Monday, Jun 30, 2008
The new series Lipstick Jungle kicked-off last Monday in Australia replacing Desperate Housewives’ time slot. The show stars Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price. What can I say? It is very much like Sex and the City with minor twists.
The makers of the show didn’t waste time; one of the leads was already seen wearing lingerie on the initial episodes. With not much choice for my late night telly time, I think I’m going to follow this series and see where it’s going to head. I don’t know how popular it is in the US though.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Monday, Jun 30, 2008
I haven’t been updating my blogs lately save for the weekly photo memes because of my Dell laptop. Just yesterday, my daughter pulled out four more keys, which now totals six broken keys on my keyboard.
I have started checking my external hard disk to make sure that all my files are complete so that I can start using my ibook. The problem is that my ibook has very limited memory thus leaving me to use my Dell more.
It is so hard to use a keyboard with missing keys especially a broken spacebar key.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Sunday, Jun 29, 2008
I am dreading the day that my daughter would ask us to get her a pet. No offense to animal lovers but I don’t like having animals around the house. I am not looking forward to cleaning up their mess, training them or making pet supplies a part of our budget.
I am for animal rights and I respect those people who have pets but thinking of the added responsibility in caring for a cat or dog, isn’t just my idea of fun. Sure I would take my daughter to a zoo or let her be exposed to pets but not to the extent of bringing them home.
Come to think of it, I can let her pet a fish. No matter how many little gold fish she wants. It would be nice to have a freshwater aquarium with colorful fish and plants.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Friday, Jun 27, 2008
Appetizer
What is the weather like today where you live?
It’s winter now on our side of the world yet we’ve had sunny and clear skies the past few days. Just lovely!
Soup
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how career-minded are you?
I left the workforce in October last year and nearly a year of being a stay at home mom, I’m looking at getting a job again but only part time. So on a scale of 1-10, I’d be a 6. I love being a stay at home mom and being able to earn my own keep. My work will be my me-time I suppose. 
Salad
What type of window coverings do you have in your home? Blinds, curtains, shutters, etc.?
We have blinds.
Main Course
Name something that instantly cheers you up.
My daughter’s smile.
Dessert
How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning?
Since I stopped working I never had to use the alarm.
More friday’s feast here!
Posted in Friday's Feast
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008
I see a puppy with one arm raised upwards. How about you?
I have another wordless here and more wordless(ness) here!
Posted in Feature, Wordless Wednesday
Monday, Jun 23, 2008
Fees for repair services here in Australia are expensive. That is why my husband invested on a set of handy tools (not as complicated looking as air tools) for emergency use.
When we bought a simple dining set from Ikea six months ago, we were surprised to know that delivery and installation would add at least 100aud alone. It is good that we were able to put the items on the boot of the car and with the handy tools, we were able to install it without problems.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Monday, Jun 23, 2008
My father’s weakness is his tennis gear. He has three rackets, sets of Nike outfits, bottles upon bottles of tennis balls and his really cool tennis bags.
Each time a special occasion calls for giving gifts, my siblings and I already know what to get for him. That would be anything that has to with his hobby. Now in his retirement, he still frequents sporting goods store in Manila, especially when his rackets need some string replacement or his shoes needs new lace locks.
We are glad that he keeps this hobby, which helps him to keep fit and allows him to socialize with his tennis buddies.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Monday, Jun 23, 2008
One of my favorite partners in household cleaning is Easy Off Bam. It is a powerful cleaning agent that helps remove grime and scum on tiles, sink, tubs and shower faucets, too.
I use cleaning gels and creams of different brands before but ever since I tried Bam, I never had to look for another cleaning agent again. It is priced around 5plus AUD per bottle but it sure is worth the price.
Whether it is used in tandem with a brush or sponge, it cleans perfectly. I highly recommend this product.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
I love wearing shawls. When I was still working, I would use one if I don’t feel like wearing a jacket or coat. It makes a woman look more sophisticated when it is wrapped around the neck or just simply hanging on the shoulders.
Shawls make nice Christmas and bridesmaid gifts, too. The 100% Pashmina wrap though expensive elsewhere is pretty cheap in India. But whether it is pashmina, silk or cashmere material, to me, they just look as lovely.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
I have a cousin who got a job in North Carolina. He is in the hotel management industry and he said that his work very much dictates where he and his family will live. Because of the very good package, he and his wife decided to leave Florida and start a new life in NC.
As soon as they settled he sent an email to all of us his cousins that he got a 7-bedroom house for his family. I can imagine a beautiful beach side house similar to the ones in the Outer Banks rentals website. He said his kids love the house and he is inviting us to visit them.
Look at this oceanfront house that I snatched from the website, what a beauty.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Friday, Jun 20, 2008
Not the kind of spam I want for breakfast. (This is a screen cap of my sql database when Akismet was deactivated.)
If my memory serves me right, it was just a year ago when my former blog hostees raised an issue about Akismet “eating up” many of their valid comments. They had to fish each of them out, which of course is time consuming to do.
So, the solution we came up with is to replace it with a different anti-spam plugin. A plugin that allows the commenter to fill-in a key word in the hopes of driving away the spam robots that automatically inserts nasty comments and trackbacks.
Unfortunately, I recently discovered that the new plugin is not completely eradicating the spam from our blogs. When I moved web hosts, I was surprised to see my sql file with tons of spam comments! I was in the middle of migrating the last of the 6 blogs I am hosting when I opened up the file and saw a lot of spam keywords that refer to gambling or drugs! I had to change the DNS midway and clean the sql file from my old host before importing them to the new host.
It was then that I decided to put back Akismet on my plugin list and let it do its work and that is to protect my database from further mess caused by these spammers!
More blogging tips here.
Posted in Blog-o-roo, Feature
Tagged as akismet
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
Appetizer
If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose?
We just moved to Australia this year coming from Singapore, I guess if given a chance, I would like to try living in Europe, If only for the sights and food!
Soup
Which browser do you use to surf the Internet?
I love Firefox and Safari!
Salad
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you know about the history of your country?
Eeek! I’d give myself a 7.
Main Course
Finish this sentence: Love is…
Love is seeing my daughter’s beautiful smile each morning.
Dessert
Have you ever been in or near a tornado?
No and I hope I will never experience that.
Posted in Friday's Feast
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
Law like medicine is multi-faceted. It has so many areas of specialization that you will be surprised to know that there exists truck accident lawyers. Yes, they are not something I made up, they do exist.
Come to think of it, when major truck accidents happen, who will represent the victim during legal proceedings? There are criminal, civil and corporate lawyers but they will not know first hand about truck accident lawsuits.
I’m glad I stumbled upon truckinjuries.com and learned about this interesting piece of information.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
It is disheartening to hear this news about a mother and her daughter who connived in shoplifting. This happened in a retail shop in Sydney a few months’ back. The shop’s owner happens to have a hidden spy camera that captured the actual moment when the mother slipped a piece of summer dress into her daughter’s shopping bag.
I got goose bumps while watching the actual footage. I mean, aren’t we supposed to be teaching our kids about honesty and not stealing? Unless of course both mother and daughter are kleptomaniacs, then they need psychiatric help.
I tried to look for news articles about this on the internet but didn’t manage to find one. I wonder what happened to them now.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
We have been blessed with good weather these past few days. It is sunny but cool and at night, it is so nice to cozy up under the thick sheets to warm up. What I don’t miss though during the summer season is our dependence to ceiling fans or any fan for that matter.
I remember during the hottest day in January, my daughter and I stayed in front of our box fan because we were just sweating all over! And we were only watching TV then. Ha ha.
I’m sure that modern ceiling fans or craftmade fans companies are in their off-peak season now, at least for the next four more months or so. It still gets a bit chilly during Spring.
Posted in Piggy Bank
Thursday, Jun 19, 2008
Maintaining three active blogs is no joke. Aside from filling them up with new ideas for contents, I need to be conscious of SEO and readership. It doesn’t help that a simple thing such as ‘dressing’ up a blog can be a tedious thing to do (this blog is a good example in itself– i still haven’t found the ‘right’ template!). There are hundreds upon hundreds of wordpress templates that are both free and premium but the question is often, which design fits my overall theme?
In my attempt to help fellow bloggers in this long and winding search for free wordpress themes, I have listed some links that I have come across in my own hunt for a suitable theme.
Compilations:
- 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant Wordpress Themes
- 100 Excellent Free Wordpress Themes
- WP Theme Spot
- BG Themes
- Best WP Themes
- CSS Juice
- WP Theme Viewer (of course!)
- New Wordpress Themes
- Wordpress Start
- WP Snap
Straight from the Author
- Fahlstad Design
- Poxline
- Shattered Pixie
- Ericulous
- Brian Gardner
- Solo Stream - mostly premium
- Magnus Jepson
If you have other links in mind and would like to share them here, please leave me a note and I will add them on the list. Thanks!
More blogging tips here.
Posted in Blog-o-roo, Feature
Tagged as free wp themes , wordpress templates , wordpress themes
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
Taken at a Pewter factory in KL, Malaysia, 2005
(Father’s Hands.
These hands do not only work to support the family.
They also cradle their babies to sleep.
They also feed. They embrace.
They love.)
~~@~~
Ang kamay ng mga ama.
Hindi lamang naghahanap-buhay para sa pamilya.
Nagpapatulog rin ng mga anak.
Nagpapakain. Yumayakap.
Nagmamahal.
May isa pa akong lahok dito, sana ay makapasyal kayo. 
Posted in Feature, Litratong Pinoy
Tagged as hands , pewter
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
I shared in my personal blog how much I wanted to start potty training my daughter. We bought this cute Royal Stepstool potty from Fisher Price for her just so we can help ease her transition from disposable diapers to potty.
I am so thankful that a blogger friend came to the rescue by sharing a guide on how to potty train. It was a very thoughtful gesture on her part to send me that knowing how difficult this phase is for both the parent and child.
It was suggested that I start the training on the 22nd month and I have less than 4 months to prepare for it. May the potty fairies help me!
Posted in Just for Tots
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
One of the things on my wish list is a camera tripod. What I have right now served its purpose when I was still practicing with my point and shoot. With my heavier dslr, I find that it’s not safe to use my existing tripod.
What I need is something sturdy, sets up fast and offers flexibility for low height (for macro shots) and enough height for standard use. A professional photographer and friend recommended that I go for Slik tripods. He said that its line of tripods is highly recommended for both amateurs (like me) and professionals.
When I searched for the Slik tripods, I saw Slik Pro 700 DX (photo above) and was surprised to know that the price is reasonable. Although it is an older model, the features suit my needs well.
Now, what I need to do is get more quotes to compare the price. I can’t wait to get my hands on this.
Posted in Gadgets, Piggy Bank
Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008
My feet are itching to travel. Apart from our vacation trips back home in the Philippines, we haven’t had a family trip to somewhere far and new. Since we are here in Sydney and ticket prices are ever soaring especially if we target the US or its neighboring country Canada, I must be realistic in our travel goals.
I would love for us to see and experience New Zealand and Hawaii. For local trips, I hope we can visit Melbourne (especially during Australian Open season), Gold Coast (this time with our daughter) and Brisbane someday.
I can’t wait for our daughter to grow a bit more so we can bring her anywhere we please. Our passports are raring to be stamped!
Posted in Miscellaneous, Piggy Bank
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