"Fish and visitors stink after three days" says the good ol' Ben Franklin

I am sharing an article I got from Reader's Digest February 2010 issue. It's from The Guide/ Etiquette section. This should come very handy one day in every person's life.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this particular blog entry is not to blow someone's ill-manners. I am posting just in the spirit of sharing.

Handy Hints for House Guests

Don't wear out your welcome, says Kathy Buchanan.

Instead, follow these rules and you'll be invited again

• HOW LONG TO STAY: As a guideline, usually three to seven nights are enough. If staying longer, ensure you are helping with housework or contributing financially and adhering to the house rules. (If you aren't sure what your rules are, ask!) **Oh can I just add, NEVER, as in NEVER try to discipline your host family's children too? That's the parent's duties, not yours! If you see something indifferent from what you know, BITE YOUR TONGUE EVEN IF IT MEANS IT WILL HAVE TO BLEED!
• THANK-YOU GIFTS: Unless you have a specific, genuinely useful gift in mind, gift cards are a polite way of giving cash, allowing your host to recoup some of the money spent on you. Don't accept no for an answer. The gift card or present should be to the tune of roughly $100 per week stayed, along with a thoughtful note about how much you have enjoyed your visit. Also, issue a reciprocal invitation.
• CONTRIBUTING TO BILLS: Planning on staying longer than two weeks? Automatically contribute to the household budget. This is an addition to your gift and contributions to the supermarket shop. Alternatively, offer to provide a fancy dinner. If you are borrowing your host's car, you must refill the fuel tank before returning it. Any breakages must be replaced or paid for.
• DON'T STAY AT ALL....unless you're genuinely close family relative, or a best friend who has been specifically invited. You should not stay with anyone who is in the middle of exams, on deadline, pregnant or a new parent, or has children under 12 months. Unless the circumstances justify it, never accept an invitation from someone who is ill, grieving or under financial stress.
• WHEN TO LEAVE: Even if your hosts have agreed that you can crash in the spare room indefinitely, if your presence is causing problems, vamoose.

And so I decided to stay...

My move to Tumblr came too sudden. And so I'm back. Tumblr confuses me. I don't need to complicate my life any further. Plus, I feel 30ish when I say that. I am ONLY 28! Ok, 29 in July! Well, yeah, my move to Tumblr was too sudden. I did it on impulse (what's new?!). Not good, not good at all. I didn't mean it wasn't good moving to Tumblr, but doing things on impulse. Like shopping for instance. For a person who changes her mind every five minutes, doing things on impulse isn't a good idea AT.ALL. Thank goodness No Return, No Exchange policy has gone passe. But even the No Refund, Only Credit Note policy annoys the freaks out of me! You know when they refuse to give your money back and they offer you credit notes instead to use at their shop? That sucks. Anyway...

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Oooh, I got my new pairs of TOMS today from the mail. My first (s)! Ok, I was greedy, I got two! There's nothing good like the first time ;)

They are like the comfiest shoes ever! And the seersucker design compliments my anything nautical addiction! I got the blue seersucker too. Photos to follow. With the TOMS flag! It would've been more handy if they made the flag into a shoe bag too.

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Well, speaking of first times... I also cooked some chicken longganisa up today! Woot!

Since my husband's cholesterol level read 5.6 (5.5 being the normal), I started to obssess in altering our diet from an 'I don't care as long as it's yum' diet to an 'almost everything fish' diet! I have the tendency to obssess and overreact, so for the past weeks, I went all ga-ga just cooking fish and nothing but fish! But after a couple of weeks I decided that it can't go on like that and we still have to have options. Healthier ones. And so I came up with this. Ok then, I found it online. But instead of using 1 kilo ground pork, 10% fat as it says on the original recipe, I used ground chicken meat. Make that heart smart ground chicken meat! Had to pay a little bit extra for the heart smart bit at Safeway! I hope it is what it claims it is!

Maybe I should start a Recipe Ideas blog. Hmmm.....

I might make a shift...

So there goes my vow to religiously update my blog. So I might try Tumblr and see how I go.

I am wasting too much cyberworld space!