Browse Author: beakatude

25 Years of Service

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Despite a mild fever, body aches, and an annoying headache, I flew home for my mom’s retirement dinner. My mom retired on Wednesday after 25 years of service. When I got home, my mom couldn’t wait to show off her official certificate signed by the Governator himself.

It was nice to be home again even if it was for just a short time. It was great to see the family again and Katie was a doll. It’s too bad that I was too sick to hold her. Oh well, at least I had a zoom lens.

So, just like my dad did last year when he retired, they’re leaving for Thailand on Wednesday for a month-long trip. Take me with yooooooooou!

Here are photos from dinner.

Spunky Kiddo

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Last Sunday, we gathered at Jimmy and Eleen’s house for a post-wedding celebration. Yong and Helen brought their 2-year-old daughter, Cara, and she was a hoot! From the minute she arrived, she burst into the house and went straight for each an every one of the 4 dogs that were in the house.

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She’s quite a mover and loves to climb on people, crawl under tables, and give hugs to everyone including the dogs. She’s also quite a ham when it comes to taking photos, so I got lots of practice.

Oh, one more thing.  We took photos for the bet between Victor and Yong.  The person who loses the greatest percentage of weight by May will get a new iPhone with a full year of service paid for.

Here are more photos from the afternoon.

Guilty

Do you have a job where you’re given the biggest guilt trip EVAR when you call in sick?  Well I do.  It all started with a shallow cough yesterday at work, which got worse overnight and was coupled with some crazy aches and pains all over my body and head.  I called and left a message on my supervisor’s voicemail AND a detailed email about my schedule around 7:30 am and thought everything was taken care of.  That was, until I got a phone call a little later in the morning from my supervisor who scolded me for not calling her earlier at home or on her cell phone instead of her work voicemail.  I can see why that stressed her out since she wasn’t prepared for the schedule changes when she arrived at the hospital but I couldn’t help feeling so lousy after I hung up with her.

I certainly care about the welfare of my patients and they do deserve therapy but not from a possibly contagious therapist!  Because of the guilt-ridden day that I had at home today, I have decided to go to work tomorrow regardless of how I feel.  I currently have a 100.8-degree fever and chills.  Maybe tomorrow I can walk in with a fever and pass out in the middle of one of my sessions.  That would be awesome.

Goodbyes

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Three years ago, Jes and I went to the BMW dealership in hopes of finding a 3-series wagon. In the end, the X3 was a better deal so that’s what we took home.  Above is a photo of me at the dealership.

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Right off the lot, we headed up to Mammoth with the excitement of an awesome weekend in the snow and a new car to test out on the icy roads. I will never forget the time we were heading back down that Sunday with the “miles left” indicator blinking “0.0” and then “–“. Ah, the memories. To this day, we still salute Jaw Bone Station on our way up to Mammoth.

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Now it’s January 30, 2008 and our lease has ended. Last night, we went down to the garage to clean out the car and take down the racks. It sounds pretty silly but I’m going to miss our trusty Sport Activity Vehicle and also the convenience of driving. Jes returned the car this morning and now we are about to embark on a little experiment I will call “We Have No Car”. I’ll have to keep you posted on how that pans out.  What a funny coincidence that I’m wearing the same sweatshirt on my last night with the car.  Haha.

Today also marks another significant milestone. My mother has retired from her job of 20+ years at the DMV. Yep, no more cutting in line. And no more “Mommy, can you pay my registration and I’ll pay you back later?”. Bummer. I guess it’s pretty good timing for us though. We won’t need to worry about much besides renewing our licenses every 3 years.

Wedding Recap

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Whew! What a weekend. I feel like it just ended even though it’s already Tuesday night. Most people left on Sunday but Dayantha and Krissy stayed until this morning. I’ve finally sorted through my hundreds of photos. I don’t know if I reached 1000 but it was close. Here goes the recap…

On Saturday morning, we got to The Faculty Club around 10 am to help set-up. With camera in hand, I managed to get some cool shots of all the work that went into setting up a Do-It-Yourself Wedding.

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Family members were assembling the floral arrangements while the boys set-up the lanterns and table settings.

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The girls were arranging their own bouquets while Eleen supervised all the action as her hair and make-up were being done.

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It really was amazing how much thought and hard work went into this wedding.

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Eleen even made her own wedding gown, which was beautiful with hand-wrapped buttons along the back. At the very last minutes of wedding prep, Eleen was still rubber stamping and snipping thread off of the shawl she made.

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At the church, Susie coordinated while I helped her set-up. Fortunately, the rain had stopped the night before and stayed away until after the ceremony.

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Here are the pillow rings that were also handmade and carried by a pair of very cute little boys.

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The church had high ceilings with a balcony that allowed for some awesome wide-angled shots.

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The priest kept it short almost left out “You may now kiss the bride.” That was weird.

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Back at the reception, we got back to work with the placecards and slideshow.

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Here are the name cards and homemade flavored lipbalm that was lovingly prepared, designed, and packaged by the bride herself. Jenn, one of the bridesmaids, made an awesome movie that included stop animation of little dolls that represented Jimmy and Eleen. I contributed by adding some photos of the actual wedding for a little surprise for the audience.

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The homemade cupcakes (prepared by Clara, the other bridesmaid) were the talk of the evening and tasted so yummy.

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The party was a lot of fun and Dayantha performed his little “Ditty” for everyone to enjoy…including the parents. Check out Victor’s dad getting into the action.

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By the end of the night, we were all pretty buzzed and exhausted…as we should be. There was a requisite stop at Top Dog before meeting up at a local bar before heading home.

Here are photos of the pre-wedding activities.
Here are photos of the wedding ceremony and reception.

If you’re looking for some of my favorites at a higher resolution, go here.

Wedding Weekend

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What a busy, fun-filled weekend! Jimmy and Eleen tied the knot on Saturday and it was quite an event. People started to arrive on Wednesday and Thursday and we’ve had a full house for a few days now. It’s always so fun to have everyone in town at once and boy did we make the most of it. We had rehearsal and dinner on Friday with drinks at a local bar until the wee hours of the morning. Then Saturday was just non-stop from pre-wedding preparations to the ceremony and then the reception. Today, we all woke up groggy and exhausted but ready for a Sunday BBQ at the Agustin residence where Jes and I prepared a Mexican BBQ for about 25-30 people.

I haven’t even begun to sort through all the photos so I will need to post them this week. I’ll also have to recap the highlights a little later as well. I’m pooped.

Congratulations to the happy couple!