18 April 2008. Ok, so below is bunch of updates I've been meaning to add but just never got around to them until now. So, enjoy. This weekend will be fun: Saturday birthday lunch with the family and paintball on Sunday.
----------------------
07 April 2008. It was a big weekend. Friday night, one of my Lodge brothers had a formal reception for the new Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles at the City Club downtown. I attended that (as did a number of my close brothers from my Lodge). I met with the Consul General, who asked to meet with me sometime to discuss artists touring Mexico; and I also want to discuss the possibility of some of my Latin artists endorsing Mexican products and businesses here in the U.S. Meanwhile, Christie was at the OES meeting at my Lodge and she's becoming very active in it. The potential chapter that is being formed at my Lodge is run by a person her age anyway; and it's meant to be a forward-thinking chapter, appealing to young folks (as well as our elders who are open to change); so, I think she's enjoying it. On Saturday, we had a birthday lunch for Vincent and John, who share the same birthday. We went to New Moon restaurant in Valencia, a modern Chinese place, that's a favorite of John's. Andrea's sister (and her husband) were there and so were Tito Jun, Tita Baby, Vincent, Debbie and their kids, Nico & Elise. We had a great time and the kids (of course) were wandering, sometimes running, around the restauarant. It was also a time to say goodbye to Kylie as she's back off to Czech to spend a few months attending school and therapy sessions. Every time we see Kylie, her ability to interact and her physicality grow by leaps; and though I wish we could see her more often, I know for sure that these stints away do wonders for her. We're try to teach Aidan a bit of sign language so he can understand that you can communicate in different ways and in turn, be able to interact better with his cousin as he gets older. The same afternoon, we had an appointment at the house to put some laminate in the family room. It's carpet right now but with the dog and Aidan, and all the in and out from the backyard, it seems the best thing to do. Sunday we continued our mission to have fun with our backyard. We've decided it should be a fun, outdoor living room; and because we're a bit quirky, we've decided to make it Tiki themed. We won't go too overboard. But, we definitely want it to be fun. We've been going to stores to get some ideas and this Sunday, we bought some battery-operated paper lanterns to string from the house to the tree in the far corner of our (postage-stamped) backyard. The rest of Sunday afternoon was family time. After Aidan took his nap, I read some Thomas the Tank engine stories to him outside on our front patio. Then, he rode his Radio Flyer tricycle around the block (9 times!); and then, we all (Christie, Aidan, Courtney [our roommate], Zoe [our dog] and Max [our friends' dog who we are boarding]) took a half hour walk around the neighborhood. It was very relaxing. Of course, there was some work thrown into the weekend for me. I got a call from one of my current clients telling me that a particular rap record company (and its rapper owner) wants to change lawyers and like me; and late Sunday night, I had to go to a Hollywood club to see a band I represent play. So, yes, this was a busy weekend.
14 Feb 2008. Valentines Day. It's amazing how wonderful life for us has become. We're very happy with what's become of our lives, our house, our neighborhood; and we realize how blessed we are. Lately, we've taken up riding our bikes around Culver City on the weekends to go downtown for lunch (or ice cream!) and do our shopping at Trader Joe's. This morning, Christie stopped by at a Filipino restaurant and got me some Chicken Adobo for lunch -- a wonderful V-day gift for me since I don't often have Filipino food. Tonight, we are going to our favorite Italian restaurant, Vito's, on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica. The staff is always so nice to us there. They treat Aidan very well and give him clean table cloths to use as pillows and blankets when he gets sleepy; and they even give us a hefty discount on our meal to boot since we're locals and eat there often. Christie's favorite dish is the Spaghetti Della Casa and Aidan always has the gnocchi.
19 Feb 2008. The Presidents' holiday weekend was nice and relaxed. These days, Aidan is into Thomas the Tank Engine. So we took him to Travel Town in Griffith Park to look at all of the old steam engines and passenger cars. He was asleep when we got there. But, Christie gently woke him up an turned him around so the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a huge, black steam engine. He couldn't believe it and just started saying, "train! train!" and ran toward it after Christie put him down on the ground. It was a fun time looking at the engines and cars and then we rode on the children's miniature train to finish the afternoon. We also took Zoe to the Culver City dog park (called the "Bone Yard") for the first time. She was nervous at first but then calmed down and enjoyed playing with the other dogs. The other owners were really nice to us and helped us get Zoe to settle in to the idea of being around other dogs. I never realized it; but Culver City Park, which extends up into the hills where Duquesne intersects with Jefferson, is huge! It has the dog park, a skate park, little league baseball fields, soccer fields, all nestled up in those hills. You'd never know you were in L.A.! It reminded me a bit of Sunland-Tujunga being that secluded, in the hills and around so much nature. Oh, I also finally watched the Jason Bourne movies. People praise the fight scenes for their realism and I found out that Matt Damon's fight moves were applied Kali/Eskrima, which is the martial arts of the Philippines! Kali/Eskrima/Arnis (all names for the same thing) is primarily known for its weapons (knives, stick) use but is considered a really efficient martial art as the moves for weapons are the same for empty hand. I found that really interesting.
