Coco and I are bird-sitting while Betsey's "parents"
are away on holiday. Here we all are cozying up in
my armchair watching TV together.

Oops, camera was propped too high! My brother
looks like he's wearing an umbrella for a hat and
I have a crown of spiky leaves on my head! :-D

Mom's birthday today! She turned 78!
We took her out for a long drive and a celebration
"blunch" (not brunch as it was more lunch than
breakfast) at Antonio's in Tagaytay.

Just let me state for the record
We're giving love in a family dose
We Are Family by Sister Sledge

Ever since Unc arrived for a visit, it seems he's made
it his personal mission to stuff us all with his vittles
of down-home American dishes (usually too rich and
meatier than what our everyday diet is made up of
but delicious nonetheless), mixed with huge helpings
of corny jokes that we still laugh at even if we'd heard
them a thousand times before! Here, he's whipping up
his CalMex version of chili con carne while dishing out
another one of his irreverent Irish jokes.

Just teasing Uncle Herb - He's barbecuing some
spare ribs with his famous finger-lickin'-delicious
sauce! Yummmmmm, he wasn't kidding!!! ;-)

The two dads in the family having dessert at the
Haagen-Dazs café after feasting on a big Japanese
dinner! (They'll hate me for posting this shot!) ;-D

We went to the supermarket just to buy vegetables,
meat and soda. And, of course, we ended up buying
other stuff on the spur of the moment... PLUS pizza
and rootbeer afterwards. As wit Erma Bombeck once
said: "The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread
and coming out with ONLY a loaf of bread are three billion
to one."

That's what the old folks used to say when they'd get
exasperated with youth's inanities : Use your coconut!
My most cherished coconut memory has to do with
my lola (grandmother). She would buy fresh coconut
oil from the market, which she would heat when she
got home. And she'd rub the warm oil onto my scalp
and comb my hair with her suyod until I happily fell
asleep on her lap. My lola is long gone now, so I have
to do it myself. I bought this bottle of virgin coconut
oil to use on my hair - the price would have been less
than half of what I paid for if I bought in the market,
but I don't care. The sweet nutty scent takes me back
to my wonderful carefree full-of-love childhood I spent
with her.