Russell is being too goddamned pro-active! I just need one bleeding idea for his August fic, and he gives me SIX all in one day! I dunno tuloy which to choose! Dammit! They're all nice and angsty -_-0

Ana, Seika! I'll be expecting you on the afternoon of the 8th, k? Alam nyo naman pano pumunta di ba? And we're making blueberry cheesecake for that day. Kukulitin ko si Tita Betty na pahiramin tayo nung baking pan na kailangan for that kind of cake... hirap kasi i-release if di detachable yung gamit e, kaso ala pa ko nung ganun, so hiram tayo. If we can't then we'll just make crepes for breakfast or something (must not think of Russ and his breakfast after hu-humm...)

That reminds me, Ems, pwede ka ba? Sama, I mean? Overnight lang naman e ^^

I want to make this cake! (Recipe from FOOD magazine, Sept 2004 issue)

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake
8-10 servings

1 cup hazelnuts; 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips or semisweet baking chocolate; 1 pound cake (you may use frozen pound cake (thawed), sold in the freezer sections of large supermarkets; or use butter cake or sponge cake); 3 cups heavy cream; 1 cup powdered sugar

For the chocolate frosting:
8 oz semisweet chocolate blocks cut into small chunks; 1 cup heavy cream

Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350F. Roast hazelnuts in oven for about 5 mins. Alternately, you may also toast the hazelnuts over low heat in a nonstick pan for about 5 mins. Remove hazelnuts from over or from pan. Wrap the nuts in a clean towel and roll to remove skin. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside. Line a large round glass or stainless steel or copper bowl with plastic wrap. Slice pound cake thinly and arrange on bottom and sides of the bowl until bottom and sides are completely covered with pound cake. Whip cream in mixing bowl and add powdered sugar gradually. Whip until stiff but do not overwhip or the cream will separate. Mix the nuts with the cream. Divide cream into two, one larger than the other. Add melted chocolate into the larger cream mixture. Blend well by hand. Spread smaller cream mixture on pound cake in bowl, pushing up to sides to make hole in the middle. Pour chocolate cream mixture into the center part. Spread evenly until chocolate is leveled to the top and surface is smooth. Top with more sliced pound cake. Chill several hours in refrigerator.

Make chocolate frosting: (here nandaya na si Faye… si Russell kasi nagmamadali e) Put chocolate blocks in heatproof bowl. In a saucepan, heat heavy cream until bubbles form on the sides. Remove from heat and pour into chocolate. Cover bowl for about two minutes to allow chocolate to melt. Stir until smooth. Chill about one hour in the refrigerator to let mixture harden a little.

To assemble cake: Unmold cake by putting serving dish on top of bowl and invert bowl to release the cake. Remove plastic wrap.

Frost cake: Cover top and sides of cake with chocolate frosting. Decorate as desired.

I don’t feel too good. Woke up at 2-something-am feeling like the left part of my head’s being squished through a juicer. Guess I slept too long, but aren’t I entitled to coz I didn’t sleep for two straight days?!

What have I been doing?

Well, been baking. But don’t really want to get into that right now coz I feel like puking up whenever I even think about all those things I baked. Tell you about it another time.

I submitted the flavor fics. Got Ana’s email about them, btw, Thanks Nechan! If you peeps wanna read ‘em fics you gotta subscribe to the illusioncorp ml first coz they’re in the file section of that yahoogroup (to subscribe go here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illusioncorp/) course you’ll need to be approved first by either me, Nechan, or Seika. Okay, how’d this post end up being a shameless advertisement for the ml?

Anyways, I can’t sleep anymore. My brain refuses to stop working. Besides, I don’t want to go back to that dream of being a young Maricel Soriano being chased by Christopher de Leon and Richard Gomez for supposedly killing somebody off… I don’t know where the hell that dream came from. Must be all that talk with my mom about watching some of the local movies, she especially wants to catch that one with Kris Aquino in it *shudder* Besides, if I go back to sleep my headache just might get worse. Too much of a good thing is bad for you, be it sleep or eating sweets to one’s heart’s content.

Want to update the illu site na. Except I don’t know Flash and dreamweaver and I don’t really have the files for the current layout we have uploaded… too lazy to download them from Bravenet. Want to upload the new canon chapters, some pics, character info, and flavor entries. Too lazy… sides, I gotta start making my assignments from school.. Gah, school. It’s only joy is that I get to see huhmmm but aside from those instances it’s all work and very little fun.

What was Christmas like for me? Same old same old. Visited some relatives, was visited by some others. Dumating mga inaanak, gave gifts, blah blah blah…

Isn’t this month tragically scary? I mean, doesn’t it at times make you think that hey, maybe it’s finally time for the apocalypse or something? Earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, flash floods… Mother Earth seems very angry with us, isn’t she? Not that I can blame her.

Gah, this entry is so sabog. Much like how my brain’s feeling. Geeeh.

Seika-chan! Anung bender? How can I help? Grabe, tagal na natin di nagkukwentuhan! Pano, tuloy ba yung reunion? Anu plans?

An-Nechan! Thanks again for the review.

December 19:
I am sooooooooooo tired!

Woke up at 330am for the Simbang Gabi, went home, ate bibingka for breakfast, made 150+ puto which we delivered to Don Bosco Academy at Mabalacat along with the 4 bilao of palabok that we bought from Susie’s (bought two boxes of brownies there too), went to Macro and shopped, went home to wash face and store the groceries, went to Tita Betty’s house to help out, ended up being an impromptu cook, somehow conjured up edible and rather delicious-looking hamonado and lengua within two or three hours, readied the table for the buffet coz Tita’s guests from Pugad are due to arrive any moment, Pugad people came, served food, was in charge of refilling the hamonado, roasted chicken, and lengua serving trays, helped distribute drinks, acted as nurse to one kid who was suffering through motion sickness (di kasi sanay magbyahe sinama pa ayun tuloy), finally ate dinner at 10pm, listened to Pugad peeps sing Christmas carols, waved bye bye to Pugad peeps, helped clean dishes, said goodnight to Tita and went home. Finally am here, of course I’m too tired to type anything but this continuous ramble of a half rant post which I shouldn’t really do since I’ve to edit the timetable I have to submit to our C.I. tomorrow.

Oh bloody hell, nag-aatungol nanaman si Brownie. He does that whenever mom goes out these days for the Simbang Gabi. Yes, Right now I’m alone in the house, I barely slept, and I’m getting goose bumps listening to that blasted dog howl. I need to sleep. Seriously. I can barely open my eyes. Mukha daw akong Chinese sabi ni Ate My coz my eyes are like alkansya slits. Di lang sa puyat and pagod namumugto eyes ko, dunno why, but I’ve been having dreams lately where I think I end up waking up to tears… but then when I touch my face the tears aren’t there at all. Add that to the dog howling… *shudder* hope nothing untoward happens to anybody I know.



December 20:
Watched The Ghost with Ate Jen and Miss Obis. It was fun. Miss Obis, our C.I. is actually younger than me by around two years so felt kinda weird calling her ma’am outside of school and class, but I gotta keep calling her that coz she is my superior when it comes to nursing coz after all, she is a R.N. after all. Our group’s actually quite lucky that she’s our C.I. coz she’s so approachable and well, nice.

Anyways, about the movie. It was okay. Kinda follows the usual formula that horror/suspense movies have. Had a few nakakabigla but not really frightening moments, nabigla ako mostly coz of the sound effects but not the pic itself. Hayyy… wonder when there’d be a movie I won’t have any complaints about.



December 21, 2004:
Went with Tita Betty and my mom to Makro and bought some stuff needed for the gift/relief goods giving on the 24th. Then went to the mall, yes… again and bought some groceries from the super, ate dinner at Ta Yang after we met Ate Rhea. Rather uneventful really.



December 22, 2004:
Woke up at 330 am, went to Simbang Gabi. Watched early news when I got home… all about FPJ’s funeral. Fell asleep during the coverage of the funeral. Woke up at 1030am. Ate a very late breakfast. Typed some stuff… I have yet to finish Russell’s story coz James went and had me change EVERYTHING! That primadona bloke… Anyway, Tita Bets came at around 1pm and she and mom talked about her hearing. The barangay captain didn’t come daw, and Tita’s totally pissed. She’s planning to sue the other party for hurting Ate Sarah… okay, long story. I really don’t wanna get too much into it. Pero if she’ll continue what she plans to do, then that woman who hit Ate’s head repeatedly on the wall’s seriously gonna find herself in jail this Christmas.


I scanned a few pix from the Xmas party we had for the Dolores South community, the barangay we were assigned to for our RLE in PHC2. They’re in black and white coz my bloody scanner’s acting up and its colored function’s gone haywire for some reason. So anyways, here are the pics…

Don't we look busy? Lolz... Cadiz sure knows how to take a shot. That's me sitting, next to me is Ate Jen (she's way older than me and Ms. Obis so have to call her Ate) next is Khrisna, then Dwight, then Cherie, Bryan and Jim. Methinks Michael's hidden somewhere behind Jim there or something. And no, this isn't in front of the Health Center. That's a restaurant where we meet up every 7am before going to the Center. 

Busy putting cards on the umbrellas we gave away for the Xmas party... tokem pf appreciation kuno for the health workers who we'll be hounding until March. At least we gave them something, ne? Kahit tig-75php lang yung mga payong heheh^^0 

after everything was ready, we all sat down to review for our prelims... (left to right) here's dwight, michael, me, robert and irish 

from left to right: Khrisna(the one hidden), Ms. Obis, Cherie, Ate Jen, Michael, Cadiz, Irish, Dwight, and two barangay officials from Dolores South 

December 15:
The Christmas party we held for the Dolores South community went off without too many hitches. It was actually a success; our C.I., Miss Obis, raved about it to her fellow professors. The food was more than enough for everyone, we even had a full bilao of puto left which we gave to the C.I.s when we returned to school.

Would have been an entirely good day had it not been the start of our bloody-shitty-crappy prelim exams... the first one of which is PHC, which I didn't get to study about enough coz of the bloody party that was another requirement for the same subject. Was intensely pissed off with myself that day coz of that... I had a very unfortunate mental-fricking-black during the ending part of the test and couldn't remember almost 15-fricking items! 15!!! Dammit...

Well, what's done is done. I'll just have to pull up the prelim grades later...


December 16:
Day ended quite nicely. Did very well in my two exams for Health Econ and STS. Saw him at the end of the day before going home... actually, he saw me and my PHC groupmate talking about our timetable for the community and he went and greeted us. Forgot to greet him Merry Christmas, in case I don't see him anymore this year. Ah well... still, I got to talk to him ^^ (pathetic, ne? ^^0)


December 17:
Hmmm... went to school to research for Health Econ only to find the library closed coz it was the UA employees' Xmas Party this day. So went to SM and watched Nicolas Cage's National Treasure... it was quaintly nice. Not as exciting as I expected it would be. Somewhat Indiana Jones-like or Relic Hunter-ish. It certainly does not make it as one of my all-time favorites.


December 18:
Have no class today... 3 meetings na kami niyan di nagkaklase for the Sat class... we are soooooooooo behind sa lessons, patay kami nito sa next year paniguradong mamadaliin kami.

Anyways, watched Angel Eyes last night in WOWOW... fell in love with Jim Caviezel ^_^ He is just too good looking for words. So I'll end it at that and just upload pics of him I found on the net just today. ^_^

I just love this man's eyes @_@ 

I already watched the movie but am only now reading the book... ang sobrang different ng movie sa original plot ng libro! I can't hate the movie though, coz JC's there hehehe ^^ 

Hmmm... so FPJ's dead? Ah well, not surprised when I heard he had a stroke. Used to think strokes are a lot less worse than heart attacks, in truth they are worse coz they affect the brain directly. The human brain is what actually keeps us alive so damage it the way a stroke can and it leaves you either paralyzed or very dead. I know, I know... the pathology's a lot more complicated than that pero I really don't wanna go technical, I do that often enough at school.

Speaking of school... Nursing Day's over and done. Thank God! Pero pumalit naman e yung prelims and that stupid xmas party for the community health center kung san kami nagduduty. Sobrang toxic ng week na to! Grabe, hell week talaga!

Dagdagan ng lahat ng utos ng mga prof sakin coz I'm the class presi plus the Nightingale job... methinks I maybe bit off more than I can chew...

What a totally tiring day!!! Pero sulit! As in sobrang sulit! Especially that time during the two seminars. Have to thank Atom for making me cover both for Nightingale coz I ended up talking and sitting with *BEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

^__________________________^

God, thank you so very very very very much for today ^_^

I will absolutely not rant about the rantable stuff that happened. Am too happy to rant heheheh ^_^

How hard should writing a letter be?! Dammit. I know I shouldn't have left doing this at the last minute, it's just that I didn't have time to do it yesterday nor the day before. So why am I writing in my blog instead of that darned letter? Just to let off steam. And let people know I'm still alive. I have a BUSY day ahead of me, nevermind that some parts of it would exceed my inaneness-and-therefore-will-bore-me-out-of-my-wits meter (i.e. parade). It's my bloody responsibility to bleeding be there and help out coz my classmates voted me into this job. But it's entirely my fault I need to cover the seminar; I was the one after all who joined that bleeding-still-not-yet-published-first-issue of a school newspaper coz the bloody bitch of a dean is just too temperamentally srewish to listen to reason and practicality.

I'm ranting. I'm totally pissed off. I went to sleep okay (since I was writing Rushkin's flavor fic) then woke up pissed off. Go figure.

Gah... I need to be at the Cathedral by 6am sharp, else makakaltas ang oh-soooo-important attitude grade ko *grumbles*

I'm alive! Walang baha sa amin although the river water's REALLY high. Thank God di kami nakatira malapit sa ilog coz I heard baha daw sa banda ron.

I wonder how Ralph and Au are doing, taga-Candaba kasi sila e.

We don't have class today, at least that's what the news people are saying. I still have to text Ma'am Au or anyone of the C.I.s to know for sure. Buti na lang afternoon pa classes ko. Got no prob about being at school at 730 in the morning. Hmmm... di nanaman kaya kami nito magmemeeting for the Nursing Day? Kasi yung mga plans hindi matuloy-tuloy coz of the storm... Weheheh, sana nga! I like having an official reason to skip class, lolz ^^

December 1, what a great day! Can't say how though, too personal. But how I wish for a repeat of yesterday. Especially those moments before the meeting started and at the meeting itself when... hehheh, can't say. ^^