Joanne's First Mother's Day

I'm sure everyone enjoyed Mother's Day this past Sunday. Joanne especially enjoyed it since it was her first one as a mommy! Stephanie got Joanne these flowers to celebrate. We all went to celebrate at Sambi Restaurant with our families. It was a great Sunday brunch! Where else can you enjoy scrambled eggs, steak, teriyaki chicken, and sushi all in the same meal?

After brunch we came back home and little did we know that Jack would have a gift for his mom. He rolled over again, but this time using his legs! He did it once when I wasn't filming, so we tried to figure out how to repeat the event. Just follow daddy!

Afterward, we played some Cooking Mama on the Wii! It's a pretty simple and fun game where you cook different meals using the Wiimote. Here you can see one of the games where you have to spread the butter on the frying pan.

And now for more pictures of Jack...

Sometimes we run across some great outfits for Jack. But then, when the outfit is chosen by Dad, it doesn't turn out that great. I liked it. I call it frogs and dogs.

As you can see the Boppy (the light blue pillow with white polka dots) can have many purposes. He can use it to help him balance his toys,

or create his own little playground,



or even turn them into headphones!

Needless to say I am still enjoying my 4 week vacation. Only 1 more week left!

Two Awesome Weeks

For the past two weeks, Joanne, Jack and I have been able to enjoy a vacation together as a family. It's been a great experience...it's too bad Joanne goes back to work next week. I'll have two weeks with just Jack and I...my true test as a father. I think I'm ready.

Lately, Jack has been cracking up a whole lot. Mom is definitely the best at making him laugh. Check out this new video clip of those two in action:

Jack has also learned how to play his first instrument...the trumpet!

We've also been able to pay a visit to Disneyland with Daniel and Amy. Jack went on his first ride...The Disney Railway! We're going to try going to Disney's California Adventure tonight!

We also met my coworkers for lunch on Wednesday. Good ol' Back Home in Lahaina. Thanks guys for making it out to meet Jack! And no, I'm not missing work.

Here are some other new pictures of our favorite little boy:

Our Day in Del Mar

Spending time with Jack has made my 4 week vacation so rewarding. Normally I have to wait until the weekends to enjoy the daylight hours with him. On Wednesday, the Hirotsu family took their first day trip and we had the best time.

We drove down to Del Mar to enjoy a picnic lunch at Seagrove Park. Joanne and I had last visited a year before Jack was born and it was a beautiful day to be back.

Seagrove Park is right on the coast and you get a great view of the beach and the coastal Amtrak line (great for traveling to the Del Mar Race Track).

Jack especially enjoyed his day in the shade.


All that playing required a heavy nap.

We then drove up to Carlsbad to check out the Flower Fields (in bloom until May 13th)

Next door we had to do some shopping at the Carlsbad Premium Outlets and then head home. It was a great day and Jack was such a good boy.

For all the pictures, click here.

Street Geysers and Unicycles !

Let me tell you...I was very disappointed that I didn't have my camera an hour ago. We were going through the drive thru at McDonald's, when we witnessed the street break down the middle and spew sewage into the street! Okay, it wasn't a geyser, but it was coming out quick. The pipeline down the middle of the street caused the asphalt to raise about a foot! The only bummer is that I had to drive through some of it on the way out.

Then, on the way home, we saw a guy pushing a shopping cart (full of his very favorite belongings) on a unicycle! How ingenious and what a workout! Can't ride a bicycle and push a shopping cart at the same time? Solution: unicycle.

The New Queue

Thanks for all the great input, guys! I've updated our queue to reflect the great suggestions you provided. Looks like Children of Men and Shaun of the Dead come first! Here's how the new queue looks:

The poll will remain open so let me know if you have any other suggestions. Hopefully I will time to watch all of these!

more at twiigs.com...

Paid Family Leave

Two more days of work and I'll be chillin' at home with Jack for 4 weeks! Gotta love California Disability and the Paid Family Leave program. With 4 whole weeks, I'll probably have a little more spare time after the diaper changes and bottle feeding. So, I thought it was my time to get my money's worth from Netflix. Joanne is the primary Netflix user, filling our queue with chick flicks (not that that's a bad thing).



So, does anyone have any suggestions for my Netflix queue? I have a few movies I've been meaning to see: Unforgiven, Caddyshack, Shaun of the Dead, Maltese Falcon, Godfather II, and Sin City. Clearly I'm not looking for any particular movie genre. Has anyone seen any good movies lately? I could use some help.

Make a suggestion in my Twiigs poll!

more at twiigs.com...

ABC Live Mega Doppler 7000 HD

I don't have much more to say other than "How great is the name of ABC's new doppler radar?" It used to be ABC Doppler 7000 Plus. Glad they threw in the 'HD'. Now I know where I'm going for my weather report...

Happy 3 Months, Jack !

Yesterday, Jack turned 3 months old. He had a great day yesterday, being watched by the whole family and getting a new toy chest from Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Steph. To celebrate, Jack has been working hard on his latest project, Project Flip. For the first time, Jack turned over from his tummy to his back...all by himself! And here he is making his YouTube debut:

Jack loves napping...especially laughing while napping. Here you can see his favorite Pooh making him laugh during his nap:

Also, here is the announcement we sent out to welcome Jack. If you want a copy, let me know!

Happy Birthday, Jack.

Farewell, Sanjaya !

Well, I guess there's no reason to watch American Idol anymore.

If you didn't hear, the show's most entertaining contestant, Sanjaya Malakar, was "voted" off...only making the Top 7. I put "voted" in quotes because I think it was completely rigged. Sanjaya had all sorts of press for being the worst contestant on the show, with a whole army of people voting for him to move ahead. Howard Stern backed Sanjaya up by supporting the website, www.votefortheworst.com, in the hopes that it would end American Idol. And right in the peak of Sanjaya's hype...he gets cut. RIGGED! American Idol was getting lots of negative press for Sanjaya's success, saying that if he were to win, the show would be considered a sham. They clearly cut him despite his vote count. Time to change the name of the show from American Idol to Fox Network Idol.

Thanks, Sanjaya, for the laughs. We'll miss your weird hairstyles and creepy smiles.

Peep Jousting

Yes, this is the 3rd blog entry about Peeps, but who's counting? Once I heard about Peep jousting, I knew we had to give it a try. So we were at Rite-Aid the other day and found Peeps for 50% off (after Easter sale). Hard to pass that up. How does Peep Jousting work? Well you face two Peeps toward each other, armed with a toothpick, and pop them in the microwave to duke it out! They inflate in the microwave and the first one to get poked loses! We set up a 4-Peep tournament bracket to settle who was the #1 Peep. Here you can see "Black-Eyed Peeps" and "Peeping Tom" in ready position.

You want to see some Peep Jousting in action? Here is the final matchup..."Jeepers Peepers" wins!

We also learned that it's very important to have the Peeps battle on a rotating turntable or else one of the Peeps will get all the microwave heat. Watch the one on the left!

Then, there is always the aftermath:

Long Beach Grand Prix Videos!

I don't get around to posting many things on YouTube, but I thought I could at least post up some of the footage from the races that day. Come on over to our house if you want to see the High Def footage.

From the 8th floor of the Hyatt:


All the cars making the tight turn:


And...it's Alan Lo on TV!

Long Beach Grand Prix

We went out to enjoy a great day at the Long Beach Grand Prix this past Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we were in a hotel during the entire race! Our friend Alan is an assistant race engineer for Forsythe Racing (that's his car in the picture) so we hung out in his hotel room at the Long Beach Hyatt Regency. Check out the view:

This view was not without a price. Alan's hotel room was on the 1st floor so Chang went out to seek a better view. He discovered a mini balcony by the stairwell that had a perfect view of the race! Sure the hotel security didn't like us being there (we were supposedly spotted by a nearby helicopter), but they were even less impressed when they caught us on a different balcony just a half hour later.

We even went up to the 17th floor to get another nice view. Just one floor up, people were paying $185 for this view.

Here are some views of Alan's car in action. Thanks, Chang, for taking the pics for me.

I was trying to post up some video, but I'll have to post it up tomorrow. But I did catch a great sequence of the Formula Drift event. Very cool.

Thanks again, Alan, for the great time!

Peepnapped !

I came back from lunch this past Monday and noticed something on my desk. It was a threat letter...for my Peeps! They had been Peepnapped!

Immediately everyone was a suspect. I questioned some people around me and there were no positive leads. We had a mystery on our hands. I could only think about the torture 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 Peeps were feeling. At least they had each other. Since the leads went cold, I waited. The next day, this came:

They were being held at knifepoint! I anxiously awaited the coming demands.

Then, yesterday at our team meeting, my project leader put this up on the screen:

It was him the whole time! He was the last person on my suspect list. Amazing...he got me good.

Guess I deserved it after the things I had done to him. It's rare that pranks are pulled on me, but when they do, they're often pretty good.

At least my Peeps are safe now.

Singles in America

Since I'm married, I'm no longer a statistic...in this map. But does Jack count now?

The results of this National Geographic study is truly shocking. The population of single men versus women is completely split from east coast to west coast. Looks like people in LA need to get together with the people in New York City.