Garry and I were talking about how TV is such a waste of time. We're trying to find more useful things to do at night. So I decided to be a 'geek' at night -- wonder if I can keep it up.

I've been reading John Edward's book One Last Time. Garry thinks this New Age spiritual stuff is bogus, especially John Edward's stuff, but I'd like to believe it's true. I'm pretty open to these things, even if I'm Catholic. This morning, I was dreaming that Garry was calling me, and just as he said 'hello', my phone rang and I woke up. It was him! I told him my spiritual guides were trying to tell me that he'll call, and he just laughed at me. Heh.

Posted by Karen @ 01:41 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Just finished a 2 day course at Heny Sison Cake Decorating School. I make a lot of desserts, but not a lot of birthday cakes, so my decorating skills are really beginner level. After two days, I can now decorate a character cake, even brought home my very first one, Winnie the Pooh. :) We also made some rosebuds and roses... I think I need more practice with those, they look more like wild roses than the ones they sell at the flower shop.

I finished my cake an hour or two before everyone else! I wonder if it's because I'm fast, or because mine was the ugliest. Heh. I hope it's the former.

Winnie the Pooh- Devil's food cake (from a box!) frosted with a special buttercream icing

Posted by Karen @ 02:24 AM PST [Link]

Saturday, September 14, 2002

My pecs are so sore today. My sis-in-law invited me to her taebo class yesterday -- I can't remember how many push-ups we had to do. I wasn't doing all of them anymore, and I'm still sore!

Got back from Thailand a few days ago. It wasn't as great as I thought, there're things about a third world country that can get frustrating at times. I just felt I was back home in Manila -- with all the traffic and the humidity, except that no one understood what I said and vice versa. The food was awesome though. I went to a restaurant called Baan Khanitha for dinner and had a very interesting appetizer. They give you a few seproo leaves (a thai herb of some sort), and ask you to fold it into a funnel and fill it with a sweet peanutty sauce, coconut flakes, dried shrimp, peanuts, shallots, ginger -- mmm... it was surprisingly good.

Our friend Joe Lau was raving about the Thai massage at the Sheraton, so I tried it out. I paid 6750 Baht (around $150) for something called Perfect Spa, a 3 hour head to foot massage, complete with salt rub, facial, and lemongrass tea! I'm not used to massages, so instead of squealing with pleasure, I was wincing in pain.

So now I'm back home, dreading the week ahead because my family's going to Europe without me. They're going to England, Florence, and Paris. I decided to stay behind since I'm going to Paris in November anyway. I'll just immerse myself in Python and Zope while they're gone...

Posted by Karen @ 09:02 PM PST [Link]

Sunday, September 8, 2002

I'm going to Thailand today! Don't really know where to go... I didn't have time to buy a Lonely Planet Guide. I know one thing, I'll be eating a lot. The fruits there are amazing. Of course, they can't beat the Philippine mangoes. We'll probably be bringing home a box of lanzones, papayas, longgans, etc.

Leaving at 2pm, so I still have time for yoga. My mom and I have been practising yoga twice a week since I came back. Our teacher comes over, and we chant 'Om', and do poses. We sweat like hell, but it feels good when we're done.

Posted by Karen @ 06:15 PM PST [Link]

Saturday, September 7, 2002

We're having a bit of a crisis here in the house. While at Mass, Lina called up my mom and told her that my brother's driver had gone a bit cuckoo and was threatening to kill everyone in our house. This seemingly mild mannered driver has been acting very strangely for the past few days... ever since his wife left him. I was panicking a bit too, because I knew the driver went to pick up my brother at the gym. I called my brother's cellphone and told him not to go into his car just yet -- until we clear everything up. We rushed home and talked to Lina and our security guard to get the full account. We decided to pick up my brother and tell the other driver to go home for the day. I think we're just going to let him go tomorrow, or ask the police to arrest him. It's quite scary, because I don't know what he'll do tomorrow when my brother tells him he's fired. I just hope he comes to his senses...

Posted by Karen @ 09:58 PM PST [Link]

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

I've decided to work on my mom's inventory system, whether she'll use it or not. Garry introduced me to the wonders of Zope... and I'm having fun with it. Exercising my brain motivates me to do other things -- after working in front of my computer the whole day, I suddenly felt excited to cook! I see cooking as a treat after a hard day's work, so I always have to do something intellectual to justify my time in the kitchen. I wish I could get rid of that attitude, because I know I have to feel good about cooking as a career.

Anyway, I'm sort of paralyzed because my oven is broken. That's why all my cream puffs turned into cookies. Heh. I went to Shang's house -- just love her kitchen! It's big, spacious, and new! I want to cook there everyday, but I don't want to impose because I leave a mess, and I use up electricity (with the AC on and all)... So I'm thinking of investing in a new oven...

My niece just finished her painting. She's donating it to her school, it'll be displayed in the principal's office. Here's a picture of Kay and her work of art...

Kay says this all comes from her imagination.

Posted by Karen @ 09:55 PM PST [Link]