TOPAZ HORIZON

Over at Topaz Mommy, I'm holding a contest. Yep, I'm giving away copies of Fifty Shades of Grey. Hop on over there to get a chance to win a book!

Anyway, I was reading the contest entries, all of which talked about their favorite romantic hero of fiction. It just occurred to me that, based on the answers and how we all seem to love guys from Rhett Butler (Gone With the Wind), Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Maxim DeWinter (Rebecca) to Edward Cullen (Twilight), we girls seem to want men who are much older, very rich, have deadly secrets and, most disturbing of all, cruel. Cruel!

Tell me, did you actually end up with a bad boy?

I used to date bad boys but that got old soon (not soon enough sadly). I finally decided I needed respect. Gosh, not even love, just plain and simple respect. Someone who will treat me with kindness and affection, generosity and trust. That's not too much to ask since I can give that and if I can, a man can. So what is this obsession of ours with bad boys?

I should be able to answer that since I did go out with their kind many many seasons ago. But, to be honest, I really don't know. Do you?

Confession time! I love ice cream. Actually, now lang, after I got preggy with Vito. You see, I craved liver when I was pregnant with him. Pork liver, chicken liver, liver spread, liver steak, pate--I had to have liver every single day! My OBG said that liver's great but since it's rich in Vitamin A (which can cause birth defects), I was forbidden to eat it. To my delight, I found that ice cream had the same creamy smooth texture as liver. I've been eating ice cream regularly since!

Now, since ice cream bars are all the rage these days, I've been trying out different kinds. I love them all! But I found my favorite ice cream bar, the amazing Nestle Crunch!

Nope, I'm not watching the new Spidey movie. I don't think the moviegoers will appreciate me sneaking a 7-week-old infant in the theater. Yep, my baby boy breastfeeds like crazy and so we're semi-permanently attached.

I wanted to watch it not because of the story (seriously, did it really need a retelling?) but because of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Here's why:

Patty and I like our men long and lean!

Oh well. Anyway, I just distracted myself with this fantabulous magazine:

To the amazing and super talented staff, you did one hell of a great job with this issue! Your gorgeous editor-in-chief (who, FYI to the mag's readers, was on maternity leave when this issue was produced) is very proud.

Hmm. I'm kinda feeling like I want Emma's hair here. But I'm 35 so maybe I'm too old for that look haha

I hope you guys grab a copy of the July issue of OK! magazine. You'll love it just as much as I did!

This was the cover of OK! Philippines when the TomKat phenomenon took the world by storm 7 years ago. Ah, 2005. That was the year Brad and Jen split, then Brad and Angelina hooked up, and then Tom and Katie got engaged within a few weeks of meeting, and then both leading ladies of the year's biggest romances got knocked up. Truly an epic year for entertainment magazines!

Fast forward to 2012. This is the year Brangelina finally got engaged and the year TomKat split. Another epic year. Katie was the one who filed the divorce papers, allegedly taking Tom by surprise since he was still singing her praises while promoting Rock of Ages. She's asking for custody of their daughter, Suri, and everyone is leaning forward in their seats, waiting for the ugly divorce and custody war. And this is Tom Cruise, only one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. It's a brave soul who goes up against him and everyone's eagerly waiting to watch how Katie will get what she wants.

But the divorce makes me sad. So many people--the entire world it seemed!--wanted Tom and Katie to fail. We all doomed their relationship from the very start. So each year they celebrated together was a triumph I quietly enjoyed. Then this.

It makes me sad. Tom and Katie fought so hard for their love, they were the epitome of you-and-me-against-the-world, that evil, cynical world. They fought back hard but in the end, the world won.

This was a complete surprise. Well, he did ask permission first if he could buy it for me (that's married money for you!) and I was so surprised that he wanted to buy me a new camera that I just said, "Sure, buy it for me!" I mean, really, why ever would I refuse? Haha!

It's a Panasonic GF3. I love it! It's so small! You all know we use and love the Olympus cameras but my one whiny complaint about it is it won't fit into my purse. So Vince got me a small camera. Hooray! Here's Vince talking more about the camera and why he got it for me. Thanks, love!

We buy practically all our gadgets from Amazon or from some other online site, have it delivered to Johnny Air NYC, which then ships it to us here in Manila. Why do we do that? Because even with the shipping and taxes, it's still cheaper to buy abroad. Want to do the same? Let Vince tell you how!