Not-so-Mystery After All

Their promo ads said it was a mystery shampoo, but from the day I saw that ad, I immediately knew it was Pantene - apparently we went to the grocery the day after I saw the ad and lo and behold! The new packaging was already displayed, hence, no-brainer.

Anyway.

So as all others did, I joined their online thing, where you register to get your free samples, remember that? I waited and waited and waited, but no, there was no shampoo and conditioner delivery. Until this morning. After months of waiting. It just arrived this morning.

Yep, Pantene. Better late than never.

Her looks cannot deceive

Although I personally cannot say that she really used public funds to get beauty treatments and have cosmetic procedures like Nose Reshaping (Rhinoplasty) and Chin and Cheek Implants performed on her face, but from the looks of it, Jane Cajes really has changed face, hasn't she?

Here's an older photo of her:

And here's the newer one from one of her facebook pages.

And I can't help but notice, is that a Blackberry she's holding?!

Anyway, let's just hope that our justice system does something right about all these issues because aside from allegedly using public funds for personal physical improvement, there have been significantly-priced purchases and services bought from certain suppliers or service providers without ever going through public bidding.

Hmm, you're quite an early worm and a quick study, aren't you? Are these what your parents are teaching you?

You think you know

But you don't.

You don't want to be talked to about these things, you think you know all about it. You think you're wasting your time hearing what we have to say, or even trying to think about the possibility of what really will happen to you. You don't want to talk to anyone about it, or listen to someone talk to you about it. You say you already know what we're talking about. You understand everything and that you just don't think we should meddle with your "religion" anymore. You think this is about religion?! Do you really think we're wasting our time? Don't you really wanna know where you're going?!

Did I Ever Mention?

That finally.... I have tasted and ate, and survived the whole thing, guso (seaweed / agar-agar)?! I tried it yesterday, although one medium-length strand of the thing was accompanied by a tablespoon-full of sautéed ampalaya with egg and rice. It still tasted a bit of the salty-water of the sea, a bit more vinegar would have helped. But let me say, it was not as gruesome as I imagined!

*photo credits*

As Promised... Update on Testing OWTs

I posted before that I'm supposed to be testing some old wives' tales about determining the gender of my unborn baby, and that after the weekend, we would be 100% sure already since we'll be having an ultrasound. Well, surprise! We didn't.

I was so disappointed when Dr Cyd told us we still should wait for another month to have our ultrasound. Grr. And I was so hyped over Thursday and Friday because of excitement which all of a sudden turned into disgruntlement because our OB still wants to wait for another month just to have the gender determined. Hmm, I wondered why but she just keeps on telling us that we should wait another month so that the sonologist/ultrasound technician will not commit any mistakes in telling us whether the baby is a boy or a girl.

Hohum. Duh. So we'll just have to wait until November 13 or 14 to finally know.

In the Office and Still Sleepy

Recently I've been finding this time of the morning too...annoying. It's already 9+ AM and I'm just starting to feel that my body's trying to get back on sleep mode. Ugh. I.....need...to...stay....awake....

Whatever. Anyway, I took some shots of my tummy. It's ok, my staff haven't arrived yet when I took these, it was still almost 8AM...

Just turned 22 weeks, and my belly button's starting to shrink and look like a line instead of a hole. Don't bother, didn't take a shot of that... Just so happens that I didn't have much to do this early...  :)

Another OWT to Test - Chinese Birth Calendar

The Chinese Birth Calendar is said to be also so accurate that it can predict the gender correctly almost 99% at a time - according to the Chinese. So how to do it:

• Determine the month of your conception. If you're like me who's not so sure, then use a conception calculator. The internet is full of these kinda things, y'know. You just have to know how to search for them. So I found one, and took screen shots of the different results, 'coz as you can remember, some inconsistencies with the due dates have come up because of that spotting episode early on this pregnancy. So here are the screenshots (I based my calculation on the expected due dates):

first due date given by first OB was Feb 12.

next was given by Doc Cyd, Feb 19.

So I averaged the 2 and got Feb 15.

So by these, we can now safely say that conception occurred more or less in the month of May.

• Next, determine the age of the mother by the time she gives birth, so for me, that'll be 26.
• The ages are enumerated in the vertical axis left-most column, and the month of conception in the horizontal axis top most row. Where 26 and May intersects is the predicted gender of the baby, which is, in my case. Male.

Still, to be absolutely sure, we'll still wait for the ultrasound results... :)

Trying Out an Old Wife's Tale - Baby's Gender

Saw in an article online about this one old wife's tale on predicting the gender of an unborn child, and found this particular one not so hard to do and not so absurd too.

This OWT (old wife's tale) said that if you suspend the mother's wedding ring on a chain or a strand of her hair or the husband's hair above her belly and watch for the direction of the swinging of the pendulum, you can predict the gender of the baby. Per OWT, if the medallion moves in a circular motion, it will be a girl. If it moves back and forth in a line, it will be a boy. It also says that this method is quite accurate. Hmm, let's see.

Does this mean we're having a boy?

We'll have to wait until after the weekend to know for sure.

:)

ps: I suspended my wedding ring on a strand of my hair. The video was taken inside my office.

And I have a cool trivia. While loading the video, pause it for while, there's gonna be the blinking circles in the middle of the video screen. Press your keyboard's arrow keys, and voila! You can play Snakes while waiting for it load.  :)

Annoying Giggling so Early in the Morning

Until now I still don't understand why this 160+-pound guy was so amused by "news" that a certain mayor is linked to Shalani Soledad and allegedly pointed as third-party to Shalani and PNoy's break-up.

A 160-plus-pound guy. Giggling. And I meant GIGGLING, so early this morning, telling me out of nowhere that he read that in a newspaper somewhere. Do I look like I care?!

10-10-10 and that Strong Kick!

What a historic date!

Of course, this day won't come by in the nearest future, so that was pretty special already. Plus a friend of ours delivered her baby boy via cesarean on that date too, at 10 o'clock. Imagine. Congratulations Val & Tonton, welcome to Sean Khaleb!

And of course, we also have something to remember 10-10-10 by! Last night, while we were already lying in bed, talking a bit, waiting for sleepiness to knock us off, Tom asked why in the world I was giggling even though what he was saying wasn't at all funny. So I told him - it's because the baby's moving too much! Night time is when this baby particularly likes to do somersaults and flips or just let us know that it kicks and flails its arms around. So I took Tom's hand and placed it over the spot where he can probably feel the movements, and he talked to the tummy and said, "Strong kick daw beh?"

And so we waited for about a few seconds, and the baby suddenly gave one hard kick! I was laughing and Tom was shouting "Waaahhahaha! It kicked! Kusuga uy!"

Hmm, what do you know, a very obedient baby while still in the womb! I was so proud... Lol!

Anyway, we still have no idea what the gender is, but we have scheduled ourselves to finally have an ultrasound on Saturday, perhaps after our check-up with Doc Cyd.

:)

Bill passed for Longer Maternity Leaves, plus benefits!

Oh how I would love for this to become a law!

The bill, House Bill 2583, was filed by Rep. Winston Castelo citing that maternity leaves for working women should be extended to 84 days for normal deliveries and 100 days for caesarian deliveries. Included is the provision for members of the Social Security System (or SSS) and Government Security Insurance System (or GSIS) shall be paid a daily maternity benefit equivalent to 150 percent of her present basic salary, allowances and other benefits or its cash equivalent for 84 calendar days, for 100 days for high-risk pregnancies.

Also under the bill is that SSS or GSIS should immediately reimburse the 100% maternity benefits advanced by the employer to their pregnant employees. I think currently, they reimburse 50% prior or upon delivery, and the other 50% after delivery. Included in the time frame of course is the tedious paper trail you need to make just to process these reimbursements.

Currently, law provides for 60 days maternity leave for normal deliveries and 78 days for caesarian deliveries. For more details on the outstanding law on maternity benefits, go to this page. For the article on the new bill filed, go here.

:)

Brownout vs. Blackout

Learned something from the AM radio this morning while on the way to work. A certain Mr. Lim was being interviewed and as additional information for the public and for media, he stated the difference between the terms brownout and blackout. He also said that to refer to the correct thing, we all should use the term blackout.

Brownout, apparently, is an ancient term used several years ago when referring to electricity shortages wherein the remedy our power providers do is to lower the voltage of the electricity being distributed in a certain area. This makes the electricity fluctuate, and the lights from being white to brown or yellowish brown, hence the term brownout.

On the other hand, blackout is the term that we should use nowadays, because the power providers don't lower the voltage anymore, they immediately turn off the power distribution in one locality when there isn't enough to go around. So you either have electricity or not. Hence, blackout.

:)

Make Room for the Baby!

Sheesh. I’m already on my 5th month right now and slowly, Tom and I have been looking around the house, trying to see and imagine where we’ll make room for the baby’s room.

Aside from the fact that my tummy has grown bigger and more noticeable and more uncomfortable - from sitting down to getting up, going to bed and up, squatting, etc - nothing else has increased in size. Not our house, nor our lot, nor our purchasing power. So how oh how will we make room for another room?

We thought we can just redo the flooring of the house’s 2nd floor and maybe put linoleum or maybe vinyl tiles. Repaint part of the walls while we still can’t extend or move one wall forward for bigger space or something. So the next big thing to think about are the colors.

I'd still choose blue even if it's a girl....  :)

According to interior designer Betsy Burnham (via The Canadian Press), we shouldn’t just plan for a cutesy, baby-ish room since of course, the baby will outgrow it and it would be very very expensive to redo the décor and everything. So instead of sticking to the pastel colors fit for babies, I think we have to plan it out into something that’ll still be easy on the eyes and the budget and still fit the child’s age until God provides for another set of color palette and décor.

Still, regardless of whatever we choose for the look of the room, I've been thinking that we should give out birth announcements and keep one or two of them and frame them for the room. It’s pretty mushy though. But at least our baby won’t say, “You told people about me only via facebook mom!” So I guess we’ve have to take pictures and print them out or maybe do those birth announcements thingies – but just in time for his or her dedication. :)

Naptime Productions can actually answer a few of those worries. They bring you unique cards for every occasion. Personalize everything from graduation to birth announcements!




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