A Walk on the Beach, Great BBQ & A Perfect Date

Smokin Mo's, Smokehouse BBQ at Huntington Beach, CA

Apparently, there is a BBQ belt where all the best BBQs are made

Aside from the pig on the surfboard, this sign was quite amusing

Getting ready to walk off that BBQ dinner

My husband after a great smokehouse BBQ dinner

It started with two venti hot chocolates with whipped cream. A walk on the pier at Surf City, USA. It was a sunny day and vendors are setting up in Huntington Beach's Main Street for some kind of festival.

It was the only day in between the hectic holidays that my husband and I could spend together without working on holiday feasts and church tasks. Friday is our fifth wedding anniversary - we've been married half a decade already! Wow!

We made our way through the crowds to Smokin Mo's Smokehouse BBQ for dinner. It looked like a casual place and it was quiet compared to the rest of Main Street. We ordered the BBQ sampler and garlic fries.

Hickory smoked shredded pork, Georgia-style sweet and spicy BBQ ribs and chicken with a side of potato salad and barbecued beans. Yummy! I've been to a lot of restaurants before that served BBQ ribs that you know was slathered in BBQ sauce and then grilled - it does not taste as good as this hickory-smoked meat. Aside from the delicious barbecue sauce, the meat itself had a distinct flavor and it was juicy not dry. Yum! Their potato salad was seasoned with savory spices that complimented the barbecue perfectly. Their barbecued beans - I tell you I have never been fond of beans - but I loved their sweet and tangy mixture. We certainly picked the right place to dine last night.

Their staff was friendly and the manager even came by to ask us how we like our food. They were very accommodating. And the price was an even sweeter deal! So if you're looking for a place to eat at Huntington Beach and you love smokehouse BBQ - I would definitely recommend strolling down Main Street and trying Smoking Mo's Smokehouse BBQ!

Bon apetit, everyone! Happy New Year!

Word of the Day: Treecycling

Our word for today is treecycling, which means recycling your fresh christmas trees for use as compost or mulch. I personally love fresh Christmas trees. They make our home smell so wonderful and is a beautiful alternative to plastic trees as the centerpiece of our Christmas decorations.

Did you know that 30 to 50 million fresh Christmas trees are sold in North America every year? Around 175,000 trees are sold online or via catalog. Wow!

Contrary to popular belief, fresh Christmas trees are recyclable and renewable resources. For every fresh Christmas tree harvested, three seedlings are planted in its place the following spring. Although it can take up to 15 years to grow a fresh tree to retail height (approximately six feet).

Fresh Christmas trees are recycled and turned to five main types of large-scale uses, which include: (1) wood chips for mulch and hiking trails; (2) beachfront erosion prevention; (3) lake and river shoreline stabilization; (4) fish habitat; and (5) river delta sedimentation management. Isn't that amazing?

If you are not sure where to deposit your fresh Christmas trees for treecycling, please visit Earth 911 for more information.

Bruschetta on Pandesal

Back when I used to tutor children of the very wealthy, I first encountered a queer side dish - the Bruschetta. Usually served on slices of French bread to accompany tomato pastas, I learned first hand that it was also very good served on fresh pandesal - it's basically tomatoes, cheese and basil.

When I told my husband about it, he absolutely did not like the idea of me feeding him tomatoes and cheese on bread. My husband - like most men - is a meat lover. So one cold morning when we had leftover pandesal from a party I decided to make a modified Bruschetta.

I quartered cherry tomatoes and put them on buttered slices of pandesal. I piled sliced vienna sausage on top of the tomatoes and then a large helping of mozarella. I sprinkled dried basil leaves, salt and pepper on top and plopped it in the oven on toast. It looked very colorful as you can see. It was great with hot coffee straight from my press.

And my husband did eat it, he said it tasted like pizza - which made me think you can easily substitute the sausage with pepperoni or prosciutto and your man will still love it. An interesting twist to pandesal, don't you think?

Here's to more creative breakfasts, snacks or side dishes! A culinary experiment of the Pinay kind - have a wonderful New Year celebration...

The Road to Mobility

My mother-in-law is 82 years old. A couple of months ago she slipped inside her own apartment and fell. She spent two months recuperating in the hospital. Her doctor recommended that she use a walker to get around.

At 82, my mother-in-law still loves to travel and see new places. We take her sightseeing as often as we can, but in light of her recent accident we often make sure that the place we take her to can provide a wheelchair for her. She enjoys our little outings and she is not at all tired when we take her on a wheelchair.

The only problem with these wheelchairs is she needs someone to push her around because her hands do not have enough force to move the wheelchair herself. She saw an ad for the Scooter Store on TV and has since asked us to get her a power chair. She didn’t need to pay a single cent because Medicare covered 80% of the cost and her supplemental insurance covered the other 20%.

We showed her how to maneuver the power chair so that she could get around her apartment easily. She had such fun learning how to use it. Since I had to figure out how to use it for her, I learned firsthand how comfortable the seat is plus it’s easy to steer – you don’t need to apply much force at all! The power chair has brought my mother-in-law back her independence and she loves it.

Thanks to the Scooter Store, she is once again living life to the fullest.

Snapshots of Home: My Family

Yesterday, my mom's side of the family got together for a mini-reunion because my grandma's sister who is based in San Jose, CA came home to the Philippines for Christmas this year. My mom brought her famous beef kaldereta, a popular Filipino dish for meat lovers commonly eaten with rice. I wish I could have come home to see my family. These pictures are my only window into their world. I can imagine the long catching up sessions we will have when I come home.

I miss my grandmas, my eldest grandma is very special to me. I used to come over with my grandma who passed away around twenty years ago to stay with her on weekends. When my grandma passed on, I would come and visit her in their family house in Kawit, Cavite. She would always have that gooey rice cake ready, and she'd wake up early in the morning to get it from the wet market for me. She's a very sweet lady.

My aunt, in the yellow shirt below, is one of my closest friends. It doesn't matter if we don't see each other often when we do it's like no time has passed. We'd talk about our personal lives, confide in each other and give each other advice. When I moved to the US and got married, we'd email each other to stay in touch. When she got married and had this beautiful baby girl, she told me I was an absentee godmother.

I miss my family a lot - especially at Christmas. We rarely did fancy things during the holidays, we'd just have a simple dinner, go to mass and spend Christmas together. We didn't even exchange gifts, but we went out together to do some shopping, watch a movie and dine out in a new restaurant we've never tried before. My sisters are very adventurous, I wish we could go on more vacations together in the Philippines glorious beaches (yes, we all love the beach), but that time will come. We all just need to save up and get together soon!

From my family to yours, have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

My Aunt & Godchild (who I have never seen in person)

My Dad & Cousin, Kitkat

My Beautiful Sisters, Len & Lea

My Mom and My Grandma's Sisters

The Morning After Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

The morning after Christmas is a great time to just kick back and relax. You get a little respite from all the holiday cooking and you have a little time to experiment on easy but yummy recipes.

I found this banana bread recipe in allrecipes.com - it was submitted by Sandra Flick. It's called Aunt Mary's Banana-Chocolate Chip Bread and it is absolutely perfect with a hot cup of coffee!

I had a great recipe for banana nut bread, but realizing that a lot of kids may be allergic to nuts - I decided to look for an alternative. I changed a couple of things in the recipe, I don't like adding salt to my baked goods especially if I use butter instead of shortening like I did for this treat.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 mashed bananas
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

Directions:

1. Cream sugar and butter in a mixing bowl
2. Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas until thoroughly blended (I used a mixer)
3. Combine flour and baking soda and add to the creamed mixture and stir in
4. Fold in the chocolate morsels
5. Spoon into a greased loaf pan (I was able to get two loaf pans from this mixture)
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean when inserted in the bread.
7. Cool in pan and serve.

Enjoy quality time with the ones you love this holiday season! Hope this recipe gets you as many smiles as it got me.

My Favorite Christmas CD

A lot of my friends are finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year, whether it be the pressures of the economic crunch or just having too much on their plate. I felt kind of the same way and one of the things I did to get me into the holiday mood is to listen to carefree Christmas songs.

And this is my favorite Christmas CD of all time, Christmas with the Rat Pack with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. And it's not just because they have great voices, but because the selection of songs are happy - tunes you find yourself wanting to dance to! Ok, when you're in the office bobbing your head in tune and smiling will do it.

I feel that there is a great lack of Christmas albums - the happy carefree types. I do enjoy listening to Josh Groban's Noel - the power ballads often make me cry though especially that song where they had all the soldiers and their families make a greeting. Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan is much of the same - although I do enjoy the ethereal quality of her voice, it lends a melancholy note to her Christmas songs.

Christmas to me is a happy time and I would prefer to listen to music that gets me into that mood. Stay happy and warm this holiday season!

Give her the Gift of Another Honeymoon

If you could give your special someone the gift of a dream honeymoon, where would you go? What would you do? If you asked me what my dream vacation would be I would probably say sightseeing in Europe, but that would be a vacation not a honeymoon.

My dream honeymoon would be a villa with private access to the beach, a hammock for two, couples massage, sunset horseback rides, breakfast in bed, a private chef prepared dinner without leaving our villa and complete utter privacy. Feeling like there’s only me and my husband in the beach – now that’s my kind of honeymoon.

And you don’t even have to fly halfway around the world to experience this romantic getaway. These amenities are all available in Florblanca in between the Caribbean and the Pacific – a Costa Rica resort. As a bonus, you can even say you had an eco-friendly honeymoon because this resort is committed to the preservation of the country’s natural resources.

And for the thrill-seeking couple, Florblanca is not a sleepy resort by any means! Surfing, 4-wheel quad adventures, zip line rides above the jungle canopy and snorkeling are just a few of the activities available to you. And after your adventure-filled day, retreat into Spa Bambu and indulge your body with your favorite massage and other services.

Before you leave, take a unique souvenir of your honeymoon with you – choose a memento from the Florblanca Jewelry Collection incorporating their flower icon into custom designs by Travis Kukovich as a gift to your sweetheart. I personally love flower-shaped jewelry so I know I’ll appreciate this gift.

Still looking for the perfect gift for the one you love this Christmas – give her the gift of a romantic getaway, an nth honeymoon at Florblanca in Costa Rica. Have a love-filled Christmas everyone!

This post is sponsored by Florblanca. Photo source www.florblanca.com.

Gift Idea: Colorful Cookies

A plate of Rosenmunnar Cookies, a traditional cookie from Sweden.

I baked these from a recipe I got from the 2008 Cookie Countdown from allrecipes.com, you won't believe how simple it was to make and it was absolutely delicious! It was very pretty too. You can buy different color preserves or jellies to place in the center, put the various colored cookies in a cello bag and tie a red ribbon around it - and there you have your very own home-made gift for friends and family this Christmas.

Happy gift-giving! May you find creative ways to keep the spirit of generosity alive during this holiday season.

Data Protection Equals Peace of Mind

In an information-fueled world, one of our most precious commodities is data. And thanks to the evolution of the world wide web, we constantly find these data on our servers instead of the old paper file system. Now digital data faces many threats from server corruption from malicious attacks to physical deterioration of the server. Any developer would tell you that losing valuable data is an ongoing nightmare. We don't want to lose our precious information.


So we back them up. Most of the time our system administrators schedule a backup job to run in our servers to save a copy of our files either on another server or on an external drive to make sure we have something to restore from should the unthinkable happens.


We have a great MIS team at work, but they have a lot more things to do than back up data. Although we can survive on tape backups, it would be wonderful to find an alternative and more fail-safe solution.

An Online Backup system would be a great solution for us. Data Protection Services is a company whose whole business is data protection. They not only store online data for quick restore, but they also encrypt it before storing to ensure that confidential data cannot be compromised in their servers. They offer Remote Backup services where you install an agent from their website on all servers to be backed up and a central control on a Windows workstation to administer the agents. At the time you select, it backs up your data and sends it to the DPS primary data center and is also stored in a secondary data center - redundancy is always good. When you need a restore, you only have to go to your central control system to choose which data to restore - no need to call anybody, you can restore your data the minute you find that you need to. Wow!

The best thing about it is you are in control of your backup system and you can customize it to fit your needs. And the whole transaction of getting the backup service into your system can happen online and with a single phone call from a technical support representative to teach you how to customize settings and work the central control.

I think this is a great service for companies with huge amount of valuable digitized data to protect. If data is your company's lifeline, shouldn't you do all you can to protect it? Check out Data Protection Services and see if they can give you a little more peace of mind.

This post is sponsored by Data Protection Services.

A Box of Chocolates

Are you a vendor wondering what to give your clients for Christmas this year?

I have to say anytime our department unwraps See's Candies from friends and vendors we're happy as can be!

Thank you to all our friends who sent us chocolates this year.  We truly appreciate it so much!

So if you're still stumped as to what to give me - err, I mean your loved ones this year - See's candies usually never fails to bring a smile on someone's face.

Happy shopping and gift-giving!  May you have a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Cookie Countdown

Christmas is a great season for baking. It's cold outside, you get your oven running and it heats your kitchen. Plus it fills your room with delicious scents.

AllRecipes.com has this Cookie Countdown that started on December 1. They feature cookie recipes from around the world, one for every day of December. I've already found some of my all time favorites like madeleines and the swedish thumbprint cookies shown above.

And if you have kids over, you can always ask them to help - this is a great activity for spending time with your little ones. A little culture plus a lot of cookies makes a great Christmas happen. Happy baking!

Animated for the Holidays

Another techie treat for the holidays, the Mac vs PC animated ads.   This is the ad I've seen on TV with the rabbit getting squished with snow.

I'm a PC personally, but I find these ads really funny.  Oh, and yes, I love PC's red heavily printed sweater in the ad shown above.  They are posted in the Apple website for all those who would like to watch it.  

Here is a photo from the christmas tree trimming ad they have online - I've never seen this one on TV, but it sure made me laugh.

May you have a fun Christmas season.  Laugh out loud and enjoy the holidays!

The Modern (& Non-Lethal) Snow Globe

Ever since my husband and I watched the movie, Unfaithful, with Diane Lane and Richard Gere - we have steered clear of snow globes. We didn't want such a lethal weapon in our home... Just teasing! I came across this really cute app while reading my favorite blog, Geeksugar.

If you're in love with snow globes, but don't really feel like buying one that will just gather dust in your home. You can go to the iPhone App store and buy the eSnowglobe app developed by the Polypeptides (I love that company name - sorry, it must be remnants from my chemical engineering days).

Swipe the screen slowly to create wind gusts. Drag your finger across the screen to pack a snowball then smash it against a wall. Rotate your iPhone slightly to make the snow tumble or flip your iPhone quickly to send snow flying. You can even choose any photo in your library as background for the snow! Plus if you're not very fond of red, you can paint the snow orange, blue, green or white as well - it's all up to you! Then if that's not amazing enough, you can set your favorite christmas song as background music. Fun, fun, fun!

Now there's a modern twist to a holiday classic for you! Merry Christmas, everyone!

pepperjamNETWORK: Affiliate Marketing Help

In my quest to find additional income streams from my blog I have tried looking at different affiliate programs. Some programs were easy to understand and some were complicated. More often than not I sign up for an affiliate program then forget about it because there is no communication or a system for publisher transparency in most programs I’ve encountered. If you’ve signed up for a couple of these affiliate programs and you have a high-traffic website, you may want to check out the pepperjamNETWORK.

pepperjamNETWORK is one of the pioneers of Affiliate Marketing. It manages affiliate marketing from two perspectives, the advertiser and the publisher. It helps advertisers build relationships with publishers through advanced communication technologies. It also protects the advertiser’s brand through full publisher transparency. It provides resources for publishers to increase their earning potential as super affiliates.

If you are a business owner looking to launch an affiliate program, pepperjamNETWORK can manage your affiliate program for you. An affiliate program can be a full-time job, with an employee spending all her time just making sure it is running right. For a flat monthly fee and a percentage of total program sales, you can outsource this service to the pepperjamNETWORK.

If you are looking for super affiliates to promote your product or service, pepperjamNETWORK has a Super Affiliate Recruitment program that can connect you to the affiliates that bring in 95% of all revenue from affiliate marketing programs.

Plus they can also provide an affiliate tracking software to make sure you get what you’re paying for.

Now isn’t this a great service? Are you looking to promote your products or services online? Are you overwhelmed by the notion of running your own affiliate program? Are you wondering where to find those super affiliates that will send revenue-generating traffic your way? Check out the pepperjamNETWORK – it might just help you increase your sales this holiday season through effective affiliate marketing.

This post is sponsored by the pepperjamNETWORK.

Merry Christmas from Chuck

Just thought I'd share this e-card with you. Chuck is a TV show that has recently gotten into my husband and I's let's watch list. It's very funny and the characters are very colorful.  I love the constant friction between these two characters in the e-card above.  You have to watch the show to appreciate the greeting!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  Enjoy your holiday season...

Nationwide Phone Lookup: End the Nuisance

Do you screen incoming calls in your home? I usually check the caller ID before picking up the phone in our home because I do not want to waste my time trying to tell a marketer that I am not interested in what they are selling.

But sometimes the phone number registers as Private or just the state's name is reflected in the caller ID. Then the calls are persistent and you're wondering could this be a friend who's trying to reach me?

Well, now you can find out with the help of www.nationwidephonelookup.com - a website that lets you search for any phone number in the US.

It generates a full phone report that includes the owner's name and address, phone location, household members, phone company and carrier, if it's a landline or a mobile phone, among other things. Get to the bottom of prank calls. Make sure it's a marketer calling and not a friend or relative. I think this is a great tool that will help a lot of people especially if the calls are causing anxiety and undue stress.

The website charges a small fee for the full phone report - a small fee for your peace of mind. I hope this helps!

This post is sponsored by Nationwide Phone Lookup.

Hope & A Pep Talk

ReadWriteWeb, one of my favorite tech reads, posted this graph on their Jobwire article yesterday. In this economy where people are getting laid off and losing their livelihood - graphs like these that show you that your skill set is still in demand somehow gives me hope.

Now more than any other time people are realizing that job security is a myth. You are only safe as long as they need you - when you become redundant or when someone or something more efficient comes in then you start looking at graphs like these, at your skill sets, and consider fall backs.

For me, the best fall back in trying times is still a business of your own. Find that business that will still profit even in hard times and grow it. You may start out in a 5x5 ft kitchen, a desk crammed in a corner of your bedroom with a computer, or your garage - but make sure to start. If you hold the reins, the future of your income stream is completely up to your ingenuity. There is no silver bullet, but there is a way up - I believe that wholeheartedly.

Do not mind the setbacks, mind the potential. Start with your passion and money will come.

A Gift of Long Life

Do you have a loved one who is pregnant?  Are you thinking about a special gift for her or her baby?  How about the gift of long life?

Cryo-Cell is one of the most-established family cord blood bank in the United States. They help families preserve their newborn baby's umbilical cord blood for potential use against many diseases. In case your baby is ever in need of a transplant, would you rather take your chance on a public donor or wouldn't you feel safer going to your own private blood bank?  Stem cells found in the umbilical cord blood of an infant is known to treat 75 diseases including leukemia, diabetes and cerebral palsy.  If you have these diseases in your family, would you not want to give your baby a fighting chance just in case the disease is passed on to them?

This gift of protection against diseases that may harm a child in the future will truly be appreciated by any parent. Cryo-Cell has made U-Cord gift certificates available for people who want to give meaningful gifts in this time of economic crisis.

Now if your loved one is not pregnant, there is another technology available for gifting this season - it's called C'elle.  C'elle harvests stem cells from a woman's menstrual fluid for cryogenic preservation for potential cell therapies that may emerge in the future.   

And these unique gifts are available from the comforts of your home - it is all available online.  Wow!  It's truly amazing all the gift ideas we can find online.  Imagine being able to give someone a potential cure to an illness.  Wow!

50% Discounts on Photo Gifts from Multiply

For people like me who have been using Multiply to share photos with friends, did you know that they opened up a Store where you can order Calendars, Prints, Photo Books and Cards? Notice that when you login, there is a Shop icon before the Post icon now. Click on that link and you're taken to the landing page shown above.

If all your pictures are already uploaded in Multiply then you can just order these photo gifts from them as well. Don't worry, you can upload photos from your computer or get photos from the web to place in your photo gifts too. And for a limited time all their photo gifts are 50% Off - their prices are comparable to Shutterfly so you save a lot by ordering from Multiply right now.

I have gotten a few inquiries about photo gifts and was delighted when I found these discounted products at Multiply. Another money-saving tip from your online friend - how are you doing with your gift list this year? I hope you are all looking forward to Christmas as much as I am. Stay warm and snug through this rainy shopping week!

Increase Your Productivity Affordably With A Dragon Coupon Code

Blogging is one of my favorite pastimes and actually being able to create a stream of income from it is a bonus for me. But though it is a hobby for me that doesn't mean I can't improve my blogging productivity. In fact in the past year I have looked at a couple of gadgets, items, and software that could improve my blogging.

Here is my top ten productivity wish list:

1. Mobile Broadband card so I can go online and blog wherever I may be - and don't have to wait til I get home to do it.


2. Dragon Naturally Speaking software so I can blog at the speed of thought, especially when I'm blogging remotely.


3. Video editing software that can handle MP4 videos from my Flip Video recorder - I have considered trying to include a few more videos in my blog.


4. Formal Photoshop training, I use Photoshop a lot, but I know I'm not harnessing all it can do because I don't know how to use the tools correctly.


5. SB900 flash for my camera so I can photograph indoor events or interesting places I go to for my blog.


6. A smart phone I can blog with - just in case I didn't bring my laptop or camera to be able to blog and take decent pictures with. I would also prefer to be able to stay in my current network.


7. Wacom tablet and pen system for photo-editing and creating graphics for my blog.


8. Free passes to web technology centered conferences so that I can give my audience the latest news from a first person viewpoint while the products are being launched to the public.


9. Invitations to product launches, press conferences and interviews with tech entrepreneurs and successful new media developers.


10. Trial gadgets sent to my door for review just before they are launched.

Whew! Quite a long list, right? One of the most amazing technologies I've seen this year that might actually help me get my husband to start blogging about cooking and Filipino dishes is the Dragon Naturally Speaking software.

My husband is a captivating story teller, a greatly talented cook with a treasure trove of experiences under his belt. He just doesn't like typing and I think if I give him this Dragon Naturally Speaking software - he'll be blogging in no time!

I started my internet life by using a chatroom - so I type faster than most people. But I still think being able to dictate to an application that will type out what I say will get me to write more blogs than I normally do now.

With all the items on my wish list, my main concern is affordability. Just in case you're as interested in the Dragon Naturally Speaking software as I am, here are a few discount codes that may help:

• $50 Coupon Code DNSMSBG -Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred


• $25 Coupon Code DNSMSBG -Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Standard


• $25 Coupon Code- DNSMSBG -MacSpeech Dictate

So if putting your thoughts into typed words in the computer will help you improve your productivity - or if your main business is transcription, you may want to evaluate Dragon Naturally Speaking more closely. It can save you a lot of time and a lot of money in the long run.

Remember, in this day and age, never be afraid to do it yourself. There are tools available that can make your life much easier - all you need to do is find them and try them.

Bargain Hunting at Going Out of Business Sales

Guess what my husband got me for Christmas? Yes, he did! The grand-daddy of all mixers, according to my coworker who loves to cook. A Kitchen Aid Artisan 5 Qt Stand Mixer, which was too expensive for me to even consider buying during the big Thanksgiving Sales.



I saw an ad on TV yesterday about this week being the last week for Linens N Things' Going Out of Business Sale and I asked my husband if we could go and maybe look around. Now they sell these mixers, but considering that they would've been on sale for a long time I didn't really expect to find one. But when we got to the store there was one left - and it was the exact model and color I wanted! And it was half it's original price - $149, which was about how much a Classic model was selling last Thanksgiving.



The moment my husband saw me eying it, he got a shopping cart and hauled it. I have the sweetest husband in the world, I know. It may have something to do with that super moist triple chocolate cake I baked for him - he doesn't really like sweets, but he makes it a point to enjoy what I make. I'm sure he's glad I usually only have time to bake once a week - it's kind of a treat for me.



I got him this Krupps espresso machine since our old one broke down a few months ago. He was pretty pleased with my gift. I also wanted to get him this 14-cup food processor, but he said it was missing a few parts so he would try and see if our food processor's blade would fit on it first before buying it - if it's still available tomorrow.



Going-Out-Of-Business Sales are great places to find bargain gifts this holiday season. There are a couple of big companies having these sales right now, Mervyns being one of them. Circuit City is also having a sale according to the TV ads.



Hope you have fun bargain-hunting - Christmas is just around the corner better finish off your list soon!

Modern Grandfather Clocks Online

Last year I visited the home of an uncle in Northern California and admired the stately looking grandfather clock in his living room. His wife told me she had given it to him as a gift for his fortieth birthday because my uncle had always wanted one.

The antique piece had intricate wood carvings and a gold face. It had a formal English living room style to it that I would never have in my home.

My taste in furniture are more in the simple lines more characteristic of Japanese style or modern style homes. But I do appreciate fine furniture pieces and, to my surprise, I came across this beautiful Howard Miller Urban Floor II Grandfather Clock - shown in the photo on the left.

Note it's simple and clean lines, the beautiful nickel finishes and the merlot cherry wood. I love the color of the wood as it plays off the nickel. The contemporary look of the grandfather clock would make it the perfect addition to my home office. I have this vision of an Asian-inspired office with simple lines, displaying life-size mannequins wearing different national costumes in glass cases with this contemporary grandfather clock and a formal desk with matching book shelves. I always thought grandfather clocks added formality and a distinguished air to an office. See the Oval Office's own grandfather clock in this blog post with a photo of President Bush congratulating President-Elect Barack Obama. Very distinguished-looking office, don't you agree?

My aunt told me that the grandfather clock she bought for my uncle cost around $10,000 - which is really out of my budget when it comes to buying a clock for my home. This Howard Miller Urban Floor II Grandfather Clock only costs $3,240 regularly and it is currently on sale for $2,268! Wow!

And like everything else nowadays, it is available online at 1-800-4clocks.com. Such a traditional piece of history available online. Isn't that just wonderful? Specially after the Cyber Monday sales where electronics were at the heart of online spending, it's nice to know there are other more traditional gift ideas you can find online - so you don't have to give grandma an MP3 player if she's not into music.

Happy shopping, everyone! Remember that Christmas is a season of giving and a great time to think of what would make your loved ones happy.

My Little Shopping Spree

The Holy Family from the Joseph's Studio Collection of Roman, Inc.

Cherub With Lamb from the Joseph's Studio Collection of Roman, Inc.

After our Christmas staff gathering at work, they offered a 50% discount on bookstore products to employees and I thought I'd just look around. Our in-campus bookstore has the loveliest figurines, Christmas tree ornaments, paintings and other home decorations you can possibly imagine. Of course, they also have tons of great books.

I was looking for an angel to match my husband's first one last year that was dressed in gold, I found two that was much too big for our now overflowing altar (I should maybe get a bigger pedestal...). So I passed on those, but I came to the cherub holding a lamb and I could not resist. Our last name when translated to English means lamb, you see - and the angel figurine felt very symbolic to me. This cherub is holding and caring for our family.

Then, partially hidden under the enormous Christmas tree at the center of the bookstore, I found this Holy Family. It was beautiful! I loved the detail in which the faces, the flowing clothes and the infant was made. And it was just the right size and such a bargain - I bought it too.

So much for just looking! Hey, considering I only spend a bit much in our bookstore once a year - I've still been very good this year.

A Need for Insurance

There was a time when I sold term life, pre-need, and medical insurance in the Philippines. At that time the concept of insurance to Filipinos was that it was a luxury item.

When I moved to the US, everything required insurance. You cannot renew your license plates if you don’t show proof of insurance. You have to have medical insurance to avoid the high cost of health care. If you have an event planning business, some venues require you to obtain insurance for the days of your event. If you’re a business owner, you need some form of business insurance to cover you just in case your business gets sued. When you travel, you get a traveler’s insurance just in case something happens to you on your trip. It seems that you need insurance for most everything you do in life these days.


One of the things on my husband’s when-we-can-afford-it wish list is a Ducati motorcycle – which I am honestly nervous about because those bikes on the freeway don’t really look safe. And of course, if we do get one (in the very far future I hope), we will need motorcycle insurance. Just in case you’re also looking for that kind of insurance, I found a company that offers a 65% discount on them, it’s called Autonet Insurance Group.

They provide a wide range of insurance policies including home insurance, business insurance, car insurance, travel insurance and even pet insurance. They customize your policy so that you get everything you need for your coverage. You can ask for a quote in their website http://www.autonetinsurance.co.uk and they will build a policy for you based on your needs quoting you the most competitive rate possible. They have very helpful information about their different insurance policies in their website, which is easy to navigate and easy to understand.

Insurance is not a luxury item. It is a need. If you’re looking for insurance, try Autonet Insurance Group.

Are You A Facebook Or A MySpace User?

Because of the way Facebook caught up with MySpace in terms of number of users, I got curious and created an account.  Trying to figure out what was so interesting on Facebook that people started using it.

I can't speak for everybody, but I like the Live Feed where you log in and you see everything your friends have posted and their updates for the day.  It kind of brings your friends closer to you, if only in the online world.  I like the people you may know application that would suggest connections to you to help you grow your network when you're new.  I like the way you can tag friends in photos so that even if I don't know the person who posted the photo as long as my friend is in it - it gets listed in my updates.  I love the fact that you can easily comment on anything and everything!  I love their message threads where it keeps the history of your conversation in one file instead of flooding your inbox with individual messages.  It has kept me coming back, wondering what my friends are up to.  I send birthday greetings through Facebook, keep a social calendar so I don't forget birthdays.  It's pretty addicting.

So does my being female, educated and in my early thirties have something to do with my fondness for Facebook?  Apparently, I fall into the most common Facebook users demographic!

In a study conducted by Netpop Research most Facebook users are female, educated and are in the 18 to 29 age range (I was in this age range not so long ago).  Facebook has a higher proportion of student users than MySpace.  They tend to be single (53% vs 42%).  Most Facebook users connect to an average of 17 people on a one-to-one basis in a typical week and to 82 people on a one-to-many basis.

While both Facebook and MySpace users have games as their primary interest, Facebook users tend to be more interested in Science, Education and Investing while MySpace Users tend to be interested in Pets, Card Games, Animals and Puzzles.  Interesting, huh?

So are you a Facebook or a MySpace user?  Do you fall into the demographics summarized in the study above?

Imagine this, out of 138 Million broadband users in the US, 76% (105 million) contribute to online content.  Among these contributors 29% (40 million) are social networkers.  Wow!

Young, connected - and growing in number (by as much as 96% since 2006) - social networkers are becoming really big influencers today.  Ad companies are beginning to take notice.

Have you tried connecting to others online yet?  Try it, you just might love the experience!

Dining Room Tables Online

One of my pet peeves about my lovely apartment is that I had to sacrifice a dining area to fit my office space (and my huge sofa).  I would love to have a cozy little dining area for me and my husband.

The photo on the left shows a great little round dining table and four dining chairs with attitude.  I love the clean lines and the unique shapes of the pieces of furniture.

Before you go rushing to the nearest furniture store, relax in your chair and go online to preview great Dining Tables like the one in the photo.  Yes, this wonderful ensemble is available for purchase online.  They have a huge collection of high quality Dining Room Tables at discounted prices.  

Family gatherings over dinner have always been the highlight of my day and shouldn't your Dining Table be a centerpiece as well?  Buy Dining Tables Online has a huge collection of dining room sets for every family, they have formal and casual dining sets - as well as traditional and modern pieces.  Their website is easy to navigate and you're sure to find the set you want at a great price.

Can you imagine celebrating the holidays on one of these beautiful furniture sets?  Dress up your dining room while you decorate your home for the holidays.  Let your family gather around a great dining table this holiday season.

Personalized Photo Gifts & Greetings

I'm about ready to pick up the greeting cards I ordered for our family portrait fundraising today.  It took me only a couple of minutes to order the cards.  The hardest part was choosing the design and thinking of the message.  After that I breezed through the process - if only I am able to pick this up the same day...  I probably placed my order too late yesterday to get them the same day, but I remember I had to wait overnight for them last year as well.  But so far Costco.com is one of the most cost-efficient places to get personalized holiday cards done - and the fastest ones you can get.  Great job on this!

And if you're still looking for personalized gift ideas, try going to Shutterfly.com for these collage calendars.  If you have a bunch of family pictures that you want to show off or that just makes you smile through any type of day - you should try making one of these and have them in your office or wherever you feel the most stressed.  I just made a collage calendar for a family friend of ours - their photos looked so adorable!  The calendar is sure to bring happy memories back every time you see it.  It's quite easy to make just drag and drop your pictures into the template, preview and order.  A quick holiday gift that loved ones are sure to appreciate.

So if you're still searching for that perfect gift, maybe you should try personalizing them to add that extra touch of special.

Paulo Coelho: A Techie

I ran across an article about Paulo Coelho in TechCrunch.  Paulo Coelho is the bestselling author of The Alchemist and is a proud MySpace (which he says he loves like a wife) and Facebook (which he loves like his mistress) user.  He has his own personal website: http://www.paulocoelho.com that can be viewed in several languages complete with a photo gallery and videos.   He has a web museum, which is a collection of all he's ever posted in a timeline, and his very own online store to sell his books in powered by Amazon.  He has a calendar of events a.k.a. his Agenda.  And last but not least, he blogs!  Wow, our favorite author is a techie - how cool!

Paulo Coelho is launching his first movie project, the Experimental Witch, with MySpace as a partner.  It is based on his book The Witch of Portobello.  It invited MySpace users to contribute original video and music - out of 6,000 entries 15 winners were chosen for the film.

I love the way the internet is transcending into other media like Robin Cook's webisodes that was a prequel to his book.  TV shows hosting their full episodes online, creating social networks around viewing parties and letting their viewers interact with them online.  Now we have an author actually getting material for the film-version of his book in a social network.  Wow!  How far the world wide web has gone and how creatively we have found uses for it...  Great job!

The Christian Homeschooling Alternative

In the Philippines there is an abundance of Christian schools, specifically Catholic schools, which makes sure that your child is taught about God.  There are parents, grandparents, well-meaning aunts and uncles who further a child's Christian education by taking them to mass regularly as well as prayer meetings and devotions.  And then there are different peer groups that you can join that is based on glorifying and serving God.

In the US, with different groups trying to get symbols of Christianity off the classrooms and with all the school shootings that have occured - I have thought about homeschooling my future children a lot.  My only worry is getting a curriculum that would also teach them about God - and not just the basic subjects they need to know.

McKinney Area Christian Homeschoolers (MArCH) is an organization that provides just that.  They are a volunteer, non-profit homeschool organization where their first line of business is to glorify God and pursue Godly character.  They provide homeschool resources as well as support meetings, field trips, activities, and fellowship.  Homeschooling your children can be a daunting task, but having a community of other homeschoolers to help you can make a difference in the quality of education you give your child.  

For more information about homeschooling, please check MarchGroup.org. The website features a calendar of upcoming activities, current news about the organization, homeschooling resources, a forum, clubs and even a bible passage lookup.  It even has legal help!  All in all the website is a great resource for parents who are thinking of homeschooling and those who already are homeschooling who need a little help and guidance.

You don't need to be daunted about providing your child the education he needs at home, creating more bonding time with you and making sure he is in a safe and healthy environment.  With this organization, you can also make sure your child has the interaction he needs by joining clubs and activities.  So check them out and see if they can help you.

Happiness is Contagious: Infect Someone Today

I have used Friendster for a long time, I first knew about it in college.  I also have learned to use Multiply because my friends share photos there.  I didn't know what made me go back over and over, but I did - especially to see my highschool, college, even my elementary friends get married and have kids.  It makes me really happy to see their smiling faces glowing with happiness.  

Especially when I moved to the US, I had cousins and friends from church who were really close to me suddenly connecting with me again through Friendster and sharing photos of their lives - sharing their happiness with me.  And it had affected my mood when I see their pictures, their memories - their happiness was contagious!

A new study released in the British Medical Journal online last Thursday which followed almost 5,000 people over 20 years concluded that happiness can spread through 3 degrees of separation.  This means that say my sister's friend, Jade, is happy - it can affect my mood.  If my sister's friend, Jade's friend, David, is happy - it can infect me with happiness as well.

Isn't that great?  Ever notice how when you smile at a stranger, she smiles back even if she looked downcast just a moment ago?  I think joy is like that, you can spread it if you try.  So put on that smile and infect those around you with happiness - you never know who you will help today - remember... 3 degrees of separation!

Source: Jain, Niha. Study Finds Joy to be Contagious. The Harvard Crimson, December 8, 2008.

High Tech Santa Becomes Claus

This Santa's Gone Centro ad by AT&T is my favorite Christmas ad this season. I love their images and the catchy tag line. Converting Santa into the cool Claus is brilliant! I find the way they mixed high-tech gadgetry (the Palm Centro smart phone) with a traditional figure (Santa Claus) unique and quite appealing.

They're not mocking tradition - the ad just says they're making Santa's life easier and so he has time to be cool. Great job on this ad campaign - I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Although I think Sprint's free Palm Centro deal is more to my liking - especially since I really don't want to change my service provider just yet - this ad really makes you want to go buy a Centro smart phone. Two thumbs up for me!

Save With a Tivo Coupon

Tivo is one of the most popular service for bringing you all the TV shows you want to watch when you want them. It can also connect to the internet to bring you movies, online TV show episodes, music and photos right to your big screen TV. The Tivo DVR records all your favorite shows and other media using one simple remote control.

Never stress about missing your favorite TV show, basketball game or TV premiere event again! Plus when you get home, snuggle into your favorite couch with that mug of hot chocolate, you can use the remote to just watch the parts of the show you want to watch - skip over ads or parts of the show you have already seen to save time and enjoy your shows at your leisure. Isn't that cool?


If you don’t already have a DVR service, check out Tivo. And if you’re hesitant to subscribe to a new service when you’re pinching pennies, don’t worry. You can find a great Tivo coupon at Savings.com.

Savings.com is a great place to find the best deals on your favorite products. They offer a lot of discount coupons that can help you save a lot of money during these tough times. The money you save from buying stuff you need, you can keep for the rainy days or might just help your budget specially this holiday season.

So give the gift of stress-free TV, to you or your family. Try the Tivo service today!

Word of the Day: Bokeh

I just learned a new term, thanks to Geeksugar!  

Bokeh - ok, I admit I thought they had misspelled bouquet when I first read it. Bokeh is the photography effect that brings more focus on the subject by making other areas of the photograph blurred, which I often do to the background of portrait-like shots at events.

It's especially nice to use if you have Christmas lights in the background and you blur them just right so that all you see are the colored lights.

A photographer friend while borrowing my Nikon D90 asked me about this and I didn't know how to answer her aside from telling her not to use the flash and to blur the background in my auto setting.

Apparently this can be more accurately done by setting your aperture level to low while focusing on your subject.  And when I don't get quite the blur I wanted, I usually photoshop the portrait to add a Gaussian blur to the background which works quite as good!  

So there you go, our word of the day - Bokeh!

Software Frameworks: A Web Developer's Temptation

According to Wikipedia, software frameworks are similar to software libraries in that they are reuseable abstractions of code wrapped in a well-defined API. Unlike libraries, however, the overall program's flow of control is not dictated by the caller, but by the framework. This inversion of control is the distinguishing feature of software frameworks.

A famous software framework that has been catching on is Rails, but I have to learn to program in Ruby to use that - in case you didn't know I'm a PHP programmer.  So we looked for an alternative for PHP and came up with cakePHP.  Literally all I had to do was copy the code library, configure my database and connections - then follow the book we were reading.  We needed to type in 3 or so lines of code and we had a form that connected to a database that did create, read, update and delete functions (CRUD).  Now imagine all the applications you can build if it were that easy.  cakePHP still works best with the Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP)  platform, which takes me in a loop sometimes because all my computers are running windows.  But there are ways to run it on windows, you just have to be a little more creative - hence the delay in my actually learning everything about it.

This morning I met a guy who was actually singing the praises of the .Net 3.5 framework - albeit some 'you know Microsoft' remarks that were quickly converted to jokes.  The way he described .NET - it sounded a lot like a model-view-controller (MVC) framework as well, which separates the business logic from the user interface - especially when he kept referring to the developer's toolkit and how easy it was to make forms.  The application they had customized using the framework was quite impressive.  It looks like the new Outlook interface, it connected to a remote system, but it worked really fast - and was designed really well for our needs.    

I must admit being trained in open source development Microsoft products were not very popular in our work environment.  Especially with my short experience with VB stretching my patience in graduate school, I always had a negative viewpoint of the company and its products.

But from seeing the system that was demonstrated to us earlier, I must admit the .NET framework doesn't seem all that bad right now.  I'm actually very tempted to try and go into C# sometime soon so I can build modules to attach to that system.  Argh!  There are simply too many cool technologies to play with and so little hours in a day!

Hey, but we can make it happen - all we need to do is believe that we can do it and try - preferably on a sandbox not connected to any production applications...  

Christmas in Seaworld

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Elmo at the Sesame Street Bay of Play - lots of fun for little ones

Me & my mom-in-law with the baby penguins in the background

Mom-in-law and hubby with barking dogs in the background

Close up of the foot of the tree and the stage with my husband and mom-in-law

Wild Arctic Postcard with me and my mom-in-law

These photos were taken at 5-10 PM by the Nikon D90 - notice how the photos were not dark at all when it was actually already dark at that time. I do not have a separate flash yet, I only used the built in flash of the camera. The only downside to the D90 is I really can't accept anyone's offer of taking a picture of all three of us - I don't like handing it over to strangers.

I'll surely take more pictures later today. I hope you enjoyed my little sneak peek into Seaworld San Diego's Christmas decorations.

And the picture of Elmo is specially dedicated to my sister, Lea, & my friend, Nina M., who are huge fans - enjoy!