Wordless Wednesday - Spring Training

                        

 

                        

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Spring has Finally Sprung!

Well, I can finally say that it finally feels like spring, no more freezing weather! Actually, these past two days, it feels like the middle of summer! Yes, you read that right. Last weekend, the temps reached 90 degrees, here in the coast of New England, in the middle of April. Whowouldathunk? So, have I done any yardwork? Well, I haven't but my wonderful man did. He cleaned all the flower beds and raked the dead leaves. He did it all without being asked, isn't he great? I haven't planted any annuals yet but I plan to do it this weekend. As usual, I am planting tomatoes. I love eating fresh tomatoes with a little salt. I am also planting basil beside the tomato plant. I read from Lola's gardening blog that this helps out with insect control. Now I have to figure out how to keep Bambi and her family from eating my hostas!

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Photohunt #15 - Protect

I took this photo on a rainy afternoon in Venice. The gondolas were covered to protect the wood from the rain.

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Food Trip Friday #4 - Light Carrot Cake

My favorite, carrot cake. Compared to other carrot cake recipes, this has less calories and the cream cheese frosting is not heavy nor too sweet. This cake also has some crushed pineapples and coconut. Need I say more? This recipe is from Cooking Light magazine and I have it posted in my cooking blog. Come on over and visit. :o) See more yummy foods in our Food Trip Friday here.

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School's Almost Over

Can you believe it, it's almost the end of the school year! It seems just like yesterday when my 4 year old started preschool. *sigh* Come September, he is going to be in Kindergarten so that means it is time for me to plan. Plan what? I do not know yet. I cannot go back to work full-time since I have to drive the kids to school. So where does it leave me? Get a part-time work? Well, with the state of the economy, even looking for part-time jobs may be hard. Maybe I should look into either taking some courses on the side. I can do this while the kids are in school and it may work out for me. This is definitely a possibility. I'll have to look for some technical and vocational schools guide and see what's available out there.

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Danger with Old Houses

I remember when we were looking for houses when we just moved into this state. We saw some beautiful Victorian homes, just like the ones usually seen in a period movie. The craftmanship was amazing along with the architecture. We considered it but we were worried about the upkeep. Buying an old house can be a lot of work and may take up a lot of your time. Plus it may end up costing us more $$. There is also the danger of the house having lead paint and asbestos which can lead to health problems like mesothelioma. At the end, we had a new house built since we don't want to deal with problems that comes with owning an old house.

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All Systems Go

Well, I finally did it. I purchased our plane tickets to the Philippines for the summer. I've been dilly-dallying these past couple of months. I knew that the fares weren't going up because of the economy so I wasn't worried about that. I'm glad that I waited because I was able to get a low fare. The kids and I will be leaving on the last week of June and dh will just follow two weeks after. My good friend Lanie will leave the week before us, too bad we don't have the same departure date. I hope I'll get to meet a fellow blogger, Samantha (take note my dear!). I also booked our stay at the Shangrila Mactan. Oh boy, the prices are comparable to a New York City hotel! I do hope they live up to high expectations. While I'm there, I'm going to buy a couple of eyeglasses. My mom is a retired optometrist so she still has some connections over there. I always get great deals everytime. How about you, do you find yourself buying tons of stuff in the Philippines to bring back here in the US?

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Busy Week

It's been days since I posted anything here. I've been busy around the house plus other things needed to be taken cared of. Yes, I do have a life outside of blogging, thank you. ha ha

Thanks to everyone who greeted us on our wedding anniversary. We went to Saturday vigil and then had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. In a couple of weeks, we will have another celebration, it'll be dh's 49th birthday. We plan to go to CBS Scene and see what it's all about. This week is also the kids' Spring break. Yesterday, we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens which they both loved. My son already planned for us to see this new movie with Will Farell called Land of the Lost. He saw that this movie has a lot of dinosaurs and he loves that!

I'm also finalizing our trip to the Philippines this summer. Frankly speaking, I am so looking forward to spending the whole summer in my house. Traveling is fun but tiring; not to mention it costs a lot of money. If it not for my parent's 45th anniversary, then we would be camping somewhere in Maine with our friends.

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A Reason to Celebrate

On Saturday, dh and I will be celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. Yay to us! Pictured here is a special place to us, Wente Vineyards in Livermore, California. Our family and friends gathered here and we had a sumptuous dinner and a night of dancing. Of course, wine flowed all night. My in-laws and other relatives flew in from the east coast to celebrate with us. Friends flew in from all over the country to share our happiness. It really was an affair to remember. We got raves from everyone about the wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding in my opinion (of course I AM BIASED! LOL. So what is the perfect gift? A wine of the month membership, jewelry, a new set of golf clubs? The answer is "NADA". We both don't need any material things. We just plan to celebrate with the kids. We are thinking of going to a nice sit-down restaurant and enjoy the evening.

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Food Trip Friday #3 - Lobster Cantonese

One thing I am always looking forward to in the summer is having fresh lobster. I usually just steam the lobster and serve lemon wedges and melted butter with it. One time, I decided to try a recipe I saw in Eileen Lo's cookbook and boy I was so glad I did. This lobster Cantonese dish is so good that you'll probably need to take some appetite suppressant to stop yourself from having more. LOL I have the recipe in my food blog. View more Food Trip Friday entries here.

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Some Good News

I received some good news the other day. I heard from my niece that she's going to Manila for her fiancee visa interview this month. I know that she and her fiance have been waiting for this day for a long time. My niece is in her early thirties and has been very picky with her suitors. I'm happy for her that she found the right man. She will be going to Texas since that is where her fiance lives. I guess I'll be visiting that state sometime this year. She wants me to be in the wedding party. For the first time, I am going to be a Principal Sponsor in a wedding. It's kind of weird since I've always thought that position to be for 'older people'. LOL I guess I'm considered to be in that age range (although I don't feel like it). I'm sure she's going to have a Bachelorette party so I'll ask my sister and cousins to give her some sexy lingerie. One surely needs it for the honeymoon. My mom is excited that her family members here in the US is growing although they're all scattered across the US. At least it'll give her a reason to travel.

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Easter eggs and family

What do they have in common? Some of them are cracked. LOL I know, lame joke. I am lucky that I have the nicest parents-in-law. :o) Our Easter Sunday was a full-packed day. Aside from the customary Easter religious celebration, we went to a Chinese buffet to celebrate the 2nd birthday of my friend's daughter. The food was great and the company too. My BFF Mira was there with her family along with other friends. I was stuffed with shrimps. Fried shrimps, sauteed shrimps, boiled shrimps...am I sounding like Forest Gump? ha ha After that sumptuous lunch which made me feel like I need to get the best diet pills I can afford, we headed over to my in-law's house. Good thing they didn't serve dinner right away. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids first. It was freezing, the temps was in the 40's plus it was windy. Uh, where the heck did Spring go?

I want to share these photos I took last Sunday. The first one is of the kids looking for eggs near the playhouse. My in-laws had this built for the grandkids. The other one is of dh's nephew. I was taking pictures of the kids looking for eggs when I looked around and saw him on this tree. My brother-in-law hid some Easter eggs in the branches, which he always does every year. When our nephew was in grade school, the eggs were placed on the roof of the storage shed. Well now that he's 14 and 5'5, he has to work harder for it. LOL

How was your Easter Sunday?

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Just in Time for Easter

For a week now, we have these baby turkeys in our yard. Since my MIL is cooking leg of lamb and ham, do you think these will be ready for Thanksgiving? just kidding! The kids were excited to see these turkeys. One morning, I was getting out of the garage when my daughter exclaimed "Mom, the turkeys are in the driveway, be careful!" I always see turkeys when driving around our area. Last week, a turkey crossed the freeway and I almost hit it. So why did the turkey cross the road? LOL

So it's candy time again. As usual, I bought some pencils and candies to put in the plastic eggs and for the Easter goodie bags the kids gave to their classmates. I love these Easter M&Ms, pastel colors are my favorite. I also like these Jelly Bellys although these aren't really good for your teeth. My dentist said it's better to give kids chocolates than other candies.

This is what I had for dinner these past week, seafood. In the Philippines, we don't eat any meat during the Holy Week and every Friday during Lent. Fried Crispy mackerel, fresh tomatoes and garlic rice is one yummy combination. I also watched the Ten Commandments with my kids last night. They have religion in school so they are familiar with the story although my daughter prefers the Veggie Tales versrion since it's funny.

For Easter this year, we're going to celebrate it in my MIL's house. Mom and dad are back from Florida and kids cannot wait to see them. I know my daughter A is excited, she asked me to print out her recent report card to show grammy. She gives the grandkids $5 for every 'A' and my daughter, as usual, got it in every subject. (Good job swinkie!) The kids will also do an egg hunt with their cousins in my in-law's backyard. I don't know how long we're going to be out there but I hope it's not too long. It is FREEZING this morning, it doesn't feel like spring. Before going to my in-laws though, we're going to a party in a Chinese restaurant where I'm going to see my BFF Mira and her family. It's our God daughter's 2nd birthday so that should be fun.

How do you celebrate Easter?

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Photohunt #14 - Triangle

                    

For this week's triangle theme, I'm showing some rooftops and facade of buildings in Europe.  This first photo is the triangular roof of the bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy.

 

               

This photo is of the top of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.  This triangle eave is in the center of the basilica. You can see a part of the dome in the background.

 

               

You can see the triangle roof of the Basilica of Constantine behind this

palace.  This is located in Trier, Germany.

 

               

These wood frame buildings with triangle designs can be found in Petit France in Strasbourg.

 

                     

This last photo is of Burg Eltz in Southwestern Germany. (Burg = castle).  This castle has a lot of triangular roofs.

 

                              

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Food Trip Friday #2 - Fresh Belgian Chocolates

When dh and I tried fresh Belgian chocolates for the first time in the Netherlands, boy, we were in chocolate heaven! The chocolates just melted in our mouths and it was the best we've ever had. No wonder Belgian chocolates are considered the best in the world, they sure know how to make them. When we came back from our vacation, we had a craving for these chocolates. I looked for it at Amazon and yes, they have it there! Yippee! These fresh chocolates are made by Leonidas, the same ones we had in Europe. It is imported from Belgium regularly (where they make it fresh with no preservatives so they only ship it FEDEX) and you can get it here in the US. I signed up for their email alerts so I get info whenever they have a Sale (the regular price is pretty steep plus I prefer to get stuff at a discount LOL). Their website: www.leonidas-chocolate.com

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Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Little Girl...No More

Wordless Wednesday

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Looking for Low Rates

In the state that I live in, the auto insurance industry has just been deregulated recently. Before that, only a few companies offer auto insurance here so you can just imagine how high the rates were. Being a transplant from California, I had sticker shock when I realized how much we had to pay for the insurance, add to that the fact that we also had to pay excise tax on our cars. Geez, no wonder they call this state the tax-me state. LOL We were happy that the new governor decided to deregulate auto insurance. I'm currently looking online and compare multiple auto insurance quotes. Hopefully, we'll save $$.

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Holy Week in the Philippines

This is one of those times where I miss living in the Philippines. Holy week there is observed unlike here in the US. Aside from my kids having a couple of days off from their Catholic school, I wouldn't even feel it. When I was growing up, I always participate in the Holy Friday procession in Pasig City. My dad's family has always been a part of this procession. All the things that depicts Jesus Christ's life are in the procession (i.e. bread and wine for the Last Supper, rooster for the time Judas betrayed Jesus, the handkerchief that Veronica used to wipe his face, etc.) along with the different saints. Our family has been carrying the bread and the horn. The participants wear a long and shapeless black dress, a black lace covering the face and a round crown of leaves and sampaguita flowers on the head. There were a lot of people along the way that give away different kinds of food and drinks to the participants so we always carry plastic bags with us. This is what we call 'panata' or 'devotion'. I did this every year when I was still living in the Philippines. I wore flip flops or sneakers under the dress since we had to walk a long way. I remember the procession lasting for hours since it goes from the church and around the city and then back to the church. I am always dead tired at the end of the procession. My feet ached, my back ached, everything ached. It would have been nice if I had a sleep number bed to lie down on. This certainly brings back memories. If you're a Catholic, how do you celebrate Holy Week?

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Laid Off, Now What?

I saw on the news the other day that some people who were laid off are going back to school and getting new skills. This is a good move since there are a lot of competition out there. With the staggering number of unemployed these days, one needs to stand out from the crowd. Some people go back to school to start a new career. If they were in an industry that is not doing great then it certainly makes sense to start a career in an industry that is not affected by the recession. If you're an insurance agent that is having trouble getting life insurance leads or you're working in the finance industry and was just laid off, going back to school to get a degree may be a good idea.

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I'm All for Stimulating the Economy But...

Give me a break...I'm tired of things breaking around here, it's just one after another. This year, we've had to purchase a new vacuum cleaner and then I accidentally dropped the Belgian waffle maker. Of course, we cannot live without that especially now that I found the recipe for the Liege waffles we tried in Belgium. Then today, guess what? The blender gear broke. I had the sliced mangoes, ice cubes, water and sugar in the blender and after I pressed 'on' I heard this weird sound. Uh-oh, that doesn't sound right. Sure enough, when I took the pitcher off, the black gear was shattered. Somehow, the blade was stuck and would not turn. I knew that it's going to be a pain to replace the gear since one needs to open up the main motor part. *sigh* I'll have to check the web for info on this Kitchen Aid blender. It might be cheaper to purchase a new one. I've had this for 8 years now and I never thought it's going to break on me. What's next? I hope the answer to that is nothing although I would like a new patio furniture. Oh well, looking at the bright side of things, I'll get to choose a different color blender this time.

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Filipina Killed in NY Shooting

I knew from the moment I saw her photo on the news that she was from the Philippines. Dolores Carbonillas-Yigal was among those killed when a Vietnamese immigrant opened fire inside the American Civic Association building. She is from Cebu and has been living here in the US for 3 years with her American husband. News reports said that the gunman was frustrated from not finding a job and angry at the humiliation he received from not speaking good English. Why he chose to kill fellow immigrants taking classes to learn how to speak English will never be known. My prayers go out to all families who are affected by this tragedy.

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PhotoHunt #13 - Stripes

For this week's PhotoHunt, I have three completely diffferent subjects. This first one is our gondolier in Venice, Italy. Most gondoliers wear STRIPEd shirts like this one. There were a few that wore plain white shirts. You can view more of our gondola ride here.This next photo is part of a Roman bath ruins in Trier, Germany. The red STRIPES here are made of red bricks. This is an example of great Roman engineering and architecture. See more here.

This last photo was at the Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Germany. The British soldier is holding the British Flag also known as the Union Jack while the American soldier is holding the American flag also known as the Stars and STRIPES.

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Food Trip Friday #1 - Stollen

Willa of Fickleminded started a photo meme in her photo blog called Food Trip Friday. My entry for this week is one of my favorite holiday foods, the STOLLEN. I first tried this while living in California. My brother-in-law's mother lives in Washington state and she would mail them a stollen every Christmas. Last Christmas, my college friend who now lives in Germany sent us this original Dresdner stollen. I love the kind with the marzipan. yummy! The stollen is not available year round. The bakers start making this in October to be ready for Christmas shipment. I saw a couple of websites that sell stollen online but they will start taking orders in October. Anyway, I asked my barkada (friend) to mail me another one at the end of the year. I know, shameless! ha ha

From Wikipedia:

" Stolen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus peel (Zitronat), raisins and almonds and different spices such as cardamom and cinnamon are added. Other ingredients, such as milk, sugar, butter, salt, rum, eggs,vanilla, other dried fruits and nuts and marzipan may also be added to the Stolen dough. Except for the fruit added, the dough is quite low in sugar. The finished cake is sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional weight of a Stolen is around 4,4 pounds (2 kg), but smaller sizes are now available.
The Dresden Stolen (originally Striezel), a moist, heavy bread bread filled with fruit, was first mentioned in an official document in 1474, and the most famous Stolen is still the Dresdner Stolen, sold, among other places, at the local Christmas market, Striezelmarkt . Dresden Stolen is produced in the city of Dresden and distinguished by a special seal depicting King Augustus II the Strong. This "official" Stolen is produced by only 150 Dresden bakers."

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Club Stores = Savings?

We have been members of club stores for a long time. When I was single and living in California with my family, I signed up with Costco. We bought big cans and boxes of coffee, creamer, sugar substitutes, chocolates, shampoo and soap to send to my brother and other relatives in the Philippines. Now that I have my own family, we are still a member although with a different club store. BJ's club is more convenient for us, it's only a 10 minute drive. So do we save money by going to a club store? Of course. I know some people will say that you don't and others said that you don't need a huge pack of whatever. If you're single or a member of the DINKS (dual income no kids) group, then you don't need a club store. But if you have a family, you can save money. The prices when buying bulk is certainly lower. Take a pack of New York Strip steaks for example. At the grocery, this goes for about $8-$9 a pound; at the club store, I was able to get it at $5.99 a pound. That's huge savings right there. I vacuum pack the meat, date it and store it in the freezer basement. This is just one example, there are other savings to be had. You can also get discounts on medicines, eyeglasses, travel and other services like heating oil, motorcycle accident attorneys and car insurance. So what do you think, are club stores saving you money or does it make you spend more money for things you don't need?

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An Award from My BFF

Ok, I know, this is the nth award I've posted here but I hope you all don't mind. I love my friends and just like the computer game Diner Dash, my heart points increases everytime they pass on an award. :o) This is from my BFF Mira of Mira's Web Journal. Thank you! *hugs* The rules for this award can be found here.

Now, drum roll please. LOL I am giving this Certified Queen of Blogs award to one of my favorite blogger, Joy from down under. She definitely deserves to be a Queen of Blogs. She has many blogs and it is all updated frequently. I admire that about her. From her blog about living in AU, blog about her kids, blog about health where she writes about tips on staying healthy to info about hair loss treatments, blog about love and relationships, blog about beauty and fashion and other topics. To my friend Joy, a Certified Queen of Blogs. :o)

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Hits Close to Home

You know that the economy is really bad when you learn that more than one person you know, it can be a family member, friend or acquaintance has lost their job. No matter who you talk to, it's likely that they know someone who was just laid off. I'm sure you also know someone who had been laid off. It is also the same situation in other countries. My college friend in Germany mentioned that they had to cut their hours in the manufacturing plant she works at because there are not enough orders coming in. This is so depressing, isn't it? Even IT jobs are not spared. I think the only job sector that is not affected is the medical field. Are you thinking of changing career paths because of this economic crisis?

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Thank You Entrecard Droppers

I'd like to thank the academy oops, I think I have been watching to many award shows with silly cat supplies commercials. LOL Kidding aside, thanks to ALL my Entrecard droppers. A big hug goes to my top ten EC droppers. I put up the new top ten droppers on my side bar. I heart you guys and gals! I know how much effort you all put into your EC dropping. How I wish I could be the same way, that's wishful thinking for me! I think I only dropped 300 once or twice and I wasn't even planning on it. I'm sure I'm not on any top 10 last month, I had to many things going on that needed my attention. Anyway, this month, I'll be back with a vengeance. :o)

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Wordless Wednesday - Porta Nigra (Black Gate)

Wordless Wednesday

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