Candy Cane Lane in Torrance

We drove by "the neighborhood by Kahlil's elementary school" a few nights ago - it's called Candy Cane Lane. At this neighborhood, during the holiday season, every house has Christmas lights. Some of the decorations are just INSANE. Here's a picture of a humongous Jack Skelington that one house had:

It's as tall as the tree!

There were people selling hot cocoa and there was a house with a projector playing a movie. There were groups of people on bikes and with golf carts. I was AMAZED! I'm not kidding when I say that every house had lights. If you ever get the chance next year, check it out!! It's in Torrance if you drive past Seaside Elementary, near Calle Mayor and PCH.

How I Spent My Christmas...

CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER AT LA HABRA
We went to Uncle Ruben and Auntie Thelma's house for dinner. Throughout the night Andrew, Cindy's boyfriend, kept saying "Champayne" really loud in this weird, funny accent. No, he wasn't drunk. He just kept saying it, and now I can't stop saying it.

We ate a combination of filipino and italian food - grilled chicken from Chow King, pancit palabok and lumpia, two different types of pastas and lots of garlic bread.

After we ate, Dan brought out guitar hero and we all rocked on. To my surprise, Ronald (the attorney, haha) enjoyed singing the most. Auntie Thelma sang too (I will never forget the time she played Wii Sports Boxing) and Cindy enjoyed playing bass. After a few songs, we stopped playing to allow the adults to karaoke. And after a few glasses of CHAMPAYNE and some good laughs, we headed home.

Look at their beautiful Christmas tree.
Now look at the ornament Andrew hid on the tree. Auntie Thelma got so mad when she found it. haha.




Daisy didn't want to play with them. =(


CHRISTMAS DAY AT COTO DE CAZA
We went to Tito Melvin and Tita Glory's house for Christmas this year. (You know... I recently noticed that I only say Tito/Tita with "The Clan" and not with my other Uncles and Aunts. Is that weird?) There was a lot of good food - a different menu for lunch and dinner.

We watched the Lakers kick some Celtic butt! It was a very intense and entertaining game. When the game finished, I texted my friends who are fellow Laker fans because I was so happy!

Then we watched Eight Below, I forgot how sad that movie was. It made me miss my doggies.

Shortly after the movie, Mama Perla almost burnt the house down. HAHA! She was talking about fruit salad, then suddenly her scarf caught on fire by one of the candles. Tita Susan started to laugh hysterically... it was funny. Don't worry Mama is fine, her scarf, on the other hand, is not.

After the movie, we did our White Elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun. If only I saw Mark's (Mendoza, haha) face after he opened his gift. He thought he only got a hot dog holder!

Right after the game, we were rushed to pack up and leave for home. I hate when that happens.

But overall... I had a GREAT Christmas. I couldn't ask for more.

Furusato/Gerry's Grill

I've been OUT OF CONTROL!
I've been eating and eating and eating like craaaaazy!

On Saturday we ate at Furusato, my favorite Korean BBQ buffet restaurant.
I was in HEAVEN! Mark and I were able to finish a plate and a half of the brisket.
I can't believe we used to go once a week!!! Could you believe that once we were able to finish 4 big plates of brisket?!


Then... on Sunday we went to Gerry's Grill - a filipino restaurant in Cerritos. I don't normally like filipino restaurants, but this place is GOOD! We ordered things that my mom wouldn't usually cook at home: crispy pata, kilawin, sisig, palabok, and four bowls of garlic rice.



I had a food coma after leaving both restaurants, that just means that I left completely satisfied.

Sleep Deprived..

..because it's FINALS WEEK!
i just want this week to be OVER!

IDIOT GUY!

This article made me mad.
Porter and Vick = idiots

Porter on Vick: 'All it was was dogs'

Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter commented on the possible reinstatement of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and, as usual, Porter shot right from the lip, according to a report on EPSN.com. Vick was convicted for his role in a dogfighting ring and is serving time in a Kansas federal prison. He's scheduled to be released next summer.

"He's already been punished enough," said Porter (referring to Vick's possible reinstatement after serving his sentence), who owns a pair of pit bulls and a Maltese. "They gave him his penalty. He paid his penalty. What else should they do to him now?

"All it was was dogs. They act like they don't even like pit bulls anyway. That's the funny thing about it if you want to get back on that topic. I got pit bulls, I got to put them under a different breed just to travel. So you can't even fly pit bulls nowhere.

"It's a breed they don't care about. It's not like he was fighting cocker spaniels or something that they like. They don't really care too much about pit bulls."

Profootballtalk.com reported that Porter let his pitbull loose and it killed a miniature horse.

Source: ESPN.com

Pacquiao FTW!

Being a huge fan of Manny Pacquiao all I can say is, "HELL YEEEAAHHHH!!" I was nervous before the fight because I watched every episode of 24/7 (a 4-episode HBO special that followed the training of both fighters every week before the fight) and De la Hoya was in great condition. I read articles saying that this fight was in favor of De la Hoya.
Ohhhh man... I feel so relieved now. ...I want a Pacquiao shirt! hehe.

-----------------------------------------------------

We went to Uncle Eddie's house to watch the fight.
It's been a while since I've seen the Baldonado clan. It was good seeing them again. They provided a good atmosphere to watch the fight. The ladies, along with Lola Perla, screaming in the back and the uncles quietly but nervously watching. Good times. =)

Cousin Andrew wondering where the other kids are:


We found out a few days prior to this event that cousin Ronald passed the bar exam. It was my first time seeing him after we heard the great news. Once he arrived everyone was greeting him and saying, "the lawyer is here!" We're all very proud of him. Even I brag about him.

As usual, the ladies played several games of mahjong.
Here's a pic of Lola Perla playing:


Lolo Joe brought guavas from his tree at home. He ALWAYS has GIGANTIC guavas. I was only able to finish half of mine.
Here's a picture of one of them:

Fight Night

The nervousness is kicking in.

Black Friday

Went to Target with Mark, Dan, Julie, and Elisha. The store opened at 6am. We arrived there at 5:15am and here was how the line looked...
The people in front of us:

The people behind us:

CRAZY, huh?

I bought the One Tree Hill season 5 and Madagascar DVDs. I also bought Dan's xmas gift... a Wii game. I saved a lot of money!

My Black Friday experience wasn't so bad... compared to last year at least. I don't even want to talk about last year. No good.

Thanksgiving

I definitely enjoyed my Thanksgiving!

being with the fam bam + lots of good food + guitar hero + dancing with
my mom = a good time!

Lakers vs Nuggets

Nuggets 90
Lakers 104

I knew the game was over after the first quarter. =p
I had such a GREAT time! Being in the Staples Center, being surrounded by all the Laker fans, and just the thought that the players are right there.... it was amazing.
I wasn't as crazy as I would get when I watch the game at home - yelling, being a potty mouth, and jumping up and down - I was good. Although, I did make sure to boo Carmello Anthony for Elisha.

There were a few celebrities there: George Lopez, Spike Lee, Adam Levine (the lead singer of Maroon 5), and Zac Efron. I took pictures of the back of their heads. HAHA! I was a little disappointed Jack Nicholson wasn't there.

We didn't get our tacos. I didn't know where to go to get the coupon that we could redeem at Jack in the Box. Oh well... it was fun just chanting, "WE WANT TACOS!"

After the game, we went to In-n-Out. I had a hamburger, animal style... YUMM! I can't remember the last time I had one of those. I savored it!

(The 3 cups of ketchup were all for Mark. Sure enough, he finished all of it.)

Thank You Albertsons!

I usually go to Chevron to fill up on gas. The problem is that I would usually have to travel 3-5 miles to the closest Chevron station. Today, I really didn't feel like making the effort of driving there especially during rush hour. So, I decided to go to the Albertson's gas station which is pretty much down the street. I was expecting to pay $2.19/gallon for regular, but I saw this wonderful, glorious sign at the pump:

Every time I fill up I only put in $10 but today I took advantage of the fact that gas was under $2, so I filled up my tank.

Usually, I can get a full tank with $30... but not today! I haven't seen the needle on "F" in months! Thank you Albertsons! =D

EARLY Christmas Present

My first Laker game! Woo hoo! ^-^
Thanks Mark!!

Club Lit

I was a drunkard last night. =p



I wasn't planning to go, but then I listened to the voicemail Oget, Nel, and Joe left me. All for you, Oget!

Puppies for Sale!!

No, they're not from Chanel or Neela. hehehe

My friend has these three puppies for sale.
They're mixed: Shih tzu, Pug, Chihuahua.
I got Neela from this litter.
If you or anyone you know may be interested,
PLEASE let me know.

What a historic night!

Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become the
44th and first black president of the United States.

Pizza with KETCHUP?!

Apparently in the Philippines, the folks there eat their pizzas with ketchup. Is this true? Or do I just have a strange boyfriend? =p

Happy Halloween!

I didn't feel like doing much this Halloween. While everyone was out partying and whatnot, I stayed home and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We didn't get much kids this year which was strange. This year we bought $10 worth of candy and we weren't able to give them all away. We used to get A LOT of trick-or-treaters. It's unbelievable, we would get groups of 5-10 kids and they would come one group after the other. My mom would usually have to buy 50-70 dollars worth of candy! Can you believe that?!

I enjoyed being the official candy passer-outer. I enjoyed seeing all the kids with their cute costumes, with their parents taking pictures and video taping them. If I had known that there would be picture taking, I would have beautified myself instead of wearing para balay (ilocano: "for home") clothes. Oh well...

Chanel & Neela: looking out for trick-or-treaters


After passing out candy, we went to Elisha and Colleen's house. We ate Costco pizza (the best pizza, ever!) and we played Guitar Hero: World Tour. That game is awesome! My favorite part was Andrew's vocal talent with Coldplay's Shiver. Haha, "shiveeeerrrr."

What would you do?

....if you knew someone was bad but this person is also the best friend of someone you deeply care about.

I really need help with this one guys.

Neela???

HAHAHA! No, it's just Dan's Pedro wig.
I was fooled. Dan left it on the floor and I really thought it was Neela.

HAPPY 1st BDAY, CELESTE!

Yesterday, we went to Princess Celeste's birthday celebration. =)
It was held at Awakenings Coffee House in Lomita. It was a lot of fun!
Since her birthday falls close to Halloween, they asked everyone to dress up. Dan, Elisha, and Andrew went as the characters from Napoleon Dynamite. I went as the Mad Hatter and Julie was the white phantom.

Color Me Mine

We went to Color Me Mine last Sunday.
I made a penguin bowl and Dan painted Mario on a plate.
Color Me Mine = Mucho fun!! =)

Curve balls

You never know when life will throw you a curve ball.
Well, on Tuesday, we were thrown a fast one.

Last night, I had trouble sleeping because I kept thinking about the past couple of years. I thought about the different events that lead us to be in this situation today. I kept thinking about the "if onlys" -- If only I knew what was really going on. If I knew, maybe I could have helped prevent this. I thought about the many different things that could have been done and the things that should have never happened. But, I was eventually able to accept the past as past. I figured, you can't control everything and it's never too late to get involved.

Although I feel uncomfortable revealing the nature of my family's problem here... I just feel like this - blogging about it - is a good way to reassure myself that, in the end, things will be okay. It's not the end of the world. We have many options; there are many things we can do. It truly helps to know that I have family and friends I can always count on during times like these; I am truly blessed for having all of you a part of my life. Just pray for us, pray that me and my family can overcome this hurdle and get back on our feet.

Losing Weight: Update

I'm STUCK at 160!
GAHHHHHH!

hahaha.
No worries, just need to work harder.

Islands

Went to Islands today. I think the last time I went there was when I was a junior in high school. I remember going there almost every week after watching a movie at AMC Rolling Hills.
I didn't have much money then, so every time I would only order the small bowl of tortilla soup and maybe share cheddar fries with a group of friends. ...Brings back memories. =D

One memorable event happened there when I was a freshmen. I was with my friends and after we ate, we discovered that we didn't have much money left for tip. We were looking under the table hoping to find change. One friend walked around the restaurant scavenging for coins. hahaha. After we put all our money together, we only came up with a dollar and 75 cents. So, one of my friends folded a dollar into a heart and left a note apologizing to the waitress. I felt bad because we were a group of 6 and I think we were giving her a hard time. Poor waitress. I bet she hates kids now... just kidding.

Oh, this was Mark's first time to Islands. He liked it!
I was a little disappointed though... Mr. Sauce-lover didn't finish the bottle of ketchup. He still used a lot, A LOT of ketchup on his fries. Well, he did finish 2 cups of BBQ sauce. So... I guess that made up for it. hehehe

The Mega-rita... Revisited

So, when we got home from Gameworks that one night, Mark recorded me.



...that stupid Megarita!

Went on a Date Last Night...

Mark and I had dinner and watched a movie.

We went to Chabuya and had some ramen, ita-meshi, fried octopus, pork with kimchee, and we shared a large bottle of Sapporo.
Doesn't exactly fit my diet, but it was YUMMY! =]



Just means I need have a longer session of DDR today. YES!!



After Chabuya, I eased my food coma as we watched
Eagle Eye at AMC Del Amo.
That was a pretty intense movie. Very entertaining.