Weekend update

Friday night: The AP-Annex Xmas Xtravaganza was polyphagia at its finest (Openness would be green with envy). It was an international potluck dinner of California maki (hand-rolled by Fara), pasta (by Pau), asado from Gloriamaris (c/o Margaux), inihaw na manok at liempo (from Maddy and Shirley), lamb chops and more pasta (whipped up by Elyse's culinary wizard sister), fried chicken, chopsuey, lumpiang Shanghai, and soup from Max's (c/o Lynn, Dette and Shels), fruit cocktail (c/o Elyse) and honey cake (my contribution). After pigging out we burned off the calories by playing Twister (I swore under pain of death not to post any embarrassing pix here) and abusing the Magic Mic. I also took the chance to test a game I'd be using for another party on Sunday (see below). Thanks to Maddy, Shirley and Elyse for being such good sports and good guinea pigs, hehe. And BIG thanks to Elyse for hosting the party this year. :)

[Aside: I love AP-Annex affairs in general, but I especially love them when both Fara and Margaux are around because it brings back lots of great memories of my first year of teaching. Just as Kat and I will always have Openness (awww, Openness ;p), Fara and Margaux and I will always have the Cyrenz. Besides, Margaux was my first faculty friend, and Fara was-- and still is!-- my life-saver and the yellow-hat foil to my black hat. I will forever be grateful that I had such wonderful co-teachers and even more wonderful friends (mushy, mushy... I do believe Fara's yellow hatness is rubbing off on me, eek!).]

Saturday night: Watched King Kong at the Promenade. Not bad for an ape movie, as my cousin Abi said. Peter Jackson really has a knack for filming furry creatures (perhaps because he is one himself). The bronto stampede scene was amazing (even if it required willing suspension of disbelief of bronto proportions), and the scene with a fresh-from-the-shower, shirtless Adrien Brody was also pretty amazing. ;p Solid acting from the cast, especially Naomi Watts, who gave her best Nicole Kidman-approximation yet. It looks like Colin Hanks has inherited his father's acting talent, Jack Black (thankfully) did not go over-the-top and turn the movie into a Jack Black comedy (as if Jackson would let him), and I wonder when we'll see Andy Serkis (the eponymous Kong, and also Gollum from LOTR) in a human role...

[Aside: During the preview, a guy and his mom sat down in the vacant seats right beside me. We turned to glance at each other and there was a cry of recognition and a burst of surprised laughter from my mom and the other mom, because we were neighbors/family friends. I'd never met the son before-- you know what's coming-- and he was cute (mwehehe) in a typical Xavier-boy kind of way, but I think a wee bit too young for me (*mope*). So I just concentrated on Adrien Brody on-screen and not on the occupant of the seat next to me. :p]

Sunday noon: Had a lovely, leisurely, laugh-filled lunch at Teriyaki Boy Madison Square (we were avoiding the horrible parking scenarios at the Promenade) with some of my college buddies: Pia, Yang, Angelo and Mike. It's so hard getting more than 5 people together with our different schedules, especially during the holidays. But the effort is always worth it in the end.

Sunday night: My mom's high school class's annual Christmas party at the Wack-Wack clubhouse. The lechon did not arrive, so dinner was mediocre (as the food in Wack-Wack tends to be). I was in charge of games this year, and one of them was a modest hit (an amalgam of Pera o Bayong and Street Smarts, a game show I've seen a couple of times on Jack TV). Felt very, very old when I found out that the son of one of my mom's classmates (the shoti of one of my HS batchmates, whom we used to play with when he was just a teeny toddler) already attended the ICA-Xavier Freshmen Acquaintance Party the previous day. Ack. Can someone stop the clock please? I'm not ready to be ancient just yet (late twenties, Mike, tsk tsk tsk :p).