US Day8&9

Day 8

Dr. M rented a Chevy Suburban for our Lake Tahoe trip. It was only less than 2 hours from their house so the drive was quite easy especially since my boy fell asleep throughout. We parked at Heavenly Snow Resort and bought tickets for the gondola ride which Tita D was apprehensive about since she didn't like heights. This could've been a nervous experience she had with the Genting Highland gondola when the missus and I were still in Malaysia. Of course being outnumbered, she had no choice but to ride the gondola up to the summit.

Heavenly's summit can well be described as, well, heavenly. There were a lot of people going about the resort: skiing and snowboarding mostly. My boy and I were able to catch 25 minutes before the tubing area closed. It was a tiring experience for me since I had to carry my boy all the up to the end of the incline while carrying a palanggana-shaped plastic that would serve as our snowcraft for the descent. But it was all FUN all the way down although my boy kept saying his favorite phrase: ayaw na, daddy na lang. But I think he liked it. The missus took a turn with my boy as well. We tried to put in my boy alone for the descent but the missus had to halt the videocam since she panicked when she saw my boy lying down instead of sitting up during the descent. Don't worry folks! No harm done. My boy enjoyed what may have been a dizzying ride to the bottom.

It was about 3pm when the resort closed so we had to board the gondola again going back to the base of the mountain.

We had a late lunch at Appleby's in which my boy liked the salad ("do you want vegetables?") and the ice cream ("ice....cream").

After Tahoe, we dropped off at the Holiday Inn at 6th Street to meet up with the missus' ex-officemate, Tita A which my boy fondly calls Tita Orange since her name sounded like it. They treated us to dinner at Hannah's Casino for a buffet dinner which was quite ok except that the ribs and NY steak could've been better. Well, at least my boy liked the ice cream with oreo and butterfinger crumbs.

After Tita Orange, I scooted alone to meet up with RB who's a highschool friend of mine working in Reno for the past 7 years as an ICU specialist in one of the hospitals here. Incidentally, he showed me a pic of him with the great Don-Don Ampalayo a.k.a. Yellow Liver Man of the Jaworski-led Ginebra basketball team. It seems that Don-Don has been working in Sacramento doing the same thing as RB has. I hope he's doing good here.

RB treated me to two bots at the Grand Sierra Resort bar, occassionally looking at prostitution at work with Russians, fifty (even sixty) year old blondes looking out for possible prey. Yup, prostitution is allowed in Nevada so it was quite I sight I might say.

After drinking he toured me to see the other side of Reno which is not found in your normal tourist brochures. From the looks of it, I guess sex really sells in Reno. We stopped at an adult XXX store to see what could be found. It was quite interesting to see the assortment of sex toys and other paraphernalia being sold there. The store even had cubicles wherein for a dollar, you can watch a strip show although it's only on TV (bummer). If it were live, then I would've spent 10 dollars. Hehe.

RB then took me to a local 7-11 for a drink of those bottled Starbucks frappuccinos to cap the nighht, err, morning since it was already 2am. The drink was not that cold but my body was shaking since we were drinking out in the cold night under 32 degree farenheit (that's ZERO degrees celsius) weather. RB noticed it so we went back to his RAV4 to turn up the heater and dropped me back home.

Day 9

We went to the Little Flower Church for our Sunday Mass at 12noon although my boy had other matters ("play with the baby!") since I had to watch him go out of the church to play with the locals. It's quite interesting to note that my boy is very at ease here in the US since we came. He's really enjoying it. It could be because of the cold weather or the long running-paths in his Tita T's house. Hmmm.

After Mass we had lunch at a Chinese buffet restaurant. The receptionist there seemed to sound like that Chinese-voice in the "Dude, Where's My Car?" film: "AND THEN???"

Notable in their buffet was the buttered-mussles, "Pork Chinese FRI rice," "French FRIED", and mongolian bbq noodles. No need to mention it but my boy liked the ice cream as well.

The flight back to LA from Reno was full of problems. It started with my boy becoming uneasy throughout the flight since his ears seemed to hate the ascent/descent of the plane. He was crying badly throughout that the missus and I just felt sorry for the other passengers who had to hear his constant cries of "go out na" or "go home na."

Second was that the check-in baggage arrived late on the carousel that we missed what could've been a stress-free bus ride to Van Nuys station. Sadly, there seemed to have been a small commotion with the driver and one of the passengers. We didn't know exactly what it was but it caused us about 40mins delay to leave the airport with LAPD and airport police present. Good thing my boy was not as uneasy as when he was on the plane.

We arrived home by close to midnight but not without driving-thru Jack-In-The-Box for a late dinner of Chicken Fajitas for the missus and Sirloin beef sandwich for me. Yum!

Day 6&7 - Reno, Nevada

Reno is a small town in Nevada where we went to visit the missus' cousin who's a doctor married to a nurse (quite comforting to know that while staying in their place, just in case).

The house is soooooooooooo beautiful that it could've have been taken from those interior design magazines. American style, it boasts of fine furnishings amidst its butter-yellow walls.

The village is surrounded by snow-capped mountains although the place itself has only small packets of ice left from the winter.

I just love this house's interior design. Kudos to Dr.M and Nurse M for having such a wonderful home!

We won't go out tonight since the missus is still recovering from a light flu. We're going to have In n' Out Burger for dinner which Dr.M boasts of being THE best burger he's ever tasted ----better than McDo or Jollibee.

Tomorrow, we take a trip to Lake Tahoe where my boy will definitely see lots of ice and snow. I hope (and pray) he's done with the jetlag and sleeps early tonight.

Random Notes: LA Day5

M writng dis frm my fon via wifi so pardon d txt shortcuts.

We spent d day at Universal Studios, a must 4 any1 who's into Hollywud. D studio tour was gr8, taking us 2 d set of movies/tv-shows such as Jaws, Psycho, Desperate Housewyvs, and even Heroes!

My boy liked d amusement park as wel since he was able 2 meet Shrek, Spongebob, and Dora. He got real scared though of d Waterworld show so he & d misus had 2 go out early.

It was 42nate dat C.A., d misus' frend frm Glendale, was wid us 2 show us around dat day. D misus & i wer able 2 go 2 d main atractns:

1. Hous of horors (teribly scary. A walk thru horor xperiens)

2. Terminator 3d (as d hostes has said, 'SUPER!')

3. Jurasic Park boat ryd (got slytly wet)

4. The Mummy Ride (a speed ryd w/c d misus lykd so much she rode it 4 times! I did it 2x only)

We had dinner at Tony Roma's (yummeh ribs!) and kofi at Starbucks wherein my boy liked d choco cookie. Even by d folowng mrng he finishd d cookie dat we brought home.

Nex stop: Reno.

Random Notes: L.A. Day 3&4

Day 3

It was my first time to drive ---in California. The directions to the Northridge Mall was quite easy: left, left, right, then straight all the way until you see the mall. It was easy although I think I overexaggerated at stopping at the intersection. It's required you make a full stop at an intersection if there's no traffic light. I think I stopped for 5 seconds too long each time (grin).

The missus had the usual chinese food combo while I ventured on mongolian bbq. There was no rice for the mongolian, only noodles that looked like spaghetti noodles. Needless to say I didn't finish much of my $8 meal.

I was able to buy my two NBA T-shirts: one Arenas and one Kobe. The shirts are cool since the logos and names were all rubberized. Pwede panlakad or panlaro. Kahit sa porma man lang, panalo. Hehe.

My boy liked the playground mall so much that it was the 1st time we saw him take the slide. It was funny to watch that we recorded a video (to be uploaded soon on my boy's blog).

In the evening we needed to check-in at Tropicana Hotel which was in front of Disney Anaheim so that we can maximize our one day there easily. Along the way we stopped at Denny's for dinner. The hamburger was huge (as any other food served here). I ordered a choco milkshake, which, without A doubt, was THE best choco milkshake I've ever ever ever (ever!) had.

Day 4

It was not as cold in Anaheim as it was in North Hills. But still, it was chilly. It was a cold walk from the hotel to the Disney park which actually had 2 parks: California and Disneyland. California had more wild rides while Disney was, well, everything Disney.

I liked the motto that the missus read on Disneyland: Where you meet old friends for the very first time. Yup it was truly a wonderful experience for me to meet Mickey & Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Pinocchio, Winnie The Pooh, Eor, and Tigger for the first time when the only times I've met them was through the TV. Hmm, I didn't catch Donald Duck though. Maybe he flew south? Grin.

My boy loved it too. He liked Winnie The Pooh that he smiles cheerfully whenever I show him our pic with the famous Pooh. Although Barney was not around though coz I think he's (she's?) under another label.

We rode a lot of the rides as well:

1. Star Tours (Star Wars theme wherein you ride a simulator flying to the planet Enron. Yup, I know the bugoys would've loved this one. There was even a Jedi Training School.)

2. Pirates of the Caribbean (the missus says this has been updated to include Capt. Jack Sparrow. Quite dark, scary at first, but not so much after the first drop. Wink)

3. Haunted Mansion (I laughed when I heard the guy managing the queue when he said in a kind classy voice, "Please! Move inside a little further. Others are just "dying" to join us!")

4. Winnie The Pooh (well, my boy didn't like dark places, "Ayaw naaaaa")

5. Space Mountain (Cool ride. You SHOULD NOT miss this ride if you're in Disney Anaheim)

6. Buzz Lightyear (the ride was great since it included shoot em 'up wherein you zap Buzz's enemies and the score is updated on your dashboard)

7. Peter Pan

8. Disney train (a train that goes around the park complete with underpasses showing different times like prehistoric, the Canyon, etc)

Good thing the missus mentioned about the end-day parade. It was exciting to wait along the sidewalk among the other visitors to wait for the parade. It was fortunate that we found a nice open spot wherein we got a good view. Unfortunately my boy was slept through it, only waking up crying to see the Alice in Wonderland scary flowers in front of him. Well, at least he got a chance to see Simba on the Lion King float.

The day was capped with a dinner at IHOP (Intl House Of Pancakes). This was what the missus had been craving for sooo long ever since we thought of vacationing in California. She ordered the Colorado Omelette which came with 3 buttermilk pancakes. When the omelette arrived, it seemed to be good for 3 people. She finished half of it and just barely finished 1 of 3 pancakes. I tasted the pancake to see what the hype was really all about. Since they're called Int'l House Of Pancakes, I expected something good. It tasted nowhere close to Pancake House's X-factor pancake. Oh well, at least I ordered the Chicken Crepe which was quite nice.

I think all this food writing made me want to go back to Denny's. Maybe tomorrow since today is Ash Wednesday.

Random Notes: L.A. Trip Day2

We went to Six Flags theme park today. It was extra cold today with my hands freezing while pushing my boy's stroller from the parking to the entrance. The missus was still with her sandal gear so she managed to get all of the freezing weather especially when we road the Batman rollercoaster ride.

My boy rode the merry-go-round ---twice. In both instances he shouted "ride the horse" when we were going towards it, cried "AYAW NA" when we were in. Then cried "ride the horse again" when we walked away from it.

The rollercoaster was slightly different cause it's just open seats with your feet dangling. The ride, although lasting a little over 10 seconds, was an exciting chest-pounding experience. My only fault was that I closed my eyes too often. The missus said that I shouldn't so that I can see and anticipate the next turn so as not to scare me more.

I can finally say that I've eaten at Chuckee Cheese. I've heard so much about it in US-film dialogues that I didn't exactly know what it was until today. My boy definitely enjoyed it, screaming and crying "DRIVE!" everytime I had to pull him away from a car arcade game.

I was able to experience home-security the wrong way. Feeling that the room was warm, I slid open the glass window which triggered the house-alarm. Next thing I knew my sis-in-law ran from her room to the garage to disable the alarm. Then the phone rang. It was the home-security company checking if everything was alright. WHEW! At least we knew that the alarm was working (grin).

Random Notes: L.A. Trip Day1

LAX airport's arrival carousel was mayhem. The length of the carousel was half the size in the KL airport. Add to that a full flight, looking for your baggage was quite a task. The stroller, which should've been given when we were at the tarmac, was in the carousel as well. Airport security was tight, complete with K-9 dogs that smell your check-in baggages for food (no wonder the PAL stewardess announced to leave all food in the airplane before leaving it). One British Airline passenger got the dog's attention by bringing in a banned half-eaten banana.

***

The weather was less than 20 degress celsius. C-C-C-Cold! Good thing for heaters!

***

The freeway is as it is: a free way for cars to maneouver at speeds of over 70MPH! Take note: MILES per hour, not kilometers.

***

Food so far eaten: Thai dinner, Filipino breakfast (pandesal), Chinese lunch (Panda Express), and Italian Pizza takeout (Pizzahut) and pancit dinner. Just goes to show how multicultural the US has been.

***

The body will take time to adjust to the US timezone. My boy, in fact, slept at 3am and had to be woken up at 12noon (LA time).

***

The missus was able to find the last remaining Bo Bice CD (See The Light) at Wal-Mart North Hills. Finally! (I hope Bo Bice can read this for her benefit)

The Best Place For Your Money

I've been addicted to reading stock market articles since late last year. I've been reading articles from The Motley Fool, a website offering investment advice to investors of all levels.

I found one article that I highly recommend. It's for those of you who'd like to know more on where you'd want to invest your savings at whatever stage in life you may be.

The "where" part as mentioned in the article varies but the "when" part is very simple: NOW.

Read the article here.

Mud Pie

I've bought this three times already since Dairy Queen opened in Galleria. Rapsa!

Back in the game

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon when I arrived at the Don Bosco Makati football field. The familiar smell of the grass briefly took me back to my younger years when I was still at my prime, playing football for the school. After about 1 1/2 years of absence, I'm back to playing football, my first love.

I saw my old buddies arrive one by one, with the usual hi's and hello's. We set up to play half-field with 7 guys per team. I'm happy to say that I haven't lost my touch for the game. The picture-perfect passes and attacking menace were still there when I stepped on the field which seemed to have welcomed me back.

I didn't score a goal but I contributed well to my team winning the game, 10-8. I picked up my bag as I walked off the pitch, and laid down on one of those large square cemented seating areas around the field. As I laid there, I just had to take a pic of the greenery above me. It was like playing football: picture-perfect.

Brothers Forever

I just have to ask this:

WHYYYYYYY?!?!?!!?!

Notes from Homecoming

The alumni homecoming celebration was grand, thanks to this year's sponsor Batch 1983. Old Swiss Inn catering, Conti's desserts, lechon baka, and bottomless beer were all around. Seven years left and it's my batch's turn. Yikes!

***

MS mentioned that he and his family have submitted an application for Canadian citizenship. *SIGH* Another contribution to the country's braindrain. He said that the turning point of their decision to migrate was that they believe there will be a small possibility for his children to get a job in the Philippines since he may have felt that he's not going to see any improvement in the country.

***

RC mentioned that JS, our gay-turned-guy-turned-gay batchmate is now in communication with him again, mentioning that JS now has a dog similar to that of Paris Hilton's. Greeeat.

***

The Dawn was the main act in the program, singing their vintage tunes such as Enveloped Ideas, Salamat, and others. My jaw dropped when they did a rendition of the U2 anthem With or Without You which they performed to a T. I won't be surprised if The Dawn will be dubbed as the U2 of the Philippines in the future.

***

At the back-end of the venue was the DBUFC booth, with its spanking new logo. I saw my old co- players and they mentioned that the group is now regularly playing in DB-Makati football field again. Perhaps all the rehab needed for the field has been completed. I guess it's time to get my football gear out from the cabinet and start playing again.

This Saturday, to be exact (grin).

The Late Late Show

This guy's funny.

It is finished!

Yup, I've just finished the 2nd volume of Heroes. I can't wait for Volume 3! Hopefully the writers' strike in the US will end soon.

Balik Busko

It's January. As a student sometime ago this would be the month we'd prepare for the feast-day of Don Bosco's death anniversary which is every Jan.31. FYI, he actually died in the year 1888.

When I was in DB-Makati we had the school-fair filled with carnival rides, food-booths, and fun-booths. Naah, I wasn't that guy who'd get handcuffed with the pretty girl and sent to the marriage booth. I was one of those who'd be manhandled by over-eager CAT cadets being shoved into the jail booth. Sigh, not a pretty picture.

Well, anyway, the banner for the DB-Makati alumni homecoming just came up on my email:

Hmmm, I'm surprised to see Fr. John Bosco riding a space-car though. I think the car was too much. The "bring home the boys, bring home a car!" slogan is still in the tradition of DB-Makati's endless fascination with raffle tickets and bingo nights.

I wonder how DB-Mandaluyong's banner will look like?

Passion: So Sick (Acoustic)

(Note: I originally wanted to blog about that infamous YouTube video of Mariel Rodriguez's bad-mouthing fit in PBB but what the hey, everybody knows about it anyway. And besides, the song below is more worth it to post)

I was on the threadmill this morning on my second 4km run since yesterday (naks serious!). I tuned to 89.1DMZ for my sounds since it's been playing mostly RnB. Yes, rock would've been better but for some reason I get a better workout from RnB.

So anyway the DJ suddenly played this song from Jeremy, a.k.a. Passion who's a Fil-Am based in San Francisco. It's a cover version of "So Sick" but unplugged.

Damn good! Listen to it by clicking the Play button below. Enjoy!

Fabulous Finds: Old Swiss Inn

The missus and I just had dinner at the Old Swiss Inn Makati which is located at the Somerset Residences next to the Atrium building. The ambience was quite quaint, with the waiters wearing chaleko(?) and hat to try to fit to the Swiss feel.

For starters we ordered the Goulash Soup which was peppery good! Kung pwede nga yun na lang orderin ko plus a cup of plain rice, ok na! Hehe.

For the main course, the missus ordered Zurich Geschnetzeltes (can you say that 3 times?) while I ordered the Darne of Salmon since I had pork for breakfast and lunch earlier.

The Zurich was very good while the salmon was so-so. Maybe IF we come back, we'll try the fondue that the missus encouraged me to try.

Ok-ok lang.

True Faith: Dream Journal

I got this CD as a request to my kris kringle last month. Actually I requested for "the latest True Faith CD" and my monito obliged.

At P299.00, it's a steal since it's a 2-CD album containing True Faith's selection of songs from 1993-2007.

Nice album!

RSS link now working

1 RSS reader. That was all my feedburner stat showed when asked about how many RSS-readers are into my blog. Incidentally, that "1" is me since I linked it to my Yahoo page ---disgraceful I know.

I finally had the RSS link working. You can look for the icon below if you wish to link it to your RSS-reader software.

New

New Look

I've been tinkering lately with my blog's layout, trying to give it a new look (somewhat).

I searched for Blogger templates in Google but I don't know how to upload 'em here since I think I need a website-editor like Dreamweaver to get a better view of things.

So for now, the layout you see is the best that I can do.

New Weight

This morning, our bathroom scale looked back at me disappointingly as it read me its verdict: 173lbs.

I hate to admit this, but ever since I achieved 166lbs last October(?) I've started getting heavy again. The steady increase started from my birthday (pakain dito, pakain dun). Then came the numerous Christmas parties last month. The basketball off-season didn't help as well since our department's team stopped playing our regular weekly games.

I still had my twice a week threadmill but it seems uncooperative. Surprisingly, it was helping the missus: she was the one losing weight from all MY threadmill workouts! It was like those identical twins that we see on TV wherein one would poke himself with a sharp object and he won't feel a thing but his twin would scream in pain. "Sige mag-threadmill ka pa para pumayat pa ako," she'd kid me regularly.

I know where I need to improve: careful food intake and increase exercise (need to tell the guys that we should start playing ball again). Easy to say but hard to do, right? Sigh, I hope my next update would be good news.

New Boss

I'm sad to see my current boss leaving our company. His last day is Jan.11 and he's about to fly off to work abroad (with his former boss as well ---see a trend here comin'? wink wink). He's been great but like many, he has chosen to travel a new path in his flourishing career. I guess the saying "there's no such thing as company loyalty" is so true. I believe this since the only thing that one should be loyal to is to one's family and oneself.

I don't know who my new boss will be come Feb but he definitely has big shoes to fill. Someone told me a while back that the number one reason why people leave their jobs is because of their boss. Compensation only came 2nd.

New Trip

The missus, my boy and I are planning to take a 3-week trip to the US next month thanks to the US visas my boy and I got last July. We'll be in the west-coast: LA, Sanfo, and Las Vegas to see the sights. I hope to catch a Laker game during our stay there to see Kobe in action. I'll post pics should we push through.

New Year

Oh btw, Happy New Year!

Christmas 2007

So which is better: this?

or Christmas 1974?

Fabulous Finds: Lee Ching

Lee Ching is a no-frills Chinese resto located in Greenhills. Their specialty is their amazing pork spareribs rice topping. If added with their chili+toyo+kalamansi sauce, the taste is heavenly hot that it will leave your lips crackling of the spicyness.

Good value for money. Sarap!

A.S.A.Pooh

I watched this last night with the missus. Pooh was funny as usual although the whole show left me wanting for more. Vhong Navarro's Dance Evolution number was great although it reminded me of the time he performed it at Sharon's show and I saw Sharon giggling (or was it laughing?) her heart out, trying desperately to mimick Oprah.

Ruffa Mae Quinto's guest performance was dry, especially the part where she insisted a male volunteer from the audience but no one obliged. She kept doing her signature Booba expressions but it didn't really register in my funny meter. She was about to start her 3rd (yawn) song when Pooh came in to save us from the disaster. Whew!

Candy Pangilinan's performance was, well, at the same vicinity as Ruffa Mae's.

The missus felt bitin as well since she expected Pooh to perform his Brillanes, Bro. Mike, and Vivalicious impressions but Pooh didn't. It would've been better if Pooh did them in place of the Ruffa Mae and Candy numbers.

For P1,000.00 a ticket, I felt it wasn't worth it. But Pooh was still great with his Manny Pooh-quiao and Yaya Fifi segments. I think the missus and I will go to Laffline or Punchline one of these days to get a better laugh for less the price.

What I got this Christmas

I guess I've been in Santa's "nice" list this year:

1. Dream Journal - True Faith CD

2. Two bottles of red wine

3. Arrows long-sleeved shirt

4. People Are People jeans

5. Baleno shorts

6. Ferreiro-Roche chocolates

7. Armani perfume

8. travel bag (the missus calls it kikay kit)

9. Pen holder

10. Nike pen bag

Heroes

My sis lent me her copy of Heroes Series 1 on CD a few months back, and today was only the 1st time I watched the 1st episode.

The verdict? AWESOME! I'm completely hooked I can't wait to watch the next episode.

Yup, you have to forgive me for being a late bloomer to the Heroes phenomenon.

Watch it!

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you a Blessed Christmas!!!

Exile From Mainstream

Matchbox20 back in harness, this album features 6 new and 11 old tracks. Rob Thomas' vocals is still amazingly haunting as ever.

Great album!

Another Senseless Killing

I would like to express my outrage over the recent killing of my high school batchmate, Carlo Castellano. He was the pilot mauled a few days ago outside the Embassy Bar at The Fort by a group of men, presumably dahil nagkasamaan lang ng tingin.

He was laid to rest today (Dec.23). He is survived by his wife and two daughters (both less than 10 years old).

My prayers go out to family in this very trying time. I also pray for the peace of Carlo's soul, and that the perpetrators involved be put to justice.

MSG Overload!

I first tasted this during one of my evening meetings at the office. One of the VPs bought it from the supermarket downstairs.

Kropek na binudburan ng MSG = RAPSA!

Explain THIS Willie!

...and no crying please!

I bet I'm going to hear a mouthful from Joey De Leon as well. :)

Basketball Gold!

I'm glad to know that the 2007 SEA Games gold medal for men's basketball has been claimed back by the RP Team after a 2-year hiatus from international competition.

The RP Team destroyed the Thai team, 94-53. In the Philstar article, it was described as "a royal beating" since the match was won with the Thai princess among the crowd.

The other scores showed similar "no mercy" results to the other countries:

RP vs Malaysia: 108-60
RP vs Cambodia: 136-82
RP vs Indonesia: 75-49

Go Pinoy!!!

Credit Card Update

Well my credit card company has done well so far since the hacking incident. They were able to deliver the new credit card (with new credit card number) to me within a week. The disputed transactions I raised were removed from my monthly charges although they will have to come back to me on the final outcome of their investigation if final na tatanggalin. Of course I know thruthfully that I didn't make those transactions in Brazil, US, and Canada eh di pa naman ako nakakapunta sa mga bansang yun.

Good thing they've reissued the card immediately coz last weekend the missus and I started our Christmas shopping for our inaanaks. The missus is in panic mode since it's already December and we've hadn't bought enough gifts yet. Ahhh yes, the stresses of the Holidays.

Btw, seriously, if you're thinking of giving me something this Christmas, you can donate the money you'll spend to here or here instead.

Jollibee Song

My boy has had diarrhea these past few days so I had to stay home to help monitor him from getting dehydrated. It was a good thing that the stool exam results showed negative for parasites/bacteria so we just have to let the diarrhea go through naturally, giving him enough ORS to rehydrate.

Among the many, many ways of baby-sitting him (aside from a collection of Barney and Sesame Street CDs) is thru youtube.com. My boy and I have watched this video over 20x today, with the song embedded in my mind. For up to now, it's still my last song syndrome.

Enjoy!

Jam Time

It's been a long while since I've played my bass guitar. Months, I think.

But next week's a chance for me to get the old bass guitar out of the case. Another department in the office has invited some of us to play in their Christmas party. Here's the probable setlist:

1. Stone temple pilots - Plush
2. Stone temple pilots - Interstate love song
3. Dashboard - Stolen
4. 30 sec to mars - the kill
5. Gin blossoms - as long as it matters
6. melt with you
7. more to lose
8. Nirvana - Lithium
9. Nirvana - Man who sold the world
10. Two minds crack - upside down
11. Intro(never say goodbye) biglang lipat sa beer - itchyworms

I'll most probably play on song 1,2,5,8 & 9, giving my tribute to Kurt and his band. Then I'll probably leave the place before song 11. ;-)

Fabulous Finds: Palatofino

One Saturday evening, the missus and I have just arrived in Jupiter St, Makati coming from dropping off our boy at Paranaque for his overnight stay with my folks. We were combing Jupiter Street for a prospective place to have dinner when I remembered this Mediterranean resto situated along the said road.

"Palatofino, Mediterranean Dining" the sign read. From my vantage point I couldn't see a car parked in their driveway so I told the missus to look for another place, assuming that no customers mean that the food there might not be good.

We went inside Mickey's Delicatessen but didn't like the food that we'll be eating (cold cuts, cheese, and wine) since that just wasn't our typical dinner. So we hopped into the car again and drove back to Palatofino's. With the missus' persuasion, we ventured in and prepared for what might be (or not) a delectable dining experience.

Palatofino's ambience is quaint and quiet, which is good if you'd like to have a quiet romantic dinner. The waiters were all speaking fluently in English, and they were well aware of the menu's contents.

The missus ordered Andalucian Pork(?) ---sorry I couldn't remember the exact name but that's the only dish with "Andalucian" on it. The missus' verdict? Masarap!

I ordered the Scallops with Rice (sorry, forgot the name again). The rice was neatly put into a cross-wise cut green bell pepper. This one tasted great as well.

For dessert we ordered creme brulee. Delicious!

The cost took me to P1,600+ which should be alright considering we ordered appetizers, soup, 2 main courses, and 1 dessert, and 2 cups of coffee. Not bad.

Btw, here's their multiply site.

Punta De Uian

Our office department went to our annual business planning session last week in Punta De Uian, San Antonio, Zambales. The name sounds a little contradicting don't you think? The place is owned by a nice US-based Filipino couple who come to the place every now and then.

The place is new, having opened only April of this year. It's been widely known since it's been the venue for the Marimar teleserye shown in GMA-7.

The place is great: the rooms, the conference rooms, the villas, the beach (white sand nga lang sana), plus the surfer waves. Definitely worth the 4-hour drive.

Enjoy the pics!

Fabulous Finds: Breakfast at Antonio's

Breakfast at Antonio's...lunch and dinner too!

We were greeted by the sign along Aguinaldo H-Way in Tagaytay, signaling the last stop of my family's Tagaytay overnight trip. We wanted to try B.a.A. out. If we found the food to be OK, we might just come back for a quick early-early Saturday morning breakfast.

B.a.A. completes the resto-trio of Antonio's and Ihawan sa Antonio's, all located in cool Tagaytay. I think the owner came up with Ihawan and Breakfast to cater to the non-fine-diners but still the high quality of the food is noticeable.

The missus ordered Chorizo Pasta, quite good.



Seeing the Specials listed on a blackboard, I ordered the Bacolod Grilled Spareribs. This one tasted great, especially with the satay rice. Quite pricey though (P350.00) but still the taste didn't disappoint. My boy definitely agreed since he never said "ayaw," indicating that he'd had enough.


The pancakes as below. Still, it's no match to Pancake House, which the missus boasts of the secret ingredient X. Notice the maple syrup ---not their own.


The missus intends to go back at B.a.A. for the spareribs. I'll definitely try another meal on their menu.

My CC's been hacked!!!

It was a good thing I checked my credit card statement this morning. I found the following unauthorized transactions:

11/27 TRENDS DEPOT 613-9076945 CA PHP 20,332.87 USD 459.00

11/09 BODYBUILDING 208-377-9994 US PHP 3,847.93 USD 86.97

11/08 AMERICANAS COM OSASCO BR PHP 6,763.47 R$ 261.95

I think the hack happened while I may have been making other transactions online. The hacker made purchases in Brazil, US, and Canada online amounting to almost 31 thousand pesos!

I called up my credit card company immediately to notify them of the fraud. They've processed the above transactions for dispute (and hopefully to be refunded) and have blocked my credit card for replacement.

Whew! That was a close call!

Take care when transacting online.

Do click an ad below if you found this post to be helpful. Thanks!

Oh Ano?!

"Good!" - Dindo

Fabulous Finds: Amici Di Don Bosco

(Since the missus and I are into discovering great food in and out of the metro, I'll be posting Fabulous Finds from time to time, giving you my view on where to go to enjoy good food)

The missus and I were salivating for Italian food since last Thursday night after watching the Jamie Oliver Show. He was cooking this pasta dish which made the missus squirm with delight on wanting to have pasta there and then. I have just finished playing basketball that night and having watched the show myself, my stomach (or was it bulate?) that started jumping with excitement on the possibility that the missus and I would scurry off to Tomas Morato to look for an open Italian resto at that late hour.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.

Fast forward to tonight, we dropped our boy to my parents' house in Paranaque. As usual, the missus and I were wondering where we'd have our dinner with matching "mmmm" comments. As I was turning to SLEX from EDSA, I remembered this Italian place in Don Bosco Makati that has been recommended by two people: my sis and my officemate JD: Amici Di Don Bosco.

I have to say that the food, pasta and pizza, is quite good. The place is a no-frills canteen-like setup wherein food is ordered on the counter ---which is consistently how the Salesians run their school canteens since I'm a true-blue Bosconian myself. But you'll not notice it once your mouth gets hold of the food. The price is very cheap vs other bigtime pizza/pasta restos like CPK, DonHen, PizzaHut Bistro, etc. but the food.....damn.....the food is very good.

Here's a clickthecity.com clipcast of Amici Di Don Bosco which I found on my sis' blog.

Out of Stock

After reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" I decided, as part of my goal in obtaining financial freedom, to dabble into the stock market. I signed-up through an online broker (Citiseconline) and placed a very small portion of our money to see how things will work out.

Since the past 2-3 weeks, I've learned (most of the time in a painful way) the following so far:

1. Be patient. Set your goals for the long-term and not for quick profits.

2. Buy when the price is low. Sell only when it's high AND when you're only in dire need of money.

3. Invest in the company, not the stock. One should scrutinize the company that you're buying first before you decide to buy it.

4. Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.

As Kiyosaki mentioned, the stock market is a painful teacher. But I'm willing to learn.

Hopefully this all works out fine.

Mga Plastic! Mga Ipokrito!

This is an email sent by Admi, a high-school batchmate, to our yahoogroup:

===========================

Kapag may bagyo, lindol, sakit o epidemya.......saan ba humihingi ng calamity fund ang isang mayor, congressman o gobernador para sa kaniyang probinsiya???? Sa pondo ng Presidente!!!!
Kapag kailangan ng karagdagang silid paaralan o ospital ang isang probinsiya.......saan ba humihingi ng allocation ang mayor, congressman o gobernador???? Sa pondo ng Presidente!!!!
Kapag kailangan ng karagdagang tulay o kalsada ang isang probinsiya.......saan ba humihingi ng budget pantustos ang mayor, congressman o gobernador???? Sa pondo ng Presidente!!!!

Eh ganun naman pala eh..........kapag may kailangan ka......... sa Presidente ang takbo mo!!!!!! Eh bakit maraming nag papaka plastic, nag papaka ipokrito at nag mamalinis.......na kesyo.......di sila tumatanggap ng pera!!!! Samantalang.......ang katotohanan.........lahat naman ng! mga opisyal ay talagang binibigyan at tumatangap ng pera o pondo para sa proyekto ng kanilang nasasakupan..........!!!!!! Depende na yun sa opisyal kung saan nya gagamitin yung ibinigay na pondo!!!!!

Kayong mga opisyal..........dapat kayong magpasalamat........dahil binigyan kayo ng pondo pantustos sa inyong nasasakupan...........!!!!!! Nag tataka lang ako.........bakit yung ibang opisyal .......ay nang gaga laiti........!!!!!!! At........take note.......nag pa interview pa..........na kesyo di raw sila tumatanggap ng suhol........!!!!!!! Eh loko loko pala sila eh.......!!!!!! Pondo yon!!!!!! Hindi suhol!!!!! Bakit????? May hiningi bang kapalit yun????? Wala!!!!! Kung ayaw mo ng pera o pondo.......eh di.......isauli mo!!!!! GANUN KASIMPLE!!!!!!!

Ayon sa ating PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION.........THERE SHOULD BE SEPARATION OF THE CHURCH and the STATE!!!!!!!!! Kaya nakaka buwisit isipin..........u! ltimo PARI..........kumakandidato sa election........Kaya nag kakanda leche leche ang bayan natin..........Ayusin muna nila ang simbahan.........dahil sa totoo lang ang daming KAPALPAKAN sa loob mismo ng simbahan!!!!!!!

Saan ka ba naman nakakita????????? PARI NA NAG MIMISA SA LOOB NG SM MEGA MALL!!!!!!! PARI NA NAG MIMISA SA LOOB NG ISETANN DEPT STORE!!!!!!! PARI NA NAG MIMISA SA LOOB NG FESTIVAL MALL!!!!! PARI NA NAG MIMISA SA LOOB NG ROBINSON'S GALLERIA!!!!!! Putang Ina!!!!!! Sino sa atin ngayon ang ipokrito?????? Sino ang mukhang pera???? Eh mas malala pa ang ginagawa niyo!!!!!! Ginagawa niyong NEGOSYO ANG PAG MIMISA!!!!!!! Bakit???????? Wala na ba tayong simbahan na puwedeng pag dausan ng misa???????
NAWAWALA NA ANG PAGIGING SAGRADO NG MISA!!!!!! BAKIT KAILANGAN PANG MAG MISA SA LOOB NG MALL???????? SIMPLE LANG ANG SAGOT........... PERA PERA LANG YAN!!!!!!!!!! Kung talagang gusto niyong mag misa........ bakit sa loob pa ng mall??! ???? Natural...............yung mga taong pumupunta sa mall ay mas mapera!!!!!!!!!

PAREHAS MAG BEBENEFIT!!!!!!!! MALAKI ANG KOLEKSYON SA MISA!!!!! MARAMI PANG TAONG PUPUNTA SA MALL!!!!!! o DIBA......PERA PERA LANG!!!!!!!....TIBA TIBA!!!!!!!
ANG MISA AY SA SIMBAHAN!!!!!!! ANG MALL AY PARA SA PASYALAN at TAMBAYAN NG POKPOK AT CALL BOY!!!!!!! Gets nyo???????

Kaya TIGILAN NA ANG PAG PAPAKA PLASTIC!!!!!! BAGO PUNTIRYAHIN ANG IBANG TAO..............MANALAMIN MUNA...........!!!!!!! AMUYIN ANG KILIKILI..........!!!!!! Usisain kung ikaw ay isang TUPPERWARE o OROCAN!!!!!!

O ayan ha........opinyon ko lang yan........freedom of speech at freedom of expression lang..........bato bato sa langit...........ANG GUSTONG MAGSIMBA..........PUMUNTA SA SM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Witness

For this missus, I know you'll love this one.

Making (ad)sense

About a month ago I came on a article on Google AdSense. The site is aimed at giving the user a chance to earn money from the sites/blogs that one publishes. The author mentioned that he was able to earn $1,000 from a short span since there were a lot of visitors to his site which btw is called Pinoy Money Talks, a site that introduces the would-be pinoy investor on how to build investments. The earnings he got was sent to him by Google thru Western Union which he found reliable.

Curious as I was, I registered for AdSense (which is free). I copy/pasted some of the advertising codes on my blogs and left it there until yesterday since I wasn't blogging too much at the time.

Yesterday, I was surprised to find my AdSense account:

Not bad since I wasn't really maintaining my blog for some time. If you'd like to do the same, you can register via Google-Adsense.

If you found this blog helpful, can you do me a favor? Maybe you could click on 1 or 2 of the ads here if it's alright with you. No need for you to buy anything. Just click on the ads.

Thanks in advance.

Dahil Sa 'Yo

Since traffic was building up at EDSA during my evening drive home, I decided to load up my USB-drive with Mp3s so that I can play it in the car. I already planned to setup "cool" sounding songs such as those of Jack Johnson, Orange and Lemons, and kick-in a little Sitti.

I visited multiply.com to get more songs but then "Harry Connick Jr." and "Nat King Cole" came into mind. I decided to erase the already-loaded "cool" songs from my USB and loaded up on these classics.

As I searched multiply.com I came across a great find: Nat King Cole singing one of our local songs when he held his concert in Manila sometime in the 1960s. Incidentally, Owa was among the crowd when she heard this piece.

So, without further adoo, here's the master, Nat King Cole, singing Dahil Sa 'Yo.

Shudawudakuda

Had I never left Singapore, I could've been that guy next to the vocalist.

Among Ed

Fr. Ed's Pampanga
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written Aug. 27, 2007 For the Standard Today, August 28 issue

We hope we are witnessing what will be a sustained revolution in good governance in the Province of Pampanga , under its newly elected governor, Fr. Ed Panlilio.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer of August 26, only one month after Fr. Panlilio assumed his gubernatorial duties, the province's income from the quarrying of volcanic ash from Mount Pinatubo had reached P29.4 million. (Haulers pay a fee of P300 per truck of volcanic ash that they haul from the quarry.)

By contrast, during his predecessor Mark Lapid's term as governor, the province's income from the same quarrying operations amounted to only P29 million a year.

This gaping variation in official incomes from the same activity should inspire a new set of textbooks in Arithmetic, especially for the school children of Pampanga. There is nothing like local color and local situations to cultivate comprehension in young minds.

Sample problems: If Fr. Ed's provincial government can collect P29.4 million in 26 days (we assume no quarrying on Sundays), how much does it collect in one day? Answer: an average of P1.130 million.

If Fr. Ed's provincial government collects an average of P1.130 million a day from quarrying operations, how much can it collect in one year of 313 days (365 days less 52 Sundays)? Answer: P353, 690,000, or P354 million.

If Fr. Ed's provincial government can collect P354 million a year, and Mark Lapid's provincial government collected only P29 million a year, what is the difference in their official yearly collections? Answer: P325 million a year.

If Mark Lapid was governor for four years and his provincial government's annual collections from quarrying amounted to an average of P29 million, how much did his provincial government officially collect in four years? Answer: P116 million.

If Fr. Ed manages to remain as provincial governor for four years, and his provincial government's annual collection from quarrying were to average P354 million, how much will his provincial government collect in four years? Answer: P1.416 billion.

What is the difference between P1.416 billion and P116 million? Answer: P1.3 billion.

Where did this P1.3 billion go? Answer: Only God and the Lapids know.

('Lapids' is in plural because Mark, as a second-generation political dynast, succeeded his own father, now Sen. Lito Lapid. We don't know how much Lito's provincial government officially collected from quarrying operations during his watch. Should be a good investigative project for media.)

If Gawad Kalinga spends an average of P75,000 per low cost house, how many low-cost houses can P1.3 billion build? Answer: 17,333 low-cost houses.

If the average Pampanga family were to consist of five persons (father, mother, three children), how many people would be benefited by 17,333 low-cost houses? Answer: 86,665 persons. End of Arithmetic lesson.

Fr. Ed is to be congratulated for setting a high benchmark for collection from quarrying operations, against which his predecessors have a moral obligation to explain why their collections were so low, and against which future governors will be judged by the people of Pampanga.

Volcanic ash, by the way, is a superior building material. Many of the buildings, aqueducts and monuments of the Roman Empire that have survived for almost 2,000 years are known to have been built with volcanic ash, quarried from the environs of Mount Vesuvius after it erupted in 79 AD.

We do not expect Fr. Ed's moral victory in Pampanga to be remembered for the next 2,000 years. We would be happy with five, ten or 20 years, enough, we hope, to spawn a moral-revolution- by-example to save the Filipinos from their worst enemies – themselves.

1 vs 100 (Online Game)

Is there a Philippine version of this online game?

http://www.nbc.com/1vs100/game.shtml

Let me know if you're successful in beating the mob of 100.

Another case of "musical differences"

I read the news below from the Philippine Star:

======================

Goodbye, Orange & Lemons

It’s official: Orange & Lemons has decided to disband effective Sept. 29.

In a letter sent to Universal Records, the group and its management, No Seat Affair (represented by Roldan “Bong” Baluyut) said, “We finally decided to disband Orange & Lemons due to individual and musical differences with each other. This decision is collectively made and approved by all of us and thus, seeks pre-termination of the artist contract.”

All Orange & Lemons members — Marco “Mcoy” Fundales, Clemen Castro, Aldwin del Mundo and Jesmer del Mundo — plus Baluyut signed the letter of disbandment.

The members have individual career plans, to be announced soon.

The disbandment was announced when Fade, the second single from their Moonlane Gardens album, was about to be released. That should make Moonlane Gardens, the group’s farewell album, a collector’s item.

================================

I find O&L to be up there on my all-time favorite bands list along with The Beatles and The Eraserheads, who by coincidence, were also bands that broke up.

O&L's music is a refreshing sound compared to most alternative local-bands nowadays, their sound being like a mix of new wave & pop. A pleasing sound to my ears.

Oh well, another great band which I'll never get to hear new music no more. Good thing someone uploaded all the Moonlane Gardens tracks at Multiply.

Goodbye, Orange and Lemons.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

"The main reason people struggle financially is because they spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is, people learn to work for money... but never learn to have money work for them."

---Robert T. Kiyosaki

I've just finished reading the above book written by Robert Kiyosaki. I encourage you to read it as well since I found to be very helpful especially for those who intend to "get out of the Rat Race." A word of advice before read this book: you need to be open-minded.

Click here for the e-Book.

6mos after

It's been 6 months since I started my rice-reduction diet. My last update on this subject (June15 - "Break Even") had my weight pegged at 170lbs since I've strayed away on my plan.

3 months since June 15, I'm happy to inform you that I've lost 4lbs, bringing down my weight to 166lbs. So I've lost 10lbs since April. Yeah it's a little bit slow. Blame it on the Krispy Kreme and the Dunkin Donuts. But the good part is that lately my office pants seems to be a little loose, and the other week one of my staff greeted me with "Sir parang pumayat kayo." (naks!)

My "diet regimen" consists of the following:

1. 20mins threadmill + 15-20mins weight training + 30 situps --> twice a week
2. basketball during the office-sportsfest --> 5mins lang kase coach eh, hehe
3. iwas merienda
4. rice-reduction pag bfast/lunch (or pag naalala lang)
5. consciously (read as: trying) to reduce the rice intake during dinner at home (except pag masarap ang ulam)
6. pag naalala, punta sa office water-dispenser for half-mug of water

So it's not really a full-blown diet plan. Masarap kase kumaen eh so I'm just taking my time before I get there. "There" meaning my target weight of 152 lbs which is the top-end limit for normal BMI for my height.

My next short term goal: to drop down to 160lbs.

The Money? Or the Mob?

1 vs 100 is coming to Philippine television this weekend. Here's a glimpse on what to expect in this interesting game show.

Algorithm March

I guess you've been living under a rock these past few months if you're not aware of the Algorithm March. This was created by a children's television series in Japan called PhytagoraSwitch and has been spreading around like wildfire so much so that there are several Youtube uploads from different countries trying to emanate the funny and creative march. The Philippines has been included in this list with the famous Cebu Prison Inmates setting a record for the most number of participants in a single march.

To quote Wikipedia.org: "The dance can be performed in lines, moving canon style one at a time. After each movement, the line takes a step forward. The movements of the first and last person become connected."

So I'll leave you now to the craze created by Arugorizumu Koushin and Itsumo Kokokara.

Rylynn

I heard one of our officemates play Andy Mckee's Africa on his winamp this morning so I surfed Youtube to find him again. I think it's true that the kind of music one prefers is directly reflective of his/her personality.

The impact of Andy Mckee's fingerstyle guitar-playing has been heartwarming, similar to how Jim Chappel's piano music has affected me when I was attending a retreat in DB Batulao during 2nd (or was it 3rd?) year high school.

So here's Andy Mckee with his song Rylynn. Truly another masterpiece.

A Cube With A View

Today I moved to a new cubicle in the office. It has a nice view of Antipolo to my back, and EDSA towards my right.

Ahhh yes. The perks of being a Senior Manager.