Party time

Tyler turned 12 on Sept 1st and we threw a BBQ birthday party on Saturday. Invited about 7 kids with their families and we all had a great time especially when you add a bounce house.

I didn't take many pictures but here's a couple...

Tyler with his best friend Arthur.

Wishing Tyler a very successful and happy year!! I can't believe that my little one is 12 already! Sniff.

Redondo Beach pier @ twilight

Redondo Beach pier @ twilight, a photo by moodybq on Flickr.

I shot this as we were heading up the stairs to the car. I processed this in LR3 with Eric Kim's Lomo preset.

End of summer

We had a blast celebrating Tyler's birthday (more on that later) but on Sunday night, I got a text from Sherri to go check out the rainbow outside. I saw it as soon as I went out the door but was more in awe of the skies and clouds to the west. It was too late to get to the beach but I grabbed my camera and shot what I could.




Gorgeous pink clouds everywhere. These photos are untouched and sooc (straight out of camera). The colors were really like this. :)

Under the Wire

I was aiming to complete as many WIPs (works in progress) as I could for the month of August. Not too bad, considering my last entry was a scarf. Introducing the Baktus scarf. I had a couple of skeins of Noro Silk Garden sock yarn in my stash and while it's bright and colorful, the yarn is a tad too thick (for my tastes) for socks. That's where the beauty of having sock yarn is that is doesn't have to be socks.






Mindless knitting but it does take time so it took a long hibernation until I picked it back up and started knitting like crazy person. But it's done. 6 feet long and 17 inches at its widest point. Very warm, especially when I'm modelling it but it will come in useful at hockey games. :)

Zucchini and Cream Puffs

As we are preparing for Tyler's birthday BBQ party on Saturday and our upcoming backyard renovation, I noticed a pair of massive zucchinis that have grown on our side of the fence from the neighbors yard. Hmmm. Yesterday I picked them and they really are quite large. Now, to figure out what to do with them...

Aaah,  Josh is holding a vegetable!

Also from our Saturdays outing to Marukai and finding Beard Papa's location we decided to actually get some after our Kiraku dinner. I picked up a couple of chocolate fondant cake which is like a chocolate lava cake at Mortons and a vanilla custard cream puff & chocolate eclair. Technically, it's not really a cream puff since no whipped cream is used. Instead, the puffs are injected with vanilla custard after you order and other flavor custards are available depending on the day.



I didn't take pictures of Kat's fondant but Josh still has his so maybe later today. I did take photos of my vanilla puff (I ate the eclair last night) that I ate for breakfast and drizzled some chocolate sauce on it. Kat declared the fondant yummy & I agree too. The eclair was good but the chocolate was thick and I didn't care for that. I really did like the plain puff with my own addition of chocolate. :)

yummy

Ginormica

That pretty much sums up the size of Matt's feet. Mens size 15. Yup. From toe to heel, his foot measures, well, a foot long. I had to paste 2 sheets of paper together to trace his foot as a template. For comparison, mu womens size 9 feet measures 9 inches toe to heel.

I began these almost 2 years ago, got tired of knitting them so I put them down and recently found them still on the needles. The foot was basically done so I thought I'd just keep going since that is almost to the halfway point for most socks.

In nice manly colors too.

I finished them but now the burning question, will they fit Matt?? I tend to knit socks a tad large so I was really careful with the foot length.

Bizkit approves!

On Sunday, I stopped by Matt's place to gift them and see how they fit. Yeah!! They fit. Phew! :) I told him this the first and last pair he will be receiving.

Jam Packed

On Saturday, we managed to cram a boatload of activities into one day singly and as a family.

1. Hector had a dentist appt at 8am.
2. Tyler has karate at 9:30am



Thanks to Tammy modelling this in the heat.

3. During this time, I take Josh to CVS to pick up some cough medicine for my mom, deliver it, head over to Matt and Tammy to do a quick photo shoot of the neckwarmer, pick some lemons and head back home around 12 noon.
4. Hector and Tyler grabbed some pozole for brunch and came back home. I found Hector asleep on the sofa when I arrived.
5. At 1pm we headed out to Anaheim (way out by Yorba Linda) to check out some hot tubs. Spent a lot of time climbing in/out, sitting/lounging in and getting info. I found a model that I liked that had the right configuration and size so we now have something to go on. Piled back into the car and checked out another hot tub/spa place in Santa Fe Springs and spent more time doing the same exact thing.



After 2 donuts.

6. Driving home, I get a hankering for donuts. It's probably due to the fact we were by Krispy Kreme. We stopped for a donut break. I have a sugar high.
7. As we are driving, I'm talking to Hector about Asain fast food chains making their way to the US. I mention Beard Papa and Hector knows where it is so we head over to Marukai in Gardena to check that out.



Waiting for meat on a stick.

8. Sure enough, it's there but I'm too loaded up on donuts to try one of their custard filled pastries. Still, buzzing, we see a Shinsengumi where the guy is cooking chicken meatballs. Tyler and I go, "Yum!" So we order some meatballs, chicken thighs/green onion and asparagus wrapped in bacon. Kind of pricy so don't try to make a meal of it.

9. Since we in Marukai, we start doing some shopping. As we head up and down the aisles, I add more to our cart. Well, I started gathering so much, we HAD to get a cart. Ramen, shave ice flavors, curry and miso. More on that another time. :)
10. Not done yet...drive to Hawthorne to order a bounce house for Tyler's birthday party. Okay he will be 12 but everyone is younger and they'll all have fun.
11. Finally, home but not finished. Hector calls the our guy who will be doing our new fence. Lots of talking and scheduling. We have to coordinate with them and the neighbors.
12. One last item, swimming at the neighbors pool....really hot today around 90 degrees + so the kids were happy to cool off.