Gifts, snacks, and other random stuff...

This is just another compendium of photos that don't quite warrant a full post...

like this awesome GREMLIN that we saw in a friend's neighborhood!

Now, I need to spot a Pacer, a Vega, and a Pinto!

But wait, there's more...not found in any store!


I thought this was the cutest thing, my belated birthday gift from Astroboi....

A "Jeero" Ugly Doll! Plus this "Fill in the pages" book called "Wreck This Journal", which I found really amusing.

There are wierd instructions on every page and I think I would follow most of them like this...

and this! Ha ha.

Another page urges you to put stickers from fruit on it, as well as write backwards (that's not so bad) and collect dead bugs (I may have to draw the line at that!). The gift bag also had this really cute whistle on it!

Another gift recently received was this trio (count 'em three) of macaron boxes from Cathy.

She found them online. They are supposed to be like Limoges boxes but not with the Limoges price tag. These are so cute. When I first opened them, they looked so real and I wondered why she wrapped macarons in bubble wrap!

The same day I went out with Cathy for Iraqi food (post to be forthcoming), I saw this on my front porch! The red box with the maple leaf flag tape could only mean one thing!

Goodies from my good friend C from Manitoulin Island! As you can see by the Christmas card and scrapbook, this was a belated gift, but still welcomed nonetheless!

Inside, the food treasures...two bags each of Lay's Ketchup flavored potato chips and Crisper's (potato snacks) All-Dressed Flavor (a flavor you can't get in the U.S.), plus one four pack of Coffee Crisp bars and one bag of Coffee Crisp Bites!

Not pictured was the, uh....shall I even say this?   (contraband).....(((cough))) Kinder Eggs  (((cough))).

I still haven't completed my Canada posts from last year, but I was able to procure the aforementioned items as well but never posted on them.


The shape of the Crispers reminds of of Wheatables but not made out of wheat. These are made from deyhydrated potatoes.

There is also MSG in this! Yummmm! Ha ha.

This was the last of it. The first bag actually went untouched for the first few days, then one of us got brave enough to open up and eat it. It would be such a shame for these to go bad (and they were still good by the way)!

I missed the red stain of the ketchup powder on my fingertips and the tangy taste of the chips. When we first tried these back in our 2010 trip, we were a bit leery but then the flavor grew on us and we began to crave it during the subsequent years, until our trip last year when I went crazy and bought up cans of ketchup Pringles, along with Lay's and Ruffles' versions of the chips.

So C, if you're reading this, THANKS! That was the BEST food gift ever!

At the local Target, I saw these in the Dollar Bin - TGIF's Potato Skins chips.

This flavor has actually been around for awhile, but with the recent craze for bacon flavored anything, I thought I would get these for "old times sake".

They are thick and crunchy and the cheese and bacon flavor goes so well together.

A few days ago, TC and I went to the local library. She wanted some summer reading. I wanted to renew my card privileges for checking out DVD's and CD's ($5 for 3 months up to $20 for a whole year; I did the $5 deal). I borrowed some Brady Bunch dvd's for fun. We did that earlier this year and TC thought the acting, the lingo, and the fashions were unintentionally hilarious.

While we were watching one of the last episodes of the last season. Pop culture mavens know it's the last season because the shows included  cousin "Oliver", who was sent to live with the Brady's. This tactic is usually done when shows are going downhill. The reasoning is to introduce a cuter and younger kid because the younger actors are nearing puberty and are no longer cute, in this case Bobby and Cindy. They were pushing twelve and were no longer the cute 5 or 6 years olds they once were. Another case was "The Cosby Show", where youngest daughter Rudy was upstaged by a very young Raven Symone.

Anyways....we noticed Bobby's shirt and I remarked, "Hey, that looks like Daddy's old Bruce Lee shirt but without the iron on!". TC ran upstairs to get it and I paused the screen.  OMG, an exact match, down to the double striped neck ringer and shoulder details!!!!

The shirt  actually belonged to Bert's oldest brother's. The Bruce Lee iron on transfer was added later during the early 80's when Bert was in junior high.  Bert's bro is seven years older than us (he graduated in 1981) and had the shirt when Bert was still in elementary school. His brother was probably in late junior high. The last season of the Brady Bunch was 1974, so that's probably when he got that shirt.  He later gave it to Bert as a hand me down.

Bert jazzed it up by going to Plaza Bonita mall with his best friend and together, they saved up their money to have an iron-on transfer at Crazy Shirt at the mall. Back then, those types of stores were popular, along with Spencer's (with the nasty gifts). You could bring in your own shirt and just pay for the transfer like they did, or you could buy a shirt there and have a transfer  or even glittery letters put on it! Bert got the glittery Bruce Lee and his best friend got a  design with a grandmother on a rocking chair and flipping the bird with some sort of vulgar quote. Ha ha. Kids.

The Bruce Lee shirt also made an appearant in a previous post, Pancit Bihon for the win!

And if you want to see THE shirt in full Technicolor AND on Bobby Brady's bony little frame, here's a clip from the last episode (where Bobby has to sell hair tonic and it turns Greg's hair orange the day before his high school graduation). More trivia - Robert Reed, who played Mr. Brady, hated the script so much that he REFUSED to be in it. He and the writer Sherwood Schwartz often butted heads and this was the last straw for Mr. Brady.).

Funny, eh?

In other news, my parents' garden is flourishing big time this summer.

They are growing a different type of eggplant.

Check out the leaves on that thing! Whoa, looks dangerous! My dad really wanted me to see those spikes.

They are growing opo squash, purple spotted lima beans, kale, swiss chard, bittermelon, and in the pots, bell peppers. The tree on the right is pink guava.

These are their eggplants and bittermelon vines.

My mom was happy to show me her kale. She said she tried cooking it with coconut milk and liked the results.

And in our neck of the woods, in the Ralph's shopping center in Chula Vista next to Chipotle, is this...

This USED to be Lutong Bahay, a small mom 'n pop Filipino joint. This as yet to be opened new location of Manna BBQ is  rather curious. The space is super super small. I was hoping the location was going to be near the Taco Bell (in the strip mall that has Halphen Red); the old Hollywood video space which is now a paint place seemed more likely a spot than this. But hey, hopefully this place will be good and it will be close to home.