Marc and Marilyn and Andrew!

Monday I had dinner with one of my best friends, Kara. She lives down in Orange County so its tough to find time to hangout. We both have been busy with life and we finally made plans for a catch up session over dinner at her place. At 3:30pm I hopped on the 405 south and made my way to the OC. I got there much faster than I anticipated so I stopped at South Coast Plaza in hopes to score some shoes. That mall is so funny to me, cuz they have super high end stores that are more often than not, empty. The mall was quiet, another sign of recession. I walked into any store that sold shoes. Unfortunately, no luck on the shoe hunt. Kara called me as soon as she got out of the office and we decided to meet at her apt. I totally got lost… ok, well not lost, but I found a new way to get to her place. haha.

When I arrived, she had a large pot on the stove and was in the midst of making Sinigang. Yumm! One of the best Filipino dishes around. It’s great to see Kara cooking. haha. I find that Kara and I are on the same level as far as cooking goes. We eagerly try new recipes, visit the market too often and end up making way too much food. Lucky for us, we have men in our lives that love what we cook, because we usually have pots full of one dish. lol. She made her Sinigang all fancy too. She added “long green” beans, baby bokchoy and even taro root. Look her, all fancy.

We got to catch up on life over a a couple of glasses of wine. Kara’s witty sense of humor, tactful “tell it like it is” persona and  her unmatched class always make her one of my favorite people to be around. Sprinkle a little hip hop in there, and she’s always got me laughing or nodding in agreement.

On my drive home, I felt really good about visiting Kara. It was much need Quality Time. I realized how lucky I was to be surrounded by such great people. I’m thankful to have a friend like her.

Today is the first day of the summer kickball league. Matthew and Cousin created a team The One Kick Wonders. We all met up in Torrance Sunday for the first game. For most this was the first time players met each other. It’s a combination of family and friends on our team. And this was also the first time most of the players had ever played adult kickball. We all recall kickball back in the day as elementary school kiddies. This is exactly the same thing, except add alcohol. lol. Often, there are coolers filled with beer and players enjoy making friends while playing a friendly, and sometimes competitive game of kickball. We won our first game! 5 – 4. whoo whoo.

Afterwards, like all kickball divisions, we all headed to our host bar Pockets in Mahanttan beach. We get 20% off all our food and drinks since we’re in the kickball league. There were probably 40-50 players at Pockets and a Nikki. Then Jill started up the flipcup games. It was soo much fun. There were maybe 25 people playing Suvior FlipCup. I made it to top 3, and failed to beat the two Gold Team champs. Needless to say I was dunzo after that and it was only 7pm. lol. It was good times. We met some great new people and some old people from the Victory league recognized some of us. We met Lisa who was  Viking and another girl who was on Destructopus. Crazy!

This looks to be a promising season of fun!

The team before our game

The beginning of FlipCup

In celebration of Michelle’s birthday we watched Transformers in IMAX and ate at Tokyo Table for dinner. The movie was definitely actioned packed and fast paced. The movie let out about 45 mins before our dinner reservations, so the boys went to play videogames at Dave & Buster’s while the girls did a bit of shopping at H&M. Tash and April scored some cute dresses. Then we headed to Tokyo Table for dinner. The food was ok. My favorite was the sushi pizza. It was basically a bed of sushi rice, topped with crab meat, scallops, salmon and a jalepeno and then baked. Yummm! Tuffles and I ordered a mango mojito pitcher and the party began! Then, Kara and Robert surprised us! Yay! It was an over all great day with great friends!

See more photos here!

So today my make-up artist Adrienne came by the condo to do our trial session. She brought her assistant Laura as well to help out. Adrienne has got this happy peppy personality. She rocks! We tested a bunch of colors and different styles. We even went ahead and did full airbrushing to see the full effect. It was sooo weird. It’s tough sitting still or trying not to move/twitch when the brushes hit your face. All around success. It’ll be weird having all that make-up on during the day. lol.

The CA crew told us about a Rhythm Natives show at Soul Sessions, so Marc and I decided to show our support while we get our groove on to some great old school hip hop with a MJ Tribute twist. We got there early to grab some decent parking and to start the fun early. When we got to Chinatown we walked around and took a few random pictures. We found a venue called Ooga Booga. Hilarious! Soul Sessions was also hosting a live painting exhibit. We took a quick look at the artists and headed inside. It’s just like I remembered, red lit room with black cushioned booths and a bunch of Urban folks wandering around. Marc ordered 2 Crown and Cokes and we posted up in a corner booth in perfect position for people watching. We bobbed our heads to the grooves the DJ was playing and observed this Urban Scene. The thick glasses, hats, colorful/trendy shoes and accessories galore (scarves, over the shoulder bags) all elements of this scene. Marc and I played a few games and Kim, Courteney, Tricia and Claro showed up. We drank a few and all did a shot of… I forgot… then the Rhythm Natives began their set. Afterwards Marc and I went to the upstairs room and got our boogie on. It’s always so much fun dancing with Marc. Then we hung out a bit more and left. Of course I got hungry, and being in Chinatown we headed to Full House for some friedrice. Another fun night with my Marc.

He’s a legend and will be missed.

Michael Jackson

Our wonderful friend Tam generously offered to take more engagement photos of Marc and I. Monday we all met up at Sacred Heart Chapel and our photo session began. Tam is super cute. She would direct us and position us in different poses around campus to get that perfect shot. She would tell us to “just play with each other”. haha. Marc and I just kept laughing throughout the whole thing.

Taking pictures are weird. It’s a bit uncomfortable having a attention on us, despite how great Tam is. Marc and I kept saying, how are we going to do this on the wedding day?

Tam took some pretty pictures, and we’re so thankful to her for sharing her time and talent. We love you!

Here is the link to her photos.

Here is the link to her blog.

June 23, 2009

Chelle turns 28.

April and I wanted to cook Michelle a surprise birthday dinner. So we told Michelle to show up at 6pm. April and I decided on a Korean food theme. April was going to make Soon du boon, Korean tofu soup, and I planned to make Korean Bulgogi, Korean barbeque beef. We let Tricia in on the surprise and she contributed Chinese chicken salad. She said its cuz Michelle is Chinese. hahaha. She also convinced Rocco, Chelle’s Man Friend, to join in on the festivities. April and I rushed home to cook our meals. When Marc and I got to April’s we started to bake cupcakes and frost them. Michelle was running late, good thing too because we wanted to surprise her with Tricia, Jonas and Rocco. Tricia kept calling to see if Chelle was at the apt yet… hahaha. So funny. She called like every 2 mins “is she there yet? aaahhh” Rocco showed up and started to finish frosting the cupcakes in April’s room. Then Tricia and Jonas showed up. We fixed up the table and waited for Chelle. When she got there, Tricia and Jonas jumped out of April’s room and said “SURPRISE”. Then April and I went into her room to help Rocco light all the candles. We came out singing Happy Birthday. She was totally surprised to see Rocco standing there with lit cupcakes. We enjoyed dinner and good times with friends. Happy birthday Chelle. Cheers to many more.

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

So I got some catching up to do…

Last week, my Ninong Delfy was here in LA because he had just come from a conference in Boston.  He lives in the Philippines and will be back next month for the wedding.  The family decided to take him out to Lawry’s.  Yummy.

Diamond Cut

By the way, not cool that we saw a cockroach as we were waiting for our valet.  Laame!

Thursday, 06/18/09

We met with Will Salvini, our LMU Music Coordinator, at Sacred Heart Chapel.  We are happy to say that he was happy (and maybe impressed) that we have all our songs already.  He also complimented our song selection.  Yay!  We just need to send him a couple more things and we are done with the music.

Friday, 06/19/09

I had told Marilyn I was going to be late coming home because of work-related stuff but was instead getting our wedding bands   I wanted to surprise her so before she went to dinner with Tricia, I met with Dan to pick up the rings.  She loved them!  So while Marilyn went to dinner with Tricia, Timbol came over and played video games.  Man, haven’t played video games in a while.  We stayed up till about midnight playing Lego Batman.  I beat the game the next day lol.

Saturday, 06/20/09

Marilyn was working the weekend shift so I decided to do a reverse brick.  I ran for an hour with Nikki and then jumped on my newly fitted (got refitted on Wednesday) bike and rode for about an hour as well.  Felt good to get that first brick out of the way.

Sunday, 06/21/09

Happy Father’s Day!  I met up with my family at the Cathedral for morning mass and then went to dim sum afterwards.  Gotta love it.  I have to ask Courteney for the picture she took of a sign that showed what Chinese herbs can cure.  Pure awesomeness.  Later that night, Marilyn and I went to her parent’s house for some BBQ.  Man, that fried catfish was soooo good.  We were so tired, we actually went to bed at 8:30.  Ya, we’re old.

So I think I caught up with all the action

Oh yeah, here are the shirts that Kim bought for us at the LA Store.  I still want that gray shirt that Kobe was wearing during the parade but still sold out. 

My BFFEEEEE is hilarious. She can deconstruct a scenario and retell it like it is. No B.S. No fluff. Just straight up. She had me dying from laughter in the car. She should blog under a pen name and spread her knowledge.

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