James and Family

Bobet was kind enough to pay us a visit yesterday to meet little Caterina.

While visiting, her little Isabella was able to play with our little Isabel.

In Fremont, CA.

Group picture.

Brian and Rachel.

Kuya Rency at the barbecue.

Adventures in Costco. We ran into Allan and Pie (over there in the middle, Allan, in the dark blue shirt and Pie in the light blue shirt). Pie just gave birth to a little boy Ernez (under the striped blanket) -- their second child.

As you can tell, we had so much fun in line for hotdogs.

Every day is a happy day.


Baby Caterina with Joyce. There was no way to separate them.

Joyce actually had, in the past few weeks, just given birth to beautiful little Juliana.


The best things in life...


Warm summer nights in Sacramento. There are plenty of clear skies at night. It looks like about time to start teaching Isabel about the stars and stuff.


Swaying leaves. The crepe myrtle trees in the backyard have started their beautiful, pink mid- to late-summer blooms. I have been waiting all year to see them again.


Bye for now!

We took Rocky and Rowie out to San Francisco and did the usual touristy stuff. But it was still more appealing to us than melting in the forecasted 107-degree-F Sacramento weather.

Took millions of photos as usual.


and other scenes from the car:

We've been busy entertaining visitors every weekend. Which is normal when one has a newborn. Here are some photos from this weekend.

First up,the Ignacios of Fremont, CA.

It wasn't too long ago that Brian, Rachel and Danielle were quite small. Well they're not that small anymore, and it was very interesting for me to notice that we now had some common interests. That's Rachel thumbing through one of my books that she had just finished reading the day before.


Ate Owie with Baby CC.


Ate Owie checks if she still remembers how to burp a baby.


And then there's the ever vivacious Verb from Santa Maria, CA -- a good 5-hour drive from here. Visits from her are always an event.

The first entry made with the new iBook.

I made the switch to Macintosh partly at the urging of my brother, partly for the practicality (I’ll probably be using this much longer than my “disposable” PCs, which I replace every year or so), and partly for the nolstalgia (the company where I had my first real job used Macintosh exclusively).

I’m having to re-learn how to use this and I find that I’m carrying a lot of PC techniques and habits that I need to find some way of carrying over to Mac use. Already, there are some PC features that I miss.

But I have to say that these are beautiful machines -- very basic and no-nonsense in design.

Most importantly, the most often-used software that I already own comes both in PC and Mac versions, which is why I wasn’t too concerned with the switch.