BEES KNEES
something to do, something to love and something to hope for
2008
The title of this website is as it says above - a play on words.
First, to our oldest friends my hubster and I are known as “the Honeybees”. What was meant to be a secret term of endearment stuck so well, it even inspired well-meaning friends to gift us with customized give-aways on our wedding day - potpourri boxes topped with papier mache . . . bees, of course. Bees that were confusingly more canine than apiarian in appearance.
Second, bees knees sounds like business, which we’re inviting you to “get all up in”. These are the ramblings of a wife and mom of two boys, while tracking the progress of our family goal: to keep to the essentials of a happy life which are - having Things to do, People and things to Love and Something to Hope for.
Finally, the phrase “the bee’s knees” was coined way back in the 1920s to describe something “of the highest quality and excellence”. Which brings me back to our quirky wedding give-aways : ). We planned our wedding down to the smallest detail with combined obsessive-compulsive forces. Everything was solemn, refined, lovely ... and the puppy-bee boxes caught us off-guard!
The hubster and I just chalked it off as a sign of things to come for the Honeybee family, a perfectly planned life peppered with a happy dose of the absurd.
Play on Words
bizarro for the year:
I have a helper who has never been to Manila, until now. She speaks a Visayan dialect and cannot speak a word of English and barely gets by on Tagalog.
Naturally, this makes for classic comedic opportunities since I myself am just barely intelligible when I speak Tagalog.
Case in point:
I have taken up the habit of giving instructions four times in one sitting, twice in Tagalog and twice in Taglish, whenever I speak to her. One day while I’m helping the kids review for exams, I ask her to prepare the suitcase that my honeybee needs for a dealers meeting in Cebu. I say:
“paki akyat yung maleta na ginagamit ni kuya”
“yung suitcase”
“yung maleta”
“please bring up the suitcase of ___”
To which she replies: “Opo”, which is “yes”. And she walks away with a mission in her step.
20 minutes later, I don’t see the suitcase and I call out “(her name)! ... did you forget to bring up the suitcase?”
and I startle because she pops up right beside me coming out of the kitchen. I say I thought you were looking for the suitcase and she says . . .
(I will write out the English translation here:)
“I was.
But I can’t find it in the ref” (rigerator).
OR
Opo, pero wala po siya sa ref.
CHEKEN NUGGETS
