18 things about Josh

1. Josh has never had a cavity in his whole life, baby teeth included.

2. As a pre-schooler, Josh was so bad in writing that he had a tutor for one month in
penmanship.

3. "I don't like girls with yellow, wiggly hair," he said upon being teased to a
blonde schoolmate in pre-school.

4. Lovi Poe was his classmate in Junior Nursery at Creative Learning School.

5. At five, he stopped in the middle of a street in Tsimsatsui in Hong Kong to say,
"Thank you for bringing me to Hong Kong, Mama."

6. Josh had his first operation at the Makati Medical Center at three to correct a
congenital trigger thumb.

7. Among his toy collections are dinosaurs, sharks, Pokemon and Lego Bionicle.

8. Josh has two scars on his head: one from a fall down the stairs at age four, and another from a rock thrown overhead by a classmate in grade school.

9. On one birthday, he finished 17 pieces of his favorite baby back ribs.

10. He placed 14th out of 4,000 students in his Ateneo Prep Entrance Exam.

11. Josh joined the Milo Basketball Clinic when he was six and the Milo Golf Clinic when he was eight.

12. He was told that his Chinese name was "Lat Di" because he had big eyes as a child. He only realized it was all a joke two years ago.

13. He discovered only a few years ago that an allergy to shrimps caused his lips to itch.

14. He likes the color orange because his favorite NBA team is the Phoenix Suns.

15. He contacted scarlet fever when he was seven years old.

16. He is now a card-holding member of the Ateneo Alumni Association.

17. He is self-taught in Adobe Photoshop and in piano.

18. He was born at the Medical City General Hospital in Mandaluyong at 9:34pm on a Monday, May 29, 1989.

Happy 18th birthday, Josh!

May flowers

I grew up visiting garden shops and orchid shows, thanks to my plant-loving mother. These trips were extremely educational for me, as she would point out each plant and tell me their names. Mommy was a retired Home Ec teacher, you see, and much of my growing up years were spent learning from her. On out of town trips she'd point out bougainvilleas (including the proper spelling), lantanas, bandera españolas, rosals, and other old-fashioned plants.

Mommy introduced me to Doña Luz and Doña Aurora, former First Ladies of Presidents Magsaysay and Quezon, immortalized via showy plants whose petals are as large as their leaves. Later on, a new plant variety would emerge, and we got to bring home a pot of Don Manuel. We had a huge vine of Jasmine that created a perfumed canopy over our terrace.

Flowers would come and go in our garden, dictated by the seasons and the latest trips to Los Baños, Tagaytay, and quickies to Jenny's in nearby Rosario, Pasig. A huge Weeping Willow welcomed visitors to our home and a Talisay tree provided cool shade. A cute Mickey Mouse shrub guarded the small gate, its red berries capped by a pair of ear-like appendages. There were roses, sanggumays, Bangkok kalachuchis, vandas, dendrobiums, golden showers, and lots and lots of cattleya. At ten, I learned that Waling Waling is also known by its scientific name Vanda Sanderiana and that butterfly orchids were called Phalaenopsis.



Today, my garden blooms with yellow bells from a friend's garden shop, roses from a nursery, hydrangeas from Tagaytay, melendres from a neighbor, forget me nots from another neighbor, and cattleyas, dancing ladies, vandas, dendrobiums from my mother's garden. The lantanas continue to keep the cats away. The cattleyas are not in season. The other flowers whose names are noy known continue to dot their corners with color. On some days, I snip a few stems and put them in a vase. On special occasions, I bring a couple of blooms to my mother's grave. Someday, they will grace a prom-goer's wrist, or surprise a pretty lady. But most of the time, they stay where they are, in the sunny comfort of a well-tended home. No potting mixes or fertilizers force them to propagate. They are simply nurtured, in all likelihood, by a gentle spirit who coaxes each bud to bloom, while whispering its scientific name.

I covet

this
and this

and this.
I found them at Chuvaness' blog. Available for iBooks, PowerBooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros and all kinds of iPods at http://www.gelaskins.com, where it says that they are "...removable vinyl skins for protecting and customizing portable devices. They feature stunning photo-quality graphics ranging from fine art prints to comtemporary urban images designed by our growing family of artists from around the globe."

I like!

Beauty Bargain

Buy One, Take One on Facials, Body Scrubs and Hair Removal
Beauty Solutions at STI-DLS (Delos Santos) MegaClinic
5F Bridgeway, SM Megamall

Extended 'til May 27

Mother's Day Lunch

We avoided the crowds in malls and restaurants and enjoyed a long and leisurely lunch at home. Prime Rib, Baby Prawns and Wilted Spinach. Total cost of this scrumptious lunch for four (including three large pieces of the steak shown below, with 3/4 of a steak and three pieces of baby prawns untouched): P850.00

PS Want to enjoy tender, juicy, mouth-watering, premium, affordable Australian Prime Rib and Rib Eye steaks, grill or pan fry them at home and get to lick your fingers and "simot" the bones afterwards without embarassing yourself? Leave a comment expressing interest or email me at carolsped dot yahoo dot com. Available within a week of ordering.

M.A.C. (My Ancient Computer)

About twelve years ago, I chanced upon an exhibit of brand new Macs at the nth (I'm too lazy to compute) Philippine Ad Congress in Baguio. The exhibitor was DPSI, then the only distributor of Apple computers in the country. New Macs had just been installed in the office, courtesy of a tech-ie boss. I wanted my own at home, where I can store my files (including my constant sideline of movie trailer copy), keep track of household expenses (remember Quicken?), help raise tech-ie children, and of course, play video games! A week later, my husband and I picked up my first Mac, a Performa 580, at the DPSI office on Reposo, and set it right up in our bedroom.
Why am I writing about this relic now? Because, what you're seeing above, is the very same Mac – in excellent running condition – in this photo taken just yesterday. It has survived slow-motion dial-up internet, several crashes, tens of trips to the shop for repair. It has stood proud despite competition for attention in midlife with a PC.

I can only plead guilty to neglecting, even ignoring it for about three years. You'd have to believe this story to understand. Like most relics, this old Mac seemed to have attracted the supernatural. On two specific dates, this Mac had mysteriously turned itself on, several times on my mother's death anniversary and on my birthday. On Dec. 23, 2004, my children came scampering out of the room screaming, "Bumukas 'yung Mac!!!" One month later, my maid was tidying up the room when the computer signed on again. By itself. Since she knew how to turn it off, she nonchalantly did and continued her chores. A few minutes later, she heard the sign on sound again, and she quickly ran downstairs in fear.

Since that room is also my work station for my bead projects and I spend many late nights there, I did the next best thing. I unplugged the computer. In the coming months, I acquired my second Mac, an iBook which comfortably kept me company day and night.

Fast forward to three years later. In several conversations about de-cluttering our home, the fate of this old Mac came up. With absolutely zero resale value, it had nowhere else to go. Do we give it to my niece's daughter? To a public school? To a children's hospital? To a public library? As the decision was being debated on, the kids decided to plug it back in, for old times' sake. And what did they discover?

Old recordings as children which were stored on Kidpix! Scanned photos of their childhood! The joys of playing Apeiron and Bubble Trouble! Needless to say, this old Mac kept them thrilled and entertained once more for hours. When I came home last night, I said "Hello, nice to meet you again" and played my favorite games that I had not seen for years.

So does this old Mac go? Uhhh... honestly, I'm having separation anxiety. I think we need a little more time to bond...

What was your first computer?

Sugarhouse

I have this nostalgic tie with Sugarhouse. A year before we graduated from college, my friends Butch, Rica, Pia, Heidi, Raymond, Lorenzo and I set up a small graphic design shop called Design Projects. Several times a week, we would meet at the den of Rica's Bel Air home to twiddle our technical pens as we wove our dreams. One of our first clents was a small bakeshop that was about to rise inconspicuously on a very cramped space on Anza Street along Makati Avenue. They needed a logo, and design for a box to hold their better-than-ordinary cakes. And so, together we worked on these two requirements until we came up with the logo in Arnold Bocklin font and a brown house icon sitting amid a chocolate brown and vanilla white gingham pattern. That box was the most sosyal box of cake one could carry around then, walang sinabi ang Goldilocks at Red Ribbon. It gave us our first sweet taste of success.

Fast forward to twenty something years later, I visit Sugarhouse once more for a quick meeting. At 10:30 am, it is my second meeting of the day, and having taken only Green Tea in the first one, I am starving. No cakes on an empty stomach for me, and the chicken pie seemed too un-filling and unfulfilling. Until an interesting item on the tent card catches my hungry eye. Sliders, it announced, available in tuna, chicken, corned beef and hamburger. But what is a slider? I'ts a tiny sandwich "so named because of the ease with which it enters, and exits, the gastrointestinal system."

Hamburger Sliders from Sugarhouse. They've got to be the cutest things you can eat in two bites!

Jurassic Maki

I first heard about Omakase from my friend about three years ago, and I have been there at least six times since then. What started as a hole-in-the-wall take-out sushi stall across the Christ The King church on Greenmeadows Avenue is now one of the most exciting Japanese places in town, with branches in Intrepid Plaza near Eastwood, Tomas Morato and Alabang.

It is at Omakase where I first encountered "new age" makis that took more imagination, texture and creativity than the walang kamatayang California maki that was beginning to be too pedestrian.

For me, the star of the show at Omakase is Jurassic Maki-a multi-textured, multi-flavored and therefore multi-faceted maki that is a meal in itself. Consider what's in it: ebi tempura, kani, ebiko, salmon skin and unagi. At P230 per order, it meets your craving for all flavors Japanese.

It is also at Omakase where a visiting balikbayan classmate found spider maki, a sinful combination of 'tempura-ed' soft-shell crab 'maki-ed' in vinegared rice and seaweed. Other favorites include the Crazy Maki, the Dynamite Maki and American Dream. What makes these makis even more sinful is that they are served with Garlic mayo instead of the usual soy sauce.

Omakase is where the family found comfort and satisfaction after my son's five-hour graduation ceremony made us too late to binge on the buffet at Seven Corners (we went the next day instead.)

Omakase is at the 2/F of Intrepid Plaza, above Piandre and in the same compound as Pizza Hut and Booktopia, C5/Libis, before you make a right to Eastwood.

Dusk Drama

When day meets dark, Bonifacio High Street.