Hmmm... Doughnuts

We just came from Standard Chartered, emerged from Salcedo St. and turned right to join the throng of vehicles on Ayala Avenue. Traffic was slow, the heat at 35degrees thereabouts, and it was already 4PM. We were singing along with the soundtrack from Avenue Q. After crossing Herrera, heavy traffic slowed us down and made us stop in front of JAKA building where there was a Krispy Kreme store. Green and white balloons framed their doorways and were placed in the store.

There was a long line of people, fanning themselves furiously, queued outside. Plus the store was packed wall to wall.

"Are those people all lined up to get doughnuts?" Nards asked.

"Apparently, they are." I thought for a bit and remembered something. "I read in Chuvaness that it's their opening day today. Have a promo of some sort."

"Promo?"

"Yep, first customer gets a free year's supply of doughnuts, the second, 6 months, the third, 3 months, and the fourth to the three hundredth customer gets a month's supply free. They probably have not hit 300th yet."

"In this heat??" Nards was aghast.

"It's free, and Krispy Kreme is expensive."

Then he made me laugh by turning towards the window, putting both palms against the glass and screaming:

"What is the matter with you people?!? It's bread and sugar!!"

This is true, their doughnuts are not only pricey, but it's also overly sweet for my taste.

After I laughed, I teased him by saying, "tara! let's go get some."

"No. I refuse to buy Krispy Kreme."

I laughed again.

And that was that.

Easter Sunday Silence

A few photos from Easter Sunday Silence.

About forty-five minutes before sunset.

Red Sun

Cheerful Mayim

Gang, readying the group for the sunset

Saluting the Sun

Inside The Easter Egg

Time to open them! We used a heavy cup to crack this one. (While Leslie, took hers and smashed it against the low concrete wall that lines Manila Bay along Roxas boulevard. We were at Sunday Silence on Easter.)







Three of us consumed all of it: from the marshmallows, the candy covered and the foil covered chocolates inside, to the gumpaste sugary shelle, the yellow stiff frosting and the fondant duck.



Yum!

On The Death of Lord Shaper

In preparation for the four day weekend, I brought with me Sandman volume 8 entitled World's End, and volume 9 entitled The Kindly Ones. For those who are not familiar, these are part of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Sandman, which is a ten volume series.

(Warning: this entry contains spoilers.)

I finished World's End by Good Friday, and I was leafing through the opening story on volume 9. I got alarmed. I went directly to the ending. (Trust me, something I've never done before.)

Then I chucked it in my bag and stayed away from it 'til this very minute.

Nards texted me on Black Saturday to ask on how I was progressing with Sandman. This was our (funny) exchange:


Nards: how's dream? (He was referring to Sandman, aka Dream, aka Lord Shaper, aka Morpheus, aka Dream King)

Aggie: Sandman is in my bag. I don't want to read it.

Nards: Kindly ones wraps the series up. It's a good story arc.

Aggie: He killed Dream. :(

Nards: Yes, but with style. �

Aggie: Whe. I rather like him alive.

Nards: Gloomy and arrogant he is. �

Aggie: I didn't even notice that. And he comes through for other people. He's dead. Kainis.



Fine, fine, fine. I'll read it.

Maybe in a few days, weeks even. I'm annoyed that he killed my second favorite character.

Sunday Morning

THE SHUFFLE TEST

RULES:Put your music player on shuffle.For each question, press the next button to get your answer.You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds!

1. If someone says "Is this okay?" you say:
What A Wonderful World - Michael Bubl�

2. What would best describe your personality?
Sparkling Diamonds - Nicole Kidman, OST Moulin Rouge

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
Overkill - Colin Hay

4. How do you feel today?
Owner of the Sky - Cynthia Alexander

5. What is your life's purpose?
You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You - Dean Martin

6. What is your motto?
She Knows It - The Wonders, OST That Thing You Do

7. What do your friends think of you?
I Will Sing Forever - Bukas Palad

8. What do you think of your parents?
Reel Around The Sun - Bill Whelan, OST Riverdance

9. What do you think about very often?
Andante in F Major - Beethoven

10. What do you think of your bestfriend?
Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees

11. What do you think of the person you like?
Wink and a Smile - Harry Connick Jr.

12. What is your life story?
Time and Tide - Basia

13. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Tonight Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins

14. What do you think when you see the person you like?
Under The Water - Jewel

15. What do your parents think of you?
Miss Amanda Jones - The March Violets

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?
You Are The Universe - Brand New Heavies

17. What will they play at your funeral?
ABC/123 - Jackson 5

18. What is your favorite hobby/interest?
Smile - Lily Allen

19. What is your biggest fear?
A Sorta Fairytale - Tori Amos

20. What is your biggest secret?
Tres Tres Chic - Morean Worker

21. What song will be the title when you repost this?
Sunday Morning - Maroon 5


Tagging Bambi, Hazel, Deepa, Loreen, Nikka.

Easter Eggs

Yesterday, I picked up my Easter Eggs from Gel. Aren't they cute? I can't wait for Sunday. We're trying to guess what kind of surprise is inside. :)





Gel says this is a chick. I'd like to think it's a cute yellow duck, though. :P

Zodiac

My sister buzzed me this afternoon to tell me that she is no longer a Sagittarius and I'm no longer an Aries.

She is now an Ophiuchus.

And I'm now a Pisces.

I'm not really into horoscopes but apparently instead of having twelve constellations, we are now faced with thirteen. It's all the same to me, but starting today when someone asks me what my zodiac sign is my answer will be, "I'm a Pisces who is formerly an Aries."

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

This was what was waiting for me on top of my bed when I got to my parent's house over the weekend.

No brown paper and string. Just clear plastic and a purple cable tie.

From Honda! Wheee!!

My prize from the photo contest.

I Hate Crocs

I was forever ignoring Crocs. It didn't appeal to me. Besides, the fact that everyone was buying one just made me ignore it more.

Sure, when photographed from the side, it looks ok, but from the top and up front, it reminds of dutchmaids milking cows.

When Nards started trading Crocs stocks, we decided to do a little research to see whether their shoes and other products warrant some serious consideration for holding their stocks long or shorting it instead. Big mistake. The minute I stepped inside the store, what I saw weren't the clogs that I didn't like, but these:

Primas. Crocs version of ballerina shoes.

Alice. Mary janes that protects your feet, while looking totally fab.





Sueded Alice. Everything that is good with the previous shoe, except it's suede, so it looks formal. One can honestly get away with wearing this type of Crocs in the office.





Patras. I can wear this pair of slip ons all day.

They looked so cute!!! And are just uber comfy. I want all four of them!!! So I decided, when I am in need of a new pair of shoes, I will buy Crocs.



I went there after lunch today. I was choosing between Alice or Primas. I decided to try them on both. The size 7 was too small, my toes were slightly curled inside. The size 8 was too big. They have no half sizes. Aaarrrgh!! Just when I'm now totally sold to their product, they don't have anything that fits me.



I hate Crocs.

That's How You Know

My favorite Disney song to date. :)




It's a real life Disney princess and McDreamy. Nuff' said.

Oops, I Did It Again....

Picture this.

I was at the grand ballroom of The Manila Peninsula. On stage is a panel of distinguished intellectuals discussing federalism in the Philippines: a lady professor and two swiss (not to mention--young and attractive) male professors. Opposite the stage, on the far wall, is a long buffet table laden with the afternoon snacks. In the middle of the room is the LCD projector and the desktop computer on which it was attached. One my colleagues, was manning it, assisting one of the professors with his presentation. I was sitting on a corner, resting, having just finished documenting one of the proceedings in another room. I was checking my email (entire Penn was on wifi - at that time, it was a first.) waiting for Allan, who was somewhere inside that ballroom to finish whatever he's doing so we can get a snack together.

We were both on yahoo messenger.

I was looking at the discussants on the panel, and couldn't help but notice how cute the swiss professor was. So I buzzed Allan. And sent him this message:

aggie_nonog: psst, psst. malapit ka na bang matapos? meet you at the buffet in ten minutes?

After I sent that (because I type rapidly), I typed another message: "by the way, the swiss professor on the extreme left of the panel is CUTE." Before I pressed Enter to send the message, all hell broke loose.

There was a collective noise of some sort from the conference staff. I glanced up at the wide screen on stage.

My message was there.

On my peripheral, our Dean was thundering in my direction.

"Aggie, why is your name and picture (gasp!) on the LCD projector?"

"Sir, I honestly don't know po!" Heat climbed to my neck and face at an amazing speed. I snatched off my ID and was quickly scanning my immediate surrounding for a huge brown paper bag to pull over my head.

I saw now that Allan was the one manning the LCD projector on the desktop in the middle of the huge ballroom. He was laughing his ass off.

After a second or two (though it felt like millenia), he killed the LCD projector. But the damage has been done.

I was more mortified that I was this close to sending the second message.

And that the only thing that stopped me was the ruckus the girls made, as they tried to scramble in my direction to stop me from sending another message. And our Dean's frantic question.

The entire staff didn't allow me to forget that particular conference.

Fast forward to today.

I was just blogging and because uploading photos took forever, I scanned my YM list and decided to buzz a few friends. One of them was a girl I worked with in the conference. This is what I sent her.

Aggie Nonog: hi ely! kumusta na? i ran into MikeT yesterday

It took Ely forever to respond. And I thought the dilnet servers were hiccuping again, and that she'd probably get my message tomorrow morning (this is true, I swear!). Then I got this:

ely_cureg: truly? baguio ko ngaun. makulit talaga tong YM mo ano. lumabas msg mo sa participants namin sa training dito, mga bgy capt. naalala ko tuloy poninsula.hehe

A beat. Then comprehension dawned on me.

Aggie Nonog: oh CRAP! not again!!!

ely_cureg: hehe saya nga e, magiging popular ka someday.haha

Aggie Nonog: stress stress stressssss


Here I am, hundreds of kilometers away, and it happened to me. Again. When will I ever learn, that they don't know how to shut off anything on their laptops that might cause pop ups when they're on the LCD?????

The real punchline here, is that the director, who was my boss then at the conference and their boss still, just buzzed me to tease me about it. And he's in Japan!

WTF???

"We Were Chillin' In The Park....

"....just waiting for the sun to go down."
- On A Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday, we made plans with Kidlat to go biking in UP. It was my first time to go biking after so many (roughly maybe about a million) years and I was filled with trepidation. Mainly because Nards and Kidlat were intent on doing some marathon cycling around the oval, and they were using bikes that were meant for that. I on the other hand, had Cooper, our small (and cute) foldable bike.

Nards went ahead on his bike to meet up with Kidlat in UP, while I followed in the car, with Cooper loaded at the back. Before I drove over, I packed the camera with two lenses (30mm and 135mm), the PSP (never leave home without it), Volume 8 of Sandman and an extra shirt.

I was waiting for them in the parking lot, looking at the takes from yesterday's event, when the boys pedaled their way over. We unfolded the bike, and I wound the camera around me, and the three of us set off from the Abelardo Hall driveway to the oval. We passed Lisa who was rollerblading. I started to get winded after the intersection by the tennis courts. A few meters from the intersection, cramps started to set in. By the time we got to the main libe, I had to stop, because I was sure my legs were going to start screaming profanities. I parked my bike, told them to go on without me, because I couldn't keep up. Sad. Tsk, tsk. I turned the bike around, and was planning to head back to the car. I have barely reached the same intersection, when they I saw the ponytailed duo (you'll know what I mean when you see the photos) heading towards me. Kidlat waved, and passed on. Nards changed direction, and joined me on my slow pace.

Nards, resting on the green surrounding the Beta Way.

Note, that the whole point of us biking around was to try to exercise and lose weight in the process. The three of us have considerable gained weight the past year, and we so want to get back to what we were: maintaining unhealthy diets but definitely a size or two smaller. So surprise, surprise, after biking and rollerblading (and in my case, coasting and faking it) around the oval, we found ourselves milling around a fishball stand. We ate (there goes all the -small amount of- calories I just burned!) and the three of them decided to play frisbee at the ampitheater. I opted to sit on the grassy bleachers and to take photos instead.

Kidlat, looking forward to tossing the frisbee. I didn't even notice the pun he was wearing.

Lisa, learning how to throw.

Ehem. Kidlat teaching Lisa how to throw a frisbee. But somehow, it looks like he's doing something else.....

Winding down. See the anti social in the background? He was the one who ended up playing the PSP.

Whew. What a workout! My thumbs were all sore after that afternoon. (Insert wicked grin here.)

We'll be doing this again. Next time, I'll strive to at least reach Econ on the bike.

Saturday at AIM

With majority of Team Lestat in CDO for Rock Ed session (they were with Peryodiko for a Bookbigayan project), Beng, Nards and I went to AIM for a Rock Ed gig with Chilitees and Juan Pablo Dream. The there of us left the house a bit before two pm, because I wanted to give allowance to traffic. Plus, I have to allot time to indulge my wonderful sense of direction and complete ignorance of the one-way roads in Makati. We arrived at AIM a bit before three, and the only major traffic jam we encountered was in the stretch of EDSA between Camp Crame and the foot of the flyover at Galleria. And the only mishap we encountered was missing the basement parking entrance. So we had to circle the block twice: one for looking for the "other" AIM; and the other to find the right basement parking entrance. (And on the second round, I almost ran over this girl ("NGI!, ang pangit na niya ate!") who hates my guts, who copies my blog, and has the nerve to say I was cyberstalking her, instead of the other way around, but that's another blog entry all together.)



First order of business was to inform Jaime Garch that we have arrived, then talk to the event coordinators. The event coordinator handling the event were okay, but they were more interested in Kiko Pangilinan than taking care of what we needed for our musicians which is their priority (because hello, that's their job). First, they relegated the lobby (small cramped space beside the receptionist's desk that housed a love seat and two armchairs) as a holding area (our green room, if you please) for our musicians. I had to request panels for privacy, food and beverages for the artists, and additional chairs. They granted our request after an hour and after two follow ups from Beng and myself.

Beng slightly exasperated and (more likely) pissed off with someone who shall remain unnamed. Heck, I got pissed off too. This resulted to several complaint texts and calls exchanged between Manila and CDO.

While waiting for the artists, Beng and I were trying to keep warm. The lobby was COLD. And we were not provided any hot beverage except for cold bottles of water and C2 (to accompany the cold burgers they provided Rock Ed).

Old woman's hands from the cold.

Nards briefly went inside the conference room, listening to Kiko Pangilinan talk about leadership, and then he went back to where we were to complain about the content of his talk. He also reported that he saw Kidlat (yey! one of us!) seating at the front row.



Dan and Uela were the first to arrive, and in a few minutes the lobby was filled with the members of the two bands, plus their managers and handlers. Jaime gave me the go signal to start the show at around five pm while the forum participants were putting their hand prints on their manifesto.



The musicians put on a great show, and they literally leave you wanting for more.

Uela of Chilitees





Saxophonist of Juan Pablo Dream





Bing Austria of Juan Pablo Dream

After a few swigs of free booze, everybody dispersed: the bands had other gigs that evening, and the three of us were starving.

Dex posing with the free cans of beer. They just didn't say it was the size of a small child.

We decided to go to Chocolate Kiss Cafe for an early dinner.

Nards ordered the chicken basket, because I was craving fries.

I ordered Chicken Barbecue because he wanted mashed potatoes.

Then Beng, who is in her health binge, ordered Tofu.

Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. :)