[smartads] Today I sprang out of bed at 0533. I was in a hurry to see if my hits had made it to 1500 yet, it didn’t. It was at 1445. I was experimenting with different aspects of the blog. I added text (Philippine National Motto) and a page (Lumpia). I’m going to add another page to see if it puts it next to the lumpia or what it going to do. It did, but I deleted it again. It was for a picture gallery and I need to figure out something on the pictures first.
Do you like my new background on the blog? It is a combination of American and Philippine flags. I couldn’t find one with a combination of Texas and Philippines. The American flag portion has the Bald Eagle on it and the Philippine flag portion has the Agila ng Pilipinas (Philippine Eagle, aka monkey eating eagle). The national bird of the each respective countries. I also added some new links going to some of the national symbols and national heroes of the Philippines. Click on the Lumpia page in the top left to see what happens.
Did you know that the only non-Filipino hero of the Philippines is General Douglas MacArthur? Remember the famous, “I shall return”? I was talking to Papa about that just the other day. He told me that the day MacArthur returned, he cried like a little kid. Said he looked up at the sky and said “Thank you Lord”. While he was looking in the sky he said he saw more planes then he has ever seen at one time in his whole life. MacArthur returned and brought with him all the necessary means to get rid of the Japanese from the Philippines. In Tacloban, where Jun lives, there is a MacArthur Park and it has a replica of the landing of MacArthur in Leyte. It is a popular place for tourist to have their picture taken. Papa had a rough time during World War II. At one time, he even had a Japanese solider point a gun right at his head. He said he thought it was all over that day. He has been thankful for everyday since then. I think I will get a few more stories from Papa and post them here. He has been through quite a bit in his life and it would be nice to pass it on. Hopefully it will get more people to appreciate how lucky they are to have the life that they have, and not what he had to go through.
I hope I have better luck with the pictures today. Not sure what’s going on with that and my guru has been unable to help thus far. I don’t think it’d be much of a blog without new pictures every now and then. I keep trying, but it’s not working at all now. At least before I was getting it sometimes. Anyone got any ideas? I deleted the bookmark widget, it seemed useless to mark the page when all new stuff is put at the top of the blog anyway.
I did it. As you can see I FINALLY figured out how to get the pictures on the blog again. Actually it was thanks to my blog guru. Not a direct answer, but I got to thinking about a few of the things he said and it just clicked (finally). You can bet that that is something I will always remember.
I keep looking on the TV to try to find any NFL action, but there is just nothing there. Even if I have to watch it a day late, that’s okay, as long as I don’t know the outcome, it’d be the same to me. I’m impatient though, so I’ll probably look on NFL.com or ESPN.com to find the scores. Gotta know if my Cowboys are winning or losing. I don’t mind if they lose (I’d rather them win all their games though), as long as they played a good game. A game full of mistakes, is not a good game.
Today I will be talking about the last of the 2nd generation Apilado’s, Francisco Apilado (Titing). Now I don’t want to favor one over the other, but Titing is probably my favorite of all the 2nd generation Apilado’s. I call him Master T or sometimes just T. He is married to Jessybel (Neneng). She is my favorite of the cousins that married in to the Apilado family. Neneng and Titing live in the largest of the 3 homes behind us. Actually they were the first to have a home on this property. These 2 have helped us out more times than I can count. Of course we help them out too, but they have helped more than the rest of the family. It’s probably because they live so close. Still it’s no wonder that I think Neneng is the sweetest lady on the planet and Titing is the coolest dude that ever lived. Our life here has been made a lot easier having them around. Titing reminds me of my best friend back in Texas, Barry Wand (BJ), both of them are super nice and super cool. I probably never would have survived in Texas without the help of BJ, and the same thing is happening here in the Philippines with Titing. Titing and Neneng run Fran Jessy distribution, they distribute Pepsi products. They are the largest distributor in the area. I tell him that I prefer Coke over Pepsi because I think Pepsi is too sweet. His brother Mar told me that Coke is poison, I should only drink Pepsi. I drink Coke anyway, but I will drink quite a few Mountain Dew’s. Drinking a Mountain Dew now in fact. I think both Titing and Neneng try to do too much for other people. They say they enjoy it, but I’m going to be sure that they get a break from the normal, when we go to Cebu here in the near future. That whole “get away from it all” idea was mine and I did it mostly for them. End of Titing Apilado story.
Tagalog word of the day: nanay (nah-ni)(‘n’ short, ‘i’ long)(remember to say it fast) means mother.
Amparo (Bebie) showed up today. I figured she’d be here this weekend to see her new granddaughter. I showed her my blog and she seems to like it. It’s hard for me to tell with her sometimes. She seemed to be especially interested in the picture: The Oldest and The Youngest. Her father and her granddaughter.
It’s raining again. It has rained on and off almost all day. This is the 5th separate time it has started. It has rained a lot this week, but sometimes it doesn’t last very long. This time it’s been raining for about an hour, so far.
I got a good picture of Bebie for the blog. Canuto is not here or I’d have gotten a picture of them together. Maybe he will show up within the next couple of days. I still can not get a good picture of Chatty. No problem with Anna Pearl (older sister) she loves the camera and she was made for the camera. I’ll get the picture of Chatty someday, and I’ll post them both together.
Well time to close for the night. I went a little picture crazy already, but I will still post 2-4 more after this post. I want to be sure to get Bebie in here, and whatever other picture.
Salamat, Paalam