Everybody Hates Chris

The second episode of Everybody Hates Chris is on tonight. It's all about Chris Rock's life as a kid. The pilot episode was pretty funny. We'll see how tonight's show goes.

If you haven't seen the pilot episode yet, Google Video has made the entire pilot episode available for you to watch. (Click here to watch) Although, I think it will only be available for the rest of today.

What's your brain's sex?

Looks like I'm only half a man.

Go take the Brain Sex quiz. It's actually quite interesting. I learned I have a very male brain (spatial tasks), I can use landmarks to get from place to place, I'm right brain dominant, I am better at systemizing rather than empathizing, I prefer the appearance of feminine faces, and I am definitely an engineer.

Mini Golf

Still haven't caught up with this past weekend's haps. Last Friday, Joanne and I met up with Glenn and Michiko for dinner at OG (Olive Garden). After dinner we were so stuffed that we were sitting there at the table thinking, "I'm ready to go home." But, we soon realized that it was our defining moment. Go play mini golf or go home and be old. So, obviously, we went to play some miniature golf at SpeedZone in Puente Hills.

We played skins and Joanne and I took all 17! The last one didn't count. Lame hole.

Joanne got a hole-in-one! Here's Michiko working around the rocks. And Glenn going full swing with his putter on the 18th hole. FYI: The key to chipping your ball out of bounds on a mini golf course is to come down on the ball pretty hard with your putter.

Afterward, we got in some air hockey and video games in the arcade. It was impossible for me to win at air hockey...the machine stopped counting my points after 1. You can see the score is 1 to 5 when I was playing Glenn. Then, Joanne took on the hammer game where she is trying to squash some bugs.

See, we're not old yet.

What's on your TV ?

We have a new poll. Here is the list of Tivo's Top 20 Most Recorded Shows as of last week. Which ones do you watch? (Vote on the right)

What's being recorded at our house?

Desperate Housewives
Lost
Las Vegas
Simpsons
Family Guy
CSI
Oprah
My Name is Earl
The Office
House
Prison Break
Invasion
Everybody Hates Chris

Any recommendations?

We may not get around to watching them all, but that's what's sitting on our Tivo each week.

Which ones are high priority?


We didn't even watch this last season, but it's sure getting our attention now! We gotta catch up and watch Season 1. We've decided to get caught up with Eddy and Stephanie via Netflix.



One of my priorities is The Office. Definitely not a favorite for everyone, but as painful as it can be to watch, I think it's hilarious. Joanne, however, is not quite as excited about this show as I am.

Don't forget to post your votes!

Regarding the last poll: Blackjack beat Craps 8 to 5. 2 people like slots, 1 likes roulette, and 2 people don't gamble.

Doppler 2000000 !

I'm not joking. They've done it. The weather news team has outdone themselves.
I remember watching news a while back and being impressed with the Doppler radars they use to predict weather. It wasn't long before I noticed that NBC came out with a Doppler 4000. ABC was not having that, so they came out with the Doppler 7000. They wanted to stay on top so they upgraded to Doppler 7000+ to send out the signal that they were not going to be defeated.

Then, CBS joined the battle. We now have Doppler 2000000. They didn't stop at Doppler 200000, they went all the way. But, they say they have a reason for the madness in this recent article:

"Where did we get the name from? Well it is 1 million watts of power and we are channel 2. You do the math."

Nice.

All-you-can-eat Sushi

I'm still full from the experience. Two nights ago, I met up with my friend Jeff to go have some all-you-can-eat sushi. We went to a place called Chomp in Fullerton. Joanne and I have been there with Daniel and Amy before, but not on a Thursday. Thursday is All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) Night. The only problem is that this place is packed and AYCE is at 8:30. People can wait over 2 hours for a table. Luckily Jeff has a friend who's got connections. His friend has come every week for over 2 years so now they just get him a table when he shows up. Very nice.

When it comes to eating sushi, Jeff and his friends go crazy. I was ready to chow down (which I did), but these guys put me to shame. I was able to eat 32 pieces! I thought that was pretty impressive, but Jeff was able to put away 42 pieces! But Jeff's friend Robin, who got us into the restaurant, had an astounding 63 pieces! And his record is 100!

I know it's like the hot dog eating competition all over again.

iPod nano

I went to go see this item in the Apple Store and I gotta tell you, it's pretty damn cool. Simple, elegant. A little pricey, but come on, it looks cool.

WARNING! Don't get one yet! There's been issues with the plastic over the screen. They say they use the hardest polycarbonate material, but people are already complaining at how easily it scratches...enough to where the screen may become unusable over time. And looks are everything, too!

I'm sure Apple will do something about it...so I am just telling you to wait.

Forget hacking computers...

Let's hack Coke machines! Make your Cokes cost a penny!
(Click the machine for details)



Or hack elevators!
"The designers of some elevators include a hidden feature that is very handy if you're in a hurry or it's a busy time in the building (like check-out time in a hotel). While some elevators require a key, others can be put into "Express" mode by pressing the "Door Close" and "Floor" buttons at the same time. This sweeps the car to the floor of your choice and avoids stops at any other floor. This seems to work on most elevators. Most elevators have the option for this to work, but on some of them the option is turned off by whoever runs them."
(Try it, it's worth a shot!)

Sunday at the Getty

On Sunday, I went with my sister to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. If you haven't been there yet, you should definitely plan to make a nice afternoon of it. Lots of photo ops!

The garden area is especially nice. They must be grooming this place 24 hours a day. It's always in perfect condition. Here are some views of the Central Garden:

Everywhere you walk within this museum complex, you'll be surrounded by the rough textured beige marble. Apparently they imported 1.2 million square feet of this travertine marble from Italy. Must've cost a fortune. It's seriously everywhere.


My favorite location at the Getty is the cactus garden. Definitely the most out of the ordinary garden I've ever seen. Pretty surreal.

Oh, and then there's art there, too. One of their most famous pieces is Irises by Van Gogh. It's known as the 7th most expensive painting ever sold ($49 million). There are also a few Monets and some cool sculptures.

It was a great day.

Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL

I'm sure you have seen at least one of these sketches on Saturday Night Live. They're all pretty hilarious. And with Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, you never go wrong. That's "Therapists," not "The rapists."

All 13 episodes! (Click here)

Happy Mini

The Mini got a detailing this past weekend. I'd go into detail on how good a job they did, but that would bore you. The Mini is happy now...except for the fact that it rained this morning.

It deserves a couple pictures.

Happy Birthday, Amy !

On Saturday, we all got together and celebrated Amy's Birthday! Dinner was at Buca di Beppo (which means "Joe's Basement". I had to look it up. It bothered me.) Of course we ordered too much food...I think it's impossible to avoid.

After dinner, we went back to Daniel and Amy's to have some cake. Daniel baked her a nice chocolate cake and it was served on some personalized styrofoam plates. (That's mine on the bottom.)

And then the cake got presented. Amy got all 10 candles out and she even did the Happy Birthday Cha Cha for all of us. Amy, what's that pig doing there?

Presto spent the evening being held by different people all night. He's such a good boy. Here you can see Preston wondering how Michiko is making the butterfly come to life.






After cake, the party took a traditional split...Poker and Pounce. Daniel, Gige (Glenn Ige), Gina (Glenn Inanaga), and I played some No-Limit Hold'em. I got killed on the river a few times. That's always sad. In this picture, you can see Daniel standing up and going all in. Proof that poker and fatherhood can coexist.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Fondue Friday #3

You may remember Fondue Friday #1 and Fondue Friday #2. Well, this past Friday was yet another successful Fondue Friday. Joanne's friends came over and we enjoyed a fantastic sukiyaki dinner (made by my wonderful wife). Shortly after, we had some strawberry daquiris and then moved to the fondue dessert. Mmmm....


You can see we went with the reliables (pound cake, bananas, graham crackers), but tried larger pretzels this time. They were great! The increased salt content made them more enjoyable. The chocolate fondue recipe has changed each time we have done it. This time we went with 1 cup whipping cream, 20 oz chocolate (1/3 dark, 2/3 milk), and 3 oz. Grand Marnier. Just might be our best mix yet.

Afterward, we got in some quality Atari time. Kristine and Lara battled it out in Freeway, although Lara proved to be the best chicken to cross the road. Afterward, Lara and Joanne played some Foosball Pong, where Joanne came out champion.

Thanks everyone for comin' over!