Fright Night

Happy Halloween everyone!

Don't eat too much candy. Do scare the bejeezus out of your neighborhood kids. Don't dress as yourselves. Do party like it's 1999. Don't drink and drive. Do be safe.

Photo taken at the Bellaggio Pumpkin Patch.

posted at 11:05 AM |  |

 A New Long Day

The day was not long enough for the activities that ensued. As soon as I woke up, I already hear my wife put-putting around the kitchen, frying rolls of lumpia shanghai she prepared earlier for her potluck with her cowerks.

Later that evening, we got ready for my Dad's 60th pre-birthday celebration. Me and Christine met up with my folks at the Caesar's Palace to watch Celine Dion perform live. After an evening spent with Celine, which is nothing short of extraordinary, we parted ways with my folks who all seem to be ready for more casino action (and probably go people watching since everyone here in Vegas is already decked out in their Halloween costumes).

So now, home, tired, sleepy, and contently full from our El Pollo Loco dinner, I'm pondering if it's really that late considering it only shows 12:30 AM on my watch. Then a realization hits me, I forgot I turned back the clocks earlier in anticipation of Daylight Savings Time. Still, at least we all get back an hour of our lives.

posted at 1:34 AM |  |

 Replete

We just came back from a meeting over lunch with renowned restaurant critic Elmer Dills. I can faintly recall discussions about revamping his website's format as well as adding content management functionalities but not much else. Chunks of minutes from the meeting was lost to me as soon as I started gorging on the huge plate of tender meat laid before me (mmm... meat). So now, here at work, cradled by the soft leather of my chair and surrounded by cool ambient temperature, I am struggling to remain conscious for the duration of my work week. I wonder if I can even muster the physical strength to drive to Vegas, let alone keep my eyes open.

posted at 2:03 PM |  |

 Trick Or Treat

This pretty much sums up Halloween at work.



Arachnophobia.

posted at 9:43 AM |  | 2 Comments

 Visiting

My cousin Rick, is also in California today, arriving wearily around noon via LAX from Atlanta. I myself got out a bit late from work and errands, which left very little time to do anything else other than to go pick-up Rick from his hotel, hangout at my parent's house for a bit, and then grab a late dinner. We all decided to go sushi and sashimi at Kabuki's, a trendy Japanese restaurant in downtown Cerritos. And while there, we managed to catch up and reminisce about old times between mouthfuls of salmon and tuna. Afterwards, as soon as I noticed everyone's eyes glazing over, I decided it was time to take our tired guest back to his hotel room so that he could get rested for his full weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center to attend the BlizzCon. I just wish he could have gone with us to Vegas this weekend, but alas, World WarCraft beckons. Oh by the way, I'll take this opportunity to thank my cuz Rick once again, who shall be known henceforth as "Slick-Rick". This guy managed to slip our radar and sneakily took care of the bill... tsk! tsk! That's a no-no on our turf, but nevertheless, thanks for dinner! I'm positive my Dad enjoyed the pre-birthday gesture.

posted at 11:39 PM |  |

 Kong

The iconic story of the giant ape is once again brought back to cinematic life, this time through the capable hands of Triple Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy). The teaser trailer already has me hooked and begging for more, December is going to be a long wait.

posted at 10:18 PM |  |

 Jet Black And Blue

Let's see...

Slept late. Woke up early. Too early. Traffic spoils driving towards the McCarran International Airport. Traffic at the airport. Long lines snaking in and out of the airport security gates. Getting flagged, tagged, patted down and then taken aside by airport security at the security gates with thirty-minutes remaining before my plane ride leaves. Spending $9 to mail back confiscated Swiss Army knife to home address. Never realizing until the incident that I even had the pocket knife/tool inside my laptop bag (and neither did airport security since I've taken that same bag with me to several trips to and fro Las Vegas (and California) beforehand. Going back through airport security — again. Barely missing the tram ride to the Southwest terminal. Finding out (while gasping for air) that the flight to Ontario is delayed for another ten-minutes. Being in a plane ride equivalent to that of a rollercoaster episode with a bad hangover. Arriving impossibly earlier than scheduled courtesy of a pilot who commandeers the airliner like he's in dire need of a bathroom break. Arriving in California, dizzy, sleepy, shaken but nevertheless in one piece.

Gawd, I love plane trips.

posted at 9:34 AM |  |

 Icons

Further proof why you should always power-down your peecee at night.

—Thanks for the link Barry!

posted at 10:48 AM |  |

 Skipping A Beat

It finally came in today – that drum part – which I have been waiting patiently for in a span of three months.

About three months ago, while tinkering with the height adjustment of my drum throne-seat-chair, I decided to use a ratchet tool instead of the provided key to tighten the memory lock on the seat. The thing is, using a ratchet isolates any indicative "feel" that you are over tightening the clamp, so I just kept turning until the thing snapped into two.

Great.

A short drive to the local Sam Ash Music Store revealed that Tama warranties it's drum hardware parts against such breakage, the caveat is that there is a wait to when the replacement comes in. It can take a day, or it could take months. Mine took months. Well okay, it never actually came, but after constant follow-up, I was informed that several new shipments of the complete drum thrones are in stock. The manager was sympathetic to my wait and offered to liberate one of the clamps off of the existing chairs. I quickly accepted his offer.

So there you go, a new clamp will be installed sometime this week, but probably not this saturday since we're off to visit Laughlin via tour bus replete with free buffet at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino. Perhaps sunday is the best time, and I should slap a note on the chair to remind myself not to make the same mistake.

Apparently diecast clamps are more fragile than they look (either that, or as my mom would say that I have the brute strength of a donkey and the finesse to match – wha?).

posted at 1:05 AM |  |

 Full House

Hesitantly at first, my brother-in-law is now an official Korean drama addict. To be specific, the show that caught his fancy (and everyone else in the household) is called "Full House" (풀하우스). Me and Christine (and my Mom) followed this particular Korean drama soap awhile back when we were still residing in L.A. (at my parent's). After completing most of the series shown on television (KBS-18), we wanted to get the entire DVD collection, but the hefty $95 price tag prevented us otherwise.

Soon enough though, folks from Manila (thanks Tess and Bing) got wind of our Korean drama fascination and sent us a copy of the drama series in it's entirety (apparently, Korean soaps are also notoriously popular in the country). I haven't had a chance to re-acquaint myself with the series just yet, but everyone else is getting hooked as we initially did.

Since my bro has a cute crush on the lead actress (Song Hye-kyo aka Ji-eun), I thought a little Photoshop trickery ought to put a smile on his face (can you guess which one is Cocoy and which one is Rain? Heh).

posted at 6:28 AM |  | 3 Comments

 Matters

My wife would occassionally ask me to tell her why I loved her. To be specific, the reasons — actually — why I loved her so. I enumerated everything I could think of, but what I wanted to really say is that I loved her because I love her, and not because of the reasons. The reasons hardly mattered.

posted at 5:37 AM |  |

 Cruising

I took this pixelated photo in haste awhile back using my cameraphone. My wife wondered what the fascination was with the license plate and the "possible" owner of said vanity plates. Except for the obvious plates, there weren't any other tell tale signs. And unfortunately, the car made a quick turn before I could get a close look at the driver. So is it, or isn't it? Could it be him cruising along in Northwest Las Vegas in this unassuming aqua-green Mustang convertible?

I sorta imagined him as more of a Honda person.

posted at 6:07 AM |  | 2 Comments

 Flavor Of The Month

While grocery shopping today at our local Albertsons, my eyes spotted an item that normally could only be found at a Filipino (or Asian) specialty supermarket. Anybody who has ever lived or has visited the Philippines should be well aware of the Magnolia brand since this name is almost synonymous to ice cream and other dairy products in the country. And everytime I get a hankering for the local "tropical" flavors such as mango, ube, queso (cheese is my fave), and avocado to name a few, I would always have to pay a premium at the Filipino specialty store for a small pint (a quart is roughly $5-6) since they would be the only place you could find them.

Well the price gouging stops here. Albertsons, a major supermarket food chain (here in the US) is now carrying the Magnolia Tropical Ice Cream brand alongside other popular Filipino food brands (such as Pampanga's Best). My wife nabbed a quart for about four dollars, a significant price difference considering the two-dollar price hike most specialty stores impose (not to mention the distance we sometimes travel to get to these stores just to satisfy a craving).

Albertsons freezer isle.


Mango and avocado was readily available. Ube was nowhere in sight.

posted at 9:30 PM |  | 1 Comment

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