Merry Wishes

Have a very Merry Christmas! May Our Christmas be Jolly and Bright!

When time was with her... She came early at last!

It was an advance birthday celebration (December 22 is the exact date) and a Christmas get-together rolled into one. I was leaving the next day for a Winter Holiday with my siblings and I cannot afford NOT to party with my Sistahud.

If you’ve been following our dates, you’ll know our side remark regarding the birthday girl, Mary Ann aka Marianna. She walks a lot. If the meeting place is in the Makati area and it’s a work day, she’ll definitely walk her way to the venue. Given the proximity, yes, it is good to walk but guess what, she always comes in late. So, for this date, I applaud Marianna. She came first to the venue. Hooray! December 17, 2008, a sure date to remember!

Yes, she still walked going to Tony Roma’s. I, on the other hand, was the tardy Sistahud. I got caught in terrible traffic coming from work and they were already eating appetizers when I reached TRG4. I cannot blame myself entirely for my tardiness, it’s the holiday season and everybody’s out for last minute shopping finds.

Once settled, we immediately got busy eating our ribs, seafood and steak dinner. Yum! Yum! Since we love the freebie bread with herb butter from TRG4, we asked another serving and just munched them away. While we are having dinner, we talked about updates regarding career, family and of course, love life. This is always a necessity! Tsismis Sa Gitna Ng Tsibog!

You bet we do have our colorful love stories especially the birthday girl’s love life. All along she didn’t know that we’ve been talking about her in her sister’s blog. Even her Mom was part of the conversation. See, Marianna, you’re very famous! Charing!

Before we finished dinner, I brought out Rachelle’s Christmas presents for Elline and Marianna. Mom brought home from LA the gifts and I was really intrigued with them. Elline got the white bag and Marianna got two music CDs. Wow!

We also exchanged Christmas presents and gave Marianna’s birthday treats as well. In return, they gave me Rachelle’s Christmas presents intending to bring them with me when I leave the next day.

It was another year of good food, tons of laughter and precious moments with the Sistahud.

The next cycle of dates will be my birthday celebration unless Rachelle decides to visit Manila before June 2009, we will definitely book a weekend all together and bond!

Mary Ann - wishing you every good thing that life can bring, on your birthday and always.

A Really Great Brother

When we were growing up, we had our little ways of driving each other crazy.
You knew how to push my buttons, and I knew how to push yours.
I also knew that if I was ever in trouble and really needed someone’s help, you’d be right there for me – and you were, time after time…


I realize I probably never thanked you or let you know how much it meant having you for my brother.
But there’s no better time than your birthday to say it…


Thanks for being there for me.
Knowing that I had you to count on made all the difference in the world… it still does.


Happy 23rd Birthday, Reyboy!!!

For The First Time

It was a spur of the moment, fast-paced but fully-loaded dinner and it was their first time. Yes, for the first time in their lives, as they mentioned to me during our dinner, that it was their first time to eat in Glorietta 3 and in California Pizza Kitchen (CPK).


Maricel and Malou are friends and former officemates of Jannice Bautista-Vejerano. Jannice is my former staff in a former workplace and a friend and a kumare as well. I met Maricel and Malou through Jannice.



Maricel is an assistant of Jannice in CSM and I’ve met her since 2006 and then I met Malou during Jannice and Roger’s wedding day in December 2006. We bonded and both are such sweethearts.



Malou now works in a specialized school library system. Her only son, Aaron is such a cute boy and very playful. Just like Jannice, Maricel is also my kumare. We are both godmothers of Jannice’s son, Paulo Matteus.

I only had a few open dates before my winter holiday so when I had an opening and I can have dinner for a few hours, I called both girls and we met at Glorietta 3.


We had dinner at CPK and devoured the sumptuous BBQ Chicken Pizza, Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, Fried Calamares and Fettuccine Alfredo. Of course, we had to have dessert. Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae was such a treat and even both girls enjoyed their Raspberry Iced Teas.

I tried calling Jannice to join us that night but she won’t answer my calls. It would have been nice if she was able to join.

We had fun catching up with various stories and promised each other to visit once everybody is free. It would be Maricel’s birthday on January and she would love to have another get together.


We parted early that night, it was getting late as well and we live in different parts of the Metropolis. We exchanged Christmas presents and Malou even made personal Christmas cards and what’s written inside the card made me shed a tear.

Maricel and Malou – thank you so much for the laughter and the gifts. I’ll treasure all of them. Have a great holiday and see you soon!

2008's Christmas Song

I got this earlier from a friend who works for a multinational firm. Let us all sing together to an old song with new lyrics…

The Christmas Song
The Investment Banker Version

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

It's hitting you once,
It's hitting you twice
It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise
Recession is coming to town
It's worthless if you've got shares.

It's worthless if you've got bonds
It's safe when you've got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake, OH

You'd better watch out
You'd better not cry
You'd better keep cash
I'm telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.

Catchy. Funny. So true!

Power on Encouragement

Another good one from the mails…

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they yelled to the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling to them to stop, that there was no hope.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued jumping as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop his jumping and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, (after taking a needed rest) the other frogs’ clammered, "Didn’t you hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

From this we learn two lessons:

A. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

B. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them.

Words have the power of life and death. Be careful of what you say. Speak words of encouragement to those who cross your path. It is often difficult to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another.

Let us be that special person.

Christmas is Almost Here!

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more..."
-Dr. Seuss

Wishing you all a Great Holiday!
(22 days to Christmas)

Origins of the Internet

Let’s see…

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was named Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?" And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale and they will reply telling you which hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and the goods can be delivered by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were a wondrous happening. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever moving from his tent.

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and was accused of insider trading. And the young man did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. He was called a Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominant Siderite, or NERD for short.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as it came to be known "eBay" he said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."

"YAHOO," said Abraham.

And that is how it all began.

Ha, ha, ha!