Bowling night with the Trans

Recently, we got together with some friends of ours (Trish & Vu) who have just found out that they are pregnant with their first child. (Congrats!) Trish used to be our neighbor, back when we lived in the Irvine Company apartments (Vu was her boyfriend at the time, and later they were engaged & married)... and ever since, we have stayed in touch with them (mostly). I'm glad we have, because we have grown to be good friends - and it is always good to have "couple" friends that all 4 get along.

You can never have too many friends!

Trish & Alicia

Vu & Paul

So Trish wanted to go bowling... First, we enjoyed some Vietnamese food at a local Phŏ restaurant. I could not see anything really appetizing to eat there, so went with the old safe standby - chicken fried rice - and it was really good. :P We then went over to Saddleback Lanes for some friendly bowling competition. The girls beat both guys in the first round, and then the guys starting pulling their Wii bowling "skillz" and kicked our butts the second round. Trish has been thinking about joining a bowling league, and even has her own ball named "Froggy" from a league she was in when she was young. I don't know how well that will work out once her belly gets a little bigger though - especially once it outweighs her bowling ball! ;)

It was a fun night all in all, with friends that we don't get to see all that often. I'm so glad we went, and we need to do it again (or something similar) soon!

Thanks Trans!

Posted by: ~A*

Blogging at work

Blogging at work, is, at its best, a glorious waste of time. At it's worst, it's still a glorious waste of time! Sweet!

Working hard or hardly working???

P: Well, P has been working non-stop at his new job (which is going well now that it's been about 3 months and they are starting to get somewhere with the banks). We were just down in Oceanside last night at a company-wide 'Surf & Turf' (yummy!) event hosted by the co-owners. I got to meet some of the people that work with P, and I think they now like me better than him!

There was a raffle, which P was not eligible for (boo!)So instead he got to draw the names

There was food; there was drink - and plenty of it!

There were some gang signs...?
There were some strange signs...?
There was some dancing... badly.And then there was laughter - and plenty of it!And there were some group photos taken:

Paul with co-owners Matt and Mark Team "Don't hate; negotiate!"Keri, Paul, Ave, Matt, & Kindra
The whole gang - Paul, Ave, Mark, Kindra, Matt & Keri

And, yes, I was there... here's a pic to prove it

A: And I have been, well, let's put it this way - trying to work non-stop. I have gotten 2 clients now (and possibly a 3rd in another month or so) with my interior design work, and I'm still working the 2 other part-time jobs (the lighting store, and the Ebay listings). I also just got an "offer" for another part-time Ebay lister, for a gal that runs a website from down here in Mission Viejo, whom I am meeting with next Monday to go over details with. If I ever get something worthy of photographing, I will post pictures then... as for now, they are "works in progress".

Posted by: ~A*

Home, sweet, home... TRIP

OK, so I realize that we have been what you might call "slackers" on the blogging scene... I just like to call it "busy". ;) Well, prepare yourselves for our longest post ever... and lots of pictures too! So recently, as most of you know, P and I took a little trip "home" to WA state, to celebrate... LIFE, including -

Paul's 30th birthday,

our new nephew Avery,friends' baby showers, friends' weddings,

our families and friends in general, and GOLF of course.

His main objective was to get in as much golf as possible while up there (and several of his golfing buddies from CA came up to join in on the tour), and my objective was to "recharge" by soaking up as much of my new nephew that I could squeeze in time for. Our trip was certainly cram-packed (as always). The first day was all family time for me. I went over to mom & dad's house where Andrea and the boys were, so I got to meet Avery for the first time, and see Great Aunt Carol also (who was visiting for a day or so before moving on to other family). Paul was golfing in the meantime with his dad and brothers that day, up in Seattle at Jefferson.

(Yes, this last pic was taken the next night...)

Day 2 - Paul's birthday - September 19th. Spent the morning prepping for the party... making the cakes & frostings at mom's house (thank you for all your help, mom!). It was no easy task. Then headed to SeaTac to get the mid-sized SUV rental P had reserved for us. That turned out to be there was "no stock" on SUV's, so I ended up in a premium Volvo S60. Not so bad for a rental that cost us $35 for 3 days. Paul was golfing at Chambers Bay in Tacoma - apparently the hardest course he's ever played, and soon to be the home of the US Open in 2015. That evening we partied at the Jacobson's with lots of great food, drinks, (thank you for all your help, mom0024!) and then cake! I tried to "surprise" P by having some of his old friends come to the party, but only one really showed up (thank you, Jeff & Nicole for coming!).

Day 3 - Paul took the rental car all the way out to Ghorst (Gig Harbor-ish) to play McCormick Woods and then Gold Mountain. Meanwhile, I was picked up by an old college roomie (Nicole) to go to another old college roomie's (Danae) 2nd baby shower (I missed the first, so I felt that I owed it to her - oh, and she sort of planned the shower around when I'd be in town). That was all the way over in Naches (Yakima-ish), but Nicole drove us. Once back that afternoon, I got all dolled up for the wedding we were attending that night (Damon & Amanda Cargol's) and Paul "freshened" up at the course before heading straight over to meet up with us at the reception. Long day, and probably the only time I'll ever have a shower & wedding in the same day!

Day 4 - Spent the morning shopping with my mother-in-law (mom0024) while Paul golfed one last time at TPC @ Snoqualmie Ridge. I spent some time that afternoon over at the new house of Bryan & Andrea's... just chillaxin' and hangin' with them and the boys. That was the first day of the trip where I didn't feel like I was running the whole time... too bad it was the last day of the trip. That evening was just simple - party left-overs for dinner, Mark & John came over to hang with P one last time, and we finally went to bed before midnight!

Day 5 - Kerry prepared swedish pancakes for P and I that morning, and we spent the rest of the AM packing up his clubs and getting ready to head back to Cali. Got some great shots of Mt. Rainier from the airplane that afternoon.

Overall, it was just a great trip - and well time-managed & scheduled I might add. Getting to see that many people in that short amount of time was just perfect! And we'll probly do it all over again at Christmas time again! Well, if we can afford to go back so soon... :)

Posted by: ~A*

Happy Birthday Brian!

Our dear friends Brian & Danielle Lacey invited us out with her family to celebrate Brian's 31st birthday. Most years, we've been going out to celebrate as a double-date, since their birthdays are only 6 days apart. However, this year because of our planned trip to WA, we actually celebrated Brian's birthday on the day of. Dinner at Javier's at the Irvine Spectrum was amazing! Well, the 3 other couples ordered what they call the "La Tablita" - a combo plate of meat and veggies with all your own taco fixings. P and I were the only ones to order something different... P got a Shrimp & a Lobster enchilada, and I got the Chicken enchiladas suiza (yum!). All the pics were taken after our meal was finished, so no pics of the food. But I do like the awesome atmosphere of the place - leather padded walls, waterfall wall, cool candle-lit trees, etc. Here are some of the photos (check MySpace for more):

Birthday boy & his wife

Larry & Stephanie (D's parents)
Ashleyann & Braden (D's sister & hubby)
PandA
Birthday flan!C'mon B, open wide! Here comes the airplane!
Sorry, Ash. Just had to put it in there - this is where 2 margaritas gets you. :)

Posted by: ~A*