As the title suggests, clearly it wasn't flowers or chocolates (or the lack of) that surprised me during this year's Valentine's Day. When I was younger, so much more naive, and anorexic, my idea of Valentine's Day was stereotypical. Dinner date, cheesy cards, and shallow gifts that everyone else gets anyway. Still, the balloons that I got or the cakes that my sweet tooth enjoyed back then was considered a life experience.

The older I got, the more I thought about Valentines Day being a capitalist holiday. I didn't stop celebrating it though but I figured they should not be extremely special. A home-cooked dinner and a hit movie was now my idea of a Valentines Day. Surely, I didn't want to have dinner with a bunch of other people in a restaurant. I would rather be on a beach building a bonfire with the love of my life on Valentines Day. The idea was to be alone with my one true love on the day of hearts. But that's just me.

When it came to gifts, I am a sucker for them. I don't care if they're really cheap or expensive, but it's opening presents that I truly enjoy and of course, the sound of the paper being torn. It's therapeutic! Tee hee. The gift I ordered for Noodle Boy has not arrived yet. Booooo to international shipping! So let me show you what I got from my dearest husband instead.


He knows what I think of Valentines Day and he shares the same sentiment so we didn't really go anywhere special and just enjoyed my awesome new TRUE LOVE Ribs recipe. And it's easy because the only way to Noodle Boy's heart is really through his stomach. Haha! But he did get me a gift... and above all, it was wrapped!!!


Now that's a first! FACT: Noodle Boy has outdone himself this time because he actually got something for me that's wrapped!!! We usually give each other gifts but never wrapped because, well, I don't know, we're environmentally conscious when it comes to paper. NAX KA NENENG!  


Anyways. You'll never guess what he got me. Well, I never did... until I opened it. :)

You see, I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't a pair of shoes/flipflops coz I've still got one too many, not jewelry because the box is too big, and not clothes because he knows I aim to lose these extra 20 lbs I still have on. So what could it be?

Now this is something I didn't see coming although I've been pretty transparent all this time and it was easy for Noodle Boy to get what I needed/wanted. Take note that he is a smart buyer and he has actually taught me to curb all my shopping impulses all this time and for that I am thankful because I feel financially wise now. Feel lang. Tee hee.


It's a portable USB 3.0 external drive!!! How sweet is that!? You don't agree? Well... this might shed some light why he got me just that.

So you see, my husband was paying attention to my tweets! HAHAHAHA! He knows exactly what I need and God knows how happy I am that he's that sort of guy. I cannot imagine being with someone who thinks I'm better off with a nice pair of shoes or a new set of earrings.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!


He also got me a wireless mouse... in PURPLE! Though he's color blind, you gotta hand it to the guy. Noodle Boy is a real gem! I'm so blessed to be loved like this... *sigh* 


So there you have it! My Geeky Valentine... capitalist holiday or not, I got the stuffs I need and I use it everyday. Not some imported chocolate I could gobble up in a blink of an eye or expensive flowers that will just wither and die. ;) Ahhh it rhymes, too!


Gracias cariño mio... and thank you, Lord, for making this awesome guy, my husband, the father of my precious boy and my lifelong Valentine, to have and to hold for the rest of my life.

The best gift of them all... my MIKKO VINCENZO.

xoxo,

Source: http://grandpajohn.blogspot.com/2010/04/straw-that-broke-guams-back.html

The little island girl in me is screaming for more! A photo of this near-yet-so-far island haunts my dreams and I have so long wanted to see the island for myself. Ever since a dear friend, Rica Serafica-Torres went to Guam for an apprenticeship after going to culinary school, admiring her photos which I made a collage of below really excited the beach bum that is me.


Since I have lived in a coastal town and being a true blue island girl all my life, the beach is my home... or so I'd like to think even though I am happily married with a kid now. The thing is, my husband, the ever-supportive Noodle Boy, enjoys the very same things as I do and even though we have settled down, we both still want to see the world together. An island getaway is a very much welcome idea for us right now.



Here are our top 10 reasons why Guam, USA should be our next travel destination and what we ought to do should we win a trip to Guam. (All images below are from Google. I do not own them.)

Source: http://www.oustravel.com/category/australia-and-pacific/guam/

Okay, now time to put on my headphones and close my eyes as I listen to Rupert Holmes sing "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" and daydream about Guam. I suggest you do the same, too. De-stress. It's good for you.



xoxo,





Don't forget to LIKE if you enjoyed reading this and want to visit GUAM, too!

There are just too many maxims about love and if I write them all down, it's going to be like a post-Valentine hangover. So let me spare everyone the agony and get straight to the point. What is the recipe for true love? I have a recipe I'd like to share. A real recipe... for TRUE LOVE.

Allow me to say state this all too familiar proverb: The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. / The shortest road to men's hearts is down their throats. Agree?

Based on my experience, it is in fact a big bonus to be able to cook a decent, if not a totally orgasmic, food for your boyfriend or husband. Even with watching Japanese anime over the years, I have observed that schoolgirls often give their bento boxes to the boys they like. (And you gotta hand it to them because making sushi for me is quite a feat!)

I can, however, manage to cook up a storm when I feel like it and/or when there's a special occasion. This year's Valentine's Day was no exception. Instead of going out to dinner and falling into a cunning capitalist scheme or a Hallmark ploy, I decided to try something... in the kitchen.

Enter the ingredients.
American beef ribs for true love! Is that my idea of a sweet, romantic Valentines Day surprise? Well, for one, ribs are especially tasty. I love eating barbecued baby back ribs. (Who doesn't?) And second of all, if you've read the Bible or paid attention at least to one of your early religion classes in primary school, you do realize that in Genesis 2:21, we read that God takes one of Adam's ribs then  uses it to create Eve. (Okay, for the sake of Valentine's Day, let's not argue about that and just let it be.) RIBS = ADAM + EVE = LOVE. 'Nuff said.

Moving on... since I have no time to smoke some ribs nor an oven to cook a standard ribs recipe, I improvised with the use of a microwave. Perhaps when I'm older, more mature, and have become a full-pledged housewife I might consider investing in a real nice and expensive La Germania Americana stainless-steel cooker.


For now, my small and trusty microwave oven will have to do. The main ingredient I should say with this easy little recipe of mine is TO COOK WITH LOVE. The first trick I learned about cooking food is to use your hands... and second and most important of all is to cook with passion, thereby putting all the love you have to give on the food you are cooking. Sounds simple, right? It is! Trust me. And people will be able to taste that love in the food you just made. Just ask my husband. Tee hee.




For the success of this particular recipe, I have HEINZ Tomato Ketchup to thank for. Heinz claims to have the best taste for a tomato ketchup because it is sweet and spicy, intense, and concentrated. If you have not tried Heinz tomato ketchup, you have missed 1/2 of your life! There is no other tomato ketchup that gives that fullest tomato flavor with a perfect blend of spices.


Some people argue whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. It is, however, stated that a tomato is technically the fruit of the tomato plant but often we use it as a vegetable in cooking. Kind of a win-win situation for me. I got my GLOW food right thurr! Fruit and vegetable, all rolled into one! But that's just me.

Anyway, Heinz definitely has that taste of 100% real tomatoes. Just like love, sometimes it can be sweet and sometimes sour... but with the right blend, then it's TRUE LOVE! It is important that in loving someone you have to be like a HEINZ tomato ketchup -- completely free from artificial preservatives, colors, flavors and thickener! Just real, authentic, unconditional love. The PERFECT INGREDIENT if you ask me.

With our lives together just beginning, we do have such great inspirations looking at the love and lives of our parents, what they've been through, and how important it is to stay together as vowed -- to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part.

*SIGH*  True love doesn't have a happy ending... simply because it doesn't end. :)

And the product of the love we made and the love we have for each other... presenting our baby love.


Be in love with love. Always. 

How was your Valentine's Day this year?

xoxo,