where the moon shines

The other day, my colleague Ann showed me her lucky plant which had new growth. She thought I’d be interested to take photos, and she was right. I’d been taking photos of it every day though I haven’t posted them yet, until now.

This plant is one of three small ones that sit on top of her desk. I think she wipes the dust off its leaves from time to time.

On Friday, an accomplice kidnapped the plant for me so I could take more pictures:

I used my macro filter for this shot.

Before I returned the plant to Ann’s desk this morning, I took another photo:

Do you notice any change?

It’s been awhile since we took Zune to the groomers’. We’ve avoided it because he’s had ticks and they didn’t want them there with an infestation. So we figured we’d try to get rid of it before he could finally get a haircut. It took awhile. Hays.

Today, we took him to Petshoppers’ Haven, a pet shop in front of my highschool alma mater St. Joseph’s College along E. Rodriguez. We’ve been buying pet food and other supplies from there since they opened, but for vet and grooming services we used to take Zune somewhere else. Today’s visit has completely convinced us that the folks at Petshoppers Haven are the best ones to groom our Zune baby. They are very nice and they treated him well. They were also very thorough. Zune’s had puppy cuts before but this time they cut super close to the skin. That’s good because it allows Zune to be cooler this summer. Besides, his skin has been dry lately and they gave us plenty of tips to get him back in shape.

Here’s how he looks now:

You only see his head here so I don’t know if you’ve noticed: he’s lost weight. He is so skinny! Because of the heat, he hasn’t had much of an appetite on some days. Good thing is that we see him eating better already. The parasites have also probably caused damage. Oh he’s healthy and strong and makulit, but he definitely looks tiny now. He looks like he took slimquick extreme to lose weight! I hate it, how come he can drop the pounds so quickly while I can’t? I’ve passed by the health kiosk and all I see are slimming supplements like the slimquick and the cookie diet. They are mocking me! Haha.

Anyhoo. We picked up Heartguard and some supplements for better skin and coat, and an oatmeal shampoo for him too. We also decided to have his 5-in-1 yearly booster shot and the anti-rabies shot administered a month before he was due.  I was surprised that the cost of the makeover, the shots, and the goodies wasn’t as much as I thought it would be. Good service and fair prices. Nice.

I have no known food allergies. The only allergies I have, that I know of, include smoke and dust which really irritates my eyes (and causes headaches). Then there’s my allergic rhinitis.

So I pretty much eat anything.

On Sunday afternoon, the beginning of my weekend, I felt itchy all over my body. I thought it was just mosquito bites because there’s swelling involved (how do you say pantal in English?) It did feel weird though: why would I have insect bites even under my clothes? I passed it off thinking that maybe it was just the heat. I dozed to sleep now and then in front of the tv and didn’t pay much attention to the itchies. When I woke up on Monday morning to take a shower though, I saw just how bad things were. I had big blotches all over my belly, on my back, arms and legs. Even my feet were starting to itch. Scrubbing myself clean didn’t help although water helped cool me down and I felt relieved for a bit. I put powder all over where there were breakouts, thinking to myself that maybe I got exposed to higad somewhere. But when and where?

I still didn’t take it seriously. Until after having lunch (KFC chicken). Oh my goodness, I could not take it any longer. I asked the boyfriend to scratch my back and he saw them ugly blotches. I wanted to stop scratching really, and he kept trying to reprimand me lest I end up hurting myself and cause some bleeding. I couldn’t stop! He took some ice and rubbed them over the itchiest parts. That helped soothe me, but not for long. Then I felt some of the swelling on my neck crawling up to my cheeks. I started getting scared, should we go to the hospital? Neither one of us drives. Having three cars outside at our disposal was useless to me. The brother was sleeping and I didn’t really feel like waking him up unless it was an emergency. I called my mom: do we have anti-allergy meds here? No. I sent cousin Ada a message: do you calamine lotion at home? Nope. The boyfriend couldn’t stand it anymore, so he volunteered to go to the drugstore and get me some meds. It was hot when he went out, and he had to walk all the way there and back. He looked toasted when he got back, haha. But perhaps that’s because he hit the beach on Black Saturday while staying with his family in Bicol.

It was pink stuff that finally started to give me some relief. Caladryl/Calamine lotion is something we used to have around the house when I was a kid. This time though, Caladryl isn’t as pink as it used to. And they don’t dry up like chalk. It felt cool and soothing. Much like how aloe would feel on your skin. He also bought Benadryl, they’re pink too.

I was able to sleep early thanks to the Benadryl, and it was a deep sleep too. I woke up briefly before midnight as the boyfriend was saying goodbye and taking off for work. Then again at 530 when my brother came home from work. The only time I really got up though was around 7am. The blotches on my arms were almost gone, but the ones under my clothes were still there. And there’s still some itching, though not as strong as yesterday’s. If there’s one good thing that came out of this though, it’s that I’ve had plenty of sleep again.  Though there are things to worry about, at least it doesn’t include searching around for the best eye cream for dark circles. Now if only I could sleep so soundly every work night, minus the allergies while I’m awake…

So what triggered the reaction? I don’t know! I had shrimp sinigang for lunch on Sunday, cooked by my dad. I love shrimps and I sure hope that’s not what I’m allergic to Alfred says maybe it’s rice, since things got worse after eating rice and chicken for Monday’s lunch. Ugh. I still don’t know. Maybe it’s the heat again.

My Project 365 for 2010 has crashed. I knew I missed taking photos on some days, but the greatest blow is that I can’t find some of the photos I downloaded from the camera on to the PC. At least they’re not important photos, I mean, they weren’t from any important occasions, but they were everyday photos that I was just now looking for because I wanted to blog about them.

Now they’re gone.

I can’t tell whether the mistake is mine or someone else’s. For all I know, I could have forgotten to actually download them and then just went ahead to delete the photos in my camera. Or, I might have downloaded them but saved them somewhere else. Or, someone might have downloaded new photos and accidentally overwrite them. Sometimes the photos are just named numbers instead of Month-Year-Number and it messes things up if that happens.

In a way this is an eye-opener for me. I should definitely get to organizing my photos, and get an online backup system up and running. Besides, one reason that got me derailed from P365 was that I wasn’t uploading daily. If I’m to restart 365 by April 1st, I gotta start cleaning my act up, er cleaning up my files. Once I get that cleared, I might just be able to digiscrap again. Might.

A gentle pat on the back, a simple kudos email, small treats like these chocolate polvoron; sometimes that’s all it takes to show your people that you recognize their achievements and appreciate all their hard work.

When I first became a TM, I’d buy gummy bears for the team, and all sorts of candy treats that would keep them awake during their shift. When I moved on to other LOBs, I still took the habit with me. Sometimes we’d have donuts, or I’ll even bake them cupcakes. When I don’t have much extra money, Flat Tops or Cloud 9 would do. Since we have a payday bazaar, I’d share my finds with them, like those super yummy Choco cupcakes with fudge icing. Recently, it’s been these chocvorons that I hand out to the agents. (I don’t think I’d be doing that much anymore, to discourage them from eating right on their stations, haha.)

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Yesterday I found out from my friend’s post that she’s pregnant, possibly with twins! No wonder the boyfriend says she looks bigger than normal (they work in the same building in Makati and he’s seen her recently, when I haven’t seen her in maybe six months or so). Well, she hasn’t actually confirmed details yet, but that’s amazing news. Her eldest is about 3 or 4 years old already and will probably make an awesome big sister She should definitely start looking for prenatal vitamins; I know that when it comes to pregnancy and caring for your baby it’s not one size fits all, there’s so much to consider. If I remember correctly she had to stop working during her first pregnancy on her doctors’ advise, I hope that doesn’t have to happen this time around.