Second Quarter Gathering 2009
By Jay de Leon

The de Leon second quarter gathering took place on Sunday, April 26, 2009 at the usual venue, Tracey and Martin’s house in Granada Hills in the San Fernando Valley of southern California.

The gathering celebrated two major occasions—the April birthdays and a baby shower.

The birthday celebrants were Mark Rugprayoon (April 15) and Jay de Leon (April 29). The baby shower was for Chedeng, Erwin Narciso’s wife.  Erwin Narciso is Tracey’s brother. We pray for a safe delivery and a healthy baby for Chedeng.

Some other events worth noting included a wedding. Darren and Ashley Masserman got married at a garden wedding on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at the posh Westlake Village Inn, in Westlake Village, California. Darren is first cousin to James Ray and Diana Rae de Leon, who attended the nuptials with parents Rey and Gigi de Leon.  Congratulations and best wishes to Darren and Ashley.

As a bonus feature to this article, I am including wedding pictures of Darren’s sister, Aimee, who got married to Jeremy Foster in Hawaii late last year on Oct. 25, 2008. Congratulations and best wishes to Jeremy and Aimee.

The week of April 20, 2009, Rey de Leon attended the RSA Conference 2009 at the Moscone Center in the city of San Francisco, California. From Wikipedia :
The RSA Conference is a Cryptography and information security-related conference held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area. The RSA Conference started in 1991 as a forum for cryptographers to gather and share the latest knowledge and advancements in the area of Internet security.
Sounds like a fun junket to me. Gigi tagged along so they could visit son JR (James Ray) who is currently studying and working in San Francisco, as well as romancing girl friend Leanna. Ah, to be young and full of hope and blissfully oblivious.

To get away from the gathering, Rey and Gigi de Leon embarked on a road trip to points south—including South Dakota, Wyoming, South Carolina and Florida.  As you will see in the pictures, they visited some interesting places there.

On Saturday, May 2, 2009, the Pacquiao-Hatton fight took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. A group of de Leons gathered to watch the fight on Pay-per-View at Tracey and Martin de Leon’s house in Granada Hills, California. It was a fun, raucous event—both the fight and the get-together at Martin’s. True to form, Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao demolished his highly-touted opponent, the Brit Ricky Hatton, with a devastating knockout with seven seconds left in the second round.

The last family event was the Mother’s Day celebration on Saturday, May 9, 2009, again at Martin’s house. It was also Tracey’s graduation party as well as a despedida of sorts.

The despedida or going away party was for a contingent of de Leon’s who were leaving the following week for the Philippines. This group consists of Grandma Pacita de Leon, Cris Rugprayoon, Tracey de Leon and her two veteran traveler children, Marissa and Sabrina, and Jay de Leon, who will most probably author an epic saga of this odyssey worthy of The Aeneid or at least The Little Choo Choo Train.

And finally, Maria and Brett Arneson have two new foster kids—David (3 yrs.) and Elyssia (13 yrs.). According to Maria, this is a temporary situation.  So, to Maria and Brett, happy parenting, and we are looking forward to meeting your young wards.

A safe journey to all this summer.

Till the next gathering

Darren and Ashley Masserman Nuptials  (April 4, 2009)

Darren and Ashley Masserman

James Ray, Gigi, Rey and Diana Rae de Leon

James Ray de Leon, Robert and Rosalina So (Eleonor’s children),
Rosanna Eusebio (Lina’s daughter) and Diana Rae de Leon. 
These young adults are first cousins to each other and to Darren.
Who will be the next to get married?  Diana caught the bouquet but…

Might this be the next couple to walk down the aisle? 
James and Leanna in San Francisco, California.

Flashback Feature:  Jeremy and Aimee Foster Nuptials, Hawaii, Oct. 28, 2008

Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Foster
(nee Aimee Masserman).

This was the officiating priest.  And no, that was not
the collection plate.  Too small.

Trish and Ernest Masserman, parents of the bride.

Just some tourists on the island who crashed the wedding.
Diana, James, Gigi and Rey de Leon.

RSA Conference 2009, San Francisco, CA ( April 20-24, 2009)

A fixture in San Francisco, California.

Chinatown, San Francisco, California.

The RSA Conference 2009 at the Moscone Center,
San Francisco, California.

Lunch with Leanna Wright and James de Leon in San Francisco,
California.  Ah, to be young and foolish and in love…

April Gathering, Granada Hills, CA (April 26, 2009)

Fried rice and pancit.

Beef steak and stringbeans.

Some healthy salad.

Mark Rugprayoon’s birthday cheesecake.

Jay de Leon’s birthday strawberry cheesecake.

Mark Rugprayoon (left) and Al de Leon lead the attack on the buffet.

 
Charn Rugprayoon (Mark’s dad and Ken’s grandpa)
and Nancy de Leon.

Nancy and Leo de Leon, Grandma Pacita de Leon, Michael and
Jay de Leon, from left to right.

Grandma Pacita de Leon and sometimes favorite
daughter, Cris Rugprayoon.

 
 Grandma Pacita de Leon (right) and prodigal son Leo.

 
Grandma Pacita de Leon and Charn Rugprayoon, former
favorite son-in-law, or is it favorite former son-in-law?

Marissa, Martin and Al de Leon.

 
Elda de Leon, Al’s favorite (and only) wife.

Marissa de Leon, Charn and Mark Rugprayoon.

 
Jay de Leon’s son, Michael

 
Martin de Leon, the bad-ass host himself.

Chedeng Narciso, Erwin’s wife and
the honoree of the baby shower.

 
Chedeng Narcisco (extreme left) with guests.

 
More guests.

More guests of the baby shower.  The guy standing is Erwin Narciso,
Tracey’s brother and Chedeng’s husband.  The baby clothes
hanging  in a clothesline are gifts for the baby.

 
More gifts for the baby, including a “diaper” cake.

 
  Cris Rugprayoon is hysterical because Ken Rugprayoon, her beloved
  grandson, has just proudly blown out the candles on the birthday
   cakes, more by spraying than blowing.  Good job, Ken.  Yes, like
 father, like son…In case you might be wondering, his t-shirt reads
 “I get my muscles from my Dad.”  Marissa de Leon is not amused.

 
Martin, Tracey and Sabrina de Leon.

 
The romper room during the gathering.

Ken Rugprayoon seems to be showing off either his cooking skills
or his tonsils.

 
Marissa de Leon and Ken Rugprayoon just playing
and enjoying some fresh air at the front yard.

It was a beautiful spring day in southern California.
A good time was had by all, even the kids.

Sabrina de Leon joyfully welcomes spring, and bids adieu
for the gathering for now.

Birthday Lunch, Huntington Beach, CA (April 28, 2009)

Birthday lunch for Jay de Leon given by Ateneo classmate Manny
Tiangha at their favorite coffee shop in Huntington Beach,
 California. Will somebody please inform Jay that his favorite
TV shows Robert Conrad’s “Hawaiian Eye” and Tom Selleck’s
 “Magnum P.I.” have been cancelled for a while now?

Rey and Gigi de Leon’s Trip, the Deep South, (April 30-May 10, 2009)

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.

 
Can you identify the four Presidents?

Can you identify this fifth President?

 
Chief Crazy Horse.

There are three crazy Indian chiefs in this picture.
Can you spot them?

 
Indian chief emerges from teepee after a pow-wow, or was
that the smoking lounge?

 
Rey de Leon at the Crazy Horse Museum.

A Filipino grizzly at the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota.

 
And there’s the mama grizzly.

 
Rey de Leon at the Devil’s Tower Monument in Wyoming. 

Pacquiao-Hatton Fight (May 2, 2009)

Manny Pacquiao (right) meets his biggest fan named
Bill Clinton at the Mandalay Bay Resort
 in Las Vegas, Nevada, before his fight.

 
The weigh-in before the fight.

The PacMan weighs in at a svelte 138 lbs.

 
The fighters shake hands after the weigh-in.

 
After all that hoopla, this picture says it all.  Pacquiao dominated
Hatton, ending it with a devastating knockout with 7 seconds left
in the second round.

 
The devastating knockout punch.  Hatton was out cold on his feet.

The picture is a little bit out-of-focus, but I wanted to include this
picture of Martin de Leon wearing his Nike “Team Pacquiao”
t-shirt during the fight.

 
That same evening, we watched this game longer than the
Pay-Per-View boxing—Game 7 of the Celtics vs. Bulls NBA
 playoff games.  The Celtics won.

Rest in Peace, Albert Gaskell (April 2009)

In my previous article about the first gathering for 2009,
I included a picture of my Ateneo classmate Manny Tiangha
who visited another classmate, Albert Gaskell, in Angeles,
Pampanga, Philippines.  Sadly, Albert “Beadle Bert”
Gaskell passed away in April.  Requiescat in pace, Bert.
You will be missed.

Welcome to Maria and Brett’s New Foster Kids

The Arneson brood.  From left to right, David, Tabi,
Elyssia and Rachel.  Not in picture, Kimmy.

 
Rachel Arneson and Elyssia.

And here’s Kimmy.  She is yelling, Yo peoples,
Here I am, full of life and joy and mischief
and God’s love and grace.

Editor’s Note:  If you will notice, I juxtaposed the pictures of Beadle Bert and Maria’s kids, of life and death, for such is the cycle of life.  I thought I would fittingly end this article with a picture of Kimmy, so pretty and full of life and innocence and goodness.
May God bless us all.