telos & 20052

mondays through fridays: telos




everyday: 20052 coltsfoot terrace

flat tire to DC

we were supposed to tour DC today. but we got flat tire. and a lot of other car problems. of course, that didn't spoil our bright sunday morning - we took pictures at the highway while waiting for help!


alwyn, taking pictures.


mark and randy trying to find where we are on the map.

mike waiting for hugh to call.

real-lonely-knottydon.

mark lookin' around.


lastly, everyone (except randy who is taking the picture) with the only person who stopped and offered help. thanks GJ!

week 2 in ashburn

first week was fast. second week was expensive.

we ate out three times this week. well, it's noel and rene's last week here in ashburn so that's fine. they left for manila earlier today.

• wednesday. banjara indian cuisine. lunch buffet. $12. no good. haha.
• thursday. king's buffet. lunch buffet. $9. lotsa food choices. just so-so.
• friday. cheesecake factory. $12. delicious. godiva cheesecake - yum yum.
• friday again. landsdowne resort. free. volcano shrimp - the best!

i'll make sure that i'll go back to the cheesecake factory before i go back home. i hope i can bring home some blueberry cheescake for my mom - but i don't think it's possible. maybe a picture will do!

gabriel with chopsticks

dax sent me new pictures of gabriel. they went out last saturday to have lunch and do some grocery shopping. here's little moks with chopsticks on his mouth. I heard he loved the japanese fried rice.

here, dax put on some gardening hat and he sure liked it.

i wish i was home with them. i miss them a lot. anyways, it's just 4 weeks more and i'm goin' home!

baseball: wii vs. stadium

my first baseball encounter was on wii.. and that's just last week. i got my first real baseball experience (well, just watching) at RFK Stadium in DC just a few hours ago. i was so excited when we got invited to watch... and even if i don't know what to expect.. i came with everyone else and left the office early.

gary was in charge of the wheel and don was his co-pilot. alwyn, randy and mike came too. when we got there, we were so excited and right at the parking lot, we took some pictures. we went inside the stadium and checked out our seats (i got 305 row 2 seat 9) just to be sure we know where we're sitting before we get dinner.

we went to red hot & blue to fill our empty stomachs. before the game started around 7:05pm we were already seated. it lasted until a little after 10. the experience was nice but the game was -- boring. i mean, 1-15?! haha! by the way, it was washington nationals who played vs. detroit tigers. tigers won.

i miss my little gabriel

adjusted

finally, i can say that i have adjusted fully. why? because i woke up so late today. so late i wasn't able to hear mass. imagine, 1117am on the clock... and the only reason why i woke up was i got a knock because dax was calling. he's been waiting for me to go online for quite some time already and he needed to sleep *sorry honey*.

after lunch, noel, pattie, alwyn, mike, don & i left for great falls park - that was around 2pm. it was a short drive and only took us around 30 minutes to reach the place.

that panoramic shot above was taken by me, but i asked alwyn to do the stitching. i don't have any software on my laptop to do it.

great falls park was ok. nothing really remarkable... and it was toooo hot. arrrghhh. we went to toys r us and marshalls afterwards. ooohh... i want to shop a lot for my little gabriel at toys r us! i need self control. i'll just come back when i'm like a week away from departure day.

happy father's day to myCoco and myDad

happy father's day to myCoco! i've been telling almost everyone here at the apartment that dax is so funny. like earlier, he kept telling me to just use my credit card to buy the battery charger with rechargeable batteries i so badly needed for my camera. and then, he gave me some link - a Creative Xmod X-Fi Module (what the hell is this, i thought!) which he asked me to buy for him using my credit card. so, i didn't let the day pass without finding it for him anyways. and i was so happy that i got the last stock in best buy somewhere in leesburg. oh well, i tried it out a couple of minutes ago to check if it is working... whoaaaa! it is really good. it really works! haha. this one's for you:

Experience your MP3 music beyond studio quality

• Restore the details and vibrance that your music lost during MP3 compression
• Enjoy all your music and movies in surround sound on any stereo speaker system or headphones
• Connect in seconds to your notebook, PC or Mac to create an Xtreme Fidelity sound system

by the way, sorry for the picture quality - i only used my phone camera.

and happy father's day to myDad! i also got you something that you like!

waitin' for my dv6500t special edition

by end of june (hopefully), ill get my new lapitapi. finally, after 3 or 4 years, i'm getting a new one. and it's special edition. haha. by the way, i'd have to say thanks to my boss, vinod for letting me use his credit card to purchase! and a loooot more thanks to myCoco for helping me out find this laptop, for finding a coupon code that gave me $200 discount and for giving me extra allowance before i left for the US. weeee!

isn't it nice? i had it customized and here's the specs:

• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7100 (1.8GHz/2MB L2Cache)
• 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
• 2GB RAM
• Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• HP Imprint (Influx) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

well, everything is just at the minimum. i just made sure i got bigger hard disk space and 2G RAM (that's the max already). cost? $1,200.14 (tax included). nice? nice!

my first week in Ashburn, VA USA

friday last week, around 800pm, our (i am w/ mark) plane from detroit landed washington dc. we were picked up by rene and noel and we headed to the apartment and reached the place in 15 minutes. i was thinking then that it'll be a long 6 weeks. well, not really. one week is over! today, another batch will be coming - randy, mike and pattie. well, i guess for mike and pattie, it'll be really long. they're stayin' for 3 months!

our trip to japan was very nice. and japan was a really interesting place. what's most fun was, i got DoCoMo signal. we only stayed there for an hour or so and we boarded the same plane for our loooonnnngggg trip to the US. i was able to sleep every now and then but it was so uncomfortable. and i get hungry every 2 hours... maybe since i don't have anything else to do but wait for food. crap... i should've brought along some chocolates or crackers with me. when we landed detroit, i knew we didn't have much time left to catch our connecting flight to DC. true enough, we had to rebook. luckily, we got accomodated at 530pm flight with $5 meal coupon. and all i got was some mcDonald's meal. then we waited.. and waited.. the plane took off around 645pm. crap again.

anyways, after a week, i think i've adjusted well already. our apartment is nice, i got my own room (until pattie arrives which is later) w/ my own bath. we've also got a van except for half of thursday and friday... and drivers (don, alwyn and noel)... and cooks (rene, alwyn & don). neat! a pool and jacuzzi is nearby - and yeah we can use it. we also got a gym which i won't be using even if i can. weather is comfortably nice... it's usually between 17C-23C for the past few days. not sure though when july comes - they say it's going to be hot. office is 5 minutes away by car and 15 minutes when we walk... and i got a laptop to use (i still ordered one with webcam so my little gabriel will see me everyday). everything is good, except that i don't have my family with me. maybe next time (if there is a next time).

so far, here's what i did/i've been doing for the past few days:

• went to visit circuit city & best buy so dax will be *inggit*
• grocery shopping at giant, walmart and grand mart
• heard mass at Christ the Redeemer
• shopped at marshalls
• went swimming with don, mark and alwyn
• reported for work of course
• chat
• updated my blog
• call home
• sleep
• play wii
• watch tv
• eat
• cook (help cook is more appropriate)
• help whoever needs assistance in cooking, dishwashing
• operated the washing machine and dryer (just operated, yes)
• walk around
• eat out

that's it! that's my life... until i get back home!