oh, july, where did you go?

Thanks for the messages while I've been 'away.' It's been a busy summer I guess. Let's see, graduated in June, celebrated, went back to work... turned 37 in July. Worked some more. Oh dear, missed a 20 year high school reunion a couple of days after my birthday - but had a great time reconnecting with some classmates on facebook and email. Oh, internet, you make me seem like I'm not so anti-social after all! Thanks all for the links to reunion pics!

Todd's a 3rd degree Freemason... what does that mean? Or as I put it, how does that affect me? Well, he had to work the Clark County Fair Demolay booth at the beginning of this month. I felt like a fair-widow. Then his lodge hosted the Oklahoma Indian Degree Team and he's on that committee, so again, a little lonely in the Dow house. But he's back. Oh and the Indians made me dance at the Pow Wow. I have to get some pics of that and post them. It was a little like my boss making me line dance when we were in Nashville for a conference a while back. Not like I could say no, but it was a good time. A good friend explained it to me, my husband is a joiner. She comes from a family of joiners, so she knows. I was in a sorority at Cal Poly so I get the philanthropic part. I'm just not a joiner. It's his thing and I love him, so I support him. And shout out to all the Chi-O's in the Beta Kappa chapter!

Before I forget, we got a puppy! Misty is a gorgeous, energetic 7 month old Weimaraner. See for yourself!

What else... hmm... I wasn't going to blog this but I just emailed a request to Kina Grannis and told this story so... She did a KSCR radio show back in May and sang 'Make It Go' (00:38:10 in the recording) which i really loved. I asked if she'd play it on an upcoming Stickam Live show (time tbd).

I don't know the real story behind the lyrics, but the first time I listened from a mom's perspective. I thought of a child trying to make sense where there is none. Well my dad recently finished a round of cancer treatments and it made me feel about 10 years old. He's out of the woods for the moment and we're counting our blessings. But a lot has changed in the way he lives. He left for the Philippines at the beginning of the month because he can't bare the thought of not seeing his home at least once more in his life.

I hope she sings it. I hope the song doesn't make you sad. Don't get me wrong, tears come easily when I think of losing family members. Just that the sad parts are what remind me to look for an excuse to make an international phone call. What better gift than that? Then it's all 'My Time With You' ;-)

Today (at least it was today when I started writing this) is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday mom! I called to tell her I love her but I hope she doesn't read my blog. Oh well. Just in case, mom, you're my hero. Seriously, she is.

thanks *$

Who is Priscilla Ahn?



Sbux did it again. They have me hooked on a new artist with their pick of the week cards.

What's better than free iTunes? The YouTube community. That's right. If you're a Marie Digby fan you may have already heard of this guy - georgebui101 has one of the most awesome yt channels for new music discoveries. The playlist embedded above is from his collection. Thank you for sharing georgebui101!

numerology anyone?

I did the number quiz in a magazine once and vaguely remember being assigned a number or learning my numerological compatibility or something. Astrology is convoluted enough... I wasn't really on any kind of journey toward mystic enlightenment so i just dropped it.

Still, in my birthday, I have three 7s and two 1s. I know, not that interesting. But my husband, who incidentally has a fraternal twin sister, was born 6.6.66. Oooh. Where am I going with this... well, I just attended my very last class ever. One week until the final and graduation the following Saturday! That's right, class of '08. Well, this is also the year of my 20th high school reunion. Uh huh, class of '88. I'm just marveling right now how this year has been such a milestone. It's only midway through and I can count new opportunities, new friendships, even new hope in political leadership. How appropriate that my very last class of the program is Inferential Statistics - the study of assigning meaning to numeric data.

The numbers themselves, I know they're just markers. I'm reflecting at the moment on the meaningfulness of my life. Thank you, God.

more pinoy pride

Miko Miko Miko!!!

Congratulations to creative and talented Emceemiko. Here he is, probably sitting at his Chicago office, where by day he's a CPA... it's the setting for his video submission in the Tide Talking Stain contest held recently on Youtube.

Thing about Miko is that his personality is so infectious. His passion for those people and things that inspire him is impossible to ignore. He is open about his faith and despite his obvious talent, is always humble. I mentioned in another blog that he was one of the many supportive fans who visited the blog on twoweeksforkina. After I subscribed to his remix channel, I think I posted a comment on a couple of his videos that I was voting for him in the Tide contest. Miko was very sweet to reply and since then, we've exchanged emails and IMs and once in a while I get a sneak peak on his latest work. His submission was just announced today as the winner! That means his commercial will be aired on television. Nice job. I hope this is the start of many good things for Miko!

Also check out his HappySlip tribute video. It's one of my favorites...

today in the life

Just some quick updates, you know, since I'm up...

First, at home: Yay, Noah's staple came out yesterday afternoon. He's such a trooper, didn't even hurt. He says he was a little bummed that he wouldn't be able to show it to his friends anymore. His Tito Ar taught him - chicks dig scars. Doubt this will leave one, but maybe that will come in handy later. Especially because he's still friends with the neighbor kid.

At work: Wish I could say that was hours ago, but tragically I just closed a conference bridge on a priority event, an unplanned application outage. It wasn't a clinical app I support, but I've done the emergency downtime thing so many times that I wanted to give my good friend Michelle a little backup. I'm on call anyway, and an extra hand helps with coordinating remote data center resources and vendors. I know I could count on her if roles were reversed. I'm (so) going in late tomorrow.

At school: I should be roughly a 30 page paper - it's my capstone project - and a stats final away from graduation. Yippee skippee. Now if I could just focus on writing this thing...

But first:

You're looking at some of my favorite Jeepney images. Way before the Humvee was popular, Filipinos were putting some ethnic style on these US military surplus vehicles... Historically as troops left the PI after WWII, hundreds of Jeeps were left behind. We stripped them down, reconfigured the cargo area for passengers, and added some crazy, colorful ornaments. My mom tells me a story of how she used to drive one around Taal. She's cool like that. Guess the SUV thing is in the blood.

My thoughts of family are strong at the moment. My late grandmother and sister shared a birthday and it's today. I miss them dearly and I like to believe they are looking down at the great grandson and nephew they never got to meet and watching over him. I'm listening to Kina Grannis singing "Make It Go" (not available on iTunes?! Heard it first on the radio interview the other day). It just came on as I was publishing this post. Lani are you trying to tell me something?

luckiest mom EVER

I have much to be grateful for this week. Noah survived flying rock week, I survived a stats midterm and a business law final, and this... my early mother's day present! No one has ever said they heart me ;-)

he's had a rough week

My son Noah hasn't been allowed to play with his friend next door for a week. And he's had a serious headache. No, he wasn't being punished. He hasn't been sick. Yes, there's a story. A scary story that begins with a scream of terror...

Last Sunday I heard Noah cry "Owie, mommy, owie, owie..." from just outside, jolting Todd and me off the couch to meet him at the garage. His screams didn't abate but grew louder when we opened the door. I saw his hand and neck covered in blood. What happened? He said his friend Z from next door was throwing rocks even though he told him to stop. A visit to urgent care and 1 staple later, Noah was calming down with a popsicle and agreeing that he and Z needed some time apart. It turns out it wasn't a rock. They were in Z's backyard and he had broken a patio brick in pieces against the cement. Noah says it was a medium sized piece that hit him. I know, totally irrelevant, but it's all I could do to gather details of how it happened. I asked if Z was angry when he threw it, but Noah didn't think so. He was just digging for worms. Maybe Z didn't feel like digging with him and was bored.

I'm still dealing with my own reaction to the whole thing. Z is not a bad kid, but he definitely needed to get the message that he did something really, really bad. We haven't spoken to his parents about it, partly because there's a language barrier and partly because we spent most of the week so angry about the incident. We didn't want to end up intimidating the neighbors. I can't really justify my thought process there but I've just been trying to focus on my own house. I think Noah telling him to go home each time he tried to come play this week was pretty effective. He apologized sincerely when Noah told him, "friends don't throw rocks."

Today was a really good day for Noah and I'm glad because he could enjoy the first sunny, 70 degree day in months. And, when I brushed against the staple, I could tell the bump on his head had gone down because he didn't flinch at all. He was in a pretty good mood also because we let him play for a bit with Z. I realized it was tough for both of them to be apart.

In between play times, Noah worked on a couple of art projects while I got some homework done. We listened to an archive of Kina Grannis doing a radio interview and live set. I think I replayed it 3 times. I have to say her beautiful singing was appropriate for the day. Noah was out rescuing worms again and it made me think of how Kina likes bugs. So Kina, I dedicate the current refrigerator art exhibit to you!

.


There were actually 3 spiders (one very poisonous), a grasshopper and a pincher bug in the rest of this collection.

Spiderman is kind of a huge influence.