I did not cook much during the weekend.  It was my eldest daughter Alexa's prom (she's in junior high) last Friday night and I was busy with bringing her to the parlor for her hair and makeup, preparing her prom dress and accessories, driving her to the venue, etc. etc.  Then the next day it was my scheduled market and groceries day, and in the afternoon, Pauline asked me to drive her and her friend Kim to the mall.  Aaargh I was so exhausted that night,  I slept like a log...(singing the Beatle's song on my head now...") 

Sunday afternoon I was back on track.  I prepared Indian Mango shake for lunch then cooked banana fritters (maruya) for snacks.  Kids loved the banana fritters so probably next week I'll cook that again.  At night Alexa was reminding me of a dish we ate in a Chinese restaurant that she loved -- it's dish with eggplants and garlic and maybe oyster sauce on it.  I told her I'll look for the recipe in the net and will try cooking it next week.  For the meantime, here's what I found, the authentic chinese way of cooking stir fry.  I said authentic because it's a chinese guy doing the cooking. hee-hee.

Foodie - noun.  an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.  (taken from Wikipedia)

So I have this long weekends happening every week.  From Friday to Sunday, I get to be at home except when I go shopping, do the groceries or buy DVDs.  Since I'm starting to get bored by these long weekends, I set my mind to do little experiments that involve the kitchen.

This is half of the salmon fillets I bought last week from the wet market.  At first I was hesitant to buy it because I was afraid that the fish is not fresh.. or clean.  But I saw several customers buying so I went ahead.  The owners of this fish stall is a Japanese and his Filipina wife.  The jap hubby is the one personally taking care of preparing the salmon sashimi and he even gave me free wasabi. 

Verdict?  Salmon was fresh and delicious!  Even tastier than those from the restaurants!  And no bum stomach after.

I was so clueless as to what's in my kitchen, that I discovered only recently that I have a blender.  I immediately thought of making pesto because I really love pesto in my pasta.  Forgot to take a picture of the spaghetti I prepared last week, but I'm planning to cook again this weekend.  Good thing I still have leftover pesto.  Yummy!

This is the papaya salad I made just a while ago.  I haven't eaten my lunch yet and since I am in the mood to write this post, I'm already having the salad while typing away.  I had the complete ingredients - papaya (of course), lemon, fish sauce, nuts, brown sugar and coriander (wansuy).  It tastes just how I remembered during my Thailand days!  Well, except it's kinda on the sweet side because the papaya is almost ripe.  And there's no chilis.

Alright.  I'm having problems with my relationship.  This has been going on and off for about hmm 2-3 years now.  So just imagine the anguish, depression, mood swings I'm experiencing for the past couple of years.  I have been trying very hard to keep my sanity.  Why?  Because I don't have anyone to vent out these issues (that's why I keep on writing blogs).  Majority of my friends are much younger than me and I don't want to burden them with my problems.  Besides, I have this so-called "reputation" that I want to maintain.  A happy wife.

Then last week, problem started again.  And usually, during this period I have sleepless nights.  So I turned to the internet to finally look for help.  I found this life-coaching thing and there were write-ups which were kinda helpful to me.  But most of the write-ups were just snippets and introductions of the whole discussion.  If I would want to read the whole thing, it turned out that it was for sale.  I gave it a few days to think it over.  Then last night I just decided to buy it.  It cost me more than 2000 pesos and in return I was given 3 files to download and read.  That's it.  Now I'm not sure if this would help me.  I haven't read everything yet, I just browsed through the files, and as of now, I 'm not feeling relieved of my problems. 

Ah, if only life is simple.

p.s.  I recently discovered a great alternative for sleeping pills - it's Sudoku!  Keeps me focused and forget my problems... while making me sleepy at the same time.

This is the church located inside our subdivision.  To be exact, it is a mere five minute drive from our house, considering a 40kph max speed.  For all its proximity, I haven't been there in months, yes, months!  Oh, I remember going there last December to attend my daughter Andy's first communion.  But after that, I haven't stepped foot in the church again.  And I know, I'm setting a bad example for my kids. 

So yesterday, I just decided to attend mass, together with my kids... and to my surprise, hubby went with us.  That really meant a lot to me.  I better do this again next week.

First, it wasn't as bad as the cartoon shown here.  Just a minor scratch at my rear bumper, and I let the driver get away with it.  This is how it went:

Sunday noon, I was to pick up my daughter Pauline from her church meeting a few minutes away from our house.  When I got there, Pauline was not yet around so I parked at the side street (it wasn't even a busy street), near the entrance of the building.  I put the handbrakes on, had the hazard lights blinking and started to text my daughter.  While I was texting, I suddenly felt the car jolt, I thought I was still on gear but I was in neutral, and when I checked my rearview mirror, there it was, an SUV was backing from the parking space beside me and hit my rear.  Gaad!  I couldn't go out of the car right away because I was just wearing my pajama tops and haven't even combed my hair.  Good thing I put on my shorts and bra, hahaha.  I checked my rear bumper, there was a long scratch, but it wasn't so visible.  Besides, the front bumper was already full of scratches thanks to my hubby's very offensive kind of driving.  When I checked the SUV, it had a longer, deeper and much visible scratch.  And it was brand new, hahaha.  So I just pretended to be a bit annoyed, told the driver to be extra careful next time and to check his mirrors often.  Well, in short, I just let the driver go, but of course, I got to say the last words.

I'm home today coz we have no work on Fridays.  Part of the company's cost cutting measures.  My salary remains the same though because our Fridays are charged to our 'leaves' .. so there - same salary but we don't earn additional leaves.  Good enough for me, that's better rather than having no source of income at all.

So for this year I resolved to take charge of my finances better.  Before, it was just 'come what may' for me, because I know that I have a fixed regular income.  I came across a site on how I can control my budget and stick to it.  It was fairly simple, how couldn't have I ever thought of that.  The idea was to have several envelopes, mark each one with the regular expenses, then put the required amount on each envelope.  So that's what I have been doing since last payday.  Yesterday was again a payday, I withdrew almost everything in my ATM last night (I saved some for the credit card payments which I pay online) and now each of the envelopes (I got 10 envelopes!) has a certain amount, including 1 envelope intended for the family annual vacation. 

I hope I can stick to this routine.

I am fortunate enough to have two housekeepers, both are stay-in and do all-around household chores.  Manang A, who has been with us for more than a year now, has proven herself to be quite capable with her duties.  Then just a few weeks ago, we hired Manang B for the reason that Manang A would have a companion and would not get lonely when she's left in the house.  My specific instruction to both of them:  help one another in whatever they're doing.  Plain and simple.  I suppose they already know what to do since they're both experienced housekeepers and are well over their 40s.

But then I found out that they're not getting along well.  I realized that getting two experienced housekeepers working together are not ideal.  They both have their own way of doing things and in this case, I found out that Manang A, who's a bit older than Manang B tends to be bossy around Manang B.  No, it hasn't reached a point where they were already violent.  It's just they were always crying when I discuss this problem with them.  Menopausal women, I just remembered.

So last night I sat both of them down and did some scolding -  "try to treat each other nicely... learn to adjust with each other.. yada-yada".  I then assigned them their own chores, no more helping one another if they are still quarreling.   I hope this settles the issue.  Let me see in a week if this is going to work.  Gaaad, it's like having 2 more children to tend to.

I am so happy this morning because I was able to add a music playlist here in my blog.  Yeah, that's how shallow I am, and I'm even writing about it as my entry.  And while I was searching over the net for a cute smiley picture to attach to this post, (the result is what you see on the left), I came across this article.  I thought hmm.. might as well add this to my entry for today.

How to make your husband smile, from ehow.com:

Instructions

1. Step 1 Show enthusiasm in the presence of your husband. Even if you have only a few moments on a busy day to be with him, make sure he knows you cherish those few moments.
   
   
2. Step 2 Don't criticize or nag. Focus on your husband's good qualities. He's not perfect, but neither are you. Look at him with your heart and compliment his good qualities. Remember how you felt when you first fell in love.
   
   
3. Step 3 Listen attentively, even when he talks about things you don't understand or tells jokes that aren't all that funny. If you don't understand what he's talking about such as car parts or the latest football game, ask a few questions. You'll be showing genuine interest and may learn something in the process.
   
   
4. Step 4 Give your husband space. Everyone needs their own personal space at times. This isn't a personal attack toward you. He'll appreciate your patience and understanding.
   
   
5. Step 5 Cook your husband's favorite meal. As they say, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach". This often holds true and seeing you took the time to cook his favorite meal will certainly make him smile.
   
   
6. Step 6 Be loyal and honest. Never give your husband reason to doubt you or your loyalty. Knowing you are his best friend who he can turn to and are always honest, is one of the best gifts you can give him.
   

My take on this?  I think husbands are such spoiled brats, hahaha.  But yeah, I will give some of these steps a try, hubby is so easy to please, anyway.

So I have downloaded a demo version of this software which can recover files from my Sony memory stick.  The downside of the demo version is that I can only recover 1 file per day.  Argh. 

Which means I have to edit this post everyday until the photos are complete.  Again.. argh!
**

I was supposed to post an entry about hubby's birthday dinner last night at Conti's in Nuvali.  Of course it would not be complete without any pictures so I immediately downloaded our photos from my camera.  When all of a sudden, lo and behold - the pictures miraculously got lost.  Not deleted, because I couldn't find the files in my recycle bin!  I frantically searched the hard drives but they were nowhere to be found.  It's my fault really, because I was again multi-tasking, downloading files and at the same time deleting and organizing Pauline's numerous (I really mean numerous!) pictures scattered all over my hard disks (She's into photography and is crazy over Photoshop these days).  Anyway, I just downloaded a trial recovery program, i'll see if I could recover the files from my camera's memory stick. 

Marion left this afternoon for Davao after a 3 day stay.  Thanks sis for lending a shoulder to cry on.  It's like a huge load was taken off my chest.  I think we're kinda bff now. haha.

Oh!  I almost forgot that the topic should be about the birthday dinner.  Well, food was great.  The air outside Conti's in Nuvali was crisp and cold.  Hmm, will post photos soon.