Day 13 - House Guests

Here be my brother's dogs Nicki and Ginger. They'll be at our house for the week as my brother and his wife and her family will be in Cambodia for a holiday.

I'm grateful to have them for the time being as they are super duper cute. :3

Day 364 - Paellyeah!

New friends = new activities!

Today we had a paella party because we're now friends with K and his hobby, apparently, is cooking for others. Talk about a great hobby! :D

So this is me and a few of my new officemates in the dining room of my house, because we live in the middle of the Muntiparlas area and I guess that makes it the most ideal place for a party that involves people from those places. And, my parents are fine with having people over anyway. They even played Flamenco music because it suddenly became a Spanish-themed party with the paella and all.

BTW, crazy eyes expression on my face is due to my dad's corny jokes (that I've heard way too many times before!) during the taking of this picture.

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Ako nang umabot ng 2 years sa 365 days project. Sorry na! Ang hirap mamili ng pictures and... I only have 1 more to go! How do you choose a picture that's good enough to be the last one?

Day 358 - Slide

Yup. You guessed it. This is another requirement for our office's scavenger hunt -- a photo of the entire team on a slide, one in front of the other. It seemed ridiculous when we read about it on the list, but I think we look really cute here. And I'm so glad that the slide in the park in our village is this old-school metal slide, not the cartoony plastic ones that you see in other playgrounds nowadays (like in the photo of the other team. haha! how competitive am i?! :P).

Day 296 - Red Velvet Cupcakes

My favorite cupcakes! Ordinarily, I'd go to Sonja's Cupcakes at Serendra for them, but since that's not an option at the moment (and those cupcakes are too expensive anyway), my sister was kind enough to find a recipe on the internet and make them. They were kind of hard to make, but really really yummy. I want more!

Day 287 - Chocolate Crinkles

My sister and I made these cookies yesterday. The ones my aunt makes taste better (in my opinion), but these were yummy, too. Homemade baked stuff is the best. :)

Day 267 - Stay at Home and Play with the Dog Day

It's a religious holiday today in the Philippines (Good Friday) so all the shops and everything else are closed. People either stay at home, go to church, or go on holiday at some resort. We stayed at home and played with the dog. This is my sister's fiance with the family dog Brigham.

Day 243 - Afternoon Sun

Stuffed toys on my bed slightly yellow because of the afternoon sun shining through my window. I'm biased of course, but my room is my favorite room in our house because the sun's so bright here in the afternoon. :) (No post-processing/camera effect was done on this photo. It's really that yellow!)

Day 237 - Butter

Oh look, another food item for my photo of the day. How refreshing. -_- Anyway, this is my favorite butter. And I took a picture of it because I thought the rings were cool. They were made by the lid, and you'll only see them when you've newly opened the can.

Day 210 - Happy Valentine's Day!

Because it's Valentine's Day, I used red paper to cover the pulburon that Ate E, Ate M and I made. I didn't have anywhere to go so this was a fun activity for me to do at home. :) This is just one of the containers that we put the pulburon in, but we actually made enough to fit 4 containers. Can't wait to eat them. Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! :D

Day 206 - Bread and Butter

Literally, my bread and butter. This is what I eat when there's nothing else to eat around the house. I know it's supposed to be breakfast food but I sometimes I eat it as my lunch, dinner, or midnight snack.

Day 194 - New Song Book

Part of a page of the song list for our new videoke machine (we got it Christmas last year). I had to insert about a hundred pages in the leaves of a clearbook. Just one of the fun, no-brainer activities I'm always doing. :P

Day 143 - Pet Love

I should've realized that this was Day 143 so I would've come up with a romantic entry. Because you know, 143. Although 143 isn't actually specific to romantic love, so I guess putting this picture of our dog is just fine. We love him too, anyway. :)

This is our dog Brigham, currently taking his bath, assisted by Ate E. It's his first bath after he got anti-rabies and de-worming shots last week. Anyway, doesn't he look happy on the second picture (right-top)?

Day 135 - Merienda

PALITAW AT LINGA - Yup, the Tagalog word for sesame seeds is "linga". Who knew?

Would you believe it if I told you that it was only after college that I found out that not all households serve merienda (afternoon snack)? OK, so maybe I knew it all along because of course, not all households have the same eating habits, but it was really only a few years ago when I was talking with my officemates about food that I talked about how we usually had merienda on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and they told me that that's not a practice in every household. And once more I was reminded of how lucky I am that my family likes to eat. :)

Anyway, I took a photo of our merienda today because it's one of my favorites. But actually, I like almost all merienda food - bananacue, kamote cue, turon, bico, etc.

Day 115 - At Play

Unlike our old dog (I still miss her sometimes :( ) who wasn't too sociable and was content with watching TV, our new dog Brigham (he's a little more than 6 months old) loves people and running around. I used to play with him a lot when he was a puppy (and therefore very small--I could carry him with one hand). Sometimes he would stand up on his hind legs and start pawing at me, which was cute when he could only reach my knees, but now that he's grown, he can reach past my waist, and so, I'm a little bit scared. Sometimes it's a source of fun around the house:

Me: Ang laki na ni Brigham. Nakakatakot na.

Brother: Ah, oo. Para sa'yo.

Fine. So I'm not the tallest person in the world. Whatever.

Anyway, I managed to take this snapshot because Brigham was preoccupied playing with my dad. Maybe next time I'll post a clearer and nearer picture of him, if he doesn't scare me first.

Day 110 - Names and Kittens

This is mine and my sister's name on the door of the room that was formerly ours, but is now just mine because my sister's moved to New Zealand. It was put up there, maybe more than 10 (or 20?) years ago, when we were still kids. Other than because it has sentimental value, I'm not removing it because it's too high for me to reach, and there's no other place to put it anyway. Why fix it if it ain't broken, right?

Day 108 - Wilkins Village

It seems that advertisers have decided that the highway is now too boring to place their ads on that they have infiltrated subdivisions as well. I saw this sign at the entrance of our village as I was walking home today. I blurred out our village name for obvious reasons.

They've also put up posters advertising Wilkins Distilled Water on our lamp posts. And not just on the main streets but on all the streets, including ours.

Well, congratulations Wilkins. Now I'm advertising you on my blog, too.

Day 83 - Good-side Pasta

Was it last Valentine's Day that we received the same kind of pasta? This is a pyrex of chicken and mushroom carbonara (I don't exactly know if that's what you call it, but it's a white sauce pasta with chicken and mushrooms so that's what I'm calling it), made by my brother's girlfriend. I suppose it's some sort of farewell gift since she leaves for the U.S., where she continues her MBA studies as an exchange student on scholarship, tomorrow. The reason that the title is "Good-side Pasta" however, is because the last time she gave us this pasta, I had the impression it was so she could get on my mom's good side. A pretty good strategy, I guess, since the pasta is yummy. You could get anyone to like you if you give them yummy food, I think.

P.S. Today we learned that my sister passed the Sharepoint Elite Exam. Congratulations to her! But, I can't really take a picture of that so you're stuck with this boring foil-wrapped food.

Day 70 - My New Friends

These are the stuffed toys at the foot of my bed. Because I'm unemployed and boring, they were the only interesting subjects I could find today.

Day 51 - Mirror / Bulletin Board

You know how in some houses, they post notes on the refrigerator door so people are sure to see it? Well, in our house, since the refrigerator is already cluttered with magnets (my mom has a collection), it's more practical to post notes on the mirror in the bathroom.

You won't be able to read it at this size but that's a note to our helper to wake me up at 8:00AM so that I won't be late for work. (Alarm clocks aren't very reliable for deep sleepers like me.)

If you look closely, you'll see part of my hand and part of the camera on the edge of the mirror. ;)

Day 27 - Grandfather's Clock

My grandfather has been staying with us for the past few days. He's sleeping in my brother's room, so my brother is sleeping in my room. And I'm sleeping on the couch in our living room. This is my view when I wake up.

BTW, that clock hasn't been working for the last couple of years. We tried to get it repaired but it stopped working again after only 2 weeks. We've stopped trying so now it's just for decoration. Its ticking sound was kind of creepy anyway.