Dad's 81st Birthday, etc.

This past weekend was my father-in-law Daddy Dick’s birthday, July 15 to be exact. But since it fell on a Saturday when my sister-in-law Leda had a catering occasion, we had to have his party the day after. He made arrangements with Kong Eddie, his nephew, the owner of Fisherman’s Grill restaurant, to hold it in his rest house in San Simon.

Sunday morning, July 16 we hauled Len, Sister Gay and the girls to go there. At the Baliti-McArthur Highway intersection, we waited for Ayrin and her kids and her sister. When they arrived we headed on south but had to make several stops on the way: we picked up Berna and her kids, along with Nico (from a separate spot – St. Benedict); got some paper plates, ice, etc from Jomafer Supermarket in Dolores; picked up Dodong waiting by Jollibee. We were going to get Dad a cake at Nathaniel’s (this is a small restaurant across from Carworld which is famous for its desserts) but we didn’t know it was closed on Sundays. So we had to get his cake from the Red Ribbon in SM. It was already past 12 noon by this time. I wasn’t in a hurry because Leda and her brood were coming from Muntinglupa and we were going to meet in San Simon. But while I was at the SM parking lot waiting for them to get the cake, she sent a text message saying they were about to get off on the San Simon exit, all of a sudden we're in a mad rush. It’s good that they got some enseymada from Red Ribbon because everyone was hungry. San Simon, by the way, was only a distance of one off ramp on the NLEx (North Luzon Expressway) so it didn’t take us too long to get there. Everyone was waiting when we arrived including my brother-in-law Francis and his wife Beng. Kong Eddie and his wife Malou welcomed us, then they quickly prepared the table so we can have lunch. We brought the rice so they can’t really start lunch without us! Malou can’t stop talking on how good Jasmine rice was. Leda brought a bunch of beef kaldereta and sweet and sour fish. Malou prepared some grilled bangus and catfish as well as nilagang ampalaya, okra, burong isda and mustard greens. When lunch was over, we lit a candle, sang Dad his song and we had chocolate cake - they had me choose what kind of cake to get!

After lunch Donna broke out a big bag of pistachios from Costco and they brought out a table so they can start playing kwaho. Some of the kids went off to go fishing. Kong Eddie’s huge house is surrounded by fishponds stocked with tilapia and catfish. They were teasing Dad because he didn’t catch anything while Leda’s daughter Lera (she caught 3 tilapia in a matter of minutes) and the rest of the kids were catching a lot.

I interrupted their game before it was time for Kong Francis to go because he had some issues which he had to settle with Leda and everyone. They had their talk with Dad mediating and I think they got out of there pretty much all ‘healed up’ so to speak.

Ed sent me a text message a couple of days ago saying Elaine will be in the country for some family reunion and that we have to send our picnic contribution of ube with her when she goes back to the States. She text’d me the other day and she wanted to visit the site on Wednesday. Yesterday, I was finally able to go on line. I went to my cousin Rowena’s Interenet Café (Ichitosh) in Sindalan and plugged in my laptop. I must have been there for at least three hours. I have hundreds of eMails and I posted a four page blog entry. Through eMails, I found out that classmates Rene Cerdena from Michigan and Lita Manalastas from Rome will be in the country as well. Last night Rene called me an said he might be able to join me and Elaine this Wednesday. I text’d Lita asking if she’s arrived. She replied and said she’ll be in town this Saturday.

Lunch at Cely's today July 18, we met Andy Alviz. I introduced him to Donna and we told him about the house construction in Greenfields. He said, "Greenfields is my favorite part of San Fernando!" Not sure why. Anyway he told me of all the happenings I've missed including the zarzuela at Holy Angel's CKS and Mon's last concert in Makati.

Again, please let me know if you’re able to read these blogs, otherwise I’m going to stop posting and just send eMails to everyone every now and then.