Browse Month: June 2006

Goin’ to see Yogi and BooBoo

WoW has officially taken over the house. We picked up Jason from the airport last night and they’ve been on-line with Bangerang for almost 24 hours. As a result, Jes failed to pack for our trip and we also missed our 5:05 flight. On our way to the airport we changed our flight to the 9:10 flight and we’re now home waiting to leave again. Tonight we’ll be flying to Sac-town and then driving 900+ miles to Yellowstone through the night. With isolated thunderstorms in the 5-day forecast, I’m a little anxious but I’m sure it’ll still be fun. Maybe it’ll keep Yogi and BooBoo in the den so that my tent won’t get another hole in it.   We’ll just have to cross our fingers for minimal rain and mud.  I also hope my bad back will hold up too.  Hopefully I’ll get some cool photos of the buffalo…we’ll be back Wednesday!

making friends

Last week I went to “My Gym” with Marie and Cole. Since it’s a “parent-participation” activity, I needed to man the video camera and I took some photos as well. It gave me a chance to practice taking action shots of children, which is a lot more challenging that I expected. With so many kids running around, I couldn’t blind them with the flash, so it was tough for me capture the right shots with the flourescent lights above and Cole’s quick moves.
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Another funny thing that I witnessed was Cole’s emerging personality. He’s such a go-getter with a rough-play personality. At one point, he walked over to this other child and grabbed him by the shirt. Since he can’t talk yet, that was basically his way of saying, “Hey, let’s play!” Unfortunately, it made the other baby cry and his mom wasn’t very understanding. Ah, Taku-chan…you’re going to be some trouble-maker later on but it’s going to take you far in life too.
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Here are the photos.

Brazilian Par-tay

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We went to see Sergio Mendes and his friends perform at Hollywood Bowl last night. It was a pleasant balmy evening with the feeling of excitement and happiness all around. The house was packed and there were so many Brazilians eating, drinking, “smoking”, and having a good time. The performance was so much fun and I have to say that Sergio is the coolest old guy around. At one point, they performed “Never Gonna Let You Go” and it sounded like karaoke night with everyone in the audience singing along and waving around their lit cell phones. I know it sounds corny but it was a cool sight to see. By the end of the evening, I felt like I was in a big Brazilian Party with everyone standing, singing, and dancing. They even had some Carnival dancer up on stage shakin’ their bums like there was no tomorrow. Oh how Johnny and Jesse wished we had box seats. Here are some more photos of the evening.

Fun with Mud

Now that it’s summer, we decided to spruce up the patio a bit. Unfortunately, it required quite a bit of digging in the mud and I certainly got my hands dirty. We later visited Rogers Gardens in Corona Del Mar to get some ideas for the fish pond and flower bed. By the way, this nursery place was ridiculously huge. It certainly was the right place to go to for some inspiration. Ah, doesn’t homeownership sound fun?! Anyway, we ended up buying a large pot and a lush bamboo tree to go in it. We also went to Costco and bought these solar-powered cheesy fakey pagodas. We left them out in the evening sun for about an hour and they actually stayed lit for 4-5 hours…hm…not bad.

Done, done, and DONE!

I took a sigh of relief this afternoon. I went in to work in the morning, had our end-of-the-year lunch at Islands with my co-workers, and packed up for the week. I got home by 2:00 and now I’m able to clean the house, finish the laundry, and just plain relax. Ah..

Next week, I’ll be driving down to my old stomping grounds, PTN, to work on some camp stuff. It’ll be a nice change from IEPs and reports. I’ll get to hang out with old friends and make a little extra spending money too.

Oh yeah…Yosemite Update: last night I checked the 10-day forecast for Yosemite and so far it looks like 60% showers on the first two days that we’re expected to be there. Uh, guys, I don’t really feel like camping in the rain. Can we find a Plan B?!

I can feel it…

…summer is here and it’s the longest day of the year! The sun is out, the AC is on, our last day of school is tomorrow, and I bought tickets to Hollywood Bowl. Awesome. This month has been really crazy and I’m finally seeing the end of the tunnel. We have graduation tomorrow and then an easy day on Friday. THEN, I’ll have a week and a half off before starting summer school on July 5th. Here are some summer plans so far:

  • Hollywood Bowl on Sunday to see Sergio Mendes et. al
  • Loooooooong roadtrip and camping in Yellowstone.

Perhaps we should reinstate Bonfire Wednesdays again. Anyone want to join us?