Monday Chuckles...

To start off the week on a lighter note I decided to hijack this post from a friend in FB. Have a good laugh everyone....

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These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I..., Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
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ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
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ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
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ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
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ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
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ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
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ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
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ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
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ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
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ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
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ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
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ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
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ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
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ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
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ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
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ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
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ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
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ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?

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And last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Warning....Updating....

I haven't been keeping up to my 'promise' [more to myself] of updating this blog at least once a week when I decided to resurrect it from limbo. I can come up with lots and lots of excuses as to why that is but I would just be kidding myself mostly...since I'm the only one probably reading this blog...haha.

Anyway, I haven't been myself lately...at least in the last couple of weeks. I've just been pretty occupied with myself I guess. I know...selfish, right? But that's the way it is. Whether we admit it or not, it happens to the best of us. I'm not sure if that's selfish or not but it's a reality. But I'm almost over that 'hump'. I guess I blew off some steam over the weekend. I was just very b**chy for some reason. I snapped at everything. I tried to stay away from everyone and just did what I felt was going to help to blow off some steam which included walking on the Mobia for about an hour. It sure did help because after taking a shower following that walk, I fell asleep. After that I somehow felt a little bit normal again. I stopped being a 'snapping turtle'. Hopefully I'll start feeling like myself again over the course of this week. It's just not me to be this way.

I have a good friend who went through a major surgery last week. She's been in my mind a lot eversince she told me about her decision to go through this major surgery. I know she's a strong person and her faith is so big that she'll breeze through this major hurdle with no problems. She was upbeat when I last spoke with her so I know she's going to be fine. But with that being said, I can't help but think about a lot of things. Mortality for one. We really can't tell where life's going to take us. One day we seem to have it all. Then something happens and it shakes us to the core. I'm just glad that this friend of mine has what it takes to weather this storm...her faith. I just wish I can check on her but I know she's still trying to get better since it hasn't been a week yet. I'm itching to give her a call but I won't because I'd rather she takes it easy and rest. Luckily she has all the support she needs because aside from her hubby, she's also surrounded by loved ones who traveled thousands of miles to be with her. Hoping and praying she's mending pretty well. I know she is....positive thinking!

Spring Has Sprung?

Really now? For a while there, even us here in the Sunshine state didn't feel that it has indeed sprung...but it did. We sort of felt it for a day, on the first day of Spring mind you,  but it quickly went away for about a week. So for a while there we were one with the rest of country wondering if it's really spring already. Anyway,  the weather has been pleasant for the most part now. As our local meteorologists like to say...we're now feeling spring-like temperatures. Needless to say, we're happy in our neck of the weeds as far as temps are concerned.

Aside from the arrival of Spring, nothing much has happened here lately. Well, let me rephrase that. Nothing spectacular. Huh! A lot has happened though. Our bank screwed up and wouldn't own up to it...until they're caught red-handed. By the time they admitted it's their fault, they've caused us a lot of stress already...and some money because of lost time at work. But that's life...it happens and we just go with it. It's still not fully fixed because we have to redo a lot of transactions. We had to call the other companies to explain to them the bank's screw up. Believe it or not, it seemed like those companies just couldn't believe it that it's actually the bank's fault. From what I 'sensed', they'd rather believe it's US that messed up. Hmmmp! Oh well...I'll just charge that to experience I guess.

Last week was Holy Week. For Catholics, that's a very important week. It's actually one of those times when I wish I'm back home again because I haven't experienced 'Holy Week' for so many years. Unlike when I was still back home when I would spend almost the entire week on church grounds, these days I just stay at home. On Easter Sunday, the father and daughter tandem here painted some eggs for fun. I think they do that every year. I never paint an egg because I don't have the 'power'...errr, the talent to come up with ideas on what to decorate them with. As for the father/daughter tandem, they usually come up with something really cute and sometimes funny ideas to paint on their Easter eggs. I just stay on the side taking pictures and watching them while they do their thing.

This weekend, I'm planning in checking out a Philippine Festival not too far from where we are. It's actually far...about 40 miles away...but it's only held once a year. I figured I can enjoy some of my favorite dishes as well as let the little one see how fiestas back home are celebrated/observed. We already went to this place one time but it was during the Christmas season. The little one enjoyed looking around because there were a lot of decorations and lights. This time around, I'm hoping there will be more native foods to choose from because that's what's lacking that time we were there. Yep, I'm going to 'binge' on some Philippine delicacies...I hope.

Busy

An excuse for not having updates on this blog. Ha! That's kinda' true last week but the weeks before...I was just plain lazy I guess. It's been a month since the last time I was able to post here. A lot of things have happened in that span of time...some happy, some sad. For the sad part, both of hubby's step-grandparents passed away during this time. They're both in their late 80s already so they both lived a full life in my opinion. In a way I'm glad they went within weeks of each other. They were married for almost 50 years and I cannot imagine how it must feel to be without each other after living together for that long. So yeah, I'm kinda' glad they're together again.

Some good things came out of these sad events. For one, it proved that family is still family. After years of not being in contact with each other, some of the members of the family came together when all this was happening. Phone calls started coming and meeting in person followed next. Lots of things can be blamed to the lack of communication between family. Distance is one. Misunderstanding is another one. There were a lot of misinformation on all sides. Feelings get hurt. But at the end of the day, blood is blood and family is family. When something like death happens, we all get together to send off that person to the next 'life'. That's what happened to us lately. It may be something temporary but at least we got to catch up and see each other after years of almost no contact at all...in this day and age mind you. But that's the choice they made...and they're all adults so...

Anyway, aside from the unexpected family reunions, nothing much has been happening around here. We haven't been doing any road trips lately. I thought we would have been back in that park I posted about a month ago but no. Maybe one of these coming Spring weekends when the weather is a lot more conducive for canoeing. We're also planning in driving to GA again but that's all in the planning stage for now. Knowing us, we may just do that next weekend. That's the way we like it....unplanned road trips.

Worth Going Back To

In one of our unplanned road trips, we stumbled upon a park about an hour and a half from where we live. It's a park where a famous river in that specific city is known for is located. Hubby said that he heard good things about the river before so we decided to stop by even if it's afternoon already. The park closes at 4 PM so we only had a couple of hours to explore it. The entrance fee was 2 bucks only and parking is free. It's the middle of winter so most of the plants are either in hibernation or are barely alive. But since we have mild winters here, there are some plants that have flowers in them.

As we were roaming around the park, we came across several man-made waterfalls. They're pretty small waterfalls because the water is just redirected from the river itself but they make pretty sights. I think we posed in front of every single one of them. Here are some pics of 3 of the waterfalls.

 

 

 The park is pretty big. The lawns are big enough to accommodate several people that may want to have picnics or what nots on days like the weekend we were there. But since it's winter and not many people go to parks, we could pretty much have one whole area all by ourselves.

We actually saw someone sleeping on a mat under one of the trees in one of the big lawns. I guess she went to the park to relax...and relaxed she was. LOL...

Besides the falls, the one area that we like a lot is probably the river itself. It's actually one of the first things you see when you enter the park but you have to walk around to get to it. There's a cordoned-off area where park visitors can go swimming. Since it's part of the river, we don't really know how deep it is. One swimmer ~yes, there were people swimming in it at winter time ~ said that it's about 10 feet deep from she's at which is by the river bank. Hubby said he will swim in it next time we visit.

The water is very clear that you can actually see the bottom of the river and the fish swimming in it. On the far right [I think] of this picture is the area where visitors can go canoeing if they wish to. There is a separate fee for canoe rental of course. And yes, we may go canoeing one of these weekends...probably next weekend since it's going to be a nice weather to do such a thing...that is if the weather prediction holds true.

There are several parts of the river that's been cordoned off. It is the park's way of telling the visitors as to how far they can go as far as the river is concerned. There are also some 'warning signs' about alligators being present in the river so people must practice precautionary measures just in case.

One small area that's cordoned-off is a place where visitors can sit to let fish nibble on their feet. Like this one...

 

Yep, very similar to the Fish Spa in the Japan and in some malls in the Philippines...except this is 'almost' free. Hubby said he can sit there for hours just letting those little creatures nibble on his tootsies.

Yep, we're definitely going back to this park very soon. It's a pity that we got there a bit late that day or we could have enjoyed those already. Next time, we'd probably spend the whole day in there. My father and daughter tandem can explore the place while I sleep under the shade of one of the big trees there. Good plan, eh?

Road Trippin'

One of the things that hubby told when we first met was his love for taking a drive. He said he likes just getting behind the wheel then just drive. We did that afew times here and there for the first few years we were married. Then we got busy with the baby, work and some other things. That meant not being able to go as much as we used to and we wanted to. But during the last quarter of last year, we decided to take a long drive to Georgia. We went there mainly to look at the place and some properties. But we also enjoyed the 7+ hour long drive. Just taking in the sights while on our way to our destination. That somehow fueled our appetite for doing that...driving just to sight see. From that time on, we've been driving around a lot during the weekend. It's mostly just around here. We don't have the time to go far because of work so we just stay local...for now.

So where do we go during these 'local road trips'? Nowhere in particular. What we usually do is just go out. If we have some errands to run, then we do those first. As soon as we're done with the errands, hubby will just drive. Most of the time we just stay in the car. A few of the times when we see something worth stopping for, we'd stop to take pictures. We've done that maybe a couple of times only. But not all of our trips are unplanned. We had one a few months ago where we went to this forest trail to look at some underground caves. Most of the caves are very small but there are couple that we were able to get into. The little one had fun exploring the caves. After the cave exploration, we went rough terrain driving also in the same forest. The husband did most of that himself because I wasn't very keen in going through it. I just took some videos of him trying to get over the humps and bumps on the terrain that were made just for that purpose.

Im sure we'll have more road trippin' in the days to come. Hopefully I'll be driving in one of those trips. Maybe....

The Year That Was

Year 2012 may not have been the best year as far as work is concerned but it'll definitely be one of my most memorable years. The reason being I was finally able to go back home to see family after more than 10 years of being away.

Aside from being able to come home for the first time since I left some 12 years ago, it was also the first time my side of the family met our little one. Needless to say, it was a very happy time in our lives. During our 2-week stay, my family was also able to get to know the man I married. They knew him by  name and by talking to him over the phone and met him for a day when he came to pick me up more than 10 years ago but they never really got the chance to 'know' him. This time around, they did. So when it was time for me and my little family to leave again, my siblings told me that now they can breathe a lot easier now knowing that the man I chose to spend the rest of my life with is a good man. I guess me telling them that [over the phone] in the last several years wasn't enough, eh? I guess to see is to believe indeed. Ha!

Beside that memorable family reunion during the first quarter of 2012 and becoming a naturalized citizen, not much good had happened I must say. We're surviving alright but life can definitely  be better. Obviously, the economy has a lot to do with that and by the looks of it, there won't be a lot of [good] changes in the economy this year. For starter, the pay we see on our payroll now is much smaller than last time. Why? More tax deductions. As if the lack of work is not enough, now even the little money we get from whatever work is available has been compromised as well. Not only that. Our mortgage payment has gone up because of the increase in insurance. Why is it that everything is going up but the earnings? There is something wrong in that equation, don't you think? If this continues on, everyone in this country will be broke. Well, let me rewrite that. Everybody in this country will be on welfare. That's what we want, right? Or is it?