farewell 2010

So much to be thankful for. We welcome the new year with much expectation and hoping that we would be able to fulfill any obligations that we missed this 2010. We really miss PI. Huge crowds in the middle of the streets awaiting midnight. The Media Noche with at least 10 different entrees and of course, the never ending barrage of loud fireworks going on around you all at the same time.

Speaking of fireworks, PI news had just shown an array of fireworks that would be considered home made bombs here in the western countries. Heck. I should say in all other countries. But in all fairness to it's creator, I must say their choices for its label were proper-- Gunaw (The End), Goodbye Philippines, Earth and Universe. And if those terms are not enough to scare the jeebees out of you, maybe the size would? How about size of a shoebox up to your regular DVD player big? Oh but the most feared of them all, Bin Laden, which translates to a cylindrical, 4in diameter and a foot of pure terror. When lighted and exploded would deliver a shock wave to the ground and a sound that would cause car alarms to go off even 20-30 meters away. Sounds fun? I wish I have actual photos to share. While here in US they have really nice fireworks and the famous countdown in NYC. But it doesn't even come close. The most abused violation people would commit to would be drinking and driving--- making more over worked officers and breathalators. Unlike in PI where hospitals would be laden with torn out body parts here and there... majority are self-inflicted all due to out-of-this-world fireworks. Maybe they should name some "Goodbye fingers, arm or even life". Now how about that for F.U.N.

We just finished chatting online to family at the strike of midnight back home, and oh how we envy them. They're eating the feast and watching the nice fireworks litter the streets with air so polluted to match with. May not be perfect to some but still sure hits home for us.

full

Arggghhhh!!! Christmas morning and I'm still full from last night's feast. Everyone is still asleep. A few hours from now, we'll start opening gifts. Happy is still little and doesn't even have a clue what everything is all about. She's probably asking, "What's with all the colored paper?". I'm excited for her.



Plans for today? Cook another sinful breakfast. Fried rice, bacon and hotdogs. How we miss these simple indulgences. But i do think we're not getting overboard. Merry Christmas!

Huge savings

Anna has been interested in doing baking. I've had my eye on that Kitchen Aid mixer at Costco for sometime now. And she's been trying to convince me ever since. The only thing that's been stopping me was the tag price of $300 (+tax). I just can't fathom the idea that I had to fork out that amount.

KitchenAid Pro550HD

But she did talk her way into it, and I finally gave in. She bought it two days ago. And it's been like a cookie and cake factory in here. Even though there were a couple bumps and misses with her baking, all those things that's coming out of that oven are heavenly sent. My only request was, try learning to lower down the calories on each of those goodies.

Mini Muffins & Sugar Cookies

And then I asked her to make a bunch to give out as my Christmas present to my co-workers this year. That's how good they are. Good taste, good idea, good savings.

2010 Christmas Giveaways

Meeting santa

Christmas carols, decors and trees adorn the streets and houses. But Christmas here is still nothing compared to back in PI. Which by the way starts as early as September.



Over here is more focused on the kids. And who's better to make every child's eyes glitter with excitement but Santa!

Sharp Chula has a yearly event for staff's children where they can meet Santa and have pictures taken.



...Snacks, drinks and a few giveaways included.

It's a nice little gathering. We're just dreading the day when she starts to ask what she wants for Christmas. Hopefully, not an LV or Gucci (for now?!?!).

What's for dinner?

Tofu, Mushrooms and greens and Cauliflower cake


A dishful of veggies cooked in a variety of ways. And I thought these won't be enough for four adults. Well, I only had a spoonful of each. Any more than that and I would start palpitating, drag myself to the floor and then pass out due to veggie overload. It's my Kryptonite. Arggghhhhh!!!

Veggie Pizzas

Lazy Monday

Anna requested to be off today since we're supposed to go to the zoo. But we didn't have enough time to finish all the things to do since we still have to return some of the stuff that we bought last Black Friday sale, buy some more "pasalubong" and take care of some papers/documents to name a few.

Cabazon Outlet


My dad is leaving in a few days. He stayed a bit longer this time-- 10 days. It seems like he had fun even if most of our plan for his stay didn't pushed through. It's been really cold outside that's why I couldn't think of places to go. We've been to most of the malls and outlets. Museums and landmarks doesn't strike his fancy.

Barona Buffet


But he loves to eat so we've also been to most of the restaurants and buffets that SD has to offer. Ive cooked a dozen meals and bought all sorts of food from the grocery. Right now, I've ran out of ideas to do.

A feast with no turkey?

It's Thanksgiving. I have a full course meal laid out for the whole day.

Breakfast:
Longanisa and salted eggs




Lunch:
Baked Sea Bass
Grilled Bacon wrap scallops




Dinner:
Grilled Red grouper
Fish heads in Miso soup base
Baked mussels




We went shopping the day before, and we did get a whole bunch of good deals. Books and CD's from Borders with a 50% coupon. And from the 99 cents per pound Sea Bass at Seafood City to our newest find of fresh seafood from Catalina Offshores.




Catalina Offshores is a treasure trove that we found out from a co worker. It's some sort of a fish warehouse here in San Diego that gets their fish fresh everyday. The nice part about this place is that it's open to the public.




We were new and didn't know what to expect so when we got there, this guy Tommy came up to us and asked "What fish are you looking for?". Of course we were clueless and basically said we're looking for something we can grill. He then walked us towards the back end.




We went around about a couple of office cubicles then went through a door to the back side of the warehouse. We then went to one of the freezers (not your typical freezers coz these were as big as a two car garage) and showed us a couple of fishes. They had piles of scallops in five-pound bags ready to be shipped, fillets of tuna, swordfish, sea bass, halibuts to name a few. Since we wanted our fish grilled we need to be looking for meaty and thicker fish so he then recommended getting the red grouper-- cheaper, meaty and yummy.




Obviously Tommy knows how to work with Filipinos. The moment he asked us what fish we want and how we wanted it cooked and saw that look on my face that I had no idea what fish was good, he then said "You probably want your fish whole and with the head on, right?". Why of course. A fish is not a fish without the head!




Anyways, we ended up getting four pounds of the red grouper (the head was free), three pounds of scallops, and five pounds of the yellow tail tuna for the price of (get ready for this...) $52. I don't know if that was a steal but it seems like it.




My dad wanted to get a few tuna bellies but Tommy said we probably wouldn't want it since each pound would cost us $40. See, I like Tommy's brutal honesty and add to that each time we made requests, he'd answer back with "I'll see what I can do" which always translated to request granted in the end. Now if you ask me, that is good customer service.

I guess we're all set for Thanksgiving. It's a huge feast more than enough for four adults and a baby minus the turkey. Why have it when nobody at home eats it?!

papa's back

Happy & Mommy


Woohooo!!! It's a Friday, and two days from now my dad is back. We're so excited and we have a full list of places to go to.

LAX


And Thanksgiving is a week from now and Black Friday sale is not too far off. We have a list of things to buy, but there's probably hundreds of people eying on my wish list too.

Happy & Papa

What's for lunch?

Eggs


Whenever I'm off from work, I always make it a point to make Anna her breakfast and lunch. I love waking up early too in the weekends to make breakfast. But recently I haven't done that since we've been eating brown rice, it doesn't really turns out right when I make it to fried rice.

Chicken Marsala


One of the things I loved making is pasta. And one chicken marsala popped inside my head. When we were having dinner @ Cheesecake Factory way back, this was one particular dish that caught my palate.

T-bone steak

...and of course the manly man steak. Can never go wrong with that.

Pacman's big night

Saturday night, and we're at home waiting for the big fight.



You better win Pacman. We'd hate to rant that we paid $60+ for this pay per view.

Trick or treat

Sharp Chula had a little Halloween party for babies. Happy was dressed up in her lady bug costume.



The festivities started around 12:30 and we immediately went around the hospital to do trick or treating. Since we we're employees, we practically knew everyone and had to stop every once in a while to either say hi or take pics.



We then went back to the Nelly Barrington Hall to do the rest of the program and eat. Before the event ended, they then announced that we would be on tonight's news.

Exposure! Exposure! :)

Buffet

Traffic, winding roads, rocky mountain with a lobster treat at the end. That's what we did last Friday night. We had a feast at the Valley View Casino.


We don't normally go to buffets because we feel that we're not getting our moneys worth, since we don't eat that much. But we love to eat and this is our only way of having to try every kind of food on the menu. And having to eat lobsters as much as we want (and that's mostly Anna), is a good deal by itself.

planet Z

One of the craziest things that we have planned for is what to do if ever the world succumbs to the living dead. It's all those zombie movies that made us this paranoid. We've planned what things to bring, the first place where we should go and where to hide.

Volumes 1 & 2


The only thing that we've had issues and debated up till now is, what if one gets bitten? Should we shoot whoever is infected or get bitten too and let the infection just take over?

The other day, I started reading "The Walking Dead". A book written by Robert Kirkman. The first copy was released few years back. I had to do a little back reading, but this was good since they came out with hardcovers.

Volumes 3 & 4


Before picking the first book, I was a bit skeptic about the whole thing. Thinking that it's your typical zombie stories. And then they announced at SDCC that they were coming out on TV, with a series. And made me wonder, this must be good.

I picked up the first copy, to my surprise, at Wal-Mart. The story picked up early, and made things interesting right away. It focused more on how would a normal person handle a situation where there was no hope at all. That there is no future and would make you think if it's better to be one of the living or the dead.

Volumes 5 & 6


Another interesting part would be the wide array of characters. Their personalities and outlook in every given situation. Just ordinary people that was thrown out in a world of chaos.

A must read. I give this a 9 out of 10.

My baby can........

I remember doing funny things with my nieces, nephews and cousins when they were babies. Play dress up in funny outfits, telling them to laugh and then cry, letting them eat ice cream and spread it all over them. See what I mean below--

Azzel in chocolatey mode


Azzel & Elok dipped in white powder


Can't take them to Hongkong, so we brought Hongkong to them


The fun part of it is that they don't complain nor take these doings against you... or at least not yet. You get a good laugh and if you're smart enough to always have a camera on-hand, take pictures and post it online.

Happy's make-shift hat a.k.a skort


And now that we're parents ourselves, guess what. Our little, innocent and oh so naive baby has that big bulls eye on her forehead.

Happy's crib?


We just cant ignore her

tough times

Vallley View Casino Buffet

Eating out was not as frequent as it used to be. Besides with today's slumping economy, we have Happy to contend with every time we go out. It's not that practical anymore. Solution? Bring those fancy restaurants at home. A few days back, we bought ingredients for pizza. I made everything from scratch and I wasn't even expecting that it would turn out edible, but it did.


Home made pizza

And tonight, since Anna and I love paninis, i say, "Why not make one?". These sandwiches would usually cost $5 a pop at the very least. And this one turned out more than I expected. Happy even looked famished after.


Panini

X

I've worked for Sharp for two years but this was my 4Th event. I've been going even before I became part of the system and it really uplifts your outlook not only as an employee but also as a person, an individual and a human being.



It does so much for me, but only for a while. It's like a momentary high, giving you that outlook, an idea that stimulates every part of your body to do the right thing and to be a better person that you are. But after a day or two, every word in that motivational speech that speakers made suddenly doesn't make sense at all and your back to your old ways.

This would be no problem if you're good-natured to begin with. But for those co-workers that makes you wonder how in the world they even exist with that sort of attitude, would not even consider of taking those inspiring stories and try to sink it in their thick skulls and at least have the heart or common sense to know that they are doing just the opposite of right.



And while doing this piece, it made me think how do I make sense of everything and justify my own actions. And I'm just the same bad co-worker that would insist of doing my old ways, and turn my back on change. It may have been an inconvenience in my part or I just can't accept the fact that somethings are just plain old bad habits.



Ten years of the Sharp Experience. Along the way, it did changed a lot of people. Made them a better person. And maybe, made a small impact in today's events. But it's still just a fraction of those people that remained in their own bubble of twisted beliefs and personality. Ten years has been a stretch, and X would probably be a good sign of just throwing everything out the window and start all over again.

It's here to stay

Good news to all San Diegans, geeks in particular. Comic-Con is here to stay... for the next five years! I woke up early and made breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning and just when we sat down to eat, I opened up the morning paper and saw the headline.



I was ecstatic, but it was the total opposite for Anna with a side comment of "Hurrah!! Good"(an obvious sarcasm and eyes rolling to match with). There were rumors as early as last year at the con that it was moving either to Vegas or Anaheim due to lack of floor space. And this years con made it worst and rumor became an 80% confirmation that the con was about to move out by 2012 to Anaheim.

Yesterday's paper confirmed that the con is here to stay for the next five years.

Let's just hope San Diego would start expanding.

9/11

Happy's eight months old and it seems that time just flew by unknowingly. Every month that passes by, we always ask why can't she just stay the way she is for now.



We celebrated this day with a short weekend trip to Palm Springs. I've always wondered how this place look like. With all that hype that they show on TV and the glamour that surrounds this place, I was intrigued and had high expectations.



Just as I remembered when we went to Hollywood-- very different when you're actually there. It's not all good as it seems. Then, I had the same experience with Palm Springs.



It was a short two day stay but we we're all over the place. It's a quaint little town, situated in the middle of the desert. There were casinos here and there and huge gated houses sharing a golf course as backyards and even trailer homes i never imagined can be that fancy! They also had huge complexes with an array of restaurants that you'd spend an average of $20+ per person.



But the sole reason why we went there for was Cabazon, premium outlet with 130 stores smack in the middle of nowhere. The place was bustling with people, carrying all sorts of shopping bags. Anna felt that she died and went to shopping heaven for two days.



This was one of those trips that we planned in mere days. It was spontaneous and instant.

We both had no idea how the place was like. And since it's been really cold here in San Diego lately, we assumed that it's gonna be the same in Palm Springs. Why wouldn't it be, it's still in California and it's not even 200 miles away. Wrong.



It was not hot like Vegas, but the air was humid and just enough to suck the life out of you when you're under the sun. And this is coming from someone who lived in a tropical country for most of his life.



But at the end of it all, it was not that sort of vacation that you'd rather stay for a few more days. It was just right. San Diego, we're going back home.