Let the Good Times Roll

1. My in-laws visited us this weekend. I have to say that I have the best in-laws in the world. My MIL called ahead of time to tell me not to change any of my golf plans for the long weekend. They flew in late Friday night due to a delayed flight. Saturday, after church, we went to downtown Portland and to Washington Square Mall. Among other things I got a anti-snoring pillow called the sona pillow. It's made for people who sleep on their side with the arm tucked under the pillow. It has passages for the arms, so that your arms won't fall asleep! After two nights of blissful sleep, I have to say that this purchase was a great success! I recommend it to anybody who likes high pillows and sleeps on their side with their arm extended out under the pillow. Your arm will not fall asleep! Also, it is designed to work whether you sleep on your left side or your right side.

2. When I visited southern Cali in April, I accidentally left my favorite sunglasses in my rental car. ARGH! When your head is as ginormous as mine, it's hard to find 2 things. Sunglasses that fit and a hat that doesn't look like a yarmuke on your head. I have yet to find that hat, but these sunglasses fit perfectly. So I was sad when I lost them. I had looked all over and couldn't find the same glasses, but I found them this weekend. While we were there, my wife said that she was hypoglycemic and needed to eat some Mcdonald's fries. Of course she decided to get a cheeseburger with it. At first she claimed that she would share the fries, but not the burger. After a few bites, she changed her mind and offered me a bite. When she handed me the cheeseburger, I assessed the situation and saw 3 options.I could take a bite at location A where there was really nothing special and save all the good stuff for Esther. B, I could take a bite right in the middle where the pickle was. C, I could take a bite where there was onions. Which do you think I chose? Stay tuned for the answer.

3. I offered to take my in laws to Portland City Grill for dinner. It's located high up on the tallest building in Portland and offers a fantastic view of the city and waterfront, not to mention the amazing white cheddar and chive burger. After shopping in downtown, we were heading to the car and the sign for Todai sushi caught my father in laws eye. So, we went there instead. Korean adults are funny. They gotta have rice.

4. I went to a rockin bday party at the Shims on Sunday. Cowboy theme. All the kids wore hats and had fake mustaches. Good food, good people, Lakers lost. It was a good day. Did I mention that we went golfing first and then went to the party? Good day.

5. Today (Monday), after dropping off my in laws at the airport, I went golfing. It rained the entire time. It also rained Sunday while we golfed. The crazy thing is, it was great! I think it's amazing how northwesterners won't let the rain stop them from doing anything. Of course, I guess we don't really have much choice. I got a text from a friend in SoCal this weekend saying that the weather was perfect down there, but he had nobody to golf with. Up here, the weather may suck, but I'm lucky to have plenty of great people to play golf with. And I'll take good company over good weather any day. Given that, if I could have good weather and good company, I'd take that too!

6. The answer to the cheeseburger question is B. I took a nice big bite right out of the middle and took the whole pickle. hehe Esther was not pleased and she may not ever share her cheeseburgers with me again. For those of you who know, most of the time, there's only one pickle in the cheesburger and she was eating around the pickle to save up an ultimate bite. =) AHAHAHAHA That's what she gets for only giving me one bite.

Smallest loser

1. The past few months, I've had this bet going with a friend. We meet every Monday and Wednesday at the gym to work out and exercise. There's no specifications on what type of exercise or even how long you have to stay. You just have to show up (After all, the hardest part is showing up, right?). No excuses for missed days. Vacations, work, sickness. Doesn't matter. The deal was any missed day is a $20 fine that goes into the pot and at the end of 4 months, the person who loses the most weight (by percentage) takes all the money. By the end of the competition, there was $400 in the pot! Last week, we had our weigh in. My friend lost only 3 pounds! AHAHAHA! That's less than 1 pound a month! Turns out, it's not that funny cuz I gained 2 pounds. =T That's how incredibly pathetic I am. WHO DOES THAT?! WHO GAINS WEIGHT IN A WEIGHT LOSS CONTEST! Gastric bypass awaits me. I have the self-discipline of a 2 year old child... on a good day.

2. On a brighter note. Tomorrow is Thursday. After that, it's a long weekend. Since I don't work on Fridays, that gives me 4 days off! Also, the golf range near my house is now open until 10pm. SWEET! More time to engrain bad habits in my golf swing. Good night.

Thank goodness for privacy!

We bought our house nearly a year ago, and just yesterday, we got blinds. When we first moved in, we went to costco to get a quote for plantation shutters. They gave us an estimate of $15,000!! Can you believe that? Jeez.
So for a while, we were using those temporary paper blinds. We were actually content with them, but then Eric said he'd take a look. So on Saturday, he came over and measured all our windows. Then he and Dan went to Home Depot and ordered the blinds, and then the NEXT DAY, we were able install them! I find it amazing that Home Depot could get that many blinds ready in such a short amount of time. But more amazingly is that we only spent $1,000. Eric cut our cost $14,000! We didn't get the shutters, but I'm actually glad we didn't. Some of our windows are huge, and with the shutters, they'd be totally covered up. So yesterday, Eric and Dan spent about 3 hours installing them, and that was it. We now have blinds, and privacy. Thank you Eric for your handyman skills! Oh yeah, and he also fixed our sprinkler system.

No Green Thumb

1. When I first moved into my house, I was determined to do the man thing. I bought a lawnmower, a rake, garden gloves, weed killer, etc. I mowed my lawn about 3 times and then gave up. The builders of the house did some "landscaping," but they did a crappy job. They didn't kill any weeds and properly condition the yard. So, mutant weeds eventually overtook my front and back yard (not the mention the sides of my house). It came to the point, where I gave up and the weeds in my backyard started looking like trees. I gave up and was willing to pay thousands of dollars to have a landscaper rip it all up and re-do it from scratch. Along comes my neighbor. One night as I was watching tv downstairs, he knocks on my sliding glass door. I open it up and he tells me that he's going to be working on his yard the next day and offers to take care of all my weeds and fix up my yard for a little money because business has been slow for his family. I agree. I figure it's worth a shot since I would have to pay thousands for a professional landscaper to do it. So today, I come home from work and look in my backyard and I don't even recognize my yard! All the mutant 6 foot weeds/shrubs are ripped down and my yard looks like a million bucks! I was so impressed! I went over and paid my neighbor almost 3 times the price we had agreed upon. At this point in the story, I would like to mention the fact that my neighbor is a 12 year old Russian immigrant boy named Vileri. I am ashamed to admit that this 12 year old boy is 5 times the man that I am. Honestly, I was almost moved to tears. To see a 12 year old kid working his butt off to help out his parents, I wonder how somebody like me, who grew up poor with immigrant parents could have turned out so lazy and spoiled. Either way, tomorrow, Vileri is weeding out both sides of my house and has agreed to mow my lawn whenever I need. He offered to do it for $5. I told him that even in a recession, he should charge no less than $10.

2. I met this guy at the golf range. He was next to me and we just started talking and when he leaves, he hands me a card with his name and number on it and says, call me and we'll go play sometime. I figured he was just being polite and didn't think much of it. I don't know what happened to his number, but today I went back and see the same guy. I don't remember his name, but he recognizes me and immediately invites me to play tomorrow. He only has 2 in his group and I had a tee time to play with Kev. So tomorrow, Kev and I will be spending 4 1/2 hours with two complete strangers on the golf course. This is the beauty of the game. It brings people together and gives you the chance to meet so many cool people that you would otherwise never meet. When else would Kev and I hang out with a 65 year old retired white guy from New Jersey?

3. Esther signed up for golf lessons! I know this probably means nothing to most people, but I've been trying to get Esther to golf for years. I think she has potential. There were several reasons that I married her. One of them was that she's athletic enough to give my offspring a chance at success in their athletic endeavors.

yo quiero taco bell...but not with your attitude!

I had taco bell for lunch today, and it was sooo good! It had been a while since I went there so it was extra good. I get #9 by the way.
Once I went to taco bell and ordered a crunchwrap (without meat) and a nacho cheese gordita. The girl who was taking my order says, there's no meat in the crunchwrap anyway so you don't have to tell me that you don't want meat. Attitude! And i swear, they usually do put meat in there. Anyway, I get my food, and I saw that I got my meatless crunchwrap, but my nacho cheese was in a chalupa, not the gordita i wanted. So I went back to the counter and told the girl:

me: "uh, i wanted a gordita, not a chalupa (rolling eyes)." Just kidding, i just told her she gave me the wrong thing.

her: that IS a gordita.

me: no it isn't.

her: yes it is.

me: this is a chalupa. it's fried

her: no, you ordered a gordita. gordita's are fried.

me: no, i always get gordita's and they're not fried. chalupas are fried.

her: hello! i work here, i should know...gorditas are fried.

me: okay then, can i have the non-fried one?

She then rolls her eyes and grabs the chalupa from my hand and quickly makes me a gordita.
I swear, chalupas are fried...right? I don't know why I was even trying to convince her otherwise. But I did feel pretty dumb arguing with a high school student over a gordita/chalupa.

i'm drinking my chocolate milk

In the 8 years of our relationship, I think Dan has cooked...once! He made me a medley of rice, vege chilli, topped with a fried egg. I didn't like it AT ALL! And I think when guys cook, they don't take into consideration how much oil/butter/bad stuff they're using. The end justifies the means, as long as it tastes good, it's ok. Anyway, Dan's not much of a cook, which is okay, because I do enjoy cooking, and I'm sort of a kitchen nazi (I'm really anal with the cleanliness and organization of my space).

Despite this fact, Dan does love food. Now, I won't say he has the tastebuds of an open minded connaisseur (they appreciate vegetables don't they?), but he does like good tasting food. Sometimes I think, it'd be nice if Dan could cook too. But then I think of the mess he'll probably make and the pseudo cleaning he'll probably do (sorry Dan for not giving you the benefit of the doubt! but c'mon, who are we kidding here... it's you, and more so...it's ME!), and I'm glad things are the way they are.

Last week however, he looks in the refrigerator and I'm just assuming he's getting a diet coke. A few minutes later, he's drinking chocolate milk! I love chocolate milk...where'd he get chocolate milk?! It turns out we had milk and whopper flavored chocolate syrup. Voila! chocolate milk. We always have milk in the fridge, and the syrup's always been there too, but I've never even thought of making chocolate milk. So there you have it, my husband is a culinary genius. Actually not, that's just what he called himself after this incident.

april showers bring may flowers...

I can't believe it's already May!

The year's almost halfway over, and I think it's safe to say that we can start settling down again.
This year has been pretty busy. We've had many friends from California visit. We've visited California 4 times I believe. Hawaii once. It's been real fun, but it's nice to be able to buy a carton of milk knowing that I'll be around to finish it.

Last month, we had a bunch of birthdays, starting with Dan's brother John's. We flew down for it. Well...he thinks we flew down for his birthday, but we actually went for the food. (still no good food in vancouver!)

For the man's birthday, we had Shik do rak in K-town. Not as good as Garden Grove, but still delish. Did you know that the Shik in L.A. don't serve moo? Anyway, prior to this, we had lunch at Gil Mok. It was a carnivorous day. After dinner, we had planned on going to Pink Berry, then NRBing, or Bowling, and finish off the day with some KyoChon Chicken. Well, what actually ended up happening was...everything except the non-food part. So we had dinner at Shik, Pink Berry, and then right away to KyoChon. Is that disgusting or what! In our defense, we did try to look for a bowling alley, but ended up in the ghetto's of L.A. (borderline dangerous) and finally gave up. But we had a good time. I love my friends and family.

I had a birthday last month too. Happy birthday also to Paul Ahn and Andy Oh, oh! and Esther Anunciado. We found a new one.

One of my best friends Grace has her birthday the day after mine.

Kevin

Dan

For Dan's day, we went to eat at Hosuni? i think it's spelled. It's ok korean food. So here's everyone but the birthday boy. And Dan asks, "why is Kevin making that face?"

Last weekend, Cindy came to visit. I realize I'm horrible at taking pictures. Not taking pictures per se, but remembering to do so...or having enough energy to do so. So this is the one picture I took of our whole weekend. I think she had fun? We did complete 2, 1000 piece puzzles. This picture was taken at the farmer's market on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The day Cindy left for California, I did too. Northern California. I visited my parents, and actually had a really good time. My mom and I had a date in Napa Valley. Can you believe the gas prices?

We had lunch at Rutherfords.

My mom had the tuna sashimi salad, and I had the chicken. The salad was awesome, and the chicken was eh.. ok. And of course we had some cornbread.

We stopped by Peju winery. I think this is the cutest winery. It's really nice to take pictures and stuff.

We also stopped by V. Sattui, recognized as one of the best wineries. It was beautiful there as well. They not only have wine tasting, but cheese tasting.

We ended our date with dessert at Auberge for some appetizers and dessert, and pictures. My mom loves taking pictures.


It was a really nice and relaxing girls day out for us.

I also got to hang out with my brother. I don't know if it's intentional, but like in the last few years, I have not been able to take a single picture of him. I'm not sure if it's me being lazy, or him avoiding the camera...I'm sure it's a combination of both. Well, we had dinner at this place called Sushi House. We had shopped earlier that day, and we were starved!! not good to have starving people order food. Look at what we ended up ordering (and this is after we had already finished a roll, and our soups and salad).

California was fun, but it's always nice to come back home. Dan picked me up at the restaurant, and we stopped by Portland City Grill for a midnight snack. If you haven't been there, their dinner food is not very great, but their bar food is good! Their chive burger is awesome!

Brent also had a birthday recently. Actually, his birthday is in 2 days, but we celebrated it on Saturday because he's always so darn busy. We ate at La Hana at the waterfront, and went over to their home for some homemade cake.
If you're noticing that Dan and Casey are eating the same thing, you're not imagining it. Casey got this little kid's meal, and Dan tried the teriyaki chicken, and liked it so much that he ordered it for himself.
Irene made this wonderful chocolate cake. It was so good, that Dan had 2.5 pieces, and this is Dan I'm talking about. He believes that if you have room for dessert, you have room for more "real" food. Anyway, he really liked it.

So here's us singing happy birthday...

Here's brent acting semi-retarted...

And then he blew out his candles, but Irene had put powdered sugar on top of the cake, so it got everywhere! It was awesome.

And so now, we're in May. The weather's been beautiful, and I hope this is enough selflessness from me to last a while. Just kidding, we'll try to update more regularly.