Glitter Tatoo

On my baby's first birthday, she was crying when we had her face painted. But recently, we attended her cousin Justin's first birthday, and she obliged to have one! :) She had the glitter tattoo and she was very well behaved while the glitter tattoo was being applied.


That night when we already went home and her yaya was about to gave her a bath to clean up, I can hear her say to her yaya not to wash her arm (with the tattoo). ;)

The party was last Saturday and until now, the tattoo is still on her arm. ;)

Shakey's 45 min or it's free - a fluke!

Yesterday I ordered pizza for my team in the office as a simple appreciation of their hard work. I ordered at Shakey's and used the PLDT Home Rewards card. If you order a Manager's Choice pizza with your PLDT card, you can get a free Hawaiian pizza of the same size.

I used their 77777 number to order. And after my order, the Shakey's person told me the time (2:58pm) and informed me to sync my watch, and after 45 minutes, if the pizza is not there yet, it's free.

And so I monitored the time, after 45 mins, the pizza still hasn't arrived, I decided to extend the wait by 5 mins. And so after 50 mins, I decided to call the 77777 number again to inform them that the pizza hasn't arrived yet, and asked them if that meant the pizza would be free. They said they would call the branch (to whom the order was placed, which I think it's the Rada branch) and the branch will call me for feedback. Unfortunately, I didn't get the call.

And so after a few minutes, the delivery guy arrived with the pizza and I told him that the pizza is late and asked if that meant the pizza is free. He gave me a couple of excuses, yari-yara, and bottomline, I told him it's past 45 mins and that should only mean the pizza is free. He still won't agree with me and told him maybe we can call his branch and talk to his manager about it. Unfortunately (not sure if it is intentionally), the line is busy. We can't connect after a few tries.

And then we discussed again, and he gave me the reason that the order came to them 3:23 (or something like that) and he said he was surprised when I told him that he's late. I asked him if they don't sync their time with their call center (the 77777 number) because the 77777 center clearly gave me their time and specifically told me to sync it.

Anywho, to cut the now-getting-long argument with him, I told him that he should let his manager know about it and maybe discuss it with their call center. He agreed and even told me that I would get a call from them when he gets back to the branch. Unfortunately again, I didn't get that call.

I'm not sure if it's only in the Philippines, or only in Shakey's, wherein they give this 45 minute or it's free slogan, and yet they don't follow it. In the US, when they say if it's late it's free, they really give it for free, no questions asked, and no excuses. It's unfortunate that they use this slogan as well, knowing they don't easily give it. Maybe if I tried really hard, or maybe if I spent a lot of time arguing, I might have gotten the pizza for free. But then again, the stress it would cause will not be worth it.

Priceless

Time flies by so fast. It was not too long ago when Caitlyn was too afraid to ride stationary cars that you see in video arcades. But now she rides on cars at theme parks. And she rides on her own!

We went to Star City yesterday to bring my wife’s nephew, Neekee, who is visiting from Zambales. My wife got ride-all-you-can passes for herself, Neekee and Caitlyn. It costs PhP 250. I thought it was a bit pricey considering that there isn’t much to see at Star City anyway. My yaya, my brother, and I just got the entrance-only ticket, at PhP 60.

Caitlyn had her first ride at the carousel. She’s used to riding carousel at the Mall of Asia so we were already expecting that she’ll get on one. But I was surprised when we went to the Snow White train ride. Caitlyn did not hesitate to ride the train and even seated on the front seat with her Kuya Neekee. There was an adjacent Little Mermaid boat ride beside that and we attempted to bring here there but she hesitated. I thought maybe because her Kuya Neekee was not with them.

When we got to the Rodeo car/truck ride, Caitlyn insisted that she wants to ride on one. We were a little hesitant because her Mom couldn’t join her there because the ride is for little kids only. But eventually we found a truck which is a bit enclosed and we had her ride that one. She’s riding by herself. She didn’t get scared and was having fun the whole time. Even though the ride climbs up, it was okay with him. She sure had fun with that ride. J (As evidence, she even rode it again when we passed by it the second time).

Next ride she got on was the plane ride with her Mom. She was seated in front and her Mom was on the back. She also had fun with that ride and didn’t get scared.



After all the rides and the fun my baby had, I realized that the ride-all-you-can my wife got for Caitlyn was very much worth it. Caitlyn wasn’t able to ride all the big and complicated rides yet, but it was very much worth it seeing her enjoy the experience for the first time. :)

townhouse swimming

Finally we were able to go swimming at our townhouse’s swimming pool yesterday. My baby has been looking forward to go swimming there since we got the place, but something always comes up when we plan and we weren’t able to push through with it until yesterday.

It sure looks like we will have a lot more swimming activity in the coming weekends. :)

Ted's Batchoy

We had dinner at Ted's Batchoy at Mall of Asia last Saturday. My wife's been wanting to try it out and finally we were able to.

I had their set meal of sisig, rice, batchoy and regular drink. It was pretty cheap at PhP 99! The batchoy that goes with the meal is big enough for merienda. And I won't forget to mention that it tastes great also. :) It tastes just right and not as salty as most of the batchoy that I've tasted before. The sisig tastes different than your regular sisig, but it tastes good as well.

My wife had their extra super batchoy, and puto. She enjoyed it a lot. There also was an extra soup that they gave away.

All in all it was a pretty filling and cheap dinner. I won't wonder if next time we'll go visit the place again.

National Sports Grill

We had a teambuilding dinner at National Sports Grill (NSG) last night at GB3. It's a going away dinner for one of our colleagues who will be taking on a new journey in his career life. It's also a time for the rest of us to unwind after days of hard work.

We ordered their Gold Medal wings as appetizer, and then we had a variety of pasta and pizza. We also got pork chops for everyone to share. Their food tastes okay but the serving size is a little small for sharing. That's why I had to order every now and then.

I liked their pizza a lot specially the pesto sausage one. Their pizza has a thin crunchy crust, which is how I like pizzas. :) I don't quite like thick crusted pizza's as I get full easily, and I get to taste the bread more than what's on the pizza.

NSG is quite a cool place to hang out. Their sporty ambiance, and the sports events shown on their TVs, makes it a good place to dine, and drink. :)

Dora the Explorer nights

My baby's interest in Dora the Explorer came back recently. She always looks for her Dora DVDs at night before going to sleep. She used to watch Dora a lot when she was around 1 year old. After that she got interested in other DVDs like Barney, Sesame Street, and High Five. But recently she started looking for, and watching her Dora DVDs again.

Her mom and I could hardly watch TV at night. Now I am wondering who the real boss in the house is. ;)

Looks like I'll be looking forward to more Dora the Explorer nights. :)

iPod

My wife gave me an 80GB iPod Video last Christmas. It's one of the most used (but expensive) gadgets I have. I’ve always wanted to buy one, but I was hesitant because of the price. My wife has been pushing me to buy one but I was the one who resisted. Until Christmas 2006 came, and my wife gave me one as a gift! She probably got tired of me looking at it in the store's shelf every time. ;)

Good thing she bought me one as I find it as one of the most useful expensive item that I possess. :) I find the photo storage a cool feature as well, as I get to carry my digital pics anywhere and show it to friends instantly without having to log onto a PC.

The unfortunate thing about it though is that they are already marketing new edition/model, slimmer ones with more disk space. Which makes you wish you also had one of those. ;)

Fantasy basketball

The start of the NBA season is almost here and a couple office friends have started setting up our new season of fantasy basketball!

Fantasy basketball is something like living your dream of being an NBA team owner, drafting your own players, and trading them as you desire. It's like getting your own team without spending the big bucks. That's what makes it to be "fantasy" as well. ;)

We've been into Fantasy basketball for about 3 years now. We use Yahoo's fantasy basketball. We usually put a small pot as prize money so it will make the games (and trash talking) more interesting. ;) But more importantly, it's a good reason for friends to get together, chat, and have fun. Let get it on!

McFarlane's Military Figures

A few months ago, I got hooked with collecting McFarlane's Military Figures. I like the real-life poses of the figures that they come up with, and most especially the detail that these figures have.

Every payday, I make it a point to buy at least one, especially if there are new releases. :) If there are no new releases for the month, I try to purchase one that has been released a year or two ago. I usually buy it online since it's tough finding one in our local stores.

McFarlane Toys has a lot of other figures in their collection, like Spawn (which McFarlane is most famous with), dragons, sports, movies, etc. They all have very good details, but it's the military figures that particularly caught my attention. I’m hoping one day I can complete their Military Series collection, since they came out in 2005. :)

LCD TV promo

We bought a new Samsung 32" LCD TV three weeks ago for our new house. Haven't moved in yet as it is currently undergoing renovation, but we decided to buy it already because there was a promo during that period (until end of Sept.). You can get an PhP 8,000 discount or a free 21" SlimFit TV. We opted to get the free TV. We had to wait for the free TV though as it has to be ordered.

After around 2 weeks, we got a call that we can pick up the TV already. We went to the appliance center to pick it up, and there we saw Samsung's new promo flyer. They now offer either an PhP 8,000 discount, a 29" SlimFit TV, or a 21" SlimFit TV with DVD! I was trying to discuss with the salesman if we can get the new promo since we just bought it recently. But as we expected, we were not able to get the new promo and was stuck with the old one instead. (If only I was in the United States, I wouldn't have difficulty getting the new promo. They value their consumers a lot.)

Anyway, we also picked up a Samsung home theater (I just have to add PhP 5,000) to go with the LCD TV. Can't wait to set everything up in our new home and start enjoying home theater entertainment. :)

African Lovebird

I've been into the hobby of keeping African Lovebird as pets since 2004. What basically got me hooked into it are the vibrant colors these birds have. They are also very active birds and fun to watch.

I personally like the eyering species, most specifically the yellows (lutinos) and the whites (albinos).

I used to have 20+ African lovebirds but decided to cut it down since we are moving to a new place. Our new place doesn't have much space for me to keep a lot. Now, I only have 5 birds left. Hopefully one day we'll be able to purchase a farm like place and be able to keep a lot of these birds, and maybe other species as well. :)

Clawdaddy

Went to Clawdaddy at Serendra last night with my wife and office friends. The food was great! Their crispy shrimp and jalapeno poppers were awesome. I also had clam chowder soup and it's yummy! I didn't like their fresh lemonade though. It tasted weird. I was actually choosing between grape shake and lemonade. I should've picked the grape instead.

Unfortunately, after our appetizer and soup, I had a mild gastro attack. I felt bloated and couldn't eat anymore worrying I might throw up. (It could've been the lemonade.) I missed the main course. They ordered lobster and assorted barbequed meat. It all looked delicous, but I didn't attempt to taste or have a bite anymore. I just tried to enjoy watching them gobble it. I'll sure go back to that place and have my "revenge". ;)

Little things in life

Finally, I get to set up my blog. Been thinking of creating one and now it is a reality. (It's my wife who actually woke up my interest in trying out blogging.)

No other topic better to initially blog about than the two most important persons in my life, my wife and my baby. Having been married to a loving wife, and having a cheerful baby changed my life dramatically. Everything I do everyday now has a meaning. I appreciate little things in my life more, as little as waking up with both of them beside me. It makes my life more meaningful and worth living...