Nielsen's at The Peninsula

I just got back from breakfast. The hotel does know a Filipino stomach, the buffet was lined with endless choices. I was just a bit disappointed that the mangoes ran out. I am glad to have had 3 slices though. They're as good as always.

I am back in Manila for 5 days. The trip was packed with unwanted events... flight delays, cancellations, airline transfer confirmations. And then when I got to the hotel, found out that the client was unable to make it. Talk about shock! So I made calls, my boss who's only just arrived made arrangements to travel back the next day, but I didn't. Not yet. Then the good news, the client will be arriving a day late, but arriving nonetheless.

So I called mom and met with her and Kuya Jhun for lunch. That was after I've had about 4 hours of sleep. After a quick trip to SM (what would a Manila trip be without it?), we went back to the hotel to rest before dinner at Kuya Eisen's. It was good to see family, share stories, add pounds (the food was great), and just be there.

Today, meetings start at lunch so I will talk some more a bit later.

What a day!

It's been another one of those busy days. Started early in the morning to go to Gabriel's chess tournament. As we were getting in the car, I saw our neighbor Glen. So finally, months after the incident, I was able to thank him for knocking on our door one early morning, and letting me know that I left my keys on the keyhole. Where it stayed the whole night. If I didn't write about it before, I was probably too embarrassed to admit it. But now you know.

Gabriel's chess was good, he got a medal along with a few kids for ending up with 3 wins out of 5. We met a few other people and I did a good deed today. Let me not tell you what it is, but it was a good deed.

After chess, we took Andrew to the soccer field for the last game of the Fall season. Andrew's dad was there to meet us. I'm not sure whether we won or it was a tie, but the season ended good, that's for sure. Cheers to Coach V! Cheers to Dealey Dragons!

At this point, I only had a hotdog to fill my stomach around lunchtime. Definitely not enough, so I'm thankful we still have leftover roast pork, roast duck, and kinilaw. The best, I say!

I popped in the West Wing dvd from where I left off but immediately fell asleep. Bad, I only just ate. But I couldn't help it. Now I'm wide awake and telling you how my day went.

Happy Day

Yesterday was a happy day. I was in the office when our Systems Manager announced that old laptops are on their way to recycle centers. If anyone is interested though, there are 8 that are working. No catch. So after a moment of crazy, I went home and presented Gabriel with his first laptop. He was really excited. Jojo immediately configured the wireless and installed Glubble to manage and monitor the websites that Gabriel can access. It's perfect. Gabriel said, "I triple love you, Mommy!" Doesn't get any better than that.

Also contributing to it being a happy day, I got the West Wing complete season dvds that I ordered in Amazon. And even the Guitar Hero Aerosmith Wii game arrived. Amazon is awesome. Times like these when I know that life is a dream I'm living.

I cooked crabs and shanghai rolls for dinner and although the crabs didn't turn out as I would like them to, it's alright. Didn't even dent my happiness. I just need to improve on the recipe and it should work next time.

Eating out

After Gabriel's dental appointment last Tuesday, we had dinner at Maxim's. Yum chicken feet and spareribs! It's really a treat. Gabriel, who just had a tooth extraction did not mind at all and ate chicken feet with gusto. I'm happy to say -- we live to eat, not eat to live.

And today, Jojo and I just drove to Fuel City to try out the much-reviewed "best tacos in Dallas." It was small, but what can you expect when you pay $1.16. It was good though. I tried the beef fajita, chicken, and barbacoa. I liked the beef fajita best. If we decide to drive by again, I'll order beef fajitas exclusively. I'd still say the fish tacos in Half Shells are the best tacos, Big Shucks grilled tacos coming in as a close second.

Which reminds me, we still have that Cheesecake Factory gift card to use. Oh, I'll try out the ribs and not order the miso salmon.

On another topic, we tried the Hong Phat supermarket in Saigon Mall yesterday. Very clean and big, but I would still prefer to go to Hiep Thai next time. However, we did order roast pork for take out. Yum yum. It tastes like lechon, in fact, I know for sure I won't miss lechon now that I can buy roast pork here at any time. Too bad we missed the roast duck coz they ran out.

I bought ingredients for kare-kare. So we'll probably have kare-kare for dinner soon. Maybe tonight.

Rhode Island and Connecticut

As luck would have it, I was scheduled to travel to New London, Connecticut on Tuesday. Had I known what a tooth extraction would feel like, I would have postponed it till after the trip. But you gotta do, what you gotta do. So on Tuesday, right after the biometric scanning for my UK visa application, we headed to the airport.

Side note. Before Jojo dropped me at DFW airport, we had lunch at a new place. I Love Pho (or as I would call it, I heart Pho). I loved this place. Tooth or no tooth, it's good. We started off with fresh shrimp rolls, and then Jojo and I shared the beef stew and crispy noodles. Yummy!

So going to a Connecticut meeting proved to be a challenge in terms of getting good flights. I ended up taking a 1-stop flight via North Carolina and arriving in TF Green Airport (PVD) in Rhode Island. Going home, my stop was at Reagan Airport in Washington DC.

A total of 16 hours of travel for a one hour meeting. The things you have to do. Oh, and of course, I was still on medication because of the tooth extraction the day before. C'est la vie.

Planning a trip

Planning a trip for business has suddenly become regular. I just booked and reserved flights and hotel for Phoenix for a couple of days in less than 10 minutes. Perhaps I have become so used to doing it.

On the other hand, our trip to the Philippines is drawing near. I am excited and although I have not really had the chance to prepare for it, like what to bring back or what exactly to do while I'm there, I'm sure it's going to be a blast! I just want to go to Boracay although with the ferry sinking and the typhoon season still very much present, maybe not. We'll find out when we get there, as soon as we have our visa appointments sorted out.

Gabriel got another trophy for chess as the camp closed today. He told me he could play me and his dad at the same time, so once I get some spare time, we could do that. I'm not sure anymore if it was chess or boghouse he was referring to.

We had buffet lunch at Maxim's and we've decided we won't be going there for buffet lunch again. Their dimsum remains to be the favorite though (especially since we don't know of any other place that serve chicken feet and spare ribs).

Wii Rockband and new food

We've been so busy playing Rockband the past couple of days. The only rest I had last Sunday was when we went to church and I worked some on a document that I sent out to a client. Other than that, we were rockin'-away. It's so much fun, I fully recommend!

We have no plans for July 4th yet, but we'll figure something out. It's going to be a long weekend, 4th being a Friday. Maybe take advantage of a good sale, but at this point, we can't fit anything anymore in our tiny apartment.

I need to cut Gabriel's hair, but he insists that today is not the day. Maybe I can convince him a bit later. He's now reading his Bible and so I don't want to stop him from doing that.

Now that I've sent the document I was supposed to do for a client, I'm freer to think about our travel to Manila. I'm so excited, I get to see family and I get to eat Filipino food again! Yahoo.

Speaking of food, we tried out Maxim's in Richardson twice last week. We had dimsum: siomai, spare ribs, chicken feet! It will be the restaurant to go to just to get our dimsum fix. I've been in Dallas for 3 years, and this is the first Chinese restaurant where we had dimsum, imagine that! So we definitely are going back.

There's another new restaurant which we tried last week: Sushi Sake. We dined there with Renee and Kevin and we had fun. We are probably going back there again, and although it's a little bit pricey, the hand-rolled spicy tuna was great!

Good food and friends

The weekend has been good.

Last Friday, I finally got to meet Jojo's friend, George, who visited Dallas with his Tita Dulce and Tito Ped. It was great! We had lobster buffet at Plano, which was enjoyed by all. We spent the whole night eating and drinking, and the next day, more of the same, without the drinking. Haha. We had lunch at Bistro B and that was a hit. Even Gabriel finished his Com Thit Nuog Xa (grilled pork with fried egg).

Sunday was just spent at home, after going to church and lunching at Bangkok City. Played the Wii, and also managed to sort clothes that will need to be shipped to Manila.

Oh, and I did color my hair! It's now yellow - eeew! But I like it, and Gabriel says I'm now officially a rockstar! Well, I'll take that as a compliment since we try so hard with Guitar Hero. We love Wii! And we can't wait for Wii Rockband to arrive. Mental note to pre-order in Amazon before it goes out.

I'll see you later.

Christian in the office

I'm in the office today, second time this week since I have been keeping strange hours the past few days because of this crazy work schedule that has fallen into my lap.

Anyway, Christian, Diana's 4-year-old came to the office with her. So we were having fun, and I guess we got pretty loud because Michael had to shut us up. Haha.

And I suddenly felt this urge to blog and only then realized that I haven't in such a long time. So you've been missing a lot of what has been going on in my life lately, I guess. I hope to be able to get the time to get you caught up.

Let's see. Last Friday, Gabriel spent the night at Joel's and I heard it was a blast. Jojo and I, in the meantime, had a great time at Diana's party and I get to try some new stuff that I've never before tried in my life. Well, there's always room for a first-time, right? Like I already said, it was a great party and we met a few cool people over there too. No time wasted.

Saturday, Joel and Paolo decided to come with us to see Gabriel play soccer. Their team lost but the important here is the kids had fun. So, we tried to tell Gabriel that. The kids played some at home before going home.

On Sunday after church, we bought some fish and crawfish and liempo, so we had a feast over at Anne's. We truly enjoyed it. It was my first time to like eating crawfish. One batch we cooked using the boil we bought which was a Louisiana favorite. The other batch we cooked in gata. Yummy!

And then the next update is, I will be going over to Canada on Sunday for a 2-week client workshop. It will be a long one and I will truly miss my boys. But I'm thinking there will probably be more time to blog over there than here. So see you again soon.

No coke on Dell laptops

So one morning, I was working from home and drinking coke. I accidentally spilled it on my laptop and guess what? My laptop died. Like instantly. I immediately unplugged the power cable and Jojo tried to help me dry it, but didn't work. That same day, I found myself using a loaner laptop and having no access to archived email and no back up files from my hard drive. Shannon said that she'd had water spilled on laptops before with no problems, and I told her, if it's any consolation, it's diet coke.

I'm still using a loaner laptop. And it does seem like I'll be using it for quite sometime, until I get my upgrade. I hope it will be soon as I want to customize the settings and what-have-you to suit my taste. I did get my archived email and some back up files though.

It has been a relatively relaxing weekend. We were able to bike around White Rock Lake again and it was pleasant, except for the little body aches. I have to say, I like biking. Wish there are more days. My only complaint now is the grip and hopefully we'll find some type of gel-solution to wrap around the handle without affecting the gear control.

Well obviously, we worked up an appetite after the workout, so I hurriedly cooked dinner for us three. I asked Jojo to put the quail in the oven, and sauteed some shrimp with coke. Gabriel loved the shrimp and ate almost the entire serving. I on the other hand, feasted on the quail as usual.

I got a call from my aunt today who lives in New York while we were out visiting with Jan in the hospital. It was nice getting caught up with family.

To end the day, I baked strawberry cheesecake. Hope it's good. I'll let you know.

Not just April, also the weekend

Happy birthday, Ate April!

Wow, I have not blogged for quite some time. That wasn't a plan, it just happened like that. And in the meantime, there's so much that has happened so let me tell you before I forget.

Last weekend, Friday night, Vangie and the kids slept at our place. Jan had to go back to get intensive care and so we tried to make it up to the kids and have them play the Wii. We also sampled Diana's macaroni with ham and cheese, and it was ok. Not as tasty as I would have liked though.

Saturday, Gabriel had another chess tournament and he won second place. Another trophy for him, yehey! He's really doing a good job, and we certainly know now how serious a player he is. Even with the knowledge that there are 4 kids in our house whom he can play with the whole morning, he chose to compete. We're so proud of him. He knows his priorities.

After the tourney, we went to his soccer game. They lost but no biggie. I'm just glad he's enjoying himself. And because he's been wanting to go watch Horton Hears a Who forever, we went to Studio Movie Grill both for the movie and the food. I liked the ribs better than the movie, is all I can say.

Sunday, after hearing mass, we accidentally bumped into Anne's family in Linens N' Things. As we were on our way to lunch then, they decided to join us in Best Buffet. Then, we talked about trying out the bike trail in Rowlett Creek Preserve while the kids play Wii. I liked the trail, at least what little I saw. I only did Loop 1 because Aileen wanted to go back feeling that her bike is not up to par to mountain biking. We went home after dinner and had a wonderful time just spending time with them.

Patrick's last day

And so we got on Diana's car for lunch and headed to Angry Dog. To be expected though, the Dog was full and we decided we couldn't wait and ambled on to St Pete's Dancin' Marlin. I had fish and chips which was forgettable. Diana said the tuna steak sandwich was very good, so I sure know which one to try out next time.

I need a visa for Canada so I will take care of that first thing next week. Looks like the rest of the month (March) and April will be full. Such is life, eh? See, I can do the Canada accent already!

I managed to get a lot of things done today, and I'm glad. I'm still singing the song from watching the Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon video clip, so that certainly puts a smile on your face. It's just so hilarious. I couldn't still make up my mind which one is funnier - that or the response by Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck. Find it in YouTube if you're interested. It will make your day.

Knock, knock. Who's there? I'm Fu. I'm Fu who?

Time for Tiff's Treats now. So I'll see you again later.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Sioux Falls is rural. Everything is within 10-minute distance from the airport and the people are warm.

The meetings with the client went well and now I can relax a bit and not worry about any report just yet. It was a working lunch and so that meant there is not much good things to be said about it, except that the sandwich wasn't bad at all. And I did have a chocolate-chip cookie, which only made me miss Tiff's snickerdoodles (sugar with cinnamon cookies).

Although I brought the camera with me, I haven't taken any pictures yet. Yes, it is my first time in Sioux Falls, but again there's really nothing extraordinary. And it's not like I have a lot of time outside. I got in pretty late last night (past 10pm) and was out early for 8:15am meetings. Tonight, I may just have dinner down at the lobby. I'm not sure yet whether Sadhik (who I met for the first time today) will be joining me, he said he'll give me a call at around 7pm.

I'll probably head early to the airport to buy the usuals - magnet and shotglass.

I'm just writing as the thoughts come into my head. I know that there were a couple of items that I wanted to write about, but now that I'm online and actually writing, they've escaped me.

Date on Friday and the rest of the weekend

Last Friday, I decided to take some personal time off and went out with my husband. We first went to a couple of Borders Music Store to look (and buy) some board games that were on sale. Then off we went to watch a movie, Vantage Point at Cinemark. The movie was not bad but it wasn't good either.

We had lunch at a chinese buffet restaurant nearby, and although we probably won't be going there again, it wasn't bad. We certainly had worse (read: Loop 12 Buffet in Dallas). But the Best Buffet in Plano have already set the bar for us as far as chinese buffets go. There was a time when we pretty much go there every weekend for the crabs. We don't anymore but this year alone, we've probably gone 4 times already. So it's getting to be a trend again.

We picked up Gabriel in school and headed towards Dick's Sporting Goods to go looking for heelys. Unfortunately, none were available so while I took a quick nap in the car, Jojo drove by Best Buy to buy extra dance mats for DDR.

The weekend was pretty much uneventful for us. We stayed home, bonded, and I made blueberry cheesecake again. We visited with Aileen's family Sunday night (Gabriel practically begged us to go). So even though I've already had a glass of strawberry margarita, we still went. We ended up staying till almost 11pm and because it was the kids' spring break, it wasn't a biggie.

Hunt for the DDR

Woke up and showered just in time to take Gabriel to CCD. Then our hunt for the Dance Dance Revolution began in Circuit City. No dice. Back to church for Sunday mass and afterwards lunch buffet in Plano. Just us but it was fun times.

Then we probably went to all the closest Circuit Citys and Best Buys in the DFW metroplex, trying to look for the video game. We weren't lucky and finally decided to call it a day and went home (just before 5pm).

But the day did not end there - we cleaned the apartment. I'm glad we did, now everything's clean and organized. Well almost everything anyway. At some point, we just sat down.

And oh, I've ordered DDR in Amazon. They'll deliver it on Wednesday.

Blueberry cheesecake

I tried out a new recipe for blueberry cheesecake and it was good. I had some of it last night, and I'll be having some more tonight (unless Jojo finished it all). I actually asked my sister for her recipe but it turns out I may not have to use it. If you want to make your own, I will add the recipe for your reference later on. Come visit again.

Well, I'm really just waiting for the fire alarm to go off, and seeing that I didn't want to be engrossed in my work when that happens (we got the email alert about 5 minutes ago), I decided to relax a bit and blog.

Anyway, on to other things. I'm going to need to change my schedule for March as the trip to South Dakota will not be happening until March 11th. But taking care of this is easy enough as I will just need to call the travel agent and he will handle this from his end.

I've been watching American Idol Season 7 for the past several weeks and voting. Sweet huh?

Vindaloovs. tandoori

We had buffet lunch at Taj Mahal today and for me, the beef vindaloo was way better than the chicken tandoori. I had to have second servings. The tikka masala was ok, and I really liked the mutter mushroom (I've never tried this dish before).

Anyway, our thoughts wandered to the meaning of Taj Mahal. Jojo said mahal should mean the same thing as in Filipino - love. I just checked online and it means Crown Palace or literally, the exalted one in the palace.

Our conversation also drifted to Asian restaurants in general, and how we don't have a good Filipino restaurant here in Dallas. We've tried a couple of restaurants before, but the not-so-nice thing about it is, it's turo-turo. So to those of you who understand, you know immediately that you get almost-cold food, matigas, and really that alone takes the fun out of eating. And we love to eat! So, we've crossed those out. If we don't find one, maybe we'll set up our own. (If only it were that simple.)

Income tax filing and surf & turf

For the third year in a row, I have completed my US "resident" duty in filing my annual tax returns. This year was different though since my family was with me the entire year, and we are able to file as a family unit. Once our residency here is more permanent, in other words once we get our green cards, we will need to revisit the previous years to make sure we are in accordance with the IRS regulations.

I am cooking halabos na hipon and in about 20 minutes, the baked ribs will be done. For dinner tonight, surf and turf it is! I am expecting the two boys anytime now since Gabriel's private violin lesson finishes at 6pm. So they should be on their way home.

Finally, I had time to print some photos for the frames on our coffee table that have been sitting empty for quite sometime (I picked one from Sedona and the other from Grand Canyon). We've also got the large prints going, and I am thinking that this week, we'll have them hanging on our wall. I will take a picture of this new project of ours so you'll see them soon.

And I know, I have constantly said I will add more pictures here - and I fully intend to fulfill this promise. Very soon... please be patient. There's just so many things to do and not enough time.

I'll see you later.

Most romantic day ever

Valentine's Day, in my book, has never been special. I mean, yeah there were the flowers, the candies, the concerts... these were commonplace. So ordinary. Today was special and very different. Today was from the heart.

I woke up to a dozen red roses arranged in my vase, on my home desk. Then I had to hurry to work for a 9am call and so forgot all about V-day until it was time to go home. I called Jojo to pick me up and you know how someone sounds when you catch him doing something not ordinary? Well, that's exactly how he sounded like. So I kept asking where he has been until he finally admitted. He was looking for ingredients to what would be our Valentine dinner at home.

And quite amazingly, he pulled it off. He made miso salmon and it was quite good. I loved it. And he even set up the table with flowers and candles and dimmed the lights. And since Gabriel fell asleep early tonight, we just let him. And we enjoyed our dinner and even got to watch a movie afterwards.

I'm telling you, this day means the world to me. I'll never forget it.

p.s. I'll be adding a recipe page to my blog so you can try the miso salmon. Not tonight though so visit some other time. Cheers!

Monday in the office

It's not your typical Monday in the office - I have been away for 2 weeks! So there's so much going on that I haven't had time to catch my breath. Except maybe now, and so I'm blogging from my desk.

The Giants won last night, it was a really good game. Not the best that I've seen (says the true-blue Cowboys fan that I am) but surely the best Superbowl game I've seen. I've only seen 3 in my lifetime, and that obviously started when I got here in the US. My first game I watched from an overhead projector at a hotel in New Jersey, I was there for a customer centric selling course. The second was at Patrick's place in Dallas, 42 inches but no HD-reception plasma screen. And the last one at Jan's place. 42 inches plasma, high definition, yeah baby!

And so, the undefeated Patriots get their first taste of defeat for the season. What a sour taste after 18 straight wins. I can only imagine how Tom "Baby" Brady must feel.

On a separate note, had a good lunch at Miguel's Cantina with the guys here at work. I ordered a small fajita which wasn't so small, but good fajita, so no complaints there. The walk back to the office was pleasant, and it's always good getting caught up with colleagues after being away for 2 weeks.

Foreseeable future - a trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in March. Too bad Mount Rushmore is 369 miles away (about 5 and a half hours drive from where I'll be going).

I'll get going.