My girls and I are allergic to nuts. In fact we are allergic to so many ingredients that its hard to eat out. We tend to stick to the restaurants we like in town and avoid most of those darn dishes with ingredients I am not familiar with. Mahal magkasakit, err, bawal magkasakit.

Whenever I get the chance to buy things for me, I tend to go for books or CDs.  I love to listen and make music.  My selection vary and they range from Pop, Acoustic Rock, and even Country Music.  I have a very huge selection of playlist on my PC, Mac and Nokia.  I like to listen to music while working and when I needed a break, I like hooking my earphones and listen intently to my favorites.

I love to sing.  I think Filipinos are naturally music lovers.  We love to sing love songs… We love to rock…  :)

I used to play the piano as a child, but I love the guitar the best.  Although certainly no John Mayer nor a Gabe Bondoc or a Marié Digby, but I love the way a guitar sound and has always loved to sing along with an acoustic guitar as an accompaniment.  My love of music stemmed from my growing up with brothers who plays the piano and guitar.  There was always music when I was growing up.

I used to sing duets with my brothers.  We used to sing all those 80′s music, Roxette, Bruce Springsteen, some Barry Manilow’s and even Basia, Whitney Houston and Bon Jovi.  I started with the piano at the age of 6, and the guitar at the age of 14.  I was professionally taught piano-wise, but self taught with the guitar.  I started learning the guitar when I realized that the guitar is way cooler than the piano.  :)

Tomorrow, I am checking out Perfect Pitch to check the prices of acoustic guitars.   I want a black acoustic guitar.  I am also checking out online guitar sites.  Anyone have any suggestion?

I love books and I love reading immensely.

My love for reading began at an early age.  It started when I found an entire shelf of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys hardbound books at the school library.  No one seemed to bother borrowing them, and although I cannot remember exactly my first Nancy Drew book, I remembered borrowing all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books in our library.  From then on, I would pester my mom and my brother Joemen to get me books every month from the local bookstore.

My brother encourage my love for reading.  Although my parents did not understand it before, and thought of buying “pocketbooks” a total waste of money, my brother– also a book worm explained the passion and the advantages of reading.  He mentioned something about widening my vocabulary and strengthening my grammar and english skills, reading truly has helped me through school.

Reading think chapters from text books and learning the art of speed reading, this has helped me through high school and college, no doubt about that.  Writing essays and book reports was easy for me and has earned me some recognition in school.  I also became good in spelling and along with the passion of working on crossword puzzles, I have learned to be quick on synonyms of words and learned how to quickly answer crossword puzzles from easy to advance level on one sitting.  There was a time that I was so into it that I even have my own crossword puzzle book in the bathroom.  lol  Some keep magazines or newspapers near their crapper, me, I have my Sudoku and my Dell Crossword Puzzles.

My favorite books range from legal and psychological thrillers.  Kellermen, King, Grisham, Scottoline, Crichton are some of my favorite authors.  I continue to horde books here.  But it has expanded to personal finance, web design and some self help books which I have used with my counselor years ago.

I wanted my love for books to pass onto my children.  At early age, my children are rewarded for good behavior with books.  We have a selection of Dr. Seuss and Nancy Drew Books.  My daughters love books and like me, they are drawn to National Bookstore and BookSale.  I have learned to allocate at least P1,000 for books each month.  Books when taken care of last for several years and can be passed on to others.

Here are some of the benefits of reading:

• Reading helps children become smarter.
• Reading encourages your children to have longer attention span.
• It helps teach your child about relationships, situations, personalities, and what is good and what is bad in the world he lives in. Fantasy books provide material for his imagination and free play. Fairy tales fascinate your kid, and help him distinguish between what is real and what is not.
• Reading helps you prepare your children allay your child’s fears or prepare him for changes in his life. For example, you can choose books about using the potty, going to school, or moving to a new house when he is about to have these new experiences.

The best way to teach children to love reading is to be an example.  Let your children see you reading.  Read stories aloud to your children and let them choose the books they wanted to read.  As soon as you show this love and dedication to learning by reading, your children will love books and learn to take care and handle them with care.

I rarely go laptop crazy. I have a trusty Macbook (one of those first White ones) and I am quite happy with it, except for the time when I need to lag it in my bag and it is quite heavy. I have been on the look out for one of those netbooks however, I wanted one with higher capacity as I wanted to use this for work as well especially when power is out at home.

So here are the laptops that has gotten my attention this time around:

1. HP Envy

After getting a top of the line HP Pavilion work station, I am now impressed with these all in one power heavies. Everything from mouse to monitor to keyboard have this embossed and silver insigna HP which my children and I love. Eye-catching all black with silver trim, the HP Pavilion is hard core as can be. I just ordered a new Pocket Media Drive to go with it from Amazon, and I cannot wait to fix my HDD and move and clean up my HDD.

So when it comes to netbooks, I have my eye on HP Envy and HP Mini. I am more inclined to drool and dream about the Envy because of its technical features:

• 1.6GHz Intel Core2 Duo SL9300 Processor (6MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
• 3 GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm); Expandable to 5GB
• 250GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive; External SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
• 13.1¿ Diagonal High Definition LED HP Radiance Infinity Widescreen Display (1366×768)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 Graphics with up to 1757MB total graphics memory with 512 MB dedicated
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; Up to 16.25 Hours of Battery Life

Not bad.  And its running on Windows 7 already.  Be still my heart!

Cost:  $1,000-  :(

2.  HP Mini

HP carries an array of Minis and I just love the fact that they are MINI!  Man, so small and almost notebook size.  Great for travels and quick internet access and use anywhere.  Almost like my Nokia E72 which I like to use at home for quick email checks and twitter and facebook updates using Gravity.

I am in love with the Vivienne Tam Edition Series.  It is several hundred more expensive than the non-special mini’s but heck, this is dreamworld, so I can dream and drool non-stop.  So, for now, I am taken with the Vivienne Tam Edition Series.  I wonder how many stores in Manila have the VT Series, cause this is not available here in Northern Mindanao.

• An Intel Atom N450 processor for reliable performance
• Simplified daily PC activities with genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
• 2GB of system memory and a 250GB⁴ hard drive
• Three ports for transferring data to/from other devices
• A 10.1″ (diagonal) antiglare display
• A VGA port for connecting a monitor
• Integrated wireless-G for access within range of a hotspot² (Wireless-N and Bluetooth are optional)
• The options of a 320GB hard drive, 2.4GHz wireless mouse in the same design, and external multi-format CD/DVD drive for installing software (the Mini has no internal optical drive)
• ENERGY STAR^® qualification

Cost:  $599-700

3. iPad

Isn’t iPad a portable laptop?  Sort of.  (shrugs)  Despite the fact that I am veering away from Apple products now because of their cost, I am still quite taken with the iPad.  I think all Apple products are great except the fact that they are just too damn expensive and the applications for Mac are NOT free.  :(

Cost:  $499

Anyway, anyone can dream even me.  I have no plans of getting another laptop, but I do have some extra, I would not mind having the Mini or the Envy.