Something for this weekend...

Too easy. And all veggie! Yum!

Adding to Bucket List: Great Wall Race

Not aiming the marathon. The half mary? Looks scary too with the steep inclines... So the 7.5km  fun run would  be just fine.

Ahhh, look at the photos at the Great Wall Marathon's page... The view is just amazing! 

But that doesn't mean the race would be easy.

For this year I want to...

...get most of my Christmas shopping done before December.

I generally don't make new year's resolutions but I remember dedicating a year for some sort of target. Like 2003 was the year for looking and feeling beautiful (a bit vain I know), 2004 was for keeping fit, 2005 was for travelling, and so on... If you think they qualify as new year's resolution, we'll they're too general compared to what I hear and read from others. For this year, however, I want to make at least one specific resolution/promise/pledge. And I will write it here (more than once) so I can see it always and be constantly reminded of it.

Get most of my Christmas shopping done before December.

Simple as that. You see, my December 2012 was  a lot crazier than usual that I barely had time for shopping gifts. And if I had that teeny weeny time, I end up shopping for myself also. And in that very scarce moments I show up in the malls, everyone shows up too and I get dizzy just looking at the line in the cashier and that's even before I picked out something for gifting... Arrghh, even the memory of those trips at the malls stresses me.  That was the most anxiety-filled time of the year and I want to avoid that next year. 

Again:

Get most of my Christmas shopping done before December.

Note the "most" in the sentence. "Most" because there are just some things you cannot plan ahead. Like the spur-of-the-moment party invites you get and the impromptu exchanging gifts that come with them.

How about you, Riza?

Another Coconut Recipe!

Here's another coconut recipe I'd love to try. Yum!

And it doesn't look too laborious to do.

I'd have to replace those raspberries though.

Whoa! Coconut Butter!??

I want some Coconut Butter! I am not sure if I'll find it as delightfully good as the spreads that I regularly get in the grocery aisle--Lady's Choice Sweet and Creamy peanut butter and Magnolia Gold butter. But the one-ingredient procedure looks very doable. And we have lots of fresh coconuts here in Cebu. To dry the coconuts into the ingredient needed for the butter, ehow tells me drying them is not rocket science too. 

Easier than a making a toast? Not for me as I don't have a blender or food processor (used in making the butter) and I'm not such a big fan of the oven (used for drying the shredded coconut). So what I did was email the above links to family and told them I am a willing guinea pig to taste test their first coconut butter. I hope they find the time to do this, busy that they are.

I Have My Eyes On You

Since it’s supposedly the month of all things love, romance, etc., let me post about a current object of my affection. 

I suck at love-letter writing, so let me just tell you straight: 

I have my eyes on you. Yes you, sleek ASUS Transformer Prime.

Love,

Tarajing

What’s a Must-Have Item in Your Ideal Home?

Cafeteria chitchat today brought us to the topic of houses. It has become a favorite topic lately with the news that at least two colleagues are moving to new abodes. So while we were in that subject, a guy officemate mentioned about a chandelier in his newly built house. I was real surprised to hear him say that especially because how he said it indicated that the chandelier was his idea and not the wife’s or the mother’s. I think I even let out a little chuckle because I thought men don’t need a chandelier.

Oh well, I thought maybe this is something he really pictured his house will have (influenced maybe by lifestyle programs showing grandiose houses with enormous, sparkling, ornate lighting fixtures). And then it made me think… What piece of item should my ideal house have? When I picture my little dream dwelling, what regular item (may it be an ornate fixture, a furniture, an appliance) always shows up in that image? Something that’s not present in my current apartment and in my previous residences?

That wasn’t so hard for me to identify as images of it vividly showed up in my daydream. And no, it’s not something you hang in the ceiling with crystals and dramatic lights.

A window seat. Um, not just a window seat but its bottom should be a storage cabinet as well.

Grabbed from photo from http://coastaldesignsct.com

 Image from http://www.cushionsource.com/

http://www.cabinetrybykmc.com

From http://remodelingbible.com

From http://woodworkinstallations.com

Swiped from http://www.diarioartesgraficas.com

What about you? What's that must-have item?