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Monkeying Around

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Marie and Cole came over this morning for a mini-photoshoot. These are just a few of the photos I captured. Marie’s making Halloween cards to send to friends and family and this was a great opportunity for me to practice the new stuff I learned in my class. Isn’t the costume simply adorable? It came complete with stuffed banana and monkey feet.

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Afterwards, Cole enjoyed his favorite lunch, udon…yum. He also got to chase Koa around the house and made a fat mess on the kitchen floor with Koa’s kibble.

a different world

We drove up even further north to Chiang Rai to visit some of the villages and see the “Golden Triangle” where Thailand, Burma, and Laos meet. We stayed overnight in this bungalow up in the hills where the temperature dropped to about 7 degrees Celcius. There was no heat and the bungalow was one large room with 10 small mattresses lined up on the floor. We had 10 people in our group so it worked out. We stayed near a village that was made up of Chinese refugees who ran away from China. As we were shopping for some tea, I watched the children who were playing on the roadside near where their moms were selling their wares. There were a few children that caught my attention.
One little girl was using a plastic Coke bottle that was filled with water as a doll. She wrapped it up in a jacket and carried it around like a baby. There was another little boy contently playing with a piece of string tied to an empty spool as he ate his breakfast. I also watched a couple boys no older than five years old building a fort or tent out of wood and a plastic sheet. It was so interesting to watch and really gave me perspective of our different their lives are.

Are there peanuts in this?

We drove about 8 hours to get to Chiang Mai, which is in Northern Thailand. The weather is milder and the people are very nice here. We had dinner at this outdoor place and got a Singha Tower, which is a large beer dispenser that holds about 3 liters of beer and has a spout at the bottom. We’ve had so much to eat and Jes is getting his fill of spicy foods. Johnny is also having to ask all the time, “are there peanuts in this?” I think the joke never gets old.

Anyway, we went to visit an Elephant Camp today and got to hang out with them up-close and feed them bananas and sugar cane. They also had a baby elephant that was born December 22nd so he wasn’t older than a couple weeks. He walked kinda funny but already knew how to use his trunk…very cute.

Santa’s Scary

When I was a little kid I used to be scared of the Disney characters at Disneyland. I was also scared of Santa. I remember when my mom would ask if I wanted to take a picture with Santa I would answer with an immediate “NO!”. Can you blame me?! Imagine being no taller than 3 feet and having to sit on the lap of a big hairy man dressed in all red? Well, I relived those moments today through Cole’s eyes. We parked the stroller, got in line with everyone else, and waited our turn. Cole was in a pretty good mood and didn’t react to the big red man seated before him. But when it came time to actually sit on the dude’s lap, he sorta freaked out. He took one close look at his big white beard and wanted out! Marie just wanted one photo of him with Santa but I think I ended up with 4 shots of him crying and then finally one of him looking semi-calm. Poor Taku-chan…maybe we’ll try Disneyland next year.

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By the way, Marie took me to a Japanese/Asian tapas place in Costa Mesa tonight. It’s called “Oki Doki” and was very tasty. We had the spinach/mushroom salad, albacore salad, kim chee rice soup, blackened cod, and shrimp fried rice. Yum.

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Check it out:
Oki Doki
3033 S. Bristol St. #O
(SW corner at Paularino)
Costa Mesa, CA
714-540-2066

Our 3rd/10th Anniversary

It’s been 3 years today that Jes and I tied the knot. It’s so weird because 3 years doesn’t seem very long considering that Jes and I have been together for 10 years. That anniversary passed just a week ago so our wedding anniversary sorta plays double-duty. Boy, things have really changed and evolved since our college days and we’ve gone through a lot of crazy stuff together. Unfortunately, we have to spend today apart because of a business trip that Jes had to take this week. Instead, I’m going out for sushi with Marie and Cole tonight since Kenji is also on a business trip this week. I get to relive my “consultant’s widow” life again for a couple days…time to catch up on my soap opera. Hee Hee.

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.