A night at The Continental Room

This past Saturday we celebrated our good friend Jakki’s birthday. She’s one of Elaina’s bridesmaids in our wedding. It’s been a while since we were ALL together so it was nice to just kick back and have a couple drinks. Jerry her husband, who is also one of my groomsmen, decided to go to The Continental Room in Fullerton.

 The C.R. is a historical business that has been around since the 20’s. It’s right across the street from the now Amtrak station. Back in the day it used to be the first thing you saw when you jumped off a Union Pacific. Now it’s surrounded by hipster and cool guy bars that only allow fo-hawks and affliction t-shirts in on the weekends. The C.R. however has remained true to its style. The second you walk in you’re transported to the early Vegas years. There’s a small stage at the very back corner with a red velvet curtain that raises as bands begin playing. Their bar runs the entire length of one side and private burgundy booths line the other. On the weekend, the place is always packed so it’s standing room only unless you opt for the $300 table service just to sit. Luckily “we’re in the know” there so we grabbed a booth and had a seat. At the C.R. you’re always guaranteed good music and REALLY stiff drinks for a great price. It’s really dark and really loud, but that’s why we love it!

 The usual suspects were in attendance as always so the drinking got off to a good start straight away. Elaina was the photog for the night so kudos to her for snapping the shots.

At the back of every booth there is a “call button” that lets the waitress know we’re ready for another round. That button got PLENTY of use that night!

Fully functional cigarette machine.

As the night progressed things began to get a little blurry and dark.

All in all it was a great night of drinking, joking, laughing, and music. I can’t wait for our next night out all drinking together!!!

Don't call Martha Stewart on me

Our office had an ornament decorating contest for the holidays. Each employee was given a simple glass ornament along with instructions to be creative, decorate their ornament and then hang it on the Christmas tree in our lobby.

I had what I thought was a creative idea to decorate my ornament with feathers. My inspiration was The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, but more festive and on the prettier side.

Below is my inspiration and a sketch of what i had in mind for the finished product.

I went to the craft store and purchased feathers and ribbon, then went home to begin my crafty project. I laid my feathers out according to size and set out the rest of my materials.

About half way through my project I looked at my ornament and began to laugh hysterically. Mike came over, shook his head and proceeded to say "I don't know why you thought that was going to look good" (thanks for the support dear). I looked back at the ornament and laughed some more.

My ornament was a failure. I ended up with something that looked like a lucky rabbits foot or Gossamer from Looney Tunes.

I brought my ornament to the lobby and our receptionist said "wow, a giant rabbit's foot!" I laughed again. Its such a disaster, how could I not laugh.

I have to give myself a pat on the back for effort and an "F" for FAIL.

Does anyone carry a lucky rabbits foot these days? I was on a site called "Go Fug Yourself". Its a blog about celebrities and their "fugly" public appearances. I found that Taryn Manning is the last person on earth to carry a rabbits foot (a hideous accessory).

I hung my ornament on the tree in hopes that maybe I could try to hide it but I made that option impossible since its huge and a complimentary RED to the tree's natural shade of green. After that thought, I figure I'd hang it next to one of the better decorated ornaments.

Snowmen need the luck of a beastly rabbits foot right?

Domo Arigatoo

We host foreign exchange students from Whittier College which is just a mile away from our house. Mike’s mom [Loretta] got us started hosting students; she’s been hosting for almost 9 years now and it’s an interesting experience. Right now we have a boy named Ren from Japan; he’s 21 and has been making lots of friends (most of them from Japan as well).

Ren is originally from Korea but has been living in Japan for the last 12 years of his life so he speaks Japanese and Korean fluently. Like most foreign students-Ren is here to learn English. We’re really not sure how much English he’s learning, it doesn’t seem like he’s learning much more from when he first arrived. We think this because he’ll give us a nod, say okay and just stare at us after we’ve asked him a question. The fact that all the friends he’s made are Japanese doesn’t help his purpose for learning English.

Either way, we really enjoy Ren and get a kick out of his sense of fashion and random text messages he sends to us when he’s not going to make it home.

Mooneyes Christmas Car Show

A cloudy day but no rain! Good for us so that we were able to have a good time, hang out at the car show and enjoy the drag races without the worry of getting our hair wet.

Mooneyes is a car parts company and race car builders that started in the 60's based out of the city of Santa Fe Springs. It's always been a long time tradition for them to open their shop doors come Christmas time for a car show with bands and food. Well as the years have passed, the show and tradition has become so large that they've had to move the show to the Irwindale Speedway. Here the venue is large enough to house the 1,500 show cars and over 10,000 spectators that came from all over for this one day. Mooneyes has only one other shop and that's in Japan. This year, just like the last, the entire Japan Mooneyes staff was on hand to help out with the event.

It was a LONG day for us guys. We met up in Whittier at 5:30am and then met some other closer to the show. It was dry for the most part but REALLY cold!!! Once we were at the show the party started. We had beers, then bbq'd some carne asada, chicken, and then finished off with some fresh oysters, thanks Vic! Once the show ended (about 4pm) we headed home for some rest then continued the party at Pete and Summers place in Upland. We kept the bbq'ing going with some more carne asada and pork chops (YES!). Oh and of course we had some beers going as well. All in all it was a cold, busy, but fun weekend and we can't wait for next years show!!!

Who Ordered the pOo PoO Platter?

We hung out with our good friends Andy and Mary the other night. Mary had just got her hair cut (Bettie Bangs!) so we had to go over so I could play hairdresser with her new doO.

Mary had a little surprise for Mike. She and Andy were not able to celebrate Mike's birthday; for this very reason she baked Mike a pOo cake! Mike was thrilled since he loves all things disgusting like pOo and vomit.

The pOo cake wasn't at all gross... It was made of red velvet cake and topped with chocolate ice cream and chunks of brownies! The BEST poo platter ever!

Sad Day for a Bombshell

Its going to be hard to break the news to my dog.

The very sexy pinup she was named after passed away yesterday.

Rest in peace Bettie Page.