Birthday Thanks

Just thought I'd let you all know how much I appreciate all the great birthday wishes last week. I had a great birthday and 5 birthday dinners! I also appreciated the birthday cards and e-cards...like the Hoops and YoYo one below:

Friday night, we went to have dinner with our parents at Outback Steakhouse.

They got me my favorite chocolate dobash cake from King's Hawaiian. Joanne also got me a balloon...which says a lot since she's not a big fan of the balloons (nor does Buster).

On Saturday, we went to the Yard House to celebrate two birthdays...Shuji's and mine.

I had the pleasure of enjoying 2 half-yards of beer: one Lost Coast Downtown Brown and one Fat Tire. Apparently, they no longer serve whole yards of beer. I guess too many people were breaking those extremely cumbersome glasses. Anyway, at the Yard House, 2 half-yards (32 oz each) is more than a yard (48 oz).

Back at the house, Lori made Shuji and I an awesome birthday cake!

I'll be putting all the birthday gifts together to get myself a new camcorder (just for baby).

Happy Birthday, Russ-O!!

Just wanted to wish Russell a very Happy Birthday!



Wait! How old is he going to be again?



That's probably not a good indicator...

The Office Webisodes !

"The Office" is featuring some web-based episodes called "The Accountants" featuring Phyllis, Kevin, Oscar, and Angela. They just started them today and they have 2 "webisodes" up. They are pretty short, but I'll take what I can get during the off-season. New "webisodes" every Thursday! (LINK)

And there's deleted scenes! (LINK)

Scenes Made Awkward

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this version of a scene from A Few Good Men.
(Make sure your volume is up)


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Pirate Booty

We went to go check out Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on opening day Friday. Apparently we helped it to have the largest single/opening day ever! $55.5 million on Friday alone (beating Star Wars: Episode III) and $132 million for its opening weekend (beating Spiderman). It took it only 48 hours to hit $100 million. I thought the movie was pretty good, but it was a bit long. The cliffhanger ending definitely cues up the need for part 3, At World's End, that comes out in May 2007.

That makes Summer movie #10 for me. Here is my Summer Top 10 so far (not specifically based on plot or acting, but for the entertainment value it provided me...with or without cocktails.)

1. X3 - 2. Pirates - 3. Nacho - 4. MI:3 - 5. Superman - 6. Cars

7. DaVinci - 8. Break-Up - 9. Fast/Furious 3 - 10. Omen

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Use your head, Zidane !

Don't know if you caught the World Cup Final yesterday, but it was pretty crazy. Pretty decent game although I'm still not sure how I feel about the entire game being decided with a penalty kick shootout. The real news of the game is how Zinedine Zidane shamefully headbutted Italian Marco Materazzi in the last minutes of overtime. (Click here to see it) One of the best players of the game and he ends his soccer career with a low class act like that. Not only that, but he didn't even get to make any penalty kicks to decide the game (something he is known for). Zidane still won the Golden Ball award (player of the game) despite his act. Maybe it was his cool name.

In the end, Italy took the win over France because of a penalty kick that failed to go in. What's up with that, by the way? France's one goal was earned by a penalty kick...when penalty kicks go in the majority of the time. I don't know about that. Italy makes an amazing header for their goal and France makes theirs by flopping near the goal. My solution...2 goalies for all penalty kicks. How great would that be? Then, making a penalty kick would mean something. (and you might even catch moments where the goalies collide)

Oh well, maybe next World Cup. 2 goalies!

35 CDs = 1 iPod

Trade in your old CDs for an iPod! 35 CDs will only get you an iPod Shuffle, but you can get a Nano for 65 CDs. On this website you actually have 2 other options: you can trade in your CDs for other used CDs (2 for 1) or you can just buy used CDs for about $5 each. Is it worth it? I just thought it was an interesting idea. (LINK)

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Trapped in the Closet

I'm sure you thought this was over. NOPE! The fantastic South Park "Trapped in the Closet" episode has been nominated for an Emmy! Check it out, it's up against Family Guy's "PTV" (also a great episode) and The Simpsons "The Seemingly Neverending Story" for Outstanding Animated Program. (LINK)

If you haven't already checked it out when I posted it up back in March, you can check it out here. Since the entire 22 minute episode got pulled down, I replaced it with a 6 minute clip.

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53 3/4 Hot Dogs !

I'm sure you saw it already, but in case you didn't you can watch all 12 minutes of the 2006 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest right now! Go check it out on ESPN's site here.

This year's event was probably the best in all of Hot Dog Eating History. Takeru Kobayashi took down 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes, just 1/4 of a dog more than his previous world record 2 years ago. This was his 6th victory in a row...unbelievable. Also amazing was the 2nd place contender, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, who devoured 52 HDBs (hot dog and buns). It was the stiffest competition Kobayashi has had since he first dominated the sport in 2001. Chestnut set a new American record just after he broke it 2 months ago. Sonya Thomas took 3rd with 37 hot dogs, the same amount she took 2nd with last year. Two rookies, Patrick Bertoletti and Chip Simpson took 4th and 5th place. It will be exciting to see next year's competition.

One thing you will not be able to see in the ESPN link above are the pre-game celebrations. ESPN does a great job of covering the event, providing an entire hour to the 12-minute event. They present some of the best stats during the pre-game, so I took some pictures for you.

17,000 calories!!


Some eating methods for you to try at home. :) Koby uses the Solomon Method.


Kobayashi has never been beat by a human.


You know you're good when you're compared to Babe Ruth.


And my favorite...now he's tied with Lance!
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They'll be replaying the event on ESPN2 for a while, so check it out!