Dea Guwapa

it’s really no wonder how cheesy this blog can get. *toink*

But wait, it gets even cheesier!

I couldn’t resist when I saw this card on Etsy. Ah, the words of my heart!

Okay, you may all barf now.

I am a cat lover. I’m now a cat lover, thanks to our darling 5-week old kitten, Uma.

Abet teases me about this a lot, that I now love cats. Pre-Uma, the only cat I liked was Garfield- -I can’t stand the rest of ‘em felines- -but this little furball gets me thinking that cats are absolutely adorable creatures.

Did you see that video circulating last week about the woman caught by security cameras dumping a cat in the trash bin? Oh, I was so furious when I saw it on the news! If that happened two months ago, I don’t think I would have been bothered much, but now I was like, “I’ma kill you, b*****!” You wouldn’t think that I hated cats not too long ago.

Anyway, Uma is my new best friend. She’s the first thing I look for when I get up, and the first thing I look for as soon as I come home from work. She’s sleeping by my foot right now as I type. I can’t get enough of this kitten. I’m in love.

I don’t plan on having any kids until I’m past 30, Uma will be my baby girl for now.

I want a trombone. I’ve always wanted one. It’s my second favorite instrument next to the cello for three reasons: (1) it’s used in both jazz and classical music, which are my two great loves; (2) it mainly uses the bass clef, which I prefer over the treble clef; and (3) it doesn’t call for long fingers, which I don’t have. Abet and I went to Raon yesterday to get a mic for the cello and I can’t help but ogle the t-bones on display. I probably won’t be getting one anytime soon, though. I need a trombone like I need snow boots in Manila. Besides, we already have enough musical instruments at the moment. We have Jacqueline the cello which is in Baguio with Joe. Then there’s Joshua the violin which is missing its chinrest. Underneath my bed is Herbie the flute, which I haven’t touched again after I had it re-padded three years ago. There are the two guitars, one of which was a Christmas gift from Abet to my family. We have an upright piano that needs a bit of tuning. And somewhere in this house, there’s a “C” harmonica named Toots.

I wonder if there’s anyone out there who’s willing to trade a decent trombone for a chinrest-less violin.

Congratulations, pretty little nurse! We’re so proud of you!

Aren’t they purty? I fell in love at first sight with these clubs when I saw them on the display window at a sports shop. Of course I would, they’re baby blue! With plush baby blue club head covers and baby blue shafts! I begged my parents to get these and they said no, but I came home one day to find the clubs sitting on our sala. I was supposed to share with my mom and sister. That was July 2007.

Look closely:

The club heads are still covered in plastic three years later! I have never ever used them, and neither have my mother and my sister. The poor golf clubs are stashed in a corner of our house. The pretty clubs don’t deserve this kind of neglect.

I have a new goal for this year: to take these babies out for a whirl. It’s about time I signed up for some beginner golf lessons at the nearest driving range. My dad will definitely be pleased. Besides, it’s on my 31 Before 31 list to play a full round of golf with my dad, I gotta start somewhere.

University of Santo Tomas
1st International Guitar Festival
August 23-27, 2010

For reservations, inquiries and other concerns, please contact:

7314022 – UST Conservatory of Music
09272224297 – UST Guitar Hotline
ustguitar@yahoo.com
http://ustguitar.org

For more information about the artists, click here. For schedules and ticket prices, click here.

Let’s watch!

I’ve been craving for pho lately, especially after Kayni blogged about her rainy-day pho meal. Pho, one of Vietnam’s most popular dishes, is basically rice noodle soup which is usually served with chicken or beef. When the weather is wet and cold, a nice hot bowl of it is most welcome. It rained for the most part during the two-day Vietnam leg of our backpacking trip last year that we ended up eating pho thrice: once at Pho 24, a restaurant chain with branches all over Vietnam, and twice at the famous Pho 2000 where Bill Clinton had his fill of beef pho.

chicken pho

vegetable pho

Pho is best paired with Vietnamese spring rolls. I prefer these fried over fresh.

left: Pho 24; right: Pho 2000

If these cravings persist, I may have to troop to the nearest Pho Hoa branch. I hope their noodle soups are as good as the ones we had in Ho Chi Minh.

. . . is when you and your friends go here:

but you don’t eat any of this because you’re on a veggie diet:

That, my dear friends, is the legendary isaw manok (chicken intestines) inside the UP campus, the one from Mang Larry’s stall right across Kalayaan Residence Hall, the isaw that is on my top ten list of favorite foods of all time. (I actually don’t have a list yet, but if I ever made one, this would be on it.)

I should have an award or something.

It helped that I was still full from lunch at Good Burger in Maginhawa St.:

That’s my 3-cheese burger (cream cheese, mozzarella, cheese sauce) with lettuce, onions, and tomato. That’s a veggie patty, of course.

After this vegetarian craziness, I’ll make sure to plan another trip to the isawan, the picture of those darn intestines above is driving me crazy!

*pics from Renalyn*

Our baby girl is three weeks old now. She’s so guwapa especially now that her eyes are already open.

I worry about her sometimes, she hasn’t grown much since the day Momon rescued her just after she was born. I like to think that she’s well fed with us, there’s always someone to feed her ’round the clock. Poor kitten probably didn’t get enough nutrition before we got her, I’m willing to bet that the mommy cat was never given kitty prenatal vitamins when she was pregnant.

I’m glad Uma is thriving, though. I’m already smitten with this kitten.

14 days to go until I cross off the first item on my 31 Before 31 list: (#10) Be a vegetarian for 60 days. And I never cheated, not even when we had food tastings with two different caterers. I didn’t touch the meat dishes.

Believe it or not, I haven’t been craving for pork or beef at all. In fact, I’m craving for just 3 things: Jollibee Chicken Joy, Sr. Pedro roast chicken, and my mom’s squid in ink dish. After the 60 days, I think I’ll continue to lay off the red meat and reincorporate just seafood and chicken into my diet, but only when I’m craving for it. We’ll see.

I’m actually feeling better now than when I first started going vegetarian. Six weeks ago, I felt like a truck in bad need of rv repairs: I felt heavy, I was sluggish, and I was popping and creaking and aching all over. The difference isn’t really dramatic and the weight loss is minimal (just 7 lbs.), but I’m happier, definitely. I don’t feel as heavy or as bloated as before, and the body pains have lessened. And while almost everyone around me at work has the sniffles and coughs, I’m as fit as a fiddle. Must be all that fruit.

I’m so proud of myself already. I can’t wait for August 26, when I’ll finally get to tick off item #10 on my list. I’ll treat myself to a 1-piece Chicken Joy meal then.

I was alarmed when my officemate Cheska read out this headline at work today: “Bigger waistline, bigger risk of dying.”

I’ll say it: I have a BIG tummy. It ranges in size from 2 months pregnant to 4 months pregnant depending on my underwear, how much I just ate, or my bowel movement that morning. (TMI, I know. Gross.) And it isn’t just me, Abet is also, um, abdominally endowed.

This isn’t new to me, I’ve always known that a wide midsection is unhealthy because it means that the internal organs are covered in fat, but reading the article really freaked me out. I actually didn’t have any appetite for dinner.

I really need to focus on getting my waistline down, and not just for aesthetic reasons anymore. And I need to convince Abet to do the same. We have this grand plan of growing old into Lolo and Lola in love, so we can’t afford to have that bigger risk of us dying. Sorry to be so morbid.

Once we’re married, I’m going to make sure that Abet and I will have a very healthy lifestyle. I’m going to start stocking up on healthy recipes and scouting for folding treadmills and portable ab machines in the meantime. For now, we’ll be constantly reminding each other to eat healthy, and I’ll be working out with my Pilates videos and my mom’s Ab Rocket while he rides around on his bike. We just have to get rid of these belly flabs.

My eyes are so bad that I probably need a pair of binoculars if not for my glasses and contact lenses. I started wearing glasses when I was 15 with a vision of 50-50, and now I’m at 300-350. (Oh, and I had my first round of braces when I was 16–I looked like a total geek.)

Anyway, my company offers us an annual optical allowance, I need to start scouting for a pair that suits me. I wasn’t able to avail of the allowance last year, so that was money down the drain. Sayang. That’s why I really want to get a new pair this year, even if my Just Cavalli glasses still serve me well.

*taken at KLIA-LCCT, Malaysia*

These are my first pair of plastic frames and I don’t think I’ll go back to metal frames again. I’m partial to Tina Fey-ish spectacles, I want to get another pair like the ones she usually sports.

via

I take my glasses-shopping very seriously since I plan on wearing them for a long time (and they’ll be right smack on my face), can’t wait to look for the perfect pair this weekend.

I made banana crumb muffins for the first time, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.

I tried making them in a metal cupcake pan and a silicone pans to see which one works better, I prefer the metal one.

I finally got to use the blue gingham cupcake liners I bought more than a year ago.

I’ve been baking a lot the past few weeks and I’m enjoying it immensely. It’s my therapy session after a busy day or week at work. Being able to create something yummy out of flour and eggs and sugar is very fulfilling, and even more so when I get good feedback about my products. I was giddy when May’s friends and my friend Eliza found the muffins delicious.

I hope to sell my baked goodies one of these days, it’s on my bucket list. I need to enroll in formal baking lessons first, and learn about costing and packaging. I also hope for a big nice kitchen complete with modern baking tools and supplies (the ones that look like industrial products) and a kick-ass oven.

Someday, someday, I’ll have that kitchen. And someday, I’ll be able to sell my cupcakes and cakes and cookies. In the meantime, I’m sure my friends are happy that I bake for free.

So, I just got around to watching Sex and the City 2 (just snippets, actually, that thing was painful to watch- -but that’s another story), and you know what I realized? Sarah Jessica Parker looks like something you’d put a horse tack on! Oh, I don’t mean to be, well, mean, but I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.

Surely, I couldn’t be the only one who thinks that so I Googled the search terms ‘Sarah Jessica Parker horse,’ expecting to see blog entries sharing my opinion. You know what came up? A website called http://sarahjessicaparkerlookslikeahorse.com, complete with side-by-side pictures of SJP and a lookalike equine. Yikes!

Anyway, I saw this article a few days ago on Yahoo! about some Hollywood celebrities’ thoughts on Botox. Julia Roberts, Jane Seymour and Pamela Anderson aren’t for it- -and neither is Sarah Jessica. What I’m saying is, maybe Botox is okay to fix yourself up a bit if there’s already a website comparing your face to a thoroughbred. I subscribe to the idea that Hollywood actresses should be beautiful and should do their best to stay so. Just my thoughts.

Okay, I’m going to stop now. My boyfriend doesn’t want me posting negative stuff on my blog. Oh, and he’s anti-Botox, too. He’d rather have my face sag than have toxins injected into it, meh. But then I’m not a big Hollywood celebrity, am I?

The number of spam comments I get on this blog is just ridiculous.

According to my blog statistics, since I started this blog in March, I have marked 1284 out of the 2044 comments I have received as spam. Some of the messages I get have direct links on the body, such as those for rv insurance quotes or penis enlargement methods or laundromat equipment, but the annoying ones are those canned, generic replies such as this:

“This article was recommended to me by a friend. I have to say, glancing at this was of value. I will tell more friends about it as well.”

Or this:

“Once I started reading this post I couldn’t stop until I was finished, though it wasn’t precisely what I have been looking for, was a nice read though.”

It annoys me because I can’t tell right away if it’s a legit comment or not unless I’ve read the entire message, and by then I’ve wasted a few seconds of my time. And I get a teeny bit disappointed when I realize that it’s not a real comment, hehe.

I really need to figure out how to put in a Captcha field in my comments section, I want to keep the spammers at bay.

So, my sister got herself a job. So much for having someone to accompany me on my wedding errands.

I can’t believe she’s really an adult now. She’s 21 now, but we still tell her that “wa pa man ka’y buot.” (I’d translate that if I could, but there just aren’t any words.) She’s still my baby sister.

If it were up to me, I’d just have her stay home and enjoy her one year off before medical school and just bum. I don’t think she’ll have that luxury ever again once she starts school again in June. I told her that I’ll enroll her in photography classes and driving school and make-up workshops, but she wants to earn money for herself instead of mooching off the parental units. Which can only be a good thing, right?

I guess I’m not too happy with her, erm, temporary career choice. She applied at a call center, the easiest way to make money these days. I would have preferred that she wait for the nursing board exam results *puhon* and apply for a nursing job, but we all know that’s easier said than done. Or maybe she could have just enrolled in
medical assisting school and do something related to medicine, that would have been better.

Anyway, I’m going to tell you the real reason I’m not too happy about this. When my brother Mako had his year off between his nursing course and med school, he just stayed home and relaxed. Anyway, my job schedule is midshift, which means I get home at an ungodly hour. Before , I’d go home to a lonely house where everyone’s asleep except for whatever animals were alive at that time to keep me company. When Mako was a bum, there was someone to greet me and open the gate for me when I arrived, and I had someone to talk to before I went to sleep. I was hoping I’d get to have that with May.

I’m just looking at the bright side, at least she’ll gain a wealth of experience from this. And she’ll have her government papers (SSS, TIN, Philhealth) in place. And I’m hoping that working at a call center will make her aim higher and get that hunger to study medicine. (I’ll drag her by her hair to Perpetual if she does something crazy like say she’ll just keep working instead of studying, I swear.) Also, she’ll be earning, yipee! She can treat me to dinner and take me shopping, mwehehe! And she did promise me she’ll get us a chocolate fountain for our wedding, so May: get your ass to work!