Archive for "Family"
Logan and Eli
Posted on November 5, 2006 by Ching under Babies, Family, Flickr.
This is probably one of the most adorable photos I have ever seen. Kudos to Dad for taking it.
These are our nephews. The big boy is Logan. The little one is Eli. Logan has a special blog here. Eli has a family web site at Baby Homepages.
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Five Years Ago
Posted on October 16, 2006 by Ching under Family, Life.
I found an old journal entry from No. 2305. I thought I’d repost it here. Sometimes we can learn a lot from looking back at the past. Sometimes it’s just fun to poke fun at ourselves. Enjoy.
2001 HIGHLIGHTS
The Good, the Bad and the UglyBought a house. Brian and Kevin shared a two-bedroom, two-story townhouse. They had just moved there when Brian and I started seeing each other. I officially moved in with them in January of 2000. We lived there for over a year and then one day, Brian woke up and decided he had had enough of apartment living. He was tired of the loud, annoying neighbors. We were totally unprepared.. We didn’t have any down-payment money saved up, but we were both able-bodied and had excellent credit, so we felt sure that we would be able to qualify for a reasonable home loan. We did. We moved into to our very own house on the 14th of April 2001. That’s where we currently reside with our lovable cat, Hobbie. 2305 Farmstead. It was the first house that we could agree on and it satisfied all of our requirements: three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, two-car garage. It is small and doesn’t have a basement, but it is large enough for the three of us (Brian, Hobbie and I).
Got engaged. The proposal came as a surprise, but wasn’t totally unexpected either. I know this sounds like an oxymoron, but there is no other way to describe it. Let me explain. Brian and I had always talked about getting married — eventually. He never really proposed (up until then), but we knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We had talked about getting married, having children (and grandchildren) and growing old together. He knew that he didn’t have to propose.. Because I already knew how he felt about me. But on Sunday, May 6th, he arrived at my work. Armed with three red roses and determination, he proporsed. My engagement ring consisted of a princess-cut diamond with baguettes on either side and it was set in platinum. It’s very beautiful. We had to take it back to Zales for sizing, though, because my fingers are tiny. Now, do you understand why I say that was suprised, but then I wasn’t?
Hosted a successful house-warming-slash-birthday-party. We had to post-pone it several times because we wanted to make sure everyone could attend. There were lots of things going on in everyone’s life, so we weren’t able to have it until June (two months after we had actually moved in). By then it was time for Brian’s birthday, so we ended up having a combination party. Brian had gotten his birthday present from me a couple of months prior. I bought him a 60″ TV with my tax-refund money. We had it delivered the day that we moved in, but he knew it was to be is 27th birthday present. It’s a present that he won’t soon forget and that I probably will never be able to match in this lifetime. The family room is now dubbed the BAT-room (kind of like the bat-cave, only in this case, BAT stands for “BIG ASS TV”). We spend most of our time in there.
Matt and Jen separated. As my relationship with Brian flourised, Jen’s (my sister) relationship with Matt (now her ex-fiancé) fell apart. Their wedding, which had been planned for September 2001, ended up getting canceled. They have a child, Logan, who is primarily in Matt’s care. My mom baby-sits him sometimes. He turned one in July. We got him a wooden rocking horse, which he loves, for his first birthday. After their separation, Jen moved back in with our parents. Up until then, she and Matt were living together. She lived with mom and dad for about a week before getting kicked out. She’s kind of a pain-in-the-ass, childish and irresponsible. She lived on her own for the rest of the year, but spent the night at our parents’ house every now and then. Mom and dad feel sorry for her though, so they’re allowing her to move back in again. Hopefully, she’ll be more respectful this time around.
Betty and Clark’s 60th wedding anniversary. Betty and Clark invited us all to join them at the Crown Uptown Dinner Theater to celebrate their 60th anniversary. Dave and Donna (Brian’s parents), Kevin and his girlfriend Stephanie, Brian’s Uncle Kenny and his wife Laura, and Brian and I all came. The host does announcements before the show and he greeted Betty and Clark a happy anniversary (they were given a free specialty drink in a commemorative goblet on the house), Clark a happy birthday (their anniversary just happens to fall on the same day as his birthday) and me a happy birthday also (I didn’t get a free drink, though). It was really neat! The food wasn’t that great, but the show was awesome. I really enjoyed myself. We watched a local production of Sweet Charity, which I hadn’t seen before, and I liked it a lot.
Our first Christmas in our first house. We got a four-and-a-half foot pre-lit artificial Christmas tree as our first tree. Donna had loaned us some Christmas ornaments, so we used some of that. We also used the ornaments that Brian’s grandmother had given me in the past. We had to buy our tree-topper and some gold-bead garland, but everything worked well together. The end resuld was a cute but beautiful first Christmas tree. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house, as was the tradition, but we hosted Christmas Day at our house. Everyone (Brian’s grandparents, Kevin, his parents and even their dog Sally, and then later that same day, my parents, Jen and one of Kevin’s friends) came. They all seemed to enjoy themselves, so I guess it’s safe to say it went well. I don’t know if we’ll host it again this year.. We’ll see.
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All Around the Web
Posted on October 7, 2006 by Ching under Family, News, Poker, Web.
Poker hasn’t been good to me lately so I’m returning to my first love–blogging. So long poker. At least until next week.
So what’s going on around the web over the last few days?
- My poker hiatus may last longer than a few days if the new online gambling law passes. There are many people who are more than a little distruntled about this. Even my idol is chiming in.
- Mom’s birthday was yesterday, October 6, but we are celebrating tomorrow. Lunch at their house. I’m looking forward to it. Yummy food, here I come! Scarf, scarf, scarf!
- Speaking of mom’s birthday, Dad made her a tribute video. Isn’t it amazing that even my dad is on YouTube? That should tell you something.
- It’s telling Google something. It’s supposed to be all rumor and speculation right now. Neither camp has confirmed anything. No one is talking. However, the news made the Wall Street Journal. So it’s gotten pretty big as rumors go.
- If this goes through there will be serious repercussions. Some say YouTube will go down the tubes. Some say that the Google folks are nuts for even thinking about it. Mark Cuban has been quoted as saying only a moron would buy YouTube.
- But who cares about that stuff, I’ve already moved on to the next big thing: PornoTube. That’s right. You knew it was only a matter of time. It’s a shame I didn’t think of it or I’d be a millionaire entrepreneur by now. LOL.
- For someone who is super busy this semester I found a couple of new shows to add to my watch list. First there’s Heroes which Brian has been anxiously awaiting for several months; and then there is 5 Takes which is like MTV’s Road Rules but ten times better. There’s more travelling and less drama.
Who needs TV when there is so much entertainment to be found online?
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The Procedural Dating Kit
Posted on September 23, 2006 by Ching under Family, Web.
I was going to get this for Jen for her birthday but I found that she and Ray are back together. So much for the brilliant gift idea.
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Winning, Anger and the Crack Addicted Chimps!
Posted on August 13, 2006 by Brian under Family, Games, Life.
On Thursday August 10 my wife and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We had decided that we were going to take a trip to Kansas City and play in a poker tourney their and stay at Harrahs Casino. We have been to Kansas City several times but not to this end, normally we stay around the plaza and don’t venture farther than that. This time we had to go to North KC which took us thru a totally different Highway System. Let me start here and say that the KC Highway System had to be designed by Crack Addicted, ADD inflicted Chimpanzees! It is the most insane thing that I have ever seen in my life. We were following directions that were given to us by Google Maps. At one point it told us to look for the I35, I70, and I210 exchange. So we did. Come to find out this is an intersection where ALL THREE highways intersect into one freaking point and continue for several miles. Then they all branch out again but not in the normal fashion (oh no!). Instead for example, if you entered from the right which was I35 you now had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get all the way over to the left to catch I35 again. If you entered from the left then you had to cross over to the center and so on. Then there were the on ramps! These were not normal on ramps, these things stretched on for miles and seemed to twist and turn and contort so that you thought you were on a roller coaster not an on ramp. At one point I felt like throwing my hands thru the sun roof and yelling WEEEEE as we went around the on ramp. Then we get to the final annoyance of the
KC Highwaysystem, the signs. At one time we were following the signs to get back to the highway when all of a sudden the highway sign that we were following just disappeared. We are in the center lane of rush hour traffic and we are completely lost. Our highway just vanished and I could not see any options for another turn. I ended up going around the block to only run into another sign for our highway. We were completely dumbfounded. We HATE the KC highway system. Needless to say that after that we did not leave the hotel for the rest of the trip.
As for our poker tourney that is a story in itself. So let’s get started at the beginning. We get their and get our entry paid and find out the seating and rules for this tourney. Ching and I were hopeful to win but were realistic in the thought that we probably would not as this was a new experience for us (playing in a tourney of this magnitude around players that come here to make a living off of this). We both get seated and give each other good luck kisses and start. After about an hour I look over to see Ching walking toward me. I could not believe she was knocked out so soon. I thought to myself this is incredible, she is by far a better player than me and she is already out. It’s just a matter of time before I go out. I managed to get luck on my first 2 hands and get high card Ace for the win followed by pocket Aces for the second win. After that everything went dead and I barely played a hand. I told Ching to stay close so if I got knocked out I wouldn’t have to go far to find her. Break came and I decided to see what she was doing. There was no cell coverage in the building so I had to locate her the old fashioned way, by using my dammed eyes (what is this world coming to). I only had ten minutes and as time went by I got increasingly frustrated and worried then it just turned to anger. My ten minutes were up and I was so pissed that I decided that I was just going to dump the game hunt her down and tell her just how pissed I was. I ended up getting the big blind on the second hand returning from break. I didn’t have many chips so I went all in. One guy asked if I was going to look at my cards and I looked at him and said with a resounding tone “Nope!†This sparked several callers at the table and several worried people that eventually folded. All in all I had 4 callers and the other three could bet. One guy didn’t have much in chips left and after the flop he went all in as well. One guy folded and the other called. The 2 that were still able to bet turned their cards over and the dealer laid out the turn and the river. The short stacked guy lost to a pair of aces, I figured I was done and turned over my cards to discover that I had king jack. This was great because the table had 2 jacks on the board which meant I got three of a kind and won the bigger pot. I looked over at the guy that won with the aces (who was also the guy that asked if I was going to look at my cards) and he was glancing at me with an almost disgusted look on his face. Like he should have won just because I didn’t not look or something. This kind of put him on tilt because after a few hands he was gone at the table and they condensed us. I had 4 more all-in’s and survived. It was an incredible run. Top six paid out and I turned to my wife and said “Watch me get knocked out on the bubble!†I was the target, I was the short stack and everyone wanted me dead. Every time I went all in I was sure I was gone but every time I pulled back more and more chips. There were 10, then 8, then 7 then all of a sudden I was in the money. I couldn’t believe it. Then all of a sudden it was 5, then 4, then 3! I looked at this one guy next to me as my wife is cheerleading in the background and he says “your like that dammed hang-nail that won’t go awayâ€. I looked back and said to him “no, I’m more like that last cock roach that you have sprayed smashed and poisoned and he still won’t dieâ€. He laughed and every time I won a hand after that he would turn to me and say “Why won’t you just dieâ€. I turned to the tournament director and asked him “How much does 3rd get†(thinking to myself that third is better than nothing). He tells me the denomination and no sooner did I say that, the guy to my left gets knocked out and it’s down to 2 people. I immediately turn to the director and ask again “How much does 2nd place getâ€. This got lots of laughs and I continued till I was finally knocked out in 2nd place. I couldn’t believe it. I came in to this game as the under-dog beating out 38 other players to take home 2nd place and $414.00. I was amazed and I don’t think it really hit me till I got back to the room. Ching thinks that it was my pissed off bought that got me thru it and wants to start pissing me off more before we play poker now. I told her I would rather not. I immediately called my folks who were also amazed. I mean I never win anything at poker, the occasional home game but nothing major like this. It just show that you can never underestimate that desperate cock roach, other wise he will come back to life and take it all.
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