Archive for May 2003
Erin’s Birthday
Posted on May 21, 2003 by Ching under Life.
The pictures that we took at work on Erin’s birthday (or should I say the rest of the pictures) are finally here! Sorry about the delay in posting them.
P.S. If you like these, wait till you see the pictures that we take on Saturday! We’re going swimming, baby! Hot girls in bikinis — what more could you ask for? Just be glad that I’ll be behind the camera taking pictures rather than in front of it. LOL!
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Gala Invite
Posted on May 16, 2003 by Ching under Family.
The Filipino gala is almost upon us and I am proud to say that I got my very first official invitation this year. My family has attended the event every year without fail since 1995 but I’ve always gone as a tag-along to their invitation.
This year, Brian and I got our very own in the mail addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Brian Brubaker. I feel like such a grownup!
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My New Camera
Posted on May 15, 2003 by Ching under Toys, Wishlist.
I haven’t been blogging because my Canon Powershot G3 arrived on Tuesday and I’ve been busy playing with it ever since. The other night Brian and I set it on a table and played with the wireless controller. It’s so cool because the wireless controller not only gives the ability to remote detonate ..err, snap pictures.. It actually gives you the ability to zoom in and out, and also navigates the various pictures stored in the camera like if you had the camera connected to a TV (it came w/ A/V cables) so you can show pictuers one at a time before moving on. The camera itself has a slideshow option but we’re just talking about the wireless controller right now.
You wanna know something stupid? Dell carries the G3 now. They’re a little late because I’d already bought it! I was just telling Pia last night (she’s thinking of buying a new desktop from Dell) of how much I love that company (their tech support is crap but that’s besides the point, they have good deals). Almost everything that we’ve got is through them. Brian’s desktop, my desktop, the cd burner I bought for Brian’s computer, my QuickCam Pro 4000 (which incidentally I had bought when it was still $99.99 and now it’s on sale everywhere you go — probably because the new QuickCam Cordless is now available — I want that one next) etc etc. Anyway I told her that I would have bought the G3 from Dell had they offered it but I didn’t see it on any of their catalogs or website. Now, after the fact, it’s there.
So last night I was tinkering with my computer as I was chatting with Pia on Y!M. I decided that I didn’t need some of the software bundled with my webcam so I uninstalled them from my computer (being careful not to uninstall the driver along with it). What followed next was a rigorous test of almost everything that I use with my webcam on a semi-regular basis. Webcam32 and the webcam option on Y!M still worked. I wanted to make sure that my Logitech IM Video Companion (which works with AIM and MSN Messenger) thing still worked. I signed onto AIM to see if there was anyone available who could test it with me and, lo and behold, a Ritchie sighting! We never run into each other online!
Pia doesn’t have AIM but she had MSN so we switched to MSN so the three of us could chat together. I needed to test it with MSN anyhow. I couldn’t get it to work for the life of me! I don’t know what the deal is. Crazy chat program! The good news is, after I got off chat with Ritchie and Pia, I had Brian log onto AIM on his computer and test it with me. He says that when I send him the view my webcam link it takes him to a page to install the program needed and then after it’s installed it works. He could see me. So the Logitech IM Video Companion works. The problem lies with MSN Messenger which I can understand because it’s one of the newer instant messenging programs so the could still be some bugs that need to be worked out.
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Mothers’ Day
Posted on May 13, 2003 by Ching under Family.
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Happy Mothers’ Day
Posted on May 11, 2003 by Ching under Life.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I just wanted to get that out of the way before I forget and also before the day is up. Only an hour more to go before Mother’s Day is officially up but to tell you the truth I feel that, just like Christmas, Mother’s Day should be celebrated everyday. I mean, our moms should be recognized for all that they do for us everyday and not just one day out of the year. But that’s just my opinion.
Anyhow, would you believe that someone really greeted me “Happy Mother’s Day!” on the phone last Friday? I just said, “Thank you.” There was no point in correcting him. Later on that same day this one fellow asked me if I was still in high school. I was completely taken aback. How was that relevant to anything? I had to pause for a moment because I was trying to figure out how to respond to his question in the most professional way possible. He was like, “You sound really young and I figured you were still in high school or going to college and working part-time.” How creepy was that? That’s customer service work for you. You get nice folk, mean folk and weirdos.
We were supposed to have a picnic at Sedgwick County Park today in celebration of Mother’s Day but when we got there we decided against it because the weather just wasn’t cooperating. It was a shame too because Brian and I were ready with lots of old, expired bread to feed the ducks with. We ended up eating our KFC at his parents’ house. They were nice enough to invite mom so we all got to spend most of the day together.
After Brian and I drove mom back home we went to his brother Kevin’s place to check out his new computer. It was my first time there and Brian’s first time inside so we got to have a tour of the place also. As Brian and Kevin were going through his PC and PS2 games, I spent time playing with Kevin’s cat Georgia. She has medium-to-long hair and sheds like she’s in chemo so I ended up wearing Georgia-fuzz all over my white shorts and striped terry hoodie for the rest of the day.
Speaking of the rest of the day, it was spent driving all over town looking for a hammock. 
Let me tell you, hammock-hunting equals total frustration! Here’s a picture of the one that we liked from Sam’s Club. The whole hammock idea was brought on by one that we found at Dillon’s for less than $60 while grocery shopping one day. While it wasn’t the best looking hammock made ever, it was cheap, functional and acceptable. I was perfectly happy buying that hammock until Brian told me about one that he found at Sam’s Club while hanging out with his parents on Friday. It’s the hammock pictured above. As you can see, it’s very stylish. It’s a hammock worthy of being sold on the pages of the Eddie Bauer Home catalog (for a fraction of the price, mind you).
We finally talked ourselves into buying the coveted hammock so we rushed over to Sam’s and renewed Brian’s membership. We paid the $35 membership fee so we could get the hammock only to find out when we got the aisle where it was located that it was completely sold out. Even the floor display was gone! Where it was now stood an empty space. When we first walked through the aisle Brian was all, “I don’t understand. It was right here!” I guess buying a hammock wasn’t such a novel idea after all. We went back to the customer service desk only to find out that the West store is sold out of them also. She said that they did not have any on order but the West store had 62 on order. But with Sam’s Club, you really don’t know when items become available again. Often they will carry seasonal stuff and when it’s gone, it’s gone period. I felt sure that by the time they got more hammocks in summer would be over. I guess that’s just the pessimist in me.
So I drug Brian to Wal-Mart and Target to no avail. Wal-Mart did not carry any at all. Target had a rope hammock and a stand both sold separately for $89.99 each. First off, the stand isn’t nearly as pretty as the one at Sam’s Club. Second, for only $176.54 we get both the stand and the hammock at Sam’s Club. Third, I’m not particularly keen on rope hammocks. Fourth, the hammock wasn’t even available at Target — they only had the stand.
There was only one thing to do — order it online. We went to the Sam’s Club website where the standard delivery of 7-10 business days will run almost $50. We were desperate. Can you tell? Brian goes “We might as well go all out and get it here faster,” as he clicked on the express delivery option. “You’re kidding, right?” I told him, “You might as well get another hammock for that price.” Sure enough when the shipping price appeared it was $181 and some change — more than the price of the hammock itself.
So there you have it. The hammock is finally ordered. Two weeks from now we will be enjoying it in our backyard as we lay in each other’s arms looking at the beautiful afternoon sky above.
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