Double Ditech

On Thursday night, Jes and I went to The Harp to watch his co-worker play in his band. The group is called “Velicious” and we’ve seen them a couple times now. They play covers all night and some of the songs are good but most of them are just so-so. Jes’ co-worker plays bass guitar and is actually pretty good. Too bad the lead guitarist has a huge ego and plays 10-minute solos and the lead singer has to read the lyrics off of song sheets all night. We still had a good time with a few drinks and some bar food.

On Friday night, Jes took me to his company Christmas party at the House of Blues. We got all gussied up, drove through I-5 traffic, and met up with his co-workers out front. The top floor and stage area were rented out for this shindig and started out rather slow but then it picked up after the Blues Brothers went away and the DJ kicked it up. The party wasn’t bad but it wasn’t very eventful either. It was just nice to get dressed up for a special event.

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.

…

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.

…

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

by the numbers

I learned about Su Doku back in May when I went to Borders and found a bunch of different puzzle books on display. It’s an interesting logic game that I was curious about but didn’t get around to trying. When I was in Florida, I bought my first book of puzzles. I tried it on the plane ride home and seems to be a very effective way to pass time. With a couple puzzles under my belt, I’ve come up with a couple tips for beginners:
…
1) Try out web-based puzzles to see if you like it. Go to: http://www.websudoku.com for free ones.

2) If you’re ready to buy a book, find one that has the puzzles printed on good quality white paper…avoid the stinky newspaper pages.
3) Use a good mechanical pencil and eraser. I recommend a Zebra-brand pencil and a Pentel click eraser.
4) You’ll probably want to try it on your own at first. It’s hard to do a puzzle with another person…we each have a different way of solving logic puzzles so it can get confusing when there’s another brain involved.
…
If you like crossword or word find puzzles, you might enjoy this. I’ll be bringing my book with me to Thailand for sure. Along with my iPod, GameBoy, and laptop, it’ll be kinda nice to have something low-tech too.

O Tannenbaum

We got our tree today! Our neighbor told us about a place that he goes to each year. The discount lot we went to is across from Orange Coast College and you can get a 7-foot Douglas Fir for 21 bucks. We opted for the Noble Fir and paid 34, which is still a good deal. I was also tempted to get this little 2-foot Charlie Brown tree. It looked so sad and needed a home so bad. I may have to go back to get it for my office.
…
So the tree is up with lights, ornaments, and a star on top. We also busted out the stockings and hung them with care.

Getting Set for the Holidays

Jes and I put up Christmas lights on our house today. How festive it looks! We also had a Christmas dinner with our neighbors last night. Jes cooked up a filet mignon and potatoes au gratin and Jay and Nikki brought over some artichokes. It was basically as nice excuse to bust out the fine china and try some new wines. Doggie also enjoyed a nice bone and got to chase Jay around the house for a while. Tomorrow we’ll be getting a Christmas Tree. Woohoo!! It finally feels like Christmas!