Marriage License by Norman Rockwell
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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Rowr rowr rowr

Current Mood:

I've been grumpy and growly today, and even though I'm perfectly aware that I'm just PMSing, it doesn't improve my mood any.

On a lighter note though, there's this great event at the Memphis Botanic Garden: Japanese Garden Candlelit Tours. Steve and I will probably go to the July one, because it's about Ikebana and that's one of my hobbies :-). Here, let me give you the description from the Memphis Botanic Garden website...

Plan on visiting the Memphis Botanic Garden for our special summertime Candlelight Tours in the Japanese Garden. Enjoy a tranquil and relaxing evening while learning about the symbolism of various features of the Japanese Garden of Tranquility (Sei-jaku-en) as members of Ikebana lead you through the candlelit Garden.

This event will be a two hour event with the first hour of each evening filled with activites and information on various traditions from Japanese culture. The second hour will feature stories of Japanese folklore and garden symbolism as told by Ikebana International docents while touring the candlelit garden.

These events are scheduled on Thursday evenings. The schedule is as follows:

Thursday, June 2: Sushi and Sake at Sundown with Kabuki Dancers, 6pm - 7pm. Candlelight Tour, 7pm - 8pm

Thursday, July 7: Shibui Kimonos with Ikebana Flower Design, 6:15pm - 7:15pm. Candlelight Tour, 7:15pm - 8:15pm

~$3 Members ; $5 Non-members ; Free - Children 2 and Under

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Sunday, May 29, 2005

Say "Uncle!" Say "Uncle!"

Current Mood:

{giggles} Bubu's such a good sport :-).



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Quality time with my best friend

Current Mood:

Saturday was great--Steve and I spent the entire day at the Memphis Zoo :-)!

The weather was wonderful and there were lots of people because it was Memorial Day Weekend (for the Filipino readers, Memorial Day is the holiday when the U.S. honors its military dead. It's set at the last Monday in May, so it's always a three-day weekend).

We had a great time :-). I took lots of pictures and a couple of videos. I'll post some of my favorites here, but if you want to see all the pictures and a map of the zoo, you can go to my Yahoo Photos page (you can also find our wedding pictures there) :-).

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Saturday, May 28, 2005

Too many Kamikaze rolls + sleep = vampire dreams

Current Mood:

We were in a very old village in Mexico City. The population was divided into humans and vampires. These weren't classic vampires. These vampires walked during the day.

Something important was going to happen. The vampires were being called together by some great force. They were converging and the humans were moving from church to church to try and work our way out of the city. Every time we would move to a church, it would be surrounded by vampires. We had half-vampires with us, spawned by a vampire but still half human so they could control the urge to be evil, and they chose to stay with humans.

We were in one of the border churches. Vampires were walking outside, towards the center of town. At one point they stopped, and just started yowling. Whatever it was that was calling the vampires was making them howl, and it was making the the half vampires howl too.

One half-vampire, after he had been able to regain control of himself, turned to the rest of us and said, "We've got to fight them!" And someone replied, "No. We wait." I'm not sure what we were waiting for, but I think it was for someone who was supposed to arrive and help us.

At that point the crowd of vampires outside the church had turned and looked into the church windows, smiling menacingly. Then they dissolved into swirling balls of fire. They crashed through the church windows. I was at the end of one pew, my back to the church wall. Three fire swirls came toward me and materialized into vampires.

They looked like absolutely normal people. They walked towards me, still smiling. That was the scariest thing about them. They believed they were going to win whatever it was they were getting ready for, so much so that you would end up doubting your own hopes of escape. One of the human warriors was making his way to me, attacking them from behind, but he wasn't getting to them fast enough. The vampires were coming closer and closer.

My only weapon? I was holding a ball point pen that was tipped with holy water.

Okay, I have to seriously lay off the Kamikaze rolls before bed :-).



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LOVE that place!

Current Mood:

There's this new small Japanese take-out place that opened nearby, it's called Dozo Teriyaki. It's run by a Japanese family and Steve and I both hope that their business is good enough that they stay open for a LONG time :-). He and I love their food :-).

How good is their food? Steve isn't a seafood guy, but he has taken a liking to their Kamikaze Rolls-- its main ingredient is barbecued eel.

For a non-seafood guy to like EEL, that's a pretty darned good place :-).

Plus I really like it when the wife hands you your food and she bows and sincerely says, "Arigato gosai masu." You can tell she's not saying it as a gimmick. She's really grateful you patronized their store.

...I think I'll go have some leftover Kamikaze rolls :-).

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Addictive game

Current Mood:

Steve told me about this popular game called Sudoku. My first reaction when I saw it was, "Ugh, numbers--I'm no good at math."

It didn't take very long for me to enjoy playing it, though :-). All you need to do is to make sure that the numbers 1-9 appear in every row and in every column with no duplications. You get hooked when you start using your logic skills. "Okay, the 2 can't go in there because that would mean this cell would have to be 7 and there's already a 7 there. Therefore, this must be 4."

If you're an "if-then" kind of person, you'd like this game :-).


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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Grrrr....

Current Mood:

...LOCK the taskbar, LOCK the taskbar...


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Shall We Dance?

Current Mood:

I'm going to try ballroom dancing as a way to keep fit (i.e. lose weight) :-). There's a Fred Astaire Dance Studio nearby and they offer an introductory course for $25, which includes 5 lessons (3 half hour private sessions, 1 group session and 1 pratice session).

They teach Fox Trot, Waltz, Tango, Rumba, Cha Cha, Swing, Salsa, Mambo, Samba, Merengue, Paso Doble, Bolero, and the Viennese Waltz {whew}. After the introductory sessions, I work with their supervisor to discuss what my next steps (pun intended :-)) are going to be :-).

I figure, if I'm going to try and keep fit, may as well do something that's fun, right? :-)

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Monday, May 23, 2005

So how was Star Wars?

Current Mood:

It was all right :-)... Darth Vader has a lot more depth now, it'll be difficult for me to see him as just a bad guy in the older Star Wars movies :-).

I also never realized how much R2D2 has gone through :-). That is one droid with a LOT of experience :-). I think he's the only character (other than Annakin Skywalker) that's been in all 6 movies (since I'm not a Star Wars fan, I could easily be wrong though). And they all tell him the same thing: "Stay with the ship, R2." {giggles} R2D2 must be so sick and tired of that command, especially after he keeps proving time and time again that he can take care of himself :-).

I also realized that Yoda is cool :-).

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Friday, May 20, 2005

Weak with the Force, she is...

Current Mood:

Steve knows I'm not much of a Star Wars fan, but he had absolutely no idea how clueless I was about the whole thing until he started talking about it this morning. He wanted to make sure I was familiar with at least the plot line before we went and saw Revenge of the Sith.

"I wonder how many people have made the connection that Chancellor Palpatine is Darth Sidius," he told me.
"...Who?"
"Okay, you know the Chancellor, right?"
"...Is he the old white guy?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "...Lord, help me."

Then he started from the beginning and talked about the Trade Federation.

I asked, "...Is that like the Federation of Planets?"
"No, that's from Star Trek. Don't confuse the two."

Weak with the Force, she is... :-)

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Thursday, May 19, 2005

Wha--?

Current Mood:

{reads that previous entry} Holy cow, today is THURSDAY?


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Happiness is...

Current Mood:

Happiness is when you get home at 11:30pm bummed out because Wendy's ran out of their Manadarin Chicken Salad and your husband offers to drive to another Wendy's that's twice as far away so he can get you some :-).

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Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Don't you just hate it when...

Current Mood:

Don't you just hate it when a thought has become so ingrained in your head that you know there's no way you'll ever get rid of it?

Take for example, me working on the computer. I right-click on the taskbar and one of the options is "Lock the taskbar." Only I don't read it as just "Lock the taskbar." Not anymore.

I see "Lock the taskbar" and I automatically start singing it to the tune of the 80s song "Rock the Casbah" in my head. Then the song is stuck with me for the rest of the night.

{sings in my head}...LOCK the taskbar, LOCK the taskbar...

See what I mean?


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Take me out to the ball game

Current Mood:

The ball game was so much fun :-).

Steve found out that we were sitting by the foul line, so we brought a couple of baseball mitts with us :-). His father was supposed to join us, but had to work so we brought Margaret, one of his nieces :-). She brought a mitt too :-).

First thing we did when we got to the Stadium was hit the souvenir shop (of course :-)). We got Margaret one of those big foam hands, and Steve got a t-shirt and a to-scale miniature of a Louisville Slugger baseball bat :-). I couldn't find anything that I wanted, though. Wait, check that--I got a couple of coupons from the coupon rack :-). Yeah, I'm just a wild child :-).

After then, we went to the game/arcade section of the stadium. Margaret wanted to try the rock climbing wall, so we got her some tokens and she was able to climb :-).

Then we decided we were hungry enough to head on out to the buffet picnic tables that were set up for us. They had hotdogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, beans, ice cream, and watermelon slices :-). I think I ate 3 hotdogs (only one as a sandwich. The other two hotdogs I ate without the bread), one hamburger, and ice cream :-).

After lunch we got to our seats. The visiting team, the Tucson Sidewinders, were practicing so we decided to get a couple of pictures of them :-). Then Rockie, the Memphis Redbirds mascot, was making his rounds so I got a picture of him and Margaret together :-).

If Rockie looks like a St. Louis Cardinal, that's because the Memphis Redbirds is the minor league team for the Cardinals.

We didn't win the game that day (Sidewinders won, 4-0), but it was a great day to be out :-). We had fun :-).

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Saturday, May 14, 2005

One month to go :-)!

Current Mood:

One month left before we move to our apartment :-)! We'll need to start packing soon.

We won't be taking too many things with us, but still, I've never moved before (in Manila, I've lived in the same house all my life) so I don't know what to expect and it's best to be ready :-).

I'm going to have to look into rental trucks and how much they charge.


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Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Still haven't fully adjusted

Current Mood:

I haven't been blogging every day like I'm supposed to--sorry about that. I still haven't completely adjusted to the 1-10pm shift.

I'm excited about this weekend, though :-)... the company is paying for the employees to see a baseball game on Sunday :-)! I remember the last time Steve and I went to a company-sponsored baseball game--it was two years ago, and we had a really good time :-). As a matter of fact, I have a picture of it :-).



I heard that this year we went one step up on the food that'll be served at the buffet lunch :-). We can't wait :-).


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Monday, May 09, 2005

You know you're PMSing when...

Current Mood:

You know you're PMSing when Ben Stein gives a Mother's Day speech and you start to cry :-).

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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Shorter weekend, but still fun :-)

Current Mood:

I had to go to work today from 5:30 - 10:30 because I had to certify people in Manila for their feedback and coaching skills. Since we do it during their day schedule, Monday morning their time translates to Sunday afternoon our time.

Our weekend was still fun though :-). The Greek Festival was neat :-). It wasn't very big, but then I don't think it was meant to be big. There was a tent that served really good food :-). We started off with Loukoumathes, which were these ball-shaped puffy fritters covered with honey, cinnamon and sugar :-). Then Steve had lamb shishkabob and I had Loukaniko: Greek sausage that was wrapped in a thick tortilla. We finished the meal off with a baklava sundae :-). I liked the Loukaniko--the herbs and spices were just right :-). I didn't realize baklava was that rich though :-).

Steve and I also got t-shirts to remember the event by :-).

If you've ever seen the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," the experience was just like the movie :-). The music they played was familiar, and people were dancing in a circle just like at the end of the film. People were shouting "Opa!" and there was even a lamb roasting on a spit outside the main tent :-). It was my first authentic exposure to Greek culture, and it was really fun :-).


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Saturday, May 07, 2005

Brings back memories

Current Mood:

It's 6:00am Saturday and I was channel surfing. I came across a cartoon that brings back LOTS of memories of when I was growing up :-).

This is from the cartoon series "Flying House." Since the Philippines is a Catholic country, the local TV stations would often play cartoons with a religious theme. This was one of the series. The other one is Superbook :-). I was in the fourth grade when they showed these on TV.

It just feels so weird seeing something that I haven't seen in years, and in a totally different country :-).


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Friday, May 06, 2005

Ah, Friday.

Current Mood:

[sighs] I love Fridays. I really do. I wish every day was a Friday :-).

I've been foggy all week. I don't get it--I'm actually getting more hours of sleep, but I've been dragging anyway. It's taken more effort for me to be productive.


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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Can't wait :-)!

Current Mood:

There's going to be a big Greek festival this weekend. Steve and I can't wait to go :-). I've been wanting Greek food lately, and he's looking forward to having some baklava. I've never had it, and he keeps telling me how good it is :-).

There's going to be food, music, dancing, shopping... we're excited :-). Last week, we had Indian food and a night of German music, and this week we'll have Greek food :-).

I hope there's another festival from another country next week :-).

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LOVE that salad :-)!

Current Mood:

I'm so addicted to Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad. I used to not like salads very much, but one day I actually got a craving for it and this was one of my first salads.

I love the big chicken chunks and the slices of mandarin oranges. The oranges make the salad taste so much more refreshing in your mouth.

My favorite parts though are the crispy noodles and roasted almonds--you get a packet of each every time you get a salad.

I just LOVE how the tastes and textures mix and work together so well. And if that wasn't enough, you have the yummy Oriental Sesame dressing.

I already had it for dinner two days in a row. I'm thinking of getting it again tonight :-).

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Tuesday, May 03, 2005

A little better this week

Current Mood:

My schedule is going to be a little better this week. Well actually, if it doesn't change, it'll be my schedule for the next three weeks. Instead of 10pm-4am, my shift is going to be such that I'll be home by 11:00pm. That's not as bad :-). Steve will still be awake and we'll get to talk a little bit before we both go to bed :-).


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Sunday, May 01, 2005

What a Weekend!

Current Mood:

What a weekend Steve and I had! We both needed it after last week :-).

First was Saturday: Steve and I were originally planning to see an SCA event called the Beltaine, but I was too tired from Friday so we decided not to go.

I did, however, get hungry for spicy food for lunch. At first I wanted Thai, but then I changed my mind to Indian. We went to Mayuri, which is along Quince. The food was very good :-).

But the BEST part of Saturday was the Carmina Burana concert. Oh it was FABULOUS! It was so good, the whole ensemble had three curtain calls. The audience wouldn't stop applauding :-).

And we sat WAY up in front too. It was really nice to see the singers and conductors' facial expressions :-). Steve and I were SO glad we went :-)!

Then today Steve and I went to Barnes & Noble and had a nice, relaxed conversation over coffee (he had a chai tea latte). We also shared a slice of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. It was simple, but so romantic and satisfying :-).

Then we watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :-). I've never read the book, but I enjoyed the movie :-). I absolutely loved Alan Rickman as Marvin the robot--they made a great choice casting him in the role :-).


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