17 hours at the hospital...

What a scary day! Ron had a stomach ache on Sunday night.... I didn't think anything of it, as he gets them from time to time. Yesterday when I went to the movies, I figured he'd be fine when I got back. I came home and he was still in a lot of pain... the exact same pain actually. It hadn't gotten any better.

I was getting worried especially since he hadn't eaten anything all day! Later in the evening, I decided to take him to the hospital. I packed a bag of stuff (since we've been to the hospital a few times now, I know what to bring to keep us occupied during the wait).

We got there around 7pm, and he had some blood work done, urine sample taken, and then finally the doctor came to see him. He thought that it may have been gallstones, and suggested he stay overnight so that they could do an ultrasound on him first thing in the morning.

He finally gets the ultrasound, and the woman that performed it told Ron nothing. Ron asked her if it was gallstones, and she said "no, it's not gallstones. I can't give you the results. I have to give it to the radiologist and they'll speak with you."

OMG, for that entire waiting period you don't understand what went through my head!!! Why do they do that?!!?

Anyway, he's OK. They said that his liver is enlarged, and that he should go to his family doctor. They gave him some stronger antacids to use, and then sent him home! We slept pretty much all day for the rest of the day after we got home at around noon today....

that's right Sherlock!

I met up with my two old co-workers Nicole and Renée today. We went to Renée's new home for lunch first: a home-made tourtiere with a side salad, and then we then headed to the Beaches theatre to watch Sherlock Holmes!

It was great - very entertaining... I really like Robert Downey Jr.... he and Jude Law had quite the chemistry on screen, it was very amusing.

Santa came to town!

And got me the one thing I really wanted: the iPod Touch!! whooo hoooo!!

We also did our traditional ornaments. I got Ron an extra ornament this year to celebrate our first Christmas together as a married couple, and I guess great minds think alike because Ron did the same thing! :)

I got Ron the Megatron Transformer (to match his Optimus Prime that he already has); and the 2 hearts where I put the year and 'First Christmas' in the frame. Ron got me the little police officer ornament (because of my little fetish with Police officer uniforms), and a key ornament (to welcome me to the condo). Does he not know I welcomed myself years ago?!! hehe

Merry Christmas!

a MERRY christmas eve!

Our first Christmas together as a married couple this year!! Ron and I decided to take turns and alternate Christmas Eve dinners with our families, so this year was MY family's turn... YAY!

Some highlights:

• Pasko game (instead of Bingo)
• Gift wrapping with one-hand game (in which I won with my cousin Ryan!)
  
• my family Christmas cupcake tree that I made (photos of each member on a cupcake)
  
• tons of FOOD!
• 12 Days of Christmas performed by my nieces and nephews (watch below):

Here are the words:

On the 1st day of Christmas, my Lolo gave to me:
some money to buy us a Wii
On the 2nd day of Christmas, my Lola gave to me:
2 bubble gums
On the 3rd day of Christmas, Lolo Nards gave to me:
3 paper money
On the 4th day of Christmas, Lola Onia gave to me:
4 brand name bags
On the 5th day of Christmas, Lolo Gemo gave to me:
5 kinds of shrimp!
On the 6th day of Christmas, Uncle T gave to me:
6 "you can't see me's"
On the 7th day of Christmas, Lola Irma gave to me:
7 coloured markers
On the 8th day of Christmas, Lola Des gave to me:
8 Kung Fu movies
On the 9th day of Christmas, Tita Che Che gave to me:
9 crying babies
On the 10th day of Christmas, Tita Sam gave to me:
10 Pokemon cards
On the 11th day of Christmas, Tita Irene gave to me:
11 hurtful needles
On the 12th day of Christmas, Uncle Ron gave to me:
12 silly faces

A holiday get-together! - part 4

During the day, I went to the gym! I thought it would be a good way to work off some calories before Diana's delicious dinner tonight. I met Derek at the YMCA where we played a number of games of squash. I haven't played since before I broke my ankle... MUST be the reason why I lost every single game...geez! :(

After coming home and showering, Ron and I headed to D+G's home, where they were serving us their first dinner (that they cooked) in their new home (I feel so special!). She made steaks with rosemary, baked potato with cheese and broccoli, and peas. It was deeeee-licious!! Thanks for such a wonderful Christmas dinner... god bless us every ONE! :)

A holiday get-together! - part 3

Derek only comes home at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. He was in town for the holidays so Quel and I met up with him and a couple of his university friends for dinner! We went to Yuzu Sushi and Sake Bar. The sushi was great!

After dinner, we headed to Babaluu's, as Derek really wanted to go salsa-dancing. It was a slow night with only a small group of people there, but we all had a great time dancing away! I didn't get home until 1am! (definitely much later than my bedtime!) haha

A holiday get-together! - part 2

Tanaz and family came by for a holiday dinner tonight. We had been trying to get together for a while, and finally found a night to meet. The funniest part of the night was when Zarius farted on Ron!! It was hilarious!! :)

A holiday get-together! - part 1

The holidays are always about getting together with those you haven't seen in a while.

Tonight we met up with Ron's best man - Eswin and his family. His wife Shareen is expecting their 2nd child in April, and their first born is only 1-1/2 years old. Mikael is sooo sweet! He's so quiet, and was always giggling.

Here's a photo of him with the Christmas gift we got him - the infamous checkered red and black pattern!! (Ron gave him a shirt with the same pattern last year!)

Breakfast with the BT gang!

Breakfast Television was held at the Sheraton hotel this morning, so Quel, Roxanne and I decided to be part of it! And if you were watching around 7:40am during The Canadian Tenors performance, you would have seen a hand waving in the background... ME! Ron called me shortly after to let me know he saw me! He said I would be the only one to wave their hand during the performance, so he knew that was ME! haha

I managed to meet The Canadian Tenors after the show, and bought their cd (autographed by all of them). We then went to the Eaton Centre to look around, and I got my first photo with Santa Claus! My parents never had one taken with me and Santa growing up, so today, at 34 years old, I can finally check that off my list! :)

Early Christmas Cheer!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Dedicated to my fellow bloggers!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ginger Snaps!

Last week, I went to Di's to do some Christmas baking: Toblerone shortbread, ginger snaps, and cinnamon buns! Of the 3 items I brought home, Ron liked the ginger snaps the most. So, as a good wife... I decided to try and attempt to make more of them at home.

When we tried baking them at Di's, the cookies were waaaay too big, and flat. Di seemed to think it was her expired baking soda (probably been in her cupboard for a while eh Mel?). heehe. I, however, decided to substitute the baking soda with baking powder. Ron helped me roll them all into a ball and coat them with sugar... whatcha' think??

Di - I think it's supposed to be baking powder, not baking soda???

Checking up on my car...

I'm not sure if I've told most of you, but it turns out my CRV was not a write-off! There was approximately $13,000 worth of damages to my car, but the car itself was worth more than that (it was only 2 years old), so the insurance company is paying to get it fixed instead. I went to go check on my car today, and it's lookin' good!! They replaced almost all of the damaged parts already! See below...

Mo said that he was just waiting for the side mirror and the rim to arrive, and then they'll paint it and it will look brand spankin' new! It should be ready next week!! :)

A Christmas Party!

Tonight was Ron's work Christmas party at Copper Creek Golf Club. They have it here every year, and tonight was our 3rd year going. It's funny because the first year we went, we were just 'dating'. The second year, we were 'engaged'. And this year, we're MARRIED! Now I can join all the other wives at the table and not feel like the odd one out!! :)

Check out these losers...

Back in the summer of 1996, Tanaz and I decided to go and be a part of the audience for Fashion Friday on Cityline. I had taped it on my VHS years ago when it aired, and I just found it! Check us out... we're the 2 losers in the back!! haha!! :P

Rose & Gary get hitched!

Ron's older sister Rose and her husband Gary decided to tie the knot while they were in Las Vegas last week! We were all shocked as we received the email:

Hello All,
Having a great time on vacation. Just got to L.A. Las Vegas was fabulous. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on some exciting news. No, we did not win any jackpot.....we got MARRIED!!!! I'm sure its a shocker to many, but we'll have a get together when we're back in town.

Hope all is well. We'll talk to everyone soon.

Love,
Mr. & Mrs. Gary N.

Nobody knew of their plans... not even Ron's parents. It was a nice surprise! Congratulations to you both!

BTW - Di, do you recognize the dress she's wearing? ;)

1st of four!

Ron and I met up with his good friend Donna and her husband Dar at Milestones for dinner tonight. They're expecting their first child in March 2010! We haven't seen them since our wedding day, so it was nice to catch up... and see her baby bump! Apparently, she was already preggo on our wedding day, but she didn't know it at the time. I'm glad our wedding day was her last day of drinking!

She's the first one due of Ron's friends. We learned all around the same time that a total of 4 of Ron's friends are expecting next year:

1. Donna & Dar are expecting in March 2010
2. Dexter & Cathy are expecting in June 2010
(we're meeting up with them next week)
3. Eswin & Shareen are expecting in April 2010
(we're meeting up with them the week after next)
4. Nancy & Satchin are expecting in June 2010
(we may meet up with them near Christmas)

Congrats to all!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

My oldest nephew turns 12 today! (which means he becomes a teenager next year... YIKES!!) Birthday wishes went out to him on Breakfast Television this morning, did you see it? If you missed it, check it out below (my edited version). Happy Birthday Chooch!

Check us out at Bayview Village!

As I was walking through the halls of Bayview Village today, I came across my wedding florist's new shop: Fete Boutique Floral + Events.

I hadn't had a chance to see it yet, so I went in! It was a lovely store.

And right behind the cash register, posted against the wall were the 2 wedding photos I sent her in my thank you card!! The girl behind the counter didn't recognize me when I pointed out that was my wedding photo... I don't think she believed me (so what if I was dressed in baggy clothes with ponytail and no makeup?!?).

The wedding of D+G!

At last! Congratulations to Diana and Gerwyn on their wedding nuptials. The venue was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous (her bridesmaids weren't too shabby either!), the food was delicious, and the After-Party at their new home was a blast! Thanks so much for including me on your special day! Best wishes to you both!! Whooo-hooo!!

ICE ICE Baby!

No, not the Vanilla Ice song (although I have to admit, I DO like that song!!).

I recently discovered the In Case of Emergency (ICE) program that you should be doing with your cell phone address book. Quel told me all about it while we were waiting for the police to arrive at the scene during our car accident last week.

For those that don't know, the ICE program allows people (paramedics, police officers, firefighters, etc.) to contact your next of kin- your emergency contacts on your cell phone should you ever be unconscious (knock on wood).

Basically, you should enter: *ICE - (name of emergency contact person here) as their name in your address book, so that it shows up at the top of the list (which is why you need the *) and is easy to find in your cell phone contacts.

Am I the only one that hasn't heard of this?!!? Anyway, just thought I'd make you all aware!!

~your friendly neighbourhood sTan

Our photography mishap!

Quel and I decided to be adventurous today! We wanted to have a photography day and agreed to head out east to whatever city/town we find, with our final destination being Napanee. Why Napanee you ask? It was just 2 hours away (1-1/2 depending on your speed), which I thought was a good enough distance for a day trip. (Oh, and there's a frozen food store out there I used to always go to on my drives from Montreal, and I wanted to stock up on some food!).

Photography shots below:


and THEN....

If you've scrolled down far enough, you will see why I've titled this blog 'mishap'! The photos show my poor CRV in a car accident! :(

We didn't even make it to Napanee. As we were stuck in traffic near Belleville, a stupid mother f*ckin' driver (yes, I'm still angry and will continue to refer to this man in this manner) with a U-Haul truck decided to try and change lanes even though there wasn't any room for his truck. I was his first victim, damaging my entire rear right side. AND, if that wasn't enough, he continued to move through the traffic of cars, and plow through 4 other cars! The stupid mother f*ckin' driver didn't have anything to say once I approached him. He wanted to just wait for the police to exchange all information.

If it wasn't for the flat tire he got from hitting all of us, I honestly think he would have kept on going and hitting more cars. How do you not STOP after hitting the first car? Wouldn't your first reaction be to hit the brakes?? Anyway, the cop came and we all had to fill out reports, get towed, blah blah blah.

I think stupid mother f*ckin' driver fell asleep and didn't realize until after he hit all the cars. It just doesn't make sense to me. I even asked the police officer to do a breathalyzer on him! He told me he didn't smell any alcohol on him. It just doesn't seem fair... as a result of one man's stupidity, 5 cars are left damaged.

Which leads me to my next vent - what's the point in purchasing a car that you love, a car that you take care of, a car that you spent good money on... when in the end, a stupid mother f*ckin' driver ends up taking it away from you and damaging it? As some of you may know, this is my 2nd vehicle that I've purchased and loved - only to have them both taken away from me by stupid mother f*ckin' drivers! Arrrrrrgh!

Alright, thanks for letting me vent. Quel and I are both ok, there were no injuries and that's the most important thing.

I was sooo lonely!

I've been meaning to put some photos up at the condo, so I went into my storage locker to find some of the frames I had stored in there. Since they were all still packed up and wrapped in newspapers, I decided to just take them all home and go through them there.

As I unwrapped each one, I was filled with sooo many memories! What I didn't realize, was the AMOUNT of memories I had to unwrap! Geez! In my little apartment in Montreal, I had accumulated so many photo frames!! I know now that it was because I was so lonely over there... I had to be surrounded by so many familiar faces throughout my apartment! Check out all the frames I unwrapped below. Good thing I came back home when I did!! :)

Oh, and just in case you're wondering - a lot of these will be going back to storage. I'm not lonely anymore!! :P

The Cougars are out on the town!

Diana's staggette was a night to remember! The evening started with dinner at Bar Italia. We played some games, ate delicious food, and saw Di drunk! We then headed out to Klub Kave, a new strip club (more details can be found on both Di's and Saads' blogs), but I have to say... it was nice to be an 'observer' this time around rather than a 'participant'!!

Glee!

I went out for dinner with some co-workers last week, and during dinner they had mentioned the TV show Glee that they'd been watching. I've never even heard of it! And then, at Di's bridal shower, it was mentioned there as well from a few people.

So I told Ron about it, and the good husband that he is got me all of the episodes to watch! I just finished watching them, and it's hilarious... I enjoyed it very much!! I love when they just break into a song... it's a bit cheesy, but I loved it!! And the highschool teacher's kinda cute too! So I guess that makes me part of the Glee club too! :P

18 Days to go until D+G!

Ever since I've been 'funemployed', I told myself that I would start swimming daily. Of course, I kept saying it to myself believing one day that I would actually do it! Well today's the day ladies..... FINALLY! With only 18 days to go until D+G's big day, and me fitting into my bridesmaid dress... it was as good a day as any to start!!

Day 1: 25 laps, 100 sit-ups

This is the minimum I have to do daily, but I'm hoping to increase each lap and sit-up as the days pass... only 17 days left!! :)

A bridal shower for Di!

Di's lovely bridesmaids: Sue, Saads, and Sally (aka the 3-S's) hosted a bridal shower today. Saads was kind enough to offer her home for the venue, and we had lots of food and fun! I made cupcakes and brownies (nothing compared to Mel's cupcakes though). We made Christmas ornaments for D+G's first Christmas tree together (you better get a tree Di), and played games: Price is Right, Di Trivia, and my favourite - He Said, She Said!!

I had taped Gerwyn a couple of days before the shower asking him some questions (which was hilarious!), and then we asked Di the same questions to see if they were the same answers. A small sample clip of Gerwyn is below.

Thanks for accomodating everyone ladies.... it was fun! ;)

Trick or Treat!

Ron and I headed to Ajax for Halloween. My family was having a dinner get-together and we were the first ones to arrive. The kids were anxious to go trick or treating so Ron and I volunteered to take them. My niece Aleenah didn't have her costume yet, as she was waiting for her mom to bring it, so I offered to loan her my dice costume! She received a lot of compliments on that costume as we went from house to house, and as we passed by other trick-or-treaters!! 'Thanks!' was what I said each time she did, of course! :)

A Halloween Partay...

I went to a Halloween Party this year, which I haven't done in a long time. Ron was studying and couldn't go, so I brought Quel as my partner instead! We went as a pair of hot pink dice (homemade costumes of course)! My brother went as Troy Polamalu (a Pittsburgh football player known for his hair), my cousin Leonard was a Jabbawockee, his gf Irene was Rambo, Sam was Little Red Riding Hood (she still had my red hood cape I wore in grade 5...my dad made it!), Shirley was a scary beauty pageant girl, Mike as Hulk, Falesha a devil with her hubby Shane as Moses. People would come up to us and want to spin us, so to amuse some of them - Quel and I spun round and round and then stopped at a number (got me dizzy as I was drinking as well). It was hilarious!

The party was a lot of fun! There were games: limbo, wrap a mummy game, and a pole-dancing competition. DJ Shane was also spinning his records at the party so we had awesome music to dance to, as well as all the bottles of alcohol available (a lot of them got so sick that night). Happy Halloween all!!

Look how skinny we were!

This was taken in May 1999...ten years ago when Ron and I were just 'friends'. I remember we were all going to go to a club for my 24th birthday and Ron joined us! I think he was the only guy! :)

Did you all notice how skinny we were?!!? (and check out my eyebrows - geesh!)

Getting out and about...

As I was folding the laundry the other day, I noticed that Ron's pile of clean clothes was 3x more than what I had! This meant only one thing: I wasn't going out enough.

I decided to head downtown today. Since moving to the 'burbs', heading to downtown Toronto almost seems like a treat! I met Di for lunch at Peter Street Deli.... lemon chicken baby! It's a place I used to frequent during my TPG working days... ah, the memories of that place.

I then met Quel at Chapters, and we hung out at a Starbucks with our laptops watching all the people pass by... I love just sitting back and just people-watch sometimes. We then went for a walk as it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day out (very rare these days!).

As fun as it was to be downtown again... after paying $15 for parking and sitting in rush-hour traffic for an hour, I was suddenly reminded of why I don't head down here as often. :P

Recipe Exchange!

A few days ago, a friend had sent me an email for a recipe exchange. I was surprised at the response I got with some of the recipes I received so I thought I'd share a few of them with you (even though some of you didn't participate! :P). Thanks to all those that did though.. here are the recipes:

1. Chicken Teriyaki
Cut pieces of slightly salt and peppered boneless chicken legs or breast, and put on the grill or pan fry until slightly brown.
Set aside.

Teriyaki Sauce:
1/2 cup Kikkoman soya sauce
1/2 cup Mirin (it's a sweet Japanese sauce, available at all Oriental
food stores)
mix together until you get desired consistency
add some brown sugar if you wish
corn starch (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)
green onions (optional)

Pour over cooked chicken, add some sesame seeds and/or green onions for
garnishing, ENJOY!!!

2. Brown Sugar and Ginger Glazed Salmon
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes

1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ground ginger
4 (4 oz) salmon fillets
Sesame seeds, toasted (optional)

1. Preheat broiler. Coat broiler with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar, mustard, soy sauce & ginger.
3. Season salmon to taste with pepper and place skin side up on broiler rack. Cook 6 inches from heat source for 3 minutes. Turn salmon; brush with sugar mixture. Broil 1 or 2 minutes more or until sugar melts and fish flakes with a fork. Top with toasted sesame seeds, if desired.

Serves 4.

3. Caramel Dip
Beat together:
-one 250 g pkg cream cheese
-3/4 cups packed brown sugar

Add 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 package Skor bits

Mix and enjoy with sliced apples!

Catering to the Flips...

As I was grocery shopping at T&T Supermarket today (a store I frequent regularly for some Filipino ingredients), I noticed a new sign they had up:

Of course, I had to look! Tocino, longanisa, all the Mama Sita packets... all in one central location for moi!! haha.... thanks T&T!! That's FOBULOUS!!

Dill sauce...

Ron and I had a snack at St. Louis Wings a month ago and while we were there, I noticed that they were promoting purchasing bottles of their wing sauce and their dill sauce (which I absolutely love! - I could drink that thing).

So we bought a bottle of the dill sauce, and I put it in the fridge. I completely forgot that I had it, and just discovered it today! So I fried up some chicken wings, and dipped it into my dill sauce!! OMG.... sooooo good!!!!

~happy camper sally!

Happy Birthday Menalle!

In honour of Mel's birthday, I decided to try and bake one of her specialties... the classic apple pie. My parents had gone apple picking last weekend, which left me with quite a few apples here at home. So off I went to attempt to bake. I have to tell you, it did NOT go well!

Here's what I was supposed to do... and then what I ended up doing:

1. recipe measured the ingredients in grams - I didn't realize and was measuring in millilitres
2. recipe was for 2 pies, and I needed to split all ingredients in half - I forgot and remembered for only a few of the ingredients... I had to compensate by adding more of this/that, and dumping out what I could. (I realized this when my dough became really watery and there was more sugar in the filling than there were apples!!)
   
3. recipe said to bake in the oven for 40 minutes in 220 celsius - I didn't realize it said celsius, and put it in for 40 minutes in 220 fahrenheit!! When the oven beep went off after 40 minutes, the dough still looked raw to me, and that's when I realized.... doh! So then I increased it to the correct temperature (375 F), for another 20 minutes.
   

Here's the final result:

I left the pie out on the counter. Ron came home and while I was on the phone in the other room, he ended up eating 2 slices! He said to me: that was a good pie!! hoa hoa hoa... I guess that's all that matters... he doesn't need to know!! :)

Happy Birthday Menalle! I'll let you try it on my next attempt - when ingredients and oven temperatures are correct. Or better yet... maybe I'll just leave all this baking business to YOU!

Flash Forward...

Imagine the entire world simultaneously losing consciousness for 137 seconds. In that 137 seconds, each person sees a vision into the future - into April 29, 2010 to be exact.

Ron's sister was telling me about this new show, Flash Forward, that she's completely into. It's on Thursday nights, but I hadn't had a chance to see it. So Ron downloaded all the past episodes, and I just finished watching then.... OMG... sooo GOOD!! I'm totally hooked. Watch it... you'll be hooked too.

Happy Thanksgiving WND crew!

With the wedding plans and preparing to move into their new house, D+G still had time to host a Thanksgiving WND for all of us. Mind you, Di had a special 'sous-chef' to help her with the preparations... MOI, and everything was deeeeeee-licious!! This will probably be the last WND until the big move and the wedding day!! Next one's at the new house, right?? :)

For dessert, Ev baked a special birthday cake for Mel... sooo good!! Baby Eric was asleep during dinner, but managed to wake up for a feeding just after we all ate our desserts. It's so nice to have a baby to play with for these WND now...

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ron and I celebrated with his family for Thanksgiving. There were only 9 of us, but the amount of food that was at the table could have served 30 people... I'm not kidding. After everyone's bellies were full, it didn't even look like there was a dent in any of the dishes... which was fine by all of us since we all received packages of food to take home with us!! Thanksgiving continues in our household for a few more days with all the food we brought home.

Di's wedding dress!

I took Di wedding dress shopping today. Maybe I wasn't the best person to take, since almost every dress she tried on I liked (which didn't make it easy for her)! What can I say... you wear it well Miss Lee. In the end, she found THE dress.... can't wait to see it on you on the big day! Now if I can only find MY dress to wear....

Celebrating D+G!

Saads and Raju held an engagement dinner in honour of Di and Gerwyn. It was great to see everyone, and Di had all of her bridesmaids there (top left pic). There was lots of food, and little Baby Eric slept most of the night away... how can he sleep with all our noise?? Mel didn't disappoint with her yummy desserts, including caramel crunch! Ron was MIA since he was studying, but I made sure to bring him home some of the good eats. He loved the caramel crunch btw Menalle!!

It's official!

I just got my new health card and driver's license in the mail... it's OFFICIAL now!! :)

Family Day...

To celebrate my dad's birthday, the whole family (of 14) got together to take a family portrait photo. I'm not so sure these portrait places are used to having big families, because we all had to cram into a small space to get us all into the shot!!

Each 'family' wore a different colour (white for me & Ron; red for my parents; blue for Sarah's family; black for Shirley's; and Tirso wore yellow)... with everyone wearing blue jeans for our bottoms. We haven't done a family portrait since I was 13 years old. We were a family of just 6 back then.. and now look at us... 14!! :)

After picture taking, we all headed to a chinese buffet restaurant to continue the celebration for my dad! They served king crab legs that had me coming back for more... YUM! Once we were completely stuffed, we all headed to my sister's place. We started drinking and reminiscing about old stories of when we were growing up. Poor Ron hadn't heard about all of these stories, so he was exposed to all of our craziness growing up!

Melia...

My niece and I were talking today, and this was our conversation:

me: It's Lolo's birthday, did you get him anything?
Melia: yes, I got him something. I gave him my looooooove. (smirking)

Melia: Are you Filipino?
me: yes, I am. I'm a quarter Chinese too.
Melia: really? I think I'm only a penny Chinese.

hoa hoa hoa... the girl cracks me up!

Proud to be Filipino...

During a conversation with Quel a couple of weeks ago, I recently discovered that the Filipino guy in the Black Eyed Peas group was NOT the guy with the long hair (no Filipino in him at all)! In fact, the Filipino guy is the one on the very right of this photo. I had it wrong all along (he's in fact half Flip, and half black).

As I googled and you-tubed him, I learned more and more about him. His name is Allan Pineda Lindo (aka APL), and was born in Pampanga, Philippines.

What's great about him is that he's completely proud of his Filipino heritage! He's brought his Filipino culture into a few of his songs with the Black Eyed Peas such as:
The APL Song (about his life story)
Bebot (Filipino slang for pretty woman), there are 2 videos made: generation 1 & 2 (with Jasmine Trias/American Idol in the video).
Mare (is a term used to refer to female friends in tagalog)

and the songs he's done on his own for his solo album:
Mama Filipina
You Can Dream - with legendary Philippine guitarist Boy "Florante" De Leon (Quel thinks he looks like my dad)

APL has also started the APL Foundation, which is committed in giving back to communities and children within the Philippines and throughout Asia. He also started his own music company called Jeepney Music, Inc. (I like the logo!)

Now if that's not proud to be Filipino.... I don't know what is! :)

Happy Birthday to my dad!

This morning, I took my parents to What a Bagel for my dad's 61st birthday breakfast! They had never been there before and they enjoyed the food (especially the sweet potato fries).

And, my dad was happy to take home a dozen FREE bagels of his choice home with him (they're free on your birthday!)... hehe

Happy Birthday Tatay!

Funemployment...

Lately, every time Quel and I get together... we cook. The first time, she came over and helped me make 'mondoo' (Diana's Korean dumpling recipe). The second time, I came to her place and we made 'empanadas' (Filipino ones). Today, she brought Roxanne (her sister) with her, and we made two lasagnas.

While the lasagnas were in the oven, we all played my new game: Lights, Camera, Action Scene-it! It comes with four wireless controllers, and you have to buzz in if you know the answer to all of these movie questions.... it was a very close game, but my competitive self was victorious in the end.... na na na na boo boo! :P

We then headed out to the movies and watched Fame. I didn't see the original one, so had nothing to compare to but Roxanne and Quel both thought the original movie was better (because it was more realistic) than this new version.

Thanks for the fun day ladies!

Cracks me UP!

Oh Russell....

Russell Peters was in town for a benefit show tonight in Brampton (his hometown). All the proceeds from the show went to the Brampton Civic Hospital, and in return, Russell and his family are able to name a section of the hospital after his late father, Eric Peters.

Ron's company contributed to the charity, and were given 8 tickets in return. We were one of the lucky ones to go! Ron's boss and his wife were there as well... the other 4 tickets were given to others at his work, but they didn't even show up!! There were 4 empty floor seats 8 rows away from the stage... what a waste!

The show was hilarious and as always, very entertaining. Take IT... and GO! ;)