More Ketchup, Please

This is becoming a regular feature in my delayed-and-w/o-too-much-detail blogging lifestyle. (Ah, well. Beats having to open a Twitter account.):

Aug. 14: The Contessa's newlywed friends Elwood and Sarah Mae invited us to their lovely new home in Quezon City, a 2-storey structure featuring the current architectural fad of horizontal beams, large exterior ornamental stone designs and super-high ceilings. Guys like me went gaga over the 54-inch plasma TV in the living room (w/ surround speakers installed in the ceiling over the couch), while the ladies went lala over one particular lamp next to the couch.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Mae's cousins Rhea and Racquel (and her husband Alfred). While the rest of the grown-ups were chatting I was playing Build-a-Cup-and-Coaster-Castle w/ Racquel's daughter (whose name escapes me at the moment, but seeing as she's only Prep I in SJCS I doubt she'll hold a grudge).

Aug. 15: Hanging w/ Lola at our usual Starbucks joint (Ash Creek), secretly making fun of the cabal of teenage-to-adolescent Chinoy males huddled at the table behind her. It was like watching the gathering of the Asian cast of Revenge of the Nerds.

Aug. 23: Arya Greenhills for a double dinner date (The Contessa would probably object to the "date" part, but rest assured I'm only in this for the alliteration) w/ Rhea (see how fast I can make friends?) and her friend Dino. It should have been a sextuple supper but Sarah and Elwood had to leave early, so apologies for them for only taking out the camera after they departed. No Robin Padilla sighting this time, but we did see Angelu de Leon having dinner at the table across from ours.

Aug. 28: Spent the late afternoon and evening w/ Amie, Lyndon's friend whom I met coupla years back. After I had a massage we went to Marina at Metrowalk for some dinner.

If anyone noticed that the path of these meetings took me from Quezon City to San Juan to Mandaluyong, well.... correlation is not causation. :p

First Rule of GeekFight! Club:

Friday night, on the eve of the 3 Families' annual shopping sojourn to Hong Kong, Lola and I attended Geekfight!, a pop culture-centric quiz nite event at Quantum Cafe in Makati. The quiz's catergories were: Gadgets, Dinosaurs, Comic books, Music, Video Games, Crime Movies, Sci-Fi and the Geek IQ Portion, with bonus Star Wars round. I chose the name Capricornix, in honor of Caprica and Boy Bawang.

The one Gadget question they threw that surprised me was "What device is used to open the New Gods' boom tubes?" (A: Mother Box), since that was really more of a Comics question. Apparently they wanted to delve into fictional gadgets as well.

While no-one in our team (adopted members Ed and Frances --who thought the team name was an allusion to Asterix-- included) had much to offer by way of right answers in the Music category (we opted for funny ones, instead), the Comic Books category was a chance for me to have what Lola called my "smug face." The only ones I answered incorrectly was due to my not having read the books in question, no pun intended (Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6 and Slam Dunk, specifically). Meanwhile Lols and Ed saved our butts in the Video Games category.

This was only the second quiz nite event I've attended, but the first one I managed to stay the whole evening for, and the evening ran late, much to Ma's frustration (told her I'd be done by 10, but it ran 'til 1AM). In terms of overall ranking we were No. 6 out of 15 participating teams. Least we made the top 10, in not the top 5.