I Love Long Weekends
What a great Thanksgiving Weekend. You can't beat a 4 day weekend full of eating, eating, eating, spending time with family and friends, shopping, and watching football.

The great weekend started early...on Wednesday Cat, James, Ana, Tommy, Joesan, Karen, Ryan, Lou, and Belle headed to Shin Sen Gumi (check out my last post). We waited so long in the cold to get seated but it was worth it when we finally got seated. We just ordered a ton of food on the grill and a lot of alcohol too. We were so hungry that and had no food in our stomachs but we killed 3 bottles of sake before we got any food...and yes, we were so drunk. And so we ordered even more sake...but still no food! I guess they ran out of food and we had to get other stuff, but we were drinking and having a good time so it didn't matter. It's probably a good thing that we didn't get the stuff we ordered because then the bill would've been like twice as expensive. Good times though....we must do it again.

Thursday Cat and I went to my Tita's house in Palos Verdes and just spent some family time there. Ate a lot of food and just hung out. Good times, good times. We decided to go back to Tulare that night and so Cat and I headed out with James and Ana behind us. We got to Tulare at midnight and James went to open the front door but I guess this HUGE dog was sleeping on our doorstep and started barking at James and all you see is him running back to the car. HA HA HA! Hilarious! We just chilled in Tulare and actually went to the Tulare Outlets (which is like 2 minutes from my house) to see if they were open for midnight madness for Black Friday...but they weren't. When we got home, Dad was home from one of my Tita's houses and he was in a good mood from the alcohol that he drank there. I introduced him to Cat (this is the first time that they met) and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. HA! I like when my Dad is drunk...it's funny.

Friday we woke up at 6:30am to go to the Outlets (more specifically Banana Republic) to shop since they open at 7:00am. We prepared ourselves to wait in a long line of people since everything was 40% off. We got there at 7:15am and we were the first people in the store. HA HA HA! Hilarious...Tulare sucks. We did some shopping at the outlets, Cat and I went to Target in Visalia to do more shopping and then went to my Tita's for dinner. We then headed up to Modesto to Cat's Auntie Jackie's house. This house is HUGE!!! 5 bedrooms, a loft, a huge bonus room, it's 3000+ square feet and on a huge lot of land (you can probably put a full court bball court in the backyard with some room to spare). It's crazy! Such an awesome house.

Saturday was spent at Auntie Jackie's place for a post Thanksgiving dinner with all of Cat's family. It was good times just eating, hanging out, playing games, and watching USC kick ND's ass. Good times, good times. Cat's family is so much fun. They love playing games for prizes like trivia games, Bingo, scags (some card game), good times.

Sunday I was in front of the TV all day just watching football. I didn't even change out of my PJ's the whole day. it was GREAT! We said goodbye to Cat's family and then just hung out the rest of the night.

Monday was the drive back home. We stopped by Tulare again to visit Mom's grave and it was nice to share that with Cat. We got back to Cat's, set up her Christmas tree, and just hung out watching Heroes and resting. Ahhhhhhhh...what a great weekend.

Oh yeah..AND on Wednesday I got my early birthday present from Cat. It's a new cell phone!!! The Nokia N80!!! 3.0 MP camera, and WiFi! WOW!!! I love it!!! So much better than my old phone!!! I also gave her an early Christmas present...the Tickle Me Elmo TMX doll. It was the hit of our trip up to Modesto, everyone was playing with it.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm back at work and it sucks....but at least this is only a four day work week for me. I hope you all had great Thanksgivings too. Such is the life of Joe...

Are You Ready For Some Football???
What a great weekend. So tiring, but so much fun. It totally reminded me of being back in college.

Friday after work, Cat and I went to Shin Sen Gumi for some authentic Japanese yakitori. This place is great and usually it's packed and we have to wait to get seated...but we walked right in and immediately got seated. AWESOME! If you want some authentic Japanese yakitori and authentic Japanese enviroment you should go here. They yell hello to you in Japanese when you enter the door and they are yelling in Japanese throughout the night whether it's to welcome more people into the restaurant, yell your order to the cook, or say goodbye and thank you to people leaving. We ate so much food thtere and also drank a lot of sake...it was sooooooo good.

We were both pretty drunk and tired when we got back to my place (it's pretty funny how you can be more drunk when you get home than when you're actually drinking). We just kicked it and welcomed Ryan, Cici, Jay, Belle, Lou, Romeo, Jenn, and Cesar to just kick it and play Guitar Hero II, smoke up the hookah, drink, and just hang out to like 3am.

The next day we headed to Belle and Lou's to watch the Michigan vs. Ohio St. game and also to celebate Belle's birthday and a lil housewarming for Belle and Lou's place. They have an awesome townhouse in Irvine/Tustin. So nice! I'm jealous!!! Well, we watched the game and then went and bbq'ed and played some flag football. And what team won? The blue team of course....the team that I was on! YIPPIE!!! It was really fun just running around and taking shots of sake/beer after you scored a TD. But I think it was the most exercise most of us had done in a while because we were so freaking tired after we were finished. I'm still sore from it. Good times though, good times.

After the game we headed back to Belle and Lou's and just cleaned up, watched the USC game, played some Guitar Hero II, watched Dr. Romeo work his magic on Jenn, and just chilled. We were all pretty tired and most of us were falling asleep.....UNTIL Alberto's was mentioned. Ai, Ryan, and Jay did an Alberto's run and I was so happy when they returned. Mmmmmmm....Alberto's so freaking good. That reenergized us to play more video games like Bomberman and Super Mario Kart and just hang out. Good times good times.

Thank you guys for a wonderful weekend. It felt like I was back in college where we could just hang out until late. Hang out and just chill, talk, eat, play video games, but mostly just hang out with each other. It's been a while since we've all been together to do that and this weekend was great. So thanks for everyone for a great time and thank you to Belle and Lou for allowing us to use their house as a our little clubhouse.

Now it's the shortest workweek of the year. I can't wait until Thanksgiving weekend. It's gonna be great. Hope you all had as great a weekend as I did, and hope you all have a great Thanksgiving weekend also. Such is the life of Joe...

Where did you get your glasses???
Another great weekend, but this time it was to celebrate Cat's birthday.
Friday was spent cleaning up the house a lil.
Saturday was spent buying groceries for Sunday and then later we went to Fleming's Steakhouse and Wine Bar in Fashion Island. Mmmmmm.....bone in filet mignon...DEELISHUS!!! (yes, I know I spelled it wrong). And the best chocolate souffle/lava cake ever. Mmmm....melts in your mouth...so good.
Sunday was football day! WOO HOO!!! Just spent the day watching football and bbq'ing. Good times, good times. Also played some Guitar Hero II...pretty damn addicting game...plus the fact that I know a lot of the songs makes it fun. It's funny how everyone else hasn't heard of any of those songs before.

Monday, Cat and I decided to play hookie and we called in sick. We went to lunch at Red Robin where we saw Cat's "best friend" there. HA HA HA! For some reason this random hostess at Red Robin LOVES Cat. The past 2 times we were there she would make small talk with Cat as she was seating us.

Later we watched Stranger Than Fiction. A great movie!!! I loved it! Will Ferrell is great as always and so is Maggie Gyllenhall...she's always been one of my favorite actresses since seeing her in Donnie Darko. The movie was great, but if you're looking for the regular slapstick of Will Ferrell you won't find it here. It kinda reminds me of Punch Drunk Love in that movie Adam Sandler doesn't play his typical slapstick character either.

Yeah, that was my great weekend. Hope yours was just as great. I love Heroes by the way. Such is the life of Joe...

There's No Crying at Disneyland...
It's the Happiest Place on Earth!!! Yeah, I was at Disneyland on Saturday last weekend to celebrate Char's birthday and to hang out with my brother and friends from up North. We spent most of the day at Disneyland California Adventure just walking around and checking out the rides since it was most of our first time there. Soaring over California was cool and the California Screaming coaster was fun also, but there was no way I was going on Tower of Terror. Forget that!

It was such a hot day and we were on our feet the whole day that we got tired quickly, but Cat and I had free parkhopper passes (perks of her job!!!) and had to check out Disneyland. We went on Pirates which was alright, Haunted House which was cool because they redid it to be like the NIghtmare Before CHristmas, and also we rode Astro Blasters...the best ride ever! We should've rode this multiple times! Here's a pic:

Later that night was dinner at Cafe Hiro in Cypress (awesome rissoto and seabass) and since we were so tired, we just went home and crashed. It was great seeing my friends from up north since I rarely get to see them. Good times.

On Monday I got to take Cat out for her birthday at Hush in Laguna Beach. Delicious food, good wine, nice atmosphere, and awesome company. Then on Tuesday her parentals came to visit and took us out to Cedar Creek Inn...more delicious food!!!

Ok, finally the weekend is almost here...I can't wait! Such is the life of Joe...

Birthday Wishes
Happy Birthday Babe!!! Hope you're having a great birthday week celebration so far! Such is the life of Joe...