11/28/2012 :: day 8

start of the second week :: we're getting closer to Armageddon baby!

woke up late, hubby also late in arriving from work. perfect combo right? unfortunately hubby didn't text me he's going home late per his usual routine plus I couldn't call his phone. guess who didn't kiss someone's spouse good morning today? but I still watched The Walking Dead with him coz I'm really not that mad :p

our late breakfast consisted of dimsum leftovers from last night's dinner and canned pork n beans. lunch was beefsteak. dinner was fried shanghai rolls (sooo good!). and then hubby was so impatient in getting to work tonight despite that it was still early. ggrrr.. something's really fishy!! and now I'm getting really angry!

spent the morning tidying up the house coz my parents are coming over (yay!) for a long visit. spent also the time looking for the cheapest iPad Mini / Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy S3 (hubby's dearest wish). I've already saved up for an iPad for the kids and has zero budget for S3, but it looks like hubby's the one getting something expensive this Christmas! hope our toddler won't mind.. o.O

and speaking of The Walking Dead, holy crap! this show's just keep on getting better and better! next week is the mid-season finale, with Rick Grimes finally confronting the Governor. can't hardly wait!! as for Grimm, our other favorite show,  the mid-season finale was last week where Munroe revealed to Nick that the man his amnesiac gf is seeing on the side is none other than his Police Captain boss! such a cliffhanger!!

family nuggets: our toddler's fascination with Nemo has reached fever pitch (TMI: her poop is still runny! been 3 days already. wonder what's wrong..). our baby is learning how to climb (before walking) and has lots of words! a very sociable kid :) my parents arrived mid-afternoon and disrupted the kids' naps which led to a bit of crying jag from the baby <sigh> the toddler got two (!!) new shoes from her grandparents, and 2 Christmas ornaments to paint. me? I got pre-cooked food! haha! the baby? none! T__T

as for the world, there's a partial lunar eclipse at 8pm-ish today (GMT+8) and can be seen in my country. unfortunately I missed it, sadness! I've missed so many celestial events already, mostly due to mommy duties. sometimes I wonder if my life will ever get back to "normal" o.O anyway, in celebrity news, I've come across a disturbing article about Gavin Rossdale having his way with their nanny who looks like a younger version of his wife, Gwen Stefani. the couple has been together since 1995 and I love them to bits because of it!

11/27/2012 :: day 7

and the first week countdown to the Apocalyse is done.

funny thing, my period FINALLY arrived today so it's safe to say that it's not the end of my world, haha! my gahd, can you imagine having 3 kids at this time and age?? can't wrap my head around it! o.O anyway, since I need some lady stuff, we decided to go grocery shopping early (payday is still 3 days away). but first we had dinner in Mongkok, a dimsum place. the food was totally yummy!! the service, however, was totally awful. had to follow up our rice and shark's fin dumplings (not from real fin, don't worry, hehe) more than 3 times! by the time all the orders were in (pork ribs in tausi, seafood roll, chicken & mushroom rice, shark's fin dumpling), the first ones were already cold <sigh> still, it was a flavorful meal!

then came grocery shopping where we spent around $50, mostly for our toddler's fruits and hubby's beauty needs, LOL! tis true though, my hubby cannot live without lotion and other beauty health stuff. already he's obsessing on having white hair o.O me? I can just live with soap and water. for sure, when Apocalypse comes, hubby will have to majorly adjust on not having beauty products. after grocery we went home and I set about cleaning our tiny studio. my parents are to due to arrive tomorrow afternoon and I want our home to be spic and span. and so I spent the night washing my babies' clothes, scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen, and arranging / picking up toys, magazines and whatever is on the floor :p

it's nearly 12mn now and I'm not yet done with the ref (have to throw rotting stuff as my mom hates that) and wardrobe cabinet. but I gotta have a break so here I am blogging :) in world news, the online version of the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper got punk'd with The Onion's article on North Korea's Kim Jong-un as the "sexiest man alive" for 2012, LOL! only Commies would fall for that article o.O some good news: Greece will receive bailout money worth $57B. hope that it will all be put into good use and help the Greeks stand up again. meanwhile, in Hollywood, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are rumored to be back together after sharing a kiss over dinner! not sure if Bieber's fans are happy with this news though..

11/26/2012 :: day 6

monday is hell day for most people in the city. its time to go back to the grind and wake up early to avoid traffic in going to school and to work. thankfully, here in our household, monday is like sunday. everything is in slow motion, and there's that dreamy haze while hubby and I tend to our rambunctious kids. no hurrying to work at all, at least until the early evening that is :) highlight of the day: watching Four Assassins with hubby. really great movie: lots of action, drama and serious dialogue! who would have thought that having four killers in a room eating dinner together is fun to watch? best part, the kids were asleep so we were able to watch the movie 100%. if you're a parent, you'd know how great this feels, haha!

after hubby woke up from his afternoon nap, we went to the mall and let our toddler play with Lego pieces in one of the toy stores. she seriously loves Legos even at 2years old! she repeatedly said (after playing), "I'm happy Mommy!" aawww, my heart melted.. if only we could afford to buy Lego sets! maybe I'll raid my brothers' cabinets back at home, hopefully there's still some pieces stashed from our grade school years. after Lego time, we had a very early dinner in Max's Fried Chicken. we had the merienda special (your choice of bread (cheese roll) / noodles (pancit canton) / drink (sago at gulaman) ) for only $2 and chicken dinner (half chicken, rice, soup and drink) for around $7. took home 2/3 of the chicken and ate dinner again with the kids at 8pm :p

oh, btw, if #ZorenCarminaWedding was the trending celebrity hashtag this weekend, today it was #Liz&Dick ~ Lifetime finally showed Lindsay Lohan's latest project on TV and lots of people were suckered into watching it. as you can guess, they weren't too happy with LiLo's potrayal of Elizabeth Taylor. lots of snarky comments on Twitter but what did they expect? an Academy Award performance from LiLo?? the people these days! anyway.. on serious stuff, I totally love this article on The Atlantic on how the nerds on Barack Obama's team helped clinch his reelection. technology is truly a helpful tool in everything and I wish more organizations could see that. TECH TRANSFORMS LIVES. that's my mantra then, that's my mantra now. tech may not solve all the world's problems but it will help us build a better world.

11/25/2012 :: day 5

ahhh sunday.. glorious sunday! a day for church, a day with the family (yeah, that means malling, haha).. unfortunately, hubby got lazy and we just watched Lawless in the morning. good movie, about the Prohibition and a band of 3 brothers who rebelled against it. it starred Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy (the bomb)! this guy can seriously act! have to find more movies with him in it :) we had leftovers for breakfast (I got lazy too, hehe) but made up for it by cooking bacon and omelette for lunch ~ yum! the toddler couldn't help herself that she snatched several rashers of bacon and ate it far away from us. so funny! ^__^

after lunch we went to hear mass where the kids promptly fell asleep. gotta love airconditioned churches, it really lulls you to sleep. and that includes me and hubby :p it was a great service ~ the singing was robust, everybody was participating, though the sermon was kinda long. at least it was funny and I learned something new about the church's cyclical calendar . afterwards we went to the mall with a Disney Princess theme for Christmas. they had Cinderella's castle (2 stories with grand staircase!) and her magical pumpkin carriage. it was all so beautiful and dainty! the toddler posed a lot for photos without prompting from me :)

as we waited for my brother and niece to arrive (we were meeting up so we can get the cakes that my mom left for us from a recent trip), we had snacks in Subway. we had a footlong sub, huge ice tea (that seem to have star anise in it, weird) and 2 large cookies (oatmeal and double choco). the sub was excellent as usual, and the toddler always begged for a bite. she has good taste in food, my daughter :) when my niece arrived, she played with our toddler in the princess set pieces. she especially loved the carriage and was beside herself when she was inside it (she jumped raucously to the chagrin of my bro, hehe). just before sundown, we all went home, tired but happy to have spend time with family. for dinner, we had chinese takeout. I know its junk / fastfood, but it sure tastes good! for sure we all had MSG-high that night :p

as for world news, Ricky Hatton (the English boxer that Pacman KO'd after 2 rounds) was defeated in his comeback fight after a 3year+ absence. he got knocked out in the 9th round which was sad coz he was in good fighting form and was ahead in the points. he could have won the fight if he evaded the killer blow. Hatton has a sad story actually. after his defeat to Pacman, he got depressed, got into drugs / drinking, and became overweight / suicidal. after a long battle, he got his act together and now he's back (for a real short while) in the boxing ring. hopefully he'll retire for good as he's 35 years old already. very dangerous to get head injuries at this age :( I've often wondered what happens to down and out boxers, and I sure hope that what happened to Hatton is an exception and not the rule. it would be so sad if it's the otherwise.

anyhoo, in other news, a Filipina actress was surprised when her own wedding was held IMMEDIATELY AFTER she said yes to her partner's (also an actor) proposal in a wonderfully decorated garden. she thought it was just a proposal but lo, it was a full-pledged wedding in the waiting! everything was set, all their families were there, they were just waiting for her "yes" :) and thank God she said yes, otherwise the preparations will be all for naught, haha! their wedding trended a bit in Facebook and Twitter ( #ZorenCarminaWedding ), and everybody who watched their televised wedding became incurable romantics once again ;-) the male population, however, complained coz the actor set the bar too high. how can you compete with a proposal + wedding, all-in-one? LOL! well, you can't, you just have to own your proposal and hope to God your girl loves it enough to say yes. err, pressure much? haha! 

11/24/2012 :: day 4

the world ended in Pakistan today, their online world that is. there was some problem with the company that handles the .pk domains and several hackers exploited it. all websites with .pk went down, some smeared with graffiti. offline websites included apple.pk, google.pk, google.com.pk and many other prominent sites. the worst thing was that normal service didn't return even after 4 hours~ that's like a lifetime for people who live on the internet! o.O

since today is saturday, hubby is off from work and that means our girls can go out and play :) okay, that actually means mommy can go malling, hehe! we were supposed to go to a mommy bazaar with my BFF in the morning but hubby woke up past lunch. but all the better I guess, otherwise I'll spend a fortune in the bazaar buying kids' (useless) stuff. I should seriously save money for my kids' education (though in the back of my mind, I always think of home schooling them) instead of spending on material things. and speaking of kids, we won't be having a new one! phew! bought the cheapest pregnancy test kit in Watsons and it came back negative. that was a close call I tell you! still haven't got my monthly visitor though (1 week late) so I'm not sure what's up with my body.

highlight of our day: CAJUN cuisine!! we finally ate in a restaurant that serves Cajun food (I tasted bourbon in one sauce, so bitter!). we had the Bestsellers Platter and boy, it was very flavorful! the serving was so huge (3 slabs of pork!) that we ended up with lots of leftovers for home. and yeah, that's what we had for dinner so no additional expense for us at dinner :) anyway, after lunch, hubby and our daughters posed for photos in Disneyland set pieces around the mall. there was a gigantic Christmas tree (nearly 4-stories high!) full of Mickey and Minnie plushies, Daisy and Donald in holiday costumes, and a princess castle with lighted Disney characters. it was hubby's turn to pose with them as I posed with the toddler last week, and I plan to pose with our baby next week (she's always in a baby carrier with hubby).

after the picture-taking, we went to the mall's flagship toy store where the toddler played in a free playroom, and also among the toy displays. beats going to a pay-per-hour kiddie playroom where the rates are exorbitant! or maybe I'm just a cheapskate :p after the playing and a bit of toy window-shopping, we were ready to go home. and then the toddler spied a Zhu Zhu Pets moving display and was transfixed. this brand was the rage 2-3 years ago and now, all its items are more than 50% off. needless to say, we went home with 1 pet, a gray hamster named Num Nums. the baby loved it too coz it makes lots of sounds and it's really smart when it moves around :) hubby was also enamored and plans to buy accessories for it (tunnels, carriages, etc). at least Zhu stuff are now cheap! and oh, I was also finally able to buy new hair scrunchies. eight pieces for $1! good quality too! <3

by the end of the day, our family of four were tired. we hurriedly ate dinner, put kids to bed and to relax, hubby and I watched Looper. super great movie! my only complaint? we haven't finished watching it coz hubby fell asleep just now! and that's why I'm blogging at this ungodly hour (nearly midnight!). trust hubby to fall asleep when the ending is just 15 minutes away! o.O oh, I have another complaint: the movie's story is all about love. yet again. I really have to see a movie that has no love angle that drives the plot. really. here in Looper, we see a husband's love for his wife that drove him to kill an innocent child, a mom's love for her kid, and a kid's love for his mother even though she abandoned him for the first 2 years of his life. love, love, love.. truly makes the world go round I guess. especially in Hollywood's fake world.

11/23/2012 :: day 3

cooking day for me, and Black Friday for the rest of the world! yep, Black Friday is not just for USA's brick and mortar stores anymore ~ the big sales are also happening online (worldwide!) which makes Cyber Monday redundant o.O good for consumers though, as that means 2 to 4 days (other retailers include saturday and sunday) of sales! so pig out on food on thursday, pig out on material stuff on friday. november is a good month for gluttons! ;-) worthy to note: customers in Walmart had a field day fighting for smartphones. go to Youtube and find that annoying / laughable video!

anyway. only had 2 hours of sleep "last night", I slept at 5am after putting on rice to cook in the rice cooker. hubby arrived to the smell of hot rice and leftover Wagyu burger patty (still good!). at lunch, I cooked miki noodles with shredded beef. super yum! even the toddler was begging to be fed, haha! :) come night time, I fried mozzarella sticks, pork belly, and a slice of fish in Wagyu fat (instead of healthy olive oil). the smell and taste of it was heaven!! drooling right now thinking about it! <smh>

so that's my day. here's the report on some of earth's famous places: in the Middle East, there's some good news to be had. apparently Israel and Gaza has agreed to a ceasefire, but reports on the ground say the fighting still continue :( in the EU, after just a few hours of meeting, bureaucrats are not keen on a trillion bailout of their economy (or something like that). and China? well, they just insulted the Philippines, Vietnam and India by putting maps on Chinese visas, putting disputed areas as theirs / part of the map. Oh China..

wait, before I forget! our baby just started on 2 naps a day today! she usually has a morning nap around 10am, but today she had it at 12nn! the next nap she had was in the afternoon (usual time at 4-5pm) and that was it! no more before/after dinner nap (the one before night sleep). as for my toddler, she woke up around 1am, cried a lot (with some hysterics) but refused to tell me what's wrong so I can calm her as per our usual. she took a long time to sleep again so she was late waking up this morning ~ which was good coz hubby and I had a quiet breakfast for a change ^__^ don't know what came over my kids. I just hope they're alright and this is just part of their development.

and one last thing: I got my GlamourBox and Messy Bessy stuff today!! felt like a really weird Christmas on receiving the beauty products and cleaning stuff at the same time, haha :p I super love MB's Grapefruit room and linen spray scent! reminds me of something really nice from my childhood that I can't quite remember what yet. it put a smile on my face when I first smelled it so it's safe to say whatever memory attached to that smell, it sure has be to good! awesome even :)

11/22/2012 :: day 2

4 hours of sleep, that's all I had. and yes, the Internet has something to do with it (and making our laundry list). gaahh! one online mommy even told me (at 230am) that moms today have "zombie mode" ~ able to go on the wee hours of the morning in the world wide web coz that's the only time we're undisturbed by our needy kids and household chores. and despite our deficient sleep, we are able to function normally by 7am and go about taking care of the kiddos for the whole day. and the cycle repeats again until I'm no longer able to wake up at 7am or when the kids are awake.

that day was today. I was still groggy when hubby came home from work. there was no breakfast, and the baby was crawling on the floor. thankfully, the toddler was still asleep. and I slept with her, hah! hubby made breakfast, 3 packs of instant noodles with mackerel. we all smelled fishy so early in the morning o.O can't complain though, after all it was my duty to cook and I didn't. anyway, we had a typical morning: hubby slept while I minded the kids. also, I finally showed our toddler the Disney version of Alladin coz she loves the "A Whole New World" song (the movie theme) that I use as her nighttime lullaby. the Genie didn't make an impression on her, only Jafar. kids!

in the afternoon, I tried to nap with the wee ones. but the call of the interwebz was too strong and I said goodbye to naptime. waited for the kids and hubby to wake up so we can have our weekly dinner in a food market. by 6pm we were out of the door and went our merry way, the toddler running across the grass park with glee :) in the food market, we tried to buy Macheesmo's cheese-stuffed beef patty burger but their grilling station was acting up! so sad.. was longing to taste their burger for the longest time now :( anyway, we just bought (all for takehome) Angus beef skewer with pilaf, takoyaki (NOT authentic, ggrrr), roastbeef with pasta, and a Christmas cupcake per request of the toddler :)

upon arriving home, I prepared the table and I was shocked to learn that the Angus beef skewer fell out of its container! hubby went back to retrace our steps in the hopes he'll see it, but it wasn't to be <sigh> so I cooked our Wagyu beef patty for additional dinner viand. it was glorious!! it smelled oh-so good and tasted oh-so rich! big thanks to my mom who bought this when it went on sale (buy1 take1) at our local supermarket :) right now the kids are rolling in the bed, waiting for sleep to come take them. me? I'll probably stay up late again, as long as the Internet connection stays good. yowza!

and oh, Happy Thanksgiving America! let's all eat and be merry! ^__^

11/21/2012 :: day 1

and so my diary of earth's last 30 days begins.

in my part of the world, nothing is amiss. there's no typhoons (as the norm during christmas season) and other natural / man-made calamities. but in other parts of the world, death cries abound. in Israel / Palestine border, a war is raging. Gaza has been bombed and sent rockets to quite heavily the past few days. of course Hamas retaliated, some even say they were the ones who started the current fight. whatever. these 2 will always fight. it's just sad that the innocents are affected.

in Europe, countries from the EU went into strike and protests a week ago. dubbed as the #N14, the protesters are voicing their discontent of their own governments' austerity measures during the economic slump. in America, 2 weeks ago, the POTUS has been reelected for another 4 years. lets hope Obama and the Republicans can make peace to turn around the US economy. here in Asia, there's not much going on. no scandals, government shakedowns, everything's quiet. too quiet, and I wonder why. the calm before the storm? I sincerely hope not.

as for my family, we're all in good health. my foremost concern is my impatience to my toddler, and I'm really afraid it's gonna scar her psyche :( Lord, grant me the patience to deal with her nicely even when I'm tired or busy with the baby. my other concern is my period. should have gotten it around nov17 so its 4 days late now. am freakin' out!! don't need another baby, not right now or ever. though I strongly suspect hubby still wants a boy. what's a girl going to do??

and speaking of hubby, just got news that his backpay is "redeemable" til april 2013. oy vey! but I'm gonna make my parents get it coz I need to balance our august & september budgets. also, he has been very amorous lately- well, today and yesterday afternoons actually ;-) but as always, the kids always interrupt us (they cry / wake up) when we're near the finish line, LOL! oh well, at least we're still able to do IT at least twice a week. not bad for a couple of 13 years!

as for my online life, I'm still addicted to Google+. there's really a great community of global users there! and I truly love interacting and publishing in the G+ platform :) I also discovered local subscription beauty boxes a few days ago, and I spent P1100 already for BDJBox (got it!) and GlamourBox (hope it will arrive before saturday!) o.O and to think I'm a beauty n00b ~ what will I do with all the beauty products?? no more impulse purchases next time gurl..

last, I'm so enamored with Ingress, an alternate reality game by Google that will help them map our cities accurately (down to the number of steps!). got an activation code already but unfortunately, the game app doesn't work on my generic Android 2.2 tablet :( will have to wait for hubby's Samsung Galaxy S3 so I can play. but wait, I sold the code for $20! LOL! no code, no play. and I already used up the money buying Messy Bessy cleaning products just now. haayyy.. more purchases! gotta stop buying online! already have 2 coupons for eating out (Casa Armas and Shi Lin) and a coupon for 7pc-cupcake maker (to be delivered). don't want to spend anymore!! T__T

and so here ends my first entry to earth's last 30 days. as you can see, my online life is the most exciting part. sometimes I think when they say that "life, as we know know it" will end on dec21, they meant the end of our "analog" life and that by dec21, we'll all be switching to a digital life. if that's the case, I'm terribly excited for dec21 already! however I suspect that the Mayans just run out of space to write the dates after dec21, and there's no end of the world- at least not this year.