Will Blog For Food

It's been a while since we posted a new entry. A lot has been going on, I lost my job about 3 months ago, and Elaina lost her job. It's all good, the wedding planning continues and we've been keeping ourselves busy. You would think that not having jobs gives you a lot of free time but you can actually stay pretty busy. Not to metion, about 25% of our friends in are unemployeed as well becaue they too are in the architecture/graphics field.

We're going to continue our blogging as time goes on but with the wedding fast approaching there really won't be that much extra time. So if you see Elaina and I selling fruit on the street corner, hook us up and buy a bag!

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Wedding Party Taste Off

It’s been a while since our last entry, so here’s what’s been going on. As our wedding day approaches we wanted to have a night to where our entire wedding party could come together and really get to know one another. So Elaina and I decided that we should have a wine tasting party.

The rules were simple, each person/couple needed to bring one bottle of their favorite cabernet sauvignon and $5. Elaina and I would number and foil wrap each bottle then everyone would taste and vote on the bottle they liked the most. The person/couple that brought the winning bottle would receive everyone’s $5! All the while the wedding party would be interacting with each other and getting drunk at the same time.


Elaina and the other girls provided everyone with a badass spread. It really came in handy once the wine started settling in!



We had wine glasses laid out for everyone with their names on them. Elaina made the labels and it was my job to attach them to the glasses.


Here are most of the bottles, we ended up having about 16 bottles total!


Here are some early pictures while everyone was still bright eyed. Julie, Jakki, Kelsey, Marco, and the robot.


Andy, Mary, and Donna


Lisa and Corey


Leanne and Matt


Steven, Me, Jerry, and Vince


Marco, Edward, Kelsey, Chrischelle, Elaina, and Christine


The guys seemed to all have a gay moment, drinking wine with their arms intertwined!!! Andy, Jerry, Steven, Vince, Corey, and John.


John brought a bottle of Cab, but he also brought wine in a box. Not the best stuff in the world but it did the trick once we killed the other 14 bottles!


After all the votes were tallied, Andy and Mary brought the winning bottle!!!


Andy won, but ultimately lost because he was stuck wearing this shirt the rest of the night.


At some point Andy was dancing alone in the living room so Elaina joined him.


Here's a first, Vince smiling AND drinking beer. He even stayed out past 10pm!!!


Jerry moved on to beer after the wine. Then was kicking like David Lee Roth the rest of the night. He almost put his foot through my subwoofer while he pretended to kick imaginary EMO kids!


This pretty much sums up the night, good times for sure but we ALL pasted out. I think Elaina and I crashed about 4am.


If you want to view all the photos from the wine party, CLICK HERE.

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Start Your Engines!

This past weekend Elaina and I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix. I have been going pretty regularly for the past 10 years or so but this was Elaina’s first year. We made it a co-ed race weekend so it was Elaina and I, Jerry, Jakki, Matt and Leanne. My buddy Marshall from work hooked us up with free Saturday tickets. Can't beat $free.99!!!


We got there early because we wanted to get some decent seats. It was a warm day and we knew it was only going to get hotter. After the national anthem was sung, there was a fly over by this HUGE tanker jet thing. I don't know much about planes but this thing was BIG and they said that it was flying at 500' and at its slowest speed possible. It looked as if it was going to land right on the track.



First group shot, we're not burnt red yet and we're still smiling. (Me, Elaina, Matt, Leanne)



Someone should have told these four clowns that there's an auto race going on behind them! (Leanne, Matt, Jakki, Jerry)



Okay, NOW it's time to load on the sunblock. It was about 11am and already over 90 degrees without a cloud in sight. Jerry REALLY didn't want to get burnt! At least Matt had Leanne there to help him, Jakki and the rest of us just laughed at Jerry. He still has WAY more in his hands too!




After a couple of hours of sitting in the grand stands baking, the girls left us for ice cream! They even left the race track entirely and were wondering around downtown Long Beach. Elaina found herself this hat and then they eventually came back to find us burnt, drunk, and grumpy. Oh, they forgot OUR ice cream too. Nice!



We smuggled in a couple bottles of hard alcohol and some mixers. There was NO WAY we were gonna pay $10 a beer! Once the alcohol was gone though, we moved on to $10 beers, DAMN!



All in all it was a great day at the races. A little warm but nothing a lot of booze and some ice cream couldn't fix.








Oh yeah, the race was pretty good too. I think?













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Downtown, Everythings Waiting For you

This past Saturday we had a few errands to take care of in Downtown LA… check out suits for our groomsmen, have my engagement dress altered and kill time having lunch at our favorite spot, The Standard Hotel.

The Standard is the location where Mike and I were the night he proposed to me. Every time we go to The Standard I’m reminded of the night of our proposal.

The rooftop bar is my favorite place in The Standard. I just love looking at the surrounding skyscraper buildings. I’m completely fascinated by them even though I’m staring at the same buildings every time.

Afterwards we drove around and did a little shopping.

…I know… I thought the same thing when I saw this….thing.

Eye candy…I’m always diggin’ the city art. The world needs more of this (in a non-gang-graffiti way).

That’s all for our Saturday afternoon. Just remember:

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go….Downtown!”

You know the rest of the song, click to sing along: Downtown - Petula Clark

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Welcome to the family Julie!

Well my baby brother Steven and Julie just got married on March, Friday the 13th. The ceremony and reception was held at the Candlewood Golf Course in Whittier.

I was the best man, so all of the guys got dressed at our place while Elaina did Julie’s make-up at my mom’s house. Once we were all dressed we had a quick groomsmen photo shoot in uptown Whittier. My brother bought all of us black skinny ties and Ray Ban glasses just for the occasion. We got there early so this gave us a chance to make a pit stop at a local bar to calm our nerves. We then met up with a great photographer Trent, from www.proimageweddings.com. Steven had planned for us to do a Reservoir Dogs style shoot in a back alley which is why he bought us the ties and glasses. First he shot solo with Trent for traditional groom pictures.

After the solo pictures he shot all us guys. I think they came out pretty badass. Trent caught on to the concept quick and did exactly what Steven was looking for. He had never seen Reservoir Dogs before so we just gave him a photo we printed out from the internet for a concept. What do you think?!

(left to right Me, Paul, Steven, Jason, Mike, Andrew)

After that Trent left us to meet the ladies at the venue. We went back to the bar for another cold one (hey it was warm that day!) and then made our way over to the golf course. We were able to sneak in a couple more at the venue before the ceremony started.

Julie looked BEAUTIFUL and the ceremony was great. Everything went as planned and came out great.

And now...

…The new Mr. and Mrs. Steven Soto! You can really see how happy they both are!!!

After that it was time for the group shots and these are two of my favorite.

The reception was a BLAST, everyone had fun, and just take a look at that cake!!!

It was a night not to be forgotten. I wish nothing but the best for the both of them and their new life together!

For additional photos see: http://proimageweddings.blogspot.com/2009/03/steven-and-julia-whittier-california_23.html

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Bryan and Leah

My mother is a beautiful woman inside and out. As her daughter I could only want the very best for her. I have always prayed that my mom would find a great guy who understands her and loves her like a fat kid loves cake!

February 28th = prayers answered! My mom and Bryan were married. I can’t express how happy I am to see these two in love and how well they compliment each other. I love the phone conversations I have with my mom with Bryan apart of her life. I can hear the happiness in her every word. At last…her life is complete and I’m such a proud daughter.

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I’m a Baking Fool

Only because Bakerella makes it so easy. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I baked red velvet cookie sandwiches with cream cheese frosting filling. It was my first attempt at homemade frosting. I found it so easy to make and it tastes much better than store bought. My girlfriend Tiffany gave me her recipe for her homemade frosting. Next time I’m going to try hers and make chocolate frosting!

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Girl's Night for My Momma

Just one more week till my mom and her fiancé tie the knot; which calls for a girl’s night.

We started off the evening at “From the Vine Wine Boutique” in Laguna Niguel for wine tasting.

Then we made our way over to Hennessey’s in Dana Point for appetizers and dancing.

Then back to my mom’s to crash. We had a great time and lots of fun. We were so tired at the end of the night, it didn’t matter that my mom and her sisters were sleeping on top of each other on the couch.

Next… the wedding in Vegas!

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My Momma's Getting Hitched

I can't tell you how excited I am for my mom. She's in love and getting ready to tie the knot at the end of this month. This last Sunday my aunts and I threw a bridal shower for my mom. It was a good group of ladies, not too many and not too few.


The Help: These women put their talents together to create a fun party for the bride to be. (Moniqua, myself, Maria, Michele, Sophia)

Gifts: The gift theme was Lingerie. I'd love to show photos of the elegant unmentionables but they wouldn't be unmentionables if you saw them would they?

Favors: Cupcakes?! Nope! These favors are loaded with mass amounts of chocolate and we know that real women love their chocolate. I was up late baking but it was so worth it! These sweets are brownie cookies in cupcake form! Thanks for the sweet idea Bakerella!

Go for the prize: We had a few games set up. The Bubblicious Sculpture game is one of my favorites. Each girl was instructed to use a piece of bubble gum (unchewed) and sculpt anything that has to do with "Wedding"

Some were really creative like the "wedding dress & shoes" and the "wedding cake". There were some sculptures I cannot mention but had us laughing almost to the point of tears. We had a very creative group of "ladies".

And the winner is Moniqua with her sculpture of the "happy bride".... It looks just like her!
Purse Raid: The crazy game where women pull all their junk out of their purse. There's really no need to have a bunch of useless junk in our purses but we do.

Wisdom Bouquet: I created a bunch of pretty floral cut-outs for this bouquet. Each girl wrote down her words of wisdom or wedding wishes for the bride. Later I will create a scrap book for my mom using these flowers and the photos from the shower as a keepsake. For now she's enjoying her bouquet at home.

The shower was a hit! We accomplished our goal for making it memorable for and fun for my mom.

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Buttoned Bridesmaids

I buttoned my bridesmaids eyes. Compliments of Coraline

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