Manny Pacquiao's Basketball Shoe

Yup, he has one. Released by Nike, it's called the Nike Air Max Bizness Manny Pacquiao PE.

Lufet!!!

Read more here.

Her Son and Grandson

My mom tries to keep herself abreast with the latest computer technology whenever she can. She's taken advantage of Globe's P5.00 every 15mins surfing rate so that she's always online even when she's working outside Metro Manila. I believe she's one of those got first hold of those laptops with finger-scanning ID technology. Yup, she's pretty high-tech.

Well, the latest she's done is that she's opened a Multiply account which introduces her to the world of online networking.

Her first entry was simply entitled, "Can you spot the difference?" with a lone picture of me and Lucas. Yup, he's no doubt my son.

Btw, that pic of mine was taken right after I tried cutting my hair a la David's Salon which obviously killed any plan of opening up my own barbershop.

Zoom Kobe IV

During my office lunch break I try to make it a point to window-shop at the Nike and Adidas sports shops. Last week, I was amazed to find the latest Kobe shoe: the Nike Zoom Kobe IV.

Today I dropped by again at Nike to see and hold it but I was taken aback when I saw that the pedestal where the shoe used to sit was empty. I approached one of the sales personnel and he said:


Sir, it's all out of stock.


How about in the other Nike stores?


Out of stock na din po. Naubos lahat due to early reservations.


Any chance they'll ship out a new batch?


Wala na po. Baka ibang model na po padadala.


How much did it cost?


P7,000 a pair.





Sigh. It was a very nice pair that I've come to appreciate much like the Air Jordan XI. But price is really the ultimate drawback, especially for a family man like me. Siguro ipon pa ng Citibank Rewards so I can exchange it for Nike GCs. Hehe, but that'll take some time. Hopefully there'll be a similar shoe as the XI or the IV when I've got the purchasing power.


But for now, I'll still stick it out with my 2-yr old Nike Uptempo Legend which btw I wore in our practice last night wherein I converted six wonderful 3-pointers and a fanciful teardrop drive to the basket.

Pero, sigh, ang ganda nung Zoom Kobe IV.

Bench: Sculler (1991)

This is probably one of the best TV ads in my all time list. The soundtrack is entitled "Claire De Lune" by Chopin.

Second year college ata ako nung pinalabas 'to sa TV. Ah yes, the good ol' days. (smile)

Thank goodness for YouTube!

Weight Loss(?) Update

The reason for the question-mark on my blog-title literally questions my 2009 goal. The reading on our digital scale wasn't encouraging after I stepped onto it this morning: 177 lbs. When I started blogging my goal a few weeks back, I was at 176.4lbs. After a weekend of basketball and threadmills, I went down to 174lbs. I thought I was on the road to recovery back then but, sigh, here I am again.

The root-cause of the sudden relapse, I assume, would be the cold (cold!) mornings the entire week last week which caused me not to exercise at all. I only managed to get enough motivation yesterday morning when I walked around the neighborhood at about 7am for 30mins. The missus discouraged me from doing this type of workout again since she learned that there's a possibility of being kidnapped and asked for ransom. Haaay.

The missus said she heard in the evening news that the cold nights last week might be the last of it since temperatures are starting to rise again. I hope this encourages me to return to my loyal threadmill and jog off this excess weight every morning.

So, here I go again...

Nick Vujicic

Really touching...

More Macros

At a heavy price of 5thou, I had my trusty point-n-shoot Canon IXUS750 digicam repaired this morning. The lens gear got broken during a wedding reception I attended last week so it had to be replaced. Good thing there was a spare part available at the repair center.

Whew, for a moment there I thought we were buying an SLR! Well, this IXUS750 of ours has accumulated its sentimental value already, having bought it with the missus at a gritty Singaporean at SimLim last 2006. This camera has been from Singapore to the Philippines, Malaysia, Europe, and the US. Thus it's good to know that it's spankin' refreshed and ready to shoot more scenes for me and my family. 

Some more macro shots I tried at Owa's garden below...

Brrrr!

Our bedroom's thermometer read 23.1 degrees last night. That's the coldest I've seen it read so far. Lately we haven't been using the aircon nor the electric fan since it's been freezing weather these past few days.

Brrrr!

EHEADS Reunion Part II

Yeah baby! You read that right!

See you there on March 7, 2009!!!!

...masdan mo aking mata, di mo ba nakikita...

Read here for more info.

The Goal & The Plan

January's a time for resolutions. They are often crafted but not carried out. In my continued quest to lose weight, I am going to concretize that goal by writing it on this blog.

So, here I go.

The Goal: To lose 20lbs by December 2009.

The Plan. This will entail following a set of rules that I must (MUST!) follow:

1. Get regular 30min or 3-4km workouts on my threadmill at least 4x a week
2. Weight-training should be followed by rule 1.
3. Play other sports whenever possible (basketball, badminton, football(?), etc.)
4. Reduce daily rice intake by 50-75%
5. Eat fish instead of meat whenever both are available
6. Stay away from softdrinks
7. Eat nuts for merienda instead of going down the mall to buy something else
8. Follow Paul Mckenna's 4 basic rules:
a. When you're hungry, go and eat!
b. Eat what you want!
c. Eat consciously!
d. When you're full, stop eating!

Let's see how this goes.

Applause naman dyan!

Nurse-ko-'day and Manong

A beautiful sunrise had greeted us as I wheeled the missus from our 10th floor room going to the elevator that led to the Huggery. A few minutes ago our sleep was awakened by the room phone signalling to us that Matteo is desperately hungry for milk, as heard in the background on the other line while the nurse told us if the missus can go down already.

The missus is inside the Huggery now, feeding our newborn Matteo. A few hours from now, we'll be on the road going home to have Lucas and Matteo together in the same room for the first time.

Let me just say that I'm grateful for all the staff here at Asian Hospital who've given us that trademark Filipino service-with-a-smile hospitality.

The missus is thankful as well to one of the nurses whom I've privately nicknamed "nurse-ko-'day."

Nurse-ko-'day was quite memorable since she was the one who gave the missus a spa-treatment-like bath on the hospital bed during the first day after the C-section. She was really great in the sense that she was very pro about shampooing and sponging the missus. It was at this moment of relaxation when we heard a faint knock on the door. It turned out to be a nun who was distributing communion to the patients. It was a Sunday so since the missus can't go down to the chapel yet, she agreed to have the communion then and there.

So imagine the missus, lying on the bed, being shampooed away by nurse-ko-'day and the nun saying the prayer before communion with the missus. Would it be wrong to call that moment a "spiritual relaxation?" Hehe.

Of course nurse-ko-'day realized a few seconds later that this was a divine moment so she had to stop the shampooing for a while. So, the missus, with Rejoice shampoo bubbles on her hair, opened her mouth to receive communion. Nurse-ko-'day immediately returned to her hair duties.

Another personality here is Manong. Manong is literally service-with-a-smile incarnate. He looks like a well-groomed, more handsome version of Apeng Daldal. He delivers the food trays to our room about 5 times a day. The food would always arrive with Manong's patented smile. "Heto na po lunch nyo mam," he would say, even if the lunch contained only bland soup and a gelatin since the missus was on liquid diet initially after the CS.

I was kidding the missus this morning when I was wrapping the paha around her waist. What if Manong suddenly comes in with the breakfast tray and sees her with her post-op belly?

"Mam heto na po yung breakfast nyo....ay taba!" Hehe.

All in all, the service here is excellent. Btw, I forgot to mention that last night we were given a romantic candlelit dinner at the doctors' lounge, with food from Makati Skyline. It was complete with red wine and a 4-meal course. It was great although I'm not sure if they will offer a steak-dinner for other types of post-ops like triple-bypass or angioplasty.

Kung Fu Panda

Great animation, this is a nice film for kids young and old.

A must-see film!

Horton Hears A Who

My 1st boy has a Dr. Seuss book entitled "Scrambled Eggs Super," given by his Tita. I find it a joy reading this book to him whenever he requests it. He had actually memorized the 1st page and the page involving a long-legger Kwong. Yeah, I find that amazing too.

So when I saw that another Dr. Seuss book has been adapted to film animation, I just had to watch it. The animation is great and the story was, well, signature Dr. Seuss.

A nice film to watch with your kids.

My 2nd boy's here!

As of 6:40pm earlier this evening, I am now a father of TWO boys. My 2nd boy is a heavy fella, coming in at 7lbs and an ounce. The missus' obgyn said he looks like my 1st boy but only of a whiter complexion (nice!).

His name's Matteo Alonso. Matteo to keep up with the tradition of my 1st boy being named after one of the 4 Gospels. Alonso from Fernando Alonso, one of the popular Formula-One drivers today.



Life's good! :)

Someone's joining the family tomorrow

After several months of being pregnant, the missus is finally relieved (and nervous at the same time) that my second boy is coming out tomorrow evening. We are currently preparing the stuff to bring in our two (or 3) night stay at the Asian Hospital so everything has to be checked. I'm responsible for all the eletronic gadgets, i.e. videocam, digicam, laptop, usb broadband, earphones, headphones, cellphone charger, and everything else that needs AC or DC power. Among the stuff being put into the bags and backpacks, the missus and I just light up with our "Oooaaahhh" smile as we prepare our second boy's things: a bunch of tie-up baby shirts and a pack of these cute cute (cute!) extra-small diapers. Haaay, I can't wait until I see him tomorrow evening. The missus is still praying for a miracle that she hopes that he will look like her. But, based from my first boy's (good) looks, she doesn't have a chance. Only heaven knows how he'll look like.

We're excited as well for our panganay since he'll soon have a playmate. He'll be a kuya, like me. I hope he'll grow up to be a good one. Tonight is his last night as our only boy, so he might be sleeping between us tonight.

So, we'll get back to our packing. My boy is right here beside me now repeatedly asking me to open the diaper package for his brother to see if it will be a good fit.