Flashback Friday

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA 

This one dates back to '96

Back Row: Em Beecher, Sarah Gothold, Janelle Rahn
Front Row: Vanessa Iniguez, Me, Crystal Contreras

Sunday Funday

It is officially summer and man it was HOT this past weekend! Ray and I cruised the wagon down pch to enjoy our sunday at bolsa chica (along with thousands of other people).


The beach was as nice as i have seen it in a while. The water was crystal blue and the temperature was perfect. I cant wait to go back next weekend.

More Oil Pumping

A lot of people have asked me how exactly we put the veggie oil into the wagon. Basically there is a tank in the trunk that holds all the veggie oil and you poor the oil in thru the top. Here is Ray with his portable filling station that he wheeled out from the garage.

He pumps the oil up from the storage bucket thru a hand pump, down the tube and into the tank inside the car. pretty simple.

One tank will last us about 2 weeks and the oil is free!

Happy Birthday Neil!

We joined Neil in celebrating his dirty thirty this weekend. Thanks for having us Neil! Happy Birthday!!

Happy Fathers Day! part 2

We didnt get to celebrate fathers day with Ray on sunday since he was traveling home from indianapolis all day, but Ray, Jameson and I did get to take in the Angels game last night vs the Mets. Angels almost managed to rally in the 8th and 9th innings but couldnt pull it off and ended up losing by 1. 

Happy Fathers Day Ray!

From Ray Jr. aka Jameson

Happy Fathers Day!

Sunday we celebrated fathers day at my dads house by having a bbq with our family. My dad is awesome for so many reasons, more than i can list on this little blog... here are just a few reasons why my dad is the best:

1. He is a Rockstar -  music has always been a huge part of my life thanks to the environment my parents created surrounding us with music. My dad has played the guitar since he was a kid and still plays in a band called Cheap Sax http://www.cheapsax.us to this day. When i was in elementary school and jr high i played the flute. My dad could listen to any song on the radio and within 10 min could play it on the guitar and teach me how to play it on the flute. I remember when he taught me how to play stairway to heaven - he wrote out the sheet music for me and he accompanied me on his guitar. i would make my mom listen to us play it over and over... I am glad that my dad still gets to do what he enjoys: playing in his band, rocking out and entertaining people. Cheap Sax has quite a following and they have gigs all over almost every weekend. It is truly amazing watching my dad get to do what he loves.

2. Bob Villa has nothing on him - my dad can build, fix, create anything! Everytime i go to his house he has managed to upgrade something. most recently completely overhauling their guest bathroom. i wish i had a pic to put up but i forgot to take one yesterday. he has completely remodeled his house to make it a beautiful home. I remember sitting out in the garage watching him make a stained glass window for the front door to our house. it must have been at least 15 years ago when we lived on cedargrove. I drove past that house a few days ago when i was back in whittier and the stained glass door is still there shining bright. True quality.

3. Support/advice/wisdom - i was lucky enough to have the support of my dad throughout my childhood and it continues to today. he talked me thru my transition from volcom to matix and lended support and advice. he never missed a water polo game or swim meet throughout my career. He proudly sported his Cal Aquatics sweatshirt to every game to cheer for us and even ended up with a few of his pics in our water polo yearbook. he drove me around all of southern california so i could take pictures for my senior project - my topic was photography and he is a great photographer. He taught me composition, the rule of thirds and how to use shadows to my advantage. He also taught me how to drive when we were out in nebraska for my brothers baseball tournament. i guess he figured it was a rental and what was the worst thing i could crash into... corn? lol

anyway - these are just a few random thought and memories.

i love you dad!

Friday Funday

I am a little behind on my posting this week - i have been super busy with the new job :) so now im playing catch up...

This past friday i went to China Town up in LA for the first time - lame i know. i have lived in California my entire life, southern CA to be exact, and i have never been to China Town. I think my parents were scared to take my brother and i anywhere in LA when we were growing up and i had never gotten around to going there myself. I guess i am playing catch up on a lot of things. Anyway - back to the post- i had the pleasure of dining with my good friends: Lorena, Cecille, Anysia and Devynn at Yang Chow. You will find that a lot of my blogging will be about or involve food because it seems like that is the only time we can rally a group of friends to hang out - over food and drinks :) We started with wonton soup, followed by our dinner of some kind of delicious fried rice, garlic chicken and slippery shrimp. MMMMMMmmmmm. i will admit that slippery shrimp did not at all sound appetizing - it sounds like shrimp straight out of the dirty ocean - but they were cooked and actually really tasty :)Thanks to Anysia for hauling us all out there and thanks to Lorena for showing me a little about her asian culture. As always we had a great time with each other and it was fun getting to hang out with Devynn. Shes getting so big!

Lorena and I out front:


Cecille took home the doggy bag:


Rice cookers in china town, i felt right at home:


Devynn brought her friend to dinner also, but i forgot her name:

Get Muddy

Sunday morning i got up bright and early - 430 to be exact - and headed down to Camp Pendleton for their annual Mud Run. what is a mud run you ask? it is 6.2 miles of running through dirt, softsand, mud, climbing walls, crawling thru tunnels, jumping over hay bails, running through tires, up huge mud hills, and a quick swim through a lake. I ran it with my team made up of Volcom peeps: Lisette, Lindsey, Tara, Dustin and honorable mention - coach Carlos. we all had an amazing time together and finished strong as a team. I cant wait to do the next one in oct!

Map of the course:


Before we know what we're in for:


Start / Finish line:


After getting out of the last mud pool:


Heading to the finish line:


As a team:


Woo Hoo - We're done:


All cleaned up and enjoying a beverage:

Sign of the Times

Ray and i were sitting eating some delicious Z pizza on 2nd st tonight when a guy about my age, looking like the artsy, sylish guy type - not unlike anyone that i work with or hang out with, casually walked in to grab a newspaper from the side counter. But instead of taking a newspaper he grabbed the tip jar full of dollar bills and change and sprinted out the door! the guy working behind the counter ran after and tried to chase him down but he couldn't catch him. 

it made me stop and realize how lucky i am to be not only working right now but to have a great job. i guess i take that for granted. times are getting tough. there is a recession going on right now and people are forced to steal tip jars :( 

Drive Time

As i am getting situated into my new job in torrance (approx 15 min north of long beach) i have spent my first week driving different ways to and from work to find the quickest route. I happily discovered yesterday on my drive home that i can take the vincent st. thomas bridge from san pedro to long beach and save a few minutes. while i will miss cruising down pch and watching the waves in orange county - its kind of cool to take the bridge and look down at the port of los angeles / long beach and all of the thousands of containers coming in from overseas.

The Cure

Saturday night I went with a few of my girlfriends, Crystal, Lorena and Nicole, to The Cure concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was awesome! Robert Smith is a rockstar and his voice sounds just as beautiful live as it does on their cd's. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather, the bowl is beautiful and the music was amazing - we had a great time :)