For Chicago Trip

Smoque BBQ.

FathomEvents.com

Nohemi and I watched What Happens In Vegas at Kalamazoo 10 tonight. While standing for pop & Popcorn, I saw a flyer from FathomEvents.com. They are going to show Bleach: Memories of Nobody on the 11th & 12th of June at 7:30PM! That's totally going to my calendar. I checked the FathomEvents.com website and found that they actually showed Death Note the movie this month. It's weird that I just got into Death Note (the anime) this weekend, and I found this by coincidence. This is the first time that Nohemi and I watched a movie at Kalamazoo 10 since discovering Rave at downtown. Yay for serendipity!

Memorial Day Weekend

Nohemi and I have been driving around SW Michigan over the long weekend. The Garmin nuvi is set up to exclude highways & unpaved roads but everything is fair game. We've managed to his some unpaved roads at Barry county on our way to Gun Lake, Saturday afternoon.
It even led us to a dirt road that was not county maintained. The difference is huge, unmaintained is absolutely scary with a rear wheel drive car. I was totally visualizing my tires buried in dirt just spinning like mad. So we turned around gingerly back and found an alternate paved road... after driving on dirt roads for several miles. It made me reconsider Gus' arch-car-enemy, the Jeep Wrangler. A winch on a Wrangler with a hard top would definitely be a fun, adventure car. We'll just have to stick to paved roads for now. We, eventually made it to Gun lake which was nice. The neighborhoods that we found with the nuvi were charming. We found our way to Yankee Springs State Park. Nohemi wanted to check it out again when the weather is nicer. On our way back to Kalamazoo, a state trooper stopped and helped us with direction. We were pulled over (responsible not trying to kill ourselves while driving a programming a GPS way) trying to change settings in the nuvi to avoid the scary dirt roads when he stopped. His analog GPS was easier to manage:) He mentioned that Barry county is a poor county and that some roads just aren't paved. That ended our Saturday trip.

Sunday, we decided to head out earlier. Our destination was Saugatuck. We included highways, this time around, so to speed up the getting there part. It took us to Otsego to Fennville then to Saugatuck. A lot of people had the same idea as us, the town was packed with people and their cars. It took a while to find a parking spot... we found one at the farthest end of Water Street. Walked across town and had lunch. Walked around town more after eating then headed across the river/lake/access to Lake Michigan. We tried to make our way to Old Singapore/Old Saugatuck but had no luck. Instead, we went up Mt. Baldhead which consisted of a 282 step stairs. It was tough and I still feel it today.

Drove around a bit more after, with wobbly legs. We landed at Allegan. Drove around Allegan and found Perrigo. Crossed the 2nd St bridge a couple of times. Eventually, making our way back to Kalamazoo. In the evening, we watched Indiana Jones.

Today, I finished watching all of Death Note. What a wonderfully unproductive and relaxing weekend!

Rubiks Algorithms

List of algorithms
1) Fi U Li Ui
2) Ri Di R D

3) U R Ui Ri Ui Fi U F (perpendicular)
4) Ui Li U L U F Ui Fi

5) F R U Ri Ui Fi (L to I again to +)
6) R U Ri U R U U Ri (away right)
7) U R Ui Li U Ri Ui L (last 4 corners)
8) Ri Di R D

The Driving Range

I swung a golf club today for the first time this season. From my place, the bridge on Parkview is down. Took a right on Drake then left on Stadium to a closed 9th Street. Had to back track back to 11th Street then to KL Ave to get to West Main for a bucket of golf balls. I almost had a panic attack when I picked up my sand wedge and couldn't lift the ball up in the air. But all is well, I was able to get my shit together after the bucket of balls. Now I am itching to go walk 9 somewhere.

Typical Filipino Luggage

This story from Winnipeg Free Press about a two year old left behind by parents in the airport.

He said the family cleared customs with no problem but their three bags were overweight and security staff had the family unpack all their belongings and repack them again before the Winnipeg flight.

That left little time to catch the connecting flight. The boarding call had already been made by the time the family got their luggage repacked to the satisfaction of airline staff, the dad said.

If you have ever stood in line for check-in on a plane filled with Filipinos, you know how crazy we get with our balikbayan boxes. I give these people the benefit of the doubt that there might have been a faux pas with their tickets. That the connecting flight was not a part of the international flight which would have made the family traveling subject to domestic flight luggage limitations. But they're Filipinos, they packed that sucker up to the last possible ounce.

I am glad that everything turned out fine. Poor kid.

Ideal Afternoon

I had a wonderful afternoon yesterday with Nohemi. We went for a ride to South Haven. Drove through the street with all the little shops then headed to south beach. We got there a little too early to watch the sunset. But for sure, we need to go back to watch the sunset. I wonder if there's a nicer place to park and watch the sunset around South Haven? Or just around that area in general. Maybe something that I will be posting about in the future.

Uzumaki Naruto

I have been holding off reading the manga for Naruto. Reading the manga for Bleach made me lose interest watching the anime. I had been avoiding the manga for over a year now but faltered and read all of it. So now I am fully caught up. I am glad that I did it now because the stories have all been wrapped up. Otherwise I would have had to wait for the current manga to be released.

Pictures

Intramuros - Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, San Agustin museum and church.
Funnies - funny things that we found.
Iloilo - pictures from Iloilo.

Missing Days Continued

Checked in. Grabbed another taxi to Molo. Took pictures of the church. Walked around town then to the corner of Timawa and Baluarte to spy on the relatives. Couldn't see anything so we took another taxi to go to the Jaro Cathedral. The cathedral isn't as pretty as the church in Molo. The plaza layout for the cathedral is better and makes it easier to photograph. After the cathedral, I wanted to see if my great-grandfather' name was still on the floor in the church at La Paz. Nohemi and I hopped in another taxi to La Paz. We lucked out and saw an Ati-atihan tribe practicing for a festival in Manila. The festival in Iloilo, Dinagyang, usually is on the third Sunday in January. The winner from this year, the one practicing at the plaza in La Paz, were going to get sent to Manila to represent Iloilo. Nohemi was lucky to have seen it in April. While watching the practice, it rained a bit. Took another cab and went to SM City so I can have some batchoy at Ted's. My cousin Sharon found out that I was in Iloilo and called while I was having my batchoy. She met up with us which gave me the chance to see Nanay without having to drag Nohemi with me. So I left Sharon with Nohemi at SM City and took a cab to Molo. Saw Nanay then it rained more. This time it was enough to get the streets flooded. Poor sewer system plus at sea level equals flood. Took a cab to SM City again to pick up Nohemi then headed to the hotel. Opps, I forgot. We also got a tour guide for Guimaras for the following day. It was through Harryl's classmate's husband's travel agency.

Iloilo Day Two (Day Ten)
Nohemi and I had breakfast at the hotel. The tour guide (Jocel) showed up at 6:45AM and we headed out at 7 o'clock in the morning! Took a boat across the straight to Guimaras which was about 15 minutes. Signed in with the Department of Tourism office and rented a cab for the day. This was way early in the morning so a couple of stops that we took, the places were still closed. The first one that was open was a mountain resort called Valle Verde. The view of the bay was stunning! After that we headed to a beach resort. Rented a boat and did some island hopping. Having been to Boracay in the past, I prefer the untouched look of Guimaras. Went in a cave with the boat, jumped off the boat and swam to shore on a secluded beach. The boat rental for island hopping was 450pesos first hr plus 150 pesos/hr... about $20 is what we spent for the boat. After that, we headed back to the beach resort for lunch then back to the port. We stopped by the couple of places that we missed due to being too early. Bought a kilo of mangoes, it's what Guimaras is know for. If you get to go, buy more than a kilo of mangoes! It was absolutely delicious!

To be continued...

Missing Days

I didn't blog while in Iloilo because I forgot about my BlackBerry and the email-to-blog functionality in my Blogger account. Iloilo Day One, we arrived at around 10 o'clock in the morning after leaving late from Manila. It was a really short flight, about 50 minutes. The plane goes up then goes down. The airport in Iloilo has been moved to Cabatuan which is about 45 minutes from the city. In reality, it is probably 20 miles or less away but the roads are the way roads are in the Philippines. The road from the airport to the city has been widened but take into account the stores alongside the road, the meandering chicken and the occasional dog crossing the street... 45 minutes. We took a "shuttle" to SM City but the "shuttle" also stops first at Jaro prior to SM City. We were oblivious where our hotel was so I asked the shuttle driver where to get a "P.U.". Right away, I was busted because taxis are no longer called P.U.s for some 10 years. So he said, I'll take you to your hotel for 50 pesos. I said okay and the hotel was 5 buildings from where we were:)

To be continued...

Penultimo Dia

Yesterday was all about catching up with friends from my childhood.
We spent the entire day with Louie. Jaime and Oggie joined us in the
afternoon. Oggie's wife hung out off and on because she was working.
We spent the entire day at Gateway mall next to Araneta colisseum.
The conversations were hilarious. It's funny that 20 plus years seem
to not have mattered. We talked about grade school. How we felt at
the time in a more open manner. Talked about how each others lives
turned out. Everyone has had kids except for Jaime because he's gay.
We tried to convince Nohemi that he's straight. After dinner, we went
our separate ways again. Louie came home with Nohemi and I so he
could see my mom. We took the LRT both ways which was really quick
and easy. It was easy because the station exit was attached to the
mall entrance. My mom and Louie talked for a while then we dropped
him off home. Went to bed at around midnight and woke up at 4:30am.

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