monthly highlights: may

may was a quieter month.. spent on much needed rest after march and april.. :p that's not to say that things on the work front wasn't still very heavy, even with christa back.. so may still went by very quickly.. :p

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aileen went home again for a weekend to attend a friend's wedding.. so we had the requisite dinner together.. :p

on our first walking around mckinley hill, we saw the enderun campus.. it's a very nice campus.. so we decided to have dinner there when aileen comes..

photo by sol

on the night of our dinner, it so happens that there was a wedding.. and the restaurant was just separated from the function hall by a glass wall.. so we get to watch it.. :p

the food was very good.. at least mine was.. :p unfortunately, i wasn't able to take photos.. :( i ordered the forest mushroom soup with truffle foam.. it was very close to the very best mushroom soup i've had.. which was the one we cooked in intercontinental hotel in frankfurt.. :p

circa 2007, i forgot who took this already

for mains, i had the veal with morel sauce.. it was very yummy as well.. we also had dessert.. the only one i have a photo of..

but it was just ok.. it doesn't compare with the one we had in rome.. haha.. i should have tried the louis xv instead.. well, maybe next time.. :p

as always, when we get aileen and jeanie together, it's laugh trip to the max.. the best phrase being.. "may alzheimer's ka ba?" :p

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since franz is getting married this october, he decided to learn how to cook this summer..

so for mother's day, he and my dad decided to go for homecooked meals instead..

unfortunately, they didn't tell me of this plan ahead of time so i could have baked dessert as well..

instead, i ordered from carla and elaines's.. but upon coming there, they have no record of my order of toffee almond.. and no toffee almond available anymore.. boo-ness.. i was sooo disappointed.. even though chocolate decadence was good.. i still wanted the toffee almond.. :( and i wish i baked instead.. :(

anyway, we still had an enjoyable dinner.. and i believe it was a happy day for mom.. :p

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we had a diy session at sol's place for chase's 7th birthday.. with a dragons & vikings theme.. which used to be a book party theme.. but after aissa's art party, he suddenly changed it because it was boring.. ais was bummed at first.. but i have to admit, i got excited because it's more fun to implement.. and i immediately sent her ideas on how we can execute it.. so she got excited as well.. :p

as ais already blogged, ais and i made viking helmets..

while sol made dragon tails..

photo by ais

i also made the volcano.. which was the most juvenile of the crafts.. haha..

and of course, a diy day & a day at sol's wouldn't be complete without a food fest.. sol and their helpers prepared a fabulous lunch of pasta, fish, and veggies.. ais bought treats from serenitea and cake from carla and elaine's.. while john bought barbeque and starbucks for snacks (yeah, they really go together :p).. we also had fabulous twg earl grey tea.. :p

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i also started a 30 day photo challenge that i found on pinterest.. it's a real challenge to take a photo everyday.. especially on weekdays where after a very long day at work, i still needed to cook our dinner and lunch for the next day.. so i wind up taking photos very late at night when i'm already very sleepy.. :p

it was also a challenge to be limited on the subjects i can find at our place.. since i can't really go out to find subjects nor take photos in the office.. :p

i already consider it an achievement to have gone the first 13 days without fail.. even though i'm not really happy with some of my photos.. i slipped last friday coz i had a pounding headache.. and i don't really have a subject for that theme.. :p i'll just get back to it later on.. :p

still, it was fun to push my creativity in finding subjects and styling the shoot.. here are my favorites..