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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Hello Eevee

Mama Brimsley finally weaned her kittens last month after she was confined. We were very worried about her when she got home because she wouldn't eat. Miggy had to chase her around to get her to eat and drink some water. Eventually she started eating again, but started staying in the garage. She chose to stay in the original spot where we first saw her. 

We noticed she stopped visiting the laundry area where she used to stay with her kittens. She would hiss at the kittens whenever they approached her. It's been a month and she still doesn't interact with her kittens. It's like she's forgotten about them and she prefers to be solitary. She hangs out with Meredith, but I don't see them interacting. At least she doesn't hiss at Meredith anymore. 


Eevee. Photo by Sweetie


When we changed the polycarbonate that used to divide the garage and side garden to a gate. The kittens started to explore outside their usual area. Brimsley used to prohibit them from going over the divider. Without Mama, the kittens became more adventurous. Well, except Mando. The most she does is go on top of the gate and watch her siblings. She only comes out when I open the gate. 

It's Grogu who's been leading his siblings in exploring. We're a bit worried now because Pikachu and Eeven haven't been spayed/neutered. The Intruder has been courting Pikachu. We hope she doesn't get pregnant before we get her spayed. She needs to gain a bit more weight before she can be spayed. So far, she's been running away from the Intruder. We'll ask the vet if she can be spayed sooner than later. 

Eevee has so far just been mimicking what his Kuya Grogu does. He allows us to pet him if Grogu is around. He usually hangs around the sliding door wherever we are. It's like we have a guard dog, haha. We hope he'll be a bit more socialized soon. 

#BeKind #StaySafe



Monday, May 20, 2024

Preparing for the Rainy Season

It finally rained a lot yesterday. The rain that poured the past week wasn't enough to water the plants. Only the top leaves got wet, so I was happy it finally rained for real yesterday. I expect the plants would look healthier today. The rain provides them additional vitamins and they like rain water better than Maynilad water. 

One pain we had for a long time was water would come in through the sliding door. We had sealant placed a couple of times, but water kept coming in. It was annoying since we've had to check for water when it rains hard in the middle of the night. After careful observation we realized that the sliding doors needed to be protected with a canopy. 




So after almost three years we had a ready-made canopy installed. Since we had the floors replaced, the floor area of the sliding door was also adjusted. The tile was removed and the cement was applied. It's now a bit slanted to allow water to roll down. This will also help prevent water from coming in, although the canopy should do the trick. 

The canopy also helped cool down our family room since it's tinted. It's pretty cool in the family room already, but we can now do away with curtains. This means we can see the cats whenever they roam around. We also don't need to worry about rain anymore.

I think this will be the last upgrade we'll do for the house for the meantime. We'll focus on organizing it so we can have visitors. We're delayed once again since we all got sick and we're still recovering. We'll have to schedule the house to be cleaned and disinfected, then have the display cabinets returned. Hopefully next week when we're feeling much better. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Dad's 91st

Dad has been visiting me in my dreams the past week. Last night he was with me in a new house in New York. It was a strange dream since the house was between sky scrapers. Haha. Dad though was telling me to always be careful about contracts. Something I've been fussing over the past few weeks. 




Dad would have been 91 years old today. We were trying to get some Buddy's for lunch, but they're not available in our area anymore. We'll just do a belated celebration maybe when I go for my check-up. Resting for now and remembering Dad on his special day.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Still Not 100% Well

I still have intermittent cough and colds. I slept most of the day. I think more rest is what my body needs after battling COVID-19. I've been trying to pick up on my daily chores, but it's leaving me really tired after. 




At least I'm able to pet the cats. I've missed them a lot. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Friday, May 17, 2024

Day 12, Finally Negative

I felt very unwell last night. It was a very rough night since I kept waking up. I managed to get up at noon. Still feeling sluggish. I got a tester to see if the virus is gone. Did the test and waited 15 minutes before I peeked at the result.

Finally  negative! Yay! 




I hope the coughing will be gone soon. To celebrate, I stepped outside to say hello to the cats. I've missed them so much!

Still have to take things slow, but hope my energy comes back soon. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Monday, May 13, 2024

Day 8

 Day after we went back home. Still coughing, but no fever. 

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Day 7

 Day 7, still confined but feeling a bit better. 

Discharged by mid-day.

Friday, May 10, 2024

Dreamt of Mom

I guess I was delirious from a fever when I had a strange dream on Wednesday afternoon. Mom brought me to the airport. She was wearing her favourite pink shirt and told me to take care. I gave her a copy of my flight details because she promised to pick me up.



I remembered the dream because of the strange entry way at KLIA. There was a 3-level escalator without railings you had to get on together with your luggage. Then at the top you had to slide down together with your luggage. I went on the slide and had an exhilarating ride down. I woke up when I reached the end.

It's been awhile since I dreamt of Mom. I was drenched in sweat when I woke up. It got me thinking that maybe it was time to go to the hospital. By late night I asked the boys to bring me to the hospital.

Mom probably visited me in a dream to warn me that my illness isn't the ordinary flu. It did not cross our mind that it would be COVID-19. 

Thank you Mom for being my guardian angel 😇 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Thursday, May 9, 2024

It Finally Came for Me


Last night Sweetie took my temperature. It was once again 39'C+. It was very unusual for me not to respond to the meds I've been religiously taking since Monday. I did a quick search to find out how many days of having fever should you go to the hospital. Three to four days especially if the fever is above 39.4'C.


When Sweetie told me all our cats, including Kaley, Grey and the Intruder, were in the garage, I felt they were worried. Having all the cats at the same time in one place has never happened before. I told Sweetie I thought it was time to go to the hospital.

Arrived at the hospital at 2 in the morning. Luckily it wasn't a busy night. Did a work up and an antigen test. We've been taking all precautions to avoid catching COVID-19. Well, it finally caught up with me after avoiding it for four years.

Save for the high fever, dry cough and sniffles, I don't feel that bad. I probably got lucky with a milder strain. I felt much worse when the boys had COVID-19. I felt really bad back then but didn't turn out positive. 

The boys are going to be tested too just to be sure. I'm in good hands with my doctors and trust they will take care of me. I just hope I don't end up in the hospital for three weeks again!

#BeKind #StaySafe


Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Not Getting Better

It feels strange that I haven't gotten better. The sore throat is almost gone, but my temperature is still high. I read that if you have fever at 39.4'C for more than two days you should go to the hospital already. If things don't get better I'll ask the boys to bring me to the ER.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Still Sick

I felt a wee bit better but I still had high fever off and on. I just slept most of the day and hope the meds do their magic.

Monday, May 6, 2024

High Fever

High fever continued today. My temperature reached 39.7'C. I did an e-consultation and was given antibiotics.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Revenge of the Fifth

I wore a Darth Vader short today. Alas, it's been a bad day since I came down with fever. It went down for awhile, but now it's at 38.5'C. 



Not sure what I picked up. I only went out once this week to purchase my maintenance meds. I woke up with slight fever and then it progressed throughout the day.

Just going to rest for now. I'll do a teleconsult if things go worse. Hopefully not.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone 

Saturday, May 4, 2024

My Star Wars Quilts

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! 






I've been a fan of Star Wars since it first hit the big screen. I got to watch because my siblings would bring me with them whenever they watched it. I especially love Yoda and have a collection of his figures. I was hoping to share the new set-up for Star Wars Day, but the renovations are delayed and the display cabinets are still upstairs. 

I've been collecting Star Wars fabric. I've been using it sparingly because they're quite expensive. I've so far made a couple of quilt projects through the years. It's not that many since I want to use the fabric for special projects. Here are some of the quilt projects I've done:

Lightsaber blanket for Jet

Throw pillows

A bag

Bench cover (most recent project)



I want to make a quilt blanket. It's going to be a huge undertaking so I might do one more bench cover first before I dive into a project that's going to take months to make. 

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Master Yoda

#BeKind #StaySafe





Friday, May 3, 2024

Raising Others' Aspirations

A friend shared a write-up by Tyler Cowen about "The high return activity of raising others' aspirations" (see clip below). It reminded me of that time my grad school thesis panelists told me I have so much promise. They said I could go places. I just needed to get over being shy and I just need to be outspoken. 




My grad school marketing professor, Mr. Garcia, created a Yahoogroup for our class. He said he wanted us to speak our thoughts with articles he'd share with us. I hated reciting in class and jumped on the chance to share my thoughts through writing. Mr. Garcia talked to me after class one time and told me I raised very good points in the online discussions. He'd call me during class to recite after that. 

My thesis panelists and professor helped boost my confidence and believe in myself. After completing my MBA I had the lakas ng loob to apply for a product manager position. It was an attempt to shift to more marketing/business development work. Good thing I bungled up an interview at a retail company because it made me prepare more for my interview at a tech company. That's how I got into tech. 


Dev community, c 2011


I realized after my professors helped boost my confidence that I should do the same. I had the opportunity to build communities and part of it meant I had to develop leaders. I got to work with a lot of passionate individuals who also wanted to help others. Key to it was encouraging  them to reach their aspirations. A lot of them were introverts like me. I followed what Mr. Garcia did to me and put them in the spotlight too. 


That time I had Jomar do an HTML5 session


Well, I hope what I did helped others reach their potential, open doors and reach new heights. Sometimes the best thing to do is really take a step back and have others shine. Be the instrument to let others reach their ambitions.  That's what fulfilled me in my work. 

*Thank you to my friend for providing today's inspiration :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Pure Energy

Filipinos would know who is known as Mr. Pure Energy. It's none other than Gary Valenciano. My generation grew up with his songs and even until now you'd hear his songs everywhere. He just celebrated his 40th anniversary in the entertainment industry. He had a two day concert last weekend at the MOA Arena. He has one more day on the tenth of May. 


c2008 during a Nokia event 


How I wish I could watch the concert in person. I managed to watch through YouTube and I was super amazed with his stamina. He sang and danced all throughout the 3 hour show. Wow! From news clips he shared that he had several surgeries and has a chronic illness. It's a huge undertaking to be able to do what he did for the show. 

I personally huff and puff just going up a flight of stairs, so I'm amazed with how he managed. The message of his concert is simple. Just trust in God and He'll make sure you have the energy to do anything. I wanted to jump on my stationary bike while watching since I was so inspired with Gary V. Unfortunately, I've been under the weather so let's see how I fare during my scheduled pulmo rehab tomorrow. 

Watching the concert inspired me to do better with my health and wellness activities. We're now able to use our family room again, so I can shake out the stupor I've been on the past month. It's really hard when I'm unable to do my usual routines, plus the heat has been bad for me. I will add watching concerts to my bucket list. It requires a lot of stamina. I really need to get going and reach my biking goal. 

#BeKind #StaySafe


Wednesday, May 1, 2024

A Year Without Mom

A year ago, I woke up to the bad news that my Mom was gone. It was unexpected since she was actually healthier and stronger than me. I was very sickly back then and she'd tell me to just rest and not worry about her. I still did and would have Miggy call her to remind her to drink more water. 

Mom would have wanted to go that way. She always prayed to go while asleep. She said she didn't want to have a prolonged illness. She said she wanted to be independent and not bother us (her kids). She wanted us to live our own lives and not worry about her. Dad also used to say the same thing. They both let us fly as far as we could. 




The past year without Mom has been surreal. Incomplete. There was always something missing. Whenever we go someplace or order food, I'd always think what Mom would like. Any quilting project I work on, I'd always think what she'd think about it. Oftentimes, I'd ask myself, "WWMD?" (What would Mom do?). 

Going through her things has been therapeutic. It took me months before I could start working on it. I honestly haven't made a dent since she has a lot of stuff. I know what she left are things that are important to her. I smile whenever I find a childhood toy. I gave Kuya one of his squeaky toys last week and I told him Mom wanted him to have it. Imagine, that toy is probably 60 years old already, but Mom kept it. 

Tradition dictates that "babang luksa" happens after a year. We could now celebrate birthdays, attend parties, have weddings etc. Grieving for ones loved one never ends. I still cry whenever I remember losing my Dad and it will be the same with Mom. 

Love you Mom, forever. We'll be back home soon as you wished. Please intercede with Dad for us to finish all the paperwork! <3

*Babang luksa - lowering of mourning