Korean BBQ

Today I went with a bunch of my buddies to K-Town and tried some Korean BBQ. I had a wonderful time grilling up a storm!

Beautiful Sky

The sky was beautiful tonight! Perfect for a nice moonlight walk.

La Capilla Birthdays

We celebrated Joe and Joanne’s birthday at La Capilla where they each got a free birthday meal with a yummy dessert and a lovely song. LoL!

Happy Birthday J & J!

CHLA

Susana, Jim, and I donated blood at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles today. This time around they actually let me donate blood, unlike that awful experience I had with the Red Cross a couple of years ago (See posting). It is so nice to know that we are doing something that will hopefully help a sick child.

Birthday @ Miceli's

We celebrated Adrian's 20th Birthday at a real nice Italian restaurant called Miceli's. It was nice to get together with my DL buddies again.

Happy Birthday Cuban Boy!

Pablo & Bubba

Pablo visited his new friend Bubba today while at Kevin’s house. It looks like Pablo had a great time hanging out with his new lizard friends, especially when he got the chance to ride on Bubba’s back. LoL!

Pablo in Hawaii

Whoo-hoo, Pablo returned from Hawaii a few days ago and came back with some awesome pictures. A special thanks to Angela and her hubby (Brian) for taking him along on their trip.

Goodbye Frenchie

Today was Jason’s going away lunch. We had a real nice meal at Crème de la Crepe, a little French restaurant in Hermosa Beach. Jason’s flight back to France leaves tomorrow after having been at our company for 6 months. He will be missed.

Bye Prince Jason!

Jason & Pinch Pots

We took Jason out for his first going away lunch. His official going away lunch wasn’t until tomorrow but we had to invite him to Mitsuwa before he left.

Today was our second day of ceramic and we have already started making pinch pots. I think I’m going to really enjoy this class.

Surprise Valentine

Amanda’s Valentine snuck into our office today and left her these awesome flowers. How cool! The tulips are so beautiful! They remind me of Holland.

Hidden Treasures on Campus

Today was the first day of a new semester at El Camino. While I was waiting for my second class to begin, I found a couple statues hidden behind a building. I wonder what that’s all about.

Early Valentine's Day

Today I got the coolest Valentine’s gifts from Marco. Sure, it was a little bit early, but I don’t’ mind. He got me the shower radio I have wanted for a while, and some yummy chocolates. Thank you Valentine!

New Mini Condo

Rose dropped by today and brought the girls a little gift. It didn’t take long before the girls came out to explore their new mini condo. Thanks Rose!

The Cat Strangler

I found Smuckers trying to strangle her sister Lily. Crazy Kitty!

Math Quiz

This shirt Amanda got while in Boston is clever. See if you could figure out what it says.

Boston Nerd Gear

Yay, the girls are back from Boston and brought me back all kinds of cool stuff. They’re so sweet!!!! I got a super cool MIT sweatshirt, an awesome “Nerd Pride” sticker, and the best leather eye patch ever! Woohoo!

Hose Nose Candy

Yeah this is exactly the kind of candy I want to give a kid... “Here kids, have some nose snot.” Ewwww!

This candy is just wrong!

Girls in Boston

It looks like the girls are having a wonderful time in Boston. I can’t wait to see all the pictures they bring back.

Thanks for all the pictures Manda! I Miss you guys!

The 405 Sucks!

This is the last thing you want to see on a Friday afternoon! Of course I left work on Friday without checking Sigalert first and ended up in the middle of this mess. *Sigh* It turns out a crane fell over onto the 405 freeway which caused all lanes to be closed. It took me about 3 hours to get home which isn’t too bad if you compare it to the poor people stuck in traffic for over 5 hours!

Kittens to Cats

I guess they’re not kittens anymore because they’re not as hyper as they used to be.

My Trips on RealTravel

So, I finally got a chance to start on my travel blog. I got my first posts up on my European trip but I still need to finish that up and if things go right, I will be writing about more trips sometime this year.

Stay Tuned.

Yelp

Amanda hooked me up with this great website where you could post your reviews on just about anything. I will have to remember to post a review for all the restaurants I visit. If you haven’t checked out “Yelp,” you should!

Talking Sandwich

Here’s today’s lunch.
I love playing with my food!

Jim's Birthday @ Geatano's

To celebrate Jim’s birthday a bunch of had lunch at Geatano’s Restaurant (Yum-Yum!). You could never have too much Italian food.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Joy's 25th B-day

Everyone had a wonderful time at “Color Me Mine” celebrating Joy’s 25th birthday. I can’t wait to get our ceramic creations back this Sunday after they have been glazed and finished.

Happy Birthday Joy!

New Years Fireworks

Marco has looked forward to today all year and I think you can see why by the pictures above. We spent the day with Marco's sister and her kids lighting the smaller fireworks right outside their home. Then as midnight approached we all went to his mother's house and the boys busted out the larger and more dangerous fireworks. Holland is such a warzone on New Years Eve, if you haven't seen it-you should. Those Dutch are CRAZY!

Gouda Friends

Had a wonderful time visiting Marco's long time buddy Ronald and his girlfriend Simone at their new place in Gouda. A special thanks to them both for inviting us over.

Brussels Christmas Market

Marco, Skip, and I checked out Brussels and found an awesome Christmas market which included a light show, skating rink, and a huge ferris wheel.
Other things we did in Brussels:
Visited the comic book museum
Checked out the center
Saw the Manneken Pis
And, took some awesome pictures

Goodbye Contiki Tour. . . Hello Brussels

Before leaving Paris I had to go visit the Louvre. I spent an entire morning at the museum before hoping on a train and meeting Marco and Skip in Brussels.

More Paris!

I wish we had another week in Paris. There's so much to see and do, it's impossible to see it all in a few days.

Paris!

There aren't enough words to describe how much I loved Paris! I think this picture says it all.

Lion of Lucerne

The drive to Switzerland was beautiful. We didn't end up arriving until real late but we still managed to get some shopping done and later Meera and I checked out the Lion of Lucerne.

Yummy food in Florence

Things we did in Florence:
Went to the Academia to check out the David
Took a walking tour of the city
Had a yummy Gelato
Did some major shopping
And attended a Tuscan dinner

Segundo Dia en Roma

We spent another fun day in Rome. I think Meera, Pablo, and I saw every inch of Rome there was to see!! No kidding!

Highlights:

We almost got hit by a car
We lost eachother when the bus pulled away without me
We took the wrong bus and ended up in the run down side of Rome...

and that's only a fraction of what happened to us today!
Besides all the drama, we actually got to see everything we wanted to see.

Ciao Roma!

Pablo in Roma

Pablo and I checked out some of the Roman sights our first night there. Tomorrow we'll have more time to explore. Yay!

Gondola in Venice

Venice was beautiful! We had a wonderful time on the gondola ride and then shopping at the stores. Although it was extremely cold at night I had a great time walking around checking out the city.

Snow in Austria

Today we arrived in Austria but took a small detour to see the castle that inspired Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. It was so beautiful! It was even better than usual since the entire area was covered in snow.

Beer Time in Munich

Having a wonderful time in germany!

Today we
went to the oldest beerhall
took a walking tour of the city
took some great pictures
ate wonderful food, and
checked out the world famous christmas markets

Back in Amsterdam

Well, I made it. I'm back in Holland and wouldn't you know it, it's raining. Yuck! But then again it's always raining here. I'm waiting around for my Contiki group to show up so I thought I would go on the net for a few minutes. Later I plan on walking around town to get good shots of Pablo. I hope this is not my only post while on this trip.

Greetings from Holland!

Super Susana's Birthday

Today we celebrated Susana's birthday and I think she was pretty happy with the gifts we got her. Her birthday is actually tomorrow but since her and I will be gone tomorrow we decided to celebrate it today.

Tomorrow I'm flying to Holland to start my European Tour!! Yay!! I'm starting to get excited about it. I'm not sure how much computer access I will actually have during my trip but I will try to post as often as I can.

Ciao Everyone! Have a Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2007.

Pablo in Vietnam

Pablo came home today with some wonderful pictures from Vietnam! It looks like he had a fabulous time there with Terry and Eugenia. This lucky monkey will only be home for just a few days before going off to Europe with me. Yay!

For next year Pablo will be traveling to Boston in early February and to Cambodia in March.

Go here to see more pics of Pablo in Vietnam.

2006 Company X-mas Party

I had an awesome time at the company Christmas party this weekend! The after-party at Craig's was the bomb as well! It was so cool watching people drink their way to silliness. LoL!

Highlights of the Party:

- The yummy buffet
- Susana being silly
- The girls dancing the electric slide
- Jim, Dave, and Scott singing along to Metallica
- A tour around Craig's house
- Just hanging out with all my awesome coworkers.

Holiday Street

Marco and I took a short drive down one of his favorite streets in the SF Valley. This particular street goes all out during the holidays, and Christmas is no exception. We found several cars parked along the street checking out all the crazy decorations. Seen above is only one of at least 15 homes iced with Christmas lights.

Monster Monitor

Marco’s new toy was delivered today and boy was he happy. Although I wasn’t fond of the idea at first, I’m starting to really warm up to it. This thing is HUGE!!

Crazy boys and their toys!

Bathroom Sign

I guess El Pollo Loco has decided to get a little creative with their signs. LoL!

Crazy Winds

Man, these Santa Ana winds are making my sinuses crazy! I can't wait for it to calm down.

Spiffy New Car 4 Manda

Amanda finally got her new car and it's wayyy spiffy! This car must have over 20 storage compartments in it. I'm so jealous.

Congrats Amanda! I hope this car brings you lots of good luck...unlike our Mazdas. LoL!

Guinea Pigs

It's so cool to see old friends, especially when I'm having a hard day at work.

A special thanks to Lemon and Amelia for being good sports and agreeing to be our guinea pigs. LoL!