Whose House? Mina's House

As you may or may not know, I've had a goal since coming back here to Seattle which has been dubbed (in my head) as HH30: Husband or House by the age of 30. I've put all of my savings in CDs and I've been putting 25% of every paycheck to a savings account which I named "House" to help with the process of making this goal a reality.

I initially wanted a two-story house, but quickly changed my mind to a rambler instead. There's only one me and I don't want to scrub two toilets every month. That's how logical I am when it comes to decision-making. HaHa!

Last month, the house across the street from one of my kuyas went up for sale. When I saw the flyer, I almost fainted at the price: I didn't realize that's how much houses are going for these days. But even then, I do know that if I want to buy a house, it should be done within this year...while the market is down.

Today, I went online to check out houses for sale in the neighborhood and found some nice ones below $300,000. This is actually do-able. Well, I'll be a slave for 30 years until the mortgage gets paid off, but hey, anything to display my City Mugs prominently is all worth it. ;P

So while people my age are getting married and having babies, I'll settle for the white picket fence for now. Saka na yung 2.5 kids...kapag ready na si Piolo. ;P

Royalty

Watching The Royal Family Special on ABC last night made me want to go to London. Okay, okay, someone recently told me that there's a Starbucks store in the city that sells all the UK Starbucks City Mugs and that got me thinking about London eventhough I can't afford a European holiday with the current state of the U.S. dollar. And thinking about the Dollar made me think (too many thoughts, too many thoughts) about how quirky it would be to live in the UK, hearing people speak English, yet not being able to understand a thing they're saying. ;P

I so need a new stamp in my passport this year. Where to go, where to go.

The Wheels on the Bus

With the gas prices at $3.50/gallon for regular, I decided to finally take advantage of my employee subsidized bus pass for $30/quarter. That's three whole months for $30 which is the same amount I usually spend for a full tank that only lasts me a week when I drive to work. Talk about savings.

And while I enjoy using public transportation when I'm on travel, riding the local buses isn't my favorite thing to do. It's just that with our relatively cold weather, the windows on the buses always remain closed and thus trapping what I'd like to call "The Smell of Humanity." This isn't as bad as say riding the train in Singapore alongside "the wrong folks" (ones with body odor and you know what I'm talking about), but when you're nice and fresh in the morning from your hot shower, it's nice to keep that same feeling as long as you can. Unfortunately, all that stops the minute you sit down on a bus.

But oh well. If riding the bus makes me one step closer to traveling to Japan, why not, coconut!

Spotlight

While people in Pinas are still hung up on American Idol, I have my own favorite reality-TV-competition that I watch religiously: MTV's America's Best Dance Crew.

For me, there is nothing better than seeing awesome choreography executed perfectly...by good looking people. This show is so much better than MTV's first attempt in bringing dance on TV: The Wade R0bson Project. That show sucked (for oh-so-many reasons) and I never understood why Wade let that happen. But anywhoo...

As a former dance team member (long live sequins and spandex!), I'm glad that dancers/dance teams have finally been given the spotlight...and hiphop dancing is now on national TV...and without cr0tch-grabbing and h00chie clothes that it's always associated with. Love it!

RIP 99-cent Menu

Lunch will never be the same again.

Last month, I had lunch with a friend at Wendy's and as usual, I ordered my 5-piece Crispy Chicken Nuggets and small fries. Surprisingly, the total was a few cents than what I had expected. I passed it off thinking that it was no Biggie (did you get the pun?).

Yesterday, I had lunch at Wendy's again and I ordered a Jr Bacon Cheeseburger and sour cream & chive potato which all used to cost $2.16 including tax, but holy moley, it came to $2.34!

After much research (I was THAT affected), I found out that Wendy's replaced the infamous "99-cent Menu" with the "Super Value Menu" and you guessed it, not all of the menu items cost 99 cents anymore; more specifically, my beloved potato sides are now more than $1. What the heezy fo' sheezy happened?

Dave, whereever you may be these days, tell your people to re-think about this injustice they just did. Afterall, McDonald's now have a Dollar Menu and they're right: I'm lovin' it.