Great news everyone. The Thundercats are coming to a theater near you! That's right. Soon we can see all new action from Lion-o, Panthro, and Cheetara as they take on Mumm-Ra. A date hasn't been set, but we'll be waiting to hear more about the movie in the future. (LINK)
Also great news is that He-Man will also be getting a movie soon...possibly in 2009. This is almost too much great news all at once. Time to take a break. (LINK)
Jack is 4.5 months old now and he's been quite busy the past few weeks.
Last month, Jack was introduced to Buddhism (kinda like a Baptism). He wore a tie to celebrate the occasion.
Jack also started up with solid foods. Well, rice cereal is hardly solid, but he likes eating with his spoon! Honestly, I think he just likes eating.
Look at that smile!
Jack's neck and legs are getting real strong these days. He can hold up his head nice and steady now...unless he gets real excited. His legs are also getting real powerful. He's been using his Boppy to work in some leg exercises to prepare for crawling. That's when things will get crazy.
Jack also loves playing with his feet now that he figured out how to grab them.
With 6 years of dominance, Takeru Kobayashi has made Japan the eating champs of the world. He continued to break his own record year after year, and held the world record with 53 3/4 HDBs (hot dog and buns) in 12 minutes. But it seems that the annual contest, coming up in less than a month on the 4th of July, will be much more interesting this year. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut just broke the world record this past weekend with 59.5 HDBs...beating the record by almost 6 hot dogs! Go USA! Looks like Kobayashi will have some competition this year. Someone should be hitting 60...that's a hot dog every 12 seconds! Should be a great contest at Nathan's this year. Stay tuned for more coverage in the next month. (LINK)
Here are some items that have sparked my interest recently:
National Spelling Bee - Evan O'Dorney won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night with the word serrefine. S-E-R-R-E-F-I-N-E. Since Samir got out early, my focus was on Jonathan Horton...but not to win. ESPN has great coverage of his loss on their website. (Too bad they edited out the weird cough habit)
Kobe Bryant - What is to happen to our Laker powerhouse? Will he be traded? Will he stay? He's shown interest in leaving, but nothing's for sure. (LINK)
What's interesting is how Kobe Bryant tends to draw more attention than other huge sporting events happening at the same time. ESPN said it best: "Only Kobe could overshadow the NFL conference championship games (when he scored 81 points) and the NCAA tournament (when he dropped 65 on Portland). Only Kobe could make the Lakers' signing of two Hall of Famers the secondary story of the week (when he was charged with sexual assault). Now he has rendered the NBA playoffs, the Stanley Cup finals and every other sports story irrelevant with his non-stop media parade that crested Wednesday when he said he wanted to be traded."
Google Maps Street View - If you haven't heard, Google Maps has added a new feature where you can see full 360 views on every single street! It's amazing! It's only available in select cities for now (San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Denver, and Miami), but I'm sure they will expand. (LINK)
Loch Ness Monster Sighting - How great is it that people are still amazed with finding good ol' Nessie? You can check out the footage that some guy caught. But, the best part of this video clip is the Scottish accent. (LINK)
Online TV - How great is having TV online? They don't have everything, of course, but they have quite a bit. Check it out: (LINK)
Mr. Lego - It's great news that maybe I can quit my job someday to make my living from Legos. This lawyer did it...but his sculpture are amazing! (LINK)
The good news: The Scripps National Spelling Bee just completed Round 5 and the Finals are tonight on ABC at 8:00pm! 15 spellers remain and will continue on to the Finals.
The bad news: Our buddy, 13-year old Samir Patel, was just eliminated in Round 5 of the Semifinals. It was his fifth and last National Spelling Bee appearance. He got out on the word 'clevis.' He spelled it 'C-L-E-V-I-C-E.' It's a term we use quite regularly here at work, but a word that our buddy Samir Patel will never forget. He says "But I just outsmarted myself. It was an easy word. I just made a stupid mistake."
Poor Samir. I'll have to watch the defeat on TiVo when I go home tonight. Farewell, Samir. You had a good run.
Not sure if any of you had the opportunity to check out the Star Wars Convention this past weekend. It was awesome! Okay, well I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but I think there was entertainment for everyone. Stephanie, Joanne, Jack, and I made the trip over to the LA Convention Center on Monday. Needless to say, I took lots of video and pictures. As soon as we got there, I took my picture with a couple Stormtroopers. Those guys were everywhere!
Here's an overview video just walking into the main convention hall. Check out the Darth Vader Samurai!
Jabba the Hutt was there. "Cheethah, peechalk wonky Chewbacca."
As you know, the costumes are one of the best reasons to check out one of these conventions. Tons of people came in full dress and even more had lightsabers in hand. Check them out!
The highlight of the day was the Autograph Hall. They had tons of people signing...Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Anakin (Jake Lloyd), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Darth Vader (David Prowse), Darth Maul (Ray Park), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), Ewoks, Jedis, and Jawas.
I decided to get autographs from Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2). In the video you can see me getting the autograph from Kenny Baker.
Anthony Daniels was a really friendly guy who speaks EXACTLY like C-3PO! It was pretty amazing. Check out the autograph:
Kenny Baker, on the other hand, was really tired when I got his autograph. REALLY tired. He fell asleep in the middle of my autograph! Look at his signature...see that line below the 'a'? That's where he rested his Sharpie during his 10 second nap I guess R2 was having a pretty rough day.
Jack had a great day at the convention. He spent most of his time in his Bjorn on my chest. It was lots of fun.
By the end of the day, he became a full-blown Jedi.
And to end the day, I finally got to see the R2-D2 mailbox! Was I the last one to finally see one?
I do have one more video if you are interested...(LINK)
I'm not sure if you saw last night's Lost season finale, but it was fantastic...especially after seeing last week's Heroes finale. I won't say anything in case you Tivo'd it and are waiting to watch it tonight, but I think you'll enjoy the 2 hours of action packed plot development which has been lacking from the show the past 2 seasons.
Are you still watching Lost? Vote in the poll to the right.
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!
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:
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.
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.
Great news everyone. The Thundercats are coming to a theater near you! That's right. Soon we can see all new action from Lion-o, Panthro, and Cheetara as they take on Mumm-Ra. A date hasn't been set, but we'll be waiting to hear more about the movie in the future. (LINK)
