Valdes Bonding at the O3

"I love it when a plan comes together!"
- Col. John "Hannibal" Smith from the A-Team

I just know yesterday is gonna be one of the highlights of 2008 for all of us. Our O3 adventure turned out fantastic, with a 3rd place finish among the relay teams.

We're all still on Cloud Nine, but just to bring us back down to earth, perhaps it is also best to clarify how we got our podium finish.

First off, only 7 teams registered for the Relay O3, and then, only 5 actually showed up.

The first place Powerade Team was unbeatable. They had the Philippine Long Distance swimming champion, who did the 4k swim in about 48 minutes, then a Tour of Luzon biker for the 120k ride and finally a champion marathoner for the 30k run. Their total time of 6:05 was so fast that they caught up with the overall O3 winner, Mathieu O'Halloran, who was flagged off 30 minutes ahead of the Relay and finished on his own in 6:36.

So really only 4 teams were vying for 2nd and 3rd. Then the two other teams actually got DQ'd, the Cagayan de Oro Team because their swimmer started with the O3 pack instead of with the Relay start, and the Happy Feet Team because, unfortunately, their biker had a crash as she neared the finish.

So that left Team Valdes vs. the Ocean Adventure Team, who all turned out to be pretty young and athletic guys. Ocean Adventure won 2nd place with a strong 8:20 time, a good 48 minutes ahead of us, with each of their team members winning against us individually: their swimmer finished in 1:09 vs. my 1:21, their biker did 4:01 vs. Robin's 4:15 and their runner clocked 3:09 vs. Tessa's 3:31.

I think Robin could have potentially matched or beaten their biker, but he had a bike crash in Tagaytay a week ago and was still nursing bruised ribs and hips. We're just glad that he was able to make it to Subic. Tessa's best 10k is already sub one hour, so the 3:09 is within her reach. As for me, 1:21 is the fastest and longest I've ever swam, so a 1:09 seems pretty far away.

Well, win or lose, we did have loads of fun, especially with Dave, Mona and the kids in our support group. Lots of pictures will be loaded up on our Multiply sites soon.

The official race results are here. Our official times are:
Swim 4k 1:21:01
Bike 120k 4:15:56
Run 30k 3:31:10
Total 9:08:07

47 is the new 30 = O3

How strange it feels to get into one's late 40's. A few days ago, I could still legitimately call myself "mid-40's." But now a new plateau has been reached and my math skills tell me I should be rounding up rather than down.

One consoling text was received from my bro, Robin, who noted that "47 is the new 30." Well, let's just hope I can continue to keep up with the many tireless thirtysomethings in the underwater hockey games.

Perhaps in "celebration" of this latest milestone, I started training today for the upcoming O3 triathlon. The official race name is the ITU O3 Asian Long Distance Triathlon and it is scheduled for August 2, 2008 in Subic Bay, just 27 days away.

All this is to help T with her preparations for the New York Marathon in November. As part of her training for that 42k run, today she ran 21k in the Manila Half Marathon, finishing in a strong 2:13. Her coach, Ani, says she should be scaling up to the 30k level by August, so the O3 is perfectly timed.

Unfortunately for me, the O3 is a triathlon, so for T to run the 30k leg, she first needs teammates to do the 4k swim and the 120k bike. Robin is a very good biker and has been pressed to duty to take care of the 120k bike.

That leaves the challenging swim leg, which is described as:

O3: Two 2km loops (Cut-off: 2 hours & 45 minutes, 8:45AM )
Description: Clockwise direction with a surf-run each loop. The swim course will be marked with buoy lines. Kayaks will be deployed to guide some of the swimmers or provide safety assistance. A C-shaped buoy line will be located offshore. The distance from swim exit to transition is 50m, beaches and path with shower.

Today I swam 1.5k at the Polo pool, with no waves and with 30-sec breathers every 500m. I'm quite far from getting to 4k. But I guess that's what goals are for.

Robin, of course, quipped that he and Tessa may not even get to start their races in the event I don't finish the 4k! Ah, now that's a consoling thought!

Fourteen Years

June 24th was our 14th wedding anniversary. T and I have come a long way from marching down the aisle of the Santuario de San Antonio, with a long-haired Afghan hound as part of the entourage. Funny how it's the little details that I remember.

The morning of the wedding, my Mom woke me up with a frantic phone call. "Dennis, is there a dog in your wedding?"

"What? Of course not, Mom. Why would we have a dog in the wedding?"

"Well, I'm looking at the entourage list and it says right here, D-O-G."

"Oh that must be a typo or something. It's probably a code from the bridal consultants. D-Oh-6 or some crazy thing like that. Don't worry about it."

Of course, T had never told me about the dog. Apparently one day about a month before the wedding, she'd been walking in Urdaneta Village and saw Lito and Kim Camacho (this was way before his Secretary of Finance stint) walking their Afghan hounds.

She quickly convinced Lito to lend her the dog for our medieval-themed wedding. Their ten-year-old daughter Bea became a last-minute additional bridesmaid (to control the dog!). When designer Inno Sotto's staff presented me the additional bill for Bea's gown, I still remember saying, "What's this for?" And T snatched the invoice and said, "Oh never mind, it's a surprise for you. Just pay it."

So on the evening of the wedding, there I am at the foot of the altar watching everyone walk slowly up the aisle, the violin strains of Pachelbel's Canon providing a medieval ambiance. Suddenly I see this beautiful hound bouncing up the aisle, led from behind by a young girl (I'd never seen before).

In my mind, the only thing I can think of is, "Oh my God. On my wedding day, I lied to my Mom."

So with that intro, I must say it's been a remarkably interesting fourteen years. These days it's no less subdued, especially on T's part. The costumes continue to be outre, the wigs outlandish, the accessories oversize.

(This photo is from our anniversary dinner at Azu Thai, the Gamboa's new restaurant at the Milky Way Building. T's necklace was a gift from my Mom.)

Thing is though, we don't have any dogs. But things do come full circle. Annika is ten now and she's been asking for one.


P.S. I was looking through our old wedding albums and came across this photo, which includes the very svelte Gigi and the alluring Rosan. Very worth posting.

A Visit to the Rainbow Warrior

OK, here's a good debate. On the face of it, "Quit Coal" seems like something we can all agree with. Even the totally uninformed must have some awareness of "global warming," "Al Gore," "clean energy" and the hundreds of buzzwords and issues surrounding climate change.

One of the best articles I've read on the issue was in National Geographic, entitled "The High Cost of Cheap Coal." Here are a couple of choice quotes from that issue:

Coal-burning power plants ... supply the United States with half its electricity. They also emit a stew of damaging substances, including sulfur dioxide—a major cause of acid rain—and mercury. And they gush as much climate-warming carbon dioxide as America's cars, trucks, buses, and planes combined.

For the past 15 years U.S. utilities needing to add power have mainly built plants that burn natural gas, a relatively clean fuel. But a near tripling of natural gas prices in the past seven years has idled many gas-fired plants and put a damper on new construction. Neither nuclear energy nor alternative sources such as wind and solar seem likely to meet the demand for electricity.

"Aye, there's the rub," as Hamlet debated with himself: Coal is bad, yes, but other sources of electricity are more expensive. And given the current national debate on the already high electricity prices in our country, majority of which is coal-derived, clearly the issue is not easy to resolve.

So on a sunny Sunday, T and I decided to go and visit the Rainbow Warrior, the flagship of Greenpeace's "Quit Coal" efforts in the Philippines. We may not have the solutions, but we can at least listen to what the vanguards of alternative energy have to say.

Trouble is we came late and so didn't get to fully hear Greenpeace's solutions. Looking around, the crew seemed just like you and me and not the fanatic, tree-hugging vegans that one might expect from their anti-big business exploits. And yet, there on deck were those massively powered rubber dinghies that Greenpeace puts to such media savvy use, zipping around international waters buzzing Japanese whalers and such.

For me, Greenpeace is on the fringe of these debates. Does painting "Quit Coal" on the side of a freighter resolve the issue? Wouldn't a contribution to research on how to make alternative energy cheaper be a better way to resolve the debate?

Still the afternoon is pleasant enough. There's Dave the Dolphin gracing the ship's bow, always a good spot for a photo op.

And there are a lot of students aboard, some probably just getting their first thoughts centered on this Gordian knot called energy. I just hope they keep an open mind towards the myriad solutions that are out there.

Athena and T for Met Tathione

Looks like the Met Tathione wars are escalating. (And I don't even know what the product does!)

Anyway, T is on one of their billboards. Here it is, on the corner of Quezon Blvd. and EDSA. (I got quite a few motorists angrily blowing their horns at me as I stopped to take this shot with my Nokia.)

T also just recorded this TVC 15 for Met Tathione. The maids said they saw it on a GMA show tonight, so it is airing already.


Not to be outdone, Athena decided to record her own version. Unfortunately it's only a sound clip, so to listen you'll need to visit my Multiply site.

Post update:
There seem to be some Blogger video issues, so here is the same clip via YouTube:

A Time Capsule for T

About a month ago, T's MacBook crashed. A hard disk failure can be like a death in the family especially when, as in T's case, her last backup was from a year ago. (Of course, the lack of backups was my fault, but I won't get into all that.)

Here's part of T's Inquirer column about her Mac crash:

Parting with my cyber memories
By Tessa Prieto-Valdes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:16:00 04/27/2008
MANILA, Philippines - Lost in cyberspace, I have a year’s worth of digital photos and files waiting to be retrieved hopefully by some computer geek. Just last week, my iMac’s hard disk crashed. When the screen went blank, my electronic life flashed before my eyes! But as with any loss, I’ve learned to “just let it go!” To help me move on, this week I want to write about cleansing, both in the real and cyber worlds.
I had failed to back up my files, so my first call was to Mac genius Elbert Cuenca. I went to visit him in his superb restaurant, Elbert’s Steak Room at Unit 3-A, an almost hidden walk up the side stairs of the Sagittarius Building at 111 H.V. De la Costa St. in Salcedo Village, Makati. If you’re lost, call 3393363 or make reservations at www.steakroom.com.

Unfortunately not even Elbert could save the disk. All T had done was initiate the Shut Down procedure and then closed the MacBook cover. Elbert said that wasn't the cause, but who really knows with computer gremlins?

MacBooks are equipped with SATA hard disks, which have a small failure rate. Worse, when a crash occurs, the SATA drives have a rep as being unrecoverable. All this was explained by the techies at Ynzal and Xyon Systems, where we sent the hard disk for any possible Lazarus effects. They suggested sending the hard disk to the U.S. for clean room recovery, but the price tag on that is $2,000. Hmmm. Luckily, T said no.

After I got her new hard disk installed, I decided to also get a Time Capsule for the house. I first read about TC from David Pogue's column, Pogue's Post, in the New York Times (which unfortunately came out two weeks after the crash).

TC backs up a computer automatically, constantly and wirelessly. I named the machine Yellos Base, after one of Tyrone's Internet code names. YB does a backup of T's Mac every hour, on the hour. At the end of the day, it saves one version for the day. It does the same at the end of the month.

In the event of a hard disk failure or if T wanted to find a file she had previously deleted, all she'd have to do would be to start up Time Machine. The display would show a space continuum with all the backup versions lined up. When she finds what she's looking for, she simply clicks Restore.

At home, YB is not a one-trick pony. It's connected to the main internet cable and acts as a wireless router to connect Tyrone's, Annika's, Tessa's and my computers together. So all our computers are now backed up regularly. Of course, true disaster-recovery pros would still scoff, since our backups are not stored offsite, but hey, these aren't the Bangko Sentral's records.

Also when we have guests who want to connect to the web, they can easily do that since YB acts as a wireless hub. Why talk when we can just check each others' Facebook accounts from across the table? That's what I call cloud socializing!

Garage Sale

I never thought a garage sale was a bloggable event, but apparently, T's garage sale made the blogosphere. As always, it was another of her charity fundraisers together with her Assumption Batch 81 classmates.

I was just amazed at the whole production, from the posters to publicize the event all the way to the security guards to - what? Guard against shoplifters?

I also found out that in Forbes, you can't just have a garage sale. You have to notify the association and, I love this, pay a garage sale fee. It's all of P50 so I don't even know what this covers.

The complete post, including great photos of the stuff that was sold, is here.

A Mom's Day Surprise

On Mother's Day, I found myself lounging around the Polo pool with the rest of the Valdeses - a laid back way of celebrating the day. Suddenly my cell rang. Joey Campillo, an old friend I hadn't seen in ages, was asking where I was. Minutes later, he was walking towards our cabana.

That's when I noticed there was a wide-brimmed hat bobbing up and down behind him. T was back from Tubbataha one day early! She had enlisted Joey's help to be able to sneak up on all of us.

It was such a cool Mom's Day surprise, especially since all the kids are in Oz and the house has been empty.

Tubbataha weather had turned bad on their last day, so they had come back a day early. More photos of their trip are on Vina M's Multiply site
and will eventually be on Cris H's Multiply site, when our fave photog gets the energy to post them. This photo by Cris is a good example of the great viz they had during their week there.

T's early return without advance warning to me generated a lot of funny comments. The best was from her Tita M, who noted, "You're lucky. Many wives would be the ones who are surprised."

You Can HAVitALL!

It's not often that T's "SE" (social events) stuff can actually be fun, but it was when HAVitALL multivitamins paid for us plus six friends to have a scuba weekend at Dive Solana.

We ended up inviting u/w hockey players aka the Solana Six (although the rest of the group who didn't get to sign up called us the Solana Seniors). All our pix are on our Multiply sites, so you need to click here to see them.

Here's what Tessa had to say about the weekend in her Inquirer.net column:

New challenges

The newest multivitamin in the market, HAVitALL, has been actively promoting their product by inviting friends to take on new challenges. The invitation was a marvel of cute packaging, encouraging me to take up a new activity, like surfing, karting or even pottery making. Although I already scuba dive, I chose this activity so that I could bring along my husband, Dennis, and several of his friends from underwater hockey.

Dive Solana was our chosen resort, because of their friendly service and homey accommodations. In between the dives, we visited with agency bigwig Ichay Bulaong, who was spending her weekend on a personal social responsibility project with her family and friends—to help paint an underwater mural on the fence of the San Teodoro Elementary School in Barangay Mabini. The project organizer, Sandy Hammet, noted that the mural painting was part of Project Utay Utay, the barangay’s environmental initiative.

It’s great to see how many Pinoys find different ways of helping their communities. For me and the underwater hockey group, it was a great way to spend our HAVitALL weekend. Indeed, good deeds are cleansing for the soul!

Annika's 10th Birthday

Annika's Birthday Party last January 19 was a dance party. Dance obviously is not one of my passions, so I'll quote from Tessa's Inquirer column of Sunday, February 24, to describe it:

"The freedom of expression in dance is liberating. I’m so hooked on the series, “So You Think You Can Dance.” In fact, for my eldest daughter Annika’s tenth birthday party, we chose a dance theme. As she enters her pre-teen years, Annika and I have started enjoying more girly activities together.

As with any party, preparations start with the invitation itself. Talented graphics couple Norman and Mye Cruz of Adworks (tel. 688-0085 or e-mail adworksgrfx@yahoo.com) artistically creates both the invitations and the giveaways; always perfectly done despite the limited time I give them. This creative duo does everything from wedding invitations, baptisms, birthdays and debuts. For an artistic twist to your own invitations, check out Adworks and have a really personalized and wonderful memento made.

Once the invitations and giveaways are settled, my next appointment is at Cupcakes by Sonja (tel. 856-0308 or e-mail at socampo77@mac.com) in Serendra. For two birthdays in a row, Sonja Ocampo has made Annika’s cake along with a smaller version for Athena. And so all the kids get a bite of the delicious cake, there are matching cupcakes for all to enjoy.

And what’s a dance party without dancers! Dance sport champion Ednah Ledesma, one of the world’s best ballroom dancers, was our very special performer. Ednah had training in almost all dance varieties from ballet, jazz and hip-hop, but not ballroom, until entering the sport in 1997. Her performance was graciously captivating.

To date, Ednah has won over 5 major titles, including the championship in the prestigious Senior Latin Division of the Blackpool Competition in 2005. To those in the know, this is considered the Holy Grail of Dance Sports, held annually in England.

At the Ginajane Grey Dance Show last year, Ednah did a Latin Tango number with her partner Cecil Go. In her own show last month at the Music Museum, she showed off her skills accompanied by other dance sport champions. Entitled “Adventures of Dancing with The Champions 2,” the show’s theme was Hollywood Silver Screen musical scores. The show featured celebrity guest performer Regine Tolentino reprising the role of Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.

After watching the highly entertaining show, I congratulated my Assumptionista friend and Dance Sport Champion Anna Marie Periquet for her action-packed samba with heart-stopping stunts, performed to the theme of Mission Impossible. She was so kind to reprise her act for Annika’s party at Bykes Café, along with Ednah’s Catwoman number and a special Cheetah Girls dance by Margie dela Rama.

To those who want to venture into the exciting world of dance, Ednah gives lessons at Studio 116 at 116 Building, V.A. Rufino Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City (tel. 813-1549 or 0917-628-2477). I will be taking lessons soon, but honestly, I am just excited to try on a Catwoman costume and other outfits.

Adding to the high-energy at Annika’s party was the break dancing of the hip-hop group, All-Stars. These international champions can spin on their heads, balance with one hand and defy gravity all together!

The girls at the party were also interested in Nail Art, a digital airbrush painting by Creative Party & Balloon Design. All girly parties should get this feature. Call Cory Marquez at 0917-624-2679 or e-mail creative_party_design@yahoo.com to ask about her other party activities."

I sure wish Annika would take up underwater hockey. Then I'd have more to write about!

Another Day, Another Cover

It's amazing to me that Athena is not yet three and can hardly speak a complete sentence, and yet, this is the fourth time she will be on the cover of a magazine. She must truly be lucky!

Here are the other three:

From the Mouths of Babes

Children, it is said, cannot lie. T and I got a huge kick out of Annika's English test, which we just got last night.

In Section B, the test asks her to write a sentence for the preposition "after."

Her answer: My Mom always comes home one hour after the time she said [she would].

T and I could only tell Annika, that's so true!

Being the wanna-be editor that I am, of course I also went through the test and cringed at the grammatically challenged portions (like the rule redundancy "Follow grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation rules in spelling.")

My favorite "gotcha" in this test though has to be:

6. The Titanic sank because it sailed towards an enormous iceberg.

Spot the Changes

At the Prieto New Year dinner, conversation turned to the Prieto book that's soon to be released. I was reminded of one of the photos from that book, of some of the Prieto cousins as pre-teens.

It's interesting to spot the changes vs. the picture from New Year's Day 2008, about 35 years difference. There are four people who are in both pictures - Jane, Karla, Nannette and Tessa.

New Year in Bora

We welcomed 2008 in Boracay. New Year's in Bora is something we've never done before. In April 2007, I was able to book two rooms at newly opened Discovery Shores, thanks to C, the wife of the owner and also an old friend from high school. With that we decided that we would, for the first time in a decade, not spend New Year's Eve in Tagaytay.

We flew down a few days after Christmas and were greeted by perfect sunny weather. The sand in Boracay is perfect for sculpting. This little mermaid is something I've been carving from Boracay sands since the early 80's when I first visited the island. Annika was happy to be my little helper.

Tyrone's own sand castle had all the anime effects imaginable, as well as some perfectly formed sand cannonballs. All the kids loved the water and even Athena had her first chance to go wading at night.

This was also Athena's first trip to Boracay and she really enjoyed just swimming in the beach and in the pool, and also jumping around the resort - this video from when we were waiting for the New Year's Eve fireworks. That was a fantastic sight, as all the resorts along the 7-km. long beach put up their separate displays. The result was a barrage worthy of a war zone.

Among the hordes of people on the island, we somehow managed to meet other Prietos. So a dinner was planned and it turned out that each of the six branches of children of Lolo Bibilo and Lola Chucha Prieto were represented:

Bianca and Karla (2nd from R), representing Tita Peachie; Tessa, representing Poplex; Nanette, representing Tita Bettina; Jane, representing Tito Raffy; Anito, representing Tito Mauro; and Martin, representing Tito Jaime.

Now that's serendipity!

Finally done ... the Christmas Blog

It took a lot of arm-twisting, bribes and cajoling but finally I finished our Christmas blog, which can be found here.

Oddly enough the younger kids were quite enthusiastic about the project, as soon as they had been bribed with enough rewards for sitting down in front of their computers and typing out something.

T and B came in last, pushing their submission deadlines. B wrote a beauty though - it's so rewarding for a parent to read good stuff that a child has to say.

It's amazing that we've got our Christmas letters on the site dating back from 1994. Reading through it all is getting to be an exercise in archeology!

Pilgrimage to Palau

Palau is first and foremost about sharks. Sharks in Blue Corner, sharks in Ulong Channel, sharks in Siaes Corner, sharks everywhere.

But this year, it was so much more.

This year, the mantas put on the show to end all shows:



(More manta videos are here and here. And here is a great shark video from Blue Corner.)

But the best part of Palau this year was just the people we were with - as usual, Tita Mary, but now also Tita Jojo Castro and her niece, Kimie, Rommel and Cris Hinlo, Gigi Santos, and Tessa and Annika. As usual, the crew of Capt. Ken was fantastic, Sixsei, Eddie, Richard and Chetra the chef.

In a day or so, I'll find the time to load up all the pictures to Kodak Gallery.

Enkantada

My wife truly leads an enchanted life. Tuesday, she jetted off to Hollywood to watch the premiere of Disney's "Enchanted" on November 21, on an all-expenses-paid invite from The Little Gym.

If that seems like a lot of flight time for a two-hour movie, let's not forget that Hollywood premieres usually have a bit of red carpet magic woven into the event. So, I am anxiously awaiting pictures of T in whatever Seaprincess costume she turns up in on the big night.

The trip was also a good chance for her to swing by SFO and spend some time with B, who is now happily ensconced in some internet company's cube farm, working at his first job. B will fly down to LA with T for the weekend, the better for the two to extend their bonding time.

Meanwhile, back here at home, I am already wondering how to spend the weekend with the three other kids...

Update:
Inquirer columnist Ruben Napales just wrote about T's trip to Hollywood:

"LOS ANGELES―Tessa Prieto-Valdes stopped traffic, literally and figuratively, on her way to and from the world premiere of Disney’s “Enchanted” at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard..."

The photo caption says, "DUETS” champ Tessa Prieto-Valdes with Masi Oka of “Heroes.”

Yes, It's That Time of the Year Already

There've been Christmas songs on the radio since September, so it's no surprise that Christmas wreaths and trees are now making their appearances.

For us, it's gonna be a bit of a longer transition from Halloween witches to Christmas trees this year. For one, T is leaving for SFO to visit B next week, and I'm not really into decor.

For the moment, the extent of my Christmas preparation has been limited to updating our Christmas list and installing this classic ringtone on my phone:



Also, I'm beginning the update of our Christmas blog. The old version is still up, but new posts have to be added. It'll be fun working on those with the kids again.

Meanwhile, in our office building, one sure sign of the season is that so many of us office drones are lining up to collect Starbucks stickers again. It must be a coffee high to get the 24 stickers needed for a 2008 planner that you won't use cuz you've already got a Treo.

Last year I was so bummed when I got to about 20 stickers and then lost the card! Oddly enough, if I had just re-started I'm pretty sure I could still have finished the 24!

I must be a glutton for punishment - this year, I not only have the Starbucks card but I've also started collecting the Seattle's Best stamps!

The reality is, though, buying a coffee from either store hardly makes any difference. Starbucks acquired Seattle's Best in 2003!