Homeowners, finally.

Call us impulsive but yeah, Auster and I bought the first house we checked out. I guess, it was not really an impulsive decision since I’ve been looking at houses online for over 6 months now. The house we bought was the only one we liked that is within our price range. Considering the location, age of the house, and house features, I think it’s a pretty good buy. And we got the seller to pay for the prepaid fees and closing costs. And we were locked in on a 6.0% interest rate (30 years, fixed).

Closing wont be until next month. We’re getting more anxious for the big move, each and every day! We’ve already made so many plans as to how we’ll design it. It has so much potential! Even mom was impressed with the spacious backyard. Auster wants to give the 2-car attached garage a cool look with graffiti art. I am an advocate for minimalism and I want that reflected in our family room. We’ve agreed on red, black and white color scheme. As to our bedroom, we’ll design it with earth color scheme. We don’t know what we’ll do with the three other rooms yet. We thought about making one of them a work-out space since we don’t have a basement. And we’ll make the loft our studio/computer room. We’ll work on the backyard landscaping next spring. I would very much love it to have either a pergola or gazebo as focal point.

Just cant wait!

Ensaymada cravings

Okay, so this morning, Auster had a baaaad craving for ensaymada. Which made him curse Dayton for not having a franchise of Goldilocks nor Golden Coin.

I told him, f*&%$ Goldilocks. I can make ensaymada in less than 30 secs. I heard him murmur, “yeah, right” under his breath. As a cook by profession, he probably thought I’m talking about making one from scratch. Oh heck no.

We have a dozen of kaiser rolls lying on the dinner table. I grabbed two of those, along with the butter dish, sugar container, and a resealable bag of fancy shredded Colby-Jack cheese. I put thinly sliced butter on top of each kaiser roll, sprinkled some sugar and Colby-Jack cheese on, put them in the microwave for 15 seconds and voila! Instant ensaymada. Auster loved it with his morning coffee.

Surge of Adrenaline

Our original vacation plan included going to California with Auster’s family. When the trip was called off, we decided to spend our vacation at Cedar Point (which prides itself as “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World”) instead. Then with increased gas prices and our laziness to drive 5 hours, we ended up going to Kings Island.

Kings Island is a theme park in Mason, OH about 30-min ride from our place. It used to be owned by Paramount Parks but was recently sold to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, the same owner of Cedar Point.

When I first visited Kings Island in 2001 it was still called Paramount’s Kings Island. I later learned that the theme park was sold to the above-mentioned company, in 2006. Though it has been almost a decade since my last visit, I didn’t see a lot of changes as far as the attractions go. I only saw two additional rides – the Backlot Stunt Coaster (remake of the Italian Job) and the Firehawk. The former opened in 2005 while the latter opened last year on this very date. We decided to try these new rides first. The Backlot Stunt Coaster gives a feeling of being in a car chase, spiraling down pitch-black tunnel and a parking garage at 40mph. Not too bad for a family ride. The Firehawk, on the other hand, is more thrilling. It is a lie-to-fly roller coaster – we were hoisted up 115ft, and practically dove (yes, facing the ground and head-first) 80ft at a 30-degree angle. When I closed my eyes, I could see the blood rushing through my head.

Judging from the number of people waiting in line, the most sought-after thrill rides include The Beast, Son of Beast, Vortex, Firehawk, Flight of Fear and Backlot Stunt Coaster. In each of these rides, it takes about an hour to wait in line. Only to ride about 3 minutes tops. But then again with the adrenaline rush that you get, it’s all worth it.

As much as we wanted to try all the rides, we just didn’t have enough time. I reckoned, we should have bought a season pass.

I mentioned a lot about rollercoaster rides but the highlight of the trip is Robbie Knievel’s world record-worthy and death-defying jump over 24 Coke Zero trucks. Indeed, Evel Knievel’s legacy lives on through his son.

Even if we didn’t go to California nor to Cedar Point in Sandusky, and even if I now feel my IQ dropped 10 points due to the coup-countercoup injury my head experienced, we had, in the immortal words of Spongebob Squarepants, “good times, good times!”

See pictures here.

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Did you know that…

- the Son of Beast is the fastest and tallest wooden roller coaster in the world?

- that it cost an estimated amount of $20,000,000 to build the Son of Beast?

- that I was able to convince my mom to ride on the Son of Beast and had her curse me on top of her lungs throughout the entire ride?

Lazy Sunday morning

I woke up to the sound of clanging metals. Checked the time on my cell phone and it was already 8:30 am. I usually wake up at around 6 but today I had a bad case of migraine and thought I’d stay under the sheets for a little longer. Tried to ignore the sound but it went on and on and on… So I just decided to get up. After making the bed, I went to the kitchen to check what was going on. I found Auster there, who appeared to be beating the shit out of a metal bowl. I asked, “wutchu doin?” imitating the way his niece, Yuna, poses a query. “Making a holiday sauce,” he answered mocking my previous ignorance of one of the mother sauces, the hollandaise. I knew he was going to make Eggs Benedict. He’s been craving for it for days.

I love Eggs Benedict when done perfectly। It doesn’t take a genius to make it but it does take a little bit of patience to get it right. The usual culprit is the hollandaise sauce. When done hurriedly you could end up with a “broken” sauce, which is a heterogeneous mixture of the ingredients. Or you could end up with a sauce that is too eggy, too lemony or too buttery.

No wonder Auster was whisking the sauce vigorously। He wanted to achieve that perfect, homogeneous egg-butter mixture with the perfect lemony zing। And he did.

Another great breakfast from Chef Auster!

Here’s the finished product:

Moviethon

I don’t watch movies that much. I prefer to read. Somehow I believe movies sometimes do not leave room for imagination. Auster on the other hand, watches movies like crazy! We like to do things together, well in most cases. So now we are both glued to the television watching DVDs one after another.

Here’s our movie list this week:

Halloween

1408

No Reservations

Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay @ the theater

Reno 911!: Miami [The Movie]

The Sentinel

Shoot ‘Em Up

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Shrek the Third

RobinBHood

The Simpsons Movie

The Hills Have Eyes 2

Premonition

United 93

Nacho Libre

Superbad

The Heartbreak Kid

Perfect Stranger

Anniversary dinner

After failing to persuade me to dine out, Auster decided to cook for our anniversary. Finally, it’s his time to impress me with his culinary expertise. He was pretty ambitious with his menu in mind: bacon-covered scallops for amuse bouche, filet mignon with demi-glace and tilapia filet with bacon/butter sauce (his version of surf ‘n turf) as main course, and crème brulée for dessert. Well, I was swept off my feet, it was better than I expected! It was better than eating out at an expensive restaurant. I ate every single garnishing and licked the sauces down to the last drop. Yeah, it was that GOOD!

Here are some of the pictures:

My new passion:

Cooking!

I do believe, like Chef Gusteau in Ratatouille that “Anyone can cook.” Though I must add, “some better than others.” Like other skills, it is learned. Although a part of me believes that it could be an innate talent.

For the first 25 years of my life, I have never had much fervor about cooking. I’ve always thought of it as messy, greasy, and stinky. I’m not much of an adventurous eater, and I get wrinkly-nosed at the slightest smell of an unfamiliar aroma.

My mom was actually worried about what I’ll eat, when I move out. She knows I’m not a fan of fast foods. She felt a relief to learn Auster is a cook. Sad to say his expertise is in Hawaiian, Italian, and Japanese cuisine – he knows diddly-squat about Filipino cuisine. Also, he already cooks for a living, I don’t want him to still cook for me when he gets home.

My first entrée was adobo. It’s simple and easy. Even my brother loved it, and even told my mom “This is how I like my adobo.” LOL. Mom cooks it a little different – she adds raisin to it.

So far, Auster has not complained about my cooking, and actually occasionally comments something like “this is better than your mom’s…” It’s a little bit of a challenge cooking for someone who knows how to cook.

Long time no blog, eh?

My last blog entry is almost a year old. Gosh, where have I been all these times? For the most part I blame BEACON, for another thing, I blame my laziness hehe. Here’s a recap of my goings-on:

• August 2007: Summer break in Hawaii. Visited Waikiki Aquarium and Sea Life Park with my boyfriend’s family. And of course, all of Kauai with Auster and Yuna.
• September – October 2007: Practicum at a Cardiothoracic step-down unit. Months of exhaustion. That’s an understatement.
• November 2007: Graduated from BEACON (15-month BSN).
  December 2007: Auster moved out of the sunny state of Hawaii to freeze to death in Ohio. lol
• December 2007: Failed the NCLEX at 75 Questions (which means I failed miserably)
• January 2008: Welcomed the year with a significant other, for the first time, YEY!
• February 2008: Found a beautiful condo unit with the help of my friend, Krischelle.
• March 2008: Passed the NCLEX at 75 Questions (which means I did exceptionally well)
• April 2008: Will be celebrating our anniversary in a couple of days!

Stuffs I learned from Yuna

Yuna is Auster’s 3-year old niece. When I have conversations with her, she seems like an adult trapped in a little girl’s body. One time, Auster and I were not paying attention to her and she suddenly became all-pouty and had her hands folded in front of her while saying, “I’m gonna go find myself.” She’s the funniest!

These are some of the things I learned from her:

1. Ketchup is made from apples, cherries, and tomatoes.
2. A banana is like a canoe, and it should not be eaten.
3. If it’s sour, it’s a camansi (calamansi: Citrofortunella microcarpa).
4. Auntie Rosalyn is not a people, she’s a dragon. hehe
5. Auster is suidicidal [sic]. While pointing to my picture she said “beautiful girl.” When she turned to Auster’s, she said, “suidicidal.”
6. A “3″ is a “W” when you look at it sideways.
7. If you can’t find something, dig it up in your head.
8. Uncle Auster has only one beautiful girl, while her daddy has two.
9. “Truck” is spelled as T-A-C-O-M-A as well as “car” is spelled as “C-R-V”
10. Every book starts (or should start) with “Once upon a time…” and ends with “… they lived happily ever after.”

Love is sweeter…

So much for my quirkyalone days. Hehe. Well, who am I to turn away from a really great guy?

But, truth be told, I didn’t stay true to my word. When asked about what I’m going to give up for Lent, I told my friends I’ll undertake an ultimate sacrifice – that is to renounce boyfriends and everything that goes along with having one. LOLs. A week after, my best guyfriend of three years admitted he loves me and is jealous that I hang out with another guy (who btw, is just a friend).

So when this childhood-sweetheart-turned-best-guy-friend of mine said those three words I didn’t even hesitate one bit, I told him how I felt right away. I’m not the pakipot type. It’s either I like the guy, or I don’t. It didn’t even bother me that he is 10 zillion miles away.

I told him I loved him then, and I love him still… He replied, he loves me now and that he’ll love me forever. I’m telling yah, I can get fooled so easily with these flowery words. But what are the odds that Mr. Auster Jay D. Guzman is trying to fool me? He wouldn’t even hurt a fly.

I’ve had my share of himbos, sink scums, and toxic bachelors (have I?). To be “with” a guy who is sOooOOOo sweet, so soft-spoken, who has a sense of humor, who CAN DANCE really well, who CAN COOK better than I can, who loves kids, and who I am comfortable talking to just about anything, sends me into total bliss. It seems as if I’m regressing to adolescence – having that *kilig* feeling, like a little scream of happiness waiting to come out whenever I hear his voice.

I can’t wait to be with him. I’m booked to visit him in June, during my summer break. Thirty-nine more days. Thirty-nine FREAKIN’ days. LOLs. I know some people say, “missing someone gets easier everyday because even though it’s one day further from the last time you saw each other, it’s one day closer to the next time you will.” But it’s not really getting any easier.

My priorities needed a little rearranging. It was as though there was a big delta sign written across my forehead. It was not meant to make room for him, but for our shared plans. I’m excited just thinking about our future!

Auster is my romantic afflatus, he paints a smile on my face each and every time I think of him. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!