In The Wake Of The Week- October 3rd

October Already? - A few more months and we'll see 2009 come to a close. How scary and exciting is that? With the start of football, hockey, and baseball playoffs, yours truly will be camping out in front of the tv more than normal.


Grandma Kraft - It was nice seeing Grandma Kraft for Yom Kippur. She's the only grandmother alive on both sides of the family. At 87, she's looking forward to her great grandchild being born in 2010.


USF Council - It's quite a honor being nominated onto the board for my alma mater. I look forward to attending all the events with Brandy. The last event at Tom Malloy's Race Car Warehouse was quite fun and entertaining for my wife and for my in-laws.

San Jose Sharks - Hockey season's back in session. Go Sharks.

San Francisco Giants - Close but no cigar... Hopefully, they will make adjustments to solidify their positions for next year.

In The Wake Of The Week - Sept 26, 2009

It's nice spending time in the desert with the Mrs... We are truly blessed to have the dual locations. How can you beat the ocean and the desert?

Speaking of the Mrs., because of her hormonal pregnancy situation and separation anxiety, we've decided to remain together (and not separated!) in either San Diego or Palm Springs. Whether the commutes back and forth shortens remains to be seen. Plus, it seems Baby Shin needs its father's hand and touch. Speaking of....

Baby Shin- What a joy. Whoever thought a new life could bring this much joy to yours truly? Baby Shin doesn't realize how much of an impact it's been to Brandy and I, our parents, my brother, and her brother. It's already a trooper with the stress that Brandy endures. Not to mention, it's already developing attitude in the womb. Payback surfaces itself from offspring.

TV Premieres- Didn't really watch any of them, except Two And A Half Men. I still see similarities with my life and the show....

San Francisco Giants - They're still in it. Humm Baby. Continue with the great pitching led by Timmy Lincecum and get the bats rolling and we'll have extended play in October.

Health Incident - It's still an emotional event that occurred almost 1 year ago. The other day, I brought Brandy to the UCSD hospital and she got emotional herself being in the same hospital room. I mean, without yours truly alive, there would be no "pumky" today. To commemorate this event, we've decided to bring donuts for the workers at UCSD and to bring cake at our next Connect event.

Football - Devastating loss for USC. It seems like last week's game happens every year. Washington this year. Oregon State last year. The Bolts are starting off slow again. I mean, the Oakland Raiders have the same record! However, you can't beat the aggressive play of the San Francisco 49ers. Go Niners!

Me Write You Long Time...

It was excellent working and spending time in San Diego all week. The weather is much cooler than the desert (Palm Springs)...

Cardenas: Speaking of the desert, I miss Cardenas. There's really no place in San Diego where you can get fresh watermelon/cantaloupe juice. I mean, 40% of SD is latino and yet you can't get a Cardenas?!?

Family Update: Wife and soon to be born baby are doing well. Brother is doing well. Parents are doing well. In Laws are doing well.

High Blood Pressure: It's really important to keep your high blood pressure in check. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. That means no soda's and eliminating fast food out of your diet.

Ping Pong Playa: The San Diego Asian Film Festival showed "Ping Pong Playa". The movie is about some Chinese, gangster talking, basketball playing wannabe that has to step up to help his family by winning a ping pong tournament.

Rosh Hashanah: L'Shanah Tovah to all my fellow Jews. Yours truly is becoming more Jewish every minute. It was nice celebrating with Brandy and other Jewish brethren at the synagogue (Kehilat Ariel).

Hany Los Lobos: It was nice having lunch with the guy after all this time. You gotta give the guy props for managing his life the way he has. Just remember, La Bamba.....

San Francisco Giants: Humm baby. Continue winning and October / November will be great months.

Coupons: Ever since I've started a baby fund, yours truly has been cutting out more coupons. None of these, "save 25 cents" coupons, but it seems like every restaurant in San Diego has a promotion happening. That includes McDonald's! Not to mention, every grocery store is offering double and even triple coupons.

I think it's absolutely foolish by not taking advantage of these promos. "Such a time is this...."

In The Wake of the Week March 14th

Gualberto's Taco Shop - Bar none, the best Mexican restaurant in San Diego (Clairemont Mesa Blvd). This place is a hole in the wall but had a line out the door. It seems like everyone else has had the same experience. I think what makes a great burrito is the rice. Almost every tacos and burritos usually contain the same ingredients. I realized the rice can differentiate the products. Chipotle used a different blend by using jasmine rice instead of spanish rice.

I had a carne asade burrito at Gualberto's and was amazed at the quality of the burrito. They used saffron rice and not Spanish rice. Yum. Salsa was fresh as well.

Cheetah's - I was walking around the smog place and noticed the parking lot at Cheetah's was packed full of cars on a weekday lunch. The cars in front were all very nice cars (maybe they belonged to the dancers?). I guess during the slow economic times, everyone's going to the nudie bar.

Fight Team Korea - It's good to see Team Korea in San Diego for the World Baseball Classic. I was fortunate enough to see them practice today and catch fly balls. It's going to be a tough match with the Mexican's tomorrow night.

Bernie Madoff - Looks like Mr. Madoff will be spending a lot of time in jail for his ponzi scheme. He deceited quite a few people and businesses and non profits. He'll have time to think about his actions in jail.

Muntader al-Zaidi - Looks like the journalist who threw his Iraqi Ferragamo's at then-President Bush, will be going to jail for 3 years. Looks like he lost a good pair of shoes and then gets jail time. Hope it was worth it, buddy.....

In The Wake of the Week - March 07

Happy Birthday To Rose - A very happy birthday goes out to my beautiful mother, Rose. She's such an amazing woman and I am thoroughly blessed to have her as my mom.

March Madness - I really enjoy this time of year as college basketball revs up for its playoffs. I will definitely be in Las Vegas for this event.

World Baseball Classic- I love the new world baseball classic. You have 16 different countries matched against each in different regional settings. Looking forward to the playoff games at Petco Park in San Diego.

San Jose Sharks - You can't forget about the mighty SJ Sharks. They are currently the West leaders and I look forward to great playoff action. I have my Sharks jersey ready to go!

"The Lights Aren't Flickering...."

I was watching clips from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and noticed one of the scenes where Clark (Chevy Chase) gets the outside Christmas lights turned on his house and was so excited that he was hugging his wife, kids, parents, and in laws. However, his father-in-law wasn't pleased with the lights and said to Clark, "one of the lights aren't flickering!". What the....?

It brought me to think about people who only seem to point out the mistakes in your life versus celebrate on the many good things that's happened to you as an individual. I mean, just the other day, I stated something in email regarding one of my favorite movies (Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) and someone immediately corrected me in public because I had not typed "escape" (ie one of the lights aren't flickering). Another time I was at a bar (drinking H2O of course) and catching up with some friends while some geek comes over and immediately corrects me about shapes (ie octagon and hexagon)...I can see why he repels women since his only line towards them is, "Hey baby, I know shapes!".

In summary, the key is to surround yourself with people that appreciate your gifts and talents and celebrate your victories while avoiding the people who are quick to point out your little faults.

Catch Up Time....

I've been slacking on my blog and I have no excuse for it. All I can say is my writing has, um, sucked since.

Happy Birthday Chuck - What a wonderful time spending my birthday with friends and family in Las Vegas. Thanks to everyone for the abundance of gifts and 400+ well wishes. I also wanted to thank those that combined Valentine's Day with my birthday. Speaking of which...

KL - The Norwegian princess (and not the cruise line). Hopefully, you are enjoying your time back in Bergen... Look forward to seeing you shortly in San Francisco. In the meantime, say hello to PM Stoltenberg since you have 4 million people in your country. We'll make sure to have an ample supply of premium shampoos and conditioners at Wal Mart.

San Jose/Lake Tahoe - It was nice doing business in San Ho and cleaning up some of the manufacturing stuff as well. It was more of a treat skiing in Lake Tahoe. The added bonus was being upgraded to a suite at Harrah's. The place was HUGE. Not to mention, they provided complimentary Bulgari products. Now that's living large and in charge. Shout out to Ryno, Sheri and crew who I hung out with for sushi, skiing, and Tahoe. What's up with the shout out term? Am I like in high school?

Stock Market - What is up with the market? I know our economy is bad but 1997 bad? I guess it's a good time to buy since it has nowhere to go but up. I feel bad for those on fixed incomes. Their valuations have gone down half in the past 6 months.

A moment of silence - For the professional football players lost out at sea. One happened to be an Oakland Raider.

In The Wake Of The Week - February 7th

Super Bowl - They don't refer to the game as Super for nothing. It came down to the wire and I'm glad the Pittsburgh Steelers prevailed. We all wonder what the conclusion would have been with Warner and Fitzgerald. None of the commercial ads stood out, though.

The different bets they offered were amazing. Besides the "who'll win" category, Vegas also offered different categories like who'll win the coin toss, first possession, and even how many yards a player will get during the game (over/under).





Boot Camp - I went to my first official boot camp work out at UCSD. The results were quite interesting. I kept up with the pack and will return for the 7 week training. I'll be very sore tomorrow.

Friendships - People are always asking me about my friends. I respond that I've always been a believer in learning things from people and if they possess great hearts that you can make friends even with all the differences. I mean, to have a friend is to be a friend.

Happy Valentines Day - As a guy, what a great time of the year to spend time with that one sole person sharing your hearts and dreams. Though, I'm a believer in having a 365 Valentine's Day....

Obama Girls.....

No not Malia and Sasha..... It's the many Obama girls supporting our newly appointed President. Gotta love Barack Obama.

The other day, I noticed a very curvy woman wearing a tight "Barack My World" tshirt. Since Southern California is known for its funky style (think UGG boots and skirts on women), I see another trend occurring.

In The Wake of the Week.... January 25th

President Obama's Inauguration - What a wonderful sight to see our 44th President inaugurated on Tuesday, January 20th. We all know the significance of this monumentous occasion.

He's got huge tasks ahead of him and I'm confident that he'll succeed as the President of the United States. Seeing him go straight to work sends a message across that we have no choice but to work hard. Even though I'm not too thrilled on some of his policy decisions, I respect his position as President.


Super Bowl 43- To be held in Tampa, FL between the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers and the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals. Pittsburgh has an incredible defense that looked unstoppable and they will be tough. However, I have huge regards for Kurt Warner, the QB of the AZ Cardinals. How excellent would it be for him to win another Super Bowl ring this year.

Quite interesting to see that Mike Tomlin (Coach for Pittsburgh) looks quite similar to Dr. Foreman (Omar Epps - TV show, House).


Super Bowl Parties - Since yours truly finally upgraded to High Def, he will be hosting a party at his place. Football in high def + Poker. Does it get any better than that??


Federal/State/County/City Deficits - Times are tough. Seems like everyone is short on cash. Just look at our government. I'm not looking forward to receiving an IOU for my taxes nor am I looking forward to having no public library. I mean, they've already taken away the bbq pits.

Another one bites the dust.... - Circuit City stated they will close its doors once they liquidate their $billion + inventory. They join Mervyn's and Linens n Things for closures. Looks like Eddie Bauer, Timberland, and a few others are on the chopping block as well.