Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Take me to the ballgame

© Joselito Briones


From Mountainhouse, we dropped by Kev K's apartment to bring him some pizza, then to back to San Lorenzo to pick up Kebbs and Noel. Today's itenerary: a baseball game.

© Joselito Briones


The match was between Oakland A's and Minnesota Twins, in Oakland Coliseum. Not much seemed to have happened. The more interesting aspect, of course, was the audience. Three kids sitting next to me made running commentaries on every player, every play, every past play that reminded them of the current play, cheered and booed both teams at the same time, sang with every song played, and called every food vendor that went past. And yes, at the end of the game, I found out that very few people go there to actually watch the game. It's more like an excuse to pig out on junk food. People didn't seem to mind bingeing on junk food, because unlike vegeing out at home and consuming the same huge amount of junk food and beer, their excuse here is that they're actually participating in active sport. Never mind that the participation is limited to cheering and jeering. And sitting on their collective asses, not too different from watching the game on TV at home. Even the parking lot was a big venue for barbecue parties. We had our own share of food: popcorns, hotdogs, nachos, etc.

The highlight of the game had to be the fireworks afterwards. We had to wait more than an hour after the very brief game to watch the fireworks, because the game ended way before it got dark.

Seeing the news on TV when we got back to San Lorenzo confirmed my feeling after the game, judging from the cheers of the crowd, that the local team won.


XXX

Norie and Dave and Ginger and Meynard


© Joselito Briones


Photos above taken at their backyard (Ginger and Meynard's).


XXX

Friday, June 01, 2007

Mountainhouse

© Joselito Briones


I thought I'd spend the night at Norie and Dave's, in Mountainhouse (photo, above). I took the BART to Pleasanton, then Norie picked me up from the station. Dinner was at a Japanese place in Tracy.


XXX

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Pancakes

© Joselito Briones


I can't remember when the last time was when I had pancakes this way, but it surely brought back memories. For breakfast today we had pancakes topped with sugar and drowned in condensed milk. Have you tried pancakes this way?


XXX

Friday, May 25, 2007

Patio's new chef

© Joselito Briones


We dropped my parents off to the airport to check their luggages in. Their flight was cancelled. Supposedly, the plane that they're gonna be in didn't arrive from Manila today. Philippine Airlines. They were giving hotel vouchers to anyone who needed to stay in the city before the rescheduled flight tomorrow. What's very disturbing though, is that, even as my parents paid penalty fees to have their flights rescheduled for today, Philippine Airlines isn't offering compensation fees to the passengers who are involuntarily rescheduled for tomorrow. Go figure. If you want your flight rescheduled, you have to pay, if they reschedule your flight, you get nothing. NADA. Lesson learned: fly with other airlines.

After checking in the luggages, we went to Patio Filipino for dinner. Cesar works there. We had the usual goodies, plus one, the very tasty Paella done by their new chef Lavinia (photo, above). She was imported by the restaurant from the Philippines, where she was a chef for one of Manila's leading caterers, "Mingoy's".


XXX

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Solitaire for two

© Joselito Briones


Whoever invented solitaire should be given a Nobel Prize or something.

Now that my parents are both retired, it's one thing that keeps them interacting together, keeping them sharp. They bicker over every game, who gets to play it (they only have one deck), and one almost always tells the other how to play it properly. To comic effect. Presumably so, because I always hear them laughing so much whenever they play solitaire together.

I took photos of them at Cesar's backyard, they're going back to the Philippines tomorrow.


XXX

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Golden Friends

© Joselito Briones


My Itay's down with a cold today, so I ended up driving my Inay to Hayward, close to where I lived when I moved to the U.S., to visit her friends before she goes back to the Philippines again. It was a beautiful afternoon, in one of those days when I wonder why I ever left California. Light refreshments included Vietnamese-style roast pork sandwiches and fresh fruits.

It must be one the best things one can wish for in life, having friends to be with and chat about nothing in particular.


XXX

Monday, May 21, 2007

Mint



© Joselito Briones


Two new Americans. Mom and son. It's Ate Uding's oath-taking today for U.S. citizenship, and Kebbs being a minor, he automatically became an American citizen too.

The photo above, taken shortly after the ceremony, would've been much better in color, only I forgot to reset the ISO setting of the camera after using a high value indoors, so the noise was just too much. I thought making it toned monochrome would look better.

Yep. I'm back in California, pigging out with my mom's home cooking. She made oxtail Kare Kare yesterday.


XXX

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Keb

© Joselito Briones


Today's Keb's birthday, one of my nephews in the Yay! Area in California. He's the one on the right (on the left is Omar), and this photo was taken a long time ago. It's particularly noticeable in this photo the compression artefacts that I mentioned to you before (especially around the eyes and on the skin area in general), the thing that is introduced whenever I upload a file to Picasa. I guess they've gotten cheapo and want to save some space, hence the compression.


XXX

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Kulit

© Norie Kirker


My Itay's birthday today. He's in California presently. I phoned to wish him a happy birthday, and to inquire again as to how my Inay's doing. They're both doing well, and my mom has a few more test results pending, but she seems to have recovered. I guess that's really all one can wish for.

The photo above was taken in California, the year that two of my brothers (middle and right in the above photo) moved there. The one who's just thrown a snowball to whomever was taking the picture, that's my dad.


XXX

Monday, April 02, 2007

It's all right

© Joselito Briones


I phoned California today to inquire as to the result of my Mom's hospital visit. It seems like it wasn't her old ailment that's bothering her presently, so she'll back for more tests on Monday.


XXX

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Distress Call

spring flowers, erlangen, germany - photo by Joselito Briones
© Joselito Briones


Norie phoned today to relay the news that my mom's ill. She'll have to fly back to California on Monday to go to the hospital, so her usual doctor can attend to her.

I so want to go there to be with her... we'll see.


XXX

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Signed, sealed, delivered

 - photo by Joselito Briones
© Joselito Briones


So I finally finished my home-video DVD project. I went to the post office to send them to Carmona in the Philippines and to San Lorenzo and to Mountainhouse in California. I wonder how long it's gonna take to reach them.

On something unrelated, I received my first birthday greetings today, two days in advance, from the ever-reliable friend Cyntch. She was craving all sorts of sour things when I last saw her, she's probably very, very pregnant by now.

In the afternoon I packed suitcases to go to Mannheim, and from there, to Frankfurt Airport, to fly tomorrow early afternoon to New York. So yes, Jimmy, I'll see you soon.


XXX

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Final Cut Express

sky light of Peek & Cloppenburg, Mannheim - photo by Joselito Briones
© Joselito Briones


I've been working a lot on video editing lately, doing the video for the family christmas party. I've been using iMovie, but I've finally reached the point when it's not enough anymore. I needed more than the single track for video that iMovie provides.

Yesterday, the Final Cut Express software that we bought online arrived finally. It took sometime to install it, and last night I tried to learn the basics - for a 1-hour video that I want to finish by today. Which I did. After not getting up from my chair for the whole day. I'm burning DVD's as I'm writing this.


XXX

Monday, March 12, 2007

Lea

Lea Briones© Joselito Briones


Most of the people I know seem to have their birthdays around these three months. Either that or it just so happens that the people born during these first three months are the most willing victims to my camera's experimentations.

Pictured above, of course, is much more than someone I know. She's my Inay. Her name's Lea (yep, like the princess), but everybody in our neighborhood calls her "Aling Sile". I didn't even take this photo of her. It's a studio portrait taken in the first year or two when she moved to California, about 20 years ago. I tried to make it look like a painting, hence the visible photoshop effects.


XXX

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Ika'y kaibigan ko


© Joselito Briones


Here's a videoclip of a number some of my nephews and nieces did in the last family christmas party we had in Carmona. I thought Krisi (guitar) looked really great in this clip. With her are Omar (drums), Mark (bass) and Jane (vocals). The number they're doing is called "Kaibigan ko" (My Friend). The sound and video quality is awful, of course, but until I get myself a proper videocam, this will have to do.


XXX

Monday, February 12, 2007

Of dreams and videos


© Joselito Briones


Whoever said that there is something that connects people subconsciously together via dreams and thoughts must be on to something. Last night I dreamt of Noel, one of my brothers who live in the Yay! area in California, and this morning the first thing that I see upon turning on the computer was an email from him. And no, we don't regularly email each other nor do I constantly dream of him, or anyone and anything for that matter. I know. Coincidence. Anyway, his email was an inquiry as to what happened to the tapes from when I recorded his kids on video, while performing for the christmas party in the Philippines. Guess I'm gonna have to go through the tapes soon. After the London trip.

I also went to the doctor today, finally, after deciding that ice cream and aspirins aren't getting rid of my mandeln fast enough. It's almost gone, but it's still slightly uncomfortable when I swallow. He prescribed some antibiotics, and said that the mandeln thing is going around in Erlangen, and that he's examined a few too many other patients suffering from the same condition. He also said if it happens too often, like 3 times a year, then I should consult a heart doctor because those might very well be connected to each other.


XXX

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Gil

Gil Bilitan, Carmona - photo by Joselito Briones
© Joselito Briones


Here's a picture of another one of my nephews. His name is Gil, "bunso" to Irma. It's his birthday today. I've shown him this photo and unfortunately, he doesn't like it. I suspect, from the pictures that he does like, that he prefers to look tough or reserved in his photos. He's at that exciting age where projecting an image counts more than anything.


XXX

Friday, January 19, 2007

Don

Don, Carmona, Philippines - photo by Joselito Briones
© Joselito Briones


I'm sure by now you're probably tired of my Hong Kong photos, so I thought I'd change it a bit by showing you a portrait I took recently. This one was taken in Carmona, in the Philippines. This one is of the oldest among my numerous nephews, Don, or Dionisio (he was named after my paternal grandfather, the only grandparent I knew).


XXX

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