Who is Takuki Dojikataku? It's me, that's who! At least according to this email I got from Muther Gos:

I hope it does not translate to "rotting fish smell" or "you look scary".

I panicked this morning when I realized what date it is. May 16 and only 48 hours away before Potching turns the big FIVE! No cake, no spaghetti or any noodle for that matter for long life, no balloons or any decorations (not even crepe paper streamers) I feel like a bad mom. No that we make extravagant parties for him and I bet you he won't even know it's his birthday unless I tell him ( he does ask everyday if it is his birthday). He always asks for a Spiderman themed cake but always ends up withe Red Ribbon's Justice League cake. Why? The last time I ordered this cake from what's-its-name, only my Dad ate it. The cake was crumbly, the icing sickeningly sweet and leaves stains on your mouth and lips due to the excessive dye used. Red Ribbon is the safest way to go.

How could I miss out on the birthday preparations? Here's how. Friday night, we had a brown-out that continued on until Monday night!!! The transformer in or block sparked reminiscent of the Millenium Celebration. Then, the caballero tree fronting our yard was cut and of all the wide open spaces it will fall into, it happened to trip on the cable connecting our house to MERALCO. So amid nights of candlelight and tube-ice from styrofoam ice-boxes, the family's energies were tuned into cursing the village administrator who did not know what to do in cases like these. We have a generator (blast from the Cory Aquino past where 12-hour brownouts were part of our daily lives it made me sad when the energy crisis was over. I loved hanging out on a bangko while my brother and I sang songs with his guitar!) but it was conking out after the whirrr, whirrrr, whirrr when you start it (you know the starter when you pull a string to jumpstart the machine?). Buying a new one is definitely out of the question since a small one already costs Php 34 grand! So my dad brought our vintage generator to one of the talyers in our area, bought spark plugs to repair it and made sure it was full tank. The constant brrrr of the generator was OK until after only 2 hours, it conked out!!! I reasoned to my Dad that we used to use that generator waaay back in the early 90s and a full tank will last 2 days at least! The culprit was our refrigerator which I think has seen better days. It's not broken down but it eats up so much electricity, now we understand why our electric bills go ballistic!

Monday night, the people from Meralco came and then, THERE WAS LIGHT!!! And since life has just normalized and our pet fish has just resumed its normal breathing pattern, poor Potching's birthday preparations was...sniff...forgotten. Oh well, I plan to take him to the playground and let him play on the sand as much as he wants to, let him lublob on the pail of water as much as he wants to and give him the liberty to turn our room into a level 5 disaster area. Solb na! Matipid na, mas masaya pa sya!

Finally, I have found an mp3 for the song "Taxi Ride" by Tori Amos. This has long been my favorite and could not find an audio file I can add to my radioblog playlist. Thank God for Drake's newest discovery for us musicphiles, I finally found this song and added it to my playlist. I know this song was included in Jam 88.3's compilation of light alternative songs Jammin With You but since every music store I go to does not have any stocks left of this album, no choice but to download it. Anyhoo, sample the song by checking out the media player. Big thanks to Drake fro being such a genius with things like these!!!

"Taxi Ride"

lily is dancing on the table

we've all been pushed too far

i guess on days like this

you know who your friends are

just another dead fag to you that's all

just another light missing

on a long taxi ride

taxi ride

and i'm down to your last cigarette and

this "we are one" crap as you're invading

this thing you call love - she smiles way too much

but i'm glad you're on my side,

sure i'm glad you're on my side still

you think you deserve a trust fund

just because you want one

sure you talk the talk when you need to

i fear the whole world is starting to believe

you just another dead fag to you that's all

just another light missing

in a long taxi line

taxi line

lily is dancing on the table

we've all been pushed too far today

even a glamorous bitch can be in need

this is where you know the honey from the killer bees

i'm glad you're on my side sure

i'm glad you're on my side sure

i'm glad you're on my side still

got a long taxi ride

got a long taxi ride

The whole team was treated to Chips Ahoy cookies and boy were they SWEET! One was the Chewy Chocolate Chips flavor while the other had tiny chocolate candies. It was sugar rush overload! Nevertheless, management was so sweet (no pun intended) to treat us and to show our appreciation, check out the trash bins to see the remnants of the cookies and the hyper-active reps burning all that excess glucose.