Super Typhoons, etc.

Excitement is in the air! It's finally December and the guys will be here in a couple of weeks. Dan should be with Reggie in Japan already. We can't wait to see them. Donna hasn't seen Reggie for almost two years.

We went to have dinner at Sushi-Ya in SM before buying groceries. Every time we go to the mall Donna and I ask ourselves, “I wonder who we’re going to see over there today.” Nine times out of ten, we see a friend, an acquaintance or even a relative. The other night we saw our friend Nelia Gonzales and her sisters, one of whom (Leah) I've been eMail buddies with but haven't really met before. Anyway, we were leisurely walking towards the restaurant, making fun of people we see walking with us, when Donna noticed a lady and said, “Isn’t that Mrs. Santos?” She’s our classmate Mon David’s mother-in-law. We approached her and it was indeed her. She didn’t recognize us saying she thought I’ve already cut my hair. I replied that it’s grown a bit since April. It was surprising to see her here because she and a daughter, I believe, reside in California. She said she’s been here since October. She wanted to see our house but she’s leaving today. She said Ann and Mon have been too busy and weren’t able to inform us of her visit. They were in the mall because Mon had some benefit show for our friend Tonette’s charitable family foundation. She told us of her attending our Class ’70 picnic last August.

A couple of days ago the news on the Internet announced the coming of an impending storm, the so called ‘Super Typhoon’ Reming. In fact, yesterday classes were suspended in Manila. Today is some sort of holiday. I hope Dan's flight to Japan wasn't too bumpy because of this storm. Incidentally another super typhoon hit the Philippines a day before we arrived last month but I guess it broke up in the mountains of the Sierra Madre, wherever those are, and wasn’t able to do much damage. Anyway..

This morning I was woken up by the noise on the roof. The rain has started, but no big winds yet. I understand it’s going to be wreaking havoc in the Catanduanes area of Luzon. One thing good about this, I don’t have to water our plants for the next couple of days!

We went and delivered the foam cushion to our curtain maker. This foam will be used to fix our full mattress into a queen. It won’t be too cost effective if we get a new queen sized one. Donna figured it’s better if we get the foam and create some kind of long filler pillows and stick them on the sides of the full mattress. I guess once the bed sheets are on with the comforter on top, it’ll look just like a queen mattress.

We visited Bert’s construction site yesterday at the Lakeshore and took a few pictures. I’ve attached a couple here and have sent Bert the rest. We also went to Guagua to have our invitations for the house warming printed. We'll have Bernadette of Etc. do it for us. We just have to start some kind of guest list so we can determine how many to print.

Last night we went around and prized some Christmas lanterns. They have some really nice ones. I loved this one lantern, it has 41 bulbs and it’s really cool the way its lights dance around but it costs a whopping Php 4000. We’ll probably end up getting a 21 perhaps a 31 bulb one.

Not sure what we’ll do today, the weather is crummy. Yesterday, we thought of going to the wet market this morning but my honey is still snoozing away in our room. Boy, what a life!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

I wanted to build our house on a property where I’d be able to plant veggies, maybe raise some chickens and a couple of pigs. But security was a main concern so we ended up here in a gated community with armed guards 24/7. Now that the house is built and we’ve moved in, I realized my idea of becoming a pseudo farmer would not have worked. I couldn’t even regularly water my lawn, let alone raise produce, etc. In fact I intentionally stopped watering the lawn every day because the grass grows way too quickly and I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t get Daddy Dick’s edger to work. I’ve already talked with the guys maintaining the vacant lots here and contracted one of them to weed whack the front part of the lawn by the side walk because it’s starting to look wild now. I was able to dig up the edge so it looks pretty decent.

Speaking of my father-in-law, it took him a couple of days but we now have Christmas lights on our fence and around the house. I have to admit, when they’re on we’re the brightest in the neighborhood! Last Sunday Donna and I went to the wet market in town and bought some chicken, veggies and seafood because my in-laws spent the day here and helped Donna put up our Christmas tree which of course is perfectly shaped! Sadly Leda and her kids have already left when I started taking the attached pictures.

Myrna and Vir also came over last Sunday along with son Hans and his wife Anna. This is Hans and Anna's first visit to the house. Of course I had to show off my music room. Before they left Myrna borrowed some of my newly bought Hollywood Video DVD's.

While Leda’s kids were installing the lights for the tree, they broke out the kwaho table and started a session which ended only when it’s time for them to go to church.

Yesterday, one of the guys cut the grass in front the house by the sidewalk. It looks so cool now. I just had to shear off the part close to the rocks and the wall.

We’ve also sealed the deal with Malou of Fisherman’s Grill who’ll be catering the Housewarming party on December 23.

Donna called Eph today and we made sure they got the list of the stuff we want Dan to bring for us. They also got the GFCI breaker for the Jacuzzi so hopefully when Dan arrives on December 12 (after spending a couple of weeks with Reggie in Japan) we should be enjoying a dip in the spa a couple of days afterwards. WooHoo!!