juls random thoughts

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

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Its been a week now and I'm still craving for chips and salsa. So today, I decided to satisfy that craving by eating at Mexicali. This is one restaurant that I always ignore to think I always see it in Glorietta and Megamall. The place "speaks" Mexican, from the name, music and interiors but I don't see it inviting, that's why I'm so glad that today I decided to try it out. My craving: chips and salsa, and Greenwich pizza, because its so homemade cheesy but decided to fulfill my chip and salsa craving first. Glad I did. I ordered for, of course, tortillas and salsa plus cheese and garlic quesadillas. Total cost: P152.25.

I LOVE LOVE my chips and salsa. The salsa is actually simple and I made this already before so while eating I'm thinking of heading straight to Rustans supermarket to buy ingredients and make my own salsa. I think we still have chips at home. My MIL always buy nacho chips when she goes to Quiapo.

Then my cheese and garlic quesadilla arrived, its also simple but good, not a huge serving, together with the necessary dips of sour cream, salsa and what seems to be their version of guacamole. Somehow, it satisfied my craving for cheesy pizza since it's really cheesy.

While eating, the familiar taste brought back memories of my US assignment. Mexican food is our default lunch most especially when I got assigned to Cisco. I'll usually order chicken quesadilla and load up on guacamole and salsa. It also brought back memories of my 3-week assignment in Austin, Texas for AMD. That's when I tasted the best Tex-Mex food and good old fashioned salsa. I remember that since that experience, the "used-to-be-good-enough-for-me" Tostitos bottled salsa now tastes bland in comparison. That assignment in Texas upgraded my taste pallet for Tex-Mex food.

Mexican food is also my "no-thinking-needed" food when I go shopping in Great Mall, Milpitas. My favorite? steak fajitas!, quesadillas and of course chips and salsa. Oh, and speaking of steak fajitas, I so love this too from AppleBees!

Mexican restaurants are so common in the US due to a lot of Mexican immigrants. Based on my observation, it's the "fastfood" for the working people there. However, I did not like the burrito, which is like the Meditterranean's (sp?) gyros or shawarma but with rice. I don't like it because of the rice inside. For me, it feels weird. But that's just me.

To go back to my Mexicali experience. I truly enjoyed my food and I think I'm now placing it in my fave resto list. I can't wait to take Francis here and try out their beef tenderloin fajitas.

Just finished my food as I finished this entry (from my mini notebook, that is). My rating: DEFINITELY GOOD! I did not even feel bothered that I'm drinking water instead of my favorite Coke Light.

kurt started his home schooling today. well, actually, as i type this entry, he is upstairs studying with his teacher, tita aimee, my BIL's fiancee. aimee is tutoring (sp?) pau and sean, kurt's two cousins, and kurt always would say that he wants to study, he wants to join them upstairs. we decided to make him start studying too. original offer was an actual preschool at home but we decided against it cause we feel that he's not yet ready for that, or i think mas reason na ayaw naming magsawa sya and to really enjoy playing muna. we intend to enroll him as "saling pusa" in a preschool within the village when he turns 3 so for now, he's having a one-hour daily class with his tita aimee.

even before he started today, sinasali na sya ni aimee paminsan-minsan sa class, he had 2 pages of worksheets filled up na, currently displayed on our refrigerator door, one is drawing a line and the other one is coloring the 3 big circles, plus the other images that aimee drew that kurt can color. add to that the flash card that she and istong did, thanks to that because kurt can now recite the representative of each letter of the alphabet, well except for X - xylophone.

we're giving this tutoring a one month trial to see if he'll always be cooperative, but my hunch is it will. kasi he sees his cousins studying so he wants to mimic them.

below is a picture that i took by sneaking in, kaso nahuli rin ako, sayang, blurred yung picture, patago kasi. i don't want to disturb him while studying sana eh.

dada look!! (pointing the telephone to the mickey mouse stamp on his hand). we were all laughing when we saw kurt did this. he was talking to his dada over the phone and during their conversation, he decided to show the mickey stamp on his hand by putting the phone receiver on his hand. oh my baby is so funny. he thought his dada will see it through the phone. another funny thing, at the end of their conversation, he kissed dada but not on the mouth piece side, dun sa may side kung saan naririnig nya ang dada nya. andun nga naman si dada!

mama slide! mama babak-syong! i heard kurt saying this to me last last weekend, not sure if its saturday or sunday, june 30 or july 1. we're all puzzled as to what babak-syong means so i went with him on the attic and there i learned that babak-syong means vacuum. hahahaha!!! we were all laughing when we found that out. i will definitely create a scrapbook lo for this. i can just imagine his reaction when he sees this when he's all grown up.

a former officemate told me about this:

http://bb2.pinoybigbrother.com/tabid/547/Article/6276/Default.aspx

just documenting the time that my name was included in an article over the web.

been so long since i blogged. na-hospital kasi ako. wednesday afternoon, i am having my afternoon coffee from figaro when suddenly my stomach had a very sharp pain, as in namimilipit ako sa sakit so i went to the clinic to ask for medicine. the nurse gave me semeco and told me that if after 30 mins. the pain persists, that i drink the other piece. that was 4pm then at 4:30 with still sharp pain in my stomach, i drank semeco again. at 5pm, i have to go to the restroom to vomit and after that, LBM na and the pain is worse. good thing francis was just in PLDT so he immediately picked me up. i'm in pain on our way to Medical City, nagsuka ako ulit. When we get in the ER, they told me to that they cannot give me pain killer so they can localize the cause, baka daw surgical. after a very looooooooooong wait, the surgery resident checked me then she said that she'll ask the OB to clear me first so the ER nursing aide brought me to the 5th flr. for OB check up. To make the story short, I was admitted at 2am. Got discharged yesterday, sunday, july 8 and will have an ultrasound of my gallbladder, pancreas and liver tomorrow. diagnosis: acute gastritis, acute gastroenteritis

just got back from a very good dinner.

we woke up late this morning. our intention was to be in makati by 8am, i set the alarm in my cellphone to 6:15am, i heard the alarm and pressed what i thought was the snooze button, however, i learned at 7:45 that what i probably pressed was the off button. so i woke up francis and we hurriedly took a bath and dressed up. we were supposed to use my car as francis has no intention of bringing his car but due to this event, he decided to bring his car and i decided not to bring my car as i know i can't drive under time pressure. so i just rode with him to makati. on our way, that's when i learned that my meeting was moved to 9am so good for me.

since i don't have a car, i decided to go to francis office in pioneer to go home with him. he actually wanted to pick me up from makati but i hate to wait for him for a long time so i just told him that i'll go to his office.

when we met, he said he's hungry, i am hungry too, and that's how we ended up in seven corners.

seven corners is crown galleria suites (not sure of exact name) version of makati shangri-la's circles and edsa shangri-la's heat. this is our second time to eat here. i am excited for the steak.

i started my meal with steamed shrimps, lobster, mussels and oysters, then i realized that i was not supposed to eat oysters with an empty stomach so i got salmon sashimi and various maki and miso soup. even in circles, i always indulge in seafood and sushi, so no difference here, but this time, i only had one serving and proceeded already to the steak. this is what's special here compared to circles. there are more choices in circles but they don't have steak there. i only requested for half inch thick of steak, cooked medium well. it was good but not as good as the steaks i cook in the US, the beef in the US is different, more flavorful.

while eating my steak, the waiter approached us telling us that it's last call already before they close so i proceeded to the dessert station, getting two sticks of various fruits dipped in the chocolate fountain then got one truffle and one itsy bitsy chocolate cake. then ordered for their ice cream tepanyaki and got mango crepe. i was telling hubby that it's not obvious that i love chocolate. hehehe...

i enjoyed everything but i guess this time di ko sya nasulit. finished off my meal with brewed coffee, now as i am typing this entry, i'm drinking hot water. i feel so full.

got this link from hubby's brother. a video of when Gee-ann was announced as the 4th winner. i finally saw my video, yucky! so lapad! at i'm right, i'm so stiff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSZDfRTQYHA

I just viewed my friend, Jeanny's blog and saw there their pictures in the US. They've migrated there this year. Looking at it made me reminisce my moments there. Hay.. I miss US.

This is the view from my apartment.

A pose in the balcony of my second floor apartment in Oakwood Saratoga, San Jose.

Looking at this pics made me go back to my friendster blog as this is where I journalled my life in the US. I can't give up that blog as it contains a lot of memories. I wish I could move my posting there to this blog.

My friendster blog: http://julmin4u.blogs.friendster.com/random_thoughts/

ok. i am an auditor and we have been tabulating PBB since Season 1 but since this season's first episode is very controversial, our role was more critical. we've been working on this for a week, working long hours, doing our own tabulation, etc.

on the big night, our partner was requested to be present to hand over the envelope to the host. i also have to be there to make sure that what is being flashed on the screen is accurate, checking from time to time with the team left in the office. little did i know that i will play a bigger role when i get there. looking at the program sequence guide at the back room, we're briefing the partner that will go up the stage, telling him that he'll go up three times. one, to give the envelope for the 4th place, 2nd, to give envelope for the 3rd place and finally, to give the envelope that will show the 2nd place and the big winner.

however, all of these changed when the production guy told us that all three of us will go up the stage, now this is different. i am not psyched for that. i don't know if i can face the crowd in araneta nor had i imagined myself seen by millions of people on tv. i am really going up, get the envelope from the tube, check it if that's what i am expecting to see, hand it over to toni and give her my approval, then stay on stage the whole time until commercial. whew! it's kinda heavy for a first timer. i'm trying to digest all of these instructions given to me by the floor director. i have to stay in a particular spot in the stage and i have to face the audience/camera in a certain angle.

i probably looked stiff, i am dead nervous and i have no idea on how i should react the entire time. it was the longest 10 minutes of my life and so glad when i finally heard the commercial.