I’ve been feeling rather uninspired lately which explains my  lack of post, I apologize for that.

Spring is finally here. The weather is really gorgeous these days – not too warm and not too cold – just perfect! However, there’s one thing I despise most about Spring and that is the allergy it brings. The pollen from trees (Pinon) are making people sick – sneezing, clogged-up/running nose, sore eyes etc. Unfortunately, I am one of these people. I’ve been following pollen allergy forecast  (yes, there is such a thing) and my place has been high since April 1 which explains my sleepless nights for days now. I’ve been taking anti-allergy but the medication is making me feel tired and lousy. I know my predicament is not as bad as I think it is compared to other people out there suffering from fatal illnesses but you know, I am just sharing. I just hope that this goes away soon. This is the worst allergy season. Last year wasn’t so bad at all.

I wish I am in Japan right now. They have the best and gorgeous  Spring season of all. Look at this photo taken by my friend from Japan via his blog.

Georgeous, isn’t it?

Now I don’t mind allergies as long as my surrounding is as beautiful as this!But that’s not the case……

Hope you guys are well.

For more photos of Jesslee, visit his blog HERE!

(1) Robert Pattinson for Spiderman? Are you kidding me? I love him and all but is he really fit for the role? Do you honestly think he could pull if off? Unless he would show me some abs, I might be convinced. Haha. Peter Parker = Robert Pattinson. Naah, I can’t still picture a blood-sucking spiderman.

(2) I am supposed to share with you my last holiday travel galore but I guess it’s too late now. Haha. Hello, it’s almost the end of January.  The only thing I do best is procrastinating. You might already notice that.;-)

@ Le Reve Cirque de Soliel

(3) It’s snowing here. I hate it. I don’t mind snow as long as it happens during the weekend for I don’t need to drive. You know, I  sometimes  do stunt driving. It’s my part time job. LOL.  The bad news is this snow is here to stay for three more days. Darn! Wish me luck!

(4) I am officially liking Mexican food. I used to hate burritos, enchiladas, etc because of its spiciness.   Now, I eat Mexican food almost everyday at lunch. I love to eat pickled jalapeno with everything. Jalapeno is now my “ginamus” (bagoong) or dried fish.  I used to eat dried fish/ginamus with everything but you can’t find them here.   I notice though that everytime I answer the call of nature, it hurts! Maanghang-anghang pa. TMI (too much information)! Haha.

(5) If you ask me who my presidential bet is, my answer is I don’t know. If I were to vote, I would not vote for anyone. Nalito ako sa statement ko na yun ah. Anyway, for me Noynoy is a No-No. Villar is definitely a No-Way. Gibo is also a Nay!  I won’t elaborate anymore because I might be lambasted by these Presidentiables supporters. Natakot ba…

(6) My JLC and I have been learning to ice skate on our own. It’s fun. This Sunday will be our third time to skate. We are getting better, I think.  From countless falling on our butt, we now manage to fall about 10 times. Haha. Everytime we fall, little kids would ask if we are okay. Cute kids who could run effortlessly with those ice skates. I am so jealous. I am so determined to do better with skating. After learning to ice skate,  figure skating..here I come! Haha. Ambisyosa!

(7) We bought and watched Season 4-6 of 24. We managed to watch Season 4  in two days. Talk about being a bum! We just finished Season 5 this week. Yes, we still have better things to do than being glued on the boob tube watching Jack Bauer saving America from terrorists the entire day.  By the way, the new season of 24 is on. Did you watch it? I guess I have too much Jack Bauer in my system now. Need to stop this craziness.

(8)Been trying to eat healthy. I’ve gained about 5 lbs. From 20+ pair of jeans, I can only fit 4 of my jeans now.   Sad.

(9) I am excited to attend the annual winter ball of JLC’s company this Friday. I got to dress up. Yay! You see, I never attended proms or any formal event in my whole life so I am excited every time I wear something nice.  This time I am just going to recycle one of my dresses.  Getting a new dress for the said event is not practical at all. Also, it’s hard to play dress up during the winter.  You need to make sure you wouldn’t freeze your ass, at the same time,you need to look good. Hehe.

(10) In January alone, a lot of earthquakes occured worldwide -Guatemala, California, Argentina and Haiti, the most devastated one. What’s happening? Is the end near? Katakot, noh? Did you see photos of Haiti? It so depressing and sad. My prayer goes for the people of Haiti.  I hope the country can recover after this catastrophic event. What happen to the Ondoy victims, by the way? Did the government still working on relocating them? What happen to the millions of dollars worth of donations? Bakit kaya wala ng balita tungkol dito? Hmmmmmmm. Hope my speculations are wrong! Don’t speculate, sabi nga ni Manny Pacquiao. O si Manny nga ba ang nagsabi non? Basta may nagsabi na ganon. Haha.

(11) Lastly, I miss my nephew. I heard he can now walk for few steps. Good thing is he and my mom will stay with me in 8 days in April while my sister is on her much-deserved European cruise. I can’t wait to be with them.

As you may all know, I went to Seattle last month. Oh yes, this is a long overdue post. Blame it to … I don’t know..

Anyhow, one of the highlights of our trip was our dining experience with Sky City Restaurant. The restaurant is a bit pricey but when it comes to good food if I have to  shell out my last penny, I would definitely do it.

Sky City is located atop of the Space Needle.

You can now imagine that the restaurant is circular in shape. The observation deck is just above it. If you are eating at Sky City your trip to the observation deck is free, otherwise you have to pay $13 for the elevator trip. So our food bill was less twenty-six bucks . Yay!

When we were seated, I thought I was dizzy. JLC felt the same way too. Then we realized that the whole restaurant was revolving. The dining floor was like that of a carousel but in slow motion of course. I guess it was built like this so that all of the guests can view the spectacular Seattle in every angle, 360 degrees. It so genius and unique!

The view itself is worth your money.  I was awed by the view of the bay, the mountains, the autumn foliage and the downtown. I was soo glad, we went there.

The View

The FOOD

The food is as spectacular as the view. I savored every thing I put in my mouth at that time. Yes, I was being a pig.  I am sure you’re curious about what we had . So here it goes:

To start off… we had Seattle Clam and Corn Chowder. This chowder is to die for. I keep asking JLC to give some more.

…and I had the Tomato Soup with Basil. I don’t know why I ordered this when I know I don’t like tomato soup. It feels like your eating ketchup. I was hoping it was going to be different but then again, tomato soup is tomato soup.

Now to the main entree…

My JLC had Grilled Wild Coho Salmon with late summer corn pudding, braised pea vines, Dungeness crab and bacon fondue, smoked paprika vinaigrette

While I had Alderwood Smoked Prime Rib with  Roasted garlic mashed potatoes, rosemary scented jus

I finished the whole thing!!!

To finish it off..

My JLC had a cheesecake

..And I had my ever favorite Tiramisu

This was really one of our best pig-out ever! If I were to rate Sky City, it would be 10/10!

Unlike the previous post, this entry has less talk but more photos. I will spare you the details, pramis. Hehe.

Madison St, our hotel was on this street…

Seattle has a beautiful bay.. We checked it out..of course.

It’s the most gorgeous bay I’ve ever seen. I’ve only been/seen one… this one. Hehe.

I really love the autumn colors. Don’t ask me what my position was when I took this photo. Basta, hindi kanais-nais! Nawala ang poise ko.

Baka sabihin niyo, walang silbi tong blog ko na to.. ito trivia sabi ni wiki:

The Space Needle is a tower in Seattle, Washington, and is a major landmark of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and a symbol of Seattle. Located at the Seattle Center, it was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, during which time nearly 20,000 people a day used the elevators, with over 2.3 million visitors in all for the World Fair. The Space Needle is 605 feet (184 m) high at its highest point and 138 feet (42 m) wide at its widest point and weighs 9,550 tons. When it was completed it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River.^[4] It is built to withstand winds of up to 200 mph (320 km/h) and earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitude.^[5] (which would protect the structure against an earthquake as powerful as the 1700 Cascadia earthquake). The tower also has 25 lightning rods on its roof to prevent lightning damage.

We had a free ride to the Space Needle observation deck for we went to their Sky Restaurant for lunch. Sky Restaurant is  located one level below the observation deck. This is how it looks like at the top of the world Space Needle. Sobra, ang ganda ng view! Too bad it was cloudy. We weren’t able to see the famous Mount Rainier, Olympic and Cascade Mountains.

Around Space Needle, there is sort of an amusement park called Seattle Center. There’s the notable Pacific Science Center and Experience Music Project and a whole lot more!

The park surrounding Space Needle is soo huge. Napagod ang lola niyo sa kakalakad!

There’s a beautiful fountain in the park. We spent about 30 minutes there just watching children playing. Ang ganda don tumambay. Madaming tao. Masaya.

Pagod na ako pero smile pa rin. Ay, hindi pala ako nagsmile. Sumakit ang balakang ko sa kakalakad. Buti nalang di ko dinala ang aking 4-inch heels. Bwahaha.

Sabi ni sister Ikay lakwatsera daw kaming mag-jowa. Well, hindi naman masyado. Konti lang.

Oo ito nga, naglamiyerda kami sa Seattle. Nakikisakay ako sa luggage ng aking jowa. My JLC had a conference there so sumabit ako ng bonggang-bongga sa luggage niya. Unlike in our trip in New York few years back, hindi nagresearch ang lola niyo kung saan pupunta etc.    I did visit the official website of Seattle for visitors but that just it. Hindi ako bumili ng libro. Walang silbi ang libro! Lol.  I knew that Mr. Nonsense is from Seattle. Kinapalan ko ang fez ko at nagtanong-tanong sa kanya. He gave me some tips on where to go and what to do. Thanks Jesse! Sana matuloy ang EB natin with Buraot next time.

Anyway highway, we got to our hotel at around 2 PM last Saturday. Juice ko day, I thought I would never see Seattle – the flight was bumpy. Akala ko babagsak na ang eroplano. Pero sa awa ng Dyos, buhay pa naman kami. When we got there, the rain had stopped just for us. Yes, ganon ka mi ka espesyal.

Nagrarally na ang mga bituka namin, so we had to  find a place to eat.  I knew, from surfing, that there are restaurants around a public makert named  Pikes Place. We asked a hotel staff where it’s at. Dahil English at dahil slow kami, di namin na getch ang sinabi niya. Pero as if daw nakuha namin ang sinabi niya, tango lang kami ng tango. Harharhar. Bahala na si batman na naman ang motto namin. Sa labas, may naglalakad na dalawang Pinoy. Paano namin nalaman? Lukso ng dugo! Hahaha. Seriously, one of them was wearing our very own Barong! Pinoy nga! Magandang pagtanongan to kasi siguradong magegetch namin. Lol. So we asked and they even told us to take a bus, etc. Yahoo! They even asked us to see them once we get back to the hotel para makipagchikahan. Apparently, they were participants of the National Lawyers Guild Conference which was held in the hotel at that time.

We opted to walk instead of taking a bus. Sa ganon, madami kaming makikita. Ito ang bumungad sa amin, a rally urging Obama to withdraw the US troops in Afghanistan & Iraq. Nakikisigaw din kami: “Ibagsak si Gloria! Ibagsak!” Hihihi.

At last, we found the market. Oh may gulay, it’s just like the “merkado” back home! In my few years stay here in the US, wala talaga akong nakitang palengke ito lang. Kaya, ang saya ko! There were thousands of people there. Ang saya!

They had cheeeeaaap flowers.

Fresh fruits galore.

Fresh vegetables and some other handmade stuff.

Of course, dahil malapit sila sa Pacific Ocean may fresh seafood….

At may entertainment pa!

We had lunch/dinner at a cheap-yet-good Japanese restaurant there which I will feature on a separate entry.

In our two-day stay in downtown Seattle, we frequented Pikes Place. Kakaiba ang aura doon. Ang saya-saya. Madaming tao. Busy.It could’ve been a good photo op kaya lang I was trying to be a good partner. We were there to enjoy the place ,not to indulge my photography churvaloo which reminds me of my own disclaimer. Mga kunichiwawa, as you noticed, hindi kagandahan ang litraks. All of these photos were taken from a digital cam.

I promised to my JLC to leave the good camera behind for it may ruin the trip. He had a point. I tend to forget about him. Nakakalimutan ko na may kasama ako. Nageenjoy ako sa shooting galore ko at kung saan saan ako pumupunta tuloy nagkakawalaan kaming dalawa gaya ng nangyari noong Balloon Fiesta. Alangan naman, sunod lang siya ng sunod sa akin, di vah? Which also reminds me of a lesson learned: When you go for photo ops, go alone or go with someone who’s also interested in photography..don’t go with a partner whose interest is something else (read:gurls) or else, better start talking about that word ’separation’. Lol.  Biro lang JLC ko! Eyelabyou por layp! Mahal ko aking jowa kaya iniwan ko ng bonggang bongga ang SLR.

Hoy, don’t give me  that ” i’ts-not-the-camera-it’s-the-photographer” statement to get a good photo. It’s all about the right equipment, baby, coupled with talent which I don’t think I have anyway. Lolz.

Medyo malayo-layo din ang nilakad namin. Bumalik kami sa hotel, and we bumped again into the two Pinoys I mentioned. With them was a Filipina named Grace. We found out the names of the two guys whom we met that morning : Ace and Congressman Neri.   Galing pa sa Pinas si Ate Grace at si Congressman.

Yes, congressman pala yung nakabarong. I was actually embarrased for not recognizing him. Congressman Neri Colmenares is a House Representative of the partylist Bayan Muna. He was there, together with his assistant Grace, as one of the speakers of the National Lawyers Guild Conference. He talked about the VFA and it’s impact to the country, etc. He also talked about the havoc that Ondoy brought to the Philippines. He is a human right lawyer so I guess he also tackled about the human rights aspects involving the said two topics of his speech. Chinika lang sa amin to ni Manong Ace, hindi namin naabotan ang talk ni COngressman. Sayang. Manong Ace is also an active leader of some Filipino community there in Seattle. I was thinking of featuring him in Barrio Siete. We’ll see.

What I admire about Congressman Colmenares is his humility. Para lang siyang ordinaryong tao. He would talk to you na para bang kakila mo siya. And take this, he wasn’t staying on some five star hotel in Seattle. He was staying at Manong Ace’s house. Hindi gaya ng ibang politiko diyan or any  tongressman diyan na dapat may special treatment- dapat sa magarang hotel mag stay! Di ko nga sure kung government-funded ba yung trip ni Congressman Colmenares don sa Seattle. Chika pa ni Manong Ace, some of the lawyers in the conference volunteered to go to the Philippines to observe the country – especially its human rights aspect. Congressman Colmenares made me believe again that not all politicians are baaaad.

Moi, Ate Grace, Congressman Colmenares and my JLC.  Manong Ace took this picture.