Taking a Dump

I have had about a dozen real-life (as opposed to TV/movie) crushes and/or puppy loves and/or flings and/or date around and/or manliligaw before I ended up with my husband. None of them lasted for more than a year, so I never really thought they're big deals. Though I will remember why all of them didn't work (euphemism for I dumped them for some).

1. Talked shit.
2. Was a mainstream jock.
3. Too gangsta and was/is broke.
4. We were too young.
5. Poor dental hygiene.
6. Was a playah.
7. Too nice and too sweet,
8. LDRs don't work.
9. Too big/bulky.
10. Too religious, a liar, stupid and has bad music taste.
11. Was just after the nookie.
12. Liar.
13. Wearing dentures.

You who's reading this... Were you one of them? ;p 

So yeah, I've had that many losers before I ended up with my husband. Good thing I didn't end up with them. I think having to go through ALL that made me smarter when I finally came to my final decision. How about you?

Sardines, Filmpacks and Notebooks.

I did it. My new hobby. I've decided that shopping is not a very worthwhile hobby after all. I'm excited. I'm just sooo glad there were piggies and it's National Heroes Day, I got them for cheap.

My husband is a Civil Engineer

... and yet I am the one in charge of the kitchen renovation. After all, it is gonna be my kitchen. Where I'll cook and stuff. So right now, I'm the appointed pseudo-architect. Anywhoo... my husband did all the measurements and scaling and what not, but the design... that's me, and the idea where to use slide doors, drawers and hinge doors, that's me too. Here's the draft design:

Click photo to enlarge

3D version, click to enlarge

Don't diss, I'm no Autocad expert. I just did this with all the passion I have for arts and design and whatever-you-may-call my tendency to be visual about things.The bottom part is still TBA because I want to buy the plate wire basket fixture in Ace hardware first because the measurement of the drawers and whatever will be dependent on the size of the fixture.

I've done window shopping on the materials for this kitchen renovation project and I have a vague sense of what I want in terms of 'the look' that I'm trying to achieve with the kitchen. We already have the person who'll do it booked, he's just waiting for this design.

I hope it'll be a success. Having a really functional kitchen has been my frustration since when my parents designed our kitchen, it was 20 years ago and 'fixtures' aren't really the in thing yet. So really I hope this works.

And for the record, this isn't the hobby I've been talking about in the previous post.

Here are tips to make a small kitchen work, if anyone else is doing kitchen renovations right now like me.

Hobby

My husband has his 'specialty hobbies' and I for one, am envious.

I have never really had real hobbies apart from reading just about anything that I can get my hands on; and writing which I have been doing a lot less compared to say, 5 years ago. And to be honest, reading and writing is a tad boring compared to my husband's airsoft, online games and gym-ing.

I used to draw and paint and do other forms of visual art, but that stopped during college, too (Maybe I should get back to that when I have time. I have more money now than I ever had in highschool and college, so I think I should be able to finance my 'art' better now).

While planning our church wedding, my hobby was my DIY crafts - the beads, sewing, glue-gunning, ribbon/bow-tying, among others... which ended soon as the wedding was over.

So I'd say since March 2012, I don't have a 'special' hobby. Well, shopping doesn't really count.

But now, I have decided to start a hobby... one that is productive, worth sharing to others, and so I'm really hopeful that I'll excel in it. I have done my research on just about every aspect of it and I'm starry-eyed-eager to get started.

In the meantime, I need to do my first step. Which is to get/buy my materials.

Bogart the Explorah!

Bogart is all the rage lately with his Steve Irwin inspired quips. He'll tell you about rare species of creatures that reside in the Philippine archipelago.

And whaddyaknow, he is now the newest 'it boy endorser'. Watch it here...



...or here... And if you still can't have enough of Bogart, why don't you check out his band as well. Learn more about Giniling Festival.

Photo credit: Rakista.com

Thr(3)e

Husband and I will be celebrating our 3rd Wedding Anniversary on December 18th (Confused? we had our civil wedding 2009 and our church wedding just last March 2012). As early as now, I want to plan a getaway for the two of us. Though a bit torn, I know that I want it to be an escape. No big adventures. Just rest and relax (I feel like we're starting to get old, we used to like outdoor activities and now, we just want massages and staying in).

I initially wanted to go to Thunderbird Resort -- Poro Point in La Union or Rizal, but I tried booking both and they're both booked to the brim. I want to go some place cold (conducive for cuddling) so I'm looking at Tagaytay or Baguio. Though a city-based getaway is just fine too, so I'm looking at Marriott-Resorts World.

Any suggestions?

Sakae

Went to the ONLY conveyor-belt-sushi-buffet-resto in the Philippines. Sakae Sushi in the SM Mall of Asia (though I believe there are branches in BGC and SM North EDSA too, I think). Went with my officemates, yesterday, on a Friday afternoon(ish).

The All Day Sushi Buffet is worth PhP399, which includes bottomless green tea. Sushi/makis, if to be bought ala-carte is priced at PhP39, PhP59, PhP 79 and PhP99, which depends on the color of the plate. The blue plates are the cheapest ones and the red and pink/purple plates are those worth PhP99.So if you were able to finish at least 4 PhP99 peso plates, it's sulit already.

We arrived at Sakae around 5:30 pm and stayed until around 8(?). So... prior to going to Sakae, we first read reviews in EYP.ph, juice.ph, blogs, etc. as it's gonna be our first time to go there (yes, we're not trendsetters, early adopters, deal with it!). There were bad reviews saying that there were only 4-5 types of sushi revolving, and bad service, so we went with very low expectations (and hopes that there's at least cali-maki).

I'm surrounded by sushis. Gotta catch 'em all! (Pokemon!)
Sorry for the horrid hair, I think I was on my 6th plate here and I was a
little high and too happy and starting to feel full and tired.

To clarify things, it's not just 4-5 types of sushi. There are LOTS of them if you'll stay for longer than 30 minutes.  Sushis and makis are made in batches, so you will find that there's about 4-5 type of sushi are going around the conveyor belt at one time. But after 15 minutes or so, the types of sushis/makis made are changed and you'll have roughly about at least 20 types of them going around after 2 hours. We stayed for about 3 hours, with friends to chat with, 3 hours isn't so long and so we were able to catch all (or almost all) of the sushis. 

California Maki isn't as elusive as other reviewers made it seem like. There was salmon, maguro, ebi, yellowfin, octopus, squid and egg sushi. There's also futomaki, tekkamaki, and one with the sesame seeds. There's 6 caviar-based sushis too and there's also the one which seemed to be covered in dumpling wrapper and deep fried, and there's like barbecued salmon with spicy sauce too. There's a few more others that might have slipped my mind too, or those which I don't know what the fish/filling is.

7 plates only. I know, disappointing ;P

Sure, there might be a little bit too much rice in the makis, but I couldn't care less, as long as I have my soysauce and wasabi and lots of green tea to drink, I'm fine. 

For someone who loves sushi, PhP399 was defo worth it. I was able to eat 7 plates. (2 greens, 3 yellows, 1 red and 1 purple/pink). But my friend, was able to finish 14 plates (yeah, she's a girl). We'd say we're good with just paying PhP399 for THAT much :) Dieting and healthy lifestyle went out the window yesterday, since it's the start of a long weekend and yeah, YOLO!

PS. If you're wondering why I didn't go with my husband to Sakae, it's kinda frustrating but he's not a fan of Jap. IKR?!

Post-Wedding Mileage

k by Cunanan usually posts their clients' weddings in their FB page. Since they did our wedding, that meant our wedding was featured. Guess who noticed our "unique" set up? Patty Laurel!

Patty is getting married too and is looking for wedding reception theme pegs and she decided that our wedding theme is cute enough for inspiration. Our wedding is the 'Blush and Glass'.

The idea of bottles and jars and glasses is something that I just pitched to Kar of k by Cunanan. Personally, I  looked for wedding ideas in Green Wedding Shoes for indie-esque wedding themes and saw the idea of recycled bottles. Kar promised me during our wedding meetups that she'll karir the hanging bottles and she did. And the effect was something totally unique and customized.

I'm just soooo happy about it because I've been trolling Patty Laurel since college days, and the fact that she liked my ideas meant a lot to me. Big deal.

Now let me just jump up and down and do rythmic gymnast-esque twirls.

We Practice Natural Family Planning. We're Married. We're Young Urban Professionals. We're Pro-RH.

I love the fact that it is women who have children who support RH. Something that anti-RH people will never understand is the risk mothers go through giving birth. I, who had a miscarriage, and did not have the child, experienced the verge of flat-lining while the doctors performed D&C.

Ask women who sacrificed their lives for the lives of their yet-to-be-born child. Ask husbands and fathers who were left by wives giving birth. Ask children who grew up without a mother, because she died giving birth to them or their siblings.

I hope people will choose the educated choice, not the merely self-righteous one.

For one, me and my husband are using the natural family planning method because we know how it works and it works for us. But there are women who have irregular cycles, making the natural method an unfit choice. I'm not gonna shove down their throats the method that we're using. It's about choice. About people being able to choose what is most convenient and what will work best for them. Forcing them to practice one method alone, when there are options defeats the purpose of DEMOCRACY.

People who use condoms or any artificial contraceptives ARE NOT PROMISCUOUS. They are SMART. They are the ones who are responsible enough to have foresight of what having a brood of children requires. Money to feed them, to clothe them, to put a roof above their heads and to send them to school.

Tell me that money isn't all that and I'll tell you to ask the Vatican to sell all their properties and use all that money to support all the families who cannot feed, clothe and educate their children because the natural methods failed, and they don't even earn enough have access to cheap artificial contraception, or aren't learned enough to know about artificial contraception because they weren't educated as well.

I don't even get this demonizing tactic and all the scapegoating. Sorry for the long-ass post, but I really have had enough of this debate. It shouldn't even be a debate after all. I hope people will start thinking and stop being a bunch of rigid, prude, virginal and self-righteous blind followers.