MANDARIN TASTE FOR JARED'S GRAD

Kimi set up a lunch at the Mandarin Taste, Jared's favorite Chinese restaurant.  We had plenty to eat and had a private area in the back.  Then we all made little speeches, but the one that touched us the most was Jared's Poppa who got all emotional.  There were tears in everyone's eyes.

JARED GRADUATES

Jared graduated from high school!  How time flies.  The nice thing was that all the family was there and there wasn't any drama.

After, we all took pictures and then went to K. Noel's to eat.

VISITING THE CALIFORNIA SCIENCE MUSEUM

Took the kids with their grandma to the California Science Museum.  I was a little disappointed that the exhibits were so old and some were broken.  I thought it'd be much better.  But hey, what do you expect when it's free?  Still, it seemed like the kids had fun.

PAUL AND FAMS COME INTO TOWN

Spent some time cleaning around the house.  Then Paul and fams came in.  They have a new car!

Then I drove out to Hollywood at the W for Tam and the twins birthday celebration at Drai's.  It was awesome.  The quality of ass was phenomenal.  And watching The Twelves was cool too.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED AGAIN

I continued my work on the organization of the bar area.  Everything is out and it's nice to be able to have some space to work with.  As they say, everything has its place.

I also cooked the chicken thighs with a mushroom sauce that is easy peasy.  I used some old wine to cook with finally and it wasn't bad.  I was a little worried that the wine had gone bad, but it was fine.  I mean, I don't really know if the wine is bad, but it didn't taste bad to me

Made my way to the Beverly center to pickup from Andy.  It was the usual dealio.  I got back and Jansen came over.  The idea was that we watched Avengers, but he decided to play it straight.  I feel bad about backing up his lack of truth, but not bad enough.

We chilled here for a few hours.  He was smoking and boy did it make the house stink.  I'll have to tell him not to do that in the future.  He brought some pasalubong from Peru.  A little mirror, a carrying strap for water and then from the Nike outlet, some high top shoes.  Sweet!

CELEBRATING K. NOEL'S BIRTHDAY

We finally decided we would celebrate my brother's birthday today.  So after playing some COD and watching more Tosh and It's Always Sunny, I figured I'd better workout before going to Corona.  But then Don the plumber called and said he'd be picking up the money for the work he did at Cindy's.  I had purchased the hardware for the faucet outside so he said he could replace it for me.

He took a blowtorch to the thing and was able to pull it off after some time.  I never realized that heat could just remove that shit.  It was pretty cool.  Then he put the new hardware on and it worked great.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to workout since we had to go already.

So I just did some jump rope and then took a shower and we left.  We got to K. Noel's around 5:45PM but we weren't going to eat until 6:30PM.  That gave me a chance to hang with the kids a little bit.  Then we left for  Ricky Sushi.  We were all pretty hungry and our orders came out a little slow since only the sushi chef makes everything.

But damn that shit was good.  I got the Chef combo B with six pieces of sushi and a spicy tuna roll for $15.  That's pretty much the standard cost of any sushi combo, but damn this fish seemed really fresh.  It was good and I would love to come back and try their sashimi next time.

After dinner, we were all pretty full.  But we left room for dessert which consisted of an ice cream cake that Amanda had purchased from Stater Bros.  It was good too and we watched the Lakers lose to Denver.  My basketball bets suck.  But it's because I always bet on who I'm rooting for and not necessarily who I think will win.  I should have known.

Then we ate some mango and hung out a little bit.  It got late and we left and I put The Artist on for moms to watch while I went upstairs and messed around on the computer.

TOTAL RECALL

I hadn't worked for so long, I began wondering if I'd ever get booked again.  It's been terribly slow and I don't know if it has to do with the merger of the unions, the general slowdown during this month or both or neither.  All I know is that it felt great to be booked.

I played a lab tech in a clean room today.  I was sent to Sony Studios in Culver City and it took me a good two hours to get there during rush hour traffic.  But I was about 45 minutes early so I took my sweet time to walk to the stage.  I could have eaten breakfast but I decided to wait.  It seemed like there was hardly anyone at the stage including background.

I saw Kwan again from Pair of Kings.  He was booked as a factory worker.  I guess this is the factory that Colin Farrell works in.  In the background of the office he goes in is the lab and the hallway of the factory.  A lot of the factory guys weren't used, but all four of us in the lab were.

It was take after take after take.  They must have done several angles because it was the same thing over and over and over again.  The good news was that we were wrapped pretty early.  Only about six hours of work and we got to eat afterward.  The bad news was no overtime.  Oh well.  I didn't hear from Janet until I got home about chillin and waiting the traffic to die down.  So I got to go home and nap a little.

Then Jansen asked if I wanted to watch a movie.  We watched The Cabin in the Woods.  What a trippy horror flick.  Pretty good too and very much Joss Whedon style.

(written 5/3/12)