Tuesday, April 29, 2003

I love honey but ironically, I hate bees! We've had a beehive inside our ceiling since January and I must say it has caused us a lot of trouble. All members of my family have been stung one way or another. Our windows have screens but I don't know how in puzzle land can they still get inside the house! Argh, I must have swatted at least a hundred tonight. They come inside the house during the night when the lights are on. A science teacher friend told us, bees thought it was sunlight. Ugh, it had to happen now that the bee keeper we know is in Canada and working during bee season there. I don't know how we could get rid of them. Judging by now, the hive must be an armful size already. Last year, we had the same thing and I peeked thru the ceiling trap door. When I turned on my flashlight, I was horrified that at least half of one wall was crawling with lots of bees. I am worried about the kids, they' too have been stung a lot of times already. Good thing they've learned now to step on anything moving on the floor :) Oh, what to do? Anybody out there with ideas? Please email me!

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Whooohoo! Finally, I've just had my long-awaited, much-planned "Mommy's vacation." I had to bring my 5 year-old youngest son though. He put on his cute sad face when he found out I'll be gone for 3 days that I just had to bring him along. We had so much fun riding a boat to the island of Mindoro and staying at a resort some friends of mine manage. The 3 days were spent swimming in the resort's pool and I must say we were baked as toast when we came home. We haven't had the opportunity to swim at the sea coz the smell was a little fishy and lots of seaweeds were floating about. Daniel enjoyed playing in the sand for the first time. Like all moms, I had my camera along and snapped pictures of my cute little kid in all his activities. It was such a great resting period for me. But *sigh* now that I'm back to the real world, here I am feverishly trying to beat my deadlines for 3 articles. So I have to sign off now. Bye!

Saturday, April 19, 2003

I've just discovered a game that's very useful for writers like me! It's called Text Twist and it's a neat game to play. For more info about this, visit Gamehouse.com and try to play the game online first before downloading the free game trial. Enjoy!

Friday, April 11, 2003

Argh! I hate forwarded emails with sooooo many attachments! I received an email the other day from one egroup of mine where somebody forwarded a message with the subject "This is Nice". Know what? I had to open 31 windows just to see the original message! By then I was thinking that the subject line should have been "This is Soooo Irritating!" I didn't enjoy the message anymore. Talk about not following proper email etiquette ... that was the ultimate! Grrrr.

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Isn't "Mulan" fun to watch! I love the songs and the story where a woman is the hero. We don't see movies like that much. I am also proud that the singing voice of Mulan is Lea Salonga, a fellow countrywoman of mine. Remember her? The very first who played Kim in Miss Saigon! Eddie Murphy was soooo hilarious as Moshu the lizard, ehem, I mean the dra---gon. Donny Osmond's voice was great too! He never seems to age, doesn't he? The Donny I remembered when I was a little girl has still the same young-looking and handsome face today. Wow, talk about the fountain of youth! I also like Ming-Na Wen a lot. First saw her at "The Joy Luck Club" then "E.R." She has a great sense of humor and made me laugh a lot when she was interviewed before about being in the movie. She mentioned about her mom telling friends that her daughter will be starring in a new Disney movie ... uh, Lion King 2!


My family and I (yup, my husband included!) like to watch Mulan so much that the first few days we had the VCD, it was running at the rate of at least 2x a day. I had to buy a copy 3 times! The first one was destroyed after my youngest son played with it and broke one of the CD's in half. The second one was dubbed in Chinese! So back to the store it went. Finally, the third one was alright. Whew! The lengths I go to just to provide entertainment to my kids! And seeing their smiles at the funny scenes, I would say that my tiring trips to the store were all worthwhile.

Saturday, April 05, 2003

Argh! I missed to post yesterday. I was so tired, wasn't able to sit much in front of the computer the whole weekend! Just had a garage sale and was able to dispose of a lot of unwanted stuff in the house plus, earned a little on the side. Nice way to clean house :) Also, my kids were kings for these 2 days. As it was weekend, they claim that weekends are computer games time. Oh well, as long as they are learning, that's fine with me. I make it a point to buy them educational CDs so that even if it's summer break, they still will learn new things, and in fun ways too!

Thursday, April 03, 2003

Today is the 38th birthday of Robert Downey Jr. I am a great fan of his. I even joined an international fan egroup called the Last Party just to have the most recent news of him. I’m also a frequent visitor to websites dedicated for him. He’s such a talented actor. I first noticed him in the movie “Chances Are”. That time I was still in college and didn’t give much thought to that handsome guy called “Alex”. When Chaplin’s life story came to the big screen, I sat up straighter and noticed for the first time, the versatility of the actor with those soulful eyes. Wasn’t he terrific as Charlie Chaplin? Chaplin’s daughter Geraldine was quoted to say that she felt her dad came to life once more in Robert Downey Jr.’s body. Now that’s great talent!

Then came “Heart and Souls” and I was hooked for life. Who could resist Thomas Riley anyway? I know I can’t and to my surprise and joy, when my kids first saw the movie, they now frequently request to watch it. Ain’t that grand! I must admit I envied Elizabeth Shue for having the role of “Anne.” Such a laugh-out-loud and tearjerker movie at the same time. His singing voice was a revelation too!

I thought it was heavenly already “meeting” Thomas. Never did I think that when Peter Riley came (and conquered Faith) in “Only You,” I would become even more enamored of RDJ. He has that boyish quality that comes across even through the big screen. If you haven’t watched that movie yet, do! You’ll fall in love over and over again every time you watch it. As I have …. dozens of time already I feel the VCD might fall apart any minute now. One dream of mine is going to Positano, Italy because of that movie.

The latest feel-good portrayal that RDJ did that I appreciated was his role as Larry Paul in Ally McBeal’s 4th season. As my co-LP’ers would say … he was absolutely YUMMY! I have that soundtrack album of RDJ with Vonda Shepard and never cease to be amazed at the sound of his voice. He’s also a great composer. Just listen to “Snakes” and you’ll know what I’m talking about. He’s a phenomenal, multi-talented guy and I can simply say, “He makes me smile.”

So there, my little tribute to one of, if not the greatest actor who has ever graced Hollywood. How I wish I could meet him, face to face someday. Uh yeah, right. I have to get on an airplane to the USA first.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBERT!

Off to Downey dreams …. (good thing my loving husband is the forbearing kind and lets me have my happy thoughts :) )
Somebody’s forwarded email has this footer “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without it.” I had to pause and think, how right that quote is! Being a mom of 4 kids and a freelance writer to boot, I sometimes find it hard to juggle motherhood (cooking, taking care of the kids, doing the housework etc.etc.) with my work. When I’m in the middle of doing article assignments, I would often feel harassed and pressured that I can’t help but complain sometimes. My husband would then remind me “When you don’t have any assignments, you worry. When you have deadlines, you panic and are often short-tempered. You are such a contradiction!” And sheepishly, I had to agree. Nowadays, with all the pressures of family and work around me, I try to count my blessings instead of complaining that I have so much to do.

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Dreaming of Neverland

My kids were watching Peter Pan last night. Seeing Tinkerbell made me smile. When I was small, I used to imagine myself being her – flying off to faraway places. Such a tiny creature in a yellow dress, glowing like gold. I liked her best because of those clouds of gold dust swirling all around her.

photo borrowed from comicvine.com
Ever wished to be one of the Darling children? Pretty Wendy or scholastic John or cute little Michael? I saw my kids’ faces light up when they saw that being sprinkled with gold dust can make a person fly coupled with happy thoughts. I know that when I was little, in my heart of hearts, I believed that if only Peter Pan and Tinkerbell would come visit my window, then I might have gone too to Neverland and joined lots of adventures with them.


Isn’t it wonderful how imagination can make a child happy? I know that when I was a child, just imagining being in the Peter Pan story made me happy. I hope that exposing my kids to fairy tales like these would also fuel their imagination and make them travel to places their minds can reach, and in the process, give them nuggets of happiness along the way.


Just thought I should finally join the fun of creating a blog. I'm a full-time mom with freelance writing jobs on the side. If you want to reach me, just send me an email!