2009

Archive for the year 2009

Exotic Jewelry for Sale

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Ching under For Sale.

When mom found out about the jewelry store project that I’m currently working on — I’ve created a web site to showcase and sell my hand-crafted jewelry creations — she suggested that I sell her friend Lilibeth’s jewelry through my jewelry store web site also. The jewelry store web site hasn’t officially launched, though. It’s still very much a work in progress. Besides that, I only have a couple of earrings for inventory. I need to work on making some more. Currently, custom projects (e.g. Lou Ann at Highlands had me convert a couple of French wire earrings into clip on earrings for her and she also requested a couple of specific jewelry pieces; and then tonight Becca has me reworking a couple of her souvenir necklaces) are keeping me busy.

Anyway, until I can get my mom’s friend’s jewelry items added to the jewelry store web site I figured that I can try to sell them through the blog. They are really exotic-looking and are not your run of the mill jewelry pieces that you’ll find at the mall. These necklaces are imported from Cebu City, Philippines. Mom said she will try to get me additional information about the materials, but in the meantime I have some pictures to share.

Necklace #130 $15.99 » ADD TO CART «
Yellow and White Bead Necklace

Necklace #116 $15.99 » ADD TO CART «
Brown and White Bead Necklace

Necklace #103 $21.99 » ADD TO CART «
Three-strand Necklace with Wood Beads and Big-O Pendant

Necklace #89 $18.99 » ADD TO CART «
Dark Brown Y-Necklace with Blue Flower Design

Necklace #76 $23.99 » ADD TO CART «
Multi-strand Bead Necklace

Necklace #63 $20.99 » ADD TO CART «
Three-ring Y-Necklace

Necklace #50 $18.99 » ADD TO CART «
Dark Brown Y-Necklace with Carved Flower Pendant

Necklace #37 $24.99 » ADD TO CART «
Fresh Green Y-Necklace

Necklace #25 $21.99 » ADD TO CART «
Multi-strand Braided Beads Layered Necklace

Necklace #12 $21.99 » ADD TO CART «
Chunky Multi-strand Necklace

If you are interested in any one or more of these, please check out using the Paypal shopping cart located on this page. Please add $3.00 shipping for one necklace, $5.00 for two necklaces, or $8.00 flat shipping amount if you order three or more necklaces.

NOTE: No need to add a shipping charge if you are friends/family and will pick up your items in person. 🙂

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Ching is a Cough Syrup Junkie — NOT

Posted on March 21, 2009 by Ching under Health, Life.

Your body CAN and WILL go on strike if you don’t take of it. I had this tickle in my throat for over a week that I didn’t do anything about. Finally, my body gave me the finger and took matters into its own hands. My body hit me will full force and gave me everything — coughing, sore throat, fever, congestion (loogies lots and lots of loogies), headache, muscle ache — all at once and took me out of work for three days. On top of it all, I had no sense of smell or taste so being sick took all the fun out of eating. Brian forced me to eat all of my meals, though. He came home for lunch each day to supervise my medication (he is afraid that I might get addicted to Codeine) and ensure that I didn’t miss any meals. No such luck on losing weight the three days my body was on strike, unfortunately. No thanks to Brian.

I don’t understand this medicine-rationing, though. I have a whole freakin’ bottle of it for cryin’ out loud! Although without Brian coming home for lunch each day, I’m not sure I could have taken the medicine every four hours as directed because I haven’t mastered the art of opening the stupid childproof medicine bottle. Actually, it was more like every five to six hours in my case: in the morning before Brian leaves for work, at lunch, and then at night when he arrives home. I normally ask him to wake me up for medicine before he goes to bed around 10/11 pm. That’s pretty much right on schedule, about four hours after my last dosage.

He thinks I’m going to turn into a cough syrup junkie. I have no idea why.

The weird thing about the medicine I’m on is that I can usually feel it wearing off after three hours. My throat feels sore again and I get really congested. At three and a half hours, I’m already begging Brian for another dose. Although he always makes me wait until he comes home for lunch or for the day, or at least four hours if he’s already home.

On the first night, I woke up around two o’clock in the morning. I didn’t want to wake Brian so I administered it myself. I don’t know how I managed to open the bottle that time. I haven’t had much success or luck since (except for about an hour ago when I took some). I guess it’s pretty hit and miss. The more frustrated and impatient I get about not being able to open the bottle, the less like I am to succeed at actually opening it — much to Brian’s satisfaction.

He thinks I’m going to turn into a cough syrup junkie. I have no idea why. That stuff is nasty. The only reason I take it is because it makes me feel better. I wouldn’t take it at all if I were well.

You know, I wonder how much of its effects are psychological? I took some over an hour ago and I’m still awake. I should be passed out right about now. I took the medicine in the dark though (Brian is still fast asleep), so I didn’t get the full visual of the plastic bottle and the yucky orange liquid it contains.

Then again, I’m almost well. I have some throat tickle and congestion, but nothing at all like what I’ve had the last couple of days. I was mostly taking it for the purpose of getting knocked out so I can go back to sleep. Before you worry that I’m turning into a junkie as Brian feared, let me assure you that I took a regular-sized dose of one teaspoon. I didn’t take half the bottle in one chug so don’t go calling the cops on me. Anyway, no luck on the sleep part. That’s why I’m awake and typing away at the computer.

I think it is safe to conclude that a regular dose has zero effect on someone who is well or somewhat well.

I think it is safe to conclude that a regular dose has zero effect on someone who is well or somewhat well. I’m guessing that’s why the junkies have to take the entire bottle in one sitting. It’s still a pretty cheap fix. My prescription only cost $5 at Walgreens. It may be even cheaper if you go to Wal-Mart, I think they have $4 prescriptions there. You’ll never find me abusing that stuff though, because I think it’s gross. It’s better than taking medicine in pill form, I’ll grant you that. I hate taking pills. And, I will take as much of it as I can to get me better. That’s it, though. As soon as I’m better I’m done.

I believe I am at that point. I still have some congestion and I don’t sound like me, but I think I’m well enough that I don’t need to take the Codeine any more.

The worst part of this whole ordeal is that now that I’m better, Brian is sick. He’s been coughing all night and is running 100.3 temp. Whatever it is that I had and am getting over, he now has. I wish that we could have gotten sick at the same time and just had it over with. Then again, when I’m sick he takes care of me and when he’s sick I can take care of him. If we are sick at the exact same time, who will take care of us? LOL.

[ Okay, the worst part of it is that we missed our window of opportunity for nookie. We had a small window when I was almost better and before Brian got sick, but it coincided with the two-hour series finale of Battlestar Gallactica and we all know what happened. Prior to that I was too sick and too gross to engage in any kind of amorous activity. Besides, Brian was trying to stay away from me so as not to get himself sick. Though it was all in vain it seems because he got sick after all. Now he is too sick and weak to do anything. Alas, we have another dry spell ahead of us. ]

I suppose everything happens for a reason. I’m grateful that I didn’t get hit with anything serious and that I’m on my way to being myself again. I hope that Brian recovers in less time. Get well soon, baby.

— DO NOT READ BELOW THIS LINE IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE GROSSED OUT —

I can’t believe you’re reading this. Since you insist, let me begin by saying you were warned.

I hocked up this huge loogie in the shower yesterday. When I say loogie, I don’t mean like a spit ball. This thing was all phlegm and was the consistency of pudding. It actually felt like tapioca pudding coming out of my mouth. Brian says that it’s a good thing when you expel loogies because it means that you are getting rid of the bad stuff in your lungs and throat. This thing was really scary, though. It was the size of a large grape and was so big that it couldn’t go down the drain all at once. I thought it was brownish in color, but since I don’t smoke maybe it’s just a gross yellow color that I mistook for brown?

Anyway, I had to look up loogie on Google because I wasn’t sure how to spell it and stumbled upon this interesting blog entry from 2005. Almost four years later, loogie still remains in the slang realm. People use the word loogie all the time, but it’s not an actual world.

I suppose I should stop using the word loogie (since we’ve just determined that it’s not officially a word) and use the word phlegm, which is what I really mean when I say loogie. Check out Wikipedia for more information about phlegm. By the way, mine was bigger than the one shown in the photo (if you can bear to picture it) and is kind of like that color. Is that yellow or brown?

Why does the color matter? Well, supposedly the color of phlegm you expel is a good indication of the type of illness you’re suffering from. I came across helpful information about what the different colors of phlegm mean on Answers.com so I thought I should share it with you guys. I know that this blog entry has been gross, but I hope it has been educational as well. Until then, stay healthy and be safe. =)

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Germany Only Cost Us $26 Extra

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Ching under Money, Tips, Travel.

Brian and I have the best cellphone rate plan ever. We have unlimited messaging (picture and text), free nights and weekends, free mobile-to-mobile, and 500 whenever minutes all for under $70 (for two phone lines). Yes, we are frugal even when it comes to our cellphone bill.

Needless to say, we were a little apprehensive about Brian’s trip to Germany and its impact on our cellphone bill. Well, I just checked our bill online and the damage was only $26 extra. I couldn’t believe it. All of that planning paid off after all.

Here’s how we were able to minimize our cellphone costs:

[a] Don’t use your cellphone. International calls are generally a dollar a minute (contact your mobile carrier to find out the exact rates to whatever part of the world you or someone you know is traveling — it varies — in our case it was .99 cents a minute) so call only when absolutely necessary. Ever heard of email? Good. Use it.

[b] Text sparingly. Sending text messages (SMS) will cost you, so don’t text message like you’re still in town. For T-Mobile it is .35 per message sent. Received text messages don’t cost anything extra if you have an unlimited messaging plan. This means that you can receive a gazillion text messages while outside of your local calling area with no major financial repercussions — as long as you don’t reply to them.

[c] Learn to text online. You can send SMS from your mobile carrier’s web site. Any decent telecommunications provider offers this service. You might have to find it somewhere on their web site. If you have Gmail, you can send SMS through the built-in chat option.

[d] Enable your Twitter alerts. This is an alternative to online texting. If you are too lazy to go to your mobile carrier’s web site (or maybe their web site is not user-friendly enough) and don’t have Gmail but you do have a Twitter account, enable your direct message (and other alerts) and have your friends and family do the same. Usually Brian will DM messages to me on Twitter that I would receive on my phone. This allowed him to avoid the .35 text messaging charge. It worked most of the time except when the lag/delay got really bad.

[e] Get a local prepaid cellphone. If you will be going to that part of the world on a somewhat regular basis, it may be worth the money to invest in a local prepaid cellphone. Brian says it costs less than a dollar a minute so you can still talk to friends and family without having to sound like a telegram.

How about you? Got any tips for saving money on your cellphone bill when going out of town (or out of the country)? Post them in the comments.

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You Light Up My Life

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Ching under Memes, Videos.

“You Light Up My Life” by Debby Boone was the number one song on the Billboard charts the day that I was born. This song also won the 1977 Grammy for Song of the Year and was the biggest hit of that year. It was #1 for 10 weeks in the US charts. Debby Boone won the Grammy for Best New Artist that same year. The song also won the Oscar for Best Song in the 1978 Academy Awards.

The number one song the day Brian was born was some obscure song called “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” by Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods. I have never even heard of that song. I think Brian got gypped in the song department. What was the number one song on the day that you were born? Find out here and then post the title in the comments.