Rock-a-bye-mortgage

No, we have not paid off our house. How I wish! I just couldn't think of a better title for this post. :)

If you're a homeowner, I'm sure you've gotten several offers in the mail to refinance, complete with what they claim is a customized quote of how much monthly savings you'd get. Well, the other day, we got one that really cracked us up. It's so obvious that these are mass mailings and are therefore not reviewed by anyone.

You wanna know how much monthly savings they were offering? A whopping $5.79. Yes, my friend. Five dollars and seventy-nine cents. It got me so excited. The letter even said, "Ever, what would you do with an extra $5.79 per month"? and "Too Good To Be True? (in bold red letters). Yeah, I so want to refinance with them, ahora mismo! I could buy 5 more lotto tickets each month. Who knows, that may be all I need. Hmm, now I'm pondering... :)

On another topic, isn't the lullaby "Rock-A-Bye-Baby" pretty scary? I wonder who wrote it and more importantly, what's up with those lyrics? Look:

Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
Down will come baby, cradle and all.

It's a little disturbing, isn't it? Why write about a baby falling from a tree? They could at least have used "if" instead of "when".

Anyway, we found a gifted school up in the North Bay. We think it would be perfect for Jed. However, it's a bit far (and out of the way even I went to the office every day) and the tuition is rather high. So, we're still on the fence. Anyone care to help us out? When Jed becomes President, he'll pay you all back. :)

Kumusta na?

Long time no post. Obviously, I haven't had time.

A ver, where do I start? Oh, the other night, I was watching Game 5 of the NBA finals. Not being a sports fan, I wasn't really sure which team to root for. In fact, I only switched to ABC because I wanted the kids to watch Jeopardy. But, it was the NBA finals that was on. Anyway, there was this young man by the name of Dwayne Wade that really impressed me. He was really good. And before I knew it, I was rooting for Miami. I didn't want his efforts to just go to waste. I felt vicariously nervous for them that my feet were starting to sweat. Last time I felt that way was back when I was still in the Philippines, when the whole household was rooting for Purefoods. :) Anyway, they won! Yoohoo!!!

Then, Pinoy Pop Superstar was on, well, on the GMA Pinoy TV channel. A guy who's my brother's namesake (katukayo!) won the elimination round. I didn't finish it to see if he beat the champion. Anyway, one comment that a judge made about one contestant was that his facial contortions did not look pleasant to him. Ouch! That made me look in the mirror and sing. :) I wonder if that was the exact same reason Ryan Cayabyab didn't pick me when I auditioned for his World Musikahan show. :( Nah, I'm sure it was the song choice. I sang his "Sometime, Somewhere" (is that right?) and I was told by a fellow auditionee (is that a word?) after I had already sung it, that it wasn't probably a good move since Mr. Cayabyab already had some expectation for that song and I probably did not live up to it. Anyway, whatever it it was, I'll never know, will I? Maybe I'm just not good. :(

k... I'm not dwelling on that. Yesterday, I got a notification from Where's George? (http://www.wheresgeorge.com) that a bill that I reported back in April of 2005 had just been picked up and reported by another fellow in Marsing, ID. This bill started in Winters, CA a few days (or weeks?) before I picked it up. I wonder when the next notification will be.

Btw, I'm now on the 7th CD of the Spanish course. Just one more and I'll be done. I'm still pretty slow as far as formulating sentences but I can understand more and more. I think that for a long time, I'll be like Filipinos who were born here in the States, who can understand Tagalog but can't speak it. We'll see. We keep getting Spanish emails in our gmail accounts asking for invitations. Yes, I could understand them. But I haven't been acting on them. I don't know if we're allowed to invite people we don't know. I don't want to be responsible for anything malicious that they may be planning to do.

Can't wait for the July 4th weekend.

Election Day!

Today, we exercised our right to vote (well, Jing has yet to), our first big task as citizens. It is California Primary Election day! Conveniently, our designated polling place was at Jed's school. So I did it right after dropping him off. It was pretty quick. They hand you a card that has the party you selected. You stick it in the voting machine and off you go. Though it is electronic, it also prints a paper trail. Very nice.

Today is also the once-in-a-century triple-six date. I hope I didn't pick any antichrist... . I did pick up a lucky dime on the way back to the car from the polling place. So, everything is going to be just fine. :)

Yesterday, we ate at this Chinese buffet restaurant close to Jing's favorite mall and were seated at a window. I couldn't help but notice the tall trees across the street dancing in the wind and the brick building behind them. I don't know. That sight just gave me this warm, nostalgic feeling. At first, I thought, it must be the brick building. I even told Jing how brick buildings somehow made me feel that way. But then, I realized, it couldn't have been just that. It must have been a combination of things. Trees dancing in a gentle wind (or even a slightly strong one actually) is a definitely a feel-good sight for me. Also, though we frequently go to that mall, we had never eaten at that restaurant and had never seen that area before. I always get that feeling too whenever I step on or see some new nice place. Just writing about it now causes me to feel that way again. What a nice feeling it is. Now I know what to think about whenever I feel stressed at work. :)

Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune

Yesterday, we began to watch Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune again. Not sure when and why we stopped. It must have been after we went to the Wheel of Fortune audition in South San Francisco. Our names weren't even drawn so I kinda lost interest (heh, sore loser). I guess I loved watching it vicariously, hoping that someday, I'd be the one there winning big time.

Anyway, yesterday, Jed answered a question on Jeopardy. It was in the "Had a dog" category. The clue was a smaller version of a dog whose name I've forgotten (it started with a "t" and had four syllables... something like "tchicinini"... Sorry, I hadn't heard of its name before). And Jed guessed "chihuahua". And boy, he was right!

Then, today, at Wheel of Fortune, he made three correct guesses. The first two were "Adjustable Wrench" and "Piano Man by Billy Noel" (now, you don't expect him to know Billy Joel, do you?). Jing said he guessed before the contestants did. I was getting a Four Some pizza from Papa Murphy's then. Then, in the bonus round, the clue was "a thing" and the letters were ___SE__R_. Right then and there, even without the help of additional letters, he started exclaiming "Housework" repeatedly. And right again was he! We could see this genuine joy on his face as we cheered him on. He would usually burst into some boisterous frenzy. Pero esta vez (But this time), it was different. He came up to us and said that he'd almost cried. He then asked if I'd let him join Wheel of Fortune when he grew up. Of course I would.

Btw, I have uploaded the pics from the other night. Check out Janelle in Chinese Jammies.

Thingamajig

It's funny how at Microsoft, Out-Of-Office is abbreviated as OOF.

Last night, Janelle's pajamas were Chinese, well, Chinese-looking at least. So we ended up taking pictures of her in various poses. There were two poses,... I don't know... it might have been how Jing combed her hair, but man, Jing and I both agreed, she looked like a grown woman. It was like God decided to let us have a glimpse of what she would look like. It was a funny (and as usual, sentimental) feeling. She was very pretty. I'm not saying that just because she's my daughter, mind you. :)

I'm now on the fifth disc of the Spanish course. It's starting to get difficult. But I'm proud to have lasted this long. And no siree, I'm not quitting (just yet). I've also started buying other Spanish books and subscribing to free online services. Yeah, I'm obsessed! Still a long way to go but I'll get there.

Over the past few days, I've run across several Spanish words that were obviously the basis for some Tagalog words. Here's a few that come to mind:

gatas - Well, this one is a mere guess on my part. Gatas, in Spanish, is "female cats". In Tagalog, it's "milk". So, my guess, is that there was one time when a Spaniard was referring to the cats and the Filipino thought he was referring to the milk that the cats were drinking. You're laughing. I know. Hey, could have very well been the case.

aburrido - In Spanish, it's "boring" or "bored" (depending on whether you use ser or estar). In Tagalog, it's like... "grumpy". Pretty close. I'm guessing the meaning slowly evolved throughout the years (as opposed to outright misunderstanding the first time a Filipino heard the term).

andar - In Spanish, it's "to walk" (if I remember it right). In Tagalog, it's "to move". 'Nuf said.

How else would you have titled this post?