Papa Loves Mama

well, the jury drags on and I am getting frustrated by the pace of things. we are going through a series of direct, cross examination, then redirect, then recross, and even once so far we had a re-re-direct....still interesting though and I am in it for the long haul.

This weekend Liz and I let down our hair with Tan. On Saturday, we had Tan over for dinner and beer, and after dinner was done we decided to randomly try a new place in Oceanside.

We ended up at a bar that overlooks the Oceanside Harbor called the Jolly Roger. Yes, Tan and I seem to have a thing for piratey places :)

We walked into the Jolly Roger at close to 10 pm, and found a small group of what were clearly bar regulars, all of which were directing their rapt attention to one corner of the bar where a karaoke setup was loudly playing a country song. After ordering a pint at the bar, I got Liz to agree that if I went up and did karaoke, she would too. It took a little bit of coercing, but finally we shook on it, and started poring through the massive books of songs and artists that were floating around the bar.

It was a great time! I can't say that I was any good whatsoever, but my goal was to get Liz on stage. She has a great voice and only lets her own shyness get in the way of letting it shine. She got up on stage first and belted out a beautiful rendition of Alicia Keys' "Fallin'". Remember that song? It's the one that made her famous thanks to the vocal range and acrobatics the song features. Liz did not disappoint and Tan agreed that the performance was quite impressive.

Then it was my turn. I decided to do something that had absolutely nothing to do with my voice range or singing style, instead opting for a song that I've had in my mind for a few weeks and just wanted to hear again. I selected Garth Brooks' "Papa Loves Mama".

What a hoot! I made sure to tell the lady working the karaoke equipment that this was my first time, hoping to ensure a forgiving attitude after my performance.

It was hard! No matter how well you know a song, you have to really keep your wits about you to know when to sing and when to wait. It's just not the same as hearing it on the stereo.

Sure enough, as soon as I was done, the lady encouraged everyone in the bar to give me a hand as this was my first time (Phew! what a relief!), and I made my way back to the bar, high-fiving Tan as I went.

After another beer, we convinced Liz to go up there once more and sing a Frank Sinatra number that someone else (a handsome boy around her age) had just sung and which she had expressed surprise and disappointment - apparently it was the same song as she had originally intended to sing, but she had changed her mind.

After about 20 minutes (yes, there was a waiting list!) she made it back up on stage and sang again. We had the unfortunate timing that the cute boy ended up leaving with his family at the same time, so the impact of singing the same song was a little lost on him, but she did great anyway.

Afterward, we were ready to pack up and move on.

The lady behind the bar said that a bar called "The Beach Club" was a likely happening place in Oceanside, so we decided to find it. It turned out to be the bar right across the street from the Beach Breaker Cafe! Small world.

It was kind of ghetto. I wasn't too impressed, and I think Liz and Tan felt the same.

It wasn't long after that when we headed home, and gobbled the rest of the pad thai that Tan had brought over earlier that night.

It was a fun time and I was glad to be able to relax and take my mind off business for a while!

Today's episode - Jen's visit from Houston

Time for the next installment of let's play catchup!

A few weeks after my birthday in December, my sister Liz moved out to SoCal to live here with us, and my nephew Nic did the road trip with her. Alberto and I wanted to do something fun with them during the weekend Nic was visiting and thought of taking them to the Gaslamp since they are now both 21. Right around the same time, an old friend and fraternity brother made a trip to Southern California for business and made a stop to see us!

Jennifer is a reporter down in Houston. She and I went to college together, and are in the same business fraternity.


Tan, who went to school with us too, came out for the festivities as well. He brought along another Houston friend that we all know, Hiro. Then Jen also brought another familiar face with her on the trip, another university alum named Ernesto that we all knew. What resulted was a confluence of different people showing up in town all at the same time. There's only one thing to do when that happens - party!


Dinner in the Gaslamp


First, we met up on Friday night at a Persian restaurant in San Diego's Gaslamp District. We really treated ourselves to some delicious, hot, steamy food and a couple of bottles of wine for the table. Yum!

After completely stuffing ourselves and feeling a bit tipsy from the wine, we set out on foot to see what we could find. I was really looking forward to what was in store, since our last trip to the Gaslamp on my birthday had been such a smashing success!

Fun on the Rooftop

We walked along the edge of the Gaslamp and saw Petco Park gleaming in the distance - Ernesto was interested in seeing it up close, so he and Alberto took a walk down the street while the rest of us decided to go into a hotel that was located on the corner where we were, and see what the bar was like.

What a great idea! The bar ended up being a rooftop lounge, decked out with firepits, twinkly lights, chairs and tables covered with plastic tents to keep out the cold, and a bar underneath a palapa. In the corner was a long and narrow swimming pool that was illuminated from below, washing the whole scene in a soft glow.

Most of us got some drinks and just enjoyed chatting and relaxing by the pool, while Nic and Liz explored every corner of the roof and found the designated area for smoking. They took some fun photos all around the scene and then joined us for drinks.


After a couple of drinks we started getting itchy feet and decided to set out and explore again.





jimmy love's

This time we ended up at Jimmy Love's, a very lively venue with a bar, stage and dance floor upstairs, and another lounge-type bar with cushy chairs downstairs for those who want to rest their dancing feet for a bit.

That night, a live cover band was performing all sorts of hits from the 80's and we were immediately surrounded by thirty and forty - somethings who were boogying like it was 1999 again :) It wasn't exactly the crowd we were expecting, but everybody had a great time getting into the fun of the music and the crowd.

Liz and Nic stayed on the sidelines for part of it, watching us dance and probably laughing at the music (they weren't even born yet for half of the songs that were being played!), and Nic kept snapping away at funny moments and odd dancing facial expressions.

As 2 am neared we started drifting in small groups downstairs to the lounge-type bar. As the dance floor cleared upstairs, we were having a round of something called Liquid Cocaine to celebrate the fabulous time that was had by all.

After leaving Jimmy Love's we decided to pause for a group photo on the street. Are we hot?



The Long Walk Home


After the long walk back to the car, we headed back to Tan's for a brief respite before heading home for the night.
















Tan's House



It didn't take long for us all to become very sleepy after we arrived at Tan's house.


Jen and I took advantage of Hiro's air mattress on the floor and cozied up under a nice electric blanket.



Ernesto dozed off in the armchair while Alberto and Liz sat at the fireplace, quietly surveying the scene.


The rest of the boys played around a bit on the internet with silly videos and cartoons, but not much passed before we were ready to turn in for the night.




You go home!







Saturday Brunch at Beach Breaker


The next morning, we met up for brunch at the family-owned and always bustling Beach Breaker Cafe here in Oceanside. After rubbing shoulders with the well-dressed, cosmopolitan and hip crowd that frequents the Gaslamp, I wanted to give Jen another perspective of San Diego.

The place is loaded with all sorts of surfing memorabilia and gear, and the atmosphere is laid back and very friendly.

We had delicious omelettes, pancakes, and scrambles and sat with a sense of relaxed satisfaction and pleasure when our plates were empty.




Oceanside Pier

To finish off the visit before Jen and Ernesto headed back up to L.A., we took a short stroll on the Oceanside Pier.


It was a perfect day. Beautiful blue sky, shortboard surfers out in droves, and the air was just chilly enough to put a brisk spring in your step.



I am so happy that Jen got to take some time to see us, and that we were able to get such a fun group of Houstonians together! It was such a special treat for us to see everyone and have such fun times. Thank you for the great memories! We love you!

Fin

let's play catch up! today's episode - my birthday

I've let the gaping hole between November and January alone long enough. It's time to fill you in on what we did over the holidays!

First, will be my birthday blog. My birthday is not technically during the holidays, but it is in December, so it counts :)

I was waiting to post till i had photos (Tan???) but it's been way too long now.

So, I turned 32 on December 3. :( That was a sad day. I didn't like it, but I couldn't stop it.
But, we ended up having a very fun time the weekend before, so it was worth it! Here's what we did....

Tan invited Alberto and me out with him and some friends visiting from Orange County on the Saturday night before my birthday.

We had Korean BBQ which was really unique and delicious. The meal comes with about 10 different side items, plus wonton soup plus sticky rice. YUM!

We had pork and beef and chicken and shrimp, all marinated in their own unique sauces and ready for cooking. Then we just dropped them one by one onto the grill in the middle of the table and picked up whatever we wanted to pop in our mouths as the items were cooked to our own unique preferences. We polished off the super yummy dinner with the blue bottle of very smooth saki recommended to us by the waitress.

We rolled ourselves out of the restaurant an hour and a half later and decided to work off some of our food by going dancing downtown in the Gaslamp. We ended up at this place that is connected to Martini Ranch called The Shaker Room. They were giving out VIP cards for free cover and so we decided to try it out. This place was super sexy. The dance floor was cramped and steamy and there were extremely hot women dancing in practically nothing up on the raised platform areas around the dance floor. The lights were really great, I have a newfound appreciation for the way moving lights are set up and run because of Backstage Presence, and these lights were the perfect mix of color and movement to play off the dancing masses. There is an upstairs area with a second bar and very cozy little couch areas tucked against the wall. The bartender upstairs made the yummiest vodka/cranberry drinks. One of the local stations was broadcasting from there that night so one of the upstairs areas was blocked off for their private party.

Then, for those who are tired of the hordes of beautiful people, there is a tiny little adjoining room where, on the other side, you walk through another door and into a very casual but lively sports bar and grill.

When we were ready for a switch we left there and went to another place I've always looked at but never gone into called The Bitter End.

The Bitter End appears to be just another pub from one of the British Isles, but it is actually much more! It has an underground dance floor that plays a variety of music from many different genres. The lights are almost nonexistent, just enough to faintly illuminate the big open floor with a few twirly lights to make things interesting. We danced to hip hop, electronica, new wave, 80s hair bands, and even a bit of country until the lights came up and the staff shooed us out the door.

By this time it was after 2:00 am, but none of us were tired. As we made our way back to the cars we kept our eyes peeled for any late night activity and Tan spotted a hookah bar with lots of people inside. We popped our head in and made our way to the counter where there was a menu of different kinds of things you could smoke in the hookah.

There was all sorts of flavors, ranging from regular tobacco-sounding things to fruity flavors to rich and chocolatey items. We decided on two fruity flavors - since none of us really smokes we thought this would be easiest for us to handle. A few minutes later after we sat down, a young guy dropped two hookahs at our table, one ready with strawberry flavored stuff and the other with mango flavored stuff. We each also got little plastic mouthpieces to put over the hookah tube so that we wouldn't catch each others germs.

It was very interesting! You could definitely tell the difference between the strawberry and the mango flavor, and I preferred mango :) The only downside to the experience was when we asked the guy for some water (we were, after all, smoking a lot!) and he paused, turned his nose up at us, and said that the only water available was for purchase.

By the time we exhausted the hookahs we were much more mellow and ready to wrap up the night. We could have also been a little green from smoking so much, but no one fessed up to it.

We parted ways shortly thereafter and headed home for the evening.

A great time was had by all, and it turned out to be one of my favorite birthday memories of all!

A funfilled Saturday

Yesterday Alberto decided at the last minute to not go to work, giving us a free Saturday together.

With me flying back to Texas tonight, we decided to make the most out of the day and do some fun stuff!








Wild Animal Park

After 5+ years of living here, I finally got to go to the Wild Animal Park! We didn't see all of it, but I didn't really want to anyway...we are planning on coming back with Jonathan and his family. Instead of rushing to see it all, we picked a circuitous route around the south end of the park so we could see the lions.

We had a great time! We saw a 'hot air balloon', which gives people a 10 minute or so ride up in the air to take in the landscape:
























We saw an Eland along the way, and then we got to see the lions.

They were lazing in the afternoon sun, completely ignoring us. The only time they picked up their heads was to listen to a plane as it passed overhead.





Then we went to go see the Elephant show.

We learned that there are 5 Asian Elephants and 11 African elephants at the Wild Animal Park.


We also learned that elephants have over 100,000 muscles in their trunks. The elephants demonstrated this by catching sticks, one after the other, as they were being tossed up by the handler. One elephant had 5 sticks in her trunk by the time they were done!



The elephants were really beautiful and gentle.


The handlers showed us how they have to be trained to do lots of things so that the handlers can take care of them, like trust to raise their feet up behind them so that handlers can check for abcesses and also to crouch down so that the handlers can get a better look at them during health checkups.





After the elephants, we made our way back to the front, where we saw lots of birds hanging out in the waterways that run through the park, and then stopped to see some cute meerkats.



I love those little guys!But they moved so fast that I couldn't get a very clear shot of them!Instead, they came out looking like the Tazmanian Devil! :D














All in all, we had a great time, but that was only half of our fun day!

Poker Night


That night, we had dinner and poker night for a small group of our friends.

I invited Tan and a friend and Alberto invited Angel and his girlfriend Dawn.


I always get nervous when you mix groups and I wasn't sure if it all turn out well. But we had a great time and everyone enjoyed playing poker and drinking until almost 2 am!








At the end of the night, Jerry won the most money, and Dawn and Angel ended up on the losing end.



We had a lot of fun teaching Dawn how to play and I (who lost all my money in record time!) ended up being the designated dealer most of the night.



I hope we get to hang with this group again soon.

A day at the game with Tan and James

On Sunday, we got to go to a Padres-Giants game with Tan and an old friend from Houston, James. We tried to get tix to Saturday night's game, but weren't able to get any, so we opted for the Sunday game instead, hoping we were going to see Bonds hit his tying homerun. Alas, he ended up doing it the night before, and on Sunday he didn't even play!

Neither did half of the other big names. No Vizquel, no Brian Giles, no Milton Bradley, no Morgan Ensberg. (well, Ensberg isn't a big name to anyone here yet, but for us Houston natives he's a guy we were looking forward to seeing after his recent trade here).

Tan and his peanuts

Still, we had a good time, and it was good to see James again. I hung out with him a couple of times with Tan when we were all still at UH, which seems further and further away. James is now a lawyer for crying out loud - he's just waiting to get results back from his bar exam. When did we all become such upstanding adults??

We started the day by getting together for lunch and we had Dim Sum down in the Convoy area. I thought that it was very interesting, and enjoyed everything I ate. It was fun to have all the Chinese ladies walk by with their carts, trying to peddle what they were carrying. We got a lot of food, so much that Tan ended putting the rest in a box to take home!

I don't even know what to tell you we had, but it had a lot shrimp and a lot of pork and some kind of interesting tofu-bean curd kind of dish that tastes really good dipped in that hot chili sauce. Mmm Mmm, we were stuffed.

At the game, we had seats in right outfield, and were up at the very top. But for $12.50, the seats were pretty good - better than the ones at the top behind home plate. There were lots of Giants fans in the seats around us (as usual), but at some point the Petco cat came up into the stands, took off one of the Giants fan's hats, and rubbed it on his hiney. I got a kick out of that!

I couldn't help still feeling animosity toward Roberts and Klesko who jumped ship and followed Bochy (aka Super Mario) up to San Francisco. I still think something shady was involved there. To my satisfaction, neither player bothered to make much of a contribution except one double that Roberts pulled off.

We are so happy to be winning!

Cameron was really at his best, making an awesome play in the outfield, and lighting up some fire at the batter's box. Ensberg did finally get put in at the end as a pinch hitter, and contributed with a hit that led to an RBI. Welcome to San Diego Morgan! We are glad you are here.

One thing I noticed is that San Diego fans have taken to calling out "Kooooooooooooooooooooooz" when Kevin Kouzmanoff steps up to bat. I'm not sold on him yet, and (again, being a Houston native) feel like it's too similar to the old "Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz" I would cry out as a kid whenever Jose Cruz came up to bat at the Astrodome. It doesn't seem right that Kouz gets to have the same salute that the great Jose Cruz got. Yes, I know I'm being a bit overly picky here, but it just doesn't feel right.

So we ended up winning the game, even though Trevor Hoffman almost blew it *again* - the final score was 5-4.

What a great day!

After the game - James, Tan, Natasha & Alberto

Flip Cup Champions

Tan Tu called us a few weeks back and asked if we wanted to play Flip Cup with him. Not knowing what it was, but confident it had something to do with beer, we said yes without hesitation.

It turned out to be a great time! The charity tournament was held last Saturday at Mission Beach, and there were 8 (9?) teams. We DOMINATED! Fun was definitely had by all. Check out the pics:

The Tan-Tastic 4

Your favorite Serranos

X and Tan

Alberto and X

Our Victory!