where the moon shines

So I finally have two consecutive days off this week. Yay! They are weeknights though, and some people may have a problem with that. I don’t. First, it coincides with the boyfriend’s off. And second, it’s still two days straight.

Tonight I go back to work, hopefully better rested than I’ve been in the past two weeks.

I still haven’t done all the shopping I need to do. Looks like my parents are resigned to taking care of all the Christmas shopping required for our annual gift giving on both sides of the family. I feel sorry not being able to help out in the shopping part, but perhaps I’ll just volunteer to wrap them up. What I don’t feel sorry for is having to decide what gifts to get each person on the list, that’s proven to become harder and harder every year.

But let me digress from talk of Christmas, gifts and shopping, and instead talk about a wedding we witnessed last week.

I will forever think of the bride as my Auntie Leesah’s friend, which is why during the wedding I kept thinking that if there were angels in heaven happy that she found love and happiness again, it would be her departed parents, plus my auntie.

Auntie Jenny was married before, but her husband passed away at a young age. She has two grown up sons now. The groom is an Episcopalian priest who, I think, is Irish. He came here to live and teach at the Seminary a few years ago, and who would’ve thought he would find love too? Their union is a true inspiration that we can’t (and shouldn’t) really give up on love.

Now. Weddings in our small community are mostly simple and traditional. The ceremony is pretty much the same, even the hymns sung. People don’t always wait for a formal invitation, and we certainly don’t look at how many seats are reserved for the guests. Which makes it difficult to plan a budget wedding – because it’s difficult to say exactly how much people will be coming.

But such weddings are fun, because people you really know and who really celebrate your happiness are in attendance. And they don’t care much about how you look, or how they look. Dress code is also something people pretty much ignore. Haha. A lot come in their Sunday best, but for most this also just means jeans and a clean shirt. I know that doesn’t look pretty in pictures, but that gives the occasion a happy, relaxed vibe. Really.

Here’s some of my favorite photos from the Church ceremony:

The happy couple

Lovely bridesmaids

It was really just a fun wedding. I have more photos to post-process, mostly from the reception but I’ve yet to find time for those. Let’s just hope I don’t forget them, haha

(more…)

Normally, working men get two days off each week. I do too, but they’re not two consecutive days. For the past two weeks, my rest days fall on Thursdays and Sundays. I don’t mind really, it can work for your advantage and you get more rest than usual with there being a break instead of five straight days of work. But doing it two weeks in a row is taking its toll.

I felt Sunday come and go, in fact I even attended a children’s party, but it hardly felt like a rest day. You know what I mean? I feel like I’d just been at work yesterday, and tonight I’d have to be back. Hopefully, I get two straight days off this week already.

But enough complaining. It invites bad vibes.

Christmas is literally just around the bend and we still have much shopping ahead of us. Admittedly, the boyfriend and I have been so busy spending for ourselves that we haven’t really bought much for the people (kids specifically) that we want to share our blessings with. Good thing we still have this weekend coming up.

Oh wait, what weekend? Clearly my rhythm’s messed up. It is just the start of a new week and already I’m thinking about weekends and normal people rest days.

I haven’t even figured out my end of year giveaway for blog readers/visitors, nor have I decided about the future of my hosting services. Too bad I missed the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales for shared/reseller/dedicated hosting services. I’d probably have been able to save up on those rather than the huge sum I’d have to pay for renewal of my 2-year services with Dreamhost. Honestly though, I don’t need to move or look for another hosting company. I’ve had a good two years with Dreamhost with my site going down maybe once or twice and only at very brief intervals.  But it is not cheap. Then again, you mostly get the services you pay for, so I’m not complaining.

Give me leave now, as I enjoy the last few hours of my non-weekend…

I’ve a busy afternoon to look forward to. After this quickie post (that feels more like a Twitter update), I will:

• Wash lunch dishes
• Bake cupcakes
• Try two different frosting (both very new to me)
• Buy ingredients for truffles
• Checkout additional prizes for the Halloween party later
• Prepare the place for the annual 99 19th Street Halloween revelry!

This is the first year we’re having it on the 30th instead of the 31st. The kids have Trick-0r Treat around the seminary compound tomorrow evening, so they’re bound to have their regular fill of candies, goodies, and scary FUN!

Once again, here are THE Halloween images from the past two years:

Best costume 2008

And the faces of 2009

I had a wonderful weekend. First, because it’s a long one (but not long enough ), three days due to the fact that I filed Sunday as vacation leave. Second, because I baked three cakes in three days! It was sooo much fun, the cakes were light to make, and the boyfriend was my assistant. And all three turned out too good not to share.

So no, I didn’t go on a real vacation, no pools or beaches or atv rides. I was indoors almost the whole time, but baking is such good therapy that it completely de-stressed me.

What’s with the bake-a-thon? Special people in our lives celebrated their birthdays and we chose to honor them by making cakes. Friday, 17th of September was my cousin Candy’s birthday, as it was Alfred’s mom and cousin Theo. We made Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake. She calls it the best chocolate sheet cake ever so I really had my hopes up for this one.

The next day, we decided to make another cake to bring to the surprise party for Alfred’s Nanay. She’s not into sweets and not a big chocolate fan so we opted for something else. Tres Leches Cake. I also used PW’s recipe.

I fell in love with Tres Leches. And all who tasted it, loved it. We loved it so much we decided to make another one today so my parents and my brother could taste it too. Also because we only had one teeny slice of the cake last night at the party, hehe.

I have more pictures of the bake-a-thon, and a few more stories to share, but my weekend’s over in a few hours and I gotta go get some sleep.

How was your weekend? What’s your favorite cake? Did you have one this weekend?

We were at the Greenhills on Saturday until around dinner time. There are several restaurants there that we already consider favorites, but we wanted to try something new. We had our sights on Casa Reyes. Both Alfred and I were already very hungry, I was sure that taking appetite suppression pills would have been the only way to keep us from gulping down food!

Casa Reyes, from what I gather (but I wasn’t able to confirm this) is operated by the family of Mama Sita. The matriarch of a family that has also released cook books featuring native Filipino dishes. They also have their own line of seasonings and instant mixes.

Upon entering the restaurant, we had to wait to be seated. There were other patrons enjoying their dinner already, and the crew were still clearing the table for us. After seeing the seasoning products on display, next thing I noticed was the cute and vintage-looking high chairs for little diners:

So Alfred and I are both BIG people right? Sabi ko, “palagay mo, pag nagka-anak tayo kasya kaya dito?” (I joked around and asked whether he thinks our future kids would fit in such small chairs!) haha

We got our table just a few minutes later. Ordering wasn’t easy! They have a lot of dishes to choose from, and being Pinoy food, most are definite favorites. In the end, we settled with these two orders:

Fresh Lumpiang Ubod

Kare-Kare

Though the Kare-Kare is shown here on a plate with a cup of rice, we actually got it in a pot, a palayok. I haven’t been eating rice, so I had the lumpia to myself, and Alfred shared the Kare-Kare with me. Both dishes were very tasty. I loved the lumpia, and it was priced reasonably too at less than a hundred pesos for the plate. Don’t ask me though if I prefer it over the famous Globe lumpia. I’d have to have them at the same time to make a comparison. The Kare-Kare wasn’t special, or maybe it’s because we had just had home cooked Kare-Kare a few days before this meal. Dad cooked Kare-kare for the first time, and we all loved it.  :)

We ordered dessert too, it was my guilty pleasure for the day:

Chocolate mousse

Leche Flan

All in all, we were satiated. The food was okay, the pricing was not bad. But the boyfriend wasn’t too happy with the service, he even commented that we weren’t going back there. I understand that it was a busy night, but there was a number of waiters staffed that day anyway. We didn’t order drinks with our meal but asked for glasses of cold water. Alfred normally needs more than a glass with his meal, so even before we finished eating, he’d already asked for a refill. He didn’t get it even after the second time he asked. Our glasses were finally refilled only after I had asked, and we’d asked for the bill already. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t see us (we’re very easy to spot), the request was acknowledged the first two times he asked, but it wasn’t granted. Sabi ko na lang kay Alfred, You should smile while asking.

So I think it will take a while before we set food inside a Casa Reyes resto again. Too bad because I really think they serve good food.

[Food photos in this post were taken using the LG Renoir camera phone, while the first photo was shot with My S Phone. I haven't been toting Deena regularly like I used to ]