Is the week over?

I'm ready for the weekend. Not that it means much, but there's something about waking up and thinking "Hey, it's Saturday" that makes a difference.



People are going through our house. No one has bought it yet! It's been... nearly a week! Ack! Sell sell sell.
Here in Manila it has been an errand week. I let thing pile up to do them all at once, since each item has to be done in person and every errand is in a different place.
Wednesday the girls were off to school at 7:30 (late start day). Before 10, the boys and I had hit the road. We went to the DVA office to get the new car sticker. They won't issue us one because the house dues haven't been paid. *sigh* So we walked around the to onsite medical clinic and dropped off a box of donation stuff for the fire victims. Have I mentioned that here? There is a squatters neighborhood adjacent to bus terminal on EDSA. The bus terminal was shut down by the mayor for some reason. A couple days later, it was a pile of burning embers, along with the entire squatterville in the gully. A couple days later, the squatters had moved into the burned out bus terminal. I guess it's flatter there at least. Anyhow, collections are going on. We donated a bunch of toys, books (shhh, I didn't tell the kids), shoes and food. I still have a bag of clothes the kids have outgrown. When I go back to get the car sticker, I'll bring the bag along. I've been stopped several times at the gates already because of that sticker.
Anyhow, then we went to Seafront to mail out a Christmas package to Germany. I have one that needs to go to Australia also, ack. Don't tell the USPS, but I accidentally used a Priority Mail box for the Germany parcel. But wow, the FPO has a brown paper wrapping station with paper, scissors and that really cool brown paper sticky tape. So I covered it up right there and voila. All set.
After the FPO, the CLO's office to pick up tickets to see the Nutcracker at the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) on December 14th. It'll be a girl's day out at the ballet.
Then to the ARC office to sign up for something else. I would tell you, but then it wouldn't be a surprise :)
Since it was almost lunch time, we called up Ian at the Embassy to see if he was free to have lunch with us. So, lunch at the Liberty Grill. The food is passable there, but I think Ian is getting sick of it. Of course, nothing says he has to eat there every single day but I guess packing a lunch is soooo elementary school.
Back home we went for a whopping half hour. This was a day where neither of the boys achieved a nap even with all the driving around.
Off to the school since it was our day to bring snacks for the Daisy troop. We were actually on time! Early even! This is quite a red letter sort of thing. You know, pancakes make a great snack, all the kids love them as they're so portable. We made it through Daisy's by letting the boys play at the playground while Katherine ate her afterschool ice cream. What better thing to purchase when you find P40 forgotten in your pocket? Daisy meeting over, we head immediately off to the church for Katherine's religion class. We were late. I suppose we had to be to offset the thrill of being early to girl scouts. Our regular tour by the chapels and through the crypt (no wedding today to sit in on in church), then off to the Rustan's to get some fruit and bread, and Katherine was done with class.
HOME!
Then we had today where Ian missed the shuttle so we drove him to work. Rebecca's medicine was running out (for a 10 day course, we only got 5 days worth so got a second bottle) so yet another stop at Seafront medical unit. We're in there so often we owe the office a bag of lollipops.
But after that, there is absolutely nothing open at that time of morning so we came home. Shortly before 10 our car left the driveway yet again, first to go to the Destiny Cable office to pay the internet cable bill. Then to the Essensa Towers to drop off Katherine's Girl Scout registration for her Brownie troop. She'll actually be starting next week, yahoo! Then, as promised for the boys, off to McDonalds for lunch. Blech, but they love it. And the Happy Meal toys are Matchbox cars which are always a hit.
Now, we're home again and Jonathon is napping. Nicholas has a new found hero in Indiana Jones which in my opinion is "way cool". Of course we're all sporting bruises from where Nicholas's whip (any belt he can get his hands on)gets a little out of control. He has promised not to touch anyone with it again. We shall see.
Once the girls get home, we have about an hour+ for them to change and play with the cats before heading out (yes, again) to their first piano lesson. I hope the teachers are good. The lessons run and hour a week for 12 weeks. I know that this will be excellent for Katherine as a guide, and I hope that Rebecca will learn enough to spark an interest at home. She does play some pieces from her lesson book but as in everything, once she gets frustrated she'd rather quit than struggle through it.
I think Katherine is an anomaly.
Tomorrow Ian is off to Plaridel to fly. If the weather is good, the kids and I will have a picnic next door. Then he'll take the car to Seafront from the mass inspection. And we have to figure out Rebecca's birthday. It would seem that she's going to have a party of some sort, but what? Ian suggested inviting a couple classmates to go to the movies then over here for some cake. I think that's a great idea! Now to see if we can sell it to the munchkin.

Christmas Idea

If you're trying to decide what to get a kid who's oh, between 2-8, we can recommend the VeggieTales Christmas CD. Aside from Junior Asparagus (who could shatter glass, my poor ears), it's all good. My favorite is the 8 Polish Christmas Foods. You have to hear it (and be partly Polish... ok, that's not really a requirement) and you'll get a good laugh. Even better, it's Oscar! you remember Oscar, right? Think Larry's Lips. If you're a Veggie fan, you'll understand.

Relief from Immigrant Visas...

So, I get to leave Immigrant Visas a month early. And there was much rejoicing.

After Michele's last post, I'm almost hesitant to say that I did indeed get the Staff Aide position. So I'll be working in the office of the Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission. Writing and editing memos and talking points, handling correspondence, tasking different sections, scheduling travel and visits, etc, etc, etc.

While it's bound to be a high-pressure job, it will be nice to have a better view of what our embassy actually does. It'll also give me staff aide experience, which is great for the resume and tenuring process, so I won't feel the need to do a one-year staff aide tour back in Washington. I start on Dec. 1.

So, potential Filipino fiancee immigrants: Make sure you're there on my last day, Friday, Nov. 28th. For that day only, I will make my decisions entirely through the use of Tarot cards. If I pull up the "Lovers" card, I believe you're really in love and you get your visa. If I turn over a Joker, I think you're a stinking liar and you're off to the Fraud Unit. And if I unveil the "Death" card, it opens a trap door under your seat and you drop into a bottomless pit.

[Yes, I know there's not really a Joker in a Tarot deck. And as far as you all know, we really _do_ adjudicate visas based on a tarot deck.]

Wanna play chess?

Thanks to Ryan Koch, another consular officer here at Manila, for showing me RedHotPawn.com, a free correspondence chess Web site. It's free, responsive and very easy to use.

For people unfamiliar with correspondence games, it works like this: You make a move, and your opponent gets an e-mail saying a move has been made. They move, and you get an e-mail alerting you. It's very low-pressure. You can make many moves a day, or one every few days.

If you play, please send me a challenge. My username is "ihopper".

OK, so aside from the illness and Christmas, what's happening in the Hopper house?

What's going on? A quick rundown.



Ian had his interview with the DCM today for the Staff Aide job. Wish him luck! He's the only one who applied so... we can't figure out what to think about that.
-If he gets the job, it is because he's qualified or because no one else wanted it?
-If he doesn't get the job.. whoah, let's not go there. Serious blow to the ego.
-If other people (finally) apply, and he gets the job, does that mean he's best suited for it or they took pity on him?
-If other people (finally) apply, and he doesn't get the the job, well I suppose it would have to do.
We had the piano tuned on Monday. It sounds good.
We've signed up the girls to take piano lessons on Fridays from 5-6. They'll be taking lessons at the Yamaha Music School nearby. It'll be SUCH a pain to get to as Fridays are notoriously difficult for drive around. But it's only for 12 weeks and I can do anything for a limited time. I may grumble, but I'll do it. If they like it and are learning well, we'll sign up again, but this is a good beginning. There's a class offered for Junior music students, but it starts at age 4. Nicholas has been invited to sit in on the class on Saturday.
Katherine has lost her bike. No, I'm not kidding. I'm guessing she left it at the playground one time and now *poof* it's gone. Anyone have recommendations on how to handle this? It was a new bike, one she used a lot and truly enjoyed. But I truly believe the portion of her brain marked for memory is damaged somehow. She didn't even know it was gone until I remarked that it wasn't with the other bikes behind our house. I just don't know what to do with her. Perhaps I should take stock in the Sharpie company and mark everything she owns in huge block letters. Actually, that's not a bad idea.
A storm blew through last week that seemed to have (temporarily) wiped the skies clean. The air was clear, almost brilliantly so. But as visibility increased, so did the temperature. It became stiflingly hot outdoors and the air conditioners inside have been having some difficulty compensating unless they are all running at the same time. Today though, the haze and clouds have settled back in. I wish it would rain again.
Away from "home", our house in Virginia has been put on the market as of November 1st. Everyone, cross your fingers and say a little prayer that we find a happy buyer soon. The MLS# is PW4667497. You can find it on fairfaxrealty.com, and hopefully the rest of the MLS search sites (i.e. realtor.com, coldwellbanker.com) will be up-to-date soon. Oh, the photo is still old, waiting for the new one to be put up. Our place looks quite a bit better with the green shutters my dad painted.

Why is it the only thing kids share is germs?

So last week the girls had off from school. Any plans we had went out the window.

Ten days ago I wasn't feeling up to snuff. Enough so that I missed church in order to, ahem, hang out in the powder room at home. Monday came and so did a visit to the Medical Unit. I got some meds for what I suspected and was finally better by this past weekend.
Katherine came down sick right at the beginning of the week and progressed to being feverish with finally burning like a furnace Wednesday night and being a zombie most of Thursday after the fever broke. By Friday she was still a walking germ bomb, though feeling loads better. I still wouldn't let her go to a birthday party she'd been invited to. Exhaustion was written all over her face and it wouldn't have been right to expose everyone else to her, just in time for them to get sick when school started up again. Not to say that she didn't get her germs -from- school, but that's not the point.
She was OK to head back Monday with just a lingering cough that always seems to end an illness. I wonder though, did she have a cold with a fever? The flu? Or something else entirely?
Whatever it is, Katherine was kind enough to share it with me so I've been all stuffed up, sneezing, sleeping on an incline and relying on Nyquil. Both of us figured Nicholas shouldn't be left out, so now he's got the faucet nose, watery eyes and exhaustion that has him napping each day for a bit. I should prop up his pillow tonight. He was doubly tired too from not sleeping well and that's largely my fault. Last week he'd got his comforter wet so I'd put it to be washed and tossed a couple light blankets on his bed instead. The kid was up every night, climbing into our bed, waking up his brother who would also join in, and let's face it, no one was sleeping. Then it hit me... he was cold. So I finally washed the comforter, put it back, and last night he slept wonderfully and is feeling loads better today. Still sniffly though.
Of course, Sunday evening Rebecca said she wasn't feeling well and was still hurting on Monday when she arrived home from school, so we jumped into the car to get to school before Katherine got on the bus after chess. Just barely made it, but the roads to Seafront were clear and by 5 p.m. we had a prescription for Rebecca. No cold here, instead she has what I had last weekend. She'd mentioned a few days back that her ear was hurting, but that seems to have passed without intervention. Well, the meds she's on now will help with that as well.
Knock on wood, Ian and Jonathon are still in the clear. How long will it last?

Halloween is over, it's time for Christmas!

Well, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here as far as I know, so the next big Christian holiday is Christmas.

And they've been getting ready for a while now. Decorations in the stores by mid-September, songs on the radio by mid-October. And now that all the spooky stuff has been disasse,bled, Christmas has taken over. Of course at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a smattering of Thanksgiving things around. There's a healthy American population still residing in the Philippines, largely leftover from when Clark Air Force Base was still up and running, and frozen turkeys aren't that hard to find.
I'm doing an exchange on a couple of internet boards, so this has actually worked out to my benefit. Bazaars packed with gifts and wrapping paper haven't been hard to come by at all, so we are prepared to mail our boxes this week and next to ensure timely arrival for the holidays.
Every weekend there are several bazaars going on, and this past weekend was the semi-annual USEC Bazaar at the World Trade Center here in town. Of course we went.
We almost finished our shopping there, with just a couple tail end items to pick up, but the kids came prepared with the money they have saved over the past 6 months from weekly allowances (plus 10% interest). Katherine purchased for everyone in the family, I was duly impressed with her willingness to part with her hard-earned cash, and her careful decisions about what to get for each person. Rebecca had spent a good chunk of money a couple months ago on some Filipino Barbies for herself, so she was down quite a bit, but still managed to buy gifts for everyone she wanted to. Even Nicholas brought his money and purchased a gift for a sibling (and a couple for himself).
It's still so early... and frustrating for the kids to be told time and again that Christmas is a long way off. Katherine wants to wrap her presents, Nicholas wants to open his, I want to decorate the house. It all has to wait.
I'm kind of getting into that spirit, though.
Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?