Browse Author: beakatude

Back to School

Today was the first day of the AOTA Conference and it’s in Long Beach this year. It’s an annual gathering of OTs around the country for some classes, shopping, and networking. For me, it’s a time to catch up with old friends and colleagues and just happens to be in my neck of the woods this year. I sat through 6 hours of lecture today and it was kinda painful. I didn’t have any of my buddies with me so I had to actually sit there and pay attention…go figure. Whenever I attend these things, I get all inspired to be a better therapist…then it fades by the time I get home. Tomorrow is when the real fun begins. Friends are flying in from Boston, Virginia, and Oregon tonight and tomorrow. Yippee! The best part of all this is that I don’t have to go to work for the rest of the week…sweeeet.
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By the way, tonight’s dinner at The Hat was great. They have yummy pastrami sandwiches and a mountain of chili cheese fries that could be shared by a family of 6. Jes and I had it for the first time in Monterey Park but we recently discovered that there was one just around the corner from us! Haha. It’s a good thing we made that beef resolution.

No gas station, please.

We have a shopping center in our neighborhood that opened just last year. It started out with the standard grocery store, pharmacy, and dry cleaners. They later added little restaurants, the Starbuck on the corner, of course, and even a boutique pet store. Now they are proposing to build an ARCO/AM PM gas station/convenience store/car wash. Well, there are several neighbors who have roped us (mostly Jes) into joining their opposition to the project. They are worried about the light/air pollution, transients in the neighborhood, unnecessary traffic, and declining home values. Since he’s had a lot of time on his hands, Jes has been writing letters to the City Council, he’s been attending the informational meetings, and now we have a Yahoo Groups site. To kick it up a notch, this afternoon we walked around the neighborhood stuffing flyers into people’s doors! I’m curious to see the turnout at next week’s City Planning Commission Meeting. Click here to check out the group site.

How sad! Heh…kinda funny too.

With Spring in full force, we have bunnies all over the place! Everytime we take Koa for a walk, there’s a bunny hanging out on the sidewalk or sunning on the lawn. Koa has a great time chasing them but luckily for them we have him on a leash. Unfortunately, they’ve activated their special bunny multiplying power in some other neighborhoods where residents are threatening to shoot them with BB guns.
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Yesterday, Jes sent me the link to this set of cartoons. They’re really sad but made me laugh anyways. All I could say to myself was, “why does Mr. Bunny want to die so bad?!” Check it out here.

Happy Mother’s Day!

We had a family-filled day to celebrate Mother’s Day. First was lunch at The Arches Restaurant in Newport Beach with my mom and the rest of the family. We had some yummy, yet pricey, stone crab and Jes finally found his tableside Caesar Salad.
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After an afternoon nap, Jes and I took his mom to dinner at Arte Cafe in Cerritos. They had a decent lobster bisque and his mom enjoyed the catfish. The nicest thing about today was just being with family. We hadn’t seen either set of parents for a few weeks and they were all happy to see us.

slow down, clip out, brake, foot down

I went to SuperGo with Jes today to get him a new helmet and ended up getting a pair of cycling shoes for myself. At first, I was pretty scared to try them out on my bike because they’re the kind where your feet are clipped into the pedals. I’ve heard lots of stories of people out on the road unable to clip out in time and fall sideways into the sidewalk. But Jes taught me what to do and had me try it out back and forth in our driveway. To my surprise (not to mention Jes’ too), I didn’t fall and he didn’t have to catch me either. It’s actually pretty cool “being one with the bike” when you’re pedalling. It’s just going to take some concentration and practice to get in and out without looking like a total newbie. Hopefully, when I try them out on the open road (with real speeding cars around) I’ll be ok. Wish me luck!

Happy 30th, Jimmy!

It’s J’s big three-O today! Has it been almost 16 years since we met back at Whitney orientation?! My, how time flies! Happy Birthday, big guy. Have a great weekend and have a drink for me!!