THANKSGIVING 2015

The family gathers for the thanksgiving party hosted by kuya Boy and ate Minda in their residence in Placentia.  It’s a tradition to celebrate this holiday at their place.  This is my first time to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and was excited to get to taste the turkey.  Not a lucky day for me.  We showed up late in the party and no turkey left in the table.

Nevertheless, it was good to see the family at the party.  Food was great.  Time to catch up with family who I get to see only during gatherings. 

 

Most of all Thanksgiving celebration is a way of expressing gratitude for all the blessings we received.  Let us count our blessings.

PAPAS 77TH BIRTHDAY(2015)

 











October 8 this year is papas 77th birthday.  We started the day with a surprise birthday breakfast.  Planning to surprise him is hard to pull off because papa is always curious, he always asks whats going on.  So I had to wait til he falls asleep to do my stuff.  What I had in mind was to serve simple breakfast, so I went for bread and egg muffins, coffee, fruits.  I had to bake brownies to put the birthday greetings and candles to blow. I made

some cake pops to add colors and fun to the buffet table.  I put the gifts as well in the table.  Luckily I was able to pull it off before papa woke up.  Yes, he was happy to see what I prepared for him. 

 






















In the evening, we went to Auntie Thelmas place in Yorbalinda for another surprise birthday dinner hosted by papas sisters. The Baldado family was there to celebrate the special day with him.  It was a potluck party.  Auntie Mayet assigned each family on what to bring. Except for some few members who were working on that day, majority of the clan were there.

 

The celebrant was the last to arrived.  When he got inside we started singing the birthday song. Then dinner was serve.  Usually our parties is our chance of catching up.  Kids enjoy playing with their cousins.  Girls chitchats.  Boys having beers.  But nevertheless, we are having fun doing this.  Just like papas birthday party.  





Everyone was having fun. Just being together is already fun for us.  Later in the night, we offered toast for the celebrant.  Then the family photos.  






 

This is another moment to treasure.  First of all, papa is 77.  We his family is just grateful for all the blessings the Lord showered on our dearest papa in his 77 years. It had been another good year for him. We are grateful for all the love from our family, it was evident in the party.  It was heartwarming to see everyone that night with all their love for our papa.

BORONGAN FIESTA IN SOCAL(2015)

The Borongan community in Southern Ca celebrated their fiesta last Sept 29 in Anaheim Ca.  The Baldado clan was there to support and enjoy the occassion. Before the party a mass was held co celebrated by father Ven Amidar.  After the mass, the buffet table was opened for dinner.  There was also a short program while guests are having dinner.  Two groups showcased filipino folk dance. One of the said folk dance was the "dinutdot" which I overheard someone in the party telling us this was originally a dance from boronganons. After the program, party started. There was a raffle too for the guests. Party ended 11pm.
 

 Attending the Borongans party was a chance of meeting new friends and cousins.  Also I had the chance to see cousins like Seyan, meeting ate Arlene.  Finally seeing Jiw and Mica here in the US. It was our way also of supporting friends who are behind the said party. 

The next day, bublagan party was held in Carson at the Idance Studio.  Tina, Marnie and I went there after lunch.  Again, friends and family were there.  There were lots of food.  Guests were dancing in the dance floor. There were even parlor games for the guests.  We ended going home late.  We did zumba too with Nonie later that night.  I had fun.  I get to know new friends and it was fun.

 

SULAT FIESTA IN SOCAL(2015)

 
This is my first time to attend the Sulat fiesta celebration here in California.  I only get to see photos from their previous fiesta partyin the social media.  Usually mama would be the one to share us what happened in the party who came and so on. 

 Tina and I went to the venue early to help setting up the place.  At around 5pm the mass officiated by Father Marito started.  After the mass buffet was open for dinner.  There was a long stretched table in the corner filled with Pinoy food and delicacies.  The guests started digging in on what was in the table. And then with the music on, guests started strutting on the dance floor while others babbling with their fellow sulatnons or estehanons. Definitely there was the dancing of the kuracha, as part of the tradition.  They also have raffle games for everyone and I was lucky to won one of the raffle prizes.
  

I was new to the group.  But I see familiar faces.  Most I heard of and seen from the photos from previous parties they had.  Glad to know that everyone is welcoming and friendly.  At the party I also met a childhood friend Mylene Patilla, so the whole time we were just reminiscing our childhood and the life spent in Sulat.

Events 
like this  somehow fills that part of missing my home. Home back in the Philippines.  The small town of Sulat.

KUYA BRIANS BDAY (2015)

We had kuya Brians birthday party on the 26thof July, because it was the weekend and our family were sponsoring the Sulat fiesta novena here in California.  His real birthdate is on the 25th. As expected it was not just family but most of the members of the group (estahanon) and friends attended the affair.  Towns of Borongan and Oras had their patron saints brought to kuya Brians place too.  So party started out with the novenas for the three patron saints, afterwards the party.
















 Party is basically dinner, talks, and guys will always have their beers and the girls usually have wine.  In our table, we finished 9 bottles of wine.

  The party was well attended.  Ate Marisa and Kuya Ed came over for kuya Brians birthday.  Most of the cousins were present including Angelo who was having a break from his work in Abu Dhabi. Our group couldn't get enough of the wine so ate Charito had to go home and get more wines from her place.

Food was good.  Pinoy dishes were serve.  I made some ready mix red velvet and lemon cupcakes for the kids.  And since if it is a get together party they do usually potluck, so some brought food to share.

 The party was succesful.  Most had their take home (pinutos).  Some of the girls got dizzy from too much wine.  But everyone had fun

HOOVER DAM

Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium called Six Companies, Inc., which began construction on the dam in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques were unproven.

Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume.^[5] The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year. The heavily travelled U.S. 93 ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened.

At the turn of the 20th century, farmers sought to divert the Colorado River to budding Southwestern communities via a series of canals. When the Colorado broke through the canals in 1905, creating the inland Salton Sea, the job of controlling the raging river fell to the U.S.

Bureau director Arthur Powell Davis in 1922 outlined a plan before Congress for a multipurpose dam in Black Canyon, located on the Arizona-Nevada border. Named the Boulder Canyon project, after the original proposed site, the dam would not only control flooding and irrigation, it would generate and sell hydroelectric power to recoup its costs. Still, the proposed $165 price tag concerned some lawmakers, while representatives of six of the seven states in the river drainage area—Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada —worried that the water would primarily go to California.
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover brokered the 1922 Colorado River Compact to divide the water proportionally among the seven states, but the legal wrangling continued until outgoing President Calvin Coolidge authorized the Boulder Canyon Project in December 1928. In honor of the new president’s contributions, Secretary of the Interior Ray L. Wilbur announced the structure would be called Hoover Dam at a 1930 dedication ceremony, though the name didn’t become official until 1947.
As the Great Depression unfolded, hopeful laborers descended on Las Vegas and set up camp in the surrounding desert for the chance to work on the project. Those who were hired eventually moved to Boulder City, a community specifically built six miles from the work site to house its employees. Meanwhile, the U.S. government set about finding a contractor to build the proposed 60-story arch dam. The contract was awarded in March 1931 to Six Companies, a group of construction firms that had pooled its resources to meet the steep $5 million performance bond.
The first difficult step of construction involved blasting the canyon walls to create four diversion tunnels for the water. Facing strict time deadlines, workers toiled in 140-degree tunnels choked with carbon monoxide and dust, conditions that prompted a six-day strike in August 1931. When two of the tunnels were complete, the excavated rock was used to form a temporary coffer dam that successfully rechanneled the river’s path in November 1932.
The second step of involved the clearing of the walls that would contain the dam. Suspended from heights of up to 800 feet above the canyon floor, high scalers wielded 44-pound jackhammers and metal poles to knock loose material, a treacherous task that resulted in casualties from falling workers, equipment and rocks.
Meanwhile, the dried riverbed allowed for construction to begin on the powerplant, four intake towers and the dam itself. Cement was mixed onsite and hoisted across the canyon on one of five 20-ton cableways, a fresh bucket capable of reaching the crews below every 78 seconds. Offsetting the heat generated by cooling concrete, nearly 600 miles of pipe loops were embedded to circulate water through the poured blocks, with workers continually spraying the concrete to keep it moist.
As the dam rose, block by block, from the canyon floor, the visual renderings of architect Gordon Kaufmann took form. Electing to emphasize the imposing mass of the structure, Kaufmann kept the smooth, curved face free of adornment. The powerplant was given a futuristic touch with horizontal aluminum fins for windows, while its interior was designed to pay homage to Native American cultures.
With the body of water that would become Lake Mead already beginning to swell behind the dam, the final block of concrete was poured and topped off at 726 feet above the canyon floor in 1935. On September 30, a crowd of 20,000 people watched President Franklin Roosevelt commemorate the magnificent structure’s completion. Approximately 5 million barrels of cement and 45 million pounds of reinforcement steel had gone into what was then the tallest dam in the world, its 6.6 million tons of concrete enough to pave a road from San Francisco to New York City. Altogether, some 21,000 workers contributed to its construction.
Hoover Dam fulfilled the goal of disseminating the one-wild Colorado River through the parched Southwest landscape, fueling the development of such major cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Capable of irrigating 2 million acres, its 17 turbines generate enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes. The dam was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985 and one of America’s Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders in 1994. It receives some 7 million visitors annually, while Lake Mead, the world’s largest reservoir, hosts another 10 million as a popular recreation area.