Happy Graduation Day, Sandra!

Friday was Cassandra's Graduation Day from Elementary. Here's a photo taken outside of the auditorium.

The nice thing about Sandra's school, La Consolacion College, is that they don't require a special attire like a toga for graduation. However, they do ask the graduates to wear the long-sleeved white blouse instead of the short-sleeved blouse that the elementary students wear. This is in addition to the regular blue skirt. The long-sleeved white blouse is what the high school students wear.


Happy Graduation Day, Che!

Last Thursday afternoon was Celeste's Graduation day from High School. Earlier, Renz had an award (Special Academic Award) in his school's Recognition Day.


Last Anti-Rabies Shot for Renz

After 4 sessions and 11 injections, Renz finally "graduated" from his shots at the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine or RITM in Alabang last Wednesday. Renz was bitten (scratched, is more like it) by Poochie a few weeks ago prior to Poochie's anti-rabies injection.

How did it happen? Well, Poochie was eating by the door (not her usual place) when Renz stepped outside. Renz's putting on his slippers somehow startled Poochie and grazed Renz's foot with her mouth.


Other than Renz, it was only Che who had a case of dog bite and required injections at RITM. This was when she was around 2 or 3 and we went biking together. I didn't think our dog Poochie had rabies at all as she's always inside our yard. But of course, we just didn't want to take any chances. And fortunately, Renz was mostly cool with the injections.



Richard Gutierrez as Zorro?

With the highly-touted launching and big media event, this is all in the papers and TV. And this one quite surprised me. A pretty-boy Amboy like Richard Gutierrez to play Zorro? I’ve been a fan of Zorro especially with the role played by Antonio Banderas in “The Mask of Zorro” (shown in photo). Now THAT’s Zorro!

He’s got the “brusko” image to pull it off. I think he’s simply the best. I suppose the Spanish blood in him is a factor. Richard Gutierrez pales (literally as in really 'pale') and looks pussy-wuss by comparison.

Itlog Ti Abuos

Last week, my mother-in-law came from her home province of Ilocos Norte and brought this, among the usual pasalubongs.

And "usual", this is not. These are ant eggs and this dish is considered a delicacy among Ilocanos. Locally, these giant ants are called "hantik" while Ilocanos call them "buos" or "abuos". Hey, did you know that the Thais also have a dish made of the giant ants? Anyway this number of eggs already costs around Php200.


Could be a Dane

A former co-worker, Anthony, emailed yesterday that the dog I pointed out in the previous entry could be a Great Dane and attached a photo:

Hi, I think the dog might be a Great Dane. The dog "Scooby Doo" in the cartoon is actually a Great Dane. Is this how the dog looks like? Some of these dogs' ears can be altered so they appear to stand straight:

Great Dane (Deutsche Dogge, German Mastiff)



I think he's right. Although the dog isn't as young as the dog in the photo above, its long hind legs sure reminded me of Scooby's.



Anti-Rabies Vaccination Day for Dogs

Today was the vaccination day for the neighborhood dogs. We've been anticipating this coz it's Poochie's first time to be vaccinated at 8 months. I believe this is a yearly project spearheaded by Dr. Pam Hernandez, our architect's veterinarian-daughter who works at Muntinlupa City Hall. For just Php50, a dog gets vaccinated and is good for a year.

Quite a lot turned up for today. Luckily we were listed at number 15. That's Toto in the blue shirt under the tent administering the injections. There were dogs of all breeds and sizes. Most had leashes and some were carried. Some owners came with small dogs in pet cages. I even mistook a small dog for a cat.


Irene’s Birthday 2009

It's Irene's birthday today.

She's got this really nice boyish haircut for summer. The card she's holding was hand-drawn by Renz. Yup, Renz was just excited giving it to her.

It's the first birthday celebration in the new house. And since we now have a table were we're seated around, I plan to take a picture of the birthday celebrant WHERE he or she is seated. The rest can pose beside or behind her.

Karen was out practicing for a dance project.


Inhaled Pool Water

It's been more than a week already and I'm still recovering from this phlegm that I felt was the result of the hockey sessions. See, I wasn't able to clear the snorkel as effectively as I wanted and so I managed to choke on pool water a few times. I suspect it was my technique or the snorkel was ill-fitting (yeah, blame it on the snorkel).

The soreness on both my insteps/front of ankles has mostly disappeared. Ugh, it was really tough walking last week. I suppose it was the lack of stretching and the hard finning thereafter that caused the soreness. I also suspect I had ill-fitting fins which I though were loose. They were not only loose, they seem too long and heavy. The length roughly reached my mid-thigh from the ground! (yeah, blame it on the fins).



Renz’s Extreme Sports

Renz on the flying mattress with Karen powering the wave "motor" underneath.


Intro to Underwater Hockey

With so much time in my hands nowadays, I readily accepted an invite from a co-Toastmaster, Violet, to attend an “Intro to Underwater Hockey” session at the Manila Polo Club.

There were 2 sessions offered: March 7 and 14 and we chose the former. For a pool fee of Php200, I even got to borrow gear (fins, mask and snorkel) for free!

We hitched with UH Coach Gigi Santos from Festival mall en route to the Manila Polo Club in Makati along McKinley Road. I’ve never been to that place and so I didn’t take the car. The introduction session was from 1 to 5 pm.

I was 5th to register and immediately went to the gear area. I’m glad I registered early coz there wasn’t enough gear for all and so I was included in the first batch. After suiting up, we tried our gear in the water. Here’s me with my back to the camera.