See You Soon, New Yawk

The last time we visited NYC, we drove from Ashburn to Virginia (with a fun stopover at Hershey Park). I just arrived from the other side of the world and Ogz's license has expired so Joy was the sole driver then. This time though, I volunteered to sit behind the wheel. I wanted to experience long driving here in the US. In order not to get lost, we bought a GPS from Walmart. Joy also helped in the navigation.

Around midnight, we reached the city. I'll never get tired of this city. Just love it.

We dropped off Michelle, Freya and Jett at Mich's relatives in Brooklyn then we drove over to Queens to get some rest at Ogz's Tita Lety.

NYC Planning

Aside from thinking about what to wear in the city (this is pretty important), we need to plan out where to go and what to do.

On Friday, we'll be checking out the Statue of Liberty in the morning. It's Jet's first time so he needs a picture with this famous landmark. We'll also have some photo op on the Brooklyn Bridge. In the evening, we're gonna watch the Halloween parade. My camera will deffo burn with lotsa peeps in fun costumes. There's also Times Square to keep us entertained.

It's ice skating in Central Park on Saturday morning. Now, I only tried ice skating once in Ashburn and it was scary. I just want a photo while I'm trying to skate. Ogz & I will also watch "Equus" on Broadway. I'm very excited to see this show. Hopefully, we'll get to see the Parsons School on Fashion Avenue too. Designers!

Sunday would be a shopping day, of course.

Meet West!

I have a dog named West back home in Boracay. Too bad, I'm a thousand miles away. I can't play with him or give him food. 

My friend, Vicky, gave me a puppy adoption invitation from Facebook where you can have your own 3D puppy. The application is called Pokey! I created a puppy named West. You can actually play with your dog, feed or pet him. When you have time, play with my dog by clicking on the Pokey tab in my Facebook profile.

West is wagging his tail now ;oP 

Color Accent

If you're wondering how a photo can be in black & white while a certain subject still retains its color, it's very simple. No need to buy Photoshop or some fancy shmancy software. If you have a Canon digicam and it's in the PowerShot series (mine is SD 850), look no further. Grab your cameras and follow along to these simple instructions:

1) Go to Manual setting and click on Func. Set button. This will give you different Manual settings like Digital Macro, Color Swap and Stitch Assist. If you find an eyedropper icon with an A beside it, that's what we're looking for.

Now, the trick with Color Accent is that, you should pick a nice subject that you want to retain the color of. In our example here, I chose the head board. To pick the blue comforter would be an overkill.2) Click on Display button to choose the color you want to retain. Point to the subject and press the left arrow when you have chosen the color. You'll notice that the color picker is now of the same color. In my case, it's brown. Click on Display again to exit.

3) You'll notice now that the rest of your shot will be monochromatic and the subject will be the only one in color. Shoot anytime ;oPHere are other examples:By the way, thanks to Joy for figuring this out. I didn't know that my camera has this feature. Silly me.

That Socks!

Good finds of the day include these colorful socks from Urban Outfitters.

Relapse

I failed. Remember that I haven't been spending these past few weeks? Well, today, I gave in to the call of the Shopping Gods. 

I went to Nordstrom to check out what's new in the Ed Hardy section. I need sumpthin' nice to wear to New York.

I found a gray shirt that has an eagle design in between two red skeletons. Perfect for Halloween, eh? Then I found a yellow one with a nice mermaid design in front. I couldn't decide which one to get. Crap! I left the area.An hour later, I went back. I still couldn't decide. I tried the black one on. It looks nice on the mannequin too. I hate mannequins. They quietly tease you to get whatever items they're wearing. They want you to look like 'em.

The sales associate named Jay was giving me the look of "C'mon, man, buy the freakin' shirt!" 

I kinda like the yellow shirt too because I don't have a yellow Ed Hardy shirt yet and there aren't too many yellows in my closet. Oh, bloody hell...

Crab Feast

The question was where to have dinner tonight. Rene suggested a seafood night so we thought of going to Captain Pell's or Joe's Crab Shack. But when we checked their menus, Joe's only offers buckets of crab legs. Now, we love the whole thing. Not just the legs. So I checked the other resto and found out that they can give us the whole thing. But a medium-sized would set us back 2.75 at least. Hmmmm....

Then Ogz suggested to just buy crabs from Costco or Grandmart. We checked out the crabs at Costco and found out that a big one costs 14 bucks. It's six dollars a pound. Eeek!

So the last resort was Grandmart. Jet, Michelle, Freya and I each grabbed thongs and found the live & kicking ones. I was surprised when I had 8 crabs weighed. It only costs 2 bucks. Sweet!!!

The crabs plus shrimps cost us only 20++ bucks. And that is like 4 crabs per person. This is gonna be a feast! We were all excited.

Back in the apartment, Joy & Rene cooked our din-dins. Joy made hers Southern style while Rene put some ginger, Sprite and vinegar on his batch. After 30 minoots or so, we had our crab feast.Alwyn was the first to finish. Well, that's because he didn't have crabs.

We continued to enjoy our dinner with lotsa bantering (we love to pick on Jet). Freya & Mike wanted to get my crab fat but I held onto it. I always save the best for last. Mich, on the other hand, eats her crab in an interesting fashion. She takes out all the crab meat first and gathers them in one big heap. Then she eats everything. I just cannot do that.After an hour or so, it's time for dessert. Joy prepared some strawberries with cream and chocolate. Dayyum! 'twas freakin' DELISH!We also tasted the Bailey's choco that I bought at Costco. Yum-Oh!

What to Do in New York City?

Next Thursday, we're going to see the Big Apple again. I'm pretty pumped up every time I go there. The city is SO alive and there are lotsa things to do. Speaking of which, I don't have an itinerary yet but I wanna watch a Broadway show.

Am thinking of watching "Equus", starring Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. I dunno anyone who has seen it yet so I dunno if it's worth it or not. I don't wanna read reviews 'cause of 'em spoilers.

I hope I can get tickets on Saturday.

Rehab

I feel like I entered rehab for the shopaholics. For the past few weeks, I stopped shopping. Seriously.

Whenever I enter a shop, I look around but I don't spend at all. I think about my credit card debt back home. Sometimes, I even decline my friends' invitation to go shopping. It's really hard NOT to see a mall for days!!!

I think about the holidays. I still haven't shopped for my family & friends. It would be better to shop here in the States than worry about the hustle & bustle of shopping in Manila. It's really CRAZY over there during the holiday season. You'll find good bargains alright but just seeing so many peeps in the mall would give you instant headache.

I dunno how long I will last without shopping =o(

Pop Rocks

Joy, Ogz & I were watching teevee one night and sumpthin' on the Food Network was explaining how different famous candies are made. When Pop Rocks was presented, they were both shocked when I told them that I haven't tasted nor seen this candy before. Joy promised to buy me one when they visit the mall soon.

And so, today, I got my first Pop Rocks candy. I was excited to taste the "experience". When I opened the small sachet, the candy looks like sugar granules. It's almost Halloween so the colors are very Halloween-ish.Then I poured some on my mouth. Ogz & Joy were coaching me on what and what not to do with it.

And then the popping started. It's such a weird experience. I could hear some popping inside my mouth. If you haven't tried it, go buy one soon.

I truly enjoyed eating it. Thanks, Joy. Mwah!

Word Challenge: 20,796

This is one of the games that I play on Facebook. Word Challenge is fun & exciting and it lets me practice my typing.The game starts with 6 jumbled letters and your goal is to find 4-letter words from 'em. You'll get a bonus if you use up all 6 letters. You only have 2 minutes but if you type in 4- or 5-letter words, you will get extra seconds. Don't bother typing 3-letter ones though. In the bonus round, you have to find names from your friends list (again, with jumbled letters). Right now, I'm only ranked second to my friend, Carlos. I dunno how he achieved his score of 532,660 though. I'm happy with my position. Although, I know my friend, Sheyenne, is trying to outrank me ;oP

Luray Caverns

Luray Caverns... It's just an hour away. On our way there, we passed by Dinosaur Land.Ogz & I had been to this place already so we just let our friends enjoy themselves inside the caverns where they will see the egg formation, reflection pool and the infamous organ. The musical one, that is ;oPI found these old photos of me taken EIGHT freakin' years ago.Virginia has lotsa caverns and this is the Shenandoah Caverns that Tom & I visited last year. If Luray has the egg, Shenandoah has the bacon ;oP I think the latter has more dramatic lighting too, donchathink?In the meantime, Ogz & I checked out the area. We found the Garden Maze where you can "recreate" that Harry Potter climax scene. No Voldemort to hunt you down though. Instead you have 4 goals or riddles to solve.Next stop was this 51-year old singing tower. It contains 47 bells. Unforch, we didn't get to hear them ring.