[ Thursday, November 30, 2006 ]
One Month!Wow, I did it! I was able to blog every day for the entire month of November! OK, some of the entries were kinda weak, but at least I was able to make at least one entry each day. I still want to blog about our recent road trip, but I don't know when I'll have a chance to do that.
Tomorrow is the first of December already and it's really starting to look and feel like Christmas. Those really warm days of most of November are but a memory now as the nights have been getting down into the low 40's and upper 30's and a couple of days it barely got to 60 in the daytime this week. But it did warm up about 70 today. Many of the neighbors have their Christmas lights up after T-day and tonight I did some major online shopping. And that puts me at about 85% complete for my Christmas shopping! Whoa, I can't believe it.
I'm sitting here watching the Lakers tonight and man they sure look great for a change. Kobe has 52 points tonight! Dayam.
Have a great weekend!
yam [10:00 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, November 29, 2006 ]
Athlete
Baseball All-Star
Basketball Player
Here are some recent sports photos of Matthew that I've been meaning to post up for a while, showing off his athletic abilities. This weekend he starts into the new winter basketball league, and already this week we got notifications for Christmas break baseball camp and try-outs for next spring's baseball season. Whew, it just never ends...
yam [10:02 PM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, November 28, 2006 ]
Thanksgiving Weekend Vacation PhotosOK, I posted my photos from our roadtrip up the coast to Pismo Beach HERE. If I get a chance, I'll add some commentary here.
yam [9:06 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, November 27, 2006 ]
Interesting LinksI've come across a couple of interesting (and kinda geeky) links lately and I'd like to share them here:
orb.com - This site is like a free version of a Slingbox for your smartphone. You can stream media content from your home computer (a TV tuner on the PC for example) to your wireless phone. I have yet to try this but am going to do it soon.
Turnhere.com - This has a large selection of short video clips from interesting places to visit in California, New York and many other places. I found this while looking for info on the places we visited on our recent trip up the coast.
Google Gadgets - Here is a bunch of nifty tools for having lots of useful (useless?) information right at your fingertips on a sidebar or wherever you want, such as an analog clock, RSS feeds, mini-MS Mediaplayer, e-mail, news, stocks, weather, etc.
yam [11:59 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, November 26, 2006 ]
Return from The Getaway
We're back from a very nice little trip up the coast over the long weekend. Matthew spent the weekend with his grandparents and cousins, while L and I drove up to Pismo Beach for a wonderful getaway. I took out the roadster and exercised it a bit on the open highway and the fall weather couldn't have been any better (especially since the rain is making it's way down here tonight!). Stops included the Danish town of Solvang, Pismo Beach/ Shell Beach and my first visit to Hearst Castle. More pics and stories later.
yam [11:43 PM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, November 25, 2006 ]
Time for a mini-vacation!
yam [11:47 PM 0 comments ]
[ Friday, November 24, 2006 ]
Thanksgiving Recap
Time for turkey day feasting!
Say "Turkey!"
Ready to Eat!
Here are the results of my hard work
(oops, forgot to get some of the green bean casserole)
yam [8:32 AM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, November 23, 2006 ]
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
yam [8:42 AM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, November 22, 2006 ]
Almost Ready
I'm just about ready for our annual Turkey Day feast! I did most of my grocery shopping this past Saturday night when the grocery store was totally (and surprisingly) dead. Of course, I forgot some things and didn't want to buy some of the fresh items too soon, so I finished up last night. Wow, it's hard to believe that I'm going on 10+ years now of preparing the family Thanksgiving meal. I don't know how much longer I'll be doing this.
Anyways, here's the expected menu for this year:
- Turkey w/gravy(Will be brining the bird tonight for cooking in a roasting bag tomorrow)
- Baby Back ribs (Got a big package of ribs at Costco that I'll prepping tonight with KC Masterpiece sauce)
- Rice Stuffing (Time to alternate from the bread stuffing I made last year)
- Garlic/Bacon Mashed Potatoes (per Matthew's request)
- Baked Yams (I'm not crazy about the candied variety, but I'll use lots of brown sugar, maple syrup, butter and spices on these)
- Green Bean Casserole (made with Dad's homegrown green beans)
- Creamed Corn (made with REAL cream... mmm, fattening)
- Fresh cranberry sauce (package directions)
- King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread rolls (Yummy!)
- Flour Tortillas (for the Chinese family members who like to do the "mushu" kinda thing with the turkey)
- Smoked Salmon and cheese spread with Pepperidge Farm crackers (for pre-gorging snacking)
- Veggie platter, chips and Hidden Valley Ranch bacon dip (for more pre-gorging snacking)
- Mixed nuts (even more snacking)
- Homemade apple pie (made with fresh apples we got from Oak Glen, and the ready-to-bake-roll-your-own refrigerated pie crust)
Hmm, did I forget anything?
yam [11:47 AM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, November 21, 2006 ]
LA Wins!In the battle of the Los Angeles NBA teams, my Lakers won tonight, beating the Clippers 105-101! Whew. The Lakers led almost the entire game and almost let it slip away in the 4th quarter, but were able to hang on for the win. Good thing that Kobe scored 40 points tonight, since most of the team was having problems getting the ball in the hoop. So that puts them into first place! Go Lakers!
yam [11:23 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, November 20, 2006 ]
Ooo! Ooo!
Aren't these cute? How about some little monkey speakers for your ipod? They also have ones, just as adorable, in penguins and little fuzzy monsters that remind me of Sully. Hee-Hee!
yam [9:16 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, November 19, 2006 ]
Fall RecitalToday Matthew had his fall piano recital and he performed quite well! I was a little worried, because just a few minutes before the show, he was crying about his stomach hurting and I was thinking that maybe he was having some stage fright. But he pulled himself together and finished with a smile! I'm very proud of him (can ya tell?) OK, don't say anything about how he played the song in the wrong key, but no one else will know any different!
yam [9:49 PM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, November 18, 2006 ]
Foggy Saturday night
yam [8:53 PM 0 comments ]
[ Friday, November 17, 2006 ]
Black FridayAre you ready for Black Friday? Generally, I try to avoid those big sales with crazed shoppers who will do anything to save a buck or two on items they want to buy for Christmas. But if I do see some bargain that's just too big to pass up, then I'll probably take a stab at it. Just in case you want to find out what the big sales are going to be this year, here is a sample of websites that have all that info for you:
Black Friday 2006 ads
GottaDeal.com
Black Friday.info
Bargainshare.com
BlackFridayAds.com
theBlackFriday.com
DealsPlus.com
Techbargains.com
It's funny how more than one site claims to be the "Official Black Friday" site. Official by what authority? Happy shopping!
Also, here are links to a couple of coupons:
Free Coldstone Ice Cream
Mattel Toy Store (in El Segundo, CA) (Additional 10% off member card)
yam [12:29 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, November 16, 2006 ]
FehTonight my internet connection is down, so I'm doing this entire entry on my smartphone.
Yesterday evening when I picked up Matthew from the Y he seemed to be just fine. He was going on and on about how he earned enough "money" to get frozen yogurt tomorrow. They have an incentive program where they get "money" for helping out, finishing their homework, getting A's on schoolwork, etc. Matthew told me he made more than enough for the field trip to the frozen yogurt place.
Anyway, he was fine last night, jabbering away when he got home and then he helped me to make dinner (salad and fried rice... one of his faves). But right after eating he complained about his tummy hurting and did it all evening and was lying around covered up in his blanket. He didn't have a fever so it was rather odd. After I pushed him to take a shower he went and did it, but right he finished he lost his whole dinner in the bathroom sink. :-( He felt a bit better after that and went to bed.
Today he still said his tummy bothered him but he went to school and lasted all day. But tonight he still wasn't feeling great, but no barfing this time. I wonder what it is that he has? I hope he's doing better tomorrow!
yam [9:32 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, November 15, 2006 ]
DWTSWho would have believed that I would be watching ballroom dancing all season and actually enjoying it? Don't say it! Last night was the final competition on Dancing With The Stars between Mario and Emmitt and the results will be tonight. Both couples were fantastic and it's really tough to guess who will win. Even though Mario is technically a way better dancer, I just like Emmitt's style and joy much more. I also don't care for Mario's partner Karina, who seemed to be trying really hard not to look very sad, knowing that her time with Mario was just about done, and would be the end of their stormy relationship.
Update:Woo-Hoo, it's Emmitt! Yes, see, the "old guys" do have a lot to give!
yam [7:55 PM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, November 14, 2006 ]
Why Do You Wake Up In The Morning?I was watching YouTube the other day and this guy had posted his video clip on the reasons why he was thankful to wake up every morning. I'll admit that it wasn't the most exciting piece of footage, but the idea did make me think. Both my late wife (cancer) and my mom (heart failure) died in their sleep, so we just never know when out turn will happen. Before it gets too late, I figured that I would state why I get up every morning.
Easily the biggest reason for waking up every day and the joy in my life would be my son, Matthew. Sometimes I get frustrated with him as any other parent does, but for the most part he is a fantastic kid. And even though I often complain about my job, I am lucky that I have a well-paying place of employment, with good benefits that challenges me (most of the time) and I have a good amount of flexibility to do whatever I need to get the job done.
I'm happy that I have a good family without any problem members, have a great bunch of friends (many whom I've met through the web in recent years) and most notably in recent times, meeting L, who I've been dating now for over a year. She's brought me lots of happiness, hope for the future and lots of passion (in every sense of the word, BTW).
So, why do you wake up in the morning?
yam [12:10 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, November 13, 2006 ]
Two WeeksWow, can you believe that it's been 14 days-in-a-row that I've been blogging now? Are you totally bored with my senseless drivel about the boring mundane daily activities and thoughts from me? I promised myself that I would try to do it for the entire month of November, but it's getting harder and harder. It's going to be even more difficult during the long Thanksgiving weekend.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how old and out of shape I've been letting myself get. That now days I don't get much further than thinking about getting up off my fat butt and doing exercise instead of just getting up and doing it. It's a vicious cycle that I've got myself trapped in and I need to find a way to break that and get on the path to a better life. Sometimes I think that there is some kind of magical motivator out there that I need to find, but yet I know deep down inside it's mostly a matter of conviction and action. More on this later.
yam [12:12 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, November 12, 2006 ]
My Visit With Mikey
Today we went up to West LA to meet with Mike, and also with K&J and the kids for a late lunch. The weather was great today again, after a very brief cold front rolled through the area yesterday, so it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon with friends.
We wanted to see how Mike's renovation was going and also to catch up with everyone and a bunch of missed birthdays. We all lead pretty busy lives and live spread out all over the LA area, so we have trouble catching up with each other's birthdays, so this was our way to do it today. I took a few photos of our hookup today and you can see them HERE. We had lunch at Jerry's Deli in Westwood and had a fun time catching up with everyone.
yam [8:08 PM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, November 11, 2006 ]
Saturday FreebieThis day was the first Saturday in a long time when we didn't have any plans at all. The weather turned very fall-like today (cooler and cloudy, although still comfortable) so we just spent the day shopping. We started the day with breakfast at Coco's, then went to Sports Authority to spend the gift certificate I got from the team for coaching and got a couple of pairs of shorts. Next stop was Ikea where I bought a new cabinet for all of our games and a birthday gift for my friend M.
Lunch was at Quiznos (Honey-mustard salad for me, Prime Rib sammich for da kid) followed by stops at Hallmark cards (birthday cards), Toys R Us (kid's birthday gift), and perusing the Going Out Of Business sale at Tower Records. I think it's sad how the stores are going out of business. Tower and the Wherehouse were places I frequented a lot in my teens and twenties on Friday or Saturday nights when I had nothing better to do. They got done-in by music pirating and the MP3 revolution and didn't know how to adjust their businesses.
After spending time putting together that Ikea bunter, I took Matthew to see Open Season (that he's wanted to see for a while) and then we went out to dinner for some Mongolian BBQ. Matthew liked Open Season, but it was just another animated movies with animals acting like people trying to get out of some sort of troubled situation.
Yeah, it was one of those (cha-ching) kinda days that cost me a lot of moola.
Karma
Oh, and to end this entry, here's a clip of a hilarious commercial I saw on TV tonight about what happens when you don't use your cell phone responsibly...
yam [11:03 PM 0 comments ]
[ Friday, November 10, 2006 ]
Happy Veterans Day!
Thanks to all those who have served this country and those who gave up their lives to fight for our freedoms!
Today Matthew's school was closed for the Veterans' Day holiday so I took the day off from work and said "Let's head for the hills!". We took a drive up to apple country into the town of Oak Glen and spent the day looking for apples and everything related to apples. Check out the pictures HERE. I drove for about an hour and 45 minutes up into the San Bernadino mountains and made our first visit to Oak Glen.
I had seen Huell Howser make a trip up there on his TV program so I was interested in it. Unfortunately it's too late into the season for picking apples (Matthew was a little disappointed) but there was plenty of products and people there to make it worth the drive. The weather was gorgeous and the crowd manageable since it was only a Friday, albeit a semi-holiday. We ended up getting an apple turnover, bags of Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples, apple butter, apple cider, mini apple cider donuts (yummm!) and apple chips. We stopped and had lunch at the Los Rios Rancho (pulled pork sandwich for me and turkey sandwich for Matthew) with a big slice of apple pie!
It was a really nice way to spend the day, although the drive home with all the Friday traffic and lots of hwy construction in the inland empire made for a 3 hour drive home! That made for a tough basketball practice tonight, but we did OK.
yam [10:38 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, November 09, 2006 ]
Hmm, I wonder where all my visitors to my website are coming from?
yam [10:20 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, November 08, 2006 ]
Made It!OK, I have just a few more minutes before my promise of daily updates for November almost didn't make it!
This is a short entry, but I spent some time inserting a few photos from past entries. Just scroll back to see a couple of them. Here are last week's entries that include photos from Matthew's Halloween. I'm going to be inserting photos from back a few weeks too, but I'll post links back to them and/or have mini albums of those photos.
Well, tonight on the results show from DWTS, I was right about the final two!; Emmitt Smith and Mario Lopez will be fighting it out for the championship! I'm not going to make a prediction until I see the final show.
Argh. The Lakers didn't have what it took to win tonight in Portland, and lost to the Blazers, 101-90.
yam [11:47 PM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, November 07, 2006 ]
Couch PotatoI did make it over to my local polling place to place my votes tonight after work, but after cooking up some Spam fried rice for the kid and I, I just spent the evening on the couch watching TV. The last two days have been insanely hot for November (in the low 90's both days!) but I've been lucky to have stayed indoors in the a/c being a slug!
The Lakers looked really good tonight against the T'wolves (except for a few moments of lax defense), and the 7 foot tall kid, Andrew Bynum looked awesome, helping them to win 95-88. He had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, but most of all looked like a bonafide NBA star tonight. Amazing for someone who just turned 19 about a week ago! The Lakers are now 4-1 and are hover just under the radar. Watch out!
After the Lakers game I watched my DVR'd Dancing With the Stars semi-final round. Wow, they've all stepped up their game a few notches and all were fantastic. I'm still standing by my earlier prediction (that I told L) that the finals will be between Mario and Emmitt. We'll see how it shapes up tomorrow!
And now, I'm watching the news to see how today's voting turns out. It seems to me that every election gets more and more difficult to decide for the average person, let alone those of "above" average intelligence like you and me (C'mon, if you're reading my blog, you have to be of higher intelligence, right?). It's really sad that the amount of money spent on these campaigns could go a long way to solve some of the issues that the public is voting on, instead of all of the annoying commercials, flyers, phone calls, etc.
yam [11:11 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, November 06, 2006 ]
Shot In The ArmLiterally. I got my annual flu shot at work today (for free!). This time it hurt when the nurse stuck me with the needle and it burned when she shoved the serum into my arm. *ouch*
Matthew Sez What?
I was chatting with Jenni the other night and we were talking about how she used to like the conversations I recounted with Matthew. I haven't written up some cute conversation with him in quite a while. It's kinda sad, because since he's growing up a lot now (9) I just don't see the things he says as so "cute" any more. I just need to try harder to recall the things that one day I'll look back on and say "that was so funny that he thought about THAT!". But I will say, that he's had a pretty good year so far (crosses fingers) and hasn't gotten in trouble in school like he has in the past. Hopefully he's finally grown out of that stage.
Red Hats
Going back to my comment from Saturday about seeing a pack of purple dressed women wearing red hats, Julie told me that they are members of a huge group of women belonging to the Red Hat Society. Who'd have known there was such a thing?
Don't forget to vote tomorrow!
yam [9:21 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, November 05, 2006 ]
Weekend Update
In keeping with the daily entries, here's what we did this weekend (without photos now, but maybe I'll got back and add them later).
Saturday - After Matthew's haircut and going out to breakfast we didn't really take advantage of the beautiful weather. We spent most of the day running around doing some shopping at the usual places (Costco, Mervyns, etc.), ate lunch at the mall and had gelato at this new place (melt - Gelato & Crepe Cafe). We got home in the middle of the afternoon planning on doing some chores around the house but Matthew said he was tired and we both took long naps for practically the rest of the afternoon! I guess we really needed it. We went out looking for some place different to eat at, but when we walked past this new chicken restaurant it was so dead (while all the other places were busy) that we settled for Rubios fish tacos instead. We then did some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and that was the end of our mostly shopping kinda day.
Sunday - Today we slept in for a change and spent a lot of the morning starting to put together this 1000 piece puzzle that L gave me some time ago. It's pretty tough! Then it was off to do more shopping at Target and Marukai. The weather got really HOT today, close to 90 in the middle of the day! I got ticked off when they kicked us out of the Marukai food court They have a Beard Papa's now!) because we had our shopping cart (this is a new rule) so we left and didn't spend our money there any more and went to Ohana Hawaiian BBQ. Ick, that food wasn't very good, even though they give you a huge quantity.
After lunch I edged and mowed the front lawn while Matthew raked up the fall leaves. Since I promised him that we'd do something fun today, since it was getting late I passed on washing the car myself and we took a quick trip to play a round of miniature golf at Mulligan's. I think Matthew was happy with that! And finally, tonight I'm making some pumpkin bread and muffins from my Halloween Jack-o-lantern that I cooked well on Thursday night, so the house is smelling all warm and spicy!
Ack, the Lakers got thumped tonight!
yam [9:55 PM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, November 04, 2006 ]
Morning GloryWow, a Saturday morning blog entry for me? Who da thunk it? Well, another odd thing is that we got up early on a Saturday morning! But it's such a beautiful morning that I had to mention it. Did I tell you that I love living in SoCal? The sun is shining, the air is a little bit crisp and the sky is clear! Eww, kinda sounds like a commercial for fabric softener.
Matthew had an early appointment to get his hair cut and then we had a nice breakfast at Hofs Hut and sat in the patio area. It was funny because there was a large group of older Asian women (maybe 20 of them) sitting and cackling together, all dressed in purple, wearing very bright red hats of all shapes and sizes. Made me think it was a reunion from some school of magic like the Beaubaxtons from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!
Well, our whole day lays ahead of us and we don't have a definite schedule like we usually do. But that's not say thing we don't have a lot od things to do. But I have to figure out a way to take advantage of this gorgeous fall day!
Oh, and BTW, the Lakers are already 3-0 this season after beating the Sonics last night, with Kobe making his return to the game, 118-112!
Laters!
yam [10:19 AM 0 comments ]
[ Friday, November 03, 2006 ]
Decisions, DecisionsOnly 4 more days until it's election time again and I don't really have a clue what I'm going to vote on. We're just inundated with political commercials these days and it gets worse as Nov. 7th approaches. I don't know who to believe when it comes to all of these propositions, especially the contorversial ones that are backed by huge special interests. Should I tax smokers or line the pockets of hospital administrators? Should I vote for space age cars that run on the sweat of baby seals or will that mean the terrorists will be camped out at my doorstep playing parchesi? Geez, if they spent as much money on the actual issues that they do on the Yes/No campaigns, we might not have any more issues!
And when it comes to our elected officials, it's just as bad. One guy who is running for insurance commisioner wants us to vote for him because he used to be fat and now is not as fat! One of the dudes (poochie-coochie) running for attorney general kills and eats babies for breakfast if I am to believe his opponent, who says the other guy (our former governor that dated Linda Rondstadt) is a bleeding heart liberal who sleeps with whales. And there's the Governator who is George Bush's adopted bastard son and his opponent that seems to always be walking backwards polluting the environment.
I'm so confused!
yam [12:29 PM 0 comments ]
[ Thursday, November 02, 2006 ]
ContinuingI'm really swamped at work again today, but since I promised to attempt daily blog entries, I'm making a couple of minor posts.
Did you happen to notice that I added a few more pics to my Disneyland Halloween visit album? There are 3 new photos of ME acting silly/cool. Heh.
For those of you interested in the latest and greatest techno gadgets, visit crave. It's a blog with lots of new products to satisfy any geek out there, that's updated multiple times throughtout the day.
Hooray for the Lakers, who won again last night against the lowly Warriors, but a win is a win! 2-0 so far!
And condolences to Monique Coleman who got booted off of DWTS last night as I expected.
yam [12:31 PM 0 comments ]
[ Wednesday, November 01, 2006 ]
November Sneaks UpSeriously, how did it become November already? Seems like we were just planning for our summer vacation in Hawaii and now we're past punkins and looking at turkeys and mistletoe?
Call me crazy, but I'm going to try and challenge myself by blogging at least once a day for the remainder of the month. Even though I'm busy as all get out, I feel like my brain needs the exercise (not to mention how much my fat butt needs the exercise too!). Wish me luck.
Monday night Matthew had his weekly piano class (which was supposed to be a night off, but this was a make-up class from a couple of weeks ago when the teacher was out sick. Later that night, I carved our pumpkin (Matthew didn't finish his homework on-time so I had to do it myself) then I was up until midnight, decorating our front porch with lights, cobwebs and spiders for Halloween. This year I used green colored webs that were supposed to glow with the blacklight I used, but the light wasn't very good, so it wasn't as spooky as I had hoped.
Last night, Matthew's annual "date" came over for dinner and to go Trick-or-Treating with him (his "girl" friend and her mom from pre-school who live in a gated community that doesn't allow the begging tradition) that we always enjoy spending the evening with.
While we were out in the neighborhood I left a bowl of candy out (one large and one small bag). When we got back most of it was gone, and soon after we got home it was empty. That's the first time we ever ran out! Matthew (who dressed as Disney's Stitch) brought home a pretty good haul of goodies, so he was happy! Someone thought he looked like a big bug! Hehe.
Later in the evening my massage therapist came over to give me a rubdown in my living room while I watched (listened) to the Lakers opening game on TV. L came over after a while to get her massage while I watched the Lakers win the opener! Woo! Life is GOOD! Without Kobe in the line-up, Lamar, Bynum (the 19 y.o kid) and Evans (where did he come from?) did a great job! We finished off the night by watching the DVR'd "Dancing With The Stars" program. I think Monique is in trouble and will be sent home tonight!
I wonder how much I can keep this up?
yam [12:46 PM 0 comments ]
