rj malacas

Last month, we celebrated Oscar’s birthday by doing the Baltimore Spirit Cruise. It was an hour and a half cruise of fun, good food, and good music. Definitely a good way to just relax and enjoy the company of your friends and the view of the water. Afterwards, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, the ESPN Zone and we had dinner at Fogo de Chao. We had our cake back in our place and continued the fun by playing charades! Fun night!

I’ve been really putting off my blogging times for awhile now and I’ve decided tonight that I should start writing again. Well, am just going to put up some pics about what happened in my life during the month of April. Let’s see, it was my brother Hadji’s bday on April Fool’s Day, then it was Yali’s bday on the 15th, my Ninong Rudy’s bday was on the 18th as well as Laurenti’s, then it was Evelyn’s birthday on the 22nd (which was Earth Day). Anyway, this first set of pics were taken at Todai Restaurant located in DC (which was a great sushi buffet place btw!) following some bowling action at Arundel Mills Mall.



Now this set of pics was taken at the Melting Pot located at Towson celebrating Eve, Yali and Laurence’s bday. After dinner, we actually went to a comedy stand-up show of T-Rexx which was a lot of fun. It was held at the Comedy Factory at downtown Baltimore.

I’ve heard and read about other people’s experiences about getting their wisdom tooth pulled and all I learned was simply, it hurts! Growing up, I’ve never recalled myself going to a dentist and getting any of my teeth pulled out. All I remember was, every time I had a loose tooth, I did my own procedure. The procedure of just letting it be, and if I can pull it out, then I’d do it myself. But now, it’s a different situation. I had a problem with my lower right wisdom tooth, creating a pocket for food to get in. So I really had no choice but to take it out.

Four days ago was my procedure. It was early in the morning, still sleepy from sleeping late the night before. Didn’t like the people for they were somewhat unfriendly. With the slow service and unorganized help desk staff, I really didn’t want my day to start off in a bad/moody way. After at least 30 mins of waiting, I was led into the procedure room so I told my wife to come with me. “Ma’am, you can wait in the waiting area. It’ll be done in 20 mins.” the tech said to my wife. I was like “great!”. The only person that would comfort me throughout the procedure was not allowed to hold my hand. (ok i’m a baby, so what?! haha) Anyway, the dentist gave me a couple of shots to numb my gums and so I wouldn’t feel anything. But the injections alone gave me some painful stings. So after a few minutes the dentist started his procedure. He moved my tooth up and down, right to left, and up and down again. With my eyes closed during the procedure, I really was just imagining happy thoughts to alleviate the discomfort I was feeling. Then all of a sudden a sound of a drill starts, making it’s way inside my mouth as I hear the sound gets closer and closer. The dentist starts carving it’s way in, and the worse thing was I could smell the burning aroma. Not really an aroma, but u know what I mean. After hearing the freaky cracking sounds, more strong pushing left, pushing right, which led me into conclusion that this dentist was having a hard time pulling my tooth; it’s like a tug-of-war in there. My hands and feet started to shake a bit. But after a few more pulling and pushing, he stopped. I thought he didn’t take it out yet then he finally said, “that’s it!”. Finally, this awful experience is over! The dentist led me back to the help desk and gave me the prescription for the pain killers, hydrocodone, along with the instructions, ice pack and some gauze. We head home, and Alou stopped by the pharmacy to get the medicine.

It’s been four days since I haven’t eaten properly. I’ve only eaten soups, soft foods like my wife’s cheesecake and some tiramisu. The worse thing was, I had to be at my work’s surprise baby shower for my sister. It was tough being in a room full of good food and was unable to talk a lot. I still can’t open my mouth wide, and can’t even laugh the same way. The jaw area still hurts, although the pain is subsiding everyday. Just can’t wait for this thing to be over!

February is always a busy month for me. Aside from the obvious, the Valentine’s Day, we have a bunch more celebrations on Feb. First, Popoy’s birthday on the 4th, my birthday is on the 25th, our wedding anniversary on the 26th, (we are one year married! time flies!), Alou’s birthday is on the 27th, and my niece’s birthday, Avery, on the 28th. That’s four consecutive days celebration! Well for our wedding anniversary celebration, my wife and I went to Poconos in Pennsylvania. It’s about 3.5 hours drive from Bmore, but it’s ok. I love driving anyway, as long as I know where to go, it’s cool. Anyway, Poconos is a great place to be. Lots of activities to do. It was great coz there were only a few people there, perfect atmosphere for lovebirds such as me and me wifey. lol But it would be great for family vacations during the summer. There’s a lake, there’s golf, tennis, volleyball, badminton etc. I really recommend it!

Our friends took us out to Fogo de Chao. It was the day of Alou’s bday and I surprised her for she didn’t know our friends were coming. She only thought it was just going to be me and Avery. So she was really surprised and I also got her some cake from of course, Yia Yia bakery! I got one of them cupcakes that are put together to make as one cake. But let me tell you about Fogo, I love that place! If you want to feel like you are a celebrity, wait, let me change that, to a king or a queen, you better go visit this place. If you live in Bmore, you probably already know where it is, but if not, it’s by the Inner Harbor where PF Chang’s is right across the ESPN zone. Anyway, dining at Fogo was an experience. I would love to go back there again. Although it is a pricy, especially dinnertime, but it was worth it especially if you love meat, meat and more meat. lol Anyway, we really have great friends! We also got free tickets to the Orioles game and also to the circus! Thanks soooo much to Evelyn, Yary(she didn’t make it though), Oscar and Grewlyn, we had a lot of fun!!!

I’ve created a slideshow for Popoy before his birthday.  These are pictures we took when we got him last April  up to the present.    Hope you enjoy watching them!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I was so busy during Valentine’s Day I never thought of putting a shout out to all the ladies out there, especially to the women of my life (my family and friends), and of course, most especially to my wife Alona Co Malacas.

My Baby Ga, hope you had fun on Valentine’s Day with me, as opposed to me working in the lab (he he).  I love you so much and I thank you for sticking with me through tough times.  With endless appreciation, thank you for being a great wife and a great mom (to Popoy!) and  for the unconditional love and support that you give me all these years.

I love you with all my heart…

It’s been almost two months since my Dad lost his battle to lung cancer.  I couldn’t post a blog after his passing.  I really didn’t know what to write about, nor had the energy for it.  It’s tough to write about someone you love about their passing, because it brings back all the great memories you’ve had.  But now, I think it’s time to for me to write again.  And to start off, I’ll post the speech I did for my Dad.  Here it goes:

Why?  Why did God have to take my Dad?  If everything has a reason, then why did He give my Dad lung cancer?  These are some of the questions that kept lingering on my mind.  You get these mixed emotions, negative feelings, loss of faith.  So I asked my wife the same questions.  Then I finally realized, because my wife told me, that Dad already served his purpose in life.  Then friends told me that he lived a good life… and he did.  So thank you all for making me understand.

But the pain and this feeling of emptiness seem unbearable.  It’s difficult to adjust our lives without my Dad.  He was a great Dad, a great husband, great Popop for Avery and a great friend for many people.

If there is a fight better than any boxing match it was my Dad’s fight with lung cancer.  It wasn’t just 12 rounds of right hooks and uppercuts but a year and two months of radiation and chemo.  His fight was longer than any of his doctors have predicted him to live, coz my Dad was always a fighter.

My fondest memory with my Dad is singing karaoke with him.  Whenever there was a party, Dad would always grab the karaoke mic first rather than the spoon and fork.  He would always learn to play in the keyboard the songs he would sing.  He was also great in sports.  I could never forget his unbelievable shots in pool and his wild hook shots in basketbal.

With all the people gathered here today, I am amazed at how a man with few words can touch so many lives.  Though my father will not be physically here anymore, he will always be alive in our memories and in our hearts.

And as my father gave his name to me, I will carry on with all the gifts he left us; how a husband he was to my mom, how a dad should be to his children, the glory is sacrificing and putting others first, the passion for music and outdoors, and to never give up all the battles you are faced with.  If I could be half the man, the father, the husband, the friend my father was, then he did not die in vain.

Sleep warm Dad, sleep tight, sleep well.  I love you.  We love you.  Always have and always will.

October 10, 1944 – December 10, 2008

listening to this cool and mellow music of Jason Mraz… just want to share it with y’all… Because of this song, I am now in the hunt for an acoustic guitar. I know nothing about guitars so I am getting advice from Mr Jim Doran.

So when I get my own guitar, this is the first song that I will try to play and will dedicate it to my wife. =) Have fun listening to the song…

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted about my boy Popoy. He is huge now. He is going to be ten months old on December 4th. Time really flies! He is just too much… He’s so adorable, sweet and very annoying sometimes! lol We’re trying to get a treadmill so I can teach him how to run on it. It’s getting cold outside and it’s hard to take him out for a walk and some exercise. Here’s how he looks now…

Wow, I really haven’t had time to post a new blog for such a looong time! I guess I was really that busy. Well anyway, I just want to give u guys a

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Hope you all have a great holiday and be careful out there, for the people who will be running around like crazy. Stay healthy, and take care on “Black Friday”. It’s going to be cold, so make sure you all bundle up…