04.25.12
Posted in Bus-Blog at 8:59 pm by admin
This morning, I arrived to the parking lot (where I catch the bus) a little early so I was sitting in my truck, minding my own business when I saw this drunk, filthy, old, homeless dude, go wobbling through the parking lot, barely able to push his stolen shopping cart in a straight line. Anyway, as I started gathering my belongings together, I happened to glance out of my rear view mirror and saw “Wobbles” push his cart between the two cars in the row behind me. Then he suddenly stopped and repeatedly, looked back and forth slowly at the door windows of both vehicles. I thought he was thinking about breaking into the cars, so I watched him more closely and that’s when I noticed this stream of urine being splashed on the ground below him… OMG, seriously Wobbles?! You couldn’t go another 10ft and use the nearest shrub or tree?!
Anyway, after he finished using his urban restroom, he proceeded to hang all over the side mirror of the car next to him, as he proceeded to check himself out.. Wobbles clearly liked what he saw though, because he was doing this for awhile with his face all pressed close to the mirror. Once he finished admiring himself, he finally wheeled his shopping cart (-God knows how many cars he side swiped in the process), and continued his journey through the lot..
SO.. if you park ever in the Old Town Transit lot and notice a puddle of liquid next to your car, you should always assume the worst. 
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03.20.12
Posted in Happenings from home, Random Postings at 8:30 pm by admin
Last Friday, I was out with Dan at Sessions Pub, for the short-rib sliders that we just love! On a side note: you know you go to a place way too much when the servers say, “do you even want to look at the menu?” and when they know you love Siracha with your fries. I love this place!!
Anyway, that particular night, I noticed that the music was much louder, playing these similar hillbilly like tunes, one after the other. Now, I love Sessions for it’s relaxing ambiance, so this music was actually starting to get annoying the longer I sat there and so I finally asked Dan, “what is up with this LOUD HILLBILLY music that they have playing tonight?!” Dan (being the kind soul that he is), smiles cutely and says, “Oh, do you mean the Irish CELTIC music for St. Patrick’s day?” As his comment started to register in my mind, we both busted up laughing so hard! So, then I listened more closely, but I was still convinced that it was Hillbilly and asked him if he was sure that this was Celtic. He told me it was *definitely* Celtic and that I would probably be banned from Ireland for calling their music Hillbilly. hahaa!! I tell ya though, I now understand why the Irish are known for their drinking. My theory is, you gotta be drunk to survive that loud, non-stop Celtic music!
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03.14.12
Posted in Random Postings, Uncategorized at 9:15 pm by admin
This past Sunday, Miho took me to the Crown Room at Hotel Del Coronado, for Brunch. And all I can say is that SHE knows how to wine and dine a lady (take notes Dan 
), because this place was A-MAZING and by far the most elegant brunch I’ve EVER been to!!
After we ate, we wanted a photo together out front of the hotel. So Miho kindly asks this older man to take our picture with her camera phone. Turns out that he only spoke Chinese but understood the request. So, he takes her phone and we quickly get into position for the shot, but then we wait.. and wait.. and wait..
We can see the man looking at the screen and giving stink face as he moves the camera around. I’m not sure if it’s us or the background.. but whatever it is, he’s clearly bothered by what he sees. So, then we try to help by motioning to him to tap the button on the screen (thinking maybe he’s confused by the technology). By this point, I’m even holding up my own phone so that he has a visual example of what we mean by ‘tap the screen’. Anyway, he still has this goofy puzzled expression as he reluctantly taps the screen.. FINALLY!.. it’s about time!! So, Miho thanks him, then pulls up our picture, but instead, this is what we see..
As you can see, we didn’t realize that the phone was in Reverse (front-facing) Picture Mode so this poor old man had been taking pictures of himself instead of us!! No wonder he was bothered by what he saw! I gotta hand it to Miho though, because she did a much better job keeping her laughter at a giggle (compared to me), until we were far enough away. In the end, we did get the picture we were hoping for, but I still love the Chinese man’s picture the best!
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02.12.12
Posted in Happenings from home, Other Weddings, Random Postings at 6:24 pm by admin
This is the story of “The-Bride” and “The-Bro”.
Most of you know that The-Bride married the man of her dreams on Feb 4, 2012. However, I didn’t get to update everyone on her bachelorette party from Jan. 29th.
Now, regarding the party, the ONLY guidelines that The-Bride made clear, were:
1. She did NOT want a Stripper!
2. She wanted something that everyone could participate in and not feel excluded.
3. She did NOT want a Stripper!!
4. She wanted to spend quality time with her friends.
5. She did NOT want a Stripper!!!
So, our day began at the O.B. Hidden SPA for a little pampering. ~4hrs later (after enjoying our massages, facials, and hand & foot scrubs), we headed to my place for desserts, some games, and to surprise The-Bride with… a knock on the door, followed by a manly voice entering the house saying, “Hello Hello Ladies! Is this where the party’s at?..”.. Suddenly The-Bride’s face had this terrified expression as it hit her.. OMG, a STRIPPER!?! NOOOO!!!
So the stripper walked over to talk to The-Bride. She refused to look in his direction, in the hopes that he’d go away. When that failed, she tried a different strategy, saying, “Does [The-Groom] know about this?!?… Um, I don’t think he would like this!!”. But we ignored her objections (given that the bachelor outing involved strippers).. When the music finally started and the show began, The-Bride made one last ditch effort to avoid the stripper by using the “Push my friend in front of me” strategy.
Now, before I continue, let’s back up, because I can’t take credit for the genius idea that I’m about to disclose. So, two of The-Bride’s good friends (independently of each other) had thought it would be hilarious if we had a regular guy *pretend* be a stripper, to mess with The-Bride. The idea was simple enough, but had one major problem… it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find any regular guy who would be willing to do this! But then The-Bro (Dan’s bro) saved the day!!
So prior to the party, I explained to The-Bro that The-Bride was very conservative and made it clear that she didn’t want a stripper. That I’m not asking him to strip, just act like he’s about to, because that alone would be enough to freak her out. The-Bro said no problem and that because The-Bride is ‘conservative’ he’d wear his George Bush mask [well... even though we seemed to be different wavelengths for our definition of 'conservative', I also knew 'beggars can't be choosers', so I wasn't about to object]. But then he started talking about adding country music and a magic trick and soon I started thinking that this was going to be the weirdest fake strip show ever!
OK.. so going back to the party.. The-Bro comes in wearing the mask (which he later explained, was because he was really nervous), a red hat, and his boom box. He starts the music (“Stayin’ Alive”) and lo and behold, The-Bro turned into this A-MAZ-ING performer!! A total showman, getting the guests excited, and doing his little dance (no magic trick). Then he begins unbuttoning his shirt and it’s clear that The-Bride is totally embarrassed and this is where I thought the joke would end.. but NOOOO.. he opens his shirt, starts rubbing his belly, and the girls are going wild, loving it. So then the-Bro starts removing his shirt and now I’m totally starting to sweat, as I try to motion to him, “NO.. NO!”. But it was quite evident that he was in the zone and as it turns out, I should have never doubted him, because The-Bro knew exactly what he was doing and made this joke so much better than we could have ever imagined!
Even after The-Bro left, the ladies were still talking about him! They LOVED his performance, found him very charming, and the M.O.H even commented, “Dan’s brother is reeal-lly good-looking!”. I guess it must have been the shirtless belly-rub that did the trick. I had to admit though that he had some pretty kick-@ss dance moves, which I may have to borrow in the future!
Here’s the link to the video (in my google docs) of the strip show (since the file was too large to post).
Enjoy!
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12.10.11
Posted in My FAMILY at 11:17 am by admin
Well, I’m back from AZ and finally rested enough to report that we all survived the 50th Wedding Anniversary weekend in one piece! Yay! However, I think my parent’s version of the 12 Days of Christmas will now sound more like: “On the 3rd day of December, my family subjected me to… 150 balloons, 70 friends & family, 20 potluck dishes, 14 loaded tables, 10 garage sleepers, FI-IVE…BIG FAT LIES (which made the kids go to church on Sunday to ask for forgiveness)….. 4 carloads of family, 3 daughters who have a “Dan”, 2 necktie-blindfolds.. Aaa-nd Aaah Surprise 50th Anniversary Parrr-teeee!”
Well, as some of you know, one of the most special surprises for this anniversary, was Karen! Karen was my parent’s first foster child back when they lived in Hawaii. They loved her very much, but were not allowed to adopt foster children at the time. So when they left for Japan, they had to leave her behind. Over the years, they lost contact, but in 2010, they finally found her on Facebook! So, Karen flew in from PA to rejoin the family and not only got to surprise the folks, but also the older siblings, who hadn’t seen her since she was ~2yrs old. 
Now naturally the family welcomed Karen back home, by stuffing her in a 3 bdrm house with ~17-20 people and then making her sleep in the garage with up to 9 other refugees (i.e. family). But of course, no hazing is complete without experiencing the symphony of snorers (AKA: the Train (Steve), the Plane (Carol’s Dan), and the Whistler (Carol)). And if that wasn’t bad enough, the stupid Reverse Osmosis (RO) water tank kept making the worst sounds throughout the night. Fortunately though, Karen passed her initiation with flying colors and fit beautifully into the chaos of the family, as if she had always been here. 
Oh, so the morning of the anniversary party, we had to lie, so that we could get out of the house, to decorate the church. And good thing the Christmas Nativity scene hadn’t been put up yet, because I know the baby Jesus would have lowered his head in shame, for all the lies we told our parents. But then when it started to rain and lightning all of the sudden, it was like, – I get it God, message received.. No more lies after this! –
Anyway, back to the party.. So here’s the thing, my folks were blindfolded so I wasn’t worried about getting Yofu to the church without him realizing it. Especially because he’s often oblivious to his own surroundings anyway, and easily distracted in general.. BUT, Madre is a different story and I KNEW getting HER to the church would be tricky, so I told my siblings to make sure they crossed the train tracks early (since it’s right near the church) and then drive all over. Well, it didn’t matter, because the lady is a human GPS system and no amount of turns could confuse her. We would have been better off doing a bunch of figure-eights in the parking lot. So, even though the location was obvious, at least the volume of guests that attended was still a big surprise for them.
Overall, despite some minor obstacles of the day, everything seemed to worked out well and actually even better than I had imagined at times.
Anywho.. as much fun as the surprise anniversary gathering was, I’m also very relieved that it’s finally over. It’s been a year full of challenges and I’m thankful to everyone who contributed to this. In addition I’m especially grateful to (my) Dan and (niece) Amanda for giving me hope and providing the motivation that was needed to see this through. Thank you and I love you all SO much!
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11.14.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:06 pm by admin
From the moment Steve proposed to Alison (back in Sept), and told us that they would be heading to Monterey (no family/friends) to be married on Oct. 8th, Dan and I have been trying to think of the perfect wedding gift. After all, Steve is family to me and we love Alison beyond belief. Here’s the thing though, what do you get a couple that could buy themselves whatever they want? But more importantly, didn’t seem to need or want anything? Then it hit me, you give them something they wouldn’t ever expect.. Something that you know they’d never get from anyone else.. basically, you get them the ONE thing they ‘didn’t’ even want!.. And THAT is when we decided to give them their very own wedding!
The Happy Trails Wedding was this weekend and it was everything we hoped it would be. Steve and Alison arrived, dressed to perfection (thinking that Dan and I were taking them to a fancy restaurant). But instead, the 6 of us met them out front, all dressed up (Chris & Dan in tuxedos, Eric in his Sr. Chief uniform), the ladies all in black dresses. Then Miho gave them the gift box with the 4 Somethings: Old (16yr old surf wax from when Chris & Steve surfed together), New (carabiner clip keychain), Borrowed (Chy’s tiara on a wedding veil), & Blue (garter with blue trim). We told them that they had to wear the items.
Once they were all set and ready to go (thinking we were about to leave for the restaurant), that’s when we explained that tonight, our gift to them was that we were giving them the wedding they never wanted! And then we opened the door and began..
Dan cued the Star Trek: Next Generation theme song. We had the happy couple proceed down the lighted wedding trail with scattered petals and meet us at the livingroom. Eric performed the (humorous and yet extremely thoughtful) Human-Klingon ceremony (so apparently now this marriage is binding on this planet, as well as another). Then the couple exchanged Candy Ring-pops and the ceremony ended with the kiss, Star Wars music, and confetti.
Then dinner was served by world renowned Chef Dan. We had almond champagne, as Chris gave his toast, welcoming Alison into the family. We had the official cake cutting (Chris and Evelyn picked the perfect cake to go with the topper we ordered), and finally the Beer Dance. Basically, instead of a money dance, everyone had to present the bride/groom with a bottle of beer in exchange for a dance.
All in all, we had a blast! It was a total group effort and I’m sure Steve and Alison felt the love that we all put into this.. and hopefully “the wedding they never wanted” will be one of those special celebrations that they never forget.
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09.06.11
Posted in Happenings from home at 8:40 am by admin
I played Laser Tag for the first time yesterday.. actually, I wasn’t going to play at all, but I finally decided to try one game. Well, by the end of game TWO, someone scored over 1000 points higher than her Marine counterpart, while still managing to sport the flip flops.. hoorah! Aaah yes, nothing says victory like shooting little 5 yr olds with a laser pointer gun, accompanied by a Dr. Evil laugh.
So, in the middle of the game, I started noticing that I was repeatedly dying even though no one appeared to be around. I thought my gear was broken, until I finally discovered this cute, 7-ish yr old girl strolling along behind me, repeatedly shooting ME in the back! It was like looking in a mirror of evilness. I thought once she realized I could see her, she’d turn and scurry away, but NOO-OH. She just stood there, patiently waiting until my gear started to turn back on, and then the little stinker would shoot me again! And every time I thought I finally ditched her, she’d pop up out of nowhere with her angelic face, and shoot me again in the back! I finally changed strategies and hid. Then I spent the remainder of my time, hunting her down, and shooting the crap out of her. I know, I know.. that’s horrible… especially since I may have even had a smirk on my face at the time.
Then there was ‘Dan the Man’, who seemed to have forgotten that we were never in the military, because there were times when he would suddenly drop to one knee and direct us with military hand signals… seriously Dan?.. it’s Laser Tag, not Afghanistan.. use your words. Chy and I had no clue what the heck he wanted at times, but there was no time for eye rolling, because I was too busy tracking down my nemesis. Poor Chy.. between Dan and I, she probably never wants to play laser tag with us again.
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08.06.11
Posted in Happenings from home, My FAMILY at 2:55 pm by admin
While my parents were in town, Madre had the unfortunate experience of using my tweezers (that require ~15 mins to remove one hair from your eyebrow). So while discussing my crappy tweezers, my folks start raving about Yofu’s super tiny tweezers that he got from Japan long ago. They explained that they’ve never come across such great quality small tweezers since then (which now explains why they’ve hid them from me for years!).
Anyway, Yofu decides to go online to show us what they look like, and suddenly exclaims that he found the very same tweezers for just a couple bucks.. yay! SO, we both order one and I was totally excited, thinking about how happy I was going to be, now that I could finally pluck my eyebrows in less than 5 mins.
So when the mail arrives the next week, I rush to open my package, practically humming a happy song, imagining my super-tiny-Chuck Norris-quality tweezers… and… this is what I see..
What the french toast is this?? I knew Yofu’s brows could get a bit crazy when the hairs go rogue in all different directions, but dang! If these are the “SUPER SMALL” tweezers, I’d hate to see what his “normal” sized tweezers look like. So, the good news: I can definitely pluck my eyebrows in less than 5 mins. The bad news: I may lose my entire brow in one pluck!”
But on the bright side, once my eyebrows are gone, I could still use the tweezers as tongs for serving salad. So, let this be a lesson to you all.. when Yofu finds you super small tweezers online, have him double check the DIMENSIONS first!
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07.22.11
Posted in My FAMILY at 4:27 pm by admin
I guess someone didn’t get the memo that wearing Superman lounge pants, does NOT make you Superman!
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06.24.11
Posted in Happenings from home at 10:32 am by admin
The other weekend Dan’s father asked him to order a small wooden sign that read “ELEV 5520″ (elevation 5520ft), for their Arrowhead cabin. Dan said, “Yeah I can order it, but you realize there’s a woodworker sitting here who could probably make that for you”. Dan’s father looked at me and immediately responded, “Oh yeah, that would be even better, because I wanted it look funky.” [Say what?!] He continued speaking and I couldn’t help but laugh aloud, because he was completely oblivious to how his comment came across. So I interrupted, “Wait a second.. so what’s THAT supposed to mean?” Of course, then he tried to explain that he meant it (“funky”) in a good way [but I know good-funky and this ain't a soul music or fashion-related context].
So then in an attempt to further support his ‘compliment’, Dan’s father referred to the engraving on his birdhouse that I had done awhile back… and THAT is when I knew for sure that his “funky”, was NOT the stylish/cool version (cause that engraving was definitely [cough] not going to win any woodworking awards).
Anyway, the birdhouse reference made me realize that he was actually right though! My engraving ability really does need improvement.. hahaa! I’m OK with that though and since practice makes perfect, I decided to make the ‘funky’ sign he wanted anyway.
I beat the sides, sanded it, and burned the edging to age and give it the look that his father described. And fortunately since it appears that his expectations of my work is pretty low, I *should* be able to meet his standards.
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