Spike Me! Volleyballers Serve Up Hotness in Portland

I missed out on this one over the NAGVA Portland Championships on Memorial Day weekend. But im glad theres Facebook and other sources to catch up on what I miss.

Some of the people i know from the Pacific Northwest signed up including my Poppa Twinky and im so proud of them!

Check on the link and enjoy!!!

Spike Me! Volleyballers Serve Up Hotness in Portland

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ChaCha

Family Chat

Last night I had a chance to chat with my 3 sisters back home with all my nieces and nephew. It's been awhile since I've talked to all of them together.

Since my moms sisters move to Canada, my moms side of the family always had a "family chat" over the weekends, Friday nights in North America and after lunch on a Saturday in the Philippines considering the time difference and all.

This time it was just our family. I got home after a day at the park to watch my volleyball friends play an outdoors grass tournament down in Coulon Park. I was never a fan of outdoors volleyball, or should I say I used to be. I injured my right ankle years ago and since then I just play for fun and not competitively. It was good to see everybody in a different setting besides indoors volleyball while sharing some drinks and laughs.
Anyway, I was supposed to just freshen up and change when I got home but thought of stopping by my parents' apartment which is across the hall from me (about 3 steps away from my doorsteps literally). Upon opening the door, I saw my dad making food while my mom and brother was by the dining table with my moms netbook and my dads laptop. Why two you ask? They were using my dads laptop for YM! and mom moms netbook for Skype, both with webcams on. I guess my sisters was doing the same coz we had two different screens while watching them as well.


I immediately saw my sister Drei, Ate (pronounced as at-eh meaning older sister) Drei as I call her growing up. We barely text or call each other but if we have a chance we chit chat a bit. First thing I heard was about a pledge in August. She is 7 months pregnant and already has 2 girls and this time she is having a boy. I'll be a godparent to her baby boy and I'm super excited. I immediately laughed and said "I'm broke, I have nothing to pledge". Haha!
I probably talked the longest with my eldest niece Nicole last night. I can't believe she is 11 now. Before I left the Philippines, she is this tiny (well not so tiny) lil gurl that would run to me whenever I get home from school. She'd give me kisses and tons of it. I would tell her "yokyok" and she would raise her hand and show her armpits. I don't remember how that started but she would have a huge smile on her face anticipating what's gonna happen and u would tickle her armpits and she had one of adorable laugh that can just make anyone smile. A year or so ago I saw her chatting with mom and I jumped in and told her "yokyok". My mom then told me that she get embarassed now coz according to her, she is a big girl now.
Last night my mom and I asked her to sing for us since she told us that she will be focusing on singing this time rather than playing volleyball like the rest of us did. Nicole and her sister Carla would sing for us and bribe them with Barbie dolls, this time around it didn't work. I asked myself, hmmm, whatelse can I bribe them. My third niece who is my goddaughter went in the room and u tried to ask her sing... of course with a bribe. I suddenly thought of my $ on my small wallet, five $1s to be exact. My third sister Ate Lai took advantage of the opportunity since I haven't really had a chance to send anything to her and she immediately started singing some kids tunes. She had this very tiny voice and it was so adorable.
Nicole went back to the room where everybody was loudly cheering after Julias song. All of a sudden she wanted to sing. We requested our once favorite song that she used to sing, "Hawak Kamay" by Yeng Constantino.


I'm so excited for her to go to her singing lessons. Her voice has matured so much since the last time I heard her sing. And yes she got $20 from this performance courtesy of his grandpa Lolo Abu.
I made the right decision staying in. It's been awhile since I really had "family time", it was great to see my sisters together. Somewhere along the chat, Ate Drei asked me if I'm going home next year on Febuary. Itnmade me think but naturally I jokingly answered "I have no money" haha! Ok maybe I wasn't joking, that reason and not enough vacation hours for work. It made me definitely think though. Maybe it's time to visit home. I miss my sisters company, I miss our laughs and our stupid jokes. I miss our bickering growing up that makes me laugh now when I think about it. I can't wait to give me nieces Nicole an Carla big hugs and maybe try and see if I can lure them on doing "yokyok" again. I can't wait to meet my two younger nieces from my third sister, Julia and Justin. And i can't wait to hold our familys lil angel, Angelo who's been really strong with all his operations for the past months for his cleft pallet, atta boy! And of course carry the new lil baby of my second sister.


We ended up chatting with them til 3am. Thata how you know it's good times and how I missed all of them. Looking forward for next time!

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ChaCha
- Posted using BlogPress from my ChaCha iPhone

Letters to Juliet

Yes it's a chick flick which Poppa and I LOVE.

The story was about an American girl who went to Italy with her fiancé for a pre honeymoon trip which ended up just with her looking what the city has to offer. On her adventure, she finds this place where women rights letters to Juliet and posts it in a wall called Verona yard. Then she met the Secretaries of Juliet who responds to the letters to these women to give them hope and advice.

On the day that she helped on collecting the letters, she stumbled on a hidden letter behind the brick wall which was written 50 years ago. Then she decided to respond back. The one and only letter she responded to and that's where her adventure started.

She met Charlie who barked at her for responding to her grandmothers letter. You would say that Sophie has always been a hopeless romantic. She responded to the letter from her heart and totally embraced being a Juliet. She then met Claire, the lady who wrote a letter to Juliet 50 years ago who never got a response. Upon meeting her, she wanted to help Claire finding his Lorenzo, the guy that she was supposed to marry ages ago.

What if you had a second chance to find true love?

That was the movie tag line. The movie can be as cheesy as it can be but then I thought about it and agreed to it's plot. People might say that you only find one true love. It will hunt you if you let it go and it will come back to you if it is written on your destiny.

After meeting a lot of Lorenzo's, Claire, Charlie and Sophie finally found the real one. The one that she can stare in the eye and would know it was him even from within. Along the way, Charlie and Sophie started liking each other. With the absence of Sophies fiancé she found love. Somebody that understood her even in the harshest way. Somebody who who listened to her deepest thoughts. The ending became cheesy with Sophie leaving the fiancé when they went back to America. Sophie went to Claire and Lorenzo's wedding and of course, hoping it was never to late for her and Charlie. They ended up with Sophie standing in the balcony and Charlie just proposing his love to her. (Romeo and Juliet much? Haha!)

Is there ever a chance to to find one true love the second time around? Is there ever a chance for people to find their happiness even if it's 50 years later. The movie simply tells us that if you think you found your one true love, never let it go. Don't let it walk away from you and questions yourself for the rest of your life.

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- Posted using BlogPress from my ChaCha iPhone

Pagdiriwang 2010

I don't normally do any touristy stuff in Seattle but when I do, it's normally because I have out of town friends. Last weekend, friends from Portland decided to drive up to chill after a crazy weekend in Championships down in their hometown.


It was perfect timing as well that it was the Pagiriwang (celebration) of the Philippine Independence at Seattle Center. So I told them about I and of course, if there's food, the Ohana will be there.



All I'm looking forward to are the Filipino food. Eventhough I was just there Monday when I got back from Portland with Daddy.



When there's events like this, the first thing I look for is Espi's BBQ. Together with some sloppy Pansit (Filipino Chow Mein), their BBQ Pork is just amazing and has tons of flavor. Your Filipino meal won't be complete not unless you get some Lumpia. I couldnt resist but to buy extra Lumpias, being the big girl that I am. Haha!!!


Everybody found a spot by the grass and it had the perfect view of the Space Needle. Being the ChaCharazzi that I am, I snapped couple of pictures of my friends with the Space Needle as the background. I should have remembered this spot coz Daddy and I had a hard time taking pictures of the two of us with the Space Needle in it.


Here's Louis posing with the infamous Adidas D1 ball that we used in Championships. We were laughing coz we said that it will be a non volleyball weekend but somehow everybody had the itch and Bubba had to get this ball so that we can pepper a lil.



Heres my Chics leaning over the Space Needle. The picture actually came out good and its one of my favorites.


I had to put some sass and have a picture as well. Sporting the signature broken elbow pose and everyone favorite poutty lips.



Halo-halo (from Tagalog word halò, "mix") is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl.There is no specific recipe for this dessert, and a wide variety of ingredients are used. The order in which the ingredients are added varies widely. Primary ingredients generally include boiled red mung beans (munggó), kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains caramelized in sugar. Other components may include jackfruit (langkâ), star apple, tapioca or sago, nata de coco, purple yam (ube) or sweet potato (kamote), sweetened corn kernels or pounded crushed young rice (pinipig), leche flan or custard, ice cream and gelatin. Other fruits, such as papayas, avocados, kiwifruit, bananas or cherries, may also be added. Some preparations also include ice cream on top of the halo-halo.
Generally, condensed milk or evaporated milk is used instead of fresh milk, due to the tropical climate of the Philippines.
In terms of arrangement, most of the ingredients (fruits, beans, and other sweets) are first placed inside the tall glass, followed by the shaved ice. This is then sprinkled with sugar, and topped with either (or a combination of) leche flan, ube halaya, or ice cream. Condensed or evaporated milk is poured into the mixture upon serving.
The dessert exemplifies the "east-meets-west" culture in the Philippines, with the ingredients used coming from a wide variety of influences (to cite some examples: red mung beans which are from the Chinese, garbanzos from the Indians, leche flan from the Spaniards, and shaved ice itself, which was introduced to the islands by the Americans). (via wiki)

It is not a full Filipino meal on this kind of events and this just completes the hole thing. I was so excited for dessert and get some Halo-Halo. I was waiting for Allan to get done eating so we can buy one and fix our cravings. I didn't know almost everyone had the same craving and it ended up looking like a Halo-Halo party.


I ended up having a stomach flu that night. I dint know from where coz I've been eating Espi's since I moved in Seattle 8 years ago. But all in all it was still worth it hanging out with the Ohana and pigging out with all the food. I'd do it again in a heart beat.

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ChaCha

- Posted using BlogPress from my ChaCha iPhone