Browse Month: March 2007

outside all day

DSC_4610.jpgToday was such a nice sunny day. Luckily, I got to spend most of it outside. At 11:00 am, I met up with Sandy for brunch. We went to a place called Rockwell’s Bakery and Cafe in Orange (Villa Park) and I had some of their corned beef hash and eggs. Mmm…

Afterwards, I drove up to Santa Monica to pick up Brother and we went to The Getty Villa with some tickets that Ben gave him. Ben and his girlfriend Tiffany were working there today and we wandered around looking at the Roman and Greek art. We spent probably a good 30 minutes there before heading out. Last time I was there was about 10 years ago and I don’t think I’ll need to go back for another 10 years.

For dinner, we drove up PCH towards Ventura and ate at Neptune’s Net. I’d heard about it and seen in featured on the Food Network but never thought I’d have the opportunity to go there. Well, today was the day and the drive was totally worth it. When you first walk in, it’s a little intimidating with all the bikers hanging out in the front with their hogs and crotch rockets. But when you go inside, it’s your average order and pick-up kind of joint. We ordered from both the boiled side and the fried side. The first round was the 1/2 pound of peel-and-eat shrimp. It was so tasty and almost didn’t need the the lemon, butter, and cocktail sauce on the side. We then waited another 20 minutes for the fried round to come out. We had a plate of battered fish, fried shrimp, and fries with a side of tartar sauce and more cocktail sauce. With some Coors Light to go with it all made it simply perfect. After our meal, we Froggered across the street to check out the beach. The water was pretty flat but there were quite a few surfers out still. We took a few photos and headed back to Santa Monica.

After I dropped Brother off, I drove up to Hollywood to meet up with our wedding photographer. He emailed me yesterday offering to sell me my negatives at a discounted price. His business partner died in a terrible car accident a few years ago and he had been running the business ever since. I guess it was time for him to call it quits and move on to other things so he contacted me. So, now I own my wedding negatives and I can do whatever I want with them. Seems silly in way considering everyone shoots digital now.

So that was my Saturday in a nutshell. Here are the photos from today. And here are Brother’s photos.

He misses his little brother.

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After a month-long stay in December and another three weeks in February, Jes got accustomed to having his little brother close-by. It wasn’t until recently that we made the realization of how long he’d been living three time zones away and Jes has really missed having him around. They’ve always been close but after spending so much time together they seem closer than ever now. So, in April we’re going to New York to visit him and Jia for a whole week! I just booked the flights and made arrangements for the days I’d be missing at work. We’ll get to see their place in Queens, have a nice dinner in the city, and spend more than just 36 hours in New York. Since we’ll be there for a week, we’re going to try taking a drive down to Philly to visit Dayantha too. It’s only 105 miles away! Anyway, I’m looking forward to my Spring Break next month and it seriously can’t get here any slower.

By the way, I love how this photo looks like it was taken with a Holga. Old photos rock.

The first assignment is complete…

…and voting has started! Brother and I started a Flickr group called “isofosho“. It’s comprised of our friends, family, and friends of friends (16 total members). Every two weeks, we post an assignment related to a specific theme or subject and it has a due date. Once the the due date has passed, we all vote on our two favorites. The winner gets a little badge posted beneath their photo and it gets added to the group’s pool of photos. It’s fun, interactive, and a good way to practice and share what we’ve got.
Last night, the assignment of “Sho’ Me Yo’ Crib” ended and we got quite a number of submissions. If you’d like to join, vote, or just see what’s going on, you’ll need a Flickr account (log in with your Yahoo ID) and then you can request to join the group. Come play with us!!

yet another doc in the sandbox

Our dear friend Huy is getting ready for a 6-month deployment. If you didn’t already know, he’s been a Navy Doc for a few years now and will be going to Iraq this month. When he initially signed up for the Navy, it was pre-9/11 with no war in sight. It’s crazy how things can change so quickly.

In preparation for his departure, I got him set up with a blog. I think it will be good for him to be able to share with his friends and family back home what’s going on with him. It’ll also be good for us to get a glimpse of his experience as a doc for the Marines. Luckily, he’ll be on a base the whole time and I’ve advised him to stay put. We don’t need him going out and getting bombed or anything.

Here’s the url: http://httran.blogspot.com/. I’ve also added him to my blogroll (to the right) in case you’re too lazy to bookmark it. He’ll be posting regularly (right, Huy!?) so check it daily!

Papaya Time!

OK, folks. Here is painting #2! This time I chose to paint a papaya that I picked out at the grocery store this afternoon.

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Here is my subject, Mr. Papaya on yellow.

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Here is my painting.

The photo doesn’t have the exact same angle that I was painting from but you get the idea. This one was a bit more difficult since there was different shape to deal with but I managed.

I guess I’m sticking to a “tropical fruit” theme. The goal of this project is to end up with three paintings that you can hang up next to each other on a wall. So, they need to have a common thread that ties them together but be contrasting at the same time to add some interest. For the mango and papaya, I’d say that they are similar in size and color tones but they contrast in the directions of their shadows. Here they are side-by-side:

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Now I just need to figure out what the third painting will be. Any suggestions?

He fought a good fight.

I am sorry to announce the death of our friend Scrappy. We found him in the pond swimming upside down on January 31st, rescued him from the current, and he stayed alive for another month. He sure was a fighter and actually looked like he was going to make a full recovery.  Alas, his health did a little nose dive a week ago and we found him dead today in his bowl. *sniff* So long, Scrappy. You will will always be remembered as the little fishie that fought a good fight.