Wow! One of our favorite restaurants, Banapple, has just celebrated their first year anniversary! It seems just like yesterday when I posted an entry about Banapple’s opening. I even included their menu! Well, one year after, they are doing very well, and with new pies and meals too! My absolute favorite is the COFFEE TOFFEE ROCA PIE! (P75/slice, P560/whole)

Click here for their pies and cakes price list.

Congratulations GJ, and here’s to another great year ahead!

Happy Earth Hour to everyone! I am a proud participant of the global event, which happened more than an hour ago. I thought of going around the Metro during Earth Hour to check out which establishments joined but Jovan pointed out that if we do that, we’d be using up gas for nothing. So, we stayed home. My family and I turned off all our lights, airconditioning, TV. The only thing we left on was an electric fan, because of the intense heat. We stayed at our lanai, listened to the radio (which used batteries), and played with Graham. I greeted friends “Happy Earth Hour!” via text and was very happy to find out that they participated too. Most of the replies were “Same to you! It’s so dark!”. One of my friends said I lit up the room with the text, which meant that only the celphone light was on in his room. One of my friends was in a mall, and she said that a lot of establishments actually turned off their lights.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out yesterday that Starbucks was planning to support Earth Hour. And today, I found out that SM Malls are supporters too. That’s the way to go actually, tapping corporations with many establishments, because word of mouth will not be enough. Our neighbors, both to the left and the right did not participate – I’m not sure if they don’t care or they didn’t know about it, I would like to believe it’s the latter.

I’m not a hardcore ‘green’ person. I don’t preach to my friends or ride my bike to work. I don’t think I can give up my aircon and using the car. But I’m aware of the destruction of the environment and global warming, and I know something has to be done. This Earth Hour event is really, really awesome because in that one hour, we have saved a LOT of energy. One other thing we do is using reusable bags when we go to the grocery. We bought 3 bags and our monthly grocery items all fit in these bags. This is an awesome idea which I hope will be widespread soon because this means there will be less plastic bags used.

I hope we can have Earth Hour more often. Maybe 1 Earth Hour per month? That would be so awesome.

How about you? How did you spend Earth Hour?

Wow, not blogging for a week is weird.  Okay, so I need to catch up with my American Idol posts.

For last week’s performances – I ABSOLUTELY LOVED David Cook’s rendition of Billie Jean.  It was an amazing performance.  The arrangement was unique, and it really worked.  And he sang and performed well.  AMAZING.  Next favorite was David Archuleta’s, even if I don’t know the song I really liked it.  I kinda agree with Simon – the song actually reminded me of The Lion King – but for me, that’s not a bad thing at all.  Brooke White’s performance was good.  I agree with the judges though – if she stayed with the piano only it would have been awesome.   My bottom 3 were actually Ramiele Malubay, Chikezie, and Kristy Lee Cook.  However, I KNEW she wouldn’t be part of the bottom 3 – the song choice was perfect really, what with everything that’s happening to the US right now.  Still, for me, it’s all about the competition, from the start until this week.  One week with a clever song does not make her a top contestant.  She didn’t even sing the song well!

For the results – I wasn’t surprised with Chikezie and Syesha, but I was very surprised with Jason Castro.  At this point I really believe that the “fans” come into play already.  So it doesn’t matter if Chikezie sang well (but I do agree with Simon with his “cheesy” comment) and Syesha nailed the song – they’re really just not as likeable as the others.  I don’t see them having FANS. Which is why I was very surprised with Jason Castro – I thought he had a very strong following.  Syesha should learn from David Cook and David Archuleta – the short interviews before the performances are PART OF the competition.  Both Davids chose really cute pictures that make the audience love them even more.  David A in the video was adorable!  Syesha, and also Ramiele, chose pictures when they were growing up and a bit awkward, and these didn’t help them at all.  

So, we have our Top 9.  Next week SHOULD BE Kristy Lee Cook’s time to go home.  Please, America, it’s about time.  She’s the Haley of this year, no? 

My site, which I haven’t “launched” yet, got hacked.  It got hacked after 2 weeks of trying to figure out how to install wordpress on my host.  Now that I have successfully installed it, I got hacked.  I wasn’t even done yet, because I was still trying to figure out how to edit the template/theme.

The hacker left a message that included “Where is your security?”.  I googled the hacker and it seems that he has hacked a number of sites already.   How was he able to hack my site?  A weak password?  How else?  How do these hackers choose the sites they hack?

I am extremely annoyed.  Aside from having a very, very complicated password, how else can I avoid hacking?

Sigh.

Okay, I got 2 out of 3 for the Bottom 3. Turns out that this week’s Bottom 3 included Amanda Overmyer (check), Kristy Lee Cook (check), and… Carly Smithson! WHAT?! Okay, her face can get scary when she sings but c’mon! Chikezie over Carly? America got that all wrong.

Bottom 2 included Kristy and Amanda. Kristy has been in the Bottom 2 for so many weeks now, I can’t count anymore. She mentioned this herself. She is DEFINITELY my new Luke Menard. Please just go home. I wouldn’t ask “Why are you still here?” because I know the answer to that. Her get-up yesterday worked – legs, low neckline, and looking pretty… Let’s see how long she will last on this. She can’t keep giving bad performances week after week after week and still hang on. But hey, who knows, she may turn things around next week.

Goodbye Amanda, I knew this was coming. She’s just way too predictable. Oh and if ever (IF EVER) you get the idea of comparing yourself to Chris Daughtry, please, don’t do that to yourself. Because Chris showed his other side. Remember his performance of “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?”. Yes, exactly.

Moving on to the other portions of the show.  I really HATE the call-in portion, where the fans call to ask questions.  It’s just so forced.   I totally loved Elliot’s trip to Africa.   I love Elliot, and seeing him tear up because of the baby being named after him… that was really moving.   Kellie Pickler – well, I didn’t like her then, I don’t like her now.  Good for her though that she has sold a lot of albums.

Next week should be an interesting week.  Will Kristy Lee Cook finally turn things around?  One good performance from her and I think she’ll stay.  Will Michael Johns finally deliver what’s expected of him?  Will Chikezie’s performance be over the top again?   Will David Archuleta continue to shine?

Based on what we’ve seen so far, I think the Top 4 will include David Archuleta, Jason Castro, David Cook and Brooke White.

She’s back! Valentina Hasan performed “Without You” aka “Ken Lee” again on Bulgarian Music Idol. Her english has improved. It’s just not the same. The original version is better! Haha!Carambs! › Edit — WordPress

The performance:

The new lyrics:

No I can’t forget this evy

Nor your face as you were leavy

But I guess the jus the gway the story go

You alwees smile lolly nigh yo sorra show

Yes it showwwwwww

When I can’t forget tomowow

When I think of all my sowow

When I guess aju za but then I let you go

You alwees smile lolly nigh yo sorra show

Yes it showwwwwww

I Ken Leeeeee if living is without you

I Ken Leeee I can’t give anymore

Ken Leeeeee if living is without you

Ken Leeeeee I can’t give anymore

I Ken Leeeeee if libu dibu dout you

Ken Leeeeee I can’t live anymore

Ken Leeeeee ilibu dibu douchoo

Ken Leeeeee I can’t give anymore

Of course, American Idol is milking Beatles’ Night for all it’s worth.

Amanda Overmyer opened the show with “Back in the USSR”, and she tried to rock it. If it was the first time I saw her perform, I would have been impressed. But I’m tired of Amanda Overmyer. It’s the same thing week after week after week, and what’s worse, no fantastic performance yet! I don’t see her winning American Idol. It’s just a matter of time before she goes home, if she doesn’t turn things around.

Kristy Lee Cook brought out her guns today by looking extra pretty, showing off her legs and wearing a dress with a low neckline. I guess she figured that’s what will help her stay. Her performance of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” wasn’t as awful as her performance last week, but it’s still not good. I can’t even say it’s okay.

And then we get to David Archuleta, who I truly believe is not just one of the Top 2 performers of the night, but the Top Idol contender for Season 7. He bounced back tonight with his performance of “A Long and Winding Road”. Simon was right, he NAILED it. “Imagine” is still his best performance, but this performance was solid. I am so happy! I still think it would have been awesome if he sang “Here, There and Everywhere” but hey, no complaints on tonight’s performance. Go little David!

Here’s David’s performance:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSYZesrkzAM&hl=en]

(more…)

I was tagged by Reg.

Rules: Post 10 things that recently made you happy then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their blogs.

1. Getting Graham!
2. Having lunch at CPK with Mommy, Daddy and Jovan
3. Seeing the in-laws
4. Having dinner and tea with the girls
5. Finishing all requirements for today’s big fight Friday afternoon
6. Seeing my batchmates and having lunch with them
7. Discovering Stumble Upon
8. Buying new Ipanemas
9. Hanging out in Ateneo
10. Fixing my layout problem

I am tagging: Jovan, Bunny, Kookie, Bea,  Ginsey,  April,  Vic,  Lawrence,  Jennina, Gemma.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ADqASy8KDc&hl=en]

Thank you Teckie for pointing out the problem!——————————————————-

Trying to install WordPress is giving me headaches. I’ve been trying to figure out this hosting thing and now I want to cry. It’s so complicated. Too techie for me, with MySQL and databases… ARGH!