Roy’s 90th Birthday August 21, 2006
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Yesterday, we went to a surprise birthday party for one of our friends, Roy. His daughter, Christine, found our email address off of Talli’s podcast, Being Healthy with Talli. Luckily, we were able to make it to Christine’s house for his party.
The house was beautiful and the food was great. Most importantly, Roy was looking good, as always, and seemed to be enjoying himself. We’re glad that we could be a part of Roy’s big day. Happy Birthday, Roy. Next party at 100!
Unfortunately, we had to leave Roy’s party a little early, so that we could go to my parent’s 34th wedding anniversary dinner. It was a nice dinner and was a lot of fun. It was a small gathering, just my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and Talli and myself.
Thanks again for inviting us, mom and dad and, once again, Happy Anniversary!
Lunch With Friends August 12, 2006
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First things first. Before any of my friends complain about how they look in this picture, I look the worst. Second, it was great to see everyone today. Talli (not pictured) and I went down to San Jose to visit Vincent and check out his new apartment. It’s a really nice studio apartment. Vincent keeps it on the spartan side, but I kind of like that style myself. It just seems like we accumulate stuff too quickly to manage it. Peggy and Doug came down as well. After the tour, we all went out to a Korean place in Santa Clara for lunch.
Lunch was pretty good. We enjoyed it and Vincent was kind enough to pay, partially because it was my birthday recently and partially because he’s a really nice guy. Next time, we’ll take you out Vincent.
I haven’t seen Vincent in a long time and Peggy….well it’s literally been years. I guess everyone has been too busy. I’m going to try to be better about seeing everyone and maybe we’ll be able to drag everyone back together again sometime before a year has passed. Maybe we can even do something before the end of the year. We can only hope.
30th Birthday Accomplished August 10, 2006
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It’s official! I survived 30 full years on this planet. It was quite an accomplishment, let me tell you. Do you know how many cars had to not hit me when I was crossing the street? How many bad drivers had to not slam into me going really fast. How many diseases had to attack someone else? Well, I’ve been lucky so far and I’m going to press my luck and go for a few more years.
In case the beard has become too recognizable to all the dangerous people out there, I’ve shaved the sides off and gone with the goatee. This way I won’t be recognized for awhile.
My birthday was a lot of fun. There was the party on Sunday, the Mission Pizza on Tuesday with Talli, the mini celebration with family on Wednesday complete with an organic chocolate mousse that Talli made for me and port to finish it off. Well, it’s over. I mean the runon sentence of course, I might try to stretch the festivities until the weekend. It is my thirtieth after all. If everyone gets to ask me how it feels, at least I get to take some time to truly ponder it while celebrating!
My 30th Birthday Party August 7, 2006
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Other people make such a big deal out of turning 30. To me, it’s just not that big a deal. True I’m still 29, at least until Wednesday, but I find it hard to believe that I’ll feel differrently then.
Hopefully, Jeff is reading this because today is his birthday. Happy 30th birthday, Jeff! I sent Jeff an ecard, but since I’m not sure where he is exactly, I wasn’t able to give him a call.
So, as a strange coincidence, my birthday party coincided with the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6 and my birthday coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki, August 9. Strange coincidences I know, but sometimes that’s how these things work out. I’m sure it’s happened this way on at least one other birthday as well.
The birthday party was a success for the most part. You can’t please everyone all of the time, but almost everyone had a good time the whole time. Those other people, well…I’m sorry, but such is life. Besides, it was my birthday party. 
Dinner? Please? August 1, 2006
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Hunter seems to have a way of communicating his desire for dinner. He grabs his red ball, throws it at his dinner bowl and stares at you. If you seem oblivious, he runs up to you, runs back to his bowl and does it again. Then he looks at you and waits. It’s as if he’s saying, “Why won’t you feed a poor starving little puppy? Aren’t I cute? Don’t I deserve dinner?”
If it’s too early, I make him tough it out. Im not giving him dinner at 3:30. That’s just crazy. If it’s after 5:00 though, I’ll feed him. He’s adjusted very well to having us home more. Now he has someone to listen to him when he’s whining during the day. Of course, he doesn’t get to bark as much, but he gets a lot more attention.
So aside from the fact that Hunter is happier, everything else seems to be going well also. Talli and I are preparing for possibly 20+ family members coming over this Sunday for my birthday party. You guessed it, that means a lot of cleaning and a lot of cooking. Well, that’s how it goes in my family. If it’s your birthday, you have to do all the work… Luckily, I have Talli to help me. She does a lot of the work because she loves me. And she doesn’t want people over without the house looking perfect. It’s always clean, but she wants it to shine!
Police Action July 11, 2006
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Yesterday, I didn’t have a chance to post. I was just too busy watching the rest of the fish in our pond die. I think the melafix actually sped up their deaths. I can’t prove it, but it definitely seemed to make things worse rather quickly. Now we’ll just be cleaning up the pond and treating the pump and filters to kill off anything that might be infesting them. Then, we’ll dry it out. A week or so later, we’ll refill it and put the plants back in. Then a few days later, we’ll introduce a couple small goldfish. I think we’ll be avoiding koi for now, at least for this pond.
Today, we were treated to some police action in our neighborhood. Talli heard some screaming, so she called me over to the front window. There were two police cars parked in front of our neighbors house. They had a woman in a white SUV pulled over. They gave her a ticket and the lady was cursing them out and screaming at them. The officer actually warned her against something that she said she would do and told her to stop before she ended up in jail. After a while it quieted down and they let her drive off. The one policeman told the other that the incident had been one of the most satisfying ones he’d had in a while. I wish I could have heard more of what was said. I’m sure that was a very interesting exchange.
So, I’ve covered yesterday and today. Now for tomorrow. I have to finish a few things for the RSS feed of Talli’s podcast, Being Healthy with Talli. Talli did some nice things with the look of her podcast’s website, so my piece is the last thing before her podcast goes up tomorrow. So, tune on in and learn a few things about health.
R.I.P. July 9, 2006
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Here’s the update on the pond situation. As you can guess, we’ve had some fatalities. We lost Butterfly, Alexander, Ghost, Tiny, Blue, and two of the orange goldfish which have changed appearance so much lately that I can’t be sure which they were. So, we’ve lost seven of the sixteen that we still had. I fished five of them out this morning. Then we went to the farmer’s market. I came home and fished out one more that had been near death when we left. Then Talli and I did a 10% water change. A few minutes ago I fished out Ghost, who was our latest fatality. Most of the dead were feeder fish that we had rescued, so at least they had longer, happier lives than they might have had otherwise. Of course, two of my Japanese koi were also victims. 
It’s been a sad day. I know they’re just fish, but Talli and I enjoyed eating lunch by the pond so much. Now it’s just a dying ground. Well, I’m going to soldier on with my treatment regimen. We’re going to medicate the pond and do a 10% water change every day for a week or until all the fish are dead. There’s not too much more we can do. I know at least a couple more will die. Hopefully, some will survive. Oh well, if all else fails, I’ll empty the pond, scrub it down really well, let it sit for a while and then try again with less fish. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.
Medicated Pond July 8, 2006
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Well, Talli and I went to Petsmart today and picked up some melafix for the pond. I’m hoping that using that daily for a week, in conjunction with the extra salt I’ve added, will get the fish moving back towards health. After a week, I’ll clean the pond again. I hope that will help to improve the water quality and keep the immune systems of the fish from being overtaxed.
The current temperature of the pond is 66 degrees. I’m sure that will rise a little during the week. Itt will definitely drop again when I clean the pond. Hopefully, it won’t be too much of a rollercoaster for the fish in their weakened state.
Yesterday was my cousin Paul’s 23rd birthday. Happy belated birthday Paul! Tomorrow, Talli and I are heading to his house for his birthday party. It’ll be a good time, just like it always is when I see my cousins. Of course, the party might stop me from blogging tomorrow. So, don’t be surprised if I don’t post. Talk to you all later.
Monster Tomato Plants July 6, 2006
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Our tomato plants have definitely sprung up. They’re a long way from where they were on June 2. We even have some tomatoes on there. They’re not ripe yet, but I think we’ll have a few in a couple weeks. I can hardly wait. This will be the first crop we’ve ever grown on the side of the house.
I’m not sure if you can see it, but we do have some herbs that are starting to sprout in the pot in the front. On the left hand side, we have some parsley and the rest of them are cilantro.
Today, I had some more of Talli’s great cooking. There was a berry and banana smoothie, some ginger cookies and for dinner, a great tofu dish. Her cooking has come a long way. Don’t tell her though, it might go to her head.
Mom’s Birthday Party July 3, 2006
Posted by David in Family/Friends, Food/Wine, Technology.add a comment
Yesterday, Talli and I went to my parents’ house for my mom’s birthday party. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but the party was yesterday. It was a fun party. I got to talk with my parents, brother, cousins, uncles and my dad’s cousin Thea and her daughter Danielle. There were a lot of great conversations, which made for a great night.
On the food side, I had a piece of steak, a piece of chicken and several pieces of linguica. There was also salad, bread and potatoes. It was a great meal. I passed on the dessert because I preferred to have seconds rather than saving room for the dessert.
Today, Talli and I recorded the Millionaire or Bust podcast for this week. I still have to finish post production on it and prep the show notes to post on the website, but that should all be done soon. Look for the next episode to be up on Friday as usual. Everyone tell your friends. We need more listeners.
