Tunay Na Mahal

Wordless Wednesday: The world's saddest snowman.

2012-01-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

Cherry eyes, carrot nose & toothpick arms! Lol!

The snowman was made as a joke. We got 3 inches of snow on Saturday & my Mom was teasing my husband saying he should make his 1st ever snowman. :-p

I ♥ ♥ ♥ my Kindle Fire!

2012-01-22T12:07:00.004-05:00

When I last wrote about the Kindle Fire, I was still unsure, whether it would live up my expectations. There were so many conflicting articles online about what it would do or what it couldn't do.

I've had my Kindle Fire for a little over 2 months now and I can say it has definitely lived up to my expectations. I absolutely LOVE it. The 7 inch touch screen is really vibrant. I love it's compact size. It's a bit heavier than I expected it to be, but I've gotten used to it.

I love that even if I'm waiting for my train in the freezing cold with gloves on- the touch screen responds! I don't even have to take my gloves off! That is so neat to me, considering most touch screens won't respond when you have gloves on! The keyboard is a nice size when you have your Kindle Fire in landscape mode, it's almost like typing on a real keyboard. I've heard people have had issues with the sensitivity of the touch screen, but I haven't had any.

It's true that you don't have access to the actual Android Market. You have to go through the Amazon App Store, but they have been pretty good at adding all of the apps I normally use. Plus they offer a free paid app every day for free! I've gotten a few good ones that way! (Monopoly, Drawing Pad). I also own Sim City Deluxe and the graphics are amazing on that!

My Apps

I use my Kindle Fire every day on the train and at home. I love that on the train I can use my T-mobile Sidekick 4G as a mobile router so I can browse the internet on my Kindle Fire when there are no hot spots available. (I have unlimited high speed internet from T-mobile). Plus I'm lucky that when I'm waiting for my train home, 30th Street Station has free wi-fi!

My library offers free e-books now. So I'm constantly checking out books. There's also a lot of free books & classics available in the Amazon Kindle store. And I've also purchased a few books.

Just some of my books.

The Kindle Fire only has 6GB of internal storage. I have a bunch of books, 1 movie, photos, music & apps installed, and I still have 3GB left. Plus I love the Amazon Cloud Storage. You can store unlimited music on your cloud drive. (You can only access your cloud drive when connected to the internet). The other neat thing about the cloud storage is if you remove a book or app from your Kindle Fire, it will still be in your cloud drive- to be downloaded again when you want it.

My music

Movies I've downloaded from Amazon.

I love that I have access to Netflix & Pandora. I only used the Amazon Prime for the free month Amazon gave me. (I still love my Netflix, there's more variety). With headphones the sound on the Kindle Fire is amazing! Very rich sound & bass. Without headphones... I wish they had included two more speakers on each side, because you do have to turn the volume up to it's maximum to hear shows well. (Sometimes I plug in a portable speaker when watching movies without headphones).

I've tried out a few magazine subscriptions on my Kindle from the Amazon newstand... though I still prefer paper magazines. The actual paper subscriptions are much cheaper too.

The Amazon Silk browser, isn't as fast as Firefox or Internet Explorer. But it does support flash. I have run into a few websites that weren't compatible with Silk, so they showed up a bit funny. (Wouldn't scroll right, etc). But for the most part I can browse more websites on my Kindle Fire than compared to my cell phones browser. Facebook & Twitter are viewed in the mobile Android format.

All in all, I've had no regrets on purchasing my Kindle Fire. It's an amazing little device. I take it with me everywhere. I don't regret that it doesn't have a camera or microphone- my cell phone has those anyway. The pro's definitely outweigh the few con's I've mentioned. The price was also a factor in my purchasing it. You can't go wrong for $199! It is worth every dollar!

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Daisy & her wheel!

2012-01-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

My husband & I were at Petco last night getting some food & treats for the ratties. He talked me into buying another wheel for the rats. (9 inch wheel) I had one a long time ago and the ratties never used it, so I ended up donating it to Star's Rat Rescue.

Well... this time... I finally have a rattie that uses it! Daisy my curly haired blue rex girl started using it this afternoon. She loves it! She runs round and round. Then she'll stop and take a break for water or to relax, but then she's right back on there running around. (She's running as I write this, haha!) The other girls come down to take a peek at her, so maybe one of them will get the hint that's it's a toy for them!

Here's a video of Daisy running on her wheel!

Crock Pot Beef Stew for 2.

2012-01-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm still having fun with my new crock pot I got for Christmas. I made beef stew last week and it was sooo good! I took a combination of a crock pot recipe/ the recipe on the back of the beef stew seasoning packet.

Here's my recipe for beef stew for 2:

3 cups of water
1 can of tomato paste
1-2 lbs of beef stew meat
2 medium potatoes diced
5-6 small/medium carrots sliced
1 medium onion sliced
2 teaspoons of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
3 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
McCormick Beef Stew Seasoning Mix
3 tablespoons of Flour
Few shakes of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning. (Red Lid)

Put all the ingredients into the crock pot, stir. (You may need to whisk the flour into the sauce). Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

This was sooo good! The beef was so tender and the tomato paste really made a thick hearty gravy. It was perfect because the evening we had this it was only 29 degrees out. Enjoy! I know I'll be making this again sometime soon!

Happy New Year 2012! (and some other stuff)

2011-12-31T16:56:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone! Unfortunately I'm ending 2011 and starting 2012, with a yucky chest & head cold. I'm getting better, slowly.

F.B. & I will just be celebrating New Years quielty at home this evening. We'll have some cheese, crackers, pepperoni & Martinelli's sparkling cider at midnight! And watch the ball drop in New York on TV. New Years Day, I'll be cooking ham & sweet potatoes. And we'll get to try our chocolate chip panettone cake.

Christmas Picture of us both:

I ordered some more goodies. I ordered another one of these chairs from Walmart, because I absolutely love it and I want a matching set. The chair itself is really comfortable and even cuter in person!

Arista Arm Chair- Black and White Floral (Walmart)

And these super cute sheets!

Royal Opulence Satin Sheet Set: Zebra (Walmart)

I also ordered a Santoku knife, 10 piece Pyrex storage set and 2 non stick cookie sheets.

Oh and I got the best deal on a 4 cup Pyrex meauring cup from Big Lot's last week! $6! (No more baking disasters now, yay! Lol!)

Wedding Rings: Do you takes yours off?

2011-12-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

My husband thinks I'm crazy because I never take off my wedding band. I have a very slim 3mm titanium wedding band. I also have a "blingy" part of my wedding ring that I do take off when I come home. But the wedding band itself, never comes off.

I occasionally remove my wedding band to apply lotion. But I sleep with it, shower with it. It never comes off. (It never tarnishes either because titanium doesn't! hehe!) My husband takes his wedding band off to shower & sleep. But, I'm always afraid I would forget to put it back on if I did that, lol! I mean occasionally I forget to put the "blingy" part of my ring on when I leave the house.

So how about you? Do you take your wedding band off? Or am I the only crazy one. :-p

Iris: Nov 2010 - Dec 2011

2011-12-29T20:03:00.004-05:00

My sweet Iris, my "ratatouille" passed away sometime last night.... I found her this morning when I woke up. My sweet girl was getting frail, she had an abscess on her one paw and what appeared to be a tumor growing in her belly. (She had a paralyzed tail from a back injury when she was younger). Though weak & getting frail, her energy was good, she was always so very excited to see me when I opened the cage door, and her appetite was good.

I will miss my "ratatouille". That was her nickname because she was the colors of Remy in the Disney movie. She was a blue berkshire. Iris was very affectionate, like her sister Jasmine. She loved to give kisses to your hands, your face. She loved grooming your nails. She had a hearty appetite like her sister Jasmine. They even looked a lot alike when they were both younger. I will miss my blue girls... it really sucks losing them so close together.

♥ I love all of my pet rats, but blue rats are my favorite color, if I had to choose. Goodbye my sweet Iris. ♥

Jasmine on the left- Iris on the right.

Iris & Jasmine- By Ciara Kay Barsotti

Crock Pot Soups for 2.

2011-12-28T15:52:00.027-05:00

I got a crock pot for Christmas from my parents. Something I've wanted for awhile. The first thing I made in it, was potato soup! :-)

Here is the original recipe. And below is the recipe altered by me to serve 2 people. Perfect soup for a cold winter evening.

Potato Soup for 2 in Crock Pot

3 large (or medium) potatoes, chopped
1 half of medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic (I use the kind in a jar).
1 tablespoon of honey (adds some sweetness).
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup water
Few shakes of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning. (Red Lid).

Put all the ingredients into the crock pot, stir. Cover and cook on low for 5 or 6 hours.

After it was done cooking, I took a potato masher and mashed some of the potatoes up. So the soup had a creamy texture, but still had chunks of potatoes in it. Then I whisked the soup real good before I served it.

Top with cheese or croutons & enjoy!

Getting ready to cook for 6 hours!

Ready to eat!

I also made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Mmmm!

Chicken Noodle Soup for 2: Crock Pot Recipe

2 chicken thighs (fully cooked), bones removed & cut into small pieces
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Few shakes of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning.
1 tablespoon of honey (Trust me!)
3 cups of water
1 can of chicken broth
1 half of a small onion diced
1-1/2 cup of frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, lima beans).
Half a box of your choice of noodles, (All I had on hand were the mini shell kind).

Set aside noodles. Add all other ingredients, stir together & cook on low for 5-6 hours. One hour before it's done, add the noodles & 1 extra cup of water. Stir & let finish cooking. (I also added a potato because we had some around the house).

We still have leftovers of the chicken soup! It made a lot! And it was sooo good!

I've been fighting a nasty cold since last Thursday, which turned into a chest cold this past Monday, so hot soup was just what I needed!

Now... can't wait to make pulled barbeque pork & beef stew in my crock pot!

Buttercup & Sweet Pea

2011-12-24T16:48:00.001-05:00

Early Christmas Gift. :-) Meet Buttercup & Sweet Pea!

Buttercup is beige capped with a blaze. She's a chubby little roly poly girl, and pretty brave and not afraid of people.

Sweet Pea is an extremely light cream hooded with red eyes. She almost looks like a PEW her markings are so light. She is smaller and more nervous than her sister.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T16:31:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone! F.B. & I will be celebrating Christmas Eve at our apartment. This will be F's 1st Christmas in the USA, our 2nd Christmas married & our 3rd Christmas spent together. :-)

I'll be making alfredo pasta with mushrooms, bacon and ham for Christmas Eve dinner. Also Texas toast with cheese, and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for dessert. Mmmm.

Christmas Day we'll be meeting my family at a Chinese Buffet for brunch. (3rd year we've done this tradition). Then we'll be heading back to my parents house to exchange gifts. F.B. & I will be exchanging gifts tonight.

I made a batch of cookies Friday night and two batches this afternoon. Of course I had some cookie baking disasters though... 1st off, I really need to buy a GLASS measuring cup- my plastic one melted while trying to melt chocolate in the microwave, lol!

And I really love Dollar Tree. My apartment is stocked with stuff I've gotten from there. But their cookie sheets... epic fail. The metal warped in the oven and my cookies ended up looking like.... brownies? The perfect cookie on the right is from the cookie sheet my Mom gave me. The cookies on the left... are from the Dollar Tree cookie sheet...

I made a batch of these White Chocolate Cherry Cookies:

And Thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam!

Jasmine: Oct 2010 - Dec 2011.

2011-12-20T13:53:00.001-05:00

We had to take Jasmine to the vet this morning, to be put to sleep. I hate having to make that decision... it's the worst.

Jasmine started with an eye injury back in November. We think maybe one of the girls scratched her in her eye. It got infected and started swelling. The vet started her on Cipro eye drops & oral antibiotic. She was doing betterish, but then developed a nasty respiratory cold on top of things. Poor girl was wheezing and losing weight and her appetite was really decreased. She had a re-check at the vet and they switched her to Baytril antibiotics, plus the Cipro. Her eye started to get worse a few days after her 2nd vet visit. The eye had ulcerated. If she hadn't had the respiratory infection, the eye could have been removed. Poor girl wasn't doing so well though, she was hardly eating, and we could not get the antibiotics down her. Even when we tried mixing them in baby food or Ensure.

Jasmine was always really sweet and energetic. She LOVED to give kisses. She would kiss your hands, your face all over. She was a sweet mellow rat. She also loved to eat- when she was well. She loved treats or scraps of food. I will definitely miss her kisses. ♥

You can see just how bad Jasmine's eye was in this picture with Violet & Daisy.

2 year wedding anniversary! ♥

2011-12-19T00:00:00.009-05:00

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary! (Though "legally" our marriage certificate says December 18th. See why here). I get 2 hours of administrative holiday leave, so I am using it to leave work a bit early on our anniversary. We will be heading to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner!

I finally finished unpacking on Sunday! We have internet now too. Yay! January is going to suck with all the new bills being due though... I may have to call the electric & gas company to change my due dates once I pay the 1st bills, so that my one pay check will just be for rent, food, gas & my other check for all the other big bills.

We had my cousin Jessica over Saturday night for dinner. (Darn we forget to get pictures together!) We also Skyped with her sister, my cousin Chrissy who lives in Georgia. We ordered Chinese take-out and exchanged Christmas gifts, had some wine & watched 'The Social Network'. It was a really fun evening.

Our new apartment is really close to where I used to work, before our office relocated to Center City Philadelphia. It's a shame, because if we still worked at the old location I could probably WALK to work! The Chinese take-out place is one that my co-workers used to order from for lunch. :-)

My cousin spoiled us with some Christmas/Housewarming gifts!

Sparkling wine!

Christmas day, we are hopefully meeting with my family to have brunch at a Chinese Buffet & exchange gifts. For New Years Eve, I think my husband & I will just be celebrating here at the apartment. I already bought a small half ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, crackers, cheese, pepperoni & Martinelli's sparking cider. And a chocolate chip Panettone cake.

Almost Unpacked.

2011-12-11T18:37:00.001-05:00

Moving day went fine. So exhausted and achy though! Almost unpacked, just some clothes to still hang up and put away. Returned the Uhaul truck this morning. My family helped us move yesterday and we were able to load up the truck for one trip. And then just 2 small trips for last minute items. We are using the internet from my cell phone until we get our Comcast internet. My T-mobile Sidekick 4G can be used as a router. I have "unlimited" mobile internet, but only up to 5GB a month so we can't watch any Netflix until our regular internet service is set up. Back to work on Wednesday. I'll have to use a different train station too. :-p

Also there's some things in the apartment that maintenance has to check out. Our bathroom sink is leaking underneath when you run it. And our shower doesn't work. The knob to turn for shower just gushes tub water out whichever way the knob is turned. Anyhow if that can't be fixed the way I want it- then I ordered this as a back up. At least we don't have to pay for water.

This morning we just ran the tub & used a bucket we have with a handle & spout to "shower" with. (Philippines flash back! The water pressure can be pretty low at times in the Philippines. So everyone has a big tub of back up water with a lid & a bucket or ladle to rinse/bathe with in their shower/tub.)

Here's some pictures of our apartment. We picked up a few Christmas decorations at Dollar Tree today.

Winner of Fortune Cookie Soap Giveaway!

2011-12-05T20:54:00.001-05:00

I'm closing the contest a few hours early- it's going to be a busy week for me & my husband. We are moving to our new apartment this Friday so my internet may be sporadic until we get it installed in our apartment. (I'll only have my cell phone for internet).

Soooo..... I've used random number generator to select a winner! Out of 23 valid entries.... the winner is....

Christina!!! Congratulations!!!!

Please check your email, I will be sending your $10 e-certificate to Fortune Cookie Soap! Congratulations! And thank you to everyone that participated!

(I am not affiliated with Fortune Cookie Soap, I just love their products!)

Wordless Wednesday: Lilly & the Lolly.

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

The one where I shamelessly advertise.

2011-11-27T12:40:00.001-05:00

You guys know I love sharing about products I buy or try. (I should have been in advertising, haha.) I don't get compsentation for anything I reccomend here on my blog. I just do it because I love sharing with my friends a good deal I've found, or a product I love! Soooo... because the holiday shopping season has begun. I wanted to shamelessly advertise for a few of my family members!

My cousin Chrissy has started a Yardseller.com page. She & her husband had a baby boy in September, so I know she would like to make a little extra cash for the holidays.

✯ Cick to check out Chrissy's Yard Sale! ✯

My cousin Jessica started selling Mark beauty products a few months ago. I've already bought a few items from her. (This Mark purse is a Christmas present from my husband and I can't wait to get it!) Jessica is a mommy to the cutest 1 year old ever, Kayleigh Brielle.

✯ Click to visit Jessica's, Mark E-boutique ✯

My cousin Emily, is selling Avon products. I purchased my favorite eyeliner ever Avon Glimmersticks, An awesome eyeshadow brush, concealer & foundation from her store.

✯ Click to visit Emily's Avon Store ✯

A few more goodies...

2011-11-26T20:58:00.004-05:00

A few more things I ordered for our apartment since it was payday! :-)

Arista Arm Chair- Black and White Floral (Walmart)

Throw pillows for our black sofa:

Danica Studio Cushion- Zaza (Amazon.com)

Brentwood Channel Stitch Pillow- Turquoise (Amazon.com)

Shower Mat (to go with our rubber ducky shower curtain):

Ginsey Rubbermaid Vinyl Bath Mat- Turquoise (Amazon.com) Was: $7. Now $11.

Had to take advantage of my free 2 day shipping with my 1 month trial of Amazon Prime! ;-) I got a free trial when I ordered my Kindle Fire, (which I love!) I ordered most of my Christmas gifts on Amazon this year. We are trying to pack a few boxes every weekend. Only 2 more weeks until the big move.

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Apartment Furniture: Walmart Rocks!

2011-11-24T10:35:00.004-05:00

I borrowed $3,000 from Citibank for our furniture budget for the apartment- since we only had bedroom furniture. We stayed well under that. We spent under $1,000. So I was able to return most of the money I borrowed from Citibank. :-)

We are also thankful to my Dad in law & Mom in law, for helping us with the down payment on our apartment & helping us with the furniture we needed. Thank you so much! We really appreciate it!

My parents gave us a microwave so we are definitely thankful for that since it's one less thing to buy! And my Mom said we could have some dishes and cooking stuff too. :-) (We have a few dishes, a coffee machine, coffee press & rice cooker already.) Most of our smaller items, shower curtain rings, mop, broom, bucket, cleaning supplies, etc, etc, etc; we will get at Dollar Tree or Big Lot's.

I did free site to store shipping for most of the items we ordered. We still have to pick some of these up. Walmart rocks! Here's some of the goodies we ordered!

Living Room

Atherton Home Manhattan Convertible Futon

Parsons 3 Piece Coffee & End Tables

Better Homes and Gardens Poly Resin Birdcage Lamp (2)

Linen Hardback Table Shade (2)

Open Sided 3-Shelf Bookcase

Curtis 19" Class LCD 720p 60Hz HDTV

RCA Digital Flat Amplified Antenna

Dining Room/ Kitchen

Mainstays 5-Piece Wood and Metal Dining Set

Rival 2-Slice Toaster ($6.00)

Black & Decker Electric Can Opener ($9.00)

Hefty Swing-Lid 13.5-Gallon Trash Can

Bedroom

Mainstays 4-Drawer Chest

Mainstays Floor Lamp

Bathroom

Rubber Ducky PEVA Shower Curtain

Misc

Dirt Devil Express Quick Vacuum with Tools

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Moving.

2011-11-19T14:54:00.002-05:00

Last week F.B. & I put a down payment on a one bedroom apartment about 10 minutes from where we are staying with my parents. We weren't planning on moving so soon, but circumstances have come up & changed our plans. (Please keep my family in your prayers they are having financial difficulties). We will be getting the keys & moving to our apartment December 9th.

We have a 12 month lease for a 1 bedroom apartment for $650 a month, water included. We will have to pay for the other utilities. The kitchen comes with a fridge, stove, dishwasher. The apartment is 700 square feet. And very roomy, with one big living room/dining area. And one big bedroom. Plus two huge windows in each room. There are 5 closets. 2 big closets and 3 smaller closets. Plus a shower/tub in the bathroom. Each building has it's own community laundry room which you get a key for. And each apartment has it's own entrance door, so the outside looks a little more like a house. Plus they allow smalls animals!

Last year I remember looking at apartments in this area and they wanted $800 just for a studio apartment. 1 bedrooms were $800-900. I think the economy has driven the prices down. Also last year pretty much none of the buildings allowed pets and all the ones we looked at in person & online do allow pets now.

Here's a few quick photos I took the day we took our tour of the apartment complex; (this isn't our unit but it is exact to ours):

Living Room:

Bedroom:

Kitchen:

We picked up boxes & packing tape yesterday and we got 5 boxes packed up today. Still a lot to pack up though. And we will be renting a U-haul truck on our big moving day. (I think December 10th, since December 9th is when we sign paperwork and get the keys to our apartment around 10am.)

I took a balance transfer from Citibank to get some furniture. We ordered some of the furniture online and I will be picking up the rest of the stuff we need from Walmart. (Dollar Tree & Big Lots, 2nd hand store.) The prices are unbelievable at Walmart though! I thought it might be easier to move with furniture that hasn't been assembled yet, since our apartment is a 2nd floor unit. (We only own bedroom furniture).

Here is the 5 piece dining set we ordered ($129.00):

And our black futon sofa ($299.00):

Fennel: Apr 2010- Nov 17th 2011

2011-11-19T11:56:00.000-05:00

Fennel passed away Thursday evening a little after I arrived home from work. My poor old man was very very frail, and he had cataracts in both of his eyes so he couldn't see well anymore. The last few days he was with us he had stopped eating his rat food. He only wanted his yogurt peanuts & Ensure. His brother Barley passed away in October. Fennel would have been 2 years old in March.

Olive: 11-11-2011

2011-11-12T11:36:00.001-05:00

I adopted Olive in April of this year. She traveled with her sister Fern, all the way from Star's Rat Rescue in South Dakota. Olive was a feisty adventurous rat. About a week ago Olive started having some slight balance issues. She kept tipping over. She was on antibiotics for about a week for treatment of a possible ear infection. She seemed to be getting better and was more active but still having balance issues. She also was losing weight.

Then she took a turn for the worse. I'm pretty sure she had a pituitary tumor, like my rat Spice had years ago. She was very weak the one night when I came from work, she could only hobble a little bit and she would tip over. The next morning she couldn't walk at all. She would lay on her side and move her legs like she wanted to move, but she just couldn't. She stopped eating & drinking. It was so sad because she would lift her head up and stare with her dark eyes and look at you like she wanted to get up and run around, but her body wouldn't cooperate. Olive passed away in the late afternoon yesterday... I only had a very short time with, but I will miss her so much...

Fern & Olive when they lived at SRR

Olive & Fern after arriving from their long journey from SRR

Honey & Olive

Olive the morning before she passed away.

The best coffee ever!

2011-11-06T11:23:00.003-05:00

A few months ago I bought my first french coffee press. A lime green Bodum.

Let me tell you... the coffee you brew in a french press is the richest boldest best tasting coffee ever! I go to Starbucks to get a bag of their Pike Place Roast, which they grind for free for a french press. (or any other coffee machine you own.)

I've used drip machines over the years, but the french press brewing method comes closest to tasting like you got your cup of coffee straight from a Starbucks Barista! It's very fresh, rich and bold tasting coffee. I love it! Plus it's an easy/affordable way to get my gourmet coffee fix at home!

And it's so easy to do. You heat some water, while the water is heating you put your scoops of coffee grinds into your french press. Then you pour the hot water directly into the pot with the grinds and you let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then you press down on the plunger of the french press and tada! Fresh hot coffee! The metal screen/strainer keeps any grinds from getting into your cup when you pour.

How do you brew your coffee?

(I got my french press at Target for $19.99 but Amazon.com is also selling the same model for the same price!)

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Fortune Cookie Soap Giveaway!

2011-11-05T15:35:00.005-04:00

It's time for another blog giveaway!!!

For my birthday in September my cousin Jessica gave me some Fortune Cookie Soap products. They are AMAZING! She got me cinnamon rolled soap, cupcake bar soap & a cupcake lip balm! They smell amazing! The soaps actually smell like real desserts and the lip balm tastes amazing. And yes! There is an actual fortune in the fortune cookie soap, hehe! (See mine!)

My birthday gifts. :)

I am giving away one $10 e-gift certificate to Fortune Cookie Soap! This contest will run one month and end on December 5th, 2011. So you can get yourself some holiday gifts or order some for your family/friends!

This giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only. (And also to my family & friends.) You do not have to be registered on Blogger to leave a comment. Anyone can comment. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me:

What is your favorite dessert? (Mandatory).

You MUST include a valid email address in the comments along with your mandatory entry, because the winner's gift certificate will be emailed to them!

For extra entries- (Leave a separate comment for each extra entry).

-Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. (You can find the 'Followers' link under 'Contents' on the right hand sidebar. If you follow already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question).

-Follow me on Twitter: @tunaynamahal82 (Include your user name in the comments. If you follow me already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question- just leave your Twitter username in the comments).

-Tweet about this giveaway (One tweet only- multiple tweets will not be vaild- include your link in the comments).

-Blog about this giveaway. (Include your link in the comments).

Giveaway Ends: December 5th, 2011. 12AM EST.

Winner will be chosen with Random Number Generator.

I am not affiliated with Fortune Cookie Soap, I just love their products!

Mark Beauty! ♥

2011-11-05T13:10:00.018-04:00

I ordered a few Mark beauty products from my cousin Jessica's e-boutique last week. My ordered arrived a few days ago. And I wanted share what I ordered!

I ordered a snap to it mini & two Mark Metallic eye shadows in Truffle & Goldi Luxe. They are super shiny. My cousin said they were like MAC eyeshadows and they are very concentrated like the MAC pigments that I use all the time. The snap to it mini is pretty neat it has a magnet in it and you can pick or choose which eye shadows to put into the case. I don't like their eyeshadow applicator all that much. I buy extra Cover Girl eyeshadow applicators. But I think an eyeshadow brush would work nice with these shadows too.

I also got Glossblossom Ripening Lip Tint. It self adjusts. It turned out to be a nice rosy pink on my lips which is what I usually go for when I buy lip gloss. It's not sticky which is nice and it has a nice scent to it. But the tube is also pretty small, so I'll be sad when I use it up.

And this! Oh my gosh! I love this scent! The Luxe Lemon Sugar Set! I thought it would be really sweet smelling. It has a nice lemony citrus scent to it, but it also has a grownup kind of cologne smell which is really really nice! (It has jasmine scent too.) I love the body spray the best. The bodywash is nice too, it says you can use it as a shampoo- but you better use a separate conditioner with it. (I have straight fine hair and got tangles when I went to brush after my shower- so I put in a leave in conditioner.) I love the thick body butter. I put it on after I showered. And the purple makeup bag is really big and roomy. I have all my makeup stashed in it right now!

I loved everything I ordered, and there are still a few more things I'd like to order soon. I can definitely recommend the products I ordered!

Click to visit my cousin's e-boutique!

Hope you all like the new design & layout! ♥

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Rats!

2011-11-02T04:35:00.001-04:00

A little Halloween Fun. :-)

Violet

Iris

Daisy

Jasmine

Lily

Jumping on the e-reader bandwagon...

2011-10-30T14:44:00.012-04:00

I pre-ordered an Amazon Kindle Fire a few weeks ago. I've always liked the Kindle, but I said I would never get one until they were color. I like the e-book concept but for something so pricy I want to be able to do more than just read books on it. Amazon store credit offered 6 months with no interest on purchases over $150 so I applied and was approved. Still at $199, it's about half the price of other color e-readers & tablets currently available. Now to wait for the Kindle Fire to be released! (Nov 15th).

The Kindle Fire is going to operate on Android OS. But a few of the articles online have me a bit worried because it seems like we may not have access to the actual Android Market, but have to download apps through the Amazon App Store. The screenshot shows a Facebook App icon, but there's no Facebook App available through the Amazon App Store. So they are either going to be adding more apps before the release of the Kindle Fire, or perhaps Facebook is already built into the Kindle Fire?

I guess we will see... besides being able to read books, I want to be able to browse the internet, blog, access Facebook, Twitter, etc. I would like to be able to watch Netflix. I love the idea that I could access my online recipes and be able to cook in the kitchen without dragging my laptop downstairs. This is what I want out of the Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire owners will be given a free month trial to Amazon Prime which has unlimited movies & TV shows, but a lot of the shows I watch aren't available yet, but Netflix has them! (Family Ties, Malcolm in the Middle, Bernie Mac, etc).

Owners of the Kindle Fire will have unlimited Amazon Cloud Storage. I started uploading all of my music today. I like that you will have unlimited cloud storage for musics, apps, books, etc. The Kindle Fire will only have 8GB of internal space. (Of course you'll have to have a working wi-fi connection to access your files!) It doesn't really bother me that the Kindle Fire will not have a camera/web cam. I have my phone or camera to take pictures. And I rarely ever Skype.

One of the things I love is that my local library now has an e-book site! So I can check out free books and read them on the Kindle. I've actually started taking out books to read on the Android Kindle App on my phone. It's a bit smaller to read books on my phone; but I'm really enjoying it so I can't wait to read them on the Kindle Fire which has a bigger screen!

I guess it remains to be seen whether the Kindle Fire will live up to my expectations. If not I suppose I can always return it and get a Nook Color. :-p

Edited to add: Amazon released a statement this week (11/11/11) that the Kindle Fire will have access to Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, Pandora apps! :-)

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a product when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Pumpkins and... SNOW?!?

2011-10-29T16:27:00.000-04:00

We officially got our first snowstorm today. In October. In the Fall. 2 days before Halloween! It was supposed to rain all day and turn to snow in the late afternoon but already around 11am it was snowing and sleeting pretty heavy out. It seems to have stopped now, but when I went outside the snow covered the top of my shoes, so I think we got around 2-4 inches. There is definitely 4 inches on my car! The last time it snowed in October in Philadelphia was in 1979! (The month & year my husband was born, hehe!)

F.B. got to carve his first Jack O' Lantern! It's his first ever Halloween in the United States. Halloween is not widely celebrated in the Philippines. He helped me gut the pumpkin and he drew the face for me and I carved it. :-) So... today we had a Snow-Lantern instead of a Jack O' Lantern! Lol!

Happy Halloween Weekend!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall/Halloween Photos!

2011-10-26T05:36:00.000-04:00

Ghost Peeps!

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin Bread!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects- Halloween Skulls!

Photos taken with Retro Camera App.

Welcome to the blogging world!

2011-10-24T06:54:00.000-04:00

Please welcome my Mother in law to the blogging world! Stop by and check out her windmill collection blog; Windmills of Zen! :-)

My Dollar Tree is Freaking Amazing!

2011-10-20T21:23:00.003-04:00

I've always loved Dollar Tree. They always have a really good selection of products and a lot of name brand items all for $1.00 or less. Just last year our Dollar Tree put in a freezer section and expanded their food aisles.

They have Campbells & Progresso soups now. Tons of canned vegetables, noodles, tortillas. I already discount grocery shop at Bottom Dollar & Food Basics. But wow my Dollar Tree has really stepped up it's game! I wanted to share some of my awesome Dollar Tree grocery finds!

Frozen Fruit! My dollar store now has frozen fruit! Even Aldi & Walmart charge $3+ for frozen fruit. I can now get frozen strawberries & blackberries for $1! I love making smoothies so these come in handy. Plus I sometimes take Crystal Light lemonade powder & frozen strawberries and blend with ice for strawberry lemonade! Yum!

I just saw these at Walmart a few weeks ago. I think they wanted close to $3 for these frozen meals. I got 4 packages for $1 each! :-)

This isn't even half of the frozen vegetables Dollar Tree now offers. These are just some of my favorites!

This has to be the craziest dollar store find ever. Real frozen baby shrimp at the dollar store! They even had the full shell shrimp, (but I don't like their little heads, lol. They creep me out). Think I'm going to make a Thai stir fry with these baby shrimp & some veggies one night!

Frozen stuffed cheese ravioli & name brand tomato sauce. So neat! Hoping these Ravioli were worth $1! :-)

And yes, this is typical dollar store junk food, especially the ramen noodles! But ramen noodles are so versatile! I've started using them for cooking stir fry & have even used them with marinara sauce- you just don't use the seasoning packet that comes with the noodles if you're using them for a different recipe.

We also got these amazing skins on, garlic & onion fries last week. But this week they were out of stock, so I don't have a picture of the package. They reminded me of KFC's wedge fries. They were really amazing & only $1!

And no; I'm not getting paid to advertise Dollar Tree! I just really really love them!

Wordless Wednesday: Honey ♥ bananas!

2011-10-19T09:01:00.000-04:00

I'm guest blogging @ A Day in my NYC!

2011-10-17T09:00:00.013-04:00

I'm guest blogging at A Day in my NYC today! Please check out Patty's blog, she is one of my long time blog readers & one of my good blogging friends! My guest post is about long distance relationships, something I am very familiar with! :-)

Yes Please!

2011-10-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

I didn't even know these existed! After reading the review on the Foodette Reviews, I had to find these Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses!

Last's year big search for Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts exhausted me, so I decided to check Ebay for the Hershey Kisses instead of running around to different stores! Luckily I found a seller who's price wasn't too inflated. :-p I paid about $4 a bag, (about $2 more per bag from reading about them online). They arrived today and as one of my Facebook friends said; "They are sinfully delicious!". They have a very strong spice taste, I think nutmeg & allspice stood out the most, but they are sooo good! But then again... I love Pumpkin anything! :-)

Barley: April 2010-October 2011.

2011-10-12T18:17:00.001-04:00

When I got home from work today Barley was not doing so well. He was cold to the touch and struggling to breathe. He passed away in my arms a little after I got home. Barley was well over a year old and he had a lot of health issues in his old age.

He was always such a friendly rat. He only liked to be scratched on his head because he was hairless. But he always "talked" when you scratched his head, (moved his mouth). And he always came running to the cage bars when you would call his name. He used to have a furry face when he was younger, but as he got older he lost it. He was my first hairless rattie and probably my last...

Whoo! Got my own domain finally!

2011-10-10T00:00:00.010-04:00

I've finally done it! After nearly 4 years of blogging, I have finally taken the plunge and bought my own domain! Whoo hoo! :-)

Please update your blog readers and bookmarks. The new address for this blog will be: www.tunaynamahal.com

✯ Happy Birthday F.B. ✯

2011-10-09T17:34:00.006-04:00

Today was F.B.'s 32nd birthday and his first birthday celebration in the USA!

We went to Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet near Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia. It was the first time we went there. It used to be a computer store years ago. hehehe. But they have renovated everything and it's really pretty inside with chandeliers and stained glass and a fountain up front.

In the car:

F.B. getting ready to chow down, lol.

F.B. with his gifts from me: Star Wars Trilogy,Asher's Chocolates, Herr's Chips.

The Herr's Chips came in a Herr's Snack Truck box and there were 42 mini bags of chips. You could pick your flavors when you ordered. I ordered it from the Herr's website. :-)

For dessert we had cheesecake from Giant, that we shared with the family. Mmmm.

F.B. with his McDonald's gift cards from my family.

✯ My cousin Jessica ✯

2011-10-09T16:00:00.025-04:00

My cousin Jessica is now selling Mark beauty products!

✯ You can visit her online Mark boutique by clicking here! ✯

Jessica & her beautiful 1 year old daughter Kayleigh:

Wow! Yum!

2011-10-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

I made Swedish Meatballs last night with this recipe I found on Yahoo Shine.

They were AMAZING! I did alter the recipe a bit, we only had beef in the house. I added noodles. I added chopped onions & mushrooms to the sauce. And I added a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of brown sugar & a dash of rosemary to the meatballs and sauce. I also made the meatballs a bit larger so I cooked them for 30 minutes. But otherwise, I followed the recipe! The meatballs tasted like they had slow cooked for hours. Sooo good!

1st day of October!

2011-10-01T15:15:00.003-04:00

Since it's October 1st today I decided to put on the Sally Hansen Salon Effects in Spun For You. They are hard to find in stores so you might have better luck getting the Halloween designs on Ulta! (I just ordered 1 more of the spiderwebs & also the red/black design).

♥ ♥ ♥ Love them!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

(And thanks Shannon for letting me know they had Halloween Designs out!)

I found the Coffee-Mate Pumpkin Spice creamers on Friday, so I broke one of those out today! (and froze the other.) Yum! It's definitely fall now! :-)

Honey's Surgery. (& Philippine Typhoon update).

2011-09-28T19:39:00.004-04:00

Honey got bit by Olive a few weeks ago. It turned into an abscess (which I've dealt with many abscesses over the years with my pet rats & never saw one like this). It started off marble sized, but did swell to quarter size. We were treating Honey with antibiotics (Baytril) and the abscess was drying up into a scab.

Monday when I got home from work, either her abscess had burst on it's own, or she chewed at the wound. She had a hole in her leg a little bigger than a quarter. It looked really really bad & it was really deep. She also kept licking and chewing at the wound, which was making it bleed worse.

Tuesday I called the vet at 9am, and we took Honey to the vet in the afternoon for an exam. Her abscess was badly infected and her chewing on it did not help the infection.

We had to leave Honey overnight at the vet for surgery so the vet could remove the infected tissue and stitch her up. He used metal sutures so she won't chew out her stitches. She also got a Baytril injection & will be on Cipro for 2 weeks. She has a check up next Wednesday evening.

She was doing really well when we picked her up, they had done the surgery late last night. She is pretty active, but will be staying in a smaller "hospital" cage while she heals up. She was boggling on the car ride home, I had the carrier on my lap and was petting her, while my husband was driving home.

Honey after surgery: (click to enlarge photo)

Thank God for Mastercard though... ugh... her surgery was a couple hundred dollars and since I just started back at work on the 12th, (after a 6 week furlough) I don't get my first paycheck until October 3rd. I didn't have enough in checking to cover her surgery. Like I've said many times before, people that think rats are just pocket pets or disposable pets... they require the same care as a cat or dog. And the vet prices are about the same.

(Blog Article: Why Rats!?)

In other rattie news... Iris' tail has healed up from her infection & her back injury seems to be healed. But I don't think she will regain use in the lower part of her tail. She can move the base to about the middle. She's still pretty active though and doesn't seem to realize her tail is paralyzed.

And Violet moved in with my 5 girls downstairs in the Ferret Nation cage this past weekend. There was some wrestling & a bit of fighting. But she is all settled in now. She is about 3x's the size she was when we got her in August. She's not a little baby anymore. :-)

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And just a quick update. You might have heard about the recent Typhoon in the Philippines. Manila was hit really hard, and the photos are just crazy to look at. Like the US Embassy! Places I've been... They are saying Manila has not been flooded like this in decades. My husband's family is okay and they did not get flooded, thank God! We were really worried, since there was a devastating typhoon & flood there just 2 years ago that did effect my husband's family.

Fall, Sally Hansen & All About the new Facebook Changes!

2011-09-24T11:20:00.012-04:00

Yesterday was the 1st day of fall, one of my favorite seasons. Unfortunately it did not feel like fall AT ALL. There was 94% humidity and it was sticky, humid and rainy. I'm very much over hot and humid weather. It's been an unusually HOT spring/summer this year. I'm ready for cooler weather, hoodies, jackets. Hot pumpkin spice latte's!

At least the stores are stocking with fall and halloween items already! Picked up some baby pumpkins yesterday at Giant Supermarket. I love baby pumpkins! I got 2 orange and 1 white one this year. For some reason though it turned into a real hassle during check out... it took 2 clerks & a manager (who all appeared annoyed) to ring up my 3 for $2 baby pumpkins?! Really?! Sheesh...

I use Retro Camera for Android

I also found one of the new seasonal creamers from Coffee-Mate! Brown Sugar Maple Latte. I had some this morning, it's good. I love maple syrup and it has that flavor.

Shannon posted on my Facebook the other day because she found Halloween Sally Hansen Salon Effects designs! They are too cool looking! She found hers at CVS, so I checked 2 CVS's on Friday. I got the skull ones & there was only 1 silver spiderweb one left! I had a $1 off coupon, but CVS must double coupons because I got $2.00 off my purchase and $5 in coupons for my next visit! (The clerk at CVS was checking out my nails too- hahaha. I had Sally Hansen Insta Dri: Lightning with OPI black shatter over it. She had never seen the crackle polish in person!)

Photo Credit

So excited to wear them in October! If you haven't tried the Salon Effects- do try. They last 2-3 weeks without chipping! And when they do chip, they start chipping at the base of the nail, not the tip. They are awesome!

Speaking of Facebook. Everyone is in a huge huff because of all the changes that are coming. I admit, when they changed the news feed I was really confused at first. But it just seems when you log into Facebook for the first time during the day you will see Top Stories at the top of the page and then you need to scroll down to see the up to the minute news. The rest of the day you will just see your normal news feed.

The other thing is. DON'T listen to people about Facebook restricting what activity of your friends you see in your news feed. If you really select ALL UPDATES for a friend on your news feed you will see EVERYTHING. You will see your friends commenting on their friends pictures and statuses that you aren't even friends with! I'll call it the "Stalker Feature".

Most Updates will show you what Facebook was already showing you about your friends in your news feed. Important Updates only seems to show your friends status updates & that's it. If you hover over a friends picture you can also customize what you want to see about that friend by checking or unchecking features. Maybe you only want to see game updates from one friend. Or you want to just see pictures and status updates for another. It's pretty neat, actually how you can customize what YOU want to see now.

There are big changes coming on Thursday September 29th, when our profiles will be getting an extreme makeover. I was really happy Facebook decided to share the changes with all of us- instead of past changes where you logged in and everything was completely different. Your profile page will now be called your timeline. (Introducing Timeline). I really like this concept. Before you had to click older posts to see anything you posted months ago on Facebook, and it wasn't convenient at all. Now your "profile" page will be set up more like a blog. You will have the ability to view months past, or even years past. And see all of your old memories and posts on Facebook.

There was an article about how you can enable the Timeline Profile right now. I followed the article and enabled it for my account. I now have the new Facebook profile, but only people who have enabled it can view it that way. It won't go live until September 29th. At first glance I was a bit confused. But it seems like your wall posts will be in 2 columns for easier viewing. Once Facebook gets the App's enabled, I'm pretty sure your Apps will be in the right hand column. But for now all recent wall posts are side by side.The only thing I'm not liking right now, is how HUGE your thumbnails of photos appear on your wall. Your friends will have to click on the photo to see what it actually is.

Here's a sneak peak at my new Facebook Timeline! (Click pictures to enlarge!)

To the people saying they are going to LEAVE Facebook. Technology changes all the time. I for one, am really liking the new Facebook Timeline feature. I like the fact my profile will look more like a blog and friends can look at my past history, just like they do when they read old stories on this blog! Yes! It will be different! It will just take some getting used too, like all the other changes on Facebook over the years. Change is good!

Winner of the Giveaway is...

2011-09-17T08:11:00.005-04:00

Thank you to everyone who entered my Philadelphia Giveaway! And thank you for sharing your favorite thing about your hometown!

I've used random number generator to select a winner out of the 14 valid entries and the winner is....

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Congratulations Lynn!!! I will be contacting by private message on Twitter so you can claim your prizes!

I also wanted to let everyone know to keep reading this blog, because I will be having another giveaway soon; where I will be giving away a gift certificate to Fortune Cookie Soap! My cousin Jessica bought me some of their products for my birthday and they smell amazing! Especially the Cupcake Lipbalm & the Cinnamon Rolled soap!

Wordless Wednesday: Fish Jerky!

2011-09-14T11:00:00.006-04:00

Squid & Fish Teriyaki Jerky. From our Phil-Am order! They have little eyes! Eek! Crunchy... :-p

My husband was on the news!

2011-09-13T19:14:00.005-04:00

Hahaha! My husband was on the news today! Channel 6 Action News at 4 has a segment where they feature Facebook Pages of Action News Fans, called Facebook Flash. I told my husband we should fill out the form for him to be featured since he came to Philadelphia in March of this year. And having the Liberty Bell in your profile picture doesn't hurt, haha! ;-)

We were in the kitchen cooking dinner when my Mom called to us and told us F.B. was on the news. We are lucky they upload all the archives onto their website, because we just caught the end of it. My husband's "13" seconds of fame as he says, hahaha! Video Below! He is number 3 in the video!

P.S. Remember my blog giveaway ends 9/16!

✯ 10 Years Later ✯

2011-09-11T00:00:00.015-04:00

✯ 10 Years Later ✯

Please view this blog entry from the 8th anniversary to read about my personal experience with 9/11.

Rainbow Nails! :-)

2011-09-09T15:33:00.003-04:00

Rainbow Nails! All Sally Hansen Insta-Dri colors. (Lightning, Speedy Sunburst, Mint Sprint, Brisk Blue, Lively Lilac). I ♥ my nails!

I was inspired to do them after I saw this picture in a Yahoo Article.

Photo Credit

In other news... I got a call from work on Thursday. My 6 week furlough is over and I will be back on the trains and heading to work 6am Monday morning! I will have Friday off though because F.B. has his driving exam to get his PA drivers license, he already has his permit.

P.S. Remember my blog giveaway ends 9/16!

Iris has a back injury.

2011-09-07T12:27:00.000-04:00

Iris was rough housing with her sisters about a week ago and she got a wound on her tail and on one of her fingers. There's still a scab on her tail. Her tail started getting a splotchy look to it, almost like dried blood- but the color keeps spreading and won't wash off. Last night we noticed she is not using her tail- (Rats use their tails to climb and balance. They can even wrap their tail around your wrist). Her tail was very limp and she doesn't seem to have any feeling in it when you press on it.

I called the vet this morning and we took Iris for her 10:45am appointment. Besides an infection in her tail from the bite wound she also has a lower back injury which was very painful when the vet pressed in the area of her lower back. The back injury is what is causing the paralysis in her tail, because it's all inflamed.

He gave her metacam and antibiotics. We are hoping the tail infection heals, because then he could give her steroids for her back injury. If the infection spreads or gets worse in her tail she could have to have it amputated... Hoping her back injury heals too. I'm not sure if she will get use of her tail again or not though.

Iris: (Her nickname is Ratatouille). ♥

Wordless Wednesday: Fortune Cookie Soap

2011-09-07T09:05:00.044-04:00

I thought I'd jump on board with Wordless Wednesday. ;-)

Birthday gift from my cousin.

P.S. Remember my blog giveaway ends 9/16!

29th & 29th. ♥

2011-09-04T22:46:00.001-04:00

The very first birthday I ever spent with F.B. was on his 29th birthday back in 2008, in the Philippines.

This year was the first year F.B. was able to celebrate my birthday with me... my 29th birthday.

Strange coincidence that the 1st birthday's we ever celebrated with each other were both our 29th birthdays! ♥♥♥

Hesh's Chocolate Chip Cake!

P.S. Remember my blog giveaway ends 9/16!

Philadelphia Trip: 8/31-9/1/2011 & a giveaway!

2011-09-02T17:15:00.010-04:00

On Wednesday we had our overnight trip in historical downtown Philadelphia, for my birthday weekend! (My birthday is Sept 4th). We had a really nice time and we got to see a bunch of places!

We took the train downtown and the weather was sunny and around 86 degrees both days we were down there which was good, because we walked everywhere! Our hotel was down the street from Independence Hall and right in the middle of all the historical spots, so it was ideal for walking. We didn't need to take any transportation, aside from the train to get us downtown and back home.

To view all 108 pictures from our trip please click here!

Here's a few from our trip! Wednesday before we checked into the hotel, we got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall!

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall- they were renovating.

Chestnut Street

Best Western Independence Park Hotel

Our Hotel is a historic building.

We took the Duck Boat Tour Wednesday evening. When we got there to check in, they refunded us $12 on our tickets, because they said they weren't going to be going out on the water that evening because of the aftermath from Irene. I don't know what changed but midway through the tour- we did go out on the water after all, lol!

There was a lot of debris floating in the Delaware River but we kept to the side.There wasn't room service at our hotel, so for dinner we walked down to a Wawa on Walnut street and picked up a salad and wraps for dinner Wednesday night.

Benjamin Franklin Bridge

First Congress

Where Ben Franklin had his society for intelligent gentlemen.

Betsy Ross House

First Post Office in the United States.

First Stock Exchange in the United States.

Video of our Duck Boat going into the Delaware River:

Thursday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and checked out around 12pm.Then we visited the Independence Visitors Center and Christ Church Cemetery. After that we went to Reading Terminal Market and finished up at The Gallery before taking the train home!

Constitution Center- we didn't get to visit.

Christ Church Cemetery- Benjamin Franklin is buried here. There are so many old tombstones, some of which the writing is no longer legible.

Benjamin Franklin's Grave- they throw pennies on his grave. A penny saved, is a penny earned.

Sad... Eleanor, aged 5 months, 2 weeks, 3 days.

This little girl was only 9 years old. She passed in 1791.

Entrance to China Town. We didn't get to visit, so we'll go back some time.

Reading Terminal Market was crowded! I saw these Chocolate Rats and wanted to get some, but they probably would have melted on the train ride home, lol! Afterwards we headed to The Gallery. We picked up Popeye's Chicken and Cinnabon to take home for dinner/dessert, hehe.

I'm giving away some Philadelphia souvenirs! (Liberty Bell post card, Love Park Philadelphia Pen, Love Keychain with thermometer on the back). Also a family pack of one of Philadelphia's favorite treats- Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets! And a 3 pack of Starbucks Via Italian Roast!

This giveaway is open internationally & also to family & friends. You do not have to be registered on Blogger to leave a comment. Anyone can comment. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me:

What is your favorite thing about your hometown? (Place, Food, Etc.)

For extra entries- (Leave a separate comment for each extra entry).

-Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. (You can find the 'Followers' link under 'Contents' on the right hand sidebar. If you follow already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question).

-Follow me on Twitter: @tunaynamahal82 (Include your user name in the comments. If you follow me already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question- just leave your Twitter username in the comments).

-Tweet about this giveaway (Include your link in the comments).

-Blog about this giveaway. (Include your link in the comments).

Giveaway Ends: September 16th, 2011.12AM EST.

Hurricanes, Earthquakes... What Next?!

2011-08-27T21:17:00.007-04:00

Tonight Irene passes over Philadelphia. Philadelphia is under a hurricane warning. They say it will be the worst storm in 50 years. Lot's of flooding.

SEPTA is suspending all service for the first time ever. Where we are just outside Philadelphia, we are under a tropical storm warning. But there are still flooding threats and we could lose power... hoping we don't though.

(Photo Credit.)

And just this week we had an earthquake too! (Though I was napping and didn't feel it. I thought my husband was teasing me when I woke up!) What in the world is going on?! All of the things I told my husband we don't get, we're getting! I told him he must have brought this extreme weather with him from the Philippines, lol! :-p

I hope things are okay weather wise later this week for our overnight vacation in down town Philadelphia for my birthday. I hope the trains are running by then and that we'll still be able to take the Duck Boat tour that we prepaid for.

I got a new cell phone on eBay for my birthday! I was able to get a T-mobile Sidekick 4G for $300.00 less then T-mobile is selling it for. (I'm on a special $49.99 unlimited plan- but the catch was I have to pay full price for a new phone).

The phone I won was in pristine condition. It still has the factory protector stickers on it. The guy who was selling it had switched to another carrier. I can actually watch my Netflix on my phone now with the Netflix App! So cool! And the battery lasts way longer than my Motorola Charm battery did. I had to switch batteries mid day with that phone. The Sidekick also has a touch screen and a keyboard, which I need, I can't do those touch screen keyboards! :-p

Please stop by and give your congratulations to my Sister in Law on her blog! She & her husband had their baby girl, Zia on 08/21/11. So now F.B. is an Uncle and I'm an Aunt. :-p

(Photo Credit: Zei & Rich).

And, just some cute pictures of the ratties to finish off with! ♥♥♥

Baby Violet

Mister Curry Wigglesworth, lol. (Picnik)

As you've noticed, I've also changed my blog layout. I think the blue matches my header banner better!

Phil-Am Foods!

2011-08-24T19:16:00.007-04:00

F.B. and I ordered a ton of Filipino food and snacks from Phil-Am Foods. It was my first time ordering from them. They pretty much had all our favorites and really cheap prices too! I've ordered Choc-nut from other Philippine markets online and had it cost $3.00 a pack! Phil-Am is selling Choc-nut for $1.69 a pack! Whoo! The shipping was pretty affordable too! Only $12.00 to ship from New Jersey to Pennsylvania!

All of our goodies! I told you were ordered a lot!

I'm a fan of Phil-Am Foods on Facebook. And they had posted that if any of their customers posted a picture of their order, they would send a free gift!

We were really happy with how fast our order arrived, (within 2 days!) so we posted a picture on their Facebook page and they said they would send us a gift! To our surprise a huge box arrived in the mail today from Phil-Am Foods! We definitely didn't expect all of this! Wow! Thank you so much Phil-Am Foods!!! So exciting! :-D

Our Free Gifts from Phil-Am Foods!

Birthday Trip in Philadelphia!

2011-08-20T20:54:00.008-04:00

So excited! Since it's too expensive to fly anywhere lately. F.B. & I are going to do an overnight trip in Historic Philadelphia in a little over 1 week for my 29th birthday!

We booked one night at the Best Western Independence Park Hotel. It's right in the center of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell area!

Photo Credit

Then we are going to take the Duck Boat Tour. You probably heard about the tragic accident last year... but they have made a lot of safety changes since then and for the price you get to see a lot of Philadelphia attractions, so I'm excited! We already prepaid for our tickets.

Photo Credit

I used Agoda.com to book the hotel. I remember when they just used to offer hotels in Asia. Now you can find cheap prices on hotels worldwide.

(And no, I'm not getting paid to recommend them, lol! I've used them for all my hotel bookings in the Philippines, and they always have the cheapest rates! My personal recommendation!)

25 Things You Didn't Know About Me.

2011-08-11T17:02:00.006-04:00

1. I was struck by lighting June 13th, 1997. (Yeah... Friday the 13th!) We had a really bad thunderstorm in Philadelphia. We lived in a 3 story row home that wasn't grounded. When the lightning struck the house it came through all the power lines in our house blowing out electronics, starting a fire in an outlet in my parents room. I was sleeping in a bunk bed and woke up to what I thought was the light bulb exploding. I slept with a metal locket on, I sat up trying to get out of bed and felt a jolt go through me. The locket acted as a conduct-er. My left arm had nerve damage and I needed physical therapy for a little while. The worst thing was going to the emergency room and having everyone ask, "Did you hair stand on end?!" To this day if I visit a new doctor and they check my reflexes they always say, "Hmmm, do you know your left side is weaker than your right?" And then I have to tell the story!

Image Credit

2. I'm left handed.

3. I can't write in cursive. It never stuck with me as a kid. I can sign my name and that's about it. Everyone always comments on my signature!

4. When I was 13, I won a grand prize trip for 4 to Los Angeles California and I got to co-host a kid's radio show called The Fox Kid's Countdown. I was even in their Fox Kid's magazine, lol.

5. We got to tour Warner Brother Studio's while in L.A.

6. My brother and I only wanted to go, because we were obsessed with the Animaniacs and thought they really lived in the water tower there, lol! We even dressed up as them one Halloween!

7. I will not set foot inside a Mcdonald's. I'm anti Mcdonald's for some reason. Maybe I went there too much as a kid, I don't really know.

8.That doesn't stop me from going to another fast food place... Wendy's! I ♥ Wendy's!

9. I've been to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo. The last 3 were just the airports I've been too... but when you have to use different currency in the airport to buy items like this gatorade, I think it counts!

10. I was married in the Philippines, December 19th, 2009.

11. As a kid I was terrified of the one that yells in Dr. Suess', One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I would skip the page, or hide the book.

12. I have 3 tattoos. My name on my left ankle, pink stars on my right ankle and a rat tat on my right wrist.

13. I have 7 piercings in my ears, but I only wear earrings in my 2 cartilage piercings now.

14. I have owned 27 pet rats since October 2007!

15. I currently have 15! 11 girls, 4 boys!

16. My rat Sugar was in the Philadelphia Metro Newspaper back in June 2009. I had come into work late that day, and all my coworkers kept coming up to me all day saying I was famous, lol.

17. I wanted to BE Laura Ingalls when I was a kid, I was obsessed.

18. The boys next door to us when I was a kid in the 80's, thought I was Punky Brewster, lol.

19. When I was a kid, I used to keep pieces of gold Crayola crayons in this Easter egg locket, I guess I thought it was treasure!

20. I taught myself how to play acoustic guitar in my teens, I used to even write and compose songs. I haven't played since 2004. I think I forget how to now...

21. I was home schooled from 6th grade until I graduated high school.

22. I took acting classes in my teens. They were pretty expensive, my grandparents were nice enough to pay for them. The owner of the classes, Rodney Robb, even gave me a scholarship for some of the classes.

23. I had a cat named Popcorn for almost 15 years. I used to dress her up when I was a kid, poor cat!

24. I never took public transportation until I was 28 years old. Now I have to commute on the train to work. I've been driving since I was 16.

25. I always eat cereal or soup out a cup or mug, because it's easier. I never use a bowl.

Potato\Veggie Chicken Bake

2011-08-05T19:29:00.005-04:00

Just something I decided to throw together for dinner this evening. It turned out wonderful. It's a very hearty comfort food meal. It reminded me a bit of beef stew. Loved it! I will definitely be making this again.

I wanted to share the recipe:

Potato/Veggie Chicken Bake

Ingredients:

4 Boneless Chicken Breasts
1 can of mushroom pieces
1 can of carrots
3 small or medium potatoes.
Half an onion cut into small pieces
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Parsley Flakes
Flour

Sauce:

1 can cream of mushroom soup.
Milk
Brown Sugar
Corn Starch
Worcestershire Sauce
Montreal Chicken Seasoning

Directions: Heat Oven to 350 Degrees.

1. Cover bottom of casserole dish with light coating of olive oil. Cut potatoes in round slices, then cut the slices in halves. Place around edges of dish and sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley flakes.

2. Cook up your onions and mushrooms together with a little bit of olive oil in frying pan until onions are clear.

4. Coat chicken breasts in flour, then sprinkle with salt & pepper and brown in another frying pan.

5. Place browned chicken breasts in the middle of the casserole dish. Pour in carrots, onions & mushrooms over the potatoes surrounding the chicken.

6. Pour sauce over the chicken and veggies. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

Directions for sauce:

In a bowl whisk together 1 can of cream of mushroom soup & 1 can of milk. Stir in about 4 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of corn starch and a few shakes of Montreal Chicken Seasoning.

Library Books I'm Reading.

2011-08-05T14:30:00.004-04:00

Picked up some books from the library yesterday. 3 of them, I just found while browsing on Amazon.com seeing what was recommended for me.

Here's what I'm reading:

I also bought this. Very good book. But it's also very graphic, as it's a biography account of her kidnapping.

Here's what I'm still waiting to read from the library waiting list:

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Violet ♥

2011-08-04T20:04:00.002-04:00

Please meet sweet little Violet. She's a baby PEW. ♥ We got her today. She was a curious little rat with her paws up against the glass staring at us. ♥

I've updated My Pet Rat Page with some new pictures.

Also, Star's Rat Rescue currently has 50+ rats in the rescue, they need help with donations to buy food & other necessities. I've adopted 7 of my rats from SRR. So if you can help contribute please click on the Chip In below to donate!

You can also join us at the Star's Rat Rescue forum. We would love to have you there to chat about your rats!

Rattie Love ♥

2011-08-01T19:15:00.015-04:00

Just some cuteness! ♥

Iris grooming my finger, while lying on her back:

Aspen having an m&m:

Lily bean:

Rosie having a treat:

Daisy, my curly haired rex:

Up close and personal with Iris, lol!

All photos taken with my new Sony Cybershot W570.

Philadelphia Zoo!

2011-07-18T17:34:00.004-04:00

F.B. and I headed to the Philadelphia Zoo today. It was 93 degrees out! (Too hot!) We spent around 2 hours there, it's a huge zoo. We wanted to go on the hot air balloon but it wasn't running today. :-(

Here are pictures and video from our day:

Zoo Loot, lol!

More Zoo Pictures & Video Here.

Feeding Goats! The best part of my day, hehehe!

Giraffes!

Zebra's!

Tomorrow it's back to work!

PA Turnpike 2. Sarah 0.

2011-07-17T14:55:00.009-04:00

Let's just say the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I have a bad relationship. When I was around 19-20 years old, I ended up getting onto the PA Turnpike by mistake because US Route 1 had a median and I didn't realize I was in the wrong lane, until it was too late. Once you're on the Turnpike, you can't get off until you hit another exit. It's all highway, so there's no where to do a u-turn and go back the way you came.

When I got lost years ago this was before GPS on cell phones, etc. I didn't know I was supposed to take the "ticket" the booth printed out. So when I ended up at a toll booth later on crying to the guy that I was lost, all he did was ask for my ticket and charge me more because I didn't have the toll ticket. I couldn't even call anyone because I didn't know where I was.

I remember getting off and driving lost for awhile, until I came to this huge bridge- that probably connected PA to New Jersey. I sure did a u-turn there! I was not going to another state with only a little bit of cash. (This was before I had debit or credit cards too!) Eventually, I found State Rd, which I remembered passed through Philadelphia. I took it until I got home. That my first defeat with the PA Turnpike. Ever since then I've stayed away from the Turnpike. Getting lost, is a huge fear of mine.

So... Thursday evening F.B. & I attempted to take on the PA Turnpike again. We had directions to Allentown printed from Google. Which were not specifically CLEAR about which way to go when there's a FORK in the road! We ended up getting off the wrong exit and driving for miles. We ended up in Landsdale PA, first. Somehow using the GPS on my phone, we got back on the turnpike, but ended up in Norristown, PA. We ended up paying tolls about 3 different times and spending a over $7.00 just to get lost!

Traffic was atrocious when we finally got back on the PA Turnpike for the 3rd time to head home. There were no lanes, it was like Philippine traffic all over again! We were lost for a good 2 and a half hours. Wasting gas and cash on tolls. It was not a good experience, I'm not good when it comes to getting lost because I panic. Let's just say we never did make it to Allentown, PA... I needed a shot of vodka when we did finally get home. I had an awful migraine and needed a nap!

Since getting to Hershey Park also involves taking the Turnpike our plans for that changed as well. Maybe someday I'll attempt the PA Turnpike again and maybe I'll actually defeat it, instead of it defeating me! But not anytime soon...

Tomorrow F.B. and I are heading to the Philadelphia Zoo. It's my last vacation day from work. We already purchased our tickets and printed them out online, so there's no backing out of that. At least driving there doesn't involve the Turnpike! :-p

I have a new header banner as you can see! The image to the left is a seagull on the Schuylkill river bridge in Philadelphia on Market Street. The middle picture, is skyscrapers in downtown Philadelphia on Market Street. And the right picture is a palm tree during sunset at Manila Bay, Philippines. :-)

New Camera & Other Updates!

2011-07-12T19:00:00.003-04:00

My favorite Sony Cybershot W55 camera died on the 4th of July. The button you use to take pictures broke off and since it was attached with plastic, it couldn't be repaired. Sigh... it gave me a good 4 years out of it though and took a beating since I had dropped it a few times over the years...

I ordered another Sony Cybershot on Amazon.com. I got the W570 with 16.1 MP for $149.00 on Amazon last week. The macro on Sony cameras is one thing I really love about them, since I love taking up close photographs of flowers, pets, food, etc. The focus is great. The low lighting photos are also amazing on this new camera. One shot I took of Aspen was actually in a dark part of his cage, but it turned out perfectly, not washed out with the flash at all! Love it!

Aspen

Olive

Clover & Honey

Iris

Other News:

F.B. has an interview for Amazon.com on Friday! It's for their shipment facility in Allentown, PA. So pray and keep your fingers crossed that all goes well! We are also going to the DMV one day so he can apply for his PA drivers permit.

I was also told today we will probably be getting furloughed from work by the end of July and not getting recalled until January. So good and bad news.

I have two vacation days on the 15th and 18th, so we are thinking about going to Hershey Park one day this weekend! I've always wanted to go!

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Fireworks and other goodies.

2011-07-03T12:04:00.006-04:00

F.B. and I headed up to Peddler's Village yesterday evening to watch a fireworks show for their Independence Day celebration. It was mobbed with people, I've never seen so many people at Peddler's Village before. The fireworks lasted around 20 minutes. It was terrible getting out afterwards though. It took us an hour to get back on the road we needed to get home. We ate dinner around 11:30pm at the Eagle Diner. We didn't get home until 12:30am or so.

Video of the Fireworks, sadly after only 2 seconds my camera said it ran out of memory for an HD video, lol.

Some cute stuff I picked up at Peddler's Village. I got an owl coin purse and owl earrings. (Putting the earring charms on a necklace chain though.) And a rattie cookie cutter! (Cell phone pic!)

Pretty Flowers at Peddler's Village:

A few weeks ago Kohl's had a great sale early bird sale. I got a 17 piece blender/smoothie kit for $19.99 plus 20% off when I used my Kohl's card! I love it, I've been making fresh fruit smoothies for breakfast every morning, making iced frapp's, and icy drinks. It's awesome! I even ordered my cousin one for her birthday. (Sadly, it's back to it's $49.99 price now.)

I also got a great sale price on a Land's End tote bag last week! I've always wanted one, they are so sturdy and nice. I got an aqua blue/white tote with my initials for $19.99.

My adorable rattie/mice pins, I found on Etsy and put on my tote bag:

Ivy: Jan 2010- June 2011

2011-06-21T15:47:00.002-04:00

My beautiful Ivy girl passed away today. She had a tumor and I think it had begun to block things so she couldn't go to the bathroom... she got very sick last night and by this afternoon she passed away. Her nickname was "Cream Puff", because when she was younger she was so squishy & round. Ivy won a photo contest once for Jen's Custom Crafts. She will definitely be missed, she had such a spunky attitude. ♥♥♥

Books I'm reading now

2011-06-21T06:33:00.000-04:00

I finished both of these books over the weekend. Both are really good, I'm starting to reread them again.

1. Sisterhood Everlasting- Ann Brashares

2. Room- Emma Donoghue

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Pennypack Park & Starbucks

2011-06-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

It's a nice sunny Saturday and not too hot so F.B. & I headed to Pennypack Park this morning and took Curry & Aspen my two new boys to the park with us. We got lot's of pictures!

Curry

Aspen

Curry

Aspen

We got Starbucks after the park. I don't get to have Starbucks so often anymore because there really isn't one very close to where I work anymore. *Sad Face* (Hint Starbucks put one in 30th Street Station! 19th street is too far!) We tried the new Coconut Mocha Frappucino and OMG... it is AMAZING! It tastes like chocolate coconut and it has toasted coconut on top. Mmmm!

Shutterfly Photobook!

2011-05-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

I won a free hardcover Shutterfly Photobook from Shannon at Misguided Mommy last month! I just got around to organizing the photos I wanted and it arrived the other day. It's really nice! I decided to put together a small wedding album for my prize.

These are just some of the photos:

Thanks Shannon!

Hot Day in the City!

2011-05-28T18:06:00.004-04:00

It's my 3 day Memorial Day weekend! F.B. & I headed down to Center City Philadelphia today so we could visit the Mutter Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences! We got off at 30th Street Station and walked to the Mutter Museum first, we went early because it's such a hot weekend. It was around 84 degrees (It will be in the upper 90's on Memorial Day, yuck!) I had to put sunscreen on because it was so sunny and hot today.

30th Street Station

After the Mutter we walked down Market Street to 19th Street and headed straight down to the Academy of Natural Sciences. We got to see Logan Square and the big fountain they have there. There's also a great view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. I've never actually gotten to stop here, so it was nice to be a tourist in my own city and take pictures!

Afterwards we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which I've been too many many times on class trips and family trips. It's one of my favorite museums.

F.B. with a dinosaur skull!

We were planning on going to The Gallery and Reading Terminal Market but because it was so hot and I had a bad headache we decided to make that another day trip sometime soon. We took the train back home and headed to Friendly's for lunch. We shared a Reece's Pieces sundae for dessert.

Heading home on the train

I also won this psychedelic shark from the crane machine at Friendly's on the first try! Whoo hoo! My Dad has always been really good at winning stuffed animals from those machines and I've won quite a few times as well, though it's been awhile since I last played!

Wanda E. Brunstetter Books

2011-05-15T11:20:00.010-04:00

I was Walmart one day and stumbled upon Wanda E. Brunstetter's books. I like that there's more than one story in every book. So it's like having 3-4 books in one. She writes about young Amish woman. If you like historical fiction books, you will probably like these books as well. Some are drama, some are romance, etc.

These are the ones I own:

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)

Let baking cakes be...

2011-05-14T18:06:00.009-04:00

I made a lemon layer cake today, but sadly I peeked in the oven before it was done and as I was looking the air went out of each cake like a balloon. So my poor cakes had a flat middle on each layer... My Mom made up a saying, "Let baking cakes be..." and it's true, lol!

I never saw such a sad pitiful looking cake!!! As soon as we cut it, it collapsed in on itself! :-(

I had a hard time finding a recipe for a lemon cake, all of them had 3 layers or more. So I decided to take the cake recipe from The Pioneer Woman's coffee cake- literally, and replace the coffee in the cake and icing with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest. It tasted amazing, it just didn't look too pretty!

Replace the coffee in the cake and icing recipe with:

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Hopefully your lemon cake will look better than mine!

F.B. also got me a really nice heavy duty metal meat tenderizer from Walmart. It's awesome! (It's great for taking out stress/life frustrations when cooking too, lol!) I'm making beef with onion and mushrooms fried up in a pan tonight and served with mashed potatoes and peas. (Last time we tried it with steak strips).

I tenderized the beef, cut it in small pieces and then I'm letting it soak in a marinade I make myself. I don't have exact measurements. I think less than 1/4 cup for everything, I just add as I go along. My steak marinade has:

Little bit of water
Olive oil
Soy Sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Brown sugar
Teaspoon fresh garlic
Montreal Steak Seasoning

Then after tenderizing your steak, let it marinate several hours or overnight before cooking.

Moving on...

2011-05-14T17:49:00.002-04:00

I had been a part of the Rat Chatter forums for almost 4 years. I joined back in October 2007 when I got my first two pet rats Sugar & Spice. Eventually, I became a moderator and got to work with a lot of amazing people, like Brittney from Star's Rat Rescue.

Sadly and unexpectedly the Rat Chatter Forums closed on May 5th, 2011. We have still not heard from our good friends that ran and owned the forums and we hope they are alright.

I mentioned to Brittney it would be a good idea to start a forum for her rat rescue, somewhere to connect with adopters and our friends from the RC forums who we had gotten to know over the past 4 years. It took a few days, but the Star's Rat Rescue forum is now up and running. So rattie lovers and SRR Adopters are welcome to join us over at the new forum!

Settling in!

2011-04-24T20:03:00.004-04:00

It's been exactly 1 week since my SRR rescue ratties arrived from South Dakota.

Aspen & Curry were introduced to my boys last Monday evening. There was some "wrestling" but no really bad fighting. My boy Fennel is still a bit pouty that he has to share his cage with 2 more ratties, he's such a spoiled boy. My nakkie rat Barley is always pretty laid back so he wasn't too bothered by new brothers. The boys were all living together within 2 days with no issues.

Curry & Aspen

It took about 4 days to introduce my 2 new girls Olive & Fern to the group I have them living with in the bottom half of the Ferret Nation cage. I had to do a few nights of supervised play times with all of them. My girl Iris is territorial and so is Olive so there was some fighting for a few days. As of last night, Olive & Fern are now living with Ivy, Iris, Jasmine & Daisy.

Olive & Fern

For intro's there are a few tricks I do. First off I introduce the new & old ratties in a neutral place, a bathtub, table, chair. I will rub vanilla extract on all of the ratties. I will take bedding and swap it around so the ratties get used to each other's new scents. When I do supervised play time in the cage, I will take out all igloo's, boxes, etc where a rat can be cornered. If I need to, I will also give the most territorial rats a quick bath because it will distract them. Sometime's intro's will be very quick and other times it can take up to a week before you get your new rats living with your current ratties.

Curry in a cardboard tube.

(I've updated My Pet Rat page).

Our Easter was a bit uneventful. My whole family has a really nasty bug going around so F.B. & I had to cook our own little Easter Dinner. We had Tofurky & gravy, corn, green bean casserole, cheesey garlic mashed potatoes & cranberry sauce.

THE best ballet flats EVER!

2011-04-24T19:38:00.008-04:00

I've been looking for a pair of plain comfortable ballet flats for 2 years now. I've gotten a few pairs that were very stiff and gave me blisters. I saw these ones featured on The Pioneer Woman's blog and decided to take a chance on them.

They are called The City Flat, by Gap. I first ordered a pair of plain black ones. I do a lot of walking now that I'm commuting on the train to work every day. I didn't get one blister the whole day I wore these. They are very light and flexible, perfect for warmer weather. They are also 100% leather.

The only thing you will need is a pair of very slim gel inserts by Dr. Scholl's, etc. (I have Dr. Scholl's for her); because you will feel the pavement on your heels every step you take. With the gel inserts it gave me better impact support. I loved the shoe so much, I ordered it in pewter too. (Still waiting for it to arrive!) Gap sells the shoe in a bunch of different colors.

Black

Pewter

I also ordered this plum metallic purse that was on clearance at Gap. Excited for it to arrive!

(Nope, not getting paid to recommend these products! I just wanted to share them, because I love them!)

Our new ratties have arrived!

2011-04-17T20:55:00.001-04:00

Tonight we picked up my 2 boys and 2 girls from our rat train driver in Philadelphia. Our Star's Rat Rescue rats traveled 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Philadelphia. Brittney the owner of SRR along with 4 other drivers helped get them here!

My husband and I were out doing errands waiting for our rat drivers call to say when he would be at the Petco to meet us near our house. We just happened to be at the dollar store in that same shopping center when our driver called to say he had arrived.

We picked up my two boys Aspen & Curry. They both look like tan berkshires. They have small circles of white on their bellies. Curry has a broken toe from an injury he got before he was adopted.

My two girls are Olive & Fern. Fern is black capped and Olive is a hooded agouti.

We also picked up another adopters rats for her, we are meeting her tomorrow evening at a Petco in Philadelphia to drop her two girls off to her and finish the SRR Rat Train.

After we got everyone home, we cleaned out their cages, gave them new baby blankets and food and some yogurt peanuts. In a few days we will try moving the boys in with my two boys and my new girls in with my other girls.

Thank you to all the drivers who helped!!!

Coffee Cake! (And other news).

2011-04-15T19:02:00.001-04:00

I tried baking the Pioneer Woman's Coffee Cake- (Literally). It turned out great, it's really moist and very sweet & rich. The coffee flavor isn't overpowering, my Mom hates drinking coffee, but even she liked this cake. Yummy!

I may be getting my 4 ratties from Star's Rat Rescue this weekend! Really hoping all the drivers are able to make this work! Our Philadelphia driver from last year will be going up to meet one of the other drivers in Ohio and then bring the Philadelphia ratties back! Very Excited!

And here's a cute picture of Hazelnut, Honey, Rosie & Clover from the other evening. I'm always finding this gang sleeping in funny positions! (Lily is in the background.)

F.B. is still searching for a job everywhere and anywhere! Offices, Stores, Restaurants, etc. We mailed my sister in law some baby gifts, she & her husband are expecting in Sept. And also my cousin Chrissy & my cousin Heather. (Lot's of September babies.) Tomorrow evening we'll be going out with my cousin Jessica to take her out for a birthday dinner.

World Rat Dat 2011!

2011-04-04T21:02:00.004-04:00

Happy World Rat Day! Just a few photos of some of my gang! (Click photo's for larger image.) <:3 )~~~

Why pet rats!?! Click here for the answer! <:3 )~~~

7 Years! ♥

2011-04-02T12:20:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, Yes; April Fools Day... was our 7 year anniversary! It's been seven years since we defined our relationship. (See our time line!)

This is the first April 1st, anniversary that we've actually gotten to share in person together, since we started our long distance relationship!

We decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory up at Willow Grove Mall for our anniversary. We drove up there right after I got back from work on the train, so we missed the evening rush and were seated right away.

(Yes I know I'm wearing the same shirt as our last picture together, but at least I've got different jewelry on and a different hat. I'm growing out "bangs" so you'll be seeing me in hats until the end of this year, lol!)

I got a long island iced tea and F.B. got strawberry lemonade. We were going to order 1 appetizer and 1 of their "small snacks", who knew their small snacks were pretty much a huge appetizer as well, lol! We got onion rings and Spicy Ahi Tempura Roll.

Don't mind F's fingers, lol.

I also got a bowl of clam chowder but no pictures, their "cup" of soup is quite big so I didn't finish it, but it was amazing. F.B. got Hibachi Steak with mushrooms and wasabi mashed potatoes and I finally tried a Portabella "burger", which was sooo amazing! Still have half left for lunch later.

And of course you have to get cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory! When I went to Florida with my cousins in 2007, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch but we didn't get cheesecake, (big mistake, lol!)

F.B. got classic Cherry Cheesecake and I ordered Red Velvet Cheesecake. Mmmmm.

We had a great time, but it's definitely an anniversary type restaurant. ;-) We were so full we walked around the mall for a few hours afterward. F.B. got me Charlotte Brontë's, Villette. I own Jane Eyre one of my favorite books, but I've never read any of Charlotte's other books, this one looked interesting.

Last weekend F.B. and I went to King of Prussia Mall, the largest mall on the East Coast. We walked the entire mall. (Tiring!) I got to get a few things from L'Occitane!

At Macy's I picked out these gorgeous dishes that were on sale, we only got enough for two place settings, but I love them!

F.B. got me this cute purple Chinese Zodiac Rat from a little Chinese Shop at King of Prussia.

P.S. I missed my blogging anniversary on March 17th! But it's been 3 years since I started this blog! :-)

Music & Sally Hansen Salon Effects!

2011-04-02T12:16:00.008-04:00

At Walmart last night I finally picked up some Sally Hansen Salon Effects! My coworkers and I keep seeing the ad in magazines and we wanted to try them. They are actual nail polish strips that you peel and put on your nails. They took about 15-20 minutes to apply and you don't have too, but I put a top coat of Sally Hanson hard as nails over top of them.

They are gorgeous!!! (Color is: Misbehaved.) I want the Zebra color sometime, but it's hard to find. They are $8.50, and they give you 16 strips in case you mess up, which I did mess up one nail and had to remove it with nail polish remover. Now we'll see how long they last... lol!

I've also gotten some new music in the past few weeks.

Panic At The Disco- Vices & Virtues, which I love every song on the album! They went back to their original sound from their 1st album, their 2nd album had a very mellow sound and I didn't like it at all, but this one is great!

Avril Lavigne also has a new album, Goodbye Lullaby. I only like about 5 songs on the album, but it's nice to have some new music by her.

(I do use Amazon Associates, but not because I've made any money- because I haven't! lol! But I like that I can show a picture/link with a book or music when I'm blogging. Plus I do recommend Amazon.com for their low prices. That or Ebay!)