Browse Category: holidays

Props to all y’all

It’s National High Five Day and I certainly gotta give it up to the members of our *isofosho* Flickr group. We’re on our third theme, “Lemme See Yo’ Ride“, and the first day of voting has gotten off to a good start. We average about 20 submissions each time and the photos have been really interesting. It’s so neat to see everyone’s interpretation of the theme.  It’s also fun to see which ones get voted for and why. So, here’s a *high five* to all my fellow photogs!! Keep ’em comin’!

If you wish to join, just log in to Flickr with your Yahoo! login address and ask to join our group. Some just submit photos, some just vote, some just watch the action, and some do it all! Come play with us!

a beer and a victory

dsc_4867a.jpgLast night we went down to San Clemente for St. Patrick’s Day. Patty and Johnny (not the Brother) invited us to OC Tavern, which is owned by their friend. It’s a Sports Bar/Restaurant/Club that serves semi-gourmet bar food and has lots of widescreen plasmas showing sports in HD throughout the entire place. It’s a pretty large space complete with several bars, dining room with plenty of seating, pool tables, and mini concert area for their regular live bands that play there. Overall, it was a pretty cool place to hangout. It’s just too bad that it’s 23 miles south of our house so that means it’s an extra 23 miles south for any of you living in LA. It was, however, a good mid-point meeting place for me and Patty.

In addition to enjoying a couple glasses of beer and bar food, we also watched the last half of the UCLA/Indiana game. It was a close one but we squeaked out a victory and advanced to the Sweet 16. Phew, that was close.

Cole’s 2nd Birthday BBQ Bash

DSC_4733a.jpgOur little Taku-chan is a whoppin’ two years old today! To celebrate, we had a BBQ at my house complete with my mom’s Thai BBQ chicken, Auntie Kiyomi’s chicken salad, and Jesse’s teriyaki steak. Yum.  The weather was especially warm today but made it great for firing up the grill and hanging out in the patio.

Cole got a bling shirt with gold chains and gold pacifier from his uncle Kenneth that made him look like one hard dude. Marie brought an ice cream birthday cake with Cars on it and Cole actually seemed to relish in his birthday moment. He even blew out his own candles after about the seventh attempt.

It was a nice family lunch with everyone together in one place. Happy Birthday Lil C!

Here are the photos.

fancy lotion

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Last night we celebrated Jesse and Jason’s Mom’s 60th birthday. We invited a couple of her friends and Auntie Jeanie came too. We all met up at Duke’s in Huntington Beach and Mom got a nice surprise. She was actually on her way to the gym when Dad called her and said, “Come home. We’re going out for dinner.” She had no idea what we had planned and was genuinely surprised to see everyone even though it was totally unintentional.

As a gift, Jason bought a gift box filled with Kiehl’s products. Instead of having her open the gift first, he handed the wrapped gift and said, “here Mom, we got you some fancy lotion”. I thought, “Uh, why don’t you let her open it first?” Haha. That’s our Jason! He also had to show her the finer points of how to properly moisturize (night, day, etc.). I think she liked it but was a little overwhelmed by the number of bottles in the box. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Hello 2007!

I spent this New Year’s Eve at home for the first time in many many years.  Back when I was a kid, my brother and I would try to stay up until midnight while our parents slept.  The tradition was to watch TV and bake some brownies.  Unfortunately by 11:30, Johnny would fall asleep on the couch and I’d have to wake him up while the ball dropped.

This year, Jes and I went to dinner at Houston’s before going out on the town.  After a couple glasses of wine, I was feeling the buzz and Jes was barely sober enough to get us back home.  We, however, were in no condition to drive 50 miles up to the Downtown LA loft party that Holly’s friend was throwing.  So, we stayed home, watched TV, and opened a bottle of champagne.  If my brother was here, we’d bake some brownies but no brother so no brownies.

The next morning, we went to Polly’s in Cerritos to have breakfast with Dayantha, Huy, Brother, Ti, and Thilan.  It sounded like everyone had a pretty low-key NYE this year, which is a nice change.  With the risk of being in the way of a drunk driver or the massive headache the next morning, I may be better off either out of town or at home sometimes.

So, it’s Week Two of my Winter Break and I’m hoping to have a little more productivity this week.  Time to tidy up the house, clean out the fridge, and take down the Christmas lights.  Have a great year, everyone!

Goodbye 2006

ch9512301.gif It’s New Year’s Eve! I don’t think I made any real resolutions this year and I don’t think I have any for ’07. Work was really stressful earlier this year but it got better by September. Home life was good but also filled with WoW and TiVo.

This was a big year for weddings… Congrats to Holly, Roy, Patty, Johnny, Derek, Elise, Bang, and Vyl. This was also a big baby year. Debbie and Johann were blessed with a baby boy, Jack, this fall and Debbie and Pish are expecting their first child (a girl!). Patti and Howard are also expecting their second child. Yay!

We spent the New Year in Thailand. We camped in Yellowstone this summer and took a week-long vacation in Hawaii with a bunch of friends too. I spent my 31st birthday in New York with Brother and had Thanksgiving at home with the family.

Now it’s the last day of the year and I’m still in my PJs. I’m not sure what we’re doing tonight but I’ll be sure to make the most of it. Happy New Year, Everyone!! See you in 2007!