I didn't expect that this would be the last photo I took of her last Thursday which was Thanksgiving Day. Before Thanskgiving, we received a message from mom and George that she hasn't been eating for days. She was still very aware of what's happening around her though, and can still walk from corner to corner, but she looked weak. She was still doing okay before we left after our Thanksgiving dinner, until we received an urgent call from George yesterday that Hi-Dee was getting worst. He asked us to drive going to their house because mom was just crying like crazy! I know the feeling when you had that strong feeling of attachment to somebody else, including a dog. Dogs are so far the best companion and can give you the joy of  just by being with them. Mom and George love her so much as much as we do. She was a little entertainment every time we are visiting there, and she would always have that personality to become so excited everytime she sees us.

When we arrived at their place, mom started to sob and cried! Our heart melted for mom, but Hi-Dee still seems to be conscious and coherent, but can't walk and just lying on the couch. George and Craig took her to the vet, while I had to stay with mom. (George said mom is a bit fragile, so he just wanted somebody to be with her just in case, which I did ;).

They had to leave her at the hospital for admission and the latest updates we got that day was that her body temperature was normal and she wasn't anemic. We had positive hopes from that results. They found out she had infected teeth and needed to be pulled out. Then we were told that they still need to run some more tests on her so findings were not yet complete as of that date.

On December 1st, at 9:30AM, I received a call from George that Hi-Dee didn't make it, and passed away! I was startled because I thought she was getting better basing on the updates we have been hearing from them. George sounded so sad and I can hear mom crying on the phone. I asked George if the doctors knew why she didn't make it, but he had no answer. But according to the vets they asked him if he wanted an autopsy done on her but he turned it down. I know the feeling...they just don't want to prolong the agony of sadness while still seeing Hi-Dee's remains staying there. They decided to cremate her and get her ashes.

I know I and Craig should just avoid talking about Hi-Dee for a while. They are on the grieving process and we are both praying they could recover soon. I and Craig thought we can get them another dog after they can recover...but we thought it's not yet too soon!!


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My PC ("Helen") has its own back up file storage called "My Book Essential" and is an external hard drive, shaped like a cable router (black color). It is also called WD Smartware with a USB 3.0 superspeed, although it is also 100% compatible with USB 2.0. It comes with a WD Smartware software, a USB cable, an AC adapter and a quick install guide.
It is also compatible with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. I love its  features, which has a storage capacity of 2 terabytes. That's huge! It's  equivalent to 2,000 gigabytes...ideal for storing all my photos, videos and music collections.
This hard drive can automatically back up your PC's files if you choose to. But I opted to back my files manually, since I don't want any other documents to automatically be stored except for all my multimedia. (photos, videos & music). It might be a little hassle if you want to bring it with you on your travels because it is a bit heavy and bulky. It will just be ideal for PC at home. Not unless you really have to bring it with you due to urgency or so ;).
So far, I am loving it. I already moved all the files from my thumb drives to here. Then, my USB plug 'n' play can do all the copying if I would want a copy and bring it with me during long trips. I wonder what will I do with all these tons of thumb drives in my drawer...lol! It might be a good idea to give it to my nephews and nieces in the Philippines. They usually need them in school.
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So, the other day, I received an email from Paypal telling me about resolving an issue with my account, and because of this, they temporarily limited and put on hold all outgoing transactions. As a result of this, they are requiring me to change my password and create new security questions, as well as they are requiring me to check my account information like address, phone number, etc..and that this is to further verify if all my data information there haven't been changed or to check if any unauthorized transactions have been done.
I didn't mind the email thinking it was one of those email scams, until I used it yesterday to buy my electronic load online for my roaming phone number in the Philippines. I regularly buy my phone load from ebay, so it just got me really alerted when the ebay seller told me that he can't deliver me my item because my Paypal account is on hold. The bad thing is, I was already charged with the item that I didn't received.
So, that reminded me about the email and thought...that was really coming from Paypal geesh!!
I then rectified my account right away, made new security questions, changed my passwords, got my verification code and further confirmed that there were no anomalous transactions made.
I then went back to ebay and informed the seller that my Paypal account was resolved, and he told me back that he was still awaiting notifications from Paypal to lift up the hold on my account!
Gosh! it has been 2 days and nothing happened! I then opened a dispute at Paypal telling I want a chargeback since I didn't receive my item. It was just interesting and good to know that the dispute letter is being sent directly to the seller, hahaha!  The seller refunded back  my amount immediately without questions and understood my predicaments, and that he didn't yet receive a notification from Paypal (which I think would take a while to wait) and then he suggested in the end to let me try purchasing again since the hold was already lifted, which I did!
It worked...whew! There was a bit of an effort to do all these, but the process was all smooth. Thank you Paypal. I appreciate the way your system works and I know it is some kind of protection from fraud and scams. The only thing I wasn't sure of is that why did their system detected any unauthorized use? It was either that somebody really attempted to hack my Paypal account or that it was because I am now using a new PC and it is detecting a new IP address??
Anyway, all is well that ended well! :) It pays to spend some amount of time and job to sit infront of your PC and settling and confirming disputes and security stuff. Just imagine shifting between Paypal and Ebay just to get everything done.
Thank you Lord. My hard earned money is still safely intact.
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When "Paul Charles" came back home after he was revived, the Geek guys were able to save the data and backed them up with this hard drive. It is called Free Agent GoFlex, an ultra-portable drive and has 500 gigabytes...that's huge! It connects to any USB port and is  upgradeable.
I was actually looking for smaller ones (thumb drives) as high as 32 GIGS for my videos, but I guess this will be perfect for all...like photos, videos, music and other stuff. It is much bigger but it's not bulky. I am thinking of carrying it with me for every trip. Although thumb drives are much smaller and much easier and more convenient to carry, I can still rely with GoFlex because I take a lot of photos and videos particularly for big trips, but I won't be discarding these little drives I got. I might give some to my nephews and nieces as well ;).
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Finally, my new PC is here! HP Pavilion dv7-6135dx Entertainment PC, one of the most recent products released by HP. It was recommended by "Jordan" our sales rep. from Best Buy. I gave her the name "Helen Precious"...in short, HP hahahaha!! Craig calls her by her full name...Helen Precious Rogers when he gets jealous, LOLZ! I just thought to name my laptops and PCs at home for easy management, lol! Helen's birthday is August 6, 2011, the day we bought her and the day "Paul Charles" went into coma!
"Helen" has Windows 7 and core 15 with Radeon Graphics, bigger memory, highly noted to have a high speed and has "beatsaudio" as well. I am not good into the well detailed tech specs, but those are the current outstanding features that she has.
It has a wider touchpad for touch gestures where you can scroll your fingers in any directions as well as you can zoom the screen by a pinching motion, just like how you do it on Iphone ;). If you are interested with the features, just Google it and you will find reviews about it. From there, you decide ;).
She has 4 USB ports, with one digital media slot for SD camera photos, 2 built in speakers (great, crisp and clear sound, by the way!), HDMI port, built in webcam and 2 internal microphones, an optical drive and other ports at the back for other media connections like connecting it to a TV or big screens.
Aaaahhhhh! Quite an awesome features!  I also tried watching movies in it, and it was like a mini movie theater! In my next future posts, I will be posting the accessories that "Helen" is using. They come with great features as well. The prices for all of these???...."priceless"!!! ;)
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Last Friday evening, August 5, one of my laptops crashed and I could no longer open the Windows. I have been using this laptop for 8 years, and it still can work good, but my main suspect is that it caught a bad spyware or a worm of some sort. Kaspersky, my anti virus seem to caught the virus which I've noticed while I was surfing and I think I got it when I happened to click a link while googling something. But this time, the worm was attached in a link and I think that was the start of it. There were Window Explorer errors popping up whenever I start Windows. It didn't seem to be a big concern for me because I can still normally surf online by rebooting it! This is a big lesson learned the hard way...{sigh!}. Then the worst happened!
We then bought it to the Geek Squad in Best Buy store at Owings Mills. I guess the technician noticed it was already old when we told him it is already more than 5 years old, lol! Besides, this was the second time it was bought there for repair and so he suggested us to get a new one. We agreed because the repair costs can already be as good as a price of a brand new laptop! Anyway, we still opted to continue with the repair and decided to only use it for Craig's powerpoint files whenever he needs to make some for his class presentations.
We call this laptop "Paul Charles", you know, all of our computers at home have names! For 8 long years, "Paul Charles" has been good to me. He was so far the busiest pc in my office room, the reason why I didn't give up with the repair on him.
The Geeks found out that his hard drive was badly damaged and needed to be changed. Gosh! the repair was $160 plus $90 hard drive! It should still be worth it and I promised myself this would be his last repair and I would just let him retire!
So, yesterday, Craig picked him up and gladly revived from a coma! He has a newly installed hard drive. Today, I was able to re-install back the Kaspersky anti-virus on him and a Microsoft Office so Craig can use it for his files.
On the other hand, I got a new pc...HP Pavilion dv7, the fastest, and has the biggest space capacity for files, and has a "beats audio" sound quality. I will give a specific update about her in one of my next posts.

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We received our Cathay Pacific plane tickets today in the mail from Apex Travel, yey! We are all set to go for our Philippine trip this October! Also, I was able to buy our domestic tickets from Philippine Airlines via e-tickets online for our trip to Iloilo.
Apex was suppose to do our domestic plane fares, but I told Craig to skip it this time because it's more expensive. I suggested I can just buy online tickets which is way much cheaper. The difference is $100 cheaper, so we can still use that for shopping, LOL!
This is a big trip event worth looking forward to once again. As much as we are able, we want to have a Philippine trip planned at least once a year. That's how we love our second home ;).
Please continue to help us pray for stable finances. God is giving us more than enough which is also a big help to always spend some R & R with our families back home in the Philippines every year.
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Today, I received a thank you gift from Western Union in the mail. They are 2 Visa gift cards with $100 worth each ;)
It finally paid off with all the money we are sending back home in the Philippines every month. The gifts were one of those selections out of the points we earned from Craig's Western Union gold card!
It's good to use anywhere in the world. I tried using it to shop online, but it doesn't work.
Hhhhmmmm...I can use it in the Philippines as well. :)
We're giving back our thanks to WU as well. And above all else, we thank Him up there for throwing another blessing amidst financial turmoil.
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A Souvenir Photo 02/23/2011
 
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Last Saturday, (February 19), Craig was invited to speak about "Blame and Forgiveness" at the SDA (7th Day Adventist Internat'l Church) in Pikesville, MD to a marriage club group. He usually teaches about this topic at work, but that time, he spoke about the topic through Biblical perspective.
He said he wanted me to come since it was mostly for couples. There were at least 10-15 couples who came, and Craig and I were so blessed that they were touched and impressed about how Craig delivered the topic above well.
The people were heartwarming as well and many were blessed.
Of course, Marlon, their photographer requested us to pose for a souvenir photo as a humble gesture ;). Thanks, Marlon. He didn't charge us for the portraits. Remember, sharing everyone's blessings is free, right?
It was truly a wonderful blessed evening!
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I am not actually a morning person. I usually wake up around 11am or later depending on what time did I go to bed :).
Anyway, I woke up this morning and I found this on the doorsteps!
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It's still 3 days early before Valentine's Day, but here is one husband who is thoughtful enough to remember it early!...so touched! Thanks beloved. No words can express how I treasure you and the love you're giving me. Mwah!
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