"Lost and New"

This is what was waiting for me when I got home:

Isn't he just the sweetest?! My baby is so thoughtful. =)

Quarter Century Old

Yesterday was the big 2-5 for my baby, Carlos. And this was the game plan: Get up at 6am, cook breakfast and finish by 6:30, hop in shower and get ready for work by 7am. Wake up the b-day boy have b-day breakfast for half and hour and get to work by 8am. Work and then leave at 4:30pm. Get the car, the soccer tix and pick everyone up by 6:00pm.

How it went: I woke up at 6:10. I prepared the meal and it took me a whole hour! But well worth the smiles on my baby's face. Here's a pic of the table set up sans pancakes and bacon. And the dozen fresh roses:We enjoyed a lovely conversation and took our time for breakfast. Next thing I knew, I was way behind schedule and I got to work at 9am instead of 8am. =T

Then around 11am, my co-workers and I leave the office so that I could get a tour of the transplant center. When I got back, I wanted to get a tampon from my backpack. I looked under my desk, where I usually keep it and it was gone. I was so confused. I knew that I brought it to work. Then I thought that my co-workers were hiding it from me, but when I asked them, they had no idea what I was talking about. Someone had stolen my backpack!!!! Luckily, there wasn't anything super valuable in there, although there were some slightly sentimental things, like a pair of white flat shoes that my aunt recently gave me. I kept my wallet and cellphone in my purse which I carry everywhere with me. Anyway, the people of my floor were really nice and empathetic. Even the doctors took some time out of their day to help me look for it. Well because of that stupid person who stole my backpack, (s)he ruined my plans for the day. Then I couldn't bike home because I didn't have keys to my lock, nor could I walk two miles in three-inch heels. So my poor birthday boy who had a buttload of work to do had to cut his day short to take over my responsibilities of getting the car and tickets from home.

Work finally ends and everyone gets in the car by 6:30. The soccer game was held at Gillette Stadium (Foxburo), only 25 miles away. We totally thought that two hours would be enough time to get there, but we were sooooo wrong! It was bumper to bumper all the way from Boston to Foxburo. It was re-freakin-diculous! The game started at 8:30pm and we got there at 9:30. It took us about 10 minutes to run from the parking lot to the stadium and find our seats. There was about 20 minutes left in the game. Brazil and Mexico were tied 1-1. Not much to our suprise, people took over our seats and were so stuborn to move. These people were getting on Carlos' last nerve and I decided to call security so that Carlos might be able to enjoy a few extra minutes.

By the time the seat stealers finally moved out of our seats, there was 15 minutes left. "Come on Mexico....you can score one!" "GOOOOAL!!!!" Brazil made a beautiful shot. The sea of Brazilians wearing yellow shirts goes absolutely wild. Drums are banging, the crowd waives their oversized green flags. Only a couple hundred people sit still in their seats, hoping that Mexico can score another goal to catch up. Two minutes left in the game. "GOOOOOOOAL!!!"Brazil scores again. Thousands and thousands of Brazilians cheer on their country's team. 3-1. Game over.

My poor poor baby had to drive his manual car in bumper to bumper traffic, see only 20 minutes of the game, Mexico lost, and he didn't even get to see that one goal that Mexico got. Then we ended the night with another three hours of traffic coming home.

I guess that Interpol concert, which was playing right across the street from our apartment, would have been better. =(

The b-day plan

Rather than dwelling on crap, let's focus on the future and the good.

The boy's birthday is only a couple days away. I went shopping for his gift today (and I did a little damage for myself too - a pair of brown pumps =P). Carlos goes bonkers for any Hugo Boss leather jacket, but lets face it. One, I don't make that much cashola. And two, I'm not even in med school yet so that I could take it out of my definite future salary. Since I'm pretty positive that he doesn't read my blog, I'll go ahead and spill the beans. I got him the next best leather item from Hugo Boss: a wallet! It's all I can afford at the moment, and his current wallet is falling apart anyway. I hope he likes it. =)

I also wanted to do something special, sort of sentimental...maybe a nice breakfast with fresh flowers. Hmmm...what can I prepare other than his usual cereal? I would cook him some pancakes, but that's a little hard to calculate...although I bet I could do it. And maybe some sausages, and a scrambled egg. I like that idea! I'll just prepare all the ingredients the night before, and he'll wake up to the smell of a buttery breakfast....mmmmmm!

For the evening, we were originally supposed to go to the Interpol concert, but I didn't get the tickets because I was unsure of whether Carlos really liked that band or not. A week after he booked tickets for a soccer game (Mexico vs. Brazil), he said, "This game better be good. I'm missing an Interpol concert for this." So I guess he does like them. =P Anyway, I think it's gonna be an awesome game. I've never seen a live professional soccer game, or any live soccer game for that matter. So this should be a pretty cool experience. And we're going with a couple of cool people from Carlos' school.

Well, biddy-biddy-biddy that's all folks!

Familia Loya

So as soon as I got back from my lovely vacation in LA and seeing all my buddies. I had some nerve racking drama from work, but I don't care to write about it because it's resolved and now I love my new job! =)

But anyway, I had two days to get our apartment spanking clean for the "in-laws." (No, they're not in laws, but it's so much easier to refer to them as that for now.) I heard that Carlos' mother was a neat freak and if she saw a speck of dust, she would starting cleaning our house. So I swiftered and windexed everything. It took me all of Monday and Tuesday evening to get everything organized. I was so nervous! I mean, this was my first time HOSTING HIS FAMILY! Gotta stay on the good side...ya know what I mean?

Wednesday night: I slaved over the stove to make sure that his parents had a meal to eat when they arrived. We would have taken them out to a restaurant, but nothing is open past 10pm on a weeknight. Then I slaved over the stove some more so that his sister's family would have something to eat also when they arrived the next morning.

Dinner menu: Filipino style chicken menudo with homemade corn tortillas.

Lunch menu: A delicious exotic mushroom pasta with white wine sauce.

Luckily, Carlos' parents loved their dinner and his dad even asked for seconds! =) Hooray! My first set of brownie points!

Thursday: Carlos picked his sister's family from the airport, had the mushroom pasta and headed out to the Science Museum. A perfect place to take a kid!

Here's a pic of Carlos' nephew and his brother-in-law.

That evening I met up with his family at a nearby Korean BBQ restaurant, where we celebrated Carlos' mother's 50th birthday. Then we topped it off with a delicate chocolate raspberry cake from Finale, a fine bakery/coffee shop. (I would have shown a pic, but I have no idea where Carlos kept them.)

Friday: His family went exploring the history of Boston, by walking the freedom trail. I heard that his brother-in-law was so fascinated by the USS Constitution that they spent three hours over there! Then Carlos and I met up with them in Little Italy for a good ol' traditional Italian dinner.

Saturday: We went up north past Salem to Crane's beach. It was so beautiful there! The sun was shining, the water was clear, and the sand was warm and soft. It also happened to be Carlos' nephew's first visit to a beach. So the first thing he did of course was run straight into the water. =P
That's me throwing him into the water. And you can't go to the beach without building a sand sculpture! Carlos and I decided on an airplane. I present to you Ocean Air! After we returned with sand in our pants and shirts, we treated them to their first taste of Thai food at Brown Sugar. I ordered the usual Pad Thai and Pad ZEU, which every first timer has to try. Then I ordered my favorite dish, Kow Mun Kai (steamed chicken on mildly favored rice served with a spicy garlic sauce), some crab fried rice, beef macadamia, and some roasted duck. And of course, Thai teas 'round the table. Mmm...mmm...mmm....

Sunday: Started the day off with mass with my favorite priest, Fr. John Unni. Carlos' mom is quite religious and really enjoyed the gathering. Then we headed over to the Belkin Family Lookout Farm to go apple picking! Luckily for me, since I'm not too fond of apples, the plums and peaches were also ripe and ready to be picked. So that's what I got a bag full of. =D Midway between the picking, there was a petting zoo and children's playground.

I was most fascinated by the rock-climbing apparatus. See? It's pretty cool.Then Carlos and I also played Gladiators on a balance beam, and the monkey bars. =)

And a couple of dragonflies landed on my arm, which I totally wouldn't have noticed if Carlos' nephew didn't point it out.

Then my biggest challenge came: how to impress the family with a big sit down dinner in our apartment. Well, I took a very good tip from a former co-worker of mine. Get of bunch of drum sticks, stick them in some Jack Daniels marinade and put it in the oven. And that's exactly what I did. Plus I cooked up a couple batchs of rice, warmed up some tortillas, and served it with some salad along with Carlos' homemade salad dressing. Everyone was stuffed and satisfied. Mission complete!

Here's the whole familia at the end of their stay.

Overall, it definitely wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. His family is really sweet and treats me like one of their own. I wouldn't mind having them over again.

Mess-Wus

Lately, Carlos and I have been playing a game I like to call Mess-Wus. It's like playing chicken, but with dirty dishes. So you start off with a clean, empty sink. As the meals pass, the dirty dishes, pots and pans, and glasses pile up. The way to win the game is avoid doing ANY dishes at all costs, which involves getting desperate at times.

Exhibit A: Carlos and I are having lunch, but we are out of glasses. Carlos picks up a glass from the sink that looks clean, sniffs it, nodds and then serves himself some water in that glass.

Exhibit B: I was studying and then Carlos came in the room with a Peanuts glass (courtesy of Sergio). Then he says, "Whoa, this is the first I ever used a Snoopy glass." Apparently, he subconciously avoids my cute glasses and prefers to drink out of the grown-up glasses.

Since I like using my Snoopy glassware, but refuse to drink out of a glass that looks "clean," when our cabinets are empty, I am crowned the Mess-Wus.

Yay! I get to blog!

I just finished studying what I needed to study and now I get to reward myself with a blog. =)

This past weekend wasn't as productive as I had envisioned it to be, but sure did have a lot of fun!

On Saturday, I attended Knitters Anonymous' First Annual Tea Party. I originally just wanted to hang out for a couple hours, but I ended up staying for the entire afternoon. Our first stop was to Windsor Button. They have yarns, buttons, and ribbons galore! From alpaca, to silk, to cotton, you name it they got it! Omg! I was totally in heaven! I also bought my first knitting book there, "The Knitter's Bible" by Claire Crompton. I'd say it was a great investment. It's got all the basics of knitting plus tons of cute patterns. Here are a few pics of the knitting chicks...

L to R: Mary, Cressida, Christina, all with their pirate faces.


Here's Lorena...not really sure what she's mad at...=T

AND my finished fingerless gloves!

TADA!!!!

Later that night, I attended my first burlesque show by the Boston Babydolls. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I have learned that burleque is a type of stripping that involves story telling and is really quite an art. For example, in my favorite act, "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" plays in the background and a woman walks onto the stage with an ax, in 19th century styled clothing, and a bloodied apron. She sadly bares her bloody hands to the audience to show her regret, but then her wild side come out again, and she dances while artfully stripping to her dress slip. Again she bares her bloody hands. Then she finds bowl of water, gleefully washes her hands and squeezes a sponge over her body to clean herself of her guilt. She finally bares her clean hands and struts off the stage proudly with the ax resting on her shoulder.

I never would have thought of watching a burlesque show had it not been for my buddy, Cressida who is currently an intern for the Boston Babydolls. I can't wait to see what she'll do for her act. And on Sunday, I tried to go to church, but our car was stuck in ice again. =P So I pretty much performed house chores, tried to read up on current events but ended up napping until the evening where I attended Carlos' PI's surprise party in celebration of his tenure. Congrats to David Van Vactor! (It's a pretty cool name isn't it?)

Till next time my dearies.

It's growing!

The boy at week 2:


His gansta look.


Me at week two:

I need a hair cut.

And I want it to look like this:

I can't wait until spring!

*Edit* Lol...Carlos just saw this picture and is not looking foward to my haricut at all. It's just that my hair is soooo boring! And soo damaged from winter that it looks like crap. I tie my hair up everyday to no avail. Darn you East Coast weather! Darn you! If my hair were smooth like it was in LA, I might keep it long, but I'd at least get bangs. Haircut! Haircut! =) What do you think about the hair? (Is it safe for interviews?...Cuz you know I'm gonna get flooded with invitations. *keep your fingers crossed!*)

Testing...1, 2...testing

I'm testing out this slide show thing that I found on Jeannie's website. It looks so cool on hers and I hope that it works on mine. While I'm trying this out, I'll tell a quick story. =)

Because it was Carlos' PI's birthday, he bought out a whole section of seats to a Harvard vs. Colgate (some school in CT) hockey game for his entire lab including their guests. At first I was debating on whether I should have brought a book to read because on TV it looks so boring. Then I thought better of it because I figured it would be kind of rude. Turns out that hockey is an AWESOME game to watch! It's so agressive yet graceful at the same time. Who knew? Harvard totally kicked Colgates butt! Go Crimson!



And here is the card I made for his boss before it got signed by all of Carlos' lab mates.



Btw, the dizzy insect is a fly. (Carlos works in a fly lab. Teehee.)

*Edit* Ok...what the heck...why are the pictures aligned to the right? It looked fine on the preview. =T If you have any ideas on how to fix it, let me know.

**Edit** I tried it on xanga. And it seems to work much better there. Hrmph!

New things and new beings!

I adopted two betta fish! Nigiri and Big Fin. It's really funny how they totally have opposite personalities. Nigiri is pretty calm, very much a lover and not a fighter. (This, I know for a fact because he was make a bubble nest for his future fries (baby bettas...I know weird name.) Big Fin is kind of a bully. The moment he sees any colorful fin, he'll flare his gills and fins like no other. Nigiri also loves to eat! He's not very picky, but Big Fin prefers pellets to blood worms. =P Since I bought them, I've been doing quite a bit of reading and found out that bettas prefer to live in large tanks, NOT little vases. Small vases can cause stress and a shorter life span for the poor betta. Secondly, they're tropical fish. I already knew this but for some reason I never made the connection that they need to be in warm water (70-80F), and vases cannot maintain the steady warm temperature they need. Thirdly, I've seen their mating ritual and once I get more free time, I'm gonna buy Nigiri a girlfriend so they have fries! =)

This is Big Fin.Nigiri (not as photogenic) And their lovely large and warm home.
New thing! After reading an article of how nylon and cotton shower curtains are more eco-friendly compared to vinyl curtains, I went out to Linen and Things and bought one. =) Tada!
One more thing. Since Carlos started preparing for this PQE, he has decided keep track of his facial hair growth.

Week one:

We'll see how this turns out. =P

Domestic man?

A few days before Carlos' recruit came over, I wanted the apartment to look presentable which meant sacrificing a couple nights of studying to clean and do laundry. But Carlos was really considerate and offered to vacuum which reduced it to one cleaning night for me.

A couple days went by and he didn't do a thing. I nagged and nagged, and thought I would have to get the entire apartment cleaned up and hour or two before the recruit arrived. To my surprise, that morning, Carlos not only vacuumed our entire apartment, but mopped the kitchen and living room floor, and washed ALL the dishes in the sink. (Normally Carlos chooses to wash only the plate he ate off and maybe a glass. He rarely ever washes the cutting board, knives, or pots and pans he used.) I was extremely impressed and thanked him for his cleanliness.

The next morning, I went to the kitchen to wash our dishes. And I couldn't help but notice this awful smell coming from the sink. I thought it was the kitchen rag, cuz it does stink if it doesn't dry properly. I smelled it. Nope, wasn't that. Turns out that it was the freakin sponge! Ugh! It wreaked! In all my dishwashing years, I have never ever smelled a stench like that from a sponge no matter how old the darn thing is. Again, it was very sweet of him to pick up some household responsibilities, but he sure has a lot to learn. Oy vay.

Note to self: Maybe I should stop talking smack. It's not like I'm perfect. =P