Calvin and Hobbes 090122

Nursing a cold now. :-/ I hate having a runny nose.

FreeCell update: Just finished game 726!

Nine for 2009 -- my 2009 checklist

Lazy Saturday again. Aahhh... :) I spent time in the kitchen earlier today. I cubed some canned almond jelly for our lychee and almond jelly dessert. What do you think?

Uni-Mart in Greenhills lang yung nagbebenta ng canned almond jelly. (Got this tip from Atty. Anne, my former employer's in-house legal counsel.) You can find it the the section where the canned green jelly is sold. Otherwise, you can make some from scratch, using powdered almond jelly. Using canned saves you time though. While chopping, naalala ko bigla yung 'Ploning' (local movie starring Judy Ann Santos)... In 'Ploning', lychees were served only during special occasions... Nothing special naman about today, except maybe that I finally finished my 2009 goals/checklist. Nine for 2009. Mostly travel plans. :D Sharing:

1. Batanes. Parang Europe daw ang Batanes. Sana mag-sale na ulit ang Zest Airways.

2. Dumaguete-Siquijor. I'm booked already for Jan.30-Feb.1! Yay! Going with OH Mel. I'm thankful she's kaladkarin. We're travelling together again after 9 years, when we visited Iloilo and Guimaras in 2000. (Haha! Diarrhea memories of the Iloilo-Manila boat trip are starting to come back to me.) Asenso na kami ngayon kasi via plane na kami to Dumaguete. Dumaguete-Siquijor, anyone? You're welcome to join us. Puntahan natin yung witchcraft village sa Siquijor. :D

3. FreeCell 20,000. 'Finish all 1 million FreeCell games' is on my bucket list. I just finished game 722. According to my calculations, I have to finish around 18,500 games per year if I want to reach the 1 million mark by age 80. Let's see how far I'll be na by year-end.

4. Graduate school. Start on my MBA na, while a part of me still wants to study.

5. Learn how to cook adobo.

6. One hundred ten pounds!

7. Run a marathon. Nicole's tito is organizing a marathon for Tubbataha for March 22. I'm just waiting for the final details from Nicole. The shortest option is a 3k run, that's what I'm running. :D Taralets!

8. Save more.

9. Taipei. Maybe in July or August. Birthday gift to myself. I'm trying to get to know Asia, one country at a time. :)

Spanish bread and hot chocolate morning

I woke up today to a cool Manila morning. :) Mom left some Spanish bread for breakfast so I heated a couple and prepared some hot chocolate before I read the morning news. (Aside, hot chocolate and hot cocoa are apparently different, according to whatscookingamerica.net. I still prefer using 'hot chocolate' though.)

I learned from Tita Moje that hot chocolate is better if you drop a small piece broken off a dark chocolate bar into your drink. Didn't have dark chocolate so I tried milk chocolate. (Stole some from my brother's stash of Droste. Hehe.) It didn't have the same effect though--dark chocolate is better, it makes your mug of hot chocolate richer; no noticeable effect with milk chocolate (maybe I should have put in more?) but I enjoyed my drink anyway. Yum.

Ever wonder why Spanish bread is named such? I know a naughty explanation pero yun ba talaga? Anyone who knows, please leave a comment. I googled na, but got nothing. However, I came across a blog with step-by-step instructions (and photos!) on how to make Spanish bread, here. Spanish bread kanina was from Fortune Bakeshop, maybe someday when I'm more adventurous (and less lazy) I'll try my hand at homemade Spanish bread.

hand-painted plate by Charina, mug from kumpareng Chris and kumareng Clarisse :)

Happy New Year!

Calvin and Hobbes, posted 081231

Visit Calvin and his stuffed tiger on gocomics.com, here.

Happy 2009! Happy New Year!