Frankenstein with a Heart

Miggy and I watched "Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein" on Netflix the other day. It was a 2 and a half hour film that made us enthralled while watching it.

I first saw Frankenstein at Universal Studios when I was a child. He scared me a lot, so I avoided anything related to him. Miggy chose the film, so I agreed to watch it. I basically had no idea what to expect, but I've always been fascinated by films made by Guillermo del Toro so I knew it would be good. 

Conquering my fear of Frankenstein. I was very freaked out on this day.

I realized I never really watched a Frankenstein film. I only knew he was put together using different parts and was given life through lightning. Miggy said the film was made very close to how the story unfolded in the book. We saw how Dr. Victor Frankenstein created "the monster" and the film showed further how the creature developed. The creature who'd never die grew a heart and can live forever.

The film was made really well. Kudos to Guillermo del Toro, the actors and the whole production team who put the film together. It's a masterpiece and the best so far of all the Guillermo del Toro films I've watched. It's still on Netflix and go watch it this weekend if you haven't seen it yet. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Visited DLSU as a Child

When I was a child, my siblings would bring me with them to school. Both were enrolled in engineering courses at De La Salle University and were active in their organizations. I'd go with them to ensure they went home early (haha).

The flour game

I remember one visit so well. My sister had an org activity at the College Canteen. What I remember most from that day was a game where they had to find coins hidden in a pan full of flour. Ate explained that they disinfected the coins since the players had to find it with their mouth. It left a lasting impression on me and I had no doubt I'd eventually study at La Salle. 

c1996 (?) Me and Tappy in the CR, haha

True enough, I eventually walked the same halls and ate at the College Canteen, ten years later. By this time both my siblings were already professionals and had their own families. Everything still looked the same by then, but eventually new buildings were built and the College Canteen was painted. 

2011

The last time I visited a few years ago, I barely recognized some areas of the campus. The College Canteen was gone and the library moved to a new building. I'm sure a lot more changes have been made in the past few years. 

2018

*I still have to scan photos when I was a student

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Anakin's Second Gotcha Day!

Yesterday, we celebrated Anakin's Second Gotcha Day! He was a surprise since at that time the only kitten around was Bailey Boo. We suspected that Grey brought him in. We originally planned to have him adopted since we had at least 10 cats and kittens. Luckily, the adopter backed out. 

The kitten was darker than the rest of the brood. I decided to name him Anakin since he reminded me of Darth Vadar, haha. He's the complete opposite of the character though since he's very vocal and affectionate. He originally looked like a rat though, but with TLC and lots of food, he grew up to be a handsome boy. 

Anakin's quite a climber. I've seen him run up the neighbor's tree when he's going after a bird or a lizard. He's also very chatty and never fails to greet me by rubbing my legs when I go out to water the plants. I'm actually glad he came to us since he became Bailey's playmate and bestie. At 2 years old, they still play like they're kittens. 

To our bunso, Anakin, thank you for coming into our lives. You certainly changed the force in the cat-fam and you made Meredith a full time mom. She's very fond of you and Bailey. We love you to Dagobah and back! 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Made a New Quilted Bag

It took over a month to finish this project, but it's finally done! It's been over five years since I made myself a proper bag. I realized I've come a long way since I made this bag. The last one I made was mostly hand-stitched and back then I didn't know how to use fusible interfacing. 

I wanted a bag that would remind me of the sun and lemon flavors. I gathered yellow scraps and cut to make small squares. I decided to use them for huge pockets as additional storage. I matched it with denim fabric to bring out the happy color. 

Luckily, my Mom left a lot o zippers and I was able to use one for the bag. I just DIY'd the handles with interfacing. Using interfacing for the handles makes a huge difference. I didn't put any in my previous bag and I had to add a new handle to make it sturdier. 

I like the size of this bag (9" x 3" x 12") since it fits my prescription envelope. I thought it was too slim, but it fit my stuff perfectly. Now, I can't wait to bring it to town, LOL. 

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Demolition Day One

I was confined in the hospital when the workers moved in. We scrambled to empty the house before the move in day and I guess that made me so stressed out. We had to send Chris and Pops to the province and completely empty the house. 

Funnily, there was still one cabinet that was filled to the brim! Mama Lola's vintage mirror kept it inaccessible. My Mom had cleared out Mama Lola's stuff and in it were more craft materials! It took me another three months to sort it.

Anyway, I managed to get home before the crew started to demolish the house. They had to build their lodging and storage area first. Then they removed all the furniture we were keeping (the big ones we can no longer store in our current home). 

I shed some tears when I saw what they removed first - my parents cabinets. The same ones that were installed when the house was built back in 1969. The foreman commended how the house was built. He said it was built really well and they would probably have a hard time removing everything.

I had mixed feelings about seeing my childhood home demolished. It was taken apart slowly. My siblings knew how it looked while it was being built. I slowly saw the opposite. I only saw what was being done through photos and videos since I had the misfortune of falling down the stairs a week after I got home from the hospital. I'm a total klutz, so for safety, I've been banned from going to my childhood home. It's probably better that way since aside from being a klutz, I may be an emotional wreck. 

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The Past Few Weeks

There's been a lot of tension politically in the country the past few weeks. Well, more than usual. It's honestly, stressful since it ultimately affects each of us.

Since we got back 5 years ago, prices have gone up a lot. The budget I had before for groceries and food had to be adjusted. Luckily, we had solar installed a few years ago and we've been able to keep our electricity bill at a constant (we don't have batteries). Gas prices went up, so we only went out as needed. Water is also expected to go up this month. 

I hope it will be a better week for our country. I pray that truth and what is right will prevail. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Saving Mom's Plants

We've been trying to save as much of my Mom's plants the past 3 years. It's now time to sunset her plants on the front of the house. I checked old photos and the front lawn has changed how it looks so many times. I remember we even had a prolific santol tree before. There used to be palm trees on it before and santan plants for a time. 

My Mom gave so much of her time tending her garden. There were times we felt it was more important to her than us. She wouldn't pick up the phone during her gardening time and would always worry whenever we'd have her travel. I knew it was impossible to do it by myself. 

We were finally able to get Manong Henry's team to help save the plants. We got lucky because he assigned his son and an expert gardener. I just told them I wanted to save Mom's bougainvillea, snake plants and other flowering plants. I also proposed to make some plants into bonsai.

I'm so glad Christian and George love being gardeners. They have been happily working on saving the plants and Christian loved the challenge to turn some of the plants into bonsai. It's going to be messy in the next few days, but I'm happy we'll be able to save some of Mom's plants. 

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Tried Kettle

One of the things we do as a family is to try new restos (well new for us). We got to try Kettle early this week. I think it's been around for awhile, but it's fairly new at One Ayala. We got a bit lost since we ended up at the convention area (we went up from the basement). Luckily, a guard helped us get to the mall area (thanks Manong!). 

Sweetie was the one who researched the resto and told me and Miggy they serve American comfort food and signature buttermilk fried chicken. I had a feeling that the chicken would be huge. I chickened out and got longganisa, haha. 

Miggy was brave and got the buttermilk fried chicken with rice.

And Sweetie, experimental as usual, got the chicken po boy. 

Both the boys had leftovers and ate it for dinner (yes, the chicken was huge!). I tried the potato side dish, but found it too salty so I stuck to my longganisa. I think it was made more palatable for foreign taste buds since it tasted neutral (not sweet/not garlicky/not salty). If you're going to try Kettle, ask for their combo meals menu (we saw it online). Their iced tea was good. 

Next time we'll try the Japanese resto beside it. :)

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My Fountain Hair-do When I was a Baby

I've collated about 13 boxes of photo albums from my childhood home. I've been meaning to scan them, but I've been so busy with other stuff. I have a lot of stuff I want to do and have had to re-organize my schedule. 

I scanned a couple of black and white photos today. I got curious when I saw photos of a party. It was obviously in my childhood home since I recognized the garage wall and the huge sala sliding door. In one photo my Dad was carrying a baby. I originally thought that it was from the house blessing, but recognized the baby's fountain hair. 

(L to R) Dad, me, Tita Lydia, one of my cousins, not sure who the Tito is, 
Tito Tony, Tito Mon, Tita Josie, not sure who the guy in white is, and Mom

I have a lot of baby photos where my hair was set up like a fountain. I was born with a mop-head full of hair. I only noticed that Mom wrote a date at the back of the photo, December 20, 1975. She also wrote my name and how many months and days old I was at that time. Ahh, apparently I got that quirk from my Mom. I used to write Miggy's exact age in photos too. 

The original photo had spots on it, so I had Gemini clean it up. Ahh, perfect. It cleaned up the photo and made it sharper. 

Also, had Gemini make it colored. Not bad although I know my parents didn't really wear those colors, haha. I'll tweak it next time. 

If you inherited your family's old albums, would you bother to scan the photos?

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Working on My Stamina

It's been a month since I was sent home after confinement. I haven't gone back to my regular activities and I'm still slowly working my way up.

The first two weeks was hairy. A week after I got home I experienced the same symptoms again and contacted my ID doctor. I went in for tests. It was clear, but my lungs still looked like I have pneumonia. My pulmo though dismissed it since I wasn't coughing and didn't have any cold. I was also cleared by my ID doctor.

It could have been another bug or my tummy reacting to food. I had a hard time eating after confinement since I couldn't taste anything. It took another week before my appetite came back. 

I did some gardening earlier. I just moved around a few small pots and I was wiped out after. I had to rest for an hour before I could function again. Ahh, no wonder my cardiologist said to see him in June. I think he knows it will takee awhile to get better.

In the meantime, I'll work on getting better at least 1% more than the previous day.

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Almost Done!

I like how I'm making this bag project. I've learned a lot in the past few years in making quilted bags. I make them sparingly, but I improve everytime I make one.

One huge difference I did was to use fusible interfacing. It makes my projects cleaner and it doesn't bulge as much when you combine it with batting. I've also learned to appreciate thinner batting! I used to think thicker batting is better! 

I've been so busy with other things, so this project has spilled over to this month! I can't wait to finish it and use it when we go out :)

I should be done soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Last Look at My Childhood Home

I honestly couldn't find a clear photo of my childhood home's frontage because there was so much foliage in front. Mom planted a lot of trees in front and it obscured most of the house. Here's my last photo when the house was still standing. 

And a photo from the corner of the street on January 2025 -

I probably have to look through all the old albums to find an original photo of the house when it was new. It was very different from how it looked when I was a child. I always wondered why my Mom had all the beautiful walls painted white.

I wasn't born yet when the house was built.

This used to be an open area but became my Dad's office

I loved the original look of my childhood home. Tito Bert really designed it really well and it withstood many earthquakes and flooding. Adjustments were made based on Mom and Dad's needs and plans and I didn't really plan my future. I thought when Miggy and I moved out that was the end of my decades-long stay in my childhood home. 

I have so many memories in my childhood home and my friends told me they also have a lot of happy memories in our home. We had a lot of gatherings there, birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas family reunions etc. We always had a lot of neighbors come and visit. I think everyone loved my Mom's beautiful garden.

Last year, my childhood home reached its 56th year as our OG family's home. It was time to move on and build new memories. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

True Peace Begins in a Heart that Loves

Pope Leo XIX tweeted this today,

For many years there was a gap in my heart. It ran really deep and probably contributed a lot to my ailments. I prayed hard for healing and it finally started a few years ago. I read that the only way to heal long sown wounds is to talk to your younger self and explain why it's okay now. You can also add how you can release the pain and move on. 

I realized my prayer was being answered and that's what I did. From that time I felt peace and I was able to move forward. It also helps if you focus on what you are grateful for every single day. It can be as mundane as feeling the breeze, getting love from your cats, appreciating your hubby making you oatmeal and other simple things/actions. 

As Pope Leo XIV said, "True peace begins in a heart that loves." Replace the pain with love and things will feel lighter and gentler. It will also remind you that you are never alone  :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Aglaonema, One to Bushy

My Mom gave me a pot with a couple of plants. It was a 3 in one. I honestly had no idea what they were and her only instruction was to water it everyday.

This was the pot -

More than half a year later it grew -

Eventually, repotted it -

And now it's crazy big 😅

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My New Favorite Toy

I have a new toy! It's a Pacman pinball from Miniso. I got it the other day and it's been a fun "no power needed" gadget. I reach for it now instead of my phone when I need to take "a break". I play it a couple of times and then go back to whatever I'm doing. That means I don't end up wasting so much time doom-scrolling, haha. 

It's just PhP198 (or PhP199). I hope I don't break it soon since I'll probably use it for awhile. 

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A Googleplex Throwback

I was a scout for Google in my past life.  That's what they used to call us (being lone feet on the ground). It was hard and we coped by having calls with our regional scout siblings. We had one international meet-up in Mountain View in 2007. We were not complete since the others couldn't get their visas on time. 

When I was cleaning up my childhood home, I found a framed photo which I made back in 2007. It included the names of the other scouts and then CEO, Eric Schmidt. I did that so I don't forget their names, especially since the others were from other regions. 

We were late for our meeting with Sundar because we had to
ride a bike to transfer buildings. It was hard!

That week with the other scouts was one of the highlights of my stay at Google. We got to meet the CEO and I remember meeting the current CEO, Sundar Pichai (he was still a VP back then). Ahh, but what I remember most from that week was learning how to play bocca and meeting fellow Pinoy Googlers. 

And here's little me with my Chilean and Colombian siblings, Jim and Francisco.

We bonded by figuring out what words in Filipino was similar to their language.

We planned to write a book a few years ago, but everyone's so busy. I guess we'll have to wait until everyone's retired, haha. 

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Saved by the Bell

We went to the mall yesterday to check out Mandalorian and Grogu toys. It's always a treat for me since we're being cautious. Anyway, it was a weekday and we thought there would be less people. 

We were wrong because it felt like a weekend. We went around slowly since I still use a wheelchair (so I don't overwork my heart). Malls here try to be PWD friendly, but from my experience they need to improve. 

Anyway, as usual, I almost got clobbered by people walking backwards. Miggy would always avoid people, but there are those who are unmindful. I had to use the bicycle bell* to catch their attention. Most people forget they are in public places and should be mindful. That's the reason why I installed it on my wheelchair because I've had near-accidents even at the hospital. 

*I got this in a Daiso branch in Japan and was saving it for a future bicycle. Getting a bicycle is not happening soon, so I just used it.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Gaga Over Mandalorian and Grogu Collectibles

I have been collecting Yoda figures and collectibles for many years now. It wasn't a conscious effort because my collection grew from gifts of friends all over! 

The same happened with Grogu/Baby Yoda. I honestly just wanted to stick to my Yoda collection, but the same thing happened. A friend gave me a huge Grogu Funko Pop. I knew there was no turning back, haha.

I started watching new offers of collectibles after watching the movie. I only watched the trailer to keep the suspense. Most of the clips featured Miniso and movie theater special popcorn tubs. I also checked Amazon and there are a lot of Funko Pop variants, other figures, shirts , mugs and, of course, Lego.

After Miggy's gym session we headed to Glorietta and SM Makati to check out toy stores and Miniso. We were not disappointed since there was a lot. It was honestly very hard to choose, but budgetary constraints led the way, haha.

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How We Chose an Architect

For the longest time, we lived in rented accommodations. We eventually got a condo unit as our first owned home. My sister advised me early on that you can always change where you live. It was sound advice because we moved as our situation changed. We're now on our 8th home which we thought would be our permanent home.

During the pandemic we'd watch videos on houses for sale and architect videos. I remember mentioning to Sweetie I wish one of the architects we were watching would become our architect. That did not happen immediately and we got to work with several architects before we found the right one. 

Original plan of my childhood home made by Tito Bert Apolo, c1969 (before I was born!)

Last week, I posted about red flags when hiring an architect/contractor. We have a fair share of horror stories and that's how we learned through the years. We've also reviewed several proposals. Oftentimes, there were more questions than information that would put our mind at ease. 

We put our plans to build a house on hold because we felt we had not found the right people to work with. I was also grieving the loss of my Mom and clearing the childhood home was very overwhelming. My Mom had meter deep cabinets and she packed a lot of stuff in it. 

With home building on hold, we thought about investing some of our savings and that's how we met our current architect. We felt that our values were aligned. We shared with him what we experienced and he gave us a lot of advice. 

I was a program manager and details are very important for me. I used to make and review a lot of proposals/quotations/contracts, and over a year later we started the house build. Here's what we liked about our current architect:

• We started with a business relationship
• He was very patient and generous in answering questions
• He got to know our lifestyle, needs and wants before he started planning
• He adjusted the plans as needed and has been flexible throughout the project
• Most importantly, he's the only architect that gave a detailed costing which included professional fees (architect + a number of engineers), cost of materials, other building costs, and a list of owner supplied materials

With everything above board, we also felt that we had the same values as the architect. I personally dilly-dally whenever I need to make a big purchase, so I took my sweet time deciding. Mind you we started looking for an architect even before the pandemic. It took a lot of prayers and reviewing to find the right architect for our needs. I think the most important thing is finding one with the same values as us. 

The big bonus? We're working with the architect we wished for during the pandemic :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Happy, Restful Sunday

I hope you all had a restful weekend. We were so busy last week and needed the break.

Our cats are lucky, they rest anytime they want, haha.

We'll be starting the week without water again. Apparently, a third party contractor hit a pipe somewhere in Manila and we're all impacted in our city. Oh well...

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Beautiful Narra Trees

When we headed out last Tuesday, I was surprised by the beautiful blooming narra trees, fire trees, bougainvillea, and golden shower trees. 

The stretch of Skyway we passed had a lot of glowing narra trees. I was amazed and could not recall when this last happened.

I guess the trees got a spurt of rainwater nutrition when it finally rained. Unfortunately, the blooms were gone in my area when we went out the next day. 

Now I want to have a narra tree in my future garden. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Watched Mandalorian and Grogu

We watched "Mandalorian and Grogu" today at the cinema. I was so excited since it's a Star Wars film and we haven't watched any movie in the theater for awhile now.

We watched the series through Disney+, but watching Star Wars films are better on the big screen. You can see many more elements of the film and nuances of the characters when it's a huge screen.

I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't really connected to the series, so you can enjoy it even if you didn't watch the series. We watched a recap of the series last night since it's been awhile since we watched the series. You don't actually need to do that since the storyline stands on it's own.

I have to be honest though, story-wise I think the last season would have been better as a movie. There were some things I was expecting that didn't happen. It made me feel it was a step back from the story. I still enjoyed it though since I super love Grogu.

Go watch it!

#BeKind #StaySafe

What's the Most "MacGyver" Thing You Did?

I watched a short video about MacGyver this afternoon. My generation grew up with him finding solutions using things you can find at home. The clip mentioned that whenever MacGyver blew up stuff, the producers would always give an incomplete recipe, so that kids at home won't blow up their kitchens. 

I never tried any of the things MacGyver did on the series, but I definitely "MacGyver" (do DIY) on some things. Growing up, I was always excited when we had projects that involved building things. Back then you have to figure out a lot of stuff. I remember making a display box for a stone collection. In 5th grade, we were tasked to use bamboo to make a diorama bahay kubo. 

We had to build a lot of stuff with stuff you can find at home. You're lucky if there's a stash of craft cardboard you can use at home. I normally had to make do with old folders and shoe boxes. Nowadays, I usually experiment in my garden and sewing projects where it's safer to DIY stuff. Sweetie's most favorite tools are cable ties, haha. For me, it's bamboo and garden tie cables. 

Anyway, you can watch the clip about MacGyver, here.

#BeKind #StaySafe