Life as I know and live it

V Day 2012

2012-02-14T23:55:00.001+08:00

This year is perhaps one of the most memorable I’ve had for a couple of reasons (in no particular order, hehe):

Hubby surprised me with a bouquet of roses delivered to the office (although I actually got a hint yesterday when he asked me what floor my office was at the tower; I just didn’t point it out to him then coz I didn’t want to spoil the mood, hehe). What’s sweet about this is that this is the first time in six years that he gave me flowers (the last one was for my birthday back in 2006; he was feeling guilty coz he was on vacation in the US).

flowers from the hubby and a card from the boybie

Joey gave us a Valentine’s Day card. Even though he probably just copied it from the board, this is still the best card EVER. And his hugs and kisses this morning are undoubtedly one of the best presents I can wish for.

Hubby and I decided to join the bandwagon and eat out. No, it wasn’t planned. We just got hungry after the traffic going home so we decided to try the newly-opened Gram’s Diner at the Fort.

Now, I’ve always been a fan of Gram’s Diner but this was many years ago; I’ve never been to Gram’s since they closed the Rockwell branch (the nearest branch I know of is at SM MOA and I’m too lazy to go there). I can’t even remember the menu (that long!) but I think they used to offer more choices. Anyway, the food was as good as I remember it; hubby and I finished off our salad and roast beef. A feat considering that we usually don’t eat an entire order of salad (and now you’re probably gonna ask me why we order it in the first place; I don’t know). I like the cozy set-up of Gram’s (like Mr. Jones’ at Greenbelt and Mile-Hi Diner at Burgos Circle) – laid-back and yet not too casual like a fast food.

forgot the name - chicken/bacon salad ? - but they serve only one kind of salad so there. haha.

roast beef. order is big enough for two, just add extra rice. :)

And since it’s relatively new (I think it opened just a few weeks ago) and located in a not so convenient spot (for commuters, at least; it’s near the MC Home Depot, beside the drive-thru Starbucks), it’s not crowded so your time is not wasted.

Oh, and to cap it all off, I am munching gummy bears while reading a new book. :D

I'm so OC - in case you didn't notice, I arranged the gummy bears based on the colors of the rainbow, then backwards, then all white (to signify presence of all colors; but the truth is, I ran out of the other colors). :P

The World According to Joey: 020912

2012-02-09T22:47:00.000+08:00

Joey will be celebrating his 5^th birthday this month. One lazy weekend as we were playing, I told him he’s going to be a year older.

Joey at two months old.

Joey: I’ll still love you mom, even when I’m five.

Me: How about when you’re six?

Joey: I’ll still love you when I’m six. Even when I’m a grown up.

Me: (quiet)

Joey: I’ll still do anything for my mommy even when I grow up.

Me: (quiet... teary-eyed)

At nine months

Kids... sometimes, I don’t want him to grow up. I wonder if he’ll still be as sweet when he’s much bigger. Sometimes I think I’m missing too much of his formative years and whenever I come home, I just want to hug him tightly.

*****

Hubby and I went home late the other night, tired and hungry, only to find out that the maid did not prepare any dinner for us. Rather than cook, we decided to just eat out.

Hubby: Joey, mommy and daddy will just go out to eat. You stay here with your ate.

Joey: But I love you that’s why I want to go with you. Because I want to be with you.

Me (to hubby): Ok, try finding your way out of that one.

In the end, Joey ended up joining us. I mean, how could we have possibly said no to him?

*****

The little brat sleeps with me and the hubby at night on our queen-sized bed. Before, it was a cozy fit but given that the little brat has been growing, Ipe and I have been relegated to hugging the walls (for my part) and edges of the bed (on hubby’s part) just so we can all fit. At times, one of us would end up on the couch just to get a decent sleep.

After a week of hubby and me alternating on the couch, I asked Joey if he can sleep in his own room (where we have already installed a double bed all in Cars-inspired sheets a year ago).

Me: Joey, do you think you can sleep here on your own? Ate will be using the other bed beside you (Joey’s bed has a pull out).

Joey: But I want to sleep beside my mommy.

Me: (turning a tearful eye to hubby)

Ipe: Fine. (He ends up on the couch).

Well, what can I say? Joey really knows what strings to pull to get us to say yes.

*****

As a continuation of our discussion on sleeping arrangements, hubby was reprimanding the little brat for kicking me all over during the night.

Ipe: Joey, stop kicking mommy when you sleep. You’re hurting her. I don’t want to lose my mommy!

Joey: (matter of factly) You mean your wife.

The World According to Joey: Cow, Angry and Panda

2012-02-06T22:35:00.000+08:00

Back when cow still had a crown, two nostrils and full limbs, and Joey was, well, a baby

Joey has been quite preoccupied with his Angry Bird stuffed toy, given to him last Christmas by his ninong Jere. If you’ve been avid fans of Joey, you all know Cow as well, his stuffed toy since he was a tiny two-month old baby. I was wondering how Angry (as Joey calls him) fits in so I ask Joey a month after Angry joined his “famlly.”

Me: Joey, is Cow your baby?

Joey: Yes, I’m Cow’s daddy.

Me: How about Angry? Is he Cow’s brother?

Joey: No, they’re just friends. Cow’s my baby.

Cow, at four years old, in our crudely-made shirt

Fast forward to a month after, I was playing with Joey and his two stuffed toy.

Joey: Mom, Angry is Cow’s brother.

Me: So you’re their daddy?

Joey: Yes. They’re my babies. (Seems Angry has levelled up).

Two weeks ago, my officemate JR gave me a panda stuffed toy which I found too cute to leave at the office, so I brought it home to show Joey.

Me: Joey, look! I have Panda to play with Cow and Angry. You can have him if you want.

Joey: (ignores Panda) No, I don’t like Panda. You can have him. I want you to have him.

And same with Angry, I found out that Panda is now the mommy of Joey’s two little “babies.” Yes, we figured out Panda was actually a girl - she had pink ribbons and a "love" sign written on her left foot.

Joey growing family.

Big 3-0

2012-02-05T23:41:00.004+08:00

I had a really fun time last Friday with my P&G friends as we celebrated my good friend Leah’s milestone 30^th birthday. Eight hours of work + eight hours of fun! = happy campers! The birthday girl told us the dress code was something sparkly, shiny or glittery so that doubled the fun for me as you all know how much I love my sequins, crystals and beads. :)

First was dinner at Lusso where we surprised the birthday girl with a Prada cake:

Yey! We made the birthday girl forget WD3 so mission accomplished!

I just have to say I loved the food, the ambience and the impeccable service – it made us all feel pampered. I must make a mental note to come back here soon with the hubby.

We got the cake from Bake Happy. Since we weren’t really a creative bunch, we just told Marie that we wanted a round cake ala Devil Wears Prada. And voila! I can’t believe how pretty the cake turned out; in fact, everyone who saw it just went “AWWW.” And the cake itself did not disappoint – we got the red velvet flavour (we insisted that it was Leah’s favourite flavour, someting she never noticed before, but she orders a lot of red velvet flavoured-thingies) and it tasted good. We were kinda prepared to accept a cake that only looks good but doesn’t deliver on the taste but this one was a pleasant surprise. And everything was edible too! Well, except for the candle.

Yes, everything's edible.

Look! Glittery ribbons on the red shoes! I just die looking at this.

Then it was drinks until morning at Skye Lounge, trying our best to finish the Absolut that came with our table. We talked, laughed and drank to our hearts’ content. Good times with good friends. We didn’t even notice the time, except that our feet were killing us after two or three hours of standing.

Too bad we were no match for the Absolut – we only finished half the bottle. A good thing that they let you leave the bottle and finish it some other time, provided you finish it all off within thirty days. So yeah, I guess we’ll be back here within the month.

Sharing the last pair of gambas

Happy birthday to my Pancake House/ranting session buddy and neighbour! Cheers to many more birthdays!

*You can get your custom cake from Bake Happy through Facebook or visit http://bakehappy.blogspot.com/.

One Boring Saturday

2012-01-29T00:03:00.001+08:00

Our maid suddenly decided to go on her day off today (well, hubby and I assumed that it was because her bf was somewhere nearby, after having spied on her phone a few days ago – more on why we read her phone in another post) and I was totally unprepared. Usually, my Saturdays are spent sleeping or just bumming around after a week of hard work and this particular weekend, I was feeling so tired. So, hubby and I decided to just drive around and look for a place where we can have dinner.

Initially planned on going to Mom and Tina’s in Pasig, but changed our mind when we saw Comida China de Manila (used to be Panciteria San Jacinto; not sure what brought about the name change but I believe it’s still owned by the same family and serves the same food) right beside it. I am not a big fan of Chinese food; never have been and I don’t think I ever will be but hubby’s favorite is Chinese and being soooo hungry (haven’t eaten since 10am and it was already past 6pm), I just agreed.

Joey teaching daddy how to make a funny face

Finished product

Initial impression? Not impressed. Typical panciteria/carinderia style, that is, black metal chairs and tables, and that atmosphere you always attribute to canteens. They do have some couch-seating by their bay windows which look out onto C5 and we were lucky we got there a little too early for dinner and got good seats.

fried rice with asado and Chinese sausage

pork siomai

hakaw

I let the hubby do the ordering, except to say that I wanted soup and hakaw. Well, since he did the ordering we ended up with nothing but dimsum – hubby loves his dimsum and I think he will survive eating just dimsum. Oh well, serves me for letting him decide on the food.

Food was good but nothing extraordinary. I did really enjoy the hakaw –the shrimp were seemingly dipped in a sweet, powdery mixture before being wrapped in sweet flour. It went well with the chorizo rice and chilli sauce. Oh, and I loved the bird’s nest soup with quail eggs, which we all gobbled up before I remembered to take a picture. Kiddo actually said he didn’t like it at first but as soon as hubby and I weren’t looking, he ate it all up. :D

I like pasta but I am not too fond of pancit, and pancit canton is my least favorite member of the pancit family. But, Joey loves pancit canton so we ordered one serving for him.

pancit canton

Well, I wasn’t expecting him to finish the entire thing by himself, but look:

The aftermath after hurricane Joey went through the pancit canton

the brat holding his obviously full little tummy

happy kiddo

Verdict? Comida China is a nice restaurant where big families can eat together, especially if you all like Chinese food. Plus, the prices are very reasonable – our tab came in at around Php900 considering that we went away with very full tummies. I wouldn't mind eating here again. You can check out their website here for directions on how to get there and the menu.

Barb and Mark: 012412

2012-01-28T21:14:00.000+08:00

Went to Barb and Mark’s wedding a couple of days ago – our first wedding for 2012 and I must say, it’s one of the most fun weddings I’ve ever attended for a number of reasons:

The couple had a raffle draw! I’ve never attended a wedding that gave out gifts/raffle prizes to their guests, but the couple actually gave a cell phone and some other items. Too bad we didn’t win.

Itchyworms played. A surprise from Mark as the band is Barb’s favorite. I’m not really familiar with their music but hey, who says I can’t have a good time? Especially since they played mostly familiar OPM tunes.

Great food. This is the third wedding I’ve attended which was held in the same venue and had the same caterer (the caterer must have a tie-up with the venue) in less than a year – Blue Leaf and K by Cunanan Catering, respectively. Knowing beforehand that the venue was Blue Leaf, I already made sure not to eat too much as I was expecting the same caterer and I had loved every dish they served at last two weddings I attended.

Their motif was yellow! This is the first wedding I’ve ever attended with this motif. Yellow is my favorite color (ok, fine, I'm also drawn to pink, powder blue, green, red and white, but this one is at the top of my list) and I had wanted this for our own wedding. But hubby put his foot down saying he didn’t want the entourage to look like walking bananas (yes, his exact words) so now I’m stuck with that dream. Hmm. I’m actually thinking of having another wedding celebration just to live out my dream wedding. Ha!

Personalized car plate. How cute!

Not sure what this is called- a "picture tree" maybe? Whatever it is, it's one of the little details about the wedding that I liked

Yellow flowers! And I die of envy again.

They gave each of us tiny bells for when we want the couple to kiss.

I love the color yellow. It makes everything so sunny and bright and cheerful.

We munched on these while waiting for the reception program to start. Lookie! Yellow jelly beans and yellow personalized M&Ms.

My plate. Loved the roast beef. No - I didn't eat all. For some strange reason, I felt full that night. :(

Pumpkin soup. See? It's still yellow!

Cute salad presentation. I almost thought it was a ham slice there (it's a tomato actually).

Yummy refrigerator chocolate cake. Perfect dessert! And look! Cute cone-shaped marshies.

Guests can load up on these sweets (in short, take out galore) as the thoughtful couple had paper bags ready by the buffet table. So yes, I hoarded on jelly beans and marshmallows for Joey. Too bad the M&Ms were gone by the time I realized we can take them home.

Mojitos from the mobile bar

my 2nd glass of alcohol for the night

Giveaways

The happy couple. Love Barb's gown. :D

And of course, what event is complete without the requisite photo booth souvenir? :P

Best wishes to Barb and Mark!

Daily Fashion: Purple

2012-01-26T07:42:00.000+08:00

Hubby and I went to a friend’s wedding the other day (more on that later). The invite said formal so I decided to wear a long dress. I usually just wear one of my cocktail dresses from Tyler when I attend weddings but it’s rare that I figured it would be nice to wear something else. :)

And then I realized that I don’t have a long dress – I had to scour the Makati malls to find one on such short notice. I did find several nice ones but they were so expensive and I didn’t want to spend too much on a dress I will only wear once (I don’t foresee any event in the near future that would require me to wear a long dress) so where did I go?

Yup, I went to that place where they got it all for me: SM!

hubby and me; purple dress from SM. Ring, Aldo; necklace, earrings, Accessorize; shoes, Charles and Keith. Make up by me using Shiseido and Smashbox stuff.

Can you believe my cocktail ring actually costs more than my dress? Talk about value for money! Hahaha! I wanted to wear a yellow dress but couldn’t find one in my size so I ended up with purple. Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing as the motif was yellow and I would have looked like a part of the entourage.

On our way to the reception, I changed my mind about using gold-tone accessories and changed into silver ones to match my bag and shoes. I know it’s a little too matchy but I think the end result turned out okay.

Necklace, Accessorize; earrings, Silverworks

Look! Yellow! Bag, Accessorize

Shoes, Charles and Keith

Trivia: One my biggest frustrations at our own wedding was not using yellow as our motif. Hubby had vehemently vetoed the idea – telling me our entourage would look like walking bananas, so I had to make do with rainbow hues. This is actually the first wedding I attended which had a yellow motif so I almost died of envy.

Movie: Underworld Awakening

2012-01-23T16:45:00.000+08:00

The fourth movie in the Underworld series proves to be the best in the series yet: a less convoluted plot, more action scenes, a bit of drama, and lots of Kate Beckinsale in skintight leather. And a hot new male protagonist to boot, played by Theo James.

The Story

To cut a long story short, this movie is set twelve years after Underworld Evolution, and Selene finds out Michael is dead and that she has a daughter, who is taken captive in the same facility where she had been locked in for twelve years. Much of the movie focuses on her escape, her discovery of one of the remaining vampire covens, and her attempt to rescue her hybrid daughter from the Antigen facility.

If you want a more detailed story, you can read on to the bottom of this post but beware of spoilers!

Afterthoughts

This movie has a very simple plot and doesn’t require you to think too much. It also doesn’t require you to watch the previous movies, although of course, it would be a plus if you know the back story. I found the 2^nd movie a bit too ambitious, trying to be artsy with all its dark lighting cast in blue (think CSI Miami which is filmed using blue filters, except that Evolution is much, much darker and you get the picture), and it felt confused in its storytelling. So I appreciated very much that the 3^rd one has a simpler storyline.

Funny thing, the hubby and I almost blurted out at the same as we were exiting the cinema:

Hubby: I was expecting the story to be a bit more complicated.

Me: That movie has a less convoluted plot than its predecessor (referring to Underworld Evolution)

So I guess it depends on your preference (although hubby has never seen the 2^nd movie and could not possible compare its convoluted plot to this one).

The movie is quite lacking in memorable dialogues but one of the best lines is from Selene, as a response to her daughter’s reproach on her lack of emotion and being as cold as someone dead (although of course, she IS dead, being a vampire): “My heart is not cold; it’s broken.” I felt a bit teary eyed as she said this, saying that she fell asleep and the next day she finds out twelve years have passed and the man she loves is dead.

Action-wise, this movie is also superior to its predecessors: it’s better choreographed, has more fight scenes, and ultimately gorier than the past movies combined. I couldn’t get over all the blood spatter as Selene fights her way out of Antigen in the beginning, and during her rescue mission at the climax. I couldn’t help but wonder – did she really have to kill all those humans? I know she’s a Death Dealer and all but I used to believe she has a softer side, having been orphaned as a human.

In any case, I must say Kate has not aged a bit. Can you believe it’s been ten years since the first Underworld movie? And she’s still as fit as she was then (though hubby says he can see some wrinkles, ha!). And the only one I can think of who looks just as good, if not better, in skintight leather is Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (Anne Hathaway had better do a good job in this summer’s Batman flick). And that’s one hell of a compliment.

As for the acting, well, this movie doesn’t require much acting – it just requires its leads to run from one action sequence to another and Kate has perfected the poker-face look of her pop-icon character. I couldn’t make up my mind whether I like Charles Dance’s portrayal of Thomas – the coven leader who cowers from the Lycans. I don’t know if I like his “weak” character or if I would have loved to see some defiance somewhere underneath his cowardly stance. Personally, I just don’t like seeing vampires who are unsure of themselves.

Michael Corvin is largely MIA from this movie and understandably so, as Scott Speedman has not expressed interest in reprising this role. But, hot stars are a requisite of a vampire movie, so Theo James substitutes as David, the son of Thomas. I must say he is better looking vampire than Speedman was as a hybrid.

A bit of trivia: I was a bit curious as to the actress playing Eve, India Eisley – she looked vaguely familiar, and of course, very pretty, so I looked her up a bit and found out she’s the daughter of Oliva Hussey. Now, the name might not sound familiar to most of you but I’m sure you all know Hussey: she played juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1969 film, Romeo and Juliet, arguably the best adaptation of the Shakespeare tale.

Olivia Hussey as Juliet

India Eisley

FINAL WORD

This is not the best action movie or vampire flick ever. In fact, it reminded me too much of Milla Jovovich’s B-movies: Resident Evil, Ultraviolet, etc. But, it did keep me awake the entire time and kept me interested, which is more than can be said of Jovovich’s movies. For that, I would recommend that you watch this. And if there’s another movie in the offing, I’d go watch it too.

SPOILER – A SYNOPSIS

Set some twelve years after the events of Underworld Evolution, Selene (Beckinsale) finds herself locked in a glass prison full of cryogenic fluid at the Antigen compound. An unseen person, with whom she appears to share telepathic links with, sets her free, lowering the temperature on her cryogenic prison, allowing her to wake up and break out of the cell. She manages to slaughter most of her captors and flee the compound.

Along the way, we’re treated to flashbacks and back stories of the night she was captured: vampires and lycans have been exposed to humans and the latter have unleashed a hunt to extinguish both races. Selene and Michael Corvin, the first vampire/Lycan hybrid and her lover, plan to leave and hide together but were caught and imprisoned on the night they were about to leave.

After her escape, Selene meets another vampire, David, and finally locates the person whose visions she sees: a vampire child known only as Eve, Subject 2 (Selene is Subject 1 at the Antigen facility). An ambush by a pack of rabid lycans leaves Eve hurt and unable to heal, prompting David to take them to his coven. There, they discover that Eve has no origin bite marks and the reason she doesn’t heal as she should is because she has never taken human blood. David’s coven, particularly his father Thomas, is less than pleased at having Selene, the infamous killer of vampire elders and a traitor to vampires, and Eve in his territory. Selene soon realizes that Eve is in fact her child with Michael when she sees her eyes transform like Michael’s eyes as she was fed blood by an elder vampire.

Thomas’ agitation is aggravated by the immediate assault of lycans to retrieve Eve. David gets killed trying to protect Eve and his father surrenders Eve in an attempt to prevent the total slaughter of his coven while Selene is knocked unconscious by a lycan who is twice the twice of an ordinary lycan and superior strength and healing abilities. Selene manages to revive David by giving his a heart a couple of tugs and sending some of her Corvinus-strengthened blood into his bloodstream.

Finding a human ally in a detective who has watched his vampire wife burned by the sunlight during a house-to-house checking of the government to kill vampires and werewolves, Selene soon also finds out that Lycans have been running the Antigen company and that Eve’s genetic code is being used to make lycans immune to silver and possess instantaneous healing.

Selene then launches a one-woman assault on the facility, discovering Subject 0 – Michael, himself locked in cryogenic fluid like Selene and of course, but short on time, she just shoots through his cell, assuming that he’ll be able to free himself like she did. She manages to kill off the super lycan, who is actually the son of Antigen’s big boss and the product of an experiment, and rescue her daughter with the help of the revived David.

The last scene shows Eve seeing another point of view than that of Selene: a sign that Michael is also alive and free.