Lavender & Coffee Stains

Dear Me,

There are times that I dislike doing tags and memes but I prefer to do this one. No need to ask why. Hehehe.

Actually, no one tagged me. I simply came across this meme from Alpha's blog.


1. Are there any babies in your family or circle of friends?

Well, I recently gave birth to my very cute and adorable Carlos Miguel. He is the first baby in the family. I hope he gets all the love and care everyone has to give. I also have friends who already have their own bundle/s of joy. =)


2. Are you one of those people who use a high-pitched, sing-song voice when talking to babies and small children?

I prefer to talk to my baby the normal way (like adults do) but sometimes I talk to him in that sing-song voice.


3. If you were standing in line next to a *very* pregnant stranger at the bank or grocery store, what would you say to her?

Well, it depends. If the preggy woman looks nice and friendly, I do strike a conversation with her like asking how many months before she's due.


4. Similarly, what do you say or do near babies in public?

When I see babies, I try to make them smile or laugh by making funny faces, doing peek-a-boo. Well, I normally succeed. Hehehe.


5. When walking through a department store, are you the sort of person who can go by the baby clothes without even a glance or do you have to stop to ooh and ahh?

Before having my baby, I just tend to appreciate them from a distance. But now, I have to touch those cutey baby clothes and buy even just a piece.

Go ahead and tag yourselves. =)

Dear Me,

Well, the baby is still napping and I thought of having a little ME time. =)

I thought of returning the favors to some good blog pals who took time to read my posts, include me in their tags and goodwill (by giving me blog badges). It overwhelms me to learn that some people actually read my space here. Thank you, guys!

This one came from EmmyRose of Just Let Go. She gave me my 1st blogger badge. =) Actually, she is just a new addition to my list of new blog pals. If you blog peepz are looking for a combination of soulful and light reads, visit Emmy's place.


Thanks Emmy and in return, I am presenting this I LOVE UR BLOG badge to my favorite blogs as well.

Jon of 03.03.03 Stories - a very good friend and was like a "kuya" to me

Trinity of Rooms Of My Heart - my newest blog pal

Judie of Everybody Wants Something another new blog friend on the block who reminds me of my good but not-so-old days of being a yuppie girl.

Ms. Vickie of Vick's Events - known her through BWI and like her, I love Baguio so much.

Lynn of Everything And Then Some... - I just love her very interesting posts about motherhood, food, etc.

I am not sure if there's a limit of blogs to be cited for this blog award but nonetheless, I am also sharing this blog love badge to the following:

Vessa of Right To Rant

Kegler of Travel Blogging

Nice of Diary Of A Nice Girl

Hope you guys share this with the others, too!

Dear Me,

Here's the drill on Thursdays. Since it is chow time, I'm featuring food for my T13. =)


graphic courtesy of Chaotic Home

Thirteen Dishes/Food
I Am Planning To Prepare On My Own
(Some of the dishes posted are homegrown Pinoy)

1. Cheezy Macaroni
   
   
2. Tropical Blast
   
   
3. Italian Sausage Toppings
   
   
4. Chicken Gata
   
   
5. Pork Chop Steak
   
   
6. Pinakbet
   
   
7. Corned Beef Spaghetti
   
   
8. Lechon Kawali
   
   
9. Humba
   
   
10. Lasagna
    
    
11. Pork Afritada
    
    
12. Adobong Pusit
    
    
13. Spanish Omelet

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Morgan st. John
2. Christine
3. Bloggers
4. Nicholas
5. Damozel


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Dear Me,

Here's another monthly update on my own . My last update was August 2007.




September 2007
. L.A. Justice by Christopher Darden
. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
. Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
. No Boyfriend Since Birth by Claire Betita
. Ang Paboritong Libro Ni Hudas by Bob Ong
. Wander Girl by Tweet Sering

August 2007
. The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum
. Roses Are Red by James Patterson
. The Jester by James Patterson

July 2007
. Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
. Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

June 2007
. Deep Six by Clive Cussler
. White Death by Clive Cussler

March-May 2007
. Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler
. Lost City by Clive Cussler
. Nights In Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
. Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler
. YoungBlood 2.0 (Philippine Publication by Inquirer.net
. YoungBlood (Philippine Publication by Inquirer.net
. The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

February 2007
. When We Were Gods: A Novel Of Cleopatra by Colin Falconer
. Precipice by Colin Forbes

January 2007
. The Not-So-Perfect Man by Valerie Frankel
. Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler

. Books In 2006



. The Rule Of Four by Ian Caldwell
. From Socrates To Sartre: The Philosophic Quest by T. Z. Lavine
. A Murder Of Promise by Robert Andrews
. The Collectors by David Baldacci
. Violets Are Blue by James Patterson


Book Synopsis
L.A. Justice by Christopher Darden
Suspense thriller whose two protagonists, L.A. prosecuting attorney Nikki Hill and her lover, police detective Virgil Sykes, seem like an idealized version of Darden and Marcia Clark. When Nikki is assigned to a high-profile case prosecuting Randy Bingham, the spaced-out son of a wealthy financier, for the murder of his girlfriend, Shelli Dietz, she and Virgil develop a special relationship with Shelli's orphaned son, a brilliant and precocious 10-year-old computer genius who's the chief witness against Bingham. There are enough dirty cops and sleazy crooks to keep the action moving, plus a psychopath or two.

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
Samantha Sweeting is on the verge of partnership at the prestigious London law firm Carter Spink - the Holy Grail of her entire workaholic life. But when she finds she has made a terrible, costly mistake just before the partnership decision, she's terrified of being fired. In a fog, she stumbles out of the building and onto the nearest train, which drops her in the countryside, where she wanders to a stately home. The nouveau riche lady of the house mistakes her for the new housekeeper and Samantha is too astonished to correct her. Numb and unable to face returning to London, Samantha tries to master the finer points of laundry, cooking and cleaning. She discovers that the slow life, her pompous but good-hearted employers and the attentions of the handsome gardener, Nathaniel, suit her just fine. But her past is hard to escape, and when she discovers a terrible secret about her firm and when the media learns that the former legal star is scrubbing toilets for a living -- her life becomes more complicated than ever.

Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely and Emma bids him an awkward goodbye. When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight. He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend. But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating. So why can't she stop thinking about him?

No Boyfriend Since Birth by Claire Betita
She's so smart and pretty, how come she's not with anyone? Junior marketing executive Rudie Bermejo can't figure out why she's never had a boyfriend and why no one seems interested beyond being friends. All her friends tell her she looks great, and her boss thinks she's got the smarts to make it big and guys think she's a cool chick to hang with. That should make her a catch, right? Determined to graduate from the No Boyfriend Since Birth Society, Rudie decides to take matters into her own able hands. And the dating spree is only the beginning.

Ang Paboritong Libro Ni Hudas by Bob Ong

Wander Girl by Tweet Sering
Before she became the uber-successful creator of the Wander Girl Guidebooks, a series of travel books made especially for Pinays, Hilda Gallares was a self-declared loser. Fresh from the clutches of college, she couldn't wait to take wing and discover the world - see the sights and savor the scents of all things strange and foreign. But her plan to become a flight attendant and travel the world for free hit a major dead-end early in the game: the unfortunate height requirement. It was a slight snag in her globetrotting dreams that nevertheless unraveled her. Since no self-respecting girl should let any setback stop her from following her heart, Hilda sets off on a journey that takes her through days of pining for the perfect job, over rough seas of heartbreak and disappointment (not to mention bad sex) and even into foreign territory: passionate Frenchmen, earnest New Zealanders, witty Brits. Armed only with an honest map to her own heart, it's a journey that eventually leads her to her true calling, her true self and true love.

The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum
After his twin brother dies in a plane crash, Ben Hartman reluctantly takes his place in the investment firm started by their father, a Holocaust survivor. But then an old college buddy tries to kill Ben on a crowded Zurich street, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads Ben into the thick of a worldwide conspiracy. Behind it is Sigma, a multinational cartel built on the rubble of World War II by industrialists and financiers bent on exploiting wartime technology and protecting their wealth from the threat of communism. Accompanied by a beautiful American justice department agent, Ben eludes the assassins on his trail and follows Sigma's tentacles across Europe, to Brazil, Washington and finally to a sanitarium known as the Clockworks in the Austrian Alps, where the horrifying agenda of a perverted new world order is revealed.

Roses Are Red by James Patterson
The story opens with the District of Columbia detective attempting to mend his nearly unraveled family. The year-long kidnapping of one's intended will do that to a relationship. Christine, the kidnappee, is amenable with one reasonable condition: that her family's horizon remain uncluttered by homicidal maniacs. How unfortunate, then, that the joyous christening of their newborn son is rudely interrupted by the FBI bearing news of several heinous murders requiring the attention of detective Cross. The Mastermind, the barbarous brains behind a widening series of bank robberies in which employees or their family members are held hostage and, when instructions aren't followed are murdered. working with him in the case are Cross' long-time DCPD partner John Sampson and the warm, attractive and fiercely intelligent FBI Agent Betsey Cavalierre.

The Jester by James Patterson
Hugh de Luc, an unassuming innkeeper in a French village was being oppressed by the local nobleman. To earn his freedom, he joins the Crusades for a torturous, bloody march toward Jerusalem and later on, escaping the madness around him by deserting back to France while in possession of some minor treasures. Back home, he finds that his beloved wife has been taken captive by the odious nobleman, and his infant son slain. Seeking his wife and revenge, Hugh adopts the guise of a jester in order to enter to the nobleman's castle, where he begins to fall in love with a young noblewoman, and she with him. In time, Hugh finds his wife, only to experience tragedy, and learns that the nobleman is searching for him, as he is believed to have carried back from the Crusades the greatest holy relic of all. Returning to his village, which has been destroyed during the nobleman's hunt for him, Hugh persuades his townspeople, then surrounding towns, to rise up in revolt against the corrupt nobleman and his henchmen.

Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
Becky Bloomwood, now married, pregnant and working as the head personal shopper for a brand-new London boutique. The commercially insatiable Bex shops for two in every upscale baby shop and catalogue in London, snags a celebrity ob/gyn and leverages a pair of the moment's "most coveted" boots to negotiate a home purchase. Complicating an otherwise uneventful pregnancy, Becky suspects her husband, PR biz-wiz Luke Brandon, is having an affair with her hot doc (who also happens to be Luke's ex-girlfriend), so she hires a gumshoe with predictable madcap results.

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
Using the latest advancements in military technology, the world's superpowers battle it out on land, sea, and air for the ultimate global control. A chillingly authentic vision of modern war.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family. As Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite valor, love, and rancor of a great epic.

Deep Six by Clive Cussler
A deadly tide of poison flows into ocean waters. A ghost ship drifts across the empty northern Pacific. A luxury Soviet liner blazes into a funeral pyre. The Presidential yacht cruises the Potomac night -- and the President disappears without a trace. Dirk Pitt takes on a sinister Asian shipping empire in an intercontinental duel of nerves. In his most dangerous, fast-paced adventure, he fights to save the U.S. government and to seize one desperate moment of revenge!

White Death by Clive Cussler
A confrontation between a radical environmentalist group and a Danish cruiser has forced Austin and colleague Joe Zavala to come to the rescue of a shipful of trapped men, but when the two of them investigate further, they discover that something far more sinister is at work. A shadowy multinational corporation is attempting to wrest control of the very seas themselves-no matter what havoc results, and is killing anyone who attempts to stop them. When Austin's boat blows up and he only barely survives, it seems certain he was supposed to be the next in line to die, but he cannot stop now.

Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler
Dirk Pitt's NUMA survey ship happens to be in the vicinity when the world's newest and biggest cruise ship founders and sinks, giving Pitt the chance to stage the daring rescue of nearly 2,000 passengers. Among those who perish is a famous scientist whose revolutionary engines powered the ship to her watery grave; while Pitt is unable to save Dr. Egan, he rescues his beautiful daughter Kelly from the sea, and later from a murder attempt aboard the rescue vessel. Pitt and his trusty pal Al Giordino track the sinking to the boardroom door of a multinational conglomerate called Cerberus, whose evil CEO has designs on the world's oil supply. He'll do anything to keep Egan's advanced engines and secret formula for frictionless oil off the market -- even sabotage another vessel, this time a luxury passenger submarine.

Lost City by Clive Cussler
Kurt Austin, leader of the National Underwater and Marine Agency's Special Assignments Team, battles international evildoers again in the fifth installment of this excellent series. There are several parallel plots: a mysterious aviator has been found frozen in a massive glacier; a mutant seaweed is threatening to choke the world's oceans; a giant submarine is roaming the thermal vents of the deep sea area known as the Lost City; and the secretive, arms-dealing Fauchard family, run by ruthless black-widow Racine and her homicidal son, Emil, is up to no good. Also there's a mysterious 16th-century helmet, a search for the philosopher's stone and an island of filthy, mutant cannibals. Austin's love interest is lush, sensual Skye Labelle, an archeologist specializing in arms and armor. Austin and his band of merry men fight to stop the Fauchards from reaching the ultimate evildoer's goal: world domination.

Nights In Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
The story of two middle-aged people who meet by chance in the small North Carolina coastal town of Rodanthe. Once again, a housewife who has focused on everyone but herself indulges in a brief, intense, secret affair with a stranger who changes her life forever. As the story begins, Adrienne Willis is 60, the divorced mother of three grown children. To help her troubled daughter cope with the untimely recent death of her husband, Adrienne tells her the tale of her love affair, which took place 15 years before. At the time, Adrienne was an uptight matron whose ex-husband had just left her for a younger woman. This rejection colors her entire life, and Sparks realistically portrays a vulnerable and isolated woman who throws herself into raising her children to escape her despair. Paul Flanner, her paramour, is a surgeon and an obsessive workaholic with no genuine connection to his wife or son, whose world completely falls apart when one of his patients inexplicably dies.

Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler
When mysterious black obsidian skulls and other artifacts of an exceedingly ancient culture begin to turn up in odd places, Dirk Pitt jumps in with both feet. It soon becomes dangerously apparent that a powerful, amoral group of fanatics calling itself the Fourth Empire wants the strange discoveries to remain underground. Pitt teams up with a beautiful red-haired expert in ancient languages to decipher the meaning of the artifacts. They were made 10 millennia ago in a then-temperate Antarctica by a seafaring civilization advanced enough to predict its own destruction by a comet impact. Now the Fourth Empire (whose literal and figurative progenitor comes as no surprise) is predicting a similar disaster in only a matter of months, and preparing to take control of the earth.

The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum
Paul Janson, a former covert operative turned private security executive who's stranded, abandoned, and marked for murder by his old colleagues when he manages to survive an unsurvivable mission. Rescuing renowned philanthropist and statesman-without-portfolio Peter Novak from the clutches of the terrorist who murdered his wife and unborn child, Paul Janson watches, unbelieving, as the plane carrying Novak back to freedom explodes before his eyes. Soon after the first post-mission attempt on his life, Janson begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

When We Were Gods: A Novel Of Cleopatra by Colin Falconer
Fifty-one years before the birth of Jesus Christ, in the fertile Nile valley, 18-year-old Cleopatra ascends to the throne of Egypt upon the death of her father, Ptolemy XII. Inheriting a palace that more closely resembles a snake pit than a home, crowded with family and advisers, Cleopatra must come to terms with the heavy burden of royalty and its inevitable loneliness. Her only trusted friend is Mardian, the giant eunuch who has been her tutor since childhood. From an Egypt desperately attempting to retain its hold on ancient religions and traditions in a rapidly changing world, to the hypocritical halls of the Roman Republic, the young queen weaves her web of seduction, ensnaring not only the cold, driven Julius Caesar but also a playful Marcus Antonius. Falconer's Cleopatra is vulnerable, intelligent and liberated, defined by her wit as much as by her beauty.

Precipice by Colin Forbes
Tweed, Paula Grey and Bob Newman stalk their most dangerous enemy yet. Leopold Brazil, dominant figure in the West, has a secret plan 'to change the balance of world power'. Philip Cardon and Eve Warner see the grim murders of General Sterndale and his son in Dorset. Eve is a strange personality, tearing at the emotions of Philip, still grief-stricken by his wife's death. Two more murders occur as Brazil visits his Dorset Mansion. And Tweed hears of a new deadly assassin, The Motorman.

The action sweeps to Geneva where Paula fights for her life. Tweed and his team fly to Zurich. There is war on the streets. Tweed struggles to uncover the secret of Brazil's global plan, to locate twenty key scientists - in communications and the information superhighway - who have disappeared. The Motorman strikes again.

The Not-So-Perfect Man by Valerie Frankel
Frieda Schast lost her husband, Gregg, to cancer over a year ago and hasn't been interested in dating -- until a sexy actor named Sam Hill walks into her life. Suddenly, she's swept up in a passionate liaison and loving every minute of it. She faces the disapproval of her older sister, Irene, a writer for a business magazine who would like to set Frieda up with her colleague David. Irene is frustrated with her husband, Peter, who needs to lose a good 40 pounds. Frieda's younger sister, Betty, is grappling with her own romantic problems; she's always been overweight and defensive, but when a sexy guy at work breaks through her barriers, she finds herself unexpectedly falling in love. Frieda is so caught up in romantic bliss that she barely notices her sisters' problems until Sam leaves town for an acting job and Frieda begins to wonder if she's fooling herself about their relationship after all.

Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler
Eric the Red's A.D. 1000 discovery of a radioactive meteorite has present-day life-or-death ramifications. Aboard the Oregon, a state-of-the-art warship disguised as a rusty tramp steamer and manned by some of the world's finest ex-military and intelligence operatives, the men and women of the Oregon - "mercenaries with a conscience" - known collectively as the Corporation, offer their services to various countries and individuals with specialized security and military needs. The Corporation's chairman, Juan Cabrillo, has several pressing concerns: supply security for the emir of Qatar, who is attending a conference in Iceland; track down a nuclear bomb that has gone astray and pick up the aforementioned meteorite, which has just been found ensconced in a mysterious shrine. These jobs become dangerously complicated when industrialist Halifax Hickman, a man fueled by revenge and hatred, enters the picture. The meteorite, the atomic bomb and a vial of plague are to be used in attacks on holy sites - Israel's Dome of the Rock and Saudi Arabia's al-Haram mosque - and at an Elton John concert. It's a deadly game, but the brilliant Cabrillo is a master player, moving his pieces at lightning speed on several boards until he outmaneuvers his opposition in this action-packed page-turner.