i know what you mean!

preregistering for preschool starts in September 1 year before the child enters the school.  That’s the tune you sing around here in the Bay Area.  Knowing this and doing this are totally 2 different things, that’s why I’m now in the process of touring schools and turning in applications.  My saving grace is, I’m not dead set on the hottest tot spot in town, I’m just looking for a place to chill, preferably earthquake safe.

Co-op is the cheap way to go for a SAHM like me.  The parents are expected to put in ~ 8 hours of work for the school (on average) for a child who goes to class  12 hours/week; the cost is  ~$400-$700/month.  I’m looking at the places that are at $400 range first – considering that I’m surrounded by Albany, Berkeley, Kensington, and El Cerrito, the facilities are not bad.

I’ve only toured one school so far.  The one we toured today was the cheapest one in this area.  it has the feel and looks of Nathan’s school, but less structured and well maintained.  May was just observing everything at first, and then she quietly played by herself for a bit.  After we went out into the yard, May looked around, then asked if she could go back inside, and went inside alone, closing the door behind her.  I think she would do well there.  The school’s little library is actually run by a librarian, so all the books look very interesting, and they get updated very often. 

Tomorrow we’ll tour the 2nd one.  I should do something about the mountain of Son’s work clothes downstairs that are begging to be ironed….

twas the week before Tet and all through the house

everything is not in order, everything is chaos

but hey, who cares, I’m now the head of this household, and no one is here to nag me.  The breadwinner comes crawling back from work late at night with barely enough energy to shove some food into his mouth before he calls it quit and retreats to bed – I’m not even kidding about this.   We’ll play 2012 by ear and see if we can redress this situation.

Son just recently purchased an additional insurance that I don’t think anyone else in my family might have, basically covering everything we can possibly think of, because it’s been brought to our attention that people are more prone to suing when they learns of Son’s job title.  He was on the phone with the insurance representative for a good hour or so, answering questions like “what’s the total worth of your household possession?”  The national average is 15-20K.  I think our stuffs are worth less than 5K.  I was counting on interests and creditcard cashback to feed my online shopping habit, but this insurance is eating a chunk out of that, gah.

I’m still here, for approximately 1 reader who checks regularly

We got back in from So Cal 2 saturdays ago, took the longest time to get my acts together, still swimming in a mountain of laundry (already washed). From the last time I seriously posted to today, i think I have managed about 5-6 drama series – 1/2 of them watched in ffwd mode.  The last major piece I pulled – 2 days marathon – was “The Princess’s Man” in honor of Park Shi Hoo’s hotness.  Scenes without PSH? ffwd.  Kudos to the director for still managing to put in a 1/2 naked shot of PSH even though this is a period piece (truth be told, that scene totally got me by surprise, like WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??  I’M NOT EVEN GLAD FOR THIS RANDOM THING BECAUSE IT’S SO RANDOM!).  I think he was the only actor featured 1/2 naked in that entire 24 episodes series lol.  For boy-crazy pleasure pieces such as this drama, I wish I could see it on Viki to read the fans squealing.  Too bad Viki doesn’t carry it.  I’m bothered by the fact that 2 people who went on a spontaneous horse ride at midnight without packing anything along, went into an abandoned shack to wait out a god-sent shower, and miraculously woke up the next day on nice clean bedding   Overall, it was a fun show to watch.  I think I’m the S&M/voyeur type, cuz I found the angst and violence totally hot – as long as it doesn’t involve me   I don’t think I want to watch another sageuk piece until the next time PSH decides to show up in one – I’ll probably groan “why oh whyyyyyyyyyyyy.”  They just wear too much clothes!  I watch drama to update my wardrobe and get ideas for styling as a side benefit, so hanbok are 100% unhelpful.

I’m a fan!  the main male lead is great to watch – saw him only once in Beethoven Virus, but I think his role in Bad Family shines better.  Highly recommend this series for chi. Cap – you’ll like it.

http://www.mysoju.com/korean-drama/bad-family/

Everlasting gratitude to our local mailmen, who continue to make me roll my eyes out of their sockets.  I have never seen anything like it – is it because Albany Hills used to be a lawless area and its history is still alive with us today? When I was in Berkeley, and then El Cerrito, and then York, the mail carriers are pretty much the same person for each area.  On their days off, the people who alternate through the area did not change much neither.  Here in Albany, I must have seen like at least 5 different people delivering mail to the same address.  Some were nice and helpful – they delivered mail and packages to the right address.  Others were just down right lazy or crazy, who knows.  These are the ones who leave us the “pick up” notice slips instead of choosing to ring my door bell.  Typically i don’t mind these slips, they are annoying, but at least I know I won’t lose my packages.  But one slip left in our mailbox last week for a certified mail envelope pick up came at such a bad time.  When i showed up at our local post office on Saturday to pick up, the line was about 40 people long – I’m not exaggerating.  More than an hour later we finally made it to the counter and received the damn envelop – it was the DMV, ordering Son’s employer to withhold salary from Son’s paycheck because supposedly he owed them $600 in unpaid vehicle registration fee.  Nice.  They were trying to collect the fees for 2009-2011 period when we were in York.

So the waiting continued this morning, when I dragged May to the DMV, where she got to wait with me once again for more than 1 hour to clear up their misunderstanding.  I felt bad for May, so I gave her an early Xmas present – a tiny pony figure (Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony).  How May came to fancy this creature was pretty random:  One day K.C. gave May a sticker and said “her name is Rainbow Dash.”  May brought that sticker home, played with it a bit, lost it, found it a few days later, played, lost it, found again 2 weeks later, played, lost… etc., etc..  That was one impressive piece of sticker, I thought it bit the dust for sure after 1 month, but it kept on re surfacing, and so the name got etched in May’s consciousness.  Now she loves horses in general, and Rainbow Dash in particular.  I think.  I’ve seen other kids “love” their toys, and then there is May.  Maybe I should say that she “shows more interest in horses” more than in other toys?  Because she’s not obsessed with the horses, but if she sees a horse in her pile of toys, she’ll pick that one out and hang on to it.  But she doesn’t make an attempt to unite all the horses.  She doesn’t even sort them out from the rest of her toys.  She doesn’t got to bed with her horses.  She goes to bed with her bear one night, or her hair clip another night, or nothing at all, like tonight. Anyhow.  I should have brought a pile of books with me to the DMV instead of giving the pony figure to May.  I think it would have made her much more happy with the trip – although she likes her toys, I think she likes it best when she gets to interact with someone.

At least I’m glad that the whole ordeal is now – supposedly – resolved.  We’ll see when Son gets his next paycheck, I guess.

Tonight I fancied going to Ross at 11pm.  Around this time of the year,  Ross opens until midnight.  An and I found this out many years ago, when she used to visit me in December every year when she flew out here to attend a conference in SF.  after 10pm, the store is very quite and orderly.  I just love browsing through the quiet store, hardly running into another person.  I just bought a dress shirt for Son and left fairly quickly, but I got a chance to do something else I wanted to do:  see my house with the Xmas tree inside at night.  I got out my camera and took a picture of it from San Pablo.  Waaaay up high, you can barely make out some lights, but it’s unmistakable.  I hope Son will continue to turn on the lights once May and I leave for the south.