Remy's 50th Birthday

Remy is friend and classmate Boy Dizon's wife and he's also Donna's cousin. Their only daughter Mary Jo is our god daughter. Mid morning today, the day after Thanksgiving, Remy called Donna and asked if we were going anywhere. We really didn't have any commitments and Donna told her so. She was inviting us to join them for either lunch or dinner.

We arrived in Panorama City a little before 1 pm and they already have a few guests seated at the tables set up in their garage. Remy said it was her 50th birthday!


Boy's sister-in-law Erma and her daughters Kimberly and Germarie were already there. Germarie is also our god daughter. I didn't recognize the girls, they've grown quite a bit since the last time we saw them.

Here they are, from left, Germarie, Mary Jo and Kimberly.


When Donna and I finished eating, Boy's sister Ate Nita and husband Cong Nonong arrived. Ate Nita and sister Ate Del visited the Philippines a few months ago to console their brother Cong Fred after his wife Ate Zeny passed away.


By the way, today is also Robert's birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBERT!
Sorry we couldn't make it on your birthday at the Fatima in Portugal!

Thanksgiving 2008

Last Wednesday, Donna has already started preparing her prime rib and Emy upon coming home from work, marinated the huge turkey (which, frozen solid, has previously been thawing out for a few days) in her mysterious mixture of water and other ingredients. By the way, Thanksgiving in the US is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday which usually, but not always, falls on the last Thursday of November.

The morning of Thanksgiving started with my brothers, Cong Mansing and Cong Paing, coming over for our walk at the La Mirada Park. It's been raining within the last couple of days but somehow the rain started letting up Wednesday night which I'm sure brought a sigh of relief to the people around the burnt areas of the recent Southern California brush fires. Heavy rain usually results in flash flooding and landslides. They've been broadcasting in the local news, people shoring up their neighborhood with hundreds of sandbags.

Around noon time Donna and I headed on out towards Norwalk for Thanksgiving lunch with the Quizons. We got there and were comfotably seated and talking with them while waiting for Rach and Eph from Long Beach when Emy calls saying my sister-in-law Tess and Jack just arrived in La Mirada. So we had to quickly leave Norwalk to meet them. It only took us a few minutes. It's good to see them again after all these... hmm, trying to remember the last time. Ate Tess spent Christmas in the Philippines last year. So it's been almost a year. I don't even remember the last time I saw Jack. After talking with them a bit and giving them the pasalubong from Ayrin and her daughters in the Philippines, we went back to Norwalk. Eph and Rach along with other guests were already there and they've already started lunch when we arrived. It's Thanksgiving so of course Rose prepared a lot of food in addition to the traditional baked turkey.



After taking pictures we went back to La Mirada so Donna can help Emy cook dinner. While they were cooking, Nido went to sleep. He was off Wednesday night - for his Thanksgiving Holiday, but he had to work Thanksgiving night. He said to wake him up before dinner.

The first to arrive was Daniel. Nido started saying grace and I finished thanking the Lord for all the blessings of 2008. After all in spite of what's going on with the world economy, they're still working and everyone is fairly healthy and as evidenced with all the food in front of us, we were still lucky and blessed. I was especially thankful for our upcoming grand kid that Rachel is carrying inside her right now. By the way, in the next ultrasound next month, they'll find out the sex of the baby.

We were already eating when Sherwin arrived. He was with his cousin Bobby and his wife Maritess and their two younger sons. After a while Eph, Rach, Jun and Rose arrived. As for Donna and myself, this will be our second turkey meal of the day. Oh well, I'll just have to walk it off somehow!


I miss Reggie a lot, but, oh well...

When we visited Onor in Las Vegas, she was asking if I have pictures of other dishes in my files. Well Onor, click here and eat your heart out!

3rd Week in La Mirada

Sunday Nov 23, '08

There's no pressure to wake up early and it's comfortable to be going to the same church that we've gone for 20 years or so that's why, again, we went to church in St John. The other good thing about it is that there's an old priest there whose sermons are really meaningful but oh so very short, just the way we like them.

Afterwards we felt like having salad for lunch so we went to the Salad 2000 on Imperial and Carmenita but it was closed so we tried the one on Telegraph and Norwalk Blvd which was close to my former work, but that one was closed as well. One of two things, either it's gone out of business or it was closed because it's Sunday. It usually caters to employees of neighboring companies out for lunch on weekdays.

Eph picked up Sherwin at his cousin's in Arcadia and took him to the Queen Mary in the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. He didn't have time to take him to dinner because he was going to meet his in-laws so he dropped him off here at La Mirada and Donna and I took him to the China Star Buffet across the street. I pigged out on their sushi which was actually pretty decent albeit served buffet style. I think Sherwin enjoyed the food as well.

After dinner it was our turn to drop Sherwin off to his cousin's place in Arcadia. When we got back home, Emy, Nido and Adrienne have already arrived from Texas. Gian had to pick them up from the airport because of our date with Sherwin.


Monday Nov 24, '08

Emy and Donna went and picked up some groceries from Sams Club in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

Left at home, I finally had the chance to talk with Mon David on the phone and chat on YM with Mike Estacio in the Philippines. Nestor's wife Glo from Arizona called as well and told me they've already taken some days off and they were inviting us to visit them in Arizona. I was still talking with her when they got back from Sam's Club and Donna talked with her as well.

Fooling around on Facebook, I learned a way to chat, just another thing to do on line. I chatted with KAM (Kapampangan Art Movement) member Jess Espanola. He's a Capampangan animator who's won an Emmy for his work on the Simpsons. I've also been chatting with Andy Alviz of Arti Sta.Rita. Leanne mentioned that she was driving Wednesday to Fullerton from San Diego to have dinner with Theresa and Romar and then she'll go to Las Vegas with her cousin from Burbank to join her Mom, Onor and her brother JohnC for Thanksgiving.

I've also been going through my niece Cindy's profile in Facebook and she's posted a bunch of pictures on her trip with her family to Europe and China, as well as their Alaskan Cruise this past summer.


Tuesday Nov 25, '08

We met Eph and Rach at Costco after he came home from work. They were munching on some snacks when we arrived so Donna got herself a knockwurst sandwich and she got me a huge turkey wrap. I ended up giving the rest of mine to Eph.

Inside the store, I overheard this lady telling a small boy with him in Capampangan, "Caragul na ne?" while she was pointing at a humongous turkey they got. I looked at the little boy and recognized him. It was my nephew Homer's son CJ. The lady was Homer's father-in-law's sister.

We proceeded home after Donna got our Thanksgiving prime rib along with other stuff we'll be taking back to the Philippines with us.

NIKE

I forgot to mention the Mejia household has got themselves a brand new baby. It's actually a kitten they named Nike. Emy's crazy about him, carries him around and cuddles him and gives him a bath every so often. I didn't even realize cats take baths. It made us miss Indo more, although with his reputation as a cat killer there's no way he would have gotten along with Nike. I noticed a huge difference, Nike loves his picture taken as opposed to Indo who starts to walk away upon seeing a camera.
Below is his impersonation of Bruce Lee.


And here's the rest of Nike's pictures.

I heard Daniel has a cat as well named Nina but we have yet to see her.

JASHS Class '70 USA Meeting

Daniel has mentioned to his Kuya Eph that our former house in Norwalk has been foreclosed, something about him seeing a sign on the yard. Yesterday morning, after dropping off Adrienne at the airport we decided to pass by the old neighborhood. It was around 5 am so there was no one on the streets. I was probably driving around 10 miles an hour and we just saw the house for less than a minute. The sign on the yard was no longer there. But my first impression was the brightness on the house. Then Donna noticed the carport roofing has been taken out. I'm not positive but it seems as if I didn't see the tangerine tree in front of the garage. Anyway..

For a couple of months now, a meeting of our high school alumni association is being planned and was finally set Nov 22 at Dan and Imelda Danganan's place in Cerritos.

I just had to take a nap from waking up so early and then we had to get ready for the meeting. Elaine and Gene were pulling in at the same time and we got into the house (a little before 3), a lot of our friends have already arrived: Ed and Odette, Roger with his son Nathan, Cora and Arnold and of course our hosts Dan and Imelda.

Here's Elaine's brief description:

"As always, we were glad to see everybody who came at our meeting yesterday- 11/22/08. We were blessed with so much food- the fried vegetable egg rolls were so good especially with the suka & garlic. With baked salmon, pad-thai, pancit malabon, grilled tilapia, sisig, plus the sinampalokang manok-wow! We were all so full. Wait there is more. For dessert we had lelot balatung, which was to die for, palitaw, fruits & a big bowl of buko drink with palm seeds & buko. Napakasarap...Thanks a lot to Dan & Imelda who were so gracious & generous to host our gathering. Bert, we missed you. Our thoughts & prayers are with you & your family. See you all at the Christmas party. "



I'd been craving for baked salmon since we got here so I had my fill of it last night.


Manny Hilario and wife Myrna arrived a little later, along with Nestor and Daisy, Rey and Josie with their brand new grand son EJ and his Mom Alice. EJ is Ryan's son.

After dinner we started the meeting and the group's projects were discussed. I reported about the four computers that we donated to the school and I showed them the pictures that I took as well as the Deed of Donation (which was read aloud for all by Ed) that Mrs. Macaspac, the current PHS principal, sent us.


When the meeting got adjourned, we ate some more and then I had Dan turn on his Karaoke machine. Myrna sang a couple of songs. She's so good that everyone fell silent while she was singing! We were hesitant to sing after that. But I found the courage to sing a few songs because Dan's song selections are really good. I sang a few new OPM songs (Sabihin Mo Na, Beer, Makita Kang Muli, Kahit Isang Saglit, etc.) which are hits right now on Philippine radio that's why very few of them recognized the songs. Only those with TFC have heard of some of them. It felt good to sing...!

Everyone was congratulating Rey and Josie for EJ. Donna was even able to put him to sleep carrying him on her "cushiony" chest.


Click here for all the pictures I took during the event.

A couple of days ago Bert called Ed and said he was on his way to the airport to go the Philippines because his Mom was really sick. Boy Dizon called me last night and he said he won't make it either. He got called in to work. Mon was recording a CD so he called and said he'll pass.