Sins of the Father...

Now before any of you start thinking thoughts, my father is a good man. I was thinking more in terms of my son. I love quotes and there was a quote that stated, "Live an honorable life so when you think back on how you lived, you can be proud." I would like to say that I had a good life. Sure, I didn't get to experience too much of the "wild" stuff, but if I never experienced it, how can I miss it?

I guess I never really knew what kind of adjustments I had to make personally in my life when Nathan came. I mean, I still see some of my friends that are married with kids, but they still club like no other. But that's them and another blog.

So now here I am, trying to be a good role model to my kids. It isn't easy being the good guy and I tell my kids that. That's why it's better to be the good guy. You get to see yourself in a proud light.

Just yesterday I noticed these two kids at the corner of my block. I had a feeling they were up to no good so I watched them. Sure enough, they hopped the fence to my kids school and what do they do? Start vandalizing the school. What did I do? I called the cops. Too many times I hear people complain about graffiti and how ugly it makes our neighborhood. Well, this time I did something about it. Luckily the cops caught the two kids who ended up tagging 4 buildings in the school. The cop said that it ill cost them over thousands of dollars to clean that up.

Where am I going with this? Were their dads like that growing up? Are they paying for the sins of their fathers?

I look at my children, especially my youngest one and wonder if I can prepare him for the world he is going to live in. I'm not saying I'm a saint, but I try to live an honorable life. And even though living a good moral, ethical life can be challenging sometimes, my hand will be there for my children to help guide them along this thing we call life.

Thoughts running through the night

Hello. Sorry it's been awhile. As I sit here in front of my computer, I can't help stop thinking about Friday night. No, not because that is the start of the weekend. It's because my old high school will play our arch rival. We, and I mean my old high school, will try to do what we have not been able to do in 20 years, beat them.
Yes, I know that is a long time, I just don't want it to be longer. I can't say I hate my arch rival school because my sister went there.
Me and my brother always teased her in not going to one of the sister schools. Then she gave me an answer that I will never forget. I asked her, "Why didn't you go to Rosary or Connelly?" Without blinking she responded, "Because they are not Servite." That just showed how smart my sister is.
So I took her answer and just smiled. I attended some games that she worked at, and she would come to our games and cheer us on. And of course she would cheer my brother when he was playing basketball at the time.
So in a nutshell, I hope we beat them, finally...so I can get some rest. hahaha

Made me think...

August. HOT day in the city. Just your typical Tuesday after work day. Got home from work, saying hi to the kids, having dinner, getting ready for the next day...typical.

So here we are in the living room. The kids and wifey on the sofa, me with the baby standing up, and were watching John & Kate plus 8. As we are getting into it, my cell phone rings. It's my dad. He wanted to know if we're watching TFC. I said no. He tells me to turn it there, so I did. It's the funeral of Cory Aquino. Martin Nievera and Regine Velasquez are singing The Prayer. I like Martin's version a lot and no, it's not because I am a fan. So we are watching the funeral as we listen to them sing. Then other singing stars like Ogie Alcasid and Jose Marie Chan are singing as well to pay tribute to the former president.

I hurriedly changed it back to John & Kate, but my wife wanted to watch the funeral. I was a little surprised because she doesn't really keep up with the goings-on in the Philippines. But in a sense I was glad she did...and this is why:

During the show, the daughter of the former president, Chris Aquino was being interviewed by the local news that was covering the event. She was very strong, carrying a good conversation, but, there was a time in the interview where realization set in. She said, "...now that the mass is over and we are processing to the burial site, it's more of a realization now and that we have to move on without her..." This hit me hard but I'm sure it hit my wife harder. You see, my wife lost her mom earlier this year. She lost her life to the same disease that Cory Aquino was battling, colon cancer. As Chris kept pouring out how she felt at her most vulnerable time, I sat next to my wife, for I knew what Chris was saying, is what my wife was feeling. There were a lot of similarities with my wife's mom and Pres. Aquino. I'm not saying that my mom-in-law was qualified to run a country, but she made sure her kids were taken cared of, when she was alive and now when she is at rest.

This made me think about my grandma, who's death anniversary of 1 year is coming up. It also made me realize how special these women were. I know we always say, "Treasure these moments fo you will not get them back..." So true.

Like I said life is experienced in stages. Enjoy each stage.

Weekend warrior

Hello everyone. This past weekend really tested my endurance somewhat. Friday was my cousin's wedding. We all welcomed "Lobo" into the family and he is a welcome addition. The mass was nice even though we showed up super late. The reception was really nice. There was an open bar which equals trouble in more ways than one, and a pianist (did I spell that right)?

We could only stay for a few minutes at the reception because me and my wife had to go to the airport. We had a flight that night to San Jose to visit her dad who had a stroke. It was a different mind set coming from a happy celebration to a somber mood. We dealt with a similar mood shift earlier this year, but we didn't know we would experience it again, and soon.

We got to San Jose late and boy let me tell you, whoever invented GPS, thank you. TomTom was great at getting us to where we needed to go. We were going to see her dad later that night, so we did the tourist thing and went to Fisherman's Wharf.

Now, we used to live up there and went to Pier 39 often, but for some reason it looked MUCH different. We did the whole tourist thing and got on the big red bus and man, has it changed. A lot of childhood memories came flooding back. I tried visiting the old neighborhood, but that will have to wait.

Her dad was doing fine. We found out that it wasn't a stroke. It was Bell's Palsy. It wasn't as major so we were relived. After that, we finished by having dinner at this place called Sino in Santa Row in an Jose. My wife's co-worker suggested this place. It's an Asian fusion restaurant. The food there was very good and the people, when they found out who suggested the place to us, were very accommodating. It also had a lounge area which was very nice.

The net day we visited one more relative who my wife had not seen in years. Her cousin just had a baby and is the Asian Michellin baby. Very cute. We made plans to see each other again.

As we flew back home and got the kids, we went to have dinner at my parents house and to our surprise our relatives were over. Just having our family over is like a big party already. Cousins, aunts and uncles hanging out, drinking, gambling, bar-b-qing. It was great.

What a weekend.

4th of July

Once again my yearly trek to Vegas during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has come. As you can tell from the heading of my blog, I am a huge poker fan. But please, don't confuse with me liking the game from being GOOD at the game. We will talk about my skills or lack there off at a different time.

From all the times that my little poker group has gone, we never took my brother. My brother is a much better player than I am, so I wanted to take him there to check it out. He did admit he was a little star struck in the beginning, but that all went away when we entered the poker playing area.

First we visited the Poker Palooza. It was more a convention than anything where vendors showed off what they had to offer to us poker players. One of these days I will buy that card shuffler!!!

Anyway, after that we went to the poker rooms or halls and just watched these poker players who invested $10,000 to play. I say good luck to them. Do I want to be there, of course. I thought I was ready too because I got to play in a cash game the night before with some professional players at the Luxor.

Well, needless to say my brother got to thinking that he's always wanted to play but he never thought he was ready. After this weekend, I think he's ready.

He wrote a very inspirational letter to all of us poker buddies of his, and I think, I THINK, we will be there very soon. Till next time.

Abra Kadabra

Today we treated my oldest son to his birthday lunch. We took him to the Magic Castle. Now, for those of you that don't know, it is literally a castle nestled in Hollywood where magic truly is the breathe that keeps this place alive. It took a little longer to get there because we decided to take the scenic route and saw the many flowers that were being placed on Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was amazing how many people were there visiting the star considering it reached the high nineties today. It was HOT! Anyway, my son took an interest in magic, asking me to record countless shows. He likes Chris Angel. I'm old school so of course David Copperfield gets my vote. But I still haven't seen Lance Burton and I heard he was good. So he thought that it was this place that had plaques and showed awards of magicians. He was happy to find out that there was going to be actual shows. We checked in with the hostess and she pointed us on where to go. Well, she pointed to a book case. She told the kids in order to pass, they had to say, "Open Sesame." They were reluctant at first, but when they got close to the bookcase and it didn't budge, they wondered. So they said out loud, "Open Sesame." Next thing you know, the bookcase opens. Nice. We made it to the 2nd floor of the castle and got our brunch buffet. It was very good. Then we started watching all the shows that was available to us. I would normally show you something from there today, but this castle would not allow photo taking. The Magic Castle is a members only club and have very strict rules that had to be followed. Not everyone can get into the Magic Castle so we were very lucky to have gotten in. If you can get in, take advantage of what this place has to offer, for who knows, we probably just watched the next David Copperfield today. Till next time.

Father's Day

As you guys know, I became a father earlier this year. I did not get to blog it because, well, I was getting to know my son. Even since Februaury, my life has changed dramatically. Not in a bad way by any means. I figured in life we go through stages.

Now, I know this is something not new. For me, I tend to hold on to the memories of the past because there were good times back then. You meet new friends, you party hard with them, get in trouble with them. hahaha. But now, the nights of toasting with beer and wive, are replaced with warming bottles and making formula. Different, yes. Dissapointed, HECK NO. Like I said our life goes through changes. Now the next stage of my life is kicking in and I love it.

Yesterday was Father's Day. For me, it was officially my Father's Day. I don't know if I'm bad posting this, but I didn't really know how different my feelings would be.

May 6, 2006, I promissed my heart to my wife and her 2 children, who of course I considered mine even before we got married. When Father's day rolled around then, I felt touched that they would handcraft gifts for me and say, "Happy Father's Day daddy," even though we all knew I wasn't the biological father. Then my son was born this year, and my older kids loved him so much. There was no jealousy whatsoever. This year, my older kids again gave me handcrafted gifts, but this time I appreciated the gifts, and them so much more. Something inside me really gave my a shove on how special it really was to be a father. I thank my parents for showing me what unconditional love really means and I can now pass it down and practice it with my family.

To all the father's out there...cherish your children and cherish your wife. They are unbelievable gifts.

Till next time.

So Sorry

Hello everybody. I'm sorry I've been away. It has been an emotional roller coaster since the last time I was here. It has been a cloudy and sunny experience. My mother-in-law passed away and then 5 days later, my son was born. I know things happen for a reason so I'm not even going to question God. In a way, I think God gave us our son early so that the pain would be more bearable.

Having a new baby is in many ways life changing. You can try to prepare as much as you can, but unless you have your baby, it's a whole new ballgame. I get teased by my friends about not getting enough sleep, mountains of diapers, and many spit-up towels by my bed. Well, let's just say they are not myths. I thought I could handle the no sleep part. I mean c'mon, Vegas on a weekend. But I quickly found out a weekend is much different than every night.

Although we are going through this "change" in lifestyle, now I understand what I mean by "labor of love". I am thankful that I have my son. I have my step kids that I consider my own and love very much, but with my newborn, I can appreciate all the sacrifice involved and it ways have brought me closer to them.

Last night I was able to take out my wife to reconnect. It's been a while since we had a date and it was something that we were both very much looking forward too.

We decided to go this restaurant called Roy's in the Anaheim Garden Walk. I heard about this place and about the fine gourmet dining. So off we went. Now you know being the eater that I am, I am picky about where to eat. My wife, through 6 degrees of separation, knew one of the chef at Roy's so it was more incentive for us to go. Now this place was very nice and the service was excellent. You can really feel the "aloha" spirit. We ordered and we just really reconnected. We were just talking about things that happened, life, friends, so many subjects. Then we got to meet the chef friend. Very nice guy and down to earth. I don't want to spoil the experience that anyone who wants to visit this restaurant, but the food is AMAZING. Our treat was the dessert. We ordered a chocolate lava flow type dessert. But when we got it, we got 4 desserts thanks to our chef. Really good stuff.

Enjoy the pics and till next time.