Browse Author: beakatude

Early Morning Escape

Last night, I made plans with Patti to meet up with her this morning to watch Howard swim, bike, and run the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon.  To get to the Marina Green by 7:15 for the 7:30 start, I left the house by 6:30 am and ran 4.5 miles from my house.  I got there in time to watch the swimmers jump into the bay and then the swim to bike transition.

Luckily, I had a good spot at the shore to catch Howard on his way out of the water.  Afterward, I ran over to watch him hop on his bike.  Patti and I got to hang out for a bit and got a free samples of Chobani greek yogurt and Zico coconut water. Sweet.  Congrats to Howard on completing his second Escape from Alcatraz and it was so much fun to see you today, Patti!!!

Yum

I made Thai Coconut Sticky Rice this week and had extra mangoes left over.  So I made a second batch this weekend.  I used my mom’s secret recipe and used her microwave method.  It rocks!

Dayantha & Krissy: Engagement Session

On Saturday morning, I did a brief Engagement Photo Session for Dayantha and Krissy.  I offered to meet them at the beach but they opted for the Cerritos Towne Center.  Dayantha hates taking photos and didn’t want to do it in the first place but it was urged by his mother that they should have photos taken.

I got some more formal/posed photos, some cute candids, and finally a more natural one of the two of them smiling.

Here’s rest of their photos.

Family Time!

Saturday was filled with family time.  In the morning, I gave the dog a bath in the backyard and he was NOT happy.  It was sunnier on the driveway out front so we tied him up there to dry off and I busted out my picnic blanket from the trunk to join him.  I took the sunshine for granted when I lived in SoCal but now it’s like a luxury to me.  So sad.  I laid out while reading my Kindle and later my mom joined me with a lawnchair.  Yes, it’s pretty ghetto to be hanging out on the driveway (not even the lawn) but it was awesome and I got my Vitamin D for the weekend.

Later, we all went to the Cerritos Mall and watched Kung Fu Panda 2.  It was fun sneaking in my Frozen Yogurt and hanging out with my family.  The movie was pretty entertaining too!

For dinner, we drove down to OC to meet up with Marie and the boys.  Cole is so big now and was super grumpy from being out in the sun all day.  Brandon was his usual crazy self.  The sushi was awesome and it was so nice to catch up with Marie.

When I hang out with her and the boys, it makes me miss living in Irvine.

Afterward, we dropped off my mom at home and then headed over to Ti and Thilan’s condo down the street.  We were supposed to go singing in Garden Grove but this was just as good.

They were having an after-party for Titus’ 1st Bday and I got to meet Dominic, Krishani’s newborn.  Melanie’s little girl Makenzie was also there and took a liking to Jes.

Surprisingly, she was pretty much attached to him the whole night and used him as a chair while we were singing.  We were all confused and he actually didn’t mind the company.

On Sunday, we had lunch with my parents and drove back to SF.  Luckily it took only 6.5 hours and we had a whole evening to hang out with another day to spare before going back to work.  This was a good Memorial Day weekend.

Here are the photos from our weekend in Cerritos.

It was a long drive.

On Friday morning, we left the house around 9:30 am and had a pretty smooth drive with the exception of a 6-mile stretch near Buttonwillow where they closed the road to one lane.  We even stopped at In-N-Out for lunch and the dog some time with his head out the window.

We got to Dodgers Stadium around 3:30 with another 1.5 hours to go.  We had a dinner reservation for Lawry’s at 7:00 so we decided to just go straight to Beverly Hills instead of Cerritos.  With about 2 hours to kill, we stopped at a park on La Cienega to walk the dog.  Then we stopped at a local Coffee Bean to change our clothes.

At 6:30, we pulled up to the restaurant and valeted the car AND the dog!  Heh heh.  The valet guys were super cool about it and even rolled down the windows for him in the garage.  The prime rib was yummy as usual and we also kicked in the standard peanut joke for my brother.

After dinner, we gave the dog to my parents who drove home and Brother took us to MILK for some ice cream sandwiches made with large French macarons.  Yum.

We finally got to my parents’ house around 11:00 after a 14-hour ride from SF to Cerritos.

Night Shift

I had Thursday off but had a photography gig from 6-10 for a Project by Project fundraising event.  So I got a little taste of what it’s like to work a night shift. I used to do this all the time at Disneyland but it’s been a while.

I spent most of the day running errands but took some time to have a tasty Chinese breakfast with my pal Matt from work.  We were talking about Chinatown the day before and decided to meet up for porridge and fried dough since he had the day off too.

In the afternoon, I tidied up the house and then headed out to 111 Minna for the PbP event.  The event had a slow start but picked up by 8.

They sold discounted tickets to their annual Plate by Plate event and took some donations for their sponsored organization.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was necessary to eat before the event so I was pretty hungry by the end of the night.  I didn’t actually eat “dinner” until afterward at the bar across the street.  What an amateur move.  Luckily, I didn’t have too many of their $5 punch drinks because that microwaved corn dog was not very good and not very satisfying.

Here are the photos from the event.