Pussycat Doll's Search for the Next Doll

I'm rooting for Melissa R. She's Filipina, she can sing & dance, and she's only 17! I hope she wins.

Chelsea is my second choice. She doesn't have much dance training, but her voice is crystal clear.

After reading Ailee's blog and comments about how expensive good quality make-up is, I couldn't resist looking at my kit. I love my make-up kit!

I can't believe how in high school we were forbidden to wear it. Actually, we were forbidden to do anything that would help us to express ourselves in any way. I remember them banning things like nail polish (even clear), shoes with any type of heel, cute socks (even though they were uniform-approved white), colored hair, dangling earrings(or more than 1 earring per ear), tattoos, piercings, etc. Haha! A lot of good that did me, as soon as I could, I went out and got all of those done =D But my most favorite of all is the fact that I can wear as much make-up as I want. I look back at my old high school pictures and laugh/cringe at the bushy-browed, shiny face smiling back at me. Thank God those days are over!

What have we been feeding our pets?

So it's been confirmed that rat poison was behind the confirmed dealths of at least 16 pets in North America. They are still investigating as to how that poison got into the manufacturing plants, which led to the massive recall of about 100 different brands of cat and dog food. Among the list was Iams and Science Diet, both of which I used to feed my cats. I only fed them the packaged dry food, and the contamination was supposedly only for wet canned and the foil pouches. But I was still worried, so I decided to do some research on the net. I read some articles about pet food, and read pet owners' forums and discussions. What I learned has made me switch to organic, holistic cat food. These were what I found out:

• Most pet food companies use meat by-products as one of their main ingredients. So basically, the parts that are swept off the floor of slaughterhouses. Whatever cannot be put into human food, they put into pet food. This includes hoofs, lips, hair, feathers, beaks, etc. I also read an article that said it may even contain roadkill, dead zoo animal carcasses, and fecal matter! YUCK!! What the hell have I been paying for???
• I also read an article that said every year, the SPCA has to put down about 10,000 animals. A percentage of those dead animals are buried, another percentage is cremated, but 40% is sold to petfood companies, they are then put into a grinder and voila! another ingredient! WTH! First of all, they had to inject a lethal solution to put down those animals. Second of all, those animals would have diseases, tumors, etc. All those would ultimately land into the pet food!
• Cats and dogs, are in fact, carnivores. They need a lot of meat protein. Their systems have a hard time digesting ingredients like corn, soy, wheat gluten, etc. I looked at the ingredients of most pet food and the main ingredients are these grains and fillers. So the food just passes through their digestive tract and results in a wet, stinky stool.
  
• There is no quality control in the manufacturing of pet food. One writer wrote that he saw how those factories were operated. Workers don't even remove the meat from the styrofoam, they throw everything in the grinder, packaging and all!

I felt horrified by what I read. This is the result of commercialism and capitalism. I fell hook line sinker into the marketing strategy of Science Diet's Nature's Best. I remember paying top dollar for their cat food cos the packaging was so nice, it showed fresh meat, veggies and grains. Even the food itself looked so nice, each ingredient had a different shaped and colored little pellet. Brown tiny bone for chicken, red tiny fish for seafood, green heart shape for grains, etc. I looked at the ingredients, and it had the same fillers as the cheaper brands.

So I had several options now, based on the research I did. Technically, the best diet for cats and dogs is raw meat. There are a lot of people who buy meat by the bulk, grind them and freeze them as pet food. There's also a company called The Honest Kitchen, and they sold dehydrated raw food in big containers. To feed your pet, you would scoop a cup of this and mix it with water to re-hydrate. Both of those seem to be too much work, since most mornings I'm rushing just to get to work on time =) So I found a few brands that sold organic pet food. They were smaller companies, but they use human-grade meat as their main ingredient, usually free-range chicken and other poultry. No by-products, no preservatives. They are not sold in the supermarkets, or even big corporations like Petcetera, but through smaller, healthy pet supply stores. This goes to show that if you want better quality these days, you need to go to the smaller companies rather than the big chains and corporations.

Tisol Pet Nutrition & Supply, is pretty close to home, so I'll be going there from now on. I went there last Friday and got a pack of Felidae Dry Cat Formula. The ingredients right away list chicken, turkey, lamb and herring, rather than the crap filler stuff. I also got them some Greenie's Dental Treats in Tempting Tuna. It was so cute, the dog version of those dental treats were in the shape of small toothbrushes =) As soon as I got home, Tigger and Mittens started sniffing the bags, and they took to the new stuff right away. They're a bit more expensive, but totally worth it in the long run, if they can lead long, healthy lives. I might also try Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken Cat Food, lamb is their main ingredient, and my sister's puppy Brody eats their line of dog food.

I'm pretty glad that I did all this research. I mean, I would not feed a child McDonald's crap everyday, so why would I feed crap to my cats? If it's not good enough for humans to consume, it ain't good enough for my babies.

My parents are arriving from Manila in 4 days. They were gone for almost 6 months this time, so in that period, we sort of rearranged the house to how we liked it. But now that they're almost back, me and Dave have been spending the past several weekends getting the house cleaned and re-organized and ready for them. I don't think we've done this much work in... hmm ...I don't even remember!

My checklist is almost done, these are the things we've accomplished:

• Moved our bed, dressers, bookshelf and small entertainment unit back into our bedroom. Thanks to my dad-in-law's truck, I can now watch TV/DVDs, or listen to nice CDs back in the comfort and privacy of our own room with lit scented candles setting the mood.
• Moved the furniture that was in our room into various other rooms. My parents are old, which makes them crazy packrats. My sisters bring their older furniture and other stuff over and my parents can't bear to throw anything away. We had to use a bit of ingenuity to make everything fit. So a dresser and a side table went into the guest room, and this other spare room now has 2 mattresses on top of 2 boxprings on top of a bedframe. Yes, the whole silly thing comes up to about my chest!
• Cleaned up the living area/TV room downstairs, as well as the guest room. Again this took a few hours of hard labour, due to rearranging of furniture, plus the fact that my parents like rugs. Big rugs, small rugs...this results in having to vaccuum the rugs AND the carpet underneath it.
  
• Cleaned my parents bedroom. The furniture in their room is the worst for dust. Black and super smooth shiny surface. Dust loves it. Also, washed all their sheets and pillows and big thick comforters. Those could not fit into our washer, so we actually had to bring 4 big garbage bags of heavy comforters to my sister's cos she has a big front loading washer.
• Cleaned all 3 bathrooms. This took about a whole day. Dave cleaned the toilets with bleach and was on his hands and knees cleaning the floor. Plus he cleaned all the bathtubs, tile and glass sliding doors. My parent's jacuzzi-type bathtub took more than an hour and 3 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Thank God Dave was well-trained to clean properly by his mom, cos there was no way in heck I could have done that. We also threw all the bathroom mats, toilet seat covers in the wash.
  
• Degreased the kitchen floor, cupboards and area near the stove. Oil just gets everywhere when you cook! Were thinking of pulling out the fridge and stove and cleaning behind, but think we'll leave that for Spring Cleaning, as we just did it last spring.
• Cleaned out the fridge. Actually took out each shelf and washed it with sponge and detergent. Threw out a bunch of old sauces, food, condiments, etc.
• Re-arranged all closets so items are organized: medicine closet, non-perishable food pantry, linen closet, etc.
  
• Cleaned and swept up the garage and area under the deck. Them spiders sure like to make cobwebs on the ceiling. Also, picked up garbage that had blown into our yard cos of the fallen wooden fence. Still have to fix that when it gets sunnier.
  
• Brought the computer back to the computer room. We had to get the Cable guy to come and install cable internet as there was no cable outlet in that room, stupid duplex house layout! He had to drill through the ceiling of our room into the computer room's floor, and run a cable through our TV connection into the computer upstairs.
• Cleaned my car. Actually, we cheated and just brought it to Oasis Car Wash. Good enough for now, for $12.95 they clean outside and inside, vacuummed the rugs and wiped the dashboard, windows and other surfaces. Not as clean as when we do it ourselves, but we were scrapped for time. When we clean my car, it's about 2 hours of detail cleaning, Dave actually cleans out each crevice with a toothbrush.
• Went shopping at Costco and stocked up on bulk paper towels, TP, laundry detergent, 3M lint remover rollers, soap, duct tape. We use the last 2 products to remove cat hair from our clothes and bedcovers. Also went to the recycling center to get a blue newspaper bag and yellow mixed paper bag that some creepo must have stolen off our back alley.
• Finished little maintennance things we've been procrastinating. Hammered on the double-lock for the back door, re-attached smoke alarm, replaced broken light bulbs, etc.
  

So now all that's left are a few last minute things we still have to do:

• Today we're going to Home Depot and hopefully see some nice, reasonably-priced vertical wooden blinds for the living room. Ours has about 5 fabric blinds that's fallen to the ground, due to old age and the cats playing with it. We've tried to hold them up with string, duct tape, etc but they still keep falling =) Wooden ones should last longer.
• Take the recyclables to the Recycling Depot. Will prob do this on Saturday morning before picking them up at the airport.
• Go to the market and get my dad's Lactose-free milk.
  
• Sort all my dad's mail and arrange them nicely on the table. File away the paid bills.
• Water all of my mom's plants again so they look as lively as they could when she sees them.
  
• Put tablecloths back on tables. Rugs and mats back on kitchen floor.
• Clip the cats' nails.
  
• Run all the dishes in the washer and put them away.
  
• Vaccuum and dust the whole house again. We have to leave this til last as dust and hair build up so fast with 2 cats.

So we're almost all set. We've been working pretty hard these past few weekends. After this, on weekends I'll prob have that feeling: "hm...now what do I do today?" So I've decided that I'm gonna go to the gym on Saturday and Sunday mornings starting this weekend, for a few hours each time. Both mornings they have a step class at 9:30, and a Muscle Sculpt class at 10:45. This way, I'll be going to the gym Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and weekend mornings.
4 times a week. Perfect. By the time summer rolls around, I'll be ready to reward myself with a brand new bikini!

I got a new Lululemon outfit WHOHOO!!!

I asked Dave if he would buy me something from my favorite store as an early birthday gift, so last night we went to the mall and he got me a complete outfit.

I got this tank top in the color emerald. I love the back view.

I got this Scuba Lulu hoodie in classic grey

This crop in plain black, so it goes with my other lulu tops.

And these socks =)

The total came up to about $250. It amazes me how this store has just swept across the country. Everyone is willing to spends big bucks to have that well-known logo on them. When I go to the gym, about half the girls are decked out in lulus. The reason I love it is cos I can wear it whether I do my yoga, pilates, weight training or step classes. Or even just for everyday. They're sooooo comfy, plus they make my assets look great =)

To complete my working out mood, I also got this protein shake from the Vitamin Store. Whey Gourmet is the only brand out there that carries yummy flavors like Smooth Peanut Butter Cholocate, Blueberry Burst , Arctic Cappuccino Frappe, Creamy Orangesicle Swirl, and Cookies and Cream Supreme, among others. This time I got Radical Raspberry Smoothie.

I'm all set for my step class tonight!

Phew!

I've been late for more than a week now, so last night I finally bought a home pregnancy kit. This morning, I took it, and it showed negative. Thank God! =)


As much as I'd like a little one down the road, we're not ready for it now. The funny thing is, everytime I've been late, which does not happen often as my birth control pills have made me pretty regular, I start to imagine that there's something growing inside me. So when I find out I'm not, I feel a little let down inside. But usually it's covered up by the immense feeling of relief.

Which lovely disney lady do you resemble most?

TINKERBELL FROM PETER PANPersonally, shes my favorite character. Shes full of spunk and attitidue and is always right by Peter. When it comes to making sure that Wendy backs off 'her man' she get very defensive (me: i think its funny) and shes very spiteful towards wendy. Take this quiz! Quizilla Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code