipoh; actually it should be from Singapore/Ipoh/KL/US.  They are no longer the curly muruku but bits and pieces muruku.  Yet they are still so good.  Both Db and I are trying so hard not to eat so much of these.  He said it’s easy to place the order but it’s not easy to get it. 

Oh yeah, there’s another item that we are still eating it slow.  Remember this cake?

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Yeppers, we still have 2 pieces left.  DB said he can eat the entire cake all by himself, but he knows what he’s gonna get if he did.  We had two small pieces on Sunday and he told me to place the order in now.   Ahemmmm, sis, did you read that? :D   I told him he will have to pick it up across the big pond if he wants the cake so bad.

Filed under Food
Jan 22, 2008

MLK Jr Day yesterday and back to work today

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Yesterday was Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. day.  I’m off from work and sure glad it was a day off.  I am not in the mood to work and just kind of getting bored at work.  The cycle is back again.  Of course, it’s back to work today after all the pretty much did nothing weekend except for….

I baked the banana bread again which turned out very nice indeed.  But the lemon pound cake is still not coming out right.  DB blamed in on the damn oven.  Just cannot get the temp right for the oven.  Nevertheless, DB still ate the cake coz he said it tastes damn good.  He’s having it every day for his breakfast.  Now he says that I have to make this cake till it’s right. 

Clean the house after so many weeks of slacking and even bathe the boys.  Then did some paid posts which I have to coz I’m running out of $$, but I still managed to get shoes at DSW!! :)   I have to get it because the pair of loafers I have right now is frigging hurting my feet.  The ones I have on right now are Clarks.  Yes, damn comfy and paying for what I get.

Last night I read the most and also watched the DVDs.  Then I read my text book again.  I still can’t believe I stayed awake while reading the text book.  What the hell is wrong with me?!!  Right now I’m reading about volcanoes, it sure is interesting especially after watching the DVDs and then read the book. 

Since it’s a work day and i have to bust my butt to get the damn reports in, I had better get it going, huh?

Filed under Just
Jan 22, 2008

Scrubs for SD

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SD is now going in to her 2 trimester but she sure do not look pregnant at all.  I think it is because of her size as it is.  She is a big kind of woman.  In fact, she was told not to put on any more weight for now and she is doing a very good job at it.  The scrubs she is wearing at the hospital is still wearable for her.  She was telling her dad that good thing the hospital does not require the nurses and nursing aides to wear those nursing uniforms which she thinks are too stiff.  Like her grandmother’s days as a nurse, all nurses have to wear uniforms and there were no Medical Scrubs and they were never heard of.  That is what my MIL told me. 

scrubs.jpgAnyway, SD likes those peaches scrubs by Katherine Heigl Collection.  She likes them because they are V-neck and are not 100% cotton.  She said she will have make a suggestion to her supervisor why she like them so much.  The Katherine Heigl Collection can be bought at ScrubsAndBeyond.com.  She was telling me that if she can’t get it for her work, she will get one set for herself to wear them at home.  The color is nice, rose, instead of the blue that she is wearing now at work.   They are very comfortable for just wearing it to lounge around in the house.

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 21, 2008

Customizing your own home

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My friend, Ruth and her hubby are both retirees.  They both retired at an early age.  I knew Ruth when we were working with the wicked witch of the west.  Ruth and her hubby sold their house they own in Hopkins and moved to their cabin by Lake Mil Lacs.  I have been to the cabin, it is one beautiful cabin. 

Ruth told me before they had the cabin built, they had to look up Log Home Plans at HousePlansAndMore.com to find the one and only cabin plan they like most.   Initially they thought of moving to Texas or at least to Oklahoma where her brother is.  They want to move to somewhere warm and was looking at Ranch house plans.  They want a ranch type home because it would be easier where every thing is on one level, no up and down the stairs for her arthritic knees.  However, their hearts are still in Minnesota, they went ahead and looked for the kind of cabin that they want to build.  The website was easy to use.  All you need to do is pick the type of plan you desire, fill in the basic search criteria like number of bedroom/s, bathroom/s, square feet, and estimate costs and the zip code of the area you intend to build.  The result gives them a few different plans to choose from.

This log cabin is now their spring/summer/fall home in Minnesota.  When winter kicks in, they will head south.  Like her, her brother is also looking at the bungalow house Plans for a 2,500 square feet home with 5 bedrooms for his family of 8.  At HousePlansAndMore.com he thinks he will be able to look for one at a price that he wants and most importantly, the customer service he will receive and what he gets for the price he pays for the blueprint. 

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 21, 2008

Cold weekend

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The weekend’s weather was bone chilling.  The arctic blast the midwest with temperatures dipped down to minus 20F in the evenings with windchill of minus 45F.  The snapshot below was Friday afternoon at 2:15 p.m.  When I got home I took the boys for their walk.  Like I told DB, it wasn’t that bad since I have a very good LLBean parka, only my face suffers the most.  I don’t usually pull the face cover up because of my sunnies.  I gotta have the sunnies due to the sun and it can be extremely bright bouncing off the snow.

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Saturday’s temperature was the worse.  The high for the day actually was -4F with the wind howling.  The boys went out did their business and didn’t bothered to stay out for too long.  They were at the door step knocking on the door!  Obviously I didn’t go for my walk, just stayed home and watched movies and my school videos.

Yesterday, Sunday, the football game between New England and San Diego was on but I didn’t watch it, but the Patriots (New England) won.  I was more interested on the game between Wisconsin, Packers and New York, Giants.  Yes, the Giants won 23 – 20 on overtime.  The temperature in Green Bay, Wisconsin where the Packers and Giants are was -4F with windchill of -35F.   Even tho it was so darn cold, the players were damn good.  I really give credit to Brad Favre.  That guy is in his 40s and still playing so well.  It was a disappointment to the Packers to loose that game, lost the chance to another Super Bowl.  So, Super Bowl in two weeks, will be between The Giants and The Patriots.   We watched the game on a big screen with 70F degrees in front of a fire!!!  Nice and warm.

Filed under MN Weather
Jan 21, 2008

Photohunt: Important

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PhotoHunters

This week’s theme is Important.  There are so many things that are important to me, but my family and hubby are the ones who are the utmost important to me.

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And the boys: Cooper and Ranger.

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Filed under PhotoHunt
Jan 18, 2008

Let’s study Physical Geology

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I survived the class last night.  I got home from work, did my usual stuff but had my dinner 45 minutes earlier than my usual time of 5:30 p.m.  I left the house at 5:20 and drove to my company in heavy traffic.  Crazy, but at least I got a front door parking, sorta.   I’m so glad this class is held at my company instead of some other big corporations in St Paul or, Woodbury coz they will be a long, long drive for me. 

Very frankly, this class has kept my interest.  The instructor, Mr Hickey teaches Geography and Geology, and he does have a great sense of humor.  I like teachers with good sense of humor, they crack us up, and keep the class alive.  What we learned on the first day?  Plate tectonic, the rock cycle and topographic maps.  There were all kinds of terminology that we had never heard of; what are the earth materials – rocks and minerals; and the major groups of rocks – igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.  I read the first part of the introduction which didn’t really makes sense until the instructor put on a video for us in class and it better illustrated the rock formation, cycle, how the earth’s lithosphere (the solid part of the earth) is divided into rigid plates of various sizes that move over the asthenosphere (the part of the earth).  It took me a while to get these few terminology phrases into my old rusty brain, and watching the video defnitely helps.  Yeah, I’m more of a visual kinda person when it comes to learning. 

There are 28 students in our class, four from my company and the rest are “outsiders”.  The four of us coworkers taking this class are students of Inver Hill Community College ASAP students.  ASAP stands for Adult Success through Accelerated Program.  The first thing when we ASAP students hang around is “how far out are you?” or “did you take any of the competency tests?”  Competencies are earning credits from prior learning or experiences instead of enrolling for that course.  I quite like the accelerated 8-week courses but they can be very tedious and stressful, but that way I can get my credits in sooner. 

Filed under School here I come
Jan 17, 2008

Back to school

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The time has come for me to get back to school life.  I still wish I can go full time in school and work part time.  Well, that’s a wish.  Maybe in the next few years I might be able to.  

Did I complete reading Chapter 1 of my text book, The Essential of Physical Geology?  Nope, I didn’t.  One more page and I would have made it, but instead I was watching CBS Comanche Moon, the pre-queal to the Lonesome Dove.   Ahhh, but then, Facebook kept whispering to me telling me I need to respond to all those requests and messages that are sitting in my notification box and inbox.   That was what I did, abandoned the show but left the TV on in the living room and visited Facebook.  I tell ya, this Facebook can be addictive.  After 1.5 hours jacking around with it, I called it a night.  The Essential of Physical Geology is still sitting pretty on the dining table with the piece of paper still sticking out from where I left off.  Oh, the PC doctor fixed my PC so I didn’t have to use DB’s laptop.

Class starts tonight at 6 p.m.  I will leave office at my regular time, 2:30, rush home, walk the boys for about 45 minutes, shower, dinner and go.  Hopefully I can get out the house by 5:15-ish the latest.  This time around classes will be held at my company.  I know I could have stayed back after work, take my shower in the shower room and have my dinner and do my internet stuff in the cafeteria, but I want to get home and do all the rushing and stressing myself.  I have done the staying back and showering crap for 2 months a year ago and I hated it.  Very “mar fan” (troublesome), plus I don’t get to walk the boys.  Looks like I cannot break away from a routine, or should I say an addiction!  Nothing beats being home where I’m comfortable.  Anyway, classes commence at 6 p.m. and runs till 9:30 p.m.   I’m hoping the instructor will keep us awake and make the class time go by quick.

Filed under School here I come
Jan 16, 2008

PC died

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My home PC died on me.  It was working fine when I turned it on yesterday afternoon.  I checked my mail, did some paid surveys, and left the survey thingy on while I got ready dinner.  After dinner and shower, it was 6:45 p.m. looked at my PC, it was freezed up, man!!  Hit and power button, na-da.  Held on to the power button hopefully it will shut down, na-da.  Did the three-finger salute (Ctrl/Alt/Del), na-da.  Finally crawled under the desk and flipped the switch.  Waited for a few minutes, powered her up; it started up but it won’t boot – Windows not kicking in.  Damn.  Pisses me off.  Had to call in the PC doctor  for consultation.  The PC doctor said he has to look into it in the morning coz he can’t do much right now.   Urghhhhh!!!  Nothing worse than not having a functioning PC at home.  I know I can use one of Db’s PC, but I don’t like doing my stuff in his office.  I might grab his laptop if my PC is not fix yet.  Hope the PC doc can fix it for me.

Filed under Ramblings
Jan 15, 2008

Facebook

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I was watching 60 Minutes on Sunday night while giving the boys their evening apples and carrots.  Nothing much interesting until Leslie Stahl came on interviewing the creator of Facebook.   Bam, that got my attention.   This guy who is only 23 years old, a Harvard drop-out, started Facebook while he was still at Harvard.  It was only an online student directory where students are able to send messages to each other.  And all these were done out of his dorm room.  You can read the rest of the interview here

My friend Deb was the one who introduced me to this wonderful Facebook.  I have heard of Facebook, but did’nt bother to check it out.   I thought it’s another MySpace kinda thingy.  When I got the invite from Deb to join and be her friend, I thought, what the heck.  I was kinda hooked to finding out who else has joined this online keeping in touch friends/people directory.  And the next best thing was I found my former classmate, SY, who I was once kept in contact back in 2000, but somehow we lost all contact till I was kaypoh-ing at someone’s profile and saw her.  I was so happy I found her and I really hope we will keep in contact from now on.

Plus, I really like the games, too.  Some of them are not an easy feat to get a score.  Scrabulous is getting to be really fun.  SY invited me to a game she initiated, and I have to say she is really kicking my ass!  Who knows, I might initiate another game with her….

All said, my opinion of this another social networking thingy is great to look up friends you have not kept in touch, at least for me!  And to poke and poke them, give them virtual drinks and flowers,  notes, I find it fun.  I can get into Facebook the whole day if I want but i’m spacing myself.  Can’t get too addicted to it!

Filed under Just
Jan 15, 2008

MIL new interest

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My MIL is asking DB if he would like to join her in buying gold for investment sakes.  She said she has been thinking about since for quite a while especially since she is receiving extra income from her deceased mother’s estate, plus each month’s revenue from the farm that is now run by her younger brother.  She asked her other children to join her but they all turned her down.  DB is seriously thinking about it. 

Gold is one of world’s precious metal.  It is a commodity traded by many investors all over the globe.  If one is interested they can buy gold at BuillionVault.com, an online website for trading and investing in gold.  You can even store your purchase in their vault safely.  Their website is extremely user-friendly with tabs for your account, orders, the market, gold analysis and current news on the gold market.  

MIL told DB she would buy the gold buillion for her investments and also for him, too.  With BuillionVault.com, she and DB can obtain the necessary information they need to understand better how one can invest on this commodity.  Like what DB said, he is very interested in the website’s gold price chart which is very new to him.  He is trying to grasp more of this new interest and bring his mom up todate on his findings. 

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 15, 2008

Weekend of eating

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We have been eating the entire weekend.  Corrine gave me some siew paus, curry puffs, doggie buns, and char siew paus on Thursday and Friday.  Those are DB and my favorites.  And what I did on Saturday since I didn’t have to work, I made that lemon sour cream cake again.  The result, still not as good.  DB knows is the damn oven we have that is screwing the cake up.  But he still likes it, and I actually like it too. 

Today’s brunch was at IHOP.  I went with Corrine, her boy, David, nephew, Ren, and another friend, Tammi.   We had a choice of Panera Bread or IHOP.  I still prefer IHOP.  Panera Bread is too common, plus I do go there for lunch.

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dsc01224.JPGI had french toasts with an egg and a piece of sausage link and bacon each.  That was more than enough for me.  I use to have huge meals at IHOP, like this one, Colorado Scramble that comes with 4 pieces of pancakes too:

dsc01225.JPGRen had this.  Not anymore for me.  I’m sticking to those smaller portions since I no longer pound the roads and trails anymore! 

When I got home, I wanted to vacuum, but heck, DB said he will do it during the week.   Pretty much this weekend I didn’t nothing much for housework.  I walked the boys, ate dinner, shower, watched Amazing Race and now Comanche Moon while blogging. 

For a change, I’m atually looking forward to work tomorrow;  it’s to stop me from putting so much grub in to my pie hole! 

And now, I’m hitting my text book.   See you all around!

Filed under Food, My Weekend
Jan 13, 2008

Nice to have branded watches

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Db and I were gossiping about Nadine and her luxury lifestyle.  She and her hubby are world travelers.  I mean they travel all over the country and globe.  DB and her are good friends and he did ask her where in the world she and hubby get the extra cash for their travels, a 450K house, patek phillipe watches for themselves, and a brand spanking new Mercedes.  She told DB ever since she passed her real estate brokerage license last year, she actually sold a few houses before the end of the year came around.  

She told DB her hubby is really the one who is making the dough.  He is a person who loves all luxury items.  He likes all patek philippe brand watches.   However, she says her hubby’s favorite is still the breitling watches.  He likes them because of their high quality, vintage chronograph on the watches. 

She said owning one of those watches does make her feel important, a very high prestige feeling.  I can just imagine how it feels like, on top of the world, a person of affluent stature.   Only the rich and famous, the celebrities and the professional sports folks can afford these types of watches.  These watches are not any ordinary watches.  They are certainly luxury and timeless watches. 

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 12, 2008

New patio furniture for MIL

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Since my MIL moved to her new home, DB’s brother and him were thinking what to get for their mother.  She has pretty much every thing she wants and needs.  The only thing I could think of for those two brothers to get for their mother and from the DILs, too, (can’t forget the DILs, right?) is to get some new patio furniture for her.  Her patio furniture are very old and are those made of plastic which she said she never likes them.  I asked DB if he thinks getting teak patio furniture for his mom is a good idea.  He loved that idea very much particularly his mom loves to sit out by the porch and smokes her cigarettes and have her beers and cocktails. 

To me teak furniture gives out an aura of high quality and luxury living.  Yeah, that’s me.  I like these kind of outdoor furniture.  Both DB and his brother went online and checkout a few websites and eventually found this site TeakWoodPatioFurniture.com that sells superior teak patio furniture.  Between the four of us we ordered two recliners and a table for her birthday.  She was one happy camper when we heard her voice over the phone when she called.

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 12, 2008

For my safety sake

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I have to say that DB really cares for me very much.  When I told him I wanted to go for walks, that was back when I first got to this country, he soughted out self defense products on the internet for my protection.  I told him it was not necessary but he said he would feel safer that I have one on me when I am out on my walks.  Eventually, he got me a 2 oz pepper spray which I carry it in my pocket and I am thankful I do not have to use it. 

Filed under Product, Writing
Jan 12, 2008

 

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