Remember this?
This was taken more than two years ago, I was home sick that day.
Guess what, I’m home sick again today, and we now know what’s a fun thing to do when on sick leave:
We’re so glad to have Joe with us this time.
Coinciding with June being Adopt-A-Cat Month®, my brother Joe brought home our second rescued weird-looking cat. Like Uma, we’ll insist that she’s cute, hehe!
Joe found her on the PMA grounds when he was there last week for summer music camp. He brought her home all the way from Baguio.
I reckon she’s 6-7 weeks old. Joe named her Sophie because she looks so confusing, she’s like one big code.
Uma is a big sister now! The first few days were difficult, Uma hated the new kitten so much, she was practically murderous. She had quite an attitude problem when Sophie first arrived, it left me wondering if cats have PMS. They’re slowly warming up to each other now.
We’re giving them a little bit more time to get used to each other. I’m sure they’ll be BFFs soon!
My title as The Best Baker of this household is seriously being threatened. My youngest brother Joe, who’s always been fond of whipping up things in the kitchen, has now taken interest in the oven.
Last week, he made several batches of carrot cake, and while they were nowhere as good as mine (yes, we’re competetive), they turned out really well. After a few days, he moved on to sponge cake, something I haven’t attempted yet. He used the sponge cake to make a mango ice box cake. Who makes ice box cake from scratch???
I’m so envious that Joe gets to bake a lot while I haven’t touched my measuring spoons and spatulas in months. He’s at an advantage: he’s on break from school, while I’m juggling work, overtime, wedding-planning, and writing about trampolines new york. I don’ know when I’ll have the time to bake again.
In the meantime, I guess I’ll just enjoy my baby brother’s baked goodies. I bought him the Yummy Bake, Give, Sell recipe book yesterday, I’m looking forward to what sweet treat he’ll come up next.
Here’s my brother Joe’s arrangement of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance for cello trio. He performs all three parts! This is my favorite of all his videos so far, please do watch!
Oh, and if you notice all the scratches on my brother’s bedroom door, well, that’s all Uma’s doing.
. . . as performed by my sister Angela-May and my brother Joe.
They had nothing better to do last Saturday afternoon after watching Americal Idol and ended up with this. You have no idea how proud I am of my little siblings.
My brother Joe cover’s Katy Perry’s Firework on the cello — with five cello parts! Must watch!
He did the video-editing himself.
Not bad for only less than three years of lessons and a chipipay instrument. 
And yeah, he’s 19 years old, but he’ll always be a little baby boy to me.
We have a new addition to our little collection of musical instruments: an electric cello! This is my parents’ gift to my brother Joe for his 19th birthday last week.
My brother is in love with his new toy, and so am I. I couldn’t stop playing it earlier. My brother and I name all our instruments, but Joe can’t think of an appropriate one yet.
I’m so excited about this instrument. It means that I can start practicing again! The main reason I’m not able to practice as much as I want to is because the only time I have to do so is in the wee small hours of the morning, and the traditional cello is too noisy for that. Now, I can just plug in the earphones and bow away! I want to be good enough so I can play the cello at my own wedding.
I think I like the electric one better than the traditional one, I’m thinking of getting one for myself after the wedding (I hope I save enough so I won’t have to look into easy personal loans).
This means that we have three cellos in our home now:
The new cello, the old cello, and Cello the dog!
EDIT: Click here for video of him playing Bach’s Prelude no. 1 in G Major, recorded yesterday.
***My brother is so handsome, haha!***
You and your cello don’t belong here. I’m so glad you’re home, little brother.
Our cat never runs out of things to do to amuse herself, which means that we, her humans, are constantly amused as well.
This is her latest favorite form of entertainment, she can go at this for half an hour straight.
We have one crazy cat.
I came across this while browsing through the pictures on my digicam:
This was taken last week when Joe was home for academic break, he’s wearing one of his pre-PMA pants. This looks like one of those ‘after’ pictures of infomercials for diet pills or excercise equipment.
It’s really amazing how much weight he lost. This was how my brother looked like on his high school graduation day, a year before he entered the academy:
Unbelievable, huh? There’s nothing like military training to get you in the best physical shape.
When Joe went home last summer after his first year in Baguio, my dad took him clothes-shopping — and he bought nothing but muscle shirts! Aba! And when we sent him off to the Victory Liner terminal at the end of his break, a lot of cadets were also there waiting for their buses, and every single one of them was in a tight-fitting muscle shirt!
You can’t really blame those kids for wanting to show off the product of all their hard work. If I were male and had six-pack abs, I’d probably be walking around shirtless!
Joe is in Manila for for official trips this week, and they were given the night off last night. Naturally, he came home to spend the night–with eight of his mistahs whose families were in the provinces. It was crazy! Good thing it was a holiday and we were all home when Joe texted us that they’d be coming, it was such short notice and we crammed to prepare mattresses, pillows and blankets (even if these boys can sleep standing up or marching while carrying rifles).
I went grocery-shopping to buy food for dinner and breakfast for the boys–but all they wanted to eat for dinner was Lucky Me Pancit Canton, cooked (or half-cooked) in a plastic bag, the way they do it in Baguio. Weird. I guess old habits die hard. (When Joe came home for his first break last March, he ate that practically-uncooked pancit canton–which he also cooked in a plastic bag–every single night he was home.)
Anyway, this morning there were nine shirtless young men in our sala watching Deuce Bigalow on TV, all with six-pack abs each. That was 54 packs in our living room right there! 
They were all around a decade younger than me, though, so… blech.
I’m so glad Joe got to come home even for just a short while, we weren’t counting on seeing him this week.
–=-=–
Aside from ‘em ‘Ayer boys, we also have another houseguest, my 18-year old cousin AA from Cebu whom we just met. His dad, my dad’s first cousin, suffered a stroke last April 24 while in Manila. They don’t have any immediate relatives here, so AA had to come here last week to watch over his dad in the hospital. Sadly, Uncle Albert passed away last Saturday. My cousin is staying with us in the meantime while arrangements are being made so he can take his dad’s remains home to Cebu. May I please ask you to say a little prayer for my uncle and his family?
… is when the whole family is complete:
… because our baby brother is home on summer break:
… and there’s good food, like takeout from Savory:
(Doesn’t my mom look amazing? She’ll be 60 next year.)
… and my siblings and I can bond and have fun with each other:
… and my dear boyfriend is by my side:
… and even if he’s a wee bit distracted, I completely understand:
Joe will be leaving in a couple of days, it will be several months again before we have another Sunday like the one we just had.
I am grateful for moments like these, when I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have a wonderful family and to live in a home that’s full of love and laughter and happiness. I’m blessed.
I’m already looking forward to Joe’s next vacation.
Today is Joe’s 18th birthday.
Today is the 12th anniversary of my dad’s quadruple bypass surgery.
Today, my mom had her defense for her dissertation for her Doctor of Business Administration degree. She’s now Dr. Mama! 
I just love February 11!
Happy birthday to my dear brother, and congratulations to my dear mommy!
I can’t believe that Joe is now 18. We’re ten years apart, which makes me… ancient.
My brother has major talent in his pinky fingers alone.
I’m gonna miss Jackie the cello here (I haven’t been using her that much lately, anyway), but she and Joe will have a good time!
Abet took me to a concert by the Manila Symphony Orchestra at Phil-Am last night–Haydn’s Symphony no. 104, Paganini violin concerto with Junior Saraza as soloist, and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5. What a nice Saturday evening date! The soloist was amazing, I had goosebumps during his entire concerto (and his two encores), and Beethoven’s 5th is always a joy to experience. My boyfriend is the greatest for surprising me with tickets.
I used to be an avid classical and jazz concert-goer when I was a student. Back then, I’d go alone most of the time–none of my friends were into the same kind of music I liked. Now, I have a default companion (who sometimes gets tickets at a discounted rate or even for free), there’s really no excuse for me not to watch more often. Plus, I get little lessons about classical music whenever I watch with Abet. (“That’s a fughetta, hear that?”)
He’s taking me to another concert this Saturday, whoopee!
I picked the cello up for the first time in months today. It felt like being reunited with an old friend. Since Joe left for Baguio, the instrument (her name’s Jackie after cellist Jacqueline du Pre) has just been sitting forlornly in the little anteroom we have upstairs. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I touched it. I did a few scales and played a few notes of that Bach piece I was working on when I left off–and then I cried.
I missed Joe so bad. I missed my cello buddy. And I was saddened at the thought that he’s not making music right now, something he loves to do.
Right now, he is being trained to be the best soldier he can be, something he loves even more.
And that makes it all okay.
He loves that case. We went to a concert at CCP later that evening, just the two of us.
I hope there’s a nice concert when he gets to come home after his first year *puhon*, I’m sure he misses concert-watching as well.
