New Balls

Bowling balls that is! I never thought that I'd reach that point when I admit that I like bowling but it's lots of fun. Plus the cool balls and shoes are funky. Last week Hector ordered a ball for himself and we went in to the shop to have the holes drilled. I was planning to order one for myself but the shop had a 10 lb ball in stock and I love the color(s) so we had the holes drilled for that one too! Woot! It has swirls of purple and green and it is engraved with the word Cheese! I saw some cute pink and gray bowling shoes online so I'll be stylin at the bowling alley soon.

Hector's bowling ball is red, gray and black and his shoes will be plain white; they look like regular athletic shoes. They had to order his shoes in wide so both of us should be ready to rock and bowl.

Shaolin Soccer

Thank goodness my mom came by the past 2 days to help me with cleaning which freed me up to go grocery and party supply shopping. I decided to skip the goodie bags this time since I personally think they're a waste of time and money. I'd rather give each kid a $5 bill and send them on their way.
I also thinned out the toy room and set aside all the big toddler Legos and Duplos to give away to children who will play with them. Tyler was a little upset but he is beginning to understand charity and being unselfish. Honestly if I hadn't told him I was getting rid of those toys, he wouldn't notice.
Today was Tyler's first soccer practice and it went very well. The coaches are trying to get the idea of passing so they used their hands to pass the ball around on the field for a bit. It seemed to make an impression of the boys so we'll see how they do.
Practice went over by 20 minutes so we rushed home and I made dinner; rib eye, rice pilaf and veggies...yum! Now I'm relaxing with my Mudslide drink and mulling over my next knitting project. I'm thinking of attempting a hoodie sweater for a friend so I need to study the pattern and make sure I'm up to the challenge.

Btw, Hector and I watched Shaolin Soccer over the weekend and it was good. A funny blend of kung fu and soccer but I was knitting at the time and it's hard to read subtitles at the same time. I recommend the movie if you like that kind of stuff. Stephen Chow is in it and he also was in Kung Fu Hustle which is not your typical martial arts movie. I should let Tyler watch the socceer game parts because he'll get a big kick out of it.

Oh which reminds me of our baseball practice the other day. We gather our big bag of whiffle balls and bat and head to the park. Hector pitches to Tyler who works on his swing...while gathering balls Hector went to pick up what he thought was a ball and it was a mushroom. So while he began pitching again, he snuck the mushroom into the rotation and when Tyler hit it, the mushroom exploded and we all started busting up! Tyler was so surprised but it was so hilarious and silly; he had a giggle fit after that! So the next day when we were going to the team practice, Tyler said he wanted to show his friends how the mushroom explodes. So we stopped at the park and gathered up a whole bagful. At the end of practice, all the kids were so excited to hit mushrooms, even the kids who had problems hitting a ball were able to smack the mushrooms. It turned out to be a great learning tool! Who would have thunk it?

Whew

I just finished mopping the kitchen floor and doing some laundry so while I catch my breath, I thought I'd post a few pictures from recent weeks.

The kids are goofing off at Lita's house and here is her dog Icarus. See his tongue sticking out? So cute! I have lots of knitting projects to put online but I can't put some things up because they might check the blog and see their Christmas presents. But here are some things I can show for now... here is a shawl that I finished but it's more child size as you can see Josh is modelling but so maybe for a niece of mine?

Another baby sweater in a pretty peachy pink yarn with little flecks of green, yellow and white. I have a little yarn left so maybe I can squeeze a hat out of it. I only had 2 heart buttons left so I put them in at the top. Does it look okay? I'm thinking of giving this to my cousin's baby who is about 9 months old right now.

And last is my first attempt at felting. This is a purse and flower that I knitted and the purse came out fuzzier than I expected but it's still cute, right? Probably more suitable for a young girl. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

After a Short Break

We're having Tyler's birthday party this weekend so I have tons of stuff to do like buy presents, food and party supplies and majorly clean house. My friend Kat won't be able to attend since she is on a ship cruising the British Isles for 2 weeks. LUCKY! Okay, it's time to start cleaning.

Cover Songs

Today I had the chance to listen to my iPod while knitting and I was thinking about my favorite cover songs when Stand and Deliver came on which was originally done by Adam Ant. Well, the song came on and it sounded slightly different but very similar to the original so I was surprised to see that Sugar Ray did the version I was currently listening too. Sometimes a band will completely revamp the song so it sounds new and fresh while other bands will cover the song so it basically a copy of the original song or sometimes the covered song will turn out awful.

I liked the version that Sugar Ray did of Stand and Deliver (which was almost identical to the original) so I thought about more cover songs I enjoy so here is a few examples that come to mind.

1. Come On Eileen (originally by Dexy's Midnight Runners) by Save Ferris. The original song was okay when it first came out but I soon came to hate it whenever it came on but when Save Ferris redid the song, I fell in love with their version which is peppy and ska-infused.
2. It's My Life (originally by Talk Talk) by No Doubt. I like both versions but the newer one has Gwen Stefani and she brought her unique style to this song.
3. Boys Don't Cry (originally by The Cure) by Reel Big Fish. A ska version of a classic which took a while to fully appreciate but both versions are great.

Also a Morrissey song came on Sister, I'm a Poet that has a great line that I never heard before.

And I wonder

Does anybody feel the way I do ?

And is evil just something you are

Or something you do ?

I use this line to apply to someone that irritates me which makes me smile. Okay, sometimes I'm mean.

Tyler's word of the day

Tyler will soon be 8 years old and during these years he throws in words that jump out at me as unusual or not commonly used (especially by children). He does like to read particularly video game guidebooks which are geared toward the older reader. Yesterday, Tyler said that all players must be at the end of the screen to proceed. Hmmm, he used it correctly so I decided to look up the definition of the word.

Proceed

Definition:

1. begin action: to go on to do something
2. continue with action: to continue with a course of action
3. progress: to progress in a steady or particular manner
4. go in particular direction: to go in a particular direction, especially forward
5. develop: to come from or arise from something
6. law sue: to bring legal action against somebody

I'm glad to see that his reading is helping his vocabulary and it keeps me entertained.

Bowling Night

Tonight after dinner we decided to go bowling which reminded me that I didn't post any pics from our last outing. For some reason Torrance has a lot of bowling alleys so when the closest one is busy for league play we pick another one and this time we scored at AMF. Tyler didn't want to play tonight so he brought along a book to read while we played. Or to be accurate Joshua played because we had many problems tonight. First the lane we used had bumpers for Joshua but there was no way to lower and raise them for each player. We had Joshua stay in the original lane and we moved to the next lane for our game. After one frame, the pin setter began acting up and the staff went to fix it. But it kept on breaking down so we decided to let Josh finish out his game and wait for the $2 games to start. Finally we were given the lane on the other side of Josh who started his 2nd game. Poor kid got tired after 3 frames so we convinced Tyler to bowl. :)

Hector and I did pretty good considering our horrible luck with faulty lanes etc. I managed to get a couple of strikes and spares so I was in the lead by the final frame. Hector is a much better bowler than me so he pulled through with some good scores to beat me by 4 points! Wow, that was our closest game ever! Boy, we've been bowling so much this year we might consider getting our own bowling ball and shoes!

Ha!

Lazy day

Today has been totally kickback so far. I finished a shawl that won't fit me but I think it'll be perfect for a niece since she is still a petite teenager. I don't know if teen girls will be interested in shawls probably more into shrugs but oh well...the shawl will find the perfect person to adorn. The pattern I used is from One-Skein Wonders so I assumed the shawl would only use 1 skein. I used one skein and had to run back to the store to find another skein which wasn't there. Luckily I found another one in my stash (thank goodness, I had the foresight to buy 2) but this design will only be good for a petite person so into the gift pile it goes.

I'm trying to find the perfect pattern for a vest which will be a gift to my MIL (mother-in-law) and so far I'm in the beginning stages. We'll see if I'll be satisfied with it. Meanwhile, during all my knitting and searching I watched 2 movies so far today which is a miraculous accomplishment for me. I saw The Last Kiss with Zach Braff...he and his almost 30-something friends have some sort of mid life crises. His character feels trapped when his girlfriend becomes pregnant and he starts a friendship with another girl while his girlfriend's parents are having their own realtionsip problems. The movie was good while not being cutsey or tying everything up into a nice happy ending. It just shows that everyone has problems and some decide to stick it out and work on their relationships. The other movie I saw was Autumn in New York which was eh okay. I didn't get anything out of it since you already have a feeling that Winona Ryder's character is going to die and make Richard Gere's character become a better person. Yawn.

I am very excited that Kevin and Bean Show is now available on podcast. Since I don't have to commute to work, I miss out on my favorite morning radio show. I think I've been a big fan of their show since they started and now I can listen to the best parts of it on my ipod. Yeah!!

Countdown

Only a couple more weeks left of summer vacation then we'll be busy with school. We're having a heat wave right now so we took advantage of some friends and went swimming in their pool this morning. Soon Tyler will start his soccer season while his baseball season is winding down and he is already signed up for the next swimming session at the Y.

I'm going to try to get the kids over to Soak City a couple more times before our passes expire. That reminds me that I need to start planning Tyler's birthday which we usually have during Labor Day weekend. We usually rent a bounce house and invite people over for a BBQ but this year will be the first year I plan a separate event for Tyler and his school friends. Last year we were flying back home from Singapore on Tyler's birthday so we postponed his birthday party later in September to include his school friends. This year Tyler wants to play laser tag so I said he could invite about 10 school friends to play tag then we could have cake after. I'll plan this once I get Tyler's soccer schedule and figure a good time for this.

King Taco Fix

Mmmmmmm, lengua (beef tongue) sopes from King Taco are making me hungry!! This shows the basics although the person making them puts more cheese and cabbage on them. Whoever made these was kinda of stingy on the toppings. I prefer my sopes with the green chile and a large horchata and I'm a happy girl!! :)

Joker

I live with a bunch of jokesters. Hector knows a billion jokes (well, more like a million) and he can tell me a joke at a drop of a hat. Tyler is getting into jokes too because Grandma gave him a book of jokes so he tells me his little cheesy jokes some of which are actually funny.

example:
Q:What do you call an "X" that just got out of the shower?

A: A Kleenex (clean X)....also followed by loud laughter from Tyler

I am awful at telling jokes mostly because I can't remember how they go or butcher the punchline. The jokes I know are very cheesy and short.

example:

Q: What is the difference between a snowman and a snow-woman?

A: Snowballs!

Joshua is little more difficult to figure out if he has the joker gene like his dad & brother or take after me (lame). He doesn't tell jokes in the traditional way but he does have his own unique way of injection humor into like.

example: a recent conversation

Me: Tyler, you need haircut soon.

Hector: I need a haircut too.

Tyler: (starting the joking) I need a haircut three!

Joshua: I need a haircut ten! (a second later, we all start laughing).

Me: Joshua made a joke!

It was nice feeling to hear Joshua break out and surprise us...it gives me hope.

My Boys

These are my favorite guys in my life. They make my life happy and complete .

More Harbor Cruise

Another day where we had loads of fun...we crammed in a visit to Griffith Park and San Pedro. There is a section near Travel Town that gives train rides on miniature versions of steam and diesel trains. Riders straddle the train and take a nice scenic ride through miniature towns, jungles and bridges. They don't allow cameras or cell phones during the ride so I don't have any pictures to show.

After the train ride, we headed to another section of the park to ride the merry-go-round. They don't allow cameras on the carousel but I stood outside and took pictures of some antique horses which gives this carousel a vintage feel.

Our next stop was San Pedro to Ports-a-call. There are numerous shops and seafood dining situated along the harbor where one can see recreational boats, freighter and cruise ships cruise by. We decided to take the harbor cruise which lasts one hour and cost only $12. I took lots of pictures because the freighters are massive carrying hundreds of containers which are the size of cargo the big rig trucks haul.

Antics

I'm crushing your head! If you haven't watched Kids in the Hall, go out and rent it. Five men who are hilarious, talented (especially playing women) and nothing is off limits. Some episodes are extremely funny and I was inspired to do the head crushing bit.

As you can see, we were a little bored while waiting in line for the Aladdin show. Tyler showed me some silly faces that I had to share.

You can't see Summer very well but this is a cute picture of the kids posing with the N from California.

Catching up

I'm so far behind on blogging and posting pics in general. I'll start with some stuff from Disneyland when we went last Friday. We did pretty good and arrived at 9:15am only 15 minutes after opening and headed right over to the new Nemo ride. Already the line was super long most likely from all the early entry people so we decided to skip it entirely. The park wasn't too bad and we handled the lines with ease. The beginning part of the day most of the lines were no longer than a 20 minute wait time. We also maximized our fun by dividing and conquering. We split up to take the kids on the rides they wanted to ride on and it made the day much better. By 4:00pm we had pretty much done all the rides they wanted to do so we headed on over to California Adventure.

By then the kids were winding down so we didn't do too much but we did manage to see the Aladdin show which I highly recommend. A very large and gorgeous theatre with A/C set the scene for a mini-Broadway production. Hector was quite impressed how enjoyable the show was and of course, the genie was the best part. His jokes and comments were very timely to reflect our current society so it was fun for both children and adults. After that we finished the day with Monsters Inc and Soarin over California and we were beat. We squeezed in a lot in about 12 hours so we were happy with the day.

Highlights

Oh boy, so much has happened this week.

First of all I bought another digital camera which is the same exact one that drowned last week. My memory card was still okay so that's good plus I get another battery as a backup. Yay!

Our guests have left and should be heading their way up to San Francisco in the next day or two. It wasn't too bad having them stay for about 12 days but one gets a bit tired of the lack of privacy and other things. Anyway, we did enjoy visiting and got to do some fun stuff like Soak City and Disneyland/California Adventure. My boys loved having their cousin hang out to play video games etc with them. S will be starting high school this month so this their last chance to have her attention before she focuses on stuff like boys and dating.

I decided to register for a digital photography and editing class to help me understand Photoshop Elements. I will be in class for 2 hours a week for 13 weeks so I really hope this will help my editing skills which are sorely lacking.

I did keep busy with my knitting and finished a hat for my sister-in-law and I completed my first sweater! It is a baby/toddler sweater but still I'm very excited! Right now I'm blocking it and then all it needs it buttons. I'm making baby steps toward more difficult projects so this accomplishment is huge for me! I made my list of people that I want to knit for so I need to figure out what needs to be done.

There is a lot more that I need to mention but I'll save it for later.

That Didn't Take Long

My little Canon Digital camera that I bought a couple of weeks ago has already bitten the dust or I should say drowned. Our last visit to Soak City was the last day that my camera enjoyed life. I brought it before to the water park because I have a nifty waterproof bag Aquapac that I keep all our valuables in ie. car keys, money, cell phone and camera. It really works great although the trick is to close it each time...are you starting to get the idea of where this is going? Hector usually wears it and while we were in the wave pool he opens the pouch up in fairly shallow water to get out a wristband for Tyler. The waves were going at the time but sometimes they really splash up which probably happened because a few minutes later we notice our money is all wet inside the pouch. Not a good sign. I grab the camera and go to our chairs. I turned on the camera which turned on okay but then the screen slowly started to flicker and fade while the LED light slowly dimmed then blackness. Hector thought maybe we'd give it a few days to air dry and maybe it'll work but it's been about a week and no sign of life. Poor little camera I hardly knew you but I think one week will be enough mourning time for a replacement.

Why My Life Is Never Boring

Last month when we first went to Soak City I used a disposable waterproof camera. We took lots of pictures but I needed to have them developed. Hector and Tyler were up to the challenge and took the film to our neighborhood CVS. A couple of days later I went into CVS and tried to find our prints. Hmm, they weren't the drawer so I asked the clerk for them. I gave them Hector's name and nothing. I gave my name and nothing. Of course I didn't have the reference slip so he asked to come backor call. I relayed all this to Hector so we went later that day (I found the slip). Soon the clerk digs up the prints and I look at the name. The name on the photos was "Melonhead" T. Apparently Hector and Tyler thought it would be great fun to put that on the photos and then he forgot all about it. We're a family of melonheads which refers to our large craniums but I'm Queen Melonhead! So I have another nickname to keep track of...

Another funny incident happened when Hector and I were still dating. I stayed over at this place a lot and I always checked his bellybutton for lint...like clockwork (although I didn't realize it at the time). One night Hector did some laundry and just came back from the laundry room. I found him laying on his bed, talking on the phone so I climbed on top of him and lifted his shirt. OUT popped the most gigantic lint ball (golfball size)...it literally sprang out of his belly! Hector punked me by putting the lint found in the laundry room and placed it under his shirt KNOWING I was going check. When I saw that huge lint ball, I started laughing so hard that I fell off and laughed until I cried! Hector got me good that time...

Goofing Off

Okay, now here are pics of Kat and I acting goofy (normal for us) while taking pictures. We choose an emotion then take pictures of ourselves. We did this during a lull at the wedding banquet. I admit we can be immature at times but it's all good clean fun! By the way, I took all these pictures too; after a while I developed a knack for self portraits.

Normal: we started off fresh and cute.

What's this? I like to call it Dazed and Confused.

Surprise!

Comtemplative and pensive.

Sleep

We're showing off our pearly white smiles.

Wedding Banquet

Last night I had the great opportunity to attend a wedding with Kat. Kat's friends and co-workers Christine & Eldore were married and we were on hand to celebrate the reception. The reception was at the Doubletree in Santa Ana and it looked like about 200 people were there. The cake and tables looked beautiful while we noshed on spring rolls and other appetizers.
For now I'm focusing on the wonderful food since we had 7 courses to feed and eventually stuff us.

1. Roasted Chicken and Shrimp Salad: This was very good. If it was lunchtime, I could have had this one dish and be perfectly happy.



2. Shark's Fin and Crabmeat Soup
   


3. Candied Walnut Shrimp and Shrimp Ball: another goodie. I've had the candied walnut shrimp before and sometimes it is overdone with too much mayonaisse but this was perfect. Yum.
   


4. Furiwa's House Special Lobster: this was difficult to eat but worth the work. The lobster was chopped into manageable pieces and even the head was there to celebrate. Plus we were given wet napkins to clean up after this course.
   


5. Crispy Boneless Chicken with Shrimp Paste: The only bone in this dish was the fried chicken head on the platter. We later put it to rest and covered it with an orange slice.
   


6. Hot and Sour Fillet Fish: At this point everyone was pretty stuffed and groaning.
   


7. Yang Chow Fried Rice: Same as before...but our waiter was super nice and offered to put the last 2 courses in to go containers.
   I had such a fun time...Kat's co-workers are very nice and fun so our table had a good time. Although a man from the table next to us was having too much fun because as the night progressed he became more huggy with various guys as if to say "I love you, man!" then started looking unsteady while walking and dancing before falling over. His date or wife had to take care of him then 2 more guys helped them to their car. I'm sure he woke up with a nasty hangover this morning! It was a good thing that most of the guests had left by then so he didn't cause a big scene. :)

Saturday Heat

Time for the weekly baseball game at the park and as usual it was HOT! Tyler spent an inning playing catcher which he did all right. He also got 2 base hits and scored once(off the tee). Woo hoo. We still need to work on the batting but I'm sure Tyler will get the hang of it soon.

Meanwhile Josh was busy running up and down the stairs then moved to jumping off the stairs.

Josh can entertain himself very much, thank you!

Catching Up

I've been behind on posting for the past few days because Hector's sister and her family came out to visit. They drove cross country from Maryland attending rallies and vigils for peace. The 2 groups they are involved in is Women In Black and Code Pink. Every day they have a list of places that are holding vigils and they go to film the groups and sell their T-shirts.

Last night we went to see the new Harry Potter movie at the IMAX theatre. We were running late so we missed the first 20 minutes but the final 20 minute battle scene in 3D was pretty awesome. The movie was very cool and of course lots of stuff was overlooked or left out but that's what books are for. I think I'll still see it again in a regular theatre soon so I can see what I missed in the beginning.

Oh, before our guest arrived on Wednesday we took the kids to Soak City to have good time. As usual Josh loved the waves while Tyler enjoys the Beach House. We have until the end of September on our passes to enjoy the sun and water so I want to go as often as we can.

The weekend looks busy as usual. Tyler has his usual baseball game and then later that evening, I'll be Kat's guest at a co-worker's wedding. Fun times.

Laser Tag/Bowling

With a month of summer left, we're keeping ourselves busy. Yesterday, the kids were invited to a birthday party. We met at the bowling alley where the kids bowled a game. Tyler is improving at the game; he gets a running start but he can get the motion of bowling while a majority of the kids are still heaving the ball. Tyler managed to score a 99 with the bumpers up which is personal best. Joshua did okay even though the bowling alley doesn't let him use the ramp to roll the ball. I guess they only let the handicapped use the ramp now...anyway, Josh managed to roll the ball (very slowly) and not drop it on his foot.



Next up was laser tag which was a new thing for us. We divided up into teams; 5 kids ranging at 5-7 years old with the birthday boy's parents and 4 moms with 2 girls and 2 boys preschool age. We had to put on a vest with a headset and gun attached. Next we were brought to a big room divided in half with barriers and holes.