More Weekend Stuff

Well, things have certainly changed since my last post. My wife and s-i-l got some major food poisoning from sharing a quiche at Mimi's cafe. My s-i-l, always one to look on the bright side () was happy that she puked and shitted 9lbs. The wife confessed that she hurled on four surfaces last night.

Before all of that went down, we did go see the new Night at the Museum. I wasn't wild about the first one and, like most sequels, this one was worse. However, the scenes where they are in that National Gallery and the paintings and sculptures come to life are pretty cool

So, my dad came up here today and picked up the HB from my s-i-l's. We grilled some great sausages from Jeff''s. Then we (me, my dad, the HB and NZS2) went the Norton Simon museum. Even though I just took the NZS2 to a museum (hm...I'm sensing a theme), I figured he'd like this one. Plus, it got us out of the house so the wife could sleep.

The museum has some of my favorite impressionist paintings, including Van Gogh's Mulberry Tree and Picasso's Woman with Book. And there's enough modern stuff to keep the HB interested. Of course, being the bad influence that I am, we made snide jokes about some of the religious paintings.

Back to the work thing tomorrow. The HB's got Thursday and Friday off, so I'll have to turn the money crank pretty hard on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Long Weekend

I hope that you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. Our is going to seem endless in that the HB has Thursday and Friday off for parent/teacher conferences.

We've got the family thing going today. My mom's back in Philly, so we (me, the wife, the HB, NZS2 and nephew) are gonna all meet up with my dad for some lunch and then to the Night at the Museum sequel. I didn't think that the first was that great, but it will be fun for the boys. After that, I'll probably stay and watch the Dodger/Angel game on TiVo with my dad while the wife hangs at her mom's.

It'll also be nice just to hang out today as yesterday the NZS2 and I went hiking (same trail where I fucked myself up last year) and walked all around the Getty museum. On the hike, we had the ultimate LA experience. Our destination is this small waterfall. We get there and near the pool is this Eastern European guy with a bleach blonde page boy 'do leading a bunch of people in breathing exercises. I really wanted to take a picture, but it would have been rude. We just laughed about it.

Oh, and the stars aligned last night: the HB slept at the nephew's and the NZS2 was at a friend's. Let's just say that the wife had some stress she wanted me to work out of her. Heh. She was in the mood for the rough stuff, which is kind of unusual for her.

Tomorrow will probably be a work and gardening day (the HB will be at the nephew's).

Saturday Stuff

First, a Happy Birthday shout out to my dear friend Lola. May she come across two 23 y.o. Czech male porn stars today.

Last night one of the HB's awesome friends slept over (he's still here). So, we took they boys to a kid friendly (e.g., has games) sports bar before coming home for a Simpsons marathon. The only bummer is that his friend needs to leave by 10 to go the UCLA game.

When I take him home I need to run some errands, including getting the NZS a key, convincing my bank that they have plenty of my personal money so they shouldn't be charging me extra for my business account, getting a new ear piece for my cell/office phone (the other one must have fallen out of my bag at KCI the other day, and getting a cable so I can put some rintones on my phone without downloading them.

I'll be putting the Tenn-Florida game on DVR. I don't have a good feeling about this. The Gators crushed the Vols last year, and I don't see where UT's really improved. Hopefully the defense will keep things close.

The woman who helps us with our backyard is coming over at noon to help us with some trimming, etc. I love her. She's funny, knows what she's talking about, and has a good time doing what she does. It kills me how much she under charges for her services.

In bad news, a dad/stepdad of two of the kids at the HB's school was in a plane crash late last night. Several people were killed and he and another person onboard are in critical but stable condition. He's a great guy who's done a lot for the school. I hope that he pulls through and will be OK.

The wife's not feeling well, so I'm thinking we'll be staying home tonight. Guess I'll get to watch some extra football.

Weekend Stuff

I took the NZS to some local mountains Friday night after his football game. They beat a team that had stomped them the last two years, so the the juniors and seniors were psyched. There was a get together with some foreign exchange students who just got here. The host family has quite the spread there. About 7 acres and tons of stuff for kids to do (pool, volleyball, ping-pong, movie setup, etc). It's about two more weeks until he moves in with us, so the drive up gave us a chance to talk about his school details, how things run in our house, etc. He's pretty low maintenance (as my wife says, "He's a guy, of course is) and I think it will work out fine.

I got back on Saturday night so the wife and and I could actually go out on a date. We went to a new restaurant which was pretty good (great Chicago-style decor) and kept an eye on USC kicking the shit out of Ohio State which puts he Trojans in good early position for the national championship game. Then again, OSU dropped to #7 at one point last year and still made the final game (and got their asses handed to them by LSU). After dinner and drinks we saw Hamlet 2, which we thought was off-the-charts funny. Reminded me in parts of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We then went to a bar that used to be super-divey, but now is only kinda divey. The band started with REO Speedwagon and ended with Bryan Adams, but played some Black Crowes and Stevie Ray Vaughn in between--go figure.

Today was pretty laid back. Did my backyard chores, got groceries, picked up the NZS (fortunately, he was able to get a ride pretty close to the house) and watched some football. I'm waiting for some e-mail from my client in the far east. Once I get that, I'll probably pour a big drink and read the Sunday paper.

Weekend Wrap

I hope that you had a good 4th of July weekend. Pardon today's grammar as I'm a bit hungover.

On Friday, the HB and I were in our local parade...twice (one with Indian Guides, once with Rotary)--yes, it's not that long of a parade. However, the number of people who show up always blows me away. After that we went to my s-i-l's for lunch and (eventually) fireworks (she lives in a city where you can legally buy fireworks). My other s-i-l recently got a cat, so my wife decided to have a kitty shower for her (don't ask). The HB enjoyed the fireworks and we saw some pretty good finales on the way home.

Saturday was hell as we went furniture shopping with my s-i-l. My wife decided that we needed more seating in our living room. This gave me the perfect opportunity to let her know that Labor Day weekend is going to involve a lot of football (my fantasy football draft on Sunday and the Tennessee-UCLA game on Monday night). The place we went to has great mission stuff, but, that's not how our house is decorated. And, as Murhpy's furniture law would have it, the pieces we liked had poor fabric choices, and vice versa. But, we did find a sectional that should fit. I think we'll try that for a while before deciding if we need to buy new chairs, etc or just re-upholster what we have. And we came *this* close to getting more red stuff.

Yesterday, the HB was at a birthday party for most of the day. That gave me the chance to watch a good chunk of the Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final. Federer has gotta be kicking himself over losing the 2nd set after leading 4-2 and serving. However, it was about the most amazing one-on-one sporting event I've ever seen.

We had some friends over for dinner last night (see hangover comment above). Two of them have teenage boys, so the HB was able to get in some good GH time with with them. Many bottle of wine were drained. As one couple was our neighbors, we always say "well, let's just have one more bottle...no one has to drive." It was a fun group of people (13 of of) and dinner was good (grilled chicken in an apricot and adobe glaze, grilled veggies, salad and garlic bread).

I'm sooooo not motivated to work today.

Oh, and funny picture goof in today's LA Times (see Sam Nunn).

Weekend Round Up

Sheesh...there were so many times over the weekend where I had posting ideas, but never had the chance to get online and put them up. So, this will be kind of a long one (I think).

On Friday, we experienced the miracle of free babysitting as the HB was invited to the nephew's for a sleepover. So, after getting into a bit of snit because I didn't jump and the chance to sit in an hour of horrible traffic to have dinner and run errands with her mom, my wife took the HB there. The plan was then to see at least one of the Oscar nominated movies. By the time she got home (and cheered up) it was in that time of the night where none of the movies played again until 10 pm or so. So we stayed in and watched the Bourne Ultimatum which we had recorded a couple of weeks ago. She's usually not into spy-thriller movies, but managed to stay with this one. It was pretty cool and it did win the sound editing and mixing awards last night, so I guess we met our goal.

Saturday we headed out and looked for some new furniture as the existing stuff has a little more dog/child wear and tear than we'd like. I still like the style and would be happy to get them re-upholstered. Unfortunately, the layout of our house and size of the sofa make it almost impossible to get it in and out of the room without popping out a window. And now that we have double-paned windows I don't even want to think about doing that twice.

We didn't find much that we liked and you could see the impact of the bad economy on the furniture stores. Many were closed and several looked really shitty in terms of maintenance and keeping them an attractive place to shop. We went to a Wickes and it was a hell-hole and looked like it was ready to close. They have a Cindy Crawford line now, which was made obvious by all the HUGE posters of her with the quote something like, "I can't wait for you to invite me into your home." I told the wife that if they really wanted to move the beds, etc., the line should be, "I can't wait for you to invite me into your bedroom." But, she thought the wives might be a little intimidated by that.

So, after that big tour of duty we came up empty. Shortly after returning home, the HB was returned to us. Just in time for him to go to the cast party for his theater group. Another night of free (ok, we bought some juice boxes and a couple of liters of soda) babysitting! Woot! This time we did make it to the movies to see Juno. I had read Diablo Cody's blog occasionally in the past (she moved it to MySpace, so linking to the old one doesn't make any sense), so that added a layer to the movie for me.

I enjoyed the flick more than I thought I would and it is really well written. Good depth to the main characters and interesting (but believable) plot twists. I won't spoil it by saying more, but it's worth your two hours in the dark with strangers. Even if two of them are a bi-racial lesbian couple that gets bored of the movie an hour into and spend the rest of the time texting friends, softly chit-chatting and making out. Not that that happened to me or anything.

Afterwards we went to the bar of an old, renovated hotel for a drink and a nosh. It was a great atmosphere will comfy couches and good jazz. The wine and cheese plate were good, but not great, but we'll definitely go back.

But, the best part of the evening was watching the Tennessee-Memphis men's basketball game. Memphis was ranked #1 and the Vols were ranked #2 coming into the game. UT has almost always had kick-ass women's hoops teams (see Pat Summit only trailing John Wooden in number of NCAA championships). The Memphis coach, John Calipari, had been bitching for a while about having to play the game. Well, now we see why. His team completely got out-hustled and lost their #1 ranking at home. Well, look who has that rating now, bitches.

Sunday morning the wife was on a mission. The HB's birthday is next month and we decided to get him a Wii. Her sister told us about a place that sells the Wii without tons of other crap with it (bundles with only two extra games) and that they were getting a shipment on Sunday and they open at 11. My sil volunteered to wait in line starting at 10, so my wife went down to join her. And the SCORED! The HB will be so psyched. So, while on the Wii shopping rush, they went and looked at more furniture. Of course, my wife found stuff that she just LOVED. She'll probably change her mind in 48 hours, as she tends to do with household items that she LOVES.

In the afternoon we went to a birthday party for the NZS. He's done a great job of making friends at his school, so several of them attended as well as other folks from the Rotary Club. His current host family has a beautiful home ("He's gonna be bummed when stays are our house" cracks my wife) and are great people to hang with. The club pitched in a bought him a 160 gig iPod. He was very psyched.

We recorded the Oscars and finally got around to sitting down with a shaker of martinis to watch at about 8:30pm. Unlike sporting events, you just can't blow through something like this really fast. Sure, you can skip the commercials and the best song performances, but it was still about a two hour ordeal. I am not down with the idea of giving awards for art. But, I do appreciate the raw emotion shown by the winners in their speeches and don't find them boring at all. And I like Jon Stewart, so it was all good.

OK, time to get some work done. Whew....

Back From the Weekend

We had a good time at the resort-y place. The HB got in some jacuzzi time (the unheated outdoor pools were a bit chilly) and we did some family stuff (ping-pong, shuffle board, trip to the arcade and room service. The bad part was that I slept like shit. I made up for it last night by going to bed at 9pm.

The conference stuff went well, too. Our hospitality suite kicked ass (musta been the tequila shooters) and the NZS had a good time. I even got to schmooze with a labor attorney who I had met before. He could throw a bunch of biz my way. I'll follow-up with him tomorrow about getting together for lunch sometime soon.

Nope, haven't heard back from the surgery folks. I'll give them until the end of Tuesday before I rattle their cage.

And, in some particularly good news, the Lady Vols blew a big lead to Rutgers, then pulled the win out of their asses at the end. That should keep them as #1 for the week.

Party Weekend....Sort Of

I'll be a bit quiet on the blog this weekend as I'll be heading out for a Rotary conference this weekend. It's close and at a resort-y kind of place, so my wife and the HB will be joining me. I'll be heading down a before them this afternoon since my Club is hosting a hospitality suite (maricachi theme, we we'll be serving tacos, Tecate and tequilla shots). Don't know the wifi or my time availability, so I may not be able to check in until Sunday.

The good news is that the New Zealand national rugby sevens team is playing in San Diego this weekend. As the NZS will be coming to the conference as well, I've arranged for someone to take him to see one of the All Black's matches. I can't go due to the ONE meeting I have to attend, but he's going to dig it.

Since this place has 3 pools, the HB is going to really have a good time.

Walking in a Fall Wonderland, Pt 2.

So, after my last post on the hiking trip, my uncle and I went to a local place for some beers, dinner and to watch the USC-Washington St. game (SC kicked ass). So, we're hanging at the bar and I notice this couple at the other end. They looked mid-late 50s and they have a couple of rounds of drinks--beers and tequila shots. Then they decide to head to our end of the bar to watch the game. My uncle heads to the salad bar and the woman starts talking to me. Best we could tell, their son got married that day in Yosemite. He is their 3rd son and his first marriage. As they are telling us about this, another one of their kids comes over with a grand kid. They chat, invite grandma and grampa to join them for dinner, but they choose to stay at the bar. The couple just didn't have that we're so happy our kid's getting married look to them, and it was weird that they weren't having dinner with their family. There was obviously much more to the story. But, I make it a rule not to get into deep conversations with drunks.

OK, back to the hiking. Here's a snow picture from the first day.


And a cool pic of Cathedral Peak.



Yes, the weather changed that quickly. The second day we did make it to both Dog Lake and Lembert Dome. The clouds stayed, so the views weren't as good. Here a pic of Dog Lake:



And from Lembert Dome, overlooking a valley east of Tuolumne Meadows.


The trip was great. I only wish that my nephew had chosen to join us. He was hesitant since the HB wasn't coming and he didn't want him to feel bad. A nice sentiment, and since my wife head to go out of town, it might not have worked out. But I still really want to take him up there some day.

My uncle and I had a great time, and I'm already thinking of heading back in the spring (if there's plenty of snow in the winter). While the eastern part of the park doesn't have the Yosemite rock stars, it was much less crowded and was spectacular in its own way. I just hope that my nephew and I (and the HB) get to have a similar experiences.

Weekend With No Responsibilties

Ahhh.....The dog's at the kennel (cage less, dog lovers), the HB's at school and going to his cousin's for the weekend, and the wife's on a plane to Connecticut (family memorial). No, I'm not hosting a kegger at the house. Rather, I'm heading to Yosemite to go hiking with my uncle. We're going to hit the eastern part of the park away from the valley. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy/windy/snowy on Saturday. I don't need perfect conditions for hiking, but I'm not going out of my way to be miserable. At this rate, we may just end up drinking scotch and watching football at the Ahwahnee. I'll letchya know how things turn out.