Iron Man

One of the early summer movies is Iron Man. I totally missed it. Now that I renewed my Netflix, it's my number 1 movie in my queue. On the reviews they really liked it and it was so awesome the producers decided to make a sequel . Great! I haven't watch the first one and they are already making a sequel. So today after folding my laundry one of my to-do list is to watch it.

I always liked Robert Downey Jr, even if he did drugs before I still think of him as one of the versatile actors in Hollywood. I love him in Heart and Souls and of course in Ally Mcbeal. I can't forget when he sang with Sting, every breath you take. savvy!

Anyways, it turns out the movie was really good and I keep thinking the reason why I wasn't able to watch it in the first place. I couldn't think of one. I am looking forward to its sequel maybe 2010?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
It's been awhile since I last posted here. I was really busy and didn't really have time to blog. I'm still reading Breaking Dawn! Usually I can finish a book in a week or two depending on my schedule and chores. But things were really hectic and I seemed to be spending time sleeping/resting than reading and blogging. I will make time to make posts because the past quarter of the year I have a lot of exciting things happening. I am so looking forward this coming year 2009.

I got another fresh christmas tree this year, it's a douglas fir and smells so good. I got it from Home depot for $20. It stood roughly 6 feet and I decorated with my red and gold themed ornaments. Too bad it gets dry soon after the holidays, I really like the smell inside the house.

The weather is really cold nowadays, sometimes the highest temperature is on high 50's. I know this maybe not too cold for some other parts of the country, but come on this is Southern California. Most of the time it's sunny here but men! it is soooo cold I have to turn on the heat. Normally I just bundled up but because of the rain and winds I cannot take the cold anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love the cold weather and I hope it won't end too soon. I love sitting beside the fireplace, drinking coffee or tea or my new found chocolate drink from broguiere's and watching dvds or reading my google reader or simply reading a book.

I love winter.

twilight

i love twilight series

i can't wait for november 21, 2008

flickr moment

i love flickr. i can spend hours and hours looking at the  pictures posted by someone else. since i'm spending a lot of my precious time looking at their pictures i decided to  join the bandwagon and share my photos. 

here are a few of the photos i managed to squeeze in.

enjoy.

paperchase bag, ray ban polarized aviator sunglasses, mentos, eucerin hand lotion, mac lip gloss tub, clinique lipstick, advil liquigels, dental floss, hand sanitizer, calculator, pens and pencil, blackberry pearl 8120, ipod touch 8 gb, urara bento box, huggies wipes, j crew wallet, hot pink post it, planner from a japanese store, moleskine squared notebook, klean kanteen, north face edition water container, starbucks coffee, container.

paperchase

what's in my bag?

i have another purse that i use for everyday errands

tumi tech bag, klean kanteen north face edition water container, starbucks coffee container, urara red bento box for my lunch, blackberry pearl 8120, ipod touch 8 gb, moleskine LA city notebook, orange and blue pens with 0.38 point.

my tv shows

it's officially fall. thank God! almost all my favorite shows are back. almost. i'm still waiting for csi: crime scene investigators, medium, pushing daisies, private practice, numbers, eli stone, samantha who?, women's murder club. they're coming back this october.

so far three new shows caught my attention, fringe, the mentalist and knight rider, yes K.I.T.T. is back. fringe is more of a sci-fi show from jj abrams, producer of lost and alias. so far so good they're exciting. the mentalist is more like psych but in a very dramatic way.

of course heroes came back with a vengeance with a three hour premiere. i was so lost in the beginning because i couldn't remember what happened last season. i remember they never came back after the writer's strike. so it's been a while. i got to have a mental note to watch it again on netflix.

bones is one of the first shows to come back, they started like in the first week of september. they did a two hour premiere and i realized how much i miss them. especially zach i never understand why he had to leave. he's so effective in being a squint. 

dexter, the amazing race and cold case will be back tonight. my calendar's so full now.

do i need to say more?

Lee's sandwiches

Lee's sandwiches. they're vietnamese sandwiches. almost like a your regular sub but with a twist, first they have a baguette, a french bread crispy outside so soft and buttery on the inside. next they have like daikon (labanos in tagalog), carrots, sliced jalapeno (hot), white onions for vegetables and some lettuce. for the meats, you can have meatballs, headcheese, ham, shredded pork, grilled chicken, grilled pork (pork bbq) which i had, cured pork and pork roll. there's also euro sandwiches which has pastrami and ham. 

Coffee is really good not bitter just right to the taste. i also recommend their iced thai tea with boba. so good. 

one of the good things  with Lee's  is that they open at 5 am, very convenient to those who have early commute. 

there's a Lee's sandwiches opening near my area. i can't wait for them to open.

greening my way

i have a google reader which by the way i think the most exciting thing that happen since google was invented. ( that's just me) i love apartment therapy. i have the book and i subscribe to their newsletter and to their articles. 

i love apartment therapy green. they give us greener ways to help our precious mother earth.

here's a few things i have adapted in greening my world:

low flow shower heads - installing these plus limiting my shower time into 10 minutes/shower will save hundred of gallons of water per year.

coffee grounds - i love brewing  my own coffee and i used to dump it into the trash, now i dumped it outside in my garden to become a fertilizer

home baked bread/rolls - i was fascinated with the no knead bread of mark bittman but the thing is i am not a fan of crispy on the outside chewy on the inside bread, i am more of a soft bread/roll kind of person. nevertheless, i try to bake my own bread/rolls during my days off.

cooking at home - being a filipino we always cook at home, our moms will do the grocery/market shopping and will cook us our all time favorite meals. living alone will tell me that i will save more if i buy combo meals but most of the time i miss my mom's unique way of cooking. so here i am trying to cook  the best i can. more nutritious and frugal at the same time.

planting vegetables - last spring i planted a summer squash, it bore 6 squash. i cooked one and gave away the 5.  i planted it on the wrong side of the garden it climbed on one of the roses so i have to take it out. i did reserved the seeds from the one that i cooked so i will plant it again near the retaining wall. i have a tomato that has 4 fruits now and a lot of blossoms, i can see marinara sauce in the future. my lemon tree is bearing three fruits and steadily growing.

my future plans of greening includes:

a rain barrel - california doesn't have a lot of rain so i really need water during summer to water my edible garden.

a compost - this is really hard for me because i can't stand it's smell but i will do it to decrease my carbon footprint.

install a whole house fan - having these will decrease my consumption of air condition unit by 50% during summer time.

do xeriscaping on my lawn  - this needs a lot of research and there's money involved so i have to study it before pursuing it.

microwaves among other things...

Microwaves are an efficient (and therefore green!) way of cooking, but they can be really unpleasant to clean. We’ve got a green method that works well, and all you need is water and a little bit of baking soda (which you can also use to soften sheets and scrub the tub.)

• Put one or two cups of water in a large, heat-proof glass or ceramic bowl. and add one tablespoon of white vinegar.
• Microwave until about half the water has evaporated.
• Wait about 10 minutes and don’t open the door. This lets the water cool off a bit and the steam penetrate any baked-on crud in the oven. 
• Remove the bowl carefully; the water will still be hot enough to burn, so wear hot mitts.
• Scrub the walls of the microwave with a sponge sprinkled with a bit of baking soda; baked on stains should come off with relative ease.
• Wipe down the microwave with a reusable cloth dampened in clean water and the oven will be sparkling clean and free of odors.

adapted from apartment therapy green

Skin Care

I rarely use make up on my face. I am not "kikay". My skin regimen inlcudes the following:

orange soap with kojic acid for daily cleansing

neutrogena mask/cleanser for someone with acne/pimple problems, i use this as a mask every other day.

sunblock with spf70, a must before going out of the house

olay regenerist serum, twice daily before moisturizer

murad acne spot for my pimples, it's actually really good in a day or two my pimples will shrink.

avon eye cream,  i have dark circles and i'm still looking for the ONE

clinique gel moisturizer, my face has a combination skin, so i settled for a gel type.

4 years ago i had a bad breakout for a year, seems nothing works for my pimple laden face at that time. I think it's stress. at that time I just got a mortgage and move into my new home. since then i'm always on the look out for anything anti acne/pimple. 

Home Cooking

Since I started living on my own, I used to buy cooked food, fast food, pizzas, chinese take outs. I don't cook because I'm on my own. But growing up I don't remember eating out. My mom cooks  not everyday but maybe four times a week. We siblings help out like chopping, dicing cooking down to cleaning of fish and pots and pans. So I know how to cook some basic Filipino meals. A year ago, my best friend moved in  with me and from then on my cooking/eating habits changed. She doesn't know how to cook but she knows how to grill meat. I, on the other hand doesn't know how to operate my own portable Weber grill. Because we both love the same food, i started cooking again. I will cook while she cuts everything. Now, not only she grills, she cooks too! I still can't grill but I can bake now. We dramatically reduced our food budget in half. Our only vice is pizza, but we only buy two slices at Costco and those are very rare occasions maybe just once a month. My BFF and I go to grocery store every two weeks for our bi-weekly food staples and we try to cook as much as we can the same day and then freeze them until we need them.

Do you cook?

Decluttering my garage

i've lived in my house for almost 4 years now. the most neglected area are the yard/lawn and the garage. last year i was able to clean out my garage and able to put my beloved car inside. i decluttered the garage and phew i can't believe i juggled all those stuff from 5 apartments to my beloved home. anyways, most of it were  donated to goodwill and salvation army. when the contractor finished my kitchen, i told him to place some drywall to my garage so i can put some shelving and be organized inside. a few weeks after that, i bought my washer/dryer, they're front loaders and has pedestals. after that i didn't do anything  for the garage except for the occasional sweeping and re-organizing of the bins. i don't have shelves and still no touch of paint. i  wanted to paint it first before putting any shelves or cabinets.  my lists for my garage:

1. Paint the whole inside. i want it to be cheery i'm thinking shades of yellow.

2. Storage solutions. Shelves and cabinets are the first things on my mind.

3. I recycle soda cans, glass and plastic containers, I need an area and a few receptacles to house them before I cash them out to my local recycling center.

4. I started paying attention to my lawn/garden so i need a space for my gardening tools, potting mix, pots, and fertilizers.

So far so good. I hope I can do this.

Favorite Things

Just a few of my favorite things/food...

iced caramel macchiato from starbucks and iced green tea from Panera 

harry potter series, books and movies.

twilight series

knudsen french vanilla coffee creamer

my imac

ipod

my trusted sony laptop

friends dvd season 1-10

squash

Last spring we planted some seeds of summer squash. Here's a few photos of it.

We managed to harvest 5 summer squash. We decided to relocate the plant because it crawled and hovers the rose.

Here's the last of the squash.

Earthquake

Living in California means you have to be prepared for earthquakes, fault lines are numerous on this side of the west. Today at approximately 11:42 am the earth shook. According to the Caltech it was a 5.4 which falls on a category of moderate earthquake. I worked the night before and I was asleep when it happened. My bed was swaying and shaking. This is the strongest earthquake I've experienced since I came here seven years ago. I said a prayer to God thanking Him for making me safe. The quake lasted maybe 30 seconds. I  came out of the house and was surprised to see that no else was on the street except me. I guess everyone's at work or doing errands. Since there's no power outage, i turned on the TV and watch the news. I learned that the epicenter of the quake is in Chino Hills which is like 10 miles away from where I live. No wonder it's so strong. I made a few phone calls making sure that my friends and my cousin who just moved in Chino Hills were okay. I texted my parents back in Manila that I'm okay and that they don't need to worry. So far according to the news, there weren't any casualties and damages are still unknown. 

I thank God for making us safe.

Boston Did it!

Game 6 is an embarrassment in so many levels. the only good thing came out of it was the Shakey's fried chicken and mojo potatoes which is so good and moist. yeah I know, I should be a Lakers fan because I live in LA. yeah, right! like i care who wins. I guess I'm just there for the food.

Twilight Phase

I'm on a twilight phase right now. I'm doing a second reading of the novel because i couldn't get edward and bella out of my mind these days. ah

It's Raining!

I couldn't believe  that it rained with thunder and lightning thursday afternoon. i gave up on rain since the end of february knowing that the rainy season ended here on southern california. the minute Black Apple and I stepped inside the AMC theatre the rain poured hard, movies were delayed because of the power failure.

To think that I just posted last sunday how hot it was during the weekend.

Today, I woke up with rain showers and a cooler temperatures. I greeted Black Apple with a very nice "good morning, isn't it a great day?" Of course she wanted sunshine, where as I wanted grey skies and cold.

Weather huh, well, what can we do about it? 

Inspiration Board

Here's a not so finished inspiration board.

I went to Walmart yesterday to pick up some stuff when my restless feet dragged me to school supplies aisle. and there it was! so i grab one before i change my mind and prolong my envy with the inspiration boards at Flickr.

Now where to hang it?

InSpIrAtIoN BoArD

I've been toying around an idea of making an inspiration board for quite some time now. inspired of course by flickr group "Inspiration Boards". gosh those people are really creative in making those boards/walls. i have an inspiration notebook for home decorating, but it will be nice to put it up on wall and look at it whenever i want to and putting my endless notes and to-do lists to myself. my first board hold my family pictures so i don't want to use it for my inspiration board, but it doesn't mean that they (my family don't inspire me. i definitely want a cork board and not a magnetic one. i like the texture of cork, smooth but with rough edges. I'm debating whether i would put some fabric on top of it and exposing some cork or use my scrapbook paper that i never use. decisions, decisions. how it was never easy?

98 degrees

okay it's not the boy band. that was yesterday's temperature. 98 degrees and it's only the middle of May. what more in summer? where can I seek refuge by then? I am literally melting. it's so sunny it's blinding me. 

ways to keep cool:

stay away from the sun between 9 am to 4 pm. yeah right, I'm in L.A. where can you hide from the sun?

stay hydrated and drink 8-10 glasses of fluids. now, where's that cocktails for dummies of mine?

apply sunblock with at least 30 spf and reapply every 2 hours if you decide to stay longer outdoors.

wear a wide brim hat to protect your face.

or do what i do during summer, sleep the whole day and do stuff at nights.

happy summer!

welcome tsugumi!

according to ipod death clock my 40 gb ipod classic has 59 minutes and it's gone. but i really liked it because of the storage capacity. i have all my songs in it. but i guess i have to move on and give it a rest. i decided to buy the ipod touch simply because it's so versatile and has a lot of applications i need. i really don't need an iphone right now because my motorola is good and i'm still loving it. after four years of my ipod classic i am giving it a break for a while until i can get a replacement battery so i can still streamline music in my house.

welcome tsugumi, my ipod touch

100

•  get an energy audit
• donate used computers
• use cloth napkins
• switch to energy-saving bulbs
• hang dry your clothes
• make your next outfit vintage
• ride the bus
• pay your bills online
• say no to plastic bags
• plant some bamboo
• unplug appliances when off
• taste test a local wine
• say bye to your leaf blower
• rediscover your library
• switch off your computer
• plant a garden
• buy rechargeable batteries
• satrt a compost heap
• put back unused napkins
• bring your coffee cup
• learn to love weeds
• read about green weddings
• carpool
• keep tires inflated
• support local farmers
• use both sides of paper
• turn heating down 1 degree
• return old cellphones
• drive smart-plan your trips
• wrap water heater in blanket
• install low-flow showerheads
• wash clothes in warm or cold water
• lights off when you exit a room
• use a lunch box, not a paper bag
• give cloth diapers a chance
• pick up litter and recycle it
• take shorter showers
• choose green E-products
• buy the largest size practical
• tune up your car's engine
• donate used books
• seal drafts around windows
• leave your car at home for a day
• don't idle your car more than 10 seconds
• think before your print
• look for energy star appliances
• unload your car of excess weight
• don't buy veggies in trays
• choose an energy efficient vehicle
• fix leaking faucets
• wipe spills with reusable towels
• install low-flow toilets
• make your iwn "buy nothing" day
• reuse jars and containers
• clean windows with old newspapers
• build with slavaged wood
• share magazines
• wrap presents in old calendar pages
• make rags from old t-shirts
• send e-birthday cards
• buy spices in bulk
• capture rain water for garden
• return unused sugar packets
• drive the speed limit
• make note pads from used paper
• don't accept plastic utensils
• take a  break from TV
• give a donation instead of a present
• buy a bike- use it
• buy organic cotton
• when buying clothes, say no to tissue wrap
• start a green team at work
• don't boil more than teacup's worth
• read about carbon credits
• appoint an office lights monitor
• use your legs, not the elevator
• stop chasing the latest
• invigorate your green passion, spend time with nature
• start a toy-swap with friends
• ease up on meat products
• buy items for durability
• buy seasonal produce
• take bubble wrap back to packaging stores
• upgrade your furnace
• snip six-pack rings
• use a low phosphate detergent
• avoid chemical flea collars
• choose sustainable flooring
• offer art schools your trash
• use a bucket not a hose
• learn how to mend your socks
• eliminate impulse buying
• take extra hangers to dry cleaners
• teach kids thriftiness
• don't sign for mailing lists
• slow down - consume less
• fertilize with grass clippings
• consider using a solar cooker
• eat simply, choose whole grains

Thing I should have known...

start 401K.  I did start it a year later but i was not "aggressive enough". Two years later I've changed into aggresive and increased my contributions.

 

start a savings account in ING. which I did three years later since I started working. Then I have sub accounts which i use for my car expenses and things I wanted to buy but I don't want to use a credit card and pay interest.

 

start an emergency fund. most financial advisors say that a person should need a 6 month worths of emergency fund. i don't have it. but i am slowly starting one.

 

do at least one overtime in every pay period and saved it.

 

pay my car in 2-3 years instead of 5 years and then save the car money for its maintenance and/or downpayment for a new/used car in the future.

 

borrowed books and videos in the library instead of buying and/or renting.

 

checking out the thrift stores, salvation army and goodwill stores before buying anything for my home.

 

making a store comparison prices notebook/spreadsheets and checking out store flyers before doing groceries.

 

clipping out coupons for things/food that i love to use and eat.

 

making a budget and sticking to it. 

 

always carry a calculator and learning how to use it effectively.

 

 

I am Loving...

my imac

 

orange shuffle

 

bose in-ear headphones

 

itunes

 

ipod nano