Live ...at the New York Hall of Science!

July 17 . I received an email from Mary Record of the NY Hall of Science about being on TV. They needed energetic kids of all ages to play in the exhibits and be filmed on live TV. She wanted to know if I would be interested. Would I be interested? OF COURSE! :P I can imagine it being a really fun experience for both me and Andrew. We're in!

There were two television shoots over the weekend, and I can choose to attend one or attend both. On Saturday (7/19, 8:30-10am) CBS-TV will be filming live weather segments in the Science Playground while on Sunday (7/20, 5:45-9am), ABC-TV will do the same in the Hall's special exhibition, Magic: The Science of Illusion. I emailed Mary back to let her know that Andrew and I were interested in joining the Saturday shoot, and half an hour later, I received her confirmation. Mary also made a note to "dress your child in bright colored-clothing with no logos or words" and that "solid colors work best".

Albert has a scheduled eval and won't be able to join us, so I asked Mama if she'd come with us instead. The doting Lola, of course, is available.

July 18, 10pm. 'got the diaper bag ready. Still unsure which shirt Andrew should wear the next day. Tough call!!! All the brightly colored ones had logos in 'em. Would have loved for him to wear his orange or his blue Mets shirt. My other option was to have him wear a striped shirt. Would the yellow and blue stripes look better than the blue and pink stripes? Or would I settle for the soft lime green shirt? Man, I started to think how I'm making a big deal out of this. Fine, the green shirt it is (but I will bring the striped shirts, just in case...). Stars need a change of outfit after all, right? *lol*

July 19, 7am. I was up earlier than usual. On a Saturday! Hey, for the love of TV, hahaha. At 7:15, pupungas-pungas pa ang mag-ama. 'got myself ready, then I prepared Andrew's breakfast. He seemed to wonder why his morning routine is 1 1/2 hours off. Anyway, we were out the door by 8:05 and parking in the museum grounds by 8:20. We were ushered into the Science playground, where Mary welcomed us. Free breakfast for all attendees. Nice. Andrew was all set, but I needed my caffeine and I was not sure if Mama ate something before we left.

'noted that the lights had been set up in certain areas of the playground. I was hoping to see Dave Price (my crush since his Fox5 days), but I learned that Megan Glaros was doing the whole outdoor segment of the show. She's pretty and sweet. She interacted with the families during the breaks and she was friendly to all the kids.

By 10am, it was a wrap. As soon as we got home, we reviewed the recording of the show and ta-dah... here's our few seconds of fame.

(to follow once Tatay has uploaded it on YouTube)

It's time again for NY Restaurant Week!

Hot off the press tip from OpenTable.com!!!

Mark your calendar for NYC Summer Restaurant Week 2008:
July 21 - 25 and July 28 - August 1

Eat and be very merry! Make your reservations early (I'm serious!). As soon as I saw the email, I tried booking a late lunch at Asiate but "no tables are available within 2 hours of my 2pm request." Whatev.

For two weeks, experience NYC's finest restaurants and pay only $24.07 for a three-course lunch (or $35 for dinner). IF you stick to the menu (and drink water instead of wine or some cocktail), even with tax and gratuity, you're still paying a fraction of the usual price. IF you lack self-control like we do ("Yes, I'll have a gewurztraminer and..."), you may see a spike in the bill. Nonetheless, I still love, love Restaurant Week because we get to try out dining hot spots that are usually out of our budget. We choose our picks based on these criteria:

> $$$$ price category (which means we wouldn't normally eat there unless it's restaurant week) > place comes highly recommended
> location (e.g. River Cafe) or history of the place (e.g. One if by Land, Two if by Sea)
> we know the chef (the chef doesn't necessarily know us)

RW could be a hit and miss. Since 2002, the restaurants we've tried had us feeling good and happy about the food and the service (except at Inagiku last year). We've had...

the best time at Terrace in the Sky
the most romantic date at Josephs Citarella
the best steak at Smith & Wollensky and Delmonico's (Restaurant week aside, our personal faves are Uncle Jack's and Peter Luger)

We'll see if Morimoto will be in this special list after July 24.

And feel free to share your RW picks with me.

Note: Learn more about the NY Restaurant Week.

Download a free copy of Women & Money by Suze Orman

You read that right! But hurry, you only have until 8/7c tonight!!!

Download it here. *

Empower yourself and control your destiny! Have a great day!

*IF you missed the free download time period, email me at pambatangpinoy[at]gmail[dot]com. Ipapadala ko na lang as attachment and kopya ng aklat.


Note: Free download, courtesy of Oprah.com

New York Hall of Science review

My girlfriends and I scheduled a playdate at the New York Hall of Science, and we and our children had a wonderful time. There are lots of interactive and stimulating exhibits to see and explore. My son had a blast just walking around and enjoying the sights. Not much interest in the exhibits really, but the idea of a great time for him is "people watching" and "roaming-around-to-touch-this-and-that". Fair enough. :) The "Preschool Place" is where we stayed the most, because we have toddlers. It had a market area where the kids shopped and picked fruits and veggies (and pushed a shopping cart, if they were lucky enough to find one that was available); the check-out counter had a cashier station, conveyor, and scanner. Really cute. On one end was a special padded area for babies. The "Sports Challenge" exhibit was also a hit with the older kids. The mini water park in the Science Playground entertained our children and cooled them off, but I didn't like that we had to pay an additional $4 to get in (this is on top of the admission fee).

I signed on as a member and for the next two years, we'll have:
> unlimited access to the Hall
> free parking in the on-site lot
> admission to more than 250 other museums worldwide
> borrowing privileges from the Science Technology Library, and
> discounts on subscriptions to FamilyFun and Disney Adventures magazines.

I think it's worth it.

**************

Rating: 4 stars
Pros: friendly staff, interactive exhibits, indoor and outdoor cafe (you may bring food)
Cons: street parking if you are not a member (or pay $10 for parking), additional $4 to get in the science playground




mirror room & bubble fun in the hall

sports challenge

preschool place

preschool place

cold mist in the science playground

The Kids

Oh yes, The Years Are Short

'saw this video here. It's by Gretchen Rubin, a NY-based writer. Check out her blog and embark on a happiness project of your own.

Here Kitty Kitty!

Finalleeeeh! :) The 2G was mine! I'm demystifying the kitty party, if you had not searched about it yet.

Kitty party... Paluwagan... Jam-ia... Sou sou. Whichever way it is called, it's a means to save money. Here's more:

Kitty, in India (and this is according to Tarun), means a pot of money. The Dictionary of Indian English has this meaning:

kitty party: n. a meeting of women where chits are arranged or gossip is exchanged.
chit: n. a financial scheme in which a group of people put in a fixed amount every day/week/month and one of them gets to collect the entire amount by lucky draw each time.

Note: There's 10 of us in the group. 8 women and 3 men. The promoter (and promotor) coined it kitty party...as per Tarun. So yeah, technically, it's supposed to be a meeting of women. But hey, we're all women! Chits are exchanged. Check. Gossip is exchanged. Check. Unique drawings are held. Check. Kitty party all the way!

My mom has something similar in their school, and they call it Sou sou. I went, "su... what??" :P
Fine, count me in. :) The more "diversified" I am in my savings, the better. The Urban Dictionary has this to say:

Sou Sou
A savings arrangement where a group of people each pool an equal amount of money for a period time (month, two weeks, etc) and after that time is up, one person in the group gets all that money. They keep doing this till everyone gets their turn and receives that full lump sum at least once. It's not a pyramid scheme, no one loses as long as everyone's trustworthy and puts in their share. It's just a way to hang on to money by putting tying it up into something else temporary. This is popular with 1st-gen Carribbeans, South Americans, Africans, and maybe someother people. Just a way to save money up if you can't get a small savings account, aren't in a credit union, or don't want Tha Man all up in your business.

Note: My mom's group draws the monthly "winner" in the beginning of the Sou Sou. You'll know when to expect your share. You can also request (or switch) for a slot, if let's say you need the money by a certain month. With mom's help, I got the March money pool (I needed it for Andrew's birthday party). Aren't they great?

On to our Filipino version, the Paluwagan. I say, who hasn't joined one??? Same premise: contribute money to a pool on a monthly basis, and the lucky member for the month gets to enjoy the money. It's repeated until all the members get their fair share. I was teasing a friend of mine who didn't know about the paluwagan (or is it more like, patago) that was so "in" during our elementary and high school days. I told her, she probably didn't need to do it anyway. Meanwhile, there I was... often a part of the class savings program. I even got assigned the responsibility of keeping the money safe (which, let me tell you, now that I look back at it, was difficult to do during those years). Look, you got extra cash in your possession... you're young... wouldn't it be convenient to borrow some of it to buy stationery for your collection, or to get yourself a bottle of Denenes? You tell me! Nah. Let me pat myself on the back... good thing I was the responsible class VP and I was also a legionary... no hanky panky.

********

Okay. So back to my win. What do you say I now do with the money?

Tea... and the Kitty Primary!

4th Kitty Party was held at Sarabeth's. The thought of 'afternoon tea' thrilled the kitty hopefuls. I long wanted to experience a full tea service, not the typical before or after-meal tea in Chau Zhou or Silver Pond. You know what I mean... When Kathy voiced out the plan, I was looking forward to this monthly meet and then thought about the dress code. Darn, would dressing up be part of the plan? We were all relieved to know that it's going to be a casual afternoon tea treat. No white gloves. No chic hats. No lace and frills. Come as you wish.

It was lovely to have tea (& food) with friends. For $21 (+ tax and gratuity), we had tea sandwiches of ...Smoked Salmon with pickled onions & caper cream cheese, Chicken Salad with raisins, walnuts & dill, Radish and Cucumber with baby greens & chive goat cheese, Black Forest Ham with Brie cheese; complete with Sarabeth’s Scones, Cookies, Jams, and Clabber. Of course, you get your choice of Harney and Sons Tea. Add in the mix of stories, topics, gossip, news, updates, thoughts, and opinions that fly across each one of us in the group, and it truly becomes a fun weekend. Big bonus: getting the kitty. After each one of us got a bite of the delicious Martine's truffle (thanks to the host), it was determined that the winner for March is... Mel! --his is the only one with raspberry filling.

For April, incoming host Mel planned an elaborate Kitty Primary. Yup, check out the theme from this avid Hillary follower:

Email announcement: Attention: Kitty Pollsters!

Dear Super Delegates,

You need to vote for this new CNN/Pepper Poll-
1. Brunch or Dinner?2. April 12 or 19?
Your votes must be received by March 31 or else your vote will not count.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Senator Rommel

Congresswoman Pepper

Email confirmation: Kitty Poll Results!

Dear Superdelegates,

Not everyone has voted, however, it was a unanimous vote by the majority of those who voted already.
Here is the result:
It will be dinner on April 19, 2008.

The convention will be at:
Hill Country30 W 26th St between 6th Ave/Broadway

If you want to check their website: http://www.hillcountryny.com

Note: For those who haven't received their kitty, pls.think of the theme based on my two emails. This could determine your "momentum" in winning the prize.

Email reminder: Kitty Party this Saturday!!!

Dear Superdelegates,

This is a reminder that our convention for the kitty party is this Saturday, April 19 at 8 pm.
The convention will be at:
Hill Country30 W 26th St between 6th Ave/Broadway
If you want to check their website: http://www.hillcountryny.com.
(Ashton Kutcher and company had their after party here)

Note: I have counted all of you for the reservation. If you are bringing someone, pls. let me know the latest by Friday night. Otherwise, I can't guarantee your guest will be seated. The restaurant has a very strict reservation policy.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.
Senator Rommel

Congresswoman Pepper

************

Pretty cool! Come convention night, we helped ourselves to generous servings of ribs, chicken, sausage, pork brisket, and sides. I got the bbq sampler #1 for $25 (with plenty to take-home for my dh). Mel began the voting proceedings before the band started playing and we couldn't hear one another anymore. But first, a test of knowledge of our chosen candidate. "What is your candidate's date of birth?" -- aargh, if one of us just knew Barack or Hillary that well, we could've won the prized kitty nomination! Since we all failed the first round, we were subjected to envelope drawings and competing for state electoral caucuses. The verdict after three rounds: President Jo Ann! I wonder what her first official act would be.

Note: Obviously, I still haven't won the kitty. I will explain what this is all about when I get that 2G. :P