transposable element

when mia was born and the doc said “it’s a girl!”, my thought bubble read “uh, a girl?!? i’m supposed to take care of a… girl?!?”

how do i take care of a girl?!? me, who doesn’t really appreciate frills, ribbons and laces? me, who suspects make-up is called such to ‘make-up’ for lack of intellect or personality? me, who thinks being pretty is not an achievement, and therefore is not something to be proud of?

oh don’t worry mia. you’ll have enough of pretty things. pink dresses and ribbons on your hair. diaries with locks and stilletos for your prom. but i promise, you’ll also climb trees, you’ll get grubby and muddy after a game of football, and perhaps even learn to throw a punch or two, hah!

photo: michelin mia. no need for bodybuilding supplements, haha!

my mom and aunt will be coming over and i need to make another trip to ikea to get some stuff. instead of buying guest beds, i was thinking of getting a sofa bed since we needed a sofa anyway for the third bedroom we’ve converted into a working cum tv room. we’ve decided that the living room is not the place for the tv. afterall, the only person who really uses the tv in our household is jan (well i do, too, but only for 3 programs in tfc), and this way, when guests come over, we can entertain in peace, without having to compete with the volume of ben 10’s heat blaster. if jan would have his way, he’d want a home theater carpet and a popcorn maker, as well, but no way, jose. be happy i’m putting in a sofa at all.

reading tin’s success in using muffin pans to bake banana cakes reawakened my hankering for an oven. our kitchen here in our flat is not equipped with one (doesn’t seem to e a standard here, i was told) and i’ve been wanting one since… well, practically since we moved in. i used the oven a lot when we were in germany, not just for breads and cakes, but for other main dishes too. as lazy as i am, i love the way you can slide something in and just wait til it’s done. frees you up to do something else while dinner is getting cooked pretty much on its own.

oh well, when i start asking for recipes you’ll know i’ve crossed another one of my wishlist!

it’s overwhelming how big the market for babies has become, it’s becoming harder and harder especially for first time parents to distinguish the must-haves from the nice-to-have-but-don’t really-need-it stuff. as second-time parents, though, we’re much more pragmatic this time around in buying baby gear. we knew what the essentials were, and what items were better left on a buy-as-needed basis.

sure, it’s nice to go shopping and fully kit out a nursery — baby cot, dresser, changing table, all the way to the curtains, baby bedding, monitors, plush toys, and a thousand other paraphernalia — but since we ended up co-sleeping with jan, we didn’t even bother this time around. aside from a changing table (which isn’t even a must-have), we didn’t buy anything else. mia sleeps with me, a viable solution i would recommend to nursing moms, despite reports linking co-sleeping to SIDS, a phenomenon the cause of which nobody really seems to know, anyway.

and since i breastfeed, there’s an entire section of baby shops i don’t even bother to go to: that aisle where bottles, bottle brushes, bottle sterilizers, bottle drying racks, etc are.

interesting how simply getting back to the basics of parenting protects you from the temptations of the baby-stuff industry.

mia’s got enough of those frilly girly stuff, maybe i should get her some of these sort, too:

i know there are funny t shirts like these for adults, but somehow they don’t look as funny as they do on babies, do they?

these pics were forwarded to me via email. if they are yours (the pics or the kids), let me know so i can give proper credit!

have you downloaded the latest version of firefox yet? i am one of the 5 million who did within the first 14 hours of its release.

The Mozilla team had aimed to exceed the 1.6 million downloads that Firefox 2 achieved in the first day of its release period, and had hoped for five million downloads for Firefox 3 in its first 24 hours of release, to set a Guinness world record.

Approximately 14 hours after its release, Firefox 3 passed the five million download mark.

get your firefox 3.0 now!

i’m a beach holiday kind of person and i’m lucky because here in southeast asia, it’s beach climate pretty much the whole year round anyway. a holiday in Branson, missouri is not my cup of coffee, and if i were to travel to the states, this is a destination that will miss my radar for sure. would be different if i lived, there, perhaps. if a laid back, country holiday is what you’re looking for, perhaps branson is just right for you.

branson is said to be the live entertainment capital of the world (or maybe the people who coined that moniker just haven’t been to malate, manila) and you can book holiday packages that already include tickets to some of the shows. there is a variety of lodging options to choose from — from luxury hotels such as the welk resort and grand oaks, to picturesque cabins at grand mountain, to private and cosy condo units. kids will also be spoilt for choice on the fun attractions available: the titanic museum, ware rides, go-kart, mini-golf, imax, and other nature-inspired activities. the ultimate offering for the more gutsy ones, though, is the silver dollar city theme park:

Nestled in the forested hills just minutes from Branson, Silver Dollar City has everything you could want for a family vacation. Take a remarkable journey back in time to experience true, old-fashioned Americana and Ozark splendor. Silver Dollar City boasts over 30 rides and attractions and is home to the amazing Marvel Cave, but what makes this theme park truly unique is the dozens of craftsman that practice the same skills used by the residents of the Ozarks who lived here in the 19th century, from baking to metal crafting.

it’s definitely a different league from disneyland, but should be very educational as well as entertaining.

hubby always shakes his head at the number of store loyalty cards i have in my purse. in germany i had one card, the payback card, which could be used to gain points whenever purchasing from any of 10 or so participating stores. here in singapore, this habit has become worse. i’ve got a membership card to ikea, tangs, toys r’us, first few years, and a couple of other minor ones i probably would never use again. have i actually made use of the points i’ve collected? er, not really. or not yet.

but don’t laugh. i just need a few more stickers (you get 1 sticker for every S$30 purchase) and i can already get a kappa luggage set free from cold storage (a local grocery). kappa– not bad. the problem just is, that the promo period lasts only til next week. pity, we could really use new suitcases.

i didn’t need this report to realize that if you haven’t been sleeping enough, you have a higher tendency of snacking to keep going.

but it’s not the snacking that’s the problem. it’s what you snack on. hm, let’s see what i usually have: chips ahoy, tim tams, vanilla ice cream, raisin rolls, brownies…

uh-oh. looks like i’ll be a prime candidate for diet pills. it’ll take ages til i lose these pregnancy flab and get back to my ideal weight!

it’s amazing how much spam i get in each day. from people selling rolexes, “sexy blue pills” to offers of puppies for adoption and a p3nis upgrade, whatever that means. i get about 50 or so of those a day in my inbox, i.e., not counting those that are caught in the spam folder. that’s the price you have to pay, i guess, if you have your email addresses published on the web.

what interests me is that there seems to be a trend in these spams. sometime ago, there was a wave of “you won in the xxx lottery” and “you inherited a large sum from a distant relatives”. and of course, was anyone spared from the folks allegedly from nigeria seeking help in laundering money? but those are easy to spot. not so are those that at first glance look as if they came from ebay, paypal, and online banks, fishing (phishing) for your account details. and what’s even more scary is that the names and email addresses of the senders of these spams are looking more and more valid. perhaps they are real people, paid to scour the web for addresses they can send their emails to. if you were offered such a task, would you do it? i don’t know but i’m sure the pay can’t be that much. a few cents per email sent, maybe.

me? i’d rather blog about reno hotels and such. at least it’s clean money and i’m not being a p.i.t.a. to anyone.