[ Friday, February 28, 2003 ]
UpdateYeah, I've been a bit behind on updating the situation from the home front. I made it back to work on Thursday with the help of my parents who came over both Thursday and today. Matthew still had a fever and lots of coughing on Thursday, and today was the first day he didn't have a fever. But since his cough was still pretty bad, I decided to keep him home one more day, making it a full week of missed school. But today the color in his face and his disposition are so much better. He had a big smile on his face when I came home and gave me a big hug (he usually tries to hide from me!).
But unfortunately, I'm now starting to feel some of Matthew's cold symptoms! Not again!!!! This would make number 4 for the season. I bought some Sobe Liz Blizz (with Echinacea, Zinc and Vitamin C) and hopefully it will flush out this gunk before it becomes a full blown cold.
The update on the bathroom is that the plumber is done with their work. They finished putting the vanity and toilet back in yesterday. We still had a problem with the bathtub and other toilet being very slow, and my mom didn't make sure they did a good job on it, so I had to call them up again today. One of the guys came back today and cleaned out the drains as best as he could (lots more roots!) and said this will probably be a continuous problem unless I fix all of the drains. I guess I'll cross that path when I get to it later on. Ugh. Now I need to shop for a new vanity, countertop, floor tiles, etc. to start on the bathroom remodelling project. Whew.
Have a Great Weekend!
yam [8:53 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, February 26, 2003 ]
ProgressI think I can see the light now, as the work in our bathroom is progressing fairly quickly now. (That picture of the toilet in the middle of the room is only temporary until the concrete dries). It's amazing how this one guy did so much work on my bathroom today, and it's getting closer to being finished. Hopefully I can get back to work tomorrow and maybe even Matthew can make it back to school too, now that he's got his medication.
yam [9:02 PM 0 comments ] Still Home
Matthew's illness has gotten worse (now with a croupy cough) so I'm taking him to the doctor later on this morning instead of going into the office again. And the bathroom work continues, although a bit later than I expected, as a new guy from the plumbing company is here to do the next part of the job. Can I tell you that I am really stressed out these days? I know it will be better in just a few days, but it's tough right now.
Update (4:15 PM): Matthew's doctor says he just has a moderate ear infection and his chest is clear, so he got antibiotics to take for that. But he still has a prett nasty sounding cough. As of this writing, the pipes in the bathroom have been replaced and the new concrete is being laid in!!
yam [10:23 AM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, February 25, 2003 ]
More Uggh!
Here's how the bathroom repair is progressing and it's looking uglier and a lot scarier now. But they are done for the day. To be continued tomorow. **sigh** Fortunately I got my mom to house-sit tomorrow so I can go back to work.
Oh, and for an update on Matthew, he stayed home with me again with a slight fever and a bad cough. He missed out on another day of school, his science club and today was supposed to be the first practice on his T-ball team. I hope he gets good enough to go back to school tomorrow.
yam [5:15 PM 0 comments ] Uggh!
Things in the bathroom at home are not looking good right now, and it's going to look bad for a couple of days. It's a big mess, to put it mildly.
yam [1:26 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, February 24, 2003 ]
New FeatureI've been reorganizing all of my old photos from the places we've been over the life of my website (almost 6 years!), in its various incarnations. And since I've given up trying to keep an archive site of my blog, I decided to sort through and organize them by cities around the Los Angeles Area, called "Yamventures Around Los Angeles". It's going to be an on-going project and hopefully will be useful to get an idea of what "Greater Los Angeles" (includes L.A., Orange, Riverside and surrounding counties) means. Let me know what you think of it, OK?
yam [11:25 PM 0 comments ] When It Rains, It Pours
(Warning, major whining session ahead)
< whine >
All of our plans this weekend fell through and a number of other things have turned south. Friday evening we drove all over looking for some cleated shoes for Matthew's baseball league, but since his feet are so small we had a hard time finding any. We eventually found some, and they had some on sale for only $12.99, but of course not in his size. So I had to buy the ones that were more than twice as expensive. But at least he will be able to run better on the grass, although his practice tomorrow will probably get rained out.
We were supposed to go to our Fellowship potluck dinner on Saturday night, but as the day wore on, Matthew's sniffles and coughing turned into a moderate fever by the afternoon, so we had to stay home. On Sunday I had his fever under control with Tylenol, but he just wasn't himself all day and just sat around watching TV. Because he was still not feeling that well, we didn't go to the Ice Dogs hockey match that I had tickets for and I called my friend from work that I was supposed to meet with along with his kids.
While Matthew was napping on Sunday, I went out and did some yardwork, and just on a whim, decided to check on my automatic sprinklers and found a broken pipe (a poor joint had come loose) and a malfunctioning valve that was gushing out all over! It automatically turns on during the middle of the night so I never see it. Hmm, I was wondering why my water bill was higher than during the summer months! Arrgh! But because Matthew wasn't feeling well, I couldn't go out to buy the parts to fix the sprinkler, and just left a big hole in the lawn for now. That's OK, because it will probably get filled up with mud and the rain that's supposed to come down tonight! Oy!
Today (Monday) Matthew was still a bit warm and not feeling well, so I called in to work and took another day off. This was my opportunity to call a plumber to fix that clogged drain in my bathroom that has been giving me so much grief these past several days. Well, the plumber came by at about noon, and was only here for about 2 minutes and told me that I have a broken pipe under the slab! Aiyah!!! So, starting tomorrow morning, they are going to have to take out my huge double sink vanity, jackhammer up the floor and try to find and replace the broken pipe. Uhh, no it hasn't been a good few days.
Oh, and did I tell you that my tooth has been bothering me and I need to find a new dentist soon, too? Eesh, I know there were a couple more things that didn't go right this weekend, but I don't want to bore you any more. OK, I'm going back into my hole and hibernate for a while.
< /whine >
yam [4:22 PM 0 comments ] Sorry Blogger was down last night, so I wasn't able to do the weekend update.
I'm home from work again today, as Matthew got sick this weekend and I'm going to use the opportunity to call a plumber and get my plugged up sink fixed. It's probably a good day to stay home because we are expecting some substantial rain later in the day. Check back later today for the weekend update. Oy, it was one of "those" kinda weekends....
yam [8:10 AM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, February 23, 2003 ]
test testA link to a BIG photo file (I took down the link) at a new storage site... for Joe L. (what's your e-mail addy?)
yam [12:46 AM 0 comments ]
[ Friday, February 21, 2003 ]
The Davis Administration announced today, amid concerns of the State's deepening budget crisis, that two major State agencies will be combined to reduce administrative costs.Effective February 1st, 2003, the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Fish & Game will be merged to form the new California Department of Fish & CHiPs.
Heh-heh....
yam [4:41 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, February 20, 2003 ]
UpdatedAdded the comments/captions to the pictures from our Presidents' Day holiday.
Matthew Sez
While walking out to the car early in the morning, getting ready to head out to school/work...
Matthew: "The car is all wet! Did it rain last night?"
Brian: "No, it's just from the moisture in the air."
Matthew: "There are OYSTERS in the air???"
yam [10:41 PM 0 comments ] Rest In Peace
Found out this morning that Mike K.'s Dad passed away last night. Fortunately for him and the family, he went quickly and peacefully, with family members all around. Please pray for him and their family.
yam [8:22 AM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, February 18, 2003 ]
Three-Day Weekend
Matthew and his cousin Rachel (Mei-Mei!)
Wow, our three-day weekend is over already. Check back later on Tuesday for the weekend wrap-up and all of the pictures too! Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and Presidents day too!
yam [12:14 AM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, February 15, 2003 ]
... currently reformatting my site..... you might see some weird stuff going on...yam [9:23 PM 0 comments ] Partial Victory
Look what I pulled out of my bathroom drain! That's the drain auger/snake head that I lost inside the drain a few days ago when I was trying to unclog my sink. At least I was able to retrieve that mangled piece of metal, but I still haven't gotten through my stopped up drain. And I'm getting a lot of mud coming from inside my drain, so I'm really afraid that I've got a broken pipe under there somewhere... Still working on it...
yam [4:56 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, February 13, 2003 ]
the good and the badGood: We finally got a substantial amount of rain these past two days in the LA area, and we were really dry.
Bad: All those weeds in the yard are gonna start growing like crazy now.
Good: I got my Hedgie Valentine card in the mail! (thanks cyn!)
Bad: Gotta work tomorrow and I don't have a Valentine to spend V-Day with.
Good: That new power auger/snake that I bought is really easy to use.
Bad: My sink drain is still stopped up after I tried to unclog it and then broke off the tip in the pipe.
Good: I just got my new V-Tech 2528 2.4GHz Cordless Phone With TeleZapper Device (VT-2528) in the mail today, to keep the telemarketers away.
Bad: My Epson printer died late last night, when I most needed it. (of course, as I'm writing this, I checked my printer and now it's werking again. Damn Murphy, again.)
Good: Things have been picking up at work, since I complained about not having enough to do.
Bad: Things have been picking up at work, since I complained about not having enough to do. (getting burned out with too much to do now!)
Good: Another contribution was made in Grace's memory from her friends and coworkers, this time to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. (I need to write a thank you note to them)
Bad: I miss her the most on days like Valentine's Day.
Good: Matthew is such a wunnerful kid, he makes the bad days seem like good days!
yam [10:39 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, February 12, 2003 ]
BurntI'm mentally burnt out right now. I'll be right back.....
yam [11:18 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, February 10, 2003 ]
Matthew UpdateThe big news for him today is that one of his teeth is loose! Matthew was complaining that one of his front teeth was hurting yesterday and today he said that it's loose. He sounded happy that it was finally going to happen, but a bit concerned since he doesn't know what it's going to be like. Hehehe. I took a look at it and sure enough it looks a bit wobbly. I definitely will have to show a picture as soon as it comes out. It's a major milestone for him!
One thing I forgot to mention in the weekend update, was what Matthew did early Sunday morning. He woke up while it was still dark to go potty, and then came into my room saying, "Daddy, I'm scared". I asked him what he was scared about and he said that he was scared of something he was dreaming about. So I gave him a big hug and kiss, while I was still half asleep and told him to go back to bed. But then, after a couple of seconds I heard this loud "WHAP!" followed by a loud "WAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Well, that woke me up REALLY fast and I jumped out of bed into his room to find out what he did, thinking that he fell down or something. "WAAAHHHH, I hit my head!" Apparently, he threw his head back too fast and a bit too high on his bed and hit his head on the lower shelf of his headboard (just like I warned him about, several times before). Poor baby! So I gave him some Kleenex to wipe his eyes and got his "boo-boo bear" (a little plastic cube filled with water, wrapped with some fuzzy bear fur) from the fridge to hold on his head for a bit, while I rubbed his leg for comfort. Quite a rough way to wake up in the morning, but fortunately we both went back to sleep for a while.
Plumbing Update
I'm taking a break tonight from working on the clogged sink drain, so check back tomorrow for more on that problem.
Prayer Request
Please say a prayer for my friend Mike K. and his family as I found out today that his Dad has recently taken a turn for the worst and they are basically waiting for him to die. He's been in fairly good physical health, for someone in his 80's (I think), but his mind was quickly going due to Alzheimer's, I believe. Unfortunately, it seems that now he's got some serious physical problems and there's not much they can do now.
yam [8:24 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, February 09, 2003 ]
Weekend UpdateOverall, it was a good weekend, but it did have it's ups and downs. Here's my LONG update.
Friday night we had our Fellowship meeting and our continuing series on "How to Raise Boys". This session was on trying to maintain a boy's "spirit". Without getting into a long discussion, the basic premise is that we should support them and help them when they get picked on or teased, etc. and help them to not become one of those kids who shoots up the whole school. I know, that's an extreme example, but I think you get the idea.
Saturday turned out to be a pretty productive day, and had some fun too. Got up fairly early (after staying up waaaay too late chatting online), and cooked breakfast for Matthew and me. Made him his first meal of Corned Beef Hash (reduced fat!) and eggs and he gobbled them all up! Then it was off to his haircut appointment where one of the customers brought in a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and Matthew had his first Krispy Kreme. No, I didn't have one, since we just ate breakfast, and I'm not gonna be having those fat pills. But Matthew loved it!
Came home and cleaned up, washed dishes, did laundry, etc. Then we walked over to the school so that Matthew could practice his baseball. It was such a beautiful day again but Matthew made me have to chase after a lot of balls that he hit pretty far. I think he's ready to play in the league!
Went to lunch at Carls' Jr. where I had a salad and Matthew got the chicken stars (not on the menu, but if you ask, they still have them, instead of the chicken strips ("...chickens don't have nuggets...") and then we hopped on over to Best Buy where I picked up a copy of the Taxcut software so I could work on my taxes soon. Bleah.
Over the past several days, some of the drains at home in the bathrooms have been progressively going slower and slower. So I moved out all the stuff from under the sink in the second bathroom, opened up the drain trap and tried running my small, hand-fed drain auger into the drains. Well, to my surprise I found ROOTS, just a few feet down! Arrgh (I guess that should be "Augh!", since I'm using an "auger" hehehe). I tried to run the auger in the slow bathtub too, but ran into some obstruction and couldn't go very far.
After Matthew's long nap and me doing more stuff around the house, we went to the local spaghetti house where Matthew had some salad, cheese bread, ate a whole bowl of ravioli, and then a whole bowl of chocolate ice cream! I dunno where he put all that food! As soon as he got home, he said, "I'm hungry!". Oy. After dinner we made a quick run to Home Depot and got some drain root killer, hoping that it would solve my problems in the bathroom, although it's not supposed to be used in sink drains, only in the sewer drains.
Sunday we went to the church at Matthew's school where the kindergarten class sang several songs at the worship service. The kids all did really great, although Matthew has to be different and stand out of line and talked and pestered a bunch of his friends in the group. Aiyah. After church, we went out to lunch at King's Hawaiian with Danielle and her family, and we all had a fun time.
Well, that root killer didn't seem to do much, so I made another trip over to Home Depot and decided to buy an expensive electric drain auger (about $350!). I've rented those things several times in the past at $50 a time, so I figured that in the long run I'd get my money's worth out of this, not to mention the convenience of having it ready to use whenever I want.
So this afternoon I spent a couple of hours trying to use that snake and try to clear out the drain, but unfortunately still having problems getting it to go through. And to my horror, I ended up losing one of the cutting heads (the twirly one) inside the drain!!! It just fell off of the bracket. Arrgh. I'm gonna have to keep trying to work that thing during the week, so we'll see if I can get some satisfaction from my costly purchase. *sigh*
yam [11:52 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, February 06, 2003 ]
StoopidI was tipped off about this idiot Congressman Howard Coble of North Carolina, from Mikazuko. Take a look at some of the dumb things he said:
N.C. Congressman Says Internment of Japanese-Americans During World War II Was Appropriate
"We were at war. They (Japanese-Americans) were an endangered species," Coble said. "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."
Like most Arab-Americans today, Coble said, most Japanese-Americans during World War II were not America's enemies.
Still, Coble said, Roosevelt had to consider the nation's security.
"Some probably were intent on doing harm to us," he said, "just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."
This fool is in charge of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security and he makes racially insensitive remarks like this. I think we all need to run inside and lock our windows and doors.
You betcha that the JACL is mad about this stupid congressman. “It is astonishing that yet another political leader would publicly embrace the racist policies of the 1940s, and we are flabbergasted that a man who supports racial profiling and ethnic scapegoating chairs the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security,” added John Tateishi, JACL National Executive Director. “The JACL calls on the House Republican leadership to remove him immediately from this position before he does further harm.”
Here's another article about him and his equally ignorant partner in the house, Rep. Sue Myrick, also from North Carolina, referring to Arab-Americans who said, "You know, and this can be misconstrued, but honest to goodness (husband) Ed and I for years, for 20 years, have been saying,`You know, look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country.' Every little town you go into, you know?"
yam [10:08 PM 0 comments ] SoCal Winter returning
Brrr, it was cold this morning. I know, relative to other parts of the country it's nothing, but there was ice on all of the roofs in the neighborhood! With the temperature reading 42 degrees on my car thermometer, about an hour after sunrise, it must have been in the 30's before the sun came up. And there's supposed to be a chance of some rain this weekend and early next week. That's more like our "regular" SoCal winters.
yam [9:22 AM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, February 04, 2003 ]
Duty PatootieYou know they say that sometimes jury duty is a great place to meet women. Even the guy who runs the jury room said that several people have gotten engaged after meeting someone on jury duty! As I was leaving for lunch, I spotted this asian woman who looked pretty attractive from behind, and I noticed that she was also selected for the same courtroom as me, so I would probably see her after lunch.
Sure enough, as I was walking into the elevator on my way back to the courtroom, I saw her again. Then I saw her face! Hahaha, it was my old friend Grace from college that I hadn't seen in years! She's married and has four kids! Doh! Well, it was nice to see her again and we chatted a bit while waiting around. Oy. No, I'm not desperate to find a woman, am I?
Keeping in line with my track record, I joked with Grace saying, "watch, I'll get picked for the jury first". And sure enough, I did. I got grilled and interviewed along with all of the other prospective jurors and it turns out that I was the only one with any prior jury experience, and it was somewhat of a joke. So I thought for sure that I would be stuck on this jury panel. Several people were excused and I thought for sure my fate was sealed.
So when we took a break, I told Grace (who was still waiting in the wings) that it looks like I'm going to be on this jury. After the break, they called up new people to fill in for all those who got dumped, and Grace was the last person called up. Well, after some more interviews of the new people, they started excusing people again and then I heard it. From the prosecutor. "I'd like to thank and excuse juror number 10". Huh? Me? Woo-Hoo!!! I'm outta here!
Talkin' 'bout baseball
Tonight I went to a parent's meeting for Matthew's T-ball league. It seems like it's going to be a really fun time for everyone and the league looks to be set up in a way to promote good sportsmanship, fun and teamwork instead of winning and losing. I like that.
And it also looks pretty well organized, except that on the team where Matthew is going to play, the coach didn't show up (had to go out of town) and all of the parents looked totally lost. But I think it will all fall together. The problem is going to be trying to find the time, since they are going to have practices during the week. That means I have to change my schedule so that I can leave earlier once in a while. Meaning that I'm going to have to get our butts out of the house much ealrier. :p
Matthew Sez
I don't know where he learned this one from, but while he was taking his bath tonight he started singing, "No Buts, No Cuts, No Chiiiiii-neez Coca-nuts!"
yam [11:11 PM 0 comments ] I'm so bored, but at least I'm home from jury duty for a long lunchbreak. Of course, I didn't luck out and got called on the first (and only) selection of jurors for the afternoon. Gads, I'm never the one who just sits and gets it all over with in only one day. Bleah!
yam [12:14 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, February 03, 2003 ]
Duty ShmootyBah, I gotta go in for jury duty tomorrow. With my track record, it's no surprise that I didn't get off with just calling in. Over the past 20 years, I think I've been called in for jury duty about 8 times (I've seriously lost track). I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories to tell. At least it's going to be close by and in a good neighborhood. Well, I guess all of that work I've been doing will have to wait now.
Matthew Update
It was so cute today, while Matthew was going potty, out of the blue he said "Hey Daddy! I can spell 'Jesus'!" J-E-S-U-S! And I can also spell 'CAT', 'BAT' and 'RAT'!" He was so proud of himself! So am I.
Matthew also got his mid-year report card today from Kindergarten and he's doing quite well in most areas, and definitely has improved in all areas where he was weak after the first report. He's good at recognizing all of his letters (except a lower case 'r') and numbers, counts to 100 by 10's, knows his telephone number, the days of the week, and many other things we take for granted.
Some of the problems he still having (but getting better) is in keeping his hands to himself, being able to accept correction and admonition, and being responsible for his actions. Hopefully by the end of the semester he'll be doing much better.
yam [11:26 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, February 02, 2003 ]
Weekend UpdateI'm having some serious writer's cramps right now. We didn't really do that much other than go to the USC vs. Oregon college basketball game today, courtesy of Matthew's friend Danielle (her parents gave us some tickets for Christmas). It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. USC looked decent in beating Oregon today, but I have to say that the Trojan Dance Force girls looked really hot!
I took a bunch of pictures with my pocket digital camera at the game today, but because I haven't been using it regularly, the battery died out too soon and I lost all of the photos. Arrrgh. The only picture I took this weekend was of Matthew relaxing and having fun with his Game Boy on Saturday.
The weather has almost returned to normal for this time of year, but it was still very nice. The news is saying that this January was the second hottest in history, and we didn't have any rain for only the 4th time in history. We need some rain BAD! I'm glad the weather has normalized a bit though, because the temperature extremes have been playing havoc on my cold that is taking it's time about going away.
I put out my American flag today, in honor of the fallen astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia. Since I used to be involved in the aerospace business and still work for a big aerospace company, the loss of Columbia has hit me a little closer to home, almost as bad as the Challenger explosion.
So, yeah, this will be another one of those "Where were you when..." occasions. My clock radio woke me up Saturday morning, and I was half asleep when I heard them talking on the radio about losing the space shuttle, and I was like "What the heck did I just hear?". So I popped up outta bed and turned the TV on and they kept showing that vapor trail and the pieces flying off, over and over again on every channel. I remember where I was when Challenger blew up, as I was in my co-worker's office at Rockwell, when one of the other guys came in and said, "Hey, the Space Shuttle just crashed!" Just so sad that we're seeing something like this again. Although, I deeply understand that these are the prices we have to pay if we want to explore in outer space.
I called in to check on my possible jury duty service for Monday but the message told me to call back on Monday evening. So, at least for one day I'm not obligated to go in for jury duty. The bad thing is that I also got a jury summons for Federal district court in downtown LA, and they don't take the local jury service as a reason to get out of it. I sent in an excuse that it would be a hardship on us since it would be too difficult to make other arrangements for taking Matthew to and from school, with me being a single parent. We'll see if they allow that excuse or not.
We got a last minute phone call today from Matthew future T-ball coach telling me about a parents meeting this week, in preparation for the season. He apologized for the short notice but said that he only found out about it yesterday himself. And he won't be there since he's going out of town! Anyways, we gotta start preparing for Matthew to play in his first organized sports really soon now!
Hmm, for someone with writer's cramps, I sure seem to have written a lot!
yam [11:40 PM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, February 01, 2003 ]
Well, I was going to wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year today, but with the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia this morning, I'm just going to say that I hope the New Year brings you peace, love and prosperity throughout the coming year.yam [9:13 AM 0 comments ]
