Category Archives: Play

Told we had something special planned.

Posted on August 31, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

Michelle has been asking me not to post too much about our wedding, because she wanted to save it for this. We’re on Style Me Pretty! Did I get too excited there? I actually have never been to that website (story I’m sticking with), but I hear it’s a big deal. That means Michelle is a big deal, and as her plus one, I am a big deal. I like being a big deal.

Check out some of the photos from our wedding. All photos are by our awesome wedding photographer, Raya, unless otherwise noted.

Our first look. Michelle’s first words to me were, “I’m so glad you showed up.”

Guys I have known for way too long.

The gorgeous bride with her bridesmaids.

Being married under Hometree. Apologies to the bridesmaids and groomsmen on the ends. Fisheye lenses are not flattering there. On the up side, look how great Michelle and I look. Photo by David C. Lee.

Our wedding coordinators at Bash Eco Events put together Michelle’s image beautifully. People were calling it, “The Best 6 -Year-Old Birthday Party Ever.”

Photo byDavid C. Lee.

Sweet.

Yeah, we even brought in Coolhaus. Our friends, who don’t live in the LA area are still talking about the truck.

And of course there was dancing. A few wine bottles made it onto the dance floor, which meant even more fun.

So a big thanks to all the friends and family that were able to make this day so special. We had awesome vendors to make it all come together. I’m glad I can finally put the whole wedding behind me and just an old, married man.

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Posted in Photo, Play, She's So Lucky

Tagged family, friends, temescal gateway park, wedding

Photo Booth Madness

Posted on August 25, 2010 by m@| 4 Comments

One of the things I love is capturing memories in images. So it was an absolute must for us to have a photo booth of some sort at our wedding. After looking at all the other costs, I didn’t want to pay for a photo booth rental. Instead I took my dSLR and hooked it up to my laptop to preview the photos as they were taken.

Here is the backdrop of our photo booth, ivy intertwined with pom poms and twirly whirlies.

There were plenty of fun props to play with for the photos.

It was also nice to have a non traditional photo booth, because you can cram more people into the frame.

Some people started getting amorous.

Most of the people just had a good time being silly.

Even some of our older friends and relatives got in on the fun.

This is super impressive timing to get all four of them in the air like this.

A fight did break out over people hogging the camera time.

Some people were naturals when it came to photos. It’s like art.

There was even a light saber battle or two that night.

Michelle’s family loved the photo booth.

Cheese! Is this thing working? There we go!

I’m high on life.

Making love to the camera.

Everyone enjoyed it until the very end of the night.

I was super happy about the way the photo booth turned out on my first try. I’d love to set this up for some other event some time. If anyone has an occasion, give me a holler. I’m much less expensive than those other guys and probably the best looking photo booth operator you’ll find out there. For now, please enjoy the some more of our photos on our wedding website.

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Posted in Photo, Play

Tagged family, friends, photo booth, wedding

Tourist in my own town.

Posted on July 26, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

Saturday was Christina’s birthday and the party was set for H.Wood, which is supposed to be one of the hottest spots right now. Not for me. I hate clubs. I prefer the dark bar, where your feet stick to the floor a little bit and no one cares what you’re wearing as long as you have on pants. Sometimes not even that.

I was secretly hoping this place would be somehow different from the rest of the clubs. It mattered not. We ended up showing up after the guest list closed and there was no way I was going to spend thirty bucks just to get into the place. Of course since Michelle has boobs they said she could go in for free. I told her to go in and that I’d just walk around Hollywood for a while.

I’ve been up to the Hollywood and Highlands area a lot in the past, but I never stopped to look around at all the tourists. I knew they were always there, but it was interesting to have time to just watch them and see their fascination with Hollywood. There were lots of people gathered around Michael Jackson’s star on the Walk of Fame. The Spanish speaking tourists were enamored with Ricky Martin’s star.

After looking at people for a while I ducked into Hard Rock Cafe to see this. It’s the first live implementation of Microsoft Surface that I’ve ever seen. A whole wall of Microsoft software running and not a single BSOD!

It has no real practical use for the every day user but the specialty applications for this are limitless. They were using it to display images of rock and roll memorabilia and give information on the pieces.

I even learned something. Dr. Dre is way behind with labeling mediocre headphones with his name. The Beatles did that with Koss headphones back in the day.

It’s always interesting to get a new perspective on something old that’s supposed to already be familiar. Perhaps I should look around more often rather than hurry though my daily routines.

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Posted in Photo, Play

Tagged hollywood, tourist

It’s like a dream I had in a dream and forgot in another dream.

Posted on July 20, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

We had the chance to go see Inception on Saturday, but Michelle and I passed on it because we had things to put together for our wedding. It’s a good thing we decided to pass on it, because during our arts and crafts time we realized there was no way we could get the job done ourselves. We called in reinforcements and to our surprise a whole crew of elves showed up the next day and took care of the job like a finely tuned Asian sweat shop. Thanks, guys!

For those that did show up, most of them had seen Inception. There were whispers and cryptic talk about what it all meant. Checking Facebook revealed the same thing. Michelle even said there was a side huddle at her work to discuss the movie. We realized we had to see this movie.

Inception is not the kind of movie you can go into and totally shut off your brain. It’s about alternate realities (think Matrix) and while the movie requires some thinking, I think there was too much done to try to make sure the audience kept up with the film. Half an hour of the film could have been cut out, and the story would have flowed just as well. Michelle kept up really well, but in the end the movie wasn’t for her.

Michelle: I don’t like alternate reality movies, except the one where they crawl through the tiny hallways.
Me: Being John Malkovich?
Michelle: Yeah, that one.

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Posted in Play

Tagged inception, movie

Moderation is for losers.

Posted on July 13, 2010 by m@| 3 Comments

Saturday morning I got a call from my cousin. He said he was in my area and wanted to know if I wanted to get brunch. Knowing that my cousin is twenty five and that twenty five year olds like booze, I took him to Overland Cafe for the all-you-can-drink champagne brunch.

This was my meal. Nothing fancy here. Meat and potatoes.

Crab Cakes Benedict.

Instead of an English Muffin you have a crab cake! I’m allergic, but I was tempted to try this. Would that be ultimate food blogger dedication? It’s not like I’d die.

I’ve got to say this was not one of my smarter ideas. My cousin loved it though. About three bottles in he said, “We should have a family reunion and drink together.” Sounds fun, huh? Except no one in our family drinks.

After brunch I took a nap until about 6:30 PM. I was supposed to be at dinner at that time, but fortunately for me my ride was running late. It’s a good thing I had a ride too, because I was drunk when I woke up from my nap. For dinner we went to Cuban Bistro, probably the only non Asian joint in Alhambra. Why would we check out a place like this in an area known for its Asian eats? Well we needed a place that was walking distance to Ultrazone Laser Tag, but the birthday boy is afraid of Asian food that does not have the words Panda and Express in the restaurant name. The restaurant chosen was really good nonetheless.

Masitas del Puerco. The skin on the pork was fried so perfectly and the inside was tender, juicy, and had a big kick of citrus flavor. Couple that with the plaintains and Arroz Moros. I could eat this all day.

After a meal like this there’s nothing left to do but run around with a laser gun and shoot your friends. If you’ve had excessive amounts of alcohol, you might also take a random kid hostage in the arena and film a ransom movie on your iPhone 4.

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Posted in Food, Photo, Play

Tagged alcohol, champagne, cuban, friends, pork

Happy America Day! Unbutton your pants.

Posted on July 6, 2010 by m@| 3 Comments

America is another year older as an independent country. Nothing says America better than cramming your gullet full of too much food and too much alcohol.

BBQ number one took place in Costa Mesa with Jenny and her neighbors and their friends. That is probably the most diverse gathering at a BBQ that you will ever see. Fake boobs and tattoos came in from the IE. Then there were the Asian kids. Last but not least were a group of pasty white hipster kids. Still it was good food and drinks for all.

Let me tell you something about Jenny. She can mix a great cocktail, and she can make some awesome dishes, all from scratch. Here is her spinach and artichoke dip.

The ranch veggie dip in this photo is also made from scratch. I won’t argue against the fact that it tastes a lot better than ranch from the store shelves, but think of all the web surfing she could have done if she didn’t make it from scratch!

You can’t have a BBQ without putting something on the actual grill. Jenny’s bratwursts and chicken apple sliders.

These little suckers are magnificent. I could eat about twenty of them.

It wouldn’t be a celebration of America if there wasn’t at least one drunk idiot, right?

Throw another shrimp on the barbie!

Mango salsa and BBQ shrimp. Sacrilicious.

Of course you can’t forget dessert. Jenny’s cupcakes with scratch frosting.

After baking in the Orange County sun for far too long and getting a nice foot tan from my Rainbows, Michelle and I headed up to Torrance to another friend’s Fourth of July celebration. We said we weren’t going to eat anymore, but we couldn’t deny the call to become American fat asses.

Grapes stuffed with goat cheese and topped with pistacchio.

Mo’s seafood paella. He’s getting good at this dish. It’s got everything Michelle loves. Sausage and seafood.

Food with American colors. Red, white…and green?

Shrimp egg rolls? Shrimp in a blanket? I don’t know what you call these, but they’re delicious.

Independence Day wouldn’t be complete without lighting up the night sky with some fireworks. Here are the least blurry ones where I kept from shaking for a split second with my point-and-shoot camera.

After the festivities were over, we walked home along the railroad tracks. Hope everyone had a safe weekend and kept all their fingers too.

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Posted in Food, Photo, Play

Tagged bbq, fireworks, fourth of july

Beautiful Vancouver

Posted on June 22, 2010 by m@| 2 Comments

I got some more photos from one of my friends of our Vancouver trip. These are the professional shots.

“You kids shouldn’t play so rough. Somebody’s gonna start cryin’.”

“Hang on lady. We going for a ride!”

“I’m rather embarrassed, General Solo, but it appears that you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor.”

Okay I’ve run out of movies that these pictures bring to mind.

The circus is in town! I want to see the elephants.

Doing a little bit of boozin’ with my buddies.

Geronimo! Into the cold Canadian waters.

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Posted in Photo, Play, Travel

Tagged alcohol, bridge, forest, vancouver

The time I ate and drank Vancouver.

Posted on June 16, 2010 by m@| 8 Comments

Canada’s immigrant population is heavily Asian. It’s odd being from Southern California and having the working class not be Hispanic. It does have one drawback. There aren’t any taco trucks, but there are plenty of awesome Asian joints. Plenty of other delicious things can be eaten as well.

The izakaya scene in Vancouver is awesome. The next series of pictures are from Hapa Izakaya. I don’t even remember what we ordered, so just use your imagination when you see the pictures.

Do you know what time it is? Sake Time!

How can we really call the izakaya scene a scene unless we stopped into more spots. This next spot was called Gyoza King.

The place lived up to its name. These gyoza were stately and royal.

Of course one of the Koreans had to order kimchi ramen.

Not into the Asian food? There’s still plenty of other things to snack on in the city, with drinks of course.

This is poutine, one of Canada’s national dishes. It consists of french fries covered with beef gravy and cheese curds. It’s serious business in Canada. I personally don’t think much of it, but I would definitely give it another go as there are all different styles of this dish.

This was the dinner I woke up on the table for at The Keg Steakhouse & Bar. The steak and seafood were cooked perfectly.

Don’t forget the drinks. Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot!

You might not be able to tell, but I am grimacing. Why?

See that stuff floating on top? That is hot sauce…in 151. So it burns going in and coming out.

Last but certainly not least was Japadog! It combines the need for Los Angeles ghetto dogs with Asian flavor. It’s just too bad these guys aren’t open when the bars and clubs let out. They would make a killing.

So who else wants to hit up Vancouver for a food marathon?

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Posted in Food, Photo, Play, Travel

Tagged alcohol, hot dog, japanese, noodles

Oh Canada…

Posted on June 15, 2010 by m@| 7 Comments

This weekend was my bachelor party. Michelle and her girlfriends went south of the border on a cruise last weekend. We went north to Canada: the land of beavers, maple syrup, and hockey. We aptly named our trip, “You can’t do that on a boat.”

Vancouver is an awesome city, and it was great to spend the weekend there with a bunch of guys that I’ve known on average for almost seventeen years. Inhibitions go out the door with people that are so comfortable with each other. The first morning one of the guys said to me, “Matt. Pants.” Don’t worry though. I’m comfortable with them, not the entire Internet. This blog post will be kept PG-13.

Being outside of Los Angeles, it becomes apparent once again that everyone else in the world is nicer than the people in our city.

Our limo from the airport. Let the immaturity begin!

Our hotel suite was bigger than my apartment. It had a full kitchen.

It even had what we like to call the Calvin Klein Room.

Being from LA we have to represent. Not sure we were even drinking much at this point.

This picture was taken at 9:30 PM or so. It’s ridiculous how long it stays light in this town.

We crossed a suspension bridge. Can’t do that on a boat. It doesn’t look like much at first.

Until you see how high it is as it sways back and forth. Still it was worth it to cross.

This is what was on the other side. The Ewok Village on the Forest Moon of Endor!

How come we don’t have any of this back in LA?

We even played some golf. Mostly it involved swearing at the clubs while laughing at each other.

After consuming copious amounts of alcohol I was forced to swim out to this platform and ride the slide. Vancouver’s ocean is pretty gross, but it’s nature gross with seaweed and mollusks.

Then Edward 40 Hands happened.

I did so well with the beer they taped some more to my hands.

Then I woke up…on the table at dinner…at a nice restaurant.

If someone wants to plan a trip to Vancouver, let me know. This town is definitely one I would come back to visit. I would come back here just for the food, but that’s a whole other blog post.

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Posted in Photo, Play, Travel

Wedding Weekend: 1 of 843,394 this year.

Posted on April 26, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

Let’s start this post off with what I know best, eating.

I never knew I liked Taiwanese food so much until I went to Taiwan two years ago. Sue’s Kitchen in Torrance has saved me from multiple cravings. We always order the beef noodle soup here too, but we’re probably the only ones ordering in English.

Saturday was the first wedding of many this year. Although Michelle is the one that knows them from college, JP and Jenn are two of the nicest people I’ve met. I couldn’t be happier for them.