Tag Archives: friends

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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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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Oh, no he didn’t!

Posted on August 18, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

Oh, yes I did. I am a married man now.

While my contract with Michelle won’t allow me to release all the details of the wedding yet, you can plenty of the unofficial wedding photos online. There are no less than 2,000 photos floating around the Internet from our wedding. I’ve never seen so many cameras at an event. I went blind at one point from all the flashes going off.

So what am I allowed to show you? I guess the rehearsal dinner is okay to post. We went to Back on the Beach for our rehearsal dinner since it was close by our wedding venue.

It’s a salad. Refreshing but still a salad.

My out of focus Steak Frites.

South of the border.

I didn’t actually taste the tacos, so I had nothing to say about them. The steak was okay but not worth a trip to the restaurant just to try it. This pasta was great. The sauce was creamy and spicy and each bite was as satisfying as the previous.

Of course it wasn’t all about the food. It was a time to recognize the people close to us. Here are the groomsmen and me with their gifts. Welcome to The Dark Side.

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I guess the diet is over.

Posted on August 13, 2010 by m@| Leave a comment

Wedding diet has been officially ended but for good reason. It was Jenny’s birthday. So what if we were two days away from the big day. If we didn’t get out we would probably have been sitting at home worrying about things. We took one of our few and far between trips to Orange Couny to Memphis in Costa Mesa. The best part is that we got down there during happy hour so we enjoyed a variety of good eats.

Corn bread. I didn’t try this because the whole dish is bread. I was still trying to stick to the diet in principle.

I did mention it was happy hour, right?

I didn’t try this either, because in a cruel twist of fate, I became allergic to crab in junior high.

Muscles and clams mixed in with some sausage, all in a white wine-tomato broth. This is where the diet broke down. The broth was too tempting not to have soaked in bread.

Pulled pork sliders.

Pizza with tomato and andouille sausage.

Sweet potato fries. I still don’t get the attraction to these that people have. I like my fries salty.

Meat loaf sandwich. Mostly bread though.

Gumbo!

Although it was Jenny’s birthday, she tried to pass off some of her gifts to Alice. Cougar Soap! 60% of the time, it works all of the time!

The birthday girl with her birthday cake, complete with baseball topper.

I like this place and looking at the website shows there’s one in Manhattan Beach too. If their happy hour is the same, I’d definitely go back to try some more bites, drinks, and even an entrée.

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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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Weekend without Michelle

Posted on June 7, 2010 by m@| 5 Comments

The last time Michelle went away for the weekend, I could have summed up my time with one phrase. No pants. This weekend, however, was a lot more productive and a lot more clothed.

I woke up early Saturday and fired of some emails and then went out to brunch with a friend. A prize to whoever guesses where we had brunch. This is bottle one of two. That means one for each of us.

Corned beef hash.

Machaca con Huevos.

After brunch I was supposed to run a bunch of errands, but a bottle of champagne will make you sleepy. So I spent the afternoon resting before the wedding I had to attend. If there were two things to remember from this wedding, these are those things.

People love desserts. Not me, but people.

Steven Spielberg was there…or was he?

Sunday was going to be the day that I relaxed, but because I had the champagne brunch fiasco, I still had errands to run. I ran all around town for a good part of the morning, stopping into lunch at Mitsuwa only to find out I only had two dollars in my wallet. Fortunately one of the places takes credit card. I still wish I had cash to get my Santouka Ramen. For dinner one of my friends graciously invited me and a couple other friends to use up some of his balance at Rolling Hills Country Club for dinner.

New York Steak. Risotto. Mac n’ Cheese. I could not finish this, and so I have an awesome lunch for tomorrow.

The salmon, which also looked pretty darn good.

Still the best surprise was after dinner. We decided to take a walk around the grounds to gain some breathing room. As we walked past the golf cart return one of the employees said there weren’t too many people on the course, so we could take the carts out and just drive around. How can you pass up an offer like that? It was like being in high school with our first cars all over again, exciting and new.

Remember when the first of your friends got a car, and everyone rode in it?

As more friends got their cars, you would get them together and pose with them. So proud.

Then you used your car to get dates, because what good is a car if it can’t get you some action?

This is the ultimate high school destination, Make Out Point. Unfortunately for us there was one girl and four guys, so it wasn’t where boys become men. It was just where things got awkward.

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I need to find more places to eat.

Posted on May 27, 2010 by m@| 4 Comments

It’s great to be able to walk into Downtown Culver City to grab a bite to eat, but you can only eat so many times at the handful of restaurants there. It gets even harder to pick a place when Michelle is off on her own plans. I can’t fly solo at some of these places. They’re not “soup for one” types of restaurants.

Fortunately I have Spencer and Vivian. They’re like the parents now that I’m not living with mine. They knew I was without Michelle for the night and invited me out to dinner. So I rode in the back seat, listened to them talk to each other about their days and make references to people I don’t know. Meanwhile I repeatedly kicked the seat and continually asked, “Are we there yet?” It’s just like having parents again. The only thing they didn’t do was pay for my dinner. Maybe next time.

Sunnin Lebanese Cafe. The combo kebab meal. The meats are not dry like most kebabs I have had, and there’s plenty for leftovers for lunch today.

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Another Weekend of Eating and Drinking Too Much

Posted on May 24, 2010 by m@| 1 Comment

This weekend was a weekend full of fun, possibly regrettable decisions. I think I need some help with my self control. Friday my friends came over after work for happy hour. We were going to do it up big.

We started at Gyenari, where we got the tower of beer that screams, “Look at us. We are douchebags drinking beer!”

Afterward we decided to grab a couple of slices with some more beer at LaRocca’s Pizza.

With Korean and Italian cuisine represented already, we decided to hit up Tacos el Gallito and add Mexico to the mix.

Since Father’s Office is in between home and the taco truck, we decided to do it up right and stop there too.

Keep in mind this was all done before 9:30 PM. As I passed out in the middle of our furniture-less living room, I vowed never to eat or drink again…until the next time. Unfortunately for me, the next time was the next day.

I got to be a part of a special day for a very good friend of mine. Congrats, Tyson and Angie!

So like any good friend would do, I celebrated. A bread basket did catch on fire at my table, but that was a good two feet away from me. Couldn’t have been my fault.

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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.

They also happen to be great dancers, both in the dance troop, Kaba Modern. JP was the troop leader.

We’re not next. There are five or so weddings in between.

Since guys don’t want to read about weddings, here’s some eye candy.

We asked the wait staff if the flower was edible. They said no, but the petal I tried tasted okay to me.

There was not meat choice give. It was chicken for everyone, because they wanted to have the open bar. They made the right choice.

Chocolate covered strawberries…and Scotch.

Michelle’s friend made these for the wedding. I don’t eat dessert and I loved it.

In typical wedding fashion with Michelle’s friends, dancing occurred, shirts were removed, and nipples were sighted. Good times!

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We’re doing happy hour wrong.

Posted on April 20, 2010 by m@| 9 Comments

Michelle and I now have the keys to our apartment. We also found out that one of Michelle’s high school friends lives right around the corner from us. (This is where I would have linked to your blog if you had one, so get one so we can blog our Culver City adventures together.) Her husband is ecstatic, because now she has someone to watch chick flicks with, and he can watch sports and drink beer in his underwear with me.

To celebrate having neighbors that won’t judge us because we know their secrets too, we went to happy hour. Since it was already getting along in the evening we decided just to stop at Gyenari. Their happy hour runs until 7:30 PM.

Kimchee Fried Rice. Pretty tasty, but I don’t know how you would really mess up this dish.

The wings. These are a bit sweet for my tastes.

What isn’t shown are the Bulgogi Sliders, the Japanese Curry Crabcake Sliders, the Korean Taco Trio, and the beers and wine. Happy hour is supposed to be cheap, but it doesn’t quite work out when we eat every item on the menu. Maybe we should just eat or drink and not both. I might opt for the liquid diet. Is that bad? It’s the only way to save money and have a good time!

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