Gassed Again!

Well, looks like they do it on both routes... It doesn't make me feel any better about being a victim of chemical warfare.

Fish dilemma

Oh dear, I haven't been doing a good job at all with taking care of our tiny little pets. P does all of the water monitoring making sure the pH levels are all good and that the aquarium is all clean for them and since he is gone I am left with the responsibility of doing it. However, I am not doing a good job at all. One fish is dying every other day and now I am left with only two of the tiger barbs that P likes the most....yikes! I did finally measure the pH, nitrites and ammonia levels last night and they all were normal which makes it more difficult for me to figure out what is killing the barbs. We have a zebra loach, 4 red danio's and 5 tiger barbs. All mostly from the Southeast Asia other than the loach which is South Asia. Anyway, P doesn't get home til tomorrow night and I am sure he would be so tired and wouldn't want to deal with the Aquarium so now I have to figure out a way on how to resolve my fish issues or else there will be no more tiger barbs left by the end of the week...yikes again! Oh, I am horrible with taking care of pets...guess that is a warning. I can handle cats though.

Anyway, I should probably go and research how to take care of the fish instead of just worrying and panicking about it. Ah, P is not going to be happy ---

What I miss from the Philippines

My sister sent some pictures of them from Christmas and New Year recently. So, I just thought I'd share some of the pictures here so you can get a glimpse of how my family celebrate Christmas and New Year in the Philippines.

The food : We always have pork or chicken barbecue's, buko salad (coconut meat mixed with other tropical fruits in sweetened condensed milk - now that's sweet!), charcoal grilled seafood and veggies, and shell fish.

For New Year: We always have the 12 varieties of round fruits, and lots and lots of sweet traditional cakes and delicacies. Mom always hung grapes above all of our windows and doors - she believes it brings in prosperity. We too place coins on our window sills again to encourage more success and good fortune.Decoration: We do have Christmas tree - not living tree though. We have a "parol" which is the Christmas star. Sorry no pix! It is basically a star made out of bamboo and is loaded with Christmas light of all colors, it is placed normally by our windows or front door.

Festivities: We open presents on Christmas day, that is after we come back from midnight mass which is actually not at midnight but at 11PM...thus we open presents at around 12midnight . the youngest mostly opens the presents first since they are the ones who has the most...so we are normally just excited to see how they react. On Christmas day,we all get together at Grandma's house and have a potluck all day or night long...
On New Year's day, we meet the new year with lots of noise and tons of sparkles. Everybody should be awake at midnight and all the kids are told to jump as high as they could so they'll grow more - (hmmm I should have jumped more!) and our parents give us new bills and tons of coins as our New years money. This is the day when you are suppose to behave the best since my Mom believes that whatever we do on New years day reflects on how we might behave all year through - huh? That never made sense to me but for some reason it did stick in my mind to be nice and behave well on New years day. I guess that is the one day I can guarantee that I'd be nice! Then on the 1st day of January, we go to church and head straight to the beach to take a plunge and cleanse ourselves from the old year and meet the new year - refreshed!


Here's my family after church on Christmas eve...my sister Rhiza is taller than my sister Maybel now. I guess she jumped more or higher than Maybel on New year's day when she was young...ha ha.

Bangalore, shmangalore...

OK, despite the best efforts of the airlines, I managed to make it to Bangalore.

It all started with the shmucks at PDX and Alaska Airlines making me stand in the long line for no apparent reason other than they had made up their minds as to where I should be waiting. After nearly missing my initial flight, I arrive in LAX only to be given ambiguous assessments as to whether or not I would make my connection to Paris through Cincinnati. Guess what, I got to spend the night in Cinci... Next day, my flight took off late and I "feared" I would get stuck in Paris, but it was not to be. Two takeaways, LAX SUX and CDG Paris is a close second...

All that said, the final flight to Bangalore had some "interesting" aspects. The flight began with and explanation about how they were going to spray the inside of the plane with insect repellent. It came with an "don't worry, it's not bad for you, the passenger". Immediately after the announcement, here comes the stewardesses down both aisles, a can in each hand spewing tons of bug killer into the cabin. I wonder if Kevin and Mike had the same experience... I'll try to get it on video if they do it on my return flight.

The next interesting part was the flight plan. It started out ok by flying over the Alps, but then we got a good section of Turkey and here's where it got dicey, with us flying over Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. It's very comforting when the map shows your plane right over the top of Mosul... thankfully, I was able to sleep through most of that as to not drive me paranoid.

Anyway, I fly out to Hyderabad tomorrow. Quick summary, I agree with Allen, they use their horns way too much here, the food kicks butt, the people are super nice, and man are the hotels expensive!

-P

Halfway there?

Well, P left early morning yesterday for his trip to India. His first stop was LAX, he made it there on time but had some trouble in and around the airport getting to his flight for CVG. When he was checking in for the Cincinnati-Paris flight, he found out that it is delayed for about 2 hrs. It was pretty obvious that he would miss his flight to Paris at that point but was told that they will try to "make up time" in the air for that connection. In the end, they didn't make it for the Paris connection and so, he is still in the US either at the Holiday Inn or at the airport in Cincinnati as of now. His flight to Paris doesn't leave until around 7PM tonight. Then from Paris to Bangalore, India. I am sure he would have preferred being stuck in Paris for a day rather than in Cincinnati which is possible too since he's only got about an hour lay over to make it for his flight to India as well, so we'll see.

He was pretty exhausted when he got in to Cincinnati last night, he was dragged all over the place at the LAX airport...so LAX is not his favorite airport as of now. I hope his flight tonight goes better...

As for me and J, we're alright. I wasn't able to sleep well last night. I unfortunately had my evil thoughts turned on brought about by news watching...so I freaked myself out all night. I then, ended up spending the night planning and preparing for the "what if's". In the end, I had my big sturdy flash light, my purse and keys handy, slept in my sweater even if I was so hot and had shoes ready for both me and J. The thought was if a burglar come in, I'll just outrun them and drive off since the garage door is next to our bedroom...ah crazy thoughts! I am actually contemplating on taking some self defense classes soon as well as shooting lessons for self defense in the future...ha ha!

In Case You Want

to get a hold of me over the next couple of weeks, I'll be here or there. I'll let you know of any other places when I become apprised of the information!

-P

Family fun

J tried bowling for the first time on New Year's eve and you bet he had fun. He and I enjoyed the cosmic effect too but not P since it bugs him. Still we all had fun. It was a good way to end the year and it'll be something we'll probably do often in the months to come.

Where's PETA when you need'em

Now this is over the top.

PETA should go fix that and quit harassing researchers...

-P

OK, I'll bite...

I have my own personal Nigerian scam artist on the hook. I would post the text, but then he could google it. That said, apparently I can be the heir of a guy from South Carolina who died of Pneumonia in Instanbul Turkey for the small price of a notarized photo copy of my drivers license. The claim is that "all attempt to contact any of his relatives proved abortive", whatever that means...

P.S. For those reading, please don't tell anyone. Even though this is all above board, we shouldn't be talking about it openly... Don't worry scumbag, your secret is safe with me.