Saturday, a thousand filipinos.

This was last years family picture from behind when my extended family got together. Seriously.
The phillpinio family. A large percentage are Catholic, family is important, Humidity in the phillpines sucks, I think that they have Machetes too. I love my wifes family. I dont look it cuz of my serious face, but i am. Most of the time at work i am happy, but my face says something else. I guess you are more likely to keep co-workers and your staff on their toes if they dont know what to expect.
This year the family is meeting again, this saturday. I will be working so i cant pick up the lechon (suckling pig, roasted pig). There will be some new food that i have not tried as of yet but am really excited to be there. Kinda reminds me when i was little. In El Salvador, one of the strangest food i have tried to date is the armadillo. Yeah yeah, yuk, "oh my gosh, you ate what"? Baby armadillos are so cute but not meant to be eaten.

I think i was tricked, but i do remember them (grandma, and 2 aunts) telling me that you just ate armadillo. Oh man, cool. Feels like i forgot my point. oh well.

Elizabeth got it right. "How much do it love thee...

Tooting in front of your significant other and Her/him being ok with it IS a sign of you finding your true love. Why should you be embarrassd ? Your instestine should not be put under pressure. I think that if you are comfortable with letting it rip, then you are in good shape with your relationship.

Ok ok, that is not the way that i found my wife (althought i can toot in front of her. Im tooting as i type).
It was in 03. A couple of months after my dad had passed away, and 2 years after her grandmother passed. "Do you have faith"?. That was the first question that she had asked me when we sat down that first dinner (as coworkers). I said i do have faith. After having dinner and good conversation, i walked her to her car. A purple 97 accord (i had a 99 purple accord) was waiting for her. Since it was an underground parking lot she gave me a ride a couple of levels up. RIght there and then as she pulled out i knew that she had a flat tire. I decided to tell her (like i was not). So i popped (not pooped) out her spare and the standard jack. Up goes the car (very slowly, darn jack), remove tire, insert spare, car goes down, spare tire contacts with floor, spare tire flat. :( took me 2.245 seconds to think that i had an identical spare. Up goes the car , remove flat spare, insert my spare, car goes down, spare tire contacts with floor, spare good. Phew! A couple of dates later i had a girlfriend, years later, a wife.

Taking the time to listen, being patient, empathetic, being thoughtfull and seeing in the same but different light everyday are a few of many ingredients to make a healthy relationship. To miss and wish you could know what she is doing when not around. The little things DO matter. Its the most insignificant ones that bring out our true selves.
I used to tell my wife on about a theory i had in which explained what women were looking for. The 3 C's. Commitment, communication and karot size. Oh shoot. I forgot my point. oh yeah, have a sense of humor, and love like there is no tomorrow.

Poop. Heathly poop?

Is there such a thing as healthy poop?
if it floats, have you not absorbed all there is ??

I have been ealting correctly the past couple of weeks (except at work, but i eat smaller portions there). Beans, brown rice, steam veggies, oven chicken, fish. All good stuff. Of course it also depends on how you prep it too.
Anywho. As i was looking at my poop i thought to myself (as it flushed) "did my body suck out all that it could", is that why it does not float, cuz all the crap has been compressed and all nutriens sucked up (or inward)?
Doea that also apply to unhealthy pood? If i eat food with tons of grease, will it not make my poop float?
I once found my floating poop look like orange chicken...
i know, you will never look at orange chicken the same. its ok. nasty. Sorry.

A dream come true

Today the last 2 weeks came full circle. Somewhat.

I decided to treat my supervisors and buy them lunch. Chinese pood.
I had mongolian beep. Everyone had mongolian beep. There are a lot of gaps that i will not talk about work today. Kinda boring. However this will be short. Towards the end of the day Efrain (summer job co-worker) said to me, "Yep, there is another one waiting for engineering". "What's waiting?+' i said. "Poop". "POOP!"!. I felt that he was kidding since it was the end of the day. So i said, take me to your poop. So we walked, and I was calm because of my recent luck with missing the shows. When we got there it was everything i had ever hoped for. Sitting at the bottom of the pool was a blurry snickers bar poop. It looked peaceful and undisssturbed while it sat there pondering its next move. Like an old man watching time pass by in the lake. Just calm."It was a kid, his mom told us after it was too late." Efrain's grin was funny as he told me with pride. I was happy to see poo. "peek a poo, i see you".

What is that in the pool?

"Well well well", said my coworker as i was catching my breath. I had missed my 3rd show. "You just missed it, it was just sucked up in the filter".
Man, thats the third time in 2 weeks that i missed something i wanted to see in the pool.
"What is it mommy"? would have been the first question from the kids at the pool.
I heard my first radio call 2 weeks ago that said, "we have to close the pool, someone peed in it".
Can't see pee in the pool so i couldnt tell. You know who you are... tisk tisk. Of course procedures were followed, pool was closed immediately and then drained to the point that we can shock it and treat the um, contaminats that are in the water, then let marinate for a couple of hours. Safe...but im not an engineer so dont quote me on that.
2nd time. Kid pooped in the f-ing pool (i think, i cant seem to remember anything past 3 days now for some reason)
i missed this one too. Dang it, something out of the ordinary from pleasing neverending arriving guests, PLEase.
This time i was ready. "some one threw up in the pool" said my boss. Yes!! i mean no. So i ran, i ran to the wrong pool. Why today why today, why did i think get the pools mixed up today. "Good afternoon sir, enjoy your stay, im having a great day, you do the same." I missed the barf. It has been a trying week. At least i caught a glimpse of what seem unchewed carrotts in the toilet while inspecting a room. Seriouly, people chew your food. I finish last ALWAYS when im eating. Cuz i chew my pood. Chew your pood please. This piece of carrott was still perfectly cut in a shape of a small square. Either they puked it or pooped it. My money was on poop. "why am thinking of this", flush. Im not getting my hopes up anymore. Im just setting myself up for dissapointment. poopee.

Lunch :(

I had the saddest 3 days.

It all began (oddly enough 3 days ago) with eggplant and tomatoe sauce. Granted i love love love ketchup and tomato sauce is ketchup to me. I had to frown and shake my head. I have to start with my motivation, my wife. I love her more than anything else. However, 3 weeks ago it all started with "you look a little chunky". AHHH, at first i started to laugh, "my own wife!!" yikes.
So my next natural reaction was, fricken doodlely, and i was mad. Not, long time hold a grudge mad but momentarily blinded mad. The outcome of that madness was 3 weeks of jogging, not taking the elevator at work and taking the stairs and eating better. Joggiing part, check. Not taking the elevator at work, check. Eating better, half a check because of the last 3 f-ing days.
The 22nd brought me eggplant with tomato sauce with vegetables SOAKED with butter. I made this yuk face and kept it that way until the cafeteria chef saw me. My reaction to getting caugh, lie, "i just hit my hand against the rail where u slide the foodtray". Yuk face, hurt face. Same. After getting a small portion of the items on the menu i sat and looked at the food with dissgrace. Then i said to myself, "i am glad that i have food at least, thank you Lord".

23rd came.
Nah-shoh day. WHAT..oh nachos. yuk face (this time i looked for the caf chef, not found). This time nacho cheese, beans, and that beef that is made from powdered flavor meat. Pass on the meat that looke like powdered combined with grease. nutz.
So my hispanic in me took over, i had the beans with some nah-shohs and yalapenos. Sidenote... my wife and I replace our J's with Y's and vise versa. And to go with the filipino f's and p's. Fifteen is pivteen. Anywho, lets just say that the only way you know that you are with your soul mate is to toot. And tooting i did. She still loves me no matter how much i toot. Im not much of a tooter now that im eating right.

24th...
I was just thinking, there is no way to have 3 bad days of food (mind you that i have been eating well everywhere but at work, imtrying to eat less at work and or right).
I felt like the person that is grouchy that no one wants to talk to cuz they are just negative. I had my regular face on (the one that my wife says that i look mad. I cant help it, it is the way it is) and no one but grouch number 2 wanted to sit with me. Meatloaf is usually good at my workplace, today, half of it was soaking in grease and the other half was dry due to the good job of the heatlamps. Guess what? . .. butter vegetables. What really ticked me off was that everyone of my coworkers had ordered out. No invite for me. Lunch :(
i saw someone with chinese pood, another person with taco bell (mind you this is during the span of 3 hours), my staff with tacos, No tacos por u mister. The other half did not have tacos but brought mole (mexican dish). Finally the kicker, a guest left a burrito in the fricking room. Maybe as a tip? maybe they thought that my girls looked malnurished, maybe it was a joke. Oddly enough i was tempted, yes double yukky. I entertained the thought for a millisecond. nah!
I felt betrayed by my team. poopers. So after my jog i thought, i guess it was for the best. I have been controlling my eating habbits and am proud for that, im making progress and i think that i have lost about pivteen pounds. Yey,

"babe, you look slimmer". Shit, does this mean that i need to gain weight now.

Half a night with Diana Krall

I think that it was a couple of months ago that i surprised my wife with tickets to her show.
We went this past Friday. " A night with Diana Krall", it was more like a half a night. The LA Philharmonic was the first half. I really enjoyed listening to them. Let me actually start somewhere else. We sat down and had a bottle of italian sparkling wine. Mind you i had not eaten all night. We were munching on grapes and cheese while having the wine. Then I found the leftover subway sandwich that my wife did not finish. After eating half of that i noticed the man that seated directly in front of my seat. He was tall and wearing a HAT!. All i could see was the halo of lights just above his hat. The rest of the "bowl" was covered just perfectly. I thought nothing of it except that if the show started with his hat on, i was going to say something. I was having a great time with my wife that night. So the show begins and Mr. hat is still on. Just when i was going to say something the stars spangled banner started to play. Hat came off and stayed off. Sweet.

There was a conductor that came out, Joana Carneiro. Im sure that she has paid her dues and worked extremely hard to get where she is now. However when i saw her on the screen conducting (my vision is not a sharp, i could not make out her face without looking at the screen) I thought that she was having an orgasm!! No kidding. I really should not be making fun because you could tell in every single person that was in that stage that they were passionate about what they do. The smallest window that i have to this passion is when i listen to Pachelbel's Canon. I feel the music, flowing like poetry, silk falling from the sky, like ketchup flowing on a hot dog.

When their perfomance ended it was halftime (yes halftime). People were entering that were not allowed to come in during the performance. A "sista" pointed towards the seat next to my wife and said " those are my seats", i almost said "that's great, you found your seats". Let's just say the the gals next to me along with my wife and sista next to her were in a really snug place. I almost forgot to mention Fran Drescher was seating directly behind me. Noo, not the real one, but the one that laughs just like her. Shit! oh well. Then came the band that plays with Diana Krall, umm Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. They were awsome. Then she came out. It was very cool. She was really good. To summarize my wife was in heaven when she listened to her that night. Im done for now. I need a snack.