Louiie,

Since you're coming to New York for my birthday weekend and staying with us, I hope you don't mind the sleeping arrangements. We don't have an extra room so we can offer you the sleeper couch. Omar had to sleep in it tonight because his dad is sick and his mom didn't want him to catch it.

It's almost 2:30am and I had to take this photo because it was too cute!

Btw, Libby SNORES VERY LOUDLY so prepare yourself.

the trees have changed into this golden shade

Every time I told someone I was moving to New York, the first reaction I got was "ANG LAMIG DOON!!" I keep telling them that I knew and that I could handle it. We are currently in the steady 50s and there's no where to go but down. The other night when we went out for italian dinner, Tita Chon was saying how cold it was and Tito Mo replied, "What are you talking about?! It's 50 degrees out! (he says it like in this matter of fact manner like it's really nothing) In Syracuse, it must be 10!! Syracuse is a city upstate where my grandmother and uncle live. We called them later that night and asked what they weather was like, they said thery were in the 30s. Crikey!

Tita Chon woke up with one eye shut (infected somehow) so she needed me to drive her around for work. She works for the Visiting Nurse Service of NY and goes from house to house to check on patients. She had three clients to see today so I didn't really have to drive too long or too far. I have to say that people in NY drive very differently from how I got used to in California. Maraming tarantado dito! We had McDonalds for dinner since Omar has been begging for it since I got here. He's allowed to go to McDonald's once a month only so he was allowed to have his junkfood today.

hilarious!

I forgot to bring my jacket out today and had to run through the biting cold since we parked the car a block away from the apartment. I got home and the dogs ran to me obviously needing attention. Libby was pulling a Juno (Louiie's cat), jumping to my knee and putting her paws on my hand as if she was saying "Touch me please.." I could see that the dogs needed to be walked already since Lucy was scratching the door. Everytime I walked the girls, Lucy almost always never poops. Tonight, she did her business twice. Picking up dogsh!t is something I'm still getting used to. In Manila, Max goes wherever and whenever he wants to.

I'm going back to the city to meet up with Kelly tomorrow. We might go to The Met to check out the Van Gogh Exhibit and walk around the neighboring areas. We're both short on dough so this will strictly be a walking-look-but-no-touch day, haha! We'll just have hotdogs and pretzels in the park or something similar like that. Hopefully I'll have a much more meaningful post and photos tomorrow.

Mohammed, Tita Chona and Omar

Yesterday, they took me to Long Island for a Japanese buffet lunch. The price was close to Todai in Las Vegas but the food was not close. They had fewer selections and I wasn't quite impressed with their rolls. On the way home, Tita Chon wanted to show me that New York had their own beaches too and took me to Jones Beach. Swimming was not allowed since there were no lifeguards present and the waters are too cold this time of the year. Omar was not swayed and proceeded to play with tide along the shore. We eventually had to take his shirt off since we didn't have extra clothes for him. He wore nothing but his mom's hoodie on the way back.

more photos of Omar on the beach

Today, my cousin Ana and her husband Poy came over and we went to lunch at a Filipino Restaurant along Roosevelt Ave. The food was good but a bit pricey. Her sister, Cherish, who's in Istanbul is currently having personal troubles of her own and might be heading over this way soon. I haven't seen Cherish in so long and am quite excited to see her. We used to be really close in high school when she moved to Manila after having lived in Syracuse all her life.

Been playing Guitar Hero for three days since my aunt managed to get the controller to work. I attended a dinner party Saturday night for the birthday of my friend, Baby's boyfriend. I was surrounded by a group of roughly 30 physical therapists mingling in a tiny 3 bedroom apartment. I knew only about 5 people and was genuinely pleased to find out that they, too, had GH3! Later that night, while they were socializing amongst themselves, I took the opportunity to hog the guitar and play.

Currently in the process of compiling photos for my online portfolio, something which I should have done gradually over the years. I will need this if I'm to have something to present when selling myelf. Will post the link to the site as soon as I've finished compiling and uploading, although I don't know what new things you may see in there since they're probably nothing I have not already posted in my blog or multiply.

I have finally uploaded the photos taken during Joann's baptism last September 28. Two albums are up, one of the baptism and Kate and Jose's family, plus another one that contains all the malandi shots we took of ourselves at Jana's house. You may view the first one here, and the second one here.

I had a very tiring but fun (MY definition of fun) today. We CLEANED!!!! Last night, Tita Chon decided to clean out the fridge and throw out all the bad junk she's accumulated over the years. I was more than happy to help out and we managed to throw out 3/4 of the fridge's contents! We went grocery shopping today at the asian store and we scored a lot of pinoy junk food and goodies! Chriselle: I will have tuyo again tomorrow! Wahoo! I fixed up the kitchen a bit, too and helped her with laundry.

Tita Chon couldn't get an appointment at the pet salon to have Libby and Lucy groomed to she did it herself. Libby put up quite a fisht, specially when it came to cutting their nails. I vacuumed, sweeped and dusted the whole house and helped her dry the dogs after she gave them a bath. They now smell fresh and nice and cuddly. Mmmmm....

Lucy and Libby

We don't feed the dogs anything else aside from their dog food
but when you're eating and they give you this look, how can you resist them?

enjoying his cold treat

First I had Joann, then I had George for a while, then Leo, there was Juno and now I have Omar, Libby and Lucy!

The last time I saw Omar, he must have been 3 yrs old. Before I came here, he no longer remembered me but that didn't stop him from chatting me up. He normally likes to be picked up late from school so he can spend time with his friends but he requested to be picked up early today to spend it with me. We walked home and I started to make dinner. I made a simple dish of Nilagang Baka and he graciously complemented me on my cooking. "Mmm! Wow I love how you make your potatoes Kari!" He sat in front of the TV to watch his Disney shows then we went out to walk the dogs. The ice cream truck passed by the street and he immediately begged me to go back home so he can get a dollar from his jar and get dessert. He didn't even ask me for money (like I had any, haha). I tried burning my divx of The Incredible Hulk but when it failed, we sat on my (his) bed and watched it on my Mac while munching on grapes. His dad came home bearing the guitar hero controller he got back from Omar's cousin. I was so excited to play that I asked if he could set up the game after the movie. Unfortunately, it seems that his cousin broke the guitar because it wouldn't work! I tried several battery changes and tried resetting the console multiple times to no avail. He must've seen my disheartened expression because he repeatedly apologized that I couldn't play. "I'm really sorry you can't play..." I felt so sheepish that a 7 yr old boy had to apologize to a 26 yr old woman for not being able to play a video game. He asked if I wanted to watch Iron Man instead. He has been asking me to see it with him since last night so I obliged. Halfway through the movie, he looked like he was about to fall asleep so I said we could continue the movie tomorrow. We'd have the day together again and we could do whatever he wanted. He even asked permission of he could wake me up early. "Not earlier than 9am though..," I said.

My Daniel/le has to be raised like this boy.