face="verdana, arial, helvetica">Wow, Ching.



I'm amazed that anyone watches soap operas - seems like everyone I know has 'em going on in their own lives. Or maybe they watch 'em for advice.



How's your writing going, Ching? I always liked your stuff!

Welcome, Jay / Daf!  I'm glad that you made it!  So what do you think so far?  Like it?



We have our own drama (or tragedy, depending on how you want to look at it) going on in my parents' household.  The past two weeks have been a blur, really..  We had our house-warming-slash-birthday party for Brian, which was a lot of fun.  Shortly after that, my mom's purse is stolen at work.  Her and dad close their bank account and create a new one, get replacement ID cards (driver's license, etc.), cancel credit cards, inform Sprint (her cellphone was in the purse)..  Thankfully, her keys and her prescription eyeglasses weren't in the purse (her eyeglasses cost her $400 ~~ mine didn't even come close).  I'm not even going into the fact that it was a Dooney & Bourke purse..  That's the smallest thing that she was worried about.  She was more concerned about the contents.  Everything has been taken cared of, I believe..  The only thing left to replace is her green card.  I don't know how much it costs to replace it, but I heard it's not cheap.  It's not like replacing a driver's license.



[ Speaking of which, Brian and I had our driver's licenses replaced a little bit ago.  So now, we have new ones that have our new address on them! ]



Going back to the drama..  This is the same week that Matt and Jen broke up, so Jen (and Logan) moved back in.  She was in the process of getting my old bedroom reorganized as her bedroom is now the office.  That was fine with me and mom and dad welcomed her home with open arms and everything.  Within the span of a week (if it was even that), she gets herself kicked out of the house!  She had not even unpacked, yet!  Yes, my sister is seriously messed up.  You think she would've grown up now that she's a mom and almost 21 ~~ but, NOOO!



Among her list of offenses: (1) sleeping while she's supposed to be watching Logan, (2) partying ~~ even when the baby is sleeping over at mom and dad's house, (3) not coming home from partying, (4) not being around when it's her turn to babysit her own son, (5) not caring about the welfare of her own son, period..  The list goes on and on and on.  On nights when she parties, she doesn't even bother to call and check on her baby.  Mom said that Matt prefers that Logan is with him at all times, doesn't like it when he's away from the baby and when the baby sleeps over at my parents' house, Matt always calls at night to check on how he's doing.  Matt has more "maternal" instincts than my sister!  Can you believe it?



The last straw was when Jen brought home this guy, Justin, who she had only known for a couple of days.  She had asked before they went out if he could spend the night and mom explicitly said no..  For one thing, we barely knew this person.  She barely knew this person.  The had not even been dating a week and they're already sleeping together.  You don't flaunt such blatant irresponsibility in the face of my mom.  She is a very patient, understanding and giving person, but there's a line that one should never ever cross.



The following morning mom wakes up and notices that Justin's car is still outside.  Of course, she begins to wonder.  She knocks on my sister's bedroom door (she's in my old bedroom).  My sister, in her infinite wisdom, steps out in her underwear.  My mom tells her that he needs to leave..  If not, both of them have to go.  Guess what my sister does.  She goes back to sleep.  It's like talking to a wall, I'm telling you!  This goes on for a little while.  I guess mom tries again, but gets the same response.  Ignored, my mom resorts to calling dad who then advises her to call the cops.  They don't take her seriously at first (probably thinking that she's bluffing ~~ if there's one thing I know, it's that my parents do not know how to bluff ~~ you better believe it because it's real and it's happening), but when they hear my mom give the policeman descriptions over the telephone, they finally decide that it's time to skiddadle.



The policeman came for a brief period.  Jen and Justin were already gone at that point.  Mom talked to him for a little bit, wanting some sort of reassurance that she had a legal right to do what she did.  He agreed with her and assured her that she wasn't responsible for my sister any longer.  Brian and I arrive shortly after.  Dad had called me early in the morning and asked me and Brian to come because he was worried about mom and what Jen might do.  The whole family thinks very little of her at this point.



So anyway, that's how my sister got kicked out of the house.

Hi, I'm here. Actually, I heard
that Yahoo Clubs will merge with Yahoo Groups. Groups is real
cool, as you know! Clubs is a bit limited, though.

Here's what's new with us:
Jessica (our Ching-aged daughter) is 8 months pregnant - still
living at home, lost her job, boyfriend she's not too serious
about. We're hoping the baby's going to settle her down a little
- she was REALLY drifting.

Andy (our 17-year-old son) has
left home, and apparently dropped out of school, to live at his
girlf's parents' house. He's gotten a good job (for a 17-year-old)
at a performance auto shop, plans to get his GED and hit
community college. They already have a baby together - that made
things at home real rocky.

Kim & I are having a hard
time with all this - we're going to counseling to try to get it
straightened out. So far we're hanging in there, though.

Job's going well in that they
like me & give me raises, but what a PITA! Had to cancel all
my vacations for the next 4 months. Grumble.

Church gig's pretty good too.
Can't get a sub, though - so I'm TRAPPED! Help me! Help me!

Daf (tried
some HTML - guess we'll find out if I did it right)

Thanks for joining, Pia!  There aren't any members yet so I'm really glad that to see you here and to know that you're in this with me..  I'm trying to transition from Yahoo! Clubs to here because hardly anyone ever visits the old club anyway.



By the way, we rented Dude, Where's My Car? yesterday and it's really retarded.  It's a collage of all the stupid movies ever made.  Think Dumb and Dumber meets Half Baked (two movies which I have never ever seen and refuse to see ~~ I really cannot believe that I let Brian talk me into watching this one) with a little bit of Men in Black and Galaxy Quest thrown in.

Hey Ching! Just wanted to let u know that I signed up for this blog. I will try to write more later. I am still at work so I can't chat too long.

We went to see Atlantis the other day.  It's pretty good.  Brian has been looking forward to watching it since the first previews were shown.  I liked it but it's not one of my favorite cartoons.  I liked Shrek better.  I also liked Iron Giant better.  Atlantis didn't move me as much as the other two animated films did.



Speaking of animation, the one that we are really, really looking forward to is Final Fantasy.  I really don't care how much of a story it's got..  I'd watch it even for just the animation!!  The previews look amazing!



Mom is coming over after work today.  She's bringing Logan.  I am really looking forward to this afternoon because we will play, play and play.  Tonight, Brian and I will attend the weekly Swing Club gathering at WSU.  Brian has really come a long way.  He knows lots of different turns now.  He even knows a lifting move!  Dancing is so much fun!!

We have moved from Yahoo! Clubs to http://www.chingay.net/groupblog/..  Please adjust your bookmarks.



This is a new era, so we shall take advantage of this new blogging technology.  Don't forget that we are still deciding on a new name for our club.  We are open to any and all suggestions.