Shaving with Daddy

There's nothing that tugs your heartstrings than seeing your little one imitate Daddy during shaving time. Billy always wanted to shave like his Daddy. Hubby figured out a way how he could do this, take out the blade from the razor and let him shave with the razor holder.


First order of business is the lathering of the face with whipped cream. Oops! I meant shaving cream. LOL. Billy loves this part.



Hubby watches on as Billy imitates how he shaves his face.


And how he contorts his face when tries to get an even, close shave.


The two Bills busy with their facial hygiene. After shaving, Hubby slaps on some skin bracer on Billy and on himself. Billy usually runs up to me and ask me to feel his cheek to see how smooth he has shaved it. I usually do and give him a kiss and tell him how manly he smells. LOL

Soon enough, my little boy would be shaving for real. And I can't wait to see him shave with his son in the distant future. Sigh.

You bet, Pinakbet! (Sauteed Veggies in Shrimp Sauce)

This veggie dish originates in the province of Ilocos in the Philippines. The climate and terrain is harsh and rugged. The simplicity and versatility of this dish is suited for this region as vegetables grown from one's garden is usually used. One can use a wide variety like: eggplant, yard beans, bitter melon, tomato, ginger, okra, string beans, lima beans, chili peppers and various Filipino vegetables like parda, winged beans. I come from a region that includes squash in the pinakbet.

The sauce added to the dish can be fermented shrimp or fermented fish sauce. It is essential to the dish. Some cook their pinakbet dry almost to the point of no sauce left at all. Others, like me cook their pinakbet saucy.


It was a rainy day and I wanted a simple, comforting dish. All I had in the fridge were eggplants, garlic scapes and some zucchini. There was a half a bottle of fermented fish sauce called bagoong, too. I decided to make pinakbet. Billy decided to help me. Here he is cutting up my veggies for me.

I cut up two japanese eggplants into thirds and then into halves. The garlic scapes, about a small handful, I cut the ends and tops off and cut them up into 2-inch pieces. The zucchini was sliced into rounds and then cut into half. I also added minced garlic, about a teaspoon and half an onion sliced. I used about 1/4 cup of fish sauce and 1 cup of pork stock (or water if you don't have any). Oh, a cup of cooked sliced pork is also great for the dish, if you have roasted pork, so much the better. It adds a lot of flavor to the dish.

First, cook the pork in a little oil until it is slightly golden brown. Drain off oil if the pork exuded a lot of fat. Leave about 1 tablespoon of oil behind with the pork. Add the garlic and saute until golden brown. Add the onions and cook them until they change color.

The rule in cooking the pinakbet is to add the veggies that need to cook the longest first. So I added the garlic scapes first, then after 5 minutes, I added the eggplant. After 5 minutes the zucchini was dumped into the wok and the fish sauce. Stir everything until the sauce covers all the veggies. Add a pinch of MSG if you are not MSG-phobic. Add the cup of stock and cover the wok and let simmer until the eggplant is done.

Serve the dish hot with freshly cooked rice. Watch as you can't help but eat more than two servings of everything. :)

Good News in the End

more cat pictures

Well, Hubby went to see his doctor yesterday for another x-ray and check-up. The doctor looked at his x-ray and slowly smiled. He declared that Hubby didn't have to surgery at all. There was no migration or movement of the fractured humerus bone. In fact, a couple of nights ago hubby popped his injured shoulder (accidentally) and it felt good. I guess the the bone moved back from its dislocated place.

Everything was looking good and all was needed was the immobilization of Hubby's shoulder and a lot of PT exercises after 2-3 weeks. Hubby and I are so happy.

The awful day last Monday at THAT hospital turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Thanks to the Big Guy upstairs. And if people tell you prayers don't work, tell them to read my blog. Prayers work!

Hospital From H3ll and the DWTHG*

Question: What's the difference between God and a doctor?
Answer: God doesn't think he is a doctor.

*The Doctor who thinks he's God


Hubby's back home with no surgery. Yup, you read that right, it was a long day yesterday. First the scheduled operation for 10:00am. (as updated to us by one of the senior male nurses last Sunday) NEVER HAPPENED. Hubby fasted the night before and the morning in preparation for it. And nothing happened. I was out and about town running errands and he called me to report the non-existence of his surgery.


I came back around lunchtime and asked the nurses at the admittance and accounting section about what happened and what time is the surgery re-scheduled. I already know the korean word for it and for some time they scrambled about and came back with an answer. It will be for 1:00pm this time. Okay, I told hubby about the new schedule and gave him a kiss and left for work.


1:00 passed and then 2:00, nothing happened. Hubby called me again (thank goodness I had an hour's break between my first and last class). I rushed to the hospital, this time exasperated and stressed to the nurses that WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING? The nurse made some calls and said that the doctor was having lunch. I gave her the eveil eye. She changed her tune. No wait, the doctor is here and Hubby needs to come down from his room (on the 3rd floor) and see the doctor in his office in the 1st floor. What the hey?


So, I ran up the hospital steps (for the ninth time today) and dragged Hubby out of bed to see his doctor. We came down and had to wait several minutes before we were let in. Hubby this time was fatigued, stressed and weak with hunger. The DWTHG motioned for him to sit down on the stool and asked us some questions in Korean. We told him we couldn't speak korean and we were foreigners (duh?). Doctor turned around, raised an eyebrow and asked in English "How long have you been in Korea?" Hubby said over 5 years. Doctor insultingly said "AMAZING (long sneering drawl here). You've been in Korea for over 5 years and you haven't learned korean."

Hubby exploded and said that we weren't there to be scolded for not learning korean and that we just wanted to know what the hell was going to happen to him. Will he have surgery or not? Is there going to be any surgery at all? DWTHG yelled at Hubby that he didn't have the right to get angry. And made it look like it was our fault and miscommunication between us and the nurses about the schedule of the surgery. Here's where the bombshell landed, DWTHG even mentioned there was no surgery scheduled. WHAT??!!

This time Hubby got mad, I got mad and we fussed at the doctor. Doctor fussed back and said that Hubby should find another hospital because HE WILL NOT OPERATE ON HUBBY. He also said we should leave immediately and he doesn't care where and which hospital we would go. I told him what I thought about him and his mother. He told the same thing to me. We stormed out of his office and I had to rush back to my school to tell them I couldn't teach my last class. I broke down to the teachers there and gave them some idea of what happened.



Then I rushed back at the hospital where Hubby told me that the DWTHG said that they will do the surgery anyway and scheduled it for 3:00pm. I was adamant we check out of the hospital and find another one. Who knows what that doctor would decide to do to Hubby's operation (it's a delicate operation, cutting ligaments and one wrong stroke can leave Hubby with permanent nerve damage). Hubby finally agreed with me. We called his boss who found another doctor and our taxi driver friend who helped us packed up our stuff. We went to the new doctor who said that there were other options aside from surgery. Like just immobilization maintenance and physical therapy after several months. Hubby opted for that. (Hubby's sister had the same accident and broke her shoulder too, she didn't have surgery either).

By this time, I rushed to Hubby's training school and subbed for his last several classes. A good friend dropped by the hospital and brought Hubby and Billy home. It was a long day and we were all emotionally and physically exhausted.

So, if any of you find yourself in a sleepy little town called Janghowon, don't ever go to a hospital called Saehan. I beg of you, don't go there. It's a hospital from hell and the doctor in there thinks he's from heaven and a gift to all.

Update on Hubby and Picnic Pics

Well hubby goes into surgery today at 10:00. I'll be trying to keep busy by running errands around town. I hate waiting for operation results. In the mean time, I'd liketo share picnic photos during that dreadful day.


Here's Billy picking up rocks and pebbles and trying out the cold brook water. He spent a lot of time chasing minnows in the water, tossing rocks into the deepest part of the pools and shrieking with delight when the water splashed him. There were lots of colorful butterflies, moths and dragonflies darting in and out of the river reeds.



Hubby perched on a big boulder which had a smaller rock on it perfect for sitting down. I stayed on the picnic blanket munching on cold roasted chicken that I brought with us for snacking on. I also brought fried dumplings, steamed rice wrapped with banana leaves, fried chicken (from the local BBQ Fried Chicken store), cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber and lots of fizzy drinks.


Billy joins his dad on his rock and they chat a bit while they're up there. They shared a lot of kisses and hugs. Bill also told stories about his late Dad and him going fishing when he was younger.


In the meantime, I enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my legs while I finished my meal. You can see we took advantage of a great boulder that had a flat top, it was perfect for a picnic table. There were even wild berries in a shrub that was growing behind it. I tried one but it was too sour and hard.


I finally joined Billy in the stream and tried to teach him the Korean way of staking rocks on top of each other. Koreans do this for fun and some as a meditation. You can see a lot of little towers of stacked stones all over river beds and even mountain tops. We stacked several towers of rocks and then let Billy play in the water some more.

It really was a fun day overall, I just wished it didn't end the way it did.

One Bad Fall

The Householders went on a picnic
and had a great ball
Hubby slipped from a huge boulder
and had a bad fall...


Good thing Hubby is not Humpty Dumpty and the doctors can put his fractured shulder back into place. Hubby is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow, Monday June 1, 2008. He will be laid up in the hospital for 10 days. We went on a picnic at a nearby picnic spot about 30 minutes drive away. Our local taxi driver, Mr. Lee, who is a very good friend recommended the spot.

Unfortunately, the picnic spot has huge boulders and rocks that were slippery due to a previous day's rainfall. We were in fact packed and was trekking back to the parking space to meet up with Mr. Lee. Billy went high up on one boulder and hubby followed him. He was laden with two heavy bags and lost his balance and slipped and fell 10 feet.

Hubby felt his shoulder crack and was stunned in shock for about a minute. A group of teenage girls were also having a picnic and rushed over to help him. They were very nice enough to help us manage about 100 feet more of rocks and boulders. The girls made sure hubby made it safely and even carried our bags for us. Mr. Lee arrived in a few minutes after my frantic call to him on the celphone.

It was a rush to the hospital after that and a round of x-rays and test. The bad news was confirmed by the doctor and that surgery was definitely needed in hubby's case. This means that it will be two weeks before Hubby can go back to work. This also means that my planned trip to the Philippines on July would have to wait or be cancelled.

I'll post more updates about this here as the days go by.