A new record and a meal

We just ended the hottest month ever. Really. August was the hottest month ever recorded for the Triangle (with an average temperature of 84.1 degrees at RDU airport). Thirty of the month's 31 days exceeded 90 degrees. I can't wait for winter. I've heard locals bitch and moan when it gets below 50. THAT'S WHAT COATS ARE FOR, CANDY ASS. You have never experienced cold until you've waited for the school bus in Michigan. I hope nobody from Kapuskasing is reading this; they might not agree.

I just love cold weather, that's all. I bake things, roast things, braise things - always with the knowledge that I'm warming the house, rather that giving the air conditioner more work to do. I get to enjoy the clothes that have been tucked away for months. Summer tomatoes are good though; there's no two ways about that. I'm tired of heat, though. Lots of folks here, both locals and Yankees, feel the same way.

Anyway, I made this for dinner:

It's a grilled Boston Butt pork chop with a reduction of white wine, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard and garlic. The salad is fairly obvious: strawberries (very good ones, I was pleased to find), greens, pine nuts, feta and balsamic vinaigrette. We drank some Brother Thelonious Abbey Ale with it.

Loblolly Calendar

This is the cross-section of the bole of a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). I had the arborist leave me two four-foot pieces of the biggest tree so I could dry them and build something out of them someday (benches or a mantelpiece). It seems to be as much as 47 years old.

We Went to the Farmers' Market

Lettuce:
The hands of a beet murderer:

Roasted beets with olive oil, salt and pepper:
Local NC beef (chuck steak) with a bit of kosher salt:
Lindz took all these pictures except for the meat. We also got good tomatoes, radishes, squash, sweet potatoes and many fell meats. I look forward to the beef ribeyes and the smoked pork chops in particular. They have goat available for special order, too.

Ooh, Neat! There's a Little Tiny Man Arc-Welding in our Oven!

Yesterday evening, Lindz and I were in the kitchen. I had just handed her a beer, and she was telling me about her day at work. While she was recounting tales of her boss's amazing foolishness, I was baking pita chips for us to snack on. The conversation abruptly stopped when we heard a noise. It was something that resembled buzzing, humming and sputtering. Smoke and bright, white light was visible though the oven vent beneath one of the burners. I furrowed my brow and looked in the oven. Sparks and orange magma greeted my pessimistic expectations. "How about we turn that off, babe?" my wife suggested.
"Yes, I believe that's a wise notion, my cherry-cheeked goddess." I turned off the bake element, and we finished the last sentence of the interrupted conversation. I finished the pita chips with the broiler element, narrowly avoiding burning them.
"We're going to need something by Thanksgiving," Lindz said, wearing a hard-to-describe combination of smirk and grimace. It's the facial expression used by homeowners when confronted by something expensive that was working fine moments earlier.
"Yep," I replied, adopting the smirk-grimace.




Anyway, The biscuit-colored Magic Chef owes us little or nothing. I think it's 25 years old. It probably would have failed sooner, but the previous owner of the house seems to have been as afraid of cooking as he was of attaching anything with more than 1/2 the requisite number of screws. The new Kenmore range (model 94002, a nice, bottom-of-the-line coil top) arrives on Saturday. I didn't even look at radiant glass tops. I don't trust that there new-fangled stuff. Cheap ranges do everything I need. I'm not sure how much it would be to replace this bake element, but I'm not putting money into this old thing.

back on track - jenn's comeback

just when you would have thought that i have abandoned my blog(s) forever, well' here i am, back to the blogging world. and hopefully for good. Pardon such a long hiatus from all this, there has been so many things that happened in the past few months I have not been able to update for the longest time. For instance, we went to HK, baguio, and last month I went to batangas. And I haven't been able to blog about any of it just yet. so ok, I owe everyone, big time.

but just the same, a quick update, hopefully I can get back on the rhythm in the next couple of days as I slowly unwind. Because, and here comes the news.... I'll be leaving my current company and joining another one.

Why blog about it? Well, it was an extraordinary story. Believe me. It came and went just like that, and just as unexpectedly, I never realized that my life, and my future, could change as fast as it did last week.

What happened? Thursday morning I got a text message from a headhunter, inquiring if I am interested in applying for an opportunity at this large FMCG company. I said yes, of course. He asked me to apply to the job at the company's website. Went there, found out I've already applied for it sometime in December, I think. After a while he says ok, then texts me again asking what time its convenient for a phone interview. So I said 2pm. He calls me up, interviews me. After an hour or so he sets up another interview, this time with the hiring managers, and after a while tells me that they will call up at 4:30. And a few minutes before 4:30 they already called up, apparently they are in a rush, and interviews me for a while also.

A few minutes after, they call up to ask if we can meet up after work to further discuss. So I said ok. Left early from the office. We get to talking in Sta lucia, and they tell me about the job, the details of it, and asks a few more questions. They told me frankly what the offer amount would be, and in a number of words, offers me the job. Well, it was somewhere between an offer and a please consider. They did tell me most of what I needed to know, where they would want to take me, as part of for a future with the company, the benefits of working there. The promise of a challenging future, and possibly as part of succession planning. They gave me a few hours. Well, it was 8pm and I needed to decide before lunch the next day.

When I got out, I immediately called up good friend Jerome, told him what happened. He encouraged me to take the offer. The position was good and promising. One vote for the new company. I asked my ex-boss for advise. Another vote for the new company. Hubby says go for it! so that made three. I thought about it in my sleep even, I had a headache when I got up. Geez. Part of me (the bigger part of me) wanted to take this job. But part of me, while not denying it, must be in shock with the way things went! A day ago, I was worried about all the pending items in my inbox, the unread mails, and the pending projects. The next day I was considering my future in a new company.

At around 9 am my mind was made up. I called my would-be boss and told him I would accept if they would choose me. And asked for a few concessions. He said they will decide by 2pm who would be offered the job. Ok that's good. I decided to inform my boss, as an FYI. I explained of course, about the urgency of everything. She was shocked. Can't blame her, I was in shock myself. After a while, during lunch I learned that she had spoken to the Purchasing Head about it already, even if I had informed her that I was not sure yet since they were due to decide that afternoon. She was leaving after lunch so I figure she just decided to let everyone know anyway.

At 2:10 I got the call from my would-be-boss, inviting me to go to the office in the afternoon. To sign the offer. Wow. I said: "Does this mean its me?", hehe... I had to clear it up, I wouldn't want to have any misconceptions, you know. And he confirmed it. so that's it. I landed a new job, in a record of 2 days with job offer signing. I thought things like that didn't happen to people like me. I heard it happen to other people, but not to me. But it did. And yes, it makes me happy, and important.

What I like about my new job:
- The position was what I was aiming for for the last few years since I graduated MBA.
- I will be having direct reports, 6 of them, I think.
- The company is respectable, the brand is number one in terms of its market share.
- The exposure was different from my current one, allowing me to expand my knowledge and growth.
- Job offer was above my current, which is great for us financially.

What I will miss:
- My friends! The two closest to me: anj and jerome. They were already like sisters to me and knew everything about me. It will be such a loss for me.
- The office. I love my current office. I love the benefits. I like most of the people in my department, and apart from the ups and downs, I believe I have already made a lot of contributions, and would at least be remembered as a good member of the team. Well... things do happen without us realizing it, and there are leaps of faith that we sometimes have to jump to in order to survive.

PS. A few years back, I put it in my long term goals that at 30, I should already be a manager. Its heartwarming to know that I will reach that goal, almost exactly as I turn 30. :-)

Maybe I won't bother installing them...

I rather like the new kitchen cabinets in this arrangement!

A new first

After 9 years of being together as a couple plus another 4 years plus married, you'd think we'd have experienced most of our firsts together already. First big fight, first car, first family home, first pet, first baby.  Now there's a new first for us, and that is the first time to be physically apart for a month.
Hubby has been assigned to an offshore project for a month in the US. We've been anticipating this already since initially he was supposed to be out in April, but this was cancelled and now he is on a new project and it entails being in the US for 4 weeks.  He left june 27 and is due to be back july 25.
Like all first times, it mighty hard to adjust.  First, I'm so used to having him just here.  Free to text, free to chat, same time zone. The 1 day apart from the time he left to the airport was hellish enough because he was incommunicado.  Thank God for Skype though, we at least get to see each other.  Its a big thing, this technology. At least there's webcam and chat.  Good thing I am allowed that here in the office, I can wait for hubby to be online.
We're just starting with the setup and though I know it'll get easier in time and then one month is just a short period, well, there are times I just terribly miss him, and the thought of not having him here just plain sucks.  I could of course savor weekends I can spend with myself or with my daughter.  Always wanted to go out sometimes, and maybe this is one of those opportunities to do so.
As for hubby, I can only say that this is such a great opportunity for him.  I've always been by himself, and by going out of the country alone he will be more confident and sociable. :-) Spread your wings and fly, my love!

Investing in homes

A colleague and friend of mine is moving into their new townhouse this weekend. Funny how as we get older, we meet a lot people with quite the same priorities as we do. Liezel, for instance, is older than me and has 3 kids already, but its never too late to invest anyways. To cut the long story short, she must have gotten a moving company, like the New York Moving Company to help her haul her stuff in. Although, come to think of it, I think I remember she said she bought a lot of new stuff for her new home. Well, that's what you get when you have the money. Shopping!!!! I didn't have that luxury then, what with all the stuff we already have, and the stuff we'll be getting that was left by the owners. But hey, not a moment's regret for me, I'm sure if I have the resources, its so much easier to buy the things I want anyway.

Tiling the backsplash has commenced

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Missing Coffee

One of the things I miss about working for a consumer company that has coffee as its main brand is definitely the free coffee high I can get anytime I want. I hardly ever went to a coffee shop simply because all I had to do was to go to the pantry and push a few buttons to get my favorite cup of coffee. Of course it does not discount the fact that I also want to be pampered sometimes with a really good cup of coffee, one that came out of a Capresso machine. Brewed coffee is much too different from the usual instant coffee, the taste is much more bitter, giving you a much more intense coffee high. Now, when I get my own office this is one thing I am sure to get for myself. Nothing like a good cup of coffee for that extra energy boost.

Shrayemp & Greeyits

If you look closely , you'll see sausage in there. That's not andouille from New Orleans, that's landjaeger from Willi's Meat Market in Frankenmuth, MI. It worked perfectly. We drank Australian Shiraz with it all. Num Num Nummy.

Pain a l'Ancienne

 
 

I Hope Tile Dust Doesn't Cause Cancer

Lots of tile cutting. Almost there.

Grilly the Crab

MORE TILING ACTION THAN YOU CAN HANDLE!

(listening to "She's a Jar" by Wilco)
Yes, we're very cool people. This is what we do on the weekends. Every single weekend since Jesus was a corporal, it seems. It's been a very long time since a shower has taken place in this bathroom.


(listening to "Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating" by Ben Harper)
I spent a good bit of time at the tile saw today. I had to make the cuts to accommodate two shelves and the soap dish. It's a wet tile saw, so one gets a mixture of water and tile dust flying around. The tile dust is brown. By the time I finished all those cuts, I looked like I either got a great tan or was a native Pakistani. My hair was nice and gritty, too.

We're getting closer to completion all the time.
Changing the subject, I feel the need to describe what I'm drinking. I put some dried blueberries in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and added a bit of dry white wine to soften them. I smashed them up with a muddler and added a couple ounces of Absolut Pears vodka and some ice. I shook it and dumped the result, smashed blueberries and all, into a martini glass. It's quite tasty, albeit somewhat more foo-foo of a tipple than I usually drink. Lindz, a friend and I had something similar at the Duck & Dumpling last night. Last night's drink was excellent. The main difference is that last night's drink had regular vodka instead of pear. It was also ten bucks. It was worth every penny; we had a splendid time. Good Mooshu Duck. Good Crabcake. Good Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Lemongrass Flank Steak. The Tuna Tartar was too heavy on the wasabi, regrettably. Nevertheless, go and eat there. Immediately.

Jess is now 3 years old!

Yey! Our one and only princess in now three years old.  The other week I was sorting through her kiddie pics trying to prepare for an avp or mini-movie about her 3 years, but I stopped midway coz I realized the music I put in there sucked. I'm still looking for good music to put in the AVP. Inspite of that, I was really, touched, amused and generally pleased looking back at those pics, and I realize just how much my little girl has grown up.  I won't say I'm the most "hands-on" mom on this planet, I still leave a lot of work to the yaya most of the time, but generally I still could say that I know my daughter inside and out. I can tend to her even if the yaya goes away (have proven that after taking care of her myself for more than two months this year).  But I would say, and I always will, that leaving my career, which was, I believe, a good one, was worth it, despite the financial difficulties now.  I feel that I would never trade off this one year that I have spent together with her for any promotion or higher salary. Being a mom is the best career there is. I guess, if not for me wanting her to have the best of stuff, and giving her everything we can possibly afford (without spoiling her too much), then I won't mind not going back to work.
Generally her birthday passed well enough, my in-laws generously gave what they can so we can celebrate jess' birthday (just us family). So we cooked up a few stuff. I wanted to please the little girl so I made a few surprises for her too. I got the pabitin she used last year at her party and filled it with fruitos, lollipops, nips and some chichirya, then put a few toys in there too that I got from that veinte store in Robinsons (where everything is 20bucks only).  She got to pick the stuff and food she wanted anytime (there is still some more here till now). Also found some old party hats from her first birthday and made her wear them. She also got to blow her birthday candles on the cake.
Happy birthday my baby! Mommy and Papa loves you!

Father's Day

July Update

Ok, so I haven't updated my blog for a while.  Its been a month since I last blogged and again, I feel bad I always forget, when it makes me feel good that I actually blog.
But anyway, there is quite a few stuff to update, the past month, as I said, was the first time hubby left for a short onsite stint, so for a month it was just me, yaya and Jess at home.  Did a couple of things to while away my time. That is, aside from actually working and transitioning myself back to the corporate world.  But I will forever be grateful that I landed this job, I believe its really more than what I could ask for.  A great role that is both a challenge and a sign of achievement (naks!), pretty good compensation (I am not super highly paid, I just feel that I am fortunate to land a job where I can comfortably stay and not feel underpaid), and winner location, where I actually do walk from outside the village to the office.  Its not something people are lucky to get.  I won't mind working in Makati if it would give me a good role or good pay, but this one, this is just a dream.  And I love it because of that.  One month forward and I'm ok with work.  I love that it doesn't kill me with pressure.  There are downsides of course, such as half-day saturday work which is a first, but since I live too near home I don't mind.  The people in the office are ok, my boss is trying to mentor me, but I think I am slowly getting in the stream of things.  So work-wise, there is a lot to be thankful for.
Last month I got myself to finally work up the courage to enroll in driving school.  Thankfully, I can now drive the car to work (and sometimes a bit farther too!).  Yey for me! I have yet to go a longer way, but I'll let that be slowly. I still like it better when I'm the passenger anyway.
Hubby is finally home, and we're now enjoying time together, as if we're newlyweds! Kidding! We will get back to the mainstream though, just as soon as he's recovered from jetlag.  But all in all, he's ok. And I feel the time away from each other has also helped us see the value of the marriage and being together and actually spending time together (believe me, these are entirely two different things, which you will only realize when you are away from each other).
In summary, the past month was a great one for me, and hopefully a start of better things to come. :-)

The Saga Continues

Just look at this stylish, not-quite-level, not-quite-tall-enough vanity:

Yes, that's brown formica with granite inexpertly glued over it:

Here's most of the vanity (I deduced that, from the "Lot #18" scrawled on the underside of the top, it was original to the 1981 construction of the house), in the trash:

I enjoyed slicing it up with my electric saw. Part of it was mushy from rot.
Here is what remains. I need to replace some of the subflooring:

This whole project has been more of an archaeological dig than a home improvement project. I'm penetrating through layers of stupidity and laziness. Why was the vanity not tall enough? The granite floor is glued over at least one layer of something else. The vanity stood there while shitty flooring was built up around it.

House.. house...house...

There is truly a great joy in living at your own place.  Ok, in our mortgaged place, if I may correct myself.  One major, major (tribute to Venus!) is not having to ask permission from anyone to do anything there.  Like if I wanted house repairs then nobody really cares about it and I can do it anytime.
And so I took advantage of hubby's one week vacation to Dumaguete (he went with his friend/officemate), to do some stuff at home.  Pictures to follow, was too busy with the activities to take any pics.
One thing I planned to do on the onset was to paint the single wall in the Dining area that was not white.  Backgrounder: we got a 20yr old house, so it was not exactly in "mint" condition, the previous owners who sold it to us did paint it white before they sold it so it looks ok, but the house itself was built on two parts, the original house had some wood on it separating the dining area to the room (what we now call the hobby room).  All the other walls in the living room, kitchen area, dining area, were concrete and painted white.  So when two weeks a go hubby and I took advantage of a buy-one take one sale on makro of 3-layer shelves, which sold for 2 for 500, or 250 each, I felt what needed to be done was to paint that single wall with white so everything turns out white around the dining table. And so when hubby finally decided to push through with his vacation I took the opportunity to do the painting.
So Sunday morning Jess and I went out to Robinsons MetroEast to do some paint-shopping. I had in mind to use odorless paint so there's a more forgiving smell once I put in on, since its indoors and not exactly a lot of windows around it.  Unfortunately after a long discussion with the hardware guy, I found out odorless paint can't be applied to unpainted surfaces, you will still need a primer, or flatwall enamel in our case, to put there before putting the odorless paint.   Then there is the issue of size.  The odorless paint sold gallon sizes only. And with the primer plus the odorless paint (which costs than Php 500 per can by the way), I felt I did not need all the leftover paint.  So I had to make do with smelly paint and just bought the flatwall enamel, around half-liter which supposedly can cover around 20-25 sqm, my wall was around 2x3 meters only so it should be enough for two coatings already.  Bought a paint tray and a roller, a bottle of paint thinner and one paintbrush.  And then I bought another can of gold spray paint because I wanted to paint an old aluminum table gold so it looks new.  But I'll get to that later.
When I got home I prepped the area, took out everything that's hanging there, set aside the new shelves, and put masking tape along the circular mirror on that wall. I had no plans of taking out the mirror and risk breaking it.  Someday I will take out the whole wall and replace the old wood, so what I was doing was not at all permanent.  I painted the wall with one coat using a roller, and for the small gap-things that was supposed to be part of the design, I had to use a brush since its brown in there.  I felt I did fine, after a few hours I painted a second coating, and left the electric fan open throughout the night to let the wall breath. I put some vinegar and baking soda there as well, to help absorb the paint.  The result was nice, there were smudges of paint on some brown framings near the ceiling, but its no big deal for me.
The next day I painted the old table gold, after spending an hour taking off the rust and the stuff there, I suppose they were because of oxidation.  I used the spray paint which was a really nice idea, and the gold color was a good choice.  I am very pleased with the outcome.
And then I realized I actually need some white spray paint to paint some discolored areas of the wall. That's another small project for me.
All in all, I'd say the past weekend was very fulfilling. I got to do a lot and that pleases me.  I do need some rest though, but this week is going to be quite a busy week, so these activities will probably have to wait until the next weekend.
(Pictures to follow...)

It's our birthday present, and we likes it very much

Yep, I'm quite pleased. Lindz gave me the Seiko Orange Monster for my birthday. It's preciousssssss.......