April 09, 2008
Planting season
Thank you, Rebecca, for the wonderful gift! It was an awesome surprise! I have forgotten I had posted on this blog about the probability of growing a calamansi tree in the US, until this packaged calamondin showed up in the apartment. Now the mission is to keep the tree alive. This will be tricky during the colder months as calamansi is grown mainly in warmer climates. Despite that, Re'Sean and his Dad are expecting some form of harvest at some point.
Ready for replanting, the calamansi has gone stateside.
Unlike his Dad, Re'Sean has not tasted fresh calamansi juice. He has tried bottled calamansi and swears it's better than lemonade. So here he is, paying an impromptu tribute to calamansi. He has a pop-jazz version of the song which I will be putting up a little bit later.
The crooks live here, too
Let's look at the numbers:
$77,000 - clothes and accessories from high-end stores
$13,500 - dinner tab at Ruth Chris Steakhouse
$360 - women's underwear and lingerie
$1,100 - subscription to Internet dating sites
______
Total: Are you freaking kidding me?
The figures are not someone's expenditures for a lavish lifestyle but purchases by federal government employees. What's wrong with the picture? The expenses are charged to government credit cards. This kind of impudence amazes me. While reports like this is not exactly news in the Philippines, I was quite taken aback that such abuses were able to escape immediate scrutiny. I guess I expected that with the system here seemingly working, the checks and balances put in place will sift through government personnel looking for loopholes in the law. Read more of the story here - Lingerie, iPods on government credit cards