Good friends, good presents for no reason

I have the gift of gab. I would say it is a good thing. I seem to make friends easily or strike up a conversation with anyone. I talk to the valet parking people, in return, they let me stay until I need to leave, I am good friends with the cafeteria people at work, in return, I get free coffee, extra food and smile in every corner. Yes... I kid you not. I talk to the security guards, they let me in even if I forgot my ID, the parking ticket cashier lets me have day rate parking instead of the 24 hr rate and I have friends at shops I frequent who gives me extra coupons and tips on what's a good deal in store. Of course, I also have friends who are real friends. Even way back from elementary. I have to say, I only have a couple of good friends those years, my Tatang was very strict. In high school, I would say I have good friends, but mostly, those whole years, I probably was more of an outcast than anything. As I have mentioned in a previous post, we were poor, so a lot of the kids were ridiculous bullies. I have great friends in college. I guess, it is because I went to Manila for my bachelors, so there was not much bad treatment, or maybe because there was so much poverty around the city, I was considered middle class. But whatever, now iI am very proud to say I have very good friends in all walk of life. I got that form my Tatang, be it the mayor's son, the fisherman's daughter.

Today, my good friend Zonette, got me this necklacce and earrings, for "nothing day." I love it!

Lovely, isn't it? How about you, do you give gifts for "nothing day"?

Chris is celebrating his birthday

Chris is turning a year older. Gosh, this man never looks anything close his age. That's not because he is my Hubby but, he really does not! If being ** means looking as good as this, I want whatever he's taking-vitamins, creams and exercise regimen. But, I kid you not, he does not even take any vitamins, I swear! He does exercise though. His actual day is March 2 ( my mom-in-law, would say, NO), but we timed the celebration to coincide with Manny Pacquiao's fight. So, here are the pictures of that great night! Note to Clottey: get another career, dancing maybe?

The bday boy

preparing was not as bad because I have these assistants...

Food spread

His Konditor Meister cake

Wonder what  I was sayong? Censored

Nicest bunch of friends

 

Tito Dom and Jem

My girlfriends... where's Iris?

Can you see, we are happy people

Bday boy and Mikee with GP. GP you should come more often

We were all anxious, but if you asked us that time, we would all say... "nah, Clottey is just practice match for Gayweather" (ooops... Mayweather, my bad)

Same scene at the kitchen area

All  in all, it was a fun night. With friends and food and drink... the night ended at 4AM, or should I say, it ended the next day.

You all know I love Charice

I have followed her career for the longest time. I loved her since her competition days in Philippine TV. I cried when she lost local contest A Star is Born, but I smiled when she graciously accepted defeat even after everyone thought she should be the winner, moreso,  when everyone said she will never be a star because she is not as pretty as the mestizas in my "white-as-porcelain-crazy-country", and she just smiled. I felt so proud when she performed on Ellen, even prouder at Oprah and jubilant seeing her at Good Morning America. Need I say, I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakel because of her? May I present to you my pride, my star! Charice!


Here is her promo video. Do not forget her album release date, May 11, 2010!



Here is her promotional video featuring Iyaz ( bigtime !)! Nice first video, right?




She definitely has bloomed and conquered America!

I am blessed just knowing her, her story and her overflowing love for her mother. David Foster, Ellen, Oprah, Celine, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocceli, Josh Groban and Muhammad Ali and more, big names helping her out to share her talent to the world! Praise!

Been sick

I have the flu! I have not been this sick for a very long time. The chills and the fever is killing me. Not to mention,  my runny nose is annoying! I felt sick already by last weekend. Since I have relatives visiting from Canada, I have to bring them around town, and it felt good showing off my beloved city and being with my cousin and her family. Then, I still had to go to work on Sunday afternoon, which is another crappy day at work. The computer system went down. Since everything is connected by one network, the tube system was down, lab results were not crossing over to the nurses' system, patient information not loading.. which all created a nightmare work day. Thinking about it now, maybe I was over-stressed that day, it made my system down too.

I am starting to feel better now. Been drinking lots of water, juice and taking in lots of fruits. Hopefully, I get to be okay by today for tomorrow is Hubby's b-day dinner... and Manny Pacquiao's fight! It will be a very good weekend inspite of the predicted rain showers. I will be seeing a lot of my good friends again. I have not seen a lot of them lately so this is a good time to see them. Nothing beats good company.

Pherry's Olympic project

So, after dinner last Sunday, me and Pherry had to stay up late to finish his project. They all had to make anything that has to do with Olympics. He decided he wanted to make medals. The supplies have been bought a few days ago, so we were all set. Here are the medals. We both are not artistic, Hubby is, but I guess, he was dowmed by the red wine earlier, so he was snoring ( shhh) by then. Hope you like them, the teacher did, and he gave Pherry extra points.

The medals are made of plywood, from Michael's, an arts and crafts store, washable paint and medal ribbons. Pherry though of the Olympic ring as added touch, and the Team USA is added later because he needed to incorporate a chosen country that participates in the Games for this project. He stayed loyal and chose USA. Since the plywood was a little in the yellow side, it was hard to paint silver, so I had to redo it and this time put a white primer as base then, silver. Worked out pretty good after that.

My kids are my Olympians- great in every level, from bronze to gold, they are winnersin my heart! In fact, just having them makes me more than an Olympian. I am sure all parents feel this way. Keep smiling everyone. Make this day your Olympic moment.

Last Sunday

We usually attend mass in Holbrook, St. Joseph Parish. Although we live in Quincy now, we still go there for two reasons: Father Ed is great and we go to the in-laws for free and great lunch after. Although the kids go to Sunday school in St. Joseph parish in Quincy ( confusing, eh?), we mostly attend mass in Holbrook, although we find ourselves attending the Filipino mass in St. John's Quincy once a month. The Filipino apostolate in Boston celebrates mass in Quincy every fourth Sunday of the month. I should go every month but... I'll tell you why i don't in another post.  Meanwhile, Hubby's family were there. My sister-in-law Lourdes is celebrating her birthday that same day. The highlight for me though was meeting (unintentionally) my Friendster ( remember, LOL) friend. Surreal. I have never met her, just seeing pictures and occasionally commenting on each others posts and pictures. We were on the elevator and she looked familiar, we both said hi and I was like, "you're my friend, my friendster friend!' I know, very weird. Sadly, all she could say was, " yes, Bernadette, oh my, fabulous bags, we should get together." She can only remeber my "fab" bags. Not ME, MY bags. Sad indeed. Here's a picture of me with her friend and my Pherry.

She's the one on my left, and if you were wondering what her name is, I was too. But I could not bring myself to ask. I figured i could ask her a little later. That later came to an embarassing moment for me. While Hubby was taking the picture, her husband came over and ask if Josh was my son and I nodded. He politely introduced himself and the next thing should be to politely introduce myself and his wife to my husband. Sensing the hesitation from me, she gladly introduced herself, "my name is Eva." Lesson learned. I will, from now on try to know all the names of my online friends just in case.

We later watched the now historic USA-Canada Olympic hockey finals. A true nail-biter. USA lost! Darn! One of the best games though! Around 6PM, we headed to Chateau, an Italian dining in nearby Braintree, but not before picking up Pherry at his classmate's in Quincy. He needed to finish a project with Andy.

The place is nice and the food is okay, the price is great. The service is awful. We waited for an hour, they were rushing us all the time, and the bread is cold, dead cold, plus the butter is as solid as a block. I'll giveit another try and I will tell you how it is. I'll give them another chance.

I missed taking pictures of the others because we were all hungry by then. Here are pictures of the birthday celebrant.

I wish I will look as great as her when I reach her age. I will not reveal her age. Here's me being photographed by Pherry, he was having fun making fun of me.

That's all folks. Hope you all had a good weekend. I love my friends... my Pilipinas shirt by Rhett Eala of Collezione is a gift by my good friend Ella Ganda. Thanks girl, it matches my patent leather Sabrina Coach bag, which is yummy by the way! Mwaaah!

Great thrift shopping...

Aren't these lovely? Saw them at Kam-Man, an Asian superstore. They have this antique/pre-owned shop that have fabulous finds - IF you go often.

Absolutely gorgeous, ain't it? I can see this in salons or in sitting areas of bathrooms, or just the entertainment center. If you are lucky and rich, in your own home theater. Fabulous! These are huge and very beautiful. Just to show you how big they are, here's a pic:

The best thing is, they are $15.00. Yes, $15.00, fantastic!

PS. Sorry for the crappy pics latelt, been using my iPhone.

Long overdue V-day and winter break vacation

Well, well. School week winter vacation in Massachusetts was on the same week of Vday. The whole week, I had to plan activities for the kids, otherwise they would be so bored to death, they'll end up giving me high blood pressure. First day was President's Day and Lightning Thief day, I have to ask a switch for holiday schedule. You see, I have to work 2 major holidays and few more minor ones. I know, I know, my schedule sucks, but it's okay. My co workers and I have mastered the art of schedule switching.

I have to say the movie sucks... big time. Major stinker is what KC calls it. We were very disappointed. It's not only because it is from a book to a movie but the blatant inaccuracies from the book. Hopefully, when they make the  next books into movies ( will they even try?), they will get it right. Before we headed to the movies we had late lunch at a local Italian restaurant called Alfredo's. They make their own pasta right in our city! Yahoo! It helps that I have gift certificates for this place.

Nothing fancy about the place, but the food is delicioso! The staff is efficient and smelling good. I add dining points to a restaurant when I see their staff clean and smelling delicious. Isn't it unappetizing ( is this a word?) when they smell like the kitchen or they just got back from their cigarette break? Eeewww. They gave me and KC a white rose after the meal. Lovely thought, isn't it. Extra point for Alfredo's. We then proceeded to Foxwoods Casino where Hubby is going to meet his sister and brother-in-law. Me? I was going for the snow crabs and mussels in their international buffet spread. Meanwhile, the kids are counting on the swimming pool. I let them swim for a good 30-40 minutes and we rested, in the car. We can not get hotel reservations. We went straight to Quincy Marriott for a breakfast buffet. it is good to wake up to this.

We go here everytime we are lazy to cook. Nothing exemplary or nothing to rave about. In fact, it is quite expensive. But the place is perfect! On top of a hill, clean facilities. You should see their first floor bathroom- 5 star! We were so tired, we slept all day. Then the night comes. We picked up Ice and off we go swimming again! My kids are fishes, they belong to Aparri- my hometown. They had so much fun!

I found that "holiday" decal dirt cheap. So we made it as background on what we call "Hollywood pics". And this my friends, is the highlight of my week. A vnote form KC which says: "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a good Mom just like you" perfect!

I promise to be more updated. Mmmm, sure! Go ahead and say " i love you". Ciao!