Back from CA & on the plane

Hey all..As I sit here in my lovely seat up at 36000 feet over Pensyltucky, I decided to end my annoying 4 hours head breaking statistics homework and give myself a break to write my blog to tell everyone what a wonderful time I had in California!

THURSDAY: came EARLY, as Amy picked me up at the condo at 5am and to the airport by 6am. Using the skycaps at PHL, I avoided the long lines and by using the on-line check in system, it was a breeze to get into the airport and up to security; since it was so early, the line was short enough to allow me to get a quick breakfast sandwich at a place by the gate. The flight out was on time, except once landing at PHX, we waited on the tarmac for a good 30 minutes, which wiped out the early landing we had. Least to say, all went well after that- especially after watching SNAKES ON A PLANE on the plane – yes my copy :P. I landed on time in Ontario airport to meet Susan and Evelyn waiting to pick me up. WE got a quick lunch at Carl’s Jr and made a stop at the art store for Dads display case. After we got back, I broke out the medals and stuff that my dad earned in Korea and made a nice display case with Susan. Eric got back a tad late from work, and after a nice dinner we watched some TV and played a quick game.

Friday was very nice, as Susan and I went to go visit our Dad. We stopped by the senior center in Costa mesa and picked him up to go to his new apartment in Bethel Towers. It is a very nice room with an excellent view of Fashion island, south coast plaza and the mountains in the beredinos. We gave dad the case and he loved it. Dumbass me forgot my camera, so pics will follow soon… promise. WE then went to Mimis café and had a good lunch- we all got the clam chowder and something else.. very good stuff. WE then went to Grant Boys to drop off the Colt ACE pistol to send back to NJ, since I now have my firearms ID card and pistol purchase permit back home waiting for me :D :D :D So $70 later and a whopping 10 minutes later, the pistol is on the way home! We dropped dad off back at the room and said my good bys, since I wouldn’t get another chance to go see him on this trip, but told him we would be back ;). Friday night was game night and a lot of the guys came over. Tom, Kevin and Tammy, Mark and Catherine, Scott and Jen, but no Tom or Carlos Y.. oh well. WE played some $5 poker and donated it to Kevin and Mark.. :P Then busted out BANG with everyone and had a 8 player game, in which Sheriff Susan was gunned down by outlaw Kevin. Neither Deputy Eric or me could stop it.. oh well. It was a lot of fun. Uno followed shortly after then a 6 player settlers, in which Mark won with the longest road and 3 cities. In and Out was to be had, and I got my fix :)

Saturday was the big day- Daves wedding. Since it was at 5pm, I helped Eric take up the sprinkler system in his atrium and started to get stuff ready for paintball Sunday. After lunch, we started getting ready. Tom and Kris showed up at 3:30 and we left by 4pm, wearing my new suit from Nicole :D Everyone liked it and I got a lot of complements all night on it. WE got kinda lost, but found the Temple Dave Beth in Westminster. The running joke was “Everything I know about a Jewish wedding I learned from WEDDING CRASHERS :P Well, it was good to know some stuff. The wedding favors were the things that go on your head, or yamaka. It was a nice wedding and after an easy 30 minutes, it was official – Dave is now married! WE met out in the lobby were I congratulated Dave and Rachael, then mentioned to Dave that this was the first wedding in which FOOTBALL was mentioned during the ceremony not once, but twice! That is an achievement :P After a drive to the hotel in Costa mesa, we had a blast at the reception in which most of everyone was there- Carlos y, Carlos m, Joe Dunham, Tony S.. everyone… It was nice to see everyone there having a good time. Eric introduced me to Redbull and Vodka :P Yummy!! I had two and was set for the night :P A LOT of traditional stuff happens at these weddings-like the dancing and prayers, but also a lot of fun and new things- I was proud to help carry Dave in the chair ceremony with Rachael’s brother Andrew. We had good food and did the clan traditions like the rump shaker, the serenading of Rachael in ‘lost that loving feeling’, in which I started at Carlos Molina’s wedding. By 11:30 we called it a night, but not before we tagged Dave’s car with the wrapping of love- TP, window treatments and everything else…

Sunday came EARLY as Eric and I told the guys that we were leaving at 8 to go get Scott. Kevin and bobby showed up with their gear and we left on time, go Scott and headed to Jungle paintball. We met up with Tom and registered with the TOO MUCH PHUN group there, paying $25 for all day fees, lunch and $10 more for all day air. The games were slow to start but by noon, we had a steady ref we appropriately nicknamed Shaggy. Scott and eric were quoting Clerks 2 thru the day, but when we thought that shaggy was hitting up on the weed, the jokes came out, mocking our Scooby snacks and everything. the day was fun and we called it at 4pm. Eric and I got back, packed out gear, cleaned the clothes and came back to a great dinner Susan cooked up. We hit golden spoon and then watched Clerks 2 – WOW Funny movie :P now I know the pillow pants joke eric was saying earlier :P I said my goodbyes to Evee and Susan that night and went to bed, not before talking to Nicole who went to NY with sandy!!

Today was early at 4:15am and Eric took me to the airport; I did meet on my first flight Bruce ?? one of the 3 engineers that designed the BOES quiet headphones. He told me that to stick to it, and here I am about to land in PHL, only to wait for my luggage, but more so to see my baby! I did miss Nicole a lot and cannot wait to get home.

SCHOOL: is tough. I am having a hard time in both my classes and hope that the next few days will help clear up any confusion I might have in the classes. Both are math classes and neither help out each other. Never again will I take a dual math class. Its too much to swallow at once.

GAMING: Nicole told me that BOOTLEGGERS is at the house waiting for me :P I hope to read the rules and bring it this weekend to the Brussen’s house for super bowl XLI. Outside of that, not much more here. Eric will be getting 360 soon, and I bitched at tom several times to get his cable run for the Ethernet to hook up to his 360 to get his ass online.

OK – that’s the final approach call.. more later :P

Gonna go to Cali next week :D

Just wanted to drop a note to let everyone know whats going on out here. ITS FREEKING COLD!! Winter showed up BIG TIME and we went from the 50s to the 20s overnight. I was the worst thing- its good that I'm going to CA this week for Dave's wedding. It will be nice and we are very happy for him and Rachel.

HOMESTUFF: New doors are up but 2 of them don't fit correctly; SO I get to take Mr sander and fix them tomorrow before the football game - YES! Also, we signed a contract with the heater folks: SHAMROCK INC. They will install a 10seer coil for the air and replace the 30yr old heater with something much better, including a humidifier, for under $4000. Next big project will be the kitchen and dining room, but not before...

VACATION: We are going on a CRUISE! We are taking the Carnival Destiny to the south Caribbean for a week after finals in March. We will be flying to San Juan and going to St Thomas, St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and Dominica. This is a once in a lifetime cruise for us, but if things go well, it might be a good vacation option for us :D.

GAMING: I found the next game: BOOTLEGGERS. You are in the 1930s as a gangster leading your guys to become the first to 100G. It got good reviews from people and is a mix between Settlers and the Gangster card game. I got it for $16 on eBay and should be here in a week. I'm thinking of trying it out for the Superbowl XLI party at Dave's house :D

PAINTBALL: Well, the guys are all ready to go; we got the usual crew going to Jungle Paintball in So Cal in a few weeks. The Tripple Tap paintball group will be there and they usually give great service for players, including lunch, a raffle, all day pass and other services. IT should be awesome. I also upgraded my Ion with a Firebolt, a new Halo loader and it is ready to rock. I cant wait to try it out :D

Well, Dad is now in his new apartment at Bethel Towers, and everyone is very happy. He has friends there from the senior center and that is always a good thing :D I will see him next week when I get there.

XBOX: Is awesome. Nicole likes playing the arcade games on the gamezone and I finally finished Call of Duty 3 in normal mode. I think the next will be either Rainbow 6 Vegas or finish Marvel universe.. not sure yet. I do know Eric will be looking at it and Dave might wait because of the upcoming changes to it, which include HDMI support.

Ok, back to bed. I'll be out in CA this week and should be able to post some pics next time :D

S

iOh iMy iGOD..

Well, Apple continues to attenpt to take over the world. First up was the iPOD - music player for the masses.. I got one, hell, my CAT has one.

Next up at THE CES is the iPHONE, as seen here:




This bad boy does it all:
" In terms of applications, the iPhone supports the usual set of smart-phone features: email, text messaging, web support, address books, photo, video and music playback. However, the iPhone uses smaller versions of applications already used on its Macs. Jobs demonstrated browsing the Internet on the iPhone using Safari -- full websites loaded very quickly and in full detail. Lest there be any doubt, the audience was definitely impressed by the iPhone's speed and rendering capabilities. Users can even pinch the screen to shrink webpages on the fly to fit the screen. Email capabilities are in full force too with support for such sophisticated features as full HTML email support and even IMAP supported through Yahoo! email.

Official specifications:

• Screen size: 3.5-inches
• Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
• Input method: Multi-touch
• Operating System: OS X
• Storage: 4GB or 8GB
• GSM: Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
• Wireless data: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
• Camera: 2.0 megapixels
• Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing; Up to 16 hours Audio playback
• Dimensions: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
• Weight: 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

The iPhone will begin shipping in June of this year."

yep, I want one.. make it 2, one for me and the misses.. Too bad its cingular only so far, but thats a start.

Now, you think that Apple is done?!?! NO NO,, i give you!!

iTV!!!

yep- Im moving to Mars when they open the first colony, unless Apple buys it and it becomes iMars or iPlanet.. then life is iOver!!

More holiday stuff and a New year

I know yesterdays post was short, so I wanted to continue where I left off...


HOME STUFF: Eric and I kicked some ass this last weekend- we replaced all the switches with the toggle type switches; we replaced all the outlets in the kitchen to something newer; also the garbage eater switch was replaced. We also replaced the hinges on the door to the bedroom and fixed the misalignment of it, but I went and broke it the other night- I think the screws didn't fit correctly in the older holes, so I wanna get a new door this weekend. Also, I picked up the fire-safe at Sam's the other day and will install that later today when I get home. The new key storage is now hung safely and holds all the extra keys that we got, like the extra house keys, the storage key, the luggage keys, etc.. and it was only $40 at Staples. It has a combo to open the safe, so we don't need a key for that :P I also got a lock for the file cabinet and that's a good thing.

Eric made an observation- The controller for the air/heater is currently in the living room; If we were to move it from there to the other side of the wall, we would be able to move the entertainment center to the left another foot and put the TV more centered in the living room. Its an easy job that just needs a weekend to do it, as that E center is a BITCH to move.

I also got a few people to come look at the heater and air system in the house. The first guy was from PSE&G. The guy told me that our system has a 8-seer coil for the air and that the new standard is 13; which basically means that they would have to replace everything. They cannot do that job as they only replace existing units and not the lines. His best idea was to: Get a 10-seer coil for the air to use with the existing line and get a 40K BTU heater at 80% to use with the existing chimney.
The 2nd guy was from Sears, and this guy told me that they would replace all the lines with the right size for a 13/14 seer coil, replace the condenser with a new one and install a 75kBTU unit for $7000. SCREW THAT! I dont want to do the top stuff to this unit as we are not going to be in the condo that much longer- maybe 4-6 years at tops. We would not like to spend more than $5k on this job as we would like to get newer kitchen cabinets and a wood floor in the kitchen/dining room. That should be around $2-3k in itself and that would for the most part cover the upgrades to the condo for awhile :D


XBOX: With the Xbox 360, I was able to get the HD-DVD player with it using all of the gift cards that I received (thank you everyone :D ). This is now the way we will be watching DVDs- using the player. It can play regular DVDs as well as the HDDVD format. The Sony DVD player we had is now upstairs and with the remote, is usable and more functional than the one that I got years ago - circa 1999. I like the setup now as there are only 2 channels to swap between - regular TV and Xbox360. Its nice too in that when watching a movie, the Xbox live connection will show if someone comes online using a small but effective popup on the lower part of the screen showing you who is now online. Its a nice way to say 'Hey- if you don't wanna watch a movie, your Call of Duty3 buddy is now online..'. On a different note, Dave found THIS and it looks really cool - Settlers on XBOX :D There are a few other games too, but settlers online would rock. That or save a game and come back to it = no pieces to clean up :D

Fantasy Football: Congrats to Travis - this years IFL champs. Its funny, but I scored the 2nd most points in the last 2 weeks of the season only to play the team that scored the most points for that week; had I played any other team, I would have won it all again. Not to brag too much, but that's saying something.. Other winners were the Drunken Wombats for the 1st round pick for next season (Another team I had a hand in drafting...hmmm), and the highest scoring folks - Addai with his 44 pts and the Gnomewompers scoring 138 points (which I tied at one point). The website opted to either give us a 50% off for next season or give back 25% of this seasons cost- I took the 50% option - no brainer. So it looks like i gotta pack a trophy for Japan!

NFL PLAYOFFS: are here- Go EAGLES! Since the Steelers are out by one game, I would like to see the birds or the Saints to go for it. I'm not a conference only guy like some other people are, but I just like these two teams. The first games are this weekend.

Oh well - more to follow soon :D

Evelyn visits NJ and Santa Wife gives gifts

Hey all,

Merry Christmas and Happy New years everyone!

The holidays were excellent! Susan and Eric arrived Wednesday night with a prelude to the fun filled week ahead- We were sitting in the luggage area waiting for the flight to arrive; there was a limo driver also waiting so we started to just small talk- hows it going.. When asked what his flight he was waiting for he replied San Francisco. Not 15 minutes later, Nicole and I see two guys come down the excillator and look up at the screen, when the 2nd guy leans over the 1st, grabs some @ss and points over the other shoulder to his friend and walk off. I mention to the limo driver.. 'Hey your San Fran flight arrived..' and we had a good laugh.

Evelyn is so big and cute! She is 6 months old and is a fun cute baby. Susan and Eric had a great time visiting, as we did alot of not much, which is fine with me :) Christmas weekend eric, my uncle and myself went to NYC and walked around the place for an afternoon and had alot of fun :D The highlight was the Charmin's times Square Toilets, as linked and seen on the left. Eric and I both left a gift of giving after a visit here :P

Christmas was alot of fun and awesome. Nothing is better than spending time with family on a holiday of giving and being there for eachother. Between the two families, I know that we are blessed with some wonderful people and thoughtful gifts...speaking of which...

Christmas was very giving this year. Overall, alot of wonderful gifts, some suspected and some unsuspected. My loving wife gave me alot with a nice ring, an electric shaver, a BB gift card and a few DVDs, namely Firefly and the Superbowl XL one :D Also included were a pair of jeans, bedsheets, $150 in gift cards for joebuy, a few other cloth items, and some more cool things. I really surprised Nicole with her new Camera, iPod nano, and dinner theater tickets. In all, it was excellent holiday. You know what came after that...

yep:



WOOHOO!! ITS MINE :P ok ok.. its a cool system. I got the $100 giftcard deal with Toys R Us so I picked up the system, a controller and Call of duty 3 for about $430. I then went to Joe buy, got the HD DVD with all the gift cards and also price matched 3 more games, including Gears of War, Madden 06 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for another $100, so that was excellent. I spent just over $500 and got an excellent deal on the game system!! Least to say, when Eric came back on the Wednesday night, we played Gears all night long; at one point we decided to stay up friday night and finish the game, only to get to the end boss at 6am... HOLY CRAP!

SCHOOL: I got 2 As! Both technical writing and in Ethics!! I guess the Katrina thing paid off :D

PAINTBALL: Gonna try for a game at the end of the month in CA after Daves wedding.. whos knows, but I think we might try for camp P field.

Check this story out of a Vietnam vet saving a guy on the subway train station!!

Thats a good start for now - look for more later this week.. there is alot to cover :D