“And Such Is Life…”

In the recent passing of my godfather; when extending my condolences to his family and my godmother, she so eloquently put this horrible ordeal in a phrase that eased my mind and my heart… “And such is life”.

I have been to handfuls of funerals throughout my life, I remember being dragged to funerals and prayer services when I was young to whom I didn’t even know or recognize… my parents would tell me ,”oh, you know Lolo/Lola/ Tito/Tita (insert name here) they are so and so’s aunt, cousin… relative”. And it was always a big thing for Filipinos too… there’s the prayer service continued by food, and then the funeral service also continued by food and then the 40 days celebration... again continued by food and you would always see people from the Filipino community that you haven’t seen in months or years; all who are there to commemorate the life of the deceased.

I recall the first funeral that I went to... that I actually knew the person, my Grandpa Santiago, Ago for short; we drove all the way to Seattle, WA. My Aunt, whom I consider more like a cousin, because she is so young, was super upset when my parents and relatives started taking pictures… and making us stand by the casket and took more pictures… I think it’s a Filipino thing… anyways I was in Jr. High and ever since I was a toddler we made constant trips to the US and Seattle was more than often a stop that we would make. I remember my Ate Sonya brought us to where they sell the caskets and urns and such, and I vividly remember the cheapest casket of them all – a cardboard box – I don’t think they would bury people in that, more so for cremation… or at least I would hope so! They also had little containers/viles that could be worn around your neck, which holds a lock of your loved ones hair. Just recently I have seen the handprints or finger prints that can be set in a pendent which also would be worn around the neck, the latter idea I think is neat.

My Grandpa Ago had served some time in the US Military and just like in the movies they had the Trumpet playing “taps”, preceded by the 3-volley Salute and then they presented my Grandma Corazon, or Azon for short, the American Flag that laid across his casket… it was beautiful and has a left an impression in my mind and heart till this day.

Derek, my husband, hasn’t had the privilege or the desire to attend very many funerals. I’m actually glad that my parents brought me along and that I got to experience every single one of them; I’m not saying that it makes it easier… because it doesn’t, by any means… I still cry at every single one that I attend. I think, however, that it helps me to accept what’s happened and has helped me to learn how to deal with the uncomfortable and sometimes unbearable situation.

Which brings me to the words of my Godmother, Ninang Linda, “and such is life”… everything is given life, sometimes it is certain how long that person, animal, organism has to live, but it is the circle of life that one day that person, animal, organism will meet its demise. For us that believe in a greater god, we will live in a kingdom among all that we have survived…

rest in peace.

love love LOVE…

Life has its ups and downs… yesterday; however, was a definite UP!

My godsister, Mary, chose me… only because her husband was working, but I gladly took the silver… to go to the Beyoncé concert with her. She scored free tickets through her work, and SCORED is definitely the operative word, we had to pick up our tickets from the will call where there was already a line forming to get in at 6:30, an hour before the start of the show. We had no idea what seats we were getting hooked up, we both figured somewhere close but not that close… its funny because Mary had mentioned to me earlier in the week that she was going to bring her camera – given – and binoculars… I thought the girl was crazy and figured that we would probably get decent seats and be at least in the first bowl. The anticipation must have been killing Mary, because as soon as she got them, I mentioned that we should probably wait in the already forming line, she stopped and said, “Wait, I just want to see where we’re sitting… OMG effing FLOOR SEATS!!!” we both started screaming and I was jumping in joy it’s like we won the lottery. Out of all the concerts I’ve been to in arenas or stadium seating I’ve never ever been on the floor before… omg… omg… OMG!


To say the least the concert was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, Beyonce was looking fierce, thanks to the creative French avant garde designer Thierry Mugler, who is the creative advisor and costume designer for the "I AM..." tour.

“The duality between being a woman and a warrior.” That’s the spirit Thierry Mugler wanted to capture with the costumes he designed for Beyoncé’s upcoming world tour, and from the look of these illustrations, he succeeded"

Sadly, this is where my photos stop... my camera died half way through the show... thank goodness for Mary and her camera! Thanks again for everything Mary!!!

Highway Robbery!!!

The past few weeks I’ve been a victim of highway robbery… what is this world coming too, I ask you?


Last week I thought I would be a good little wife and give our truck a bath. Once waiting in the 10 vehicle line up I noticed that I didn’t have any change and so I ran in to the convenient store that was attached to the Hughes, there was a little line at the change machine so I thought I would look around the store… bad idea, spending more than I had to, but what the hey! Picked up one of those nifty Absorber cloths… A-M-A-Z-I-N-G… and a few rags that they conveniently cut and wrapped in packages of 5… very fond of these to wipe the insides of the doors and the foot marks from holding the door open. Went to pay for my few items - $15 dollars – not bad… I figure it’ll take me about $5 to do my whole truck.

As I’m walking back to my truck… feeling pockets… “efffffffffffff! Where are my keys?!?!?!”… awesome! Look inside the truck, yup - there they are… threw them in my purse, I must have exchanged them for my wallet. GAWD! Call Derek, he’s working on the other side of the city and can’t come meet me… “call a locksmith… Sorry, that’s all that you can do…” First, I call my project manager and leave a long lengthy message… a reason why I never leave messages, it’s like I’m actually talking to you, leaving breaks in my sentences for you to respond, when in reality I’m leaving you a message… next, call a locksmith; “oh good, you can be here in the next 20 mins… Perfect, I’ll just continue washing my truck, I'm in the third last stall on the left”



As I’m wiping down my truck with the absorber the locksmith shows up, “HI! Thanks for coming so fast!” he mumbles something about $32.95, I nodded my head and jimmies the slim jim down the passenger side window and pops the lock – estimated time, a whole 53 seconds. Sweet! Reach for the purse, grip the keys and put the lanyard around my neck… take out my debit card and he motions me to his work truck. He swipes my card, enters the amount, presses OK and hands the debit machine to me… I think weird, doesn’t the customer usually get to verify the amount… but continue anyways, its past 1:00 and I’m officially late for work! The receipt prints out… WTF!! $82.95 – “Dude, I thought you said it was $32.95?”

Officially the most expensive carwash to date!


The most current event of highway robbery that I have encountered was at my dentist office...



Yesterday went for my semi-annual cleaning and checkup, the dental hygienist wasn’t as talkative as she normally is and she even left a couple of times… like left me in the chair with the spit sucky thing, I couldn’t see if someone called her or if she got a call on her cell but every time she returned I would hear a few drawers opening and closing.

In any case, I usually have to pay $10 for my fluoride because it’s not covered by my benefits for some reason… good thing I allocated my flex spending to my Health Spending Account this year! HA! The chick at the desk mentioned that there is a remaining balance… so of course expecting $10… she takes my debit card, swipes it, and enters the amount, fortunately she lets me verify the amount… oh good… $37.78?!?!?! “SORRY, I usually only pay $10, what is this cost for?” she replies, “It’s the extra cost of what the insurance doesn’t cover”. I reluctantly, press ok and proceed with the payment. Apparently my Dentist office has increased their prices since I was there last in September… this type of information, I find, would be very informative before getting the work done. I would have rather opt out the fluoride, since its increase of $18 in the past 6 months, gawd!


Yes - I wonder why, the dentist does the billing this way – if your scheduled for the regular maintenance; the exam, scaling/scraping, polishing and/or fluoride, why can’t they bill me before hand that way if I find the cost to be unnecessary then I could reduce the bill by eliminating one of the services…



Like when your shopping at one of your favorite stores and grab a whole bunch of items, the sales associate that rings in your desired items tells you the cost, and most of the time I, personally have grabbed too many things… do I really need that white tee? Those socks? What’s really necessary? What do I really need/want? Most of the time, shoppers will reevaluate and remove items to keep the costs reasonable and within budget. It’s not like in a restaurant where the same payment method is applied – if I were to get bad service, and then the server would receive a tip that would complement the service I received…




I’m not tipping the dental hygienist. So why pay after the fact of receiving the service?

I don’t know... I don’t mean to sound like a cheap ass, it’s just me venting about all these extra unexpected costs!

Dora is all grown up!

I have a precious 6 yr old niece and I can confidently say that I have dished out a pretty penny for some of Dora the Explorer themed gifts for her and watched hours upon hours of Dora TV programming and DVDs.

Mattel and Nickelodeon have announced that their fun-loving educational cartoon character, Dora the Explorer, will grow up, get a new look and become a tween while still staying true to her roots and maintaining her educational values through mystery-solving. The plot - Dora has moved to the big city, attends middle school and has a whole new fashionable look. The girls that she’s captivated over the past 8-9 years will be able to access an online world in which they can explore, play games, customize, and most importantly solve mysteries with Dora and her new friends. Adding to the play value, Dora’s online world is interactive with the new doll line, suggested retail price of $59.99.

I wonder if Angelika will once again gain interest? More so, if or how much this is gonna hurt my wallet… oh and more importantly, where's Boots?!?!?

Kiss and Bajs

So yesterday, I went into our district office to visit with some of my peeps that I don’t get to see so often because I’m out on site. You know... doing big thangs! Neways… while I was visiting with one of the HR reps, she excused herself to help one of her colleagues and as you may or may not know I like to creep… that’s right I’m a creeper and a toucher. GROSS - not that kind of toucher… but if you have a stress ball or a trinket or silly putty on your desk, I will pick up… look at it… play with it… squeeze it… whatever. So like I was saying, my point of contact had left her office and of course I got up and started looking around and I found this…

Now what do you think that is…?
I didn’t really get at first… Kiss and Bajs? WTH!?!?

But then I saw the English tag… bahahahahaha awesome! It’s Pee & Poo!


Those funny Swede's... meant for potty training education; this inspirational duo have plush toys, cute tees, undies and socks available for kids and adults.

JT --- Tequila?!?!

The famous Justin Timberlake is looking at expanding into yet another money making machine… my friend and yours, ALCOHOL!!! Big news on page six of the NY Post, reported, that JT was seen "touring a Mexican distillery" and "tasting" tequilas as research for his own brand.

So let’s see… he’s got his...

music,

movies,


TV appearances,

a few restaurants,

and a clothing line…

what’s this? Now tequila?!?!?

I wonder if it would be any good… omg…

if he made something similar to ciclon, he’d be ultimate... and I would be a loyal customer!!!

celebrity love

I love celebrities… celebrity mags and reality TV, or anything that showcases them as real people; who they are in day to day living.

I think my fascination with celebrities started with Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica I found that program to be so comical… I’m aware that they probably edited it to show viewers what they wanted to see, the classic episode that stands out for me was when Jessica and Cacee get eye surgery

‘…both are leading each other blindly through a parking lot wearing eye shields while on their way to get burgers. They can’t see anything, especially if there is light involved. They don’t even know what their waitress looks like because they can’t see her. Therefore they both agree that “it would suck to be blind.”’ (MTV.com)



To pay tribute to my celebrity love - Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Reggie Bush are featured in the GQ Magazine which is out on stands now!

These photos are HAWT!!! I wish I had some junk in my truck like Kim... ;( it's ok... I've learned to accept it... watch her in real time, real her on the Slice network on Wednesdays @ 8:30pm (MST) Keeping up with the Kardashians

To check out more photos click the sources below or grip yourself a copy!

Source: men.style.com & Kim Kardashian

I heart Team Alberta – Kevin Martin is da MAN!!!

I thought that I would do an honorable mention to this men’s team, not only because my blogspot is in reference to Timmy Ho’s but also because, duh… team Alberta!

So, in case you missed it team Alberta won the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier; the game was pretty much over by the 4th end, as the A-team was in the lead at 6-1… and to top it all off our hometown team was undefeated (11-0) and putting Kevin Martin in a 26 game winning streak!

L-R: Kevin Martin, John Morris, Marc Kennedy, and Ben Hebert

Makes me proud to be an Albertan... I wish the boys luck on their upcoming events and especially at the Roar of the Rings - to see who will represent Canada in the 2010 Olympics.

*****
Did you know?

Kevin Martin in a local Edmonton entrepreneur – Kevin’s Rocks n Racquets is located on 6501-115 Street, aka The Saville Sports Centre (@ UofA)

John Morris is super sexy and wait for it… icing on the cake… a firefighter!!!

Marc Kennedy is an M&M Meat Shop Franchise owner

Ben Hebert is not only celebrating his win at the brier, but I imagine, is also celebrating his 26th Birthday (today March 16!)

starry eyed – deer in headlights

Have you ever bumped into someone from Jr. High or High School and you try to catch/sum up the last x amount of time you haven't seen them in 20 mins?

Well it happened to Derek and I after the gym the other day… Derek recently starting playing indoor soccer again and we didn't have much time, I was trying so very hard to spend $100 so that I could get my 100 air miles, at the local Safeway *my acquiring points is another story*. In any case, as were walking through the produce section we bumped into a couple that we had attended school with… the usual catch up convo; what's new, are you done school, where you working… so on and so forth. After a few minutes we found out that the couple had traveled to California to go quad'ing, they stated the name of the place but it has escaped me... its on the border of Cali, Arizona and Mexico; where it is just as popular as it is over here.

As an Albertan, apparently, "Quad'ing" is the thing to do out here in the prairies… personally I've never done it and my husband has gone out a few times. If you're not sure what a quad is, think… Ruff Riders Anthem video 1998, or refer to the picture below.

Derek was talking to the dude and I to the girl, we would then break occasionally to start a group conversation… they are both very very very fond of quad'ing, I can confidently make this statement as it took up most of the 20 min estimated time to catch up. I had noticed and often found myself feeling like I was starry-eyed and looked like a deer-in-headlights while nodding profusely. They talked about it with such feeling and passion I couldn't bring myself to tell them.... "I have no idea what your saying to me... let's change the subject...".

Don't get me wrong I like bumping into old friends and classmates but sometimes it's just akward... especially when I have no clue to what you are referring too! Now you may think that I'm over exaggerating but I swear I’m not… ca’mon a good 15 mins of them referring to banshees and raptors; I later found out that this banshee quad makes a horrendous noise when you ride it.

K – fine I guess I learned something new, it was just awkward…