Snack Shack

Cheat weekend has come! First up on the list: Snack Shack!

Been wanting to try this place since our friends, Maui and Sher, told us about it. Snack Shack is located at Maginhawa St.   in Teachers Village in QC. It's a really small place and pretty easy to miss. 

They only offer two things on the menu: quarter pound (75) and half pound (135). They however offer some add ons. I was disappointed to learn that they had no fries. No fries! Fries prevent me from having a second burger!

Anyway as the sign says, order takes 15-20 minutes. But it's worth it.

This was my burger. Really good. Mmmhmm.

The husband ordered the half-pound with bleu cheese. Kinda messy to eat but it was great!

Crap. Now I'm craving again.

Spaceteam

When everyone was playing Candy Crush, I promised myself I wouldn't download it because I knew I'd get so hooked that I might neglect Jaime. Haha. I got so hooked on PVZ before that I played it almost 24/7! So never again. Especially now that I have a baby who is getting more and more malikot by the day.

Til one barkada dinner, my friend Earnie asked us to download this app called Spaceteam. She wanted to play it while waiting for our other friends to arrive. I didn't download it because I didn't want to obsess about another damn game. Our friend Jason volunteered to play the game with her so I just observed.

The dorkiness begins

But after only seconds of watching them, I knew I wanted to download the app already. I noticed they were reciting these geeky made-up words. Like controls of a space craft or something. They looked like they were part of a, wait for it, SPACETEAM! So geeky I love it!

A sample control panel

After they were done playing, I shot up my hand and excitedly said, "My turn! My turn!" 

Spaceteam is really an exciting game. The goal is to control the ship by following the instructions on your screen. Some instructions are for your own set of switches and dials and some are for your team mates. It's pretty intense. You encounter wormholes and asteroids along the way and you have to shake or flip your phone in between flipping switches and cranking up dials!! Gaaaah! I'm getting stressed already.

control panel going haywire!!! 

You also get funny awards when the game is over.

The best thing about it though is that even if you get addicted to it, you can't play it when you're alone watching your baby. You need to have 2-4 players to be able to play. As the intro says: "And remember to work together... As a Spaceteam."

Oh My Buhay Experience

I spend most of my time in front of the computer, tinkering with my phone, or flipping through my iPad. I love going online. Everybody knows that. I love reading blogs, specially funny ones. I love bloggers who have no pretensions; just share their daily activities, no big words or carefully constructed sentences, just plain candid.

I don't really remember how I stumbled upon Annie Yee's blog, Oh My Buhay (I think I was researching on a restaurant or something). But ever since I read that first entry, I was hooked. She has got to be the funniest, most adorable blogger I know. A loving wife, mom of two, and a business woman. PLUS, like me, she also wears dasters at home! I told Rach about my little obsession and she got hooked as well. We love reading about her travels, bargains, and stories about ipis and maids. Gaaah! I love her.

Imagine my excitement when she held a little contest for her readers. She wanted to give away olive oil soaps from her trip to Turkey, and all we had to do was like her page! I liked her page instantly.

Then one day, I opened my browser and found this:

I won!! I never win anything! I was jumping up and down! Sure she mispelled my name but who cares?? That's me!! She instructed us WINNERS to email her our addresses. Of course I wasn't just going to email her my address. I want to tell her so much more. I told her that Rach and I were HUUUGE fans, etc!

I wasn't sure when my prize would arrive, but I forgot all about it because I was preoccupied with my dad's condition. He was still in the hospital recovering from his stroke.

Then one day something totally unexpected happened. Nic and I had just come home from the hospital. I was watching TV and Nic was fixing the bird bath in the garden, when I looked out the window and there she was!! Oh My Buhay in the flesh! She was in her car but her window was rolled down. Her driver was walking to our house with my prize. BUT I wasn't going to let her leave without a picture. I started screaming and jumping up and down like a lunatic. I screamed, "Wait! Wait!" I got out of our house and appraoched her while muttering "OMG OMG OMG!"

She got out of her car and greeted me. We talked for a while, and I told her how much I love her and her stories. That I will probably cry the way she did when I bring my son to the airport for a 2-week vacation. Teehee. I hope she didn't find me too creepy.

Annie Yee of Oh My Buhay. So Beautiful!!!

Here's my prize!! Olive oil soap from Turkey. 

She gave Rach the same thing too. She is the sweetest!!! I hope she didn't find Rach too creepy either.

Thank you Ms. Annie! You are my cup of coffee in the morning! Never stop blogging an more power to you!

Baguio Trip Day 3

Our trip to Baguio was so short! Bitin! We had our usual breakfast buffet at the country club, then packed our stuff and attempted to have one last photo op at the Cemetery of Negativism.

Next time.

The kids weren't being cooperative so we just hit the road. We stopped at Iguana for dinner and I had a chicken enchilada. I didn't finish it. I was so stuffed from the trip. Our weighing scale was running out of battery but it managed to tell me that I gained 3 pounds before conking out. :\

My boys. Tired from the trip.

Chicken Enchilada. Who knew it was so big?

 It was a much needed break. Too short but glad we did it. Til next time! Beach naman!!

Baguio Trip Day 2

Next was strawberry picking with the kids. At 10, 9, and 3 months old, we knew they were too young to actually pick strawberries. That was more for us. :)

We left our cottage at around 11 am and took a 20 minute car ride to the farm. But lo and behold, no strawberries. WHAT. The vendors told us that they're not in season, but this one vendor told us that we can pick strawberries in the farther area of the field for 500 bucks a basket. No thanks. It was too far, too expensive, and honestly, I didn't trust the guy.

Strawberry-less field

So we just bought pasalubongs from the stalls and binged on strawberry taho and strawberry "dirty" ice cream. The ice cream was sooo good. I had two. And all was forgotten. That made our trip to La Trinidad Strawberry Farm worth it.

Strawberry taho. I liked the ice cream better.

Strawberry "dirty" ice cream. I love you!

After that, we headed to Mines View and Good Shepherd. So much to see! And buy. We bought more pasalubongs AND did this:

We rented Igorot costumes and had our picture taken for 10 bucks! That was fun.

Bought these:

THE puppet! Am I the only one who still gets excited over this? Even Jaime was looking at me like a lunatic when I showed it to him. I still don't know what animal this is, but I love it so much! My parents used to buy me one every time we'd go to Baguio. Sure, they end up tangled after playing with it for an hour but still. For 35 bucks, it's a must have. 

A neon puppet for my goddaughter, Yana. 

Alfajor from Good Shepherd. Good caramel sandwiched between two shortbread discs. 170 bucks. Best eaten straight out of the fridge. Buy it. Now na.

For lunch, we headed to Chef's Home. Our friend recommended it so we went there to celebrate Camille's birthday. We also found out that it was the restaurant's last day that day. We spoke to the chef and he said he was just tired from running it already. He just wants to sleep. Too bad.  The food was great, and their crispy papaya salad was to die for. 

Crispy papaya salad. Sweet, sour and salty!

Camille with her banana roti something. Happy birthday, Camille!

Photo with the chef. Good luck, Chef Alvin!

We cooked again for dinner. No more horsing around with the grill this time. We let Ate Tere do her thing. Haha! We had liempo, otah-otah from Singapore, and fish. Didn't get to take a photo.

Baguio Trip Day 1

I'm back! Sorry for the long absence. It's been one hell of a month. My dad suffered a stroke and is slowly recovering. Thank God. My siblings and I are recovering too. It was such a traumatising experience and I just kept crying everyday. I was such a wreck!

Anyway, last weekend we headed up to Baguio with Nic's best friends. Camille and Porita celebrated their birthdays there, and I just wanted a break period.

Women's comfort room sign at the Baguio Country Club. Igorota or Assumptionista?

For weeks, Camille and I have been wanting to try Mario's keylime pie. We saw it on Kris TV (Hehe. Our guilty pleasure!), and we have been planning to go all the way to Baguio just to try it. They have Mario's in Manila, but hey, where's the fun in that? It's supposedly the best keylime pie she's ever tasted so let's see.

Sigh of relief. They have it!

Happy birthday, Portia!

The pie was super good! I wanted to take some home for my sister-in-law, but it looked like it would melt during the 6-hour ride home. Definitely going to miss this pie.

Keylime pie, check. YES. IT IS GOOD.

We decided to stay in for dinner and cook. We brought steak, prawns, and chicken kebabs for the grill. It took us about two and a half hours to realize we knew nothing about lighting the grill, so Ate Tere took over and had the coals burning in like 10 minutes. :/

Dinner by the fire

Wake me up when this is all over

Sorry for the long absence. My dad suffered a stroke and he is still in the hospital. Can't blog about anything because I'm too depressed. 

Hope to be back soon.

Getting there

Been pumping every two hours. I'm glad to announce that my milk supply is up!!!

6 6oz cups. Ready for the day ahead

Ingress and Spirals Buffet

After years of planning, we finally decided to join a bridal fair. Yesterday was our ingress, and because I was so excited I failed to have lunch. So with our stuff and my new breast pump in tow, we headed to PICC Forum to set up our booth.

We didn't spend much for our booth. Some of the items were borrowed (Thanks, Chi!) and some were just from our house. We weren't informed that our booth had walls so we didn't get to bring a backdrop! Good thing my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were also joining and had an extra backdrop.  Thank you, Kuya Francis and Mae!

Our booth. Or half booth rather. B19 (right side)

 After the ingress, Rach and I were starving. I was already getting dizzy because I didn't get to eat lunch. We thought we'd finally try Vikings at MOA, but it was full! We called buffet 101 (has to be buffet grrrr), but they were full as well. Rach couldn't stand the thought of eating at Yakimix because of all the horror stories.

Finally, we succumbed to the call of Spirals. Sige na nga (teehee)... Fortunately our husbands were willing to eat there and more than willing to treat us for dinner (okay maybe not MORE than willing). Wow. Not bad for an after ingress meal.

I kept telling myself I had to blog about this so take pictures, take pictures, take pictures. Only to remember it after I wolfed down half of my of my first plate. Totally can't be a food blogger.

First plate: Lechon Macau, roasted duck, basmati rice (couldn't find plain rice), and smoked salmon topped with caviar

The four of us shared a plate of baked oysters

Cheese room!

 The highlight of my meal was the Uni!!! i just had to ask the chef if they had uni. And they did! And I ate about a cup (and a half) of it. Argh I should've eaten more!!! The spanish mackerel was also good!  NEED to go back.

Second plate: Uni, Spanish mackerel, salmon and tuna sashimi and unagi sushi ZOMG

Peking duck. Didn't like it. Found the wrapper was too thick.

The cheese room had all sorts of charcuterie 

We also shared a plate of foie gras. I had 3 small pieces but yeah there was some major cholesterol in there.

Rach posing with her buttery naan. It was so good. 

Medela House

My sister-in-law and I went to the Medela House to inquire about their pumps. We met Joyce who was very nice and accommodating.

This is the showroom. They have samples of the swing maxi, freestyle and their hospital grade pump.

Joyce gave us a demo on how to use the pumps. She also answered some of our questions regarding breastfeeding.

After my trip to the Medela House, I was sure I wanted to get a new pump. There's no guarantee that my milk supply will increase but so what. I'm determined to try anyway.

We went back to the house two days after to purchase our pumps.

Saw these sunflowers in their driveway. No I want some for the house.

Hello again Joyce.

That's my sister-in-law Princess. She's 5 months pregnant.

My sister-in-law got a freestyle and I got my swing maxi. We were so excited that we kept on opening the boxes and checking out the parts. It was like Christmas. We also received a free 1 hour consultation with Joyce. I'm making a list of all the things I want to ask her. I should've done this a long time ago.

Let's work some magic.