fall

thanks to fall, even an unappealing street comes to life

Nel and Edmonton autumn

Nel's first Edmonton pics

waking hour and other fave albums

i found myself listening again to waking hour, vienna's first album. i think it's still gonna be my favorite despite having the second one a couple of days ago (i had to ask Nel to buy the warm strangers CD in Manila as it's not released here). say uncle and lullabye for a stormy night still entrance me, and the pull of gravity is still the same even after hearing it more than a hundred times.

top 5 albums i won't get tired listening to:

1. jewel - pieces of me
2. jewel - spirit
3. dido - no angel
4. songs from dawson's creek (volume 1)
5. vienna teng - waking hour

will warm stranger be able to make it to my fave list? we'll see...

Nick's 6th birthday

My eldest son Nick celebrated his birthday at Jollibee last Sept 24

Full Name : Neill Dominic Reyes
Birth Date : September 25, 1998


Happy Birthday Nick!



My younger son Bill, fooling around with his friend Zyra

Full Name : William Reyes
Birth Date : September 2, 2001


Nick dancing Pamela

Note: photos courtesy of Nick's ninang Bhing

chicken and wedges in the wee hours

Nel and myself slept very late yesterday. We're chatting with a couple of good friends that we had to stay awake until 3am. We also have a lot of catching up with each other, we've got lots of story to share and we managed to tell some of them. We're actually trying to sleep at around 1 but I complained about feeling a bit hungry. She offered to prepare something, sausage and veggies, but I said "no, i think i should be ok until morning". But she insisted on getting something, "are you sure you don't wanna eat?". Aahh, I finally got it, she's hungry as well! Her appetite had become bigger after staying in Manila for 5 months, in fact I think she gained 10 to 15 pounds.

I don't feel like eating hotdog so I volunteered to go out and buy chicken and wedges. She's not into the idea at first coz she thought I have to go somewhere far, she doesn't know our place yet. She don't know yet that Husky convience store is just on the back of our apartment, a couple blocks south. I was back in 5 minutes with a box full of wedges and 4 pieces chicken. It's almost 2 am and where still pigging out, with Nel one-handedly chatting. We were so full we're not able to sleep until it's 3.

----

Nel got hooked already with 24, I was speaking to her a while ago and she told me she'd finished episode 8 already! She's gonna take a shower and eat her lunch, after which, she'll continue with disc 3 ;) oh well, i've lent this set to a couple of friends already and everyone had the same experience. once you pop, you can't stop! I'm buzzing her on YM, but no reply. I think know what's keeping her off the computer =)

a brand new day

Nel arrived yesterday, so things are a bit different now...

I won't be eating alone anymore, save lunch time at work =)

I won't be watching movies just by myself anymore, and i can see my entertainment expenses doubling up hehe =)

I would now have someone to buy grocery with =)

I would now have someone to kiss goodbye on weekday mornings, and someone to kiss hello when I come back from work =)

I now have someone to share my breakfast with, have to prepare coffee for two from now on =)

I have to start putting the toilet seat down after using it =)

I now have someone to call on the phone locally =)

I'll be more eager to go jogging now =)

I would now have someone to enjoy watching DVD movies with =)

and the list goes on... malling, shopping, dining out, strolling, photo shooting, oh my life just got better!

24 season 2: two down, four to go

after 2 discs and 8 episodes, i told myself this madness had to stop. it's already 12 midnight and i need to catch some sleep. i didn't gave myself a chance to put on the third disc, 'coz i know when that happens, i'll end up stuck in front of the TV again for another three hours. The only con of watching this series is that the episodes come in fours, 24 episodes divided into six DVDs, and each runs for three hours! So take it from me, if your not ready to spend another three, don't insert that darn disc! :)

I should be sleeping by now, I need to make sure I get to the airport on time to pick up Nel. Her mom phoned me a couple of hours ago to tell that she'd already left Manila, she said "take care", but I guess it's more of "take good care of my daughter". She's probably flying over the pacific right now, and she'll be landing at the Edmonton airport before 2pm tomorrow. Can't wait to see her again, we've been apart for almost five months now and that's the longest period that we've ever separated. I'm glad it's ending very soon =)

Nel and 24

Nel will be arriving in 24 hrs, she should be at the airport by now as her plane is leaving in an hour. Travelling from Manila to Edmonton is a pain. Nel would have to endure 21 hrs of travel, including two stop overs in Hong Kong and Vancouver. You really have no choice, unless you wanna take PAL, which charges higher for an inferior service. Sorry for being unpatriotic, but it's not owned by the government anyway, so what's the point? Or is it? Correct me if I'm mistaken here.

I went to Futureshop a while ago and purchased the second season DVD set of 24, Kiefer Sutherland's addictive, adrenaline-fueled, fast-paced TV series. I purchased the first season two months ago, and I had a hard time getting off the television once I started watching it. If not for the worry of not being able to go to work, I would have finished the 24 episodes in 2 days. It took me four. The series keeps you on the edge of your seat and you can never expect what will happen next. If there is no update on my blog for the next 24 hours, it means I got stucked in my couch watching the whole season two.

water fun

one of the many photos you'll find at my webshots gallery

1300+ blogs every 10 minutes

1300+ blogs are updated every 10 minutes, can you believe that?

and did i mention these are mostly blogspot.com bloggers who opted to have theirs listed at blogger.com?

TNT, Palace Casino and six pinoys

I had my supper yesterday at the TNT supermaket(asian grocery in West Edmonton Mall). There are two other pinoys eating, Ed and his daughter Trisha(not their real names). We managed to have a chat while eating as we're just on opposite tables. He works for a car dealership company during the day, and at a hotel a night, typical of pinoys I meet, they either have two jobs or more.

We had a lively conversation, he asked me what I'm doing at WEM when my home and work is at downtown? I told him I'm catching a movie. And then he goes like "ey, you better watch movies on weekend. start early, pay for one movie, and once your in, hop on to each theatre". Good and very feasible 'coz moviehouses here are pretty much open, you just have to surrender your ticket in the main entrance, and your pretty much on your own, free to enter any door you want. No one will seem to apprehend you, as nobody really cares. I told him I know that, but really haven't tried yet =)

While inside the bus on my way home, I have four filipinas in front of me talking. The middle aged lesbo is showing the grocery she bought at TNT, I realized by the way they talk that they just met. "I bought this Laing(taro leaves on coconut milk) in the can, its really good, just heat it up and you have a Bicol dish on your plate". "How much for each?" asked one of the three. "Only a dollar and 30 cents, quite cheap, instead of buying Longganisa or Tocino, I'd rather have this, in fact this is my usual meal at work", she uttered in filipino. I love seeing filipinos who remains the same, keeping their identity and still prefers having food they grew up eating. I know someone who's only been here for a year and doesn't eat rice anymore. She eats salad most of the time, and she acts as if she's been here long, only she can't talk decent English. Quite annoying!

Moments after, I overheard the lesbo talking again. She was asked if she works in the Palace(casino inside the mall) as she's been seen there a couple of times. "No, I only go there to play. Today, I lost 400 bucks, I only had 50 left so I decided to call it a day", she replied sadly. I'm stunned, 400 bucks is 17K pesos, we went there once and I feel so bad after losing 20. I guess it's because it's my first time and its her nth. I should probably not go back there, I don't wanna end up losing much like her. It's worth my two days work, and for her, it's probably four or even five. There are lots of filipinos in the casino when we went there, I just hope they are just there to have fun, and not to lose a lot.

the clouds below

when i was a kid, i thought the clouds above is heaven.

funkymomma and my still empty crib

my second day of blogging...

I noticed the blogger news section on my dashboard, clicked on The United Federation of Bloggers (Part Two), and found a link to their chosen blogger from my homeland --Philippines. I'm not really sure if her name is girlie, all I know for now is her shiny blog's name is funkymomma. Quite good for a bloggin mom, in fact I just finished reading all her posts, and lots of pics too!

I've got nothin' much to do today, I know I know, it's been always like this lately. I guess I should start following my friends' advice, "don't finish the job so soon!". What shall I do? Erase all my codes after writing them? Rollback from my versioning software?"

Pretty excited, my girl Nel is finally arriving on the 26th. I moved into a new apartment and I need to buy every single piece of item for the place, well except the fridge and the range, which are already provided, and lucky me, they are brand new! My weekend was so busy I didn't even get a chance to relax, I had to make around 6 trips to different stores to buy things for the house. I moved here in Edmonton four months ago and I was just renting a room from a friend before, can't start buying stuff 'coz there's no place for them, now I'm free to do so.

I love my 27" Toshiba FST Flat Cinema Series, I know it's just 27" but that's all I could afford for now. Picture is so crisp there is no comparison with Sony Wega or Panasonic Tau, and boy, the sound is so nice I'm having a second thought if I'm buying a Home Theatre System anymore. Of course there's no way it can compete with a real system, but at least I could now defer buying one until I've recovered on my budget. My Samsung combo player is nice too, I compared almost all brand in the market, and not a single one is really standing out. Dolby Digital, DTS, progressive scanning, and component video output are the only things I really care about, and it has all of them, plus the small extras I'm discovering day by day.





I haven't taken advantage of my microwave's Inverter technology yet, but Panasonic bragged a lot about it. I could live without the other stuff, but not the fridge and micro. I don't know how to cook, save a couple of pasta recipe, and there's really no point of doing so while I'm still living alone in the house. It's cheaper to buy outside, I could stock my fridge with ready to eat full meals from Safeway or Save-On, and china town is just a couple of blocks away. I'm sure this will all change soon when Nel arrives, yeah, 'coz I would now have someone to eat with outside. *grin*

lone motel

motel @ hecla island, south of winnipeg

Len, chona and this blog site

I was so bored this afternoon that I had to buzz Len @ YM to beg her to entertain me, or suggest something that'd keep me busy. She immediately recalled the link that was just sent to her, chona.blogspot.com, and gave it to me. Prejudging it to be just another common blog site, I decided to give it a try anyway. Besides, Len is class (as Chona would put it) when it comes to links and forwarded emails. Today's blog entry wasn't posted yet, so it was the sorry...=( that I read. Hmm.. nothing great except for a few carelessly written words. It was preceded by a very short post titled my birthday is coming. It seems Len's taste is degrading, there is really nothing in this site. But the 100+ comments for that non-sense post is unreal, there most be something shiny in here. What the heck, I'll read some more. I randomly clicked on one of the previous posts and ended up with gelous, that's when it occured to me how entertaining the site is.

I read the whole post, and curiously and eagerly jumped into the comments. To my amazement, i'm still wrong, the posters of the 100+ comments are not Chona's close friends (though they're begging her to make them her friends). They are her followers, fans if you will, and everyone is having fun! Before I knew it, I've already spent an hour reading through her blog. So the next time I find myself getting bored at work, I'll just take a dose of Chona and I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm glad she has two months of archive for reading.

On how this blog site came to life? Well, I'm really planning on having one soon, but not today. I read chona's post for today, and got irritated by one of the comments saying this is so fabricated. Duh, who doesn't know? Anyway, I decided to post my own, but hating to be anonymous, I had to sign up first. But hey, with the membership comes the free blog site so I thought I might as well start blogging =)