First Day in Photos

that's baby James and the world's slowest dog, Dollar.

Baby James. where do I start?

Dollar, the dog. i can start anywhere! he's really slow and he's really lousy. but somehow, this slowness and lousiness endeared him to us so quickly. he is a loyal dog and he is crazy about his original master, Pancho, who was the one who took him out of the streets and into a home.
Bro and Baby James.

Baby James and I have been Skype friends for some time now. we Skype as regularly as i Skype w/ my sister Maica. i was so thrilled to finally meet him in the flesh yesterday. he's such a nice kid. he loves my fake laugh, a very deep, manly HA-HA-HA!

btw, Baby James is the son of Meia, Maica's sister-in-law. when Meia and tita Ev, her mother-in-law, are at work, Maica does babysitting duties.
reunited and it feels so good.
Pancho and Maica's neighboorhood from their window.
the backyard, my favorite part of Pancho and Maica's house. after lunch, i had a power nap there, to the chirping of the birds and the non-intruding sound (not noise) of zooming cars on the main road at the end of the Avenue where the house is.

the next-door-neighbor's huge tree spews beautiful pink blooms on this backyard. i don't think Pancho and Maica mind. the blooms are beautiful and they are pink.
Baby James, asleep.

p.s. i count putting babies to sleep as an achievement. i am as restless as they are, you know.
im jealous of Pancho's collection of lighthouses. not because i love lighthouses (i do think they're lovely and make very handsome postcard photos but they remind me of the movie, The Ring) but because i stopped collecting stuff (except for books and antique rings) ever since i encountered the word "clutterbug".

i collected figurines and shells and my own grade-school paintings, and printed photos until i found symptoms of being a clutterbug in that and well, it just didn't suit me.
for lunch, Maica prepared (yup, from scratch -- i was there to witness) fettucini and steak. tita Evelyn arrived with Chinese take-out boxes of small fried fish, fried shrimp (that you don't have to unshell), dry pork adobo, and tasty fried chicken.

since lunch yesterday, i stopped weighing what i eat. just eat!
another collection.

maybe, just maybe, when i find my own place, my own place, i'll go back to collecting stuff. and being a clutterbug.
Baby James, awake.
"Bieni, we're in America!"
yellow is the color of the day!
the Universal City Walk is an outdoor mall that's just outside the Universal Studios Theme Park. papa thinks we should go in the Park. i'd rather go to Six Flags.

i was so fascinated by this mosaic work at Billabong. cool.
the Universal City Walk!
cool. saw this detail at a restaurant called Bubba Gump.
check that out. my ring, my ugly hand, the size of my ugly hand against the size of that huge pizza.
our first eat, American way. huge! everything was huge.
that girl (on her way out of the Pizzeria we were dining in) looked very familiar. was not able to get over it. was it in a Friends episode i saw her? or in one of the Nickelodeon shows Bien watches?

i was surprised to see a Wolfgang Puck restau at the Universal City Walk. i assumed he'd rather hang around in more chic places. Universal City Walk is laidback and cool. i assume people who go there would rather eat pizza and fries than foie gras or whatever Puck would do.
apparently, Koreans have invaded the US as well. ting said more than 30 (was it?) tour busses packed w/ Korean tourists came and went. this bunch of tourists walked around w/ sequined, mustard yellow Minnie Mouse-ish headbands, probably to distinguish them from other bunches of tourists. they scream CUTE wherever they go.
Ben & Jerry's!

Bien is just crazy to be around Maica again. last night, on our first night here, she slept at Maica's room, with the permission of the ever cool-ka-lang bana, of course.
before.

that's not everything yet.
Christmas in the house!
tita Maite's backyard.
tita Maite's tree in her backyard.
best fruit bowl ever! raspberries (which look like strawberries by the way, but limpy and not yummy), strawberries, blue berries, watermelon, seedless grapes, pineapples, cantaloupe. can't stop thinking about it.
American Pie. not fond of pies, me.
the yummy pastry from Porto's. when i ate it, i was already committing gluttony. but it was so good i had a second share.

after.

the buffet at tita Maite's was unbelievable. made us regret the huge slices of pizza we had earlier at the Universal City Walk. i want to regret my two scoops of Ben & Jerry's as well but darn, it was so good, made me feel good, to regret them (Mint Chocolate and Chocolate Therapy) would be betrayal.

steak. mashed potatoes. baby back ribs. chicken barbecue. salad. fresh fruits (w/ raspberry, strawberry, blueberries, cantaloupe, seedless grapes). American Pie. Pastry from Porto's. Goldilock's cake (for the birthday of tito Jun Yrastorza, our neighbor in Carlota Hills once upon a time). that pasta dish beside the cake (yum, but didn't get it. not even sure if it was pasta). caldereta.

the LA baseball-loving boys and girls gathered by the TV to watch the final round (or whatever you call it in baseball) of the game between Yankees (or whatever is the name of the team from New York) and the Raiders. intense. Raiders won.

my sister has nice armpits (which made me conclude: the baby must be a girl!). but that's not the point of this photo. her hubby's baseball team just won over the Yankees (or whatever is the name of the team from New York), thus the hooray spirit.

the boys hanging by Ryan's new bonfire equipment.

Ormocanons, put your hands up!

in this photo: Borromeos, Rodriguezes, Larrazabals, Yrastorzas, Rivillas, Velosos.