back to work

I'm back at the office, having squeezed the last bits of goodness from my longish break. Today, it's back to work and having deal with all the pending projects and pitches and such. My mind is actually reeling as I make the adjustment to my work mode.

I was greeted by a stunningly clean office, which is how things look like at the beginning. I'm certain that in a few hours, it will be back to usual organized chaos.

So off with the cap of couch potato. Ah, but what a great last few days!


birthday in the grasslands

On my birthday, I decided not to do anything at all. No party, no eating out, no nothing. Just Nikki, Sage, the Playstation2 and me. I got tons of greetings from family and friends via SMS, phone and email, and invitations to go out, eat out, do something, but I stuck to my guns and opted to stay home.

Made progress wiith Suikoden III, going around trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. Remember that this was the reason we got the console - and I have no regrets. You have 3+1 characters to start with and are immediately plunged into the semi-complex political intrigues of the Grasslands, Zexen and Harmonia. I was delighted to see characters from the previous games come back, older and in the case of Tuta (the doctor's assistant from Suikoden II), unexpectedly hunky. *swoon*

I couldn't stand the knight Chris at first, but forgave her ice queen bumblings when she took off the armor and ditched the horse.

Sage, of course, wanted to play with the control pad, so I gave her one of her own. This ruse lasted shorter than I anticipated as my clever daughter realized that hers did not have a red light. She also wanted to sit on my lap all the time, which, after an hour or so, leads to dead thighs. So we compromised. I moved to the floor and she sat next to me.

new phone

Then Nikki and Sage gave me a surprise birthday gift - a new cellphone. After my shock at this expensive thing (which Nikki shushed away), I gleefully played with my new phone. This Ericsson model has GPRS, MMS, Bluetooth, email and other funky capabilities I've barely explored. I can even attached the radio Nikki got for me (and a camera should I want to). Of course, I need to unlearn all the Nokia methods of texting and managing information that I've known since like forever, but it's worth it. And all I thought I was getting were some socks!

One of my biggest issues was the fact that I had foolishly saved all my numbers and contacts on my previous phone's memory, not on the SIM card. So when I placed my SIM card in the new phone, I didn't know anyone's number. And so most of the people who texted me "Happy Birthday" were reduced to mysterious numbers. (Flashback to Hong Kong with my cool Sony phone that could never identify anyone who texted). Thank goodness Nikki manually plugged in all my old numbers (we used the IR function but it was erratic and my fridge is not Bluetooth-ed).

But this is such a pretty phone.


combined party

Friday night we hied to Jason's pad for the omnibus get-together, celebrating numerous things we have reason to be thankful for - primarily the housewarming of Jason's bachelor's pad (comfy and Japanese-themed) and Camille's return to Manila.

As is our wont, we gorged outselves on Yellow Cab pizza, Andok's lechon manok, sashimi from Davao, chips and dip and a lot of drinks (alcoholic for Vin, Pepsi Blue for Noel , Coke for us).

Thanks, Jayce and Cams!