Gimme A Break

Well, my kitchen faucet chose a great time to spring a fountain over my sink. It happened yesterday, a Saturday when I wasn’t sure if my regular plumber was open for business.

They were and they promptly sent a plumber over. He advised me to go buy my own faucet and he’d come back tomorrow and install it for me. That would save me money, he said.

No arguments there. He drew me a picture of the features I needed to look for and sent me on my merry way to the store. Gosh, there were so many different brands and models.

So which one do I get? A Moen, an imported brand, the one with a retractable head? So many choices, my head started spinning .

Finally I decided to get some help from the store assistant to help me decide. This is what I bought. Great timing too because there was a sale on and I saved 20%. Yay.

• a new faucet for nothing
• smelling like roses
• out of hair shampoo
• if I should need a new kitchen sink
• add another white elephant to the heap

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Thanksgiving came and went in a whoosh. I was hanging out with my girls at the mall yesterday and today. The sales haven’t started yet so we’re just pottering around grabbing a bite to eat here and there.

I can’t wait till tomorrow when the shopping season starts. All the malls should be decked in Christmas decor by then. I love this time of year. Even though I have nothing much to buy, all those glittering lights in the trees and the carols playing make me feel like shopping.

• too early for Christmas?
• same tree, different year
• Happy Thanksgiving
• that elusive turkey
• joining in the rush

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I’m so glad the weather is finally cooling down, especially now that shopping season and the school holidays are here and we’ll be going out a lot more. The rains too are falling at the right time, usually at night.

It’s the perfect weather, in fact, for eating ‘heaty’ spicy and fried foods (the sort that we usually avoid in blazing hot weather because it adds to the heat factor).

I mean who doesn’t love fried foods, crunchy, crispy and oh so tasty! But these are also the kinds of food that may cause many to run straight for acne rosacea treatment if they’re prone to breakouts!

Well, I guess there are times you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

• you don’t have to cook if …
• squid reminds me of Davy Jones
• the sun kills the fun
• of rain and insects
• five things i love most about cny

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After all the rushing around last week, we’ve had a very quiet day today. Whew! We all slept in because it’d been raining all through the night and the weather was too cool to be true. No bright sunlight streaming in through our windows before 7 to wake us up.

We watched Quantum of Solace which left us sorely disappointed. Whatever’s happened to the Bond factor in these past couple of so-called James Bond movies?

I remember Bond as being a debonair gentleman with a sense of humor who drives flashy cars, uses fancy gadgets, fights nasty-looking villains and surrounds himself with sleek beauties.

Sadly these were missing in Quantum of Solace. Even the villain didn’t look menacing at all. What’s up with James Bond these days? He seems to be a changed man. Has he lost his touch?

• 07.07.07
• switching to movies at home
• phases of parenting
• my favorite uncle
• back to basics?

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Whoosh, I’ve been out the whole day. Me and the kids went to two shopping malls today. Crazy, huh? Not that we bought much, only two pairs of shoes.

The malls are packed with holiday shoppers. We couldn’t walk two steps without bumping into someone. Yes, it’s that bad! And I thought the economy is bad and people are cutting back, haha.

The grand sales don’t start till next weekend, so I’m wondering why the rush. I’m not actually in a hurry to start buying yet, just window-shopping and doing price comparisons now.

We had a great day out. We’ll probably stay in tomorrow and have a quiet Sunday .

• tis the season to be shopping
• can I just zoom off?
• Happy New Year 2008
• all set to go again!
• price comparisons made easy for moms

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November has really flown. I barely noticed that we’re 20 days into November already. These few weeks, I’ve been running around like a madwoman, checking out schools for the kids and getting them registered before the end of the year.

I’ve been out every single morning this week and coming home only in the afternoon. I haven’t had time to cook a single lunch this week. So we’ve been eating out. Not that my kids mind, it’s just that good food at affordable prices isn’t exactly the easiest thing to find when you live in the city.

Next week is going to  be another busy week as I have to meet someone important downtown. At the rate I’m going, I’m bound to forget something, and it looks like I may need to upgrade my system memory (yes, my brain is working overtime these days ) so I don’t mess up. Yesterday I left the house without my cell phone!! Duh!

• hand-me-down cell phones
• built-in cardio
• compare free cell phones
• buh-bye, cell phone
• hyperactive

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I thought we’d bought everything we needed for our home computers at the last computer fair in August. Apparently not. The kids are now maximizing their computers to the max playing games and trying to learn up some software.

Now they’re complaining their computers are lagging and oh so-oo slow and that they need more computer memory . Seriously these games are getting more power hungry and I’m having a hard time catching up to their hardware requirement .

The next computer fair won’t be till next year. That’s a few months’ wait and the kids know I normally don’t buy computer stuff unless there’s a sale. Right now, I really can’t afford to blow my meticulously-planned budget. Looks like my kids might just have to give up their computer games for a while.

• going to the city
• besieged by wires
• back to basics?
• not going anywhere?
• best stress reliever

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Many of my daughter’s classmates are working this holidays. Times are bad and this is the time of year when expenses usually run pretty high because of the festive season.

It makes sense that many parents want their teens to use their holidays to make some pocket money. In fact, many of the more enterprising kids started their job search way ahead of the holidays and are already making money as we speak.

I let my kids decide if they want to get a part-time job outside but they prefer to stay home and try to make some money online. Let’s see how far they go with that.

• work hard but won’t spend
• two kids and a job
• add another white elephant to the heap
• full of initiative
• role model of a son

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This time of year is usually pretty laid-back as we head into the holidays. Not so this year. It seems I’ve been going back and forth to my kids’ school getting my youngest registered for next year, attending their prize giving ceremonies, …

My son’s finals are still on and some days, the exams start at 7am. Can you believe that? This means we have to be out the door a little after 6am to get him to college in time. Heh!

As a result, I’m pretty tired. There’ll be more running before this week is over. Won’t I be glad when the weekend comes ?!

• happily occupied
• tgif
• how to reduce back-to-school stress (2)
• nervous wreck
• frenzy weekend ahead

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I honestly hate those times when one of my neighbors’ house alarms would get triggered off, for whatever reason, during the daytime when they’re all out at work. The alarm would just keep ringing non-stop the whole day.

I’m not sure if there’s an auto-mechanism that shuts off the alarm after a certain period of time. But if there is, I wish they’d set it. See, while they’re at work and totally unaware, the rest of us who are home, are driven nuts with the loud and incessant ringing!

Well, I know times are bad and probably more people will feel safer with a security system. I have nothing against people installing house alarms but I wish they would also think of their neighbors, the folks who have to endure the noise for hours till they get home!

• of hearing alarms all day long
• how do you keep your home cool?
• a small price for peace of mind
• leaving your front door wide open
• neighbors, friends and moving

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