1. Give me three numbers that are important to you, and tell me why.

1. 609 - Number of my first apartment. It was a tiny studio with no kitchen and I had to do dishes in the shower, but it was in a beautifully restored pre-war building with an elegant lobby. All my neighbors were gay and the whole experience was fabulous!

2. 12 - What my husband thinks is the truth.

3. 21 - The truth.

2. Where were you when this happened? What were you thinking at the time?

I had just read the news on inquirer.net and it felt so surreal. First thought: thank God I'm here and not back there. Second thought: I remembered who the president was over here. I promptly fell into a deep depression which I still have not emerged from and probably won't until November 2008. Maybe.

3. Take your dream man out for a date. Where would we go? Better yet, how would you ask him out?

I love the way you asked "where would WE go?" So OK, you're my dream man then. Among my top five best dates ever, two of them happened during chilly nights at the beach. One involved lots of kissing and on the other, the guy (a professional singer) serenaded me as the waves lapped the shore. So there'll definitely be lots of both (by the way, can YOU sing?). I've never asked a guy out on a date but if I had to I might ask, "Wanna hang out at the beach tonight and make out?" What do you think, would I get shot down?

My note: Very sharp.

4. Your top three ice cream flavors. And why, of course.

Neapolitan - It has everything you could possibly want: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. A girl can't have too many choices, you know. Rocky road - chocolate, nuts, and marshmallows. It's sex disguised as food. Chocolate chip cookie dough - who doesn't love licking batter off the mixing bowl?

5. Name three things you wished were always on sale. Why?

1. These boy shorts I always buy from Target. They're cute and comfortable and they disappear under clothes. When will you guys ever stop obsessing over women in thongs? At least my dad can because he wears them (seriously). They make them for guys, too, apparently.

2. Kerastase hair products. They're never on sale and my hair can't live without them.

3. Charmin Ultra toilet paper. Do I really have to explain why? I realized my mom REALLY got me during her last trip here to visit. Out of the blue she said, "I like staying (at your place) because you always have soft toilet paper in your bathrooms. I don't know why people buy the magaspang ones when they're masakit." And, no, in case you're wondering... mom didn't go to Assumption -- she went to St. Scho.

6. When was the last time you saw a shape in the clouds? What was it? Were the heavens trying to tell you something?

I saw Prince playing his guitar but apparently people saw something else. Yes, the heavens were trying to tell me that there really are idiots who walk this earth.

7. In Monopoly, which token do you always choose? Any idea why you'd pick that one up?

I haven't played Monopoly since I was a kid but when I used to I always went for the thimble. Honestly, I have no idea why. (Although I'd like to say I was brilliantly prescient and knew I'd eventually have a career in fashion later in life. Yeah, right.)

8. Unrelated to Monopoly, if you ever land in jail, what would it be for? What's the likelihood of that ever happening?

Oral sex is classified as sodomy in Indiana, which is against the law. I just never got caught.

9. Three really nice things you did the past week.

1. Slept until noon on Saturday.

2. On Monday, I had lunch with my friend Sandra, who updated me on the latest developments of "Sana Maulit Muli."

3. Figured out how to solve global warming yesterday. But I'm torn because part of the solution involves me not turning on the A/C and I hate the heat. Which soon enough I'll suffer through every freakin' day anyway because the earth's temperature will increase steadily until we all burn in the pyre we created for ourselves.

10. Step by step, the quickest way to look "ravishing" from shower to party scene.

Oh Benito, there really is no quick way. But for the sake of answering the question, here goes.

1. Apply oil all over your body before you towel off. Nothing sexier than soft skin.

2. Put rollers in your hair as you're getting dressed so when you take them off your hair tumbles down in sensuous waves. Short-haired girls can skip this step, of course.

3. Easy on the makeup. Think: dark eyes and long, curled lashes, sheer and shimmery lips, and flushed cheeks. A bit of shimmer lotion or powder on the tops of cheekbones, the decollete, tops of shoulders, and even a bit on your hair, near the face.

4. Show a little bit of skin but don't look like a stripper. Show off your best feature whether it's your shoulders, back, a bit of cleavage, or legs -- just not all together.

5. A spritz -- not a shower -- of fragrance. I spray the back of my knees so as the night heats up, my scent wafts upwards. I can't believe you asked me this question, it's so "Cosmo". Did you really care to know?

Bonus question: Why is it called eggplant? Did it use to have eggs in it?

I know the real answer to this but only because my husband is annoyingly egg-phobic and won't eat eggplants either. I was trying to find a connection between the two and looked it up. Apparently in the 18th century, what people thought of as eggplants were these goose-egg-looking things that weren't purple (as we think of them now), but rather were of a white or pale yellow color. So I might have figured out another useless trivia question but not why we can't have relyenong talong for dinner.

Thanks to Gigi.