Father's Day with Friends

Father's day with friends sleeping in the sun. Nice.

Thanks for a great morning...

There's a big fire in the Valley, so we're staying in the house all day to breathe cleaner air.  It's been nice to have some quiet time at home.  I spent the last two hours catching up on all my friend's blogs!  I've seen more photos, read more stories, and seen more recipes than I have in months.  I feel like I've spent the morning with friends even though I've barely spoken to anyone (except the occasional "Daddy, can you fix this?" plea).

So, thanks for a great day.  Look out...I left lots of comments everywhere! :-)

Choctoberfest

The nicest shot ever...

RD has been bragging about shooting in the 70's for about a year. I've never fully believed him based on the countless times I've played with him. Well, he proved his metal this weekend with an amazing 77/75 (how do you count a mulligan?). This shot was the single nicest shot I've ever seen. Notice the ball mark just to the right of the hole. And this was from the tee box! He nearly cupped a hole-in-one. AMAZING. Congrats, RD. You earned it.

A picture is worth 1000 words

Sea World, San Diego, 2008.

At the bottom of the hill Tater was just about to cry, then I said "That was awesome!" he looked at me, and slowly began laughing. He said, "That was TOO freaky!". M&M loved it and wanted to do it again immediately. It's too bad a 1-hr wait precedes a 2-minute ride.

This one is for RD...

I hate splitting the bill at meals out with friends.  You know, that pansy "Dutch" crap where everyone tries to calculate the additional cost of that soda verses the water.  Or, forbid that you have an appetizer...who picks that up, or do you divide the cost by the total # of people dining and then aggregate that by the # of people in each family to assess a real cost per family?

It's a total headache.

Years ago, my buddy Ming Lu told me of the Chinese custom that whenever a group goes out for a meal, one person always picks up the tab.   I thought What a great idea! And now, when I go out with friends I often offer to get the tab and suggest they get it next time. 

Usually, my friends are OK with this and graciously offer to return the favor next time.  One friend though (and you know who you are!) occasionally comments that I've got some sort of Messiah Complex always trying to demonstrate my power by picking up the tab.  

Well, today on Marketplace, MIT economist Dan Ariely gave some credence to my views.  He demonstrates that the "pain" of splitting a check is much higher than the pain of picking up the tab.

So, next time you're out with your friends.  Take a chance and offer to pick up the tab.  You'll find it feels much better than squabbling over that last $1.59 soda.

I Love our Neighborhood...

One of the highlights of our neighborhood is the sense of community we share with one another.  This community is reinforced by frequent social events (cookouts, birthday parties, pool parties...).  Last week about 10 of the neighborhood men went to see Hancock.  It was a fun night out for the guys.

The movie itself was entertaining and unexpectedly thoughtful.  I was expecting it to be completely mindless blowing stuff up.  Instead, it was sort of a mix between Superman Returns, Dogma, and Mystery Men.  I think you'll like it...

Thanks, Reverend!

In another one of those "it's-a-small-world" moments, I noted on Meat and Three Cafe the other day that RTB would be in DC this week conducting Customer Service training for the Westin Embassy Row.  Even though we live in the same town and work at the same place, we rarely get to spend much time together.  So I was delighted to take the opportunity to stay with him last night at the Westin.  My flight from DCA was a 9am, so by staying with him downtown I was able to sleep in until 6:30 and take the Metro to the Airport.

Plus, we went out last night and found an amazing pub in DC where they had about 15 small-print pages of beer choices.  We both chose a country and tried new brews.  The Boddington Cream Pale Ale was awesome!

We had a great time talking about life, work, and finances until about 2am.  It was the perfect way to end an amazing few days here in DC/MD. 

The Hill have Wheels

Bucking the nation-wide trend for "staycations" this year due to high fuel-costs, our dear friends the Hills took a driving vacation from MD to CA and back.  Holy cow!  That's a LONG drive!  But they made the most of it with visit to see friends in at least six states along the way.  Including, a few days in our backyard (not literally!  They stayed at RTB's while he was in TN). 

The day after Our Favorite Girls and That Bald Guy left, the Hills dropped by for a day at the beach with Michelle and the kids and then spent the night with us.  We had a great time talking about families, friends, faith and politics.  We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends! 

Fun with friends at the beach

It's a beautiful day at the beach in Malibu. And we're enjoying it to the fullest with some dear friends from Bloomington. Our "favorite girls and that bald guy" spent a few days with us and we had a blast! The beach, the pool, cooking out, cooking in, Vietnamese Pho, Boba, Paradise Cove, Malibu Seafood, leaving ALL seven children at home alone while we went out to dinner...

My goodness we had a blast! We're already looking forward to their next visit. By then I'm sure I will have forgotten about this one. :-)

I'll post more photos soon...

Our "Favorite Girls" and "that bald guy"

Some dear friends from IN visited last week.  We've been looking forward to their visit for a long time.  This is the third time they've come to see us since we moved to CA. 

We love their visits for lots of reasons...they are a sweet family that inspires us to our highest ambitions, they encourage us with their strong faith in God's provision, and they really make us laugh!

It's been about two years since we saw them last, so Tater Tot just barely remembered them.  In fact, he could not remember Scott's name.  Perhaps that's because last time he saw Scott, he was dresses a Pirate for VBS all week...or perhaps it is because Scott has recently begun shaving his head completely bald... who knows.  In any event, we've referred to their family as "our favorite girls" for years.  Tater, however, was not comfortable with this moniker and attached the addendum, "...and that bald guy". 

We enjoyed their visit tremendously!  Highlights included...

• An amazing morning at the beach (did I mention our favorite girls are all fair-skinned and blonde and that "somebody" forgot to apply adequate suntan lotion?)
• Daily splashes in the pool.
• Our regular game of "take-two" where That Bald Guy absolutely killed us (as always).
• And, last--but certainly not least--two times the adults went out for a meal and left all seven children AT HOME ALONE!  They did great together and we had wonderful time on our dinner and lunch dates without any worries.  They are growing up fast!

GFGT with the Crisps

The Crisps crashed our monthly GFGT! We had a blast. Thanks to DMC & Elisa for hosting. Here are some photos.

The Kings Girls

It's been a good week at the Staples Center! Today Chun, Ronk and I went to a King's game. After the first period the Kings girls were up giving away shirts and my buddy Chun got one. Here he is posing with three of them.

The game was lame-o. It started out great with a 1-1 tie after the first period. In the first ten-minutes of the second period the Blackhawks scored 4 goals to take a 5-1 lead.

The Kings were playing so poorly that we decided to leave with 10-minutes left. However, right before we left, the Kings scored. And, as we were leaving (literally at the exit doors) they scored again (now it was 5-3 with about 7-minutes left). We talked about staying, but decided they had no chance. I just got home and saw this headline on the Yahoo!Sports..."Blackhawks escape Kings". Doh! We should have stayed!

The Power of Sport

It's nearly Super Bowl Sunday. I'm excited that the NFC has finally returned to the big game. Like many of you, I'll be heading to a friend's house for the big game. It's funny how sports can bring people together.

An old buddy from college shared this inspirational video with me today. It's a great example of the power of sport.

A terrific Saturday...

Marcus and I went to see Flat Stanley on Saturday. We read the book first, then saw the show. It was a good boy's date.

After the show we met some very dear friends for the Women's Basketball game. The game was much better than our men's Monday night showing against Gonzaga. In case you hadn't seen it on ESPN...our men's coach resigned after the humiliating defeat by Gonzaga.

Then, after the game we had our January GFGT downtown. We had drinks at the Rooftop bar of The Standard, then dinner at La Bella Cocina. It was a terrific evening!

DC/LA Christmas Party #4

Hard to believe this is our fourth year in LA and so many of our dear friends from DC still live here (and the Crowe/Warfords joined us this year!).

Here's some photos...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We had a pumpkin carving party at the poolhouse tonight. Lots of friends were there and there were many, many pumpkins carved! Fun, fun, fun! Here are some photos.

From 2007-Q4-Pumpk...

Marcus' Preschool Party

Lots of neighbors are starting preschool with Marcus next week. Here's a photo of them all together getting ready for preschool socialization.

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RD's Wedding Photos

RD's Wedding Photos

My long-time friend, legal counsel and golf-partner married on Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony in a terrific location with lots of beautiful people in attendance. Some of my favorite people on earth were in and at the wedding. I was deeply honored to perform the ceremony. While I've done about ten weddings over the years, it's been a while and I was nervous I would say the names in the wrong order. But it went well. Click here for some candid photos.


Welcome to the "family", Stephanie.

Richard's bachelor party at 21 choices ice cream in Pasadena. Delicious!