MyParty. Finds. A Home.

author: Ken Follet
published: February 4th 2002 by NAL Trade
first published: 1989
isbn: 0451207149 (isbn13: 9780451207142)
pages: 976

Ken Follett had long been a staple of the bestseller lists for his novels of intrigue and espionage. Then came The Pillars of the Earth, a grand novel of epic storytelling that readers and critics quickly hailed as his crowning achievement. Now, The Pillars of the Earth is available for the first time to a new audience of readers, in this attractive new trade paperback edition.

In 12th-century England, the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral signals the dawn of a new age. This majestic creation will bond clergy and kings, knights and peasants together in a story of toil, faith, ambition and rivalry. A sweeping tale of the turbulent middle ages, The Pillars of the Earth is a masterpiece from one of the world’s most popular authors.

AND I SAY:

One of my favorite books, ever. Its at least a thousand pages (if i remember correctly) but i read through it like it was light reading. Critics say that its possibly Ken Follet’s best work yet - and I agree.

Its well-researched, compelling, and by the end of the day you already know each character as if they were your own. I won’t be surprised if this book joins the “classics” genre, because it should.

Aside from shirts, holsters, vests, and other safety apparel, tactical pants are also a part of a superior line of safety products from La Police Gear’s 511 Tactical Series. Their products aim to enhance the safety, accuracy, speed and performance of law enforcement, military and firefighting professionals. Built on a foundation of durability, quality and value, 5.11 Tactical gear leads the industry by delivering functionally innovative gear, head to toe.

Tin Drum Asia Cafe has become one of my and hubby’s favorite places to eat out here in our area. The food choices are simple but flavorful, service is fast and no-fuss, and the servings are huge.

My favorite is this one:

Tin Drum Chicken. Chicken curry, spinach, with almonds over steamed rice. Yum!

Meanwhile, hubby was in the mood for some Pho. (He always gets a noodle soup when he’s here!)

Vietnamese Pho. Roast beef, glass noodles, onions, sprouts, basil, lime, and spicy soup. Yum!

Unfortunately, they didn’t have a kids menu so hubby and I shared our food with Ninna, plus her ever favorite vegetable spring rolls (even though she only eats the wrapper).

I can say that Tin Drum is one of those eating places that I’m lucky to have in my area. We love it. You’ll see me back here for sure, with drumrolls.

PS. They also deliver!

~~~

TIN DRUM ASIA CAFE
4530 Old Perimeter Way Suite 200
Dunwoody, GA
(770) 393-3006
http://www.tindrumcafe.net

First visit rating: 4.5 out of 5

~~~

Thanks for viewing our weekend lunch at Tin Drum Asia Cafe, Dunwoody, GA.

Food comes to our doorstep HERE at my other WS entry.

More weekend snapshots HERE.

It wasn’t until I got married and started a family that I begun to think about my financial goals. There are so many things to consider like being able to afford our very first home, college funds for the kids, bills, savings, and, of course, retirement. We are a single-income family so there’s a lot of pressure, not only for my husband, but also on me to be able to manage our finances well. We don’t spend more than we can or need to, we live within our means, we have modest but well-thought out investments, and we manage our debts well. Right now, we know in our heads that we’re on the right track.

In order to confirm what my husband and I think of our financial health, I took the Bills IQ test, and well what do you know? I got a 91%.

As expected, we’re good with our budgeting and credit management, although we know we really need to improve our debt management skills as well as flesh out our life plans more. Anyway, it was a good exercise and I would recommend that you take the quiz too, just to know where you stand. While you’re there, you could also visit the BillsIQ website further in order to find out how they can help you with any Debt consolidation or Debt relief advice. It’s never too late to seek Debt help! It’s the first step to making your life less stressful, and your future more secure.

Our apartment community put together a nice afternoon food tasting event today. I purposely didn’t cook any lunch because I purposely wanted to stuff myself silly with all the free samples that would be offered by the participating restaurants in and around our neighborhood.

The details of the food tasting event deserve a separate blog entry altogether but, for now, I just want to share that I got to sample two wonderful and cool summer ice drinks made of softened ice.

The first was a Mango Smoothie from Robek’s.

Yummy! It reminded me so much of our local mango shake! It’s so soft and creamy, and the natural sweetness of the mango just made it such a treat to eat/drink/sip/slurp/devour.

After the subtle smoothie, next I tried these italian ice beauties from Rita’s.

I tried both the raspberry lemonade (the almost finished one in the foreground) and their mango ice, too (the still full one at the back). And because we enjoyed them so much, my hubby came back for seconds and the nice lady gave him a giant tumbler full of mango ice, haha!

Fortunately for my hubby, I gave up on the mango ice because my Pinoy palate decidedly preferred the pinoy-tasting mango smoothie than the soft ice of the italians.

So I followed the advice of my pinoy instincts and got my second helping of mango shake, haha!

~~~

If you want to join this weekly whetting of appetites, please do visit the Lasang Pinoy Sundays page HERE. See you there, thanks!

I had to do a double take before I was able to wrap the idea of this innovation around my head. Apparently, vital stem cells can now be harvested from a woman’s own menstrual blood. Can you believe it? If this were indeed true, as the scientists claim it is, then it could really help provide treatments for countless diseases including osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and even Parkinson’s disease.

I actually could see the logic in it: as we all know, stem cells are basically “raw” blood. If a woman’s body creates new, pure, healthy blood in preparation for a baby, which is merely flushed out of the body if left unused, then maybe these “new” blood could really contain stem cells.

Anyway, a revolutionary product, C’elle, provides women with a safe, easy and non-invasive method of collecting and preserving stem cells in her menstrual fluid each month, right in the privacy of her own home.

With C’elle’s non-invasive collection process, menstrual cells are processed and cryo-preserved (stored at a very low temperature) for potential cellular therapies that may be used in the future. These self-renewing cells one day may even be used for sports medicine or cosmeceutical treatments, such as anti-aging therapies.

And I agree. C’elle enables and empowers a woman to take control of her future health, and possibly of those genetically closest to her, in a fast, painless and stress free way.

Now, for a special limited-time “Caring is Sharing” promotion, a woman can purchase C’elle for herself and give a meaningful gift of life to her best friend, sister or loved one for free! To purchase C’elle online go to www.Celle.com and use special promotion code: 241.

Visit C’elle for more details on how to share this special innovation with the people you love the most.

images from louisvuitton.com (l-r: Jasmine, Speedy 35, Treillis)

I am not one for camouflage. My husband knows it. As I always tell him (especially when he’s about to don one of his many cargo camouflage pants) that its better to leave the camos with the army guys. Besides, even with his camos on, I can still see him!

Anyway, hubby should start thanking Takashi Murakami and Marc Jacobs now because if not for their newest collaboration for LV, I would never have thought camouflage as cute. I have yet to see these pretties in the flesh, especially the Jasmine which comes in denim. I might probably go to war for them.

There’s no denying that being certified in Information Technology (IT) opens up a lot of opportunities. Just the other day, my husband was offered a job to oversee the telecommunications operations of a major bank. The first thing that he told me, out of all the possible comments he may have about the job offer was, he wished he could have pushed through with securing his Cisco certification.

Although my husband has more than ten years of experience in his field, no doubt, being IT certified gives anybody a head start on career growth and career credibility. Moreover, I am pretty sure that my husband will be more motivated to engage in training now given that possible job offer, not to mention that he has long been looking into expanding his line of specialization to include network management, mainly by securing specialist certification on security, IP telephony, and wireless, which is definitely where the direction of telecommunications is going.

Besides, global demand for IT professionals is growing at all levels. Nowadays, its really not enough that you have the necessary technical skills. In order to stay competitive, one has to really engage in training, some even taking graduate studies, or as with the case of my husband, the need to acquire Cisco certification, and it makes a huge difference.

Also, I have read some pretty inspiring testimonials from people who achieved their dreams of rising from challenging beginnings. For instance, Jane Francis Baliza, a former member of the cleaning staff of Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, is now one of the select few in Uganda skilled enough to take the demanding three-year Batchelor in Information Technology (BIT) degree, on her way to achieving a dream of becoming a systems administrator at the University, thanks to Makerere’s Cisco® Networking Academy®.

If she can do it, why can’t my husband? And more importantly, why can’t you?

Ikaw lang ang aking mahal
Ang pag-ibig mo’y aking kailangan
Pag-ibig na walang hangganan
Ang aking tunay na nararamdaman
Ang nais ko sana’y inyong malaman
Sa hilaga o sa timog o kanluran
At kahit sa’n pa man
Ang laging isisigaw

~~~

I love you, I know you love me
I want you happy and carefree.
So that’s why I have no protest
when you say you want to go west.

~~~

Haring araw ng kanluran DITO sa aking isa pang LP entry.

(The sun sets in Key West HERE at my other LP entry.)

My husband and I have a lot of friends who are very much into paintball and airsoft games. We have been invited to join them before but since we recently moved out to another state we never got the chance. Even now, whenever we speak with them, they would rave about the adrenaline rush they get out of it!

Anyway, it got me interested in researching about the equipment used for this activity and found that just like any sport, paintball guns come in various brands such as Spyder, Smart Parts, Dye, Empire, Draxxus, among others, not to mention safety gear such as masks, hoppers, barrels, vests, tubes, sights, etc. Anyone could have blasted with with a BT Paintball and I wouldn’t have known the difference, hee-hee.

I think paintballing is a seriously fun and exciting way to let out our inner John Rambo. Just be sure to keep it safe for everyone with the right gear and accessories.