Got So Excited

I lost my mind at Michael’s yesterday. Ok let me back up!

I am preparing for a chocolate creation for the annual fundraiser that our church hosts in connection with the local high school’s art and music program. Every year, members of the church make something chocalatey for participants to sample. The fundraiser billed CHOCOLATE EXTRAVANZA is a chocolate buffet. I have always made truffles. I believe this would be the 5th year of the fundraiser and I am the reigning people’s choice champion in the truffle division (cake, cookie and bark are the other divisions). Because of this, there is more pressure for me to up my game with my chocolate creation.

Last week, I tested my recipe. While it was good, my friend who barely eats anything had three of my “truffles” and she said they were good. I knew they were good, but I felt they lacked some oomph in them. Consulting my husband on the recipe we decided to switch it from all chocolate flavor to lemon flavor (my winning truffle last year was a green tea truffle).

Shopping for ingredients was slated yesterday. Hubs called me at work to make arrangement to meet at Grocery Outlet after work. I came early and texted him that I would be gawking at all the beautiful things at Michael’s which is next door to the grocery store.

I picked up a set of coloring pencils (my first set needs replacement after I’ve colored so many mandalas and zentangles). On a whim I made a beeline to the food decorating section……………… and Oh Em Gee!!!!!!

Who knew there are all these utensils and devices to make chocolate creations easy breezy. The husband went straight to Michael’s and I showed him what he needed to make his creation. We bought a mold. And I had to contain myself from hyperventilating. I was so excited and I am already looking forward to making edibles for Christmas gift giving. I love you Michael’s.

Mission Accomplished

Finally something that I've been planning on doing for months and months, maybe even a couple of years, was accomplished this weekend. I finally got to clean out my closets. Two, yes, for someone who doesn't shop much and who has no fashion sense, my closets certainly filled up. The reason behind this is that despite the fact that I regularly weed out items that I simply don't like to give to Salvation Army, I have so many clothes from when I was still single (celebrating my 9th wedding anniversary this month) that I kept because I liked them so much even though they didn't fit any more. Don't worry I don't buy trendy clothing that goes out of style so the clothes I donated were still okay. Some of them were worn once or twice only. Oh those were the days when I shopped like money grew on trees.

When the husband saw what was happening, he joined in and cleaned out his closet. When we were done, there were 6 bags and 2 boxes of clothing that we dropped at Salvation Army. I felt so good and so light to see room in my closets.

Now the good thing about donating clothes is that I got to buy new ones for me. I don't shop much, but when I do I get more than one. So I got 3 new tops and hubby got 2 new pants. This shopping trip is going to last me for a long time.

Cheap is Expensive

Are you like me? Do you have a fascination with buying anything cheap? I like going to the Dollar Tree, Dollar Store, 99 Cents Store, etc to get items like dust pan, brooms, paper clips, legal pads, etc, etc, etc.

Lately, however, I’ve been becoming aware that cheap is getting expensive. Like the soap caddy for instance. We buy at the dollar store. It doesn’t work after a few months. In a year we get to replace the caddy so often. Then there’s my work ID badge, the plastic thingy that you hang on a lanyard? Well I’ve been buying ID badge holder every month at the 99 Cents Store. Finally one day, I had it. On the third week of the last badge holder that I got from the discount store, it broke. I finally had it. I decided to buy one from Walmart. Okay so as much as Walmart doesn’t appeal to me as a “good employer”, the prices cannot be beat and when you’re operating your household under a tight budget, believe me you will grab onto Walmart’s prices so quickly.

Anyway, so we went to Walmart and found a package of 12 badge holders…..for $1.99. Twelve for $1.99!!!! More bang for my buck! And it’s good quality too. I think I will think twice before buying something from the dollar store from now on, although I’m very sure that nothing can stop me from shopping there.

Do you buy anything from discount/dollar stores?

Three Weeks Later

It is three weeks since the last post and roughly 3 weeks since we got back from our vacation.

Lots of things got in the way. There were tons of tv binging. Catching up with the regular tv programs we follow took up a lot of time. Didn't realize that we watch so much tv, that we follow too many tv shows.

And because we were glued in to the tube, I have not completely tidied up my stuff from the vacation. I have yet to locate the earrings that I wore in Europe, minor issue for now.

Thanksgiving came and went. We don't normally do Thanksgiving as a family (my bros and I) so we do that separately. In the past few years we always do the traditional spread, well we try to keep it as true to the core as possible, and invite people who have no plans for Thanksgiving.

This year, a whole 16-lb turkey and all the fixings and there's just us and one friend who decided to share the day with us.

To add to the busyness of the season, hubby's birthday fell on Black Friday. We don't join in the shopping madness and if we ever are going to shop it would be either late Saturday or Sunday.

In the past we use Black Friday as a good day to go for a short drive and typically that drive leads to the wine country. We followed the same plan this year. However, much to our surprise we timed it with the annual Festival of Lights in Yountville. Unfortunately though we arrived late so much so that all the tasting tickets were sold out.

The single glass tastings however were still available so we had a beer for him and cider for me. We have been dying to have some sweets from Bouchon Bakery, but the line was tooooo long, naturally. As much as we hated to walk away from the line, we did. We wanted to catch a bit of the fading light so we could do our fall color photography. We managed to get a bit of shooting until twilight.

Still hankering for some sweets we found our way to one of our favorite stops in the valley, Dean and Deluca. While the sweets was what we came for, I fell in love with the onion and chives cheese that was out for sampling. Now I'm kicking myself for not buying a wedge of it. It truly was delish, very creamy.

On Saturday it was rainy and gloomy and we were driving to Yuba City to meet up people who could tell us about managing small business. That took longer than we expected and by the time we finished it was dark, no way that we could do any more shooting. We thought we'd talk to people then get out and drive to Grass Valley and shoot.

Plan B was to swing by Old Sacramento just to check if the Christmas lights are on. After all, it's been a few years since we were there. And another bonus to this side trip, they have Theater of Lights presentation. What a fun show for people of all ages. Of course it was cold and rainy, but didn't stop people from having fun. We saw a lot of kids (a few adults) wearing jammies, must be something going on that we didn't know about. After walking around, we stopped for a bite and a sip.

Sunday was shopping day and we mostly went to Costco for some necessities. Got a robe and hoodie for hubby and nada for moi. Oh and we were able to replace our tired but still working bedroom tv. I'm loving the new tv btw, plus it was on sale.

Right now I'm writing this with my two kitties cuddle up in bed with me. Take care.

August 24

Let me tell you about my day:

About 2:00 am - finally got to sleep, been having stomach problems. There's stomach virus going around.

About 3:20 am - the whole house shook, quite long. shaken enough to open eye and hold husbands hands wherein we both declared rather loudly in a darkened and quiet room, EARTHQUAKE!!!! I was more asleep than awake so the length of the shaking and the strength didn't bother me. Thankful it happened that way because with a bad stomach I don't think I could handle lack of sleep.

About 8:00 am - went downstairs to check on the house. Nothing fell on the floor, the paintings and photos are still on the wall, the house looked intact. Outside is a different story. Driveway has three new cracks in the cement and backyard has a crack. Thankful for the very minor damage.

About 9:30 am - church.

About 12:00 nn - joined family at the park. Nephew's partner planned to propose to him via a mob flash. Their friends and colleagues organized the bbq, the dance, the proposal. I was happy to be there.

About 2:00 pm - trying out shoes at a shoe store in Berkeley and getting a bad customer service by a Filipino employee. If I was to shell out $200 for a pair, I'd like a little smile with my service and to be treated well.

About 3:00 pm - enjoying Ikea shopping. Went to get a side table for guest bedroom, went home with a lot of stuff and no side table. It's always like that isn't it?

About 5:30 pm - Macy's shoe shopping and clothes shopping. Nothing I liked in the shoe department and decided to leave the clothes I pick on the rack and went home.

I am thankful for this day.

Winter, Olympics, AI and other projects

2013_05_27_28_29 185, originally uploaded by M'roy.

It's been a weird winter. Drought in California and endless snowstorm in the East, Midwest and some parts of the South. I know the rest of the country can't wait for spring to come and snow on the ground to melt, but I'm a bit anxious of the arrival of both spring and summer. If the trend continues and we don't get any significant rainfall between now and summer, I'm pretty sure we will see water rationing. I never experienced having water rationing before, full time. I remember when my brother used to live in Makati, they get water from about 5 am to 9 am and then again from 6 pm to about 10 pm. They collect water in a large bin in the bathroom and more bins in the kitchen. They have the faucets continuously running during those hours and the pressure wasn't great but the household water needs were met. You learn to make do with the available resources I suppose.

In other news, I've been enjoying the Olympic Games so far, although I've been getting impatient with women's figure skating which is finally tonight. I'm not checking online for spoilers as I know the short program is completed earlier in the day.

Additionally, American Idol is back! I'm loving Harry Connick Jr as the moral fiber of the group, so to speak. I really really like him and this early I could see that the trio of judges gel together well, unlike the ragtag team of last year's judging panel. Really dislike Mariah and Nikki Minaj.

I went shopping crazy a few weeks ago. I went to my closet and found that my pants were one by one disintegrating. They have been used so many times that they were dying on me. No other choice but to shop. So I bought 5 pants and 3 tops. Now the pants need to be altered, I mean shortened. I usually buy pants labelled "short" but this time around they didn't have those. So the pants were sitting in my closet accummulating cat hair until I convinced the hubby to invest in a simple sewing machine. Great timing K-Mart was selling a "simple" sewing machine, yes that's what it's called, last week for $79. So we bought one. It's Wednesday now and the only action that the sewing machine had seen were scratches from the cats curious about the heavy box sitting at the foot of the bed. I can stitch two fabrics together, I know how to use a sewing machine. My mother did not teach me how to cook - although she was a great cook - but she taught me how to sew. So my project now is to shorten the pants. I am giving myself a week to complete this project.

In addition, I still have that cross stitch project that I agreed to do with my San Diego friend. She and I will do a cross stitch project at the same time and will check on each other's progress online. Unfortunately she had to go home to the homeland because her mother passed away. I think today is her arrival back stateside.

That's all for now. I'm getting lazy putting my thoughts and feelings on writing, so there's less and less stuff here.

A week before Christmas

A week to go before Christmas and I find my energy level for the Holidays a bit down. Likewise my enthusiasm meter shows it's way down. I don't know what happens to me during this time of the year. I cannot seem to summon up enough energy, enough excitement, the same eagerness I once had for this holiday.

As our family had been doing for a few years now, what with the original nieces and nephews all grown and some have little kiddies of their own, we now only buy one present with a set price (usually $10) that would hopefully be gender neutral which we would number and then we'd pick out a number and we'd get the present with the corresponding number (like a white elephant thingy). Now if you pick the one you brought, you could pick another number. This way we can all cut down the cost of Christmas. Our family is big, and if we continued doing what we were doing before (buying each and everyone a present) well, it's crazy expensive. And completely unnecessary expenses, I might add. We all agreed that the adults (which now outnumber the kids) don't actually need anything, don't require presents at Christmas. So we all only buy one present, however, all the kids under 12 still get presents from everyone. After all Christmas presents are for kiddies, right?

That being said, trips to the stores/mall have been curtailed in half, or even less, especially since we almost always pick something up from the store all year round, or hit the buy button on websites for deals we see.

Be that as it may, I still found myself at the stores this weekend, the horror! I was slated to pick up some clothes for moi. I don't normally shop much for clothes except that I had budgeted some money for clothes from my vacation fund. I had found some pants, work pants, that I kinda like, but when I saw the long line at the cashier, I didn't hesitate to leave them behind and march out of the store. Long lines and shopping chaos give me headache.

Also this weekend, our 2nd annual project for the homeless in the city went underway. On Saturday we filled Christmas sacks filled with goodies from toiletries to food and bible. The evening also consisted of dinner and caroling. A fun time. Sunday was when the gift sacks were distributed; however, we didn't go with the group to distribute. We had other things to do.

We had a heavy heart all weekend long, helping friends with relationship woes. It's really hard to keep a relationship going. It's true love is not enough to keep it going. So many little things required for a partnership to bloom and thrive and grow, things like respect, compassion, romance, trust, etc. It's hard when you are friends with both of them. It would be easier if you are friends with just one of them, then your focus and support is with the friend. The hubby and I were on call and we've been fielding calls all weekend long. I pray that they can find a solution that is right for both of them. It makes me sad to see a relationship crumble, especially when you don't see the crack forming right before your very eyes. You only become aware there's trouble when the whole darn building collapses. That's what happened here. The hubs and I look at each other in disbelief. We had NO clue at all.

Now That Thanksgiving is Over

Now that Thanksgiving is over, bring on Christmas!

But before that, let me tell you how Thanksgiving went. I took an extra day, Wednesday, so that I had a 5-day holiday, what fun, isn't it?

Spent the Wednesday tidying up the house, vacuum, sweeping, mopping, dusting, all the works. Each time there's an occasion I vow to regularly do a clean up like 2x a month just so the house is always "clean" and when big days come there's only a little bit of dusting or sweeping slash vacuuming to do; instead of this half-day affair. BUT it never happens. The other half of the day was spent chopping and slicing. I was tired.

Thankfully on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, there was very little thing to do. The turkey would go at the very last hour since we were deep frying it. Nope it is good deep fried. It's not our first time to do this. The skin is crispy, but the meat is super juicy. A crowd favorite.

The mashed potatoes were done the day before; just like the roasted veggies. Since we were deep frying the turkey we decided to do french fries and sweet potato fries.

We had 8 guests; not one is family, at least not by blood. Our family doesn't do a thanksgiving as a clan; we wait for Christmas to do that.

The toughest part of the preparation is not the cooking nor the cleaning; it's the digging up the boxes in the garage to find where the good china is. I wasn't going to serve dinner and use Dixie. In the same vein finding the good utensils was equally hard. Take it from me, mark your boxes accurately when packing for moving.

Anyway, we found the good set. We know that there's two sets because I bought two of them. However I could only find one set. It's a set of 8, good right since I have 8 guests. But that means we have to find something for me, the hubs and my mom to use. Long story short we found a way to complete our table setting.

Friday we stayed in bed till around 12 noon. I was dog tired from yesterday. When the party ended the clean up began and we didn't get into bed until way after midnight.

Initially planned on watching CATCHING FIRE; but when we eventually finished cleaning up from the party (putting back the china et. al.) it was an hour or so before the showing. We hit two stores just browsing. By the time we were driving to the cinema we noticed that the parking lot was so full we drove away and abandoned our plan of watching a movie.

On Saturday our friends took us to a seafood/sushi buffet. I know, more food, so soon after Thanksgiving. I don't know what's going on here.

Then we all went to Costco for a little shopping. We managed to get toys for little kids we have on our list.

Sunday we drove to Daly City to go to another seafood/sushi buffet. What's going on in here?

In recap, my five day holiday was more about food and not too much about shopping. Oh and I need a vacation from this one.

Kidding aside.....I am very thankful. I am blessed tremendously, more than I deserved.

Daily October

Ooops...

Yikes...

Oh noes....

Yap I did it again. I was unable to sustain every day blogging. Why do I even try.

This recent violation saw me missed 5 blogging days in a row. I don't know what happened. Well that's not true. I knew what happened to some of the days, but the first 2 days I cannot remember what prevented me from blogging.

Since my senile brain is unable to recall Thursday and Friday, let me tell you what a hectic but wonderful day Saturday was.

It was my dad's birthday and although he had passed on 3 decades ago, we still remember him. This time around though through the insistence of mom we got together at home to pray, except that mom said she already prayed the novena 9 days before dad's birthday. So we ended up just hanging together for lunch at a Chinese buffet.

I was so happy to be hanging out with my brothers - all 4 of them - all at the same time. There was good food too. Too much for that matter.

When lunch was over we drove back home and chatted at the backyard and they started catching up. Funny how our lives are so busy that we need times like this to catch up with one's family. The irony of it all is that we all live within a 10-mile radius of each other, well maybe 7 miles.

I hated to cut my time with brothers short but we had to head out for church for the monthly night out. We were feeding about 30 people who signed up for our DINNER AND A MOVIE night. We played THE LIFE OF PI and our menu was pie-ta chips with hummus, pie-na colada, and shepherd's pie with apple pie for dessert. Another fun night with people.

Sunday was nice. With another couple we drove to Napa for some leaf peeping. Fall is not at peak yet, but there was plenty of colors to be seen. We enjoyed the outing.

I was off Monday again, you know too much vacay time that it is imperative I take time off. I ran errands with mom and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon editing photos. By evening when hubby got home from work, we went to get cat food and his costume at Party City.

They say Halloween is a 7 billion industry and I saw how. Party City was jampacked with people getting their costumes. I lost my hubby more than once. His group at work decided they were to dress as SMURFS. We were hunting for Smurf hat and blue paint. I found the paint, but no hat. There wasn't anything SMURFS related on the shelves, such a shame. When we saw the long line to the cashier we abandoned the body paint and left for home hungry.

It's madness, people going overboard for Halloween.

I told the hubs maybe one year we'll host a cocktail Halloween party so we all could dress up.

So that's what's been happening in my absence here. Feel bad that I didn't complete this daily blogging exercise.