jeez…this party is horrible to our livers…we were all drunk.
but we all had a great time!!!
labor day party Setyembre 3, 2006
day 3 – children’s playground Mayo 18, 2006
after rizal park, we saw this children’s playground in the middle of LRT and department of tourism office. it was pretty old since i remember being there as a child myself. mike and atong had fun running around, chasing each other and going through all the stone made animal figures. mike was a child once again, running behind atong all the time. i was just taking pictures and was getting grumpier by the second since it was too freakin damn hot and i was hungry. atong was having fun posing with the pictures. i was just glad that mike was here to play with atong because i cannot play hard like he does with atong. i guess it was a male thing. finally, they got exhausted so we walked from there to ermita to grab food at mc donalds. atong and mike ate some mc chicken while i tried their spaghetti and lots of water. i was thirsty!!! we decided not to try museo pambata today but instead, we went to the grocery store at robinsons place to get us some supplies for our stay at the apartment. we still have enough time to dress up for tonights dinner with my high school friends in tondo.
day 3 – rizal park
We woke up pretty early on day 3. i set out to do our mini tour so i can entertain both atong and mike. the first on my agenda was the rizal park. so we took a taxi from our hotel to rizal park. the day was very humid as usual and there were lots of people trying to take our picture, sell us something or offered a tour of intramuros. it wasnt as bad as i thought it would be. after the initial hooplas, we were pretty much left alone to walk around. i explained to mike and atong about rizal park but mike is actually ahead of me since he knew who rizal is. he did his historical research about the philippines. atong was very happy just to be with the two of us. he was posing with mike and was very polite. we visited the chinese garden but it was full of people sleeping under the pagoda so we went to japanese garden. it wasnt as great but it was a beautiful scene on it own way. we also saw the flower clock, the chess place, the skating rink and the map of the philippine islands. mike caught soemthing peculiar though. there were no water on any of the places that was supposed to have some for decoration purposes. i just said it was a country with too few resources but he said ” how can you guys run out of water? you are surrounded by it?” we just both laughed it out and went on to walk around. atong was trying to speak in english and mike was trying to speak in tagalog. it was funny!
for the rest of the pictures…
day 1 – welcome home! Mayo 16, 2006
when we arrived at Nino’s place in Road 10, it was almost midnight. they were all sweet! we found a sign at the rooftop saying “welcome home mommy grace and mike!”. and there were lots of food and beer! we talked, laughed and exchanged stories throughout the night. we also took some loopy pictures! it was just great. it was not that hot but was very humid. i love hugging my son! the food was awesome. i havent had so much filipino food at one time! yum yum yum. i also found DJ MIx (straberry flavored cigarettes). mike and atong slept at 5:30am till 8 am. but i couldnt. i was just so excited to be there! I saw all of nino’s family except nanay marlyn. che-che, nino’s wife was very hospitable. their kids are awesome and very cute!!! their names were bitoy, daga, kat-kat and the youngest is aw-aw. we ate some champurado (cooked by roselyn) and pandesal for breakfast. mike ate a huge bowl of it and was full the entire day. atong was a sport although he didnt sleep much either. he was just a happy kid! he loved all the things and clothes that i bought for him. everybody was singing and eating but my god! there were at least 10 kids at one place! it was all fun though i was really exhausted. i cancelled my appointment with sanctuario spa and went to check in at tropicana apartment hotel at 4 or 5 pm.
for the rest of the picures…
day 1 – from usa to japan Mayo 15, 2006
this is the day!
We boarded out first leg of Northwest flights from Atlanta at around noon going to Detroit. Stopped over at that airport for a couple of hours then boarded our 14 hour flight to Japan. Whew! There was a lot of Filipinos on that flight. We sat beside Gary, who came from Illinois just to visit his long time girlfriend in Davao. Our in flight food wasnt so bad, i catually enjoyed every meal but i didnt get the chance to watch anything cause we were too far from the screen. I slept the entire flight with the occasional conversation with Mike and Gary. I am pretty darn exciuted to be in Mnaila at this point. As we are approachign Japan, Mike was the one who is excited to see Nagoya airport and their expensive crappers. we arrived Japan without any problem. Mike had his fill of Japanese brewed beer and got to see the $6000.00 crappers with heated seated, massage, bidet and all the luxury of a toilet bowl. Finally, we arrived at NAIA at around 11pm. We got through immigration without any problem but the Philippine customs is what i expected, the rotten corruption that is in full view without any pretense at all. I was basically asked for a bribe!
I couldnt use my phone to call Nino about our arrival. So i dotn really have any idea of what is happening at this point. I was trying to get me some philippine peso to try and call them but a nice security told me where to go and look fo any people who might be picking us up. I left Mike with our bags to check and saw Nino! I hugged him and told him that i will be getting mike and our bags. When i came back, Atong was there too with Roselyn and Sonny Boy! I couldnt help but felt very happy at this point! All i could do was hug and kiss Atong!!!
We loaded our bags to a van but was apprehended by policemen because we were at the no loading zone! After a few talk, i was surprised that they let us go without any bribe. Whew! So we went on our way to Nino’s place for some party!!!
For the rest of the album pictures…
corn-a-lot Abril 6, 2006
we have an unofficial new dog.
her name is corn-a lot. a name hybrid of “cornhole and chocolate”. well, i live with two crazy guys who wanted to name the pup “cornhole” and since his color looks like chocolate, i wanted to name him as such. we came to an agreement that we call this brown labrador “corn-a-lot”.
she usually plays with us at the back porch while we are hanging out drinking beer or just chillin. she usually likes to play with mike who claims who doesnt like animals but still pets the darn pup. mark has a girlfriend who has a dog named buddy (jamie’s dog), so he definitely likes dogs.. i like dogs a lot. i actually wanted to have one but since i travel a lot i couldnt do it. darn. i dont even have a car of my own.
anyway, shes an unofficial pet of ours. he came barking infrnt of the back door last night and scratching like she wants to get in. mark opened the door and tried to tell her to go home but she was trying to get in the house. so i put on my robe, went outside with cornalot, gave her some of buddy’s scooby snacks and persuaded her to go home. while me and her are standing at the top of the stairs, mark and mike went out to see whats happening. but she was a great dog! mark and mike are smitten by her cute and cuddly efforts to get attention. i went inside and got some food and water for her to drink. she was being a very good girl. so mark let her go in “for a while” while we are still hanging out, having a mind set that she will want to go home later. but she was just being so cute, funny and smart puppy. she know a lot of stuff like, rolling, and sitting and laying down. we tried opening the door for her if she wanted to go home but she stayed in the kitchen while all of us are in the floor petting her. se finally was exhausted and took a little nap while we are petting her. mark took pity on her because it was so cold last night. he got buddy’s make shift bed and put it in the kitchen. we all finally had to go to bed hoping that she wouldnt poop or pee or yelp. i was really hoping she wouldnt so mark and mike would let me keep her for the night. we were all like very concerned adults fro a kid coz when we finaally had to close the kitchen, me and mark are still by the door telling cornalot to stay on her bed. we couldnt leave! and i thought it was just me and mark. i saw mike by the living room peeking over the little window to see what cornalot will do. we turned off the light and mike finally told me that cornalot went to her bed and settled in for the night.
i woke up this morning and went to the kitchen to see if cornalot made a mess but she was patiently sitting on her bed, waiting for somebody to come and play with her. she didnt make any mess at all. i gave her some breakfast and shes been in and out of the house already. shes actually sitting here beside me while i m typing this blog. i kept on trying to open the door for her just in case she wants to go home but she just comes right back. i think mike and mark will have a little talk with the owners tomorrow. mark said if they cant take care of their puppy, he will likely adopt her.
i wanted to adopt her myself. but since i dont have a house of my own or a car of my own, i really cant say or do anything just yet…
fil-am party pic Pebrero 21, 2006
i just got a party pic from regina..
this was taken last December at the Philippine-American Association of East Tenessee
regina posted it at friendster and i grabbed it from there! pretty neat. i used photobucket to host my images and its great. especially for people who are lazy to do do their own html.
ha ha ha…better get ready soon…need to go and call beth to confirm about dinner tonight.
birthday weekend Nobyembre 6, 2005
isnt that sweettttttt!?
mike gave me these presents (and some are still in the mail apparently) for ym bday aside from taking me to the movies to watch zorro. we tried going to the zoo yesterday but it was closed. and we just watched movies after movies after movies. (including exorcist: the beginning & the notebook ) we just cuddled on my living room floor all night last night. i dont really know what to say or what to expect. he is the most wonderful guy ever. (not because of the gifts) but for all other reasons.
tonight, my shift got cancelled so we just finished reading da vinci code. it’s an awesome book but not to be taken seriously. it is in fact a novel and not a textbook regarding symbology and religious facts. i will need a separate blog entry for my opinion on this one.
well. nothing more to be said. just so thankful that ive got family and friends that remembered me on my special day. i am so lucky to have them.
bunch of nonsense 