I Heart Your Blog

Got this from Mandy. Many thanks sis!ü


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The rules of the award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

Previous awardees: Mabelle, Prily, Ate Norma, I Love Philippines Too, Shenga, Nova, WebbieStuffs, Nancy, Webloglearner, Pinay Wahm, and My So Called Life, Let’s Spice Things Up, Beauty and Shop, Idealpinkrose, allin, kimchiland, Korean Food, The Paper Vision, Embrace Simplicity, Me and Mine, A Window To Our World, A Grateful Heart, Can of Thoughts, A Mother’s Stuff, Housewife@work, MommaWannabe, Lourdes Mia, Praning’s Shoutout, When Silence Speaks, Etc Atbp, Aeirin’s Collections, Life is What we Make it, Underneath It All, Cellulitic Bliss, 100% Kelly, C'est La Vie, Everything but the Kitchen Sink, YOUR BLOG

I'm passing this award to Alpha.

Goo Gone

Image from http://www.partsquik.com

We heard a lot of good reviews about this product. Many people swear by its effectiveness in removing chewing gum, grease, tar stickers, labels, tape residue, oil, blood, lipstick and mascara, shoe polish, crayon, bumper stickers on any surface. I bought one yesterday and have it road-tested today. All my expanding file cases with their nasty sticker residues from price tags were lined up ready. I opened the bottle and was surprised to smell a citrusy scent (hello? bottle says citrus power). I started rubbing the residue with a cotton and a teeny-weeny drop of Goo Gone. The residue was gone in no time. I tried it on our wall to remove the red smear from a floor polish and it worked magically. Goo Gone made it easier to remove barcode stickers on any glass surface, too. Needless to say, I became a believer. Tomorrow, I'll try it on my laptop, the tub, the glass window, Hamy's trike... anything stained I can get my hands on. In fact, I'll be bringing it everywhere I go. A must for anyone who has OCness tendencies.ü

Foot for the Gods

We had our feet indulged at Foot for the Gods MOA. It was our second time and the experience was as good as the first one. I had a foot spa/massage and A went for the foot reflexology and back massage package. I enjoyed the footsie spa so much that I insisted to have a back massage, too. What a big mistake. The strong as a horse masseuse was pushing too hard no matter how many times I tell her to lighten the pressure. A enjoyed the hard massage though. Good thing, the foot spa was so great it outweighs the fact that my back felt sore after the massage. We love the place, too. The dimmed lights, the soothing music and the comfortable padded chairs create a relaxing and cozy atmosphere.

We always enjoyed feet pampering sessions so we happily agreed to put it on our monthly much needed "me time" list. We'll probably try Mint spa pedicures on our next feet trip.

Foot for the Gods
SM Mall of Asia 2nd Level, South Wing
Tel. 556-0727

Rates:
Foot Spa/45 mins - P320
Foot Reflexology/45 mins - P340*
Foot/Back Massage/ 1hr and 15 mins - P420

*if my memory serves me right

Something About Me

I got tagged by Dyes.

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1. Add your blog/s to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. It’s okay if you only post this questions in one blog as long as you answer them.
2. Get back to ME and I’ll add your blogs to the master’s list HERE {Note that you are not ALLOWED to change this links and make sure to leave the exact URL.}
3. Copy from Start to End.
4. Tag as many friends online you know. But you don’t need to be tag in order to join.

Who played along:1. Music of my Heart 2. Me and Mine 3. Creative in Me 4. For the LOVE of Food 5. Little Peanut 6. Pea in a Pod 7. It’s Where the HEART Is 8. Around the World 9. Quicker8 10. Eds Mommy Life 11. My Precious Niche 12. Just Me.. Eds 13. Princess Vien 14. In The Spirit of Dance 15. A Pocketful of Happiness 16. 1 Twelve St. 17. Everything But the Kitchen Sink 18. YOUR BLOG HERE

Questions and Answers:

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
"... decomposition behind the doors that he didn't open that other time." - Leaf Story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
The bedside lamp.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Barney!

4. WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:
2:00 pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
1:45 pm

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Swooshing sound from the electric fan.

7. When did you last step outside? what were you doing?
Yesterday, we went to Jollibee for lunch.

8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
Twitter.

9. What are you wearing?
The usual clothes I wear at home - baby tee and shorts

10. Did you dream last night?
Yes but I can't remember the details.

11. When did you last laugh?
Just this morning.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Our wedding portrait.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
According to this website, I'll be an alligator on my next life and that 39% of people will be born as a higher form of life than me. Umm okay.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
An entertaining quiz to pass the time.

15. What is the last movie you saw?
The Mummy 3

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
I'll buy each of my family and friends an around the world ticket and then we'll all travel together.

17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know:
I'm a procrastinator perfectionist.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Eliminate poverty by distributing wealth evenly.

19. Do you like to dance?
Yes, when no one's looking. Hehe.

20. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? a boy?
I named my baby girl Amerie.

21. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Sure! I'll take my family with me.

I am tagging bessie Toni, Jown, Jacque, Ann, Carla and Mandy.

One Windy Sunday

Grainy shots from A's phone. Hamy's early addiction - gumming down an empty SB cup

We went to Karl's first birthday celebration, Hamy's batchmate -- they were delivered by the same doctor and they also have the same pediatrician. He had a very nice Ferrari themed party. Sayang I didn't bring my camera with me. We enjoyed the food and Hamy loved the balloons. So cool they given away Ferrari caps as souvenirs. It was a fun, windy afternoon. We topped the day off with a cup of chai latte and a hot chocolate at Starbucks overlooking the Taal. A delicious way to warm up on a cool Tagaytay night.

yet another proud moment for charice

Celine Dion's Taking Chances Tour
Madison Square Garden, NYC, New York
Sept 15, 2008

Grabe! I had goosebumps all over while watching this on the news and the full video almost brought me into tears. Amazing voice. Surprisingly, if you Google just the name "Charice" it will come back with Charice Pempengco results. Wow. That's how big her name now. Maybe David Foster was right that she'll be known by her first name just like Cher, Madonna and Celine.

Go Charice! Shine your way to stardom.

Watch Charice on Oprah: Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Part 5

the little tea pot

Image from Amazon

I found this interesting product at Healthy Options especially made for children 12 years and below. A European herbal tea concocted from chamomile and linden tree blossoms that said to have relaxing and calming effects on kids who have a hard time sleeping at night or those who just need to relax during the day. 100% organic, caffeine free and no artificial sweetening. Good stuff! I was about to reach for it along with the arrowroot biscuit when I realized my Hamy's barely 2 years old and doesn't seem to have trouble sleeping. Oh well, maybe it may come handy someday with Dr. Vienne's approval of course.

the apple cut

The new do

We took Hamy to Hair Play today for a quick trim. This was her second haircut and I tell you it didn't go very smoothly. She's too wiggly the entire time. We were literally holding her down to keep her still. Nevertheless, the end result was great. The hair made her eyes all the more bigger and her chubby little cheeks so cherubic I want to pinch.

save your favorite youtube videos

Hamy loves watching Barney, Wonderpets and her favorite TV commercials on YouTube and it really gets tiring to wait until the buffer is full to play a steady stream. So to make life easier for both of us, I usually had a different tabbed window for her fully buffered videos. My laptop was always on sleep mode because I don't want to close the window and start all over again.

Imagine my happiness when I came across Savetube, an online tool where you can download and save your favorite YouTube videos in a snap. The videos need to be saved as a flash video (.flv) and in order to view them you must download an flv player. You may also download a converter if you wish to have the videos in AVI (MOV for me), MP4 or whatever format you want. I don't know how long Savetube's been around but I'm glad it works.

To add, if you want to convert FLV files or YouTube videos to MP3 this flv online converter will do the work for you. It's fast and efficient. Another great online tool is vixy.net which is an MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) converter. I have yet tried it because I had no patience to use it. It's too slooow for me.

a trip to manila ocean park

The school of fish and the mantra ray

We could have enjoyed the trip more if the place was not uncomfortably packed. We were sardined inside by overjoyed elementary students on a field trip. I can handle the crowd but the assaulting smell coming from a hundred or so sweaty kids, di ko kinaya! Sakit sa ulo so we stayed away from the mob bago pa kami himatayin.

The oceanarium was smaller than what I expected but the marine life collection was amazing. It was divided into three areas: Agos, Laot and Buhay na Karagatan. The Agos section has waterfalls and colorful saltwater and freshwater fishes. The Laot section has big tanks with big and small saltwater fishes. The school of fish swimming with a mantra ray was a sight to behold. The Buhay na Karagatan area has the underwater tunnel which is the main attraction. Hamy was so happy to see so many fishes swimming around the tunnel but she got bored easily. We went to the 2nd floor and boy it was hot! We didn't try the fish spa because we couldn't take the heat. Instead, we went inside the unfinished mall, passed a fine a dining resto and had our picture taken for a 3D bag tag souvenir. Hamy saw the kiddie rides at Quantum kaya we went in there din. Actually, mukhang mas nag-enjoy pa siya sa rides.

Manila Ocean Park

Admission:

P400 - adult
P300 - kids less than 4.5 ft
Free - babies less than 2 ft

bulacan big garment sale

The Big Garment Sale
Date: September 11-13, 2008
Venue: STAC Warehouse in Meycauyan, Bulacan
Blog Posts: The Great Bulacan Sale
What Makes it Awesome: Otherwise known as the Bulacan Sale that only happens 3x a year. This is the best and much anticipated factory sale event in Manila. This is where we buy cheap fashion branded clothes.

- Excerpt from Anton's blog

I wish I could go but it's a 3-hour drive. Demmit!

boracay '08

Boracay at high noon. Lovely and serene.
Photo by Rikkiyum

This is long overdue I've been really busy lately. Anyhoo, as always Boracay's awesome. The weather was fabulous despite the rain forecast. As in zero rain. It felt like summer minus tons of people. Perfect!

Let me start with the hotel. We stayed at The Tides and it's great. They welcomed us with drinks and cool towels. I love the simplicity of their rooms and the minimalist design. The used of white, black and red as the main tones give the place a peaceful and zen-like appeal. They have internet stations at the lobby area available for everyone's use but the connection was extremely slow. Oh well, it's an island what do you expect? The rooftop pool bar was ultra posh. Love it! Oh did I mention that they have a nice bathroom? Really nice. Imagine yourself under a waterfall shower, enjoying the light mist on your face and the warmth of the water... then you heard a loud thud. Only to find out that the shower handle fell off. Kaloka. And don't let me start with the cable channels. But at least the room service was fast and efficient. Overall, my experience has been quite positive despite the drawbacks.

We actually didn't spend greatly on food. Cheapskate! Haha. We even had breakfast at Andok's. Hehe. On our first day, we had lunch at Gasthof, a restaurant that served mostly Filipino dishes and seafoods followed by a late dinner at Oles Tapas, a mexican bar. The next day we had a hefty lunch at Puka Beach (love the garlic/chili crab!) and had a spicy dinner at True food, an Indian restaurant. We had pizza and bufallo wings at Yellowcab; a fish taco, double meatball spaghetti, fish and fries and a hero sandwich at Jammers; a hot roast beef burger at Big Bites and an Ice Monster fix everyday. For the boost, we tried Ole's Mojito but we never liked it because all we can taste was the alcohol. We had a Mai Tai at Hey Jude which we all loved so much we ordered the same drink at Tides only to regret it. We never got drunk and had no plans to begin with because hangover has no place in Boracay. We'd rather have a tan than a throbbing headache. One thing I regret the most was not having the time to stop by at Jonah's. Oh well maybe next time.

Underwater shots!


The Mafias and besToni.

Our cardboard cut-out friend, Che and a funny pinoy sign.

We went snorkeling and reef walking where we got our great underwater shots. Walking on the sea bed and feeding the fishes was an amazing experience! Medyo I found the gear nga lang heavy for my size. Some of my friends tried ATV and parasailing. So, basically we swam and binged all day long. But boo I went home with these nasty itchy bites from "planktons" as my friend Mj puts it. One of the locals said the jellyfish were to blame. Actually, I got the same dilemma in Galera but the bites were severe I had to go to a dermatologist. Oh well.

In those 4 days and 3 nights, there were times that the Mommy in me wanted to pack up and go home. I missed my baby so much that without my crazy friends who kept me sane the entire trip I wouldn't last a day.

Vacation doesn't have to be a bank account-breaker. Some of our best times in this trip were sitting in the sundeck talking about any kind of chismis under the sun and fooling around for the camera. I super enjoyed our paparazzi shots, the Mafia games, the pig out sessions, everything! I'll definitely come back hopefully this summer with Hubby and Hamypoopi. I would love to experience celebrating the New Year's eve at Boracay. It must be really fun. I can't wait on my next trip!

So there. Still enjoying my tan lines. Cheerio!

Paparazzi shots!

Photographed by moi

Tyra!