Via I Can Has Cheezburger.

Awwww.

So sweet.

Macam boyfriendku. Heehee.

Anyhow. I’ve been posting other things on my blog these days. It’s either I have been too lazy to blog about my usual nonsense, or I’m too busy watching DVDs in my room. Aiseh. I can finally be one of the priviledged people who have a TV in their rooms. This sounds sad, but let me let you know, that all my life, I wasn’t allowed to have a TV of any sort in my room. It’s OK for me to have a laptop that plays DVDs and surf the Internet, but not a television.

My mom always thought that if I always had a TV in my room, I wouldn’t go down for meals. Seriously, though, with my mom’s ability to get you downstairs no matter what, it wouldn’t have been a problem. I guess she just insists that we stick to the plan. Until recently.

It’s great. I used to turn on the radio when the room gets really quiet. Now, I just either put Astro on or pop in a Project Runway DVD. And now, all I need is a good sofa to watch my TV. Izzah thinks I need a Wii, but that will have to come some other time. I need my sofa!

What I’m also loving about the new TV is that I get to watch movies and Will & Grace with the boyfriend. Who says you can’t rock a long-distance relationship? LOL.

Anyway, I’ve been having Italian for sungkai three times alone this week. I had a folded pizza at Fratini’s on Wednesday with Mumtaz and boyfriend, Zainul, who had treated me to a good meal and a great laugh. Then I went to Capers on Friday with my CIS20 friends. Just yesterday, I went to Villa Mauri with Izzah. I think, by far, Villa Mauri served the best food and had the best servers. It was my first time there, and I am very, very impressed.

I just wasn’t pleased with the loud lady girl (she does not merit the word lady) on the next table. She doesn’t even get the hint we had given her. Maybe Izzah and I weren’t loud enough. We gather that they were a table of bloggers. She was that loud, OK? We couldn’t help but overhear. Nyeh.

I’m going to go back to my dose of Project Runway now. More updates soon.

SIGH. What a weekend that was. I’m still left tired from all of it.

Let’s start with Saturday.

• I had to get out of the office mid-morning because my uncle’s father-in-law passed away, and my mom needed someone to drive her to Selayun because her car was blocked my someone else’s.
• Picked up my sister from STPRI, and before that, had to get her afternoon school clothes at home.
• Lunch was spent at Yayasan, just so I can get back to work in time, and my mom could send my sister back to school.
• Back in the office, I had to finish two proposals (which I had just finished this morning).
• Went home at 4.30PM, and took a nap before going back to Selayun for congregational prayer and tahlil at about 7PM.
• Left Selayun at about 9.30PM, and shopped for groceries at the nearby Giant, which thankfully closes at 11PM.
• Finished shopping around 10.30PM, and planned to bake Madeira cupcakes with cream cheese topping for Sunday’s get-together when we got home, but my exhaustion convinced me otherwise.

Then on Sunday..

• Woke up unusually early to bake and frost Madeira cupcakes before leaving the house to pick kain up from YMRM at Batu Satu (compliments of a friend/socialite for my mom on Mothers’ Day.) Accomplished baking and frosting in less than 90 minutes, but ended up with aching arms.
• Had lunch right after picking up the kain, and went to Giant again for the things we had forgotten the night before.
• Finally arrived home after half an hour of last-minute shopping. With cupcakes done, all I had to do was make baked pasta.
• Bring the pasta to a boil, create easy-to-make sauce with chicken, sliced mushrooms, and a can of tomato sauce, then found out that the sauce wasn’t enough for the pasta. I have to add that the discovery was made after I had mixed in the sauce with all of the pasta.
• So I had to go to WesMart to get more of the canned sauce, hoping that they had it in stock. They didn’t.
• Off I went to Giant, hoping that they had stocked the sauce. They did.
• Then my mom asked me to buy starch flour, and Giant didn’t have the brand that my mom wanted, so off to WesMart I had to go.
• Thankfully, this didn’t go on and on, so I could make my way home by the time flour was in hand.
• Baked my pasta, just in time for the arrival of our family members.
• Entertained them from about 3PM to a little before dusk. Entertained in every possible way.
• Was supposed to head down to Selayun for another tahlil session after the family left the house, but I was too tired to even keep my eyes open, let alone drive, so I had to pass.
• I was in a not-so-good mood when I was talking to the boyfriend last night, and he realized it. (It was hard to hide things like exhaustion sometimes.)

Just thinking about the weekend makes me tired. I’m off for now.

I hate spam comments. If any of your comments get stuck in the spam list, I don’t think I have the patience to weed them out, because they come by the hundreds! I probably need a better spam filter, don’t I?

So anyway, the cupcakes I made the other day turned out great! Well, I cheated, but it was great still. Makes a good dessert after every meal, every day until it runs out. Fattening, but such a good guilty pleasure. Mom has asked to make another batch to be made available on Sweet Tooth for the weekend. So if you want a taste, do drop by. I’m selling them B$0.50 apiece.

I think what made it nice was the frosting. Before this, my mom has never liked the cupcakes that I had baked. She thinks they’re too sweet, or too chocolatey (in some chocolatey cases). This time around, she loves them! She actually feels like having one whenever I talk about making another batch.

I’m limiting myself to one cupcake per day, and that’s already a lot! I swear I’m not going to bake another batch for myself.

Moving on from cupcakes.. a friend told me about Chris Brown’s Forever, and that reminded me that I keep on wanting to post about this: ever since his and Jordin Sparks’ performance on American Idol 7 results show, I think I have a small crush on him. LOL.

I think my female cousins would say, “KETINGGALAN!!” Or something.

OK. Back to work.

I want to make this:

Mmm.. Nyum.

I don’t know why I even have a digital camera. I don’t even post pictures up these days, and I can’t remember when the last time I had uploaded pictures from my camera onto my laptop. I’ve got pictures, you see, on how I spent my first day of the Gregorian year. But I am too lazy.

My cousin’s son and daughter had a birthday party on the new year and it was just so much fun! They had bouncers, slides, games (with cool stationery for the kids, and Easi recharge cards for grown-ups as prizes — I won $20!), great food, live band, karaoke, and great company! There’s nothing like your family surrounding you, right? I just had a pang of longing for my dad’s presence. But it just feels numb now.

Anyway. Yes. I’m not working at The Studio anymore. If I were to reveal what happened in the place where unnecessary insanity/drama occurs every second of the day, it would be too controversial, and I may have to stab a few eyes to run away and get out of the country. That might have not made any sense, but it made more sense than tomatoes jumping out the window.

I’m delirious.

Nah. I’m just exhausted. I would really love some time to just sleep and not worry about waking up early the next day. No matter how many public holidays there are, the day just wouldn’t come.

I digress. I did sort of have a sad goodbye towards the end of my last show on the radio, though. The boyfriend was listening in, I usually tell him not to, but since it was my last.. why not. And he said the show had a sad vibe to it. Well, I was a little choked up when I said my long goodbye. HAHAHA. No. I did not cry. Please.

I’m glad that I no longer work there. At least by the end of my full-time working day, I wouldn’t have to worry about driving straight to RTB to continue working. It can get quite tiring. But I would like to wish my former colleagues who are still working at The Studio the best of luck. You will need it, especially after the change in show formats.

On another note, I have something great happening this weekend, but I need to stock up on my faith, and hope very hard that it will go great.

Oh, before I forget, I would also like to wish my former colleague at BAG Networks, dearest Nadd, who has left to grab bigger, and better opportunities elsewhere. (Who didn’t tell me this until today, the day she left!) But good luck, you! And let’s go for another thriller at the cinema next time and we’ll scream our heads off and then laugh at ourselves. You’re going to be missed!

.. I am my mom’s family’s event manager. True story.

I just had a random fight with him. Our first fight in 2007.

Getting off that random boat;

I also watched Alien VS. Predator — Requiem with my colleagues yesterday, including a former blogger by the name of Nadd. (I know you are reading! ) It was such a pity that the movie wasn’t that good. Don’t even waste your money on watching it in the cinemas, or buying a DVD. If your friend, sister, brother, cousin, or spouse has the DVD, then just borrow it off them. But then you’ll be wasting your time.

Just don’t watch it. Rating: 2 out of 5 stars. If it wasn’t for the hybrid, it would have been 1.

But I’d like to thank my colleagues who paid for my ticket and drink! (I didn’t find out in the end because they won’t tell.)

Liz’s family had a barbecue going on last night, and that was loads of fun. Fighting over food and whatnot. Haha. I don’t know if they had chocolate fondue (again) because I left to watch the movie.

I hate that tomorrow is a working day. I just want to laze about at home. Which, I seem to be not doing ever since I’ve got those things they call spare time. Whatever spare time I have, someone is bound to have something for me to do. Like drive them somewhere, or watch movies with them, or have lunch. Hahaha.

I’m supposed to have lunch with Maurina today, but I can’t because, like I said, I’m my mom’s family’s event manager.

(I am also sad that there haven’t been pictures of the GBN by our official photographer yet, but I am patient because I knew he took loads and loads of pictures and he has to recolour some of them as they were taken in the “orange veranda”. Hehe. Also, boys have been popping up here and there asking me why I haven’t invited them to the GBN because they saw me in a picture posted in Rano’s site. Seriously, boys. It’s called GIRLY Bloggers’ Night, and if that doesn’t take full effect, it’s also called GIRLS in December. LOL. You know I’m kidding. [Not about the name of the gathering, though.] Hahahaha. )

I mentioned I had something big for the end of the year. This is it! I got myself a Mazda CX-7 in white! And! I! Love! It!

Okay. I can’t find my camera’s USB thingy. Thus, no pictures. Never mind. Maybe next time. But I am going to post a proper entry.

I went to have a long overdue lunch with my girl friends today. Had a good catching up session, what’s been happening. And most importantly, I got to meet up with Izzah, whom I haven’t seen in ages! Even for Raya! Unbelievable as that is, it happened. I didn’t see her for Hari Raya. I don’t know what was wrong this year.

Anyway, us girls had Italian food at Capers and half of us drowned in the all you can eat promotion. Which, unfortunately, now costs B$2 more than it used to. No complaints from me, though. I still think it’s sort of worth it. If you’re on a budget and craving for Italian at the same time.

Fratini’s used to be my favourite Italian restaurant, but since the menu changed and my favourite dish is no longer on the menu, I haven’t gone there since a long time ago. Not sure of the pricing now, but paying for something that is considerably more than what I’m used to is just something I can’t do every other weekend. Maybe once in two months. Yea? But I don’t know. Haven’t been there since 2006 (or 2005), so, maybe I should consider dining there some time.

Oh, so back to the lunch, we had a great time, as always. I felt a part of my life is back. If only my wrist was well enough for me to play netball, I wouldn’t be as stressed. Yes, my mom has temporarily banned me from playing netball for now. Hopefully she’ll let me play next year. But I doubt it.

I just miss a lot of things right now. Things I would rather trade my new car with. You know? But I guess you can never have it all. Or at least you feel like you do.

I gave in. I’m such a softie who wants to bake super-cute cookies. Like those that come in boxes and all you have to do is add water.

SupaSave sells evil things like this one. LOL.

 
The cookies, pre-oven baked.

 
Up-close and personal: the Scooby Snack.

My sous-chef!

I don’t have any pictures after they were done baking in the oven, but they look pretty much the same as if they weren’t baked at all. LOL.

The Scooby Snacks didn’t taste really good though.

I had a small open house yesterday. I know, it’s 1st Zulkaedah on that day, and no longer Syawal, but despite the oversight, we went with it anyway.

I had gotten a “You said SMALL!” more times than I can count, but I swear, it was just a really small affair. What made it seem big was my family members and their cars in the frontyard! LOL.

I had my girl friends come over, I also had a number from back in my CIS days, and a few bloggers. I also had my best friend of 10 years come over, but she left early. That bully. I didn’t even get to take pictures with her. There were some people missing, and I hope (hope really hard!) that people received my text messages.

Because, like what I said to people who would want to listen, the day after my dad’s death, I had messaged everyone I knew about the passing of my dad. Apparently, only 70% of the people I sent text messages to had received it. So hopefully, people didn’t come because they couldn’t make it, and not because I didn’t hand out invites.

It really was just a small thing, you didn’t miss much.

Here are some pictures, but you can look around the full album here.

The single remaining sushi platter of three. The other two was gone in 20 minutes.

Rosie and I.

Amalina and boyfriend, Adee.

A tiny fraction of my CIS20 friends; Sel, Mia, and Noreen.

The bloggers who came; Rosie and Maurina.

I will caption them soon, I promise! For now, I’m off to watch Bee Movie with my mom and little sister.

I have decided.

I have decided that I am better than you. I have decided that I am a bigger person than you.

I know I have patience and perseverance. My mother taught me patience, and my father taught me perseverance. I will shame my father’s name if I give up now. I will let my mother down if I do.

I am surrounded by good, kind people and they have watched me grow. They will guide me through, and they will give me words of encouragement because you cannot and will not break me.

I am a strong person. I am a strong woman.

If I can go through hell in middle school, I can go through whatever it is that you put on my plate now. Why? Because I am strong.

I am strong, and you are not, because if you were, you would be standing differently than the way you are standing today. By Allah’s will, I am strong. Stronger than you are.

If Allah put me through my father’s death by seeing him breathe his last breath, and I am still here, as good as anyone who still has both their parents, then Allah will let me through all this with ease.

I will not let you have the satisfaction. No way on earth am I going to let you get to me so easily. You have got to do better than that.

[/rant]

So, with that rant aside, I would like to share with you my great weekend. With no pictures. (InshaAllah, I will edit this post soon with pictures, okay?)

My Saturday night was a blast. Miss Nonnie King held her birthday celebration over at Capers in Kiulap, and had great food. That reminds me. It’s officially the 5th of November now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NONNIE!
and also,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AARON!

With all the love from MY7THLIFE.NET

Where was I? Yes, great Saturday night, and after the night ended, I had a good conversation with someone to help me out with a few things by the time I got home and logged on to MSN Messenger. (Thank you!)

Then on Sunday.. which was barely yesterday, I went out with 9 of my cousins and sister to watch Stardust at The Mall Cineplex. I was a bit skeptic towards the movie at first, but after watching it, I fell in love with it! There was a good dose of magic and humour in it, I can’t help but loved the movie! I’ll rate it..

Rating:

But as I always say, watch it for yourself, and don’t take my word for it.

Anyway, the movie, popcorn, and drinks were all my treat, and after that, a select few of us then went to have sushi. What made my day was when one of my cousins said, “Wow, Ka, thanks for making this the best day ever!” (’Ka’ is short for ‘Kaka’, which means ‘big sister’, and in this case, he was referring to me.)

That just made my day and made me think, I can rise above ‘my problem’ (read rant above.) You know? I guess you might not.

I’m off to bed. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.