i kind of felt sorry for my mother when she arrived last april 5. she's gotten used to cold san francisco - and then she comes home to the philippines at the peak of summer heat. >.>

was worth it though, she said. she came home for kuya mox's graduation, and took enough pictures and videos of the event to provide as evidence to our relatives in the US that yes, it really has finally happened! rofl.

we all fooled around taking turns wearing kuya's toga (yes, including my mom O_O) and taking pictures, which i will not post because we all looked so silly. >.> when it was my turn, i tried to pose seriously, but then my mom took a whole-body shot, and you could see my slippers under the toga. o_o

( but here's one picture, during the graduation itself, just to mark this joyous event (and in which i think i look fairly decent). )

the day after the graduation, we went to the beach at real, quezon. the sea was amazing. it was cloudy so the sun wasn't searing hot. kaida absolutely enjoyed building a huge sand structure (which could either be a fairy castle or Minas Morgul, one can't be entirely sure) and splashing about the shallow waves.

the next day, we held a small dinner party in celebration of the graduation. thanks to all who came, even with such short notice! the text on the cake read, "way to go.. at last!" rofl.

my mom's flight back to the US was april 18, the day after the party. the two weeks she was here just flew by, it was depressing she already had to go.

it was particularly heartbreaking for me to see her off at the airport. she's been burnt out with work in the US and really needed this vacation. i can tell from her body language that she didn't want to go back yet. it was what made me cry when we got back home from the airport.

but i'm sure the next months will zoom by, and it will be december, and not only ina will be coming home to the philippines but ama and abram as well. i'm really looking forward to all of us being together again.

i have mixed feelings about 2009.

i am not too pleased that the first thing i hear is that year of the ox is bad for both year of the pig (me) and year of the sheep (aru), so for us it's like, prepare for double whammy. >.>

i want to feel optimistic, because 2008 had its lows, but they're definitely outweighed by the blessings.

yeah, okay, it doesn't hurt to be extra careful and save as much as we can and just amble along 2009 with a steady mind and steady heart, etc. etc., but damn it's disheartening to hear bad things right off the bat.

anyway.

on to a more important matter: my 2009 planner. XD

i got a starbucks planner (red, of course) late last december for the sheer sake of getting one, but i found that it still has day-view pages, and i want my month-view planner. and not just any month-view planner - it has to have hard covers and it must fit my bag. >.>

i was about to give up and use the starbucks planner, but i finally found a month-view planner similar to my planner last year, only this time it's red and not black, which is fine by me. took me a long time scouring four different bookstores for it. >.>

so, having found my ideal planner, i don't need the starbucks one anymore. and in light of the so-called "hard times" that are coming for us pigs and sheep, it would be a shame for the starbucks planner to go to complete waste.

tl;dr: S> 1 Starbucks Planner 2009 (Red), php 1000. ^^;;;; price is negotiable. payment/delivery depends on how you want it, but i would suggest a meet-up somewhere.

best gift this christmas: time with my family.

can't get over the feeling of bone-deep satisfaction - being able to play for a long time with kaida, and cooking noche buena with aru (without help from anyone!), and exchanging gifts with aru and kuya mox while drinking red wine/rhumcoke. haha! it was amazing.

first thing on my agenda list for the christmas break: sleep. yes.

happy christmas, from our house to yours. ^^

so last night on the way home from enchanted kingdom, dizzy from the rides and dizzy from the bus zigzagging along EDSA 11:30 pm, the song "Ulan" came up on the radio.

the only thing that my tired mind could come up, as aru and i held on tight to the seat handles, was: "pucha, ayaw kong mamatay na Cueshe ang tumutugtog sa background."

belated happy birthday to kuya moxitus!

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laptop = on budget
tito and the gang = subtract increased household bills and groceries to budget
dog bites helper = subtract php 10,000.00 worth of anti-rabies meds to budget

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i found a torrent for Tapestry zomg. DOWNLOAD ET.

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fck firefox 3.

i can't bear the errors i get whenever i access web pages with lots of ads. i can't bear having to restart downloads when i get the stupid errors. i can't bear having to restart downloads because it disabled free download manager and you have to use their download manager. the last straw was when YM links started opening with IE and not firefox.

i'm going back to firefox 2. someone notify me when the above issues are resolved, only then will i upgrade.

happy anniversary to us. ^^

we've been together 4 years, which can only mean that our love is greater than the urge to sometimes strangle each other. ROFL.

i love you, koi. ♥♥

i feel i haven't done a thing for christmas yet. >_<

it's so odd, feeling that i am the one who should be in charge of our family's christmas celebration. last year my parents came home and yeah, we helped with decorating, wrapping presents, but my mom was Supreme Commander™ with the whole preparation deal.

i only remembered we had to decorate yesterday, when our helper was already hauling boxes of decor from the bodega.

i said, "okay, i think we can decorate now," then did some work on the computer, and then i came out and the tree was up. =.=

i feel like such a scrooge, concentrating on work, not having time to shop for gifts, ignoring carolers, ignoring notices from our community that a christmas party is to be held on such and such date. >_<

i'm taking a very loooong leave after all my work is done, i swear. then maybe i can celebrate christmas properly.

thanks to all who celebrated aru's birthday with us yesterday. XD

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i was reading this article and merely thought, 'okay.'

browsing the comments i came across this video based on the original one and i LOLed.

pure win. XD

kaida's second birthday last november 25 was great! thanks to all who came. ^__^v

will try to post pics/vids (mostly vids though as i tried out our new vidcam that day) as soon as i get things together.

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the ame gakuensai event was v.grand. i can only be amazed at how accomplished the org has become. kudos. ^^

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went to the ppc christmas get-together last sunday with kaida. she went swimming at the pool, but got cold and didn't want to stay long. >__< it's only the third time she's gone swimming, the first one at a hot spring and the second time at the beach, so i guess she's not used to cold pool water yet.

the party was fun, aru and i won original discs for war of the ring and ground control 2. ^^v

aru didn't win the call of duty 4 tourney though, he got owned by aggroelf during the prelims. XD

after swimming, playing with nadia (her new ~*friend*~!) and gobbling up dinner, kaida fell asleep in an upstairs room so we took the opportunity to drink socialise. ^__^

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i admit it. i have a complex love/hate relationship with lineage2. =.=

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have been damn busy! will catch up with replies and memes soon.

thank you. ^^;

(lol.)

i uploaded a little something over at multiply:  helplessly hoping by crosby, stills, nash and young

the song never fails to break my heart every time i hear it. ;_;

happy valentine's day to everyone! ^^

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oh, and for valentines, aru gave me three long-stemmed roses and permission to get an additional piercing on my right ear. much love to him for the latter. ♥ (yeah, and ignore the roses LOL!)

on an afterthought, i watched this tv show once on filipino delinquent youths, and there was this one kid talking about ear piercings and how they get their left ear pierced because if you had your right ear pierced (or, if you have a both ears pierced, you had more piercings at the right ear), that means that you're gay.

..fail. ._.

my baby turned 14 months old today. ^^

the holiday season plus one earthquake later, i am finally able to lj!

..happy new year!

(late much? o_O)

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ang grupong pendong performed their last gig last wednesday. too bad i didn't have the chance to advertise because of stellar internet.

their subic gig was also great, after which we were able to go to the beach. it was kaida's first time to swim in the ocean! will post pics as soon as multiply cooperates. (i still have to upload her birhday pictures, too. ~_~)

one thing i found out about my mom: she developed a taste for starbucks during their first months in the US (most probably because their coffee shops are literally everywhere in that country). during the road trip to and from subic, she kept stopping by starbucks and buying coffee for the whole band. i suddenly found myself clutching a card 8 stickers short of a starbucks planner. shrugged and filled up the remainder of the card myself. yay instant planner. XD

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i really am particular about planners. a simple one would have sufficed, but the starbucks planner appealed to me because of the wide space for entries. however, i did still buy a complementary papemelroti month view mini-planner and attached it at the back of the starbucks one because i just have to have a month-view planner.

am geeky. i know.

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aru finally bought his own pc! thanks to louie and slaves for helping us buy chedeng. XD

yeah, you got that right: aru bought a CPU case with the logo of mercedes benz on it. ROFL.

he got (more or less) his gaming specs for a relatively cheap price, but what i'm really drooling over is the 1GB ram he splurged on. *O* the speed combined with his processor is just.. gah. *throws old P4 1.8GHz processor out the window*

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will be buying tickets (hopefully today) for the january 27 showing of zsa zsa zaturnnah (ze muzikal)! *is excited*

on november 25, 2006, kaida will be celebrating her first birthday. \o/

the celebration will be held here at our house. it's a saturday, and it'll start around 1pm.

i would like to invite all of you, especially ninongs and ninangs. i don't know if we can accommodate all of you, though. XD bahala na LOL. the more, the merrier? ^^;;

please confirm if you can come so that we more or less have an idea how many are going. ^^v

i really would just like to thank all who greeted me via LJ, sms message, e-mail, those who called, etc.

i would also like to apologize, i did not throw a formal celebration of sorts because i blew all the birthday money my mom sent to buy kaida a spiffy new bike. LOL!

still, some friends and relatives went over armed with food and drinks so we had a good time just talking and eating and drinking. it's been quite a while since i celebrated a birthday with people other than family. ^^

i was also kind of surprised when they came over. although they did tell me they were coming, i was sort of unprepared because i didn't really plan anything concrete for my birthday. my mind was far into planning for kaida's first birthday on november already. XD motherhood does that to me. :P

anyway. to those invited to the chp2006, it's going to be held at my house. in addition to bathala's mandate of "no costume, no admission!" i add this: "no gift, no admission!"

LOL~

seriously, just bring some food. XD it's potluck after all. :P or if you want, maybe those who won't be able to bring food will chip in so we can have something delivered? post here for suggestions and confirmations or violent reactions. XD

..it's the end of ramadan! \o/

lol.

when i was in grade school my life mission was to fill up my library card such that by the end of the school year i would have three library cards stapled to each other. i was an in-your-face geek. i would read anything. i miss those days (although i still am a geek in more ways than one). XD

this memory was brought to you by team7's post promoting RODCON 2007. i wanna go!

i've been meaning to join this group to bring back my long-lost love for reading and books, but as charsequil put it, there is barely enough time for me to read anything other e-mails and memos and LJ. XD

which is why i think DailyLit is an absolute godsend. it's bringing back the love part by part. ♥ i just might be able to finish War and Peace finally. XD

i just want to greet my brother a very happy birthday in the dying minutes of august 4.

ok, this entry is backdated because i was too busy fan-girling over monica bellucci and almost forgot to post this.

anyway, since i have zero cash to spare, i'm giving him an LJ as a gift. ^^;;

so, happy birthday moxitus! use your damned journal, ok? XD

my baby is five months old today, yay!

took care of her documents in city hall yesterday. don't ask why it's just now we processed it, effin' inept hospital people botched them up.

thanks slaves and louie for being able to come without much prior notice to serve as on-the-spot witnesses. big big thanks. >_<

effin' city hall people were also inept. four people on a single station stated two different versions of what was needed to be done, for chrissakes. had to go around unnecessarily, causing me to spend too much time away from my baby. when i got home she was so hungry. T^T

she doesn't like formula milk, or even expressed milk on a bottle. she doesn't like synthetic. this also shows in her choice of toys. she quickly loses interest in her premade toys, but is absolutely mad about paper or plastic bags which she likes to crumple up and tear apart. o_O

anyway.

my baby is five months old today, yay!

lol.