Simply Belle

Many years ago, when I first moved in the town where I live, I had the privilege of working with a great supervisor named John for a few months. Unfortunately though, he retired shortly thereafter. Anyway, it is a customary at work to give a retirement party for the person who is leaving, and part of the ritual is to write a song in honor of that person.

Here’s the song that was written by RW.

Every morning at the PO you could see him arrive
He stood 6″4′ and weighed 265
Kinda wide at the shoulders and wide at the hips
And if you asked a question he’d say “I am workin on it”, Big John
Big John, Big Jooo–ohn, Big Bad John Big John

Nobody seemed to know where John called home
He just drifted into town and stayed all alone
He brought him some cars and he drove them hard
Then he made them lawn art in his back yard, Big John

Somebody said he came from New York City
And imagined himself as kinda pretty
After coming to Payson, he got kinda fat
As for diet, he was “just thinkin about that” Big John
Big John, Big Jooo–ohn, Big Bad John, Big John

Then came the day at the supervisor’s desk
White tubs were piled high, it was really a mess
When all of the sudden they started to sway
And somebody yelled “Get out of the way!” to Big John

In the paper dust of that Man-made hell
Sat a giant of a man that the workers knew well
As the mail came crashing down towards his chair
They heard him say, “It’s here somewhere” Big John
Big John, Big Joo–ohn Big Bad John Big John

Then all at once he shouted, “Gol-Darn!”
And he stopped the slide with his great big arm
And twenty workers scrambled from a would-be grave
And now there’s only one left down there to save, Big John

With picks and shovels they dug for a while
Then came that sound from under the pile
And they noticed an ODOR rising fast
And everybody knew that he’d passed gas, Big John
Big John, Big Jooo—ohn, Big Bad John… Big John

Now they never uncovered that worthless pile
They just placed a marble stand right there on the tile
And these few words are written on that stand
“We all got to work for a pretty good man, Big John”
Big John, Big Jooo–ohn, Have fun John.

4 Comments »

I wonder if you could help me solve my problem regarding leaving comments to some of my friends’ sites that blog at blogspot.com. When I am asked to choose an identity, I am only given two choices and they are google/blogger and openID, thus leaving poor me out. Whatever happened to the original “option” where commenters could leave their name and a link to their URL plus the anonymous feature? Was is removed without further notice? That is not nice! If that is the case, I would advice my niece, Gie, whom I recently directed to blogspot.com, to move to a more user and visitor friendly site like wordpress.com.

In some though, the old option is still there like Elyani, Chesca, Anna, to name a few. But with the newer bloggers, they took the old option and replaced with a new one wherein anonymous and name/url users are not allowed to leave comments. Now, I will miss Fe, Gie, and others….

Here’s the old comment option:

Choose an identity
Google/Blogger
Username——————

Password——————

No Google Account? Sign up here.
You can also use your Blogger account.
OpenID OpenID LiveJournal WordPress TypePad AOL
LiveJournalWordPressTypePadAIM

Name/URL —————–
Name ———————
URL ———————
Anonymous
Publish Your Comment
Preview

The new comment option

Choose an identity
Google/Blogger
Username——————

Password——————

No Google Account? Sign up here.
You can also use your Blogger account.
OpenID OpenID LiveJournal WordPress TypePad AOL
LiveJournalWordPressTypePadAIM

Publish Your Comment
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12 Comments »

He was a genius. He got a Ph.D. in surgery at age 20. He wrote a letter to his friend Swinnerton Loughburne, who had a list of degrees as long as your arm such as M.A., Ph.D., L.L.D. And this is what he wrote:

Incontrovertibly the introduction of the personal equation leads to lamentable inversions, and the perceptive faculties when contemplating phenomena through the lens of ego too often conceive an accidental connotation or manifest distortion to be actuality, for the physical (or personal) too often beclouds that power of inner vision which so unerringly penetrates to the inherent truths of incorporeity and the extramundane. Yet this problem, to your eyes, I fear, not essentially novel or peculiarly involute, holds for my contemplative faculties an extraordinary fascination, to wit. : wherein does the mind, in itself a muscle, escape from the laws of the physical exercise so inexorable a jurisdiction over the processes of the mind, so that a disorder of the visual nerve actually distorts the asomatous and veils the pneumatoscopic?

Your pardon, dear Lourghburne, for these lapses from the general to the particular, but in a lighter moment of idleness, I pray you give me some careless thought to a problem now painfully my own, though rooted inevitable so deeply in the dirt of the commonplace.

But you have asked me in letter of recent date for the particular physical aspects of my present environment, and though (as you so well know) it is my conviction that the physical fact is not and only the immaterial is, yet I shall gladly look about me-a thing I have not yet seen occasion to do- and describe to you the details of my present condition.

Is this how geniuses talk?

7 Comments »

I just recently received a present from my daughter S for her Mother’s Day gift to me. She was trying to save some money so she sent the package third class. Third class parcel usually arrives within a week or so. I was so excited when I opened the package, wondering what she got me this time. In the past, she usually gave me good quality cosmetics- things I don’t normally buy because they are expensive. One good thing about this daughter, she is very good at budgeting her money and she saves up for those special occasions.

Inside the package, there was a card she made herself that says:

“Happy Mother’s Day. This present is something you can wear in the Philippines. The dress can be worn multiple ways. I have included a small card that contains directions. I hope you like it. Love, S.”

And you know what she gave me? A sexy black dress which can be worn several ways. Ha ha…I didn’t think my daughter would approve of me wearing this dress but apparently I was wrong.

I modeled the dress at night so the pictures weren’t as good even with flash.

my favorite variation

least favorite.

second favorite

third favorite

So it appears that I have four new black dresses. How cool is that? Too bad the dress doesn’t have a magical power to change into different color for every style because I would love to have it in green, red, and white.

Now, I am thinking where in the province I could appropriately wear this outfit. To Virac Palengke? Nah! To nang Hilda’s sari sari store? Nay! To the beach? I don’t think so! To the church? Certainly not, priest would shoo me away. To the vesper ball? Hmmm, that’s an idea.

27 Comments »

I took a week vacation from work to spend some time with my children. Unfortunately, Lexi’s spring break didn’t coincide with Steffi’s but Lexi still managed to find time to bond with the family. She drove home from Flagstaff at 10 PM Friday night after work and didn’t get home ’til past midnight. As usual, I couldn’t hold still on my bed until she was safe home while my husband slept like a log. Sometimes, I wish I could switch roles with my husband.

Steffi’s friend, Leia, also from Stanford U, flew from Baltimore to Arizona to spend a couple of days with us. She was kind enough to offer to ride with Steffi on the way back to Stanford U. Since this is a year when Steffi starts internship in college, we thought this is the best time for her to have a car. She has been without a car for almost three years and sometimes she would whine at us over the phone that it was too cold to bike to her class. We knew right then that we had to get her a car.

We tried our best to make the most of Leia’s short visit in our place. Initially, she wanted to do some golfing in front of our house but my husband was able to talk her into visiting the Tonto Bridge which is only 20 minutes from our house. By the time we got home after doing few errands here and there, it was 2:30 PM - time for me to get started with my cooking as I invited a couple of Filipina friends over for dinner. Between 2:30 PM and 6 PM, I was able to fix six dishes including making eggrolls from scratch. My kids love eggrolls so much so I don’t mind going through the hassle once in a while. Leia and my husband love Kare-Kare so I cooked that too. I fixed Sinigang na bangus, and daing na bangus for my friends. All went well and everyone was happy.
Here are some pictures taken at Tonto Bridge:

9 Comments »

Look what we had to go through yesterday just so we could be with our daughter, Lexi, on her 19th birthday.

Pretty nasty huh? We were not aware of such road condition until we were mid-way through. Weather forecast called for rain and wind so my husband and I took a chance just for the love of a daughter. We thought we were not going to make it back. Although, if push comes to shove, we can always stay overnight in Lexi’s dorm because she has an extra bed.

My husband couldn’t hold still while we were shopping for clothes. He wanted to head back home before the snow turned into ice. He knows how treacherous it is to drive on an icy road. We left Flagstaff at 5 PM and drove home via a different route - a much longer but safer route. We didn’t get home until 7:30 PM. We were so exhausted!

The birthday girl, Lexi (wearing red blouse) and her friend on our way to an early dinner.

Anyway, the following morning I woke up to a big surprise when I looked through the window. The snow must have followed us all the way home. And I had to go to work and be on the road for at least 6 hours. Ahhh, this is what I call the downside of my job. Lucky were those who got to stay indoor and sipped a tea by a cozy fireplace.

11 Comments »

To all my blogger-friends:

May you all have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. (Sorry, I don’t have time to visit each and everyone of you.)

8 Comments »

Hastily, I finished decorating my house for the holidays while I was doing my laundry. I wanted very much for a live and extra tall Christmas tree that is tailored to the size our living room but hubby was totally against live one because of fire hazard. We have had this tree for 20 years - older than our kids even! And we have accumulated ornaments of different kinds over the years. Half of them came from my MIL so they could be older than me. A few of them, the gold plated ones, were presents from a step MIL. The rest, I accumulated over time.

Here are my favorite ornaments in no particular order.

my favorite of them all is this one because my daughte made it especially for us.

my fireplace

My dining table
The home-made pink heart-shaped paper with pictures on the wall was also given to us by one of our dear daughters so it will always stay there.

my living room

and please don’t mind my mess on the kitchen counter. I will get to it later as I still have to do some errands and cook dinner. But, I think I may just have to buy sub for dinner as I have laundry clothes to fold and tomorrow is a hard day for me at work.

23 Comments »

I had days off Sunday and Monday and accomplished quite a bit despite of the dreary weather. I made some changes in my dental insurance first thing on Monday morning, personally delivered S’ CD to our local radio station as requested by the station manager. She said she received about 10 CDs a week but most of them don’t make the grade. The fact that she took interest in listening to it is enough to make me happy. Will update you on what she has to say about the CD when I hear from her. She said to give her a week and promised to get a hold of me.

I also finished wrapping the presents for my dear in-laws and are now in the mail stream –thanks to my husband. Since he was in the groove of helping, I delegated the task of sending Christmas cards in care of him with no objection whatsoever–first time he has ever done it. Now, all that is left is putting up of Christmas tree, and wrapping presents for my daughters. My husband volunteered to mount the Christmas tree tomorrow, and so all I have to do is to spruce it up. How is that for a teamwork?

Though, there was a catch. He had been bugging me since last week to cut his hair. I worked 6 days last week so I didn’t have time. And no, I am not a hairdresser. For the past months, I have been watching a hairdresser friend of mine at Wal-Mart cut people’s hair at least 5 to 10 minutes a day during my lunch break. For some reasons, I have this fascination and inclination about hair-cutting. When I look at people’s hair, I tend to analyze their hairstyle and conjure in my mind on how to go about it if I were to cut it myself. Then one day, when I felt I was ready to venture into it, I asked my husband to buy me a set of hair-cutting tools. Whoa, talking about confidence! Well, practice makes perfect right? And my husband doesn’t mind to be under my 10 inexperienced and clumsy fingers. Not only that, he saves $10 per haircut plus tip.

Tang tada dang—here are the pictures. What do you think?

He has a cowlick right above his ear that is why the hair is thin in this area.

I wanted to wet his hair so I could get a good grip of his hair to better style it but he refused.

This was the second time I cut his hair, the first time was at my friend’s house. E, convinced enough that there was nothing wrong with my husband’s haircut, took a chance, too, and let me cut her hair. Hahaha! She later went to a retired hairdresser friend of hers to make sure that I didn’t murder her hair. The hairdresser ran her hands through E’s hair and said that I did it perfectly. What a confidence booster! Yessss!

Who’s next?

12 Comments »

While browsing my old pictures tonight, I chanced upon this picture taken 10 years ago in Hawaii. I looked so much like native here, more like Tahitian with long curly black hair and brown complexion, don’t you think?

14 Comments »