Hot Day Treat: Dulce Split Dazzler

I was craving for Coldstone Creamery ice cream, but all we could find in Downtown Disney was this Haagen Daz store. On our way there I saw this man making quick work of this dulce split dazzler and knew I just had to have one.

It was sooo good! It had fresh banana slices, yummy dulce leche flavored ice cream, gooey caramel and heaps of whipped cream. Yummy! The big treat was not all sugary sweetness, it had several layers of delectable flavor.

Haagen Daz ice cream is good quality ice cream. Caramel is my absolute favorite ice cream or coffee topping. The fresh fruit is a bonus. And you can't have a finished sundae without whipped cream! So this was actually the perfect hot afternoon snack that made my Memorial Monday.

Two thumbs up, most definitely. Try the deep chocolate and peanut butter if you're not a fan of caramel. They have lots of other flavors - and even the healthier frozen yogurt alternative. Happy eating, everyone!

A P.F. Chang's Birthday Celebration

We took my mother-in-law to P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Paseo Colorado for her birthday. She loves chinese food and this was the closest to her place that we'd never brought her to before.

Thankfully they had versions of her favorite dishes like the crispy fried squid = calamari and the pork chops = spare ribs. Both came in appetizer sizes, but the portions were generous. My mother-in-law felt extremely satisfied with her food. They even had the double pan fried noodles she likes. Overall, though the food was very different from Monterey Park fare, my mother-in-law liked everything we ordered for her and recognized that they were her favorites prepared differently.

But what she enjoyed most was this strawberry cream mini-dessert that they brought out with a candle for her birthday. She blew out the candle as we sang happy birthday and enjoyed the dessert without fear for her blood sugar level - she's diabetic. I'm glad we thought about bringing her here, she has another story to tell her friends and seems very happy. I recommend this place to all my friends, our server was very very helpful. Thanks, Anthony!

Happy 83rd birthday, Mama Marie!

Mickey's Fun Wheel Thrills

It was Memorial Day Monday and we had spent a lazy morning just relaxing at home. I wanted to make good use of our Disneyland Annual Pass - actually use it on a holiday and ride something at the park.

I wanted to go on something I've never ridden before, but something a little outside my comfort level. I had read in Disney's magazine that they had opened Mickey's Fun Wheel sometime in the last couple of months. It's been a long time since I rode in a ferris wheel and I was curious about the swinging gondolas that moved towards the center of the wheel.

So we waited in line a long time and finally got into the swinging cage. If you think this ride is tame, you have another thing coming. Especially when everyone is boarded and it just goes around continuously. No matter how slow you think the wheel is going, once the gondola starts swinging and moving from one end of its slider to another - get ready to scream.

My husband was surprised at the thrill level and actually enjoyed himself! Try it at least once when you go to California Adventure. Like I said the thrill level will surprise you! I give it two thumbs up!

Pinay Talent: Charice's A Note to God

At the Finale of Oprah's Search for the World's Most Talented Kids - Filipina singing sensation, Charice, sang her first single entitled, A Note to God. You can watch the video at Oprah.com.

Personally, I think it's a great song to launch her album with. If you truly listen to the lyrics it's Christianity and social awareness rolled into one solemn melody. It showcases her vocal range and capabilities perfectly. And if you listen to the song without watching the video - she really sounds mainstream now - her voice has transcended the language and culture barriers. An amazing talent from my motherland - Charice is an inspiration to many young voices in our country to keep pursuing their dream.

Charice, you make us proud to be Pinay!

Chocolate Raspberry Coffee Beans

I was shopping for street fair supplies at our local Costco warehouse last week, it was free sample day.  You could sample products being sold for free - and a large booth caught my eye.  It was a booth for flavored coffee - Jose's.  I've bought Jose's coffee before and it's quite good, but I didn't know they sold flavored coffee and syrups.

Their recommended flavor that day was blueberry, but I went for the chocolate raspberry flavor which sounded quite delicious, wouldn't you agree?  I walked on as I sipped the flavored coffee and was pleasantly surprised at the decadent flavor that teased my tastebuds.

I turned my shopping cart around and got a bag - even if coffee was not exactly on my shopping list.  It cost about the same as a Starbuck's bag - not the size you find at Costco, but the one you find in the coffee shops.  I couldn't find a photo of the actual bag of coffee, it was light brown with red accents, but I wanted to give you a scrumptious image that matches the flavored coffee's taste so I put the photo above up.  I love the scent that fills my kitchen every morning and my husband seems to enjoy the coffee too. 

Now that's what I call a happy ending!  Happy caffeine-loading, everyone ;)

Bit.ly: The Big Switch

I saw this marketshare chart in Tech Crunch.  Since I started maintaining our Twitter account at work, URL shorteners have become my best friend.  I switched to bit.ly after about a week on Twitter on the suggestion of my boss that it did produce shorter URLs than tinyurl.com.

It's easy to use and provides statistics - and that's all I need in terms of Twitter URLs.  Apparently I was not the only one who switched over to bit.ly - whereas only a month ago tinyurl.com had 75% of the market share, it now only has 43.4%.  Tinyurl.com has now been overtaken by bit.ly with 45.77% of the market share.  Wow!

So did eveyone switch just because of the length of the resulting URLs?  Or are there other reasons why people now prefer bit.ly to tinyurl.com?  Twitter's 140 character limit sure can make or break dependent businesses.  Happy tweeting!

A Different Online Shopping Experience

My mom and I live 12 hours away - by plane - from each other. She lives in the Philippines - and continuously entices me to go home - which is one of the things I really love about her, it's great to be missed!

It has been exceedingly hard to treat her out for Mother's Day since I got married. But this year, I wanted to treat her out to a spa day so she can relax and just enjoy herself. I went to the online store of one of the biggest chain of malls in the Philippines, myAyala.com - and got her some gift certificates for The Spa.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that, although it accepted my order - it still made me wait for another confirmation email that meant they were able to charge my purchase. Their payment process was not automated - and for a mall chain of that size, it was a very outdated way of processing an online transaction.

And how I miss UPS/Fedex tracking numbers! Being more comfortable shopping online now, I'm used to being able to see where my order is and when it arrives. I want to be notified when my mom gets her gift - that should be the completion of the correspondence for me if shipment tracking is unavailable. Although of course I will call her everyday until I know she has gotten it - I am holding them to their 2-4 business day deadline!

I didn't realize how many conveniences I've taken for granted when shopping online. Not all online stores are equal - especially in customer service. Do you have strange experiences while shopping online? Share them here so we may be warned!

Green Advertising by Sun Chips

I love the new Sun Chips ads on doing your part for the environment. Below is their advertorial taken from Geeksugar, one of my favorite tech blogs. I hope more companies will raise awareness on helping our environment - we only have one planet, we should take care of it.



My husband and I recycle. We have even turned it into our church group's fund raising campaign so it helps the environment and our mission simultaneously. Now that's what I call a win-win situation!

Do your part, recycle and compost! Save our planet for our children to enjoy.

Meeting Iron Chef Cat Cora

One of my favorite channels on cable is the Food Network and one of their most entertaining shows is Iron Chef America.  So when I heard about California Adventure's Food and Wine Festival, I jumped at the chance to meet the first female iron chef, Cat Cora.

 

Thank goodness for Disney's Annual Pass.  We sneaked in an hour or two of HPOE hours into our busy weekend to get a copy of her book, Cooking From the Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals, signed by its celebrity chef author.  

She was very nice - and very clean!  Her immaculate white chef's uniform did not have a speck of anything on it even if she had already done the Chef's showcase at 2:30 PM (which we didn't get to see because of other appointments).  I had a great time!

I forgot to take our camera though so the photo above was taken using my husband's camera phone - not too bad, huh?  I was definitely a starstruck fan!  Are you a Food Network junkie too?  The California Food and Wine Festival has several celebrity chefs stopping by in the next weeks - including the very funny Guy Fieri, check their schedule and drop by.  It's worth the trip!