Had a pretty busy weekend…

Friday, I came home from Minneapolis. I spent a ton of quality time with Ben, I’d missed him so much! It’s incredible how much they grow after just a week.

Saturday Ben actually started crawling for the first time. We were so happy! He was so adorable, working so hard to put one hand in front of the other and scooting his legs forward, trying not to tip over or fall on his face. So now there’s nothing to stop him…I’ve really got to get out and buy some baby proofing stuff, especially some gates to keep him away from the television cords and stuff. He’s already got the hang of trying to climb things, so the fact that he’s crawling now means that he can crawl to things and try to climb them.

Saturday night we hung out at Melanie’s to watch the Pacquiao/Morales fight. The several fights that took place before them were pretty good - they went for all the rounds and were pretty exciting. Even though the broadcast started at 8, the main event didn’t happen until about 10pm. It was a pretty exciting fight. Pacquiao was really landing some awesome punches. Then Morales fell down, looked at his father in the corner, and didn’t bother to get up. The fight was over after a mere 15 minutes! How anticlimactic!

Sunday we headed out to my cousin’s house in Batavia. I thought it would take forever to get there, but it actually wasn’t too bad of a drive. She made us this great spread of food, and her daughters were so entertaining! It was a good time, watching the Bears game (which was a bit boring) and just watching the kids entertain themselves. Man, there are times I wish I had carpeting in the main room of my house!

Afterwards we went to Chuck E Cheese for another birthday. I haven’t been there in ages, and it was PACKED! That place is pretty crazy. There wasn’t much for Ben to do there except ride a couple of the motorized rides, but he seemed to enjoy it. I’m sure I’ll post a pic of him riding eventually. He gets so serious when he’s out in public. He’s not the happy bubbly little Benbooger that he is at home. He’s all business!

Anyway, it’s late/early, I guess I should get a couple hours of sleep before work tomorrow!

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We’ve had Ben-eater on solids for the last several months. For some reason he likes to eat with his foot outside of the highchair. Weirdo.

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…before it even had a chance to start.

My voice is still scratchy from last week but is notably better. Last year I could hardly talk, which normally is OK, but when you’re teaching a room of people it’s pretty difficult. The reason my voice took so long to heal is probably because I was forcing it last week.

I know my voice isn’t completely healed yet because when I do my car-singing (which is the only time I sing, outside of family karaoke parties) I only have a range of about 5 notes. Everything outside of that is either squeaky or just hair coming out of my mouth. Normally I have a Christina/Maria-esque range. Well, I like to pretend I do.

So any of you heading out to my family Thanksgiving party, which I foolishly volunteered to do this year, will feel safe to know I probably won’t be grabbing that microphone from you to do my rendition of “Baby One More Time”.

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Today I was invited to the Minneapolis area team get together. My company is big enough that they can actually have get togethers at different cities where remote employees work.

It was cool to meet fellow coworkers, I’m still getting used to the fact that I may never meet someone of the people I work with, they’re just all over the US and it’s hard to get everyone together. It’s very different from the days of having 25 total people work at X-Systems.

We met up at a place called Azia in downtown Minneapolis, and let me tell you, the place was great! It’s one of those Asian fusion places that have become popular, serving traditional Asian dishes with a twist. I had lemongrass monkfish bow Thai pasta, which was delicious, and everyone around me had no complaints at all about their meals. I missed out on the appetizers, since I got there late, but everyone else raved about the cranberry cream cheese puffs.

The restaurant itself is dimly lit, like most cool/hip restaurants like to be. The bathrooms are a unique experience - the sinks are outside the bathrooms and are shared. From the dining area you can see the bathroom sink area and then the doors for the bathrooms are on the sides. I’m sure it’s a fun game to play for the diners to see who doesn’t wash their hands as they come out of the bathroom!

The highlight of the night for me was the dessert. There were many tasty desserts to choose from, from a lemon tart to exotic ice creams to banana rolls. What I decided on was the sweet rice with coconut ice cream. The words “sweet rice” caught my eye, because it made me think of one of my favorite childhood Filipino desserts, bibingka - not the weird yellow kind, but the one made with sweet sticky rice with cocoa jam on the top.

After I put the first spoonful in my mouth, I was immediately brought back to my childhood - watching my mom and dad cook the rice, then scoop it out onto a pan, smoothing it out and giving me any extra that didn’t fit. It was delicious, just the right amount of sweetness, complimented so well by the coconut ice cream and sauce. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a reaction to food like that. It made me so nostalgic - I missed my childhood, I missed my mom. Memories came back that were a bit forgotten, a little bittersweet, but so beloved. It’s incredible how a smell or taste can bring you back in time. I sat there and silently reveled in the dish before me, savoring every bite.

At one point, I wanted to jump up and exclaim to everyone at the table, “THIS IS THE BEST DESSERT EVER!!!” Which would be unusual, because most of my favorite desserts have chocolate involved in some way. But it was a great experience, definitely something I will remember the next time I’m in town.

So if you’re ever in Minneapolis, check out Azia. It’s a little on the pricier side (about $25-$40 total for a meal) but well worth it. Check out the sweet rice - it may not bring you back to your childhood, but it will definitely give you a taste of what mine was like.

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I’m at O’Hare today, for the second time in two days. I was supposed to leave for Minneapolis yesterday, but for some reason my flight was cancelled, and since it was the last flight of the night I was rebooked for a flight at noon today. All the other flights this morning (all 4 of them) were already overbooked. It’s pretty stressing when your flight is cancelled and you have to tell a client that you’re not coming in until the afternoon, but fortunately I’m working with someone else on this project and I’m not the lead person.

The good thing about not getting my flight yesterday was that I got to spend the night with Benjeeb AND I got to watch “Heroes”. What an addicting show! I’ve been predicting that Claire’s dad is actually a good guy, and based on last night, it looks like he is, even though his morals are a bit self serving. I’m wondering what kind of powers the Indian guy has…I think this is the first time they’ve manifested. I’ve got Dave’s dad hooked on the show, too, which is good for me because I don’t have to go to another room on Mondays if they’re over and want to watch television.

So my flight is boarding in a bit and I just wanted to say “Hello”. I’m in Minneapolis for the week so I should have tons of time to provide entertaining posts for you all!

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The Bears sucked ass the first half of yesterday’s game. We were watching over at Brian’s, who lives out in the middle of nowhere, and decided to play some poker during the second half. I lost on a bad bluff so I got to watch the rest of the game, which the Bears picked up in the second half to win.

Man, I love this game!

As for our hard-earned win, I would like to present the words spoken by Plaxico Burress, the Giants’ wide receiver last week:

Burress made new friends in Chicago on Wednesday when he said Bears cornerbacks Nathan Vasher, Charles Tillman and Ricky Manning Jr. were “very beatable.”

“I don’t think they’re the best corners I’ve played against or we’ve played against this year. By far, no,” Burress told the Newark Star-Ledger. “Those guys make plays [on] the balls that are thrown straight to them, but they’re not just covering guys straight up and just shutting them down. I haven’t seen any of that.

“They’re very beatable.”

Very beatable, eh? Well I guess just not by the Jets. Especially not by you, Mr. Burress, who had 48 yards yesterday and no touchdowns, compared to our Moose Muhammed who had 128 and a touchdown. Oh, and wasn’t that you that the pass was intended for when Peanut Tillman made his interception?

I hope this game puts to rest all the people who say that the Bears don’t deserve to be at the top of the NFC, that they’re just a fluke, that they’ve gotten there by luck (yes I’m talkin’ to you, Dennis Green, coach of the Cardinals!). They fight hard every game. Sure, Grossman may not be the awesome QB that Peyton or Tom Brady are, but think about it - even though he’s a four year vet, he only has 16 games under his belt. I think he’s doing a great job for having the equivalent of one season experience. And yeah, we get a lot of points from our defense and special teams, but hey, I’m happy that we’re scoring any offensive points this year! Last year pretty much all our points were from defense!

So it’s an exciting time to be a Bear fan. I’m not quite playing “Welcome to Miami” yet, but it’s coming close!

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I know that Ben turned 7 months today, but since I was working I didn’t get a chance to have my monthly photoshoot. Maybe this weekend…

I was having a HORRIBLE day on Monday, one of those days where it just can’t be over soon enough and you feel like you have a frown on your face all day. That frown didn’t last too long once I got home, because Dave was playing peek-a-boo with Ben and he was going CRAZY! It was so adorable…when he laughs, he screams, it’s not your normal baby giggle. Anyway, I just wanted to share it with you all. Enjoy!

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This year I had a training class on the same day as Halloween. I didn’t think to take the day off, but looking back, I should have. Luckily, Dave had the day off and he took BenBeaver to where Grandma worked. They always have kids come in to trick or treat at the office. Dave told me that everyone loved Ben’s costume and he was a very good little boy. He came home with tons of candy (which he won’t eat, of course) and I also found out that someone snuck him a cookie. Ben started solids at around 4 months, but he’s still at mush-level food. By the time Dave found him with the cookie, Ben had already gummed it up and had crumbs all over his face. They took the cookie away and Ben objected and cried. So young and already crying when sweets are taken away from him!

As I said before, I didn’t have any time to decorate the outside of the house for Halloween, which normally I love doing. I got home early in hopes that I would have time to decorate. As I was driving from the train station I could see that there were a lot of kids out trick or treating already. I debated on going to the store to pick up more candy, but decided against it. I already had 3 bags of candy, which I separated into little treat baggies complete with mini-kaleidoscopes and skull rings. I was prepared to be the coolest house on the block.

…and I waited.

…and waited.

I played with Ben, who was really sleepy from his busy day. I fell asleep with him on my belly at around 8.

I didn’t even hear the doorbell when it rang. Dave went to go answer it and handed the kids the treat bags (I told him only the older kids get the treat bags. Babies just get candy.)

…and that was it.

Just one group of trick-or-treaters. Three kids for the whole night! That’s all!

It could be because of several factors:

I’ve had a cold over the last couple days, and yesterday I lost my voice. Normally, that’s not a big deal, but I’m teaching classes this week so it’s been very difficult. I can’t just call in sick because there are people depending on me. But it’s hard to go through class and straining my voice to be heard by my students. They’re very understanding, and we let out early so I could rest my voice. My throat isn’t sore (yet) but hopefully today (it’s 1am right now) my voice will be better, because I need to teach these classes!

As most of you know, today is election day, and I made sure to go out and vote. I hate the way the government is running right now, and I feel that I have the right to complain if I go out and vote. Anyone who complains about how the government who hasn’t voted has no right to. If you care about our country, if you care about our future, you should take some responsibility and get out and vote.

There’s a certain feeling of power you get when you vote. You slip your little ballot into the box and think, “I’m making a difference.” Even if your candidate doesn’t win, (Boo…Tammy Duckworth lost. What is my district thinking?!?! Oh well, she was pretty close and I live in a very conservative district) at least I made my voice heard, my vote gives my candidate my vote of confidence. I was happy to see the turnout in my area…there was a great variety of people there.

Even though my favorite candidate didn’t win, at least it looks like things are changing in Washington. I don’t know if the Democrats are going to do much better because our country is already in a deep hole as it is, but at least we’re going to have a new direction. There are a lot of times when I think that our country is taking steps backwards, but with the results of this election, I feel we’re starting to make some progress again. South Dakota rejected the super-conservative abortion ban, gay-marraige votes are close in some states (I don’t even think it should BE on the ballot)…hopefully things will start turning around.

So I’m up late, like always, and I’ve got the latest in the Chicago elections on the news. It’s a little crazy because one of the candidates, Tony Peraica refuses to concede the race because all the votes hadn’t been counted. With 70% of the votes counted, he was down 43% to Todd Stroger’s 57%. At his rally, Peraica urged his people to go to the Cook County clerk’s office to demand that those votes be counted. They marked over at midnight and tried to enter the building, then his opponents supporters came as well. Fights happened, people slapped each other, chanting happened, men were standing on top of boxes of ballots, people were arrested, it’s currently mayhem and craziness there. I understand that the fight isn’t over until it’s over, that’s fine, but to call your people to come in and harrass the people whose job it is to count those votes, making their jobs that much more difficult is wrong. Just let them do their job…it’s late and I’m sure they didn’t anticipate it. Grr!

Politics. Man, I have no stomach for all that drama. But I need to be part of the process to make sure that I’m getting counted. I’m not part of cook county anymore anyway so that race doesn’t really matter to me!

I hope you all voted! If not, make sure you’re registered and vote next time!

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To end my week of Halloween, I present to you Spiderboy. I went to the Halloween store the day after the holiday and got some great deals, like this cute Spiderman costume. Sure, Ben will be too big to wear it next year, but it was too cute to pass up. We laughed so hard when we put it on him - he HATED the mask. For the longest time he kept his eyes shut when the mask was on him. Unfortunately, he figure out how to take it off so every time we put the mask on him he immediately grabs it and pulls it down. One funny thing is everytime he had the mask on, he would hold his arms out to his sides as if trying to catch his balance - it was so cute!

Enjoy the pics!

Tags: Pictures by Yano
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