Big Booty of Treats

Boo! It's Halloween and it's time for trick or treat!


All you need to do is say "trick-or-treat," smile, extend your Halloween bag and voila - Halloween candies!


All the kids had their fair share of a bagful of nice Halloween treats.


Have a Fa-boo-lous Halloween!

Fantastic Mommy

It’s your birthday and if I could wrap love in a ribbon, it would be my gift to you.

Mommy, we’ve shared so much,

I have enough memories to fill my heart for a thousand years.

I hope you’ll always know how very special you are and how lucky the world is to have you in it.

Happy 55th Birthday, Mami!

Workplace Language

This is cute…

Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

Chainsaw Consultant: An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean hands.

Cube Farm: An office filled with cubicles.

Prairie Dogging: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

Elvis Year: The peak year of something's or someone's popularity. "Barney the Dinosaur's Elvis year was 1993."

Idea Hamsters: People who always seem to have their idea generators running.

Mouse Potato: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a big mistake.

SITCOMs: What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids. Stands for Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.

Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in a divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.

Stress Puppy: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

Tourists: People who take training classes just to get a vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in the class; the rest were just tourists."

Xerox Subsidy: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

Alpha Geek: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. "Ask Trisha, she's the alpha geek around here."

Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

Beepilepsy: The brief seizure people sometimes have when their beeper goes off (especially in vibrator mode). Characterized by physical spasms, goofy facial expressions and interruption of speech in mid-sentence.

Depotphobia: Fear associated with entering a Home Depot because of how much money one might spend. Electronics geeks experience Shackophobia.

Flight Risk: Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon. Irritainment: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

Percussive Maintenance: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

Seagull Manager: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, sh-ts over everything and then leaves.

Uninstalled: Euphemism for being fired. Heard on the voicemail of a vice president at a downsizing computer firm: "You have reached the number of an uninstalled vice president. Please dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance." See also Decruitment.

My absolute favorite – Idea Hamsters. As for myself, I’m a self-confessed Mouse Potato.

A Woman's Dictionary

Copied and reposted…

Argument (ar*gyou*ment) n. A discussion that occurs when you're right, but he just hasn't realized it yet.

Airhead (er*hed) n. What a woman intentionally becomes when pulled over by a policeman.

Bar-be-que (bar*bi*q) n. You bought the groceries, washed the lettuce, chopped the tomatoes, diced the onions, marinated the meat and cleaned everything up, but he "made the dinner."

Blonde jokes (blond joks) n. Jokes that are short so men can understand them.

Cantaloupe (kant*e*lope) n. Gotta get married in a church.

Clothes dryer (kloze dri*yer) n. An appliance designed to eat socks.

Diet Soda (dy*it so*da) n. A drink you buy at a convenience store to go with a half pound bag of peanut M&Ms.

Eternity (e*ter*ni*tee) n. The last two minutes of a football game.

Exercise (ex*er*siz) v. To walk up and down a mall, occasionally resting to make a purchase.

Grocery List (grow*ser*ee list) n. What you spend half an hour writing, then forget to take with you to the store.

Hair Dresser (hare dres*er) n. Someone who is able to create a style you will never be able to duplicate again. See "Magician."

Hardware Store (hard*war stor) n. Similar to a black hole in space-if he goes in, he isn't coming out anytime soon.

Childbirth (child*brth) n. You get to go through 36 hours of contractions; he gets to hold your hand and say "focus,...breath...push..."

Lipstick (lip*stik) n. On your lips, coloring to enhance the beauty of your mouth. On his collar, coloring only a tramp would wear...!

Park (park) v./n. Before children, a verb meaning, "to go somewhere and neck." After children, a noun meaning a place with a swing set and slide.

Patience (pa*shens) n. The most important ingredient for dating, marriage and children. See also "tranquilizers."

Waterproof Mascara (wah*tr*pruf mas*kar*ah) n. Comes off if you cry, shower, or swim, but will not come off if you try to remove it.

Valentine's Day (val*en*tinez dae) n. A day when you have dreams of a candlelight dinner, diamonds, and romance, but consider yourself lucky to get a card.

Oh, what a vocabulary, oh my!

The Queen Comes To Town

It has been six years and eight months since the last time I saw my “Sister Taba.” A very long time indeed but communication was always present through long handwritten letters to emails to SMS. These became our bridge to our sixteen years of friendship.


Sister Taba or the Queen Bee in the famous Big Family of UP College of Baguio (now UP Baguio) is Maria Reyna C. Villacarlos. She’s the middle sibling from our elite group. Kuya is Atty. Menard Almazan and Ate is Bb. Jane Erese. You got it right, I am the Little Sister of the family.

Why the Big Family? Back then, we were all “BIG”. Even the other members of the family are also big and fabulous.


Now, Sister Taba is no tubby-tubby anymore. I totally did not recognize her when I fetched her at the Ayala-MRT Station last Wednesday. She got sick a few years back and went on a strict diet. In addition, being NGO worker affected her lifestyle. She’s now many pounds lighter but her face stayed the same. The bubbly smile even the voice was the same as I remember during our first days as blockmates.

We spent the whole day of October 8, 2008 together since I just came back from a previous engagement and she had to go back to Baguio before heading back to the Cordilleras for her work. I treated her to an Italian breakfast, two hours of pampering at a spa, strolled throughout the Greenbelt malls, a late American lunch and before sending her off back to Baguio, a sumptuous Filipino dinner.


For that whole day we spent together, we called the rest of the Big Family members – oops, only the ones that I have in my mobile phone. Some numbers were not anymore available yet we got lucky to call some of the big ones. We woke up Jane in Dubai, caught Menard in a court recess, Kit in a workshop, Peter on the way to Binondo and Alovel who just had dinner. It was fun even though we miss the rest of the Big Family. We tried calling Oli in Cambodia, Jojo in Singapore, Nhore in San Francisco and Joseph but all we got were voicemails. Sayang!


Maybe next time we’ll have a bigger Big Family reunion – we’ll get to see Cynch, Rhodz, Chris and also the rest of the EconBlock 3-A gang. (Hopefully on the 5th of December!!!)

But for meantime, I am treasuring the day spent with my Sister Taba. I just wish that we get to see more often rather than wait another six years.

Reyna, having to miss work for a day is incomparable to spending a day well spent with you.

Ice Cream Power

Last week Richard took his children to a restaurant. His six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As they bowed our heads he said, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And Liberty and justice for all! Amen!"

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby he heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice-cream! Why, I never!"

Hearing this, Richard’s son burst into tears and asked him, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?" As he held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table.

He winked at Richard’s son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer." "Really?" Richard’s son asked. "Cross my heart." Then in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, Richard bought his kids ice cream at the end of the meal. His son stared at him for a moment and then did something he will remember the rest of his life. Richard’s son picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is good already."

Do not let anyone tell you how to pray. Ask for what you want. Tell God why you want it and in the process of saying WHY you want something, you will already know a little more whether you will be getting your wish or not. And if the reason isn’t a good one, than sincerely change your reason, or change what you want.


And if you want ice cream, ask for ice cream. Personally, I like chocolate ice cream.

The Secrets to Happiness

Live beneath your means and within your seams.
Return everything you borrow.
Donate blood.
Stop blaming other people.
Admit it when you make a mistake.
Give all the clothes you haven't worn in the last three years to charity.
Every day do something nice and try not to get caught.
Listen more; talk less.
Every day take a 30-minute walk in your neighborhood.
Skip two meals a week and give the money to the homeless.
Strive for excellence, not perfection.
Be on time.
Don't make excuses.
Don't argue.
Get organized.
Be kind to kind people.
Be even kinder to unkind people.
Let someone cut ahead of you in line.
Take time to be alone.
Reread a favorite book.
Cultivate good manners.
Be humble.
Understand and accept that life isn't always fair.
Know when to say something.
Know when to keep your mouth shut.
Don't criticize anyone for 24 hours.
Learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present.
Don't sweat the small stuff.

We all should strive for happiness – but we all also need to WORK ON IT.