Author: Jeff Tabaco

In a couple of months Thom and I will be going along with my mom on a trip to the Philippines. I haven’t been back since 1997, and this will be Thom’s first time. Exciting! A highlight will be visiting Lucban, my mom’s hometown, for a couple of reunion events and for Pahiyas, the town fiesta held every year in mid-May.

A while back on YouTube I rediscovered a Philippine Airlines commercial from the 1980s:

(Here’s another version I found, but it’s taped from Hong Kong TV, I think.) Ah, those take me back. I remember seeing them on KTSF Channel 26 here in the Bay Area, during the Filipino block of programming on Saturdays. Love the cheesy music: “Warm as the sun in our skies of blue / Real as the smiles that welcome you / At last it’s true / The beauty of the Philippines is shining through / Philippine Airlines, shining through.”

Over the years I think I’ve gradually worked my way down the Gap ladder. In college, when I had my first decently paying job I would sometimes buy clothes from Banana Republic (however they discontinued size XS for their jackets, which I wasn’t happy about). Then I realized buying from the Banana wasn’t budget-sustainable at the time, and I went through a Gap (and H&M) phase, which I’m sort of still in. But more and more, I’m now finding myself at Old Navy, scoping the clearance items and finding some really good stuff.

Last weekend Thom and I were at the Colma location, and I picked up a long-sleeved polo shirt marked down to $5.97, and two pairs of shoes for $17.50 each (regularly $24.50). One is dark gray, and the other plaid, which is especially cute. Thom also got a pair of plaid shoes for himself, and concerned that we might accidentally both wear our pairs at the same time, I said, “With us having the same shoes, we should coordinate…”

“So we can wear them at the same time?” he asked. He was kidding. (I hope.)

What else am I digging right now? Novelty T-shirts from Target, and Blue Marlin track jackets and hoodies, which I’ve been finding marked down at Burlington Coat Factory.

One other thing I got at Old Navy was a magnetic letter A, to go along with the P, L, and Y we took home as party favors at Kelly’s fondue dinner party (see Julie’s photo of us being creative with the other letters). I was arranging them on our metal cabinets, and told Thom, “Look, I’m kerning!”

“I love you,” he said. We’re such type geeks.

Here’s last weekend’s Saturday Night Live opening with Rainn Wilson (Kristen Wiig is, once again, priceless):

Spot on! (Though Lorne Michaels is a little weak, unsurprisingly.) I have to say I’m finally getting into The Office. At first I wasn’t feeling it (especially because I found Steve Carell’s character too mean, whereas in the original series Ricky Gervais managed to seem sympathetic), but it’s no doubt come into its own since then and is growing on me.

The first-person accounts in NPR’s StoryCorps series are often quite moving. In last Friday’s segment, a teenager interviews her lesbian mom, who tells the story of how she came to a understanding with her own mother only shortly before it was too late: “Mothers and Daughters, and a Blessing” (via Billy).

Of course it made me think about my dad and how Thom and I stayed by his hospital bed in the days before his death. Though my dad never addressed Thom’s and my relationship explicitly, I hope it was some comfort to him knowing that I had someone special in my life and that I was happy. It was then that I thought, we really are a family, all of us.

The article I referred to the other day is in today’s paper! A while ago writer Anh-Minh Le, a frequent contributor to the home and garden section of the San Francisco Chronicle, contacted me about including me in an article about people who have moved back to their childhood homes. We e-mailed back and forth, and as I mentioned last week, photographer Eric Luse came by the house to take some photos. Ah, you should have seen Thom and me frantically cleaning before the photo shoot; I think I was channeling both Brini Maxwell and Hyacinth Bucket. It turns out our living and dining rooms didn’t end up being used in the final spread, but the upshot is now they are immaculately neat. (Let’s see how long that lasts.)

Well, it’s finally in the paper, and I think the whole thing turned out great. It’s neat reading about people in somewhat similar situations. Enjoy: “
Finding your way back home: Grown children return to the family nest and update it for the next generation.” I especially love the photo of Thom and me sitting on the curb!

[I went out and picked up a copy of the paper, and there’s even a little version of that photo above the banner on the front page. Cool! (PDF)]

Ah, geeky librarian humor. March of the Librarians, inspired by March of the Penguins (which is itself worth watching, by the way), was filmed by Nick Baker at last month’s ALA convention in Seattle and takes a look at the semiannual migratory patterns of the American librarian:

Ha, that’s fairly accurate. I was there as a vendor, but I wasn’t working at our company’s exhibit booth, so I didn’t have to lure in any librarian prey. And while I did collect free stuff, alas, I did not mate. (Via the amazing gilesbot9000.)

I’m going to be in the paper! I’ve been keeping this under wraps for several weeks now (even though I’ve been dying to tell you all), and actually we’re all just going to have to sit tight for a little while longer, since I don’t know the publication date yet. I’ve been e-mailing with the writer of the article, and last Thursday a photographer came by the house for a photo shoot. Exciting!

On Valentine’s Day Thom and I had an excellent dinner at Fringale, a cozy, and as far as I could tell, very authentic, French restaurant on the corner of Fourth and Freelon Streets (near Brannan) in San Francisco. I had made the reservation on OpenTable only the day before, and was a little flummoxed as availability for different restaurants was fading to a flicker, but luckily I was able to snap up a 7:30 p.m. reservation. (I was a bit reminded of that scene in Waiting for Guffman where Corky St. Claire plays with his My Dinner with Andre action figures and makes up the dialogue. “Oh you, you can always get a reservation.”)

That night Fringale was serving a prix-fixe four-course menu: I chose prawns in pastis with sun-dried tomatoes; steak with red wine sauce, which we both picked; and pear tarte tatin spiced with star anise and served with vanilla ice cream. (Thom had spinach and Roquefort ravioli in walnut sauce to begin, and pine nut chocolate cake with caramel ice cream for dessert.) There was also a cheese course in between the latter two courses. We shared a half bottle of Clos du Val Cabernet, and later had coffee with our desserts. It was all so delicious.

The restaurant was decorated with red and white balloons, and our table, while not quite at the window, was set apart enough that we didn’t feel too crowded. I’m usually such a shutterbug, but I guess I was so taken with the romantic evening that I totally forgot to take any photos!