[smartads] There sure has not been a lot going on around here. I’m still trying to find worthy information to post for y’all. Of course I could continue to put the non-interesting stuff in there like the making of the stew, what time I got up, when I went to bed and some of the other boring things. Just like cooking a steak – For me, I’m trying to make the posts with more meat and less fat, because that’s how I like my steaks. Of course some people like the fat and don’t mind hearing all the little tidbits of chewy information. Also you have to have a little fat, because if you don’t, the meat is no good. Since it’s my website I’m going to try to continue making it the way I like it, unless I (the Cook Chef) starts making too many of the customers (that’s y’all) angry. Then I would have to adjust my cooking technique more to keep y’all happy. That turned out to be a nice analogy, didn’t it? I just thought that up after I started typing.
Hit Count: At 4:00pm on 23 Nov we had 1,668,007 hits. An increase of 27,818 in a 5 day period. That’s only a 5563.6 average so there must have been a slow day or 2 in there. It’s still a little over a 2 million hit year though so I can live with it. As long as people are finding what they are looking for, that’s good enough for me.
Lita said she needed to go outside to take care of the food selling for awhile because Vicky had an appointment, but she (Lita) had already put Casandra to sleep and didn’t want to wake her up or leave her alone on the bed. I can’t see her on the bed from the computer so Lita decided to make a bed for Casandra on the floor, where I can keep an eye on her until she wakes up. I do have to turn around to see her, but at least we don’t have to worry about her rolling off the bed and getting hurt. Cathy stopped by to check on her and she didn’t seem to mind. She even smiled about it. A lot of times Casandra falls asleep in her stroller and it looks like she is hurting her neck to me. She looks pretty comfortable where she is right now though. Here I got a picture of it:
- Casandra Sleeping on Floor
Oh and I got it wrong about Vicky having a meeting. Lita is out there helping her, but it’s because there will be 9 people showing up to eat soon and Lita needs to ‘help’ Vicky take care of them. It’s raining right now so I don’t know if those people will still show up, but we hope so. It’s been raining on and off pretty much all week, but it’s only Tuesday. I went out there to move a table next to the picnic table. I got a picture of that too. I decided to get a picture of the rain while I was out there so here are both of those pictures too. As you can see the concrete is wet because of the rain. We really need to put a roof over the rest of the area, but we need the money to do that. Until the rest of the bills get paid, we won’t be able to do much of anything. Starting in February we should be able to accelerate the payments on some of the few remaining bills. There are 9 bills left and 5 of those are less than P15,000 each, and the lowest 3 of those combined add up to only about P10,000. So we’re getting closer, we just have to suffer a little bit longer. After January we should be able to start getting things done, little by little.
Anyway, I don’t mean to ramble about our stupid bills. We’ll probably figure it out soon. Here are the pictures. As you can see in the second picture, we need to find a way to prevent puddles from developing in front of the house. I guess having the road evened out would do it, but I’ll leave that to the several family engineers to figure out. There are 2 or 3 of them that have Civil Engineer degrees, so I’ll submit to their educated opinions.
- Tables together for party of 9.
Tricycle in rain passing Ciriaco Hotel
I guess I should get on with what I have in my notes. Everything so far has been what is happening now as I sit here. Some of the 9 people are starting to show up now.
Oops! Casandra is awake. I need to bring her home to mama now. —Okay I’m back. She is such a quiet girl and sweet girl when she wants to be, but I guess most babies are. As I was approaching the screened in area, Precious announced to everyone around that I was coming. Cathy just put Casandra in the playpen, but she looked happy in there, especially since she can stand up by herself really good now. She walks from one end of the playpen to the other, just smiling the whole time.
All 9 of those workers are here now. There is a break in the rain, so it’s not so bad. I was worried that some of them might get wet, but it’s not a problem right now. I hope the rain will not begin again until they leave. Actually we have had enough rain for today, it can stop now. Lita said that she only wants for it to rain on Sunday’s. That way we would get the rain we need at times, and it would not interfere with the selling of the food, since we are closed on Sunday’s for the food part. If someone comes by to buy ice, ice candy or a soda, then we will still sell it to them. We do allow Vicky to have Sunday off and that gives Lita a day off too. Usually on Sunday either Jay or I will give out anything that people happen to stop by for.
- The Sweetest Lady in the World
It’s almost noon and I just realized that I haven’t eaten all day. I’m not even sure that there is anything in there that I like to eat. Since all these people are out there eating, maybe we can use a little bit of that money to buy me a piece of chicken, a potato and a carrot. I have some onions and peppers already. I don’t know what else to do to eat really. Oh I do have 1 1/2 slices of that American sliced cheese that Rick got for me in Tacloban. I can make 3 grilled cheese sandwiches with that since the bread we have is so small. We have the smaller bread because it’s the only one we can get right now without going all the way downtown to get it. I think I’ll save that though and make some more stew.
I’ve got some ‘maybe’ good news. Judith ‘may’ get an extension on the lease of the house she is living in. That’s good for her because it means that they can continue with their Joyous Eatery and they actually have a place to live instead of a big question mark. Of course we were hoping that she would move over here to run our restaurant, but we haven’t gotten the restaurant open yet and we still don’t have the money to do it. They won’t know for sure about the extension until next month though. If they do move over here, they will be living in a very much smaller house than they have now. Actually it would be about 1/4 the size. I assume that the food business here would increase a little bit though, since Judith has a lot of experience in the food area. Victor does work for Titing now, since Emei is gone, so maybe with everyone working in one area, it will improve things for everyone. Of course that also means there will be at least 5 extra people around here on a regular basis too. There is Judith, Victor, Juvic, Grace and of course Poppa that would now be residents here. It’s something not to worry about until it, if it happens. Which is something that I’m going to do … not worry about it.
- Precious crying – Casandra eating box
This morning when I turned the computer on the date and time was wrong on it. I wonder if the battery is getting low again. I’ve already bought one for it shortly after arriving here. I did open up the computer yesterday to clean out the dust. As it turns out there wasn’t much dust though. Just wondering if I did something, but I don’t think so. I clean it out often and this doesn’t happen. Oh well, I will see if it does the same thing tomorrow.
Well I never did get to those notes I have written down. I guess I can use some of them to put in the next post, but I do want to talk about a few of them right now.
- Lita & Precious at Tambis River
I decided to check my weight on Monday morning. I have been worried that I may be gaining weight. If I have then I was going to get myself back on track, so I won’t look like a blimp again. As it turns out thought, I actually lost 3.2 kilos since the last time I weighed in. Last time I was at 122.7 and this time it was 119.5. I was rather surprised and had to do it twice in different parts of the floor just to make sure that the scale was on even ground. But it said the same in both places, so I was happy with that.
On Sunday afternoon I shaved. Normally I don’t even bother mentioning this, unless I don’t have much to say, which is not the case today, but I mention it this time because I also shaved the hair under my lip. What some people would call as mustache. It’s not much of one anyway, but it’s enough for me. A regular mustache takes maintenance and I’m to lazy for that. Here’s a picture of that too.
- Me without mustache
New Viewing Country: We have had the 150th country to check out this website. This new country is: Mozambique Africa
http://s07.flagcounter.com/factbook/mz/056w
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique
http://www.mozambiqueafrica.net/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mozambique
- Angelo on the Pepsi-cycle
On Monday morning I got up early, before 0800, and as I walked outside, Vicky was stooped down scrapping cardboard off the concrete. It got wet and now it is almost embedded there. After I came out she got up to do something else, so I went into the house, got the long handled dust pan and scrapped the rest of it up myself. It took me less than 2 minutes to scrape it all up, but she was having a hard time. I hope she took note of that and will remember it next time.
Other Interesting Sites:
https://iris.custhelp.com/ (US Dept of Veteran’s Affairs – Customer Assistance)
http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_4789.html (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program -STEP) – When you register with this site, it will keep you up to date on all travel advisories for whichever country you specify. You can also register if you reside in a foreign country. Plus it has other useful information at the site.
http://www.fvap.gov/map.html (Website to assist you in Federal voting)
http://www.yourghoststories.com/ghost-stories-countries.php?country=PH&page=1 (Supposedly real ghost stories from readers in the Philippines)
- Gatorade and Water in Pepsi Warehouse
Salamat, Paalam
Today in Philippine History
16 NOVEMBER
1890 – Elpidio Quirino y Rivera, the future sixth officially recognized President of the Philippines, is born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur; a lawyer by profession, he would be elected as member of the Philippine House of Representatives before becoming senator during the American colonial era; Quirino would become the first Vice-President , before becoming the second President, of the Southeast Asian nation following the United States’ “granting” of Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946; Quirino would serve as President as a widower, with her surviving eldest daughter, Vicky, serving as official hostess and performing the traditional functions of the First Lady.
1898 – This day’s issue of the La Independencia, the official organ of the fledgling Philippine Republic, carries a story about rifle arms shipment from Japan that landed at Naic, Cavite the past month; La Independencia was established by Gen. Antonio Luna some two months earlier during the second phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain when the Filipino revolutionaries already declared independence on June 12, 1898 after having defeated the Spanish colonizers in most parts of the archipelago, but with Spain and the emerging 20th century imperialist nation, the United States, having staged in August the infamous Mock Battle of Manila where the two powers falsely made it appear before the world that the Spaniards were overcame not by the Filipinos but by the Americans.
1904 – The American colonial government establishes the Iwahig Penal Colony, orignally name Iuhuit Penal settlement, through the imperialist body Philippine Commission [translation: United States colonial commission to help colonize the Philippines]; the establishment of the Iwahig colony comes nearly six years into the protracted and bloody Philippine-American War (1899 – 1914) but more than three years after the United States President falsely declared the end of the conflict.
17 NOVEMBER
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| Gen-en-Geje Martin T. Delgado |
18 NOVEMBER
1848 – Trinidad Tecson y Perez, future Filipina revolutionary (“Henerala Ningning”) and Red Cross organizer, is born at San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulacan; Tecson would become an active member of Logia de Adapcion, the women’s masonic lodge of the Philippines, and later be initiated into the women’s chapter of the secret, pro-independence society, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK); as the Revolution against Spain breaks out, she would fight with fellow Filipino Katipuneros in twelve battles under five generals, including Gen. Francisco Makabulos, gen. Isidoro Torres, and Gen. Mariano Llanera; under the period of imperialist American Occupation, Tecson would be the first Filipina to organize the Red Cross, eventually being dubbed the “Mother of Philippine Red Cross.”
Photo credit: http://www.bulacan.gov.ph/generalinfo/hero.php?id=44
