Videoke

Friday night, after a really good tuna, salmon, tofu and salad dinner at Soul Food and my first ever DOTA session (tons of fun!), I went to videoke with Che, Ades, and Jorel. It was around 12:30 am. When we decided to call it quits almost four hours later, Jorel had already dozed off and I had run out of voice that I was actually whispering already through the last couple of songs. But, I was still singing! Or trying to. Heheh. What can I say, I love videoke.

Doubt

I know I've signed up for the climb and I'm fully aware that this one's definitely not going to be a walk in the park. But with preparation and good weather, I know i can do it.

However, if the weather gets bad, I'm out.

Goal

Now I have more reason to jog and climb stairs. It's because i've signed up for a climb which will happen at the end of this month. I'm going mountain climbing! This time it's not just to any mountain though, but the treacherous Mt. Halcon, 3rd highest in the country and they say the most difficult. Undoubtedly it's going to be challenging as hell so I need to be fully prepared. And right now, I need to go jogging. So hopefully the rain outside lets up soon so i can head to the acad oval and jog already.

got milk

Today I learned that skim milk is equivalent to fat free milk, which is calcium-rich milk with less than 0.5 g of fat per 8 oz serving.

And it's very useful news because last week I decided to incorporate milk into my diet, but found myself a bit lost at the grocery store when choosing what milk to buy. There were whole milk, soya, reduced fat, lite, 98% free, fat free, skim. I wanted the not fattening and least-damaging-to-the-wallet kind. (The latter rule was a bit more challenging because the price tags were missing.) Finally I settled for Cowhead fat free. (Earlier today I learned that the fat free kind was a good choice but the Cowhead brand was too pricey.) I didn't touch the skim milk labeled varieties because I didn't yet understand what they really were. But now I know -- skim milk is good. And that's great news because it has opened up more options, and cheaper ones too.

Another healthy option: reduced fat soya milk with no sugar added. Sounds expensive, though.

fixed

So my blog template going bonkers was Blogger's fault after all. Nearly went haywire trying to find any errors in my template only to discover that nothing's wrong with it! Good thing Blogger has already provided a way to handle this issue. Yey! I'm back to normal.

And sorry if i haven't been blogging. Aside from being a first time bridesmaid and trying to lose some weight for the wedding, not much has happened in this past month.

I'm feeling like posting more often now, though, now that my template's fixed already, even if *still* not much is happening.

eyes almost shut

Last night, I drove home squinting. I was so tired, it was all I could do to keep my eyes from closing. I also tried shaking my head, and pumping up the radio, which worked to keep me awake. But because my eyes had become so tired, it had become difficult to stare at the road and bear all the road lights, which by then had seemed glaring and just too bright and painful to look at.

I slept without changing and woke up at 1 pm.

chance

This morning I had an upset stomach. A real one! Recently, faking one so I could skip work had *crossed my mind*. Well, what do you know.

But I really needed to skip work. You see, my driver's license is already two weeks past its expiration. And the penalty fee is not going to get any friendlier the more I put off renewing it. However, I was also wishing I could renew it without having to waste a vacation leave, which I'm saving for a real vacation.

Well, this morning I became sick for real. Fortunately, even though it seemed at first that I would be stuck at home, it was a good thing the upset stomach was still bearable enough to let me get out of the house and drive and have the renewal, the majority of which just consisted anyways of hours of sitting around waiting for my name to be called. It was still uncomfortable though - definitely too uncomfortable to have to be working with at the office.

So I called in sick (for half a day) and made good use of my time. :D

back to jogging

Happy that I get to jog again last night. After more than a month's break from doing any form of exercise, I'm trying to jog again. Yesterday night, when the day-long heavy downpour finally ended, I took my chance and headed to the acad oval. It was a bit dishearting to find the jogging track empty save for some guards and one or two joggers, but the transformed weather, which had become quite welcoming, was irresistable. The slight wind was providing cool, refreshing air that was just energizing. And having just recently obtained a new watch bought specifically for jogging purposes, and also having two knee guards now to support each knee, I knew I it was a great time to jog.

So I said a prayer for safekeeping (the road was well-lighted and the guards were conspicious enough, but you never know...), and jog I did , and enjoyed it too. The weather remained friendly, I got to cover two rounds without my knees feeling any pain, and I got to exercise. Woot!

numb

After more than a month of not playing the drums at church, I got to play again this morning.

But since I haven't been practicing much lately, my right hand got tired sooner than it should. Meaning, the songs weren't over yet but my hand was already giving up. There came a point where I was barely holding the stick anymore, but with half-curled fingers too tired to wrap themselves more tightly around the stick, I was just supporting the stick to prevent it from flying off of my already numb hand.

Gratefully, no stick came hurtling off of the drumset (which had happened before, with no spare sticks, in my drumming days of many many months past). And maybe the tempo slowed down a tiny bit because of my getting tired. But, at least, there weren't any show-stopping blunders. (I can't exactly remember when or how bad, but somewhere in my drumming days past, there was at least one of those too.)

Well, this should remind me to practice more often...

E.E.E and KTV

Yesterday night turned out to be an eventful evening after all. I had dinner with my college batchmates at Marina, a seafood resto along Timog Ave which served wonderful baked oysters. Afterwards, we were off to IO KTV for hours of singing-our-hearts out fun! We had lots of munchies too. I loved the big fries and the sisig. And Marvin paid for at least half of the bill. Another fun night!

rain rain go away

I'm a little jealous of my brother Moti. This afternoon he called me to ask what time i'm going home. He was planning to go home very late, around 1 am, and he was hoping he'd have a ride. Of course it meant he was hoping I'd go home very late as well. In previous Fridays, me heading home very very late was expected, because I usually still have work. Yep, tons of work to finish. And in much much earlier Fridays, my brother asking me would be a formality because during those days of not much heavy Friday night work, there's usually a night out, be it super a extended dinner, videoke, movie, party, or just a chill-out session at starbucks.

But as of this moment, I have nothing lined up for tonight. So most probably i'll just end up going home earlier than usual. Not a problem really. It's just that my brother is going to play basketball! His affair tonight is at least three fun hours of shooting hoops, a sport I just never grew tired of playing. It made me wish I could play too... right now, of course.

Truth is, if not for the cat-and-dog weather, I'd be dribbling to the parking lot halfcourt already.

OK Sunday

A few good things happened today - enough good things, actually, to make today one of my better days.

First, even though I was just in time for church when I should have arrived much earlier because I had to replace a guitar string that I snapped yesterday, it turned out I didn't have to. A new string was already fixed in place and the guitar was even tuned already.

Second, even though the guitar was tuned one key lower that the other instruments, and despite finding out about this too late, meaning I was actually already playing on stage, I was able, for the first time in my life, to transpose the chords on the spot. Being a far from good guitar player, I was really happy I pulled this off, because it can get really confusing! And good thing my bandmates were the most helpful, adjusting to me for the first song. Afterwards, though, it was either my way or the right way. Fortunately, I didn't mess up.

Third, I got to do some work at the office and help teammate Jon a bit with some debugging.

Fourth, I made it in the closing hours of the SM sale! And I got to buy some clothes and even a cardigan that I need for a friend's wedding.

Last, when I returned to the office from shopping, two heavy sticks of the most delightful Dannylicious barbeque, picked up and paid for already by my boss, were waiting for me! Yeah!

Nina Live

Nina rocks! Today, I listened to Nina's live album for the first time and I loved it. With a great selection of songs, and Nina's pleasantly powerful vocals that just fits the songs very well, I couldn't help but enjoy the music and sing along!

Different

I had a feeling while driving to work at the start of the day, as I was trying to manage the busy road of buses who are supposed to stay in the rightmost lane but keep hogging the middle lane, unpredictable jeepneys that are speeding one second and lurching to a stop with nary a warning the next (no thanks to their ever-absent brake lights), and rushing cars determined to pass them all, when, amidst all these road rage-inducing madness, not to mention the tangles of free for all intersections, all I was feeling was a great need to close my eyes and doze off, that for this day, getting on the ball at work will be tough indeed.

True enough, despite having tons of important work to do, I was still sleepy most of the day. And spaced out. Something's wrong. I hope it's only a one-day thing.

Fancy Gem Biscuits

Came across this photo in flickr, and immediately, I was transported back to the time when I was still playing agawan-base with my elementary school friends. After school, I'd have these and eat the biscuit part first, then have the sweet colorful tops for later... just like saving the best for last.

I wonder if I could still get me some of these...

crazy taxi

Nearly had a car accident this morning. I was already inside UP, and was following a taxi. But as the taxi was about to turn left going to ISMED, it suddenly jerked to a stop! Vehicles are supposed to make a full stop at intersections and I was fully prepared for that. But the taxi's sudden change of speed would catch anyone off guard.

Good thing I reacted just in time, and was able to stop immediately, while quickly glancing at my rearview mirror to check if anyone was following (no one was). Then I blasted my horn to show the idiot taxi driver that his sudden stopping nearly caused a collision.

Then something flashed on me. Suddenly, I remembered my previous car accident, where a crosswind I was following suddenly reversed and ruined my hood. Something told me the taxi was going to do a crosswind. Without hesitating, I quickly checked my rearview mirror again to make sure I wasn't going to hit anything then I reversed my car in an instant. And surely, as soon as I had moved a couple of inches, the taxi was already lurching backwards!

Realizing that the taxi driver's still unaware of my presence or something is very wrong with him or his situation with his passenger that he's stupidly ignoring me and my close distance, I backed up some more. And then his car was reversing again. This was really puzzling - and kinda alarming - because in front of him was a clear and obstacle-free road but he seemed like he's trying to wiggle out of the corner by jolting his way backwards without any regard if he'll hit anything in the process.

Finally he managed to move forward and quickly took the opposite lane - must be to stop eventually at the other side of the road.

As I went pass the taxi, it hit me that I had just barely avoided certain disaster. And as I breathed a sigh of relief, I knew, God saved me again.

dialled the dentist

After nearly a year now of daily enduring bursts of painful sensations that one busted molar has been giving me, I've finally made myself do something about it. I know, I've waited six months. But the pain wasn't so bad six months ago. Unfortunately, I've allowed it to evolve into the kind I cannot live with anymore, for the busted tooth been giving me pangs of the most unwelcome and excrutiating pain I can feel down to my toes.

So just now I made an appointment with the dentist, and tomorrow I'm heading to his office so he can end this misery. I can't wait!

jump for joy

Hats off to Jonny Hat, who apparently loved my jumping shots just enough to donate real Euros to my flickr account, now making me a pro Flickrite! Cool! And of course, my jumping shot "models"--Tid, Khen, Peejay, Pita, Von--have a lot to do with the great pics. So thanks all!

Now I'm *really* missing my camera, which is currently touring Europe with my sister.

Oooh, when it lands in my hands again, it shall be on fire! Mwahaha!

thankful

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
Psalm 118:21 (NIV)

Couldn't have done it without you. ;-)

Lunch

I joined Tid, Khen, Peejay, and Ades earlier today for lunch. I already had my usual packed lunch with me but could use some change of atmosphere so I decided to go with them to Casaa. We learned soon enough, though, that U.P. was in the thick of enrollment, so we found Casaa crowded--way too crowded to be risking waiting for a table given our limited break time. So we immediately transferred ourselves to Khas, which, albeit much more crowded than usual, still appeared to be able to accommodate us.

But how wrong we were.

Obtaining a table was easy enough. The frustratingly difficult part: getting through to even one waitress. It took us ages--at least three times asking for the menu and then three times being acknowledged that "yeah, it's coming", before having our tiny request pushed at the back of their minds so we had to ask them again--before we were finally able to get hold of a pair (which we realized we didn't need anymore because the waiting has made us recall our usual orders and that's what we're going to order to save precious minutes). And then we had to endure another millenium of waiting before the orders arrived. (A few minutes after our orders were taken I was so hungry already I went ahead to munch the bread that I'd brought along.)

Good thing the food seemed pleasant enough. Well, I really couldn't tell for sure, because I brought my own lunch, but everyone was instantly busy devouring their meals the second the food was put on the table. Could just be the hunger though...

Another plus was the food was cheap.

We could be definitely be back at Khas again, but definitely not during these kind of days.