RIP Darryl - Our Loving Boxer (A Tribute)

Darryl came us with his master, Vicki, who lived with us for a short time. She was from Australia, and planned to return home. As she was unable to take her dogs with her, she had to find homes here for them. Darryl was left in our care. He quickly became a member of our family. He was loved by all of us.

He was a beautiful loving boy. He had a brindle coat with white markings that were perfect. He had white stocking feet and a star marking on the back of his neck. He was beautiful. He was endowed with a sculptured muscular and buffed body that he was proud to have. He was admired by all who met him wherever he went. Although he looked fierce and menacing, he was actually lovable and very affectionate.

His love for puppies and people was endless. He was always the first to welcome a new puppy into our home. Puppies could roughhouse all over him, chew his ears or tail, or bite him on the paws or back, but he would never harm a puppy. He was so gentle. He thrived on the puppy’s attention and affection for him.

He loved to lie in the sunshine and soak up the rays. In summer he would lie in the grass in the backyard. During winter, he would find a warm sunny place on the rug in the family room. When the weather wasn’t terrible, he would sit at his post on the bench on the deck. He was standing guard to protect our home and property.

He loved to share your bed with you, but he always wanted more than his share of the bed. He would lovingly try to crowd you out. That was just Darryl being Darryl.

He was obedient, gentle and ever so kind. He was always at your side to cheer you on, gazing up at you with beautiful, big, brown eyes. Those eyes would melt any heart.

We’ll miss your silent, ever constant presence. You were always there with us. A strong silent partner.

Now you can run and play with our other beloved pets: Jazz, Tara, Oscar, and the others.

Goodbye my beloved buddy and best pal. You will be in our hearts and mind forever.

Update - Majuro, Hawaii and Palau

Well it has been a long time since my last post. I went to Majuro again but this time I got to go there via Hawaii. Unfortunately, I got sick leaving Manila and had a fever the whole time we were gone. We at least got to see the U.S.S. Arizona memorial.

I also got to go to Palau for the second time. This was however the first time I could dive there. It was the best diving I have done. We dove with Sam's Tours which is a five star National Geographic dive center / eco-adventure tour company. We saw a LOT of white tip reef sharks, sea turtles, loads of fish and other interesting underwater life. We dove four dives: Siaes Corner, Ulong Channel, Blue Corner and Blue Holes.

While we were at Blue Corner, a Napoleon Rass bigger than me and weighed about 200 pounds was hovering next to me.

The dive guide had a hard boiled egg in his pocket and the big fish went right for it and dove underneath me. That was really exciting to see. Here is a link to the divesite maps and here are some pictures of the underwater life.

Philippine Ferry Sinks; 700 plus Passengers Missing

MANILA, June 22 (Reuters) - A Philippine ferry with more than 700 people on board capsized during a typhoon and most are missing, officials said on Sunday.

Rescuers were trying to reach the scene where the MV Princess of Stars sank near Sibuyan island in the centre of the country but churning waves from Typhoon Fengshen made the crossing hazardous.

"The ship is upside down. We are waiting for rescuers but there are none so far. Our pump boats are all broken," Ricardo Aligno, a town councillor from the coastal village of San Fernando, told local radio.

The coast guard expected one of its ships to arrive in the area by early afternoon. The ferry sank about three kilometres from shore.

Local mayor Nanette Tansingco told radio that three survivors had been found.

But at least four others aboard are known to have died.

The bodies of two women and some childrens' slippers were washed ashore. Before dawn on Sunday, some villagers heard warning sirens from the ship, which had 626 passengers and 121 crew on board.

Dozens of relatives, some in tears, crowded into the offices of Sulpicio Lines, the ship's owner, in the central city of Cebu, looking for information.

"My father was one of the passengers. Right now there is no good news," said Lani Dakay. "My father is 59, I don't even know if he can swim."

Sulpicio Lines said it had lost contact with the ferry, which was en route to Cebu from Manila, at around 12.30 p.m. (0430 GMT) on Saturday.

"We were told that at around 5 a.m. the captain sounded the abandon ship signal," said Lieutenant-General Pedro Inserto, military commander in the Visayas, the central region of the Philippines.

"We were told the passengers and crew transferred to another ship. But we still do not know which ship," Inserto told Reuters.

WORST DISASTER

Fengshen, with maximum gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph), tore through the centre of the archipelago on Saturday, devastating the province of Iloilo, where officials said at least 59 people had been killed in floodwaters more than two metres high in places.

"Iloilo is like an ocean. This is the worst disaster we have had in our history," Neil Tupaz told local radio, adding he feared the death toll could rise.

Tupaz said tens of thousands of people were marooned on their roofs waiting to be rescued.

In total, Fengshen has killed at least 80 people, including an 8-year-old girl and her grandfather who were buried in a "trash slide" at a rubbish dump in the southern city of Cotabato.

More than 20,000 people were being housed in evacuation centres in the centre and south of the archipelago, where the storm had triggered flashfloods, landslides and ripped up trees and power lines.

The typhoon, the sixth to hit the Philippines this year, pelted Manila with torrential rain and high winds on Sunday, triggering power outages in many parts of the capital.

The international airport was relying on generators for power and passengers continued to cram into the departure terminal despite many flights being either delayed or cancelled.

Fengshen is headed north and is expected to have exited the country by Monday en route to Taiwan, where it could make landfall in the next few days, according to storm tracker website www.tropicalstormrisk.com.

Typhoon FENGSHEN aka "Frank"

20 killed, thousands evacuated as typhoon lashes RP

MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 3) At least 20 people drowned as Typhoon Frank (international codename: Fengshen) spawned flashfloods and landslides, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands in the Philippines, officials said Saturday.

In Iloilo City, at least 30,000 people were Saturday marooned on their rooftops after the typhoon caused a dam to overflow.

"At least 30,000 residents of Iloilo City are stranded on their rooftops because of the flood," said Iloilo City acting mayor Jed Mabilog.

He said rescuers have reported that many could be missing or killed, but this could not be independently confirmed.

Iloilo Representative Serg Biron said telecommunication lines, and electricity have been cut in many areas, making it difficult to coordinate rescue operations.

"I have received a lot of text messages appealing for helicopters, there are many people trapped on the rooftops," Biron said over DZBB radio.

"This is the worst flooding that has hit Iloilo in history," he said.

In the urban centers of Jaro and Iloilo City, residents could be seen wading in waist-deep waters, with roads rendered impassable to vehicles.

The National Power Corporation was forced to shut down its power plant in the area, triggering a blackout across the province, plant manager Nelson Hemona said.

The death toll in Central Mindanao and parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has risen to 17 after five more bodies were fished out in North Cotabato and Maguindanao, officials said.

Mayor Ernesto Concepcion of Alamada, North Cotabato said one of the three missing victims on Friday was found dead Saturday.

Mayor Midpantao Midtimbang of Guindolongan, Maguindanao said four dead bodies had been found even as only three people were reported missing when the Talayan River overflowed.

He said he was not certain if the fourth victim came from the town.

Heavy floods and landslides also forced thousands of residents on the islands of Samar, Panay, Negros and in northern Cebu to take to evacuation centers.

The three provinces on Samar Island, Biliran, Leyte, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, Negros Occidental and most of northern Cebu have been without electricity since Friday after strong winds spawned by the typhoon toppled trees and electric poles.

At least three persons, two in Negros Occidental and a fisherman in Leyte, were killed while at least 26 fishermen were reported missing after two fishing boats -- one with a crew of 19 and the other, 22 -- capsized near Marabut, Samar, on Friday and near Tactloban City early Saturday morning.

Perlita Sanipa, 40, of Negros Occidental reportedly died after a whirlwind hit her home in the village of Molocaboc, Sagay City shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, according to reports reaching the provincial disaster coordinating council (PDCC) in Bacolod City.

The whirlwind destroyed 16 houses and damaged 83 others, the PDCC reported.

Roads connecting the southern cities of Cotabato and General Santos were flooded, while a concrete bridge also collapsed, isolating some villages and towns, Catholic-run radio station DXMS reported.

The storm forced over 200,000 people to seek temporary shelter in the eastern Bicol region, the civil defense office said.

Heavy rains battered the Bicol region overnight, and over 600 people were stranded in various seaports there.

It also uprooted small trees, blew away tin roofs and caused power outages in the central Visayas provinces.

Early on Saturday Frank was tracking a west-northwest direction, packing winds of 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour.

It was forecast to dump heavy rain over large parts of the central Visayas region and parts of the main island of Luzon until Sunday, the weather bureau said.

Residents in low-lying areas and near mountain slopes were warned against possible flash floods and landslides, while those in coastal areas were told to watch out for big waves.

Officials said domestic flights going to the central Philippines have been suspended, while inter-island ferry services were also halted.

Government agencies were instructed to stockpile on relief goods, while state-run hospitals were placed on alert.

Two Injured as Hotel Standoff in Manila Ends

Government soldiers prepare to the Peninsula Hotel in Manila. The hotel had been taken over earlier by dissident military officers who demanded that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo resign.

MANILA, Nov. 29 — Shortly after a police armored personnel carrier rammed through a hotel lobby in the Philippine capital, a group of soldiers and military officers announced they were ending the standoff with police that had begun this morning.

The seven-hour standoff at the Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City, Manila’s business district, ended with the arrest of several people, including a senator, a former vice president, a Catholic bishop and several journalists.

The soldiers and officers had walked out of a nearby court earlier in the day, where they were being tried for participating in attempted coups in 2003 and 2006. They had taken over the five-star hotel, demanding the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who they accused of corruption and of cheating in the 2004 elections.

But minutes before the leaders of the group said they were leaving the hotel, police officers and SWAT teams surrounded the building, shots were fired and tear gas filled the hotel.

The armored personnel carrier rammed through the main entrance of the lobby, shattering glass doors and transforming what used to be one of the country’s most opulent hotel lobbies into a veritable war zone.

At least two people were injured in the incident, police said.

Inside the hotel, the rebels said they were giving up because they feared that the violence would escalate and put the lives of civilians in the hotel in danger.

“We cannot live with our conscience if one of you will get hurt or killed in the cross-fire,” Antonio Trillanes IV, a former navy lieutenant and the leader of the group, told reporters. “We’re getting out for the sake of the safety of everybody,” he said.

After the soldiers and officers had surrendered, Lieutenant Trillanes, former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, as well as several journalists, including cameramen and technicians of television networks, were handcuffed and shoved into a police bus. Police officials said the journalists were brought in for questioning.

The scene at the hotel Thursday was reminiscent of the same officers’ takeover of the nearby Oakwood hotel in July 2003, in which hundreds of soldiers took up arms against the Arroyo regime, complaining of corruption in the government and in the military.

Lieutenant Trillanes, who led the 2003 mutiny and who successfully ran for the Senate this year even while behind bars, said he had no regrets about today’s events. Brigadier General Danilo Lim, who is accused of leading a 2006 alleged coup attempt, defended the take-over of the hotel. “Dissent without action is consent,” he said.

The rebel soldiers accused Arroyo of stealing the presidency in the 2004 elections, among other alleged crimes. In a statement read during a news conference inside the hotel, General Lim said: “We have individually and collectively tried all means to resolve this legitimacy issue through the normal electoral, judicial, and congressional processes but Mrs. Arroyo used naked power” to stop attempts to impeach her.

Lieutenant Trillanes said he was particularly upset that he has not been allowed to serve his term as senator. “The people voted for me so that I can stand up for their rights but they didn’t allow me to serve,” he told reporters in the lobby.

The two leaders and nearly 30 other soldiers walked out of their hearing at a nearby civilian court while the court was on break. They then marched to the Peninsula Manila, overwhelmed the hotel security guards, held a press briefing, and locked down the premises.

Hotel guests, many of them foreigners, were eventually allowed to leave, dozens of them forming a line to a bus that would bring them to the Makati Shangrila Hotel just across the street.

The Peninsula Manila lobby, one of the most opulent in the country, was quickly consumed by the chaos as dozens of uniformed soldiers with red arm bands tied the glass doors with ropes, and dozens of journalists and remaining guests watched their every move. Hotel management later said the situation inside was generally calm.

Leaders of the country’s political opposition, particularly Mrs. Arroyo’s former vice president Teofisto Guingona and a couple of Catholic bishops, rushed to the hotel to give their support to the rebels, saying that this could be another “People Power” uprising similar to the two such events that took place in 1986 and 2001.

Dozens of supporters gathered a few blocks from the hotel. Officials of the Arroyo administration initially tried to dismiss the situation at the hotel, with Arroyo’s spokesmen refusing to even call it an uprising.

“It’s a situation but we’re on top of the situation,” said the spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, at a news briefing inside the presidential palace.

“My orders now are to rearrest them and take them back to custody, to apply the law,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. “We want to assure our people that we will apply the full force of the law to maintain peace and order in the area and the rest of the country.”

Coup attempts and mutinies are not unusual in the Philippines, which has seen more than a dozen of these since the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Missing Manila

I have been gone for about 2 weeks and am already missing Manila and all my friends there. I have done a lot of shopping and also a lot of working at my parents house. My dad had espphogeal cancer operation in January and is recovering so I needed to help my parents do some things he isn't able to do. I am not used to the cold weather here and didn't bring a jacket so it is pretty freezing. I'll have to take some pics while I'm here to share. It is good to be home but I guess I am so used to traveling a lot so it gets old after a few weeks.

Chi-Town

I am on leave in Chicago from October 5th until the 23rd. The weather was nice for the first two days and then turned cold and rainy. So far I have spent a lot of my time helping my parents and they are getting an addition put on their garage so it is pretty busy around the house. I saw my brother a couple of times and one of my friends I knew when I was in the Navy. I went to eat some delicious deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's and Gino's East and saw the Kingdom which wasn't that good.

The Terminal

I feel like Viktor Navorski, from Krakozhia in the movie "The Terminal". I left my hotel in Majuro this morning at 8:00 AM and arrived in Manila at 10 PM. I unpacked, did my laundry and re-packed my suitcase. Then I got 1 hour of sleep on the couch before getting picked up again at 5AM to go back to Ninoy Aquino International Airport enroute to Chicago via Narita Airport in Tokyo and Minneapolis/St. Paul before arriving in Chicago's Ohare airport at 3:30 PM. Basically I have been flying for around 36 hours for the past day and a half so I will definately have some serious jetlag tomorrow. At least I will be on vacation for two weeks!!

Waiting in Guam

Well I am here at the airport lounge in Guam at 4:45 AM waiting for my lovely continuation flight to Majuro on the Island Hopper from Continental Micronesia. I just found out I leave Majuro to come back to Manila Thursday morning and arrive at 8 PM. Then I get up at 5 AM to go back to the airport for my 22 hour flight to Chicago. I will have jetlag after flying for 38 hours so I think i'll spend a day sleeping. Ahhh the joys of living half way around the world.