Saturday, May 30, 2009

So, I kinda won the lotto (NOT the grand prize) --

I did get 3 of the 6 numbers, which means I won ... 100 pesos!

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<-- look at set B of my lotto ticket

I know it's such a small amount but I'm thrilled that I finally got some of the numbers correct. (Considering it's 49 numbers. The odds are astounding!)

Sayang nga e
-- I could've gotten 4 numbers right if I had chosen 28 instead of 27. ^_^

* * *

It's all in the packaging --

Been meaning to post this for a while now -- but Johann and I stumbled upon an interesting bag of chips a few months back.

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It was actually the flavor that caught my eye and it was only later that we discovered that it was locally made by Oishi.

It's the same size as Kettle Chips and only slightly smaller than the Lays/Ruffles chips but it was way, way cheaper. (I think it was about 50 pesos for the bag.)

While in line to check out, the woman behind me asked me where I got the bag. (The packaging is very eye-catching.) And I told her where we found it but warned her that it seemed to be the only bag left.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to taste it -- by the time we decided to open the bag, Anya was around and I was breastfeeding. (I was worried that the wasabi might find its way into my milk and annoy the little one.)

Johann thought it was good -- but not something one person can eat alone.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Best pasalubong! --

Our friends just came back from Spain. They dropped off some pasalubong for us -- the usual stuff for the kids -- fun activities and knickknacks.

This is what they got for us --

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SMURF Marshmallows!!!

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Insane cuteness!!! >_<

The problem is, I don't know if I want to eat them.

Or how --

I'm thinking, smores.

* * *

Coming home --

One of my favorite memories is about chocolate cake --

Every time we came home from school (in Manila), my parents always fetched us from the airport. (No matter the time of day or how busy they were -- they'd always be there at arrival area to welcome us home.)

There'd also be a chocolate cake in the back seat that my dad picked up from Carlo's bakery on the way to the airport.

It wasn't the fanciest cake -- but it was delicious and it was the perfect way to welcome us back to Iloilo.

Carlo's closed years ago and I've (un)consciously measured all other chocolate cakes against it and, as expected, most other cakes fell short.

Early this year, we discovered the Carlo's was reopening and the first thing I thought of was chocolate cake.

It took us 5 months to eventually go there but we finally made the trip last Thursday.

And they had the cake!

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And it was just as amazing.

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My sister and I were eating it together and we felt the same way -- it felt like coming home. (We are home. ^_^)

Even Johann, who is very particular about his chocolate cake (he likes it fudgy and not spongy; he likes the icing to be of a particular consistency and not too thick; etc.) loved it.

When my dad came home and saw the cake, he said, "It's bigger now, isn't it?"

But it made him smile -- (too bad he can't eat it anymore.)

And it made all of us happy. ^_^

Found! Really cute blog! --

It's called "Notebook of Handmade" --

Monday, May 11, 2009

I'm small! --

...to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man.
- The Phantom TollBooth

I've always been amused by how my body was made --

I've always hovered between a size 10 to size 14 (and I wish I could go down a size or two.)

My eyes are too big and my mouth is too big. When I would have my makeup done, the makeup artist would always do the "minimizing trick" on my lips.

And, my feet are big too. Especially now -- my feet grew a bit with each pregnancy and now I'm in-between sizes so it's very hard for me to buy shoes.

I'm big where I should be small ...
And I'm small where I should be big!

Drawing blood has always been a major chore -- I have very small, very thin veins. The lab techs usually have to call their "seniors" to extract my blood. This last OGTT, they had to get blood 5 times from the same arm (my left arm) because they couldn't find veins thick enough to poke with an injection on my right arm. (There have been times when even the senior lab techs had to draw the blood from my hand because the veins there are thicker.)

I also have a small cervix -- which is why I had to deliver Seth via CS because his head wouldn't fit!

I also have small teeth, which explains the gap between my two front teeth. All of my siblings dreaded getting their wisdom teeth because those would crowd their existing teeth (they all had their wisdom teeth pulled out). In my case, the dentist was actually praying that they would come out big so that they could push my teeth and close the gap. (My wisdom teeth are small-ish and no such pushing occurred.)

I also have small ears!

I recently renewed my passport and had such a hard time getting the photo part right. The new passport requirement is that both ears should be visible. I had tucked my hair behind my ears and smoothed my hair down by clipping it (at the back so that it wouldn't be visible in the picture). The photographer tried several times and my ears just wouldn't show!

As a last resort, she rolled several strips of paper and tucked those on my ear so they would stick out a little.

And that's how I got my passport photo taken. ^_^


(My blog entry about The Phantom Tollbooth)

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Another reason why the SSS and Philhealth are my favorite government services --

This has been circulating around the Internet for a while now --

It was Johann who told me about it and we had a fairly lengthy discussion about how st**p*d the Bureau of Customs is.

When we were graduate students, my sister and I had to deal with the Bureau of Customs officer holding up school books (Norton edition of Madame Bovary and Arden/Oxford editions of some of Shakespeare's plays), which we purchased from Amazon.com and asking us what the books were about and having to pay a hefty tax just to get them. (This is despite showing our valid school IDs and explaining to them what the books were about.)

As hobbyists, it was agonizing trying to explain that "Vampire: The Eternal Struggle" was a game and had nothing to do with our religious beliefs.

And now, there's this:

The Great Book Blockade of 2009

I kinda understand that the BOC is pressured to meet a collections quota -- the quarterly failure to meet such quota is usually printed in newspapers but there has got to be a better way.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Books I want to read --

The trouble with picking up back issues of Bookmarks is that it makes you want to read so many books --

The trouble with living where I live is that we only have 2 National Bookstores and 2 Booksales for our book needs.

Anyhoo, here are some books that I want to read --
1. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

2. The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

3. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

4. A Year in the World by Frances Mayes

5. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell <-- this one, I was just too kuripot to buy a copy at Fully Booked

6. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley

7. Madame Bovary's Ovaries: A Darwinian Look at Literature by David Barash