Month: March 2007

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Albuquerque family Uncategorized

Mom’s store is closing

Mom’s filipino restaurant/grocery store will be closing down in April. The restaurant business is a tough one from what I’ve observed, and you really need to know the business and your business partners. Too bad we have to say goodbye to the only filipino store in Albuquerque! I guess now I’ll have to start cooking filipino food at home again whenever I have the craving for some homecooked sinigang or adobo! I got so used to going to her restaurant on Thursdays cause Thursdays were Sinigang day.

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Albuquerque family

Winter relapse, Grandma’s leaving early

As soon as I decide I’m excited about Spring, and I stopped sneezing from allergies, Albuquerque gets cold again! Well, now I’m sure to really appreciate the good weather once it returns. It’s really hard to beat warm days in the 70’s, seeing flowers starting to bloom, trees starting to leaf, hearing birds chirping, seeing butterflies fluttering, and finding lady bugs on your rosebushes. Spring is a wonderful time of the year!
My Grandma Peny will be leaving us earlier than expected. She’s leaving a week early to try to catch my cousin’s hockey game in Binghamton, NY… he plays for the Binghamton Senators (AHL). #25… Go Bobby Robins! So anyways, we have to say goodbye to Grandma next Wednesday. 🙁 I think maybe she’ll be glad to be away from Sean since he’s been such a stinker to her during her stay here. But we’ll all miss her bunches.

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gardens Uncategorized

Filipino Gardener versus Russian Sage

I tried to dig up a Russian Sage shrub in our front yard today because it’s starting to grow too wide. I moved the rocks around the base and started shoveling. I tried to pry the shrub up by the roots, but the shovel would have broken. Very deep roots it has! So, needless to say, it’s still in our front yard. I pruned it really heavily, so hopefully it’ll be a little more compact. I was going to dig it up and divide it and plant the other parts of it in the back yard, but I think in order to dig t up, we’d have to kill it altogether and butcher the roots, so maybe we’ll let it stay another year. So if you were wondering who won in the battle between the “Filipino Gardener versus Russian Sage,” it wasn’t me. 🙂

I also pruned my roses in the front yard today and pruned my photinias by the front door. I’m wanting to trim my tall photinia bushes to be more like small trees. Maybe I can get started in that tomorrow. I also need to move some bulbs and tubers I dug up in the backyard. I’m rearranging my plants yet again… some day I’ll let the plants settle down for good.

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family health Uncategorized

Horseback riding, Callie’s home

I got to go horseback riding with my Kansasians (Kansas relatives) a couple days ago. Mucho FUN! It was my first time riding. We went to Cedar Crest Stables on the other side of the mountains. We did a 2 hour ride on a trail that went into the Cibola National Forest. My horse’s name was Snoopy, and boy did he have a personality! He used to be used as the lead horse by our guide, so he always want to be at the farthest, 2nd in line. Everytime one of the other horses got in front of him, he’d head butt them in the rear to speed them up. It was really funny! I’d like to do another ride sometime… a 4 hour ride. You ride 2 hours to a waterfall in the Sandias and get off the horses and let them rest and drink and stretch out your legs, then it’s another 2 hour ride back. Check out my Flickr pics for photos of the ride.
Callie came home on Monday night. We brought her home with the intention of just letting her be at home for a while before we put her to sleep, but once she was home, she started doing really well. So she’s eating well, and drinking, and all that good stuff. The vet showed me how to give her fluids under her skin with a needle every day, just to make sure she doesn’t get dehydrated. She seems to not mind it too much. She just doesn’t like to sit still while I’m doing it. I did it this morning with no problems.

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aquarium health zoo

Update on Callie, Zoo trip

Callie is doing somewhat better today. She is finally eating again. We went to the Vet’s to see her today. She is still on IV fluids, but she looked good and she started purring a bit. They said that the plan is to send her back home as soon as she’s eating well. So we’ll see when that will be.

We took Sean to the zoo twice today… let me clarify. The first time, we went to the zoo, couldn’t find parking because it was insanely crowded, so we left to go to the Aquarium instead. While on the way to the Aquarium, Nathan noticed that he didn’t have his wallet-o and we need to show our ID to get in with our yearly pass. So we went back home, ate some lunch and decided to try the zoo again since it was within a couple hours of closing time. We figured that enough people would start leaving and we could find a parking spot this time. So we drove to the Zoo again… found a spot and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with Sean. He’s such a big boy now that we didn’t even take his stroller.

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family health

My Callie is sick

I took my cat to the vet today… spent much time trying to figure out what was wrong with her. They found out that she has kidney failure. I had to leave her at the emergency animal hospital tonight and probably all weekend to see if she improves. If she doesn’t respond to treatment, we’ll probably have to put her to sleep. 🙁 I’m VERY sad. She’s been my Callie for 12 years. Before I got married, she slept on the foot of my bed every night. Sean keeps saying “Callie’s sick. Callie’s at da doctor.”

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Albuquerque family sean

Warm weather, “How dare you?!”

It feels like spring. Trees are blooming, Juniper is making me sneeze like crazy, and I’m hearing birds and seeing butterflies fluttering around. I love this time of year (as long as I’m near my allergy medicine). My Kansasian relatives are coming for a visit next week. Hopefully we’ll get to enjoy the weather and visit the botanic gardens and zoo. Sean has really been wanting to see the gorillas. He’s been asking me pretty much every day the past week.

Sean has a new phrase he likes to say. He says “How dare you!” at pretty random moments, but it’s usually pretty funny. He’s also been saying “You have a blueberry for a daughter”… that’s from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in case you didn’t know. He likes it when we stuff pillows into our shirts to make us fat like blueberries, and he says he’s the “loompa loompa” and he rolls us to the juicing room. Lot’s of fun, that kid is.

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dreams sean

Sean’s dreams

The other night, Sean woke up twice crying. The first time, I asked him what was wrong. He just kept saying “The horse is on me!” and crying. Then later, the same thing happened and he said “the crab was getting me”. We went to visit Nathan’s grandparents this past weekend, and they have horses. And the day before his dreams, we had eaten crabs for dinner.

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Albuquerque food

Sugarcane, Blue Crabs

Grandma Peny bought some sugarcane at Ta Lin World Market today. It’s kinda fun to eat. You put some in your mouth, chew it and suck out the sweet juice, then you spit out the pulpy part. It’s very yummy, and thirst quenching too, if you store it in the refrigerator.

We also bought some blue crabs while we were there. Those are sooooo yummy! And eating them takes me back to my childhood in Virginia. The smell of them cooking makes me think of summer days at the beach with a raw chicken neck tied to a string and a net in my hand. That’s how we caught crabs… no traps for us. You throw out the chicken into the water, wait a few minutes and enjoy the ocean. Then you pull the string in slowly, and when it’s close enough, you scoop up the chicken into the net, and usually along with it come a few crabs. Crabbing is one of the many wonderful memories I have of the ocean.

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Albuquerque food gadgets Uncategorized

I *heart* Craigslist!

Heard of Craigslist? If not, check it out! It’s one of the best places to find deals locally on things people near you are selling. Today I picked up a 5 qt.KitchenAid Heavy Duty Stand Mixer for $25! Those retail for over $230 new! This one is a few years old, but in fabulous working order! I’ll need to order replacement parts for it, but the ones I need only cost about $30 total. Sweet! I can hardly tell you how excited I was to see the ad in Craigslist! My palms were starting to sweat when I was replying to the ad cause I was so excited and was really hoping to be the one to get to purchase it. Yay! This means fresh honey wheat bread! Booyah!