Whatever Comes To Mind

One of the things............

2012-01-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

......I'd like to try is kayaking. But not in open sea, nor even the bay. I'd like to first try it in a river.

I feel like I've been away............

2012-01-24T22:41:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been away from blogging forever and not just for a few days. I am surprised to find that I missed it. But the weekend has been really busy that I didn't have a single minute to even turn on the computer. Still am struggling with finding more free time to blog that I consider putting my meme blog on hold for a week or so until everything settles down.

Let me tell you about my weekend. First we finally got some rain. It's the middle of January and that's the first rain - substantial rain - we had. We needed more but it's a good start.

The rain made me lazy, but I had to clean the house for Sunday's viewing party. The local team, San Francisco 49ers, were competing the following day in the NFC championship. We have just started watching this sport so we're pretty ignorant about rules, but we were hosting a viewing party on Sunday. That meant I have to do some cleaning.

I made sure that I finished cleaning and had showered by 4 pm because I was going to my husband's company party that evening. I don't know why, but I even put polish in my fingernails. Somehow, it's not a real party without red nails, yikes.

And so the party that my hubs company hosts every January is for the Holidays, except they're too cheap to host the Holiday party during the Holidays when the prices are high. It's always cheaper in January you know.

It would be my 3rd party, in the same location, at Craneway Pavillion, next to the bay. At night you could see the lights in San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not wise to go outside and enjoy the views though as it's always cold and windy near the water. Thankfully the sides of the structure is made of glass so you can enjoy the views without getting cold.

I would have to blog separately about the food because I have photos.

This year was the company's 60th anniversary. Upon entry they have a table of goodies. The gents can get a hat while the ladies can choose between a tiara, a ring that's like 50 carats, and a necklace bling that would make the hip hop artists bling shy. I of course chose a tiara and I wore it majority of the time while in the party.

They also have a few photo booths, which we were lucky to find early on so the line wasn't long. The party was probably attended by about 2,000 people. It's a big company - global - but has its HQ here in the Bay.

So we ate and drank and chit-chatted. I was introduced to new people and got reunited with people that used to work with the hubby. We took photos and then it was time to dance. My hubs doesn't dance and I wasn't in the mood to dance. We never stay for the dancing. Many people didn't either. It was kinda boring too you know.

Anyhow, we left for home about 10 pm. I drove because I hardly drank. I had a glass of red. My hubby had more than 2 so I was the designated driver.

I couldn't sleep until about 3 am. The waiter lied to me when I asked if he's pouring me decaf after dinner. At 1 am I knew he poured me real coffee.

Still raining on Sunday when we went to church. The 49ers game were at 3:30 and we had 6 people watching the game with us. Unfortunately the home team lost.

The week started in hectic fashion. Am so busy and hubby got me a book to read. Yeah I think I can find time to read.

Happiness Is.........

2012-01-19T09:22:00.001-08:00

Spending time with your gal pal.

Weekend Warrior

2012-01-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

When I left a comment on Prinsesa's blog today, I told her my weekend was busy. Then I gave it a thought as I needed to write something here. I realized it wasn't as busy as I first thought it was.

On Saturday I had my weekly driver duties to mom. We skipped dining in because of time constraints. Instead we just ordered food from drive through and ate while on the way to the grocery store.

Saturday was the San Francisco Forty Niners game against the New Orleans Saints, American football if you must ask. We are not followers of the game, heck we hardly know the game. But it's jumping on the bandwagon time, it's being one with the community. Regional pride here people. Plus, we got invited to a viewing party, and we went. Needless to say, it was one of the best football games. The lead kept changing in the last 2 minutes of the game. Fortunately, the 49ers prevailed. They're headed on to the NFC championship this weekend. If they hurdle this challenge, then they go to vie for the Superbowl cup.

The game was so thrilling and tense I was exhausted. There was yelling and slapping and putting both hands on face, in the end my legs could hardly support me.

Still, we managed to hug our friends goodbye and told them next week's game is at our house (OMG!!!!).

They live in one of the neighborhoods that we looked at when we were house hunting. Furthermore they are just one block away from the house I fell in love with. We didn't put a bid on the house because it was next to a dancing hall. Yes, there are still dancing halls here. But the house is next to the bay, from the master's bedroom your view is the bay. Plus the attraction of the house for me is the entryway. It's like a cottage entry, but the interiors is definitely modern with high ceilings.

And so when we left our friend's house I asked the hubby to drive to the house and see if there are changes. OMG, the street was packed with cars, there was party in the dance hall and the charming gate/cottage entry has been replaced with suburban blah. Just looking at the noisy party made me realize how lucky we were for not putting a bid on this house, or even buying it.

Because we ate very little, we had to have dinner... and a movie. Our Netflix movie DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 arrived and we watched it and enjoyed it.

On Sunday was the usual routine, we went to church and wanted to do nothing else. I went to soak the laundry (very exciting eh?) and then vacuumed the downstairs. Then I put the Harry Potter movie again, I never tire of watching it. By the time it ended, the Golden Globes was about ready to begin. However, we needed to run to the grocery store for some last-minute necessities we need for the whole week.

Monday was Holiday for me. Hubs had to work. It's a me time. I woke up, stayed in bed and caught up with REVENGE. Then came down and had rice and sardines (Ligo). I only get to eat this breakfast if hubby is out. He thinks my eating sardines and rice for breakfast (it's nearly 12) is weird. Surfing and doing laundry while eating breakfast. Then its time to line dry my laundry. Do you line dry your laundry? I do.

Then I rang up the pharmacy to see if they were open that day bec I neede a refill on my Rx. They were. It's a very short drive, 5 minutes tops. And the wait was nonexistent. I got my refill in 5 minutes.

And here is where I should have exercised self control but I didn't. I went to Taco Bell and ordered Nacho Bellgrande and coke. I know I should stay away from fastfood but Taco Bell nachos are my most fave and I couldn't resist. I told myself it was holiday anyway.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching dvd and editing photos for uploading on my Flick'r.

See it wasn't a busy week.

Of Dreams

2012-01-13T11:33:00.001-08:00

What a weird dream I had last night. I don't remember much of it, but some parts of it were clear.

First, I have a baby. It doesn't appear to be a biological child. But I have a baby in my arms that needed to be fed.

Second, I have 2 more children in my house, ages ranging from 4 to 12.

Third, my niece was in the house helping with the groceries while I battle with preparing baby formula and at the same time making sure I don't drop the baby.

It was really weird.

But I think the answer to my baby needs has been answered.

I think it's time I look into adoption more seriously.

Food Craving Wednesday

2012-01-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

How about a trio of lamb tacos?

What are you craving for today?

Of Weekend Eating

2012-01-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

It's Monday again, drat, I haven't even digested the weekend yet.

Oh the weekends of adults are mostly running around doing errands and performing chores at home. If I knew it was going to be like this, I'd have delayed my adulthood (wink).

Kidding aside, I'm already feeling run down early in the year, and this despite the gorgeous atypical weather we've been having. 70F in January, no kidding. I was wearing short sleeve! I cannot remember when our weather was this gorgeous. However, all this beautiful weather has some bad side to it. If we continue to have this spring-like and summer-like conditions, we might get in trouble come summertime when we need our water. Our water reserve mainly rely on the snow in the Sierra in the winter and rain down where we are during fall and winter months. We haven't had rain down here, nor did it snowed in Sierra yet. All the snow that's in the resorts right now are all man-made. Somehow, we need to get our winter going here.

Still, the gorgeous weather makes one want to be outside. Which meant that we found time to remove our "lightings" from the Holidays. We didn't really put many stuff outside, so when I was done, hubby was surprised that we put in too little time getting the decors back in their boxes.

I have to still get our Christmas tree down, maybe one of these nights. Not tonight I have a church meeting, which means I may have to miss CASTLE.

Let me tell you about some eating I have done this weekend.

Every Saturday I take my mom around to run her errands. Among her errands is lunch in either Chow King or Jollibee. Now that she completely dumped Jollibee (price is high for the serving they give you, she said), she has found a regular lunch place in Red Ribbon. She simply adores the combo meal - half an order of arroz caldo and 2 mini siopaos. I on the other hand either gets the palabok by itself or the half palabok + half arroz caldo.

So you see I don't really miss so much of the Philippine food scene. Next door is Max Fried Chicken. There are plenty of other restaurants that serve cafeteria style Pinoy food around.

On Saturday evening we took our newly widowed friend Gay to a little dinner over at Villa Romano. Our plan was for lunch but for pete's sake the restaurant doesn't open for lunch on the weekend.

So dinner it was. We drove to Napa where the restaurant is located. You see we pass by this restaurant each time we drive to Napa and every single time I let out a sigh wanting to try that restaurant. We never got around to it, until last Saturday.

We made reservations at 5 pm the time they open. There was one table already occupied. It's an old house converted into a restaurant. It feels like eating at a friend's house.

The waitress said we have to have the garlic bread, it's a must she says. So we had it. It's actually like a half of a round french sweet bread that was baked until the crust was crunchy and brown and it was topped with cheese and served in a nice platter. The waitress then took a broiled/baked whole head of garlic, pinched it and all the goooey garlic goodness oozed out and was spread thickly on the bread. It was too die for. Not only was the bread really delicious, the presentation was superb. Never had a garlic bread done this way before.

For appetizers, we got only one order of fried calamari, which in my experience is always enough for four people. I was right. There were only three of us, but we ate the whole thing all thru the meal, we couldn't seem to finish it.

Caesar salad followed. I didn't really want a salad, but said okay when hubby suggested we split one order. Thankfully we did that because as always the Caesar salad itself looks like an entree portion.

For our entree I chose risotto with chicken. The husband had the three cheese tortellini with pancetta. Gay had the seafood linguini.

I simply adored my risotto. The serving was large, the chicken was delicious, I don't usually order chicken in the restaurant. The creaminess of the risotto was wonderful. Although it's not the traditional big grain risotto that we're so used to. It was marvelous.

Gay's seafood linguini looks very soupy, which didn't escape her notice. But it's supposed to since she ordered seafood and seafood is watery. Anyway we asked the waitress to give us some extra cheese to counter the soupy nature.

Hubby's tortellini dish was right on the spot too. However, there was more pancetta than I or he wanted and needed more tortellini, but otherwise a good dish.

After all these dishes and wine, we had room for dessert. We ordered one sampler dessert and that was just fine serving. The dessert plate had a sorbet, which was a palate cleanser, an espresso tiramisu and flourless chocolate cake. While the chocolate cake was good, the best flourless choc cake I had eaten so far is at Ristorante Due Rose, Italian restaurant in my neighborhood.

And so it was a fun 2.5 hours of dinner we had. We even saw the sunset while sipping wine.

You know I do have photos of the dishes, although I don't think they turned out well. I was only using a point and shoot, because I cannot bring myself to whip out a DSLR when dining, do you?

I'm going to keep track of all our dining out expenses this year. While we were really good with budget last year, we didn't really know how much of it goes to eating out.

Street Photography #13

2012-01-08T14:17:00.001-08:00

Year-End Report

2012-01-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

2011 was a year of many ups and downs. It was also the year of discontent. Here's my report of how the year went for me personally:

HIGH:

Bought my very first DSLR - Pentax. I love it.
Got a hybrid car.
Anniversary get-away was fantastic - wonderful hotel and fabulous food.
Cruise to Mexico - a haphazardly planned trip - turned out well.
Eco-tourism tour of Costa Rica - a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Hope to repeat visit someday.
Hubby's promotion.
The Big Bang Theory - kept me sane.
Eating out with friends. Meeting new friends.
Church fundraising where I designed the flyer and the tickets.

LOW:

Failed fertility treatment.
Out-patient surgery.
Many doctor visits and procedures.
Did not read a single book.
Did not clean out garage.
Lack of inspiration.

In the previous years I have stayed away from making New Year's resolutions because I know for a fact that I have no inclination to follow them.

This year I am writing down goals for this new year in the hope that with goals I will have the drive to achieve them.

GOALS

Complete pending "hobby" projects, i.e. cross stitch project and photo book project.
Learn how to knit.
Start baking more.
Find a way to make money from my passion - photography.
Learn to swim.
Clean out the garage.
Find a new hobby.
Start making to-do lists.
Unclutter.
Send Christmas cards again - I got feedback from FB that my friends who used to get regular cards from me missed my Christmas cards.
Take long drives and short trips - so good for the soul.

So very hopeful at this start of the new year. Let's see how the situation is by December.

I Got Dragged

2012-01-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

Before the 3-day NY holiday weekend was over, I got dragged to see Tom Cruise's MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie. It is I believe my husband's idea of a revenge at his being tortured to seeing BREAKING DAWN. Only I fully enjoyed the movie, despite my dislike of Tom Cruise. Don't ask. He just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.

Moreover, I find the movie well made. There is some loopholes in the storyline of course. The most obvious would be that the codes would be still on paper. In this day and age of advanced technology, the transfer of dangerous codes would be written on paper baffles me. Really? Even us ordinary people, don't we just digitally transfer information with each other? We don't print out stuff anymore.

Regardless of that, I find the global locations very interesting. I've seen the trailer of the movie but never realized that they went to Mumbai.

Another pleasant surprise is the inclusion of LOST's Sawyer, Josh Holloway who played the fallen agent at the beginning of the movie. Really appreciated seeing his handsome mug in the big screen. He could totally do this kind of movies. I hope he gets more movies like this.

There was humor too. And I didn't got bored. There's always something going on. No spot for a little loo break, not that I needed one.

So far the first movie I've seen in 2012 is a big hit, a two-thumbs up success!!!!

2011 Survey

2011-12-29T09:19:00.000-08:00

Here's my 2009 survey.

Here's my 2010 survey.

In 2011:

Did you do something you would never do?

>>I went white water rafting and ziplining. Two actiivities that I really thought I'd never ever do.

Did you keep any New Year's Resolutions?

>>I never make any so nothing to keep.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

>>No one.

Did anyone close to you die?

>> Yes, a dear friend and faux FIL, Ken died in December.

Did you visit any countries?

>>Yes. Went to Mexico and Costa Rica

What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

>>A child of my own.

Will any date from 2011 stay etched in your memory forever?

>>I can't think of any one particular date.

What was your biggest achievement of 2011?

>>Conquering my fear of heights by going ziplining.

What was your biggest failure?

>>Unable to conceive. Inability to follow a strict diet-exercise plan to lose weight and be healthy.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

>>Epstein Barr, hypothyroidism and low iron level.

What was the best thing you bought in 2011?

>>Maybe not the best, but the most expensive. I finally got a hybrid car.

Did your behaviour changed over the year?

>>I tried to be more sociable.

Where did you spend most of your money?

>>Travels, bills and car purchase.

Are you happier than this time last year?

>>I don't know.

What song will remind you of 2011?

>>Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars

What do you wish you would have done more of?

>> Diet and exercise.

What do you wish you would have done less of?

>>Blogging and tv watching and worrying.

What did/will you do for Christmas 2011?

>>Same thing every year, a day with family.

Did you fall in love in 2011?

>>Yes, I fell in love with Costa Rica.

Did you get your heart broken in 2011?

>>Yes. My fertility treatment/procedure wasn't successful.

Favorite TV program of 2011?

>>Merlin, Haven, Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, and many more.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

>>Nope

What was the best book you read and/or movie you saw?

>>I haven't read a single book in 2011, which is a pity really. Best movie? Off the top of my head I'd say BIUTIFUL.

What was your greatest discovery?

>>What a fascinating country Costa Rica is and how warm and friendly are its people.

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

>> We went to Esperpento for lunch and had glorious tapas then walked off the calories in Mission District.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

>>Having a baby.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?

>>I don't have a fashion concept.

FRIENDS:

Who was the best new person you met?

>>I met a few people this year, but Heather is reallhy lovely.

Who did you wish you did not meet?

>>No one.

Who was your bestfriend?

>>My husband

Who was your enemy?

>>Laziness and procrastination.

Who do you miss?

>>My girl friends from high school.

Who will you never forget?

>>The lovely couple from Germany Lars and Andrea who we met in Costa Rica.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

>>Just Do It, or you'll run out of time.

What will you always remember about 2011?

>>Busy schedules, church meetings, church activities, church plannings.

ASPIRATIONS FOR 2012:

What do you want to do in 2012 that you couldn't in 2011?

>>Have a baby..

Any resolutions?

>>Walk, move, exercise.

What is different about 2012 than 2011?

>>Lots of good things, I hope.

Anything you want to change about yourself for 2012?

>>Reinvent myself by adopting a new positive attitude towards life.

Do you want to make more friends in 2012?

>>Absolutely!

Three-Day Weekend is Over

2011-12-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

The three-day weekend, aka Christmas Holiday, is over and here's how I spent it:

We spent Saturday cooking and vacumming the house, even though I wasn't expecting anyone.
Attended a little party at a friend's house. While sipping wine and munching on delicious cheese we were talking about the woeful state of our city's economy and the blunders our city managers have made regarding some projects. Boy did I feel so adult that time :)
Immediately after leaving the party, went to church so I could set up the altar for the 9 pm mass.
Attended the 9 pm mass.
Took mother (with hubby) to the 11:30 pm Carols and 12 midnite Catholic service.
Sunday started with a mass at 9:30 am. Hubby said we're all massed out for Christmas :)
Went to brother's house for our annual family Christmas luncheon. Sadly, there were no shows. How I hate that :(
Monday came and we went to drop off presents and some ham and nilaga to our Vietnamese friends.
Went shopping. Didn't hit the jackpot as we did last year. Not many things were on sale this year, or did we just start very late in the day and the shelves were nearly empty.
Stopped at Trader Joe's hoping we'd find a stollen. We always have stollen for Christmas since we got married. We have it for breakfast on the 24th. Not this year as we forgot to buy it, because we didn't go to Cost Plus. But they didn't have it anymore.
Ate nilage for dinner while watching our Netflix rental the ZOOKEEPER.

Now am back to work and we're all fogged up here. Once the fog burns out later, we'd see a high of 60F, which is really really good for this time of the year.

Dreamland

2011-12-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a dream, one that baffles me. I don't dream often, or perhaps I do but only few I still remember when I wake up. This one from last night is one that I remember vividly. I cannot remember the last time when a dream stayed with me all day long.

The setting was in my hometown. That's a guess. How else can my high school girlfriends and I be in one place if not for our hometown. Plus the people in my dream actually still live in my hometown.

So it began as a group of us girls were heading to the library as my friend, the main character of this dream, was to return a VHS tape and borrow another one. Yes, you heard that right VHS. In the dream I didn't put too much emphasis on VHS versus DVD. Why not DVD?

The other girls in the dream had no speaking part. They just loiter around us, browsing at the shelves. I know 3 of them. However, I know there were more with us than those three girls.

Anyway, the main character told me that she and her husband have split up! That she wants my opinion on this new guy she's eyeing! OMG! Totally out of character!

I must have said something to her when she dropped the bomb on me, but I don't remember. All I could remember was how could they break up when they were the most solid partnership in our group. And I don't know where the phrase "solid partnership" came from.

Now in my waking state granted that I've only been fully awake for 3 hours, the dream has been occupying my thoughts. I don't want to put too much stock on a dream. What did Freud say about dreams anyway? He said they represent wish fulfillment.

It cannot be my wish fulfillment. Absolutely not! I love them, their first-born is my godchild. Oh lordy, what a baffling dream so close to Christmas.

What Have I Been Up To?

2011-12-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

Or a little update from my side of the universe :)

My son (the cat) and I made creme de menthe cookie truffle on Monday night. It's a recipe I found on one of the blogs I read regularly and she featured this little treat. When I read the ingredients and the procedure, I thought it was easy. Turned out it was easy to make. Except that I am not really good in the kitchen. The truffles can be made prettier - you know balls can be made rounder - but they taste wonderful. My husband and I decided this would be the chocolate item we would participate in next year's CHOCOLATE EXTRAVAGANZA, a church fundraiser.
I almost got run off my lane by an unattentive driver. I was so shocked. Luckily no one was hurt and he got control of his pick-up before it's too late. Thank God.
Up until 2 days ago, the host of our annual family Christmas luncheon was not fixed. I was getting anxious that I might host it two years in a row. Thankfully, my SIL came to the rescue and said she's hosting it. It's really her turn anyway :)
We lost a dear friend of ours a week ago today. I have written about them here many times. Ken, the husband, and my adopted FIL died in his sleep and he and his wife have decided not to do anything, no service no funeral. He chose to be cremated and his ashes will be scattered some in the water because he loved fishing and some will be transported to Wyoming where he was from and where he loved to vacation. It's sad that his wife is now alone in their house.
I seem to have more presents to wrap. When I thought I was done, there were more items to buy. I even wrapped presents earlier than usual this year so I can have the remaining days preceding Christmas stress free.
Can't believe the year is about to close again. What happened to 2010?

Happy Holidays to one and all. Have a lovely, peaceful, joyful, and safe celebration.

Thank You Kayni!

2011-12-18T21:40:00.000-08:00

Blog pal Kayni proposed an exchange gift and I was one of those who responded to her proposal. Last week, I received a wonderful package from her and a Christmas card also. I know I'm not supposed to open it before Christmas, but I couldn't wait any longer. The minute I opened the package, my little cat Emma zoomed in on the mousie toys. I don't know why she went crazy tearing up the packaging. I was thinking maybe it was spritzed with catnip. I enjoyed watching her and neither I nor the hubby remembered to capture her joy at getting her mousie. No video nor images, tsk!

Lookie here what I got:

My loot - not including the cat toys.

I fell head over heels with the artwork of the journal cover. I wonder if it's a copy of a famous painting, anyone knows?

Fancy and whimsical is the design, love it.

This I'm saving for Christmas!!!!

Thank you again, Kayni.

He May Not Love Me After This Weekend

2011-12-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

My husband that is. You see I dragged him to watch BREAKING DAWN Part 1 on Sunday. He knew we were going to eventually watch it you know. And he was miserable the entire time. He couldn't help but make snide remarks throughout the movie, which I don't blame him. I would have spouted the same remarks myself. The movie was how can I put it mildly, well a waste of time.

But that didn't mean I didn't enjoy my time. I love the characters. May be more if I read the books, but even without knowing them thru the books I really embraced them. I feel like I know them.

When the first movie came up, I was blindsided. I didn't know anything about the movie. I didn't even bother to watch it on the big screen. On DVD, I found the story appealing to not only teens but eternally romantics like I am. So what if the characters are high school students. I can totally relate to the boy 1 loves girl and girl loves boy 2 situation. I also can relate to the torn between two lovers scenario. So this really appealed to me.

So when the second movie came out, I dragged the hubby into the cinema for date night. He was difficult but I promised him that this would be the only one of the series that we'd pay money to see. But I lied. Despite the fact that the second movie was boring, I was eager to see this one too.

It took a lot of cajoling to get him to agree to see the movie. Until know I really can't pinpoint what made him change his mind. I'm guessing he said yes just to shut me up. Like all husbands do, you know.

However, I must say that subjecting the husband to mushy chick flick about teens is bordering on torture. I pity him and feel for him.

But I have to be alert now and find ways to get him to see the Part 2 when it comes. My job is laid out before me. I must prepare.

My Favorite Movies of the Season

2011-12-09T17:31:00.000-08:00

This season is one of the most hectic in the entire year. Shopping here and there, Christmas parties everywhere.

In order to restore my sanity, I lean on my old reliables to rejuvenate me. My old reliable movies that is. Every Christmas season, networks are filling their slots with holiday movies as the regular shows take a break.

Here are my favorite Holiday movies of all time, in no particular order:

HOME ALONE:

The last movie I watched in the Philippines before I migrated. My bff and I watched it in Ali Mall and we halfheartedly watched it. We were mostly chatting, making the most of our last moments together.

Every Christmas time, I welcome Kevin to my household like a long lost relative. Super funny, as I'm sure you all know and agree.

THE SANTA CLAUSE

One of my favorites for a reason: Tim Allen. I love Tim Allen in his HOME IMPROVEMENT days. I have not outgrown this family oriented flick. The little boy who played Tim Allen's son is oh so cute.

A CHRISTMAS STORY

Wouldn't be Christmas without it. A mainstay in Holiday fun.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

I love, love, love Sandra Bullock in this quintessential chick flick. I know it's not necessarily marketed as a Holiday movie, but it's set during the Christmas season.

I'm cuddling with the kitties this weekend hoping one of these movies is on the tube.

So what are you favorite Holiday movies?

Are You Watching?

2011-12-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

Oh my lordy, I missed my yearly fall tv posting this year. Must have been due to my hectic scheduling. However, despite said busy schedule, I manage to keep up with my tv shows with help from my newly discovered ally: ON DEMAND.

My old favorites are back including:

The Good Wife
Grey's Anatomy
House
Castle
Desperate Housewives

Now for the newcomers of the season, the freshmen, so to speak, are you watching these?

TERRA NOVA:
The show begins in the year 2149, a time when all life on planet Earth is threatened with extinction due to dwindling worldwide air quality and overpopulation. It has become virtually impossible for humanity to survive, and almost no vegetation exists. At Hope Plaza, a massive ring shaped structure in Chicago, scientists discover a rift in space-time that allows people to travel 85 million years back in time to the late Cretaceous period of an alternate prehistoric Earth. The Shannon family (father Jim, his wife Elisabeth, and their three children Josh, Maddie, and Zoe) join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova becoming part of the first human colony on the other side of the temporal doorway.

The Shannon Family starts a new life in Terra Nova while dealing with carnivorous dinosaurs and the Sixers, a splinter group of colonists from the Sixth Pilgrimage who are trying to transport all of Terra Nova's resources back to 2149. (wiki)

ONCE UPON A TIME:
On the wedding day of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (James) (Joshua Dallas), the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) arrives and delivers an ominous threat about a powerful curse she intends to release upon them. Some time later, a pregnant Snow White is worried about the curse and visits Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle), who issues a prophecy that the Queen's curse will take them all someplace terrible where there will be no happy endings. He also reveals that Snow White's unborn daughter, Emma, will return when she is 28 years old to rescue them, thus beginning the final battle with the Queen. On advice from the Blue Fairy, Geppetto (Tony Amendola) and Pinocchio fashion a wardrobe from a magical tree which will allow one person to escape the Queen's curse. Prince Charming intends for Snow White and their unborn daughter to use the magic tree to escape the curse, but Snow White goes into labor and gives birth to Emma just as the wardrobe is about to be completed. On the day Snow White gives birth to their daughter Emma, the Queen's curse strikes. Prince Charming places their daughter in the magic wardrobe, but is grievously wounded battling the Queen's henchmen. The Queen stands triumphantly over Snow White and Prince Charming as the curse takes them to "someplace horrible."

In present day Boston, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) lives a lonely existence working as a bail bondsman and bounty hunter. On her 28th birthday, Emma is approached by a ten-year-old boy who identifies himself as her son, Henry, whom Emma had given up for adoption as a baby. Not wanting a relationship with him, Emma agrees to drive him back to his home in Storybrooke, Maine. Along the way, Henry shows her a large book of fairy tales, insisting that all of the stories in it are real. When they arrive in Storybrooke, Henry informs her that everyone in town is in reality a fairy tale character, exiled by the curse and with no memory of their real identities. This includes his therapist, Dr. Archie Hopper, who is really Jiminy Cricket, and his teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard, who is really Emma's mother Snow White. He claims that time is frozen in Storybrooke, and the people are unable to leave, but that the curse will be broken by Emma since she is the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White. A skeptical Emma returns Henry to his adoptive mother, the town's mayor who is really the Evil Queen. When Henry soon runs away again, Emma finds him and decides to stay in Storybrooke temporarily. This decision causes the hands of the town clock, previously frozen, to begin moving again. (WIKI)

REVENGE:
Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), whose real name is Amanda Clarke, moves back to The Hamptons to take revenge on the people who caused the death of her father David (James Tupper) and destroyed her family. When she was a little girl, Amanda's father was arrested on trumped-up terrorism charges, and was tried and convicted for treason. He died in prison. Emily feels her life was destroyed; she ended up in juvenile detention and on her 18th birthday inherited the wealth of the company in which her father invested. She changed her name to Emily Thorne and decided to take revenge on the people responsible for her father's downfall. (wiki)

What are you watching?

It Feels Like Christmas

2011-11-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

My Christmas tree is up and I joyfully completed the task on Saturday after Thanksgiving. What is more amazing about that is I did it by myself. I am growing up hahaha!

I found so much joy putting up the tree this weekend that I took the least amount of time necessary to get it up and lighted. You see I am a master at procrastination. My style is minimalistic so my ratio of green to ornament is heavily in favor of the green tree. I know my mother’s style is the opposite and she may still comment on my very minimalistic approach, but for now she keeps mum.

This year I have used my red ball ornament. I’m still trying to get as much use from my old ornaments as I could. But the tree that I have right now is a new one. I gave my old tree away to Salvation Army. I use plastic tree versus real one. I love the smell of the real tree, but disposing it is so much hassle that I have never purchased a live one again.

Likewise the garlands are already decorating the banister in my staircase, they’re lit up as well. That’s about the extent of my decoration so far. I have yard decors that would have to wait for this weekend to be put up.

And speaking of Christmas, blogger pal Kayni broached up the idea of x-change gifts. I know this may cause a little wrinkle in the blog world as I passed the chance to play x-change gifts with Princessa Musang this year and said yes to Kayni. I’ll make it up to my other blogger pal some day.

Here’s my list for Kayni’s Christmas party:

Something you can use everyday: Cutesy journal

Something cute: Anything Sanrio/Hello Kitty

Something light or small: Kitty ornament or kitty item

Something fancy: Fancy (fashion) earrings

Something sweet: Dark chocolate bar

Favorite colors: Pink, yellow

Something you really need: Small wallet

Something you collect: Pressed pennies, postcards, ref magnets

If you have one wish, what would it be: Is this about world peace or totally selfish answers? I want to have one 5 x 8 print of your most favorite picture that you took. I’ll frame it and put it up on my wall.

I hope to get Kayni's response to these questions/lines soon so I can start shopping.

Happy Christmas everyone! I know too soon right?

See Why I'm Grateful

2011-11-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

So much beauty around us.

Grateful

2011-11-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

I'm always grateful for the emails I get even though many of them are forwarded inspirational or humorous messages from my friends. I read them all whatever they are and I keep them in my inbox.

A few minutes ago, I opened my email and saw this solitary email in my inbox. It's a wonderful prayer/poem. I'd like to share it with all of you.

A General Thanksgiving

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Today I'm Thankful for...

2011-11-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

My post yesterday was about how thankful I was for winning concert tickets. Later that day I was reminded again that this is Thanksgiving week and a few months earlier I was planning on posting my daily thanksgiving post. Too late for a whole month's edition, right? So I'll just make do with daily gratitude for a week.

Today I'm grateful for the unexpected free coffee from the chief of our department. At about 4 pm I went down to the coffee cart for a little pick me up and I found him there getting his chai. He was just putting in his order when I showed up and before he could finish his order he said without hesitation --- and whatever she's having.

He certainly made my day. It wasn't just a cup of coffee, it also meant my budget for the week went a little further. I hope I'd be able to pass this generosity on to someone who most need it.

I Won! I Won

2011-11-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

After years of lamenting my lousy fortune at raffles and other contests, I finally won something substantial. Ok, many moons ago I won a tee shirt. But I found out about it much later on so when I contacted the company that hosted the raffle, they said the time claiming prizes has lapsed. So that didn't count.

This time around it counted. Last week I was notified via email that I won a contest for a Pink Martini concert tickets. I don't know who Pink Martini is. If you don't either, just google them. The email also mentioned that someone would be contacting me for claiming info.

A day later the info was left on my answering machine. I was to go to the box office of the venue, which was Paramount Theater, the wonderful art deco style theater in Oakland, and collect my will-call tickets.

What a great thing, isn't it? So my husband and I decided to make it a date night. The concert starts at 7:30. Oakland is 20 miles away. We left by 5:30 - 5:45 and headed to Chinatown which is near the venue. Parking took up a few minutes to secure, street parking that is. Then we went to a Vietnamese place where we ordered Singapore noodles and some Vietnamese noodles. My apologies I cannot remember the "actual names" of the dishes. The Vietnamese noodle dish is the one I like and order all the time, but the Singapore noodles take a little bit of getting used to. I cannot marry the curry flavor with a noodle dish, sorry. One of my many many flaws is my inability to totally embrace the curry flavor.

When we reach the venue we found street parking, 2-3 blocks away, and the will-call and box office line was long. But we managed to get the tickets in the least amount of time. The theater is really opulent. I'll have to go back and see this theater in a tour or something.

The line to get some refreshments/beverages is long that we decided to just abandon that when 7:30 came around.

We have enjoyed great music via a 10-piece orchestra. Global music I think one said is their forte/genre.

Unfortunately it was a Sunday night and we had to work today so we left during the intermission. While we both wanted to stay and finish the concert, we knew that we'd be paying dearly Monday if we did. So old fogeys that we are we left for home.

I'm so glad I finally got to win something. One of the many things I'm thankful for.

Street Photography #12:

2011-11-19T21:07:00.000-08:00

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

2011-11-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle.. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil’s name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Worry about nothing, pray about everything

Dear Blog

2011-11-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Poor neglected blog. 10 days since the last post. There’s a lot on my plate right now and maintaining four other blogs – mainly photo blogs – something has to suffer and I’m afraid it’s you.

Around these times you know I tend to be stressed out, dealing with traffic in order to get to and from work and the same thing during the weekend from one errand to another – too much drain on the energy.

I have stuff to tell you, but am too tired to make some sense still. But I have been caring for these little balls of fur that visit every day. This weekend hubs and I got to pet little Fuzzy. Yap, you know it, I have already named 2 of these cats. The other one is Midnite.

Fuzzy is fascinating. She came when she was a baby, brought by Gray, one of the original feral cats that visited us last year. Gray came to us as a baby and grew up a bit. She/he brought Fuzzy to us as a baby. Fuzzy played through the screen door with Buster. So they knew each other from the very beginning.

Gray and Midnite – the original one – were our first babies, they came every night. Because they were babies we used to put out bowls of milk, then they graduated to table scraps and cat food.

All of a sudden Midnite and Gray no longer came to visit. I was constantly worried they might have been run over or you know killed by dogs or something.

Our neighborhood is a safe haven for them, I believe. I know for a fact that our neighboor who we share a back fence with also feeds them.

Now this group has grown. And Fuzzy has grown too. She/he’s probably 3-4 months old now and very sweet little one. We got to pet her and she/he purred for us. Next step is to pick her up. And if she/he’s willing, we’ll get her spayed/neutered, get checked up and given all the necessary shots and we’ll adopt her.

Now all these is based on whether she will be tame enough to allow us to carry her. If that happens, I still have one hurdle to overcome. What will her/his arrival impact on Emma. Emma has been really aloof with all the cats feeding in the backyard. Buster we have no problem, he’s the sociable one. He greets them and plays with them thru the screen door.

We have put up an interim shelter for them since it has been raining lately and the temperature has dropped. Fuzzy has that wonderful long hair and it appears to have doubled since the weather has changed. What a beautiful cat.

However, the cats don’t seem to know how to use this interim shelter. We’ve been extremely busy with our weekends that we had no time to make their house. We still plan on making them some sort of shelter when the weather is lousy.

See how busy I am. I am not even mentioning about work, as I don’t want to say anything about it.

Love,
Me

Feeling the Season

2011-11-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Finally cool enough to be fall, and the leaves are starting to change colors.

This image was shot in Plumas County 10/22/11. There are some trees like this around my neighborhood, but not quite this showy yet.

The cool breeze is very welcome and the chill in the air is very comforting. I want to light a fire tonite while hubs and I cuddle in the couch laughing our heads off while watching BIG BANG THEORY on syndication.

Now I have a plan.

Happy weekend. Hope you're enjoying your fall season.

This and That

2011-10-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

A week had gone by again without a post. Yes, I was busy with stuff - aren't we all?

But I was mainly staying away from writing down my feelings, or anything for that matter. Except that I had drafted a post last week to coincide with my dad's birthday. It was a very emotional week - mainly because I still miss my dad despite all the years of his passing. Additionally, my system is full of hormones (undergoing fertility treatment) which makes me really emotionally imbalance. So weepy. And so the post I crafted last week will remain unpublished.

How was your week? Were you busy with Halloween parties? Not once did I attend a Halloween Party or don a costume, although seeing the receptionist dressed as a Minnie Mouse,at the fertility center today where I had my ultrasound earlier,I was a tinge envious that they wear costumes to work on Halloween. May I add, she's such a fine cute Minnie Mouse in her red polka dot dress and her mouse ears.

Last week also we had a little dinner in connection with church business and this Sunday we'll have luncheon also. This quarter of the year is always so full of something to do.

Still affected by the hormones, I managed to help my husband prep the linen closet this weekend. On Saturday, he stripped the carpeting and we installed wood laminate floors. We're quite pro at this after having installed all the wood floors downstairs.

On Sunday, despite all my whining and weepiness, we were able to paint the walls of the linen closet. This is in preparation for our custom built closet that will be installed this Friday. I am so excited. The master bedroom closet will also be redone. We worked with the closet company a few months ago when they were running some sales so we thought that we made a good deal. Well, I mean we had a budget in mind before we approached them and when the design was on paper and all the materials and labor costs were totalled and they were within our budget range, we gave them a go signal to complete this work order.

Why it took so long to get installed? We purposely did that because we were taking that vacation in September. So this Friday my new closets will be installed.

I hope this would make my closets really neat and tidy. Except that with this new installation all the other boxes we have there would be all gone, and Buster, my cat, wouldn't be very happy with that. He likes to nap in those boxes.

Oh I almost forgot my little nephew (my niece's only son) age 17 months came for a visit so we stopped installing floors to visit with him. He was so energetic and was playing with Buster. Poor cat, he is so patient with toddlers but he gets beaten up - whap here, whap there. And poor Buster he could only run away from this monster of a toddler.

We spent a couple of hours over dinner at a friend's house last evening. Her husband was here for 2 weeks and was leaving again and we thought we had time to spend more time with them, but 2 weeks came and gone and we only had 2 times to be with them.

I guess this would do. I just had to document these things that are happening in my life right now. Thanks for reading my nonsense.

Street Photography #11

2011-10-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just a little update:

*** Discovered THE BIG BANG THEORY - a real laughfest. Been watching it on ON DEMAND and syndication.

*** Found 2 little kitties, approx a week old, in the backyard on Sunday. I could guess where they came from, but they were from a pack (do you say pack with cats?) of feral cats or stray cats from this neighborhood. We bottlefed them and put them in a box in the garage overnight. Then husband surrendered them to the Animal Shelter the next day. Will go and visit tonite or sometime this week. I missed them already. Our hearts broke when we had to give them up. Much as I'd like to add to my brood of 2, we cannot take care of that young an animal since we both are at work all day long. The kitties will just die of starvation.

***Went to Plumas Co. on Saturday for our annual leaf peeping drive, except that the leaves were late in changing this year. The explosion of colors wasn't there but we managed to salvage some shots with fall colors.

***Am thinking of reviving my other blog - which is solely for random photos. Let me sleep some more on this.

Shaken and Stirred

2011-10-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a day full of excitement. Not all good excitement mind you. Yesterday we had two earthquakes, the first one at about 3 pm was a 4.2 and the second one at about 8:16 pm was deemed to be only 3.9 in magnitude.

This is earthquake country and the last big one that hit this area was in 1989, 22 years ago. Whereas the major faults around the globe had big ones lately, we still haven't. It is inevitable to have a big one. One is expecting it, but also fearing it.

Living in this region certainly makes one always on the lookout for the big one. The first earthquake happened when I was at work, near the epicenter (Berkeley). Our building shook once or twice, but not the sideways shake, I thought it was the up and down movement, which was scarier. Now our building made so much noise that nerves were rattled more than anything in the building. This reminded all of us that well we never had the big one.

The irony of it is yesterday was statewide earthquake preparedness drill. Every gov't offices and schools performed safety drills a few hours before the first one.

I recovered well from the excitement of this shaker, but the second one was a bit more difficult to get over with in my case.

We were dining in Berkeley, of all places. Who knew there would be another quake after the mild one earlier this day. We were having a good time getting together with friends who moved in the area from New York 3 years ago. We knew each other from church but we didn't really see each other outside of church functions until last night.

We chose to eat at TASTE OF HIMALAYAS, which is a Nepalese and Indian restaurant. The food is superb by the way. But this post is about the temblor so I'd forego the food descriptions.

We were done with our dinner when the quake hit. Everyone inside the restaurant paused and you could see that no matter how savvy these people are having lived here and experienced the shaking, you could tell the nerves have been rattled. Mine was definitely frazzled. My heart skipped a beat and I felt ill :). I was thinking was this going to be the big one. Because the shaking took longer than the first one and more noisy.

I couldn't wait to leave the restaurant and go home, which is about 15 miles away. I was worried that mom felt it and panicked, that something fell on the floor, glasses broke, and that the cats were spooked.

Luckily when we got home mom had no clue what just happened. Neither did she feel the first one. Good thing. And the cats seemed to be behaving normally.

Now this calls for preparations for the big one. While we always keep a case of bottled water in the garage and we have some first aid kit, we don't have the emergency preparedness kit. That is the next in line. We also must have food set aside for when we couldn't cook. It's scary. And I'm still frazzled.

You can't blame me. I had a big one experience. I was in the Philippines for the 1990 earthquake that hit Central Luzon. That was the scariest experience of my life and I don't want to repeat that.

Eleven Hints for Life

2011-10-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

1. It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return.
But what is more painful is to love someone and never
find the courage to let that person know how you feel.

2. A sad thing in life is when you meet someone who
means a lot to you, only to find out in the end that it was
never meant to be and you just have to let go.

3. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a
porch swing with, never say a word, and then walk away
feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

4. It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose
it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been
missing until it arrives.

5. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an
hour to like someone, and a day to love someone-but it
takes a lifetime to forget someone.

6. Don't go for looks, they can deceive. Don't go for wealth,
even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you
smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day
seem bright.

7. Dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go,
be what you want to be. Because you have only one life and
one chance to do all the things you want to do.

8. Always put yourself in the other's shoes. If you feel that it
hurts you, it probably hurts the person too.

9. A careless word may kindle strife. A cruel word may wreck
a life. A timely word may level stress. But a loving word may
heal and bless.

10. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best
of everything they just make the most of everything that comes
along their way.

11. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, ends with
a tear. When you were born, you were crying and everyone
around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die,
you're the one smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Why I love San Francisco

2011-10-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the reasons why I love it here.

Just an update

2011-10-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a week I know. But what can I do? Well I have been working on sorting all the photos we took from our last vacation and I must say that 3 weeks after coming back from the amazing trip I have already posted 2 albums for 2 different cities on Facebook. 2 down, 3 to go!

Taking photos is so much fun. While I'm in the moment, I never pose to think how much time I'd put into getting all the photos together and choosing which ones to share with friends and the blog. But the moment we get back and the task at tackling a mountain of photos is at hand, then the regret of taking too many pictures come into mind.

Nope the picture above is not from our last trip. This one's from Napa, I simply love the the rainy gloomy mood of the image - it reflects my mood today even though the rain has stopped and we are on the first day in a string of 4 days where our temps are supposed to climb up to 80 degrees again. Back to Indian summer people.

Last week was hectic. I started to attend a sort of bible study at church so my Wednesday evenings are booked until the end of the year.

Over the weekend we took Emma to the vet. I was concerned that she wasn't eating well enough and that her weight loss or perceived weight loss was worrying me. I knew that most cats are not amenable to changes and when one changes their food this causes some trauma to the cats. Well, I did change or keep changing their brand of food, but 2 weeks before her vet appt I went back to their old food which I know Emma loves.

As a result, 2 weeks before her vet appt she was back to eating normally and I have felt her return to her usual weight. I could tell. She walks all over me every day, especially in the a.m. when she wakes me up - after I put the snooze button on the alarm :)

So the vet visit was a confirmation that everything with Emma is normal and she did gain weight from her previous appt - a whopping 1.7 lbs :)

The other cat, Buster, was given his first animal blessing at church in connection with St. Francis of Assissi's feast day. Yes, he cried the whole way to the church - he hates car rides - but was surprisingly docile and quiet and well behaved at church. Did not even bite anyone who petted him, he was popular.

But while he behaved marvelously at church, the minute we loaded him up in the car and drove away he again cried and cried. We really should train these cats to enjoy car rides. The only time they get loaded in the car is when they go to the vet and so the negative association.

Also last Sunday our friends had a housewarming, finally! I really like their 4br 1.5ba in nearby Richmond. They have a sizeable backyard, fenced in and mostly cemented with basketball court for the boys. The front yard could use a little landscaping, some flowering bushes and shrubs and even roses would definitely add value and curb appeal to this wonderful house. The exterior also needed a fresh coat of paint, but that's about it. She and her husband really did a good job buying this house. I love it.

That's all for now. I have run out of things to day.

The Oh So Short Weekend Is Over - Again

2011-10-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Really when was weekend long enough? When did we have enough of the weekend? When was the last time I was raring to go back to work?

I cannot remember the time I was going stir crazy and wanted to go back to work. But every weekend seem oh so short. Not all the chores can be accomplished in the 48 hours. It's not just long enough to cram all the housework and the "fun" stuff that we imagined we'd be having when weekend rolls around.

I did have another short weekend, but it was sorta fun. Our little Alex turned 2 and so there was a little "handa". Alex is my niece's son. That niece and I are 12 years apart, but we are mentally equal. I consider myself not having achieved full mental maturity as of yet :)

Because this time around we arrived at the time that was specified on the evite, we were there before everyone else is, except for family, which really made the time more special. Particularly since my other niece's 16-month old son happened to be there. It was the first time I'm seeing this adorable little boy who is a mini me of his mother. Just a carbon copy of his mother.

I again attacked the homemade lumpia that my niece made. I only go for the lumpia, I'm such a maniac when it comes to lumpia.

Anyway, we were there for about 2 hours chatting and eating with family when we decided to go. Then it was time to drive mom to the grocery store to grab a few items.

Then it was grocery time (Costco) and haircut (hubby) time. Then it was off to the church where I got to dress the altar - it was my schedule this week.

It was 8 pm by the time I got home and sat for supper.

Sunday was equally short I thought. Was at church until about 12 noon. Hubby had a web seminar at church at 2 pm. While he was away, I vacuumed the entire house. I totally abhor vacuuming, I'd rather wash dishes by hand or do the laundry. I hate everything with dusting, sweeping, mopping or vacuuming. But it was my week to do the vacuuming. It was really needed too, as I emptied the container 3x while I was doing the chore.

Immediately afterwards I headed out to the front yard where our rose plants have dead buds that needed clipping. So I was there clipping the dead hips and buds and doing some pruning as well. Then I noticed that the agaphantus had dead flowers too, which needed clipping as well.

Since I already was in the garden very long, I decided what the heck and continue snipping dry, dead blooms. I have been meaning to cut the dry lavender flowers from the plants because I can see newer growths coming out.

And so there I was on my knees clipping these aromatic blooms. It made for a lovely scented air whenever a breeze comes blowing. I loved it.

I have a paper bag full of clippings. I may give them away. Right now it is giving my house a wonderful aroma. I may make some bunches and bring them to work and give them away.

But I'm sure I'd keep some for bathroom and linen closet. I love lavender.

Oh I also found time to upload some bloggable pics on Flick'r and compose a post.

But that's about it. That's how the weekend went.

It's October

2011-09-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

The season is changing. The air is cooler. Darkness comes earlier. The smell of cinnamon would soon be in the air. Cider. Apple cobbler. Turkey. Sweaters. Boots. And most of all the greens would be turning into all shades of beautiful - red, yellow, orange, brown.

I love the fall season.

So Many New Things

2011-09-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since I got back from my vacation. I'll write something about this vacation one day when I can sort out everything, when I'm not too tired from work, when I'm not worrying about Emma's skinny frame, or nursing a headache.

While I've seen and experienced many wonderful new things and adventures in this vacation of mine, the one I'm going to share here is what I experience for the first time while riding our local subway, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), on the way home from the airport.

Despite my brother's offer to pick us up from the airport, we decided to just ask him to pick us up from the BART station, 10 miles from home. We were arriving at near 8 pm so we didn't really want to bother. Although he insisted there is no bother when family is concerned.

Anyway, we boarded the train from the airport and I was surprised to find the trains still full. We made a transfer in Oakland, and when the train was travelling in Berkeley, a fight broke out between 2 guys. Fistfight! I 've never seen one in person and not so close to where I was sitting.

Let me give you a back story to my day. I awoke at 3:30 am to catch a 7:30 am flight to Miami. Had an easy 2 hour flight to Miami and ate lunch during my 4-hour layover. Didn't have anything to eat on the plane during the 5-hour flight to SFO.

And at 9 pm as I was nearly completing the last leg of this long journey home, a fight broke out just a feet from where I was sitting. My luggage is infront of me and I was too tired, too hungry, too numb to react. My hubby who was about a yard away from where I was sitting was calm - as usual.

And I sat there. Just sat there. I don't know what I was thinking. I was afraid someone was packing. You don't know who's carrying guns nowadays.

Thankfully it was just a fistfight. A brave guy came in between the two. Then another came in. The other people jumped out of the way, others chimed in and egged the fight.

When they got separated and one of them alit at a stop, the one left behind told everyone that the guy he fought with was groping women. My husband saw this man grabbed a woman's breast and that's when this standup guy said something. I heard him say THAT'S NOT COOL, MAN.

So this guy who we first thought was the bad guy asked us, why no one stood up for that girl who got groped?

If I saw the deed, would I say anything? Especially since the guy who did the bad deed looked like bad news follows him around?

Why didn't the others speak out? Some of the women and even men told this standup guy to leave it alone. This thing happens everyday. Really? Will you, can you let it go if you were the victim or the eyewitness?

Call me chicken, but I'm glad that I'm driving to work everyday. I've always wanted to take public transport, but my workplace doesn't really qualify for a public transport. If I were to take a bus or train I would first walk 9 blocks downhill to catch a bus. Bus 1 would take me to stop 1 where I'd take Bus 2. Bus 2 would take me to Train station. From Train station I need to take Bus 3 to work. All that.

Thank heavens I'm driving and I'm blessed with a car.

All About Eva and the Dumb Doctor

2011-09-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

My search for the right person to ease my pain ended when I found Eva - a masseuse. She is a little Chinese woman whose features belie the power that emanates from her fingertips. She is little and yet so powerful. She kneaded the knots out of my back and shoulders and neck. I have never felt so good after an hour.

It was funny too. It was my first time to have a little Chinese woman walk all over my back and I liked it. I have already scheduled (in my head) my next session. Glad I found that little place.

And I finally found time to visit my dentist. I am aware of how important our dental health is but going to the dentist is not such a fun experience. In the past years though I have made peace with going to the dentist especially since all I need are regular cleaning.

So today I went to see her. I have been feeling yucky about my gums and wanted to raise this point to her even though my appointment is for cleaning. She gave me x-rays too, it has been a year since the last one. And there I found out I have a cavity. Oh no! I haven't had one in over 20 years. I must have been neglecting my flossing.

Anyway, while I was in the chair before my dentist could clean my teeth, I told her to give me a referral to a gum doctor. Her eyes got big and was confused? She asked, why and before I could answer her she added she needed to treat me first.

When I got the chance to reply I said, I needed the referral coz my gum hurts. She bursts out laughing saying she heard me say DUMB DOCTOR the first time, hence her confused reaction.

My dentist is a hoot.

Taking a Short Break To Be With Nature

2011-09-09T16:32:00.001-07:00

See you shortly.

One Fine Weekend

2011-09-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

The long weekend aka Labor Day weekend had come and gone and the next 3-day weekend will be roughly here in 3 months.

This weekend also signals the end of summer in everyone's mind. The kids have gone back to school and daylight is a little shorter than it was a few weeks ago.

People usually take trips, camping trips as a last hurrah for summer during this time. We stayed home given that in a week's time we'll go on our long-awaited vacation.

Three things happened this weekend. Let me enumerate:

First - I finally got to cruise the bay. The San Francisco Bay that is. Courtesy of a voucher from Travelzoo that we purchased a couple of months ago, we boarded the Happy Hour Bay Cruise out of Pier 39. The cruise was a 1.5-hour ride in the bay with snacks and drink/s. I checked online for regular price of the said cruise and it was $35 pp. We paid $25 for both of us - huge savings.

Well, you know how locals always say they won't be caught dead in the tourist spots in their town, right? I on the other hand love to be there, to watch the tourists enjoy the city that I love and call my own. Of course I don't live in the city. I live outside the city, but I call this city my very own.

And so I enjoyed walking the 2 blocks from where we parked to the waterfront, watching people/tourists marvel at our very cold weather. How they enjoy everything about this beautiful city.

Anyway, the cruise boarded at 6 pm. There was a spread of snacks - chips and salsa and guacamole, cheese and crackers, assorted nuts. Our ticket also included one alcoholic drink per person or 2 non-alcoholic drinks. Of course we went for the alcoholic drinks given that this is a happy hour cruise. I had blue margarita and the hubby had tequila sunrise.

As the Blue and Gold Fleet was leaving the dock we passed by the sea lions, not as many as it used to be. Still a mystery why they came here and why they left.

Then it cruised by Alcatraz, close enought to get shots, but the weather wasn't cooperating. It was gloomy, cold, and breezy. Oh yeah, foggy too.

Then it went back and cruised along the city waterfront terminating in AT&T Park which is a jewel of a ballpark along the water. We stopped there for a moment then went back slowly to Pier 39. It was a wonderful experience, cruising under the SF Bay Bridge.

There are other itineraries, some go to Golden Gate Bridge.

We were so stuffed that we didn't have any dinner at all that night. I may have snacked myself full with cheese and crackers - they served the cheese that I liked.

Second - Our friends abducted [kidding] us and took us to this Vietnamese restaurant that they loved and have wanted to show us for months.

The pho definitely was good. Our friends and my husband all went with pho and I had something else. I cannot remember what I had but it's noodles and grilled beef with veggies. Really fabulous and full of taste.

However, I got really sleepy midway through. Could it be they have way too much MSG in their food? WE also ordered durian pearl shake. OMG, the durian smell was outrageous. I hated the smell but at the same time I loved the taste that I was torn between sipping and not the whole time.

It was indeed a good place to get pho. It was inside a strip mall with nondescript facade. The interiors were sparsely decorated and it was a local hangout. It was full and people kept coming.

Third - my waterheater died. Luckily we knew this was going to happen as it died before. But this time it was for good. It leaked and flooded the garage. Lucky that I was looking for my cat Buster who I knew was at the garage the last time I saw him and when I went there to call him I saw the floor flooded in one corner.

So there we were sopping up all the water that was dripping from the water heater. I watered all the plants with all the water we got from our garage floor. Not too fun time, but the guy that we contacted before came through for us. One day later, our new water heater is installed and I didn't have to shower in cold water. I'm really blessed. HOpefully, this will last me 30 years.

How was your weekend?

When?

2011-09-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was at the doctor's with the hubby this morning for our shots in connection with our upcoming trip next week. He was called in first and given his shot, and I came later because I needed to take 2 shots and apparently that needed more time to prepare.

Not wanting to waste time, he decided to go to the pharmacy, which is a few yards away from where I was waiting, and pick up our prescription - a thyphoid (did I spell that right?) vaccine tablets and some diarrhea medication for just in case.

So 2 patients later I had my shots and went to the pharmacy to join my husband. We were waiting for the RX to be filled up. In the meantime I decided to wait in line since the line was quite long. I was right in taking that measure because the minute my name was up on the board, I was 5-6 people away from the front of the line.

Now here's the kicker. While waiting in line I was checking my name under my MAIDEN NAME and not my married name. So it was my husband who pointed out that my name was up on the board. I wasn't checking under my married name. Still I consider myself as Maria M and not Maria R, which is really ridiculous. However, this made me think. On the spot like this, I always check M for my name first before R, where I belong now.

Funny how when people ask my name, automatically I say Maria R and that name comes out of my mouth smoothly.

But when I am by myself, I see myself as still Maria M, is that what this incident means? Or am I making too much of it?

When will I get used to my married name?

Does this happen to you too?

I'm Excited

2011-08-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

I'm excited at the prospect of leaf-peeping drive this fall.

Blah, Blah, Blah

2011-08-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

Friday again, another end to another work week, and an end to the first week of school. I am well aware that kids are back to school even if I don't have one at home. I pass by the elementary school on the way to the freeway so yes, I do get the slow down by the school every day.

While technically there is still a whole month's worth of summer left, the return of school in session has somewhat cancelled the rest of the summer and fastracked us into fall. Now here I am again wondering where summer went.

We have been really lucky with our summers. If I remember correctly, this would be (knock on wood) three summers in a row where the temps were cooler than usual and the number of days where our heat index went up way north were limited to a handful. I guess it's the "normal" weather pattern here in this side of the bay. But I'm real thankful just the same. I cannot even imagine the torture that the rest of the country had suffered due to overwhelming summer heat. I was watching the news one day and the meteorologist said that it was the 40th consecutive 3-digit temp in Texas. Whoa, a whole month + of 100 F or more in successive days? That's a lot of hot!

But I guess they are used to it by now. They all have AC out there I presume. The houses in my neighborhood were built in the 1980s including mine and they are not equipped with AC, because well, we are close to the bay and the temperature does not really rise high enough to require an AC. Plus, when we do have successive days of oppressive heat, it doesn't last long. A week tops, then our natural airconditioning kicks in, in the form of a fog bank.

And so this summer I am cooped up in my little hole working. I just realized I badly need a little break. Doncha worry I am getting it in a couple of week's time.

Meanwhile a little shake up at work. Now you know I hardly share anything about work situation, because I don't like to put that part of my life up front and in print. I'm quite sad that the people I work closely with are going to be gone. One has left a couple of weeks ago and the other is due for retirement at the end of this month. They do not belong to the same department as I am but my job is closely link to theirs.

I am sharing it here because it's part of my documentation process. I have to make a mental note to get her flowers next week. I appreciate all her guidance and tutelage and her teamwork. She's a great leader. Far too young to retire, except that she's worked here a looooong time. She is qualified to receive her full retirement benefits including the medical benefits.

I just hope they hire her back on a part-time basis, otherwise, it's going to be hell where I'm concerned. My boss even said we're looking at rough sailing here for a while. Yeah!

Change gears here. I have a new crush. A travel crush. I mean a travel destination that just captured my heart. I was watching my Netflix rental 2 nights ago and I was besotted to the location of the movie. The movie is THE AMERICAN.

And the location is Castel del Monte in the Abruzzo region of Italy. This is what wikipedia has to say about this gorgeous village:

Castel del Monte is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and comune in the province of L'Aquila in northern Abruzzo, Italy. Located in the heart of Gran Sasso mountain range, the town is set into a steep hillside nestled beneath mountain peaks near the high plain of Campo Imperatore. Castel del Monte sits opposite the ancient mountaintop fortress of Rocca Calascio and faces Monte Sirente in the distance. It is located in the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park.

Cobblestone streets, Medieval architecture, scenic views. Oh yeah, the movie is good too. Classic Clooney. The movie is actually based on a novel, A VERY PRIVATE GENTLEMAN by Martin Booth. Note to self, check this book out.
Happy weekend everyone. Stay safe.

My Love Affair With Roses

2011-08-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ever since I can remember I have always been fascinated by roses. I love them. Rose trees, rose bushes, rose vines, ground cover roses, fragrant ones, singles, doubles, any kind.

While we have a few rose plants in the house, my husband was not agreeable to planting only roses in the garden. I do love other flowers too, but my love for roses remain at the top of my list.

What's not to love with these?

Note To Self

2011-08-18T11:41:00.001-07:00

Take time to smell the trees. It's good for the soul.

Sometimes There's Nothing To Say

2011-08-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

My cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer, stage 1 and had radical hysterectomy. She's looking at chemo and radiation. Nothing to say but pray.

Movies Lately

2011-08-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

I was reading back some of the posts here lately and noticed that I haven't done one regarding the movies I have seen lately in a month's time. And so this is that post.

KNIGHT AND DAY:   I saw this on HBO before Netflix so I took it off my queue. This is a "romantic action comedy" movie starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. There is nothing to this movie that is appealing. Maybe the actors, who are both good looking and trim and fit and have good smiles and teeth. Other than that the movie was rotten and I'm not just saying that. It had gotten a "rotten" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

THE KING'S SPEECH: Via Netflix. A well made historical movie about King George V and his battle to overcome his stammering. Marvelously acted film that gave one of my fave actors Colin Firth an Oscars. Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth the king's wife and Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist also were recognized for their wonderful perfomance.

Honestly I thought I'd be bored since historically I am bored with historical movies, but this one was the exception.

RED:   Via Netflix. CIA operatives now retired are forced to return to their old habits when one of their colleagues' girl got abducted. I found the movie funny. It has some moments in it, but all in all I think this movie is mainly for entertainment purposes. I don't think it has any ambitions to be anything but that and oh to make money of course especially since the casting is fabulous - Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren. That's a cast don't you think? I wonder how it fared in the box office?

THE TOWN:   Via Netflix. An adaptation of the novel Prince of Thieves. This movie is all Ben Affleck - as the lead actor, director and co-writer.   A well acted movie that garnered supporting cast Jeremey Renner an acting nod for Oscar Best Supporting category.   The movie is about friends from the dangerous streets of Boston who held up a back and taking the woman bank manager as hostage.   When they escaped, they release the hostage, but not before she saw a distinguishing tatto on one of the robbers. Then the Ben Affleck character followed the bank manager, befriended her and fell for her.    This is the kind of movies I want to see Ben Affleck in. He excels in scenerios like this.

NO STRINGS ATTACHED: Via Netflix. Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman in a story of friends with benefits. I'm sure the movie FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is 95% similar to this movie. I found it very entertaining and it actually got my undivided attention.

BLUE VALENTINE:   Via Netlfix. Critically acclaimed movie starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams about a marriage that grew apart - she was bored and he was dissatisfied in their sexless life living in rural Pennsylvania. I really enjoyed the honesty portrayed in this film. Scored high marks on my rating sheet. Plus the actors were superb in this movie.

GREEN HORNET:   Via Netflix. One word - FUN.

LITTLE FOCKERS:   Via Netflix. You know I enjoyed it. My husband and I were laughing at this third installment of the Focker saga. The critics weren't too kind in their reviews though.

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: Via Netflix. Animated movie about owls. This movie made me really appreciate the joy of owning a Blue Ray player. And the theme song at the end of the movie when the credits were rolling was really good. Plus I won when I guessed it was Carrie Underwood who was singing. My hubby was not buying it that the voice belonged to Carrie U. Not only did Carrie sang the song, she also wrote it. I just forgot the title, anyone knows?

GROWN-UPS:   Via Netflix. An Adam Sandler laughaton! My husband is a big Adam Sandler fan so we have this, but I must say this one movie is really fun for me too. Nothing really outstanding, but a good use of your free time.

Good/Bad Weekend

2011-08-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Can't wait for the leaves to change colors!

Poor blog, you are neglected aren't you? I have been really uninspired lately. I cannot string words together to make a sensible paragraph that people would read and understand, hence the weeklong silence.

However, I know I owe you a post so here goes.

I had a busy weekend, interesting really. It was my birthday last Saturday and here's how I spent the weekend.

Got woken up by phone call from in-laws overseas calling to greet me a very happy birthday - they never fail to remember important dates, am so blessed.

Left the house about 11 am and had breakfast/brunch date at Waffle Stop, the one I like to have breakfast at. I've taken my mother to eat here over the years and only last Saturday did I realized that the name of the restaurant was Waffle Stop. You know what I thought its name was all these years? Country Waffles. Duh! The sign says Waffle Stop, Country Cooking. So apparently I mixed up the sign and came up with my own name for the restaurant.

Like always I ordered 2 sunnyside up eggs, a side of hash browns, and wheat toast. My husband went for the omelette. He couldn't finish his order so we had a little to-go box. I knew I could finish that food I ordered. It's the same one I get each time I eat breakfast here. And the same quality of food they serve each time. Plus I simply like the fact that they have the same crew/servers for like forever. I like it when people who do their jobs wonderfully keep their jobs.

It was nearly 12 noon when we got to the church. I had to go there because Sunday was my day to dress the altar and we dress the altar on Saturday for the Sunday service. However, there was something going on inside the church. I had to wait for them to finish; they finish at 12, thankfully.

Then another problem, I misplaced my key to the sacristy. Thankfully, my fellow altar guild member Marguerite was at church meeting with some people about finances (she's also our bookkeeper) so she opened all the doors for me :)

It wasn't a meditative time for me this time, cleaning up the altar and preparing all the items needed for the service because there were a lot of people still loitering about the church.

But I managed to complete the task in the least amount of time.

And then we drove to the city for a little visit to the Farmers Market. We encountered a little jam on the roadway since the Giants are at home, plus it's always traffic in the weekend around here anyway.

We arrived at the Alemany Farmers Market nearly 1 pm and the whole place is starting to shut down. We knew that! But the good thing about coming during this time is that many of the veggies have lower prices so we snag what we need at a discount, which satisfied our budget-conscious pockets.

Lunch was next in the itinerary. From the Farmers Market we drove to the Mission District. I love driving around the city, so many things to enjoy, the architecture, the restaurants that we passed by, the people going about their daily life.

We easily found the place, and luck of all luck, we had snagged a street parking. Of course street parking cost an arm and a leg, but still we got parking :)

Esperpento was the site of my birthday lunch with hubby. We both have dreamt of eating there since we heard of it from Check Please Bay Area, a local show about dining about town. It's a Spanish/Tapas restaurant. When we entered the place (it's a 2-storey), I easily felt at ease. I loved the cool ambiance and the casual atmosphere. Walls were decorated in Spanish plates and posters and there is a clock on the wall showing Spain time.

When we got there there were four other tables that were occupied, the rest were empty, but this was a small restaurant to begin with. It was past 2 when we sat down and read the menu. I love tapas or small plates. It's like having only appetizers. That's what I love. I'm not an entree kind of diner. Give me appetizers and I'm all set and happy.

We first ordered a sangria for moi and Barcelona beer for hubby and we got some tapas:

Gambas ala Plancha - grilled jumbo shrimp
Cazuela de Pescado con Almejas - snapper and clams cooked in spanish sauce
Patatas Bravas - spicy potatoes
Escalivada - roasted eggplant, peppers, and onions
Jamon Serranon - canape of Spanish cured ham on toasted French bread with tomato and olive oil
Estofado de Conejo - rabbit stew

We also ordered a side of rice, which we never touched, it's sitting in our refrigerator right now.

Small plates can easily fill you up, it did us. The gambas were good, but the ones we tasted in Barcelona were superb. The snapper and clams in tomato sauce was wonderful as well. We sopped up the liquid with the free bread they give. The patatas bravas was excellent, I love the spicy aioli. The roasted eggplant was yummy too. The rabbit - well I'm going to say it, it really did taste like chicken. If I didn't know I'd say I was eating chicken. The canape was likewise very good.

Overall, this was a good meal. I would be coming back here if I find myself in this neighborhood someday. Plus all those food and chocolate mousse for desserts and the drinks only came to about $50.

We had to take some home on a to-go box. I was not hungry when we came in, but believe me I ate more than I needed that day.

We left the restaurant and put more coins in the parking meter, left the food in the car, and walked around Mission. Walking around Mission is wonderful, it's like a different place. I felt I was transported to a Hispanic town, it's no longer San Francisco here. It's Mexico, it's Honduras, it's El Salvador. This is a vibrant neighborhood, restaurants next to each other. We walked several blocks for an hour and spotted 2 of the restaurants we wanted to eat at. Now we know where they are located.

In our itinerary for the day, we also included a little sunset watch on the waterfront, but the day was windy and cloudy and very cold I didn't think there was sun all day and I reckoned no sunset to speak of either.

So we went to Chinatown instead. We walked some more in search for a wind breaker. My husband was shopping, I thought it was for him. It was for me for our upcoming trip. I don't need a windbreaker, I'd rather get those cheap ponchos for when it rains.

On the walk back to the car, I found myself in need of a bathroom. You know Chinatown, there isn't any public bathrooms. You have to be a customer. Since we were stuffed still we didn't go to any restaurant, but we passed by a bar and so we ordered a Chinese Mai Tai and I got to use the facilities :) and enjoyed a wonderful libation.

After we crossed the bridge, hubby asked if I wanted some desserts, like the chocolate mousse at the restaurant didn't happen, so I said yes. WE both had this little bakery in Solano Ave in the city of Albany in mind. We got us a little breakfast bun and a slice of brownie. That was worth the drive.

Sunday was church and I got to feed the church members as it was also my day to host coffee hour.

After church, my mom took me and hubby to have some Chinese lunch at this little known place in El Cerrito. Mostly Chinese come here. On Sunday, I saw an African-American couple, us, and a white guy. The rest were Chinese. The food is wonderful, my mom loves it here. We had 5 different dishes, so there were to-go boxes too. But the minute we left the restaurant I started to have a little stomach gas pain. My husband wasn't feeling so well either. Too much MSG probably.

We went to drop mom off then off we went to buy some tools, power tools :) and then it was time for COWBOYS AND ALIENS. If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you go and see it. It's a well made movie with outstanding cinematography.

The bad part about the weekend? I didn't get to blog at all :(

Street Photography #10

2011-07-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Have nothing to say really, except that July is ending and with that I feel like Christmas would be here sooner than any of us expected or wanted.

And with that sobering thought in mind, I come to reflect on how the summer has gone for me so far. It hasn't really made an impact to me yet. I don't expect it to. Every year I ride the summer months hoping I'd get over it without being too hot and uncomfortable. I know not a good way to see summer.

But summer hasn't really been my favorite season. It's the time when I'd rather be cooped up in the office working those long daylight hours and come home with some light still to do some gardening or just swing the remaining daylight away in my backyard swing.

I have no travel plans this summer. The local beaches would still be cold in the summer time - they are cold all year long. This is California, but not Southern California where the people are on the beach year round.

I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately. However, I am outraged that Netflix decided to raise the price. Currently I have a combo of streaming and one dvd. Last night I changed my setting and I opted to forego the streaming option, since we hardly use that anyway.

I have 6 movies on my queue that I must see before I finally decide whether I'd keep the subscription or simply put it on hold. In the past we always keep it on hold when we go away for vacation or when we get too busy to watch dvds at night.

Well, it's another Friday and I have no plans for the weekend. Wait, I have one. It's not a happy plan, but I am set to go to Alemany Farmers Market in Daly City, which I believe is the oldest and largest in the bay area. I am craving for some Filipino dish. We haven't had any Pinoy food on the table for over a month. It's time I have some munggo and bittermelon.

Have a lovely weekend.

Defeating The Dark Lord and Conquering the Rapids

2011-07-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

I went and saw. I cried and cried. Inside the cinema. Mostly because the story had concluded or at the time I was shedding tears, the story was reaching its climax. It's sad when one thing comes to an end - even a joyful conclusion couldn't take the bitterness out of the fact that well there is no more.

However, the movie was indeed quite something. How long was it? I heard 3 hours. It felt like 30 minutes to me. The minutes flew by and when the credits were rolling I was like, that was it?

I could have gone for more. Still, the producers made one of the best Potter films here. I wonder though if like LOTR this film would take in incredible amount of trophy at the Oscars. What do you think? Will the powers that be in the industry look kindly to the Potter series and see what well made films they were? Or how successful they were and how incredible the story telling was? Or will they dismiss them as simply blockbuster movies aimed at kids?

Needless to say I loved the movie. There were minor things in the film that I would have loved to see expounded or further explored, but not having read any books I don't know if they were further explored in the book and shortened on the movie. Those were minor.

That was my Saturday.

And here's how my Sunday went. I mentioned in the previous post, which is a week ago that we were going to do some white water rafting. We did.

We met at 7 am at my hubby's worksite, which is 2 minutes drive from home. We swung by Starbucks first and bumped into one of the guys there also picking up some caffeine treat.

The decision was made to carpool. Five people in our car and 7 on the SUV. Twelve people in all. When my husband was making reservations for this trip they were told that they have to have groups of 6 as 6 per raft is required. More people wanted to go but not enough to complete 18.

The drive to Gold Country - the place were gold was found and mined in the 1800s here in California - took about 2 hours of scenic pastoral countryside. We brought sandwiches, but apparently the people in the backseat all had breakfast. It was a quick drive it seemed.

We arrived at the camp and was surprised to find that camping is allowed here. The place was teeming with people. It seemed like a crowded Sunday on the river, but the air was festive, all buzzing with excitement.

Chunk - that's his name - approached us and told us to chill for a bit since the trip would commence at 10 am. He pointed towards the direction of the river and said we could check it out while we wait instead of milling about our cars.

And so we did and found that there were tents up along the banks. The water however was pretty chilly. We were all looking at each other fearing it might be too cold if we found ourselves on the water instead of on the raft later.

The guys opened up some cold ones and decided to enjoy a can of brew before starting with the trip. Then Chunk came around and told us to go to a spot where the life vests and helmets are located and that we should go and get ready for the trip.

There was mandatory talk and instructions given by Chunk. He is the leader of this group. It is a huge trip. A lot of rafts went out that day.

Anyway, we were shuttled to upriver by what look like prison bus. I was the first to notice it and then someone from our group said the same thing.

About 15 minutes later, we were pulling up inside a park, like a regional park. This was our launching station. Chunk got in the bus and told us to use the facilities since there would be none along the river route.

Back in the camp we were grouped into 7 and not 6 as we were previously told via phone. Since the SUV contained 7 people they were boat 1. There were 5 of us and we needed 2 more. Luckily there was a couple that signed up for the trip without a group so we absorbed them. Here lies some misunderstanding via phone registration. Anyway, the couple, Jennifer and Neal were cool and easily blended with the group.

We were assigned to Derrick, blond, cute, hunky and dreadlocks. He was also the funnest guide EVER!

The first two hours of rafting was like testing the waters. There weren't any rapids in this part of the river. We were simply rolling on the river on a lazy Sunday with temps in the 90s and the water below us was at most I'd say 60 F. We played games while we were floating. He would ask one to stand up and balance himself on the side of the raft ala Karate Kid. We played more games. He would push people randomly into the water to "cool off" he says. All in good fun. Our raft was always noisy full of laughter.

Then we stop for lunch. Lunch consisted of burgers, chips, and fruits. The guides prepared them. There was a camp kitchen and all the guides manned different posts and started grilling and fixing lunch. The burgers tasted really good in this environment.

Away from the water, we could feel the temperature had really risen. Our skin burned where the sun kissed it. It was up in the 90s for sure. Luckily for me, it was dry heat. The way I like my hot weather.

Our afternoon ride commenced soon after lunch was served. This is the part of the trip where we would be conquering some rapids, the Satan Cesspool, the Hospital Bar, and one more that I can't remember now.

While we were rolling onto some smooth river water, our guide continued to give us some tips on what to do. We would practice them on his cue so the next time it would come up we would know.

Just like this morning's ride, there was lots of water fights between boats. In the morning run we were catching up with boat 1 where our friends are and would splash water onto them. I drank lots of river water because I was in the line of fire whenever another boat would splash us with water. There were lots of rafts on this day. One contained many kids and they play splash with us. The other guides would abduct people from one raft onto theirs. It's called piracy, or pirating here. What fun. The kids on the other hand would yell at our raft and say, TAKE ME!. We took 2 kids and kept them for a while.

Now to the rapids. Well, they were more manageable than I ever imagined. They were big, but not big as I've feared. Probably because this was a run for beginners as well as experienced rafters. With all the kids in this trip, I'm sure they wouldn't allow them if this run was dangerous, right?

Anyway, 2 of our friends were thrown out of their boat when they shot the rapids. We all laughed at how they could have done that. Anyway that is a possiblity.

All in all the day of rafting was fun. Three rapids and all successfully conquered by us. We have pictures to support this claim.

However, I had the fright of my life when Derrick suggested we play another game that afternoon. All of us would rise up and stand around the boat and lean back as far as possible. The object is to fall back into the river with the raft floating empty and we'll all go swim back to the raft.

There is one hitch. I don't swim. My husband doesn't swim. Sokny doesn't swim. The minute I landed on the water I panicked. Water was coming into my mouth but surprisingly I was floating, just like Derrick said. The vests are designed to make you float. And then my husband reached up and grabbed my hand and hand in hand we floated on the river on our backs and from that position I could see our group starting to go into the raft. We floated quite a bit and then when the raft came close to us we got pulled up into the raft. That was scary but fun as well. The cold water took away the 90-degree heat.

That was one heck of a trip.

Later back in the camp with our dry clothes on, the people on the other boat told us that we were the party boat. We were continously laughing and having fun and our guide was very cool and super fun, unlike theirs who only lecture about the river :)

Before heading back to the Bay Area, we stopped to get some brew and chow at a local dive next to the photo place where we could order our shots. I'll show this adventure on my photo blog one of these days.

All in all it was one heck of a weekend.

Another Work Day Is About To End

2011-07-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything in particular that I wanted to share today, hence the title of this post.

I have been getting lazy with blogging lately - err only this blog. The other blogs where I post mostly photos are all up to date.

I guess I'm trying not to whine too much online that's why I'm shying away from this blog.

Let's see what has been happening lately.

Well, my niece came over last Sunday with her brood - 3 boys - and the youngest Alex - almost 2 - used to be afraid of my little Buster. Alex I was told could get along with dogs, but with cats he had a problem with Buster. Until last Sunday. They played together and apparently the boy learned that he is the superior specie and exerted his powers over the poor cat. But Buster was all sport about the whole thing and played with the boy and did not bite him at all. Buster likes to bite me and my husband playfully.

Speaking of weekend, it was a lazy one. I had my monthly visitor at that time so I was lazy and crampy as hell. On Saturday though, I had to go out and take my usual Saturday date with my mom. She loves to eat at Chow King - their palabok is her favorite.

My brother takes her out on Fridays, but he doesn't like Chow King and so he takes her to Jollibee. Mom doesn't like Jollibee :)

I like Jollibee especially when I'm craving for the super sweet Pinoy spaghetti. But Chow King's chicken meal is also as good - in my opinion - as the ones in Jollibee. Just my opinion.

Also this weekend was my brother's (#4) birthday. He with his wife went with brother #2 and his wife to Vegas. Brother #2 issued me an invite but I was not ready to go to Vegas, financially and emotionally. However, we are planning a Vegas trip sometime in the near future. I haven't gone away (pasyal-pasyal) with brother #2 for a long time - since I got married I think.

Anyway, this Sunday we're having a little adventure, sort of. WE signed up for a trip to shoot the rapids. I am a little nervous because I don't know how to swim. Let's see what happens. Do it once, check it off your list and move on to another. It's not on my list, but my hubs said it looks like a fun thing to do with friends. So we're doing it with about 10 friends of ours.

And while I am really excited to see the Harry Potter movie, I am also not racing to the theatre to see it. I'm afraid that once I've seen the movie, then it is final. The series had ended. Until then, I can still say there is Harry Potter left in the future.

Now that the final movie has been released, I can probably go and read the books. I have told myself that once all the movies had been made, I would read the books. I didn't want to read the books while the movies were being filmed because I want to get one side first, the movie side and then hear what the book side has to say. I don't want conflict, in short :)

How was the HP movie?

Cheering Myself

2011-07-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Our weather had gone bonkers around here. It's sweater weather again this week. A thick fog bank parked itself in our coast and has no inclination of going anywhere until this weekend some say, and so we have a cool stretch of a few days. Nope I am not complaining. After all, it was only a week or so ago when we had that mini heatwave so even though we had to bring out the sweaters again from the drawers, I care not if that meant no heatwave.

However, the gloomy and yes drizzly summer days so far have given rise to some gloomy disposition on my part. Add the fact that I have been feeling run down, mentally and emotionally (post-surgical)and in dire need of a little get-away - one that isn't coming for another month or so. I just cannot go on without a little break.

So while I contemplate on where I could take a day trip somewhere, let me post some flower images that I know would pick up my mood.

Now I feel so much better.

Things To Do

2011-07-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out my desk today and found this piece of paper with the heading THINGS TO DO. Here are what's under the heading:

~ Refill kitty litter

~ Put the kitty food inside the house

~ Refill the bird seed food for outside birds

~ DVR all my shows

~ Make/post reminders for Ernie

~ Ask brother to pick up mail

~ Post our phone numbers and other information on the refrigerator

~ Pack

~ Buy food for house sitters

~ Leave laptop

~ Fix guest room

My regular housesitter and nephew Ernie requests that I leave the laptop. I have PC but he doesn't want to use that. Good thing, my hubs has one too and that's what we bring on trips to upload our photos, just in case something happens I have a back-up copy of the images already taken :)

However, I cannot remember when the note was written or for what trip it was for. Yet, the note me me smile. Ah the joys and excitement of planning for a trip :)

A First For Me

2011-07-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday last week after work a group of us - 10 in total - armed with Travel Zoo dining vouchers carpooled in 2 cars and faced the maddening commute to the city to dine at E&O Trading Co. Along the way one of us called the restaurant to tell them that we were running late, but we were already on the bridge and if they could hold the reservations for us. I thought that was too much, it was a Tuesday night after all and the whole region is wet. Who would go out to dine under such circumstances?

Apparently a lot of people go out on rainy Tuesdays to eat out in the city as the restaurant was full!

The dinner was full of laughter and good food and fun company. Good food did I say? It was great eating was had by all. Our voucher (thanks to TravelZoo) allowed us to have one pomegranite margarita, 2 appetizers and one entree. And since there were 10 of us, we shared in all the food. We were full. Without Travel Zoo vouchers, our grand total for dinner was $1001.32. With Travel Zoo we paid $48 per person including the voucher and the tax and the 18% gratuity. Not bad. Will go back there someday. Menu is here in case you wanted to see.

Anyway after we got seated, handed the menu and got our drinks ordered, here came the waitress. And guess what? She spilled the pomegranite margarita all over my right side of the body. I was wearing a thin cotton light mint green shirt that was part of my NYC trip souvenir (shh, I got it for $4.99) and the shirt became green and red spotted shirt :(.

I was too stunned to do anything. The waitress was sorry. I on the other hand was quite nonchalant about the whole thing. After all, shit happens right? Unfortunately that night, it happened to me. The shirt dried before the appetizers came in, it was a thin cotton material after all. I was only worried that the shirt was ruined, it is after all my fave one - I wore it in Europe.

But the minute we got home, I sprayed some stain remover and soaked it in color free bleach detergent. The stain just disappeared so I'm happy now.

Have you had any similar experiences while dining out?

America, America

2011-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

The upcoming Fourth of July is reminding me once again that I haven't celebrated any Philippine Independence Day celebrations for a long time. Not because there isn't any celebrations going around in my neck of the woods, it just doesn't figure in my TO DO list anymore. Usually the celebrations are in San Fran and would require entrance fee. It would also mean crowded streets and parking woes. I just didn't want to be bothered, that's all.

Sometimes I question my patriotism. How does one manifest this virtue? Do I have to subscribe to TFC to get the latest news about my motherland?

My case is different from others. First and foremost with the exception of a nephew and his family, I don't have any "family" left back home. I do have cousins and nieces and nephews and I guess a few aunts and uncles as well, but they are extended family and we were never very close to begin with.

So I don't have to fill a balikbayan box and send it to someone. I don't have to skype anyone for news or to share problems with.

As a matter of fact, as far as I know, when I moved here years ago, I packed in my luggage everything that was important to me - letters, photos, mementos. I had a feeling when I was leaving that there was no turning back. Mostly because I was the "last one" to move here.

For the most part, I like my life here in America. My family is here and my job is here. I seriously wonder if I could ever get a good-paying job back home. I had a job when I left for America, not financially satisfying but in many many ways very rewarding.

I adored my co-workers - they are lovely human beings. The nature of my job wasn't boring nor extremely challenging, and the students were endlessly entertaining. It made me realize that this part of the job is what caused many teachers to forget about themselves and end up being spinsters. Nope I wasn't a teacher.

What I missed back home are my friends - my high school friends, college pals, co-workers, and neighbors/childhood friends. That's what is seriously lacking in my life right now, connection to these friends.

Anyway, I have fully embraced all that America has offered me. I don't know if I'm living the American life, but my cupboard is filled with international delights, not just American.

I most especially enjoy the beauty that is California. Looking out in the bay everyday is a joyful thing.

Just like any other posts, I started with a goal and ended up somewhere far from the goal. I need to take writing classes, seriously!

Happy Fourth of July America!

It's Over!

2011-06-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

Finally the long-awaited church fundraiser is over. It was held last Saturday from 6:30 to 9:00 pm.

No more planning meetings, no more editing, no more researching. It's over! A sigh of relief was released in unison.

The truth is it appeared to have been a success. Why did I say that without certainty? It's because the monies were not tallied yet as of this writing, but seeing the people's happy faces that Saturday night, it was a powerful community bonding event.

I have never felt like a part of this community despite living here for 18 years until I joined this church.

Anyway I was on cashiering duty that night. We had silent auction in addition to all the chocolate tasting. When the tables close the items on the tables will be moved to us. There were two ladies arranging the items in the back and they send it to us when the winners come to claim their items.

I was a monster at using the credit card machine. Kidding. I got trained 30 minutes before opening on how to use the credit card machine. I swiped and swiped the cards. It's fun not to be using my own card to swipe.

However, we bid on a pair of Thomas Kincaid paintings, which we won. All in all it was a fun evening. I had a great time. I even managed to abandon my shyness and engage people in animated conversation about our community. Can you imagine me chatting easily with people? Must be God helping me overcome my shyness.

So what's next? Summer is still here despite the weather cooling off a bit. It's the perfect summer weather if you'd ask me.

Since we were busy with church all weekend, I didn't do any chores and next weekend is a long weekend, but I'm gonna be taking it easy. I'll have an outpatient surgery on Friday and was advised on my preop to take it easy all through the weekend. So I'll probably get a little movie marathon going and cuddling with my cats.

BTW, I watched ECLIPSE again the other day and do you agree with me Twilight fanatics that those three main characters can't act?

Prayers

2011-06-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

My friend's husband passed away on Father's Day. I read her post on FB. I have been feeling sad and low since I read her post. My heart sank. If you see the photos of their family on FB you knew they were at the peak of their life. Two teenage kids, a girl and a boy, and the lovely couple who look more like in their 20s than in their 40s.

A couple months ago, I think, she commented on her sister's wall that her husband is back home after bouts of chemo. I immediately sent her a note that I'd pray for her husband's recovery.

It happened so soon from where I am. I don't know what happened, how long the battle with the big C had been. But I'm just sad.

Today, I read her post asking for more prayers in the following months as she is feeling his absence every single day :(

Summer Time

2011-06-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of summer around these parts and it's hot. So fitting I think. Today makes me want to reminisce some summer pasts.

Growing up, summer meant:

long daylight hours make for longer play time
waiting for the dirty ice cream vendor @ 4 pm
running after the fishball vendor
waking up to my mother's yakking about how late the hours is and how high the sun has been
carrying mom's basket while she goes marketing
shatung, patintero, tumbang preso
Cathecism
excursion to the beach
annual pilgrimmage to Our Lady of Manaoag
Holy Week services + procession in hot conditions

We didn't go anywhere when I was growing up. We had to endure the heat and "boringness" of the 2 months at home. No one in my neighborhood went away for vacation either. Everyone was home helping out with chores and after lunch we all play at Peia's yard. They have a big yard and it has no plants in it. It was perfect for playing. We could play sports there, like soccer or baseball if we wanted to or knew how to.

They have a big gigantic acacia tree in front of the house with large trunk that could shield us from the sun's rays. It was perfect.

I cannot believe how nostalgic I am of that acacia tree now that I started to write this. I hope it's still there. I know Peia and family moved out since they didn't own the land.

I've spent many summers in my family's home, which btw has suffered major damage during the quake of 91 or 90? And it's begging to be taken down/demolished. It will be soon. Out of the many summers, one could easily stand out. It was the summer where either I was finished with Grade 5 or Grade 6, that part I couldn't remember.

But it was the summer where almost all the neighborhood kids banded together, girls and boys, and played. We never all played before nor after that summer. So that was what made that summer special.

I remember we played shatung a lot. I was masterful at that game. We also played patientero. And when the summer was ending, I organized a disco at my front yard. Could you believe that? It was a spur of the moment decision.

I sprung the request to my mom at around 3 pm and by 5 pm we have the stereo playing loud music and kids dancing in our yard. We had no food but we danced the evening away. I still remember my verve at asking permission for this boy, about 4 years my junior, from his sister because his folks were not in the house at that time. I can't recall why I have to since I know this boy stays out later than the 5 pm party time, but I still did. And the funny thing is his sister is only about 4 years older than I am!

Another thing that I remember about that day was my friend's mom came to the yard and asked my mom what was the party about? And my mom told her the kids wanted to dance :)

We sure did dance the summer away!

I Get More Than A Footlong When I Go to Subway

2011-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Every time I go to Subway to get a footlong I leave the store with much more than a footlong. My town's Subway restaurant is owned by an Indian family. There are two elderly Indian women who man the store. Let's call them Morning auntie and Afternoon auntie. Both of them have a tough time communicating in English but they get by.

A long time ago I came in with my husband. My husband looks like Indian; he isn't. But the fact that his features are so similar to the Indians made them sort of adopt him as their own. In the process I got sorta adopted too as some distant relatives.

Therefore whenever I come in I get asked personal questions. And when they found out a while back that we are still childless and have been working hard at getting a child, they give me symphathy, unsolicited advice, and concern.

Sometimes I am not as patient with them, but I never show any irritation. After all I find their interest quite comforting. It feels like being home in the Philippines where elderly members of the neighborhood/community take part in one's life. Nope I really don't consider it being nosy. It's the way it is - the Asian way.

Today (I am writing this Saturday) my husband and I swung by Subway to get something for dinner when the afternoon auntie chatted him for over 20 minutes. On the drive home my husband told me what they talked about, they were speaking in Hindi. She told him how she was in the same position that I am right now. It took her long to get pregnant, while her friends were all pregnant and having babies. She felt lonely, alone, and I'm guessing useless. That is why she doesn't like seeing people who are struggling to have a baby. Now I understand her concern and it's not just being nosy.

Food Craving Friday

2011-06-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to have a Food Craving Wednesday, but I only remembered it today.

I am a bit saddened that the little restaurant next to the cinema is closed. It was a combo of restaurant and sports bar and it has a rocking happy hour 7 days a week. My favorite during happy hour is this chips and spinach dip. The price is right at $3 and the portion is just enough. Plus it's really good. Now where am I going to get my spinach dip?

Fashion Sense

2011-06-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

When I was little growing up in a farming community right smack in the middle of Central Luzon, there was very little fashion statements to be found. It was after all before the age of internet and text and cell phones. The time when only 4 or 5 tv stations are operating and when you live outside of Luzon, you'd get your shows delayed by days.

Knowing that you'd know that there is no way to be exposed to fashion at that age. My mother always wears a bandana to cover her hair when we take public transportation. Riding in jeepneys or buses can ruin your hair you know. I always associated bandana as an accessory for old people. But I liked it. I liked having my head covered.

Fast forward to many years later and here I am living just outside San Francisco and having all sorts of fashion statements in my face and I still have no fashion sense. What remained however is my fascination for bandana or head coverings. I still don't use them; I have a few in my closet but I use them to cover my shoulders.

So I am happy to be around Indians because their culture calls for this accessory. I sometimes wear it when I am with them.

Do you like bandanas, hair coverings?

School uniforms with the sash/orno they call it in Bangladesh.

Heavy As Those Clouds

2011-06-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

I have a heavy heart. My pet parakeet died on Saturday. He suffered. He got bit by Emma, my lovely and well-behaved cat. I was torn.

Emma had always been quiet, well-mannered (for a cat), and did no shenanigans around the house. So it was a total shock to me to learn she was the one who bit the bird. I don't want to expound on this.

Let's just say that cats know what you're feeling. They can sense your emotions. She knew I was upset. That she was partly to blame.

She became very aloof all weekend. Didn't cuddle with me except during sleep time at night. And when I went to get her, she even went under the bed.

Anyway, it was really sad. I know it's only a pet, only a bird. But you get used to them, they become part of your life, your family. And when one is gone, it just isn't the same.

We got 2 parakeets in his place. I don't know why we did that. Just in case, the one left behind will never be alone, I guess.

In an unrelated news, I had a lovely impromptu lunch at Jollibee with my mom and my two bros. It was such a surprise thing that came together without a plan. I love having lunch with my bros and mom. Plus I get to eat spaghetti. Wasn't I telling you about the spaghetti craving last week? Well, after I had the Jollibee I didn't even bother to make it at home. That lunch satisfied my craving.

Thursday Shorts

2011-06-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today's short hops of ideas:

The new season of Search for the Next Food Network Star began on Sunday, June 5. Early favorite turned out to be Pinay native Orchid.
Had headache as I came home from work, so what I did to distract myself after dinner was to vacuum the whole house, up and down. Got rewarded with cheesecake by hubby afterwards.
All week of sun, so different from all the rainy days we've been having prior to Monday.
Launched blog for EMMA AND BUSTER. So far well received by the kitty community.
Need to replace water heater. Some costly undertaking.
Always hungry lately and stomach wants real food all the time like stuffed bell peppers with mashed potatoes. Oh wait that's what's for lunch at the cafeteria today.
I'm craving for some pad thai.
And grown-up version of mac and cheese.
Don't forget some spaghetti and meatballs.
I have to make spaghetti and meatballs this weekend.

Chick Flick, Man Flick and other Highlights

2011-06-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to find time to finish EAT, PRAY, LOVE this weekend. I started it some days ago, but wasn't able to finish the whole movie until this weekend. I don't get how this movie did not connect with me. I am a sucker for chick flick and any Julia Robert movie. But this one, nothing. Did nothing to me. Why?

Sure the cinematography was excellent, who wouldn't want to visit those three lovely locales. But the story did not touch me one bit. I was disappointed. Talking with a fellow church member this Sunday I mentioned to her how the movie did not connect with me and that I should try reading the book and see how it would affect me. She liked the book, have not seen the movie, but while she liked the book she wasn't sure what's all the hoopla was all about. Anyone would care to comment?

Oh I broke my rule of not going to the movies on a film's first weekend run. Yap, guilty! And what movie made me break this rule? X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Now this movie on the other hand is 100% entertainment. I loved everything about it. I enjoyed watching the cast. I enjoyed learning what they were before they become who they are. I always enjoyed the prequels, you know. I am always curious as to what made the characters the way they are. And not a follower of comic books, I have no knowledge of who these characters are outside of what they tell me on the movies. It was a good, good way to while the time away on a cold rainy weekend.

In addition to these movies, I finally created a blog for my little furbabies, BUSTER AND EMMA, which means that you'd see less of them here and more of my ramblings from now on.

Another thing that made my weekend was that I was able to upload on Flickr video clips. Yay! For the longest time I was barred (by my firewall? my browser?) from uploading video clips to Flickr and/or You Tube. I didn't try You Tube yet because I was busy uploading on Flickr. I didn't want to jinx it. Needless to say I went crazy and because it was rainy all Saturday, I had all the time in the world to be online doing all these uploading. See Buster and Emma for a sampling of what I uploaded.

Still don't know why I was able to upload. My husband guessed some updated version of something. I didn't care to know as long as I was able to do what I wanted to do :)

And yet another good news. Have you heard of YELP? Go ahead click it! Basically it's a website where ordinary (and extraordinary) people go to review restaurants, hotels, doctors, etc etc.

Okay so here's the good news about YELP. I am a member, which means I have created a user name and persona and have reviewed something. YELP is holding a little shindig - with food and drinks and entertainment. See poster below and here is the link to the party. I better put this on my calender lest I forget it.

A Page From My Journal

2011-06-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

January - February 2011 Mexican Riviera Cruise

It seemed a little odd to me to be taking the Mexican Riviera Cruise after I had already taken the Mediterranean Cruise a year and a half ago [the Mexican Riviera is a sort of entry-level cruise destination]. But the need for a vacation, a time away from our busy schedules, one that would be easy to organize and easy to take arose. And because we already made a deposit previously in another cruise and the fact that the pricing for this cruise was within our budget, we opted to sign up for this one.

I did some cursory online research on the 3 ports of call - Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta, and jotted down some sights I wanted to see. No activities were penciled in as this was to be a lazy holiday - nothing to do week. Little did I know I could have done zip lining and parasailing.

I cannot remember our drive from home to the long-term parking lot near the airport or the shuttle ride to SFO. However, I do remember how disappointed I was upon entering the plane, a Jet Blue. I could not shake off my anxiety as I was already afraid of flying and now to fly in a small plane??? But my husband assured me that the flight to Long Beach would only take an hour. That is so much better than driving there for about 8 hours.

To my amazement, it was a smooth flight, including the take off and landing. I took a few peeks out the window and the sun was out bright. And 55 minutes later we were landing in Long Beach.

It took us another 20 minutes from the airport to port of Long Beach where we would be embarking on a 7-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera. Where was the traffic that SoCal was so infamous for? Must be the time of day or must be because it was a Saturday??? I wouldn't know, but I was glad that there wasn't any delay to the port.

We were dropped off curbside and I noticed that it was crowded. There were three ships, and one of them is Queen Elizabeth, one of the fancy schmancy cruises where you have to be garbed in a Gucci or something (my impression). Our little NCL ship sat next to this humongous vessel and there was a line snaking in to the building. I asked if this was the line to the NCL and was told that was it. I parked my luggage next to me and snapped some shots. I found myself getting a tad irritated at this long line (which always gets my goat no matter where the line is). Not helping my surly mood is the fact that I have been nursing a two-day old cough and sore throat and I sounded like froggy. My husband left my side to investigate what's the hold up. He returned without an answer. The line was thankfully moving, at a snail's pace. However, he found that we could send our luggage in ahead of us and they will be delivered to our rooms. That's a good thing not to be pulling and pushing heavy luggage while trying to take pictures :)

Eventually, we found ourselves inside this huge hangar-like building that serves as the arrival/departure point of the cruises, NCL for this one.

We were given a stub with a number on it upon clearing the x-ray machines and were told to sit and wait for our numbers to be called. People were hungry and tired from standing on the line for too long and we were all crabby. I could not see one relaxed face inside that hangar - well except for the hubs.

Our number was finally called and we presented ourselves at the mmigration officer where we presented all the necessary papers. When we were handed our number we were also given a medical waiver kind of document where you click a box that says you are sick or not. Something of that sort.

And crabby me I click yes on the box that says I have cough. I wasn't allowed to get through. Instead I was taken to a makeshift room a few feet away from the desks and was told to wait for the doctor. BTW, I was told by the officer that almost NO ONE checks yes on this document, but today, I was the second to say YES. My hubs although irritated at my stupidity said nothing, but gave me a hug and said things will be alright. When I was sitting inside that makeshift room, I realized what I'd done. I could potentially be barred from going on board. Our vacation was at jeopardy and we both really needed a little time to get away to soothe my frayed nerves :)

It was at this time that my husband saw concern and panic wash over my face and I got another hug. It was at this time that a security officer came into the room and handed me a walkie talkie. The doc was on the other end of the line and wanted to speak to me. I answered her questions truthfully and when she asked if I had fever or having chills, I replied no and that must have convinced her to let me go.

When I was cleared we were both ushered into the elevator next to the room. WE didn't need to make that long walk to the other side of the hangar and take the escalator or elevator upstairs.

We quickly made it to on board, gotten into our room and rapidly descended to the restaurant to get something to eat. It was hours since my last meal and it was nearing 2 pm and all I had was coffee I believed.

The Romanian waitress that served us was very cheerful, made me laugh and forget about my irritation at all the delays in embarkation. It was through her that we found out the reason behind the delay. If people in the front told passengers up front there wouldn't be too much frustration now, would there?

So it began when the ship was coming in to dock at the port in the morning. They couldn't because of heavy fog. They were waiting for the fog to clear out. That delayed them over two hours. That 2-hour delay trickled down to delay to disembark passengers, delay to restock supplies, etc etc etc up to delay to allow new passengers, i.e. us, to embark - the domino effect. Isn't that easy to announce that there is delay caused by fog. Who would get mad at a fog, at nature?

We made it through all the required activities - like the part where they show you how to respond to emergency in case one arises, etc. The following day was a sea day and Cabo San Lucas was the first port of call.

***Will be blogging about the ports of call in my photo blog.***

Emma on Cats on Tuesday

2011-05-31T09:29:00.000-07:00

EMMA: Mama said, "No peeking on the bag, Emma!". I didn't peek. I just sit there quietly and patiently for her to unload what's on the bag. I would be really unhappy if there is no treat for me inside :)

I am linking to CATS ON TUESDAY.

Reminiscing

2011-05-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's almost 11 pm Sunday night and tomorrow is Memorial Day - a federal holiday which means we don't go to work, and here I am blogging about something from my Barcelona trip from November 2009.

I was moving my albums from one external drive to another - a bigger one that's 1 terabyte capacity - when I aimlessly opened one of the albums and the image of food popped on the screen. My husband who's reading the papers in bed and watching tv and surfing at the same time glanced at where I am (he's behind me) and immediately recognized the image on the pc.

Did you know that we stayed in a dormitory in Barcelona for 3 days? We were looking for a bargain, since we were afraid that we'd bust our budget on a 3 week Europe vacation.

The choice to stay in a dorm was better than staying in a hostel for us. The dorm was located inside the University of Barcelona Mundet campus - easily accessible by subway.

We have our own room, a large room in fact with two beds, a tv, small ref, and the bathroom was furnished with towels and little soap.

Apparently here families come to visit and they stay in this part of the building. The private rooms were separate from the accommodations used by the students. So while you hear all the ruckus (music to my ears) in the "living room" once you take the hallway to the private rooms, it's pretty quiet and you'd actually forget you live in a dorm. Many post grad students stay here too. As a matter of fact I have seen many families stay there while we were there.

Another good thing aside from the affordable price is that it includes free breakfast. The dining room is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But only breakfast was included in the price.

What a buffet it was - one side is all bread of different kinds, crusty bread, rolls, savory kinds and even plain sliced white bread. There is an area for meats, but the most enjoyable was the bacon, it's totally different and tasty. It wasn't crunchy like the ones back home but soft and a little greasy, but not the greasy kind like we know. Then there are fruits to choose from and omelets and cereals. And their coffee machine is to die for. It's a vending machine kind but it makes the best coffee. I o'd on the coffee - cafe au lait.

I couldn't find the rest of the images I took of the spread, what I found were the plates we savored. Enjoy!

Would you consider staying in a dorm while traveling?

Street Photography #9

2011-05-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts:

Our anniversary trip went as planned, and the hotel we stayed in was really niiiice! A 4-star hotel and we got it quite cheap because of Travelzoo discount. The hotel was centrally located in the downtown area, walking distance to almost everything. We walked to the farmers market - a block away - and reached the Old Fisherman's Wharf for a little sightseeing without taking the car out of the garage. Plus the hotel room was beautiful and it has windows with window seating looking out to the plaza and the wharf. (I better go back here!) Also included in the package was a 3-course dinner for two. The food was spectacular and the portions are humongous. The ambiance was cozy and old worldly. The lobby is just to die for. Needless to say I was blown away by this hotel and spa. After all I am a budget traveler and I veer myself away from accommodations that has a star attached to it like an asterisk. But I'm glad we stayed here this time.
The planned luncheon at RED HOUSE CAFE didn't materialize, because there was a line outside waiting to be seated. I didn't want to wait. I thought it was a waste of time. So we drove around and thought we'd go get either Afghan food or Mediterranean food. Instead we passed by this small hole in the wall PAPRICA CAFE that serves delicious Lebanese food. After sampling some Lebanese food the evening before at the farmer's market, our appetite was whetted for more of these delicious flavors. It was a great idea to skip American food via Red House Cafe and venture off farther into the road towards Monterey and without plan stop here. Needless to stay we were fed well for a small price. I'm sure I'll post the pictures somehow.
I am contemplating on creating a new blog - a separate one for Buster and Emma.
No plans for this three-day weekend, although we have been invited to a bbq at my husband's co-worker's house. They bought the house a few months ago and I think this shindig will be like a housewarming kind.
I'm having surgery again, this time on an out-patient basis. Hopefully, no complications will arise.

A Week Without A Post

2011-05-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

A week without a post, how did that happen?

Anyway, we all know that all bloggers have off line lives and they sometimes get really hectic. The poor blogger finds himself/herself being pulled in both directions. And more often than not it's the blog that has to be let go. Enough, let me just tell you what has transpired in the almost one week I was out of blogging here.

Emma and Buster took their scheduled showers this weekend. Buster didn't knew what hit him really. But Emma knew. She saw Buster and when it was her turn she politely declined. I let her get her way - for bit - and when she thought her turn wasn't coming - boom, we took her to get her shower. They smell fresh now. It was in time with changing our bedsheets.
Was planning on watching Thor over the weekend, but wasn't feeling it. Did I miss a lot?
Been watching and following the San Jose Sharks (the local hockey team). Unfortunately, they are getting beaten by the more powerful and experienced Vancouver Canucks. You should see my friend from Vancouver's FB status posts regarding the Canucks' victories :(
Loving baseball on tv just like before. I love my Giants.
Big NEWS - I finally got my DSLR - there goes my tax refund. Loving the test shots so far. Still need to learn how to use it but am so excited.
Blue Ray players were on sale and we snagged one. This blogger is dumb dumb when it comes to technology. Who knew blue ray players are now wi-fi enabled and you can access your Netflix thru it? Not I? I thought when I heard the wi-fi on the packaging, I could watch You Tube videos thru it :)
Another purchase - a waffle maker - it was on sale. So on Sunday night, we had waffle and bacon and eggs for dinner. I don't need to go out for waffles now.
Anybody surprised that it was Scotty and Lauren in the finals. I am talking about American Idol for those who has been living under a rock.
I got an invite. My niece's son is turning one. I haven't even seen the baby yet and he's one already!
I just found out that my cousin's daughter has a blog. My, the girl can write too :) Must be in the genes.
My little furbabies are sleeping in the bed as I write this post while hubs is in a church meeting.
Looking forward to a lovely two days. Driving down to Monterey tomorrow for our anniversary get-away. Looks like we are creating a tradition here. We went to Monterey last year and had an anniversary eve dinner at a tapas place and had anniversary lunch at this little cafe - RED HOUSE CAFE. This year I told my husband we are going there again and I will plan to order the same food I had last year. He was game with that plan of mine. And of course I plan to test out some more this new DSLR of mine. I suppose I need to name it right?
I know it's a quick get-away, but I am hoping I can get some rest while there.
I guess I'm missing the CATS ON TUESDAY post.

See y'all later.

Buster's Corner on Cats on Tuesday

2011-05-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, May 16th, was my birthday. My FIRST birthday. I'll show you how I spent my day:

I ate like 25 times that day :)

Slept cuddled in blanket - it was a rainy cold day in May in California - go figure!

I played with my favorite toys - plastic bag and mousie.

Played hide and seek.

Lounged about with my fave magazine. [sorry about the image, mommy is trying her hand at editing photos. here she tries to put gausian blur on the back ground. mommy needs more practice.]

And when mommy came from work - I got the best belly rub EVER!!! My birthday rocked!!! Needless to say I also was treated with extra helpings of treats. Happy birthday to me!!!!

I am linking to CATS ON TUESDAY.

Another Weekend That Whizzed By

2011-05-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

I was planning on blogging last evening but change of plans prevented me from doing so. As usual weekends are full of activities or chores. I see that on blogosphere, my fellow bloggers were doing some cleaning up. As did I. Here's a list of what my weekend consisted of:

Saturday was devoted to cleaning and gardening. Husband and a hired help pulled out weeds (hubs took out his weed whacker - his toy) and made my front yard pretty decent. They also planted on the front yard some of the potted kalanchoe plants that we have for years now. Glad they finally got planted on the ground. Also the rose bush that we dug up and brought here when we moved almost two years ago went into the ground as well.
I vacuumed the downstairs while the two cats stayed upstairs. They are afraid of vacuum and hair dryer. I think it's the loud noise that spook them.
We finally got out of the house about 5:30 pm for some shopping. Our first stop was Best Buy to check on the DSLRs. I already purchased one online and in a matter of days it will be in my hands (yay). Next was Costco, but we forgot that this warehouse closes early on the weekends so when we got there it was closed. Final stop was Fry's electronics for more DSLR checking to make sure we made a good buy. And oh, we had to stop by and buy some groceries too. Luckily 99 Ranch Market is in the same center as Frys.
Sunday was as busy. Church first. After the service, the congregation stayed to clean out (weed, sweep, prune) the garden, which was fun. Hotdogs and chips followed.
Before heading home from church, I convinced hubby to swing by Walmart to pick up some treats for the cats. Today, May 16th is Buster's first birthday and I intend to spoil them rotten with some extra treats today.
And a weekend is not complete without a stop at Home Depot. My husband always find something he needs in Home Depot.
Then it was more vacuuming and cleaning and laundry. Fun weekend right?
By 4 pm, back to church we went for a talk and slide show on Israel-Palestine conflict. For someone like me who is ignoramus about this long-standing feud, this session was very educational. I intend to read up more on this.
The talk ran long, it was 6 pm when we arrived home and we were expecting our friends for dinner. Hurriedly I put something on the pan and husband kept the microwave working. Luckily we had everything planned - only reheating is needed. We weren't home for 10 minutes when our friends showed up and a lovely evening was had by all. No wine, but beer was the beverage of choice for the evening.
And my weekend ended with the two-hour season finale of Desperate Housewives on the tube and I was cramming for a post for my photo blog.
The End.

Iris Loving

2011-05-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have posted an entire post on my visit to the iris farm in my blog. But I couldn't post all the beautiful irises in one post. So here, a feast to the eyes.

It was a breezy day that's why the flowers don't seem to stand still. :)

Emma on Cats on Tuesday

2011-05-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

EMMA: Mommy are you done playing with the computer? Can we play now?

I am linking to CATS ON TUESDAY.

Comfort Food

2011-05-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

After garlic fried rice and longganisa, this would be my favorite breakfast. Believe it or not every single day in our cruise I eat this. My husband can't get the fascination I have and how on earth don't I get sick of eating it day after day.

I posted this today because I'm feeling so low. I am dealing with some news that are frustrating. I have never cried infront of my doctors before but I did yesterday. It was a low point. But I managed to put a brave front today in another appointment.

Breathe in, breathe out!

Peace!

Buster's Corner on Cats on Tuesday

2011-05-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

BUSTER: Mommy I don't feel good.
ME: I know sweetie.
BUSTER: Don't make me get shots again because I feel sick after the shots!
ME: You're not getting another one this year. Next year again. Go back to sleep.
BUSTER: Okay mommy!

I am linking to CATS ON TUESDAY.

Weekend Reporting

2011-05-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Another weekend is over. The above photo has nothing to do with my post. I thought this blog could use another photo after consecutive all text posts.

We began our weekend by taking the kitties to get their vaccinations. There is a mobile vet clinic that gives vaccinations and other vet services every Saturday at a local PetFoods store.

We loaded up the cats in their own carrier. I had my husband do this task, but he was a bit heavy handed with Emma, who screamed her little heart out. She did not want to get in. Eventually we got them in. And the short car ride freaked them out. Buster was meowing in that tone of voice that said he was really scared. They were both in the back seat. I had to take Buster's carrier infront to soothe him, and petted him and cooed the whole time.

Emma was quiet but I could sense that she was unhappy about the whole thing. I stayed with them inside the car while husband did the queueing up and filling out of forms.

The cats both received 3 different shots each. And while they didn't seem to feel it and they were very good the whole time, the experience left me unhinge.

I was told that the shots would make them feel lethargic and not their own selves for a couple of days. Just like people in the aftermath of a flu shot.

But Emma and Buster were unusually quiet all weekend. There wasn't that running up and down from Buster and Emma for the most part stayed in our bed the whole weekend. I would come up and check on her and she would let out that faint meow and I'd come and hug her and tell her "I know you are sick, baby."

They also got shots in their legs, and I think they felt sore, both of them as Emma was thinking twice before leaping on top of shelves all weekend and Buster was favoring that leg when he jumped down.

I hope they get back to their own rowdy selves soon, today if that is possible.

And so after that unpleasant experience for me, we thought we'd turn the day around by going to an iris farm. I found out about this iris farm from a local magazine. It's free of charge and they sell the iris for those who are interested.

It wasn't far, about 35 miles from home, and the drive was smooth and quiet. The weather on Saturday was high 70s and breezy, so very very comfortable.

The minute we got off the freeway, the farm was still about 6 miles away.
This road was lined with farms, nurseries, and beautiful houses. The atmosphere is totally completely farmland, yet only about 50 miles from SF and about 40 miles from Sacramento. So close yet so far :)

The farm was smaller than I expected - as I've been to a bigger one in Oregon. The blooms were definitely there, but apparently we were early for the peak season as many of the plants were not blooming yet. The lady who greeted us was very friendly and told us what to expect or do when we want to buy anything.

And of course she said we can just take pictures - when she saw hubs with teh tripod. People were there for the picture taking ops too. I'll sort out the phots and blog about it soon.

On the way back to the freeway, we didn't backtrack as we saw a sign to the town. When we followed the sign, we found we were driving in residential areas. I love driving in residential areas. I enjoy looking at curve appeals and house architectures. And then we found we were in downtown and I've never been here before. This city to outsiders is home to the Outlet Stores that are next to the freeway. I don't know anybody who had come to this city to be in this city - downtown area. People come here for the shopping.

After much failures, we finally found the way back to the freeway and to the outlet stores. We entered a few stores, got a shirt that would be good for my rafting trip this summer.

I must fess up here. In my single days, I had been here more often than needed. I have known these stores like the back of my hand. I have enjoyed shopping here. But this has been the first time I'm here as a married woman. That means I haven't been here in a long time. And maybe because I now value my hard-earned cash more now that I am married and have a mortgage, but I thought the prices of dresses - wow as they maybe - were pretty steep for an outlet mall.

We ended our Saturday by watching the Royal Wedding that we recorded. I peeked at the clock when it was time to turn off the tv and it was 3:30 am, Sunday.

And on Sunday, we stayed mostly at home. Slept till 11, got up and had oatmeal for breakfast. The Giants (baseball) game was on, but they were losing (again) so we changed channel and watched the Sharks (hockey) instead while browsing at the Sunday paper ads.

Sunday went by quickly, we cooked for the rest of the week. Our menu for dinner the whole week: goat goulash, gumbo, and steak fajita :)

Then before the day ended, we went for a quick shopping trip at Walmart. Snagged some shirts and cats stuff. Then went to Sears, they had a sale on Canon DSLR, but they wouldn't let us open the box to inspect the camera. They don't even have a floor model, can you believe that.

So I didn't get my Canon this weekend, but I think I found a new love - Pentax. Let's see if one of these babies could be with us next week.

So how was your weekend? And oh have a lovely May.

A Quick Friday Post

2011-04-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

I overslept this morning. If my husband did not nudge me, I would be sleeping until noon. Nope I was not watching the Royal Wedding in the wee hours of the morning. That wasn't the reason for the extra minutes of sleep.

It wasn't Manny Pacquiao's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live either, which I caught accidentally. I am not normally awake by 12 midnight, when Kimmel's show comes on, but last night I was still up. And when they announce that MP was going to be there, I waited for his interview. My husband asked if he was going to sing again. The last time he guested on JKL he sang much to both our chagrined. That super boxer simply loves to sing. However, last night he spared all of us by not singing. Thanks MP.

Earlier that night, I was unhappy with the AI results. Did anyone see it coming? My ever wise hubby guessed it was Casey (and no he did not peek at Yahoo either - where the results would have been posted since we are always late here in the west coast), reasoning that he had been voted off once before - until the save by judges kept him longer.

Okay so what's in store for the weekend? I am hoping that in between running errands and doing chores I'd be able to sort out photos for posting in this blog since I still have photos from our getaway in Central Coast for my hubby's November b/day and from the cruise we took in January.

Also I am hoping I could window shop (either physically or online) for my much-wanted DSLR. I have lamented previously in back posts how my p&s have been ruined by having dirty lenses. One has been sent out to the company for cleaning (part of the warranty).

Any good movies lately? Oh yeah, I have a Royal Wedding to watch this weekend. I think I may need to pop some corn.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

AI Talk

2011-04-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

I missed two weeks of AI review and this is supposed to be a weekly posting. I have reasons, 1)there were only good performances as the number of contestants dwindle, 2)busy schedule, 3) busy schedule. Well you know what I mean.

Anyway, what can I say? With Pia Toscano's departure, there doesn't seem to be any contest at all - well IMHO of course. I pegged this season to be a mano a mano between Pia Toscano and James Durbin. So it was simply no contest now in my view.

And while I unashamedly throw my full support (minus the voting part) to James Durbin's campaign to be this year's AI winner, I thought that Randy Jackson's proclamation last night of Durbin as winner was ill-advised and in poor taste.

After all, the others in contention are all very good and still strong. Except of course I love the way James Durbin sing his songs.

Take last night's Carole King night, the six remaining aspirants did their best in performing their choice song. Although I may have to add here that two of my least fave perfomances were that of Haley and Jacob. My other fave aside from James' was that of Casey. Boy, was Casey good in that bluesy jazzy renditions. He appeared to be very professional in his performance last night. My husband even thought he got it made. He could perform in some joint and people would pay money to see him.

I would really be disappointed if James or Casey would be eliminated this early. I'm hoping it would be either Haley or Jacob getting the boot tonight.

Speaking of eliminated contestants, I saw Pia Toscano sing while her rumoured bf dance on Dancing with the Stars this week. I cannot remember what the dancer's name. They do look good together. I wonder if Pia would be a celebrity dancer next year for DWTS?

More girl talk.....

Anyone interested at all in the upcoming Royal Wedding? Hassle here in the West Coast as the wedding takes place at about 2 am here. But I am happy to report that our DVR is already set to record from 1 am foreward. I haven't seen the Diana and Charles wedding as I lived in the boondocks back then and had no clue who these people were.

I hope this marriage will last though.

Food Craving Wednesday

2011-04-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

My husband, er WE, make this pasta dish that I adore so much. It doesn't require a step to step procedure since whatever veggies are left on the fridge is what we put into it.

We first grill the veggies or sometimes broil them in the oven. Then we add them to the cooked pasta (whatever you prefer) and toss it with some homemade pesto, which we always have. When I go to farmers markets I never could resist buying basil even though I have no use for it. Well there is always a use for basil. We make pesto and freeze it for occasions like this.

We top off the dish with cheese - our choice is feta.

The good thing about this comfort dish is that it can be eaten hot/warm or cold/room temp.

Grab a fork and dig in.

Let Me Tell You About My Weekend

2011-04-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

The holiest weekend of the Christian world.

I took a 3-day weekend. Every year, except last, I take Good Friday off. Last year was the exception as I put in my vacay request late. I didn't realize that there were others in my office that also needed a day of meditation :) And only a certain number of employees can be out at the same time and when my request came to the desk, the number has been reached so I didn't take the Friday off last year.

FRIDAY:
As was my tradition with mom since we came here in the US, we went to our version of Visita Iglesia. Near where we live there are 5 Catholic churches that we visit. Three were open all day, the other two were open after 2 pm, but we went to all five anyway and said our prayers.

My husband also took the day off. His situtation is different. He has some days off that needed to be used.

When my Visita Iglesia was over, my husband and I drove to Berkeley to attend the Good Friday service (1.5 hours to 2 hours). The church is next door to UC Berkeley campus so I was suprised to see many students around. Apparently, Cal (the uni's nickname) takes Spring break after Easter.

The service was solemn, this church knows how to do this Good Friday service properly. The singing was fabulous, they have the best choir. It was spiritually enriching to be attending a service like that.

When the service was over, I couldn't belive how famish I was. Then I remembered that I had a little pandesal and coffee so I could take the medicine. I remembered that I wasn't hungry at breakfast but had to take something to go with my meds.

We decided to run a little errand - a grocery store trip - to get the items we need for our little dish for the Easter potluck at church on Sunday. Since we were in Berkeley, we thought it best to go to Berkeley Bowl a little mom and pop grocery store that has the best produce around. Veggies you don't normally see elsewhere you see here. I particularly like their bulk items section.

We went to their second branch, the newest, that is near the freeway and found that there is a little cafeteria inside the parking lot. We went to see what it was all about and saw many people eating. Since we were hungry we decided to grab a little pack of sushi and keep our hunger pangs quiet.

This branch of Berkeley Bowl seems bigger. I enjoyed the salad and antipasti section. We bought a pound of mixed antipasti. Then we grabbed the veggies we needed for our dish and off to home we went.

I was too tuckered out after the service and the trip to the grocery store that I wanted to take a little nap before the 7 pm Taize Service at our church. But when we lay down to nap, the cats jumped on the bed and we got distracted, then Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones was on tv and we watched a bit until it was time to go to church.

A Taize Service is when worship is conducted in singing of hymns mostly from psalm verses. Very solemn and meditative with just votive candles around the cross. Very very nice.

SATURDAY:
Our friends' friends were camping in nearby Sta. Cruz mountains for the weekend. They invited our mutual friends for a day of hiking. They in turn invited us to drive out to the mountains with them. I wanted to go after learning where they camped. It is the very same park that I wanted to visit for the longest time.

The 9 am meet time became 9:30 and off we went soon after that. The husbands were up front and we were in the back. I made sandwiches for the drive. The drive would take about 2 hours, although it seemed so much faster than the 2 hours that took us to get there. Maybe because I am into drives especially if we are passing tall redwood trees, who cares about time right?

But my lady friend sitting next to me wasn't exactly enjoying the twist and turn of the ascent to the mountain as she hurled a few times. I'm not quesy about people barfing, even though the smell bothers me a bit. But this isn't her first time to get sick when we drive on curvy road. She did the same thing on our trip to Yosemite (and we want them to join us on a cruise). We stopped when we see the turnout and she managed to clean her side of the back seat and clean herself a bit. She usually bring another set of clothing for instances such as this. Not this time, but she didn't need it.

Anyway, we managed to find the friends, and their other friends. We went on short hike to different trails - easy one as our friend has a little disability that limits his mobility. We joined them for a very late lunch and found that these friends brought with them their birds (parrot and macau) with them to camping. I thought that was funny. Apparently they never leave these pets behind no matter where they go.

The funny thing is it was a drizzyly cold Saturday both in the mountains and in the valley so I wonder how they managed to sleep under the thin tent. I was assured that they brought enough blankets to cover them, etc.

I did like this park so I told the hubby that I am willing to sleep on tent again especially on this campsite since there is flush toilet and shower a few steps away and one is sleeping under these giant redwoods, what a spot.

We managed to visit one waterfall (the big one is about 13 miles away) and took some photos.

The drive home took us to Half Moon Bay where we visited our usual snack place and gotten some salmon and fish tacos and deep fried oyster - enough to keep us nourished for the drive home.

SUNDAY:
Another 6 am waking time so I could take Mom to her church service at 7 am. The service lasted longer than usual since it's Easter.

Then it was the 9:30 Easter Service at my church. It lasted much longer since aside from the Easter celebration there also was a baptism. Then there was the potluck and the Easter Egg Hunt. I did not participate in both after service activities, since I helped out in clearing the altar. Plus, I had some serious headache attack.

Hubby was on clean up duty so I had to sit in the car nursing a headache. When we got home past noon, we took Mom out to a Chinese lunch. It is in this no frills Chinese restaurant that only Chinese people know about. It is in the new location, still small and all the tables were taken so we were ushered in the back - we even past the kitchen. They have a small set up in the back that my hubby jokingly called the mafia room.

We ordered 6 dishes and paid $40 dollars. That's cheap and food is good, not the American style Chinese food.

My headache persisted all day. I hang dried the laundry then went straight to my computer to work on my project for the church.

My church is holding a big fundraiser this summer. I am the graphics person. I had completed the flyer and the donation letter. My assignment next was to come up with tickets for the event. With hubby's help, we managed to finish this project yesterday and sent it out to the vicar and the one in charge for approval.

And because my headache wasn't going anywhere and not getting any better at all and no amount of acetamenophen or ibuprofen could cure, I went all out and sought the cure that I knew would work:

Well the headache didn't go away completely, but I was happier after taking a full dosage of above meds.

On EMMA mode

2011-04-20T17:00:00.001-07:00

I'm tired. No matter how many times I say it today, it doesn't make me less tired. I need a break!!!!

Pen not Ten

2011-04-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

Soooo busy with the start of this week - Holy Week. I miss taking this week off, ala PI.

Anyway, last night as we were getting ready for bed, my husband handed me $10 bill. I thought he could read my mind. You see we allot only ten dollars for our weekly allowance - we agreed to that amount - as part of our belt tightening program so we can save up for future vacations or whatnots.

Why did I think he could read my mind? Because I needed my allowance for this week and I didn't want to stop at the ATM, have no time for that. But he can easily go since he doesn't have a long commute to work.

How did you know I needed money I asked him? He said I asked him for it when I called him at work during the day. For the love of chocolates, I couldn't remember ever asking him to swing by the ATM at all. I know I have some memory loss lately, but this surely I could remember.

When was that I asked him further? He said, " You told me, don't forget my ten."

Hahahaha! I said don't forget my PEN. Not ten. And here I laughed out loud it scared the cats.

I liked the pens they have at his work. Our work don't buy those pens because of budget limitations. So if I need one I ask him to give me one, hence the "don't forget my pen" message.

I think dear husband needs a little visit to the ear doctor :)

Bulleted Thoughts for Friday

2011-04-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Oh one of those days when I cannot string sentences into paragraphs so I'm using bullets.

First time since I got married that I went to work without my wedding band. Forgot to put it back on last night after taking it off to wash the dishes. Something feels wrong.
Did not do an American Idol recap/prediction. A combo of laziness, busy schedule, and worry over Emma.
Emma my tuxedo cat has vomitted in the middle of the night. What came out was unchewed food.
Last week we awoke to a vomit near Buster's food plate and assumed it was Buster who overate and threw up. Now we're leaning more towards Emma being the culprit.
Was observing Emma if she had some changes in eating/appetite (No), behaviour (NO), or her physical well-being (NO). She's not lethargic at all, although my mother has been noticing that she was. I think my mom may have mixed up lethargy to a cat's laziness. Keeping my fingers crossed still.
Really bummed that my 2 point and shoot cameras have dirty lens and I don't know how to clean them. They are ruining my shots when I zoom to take photos. The newer one thankfully is still covered by warranty and would be sent for clean up. The older one is my fave and I think it's on its last legs, but I still want to hold on to it.
I hope I can save up enough for that DSLR.
I feel really silly and petty when all I could think is DSLR while two of my friends are having a tough time. One is in need of a pacemaker, else the next time she passes out she won't wake up. And the other is caring for her husband who's dealing with chemo :(
I am going to a free Christian music concert in Berkeley this Saturday.
I am looking forward to a little trip in Costa Rica late summer/early fall. Not booked yet, getting our schedules sorted out so we can start planning and paying for the trip.

Street Photography #8:

2011-04-13T16:26:00.001-07:00

I really hope I could go back here (Valladolid, Mexico) and stay for at least one night.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

2011-04-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many people 30 and under knows about this song, until Casey Abrams of AI sang it last week. I am definitely over 30 and only learned of this song a few years ago when Rod Stewart coached AI (during Daughtry's season) and plugged his album. I googled that album and listened to the tracks and found this song included in there. I loved it since. But I am sharing here is a clip from the original singer, CCR or Creedence Clearwater Revival featuring songwriter and lead singer John Fogerty. Lyrics here.

My Weekly AI Review Or Something

2011-04-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Before I go on with my weekly listing of my fave and least fave performances, I must say I recently went to out for dinner on a weeknight, a very rare occurence for me. A friend of ours just got back to the States after a few months overseas and he and his wife and me and my husband went to this tapas place. The selection is not wide and varied, but the dishes were great. I'll blog about this since I have photos to go with it - very soon.

So on to the American Idol perfomance night. I didn't realize that before the season started the producer had announced that this year - with the new judges and all - there would be no theme every week. Howevder, it looked like there is a theme every week, don't you agree?

And last night was Rock and Roll or songs by artists inducted in the Rock and Roll HOF. The top 9 went on to perform and I was pretty much satisfied with the performances. They as a group pretty much upped their game and gave their all. It is a competition after all.

At the end of the night, here are my picks. For this week and the coming weeks, I will refrain from using BOTTOM THREE instead I will refer to it as my LEAST FAVE peformances.

I am still reeling from my successful prediction from last week. On my bottom three last week were Naima and Thia - who were both got the boot.

This week, rock being the theme and my fave themes of all time, I chose the following:

FAVE PERFORMANCES:
1. James Durbin - come on now even if you weren't a fan before this night, didn't he sway you a bit to take a second and closer look at him? I was washing the dishes when the commercial break come on and I told my husband that I predicted James to sing a Beatles song - a slow one since it's a Rock and Roll theme, he'd take the slow route. I was correct on both instances, although the song he chose - WHILE MY GUITAR SILENTLY WEEPS - was not the one I had in mind, but what a clever choice. He came out swinging with his emotional take on the theme. And what a handsome guy he is.

2. Casey Abrams - A few posts down, here, I mentioned how much I love the song HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN that was a cover by Rod Stewart, originally sung by CCR. My brother has CCR CDS and sometimes when I borrow his truck one of these CDS are in his truck stereo and I get to listen. But I wasn't particularly knowledgeable about the group. Still I was stoke to hear Casey go out and cover this song, the song that I personally believe would be great tune in this day and age and would merit more air time. I thought he did a great job - especially since the song he chose was my favorite.

3. Scott McCreery - Who knew he could do Elvis? And spectacularly well I might add. I was truly impressed with his overall perfomance last night although some of his hand gestures were a bit disconcerting to see. Anyway, I thought he hit the bull's eye with last night's perfomance.

LEAST FAVORITE:
1.   Stefano Langone - I did not particularly care for his brand of crooning and the song he chose I thought did not do any justice to his quest. I am not a fan to begin with and with that song choice last night I remained not a fan. You see what I mean. I thought he failed last night to convert nonfans to fans by that song.

2.   Lauren Alaina - No one sings that and comes out looking and sounding good, unless you're Kelly Clarkson, which I really haven't seen since I jumped onto the AI bandwagon in Season 4. But I heard Kelly's interpretation and it rocked. But Lauren's Natural Woman - suprised to find it was sung by Queen Aretha - was nowhere near the shadow of the originator.

3.   I don't have a third choice.

I'd like to note that I like Haley's raspy almost manic performance last night. I hope she keeps choosing songs like this. Plus, keep the curls Haley, I like the curls on you.

Agree or not, doesn't Pia sounded like Celine Dion every single week. Keep your eye shut and just listen. You would think it's Celine crooning.

Jacob Lusk continues to do well. But I don't think he'll have enough staying power.

So there goes my weekly prediction and blabber about American Idol. Until next week.

Random Thoughts and Random Observations

2011-04-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

There is nothing much to write about, but something inside me tells I should write something. I fear if I don't post something and let this sit idle I'd lose my momentum and interest.

Needless to say I have been busy - both at and out of workplace. Been to the church meeting after work last night. Was assigned to be the graphic artist, sort of, this big fundraiser we are planning for June. That means I have to design the flyer (done - final edit last night), poster (have a draft that need to be tinkered), donation letter (also given final go by committee last night), and tickets (which I will start working on tonight). That's not the end of my duties. I think I may have to also produce a programme that must be submitted closer to the event date.

Honestly I was overwhelmed by the responsibility. I know a little bit about designing flyers but nothing compared to the magnitude of this job. You see I have no artistic bone in my body. I cannot even draw straight lines. I cannot mix and match colors. I simply am the "wrong" fit for this job. But the task fell onto my lap and I went with it. Scoured the internet for template designs, emailed people for help and/or permission to use their flickr image. It was really a big job.

Thankfully a fellow blogger that I avidly follow since the very beginning of my blogging days - she inspired me to put out a blog when I read her posts - mentioned in her blog that she is doing her church's fundraising flyers and other graphics. She is a professional graphic artist. She was an answer to my prayers. I emailed her for inspiration, she emailed me back with material I could use and did use. God's presence!

My participation in this undertaking is almost over and I haven't enjoyed the experience. I reached that realization today. When the task first came to my desk I was a bit surly. Yes it added to the things I needed to do outside of work. Work has been pretty draining this year, too many things to do, and the last thing I wanted to do when I came home is to do some more work. That is how I approached the job.

A co-worker asked me why I had a frown the day after I got the job. I told her about the assignment I got from the church fundraising and how inept I was at this project. She told me then that the way to approach this was to think that I'd be doing something for God and put all my efforts into it. The results would be coming from God.

Why didn't I listen to her when she said think that this is for God. I never did that. I had some resentments early on because I was doing it for the committee, which is not the case. Oh well. I should take a 180 on this and start enjoying the ride. I shall again do the same thing next year. Not my idea. That was brought up last night too, that this would become an annual thingy - but I already designed the flyer and the logo. Only the dates would be changed in the coming years.

Anyway, I was planning on joining Miss Kayni's giveaway. First because I truly love freebies. And most importantly, the prizes are truly lovely. But the tickets need to be generated tonight, so I pass for now. Till next giveaway.

Before I forget our weekend had been glorious - weather wise. I could not find anything to complain about. We had sun, breeze, and glorious 70F. Bay denizens who had to endure steady rain for weeks and weeks were flapping their wings like free birds and went outdoors to enjoy the sun.

We pulled weeds both days, though looking out in the garden, front and back, it needs more than our efforts combined could give. We are asking a guy - jack-of-all-trades - our guy to come and help us with anything that needs fixing around the house. He can lay out tiles and wood flooring and also do some gardening.

On Sunday was my burger day. No plan for a burger. But we were scheduled to visit with our friends, an elderly couple who asked for burgers. We often bring them some eats when we go and visit with them. During these visits we eat together and then we asked them what we could do for them. They're old and had been very sickly over the past 2-3 years. In fact the husband just got out of the hospital again. He has been the one sick with this and that thing. They only have one son, who hasn't really gotten control of his life. So he's not even stable enough to support/look after his parents (emotionally that is not to mention financially). That's why we take it upon ourselves to peek in once in a while and see how they're doing - in addition to the phone calls.

When we left their house, we decided to go walk a bit. After all there's a burger that needs to be burned. Our choice of park to walk is called Eastshore State Park. We don't come here often since this is located along the very busy Interstate 80, one that is crowded even on weekends. So we avoid coming this way.

However, since we were in the neighborhood and the sun was out we went here. Normally this would be too cold to walk being too close to the water. But Sunday was terrific. I was wearing short sleeves and I was fine.

Furthermore the reason we wanted to visit is to see if the outdoor museum is still there. Refuse, trash, and whatever washes up on the shore some artistic hands create works of art and they stand out near the water. Every local knows about this and enjoy this part. I cannot remember if there are new items - I will post my entry about this on my other blog.

But here enjoy some of the things I found on the net about this place. Here is one. Here is a writeup. And photos. Remember to wait for my entry on my photo blog.

TV Talk

2011-03-31T16:40:00.000-07:00

Another performance night is over for American Idol. The top 11 performed Elton John songs last night and most of them did a fantastic job, in my opinion.

My top three based on the performance:
1. James Durbin
2. Casey Abrams
3. Lauren Alaina

Note: I don't know what it is, but Pia Toscano has started to rub me the wrong way. Is it her perfectionist way of singing? Is it her ballad heavy repertoire week after week? Is it her perfect teeth and lovely face and silky long hair? I don't know. But she just fell off my fave wagon.

The bottom three based on performance:
1. Stefano Langone
2. Naima Adedapo
3. Thia Megia

Note: I hate to see Thia in my bottom three but she has not shown any personality in the contest so far. Her voice could only carry her so far. She needs to bring in a total package. I hope that the votes will save her, but for now and until she develops a go-get-it attitude, she will be off my fave list :)

In another Wednesday show, TOP CHEF ALL STARS had their finale last night and Richard Blais was crowned the TOP CHEF. Good for him.

It's hard to be totally happy, since my fave chefs, Dale Talde and Angelo Sosa, were eliminated earlier.

One Joyful Year

2011-03-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

March 30, 2010. The day started as it had always been for the past two weeks. Being sidelined, recovering from a surgery, I knew I would spend the day by getting a little sun in the backyard, granted it wasn't too cold. And I would spend most of the time taking it easy - watching tv and blogging/bloghopping.

I knew that I had to make a life-changing decision before the day was over. Hubs and I made a decision and there was no turning back from that decision. We had reached the point of no return. Yet I wasn't 100% sure inside as I pretended to be outside.

Still, I dove in. Que sera sera!

Emma's first picture - taken March 31, 2010

You came home with us that night. Spent the first few minutes under the bed. I let you sniff the downstairs living area. After that everything is fuzzy.

Except when it was time to sleep, you jumped into bed and cuddled up with my legs and slept in between them. That's where you sleep ever since.

You made me a cat person, Emma. You are such a good cat. A very entertaining cat. A perfect companion. You knew when I need you on my lap and when I need you to stay beside me so I can have the laptop on my lap instead. We were so pleased with the experience that 7 months after we got you, we wanted another one and got your brother Buster.

Since we didn't know your exact birthday and the shelter told us that you were 2 years old when we adopted you, your dad and I agreed to make your adoption day your birthday. So today, March 30, 2011, my dear Emma you are 3 years old. You are going to get a LOT of treats today my darling.

I don't know how life was before I had a cat, honestly. Now I understand why cat owners seemed cookie/crazy to noncat owners :)

Oh joy!

I Haven't Rambled in A While

2011-03-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

So here is my rambling in bullets:

Last Friday, March 18th we had a full blown storm - ala PI - with thunder, lightning, hail, strong winds, and power outage. Hubby was ecstatic to feel the home feel again, reading newspaper by flashlight. Buster was freaked out. Could not figure where all the rumbling was coming from. Backyard went white from all the hail.
Went to see BATTLE LOS ANGELES. Wanted to see the new Matt Damon movie but changed our minds at the last minute. Wasn't bad, in fact quite entertaining for a war/action movie.
Had adobong pusit and plain white rice - take out lunch from local Pinoy resto, CABALEN. Totally enjoyed my lunch yesterday.
Looks like our friends are dragging us to the Central Coast soon. I haven't even posted the photos I took from our 2 night 3 day stay from November and here I am about to go. We'll see they might change their minds and opt for Yosemite instead. Either destination, I would not care. Both are spectacularly scenic in their own rights.
Would be very busy at work. Looks like I'd be putting in OT for a few weeks in the coming days. I can almost feel the heavy weight of that Canon DSLR in my hands. Husband warns me not to spend the OT money before I earned it. Wise guy, isn't he?
I am just loving the new batch of judges on AMERICAN IDOL. Jennifer is so insightful and so supportive of the contestants. I heart her!
And I just adore Steven Tyler's beautiful eyes when he listens to the contestants perform.
James Durbin's for real, isn't he? Easy on the eyes too :)
Antonia just got sabotaged by her "cousin" Mike. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you ain't watching TOP CHEF ALL STARS.
The radio just played HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN, the version by Rod Stewart. I really really love that song.

That's all I have to say for now.

Street Photography #7

2011-03-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

Juneau, Alaska

Buster's Corner

2011-03-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Food Craving Wednesday

2011-03-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be nice to have another segment here. A food craving day. Not that I cook. Nope. In our household my husband is the chef, and I the sous chef - a lofty title for the chopper, dicer, slicer person. But I don't mind. First my husband truly enjoys cooking. Second, when he's stressed, cooking gives him comfort and relaxation. And I get to enjoy the product of his relaxation. Isn't that a great deal?

Anyway, once upon a time when I used to work in Emeryville, I'd frequent the Emerybay Public Market. This is where I would get Moroccan Pastilla - like a siopao but different. I googled the recipe and found out that it is traditionally a pigeon dish. Here in the states, they use chicken. I would love to taste pigeon, I never had before.

If you want to try this recipe, click here, and let me know how it tastes.

This Is Us Being Spontaneous

2011-03-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

We have no plans, travel or otherwise, for the next few months. Nothing. Sad isn't it?

However, we expect to be quite deep into our church's fundraising this summer. So we are clearing our schedules for that - and oh we are saving up for some big vacation - like a 2-week Turkey tour :)

Anyway, my Saturdays are always the same. It's a routine. In the morning, and I don't wake up early either, I have to take my mom out to eat and then run her errands. Later on in the day we do groceries, et al. Not this Saturday. We didn't run our errands after my morning with mom.

Instead we attended my nephew's housewarming party. In all these economic worries, he managed to buy a condo/townhouse. It's a 2 bedroom 2 1/2 baths built in 2005 so it's fairly new. It was foreclosed and thankfully he had 20% down, I wouldn't have guessed. Not to knock him down, but I certainly did not think he was geared towards his future. I am so delighted and proud.

The condo overlooks International Market - across from the college. It's a gated community so it's pretty safe. The 2-storey townhouse has a lovely floorplan that I liked a lot. I went home satisfied after seeing his new digs. Beats the rent he pays for the apartment.

On Sunday, we had church. Afterwards we went home for a little brunch. While chewing, I was also making a list of what we needed to buy at the grocery store.

And then I thought why not drive to Napa. Napa is less than 30 minutes drive from home and a favorite place to go to if we feel the need to go out of the house.

Halfway to Napa, the skies opened up and poured wet blessings on us. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to exploring the revitilized riverfront district on foot. I knew that Iron Chef's Morimoto's new restaurant is in that area. I wanted to take photos.

I told my husband that next time we plan on being spontaneous we check the weather report first.

While we toyed with the idea of making a U turn and watch movie instead, we decided to go ahead with our plans, since the movie tickets were sitting in my computer desk at home.

Despite the rain which was on and off, when it was on it was really pouring, the visit to the riverfront was very nice. Morimoto's restaurant is right there two doors down from Tyler Florence's store. You see these are my name brands. I don't do Dolce Gabbana, or DKNY or Gucci. Those names don't mean a thing to me. What matters to me are Morimoto, Alice Waters (mother/founder of California cuisine, owner of Chez Panisse), Tyler Florence, etc.

Just like those who buy Louis Vitton, I too cannot afford to eat there, but I save up so I can and today was not the day to eat.

We walked around poking into restaurants to see what their menus would be like and how much they charge :)

Went inside Kohl's and grabbed a few shirts, my idea of shopping.

Walked some more and found ourselves in need of some sustenance. We ducked into SWEETIE PIE and had coffee and coffee cake. We found a wonderfully looking chocolate cupcake with almond butter creme frosting that had to be wrapped for enjoyment at home.

The rest of the afternoon went by as we ran our errands. I shall be back when the weather is pleasant and would redo the walk I took.

Sharing A Journal Entry

2011-03-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

Dapat sana nagulat ako, o di sana eh naghinala man lang sa pagbisita ni Brad Pitt dito sa bahay. Aba bakit nga ba hindi eh sa tatlong taon naming magkaklase nung high school ni minsan di napadpad sa bahay yang si Brad, samantalang ako at ang iba pa naming mga kaeskuwela ay halos magbabad sa kanilang bahay. At sa baryo pa ang bahay nila samantalang kami'y taga bayan, aba malayo layo din yung tambayan namin ah. Pero anhin ko mang isipin ni hindi sumaglit sa isipan ko na may mangyayari nung araw na iyon.

Nagbihis agad ako ng damit panglakad ng makita ko si Brad na kasama ng aking frends na si Phoebe. Alam kong gala na naman ang sadya nitong dalawang ito. Pero nang babain ko at harapin iba na ang naging ihip ng hangin. Seryoso ang mukha ni Brad. Pinaupo ako ni Phoebe at isinalaysay niya ang kanilang sadya. Ikakasal na daw si Brad!!!! Nahuli daw sila sa akto. At may baril na kasangkot, "shotgun wedding" kungbaga. At hindi sila naririto para ihatid ang magandang balita. Narito sila sapagkat nais ni Brad na maglabas ng sama ng loob. Laking gulat ko talaga. Ang nasabi ko sa sarili, aba parang sine ito ah! Nakinig ako ng maigi sa kanyang hinaing. Hinaplos haplos ko ang kanyang likod sa pakikiramay sa kanyang kalagayan. Wala kaming inabot na kasagutan sa kanyang suliranin, kayat minarapat naming pasyalan si Rachel, ang isa pa naming frends na isat kalahating kanto lang ang layo sa akin.

Gaya ng inaasahan, naulit ang pagsasalaysay sa balkonahe nila Rachel. Ito naman ang humaplos haplos kay Brad para kalmahin (at hindi kalamayin ah) ang kalooban nito. Sa lahat ng taon na aking kakilala si Brad ito ay masyadong personal na tao. Wala nga akong nababalitaan na nililigawan nito noong high school. Ito ay nakatutok sa pagaaral. Sabagay kahit ba iisang grupo namin di kami masyadong close nito kaya laking gulat ko na lang sa mga pangyayaring ito.

Kahit tatlo na kaming nagiisip wala kaming solusyon sa problema ni Brad kayat minarapat naming dalhin kay Monica ang problema ni Brad kahit ba siya ay paalis na patungong Estados Unidos para doon maghanap buhay. Mabuti na lamang at siyay andito pa para kami ay gabayan. Si Monica ang aming "brains" ng grupo. Maliban sa matalino ito, hindi pa siya nahihiyang magbigay ng payo. At ang pinakamaganda nito, hindi siya nagpapairal ng emosyon pag dating sa ganitong mga bagay. Hinaharap niya ang anumang bagay na klaro ang pagiisip. Siya'y matyur para sa kanyang edad, samantalang kamiy parang teen-ager pa din.

At dahil naghahanda na sa pagalis patungong EU si Monica, buo ang pamilya niya sa bahay nila. Andoon ang kanyang ama na bumalik na galing ng Middle East. Pero binigyan nila kami ng pagkakataong makapagsarili sa sala. Naupo kaming apat sa sofa. Isinalaysay namin ang mga pangyayari at sa bandang huli ay nahingi kami ng payo. Heto na po. Pabalik balik na naglalakad sa aming harapan si Monica habang kanyang ibinabahagi sa amin ang kanyang pamosong, DONT DO THE CRIME IF YOU CANT DO THE TIME na sermon. Wala siyang ipinakitang pakikiramay sa aming kaibigan. Pero tama lang naman iyon sa aking pakiwari sapagkat tatlo na kaming kasangga ni Brad. Kailangan namin ang kanyang neutral na palagay sa kahihinatnan ni Brad.

Sa aming pagalis sa bahay ni Monica, nakabuo kami ng plano. Ang sabi ni Phoebe kailangan naming tulungan si Brad. Dito masusubok and aming prendsyip. Syempre pa, sang-ayon kami ni Rachel sa ganitong plano. Anuman iyon.

Nang mahimasmasan si Brad, nagpaalam na ito. Samantalang kaming tatlo'y abala sa pagbuo ng aming "master plan" para maiiwas si Brad sa pagpapakasal sa babaeng ito na hindi namin kakilala. Siyanga pala, nakalimutan kong sabihin na buntis ang babae, yan ang sabi ni Brad. Pero, yan ay di namin isinaalang alang sa aming pagbuo ng plano.

Ganito ang aming napagkasunduan, malasine ito. Magpapanggap si Phoebe na buntis, may kasama pang props na kunway siya'y buntis. At kapag dumating na sa puntong itatanong ng pari kung may tututol ba sa kanilang pagiisang dibdib, tatayo itong si Phoebe at syang tututol at ilalahad sa lahat ng nasa simbahan na siya ay nagdadalang tao at si Brad nga ang ama. Alam ni Brad na ganito ang plano namin.

Ngayon kung binabalikan ko ang nakaraan, naaalala ko pa ang kasabikan ko sa plano namin. Ako at ang dalawa ko pang kaibigan ay pawang mga mababait na tao, may takot sa Diyos, pero bakit wala ni isa man sa aming tatlo and nakaisip na mali itong planong ito? Si Monica na aming kinunsulta ay siyang humadlang sa pagusad ng aming plano. Kami raw ay nasisiraan na ng bait. Pero matigas and ulo namin, sige pa ring pag perpekto ng aming nasabing plano ang aming pinagkaabalahan.

Sa pagdating ng araw ng kasal, kami'y nagdalawang sakay patungo sa kabilang bayan sa aming probinsya. Nung araw ding iyon namin napagalaman na hindi pala sa katoliko ang kasal kundi sa Aglipay. May kalakihan and simbahan at pinasya naming tatlo na umupo sa likuran. Lahat ng pumapasok ay nakatingin sa amin dahil nga naman wala kami sa gawi ng "groom side" or "bride side". Isa pa, mukhang sabit lang kami duon. Kung baga, talagang mukha kaming mga "outsiders" or "wedding crashers".

Tiningnan kami ni Brad isa isa mula sa may kalayuan. Hindi namin malapitan ito sa loob ng simbahan kahit ba kilala kami ng kanyang mga partido. Ewan ko ba kung bakit. Pero hayun naka barong tagalog siya at naghihintay sa kanyang kaisang dibdib. Nakatayo at ang mga mata'y humihingi ng tulong. Kaming tatlo'y paralisado sa mga oras na iyon. Wala kaming magawang tulong sa aming kaibigan kundi kawayan siya, aming bersyon ng "asa likod mo kami, gay-yem".

Nagumpisa na ang misa/kasal. Aray!!! Ilocano ang misa. At hindi lang Ilocano, Ilocanong hindi namin maintindihan. Kami'y mga Ilocano, pero andaming mga salita na kaiba sa aming Ilocano! Patay! Wala kaming maintindihan. Pero kahit na ganoon, malakas pa din ang "fighting spirit" namin. Aba sa dinami dami ng kasal na aming nakita maging sa personal o sine, kabisado na namin ang buong kasal, di ba? Hah, yan ang akala ninyo. Sapagkat nag reredi pa lang kami sa may punto na kung saan itanong ng pari kung may tututol ba, aruy, sa harap ng altar ay "kiss the bride" na ang eksena. Laking gulat naming tatlo. Nagkatinginan kami at nagtanungan kung kami bay hindi nakikinig ng maige? Bakit napalampas namin and parte na aming pinakahihintay?

Ganoon ang kinahantungan ng aking kwento. Pero mabuti na yon dahil sa palagay ko ay hindi namin kayang isakatuparan ang aming plano. Parang laro lang siya. Maigi na ring ganoon ang resulta dahil nasa simbahan kami at kami'y nagpaplano ng kalokohan.

Hindi naging palagay sa amin si Misis Pitt. Lagi nitong sinusundo si Mister kapag gumigimik kami. Mayroon kaming isang kubo na tambayan namin, pagaari ng ate ng isa sa aming kaibigan at open ito sa amin kahit anong oras. Bibili kami ng beer, coke (yung iniimon ah), at tsibog, at alam ni Misis kung saan susunduin si Brad. Ang laki ng galit o inis niya sa amin. Wala kaming paki. Si Brad naman laging naka' "hayaan niyo na siya", siguro naman mahal din niya ito kaya nagpapikot na.

Alam niyo na siguro na di buntis si Misis ano? Makalipas ang maraming taon, andito na ako sa america, nabalitaan ko nagkaanak din sila.

Happy Ending.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This is a true story, the way I remembered it. I wrote this a while back on a journal while recalling a crazy time in my life. It was originally written in English, but prior to posting on my other blog I thought it would be a hoot to translate it in Tagalog - challenging myself to write in my native language kind of thing.

I posted a wedding picture on facebook and my cohorts posted that they remembered this wedding fondly. I told them if you need more reminding of "all that happened" let me know. They replied, OH WE REMEMBER EVERYTHING :)

Update on the couple - they have been happily married, with a housefull of kids and Mrs Pitt is chummy with everyone in the barkada. She came around eventually.

As a matter of fact, when I was talking on the phone to Rachel she confided that Mrs Pitt acts as if she was our classmate and not Brad, that's how close she is with the group/barkada.

End of Weekend Thoughts

2011-03-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

The weekend is almost over. Basically it is over. These weekends are never long enough and next week is even shorter on account of the time change.

I've been quite stressed out lately. I don't know why, but I think I am also hormonal. Good combination eh?

Anyway, we had some rain this weekend, again. Yap, this winter was a rainy one. Winter is almost over and I haven't been to the snow yet. Been planing since January, but it's first weekend of March and no trip has been planned. Next week is not possible either as my nephew is hosting a Housewarming Party. I cannot believe it. I didn't realize he was even looking at home ownership, but he and his partner are now mortgage payer. And I'm dying to check out their new home, a townhouse, near the international market, which means they are so close to tuyo, tinapa, and other Asian goodies.

There is something exciting that I did this weekend. After church today my hubs and I went straight to Oakland to support Oakland Museum's White Elephant Sale. A warehouse full of goodies. They have everything, electronics, books and music and videos, jewelry, paintings and lithographs and photographs, clothing, furniture, and dishes and cups and mugs - everything. And today after 12 noon, everything is 50% off.

Here's what I got in my shopping bag - 4 different kinds of bells [thought I'd start a collection of bells], a jack-in-the-box lamp [which we are hoping would be worth something in the future], 2 lithographs that we are hoping would be worth something again in the future. Hubs even googled the artist before we paid for them. This is the time I really am thankful for the new fangled phones that connect you online.

I was hoping I could get a piece of jewelry, but I couldn't get close to the glass cases. Three people deep were in the jewelry section, so I just decided to forego it and check out something else.

I really appreciate fundraisers like this. Oakland Museum is a wonderful place to visit and I fully support it.

The sale is so popular that we had to park four blocks away. I hope next year they'd have another one.

I Pick Thee

2011-03-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

We've heard the top 12 boys performed on Monday night; the girls last night. I thought that there were more talents in the boys this year. It's sad that the top 12 had to be half girls and half boys. Why not just pick 12, any 12 regardless of gender.

I am talking about the new season of American Idol for those who got lost and found themselves here on this site and can't follow what I'm saying.

My understanding is that tonight they would choose the 5 boys and 5 girls that had the highest number of votes to go to the "real show". From those that weren't picked, one boy and one girl would be chosen by the judges as the wild card picks. Sound good, but unfair for some of the boys who would be left in the cold because well there's only 6 slots for them. And from what I heard last Monday night, there were more than 6 boys that deserved to move on.

Well I'll cry over spilt milk after I crossed the bridge after I found out who's left out in the dark. In the meantime let me share my picks.

Casey Abrams. He's quirky and I like that a lot. He also reminds me of Jack Black.

Thia Megia. The young one who has a lovely voice and a very pleasant face.

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Scotty McCreery. I like his deep voice and I heart country music.

Lauren Alaina. I heart country music, that's all. Oh she also can sing. Really well.

James Durbin. First he's local - from the bay area city of Santa Cruz. Second, he's a rocker. Third, he reminds me of Adam Lambert - who I heart from last season. Enough reason.

Julie Zorrilla. Loved her from the audition in SF. But she chose the song that's completely wrong for her. I think she's going thru anyway - voted in or chosen by judges as wild card.

Pia Toscano. Impressive on Tuesday night. I was completely floored by her performance. Not in my radar until last night.

Paul McDonald. I love quirky.

Tim Halperin. I like him.

All photos were borrowed from tv dot com.

About the judges: I am liking the set up. I think the chemistry among the three judges is fantastic, although it feels weird that Randy is becoming the voice of reason this year, huh????

Love Jennifer in the judge's panel. She brings glamour and also sound advice.

And Steven is really fun to watch.

Tune in tonight and see who made the cut. Keeping my fingers crossed that all of these aspirants I mentioned here would sail to the next round.

I love watching her sleep.

2011-03-01T10:01:00.001-08:00

I love watching her sleep., originally uploaded by M'roy.

My husband watches in fascination at the joy that's flowing from my soul as I watch Emma sleep. Neither he nor I knew that I would get so much happiness from having a pet/cat. He insisted on getting a cat because he said a home needs pets.

Emma gave me a fright last Friday night when she awoke from her slumber and coughed like clearing a furball. Instead vomit came out. While concern washed over our faces, she was an image of embarrassment. Luckily, it seemed like nothing at all.

At the end of this month Emma would be celebrating her first year of adoption. We are so lucky.

Street Photography # 6

2011-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot that I had a series going on Street Photography. This one comes from Barcelona.

Is it Friday yet?

Here's What's Coming Up

2011-02-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

Brace yourself for the pretty....

Have I whetted you appetite for spring photoshoots?

In Pursuit of Perfection and Other Weird Things

2011-02-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Be forewarned this is a PMS-induced post. Having blurted out the situation I am in, it is no wonder to you gals that food is in my mind today. And I thought I'd write about something I wanted to eat.

I am in search of the perfect:

HAMBURGER: I am not much of a burger person, but I get my usual 10-12 burgers a year allotment. However, I have yet to be mesmerized by the PERFECT burger. I have tried the burger joints or fastfood places and so far the one I like is In-n-Out burger. I even tried different hole-in-the-wall, but nope I have never met the perfect burger for me yet. Any help?

CUPCAKE: The trend of cupcake cuisine has given rise to my curiousity. Often ignored, I now am in search of the one cupcake to end all cupcake searches. So far there is this local bakery that makes and specializes in Red Velvet cake/cupcake and their cake and cupcake is the one that is on top of my list right now.

SPAGHETTI: A lost cause if you ask my husband. First, he said my Filipino palate could not handle the authentic Italian spaghetti. Second, I often skip this dish when I'm in a restaurant because they often charge a ridiculous price for a bowl of spaghetti. I always think I can make spaghetti at home for 1/8 of the price. If we are talking of the Filipino version, I love the one at Jollibee.

CHEESECAKE: Traditional or flavored. The problem with cheesecake is that I like it so much that even crappy ones in the cafeteria can give me a bit of satisfaction. I am leaning towards flavored variety when it comes to cheesecake. I like anything with chocolate marbleing in it too. Any suggestions?

Let me know if you have any ideas about the above mentioned items.

Now on to the weird things............

Today is February 17. I looked at the calendar and the date jumped out at me. It's like this date meant something. I cannot remember any significance, however. I wracked my brain trying to recall any birthdays or anniversaries, or any kind of event, but nothing.

Do you dream about things that make no sense at all? Do you remember your dreams months after they occur?

Okay, a few months ago I had a dream. Inside a house, a vacation house. I was getting the family into the car, the vacation is ending and we have a long drive home to California. The vacation house - in the dream we owned it - was in Colorado. Telluride, Colorado. I have not seen any images of this city, but I heard of its name before. It makes no sense at all. But the whole dream sequence is still very vivid, a testament to that is this post I am writing months after the dream. Makes no sense at all. But I'm intrigued at my ownership of a vacation house :)