Tough Times

May I vent?

Again you say?

Yeah, again!

I know quite a few people who are dealing with difficult issues. Of course I know we all have crosses to carry. Some have heavier than others. As I observe around me, I feel a tad guilty that my cross is lighter than most people. I feel so blessed. And guilty. What have I done to carry a lighter cross?

The crosses that people around me are carrying:

Death of husband, then father and now brother is fighting the big C - all these in a span of 1.5 years.

Prolonged divorce proceedings that is wreaking havoc to health.

A cancer diagnosis for family member.

Sorry, I'm just having a bad day. All around me I feel people's sadness. I have been having some aches and pains too, part of growing old I suppose. Since the death of my niece in February, I feel like I'm in a fog. Somehow it's still not sinking in - fully and completely - that she's not going to show up on my doorstep.

All right, enough of this.

Let's go get excited about the GS Warriors basketball team who are in the NBA finals after 40 years. Geez, the winnings were nonexistent for a long period. This is hopefully their year to hoist the cup or trophy.

Another thing that's keeping me busy is reading. I have been devouring some paperback lately. Time is limited so I don't get to read as much as I really want to. I do my reading during lunch at work and if I don't finish the book during the week which I normally don't I take the book home with me and finish it on the weekends.

The last three that I finished reading are:

FRENCH SILK by Sandra Brown

THE SIGMA PROTOCOL by Robert Ludlum

THE FACE by Dean Koontz

I'm currently so engrossed with a James Patterson novel. For the life of me I cannot remember the title right now.

Have you heard of the following tv shows?

THE TYRANT

THE STRAIN

UNDER THE DOME

These are my summer guilty pleasures and I cannot wait for them to come on pretty soon.

I wish I have HBO because I really really love Game of Thrones.

Till next time.

This is how the cookie crumbled in 2013

So it's that time of the year again. As the door closes it's door on the old year; another door opens to welcome the new year. Thus, it's time to take note of how the cookie crumbled this year for me.

First sake tasting ever (will probably not repeat since I'm not fond of sake.)

Read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan, the first 3 books of the Twilight Series

Seen with my own eyes the TERRACOTTA WARRIORS and THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING.

Spent anniversary weekend in Mendocino.

Camped with friends in Cabin 4 1/2 in the Sierras.

Visited Sequioa National Park.

Visited Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden.

Went for invitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in Mexico - was unsuccessful. Broke my heart and spirit.

Suffered from vertigo the first half of the year that almost disappeared in the second half - thank heavens!

Celebrated my birthday in Isla Mujeres, Mexico by touring the island and visiting the turtle sanctuary.

The Bay Bridge has a new eastern span.

First time to eat at an Indonesian restaurant.

Movies I've seen this year include: Oblivion, Taken 2, Solitary Man, Catching Fire, Before Midnight, White House Down, Gravity, Breaking Dawn 2, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Epic, Abduction, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, Magic Mike, The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey.

I'll try to reflect on the highlights and low lights of this year and create a post later on.

Happy New Year!!!!

Another Week Later

I had a horrible dream yesterday. It's almost a nightmare. I woke up (twas 5 am according to the clock on my bedside table) with my heart racing and I was feeling very very hot. The former is attributed to the almost nightmare, but the latter was because I was buried under a blanket, a quilt, and a throw and two cats. Both cats were snoozing on top of my legs and feet. The throw is our futile attempt to have a hair-free quilt. Except that the cats when we're not in the bed like to burrow under the throw and sleep on the quilt. I don't know why we keep the throw, but it's still there. Minimizing the amount of hair that goes on the quilt.

I finally got around to eating Vietnamese food yesterday. You'd think I was pregnant by the rabid craving I have for this Vietnamese dish (vermicelli bun - like pho without the broth). And I only want to eat it at this little hole in the wall, no frills Vietnamese-Cambodian restaurant. Glad hubs wanted to eat as well.

And speaking of Cambodian, a Cambodian couple mistook me for another Cambodian. Now I've been mistaken for a Thai, Indonesian and now Cambodian. Without a doubt I definitely have Asian features.

And also we have finally cleaned out the other half of the garage. It's not completely clear and clean, but there is more leg room in there. We need more shelving and hooks to hang the bikes and the ladders.

I'm also seriously considering putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Our neighbors already have lights up, not lit just yet, but up just the same.

In addition, I have completed my Twilight Saga books. This weekend I found ECLIPSE at a Goodwill Store. We dropped off some donations and then stayed for a little browsing. Got some items including a kitty mug set and the Eclipse copy for $2.99. So I started to read it. But too many things got in the way this four-day weekend that I haven't gotten past the first chapter yet.

One more thing I think I've forgotten to mention in the past posts, I baked scones. They were good. However, there were some errors in execution, so I'll try again. My niece came and tasted the cookies while I was out and when I got back and she was still there, she knew they were scones. So this is definitely very encouraging results. I shall try again.

In the same night while I was busy making scones, the hubby's project was home-made Mexican tamales). Oh they were good, a tad dry but they were good.

Until next week (kidding).

Daily October (22)

I'm a few pages away from finishing New Moon, the second of 4 Twilight books. I don't know about the reviews for this book or the movie for that matter, but the fact that I'm tackling these books long after all the hullaballoo is quite lunatic on my part.

However, there was something about the Twilight movie that made me long to read the books. I like it when a story is narrated/seen from the protagonist's point of view.

The thing I liked about the first book is that it's an easy read. I liked the pacing of the story on the first two books.

In the movies I belonged to team Edward. But when I read New Moon, I couldn't help but switch sides to team Jacob. In the books Jacob was written so appealingly. In the books I never liked the Edward character. But I liked him in the movie version.

Anyway I am enjoying the story so much that I read the two books in 3 days, well almost done with the second one, which is a record. Well at least now that's a record. I used to devour books a long time ago. However, I do not have the 3rd book Eclipse, which may delay my reading the whole saga. I don't want to skip a book; I'll see if there's a copy of Eclipse in the library.

In between these books I read Sidney Sheldon. I'm trying to read Sheldo again because I want to analyze what it is about his stories, his writings, his characters that resonated with me and appealed so much to my sensibilities.

I remember in college or something we would read his book and put the characters under microscope and identify all the psychological fibers/abnormalities of their persona. It was a fun activity to do after reading the books. Of course we were all psychology majors pretending to know more than we do. I hope this time around after reading the books I can dissect the characters better than I did back in the day and that I can understand the reasons behind why the characters do the things they do or why they did in such a way and not another way.

Daily October (20)

I've been reading. I finished Twilight. I think I like to do it like this. Watch the movie version first then read the book.

Then I followed it up with a Sidney Sheldon book, The Stars Shine Down. I've loved Sidney Sheldon and devoured his books in college - decades ago - and I'm enjoying rereading them. I've got three more of his books pending.

Oh the leaves are changing colors. I love to go out and photograph the leaves, maybe next weekend. Later today I have to take the kitties to get their shots.

Daily October (13)

It's only 4:48 pm but I feel like I've had a full day. And I've only done two things today. Go to lunch with friends and go to the local library's book sale.

At the book sale I managed to get all three (only 3 right?) Twilight books, about 5 Sidney Sheldon hardcovers - I've read them all back in college. Since he is my fave author so far, I thought I'd start collecting his books and maybe someday I'd be able to complete the collection. I simply love the way he tells a story.

I've started reading Twilight and just stopped so I could blog, hahahaha!

And all these books - plus others that my hubby picked - for $1.00. I'm so happy!!!!!

Spring It Is

Our forecast for the entire week calls for 70s. All the way to Friday. Can you believe that?

I've brought a jacket, light one, yesterday and today just to be sure. I hate getting caught unprepared when suddenly the temp turns cold and I'm there freezing. Okay enough, it is exaggeration we all know it.

The weekend was also in the 70s. Two days I was weeding and planting. We planted the mesculun, which is the salad greens, and five tomatoes and lima beans. We also planted 4-5 strawberry plants.

The backyard is looking a bit better. The weeds keep growing, help! Anyhow, we've been doing a little at a time, but so far it's looking a lot better than before. Our rose bushes have new red leaves. I love it when the leaves are all red, they look so fresh and so vibrant. I don't mind the leaves turning green because I know the pretty blooms are coming soon.

Our cymbidiums are also blooming. Although unfortunately they were a bit neglected in the fall, so they are not as prolific as they can be in the past. I intend to remedy that this fall.

The weekend was also a time for friendship. On Saturday we had our monthly activity at church, this month it's a movie night. The night consisted of a spaghetti and salad dinner and a movie called HAPPY, which is a wonderful documentary that shows happy people and what makes these people happy. Incredible movie. You'll learn a lot, I sure did.

On Sunday we went out for lunch, after church, with a group of friends. We first went to an Indian-Pakistani restaurant, but we were too early. Then my hubby suggested we go to the Thai-Lao restaurant. They too were still closed, but we persuaded them to let us in and we'd wait until they officially open, which was 15 minutes away.

We chatted about politics and economy and the root causes of why people are happy - to tie in with the movie we watched the night before. We had wonderful array of curries and fried rice and eggrolls and other appetizers and of course pad thai.

I know we don't like to eat out two weeks in a row but it seems we have this time. It was unavoidable.

I started my third book, BRIDGET JONES DIARY, which is entertaining. I had lukewarm feelings about the movie, but I am loving the book so far.

Catching Up

A week's absence, that's what it was. I was busy doing nothing. My days nowadays are spent working, commuting, and watching tv. Pathetic I know. But driving an hour to and another hour from work daily in traffic can really sap one's energy.

Going out with friends can rejuvenate the soul. That's what we did on Saturday. We met with this couple we know for about 2 years now. We've been out once, which was nearly a year ago if I'm not mistaken. We keep planning but it's difficult to get our skeds on the same page. Our skeds finally synched on Saturday and they took us to Creek Monkey Tap House, where we ate and drank and chatted the afternoon away. Never underestimate the healing power of getting together with friends.

Anyway, I just found out that Princessa has tagged me. She wants to squeeze the last ounce of brain juice I have.

Here are the questions and my answers with explanations although it's not required:


1. You have to give up one part of your body: brain or heart? Pick in the context of the debate mind vs. heart or right vs. kind in making decisions.

Heart. I rely too much on my heart, I'm a heart over mind type. If I give up my heart, I'd no choice but to use relying on my brain.

2. Fictional characters are great! Would you rather be the hero or the villain in the greatest story ever told?

Villain. Too much responsibility on the the hero. Plus I'd have more chance to get an Oscar's by playing the villain :)

3. Smart and ugly or gorgeous and dumb?

Smart and ugly. I can use my smarts to make myself gorgeous.

4. Yes or No: becoming a parent and having kids.

Yes. No explanations needed.

5. Yes or No: divorce.

NO. My gutt tells me NO, but I'm not against it as a whole. It's a case to case basis.

6. You are about to do the one best thing that you have always wanted to do ever. What stops you from taking the plunge: your personal fear of failing or your fear of judgment from others?

PERSONAL FEAR OF FAILING. In addition, it's fear of making the change, taking the leap.

7. For one day, you get to spend the day with this famous person. Will you pick your favorite athlete, your favorite musician, your favorite author or your favorite actor?

ATHLETE (Buster Posey). Even if you don't know him, once you see him, you'd want to spend the rest of your days with him.

8. Yes or No: watching cartoons until your ridiculous old age now. (Admit it )

YES. I recently just watched the SMURFS, the movie.

9. The unfortunate has struck: your lover is dying. You are faced with this option: donate your vital organ to save him or her and die yourself while he or she lives without you or let your lover die without doing anything?

THE SECOND CHOICE. He knows my organs aren't in good shape :). He wouldn't want them in his body :)

10. Yes or No: death penalty.

YES. But on a case to case basis.

11. At a huge crossroad in your life, a decision has to be made which will alter the course of your freaking life. What do you do? Do you take the ridiculous way or the safe way to go about it?

RIDICULOUS WAY. Just for the sake of this meme, I'd choose that. But I know deep in my heart I'm a safe-way kind of person.

Aha! There I finished it. I also finished Amy Tan's SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING. I'm about to start another Amy Tan's book, the name of which I totally forgot.

Daily February: Days 23 & 24

Hah! It's becoming harder and harder to keep up this daily blogging goal.

Let me tell you this, I'm quite proud of it in fact, I have finished THE ALCHEMIST by Paul Coelho.

Now I'm reading Amy Tan's SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING. So far, it's a fun read. I was reading it while eating my cereal at lunch today. Then I heard myself laughing out loud. The sound surprised me. It's been ages since a book made me laugh. It's not even meaning to be funny. It's just wonderfully written. The book is a little thick, so it might take days, just like the thin Alchemist.

Right now I'm taking a break from reading by blogging and by watching the Oscar's. I'm having a fun time watching. I like awards shows. I always have a pick, even though I saw none of the movies nominated. We've cut back on our movie budget. We'll wait for DVD.

Since I'm in the mood to write, let me say I have been enjoying the American Idol the past week, where 5 of the girls and 5 of the boys were cut. The judges.....hmmm.....Mariah Carey is boring me. Amused I was by Nikki Minaj, who by the way I had no idea who she was before Idol. Yes, that's how clueless I am. Still I cannot tell you one song of her.

I doubted the inclusion of Keith Urban in the panel. I thought he was good as a singer, but I don't know much about him to fully make a vote, like I have one. Anyway, he's my fave judge so far, because his yes and no reflects mine.

Good news, we have a new addition in our extended family. My nephew became a first time father last week with the arrival of little precious one, Ashley Michelle. I haven't seen her yet, I'm aching to see her, except that I'm not sure I'm germ-free after the nasty cold bug I had two weeks ago. I still feel yucky sometimes and the cough is persisting so I'm not sure being near a newborn is a good idea.

Spring is nearly here. I cannot wait. The fruit trees in my garden are blooming, although the plum did not get pruned so there might not be too many fruits this year.

This weekend we spent a lot of time weeding. My backyard is overrun with weeds. (Buster just interrupted me. I think he wants to go downstairs. He needs human supervision to go down or up, hehehehe)

I planted a few Shasta daisy seeds today. I was planning on planting my "salad greens" seeds, but I didn't have a pot available. The planting plot just got weeded today and so it's nearly ready for tomatoes, but I'm not sure the plants are in the nursery yet. Will check next week.

Okay my tilapia sarsiado dinner is waiting.

Daily February: Day 4

I picked up the book I was eyeing for a few weeks now.

Finally. From the bookshelves at church.

The title was inviting. The subject was interesting.

So I started reading it at the car while waiting for hubby to finish his task at church.

Then it hit me.

I already read this book.

Well sort of.

I borrowed the audio book from the library.

We listened to it on our Monterey road trip a couple of years ago.

It was a fascinating listen.

(We bring audio books on long roadtrips and we listen to it instead of music.)

I like reading it.

So far.

Three Books I Haven't Read

With all the fall shows busy coming up with a season finale and of course my preoccupation with the slam bam series finale of Lost, I still managed to squeeze in a little of movie/dvd watching :)



After the disappointment of New Moon, the next three movies on my Netflix list are all adapted from books. Just like New Moon, these three I haven't read. I haven't even heard of them before, which disgusts me if I may say so. Once upon a time I used to be very bookish and while I preferred textbooks and history books, I never shied away from fiction.



Here are the next three on my Netflix list for this year in order of arrival.



UP IN THE AIR is a 2001 novel by American author Walter Kirn about a 35-year-old career counselor whose main job is to deliver the bad news (lay off) and assist these people in reentering the job force. In the movie very little is shown about this assisting, it's more on the delivering the bad news. Ryan Bingham (Clooney's character) spends about 300 days traveling and his goal is to reach the milestone of 10,000,000 miles. Along the way he meets fellow frequent flier Alex (Vera Fermiga) and embarks on a casual relationship. [Like there is one. For me when this type of relationship ends there is always someone who gets hurt.]



Bingham was summoned to the main office to train new recruit ambitious Natalie (Anna Kendrick) and show her how things have been done before. Natalie wants to implement a high tech program to cut cost.



MY TAKE: Bingham on paper is 35 y.o. Clooney is not. But that didn't deduct anything from the validity of the movie. The acting by the three major characters [including Jason Bateman as the boss - gosh I hate that guy!] was natural and effortless, which is probably why acting nominations were handed out to the main actors by award-giving bodies.



At some point in the movie, I thought it ran a little slowly. It took its time moving the story along.



Not having read the book, I was surprised to see that Alex was truly just after casual affair. Wasn't that scene where Ryan found out that she's not into anything serious kind of want you to say 'GOTCH' Ryan.



I enjoyed the movie, although I wouldn't pay good money to see it on the big screen.



THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is a 2003 novel by American novelist Audrey Niffenegger. It's a love story about a man whose genetic disorder causes him to time travel unpredictably and his wife who has to deal with his absences.



MY TAKE: I love Rachel MacAdams. She has this ethereal beauty that gives a classic feel to a movie. Eric Bana is not bad either. He didn't stand out here. And I don't think Rachel did as well, acting wise. However, the story is captivating. It transported me to a place I wanted to be. I love this kind of fairy tale/sci-fi movies.



I got choked up more than once in the movie. It's a nice one to put on the dvd player if you want a little chilling time.



THE LOVELY BONES is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold about a 14-year-old girl who was raped and murdered and is coping with her death as she watches her family go about their daily life from her perch "heaven".



MY TAKE: I read the synopsis of the book on wikipedia, if I haven't I would be happy with the film adapatation. In the book the mother played by Rachel Weisz had an affair with the detective in charge of disappearance case of Susie Salmon. This was not implicitly or explicitly shown/hinted on the movie version. I don't know if that would have made a difference on how I viewed the movie.

The subject matter is a bit serious for me. It's not the kind of movie I would have wanted to see at midnight. It does give you some things to think about death and grieving and accepting.

The protagonist's character was superbly played by Stanley Tucci. Just one look at him and you can feel bad vibes.

All in all, I think it's a well made movie. I don't know if it made money in the tills, but it's a good rental movie.

The Summons

What would you do if you found boxes and boxes of money amounting to $3 million in cash in your dead father's house?

That is how the story of my first book of 2010 started. The book is called THE SUMMONS, a legal thriller written by John Grisham in December of 2002.

The protagonist is Ray Atlee, a lawyer who opted to teach instead of practice law. His father, Judge Atlee, died before Ray arrived. He has a brother, who is in and out of rehab. Both brothers were summoned to appear before their dying father to discuss matters regarding the old man's last will and testament. Except that when Ray arrived, he found his father dead and boxes of cash - money he cannot explain; money that none of his father's papers could explain. Ray couldn't tell if the money was dirty, if his father was accepting bribes. And the story goes...

MY TAKE: I haven't read a Grisham in a long time. I can't even remember what Grishams I have read before.

The Summons paints a realistic take on life. I thought the way the author wrote the Atlee character's reactions and responses to the money was truthful and very human. The story did take a little slow to unfold, I thought. The conclusion caught me off guard (a good sign, isn't it). However, I still preferred the ending that I had come up while reading this :)

All in all it was an interesting read. I did not finish this in one sitting, more like a few pages every night. You can take that to mean that it's an average read that can be picked up anytime a free moment comes up.