Updates Updates Updates

1. Wedding

Been busy planning our church wedding, we went to visit the PI for a week last September, but it was nothing like a vacation. Our schedule was so packed, there wasn’t much time to relax nor spend quality time with our families. We’ll be back there for more than 3 weeks next time. AM SO EXCITED!!! This is the best picture I got from my visit there. How I miss my niece. :(

2. Regarding my previous post (Uod):

Well my calamansi plant has probably been able to produce at least 4 butterflies already. For some reason, the plant became a caterpillar haven. Probably since they don’t have predators flying by in this side of the building.

Then there were around 4 storm warnings during the past weeks. None of the storms actually hit the island, but there was this tropical depression that caused all our things from the balcony go topsy turvy. Our lounge chairs were down; my plants fell and it’s pots are 2 meters away from it, the soil still intact. Hehe. Even the huge calamansi pot fell and got off-potted. Thus, no caterpillars on the plant now, the plant itself is still recuperating from the recent abuse it got from these freakin’ harsh winds.

3. Work

So I’ve been in my work for 4 months now. I have to say I am still adjusting and have got a lot of things to learn about the technical stuff. As all other jobs, there are days when you want to give yourself a pat on a back at the end of the day; and there are moments when you leave office wanting to hit yourself (or some colleague).

4. Air Show

Unlike in the mainland, the US Air Force Air Show doesn’t happen here every year. In fact, there’s no regular schedule. Luckily, they planned one for this year. It was supposed to happen 30 Sept, but due to typhoon alerts, it was cancelled. They moved it to 07 Oct but shortened the show to a half day.

I have been planning to watch the air show for months. Couldn’t miss it for anything. Then October 7 came, I was all set, I already got permissions from the bosses that I can leave around 3:00 PM, right in time for the Thunderbirds Demo. Then at 2:50 PM, the phone rang and I received a message that meant we got a lot of major issues at work. Can’t leave. Can’t go. Can’t watch the air show. :’(

My husband was able to watch the Thunderbirds and here are the shots he did. I did the post-processing but I tell you, my heart was sinking the whole time I was editing these photos. I should have been there. Yes, I cried like a little child.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Uod

A few days ago, I was doing my daily routine of checking up on my plants. I have a few potted flowering plants, chili plants, and a calamansi plant which is becoming really big. I usually check if their leaves look “happy” and if the flowering plants still continue to have buds on them.

Then I saw this:

Was it looking into the camera? Yikes.

Full "body" shot.

I know caterpillars love calamansi leaves. That’s where I got my skin rashes when I was a kid.”Nahigad ka,” said the elders and they washed my arm with vinegar. Mahapdi yun, but I guess it worked.

I don’t even know how it got there. We live on the 18^th floor. Maybe a bird put it there? A butterfly flew 18 floors up and left it there? I can’t even focus right when I was taking pictures of it this morning. I feel an unexplained fear and disgust especially when I am trying to take a macro shot. Ewww.

So far it ate around four leaves of my plant. It’s either I’d ask my husband to take it out, bring the caterpillar to the ground floor, and transfer it to another shrub in the complex or…

I wait for it to undergo metamorphosis and become a butterfly. That’s probably interesting to take photos of too. I wonder when that will happen.

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It must be a childhood thing because all of us siblings (at least all of us sisters, not sure if my brother would agree too) are not very fond of these creatures. My mother had anturium plants back in the 80s and she would tell us to help tend to the plants. And every time, we would see those huge white worms with huge brown/black eyes in those anturium leaves. Not to mention a really big glossy, colored, animal book we had when we were kids, it had a spread page of one macro front shot of the same green caterpillar. We used to make use of that page to tease my big sister, she’d cry whenever she sees it.

Right now my parents live in a house with a bigger garden space. She is gifted with a green thumb that she can even resurrect plants that she just picked from somewhere. She could never kill any plant. That’s probably the reason our friends describe our house as “The Hobbit House” or “a house from fairy tales like Hansel & Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood.” It looked like a hidden house inside a thick forest. Hehehe.

My $200 Challenge

Our house looked like it has been hit by a tornado. No thanks to our week long, on and off, cough/cold/fever. Our house looked sick too. All our stuff, trash or not, were all over the place. Our kitchen sink still had unwashed dishes. Our last week's laundry hasn't been folded; it was on our couch the whole week.

So yesterday, my husband and I cleaned the whole house. Laundry was folded and kept in the closets, throw pillow cases changed to new, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the kitchen, trash were gone, and the dining table looked like a table again. Of course, after all that cleaning, the house smelled really really great, it looked brighter, and was sparkling neat.
It looked too neat, too white. It looked bare.

We've been living in our suite for 7 months, but until now, we still looked like we just moved in. Our house only has the necessities: sofa, bed, cooking wares, dining set, etc.

Before we left Maryland, we said to ourselves, we better just keep our shipment light, we'll buy all the rest of our stuff in Guam. Besides, they call this island "duty free shopping island." Then we got here, and to our deepest disappointment, everything here is expensive - and scarce! Of course, everything is imported from off the island. We should have known!

We don't buy a lot of stuff yet too, most of it we'd rather try to look for when we get back to stateside, or at least once we move out to a more spacious house next year (hopefully a house with wood walls so we can easily put up our wall arts). We are avoiding wall decors that need to be drilled onto the wall since we will move again anyway.

So now, every time we see a commercial from Target, Walmart, Ikea, Lowe’s, etc., we feel a little pinch of sadness, a grain of angst, and a drop of anticipation in our stomachs.

Hence, after seeing our oh-so-clean-yet-bare-looking space, I had the itch to at least do some decorating at home. Thus began my $200 dollar challenge.

Store 1: I went to SM (siyemps, SM - they've got it all for you!) where I will buy new throw pillows, and decorative twigs. I also found a contemporary wall clock that’s really unique. Also bought a couple of woven abaca rolls that I plan to use to frame the photos for the wall. Also found, ahem, new pants, hehehe.

Store 2: Then went to Ross, where everything is on sale. I bought a couple of plant stands on sale, I plan to just spray paint it to match the other black furnishings we have. Also found two decorative vases for the twigs.

Store 3: Home Depot. I was hoping I could find some contemporary seating and shelving here, but I didn't. I ended up buying a lot of stuff for gardening. I bought an indoor plant, four flowering plants, several pots, gardening gloves, spray bottles. I still find it amazing how a little pot of plant could enhance a space.

Well, I ended up with a little change, and I did fill out the trunk of my car but it was really not a lot. I still think it's best to do your home-decor shopping in Quiapo.
:)

* photos courtesy of the www thru google.