New Baby Brother

Tim and I are big brothers yet again. At 4:42 this morning, my stepmom Malena gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Miguel Angel. All is well with both baby and mother, and am told they will be coming home on Tuesday.


We gave out bubble-gum cigars upon hearing the news. (06/04/07)

I don’t have any pictures yet since no one in my family has a digital camera other than me (my Dad’s camera uses this strange technology called film and negatives). They don’t even have one on their phones. Seriously! But as soon as I get one, I’ll post it. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for a picture of the bubble gum cigars I gave out today at work.


This statue of St. Michael Archangel can be found at the Fontaine Saint-Michel in Paris.

Incidentally, the name “Miguel Angel” is the Spanish version of Michaelangelo. My brother isn’t named after the artist, however, but rather St. Michael the Archangel, who is commonly depicted in art as conquering Satan. Pretty cool, huh?

Google Street View — Loves It!

I've been hearing a lot about this whole debate over the new Street View feature that Google launched last week. If you haven't heard, the new Street View functionality in Google Maps allows you to navigate street-level imagery, even the front of people's houses.


Our old place in San Francisco.

Some have claimed that it's an invasion of privacy. Well I don't know about that. Apparently all the images were taken from public streets. As far as I know, there is no inalienable right to prevent someone from taking a picture of your house from a public street. Besides, it's really a cool feature!

One of the first thigs I looked up was the old San Francisco apartment I used to live in back when I was going to college in the early 90s. I lived there with a pile of other people, including frequent Blog guest stars, Tom & Christine, as well as blog readers Ginger and Melissa.


The big bay window on the right was my old bedroom.

It was a great location, just across the street from the Golden Gate Park panhandle. It was close enough to the Haight/Ashbury district ("The Haight" we simply called it) to take advantage of what the neighborhood had to offer, yet was far enough away that you didn’t have panhandlers outside your door 24/7.


This is what I saw when I looked out the window.

Despite a great location, the building itself had many issues. Built in 1910, the plumbing and electrical were far from ideal. I think we had, at most, two electrical outlets in each room (many extension cords had to be used). And don’t’ even get me started on the ventilation! One look at the moldy ceiling above the shower said it all.


Just outside the house, facing West.

At first I lived in a tiny little room just under the stairs, but when one of the other roommates moved out, I took his spot in the front bedroom. That big bay window looked right into my bedroom (it was the ideal place to watch the annual Bay to Breakers marathon, which went directly in front of the house).

Ah the memories. Thanks Google for making the Street View available!

Memorial Day Weekend BBQ & Pool Party

Our Memorial Day weekend was pretty low-key. We didn't do a lot of social activities other than having a few friends over for a mini pool party and BBQ. The usual gang showed up: Tom & Christine, Jon & Amy, and Jason & Jarrod.


Doin' what we love the most. (5/27/07)

We spent most of the day in the pool, eating all sorts of tasty snacks, including fresh-made guacamole, lobster dip and some homemade salsa. The real winner of the snacks was Jason, who made this roasted shallot dip that was mad good.


Doesn't Tim look good in a cowboy hat? (5/27/07)

We had dinner around 6:00, just as the warm sun started going away. We had grilled chicken breast sandwiches, corn-on-the-cob and various side dishes. My favorites were Christine's potato salad and Jason's couscous salad.


Christine's scrumdiddlyumptious cupcakes. (5/27/07)

Afterward we played games and enjoyed the phat cupcakes that Christine made from scratch. Dee-lish!

Disneyland with the Girlz

It wouldn't be a trip to Orange County without a stop at the Disneyland Resort. Tim went with them during the day. I met up with them after work. No need to cover a lot of detail here. I'll just post a few pictures below. You can also read Doris' blog entry about this day.


Tim and Doris at Disney's California Adventure. (5/11/07)


Tim outscored Jen on Buzz Lightyear Blasters. (5/11/07)


At least I scored better than Jen. :-) (5/11/07)

Doris' Birthday at the Angels Game

Our friend Jen from Santa Cruz was in Anaheim for some work-related training. Since we only live 10 minutes away, Doris decided to fly down to the O.C. so the two of them could spend a couple of days with us.


Three amigos at the Angels game. (5/9/07)

As it turned out, the visit coincided with Doris' 38th birthday, which we celebrated at an Angels game. A devoted S.F. Giants überfan, Doris doesn't particularly have a lot of affinity for the Angels (especially after Angels defeated the Giants in the 2002 World Series). However, as a huge baseball fan in general, it's one of Doris' goals to see a baseball game in every active baseball park in the country. So this was the perfect opportunity to finally cross Angel Stadium off her list.


Doris and her birthday goodies. (5/9/07)

For her birthday present, we gave her a goody bag filled with baseball/Angels paraphernalia, including peanuts, Cracker Jack, and an Angels rally monkey. We even managed to get a birthday greeting on the scoreboard (thanks to Photoshop, anyway). :)


Doris' "scoreboard greeting."

It was a fun night, and hopefully it made for a memorable birthday. Click here to read Doris' blog entry about this event.

Visiting the Cousins

I did stop and see my cousins Michele and Ralphie after Fiddler on the Roof. Ralphie seemed in pretty good shape for having just been hospitalized for a couple of weeks. He still has some health issues he's facing, but the improvement to date is incredible when you consider he came seriously close to dying.


Liele and Uncle Ralphie. (5/6/07)

I was also there to pick up Liele's crib that Michele kindly gave to my dad and Malena for the upcoming baby, now that Liele is getting bigger. Liele cracked me up. She didn't want me to take the crib. I kept trying to tell her that now that she's a big girl with a regular bed, it's time to give the crib to the babies. But she still wasn't happy about it. It was cute.

Anna's First Communion

I went up to the Bay Area the first weekend in May for my sister Anna's First Communion. Although Tim and I aren't exactly churchgoing types, we still support others who do make that choice. And since this was a special day for Anna, I didn't want to miss it.


Anna all decked out for her First Communion. (5/5/07)

I flew up Friday night. Saturday morning was the actual ceremony, which was fun to watch. I don't remember very much from my own First Communion other than kicking the priest afterward as we were taking pictures. I don't remember why I kicked the priest, but I do remember getting scolded for it.


John Paul and his McDonald's Happy Meal American Idol shades. (5/5/07)

To commemorate this event, we got her a stainless steel, heart-shaped jewelry box with rhinestones. We had her name, date and occasion inscribed on the top. We placed a small silver cross necklace inside. She liked it, but not as much as the Bratz dolls one of Malena's friends gave her. :)


Anna's new earrings. (5/5/07)

Afterward we had a nice lunch at Mudd's Restaurant, a five-star restaurant situated on a 10-acre garden where they grow many of the herbs and produce that they serve in the restaurant. It was a delightful way to cap the event.


Anna, family friend Luis and John Paul at Mudd's. (5/5/07)

The next day, I took Anna to her first musical: Fiddler on the Roof, which was performed by the church youth group. It wasn't bad for a school production.

Teddybears at the El Rey

Tim & I, as well as Jon & Amy, went to see the Teddybears at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. The concert was awesome!


Inside the El Rey. (05/02/07)

Teddybears, originally from Sweden, do an amazing job at blending rock and electronica. The opening band was Honeycut, who were pretty good too.


Teddybears at the El Rey, photo courtesy of Pingaling. (5/2/07)

Surprisingly, it was my first time inside the El Rey Theatre, despite having lived around the corner from it for about six years. In fact, it was my poll location whenever I voted (although the polling booths were only in the lobby).


Teddybears at the El Rey, photo courtesy of Brandon Shigeta. (5/2/07)

We had a celebrity sighting too. Well, not much of a celebrity unless you watched Top Design, the reality show on Bravo. We saw Andrea, the one with the bad hair that made it to the Final Four (she’s wearing the hat in the picture below). I kept trying to get Tim to tell her, "See you later, decorator!" the lame tagline they use when they sent a designer home, but he wouldn't do it. :)


This was our celebrity sighting of the night.

Even if you haven't heard of Teddybears, you may have heard their music, which is used in a lot of commercials. Intel Core 2 Duo, Cadillac and Heineken are some of the companies that use Teddybears music in their commercials. Double click on the images below to see some of the commercials (if you can't see the images, just click on the headers for a direct link).

Cadillac


Intel Core 2 Duo


Heineken

Flat Stanley's Tri-State Adventure

My little sister Anna's 2nd grade class recently read the book Flat Stanley. It's about a boy who was flattened by a bulletin board. As it turned out, Stanley was able to use his condition to his advantage when he realized he could be mailed to various locations across the country for adventures.


Anna wanted me to take Flat Stanley on an adventure. (04/07)

Anna's class made their own Flat Stanleys so they can mail them to friends or family members willing to take Stanley on another adventure. Afterward, we had to send him back, complete with pictures and souvenirs, so the kids can put together a presentation for the class.

And guess who the recipient of Anna’s Flat Stanley was? You guessed it.


Flat Stanley poses with the "Welcome to Orange" sign. (04/07)

We started out by taking Stanley around the city of Orange. He had fun here in Orange, but ever the adventurer, Stanley wanted to do more. So we took him to Disneyland. He enjoyed the happiest place on earth, however he still wanted to venture out on a road trip and color in a few more states on his "states I've visited map."


Flat Stanley went to Disneyland. (04/07)

To get multiple states into his visit, we took him to the tri-state area where California, Arizona and Nevada intersect. (The cities are: Needles CA, Bullhead City AZ, and Laughlin NV).


Flat Stanley in Bullhead City, Arizona. (04/07)

Stanley especially liked Laughlin, since there was an abundance of casinos for him to go to. Who knew Stanley was such a gambler? Believe me, he was throwing down Hamiltons like he was Aaron Burr! In the end, however, he was only $15 down by the time he quit for the night.


Flat Stanley with the statue that welcomes visitors to Laughlin, NV. (04/07)

Unfortunately, he lost more money in Needles, CA than he did at the casinos. The reason: Flat Stanley was driving too fast and got nabbed by the California Highway Patrol.


Flat Stanley got pulled over for speeding near Needles, CA. (04/07)

Despite the speeding ticket, Stanley had a great time. We even made a YouTube movie of his adventures where you can see lots more photos. Click the image below to watch it! (If you can't see the embedded image below, click here for a direct link).

Flat Stanley YouTube movie

Our April Catch-Up

Okay, tonight is the night we finally catch everyone up on what's been going on this month. Consider this our April Catch-Up.


Ralphie was in the Seton Medical Center ICU. (04/07/07)

The month began with a very unfortunate situation. On April 4, we got a call informing us that my cousin Ralphie was in the intensive care unit following emergency surgery to stop internal bleeding. The surgeons were able to curtail the internal bleeding, but due to a significant complication, the doctors didn't expect him to survive the night.

Out of respect for his privacy, we can't really get into the circumstances on a public forum like a blog, but it was a very dire situation. Just hearing that he wasn't expected to survive the next 24 hours was so shocking to me. I couldn't believe the words I was hearing. And then fearing the worst, an incredible sadness swelled over me.


Ralphie and Michele with their kids Dozer and Liele in 2005. (08/05)

I had just seen Ralphie less than a month ago at Liele's birthday party. You just don't expect to hear that someone age 35 could now be in the hospital with mere hours to live. I was not only sad for Ralphie, but for his sister Michele, and especially his parents, who are also my godparents.

We cancelled our Easter plans so that we could drive up to the Bay Area to be with the family members during this difficult time. It was hard seeing him in the hospital like that — hooked up to all sorts of machines. And when we were in there, he was still on the respirator, which was breathing for him. It didn't appear as though he would pull out of it.


Ralphie chillin' at a birthday party last year. (07/08/06)

But thanks to everyone's prayers and positive thinking, Ralphie found the strength to survive. After spending two full weeks in the hospital, most of which in the ICU, he's now back home and recuperating. He's not out of the woods yet and still faces some major hurdles. But his spirits are in good shape.

In fact, when I talked to him on the phone the other night, I made a comment about how he's "not being ready to run a marathon just yet," to which Ralphie replied, "Even before all this, I don't think I was ready to run a marathon." It was good to hear him laugh. I hope to hear a lot more of it in the years to come.


Liele and Tio Jimmy had fun dying Easter eggs. (04/07/07)

On the flip side, spending the weekend in the Bay Area allowed us to spend time with family members that we weren't expecting to see that weekend, like Michele and Lisa's daughter Liele. In fact, Liele and I got to do one of my favorite springtime activities: color easter eggs.

I really get a kick out of the egg wraps that they have now. You know, the ones you slip over the egg and drop in hot water, and then the wrap clings to the egg? Mad crunk, yo. Mad crunk!


John Paul and Anna show off the Easter eggs they found. (04/08/07)

And on Easter itself, Tim and I had fun watching Anna and John Paul hunt for Easter eggs in my dad's backyard. While the kids were occupied with other stuff, my dad went back there and hid about 24 easter eggs.

They found the first 18 or so right away. The next five took a few more minutes, but they were still missing one. After about 15 minutes, my dad went back there to help them find the last one. It was really cute watching them hunt for eggs.


The New Tomorrowland at Disneyland, courtesy of CharlesPhoenix.com. (1968)

What else happened this month? On the 13th, we bought tickets to see a slide show by Charles Phoenix, a self-described "histo-tainer" who puts on these spellbinding slide shows out of vintage slides from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. These are slides that he acquires through estate sales and antique stores.

But unlike the dozens of boring vacation slide shows that you've sat through in the past, the Charles Phoenix slide show was HILARIOUS. His amazing slides, combined with his fascinating historical commentary, made for an unforgettable show. The focus of this show was Southern California, but he also does other themed shows. I hope to attend many more. Check his website for upcoming events.


A night at LA County's last operating drive-in movie theater. (04/14/07)

Speaking of vintage Americana, our friends Jason and Jarrod invited us to join them at the drive-in movies. We met up near the Vineland Drive-In, the last drive-in movie theater in Los Angeles County, and one of only four remaining drive-in theaters in all of Southern California.

It was the first drive-in movie I've been to since I was 10 years old. My brother Robert (7 years older than me) brought me along one night with his friends and we saw "The Hills Have Eyes" (the original version) from the back of a pick-up.

Tonight, our movie selection was Grindhouse, the double-featured homage to cheesy '70s action flicks. Although Grindhouse wasn't that great, it was the perfect movie to see at the drive-in theater. Despite the fact that it was freezing cold that night, we had lots of fun.


Tim, Hoku Ho, Don Ho, Steve and James. (05/2002)

We were also saddened to hear about the passing of the legendary Don Ho on April 14. We had the fortunate experience to see his show during a 2002 trip to Oahu. We even posed with him for photos and got autographs. I have a great picture of us with Don Ho that he autographed, but unfortunately we don't have a working scanner, so this dark, flashless photo we took with the digital camera will have to suffice for now.

Seeing Don Ho was one of my biggest goals during our Hawaii trip, and I'm glad we had the chance. It's something I've always wanted to see ever since he was on the Brady Bunch. And while not as well known, I'll also never forget Don Ho's duet with Broadway diva Patti LuPone on an episode of the ground-breaking show "Life Goes On."

What you don't expect is that Don Ho's show is SO FUNNY! In fact, most of it was him telling jokes. He opened his show with the classic Tiny Bubbles, after which he muttered, "I hate that song." He also closed his show with Tiny Bubbles, adding "My audience is so old, they won't remember that we played it once already."

Even though he barely sang, Don's show was thoroughly entertaining. He will surely be missed. Aloha, Don Ho!


Jon & Amy and the awesome DCA corn dogs. (04/15/07)

The next day we went to Disneyland with our pals Jon and Amy, who were there to purchase their annual passes. In addition, we wanted to ride the Red Hot Chili Peppers-enhanced rides one last time before they revert back to their original music. There wasn't much to write about that day, but I just wanted an excuse to run this really funny picture of Jon and Amy eating corn dogs!


Happy 3rd Birthday John Paul. (04/08/07)

On April 21st, my little brother from another mother John Paul turned three. He's growing up so fast! Happpy birthday John Paul!

Lastly, on April 22, we saw a great show at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. It was called 100 Years of Broadway and featured a review of some of the best Broadway moments from the last 100 years. Our favorites included "All That Jazz" from Chicago, "This is the Moment" from Jeckyll & Hyde, "Music of the Night" from the Phantom of the Opera, "And I Am Telling You" from Dreamgirls, and "Seasons of Love" from Rent.


The Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. (04/22/07)

We could have done without "Sherry" from the Frankie Valli vehicle, Jersey Boys and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" from the Billy Joel musical Movin' Out (we're not a big fan of jukebox musicals). But overall, the show was great.

Our Surprise Houseguest

Look what the cleaning ladies found in our house today when they moved my floor lamp to dust the corners? I wasn't home when it happened, but Tim was. He heard one of the cleaning ladies react to something. Next thing he knew, she came rushing in to alert Tim.


The uninvited guest. (04/04/07)

To fully comprehend the humor of the situation, you have to understand that our cleaning ladies speak little, if any English. And Tim speaks little, if any Spanish. I guess she didn't know how to say "lizard" and all she could get out was "Animal! Animal!"

Tim was like, WTF? What animal is she talking about?! So he went to check it out and came face to face with this little guy. After snapping a pic for the blog, he gently cajoled the little lizard into a box, after which Tim took him back to his hood in the back yard.

Mail the Force Be With You

From a galaxy far, far away, all the way to beautiful downtown Burbank, R2-D2 has arrived ... in the form of a U.S. Postal Service mailbox.


James and R2-D2 pose in front of Warner Brothers. (04/01/07)

This mailbox, of course, is one of only 400 R2-D2-inspired mailboxes installed nationwide by the Postal Service. The goal is to create buzz around the release of the Star Wars stamps being released next month commemorating the 30th anniversary of the original film's release.


Tom and Christine and America's favorite droid. (04/01/07)

When I first heard about these mailboxes, I was determined to find one. And with only 400 nationwide, it doesn't leave very many options. Fortunately, the Force was on our side when they installed one just around the corner from Tom and Christine's apartment, near the Taco Bell and across the street from Warner Brothers. So we went to check it.


R2-D2 with a true Jedi Master. (04/01/07)

It was very cool. I can't wait for the stamps to be issued. According to the www.uspsjedimaster.com Web site, they'll be available at post offices May 26.