Travelling Abroad to the Philippines

Kevin and I shared an awesome Christmas eve and Christmas day starting with a meal where we made some home made pasta. At 10 PM, we went to the midnight mass at Grace Cathedral. Our friends Rae and Niall were kind enough to get us some reserved seats. Otherwise, we would have gotten to the church by 8:30 or 9 because it fills up so fast. The service was festive with fake snow, lots of trumpets, flutes, the organ and singing of carols.

Then, on Christmas day, I spent the morning frying up lumpia that I had made the night before and wrapped up that morning. We were attending dinner with Rae and Niall in the Mission. Kevin was working Christmas morning and it was pretty relaxing to just be home that morning. The weather outside was pretty dreadful. There was thunder and lightning (surely, nothing compared to the rest of the country). But, by noon, the sun had broken through the clouds and the sky cleared for a beautiful day. We ended up eating dinner with our friends around 4:30 where we had fried turkey (the best turkey, I’ve ever had), mushroom stuffing, roasted veggies, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, bread sauce, gravy, pearl onions… mmmm… it was all stupendous! I was stuffed, but, knew I needed room for dessert. Dessert was a beautiful “baked alaska” that had strawberry ice cream, strawberry sorbet, rasberry sorbet, poppy seed cake and a meringue on the outside. It looked like a big igloo and was as delicious as it looked. I would post pictures, but, I have about 10 minutes til we head to the airport for the Philippines.

Yes… our trip to the Philippines has arrived. The Hannah Montana dolls, High School Musical dolls, Mickey Mouse, Guitar Hero, Talking Sheep, lotions, shirts and towels have all been wrapped up and packed as presents and my bags are packed for some 80 degree weather and the beach! Woo hoo!  In about an hour, the madness of waiting in a Philippine Airlines line will begin. If you don’t know what it is like, you will likely see families with very large boxes all lined up with duct tape and scissors in hand. What is this stuff for, you ask? Well, when these families make it up to the front, their boxes will get weighed. If they are over the alotted 70 lbs., they will slash open their boxes and start rearranging heavier items into their carry-ons. Or, they will just leave the cans of spam they were planning on taking to the homeland at the side of the ticket counter. Its quite a scene. I’ve been there… numerous times. Kevin and I are only travelling with one of these boxes. We are certainly not going to be the norm. Our box is only about 30 lbs!  My mom will likely wonder why we wasted space and weight when we could have taken much more. Oh well… hopefully, I will get internet access in the Philippines to blog once or twice, but, pictures will likely follow when we get back to the States.

Extreme Holiday Lights

Yesterday, we went to visit some friends in San Carlos to witness the spectacle of lights on some of their neighboring streets. I expected a lot of lights, but, this was pretty crazy. I thought my parents were bad!  On Christmas, my parents usually have a 6 ft. inflatable snowman, a moving Santa and reindeer and a good number of lights all over the front yard. But, it was nothing like some of the houses on the block we visited in San Mateo. These people rented cherry pickers to decorate a 25 ft. tree and every corner of their houses from lights canvasing the lawn to covering their fireplaces. One resident apparently had a $4000 electric bill last year.  We had actually tried to see the lights last year around Dec. 28, however, after Christmas, they all generally close down the lights, so, we missed them.

Apparently, one house often opens up their garage (which is a finished room) and plays “Its A Wonderful Life” from a large TV in there. Another house puts out a large Santa doll that kids can come by and take a picture with. This street is crazy! Apparently on weekends, the streets are full of people strolling the lights from all over the bay area. On a Monday, rainy night, there were still a good number of kids and parents walking around. The last house that we saw had a “symphony of lights”. There lights blinked to a tune of Christmas music.  They even had a sign that read, “Free Holiday Lights Concert 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM daily!

Trimming the holiday tree

This past weekend, Kevin and I did our yearly tradition of getting a big Douglas Fir from Home Depot. Unlike last year where we tied a tree to the Volvo in the rain and worried about it falling off in the Tenderloin on the way home, our trip to buy the tree was sunny and uneventful. The tree actually fit perfectly in my Toyota Celica. We didn’t even have to tie the trunk down or anything.

That night, we invited a couple of friends over to help us decorate. Unfortunately, after coming home with the tree, I didn’t really leave enough time to make the white bean and parley pesto appetizer and the spaghetti squash dish that I had planned. Kevin was supposed to make deviled eggs. So, both of us squeezed into our small kitchen to get the dinner going. Kevin had a terrible time peeling the boiled eggs. The shell seemed to stick to the white portion. After about two eggs, he told me we wouldn’t be having deviled eggs that night. I was rushing to finish two recipes (both of which I had never made before … or even read the full recipe for). Luckily, our guests were stuck in parking hell in our neighborhood, and they were late anyways.

There were a lot of errors in my spaghetti squash with a Parmesan cream sauce, but, the appetizer of cannelini beans drizzled with a parsley pesto turned out great. My apple-cranberry cobbler was also tasty although the consistency of the apples were a bit mushy. Our friend Steve gave me a nice tip to freeze the apples next time so that they cook less even if the top has not cooked yet. I think I also shouldn’t have used frozen butter. Oops!

By the end of the night, our tree was quite beautiful, but, a bit crooked. I was feeling a bit sickly, so, I just went to bed. The following morning, while Kevin was cleaning dishes, I decided to try to adjust the tree myself. I crawled under the 6.5 ft tree and loosened the base and then began to try and move it. I’m not sure how I thought this would work, but, suddenly, the tree fell over on top of me. Ornaments came crashing down on the floor (luckily, none broke). Kevin had to pull the tree off of me! Afterwards, he had a big laugh about it. I guess I should ask for help next time. Anyways, I love Christmas trees. Here are some pictures of our tree.

Ouch, the recession hits Adobe

Today was a rough day at work. I found out from my manager that we were doing company wide layoffs that day. While I wasn’t affected, it was unknown how deep the cuts would be. Would it just be trimming the fat, or a lot worse? As the day went on, it was a little difficult to concentrate on work tasks. However, feeling like we should each be grateful for keeping our jobs, I thought, I should really try to get things done on my long list of tasks.

As the day went on, I started hearing about more and more people who were let go. There was one person affected on my team, one friend was affected and other layoffs were real surprises. There were several people let go who have been at the company for many more years than my six! These people had survived the Macromedia to Adobe layoffs, but, they couldn’t survive this downturn. I felt bad not only for the people let go, but, also for their teams who’s morale must have suffered from the loss. In the end, Adobe made a public announcement about the layoffs . They were laying off about 600 people.

As I left work a little after 6 PM, I saw someone I recognized hugging another employee. They were followed by facilities helping them take away their boxes. The woman was crying and it broke my heart. For this employee, I know that she was at the company for over 6 years. My heart goes out to all the people who will need to write a new chapter in their life away from Adobe.