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Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

That was the theme for Jimmy’s 35th Birthday Party last Saturday and it was at their house.

When I first arrived, I asked Jimmy if the Lakers were going to win and he said “Of course. They always win on my birthday!” Well, it was a close one but they did win after all.  Thank goodness because I was afraid the party would turn sour if they didn’t.

Eleen ordered a full spread of J’s Filipino favorites and we stuffed ourselves silly.

Olivia and Kevin also brought a chocolate cake that said “We Love J and the Lakers”.

We all had a good time and I think the birthday boy did too…especially because he didn’t have to do any push-ups this year.  Here are the rest of the photos.

Lobsta Time!

Oh man…I’m so behind on posts.  I was cleaning out my laptop to make more room and I got side tracked.  But I’m back.

Anyway, Jes got back from NYC last Friday (5/7) and on Saturday his pal James called us up for lunch at Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City.  It was at least a 25-min drive but it was all worth it.

I had my very first lobster roll and it was tasty.  It’s lobster goodness stuffed inside a thick slice of bread that has been grilled with butter and split down the middle for a bun. Nice.

We also had the fried shrimp and fish&chips.  They were just as tasty.

I also got to meet little Ariel who was born just a couple months ago.  She was such a cutie and pretty much slept though lunch.  Good baby…

Here are photos from the afternoon.

Final Four!

Once again, we raised funds for the BORP Roll n Shoot Tourney and played some wheelchair basketball on Saturday.  Last year we got beat up and only scored seven times out of all 4 games.  Of course we came in dead last but had a lot of fun.  This year we didn’t actually get to practice as much as last year so I was bit worried when we arrived at the court.

Luckily we came a little more prepared with our shirts in the colors of the kids on the Children’s logo.  We even got hooked up with tattoos and window clings that we taped to our backs with medical tape.  We were a rag-tag bunch, a little ghetto, but oh so awesome.

We played our first game and we won!  Then in the second game we won again!  In our third game, I scored TWICE!, and we won after an overtime shoot-out. Check out this video clip:

In our fourth game, we won and swept our pool.  That took us to the Final Four and we played the other pool’s second-best team and got beat by only one point!!

Our coach MacKenzie was such a good sport with our ADD tendencies and rowdiness.  We raised money for a wonderful organization and had a fun-filled day playing w/c bball.  Who knows…maybe we’ll get to the finals next year?!

Here are photos from the tournament.

Tuesday Dinner at the Ballpark

On a whim, we decided to go to a Giants game for our usual Tuesday dinner and invited the girls from work since they were playing the Pirates. Steph and her husband are from Pittsburgh and jumped at the chance of watching their home team with garlic fries. I drove the girls to my house, stopped at Safeway for snacks and beers, and we had a mini happy hour at home before the 7:15 game.

Patty showed us how to properly prepare Coronitas complete with fresh lime juice, salt, and a few drops of Tapatio and we shared a couple bags of potato chips. When the boys arrived, we walked across the street to the game and settled into our $12 bleacher seats.  Jes also managed to sneak in 2 ice cold cans of Coors light in his pants.

It was a breezy but really pretty night at the ballpark.  The Giants fans were crazy as usual and the Pirates won.  We also had a fun time cheering for players we didn’t know and singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at the 7th inning stretch.  My dinner consisted of a Giants dog, nachos with lots of jalapenos, and a Coors Light.  Mmmmm.  It turned out to be one of the cheapest Tuesday dinners we’ve had in a while and we all had a fun time.

More Meat Cake and Some Fireworks

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Jack’s house.  Ryan made beef bourguignon with short ribs and some leftover prime rib that he had frozen from another dinner we had a while back.  It was delicious and re-purposed meat never tasted so good.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of it.  Shucks…that’s so unlike me!!

Later that evening, Jes and I went onto the roof of our building to watch the fireworks over AT&T Park.  It was the first night game of the season and we got a free show! This photo was taken with my Nikon in manual mode. I like how you can see the fireworks and what’s going on in the foreground. You can even see the party that’s going on in one of the units on the top floor!

Here’s another photo.  This one was taken with my little digi on “fireworks” mode.  Not too shabby but it didn’t get any of the ambient light from the building.  Weird.

Here’s a short video clip of the fireworks in case you were interested.  Not a bad view, huh?

Look who had too much ice cream…

Last night Jes made pot roast and the Sokol-Juns came over to eat with us.  When it was plated, Jack said “Cupcake?!”  Ryan corrected him by saying “No, it’s meat cake!”  So for the rest of the night, we ate our meat cake and Jack did too.

After dinner, Ryan turned on the YouTube clip that Jack has been watching over and over again at home.  He’s watched so much that he sings, plays his guitar, and follows along with gestures and clapping.  Michelle made some chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we all enjoyed them with some vanilla ice cream.  Jack loved it so much that he asked for more and we gave it to him.

As a result, we got a little performance from the little guy and I got a long clip of the action.  By the way, the spoon is a guitar and the bar stool is a microphone and the dog is playing back-up. Make sure to turn on your sound for the singing and narration in the background.  You can probably hear me laughing in the background too.  If it’s not funny, I guess you had to be there.