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Gerry’s Grill in Union City and a UFO. I didn’t notice the hovering speck until I d’nloaded the pic from my camera phone.

There’s now a Gerry’s Grill on this side of the Pacific. It’s a welcome addition to the selection of Filipino restaurants here in the Bay Area. It’s a little bit more upscale than the average Pinoy hole-in-the-wall turo-turo diner. Decor and choice of furniture are decent. One wall is lined with capiz-adorned panel doors. A nice little water fountain is built into the wall to the right and a bar occupies the front-end of the restaurant. I was greeted, however, by a familiar smell when I entered the place. It’s that certain scent you smell when you enter a Filipino grocery store or when you first crack open a newly arrived balikbayan box. It sort of smells banig-like, you know what I mean? (Some Thai restaurants have it too.) It definitely adds to the authenticity. For sure though, you won’t see any “Hello, Garci” pre-paid phone card posters or Philippine government-issued calendars stapled onto the maitre d’s podium. Which brings me to the staff — they’re mostly non-Filipino of different stripes, sort of what you’d see at the local TGIF or Chili’s. Oh and the food? It was okay, I guess. I’m not much of a gourmand so I’m not going to elaborate on it further. I just remember having kare-kare, pancit and sisig. It was quite filling.

This sign was put up on our door today when the whole company went out to watch King Kong.

I did a triple-take on this church sign yesterday. It would’ve been totally trippy if the event was scheduled for the Sunday before.

As you can see the church does have two steeples.

I’ve all but forgotten about this section of my blog. I’ve taken a few pictures with the T616 over the past six months or so however, and here are some of them:

  
Left: SFMOMA from the Metreon; Right: Son no. 2 mimicking Harold and the Purple Crayon

  
Left: Gundam head and the boys; Right: Easter bunny with the baby

  
These Star Wars action figures suspiciously look too much like this guy. Well, the one on the right looks more like Oscar Goldman, the Bionic Man’s boss.

  
Left: Came across this clever theft deterrent (it’s fake, guys); Right: Receiving respiratory therapy after an asthma attack.

Geek Squad. That’s Best Buy’s new tech support department. I was there about a month ago having my digital camera replaced on warranty because of a lens defect. Genius Bar rip-off, I immediately thought. The image they’re trying to project as shown here is that of hip, Men in Black-like, computer repair geeks. Hmmm, wasn’t this already done by Laporte in the opening segment of The Screen Savers? Well, according to this, the Geek Squad has been around for about 10 years until they were bought by Best Buy. They even one-up the Genius Bar by doing house calls. Apple, are you listening? On second thought, scratch that. I’m afraid I’d get unsolicited critiques of my design sensibilities from Apple employees visiting my home.