Penster

After being closed for renovation for several months, Cincinnati’s landmark fountain square has finally re-opened!

They’ve moved the fountain in the middle of the square now facing the Westin hotel.

They’ve also placed a big screen TV right across the square (on top of Macy’s department store). All this done is part of Cincinnati’s attempt to get the people back to downtown. Only time will tell if it would work. At least for those of you staying at Westin… you have the fountain view back.

Patty Nakaoki… my former boss, my mentor and good friend is retiring this week. After years in P&G and a few more in HP, she has enough $$$ now to relax and retire (now how many of us can say that???)

We made a small token to celebrate this occasion. She’s holding the picture made by me and Tin… which was a picture of her lying on the sands of Matabungkay while texting! She thought it was nice and funny. We also collected and sent some messages from people in Manila.

All the best to her!

Here’s a gift idea… there’s a lot of nice "graphic tees" that i’ve seen here… one of them is this very funny shirt. Funny because it reminded me of a good friend who is indeed engaged to be married. Another friend did give it to him as a gift and everybody thought that it was very fitting gift. He knows who he is.

In a totally unrelated item, Maxi and I found this drink in a grocery store. I didn’t know La Salle had it’s own Vodka! And of course it’s green!

Hmm. Maybe I should bring one home.

I just got back here last Sunday to Cincinnati and it definitely got colder! It has begun… the days were I already need to wear jackets when i’m outside. That’s not a problem… the problem really is the fact that my skin gets so dry in this weather. We Filipinos aren’t made for this weather! It isn’t much a problem for the ladies since they are used to applying lotion and moisturizing their skin. Ang hirap if you forget… you’re going to feel na lang later that your skin itches and para kang may allergies. Nonetheless, enjoyable pa rin ang ganitong weather. Sana lang nga, it doesn’t get colder… but we know it does.

I’m on my way home to Manila for a visit but before I do, I stopped over to Newark, NJ to meet with my brother and HS friends here. My friends and I went back to Six Flags this past weekend and had a blast! There was a storm just a day ago which explains why when we went there there was no crowd eventhough it was a perfect sunny day. Lucky!

We went early and as soon as we got inside we went straight for the roller coasters. First up, the Nitro! There was no queue so we enjoyed a nice smooth long ride and afterwhich went straight back for a second trip!!! I had a video of this when I first rode it some years ago… I just have to find it and share it in youtube.

And just like our first trip here, we wasted no time and went straight to nearby "Batman" ride. It wasn’t as a smooth a ride as Nitro but this time, you ride suspended (no floors) in the air as you go for loops and turns.  It’s not new but still a fun experience to repeat!

From one superhero to another, if Batman was a ride where you’re suspended… Superman of course orients you in a way there you are riding face down to the ground! Definitely best experience if your "seated" in front of the ride making you feel as if floating in the air seeing nothing keeping you from falling down nor seeing what’s ahead of you as it loops around!

But the best ride that we had was the new roller coaster in Six Flags called Kingda Ka. So new that they still have not ironed out the kinks off it… my friend says it’s always close when they go there. We had to wait in line for this not because of the crowd but because mid-way when we were lining up, it had "minor" problems that they had to shut it down for nearly an hour.  But it was well worth it! Even if it was just a 30 second ride, it was definitely worth it! A picture won’t do justice… so I had a video taken of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmh1CV8WJFk

Day 2 in LA, well… really we drove for an hour to Anaheim to go to…whereelse… Disneyland! It’s not my first time to the land of Mickey Mouse. But it was good to visit a Disneyland where Mickey speaks English…. My first Disney experience I heard them talking in Japanese!!! Yes… it was in Disney Tokyo.

So here we are taking a rare shot of all of us right at the entrance… we probably have spoiled the picture for the little girl by our left side…

It was 2 decades too late I guess. Disney is really for kids. I think it would really be an experience for my future kids to go to Disney. Yes, it is crowded but the world it creates and surrounds people with is truly awesome. Disney likes to think that he doesn’t sell rides, tickets, entertainment… but rather they sell "Dreams". What do you think?

So, from feeling like a kid again, we just had to have something totally different. We went to Hooters for dinner! Hehe. And as you can see from the picture, Jeffrey had a happy first time experience. He kept the tissue where she wrote her name "Roxy". >:D  j/k

I guess Hooters restaurant differ where you go. I mean, here in CA it seems that they have more gimiks for the girls to entertain the crowd. I haven’t seen that in OH.

That’s my LA trip in a nutshell!

Almost exactly a year since I first visited LA, I came back this past weekend to met up with college friends. John who stays in Pasedena invited us over this year - me, Orson and Jeffrey(formerly known as Taxing). Yep… that’s them on that picture..

Unlike last year, I was pleasantly suprised that it was actually cooler in LA this time. Definitely, better than the heatwave we have in Cincinnati. So I enjoyed it more this year.

So here we are on our first day out… at Universal Studio. And this time, I went inside in to enjoy the park. Lots of interesting sites… like the studio tour where we saw a lot of the different studio sets used in old and new TV shows and movies. Example, do you recognize who’s house shown in the picture on the right? If you’ve been watching "Gabriel", yes, that’s her house in Wisteria Lane in Desperate housewives. We asked if we could drop by and meet Eva but she wasn’t home that day… :..(

… more to come

A good friend of mine shared the johari window with me and I thought that it would be good for me to have one of my own. I know it’s a good exercise and I procastinate to start one for myself.  So please visit mine http://kevan.org/johari?name=sqlocarinas and i’d be happy to return the favor ^_^’

I’ve decided to start blogging again! Hoowee! I think it’s a nice way to keep in touch with those back home aside from catching people online on chats.

Thinking about what to write reminds me of my former boss and good friend Patty’s favorite question on a Friday. "So, what exciting do you have planned for the weekend?". I’m happy to say I had something I did for the first time yesterday (Saturday).

Finally, after having only watched games on TV, I’ve got to watch a tennis game live! Cincinnati Masters Women’s tournament was in town and Serena Williams is in the Semis.  There definitely was a home crowd cheering her on… coming back from months of injury. Unfortunately, that was enough to beat eventual Champion Vera Zvonareva who was playing near perfect tennis! Serena showed grit though but what I guess it would take more time for her to get back to her usual championship groove.

Watched the game with fellow pinoys who are here with me in Cincinnati, two of many, Tin and husband Rodney (aka Casper). But they have to remember to look at the camera instead of my LCD next time… hehehe.

Looking forward to a more exciting Men’s championship in August where the best of the best are playing including the retiring Andre Agassi. Hope he reaches the semis (where we are watching).

Tune in for more…