quoting

from Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi':

"If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."

clickables for today

SF to Paris in Two Minutes

Willie [and the] Poor

Teen summa cum laude breaks 65-year UP record Congratulations, John Gabriel Pelias! And, I would like to note: Dr. Gertrude Baron is my tita! (Hi, Tita Gigi!) :D

Sunday at home

Spent today at home (missed visiting my grandparents) because my right eye was still itchy when I woke up. (It's not anymore now, yay!)

I did all the usual stuff...

I watched "Ded na si Lolo" (Funny! If you're doing research on the different pamahiins and bawals during a wake/burial, watch this.) and Facebooked and read blogs after. And "window-shopped" stuff online (clothes, books, airline tickets, footwear, bags).

I read the newspaper. (I still prefer the smelly newsprint newspaper I can hold and fold and flip.)

I read a book. (Same goes with books, I like holding paper. :D Paper books over e-books any day! I'm not really environment-friendly this way. :( *sniff*) The particular book I read today was about my province, Pangasinan.

The author is my sister's client - when he found out that our family had roots in Pangasinan, he was so thrilled he excitedly gave my sister a signed copy of his book. "Tales from the Land of Salt" by Emmanuel Sison is a collection of stories and legends from and about Pangasinan. I enjoyed reading about the datus, deities, and pre-colonial Philippines. I had to recall all those sibika at kultura lessons from my elementary days. (An activity which I enjoyed - nakakatuwa malaman that I still remembered school lessons from 15-20 years ago!) Finished just 3 stories so far (around 1/4 of the collection); I'll probably be writing more about it in the coming days as I progress with the book. :)

I napped. I ♥ sleep!

I ate. :D Was snacking on barquillos the whole day. Yum. (Kulang na lang ice cream.) And when my sister got home from her weekend trip, I snacked on the mashed potatoes and pork & beans she brought with her. Yum yum. (Homemade!) It was heavy and filling. :9

Also thought of going for a walk/jog around the neighborhood but my laziness won over my drive to get some sun and exercise. :D Maybe next weekend. :)

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Bedtime! Good night :)

(Manic Monday ulit bukas.)

from Maruja - 28 things to do

I was cleaning my e-mail & Facebook messages inboxes this morning. Sharing something my friend Maruja got from Bo Sanchez (then shared with us at the start of this year).

(I'm turning 28 in 3.5 months! Wala lang.)

28 simple things to do to make 2011 a blast:
(Bo's list has 29 - click here)

1. Laugh with inspiring friends at least once a week or more
2. Have mentors in the most important areas of your life
3. Walk 30 minutes a day
4. Use your talents for God by serving in a ministry
5. Invest 20% of your income every month
6. Read one inspiring book a month
7. Cut TV watching to the barest minimum (zero is a good number)
8. Limit newspaper reading to 5 minutes or less a day
9. Take vacations often
10. Eat fruits for breakfast
11. Always have a salad for lunch and dinner
12. Start a business (or improve your business) this year
13. Always be grateful to God and others
14. Always live by your deepest values
15. Spend time with God everyday
16. Play with your kids at least once a day (If you don’t have any, borrow.)
17. Have a weekly date with your spouse (If you don’t have any, don’t borrow!)
18. Date your parents regularly
19. Before you sleep, remove all anger by forgiveness
20. Be the kindest person you can be
21. Find your passion and live it fully
22. Give more hugs (and receive as many)
23. Listen to understand, not to reply
24. Celebrate more often
25. Put people over projects
26. Enjoy quiet and solitude
27. Always give 10% of your income to God
28. Keep dreaming

Happy Saturday!

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Calvin and Hobbes for today:

April 7

April 2 cookfest

Woke up early today to join Mela & her SFC household in their cooking session. Whee! We made carbonara and peanut butter cups. :9

We used the People Weekly Eat, Pray, Love carbonara recipe, as seen in Chuvaness.com (here) but improvised on a lot of the ingredients. So, the pasta didn't turn out as tasty as it should have been. It was good nonetheless. :)

Magnolia Quickmelt cheese instead of Parmigiano-Reggiano & Pecorino Romano cheeses

Purefoods classic bacon instead of pancetta

I ♥ bacon

finished product! - which we ate for lunch :D

kaimito (star apple) for dessert :)

After lunch we started on the peanut butter cups, using Kathleen Dickerson's recipe for Homemade Peanut Butter Cups, from allrecipes.com.

melting the chocolate

blending the peanut butter and butter

chocolate is now ready to be spooned into the molds!

(NCP Take 3 - Day 4)

after 10 minutes of waiting for the bottom layer of chocolate to set, now spooning in the peanut butter mixture

I didn't catch the finished product anymore (or even the final step of spooning in the top layer of chocolate) because I had to leave early. Mela brought home some of the finished product and it was a success! :) We're doing this again, for sure! :D

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Bago kayo ma-excite, Happy April Fools' Day! :D

Above photo was grabbed off Wikipedia.

I don't think Rachelle's pineapple, our office pet, will ever bear fruit. :(

Anyway, here's how it/he/she looks like today: