.: What’s Bruin :.

Josephine has obtained another promotion in her work. She learned today that she will be the new Executive Assistant for Learning Support Services for Elementary Education. Translation: very nice instant pay raise. And one year from now, almost a $10K annual raise.

Sweet!

Update 9/6/05:

I am extremely pleased to announce the selection and appointment of ****** to the position of LSS Executive Assistant. Previously serving as an Administrative Assistant to the Director of Secondary Curriculum, ***** replaces my former assistant, Brigitte ******, and will continue to be a strong addition to the LSS division. During a brief transition period, Karen **** will continue to provide secretarial support on a substitute basis. Congratulations to *****!

Email announcement from *****’s new manager

Tags: Career, Events, Josephine_Bruin, work

Pourpa and I are headed to Anchors Restaurant on base tomorrow for the Seafood buffet, which only costs $9.95. Since it’s a long weekend, I’m only working a half day, so I get to go home after the feast.

All-You-Can-Eat
Lunch Buffets!
ANCHORS CATERING & CONFERENCE CENTER
Bldg. 3210, NAVBASE• (619) 556-7788

All-You-Can-Eat Lunch Buffet
Every Wednesday-Friday • 11 am-1 pm • All Hands • (Call for cost)
Wednesday: Prime Rib Buffet
Thursday: Roast Turkey and baked breaded pork chops with all the trimmings
Friday: Seafood buffet including fried catfish and shrimp, also, BBQ ribs and chicken

Each buffet includes vegetables, soup, salad, rolls, dessert, tea or coffee.

Restaurants and Club Events, Morale Welfare, and Recreation

It’s gonna be good! Yum, yum!

Photo Update:

Pourpa’s plate

My plate

Tags: Career, Events, family, Food, Pourpa, work

This is a cool cake. Yup, it’s carrot cake. Josephine made it for her boss’ birthday.

Josephine made this cake for Mel’s birthday

Tags: birthday, cake, Events, Josephine_Bruin

Today we were at the Del Mar Racetrack for horse racing. The CSUSM Alumni Association sponsored a cool event for $20 to have a meal at the races on Family Fun Day. Josephine and I had never been to races before. I guess not many people wanted to come to this event because Charles (CSUSM, Director of External Affairs) said that only 10 people bought tickets. Too bad because at least the food was good. They had hot dogs and BBQ chicken, corn, beans, salad, and fruit.

Charles and Fellow Alumni

The only thing that was kind of a downer was having to eat next to the USC Alumni. God, I hate them. I seriously felt disgusted, like I was going to lose my appetite. I sat with my back to them the whole time. One guy from ‘SC said “No 8 Claps” as we walked by them early on. I wish had thought of something to say, but I guess they disgust me so much that I couldn’t think of anything. Later, I wished that I had replied with “Why are you talking to me?”

Eating with the Enemy

After eating a lot of food, we went over to the track, to stand next to the gate. I guess because our tickets were so cheap we definitely were not in the grandstand and we were on the other side of the racetrack. So when the horses went by, you couldn’t really see them very well. They look so small. I put my camera on servo focus (for moving objects) and turned on the motor drive to shoot continuously. So I have lots of shots of the horses going by in sequence, but they look frozen in time because there’s not really any motion blur.

Racing at Del Mar

Horse racing in general is kinda boring. I don’t see how people can get so excited about it. I don’t gamble so there’s really no point. I would say even boring baseball is better than horse racing.

We just watched one race and then left. I took some interesting pictures as we were exiting the park.

Wagon Trail

Ugly

Josephine’s New Friends

Tags: alumni-association, CSUSM, Del-Mar, education_and_training, Events, Food, horse-races

The last memories I have of Julie were in 1984 or 1985. We were studying in the Biomed Library at UCLA. She had transferred to a real school, UCLA, from UC Irvine. After that year, we really didn’t see much of each other at UCLA. She was a Communications major (North Campus) while I was suffering in the Biology department (South Campus). Our common love for the band, Duran Duran, did not bring us together as much as the band’s popularity fizzled. And so life passed on.

A year or so ago, we reconnected electronically. I knew that Julie was the International Vice President for Sony Music in Europe and I was in the middle of my MBA program and also looking for a career change. I contacted Julie out of the blue to see if she could connect me with anyone in Sony San Diego. While that did not pan out, it was good to touch base a couple of times by phone and email.

So now some twenty years later, Josephine and I went to Julie’s parents’ house in Whitter for her California Whittier wedding reception. It was fun, driving through the old stomping grounds of Whittier. I had not been to Julie’s house in a long time since we were in high school. We had launched on some crazy adventures from there that involved going to dance clubs in Los Angeles and under-age drinking. But that was a lifetime ago.

Valedictorians Reunited with Spouses

Now we’re on the cusp of middle age. Julie finally got hitched to Robert, her long-time boyfriend. And life comes fulls circle.

Cutting the Cake

Redeux: Choking the Competition

Josephine and I had a great time. We met and hung out with some of Julie’s friends and family. She had great, authentic Mexican food there. They hired a Mexican woman to make carne asada, pollo asada, and salsa. It tasted sooooo good. It was just like Mr. Taco.

Chocolate

We stayed for three hours or so, talking and sipping on margaritas. Julie’s nephew played a few songs on the violin for entertainment. It was very cute. I saw myself many years ago playing piano and performing at my parents’ parties.

Because of the traffic going up to Whittier, we decided to take the 60 freeway to the 15 south to head home. So on the way we passed by the high school and my parents’ old house. Memories. The old neighborhood. The tennis courts. Whittier, from days of old.

La Serna High To You We Pledge

Memories of Whittier

Tags: Events, Food, Friends, high-school, traffic, wedding-reception, Whittier

Okay, maybe not science. But for some reason this morning none of the outlets in any of the bathrooms in the house are working. Yes, all the lights and the appliances work. But when Josephine tried to blow dry her hair, none of the electrical outlets would work.

So I tried resetting the circuit breaker. Nothing.

I guess it’s time to call the home warranty again and have someone come out here. Thank goodness we have that home warranty insurance to take care of these things for a $50 deductible. I would go crazy just thinking of how much an electrician would charge us per hour.

It’s always something breaking down, isn’t it? If not something with the car, then it’s the house.

Tags: electricity, Events, house, strange-events

S Tech’s company picnic yesterday was more fun than I thought it would be. Despite the strange Saturday traffic on the 15 South and a one-hour commute, we were pleasantly surprised with the event at Party Pals. By the time we arrived, we were hungry. The menu included:

• Fish Tacos
• Potato Salad
• Beans
• Black Bean salad
• Hamburgers
• Hot Dogs
• BBQ Chicken
• Watermelon
• Brownies
• Assorted Drinks

The food was good.

For fun, there was a zip line, rock climbing wall, jumping and slides for the little kids, golf driving range, arcade games, table tennis, basketball, jukebox, air hockey, some type of foosball game, and my favorite . . . Jeopardy.

The highlight was the first Jeopardy game. Of course, I won . . . smartest one wins! Just kidding, a little bit. The questions were not that difficult, mostly identifying songs, movies, and tv shows. You get 100 points for each correct answer with no penalty for wrong answers. First contestant to 500 wins the game and gets to select a prize bought by S Tech!

I got off to a poor start. I couldn’t identify Madonna’s voice in the first question, which is especially lame since she was at one time my favorite artist in the late 80s. The guy next to me pulled out to a 200-point lead while the remaining three of us contestants had a big ZERO. My fist correct answer came with identifying a movie that belonged to a song that was played. I recognized the song, but couldn’t remember the name of it or the movie that it played in. But I pressed the buzzer anyway.

It’s A Whole New World . . . Aladdin

Because I forgot the title of the song, I sang a few words and when I got to “It’s a whole new world,” I gave my answer: Aladdin. And I was on my way to victory, finally on the scoreboard.

For the second question I answered correctly, I had to identify the voice of Bill Clinton. I wanted so badly to say what a disgusting and shameful president he was, but I didn’t.

For the third question, I correctly identified the song, Y.M.C.A. At this point, I tied up with the guy next to me, both of us having 300 points.

My fourth correctly-answered question put me in the lead with 400 points when I correctly identified the voice of John F. Kennedy. Only needed one more correct answer to win.

The guy next to me beat me to the buzzer, answered his question correctly, and tied the game at 400. Now the heat was on. We both needed only one more correct answer to win.

My winning question: “What type of event would you be at if you heard this?” After the first few notes, I pressed the buzzer, answered, and won!

Sweet Victory. I’m finally a Jeopardy Champion

Surprisingly, I won a prize too, something that I was not expecting. And I write this post, I’m enjoying a strawberry dacquiri smoothie made with my new Smoothie Maker.

My Prize

Tags: Career, Events, Food, traffic

So I was at the bank in Escondido this morning where I had just finished putting some important papers in our safe deposit box. As I was backing out of the parking lot, another car was backing out and we impacted. On her car, a 2001 Honda CRV, I hit her spare tire on the back. On my car, she hit my left tailgate, which now has a dent.

She comes out to exchange information and she starts cuddling her lower back. “Oh my lower back.” As we exchange information, she says “My lower back,” as she touches it with her other hand. She also says, “I have a bad back to begin with.” Seriously, what a money grubbin’ ho. I’m sure she is just fine considering we were going only 5 mph.

So after calling the insurance company, we are now ready to leave for Greece.

We’ll see what happens with Katherine Hepburn’s Academy Award performance. Stupid old hag.

Tags: cars, Events, Rants

Saturday, May 14th marked an important milestone in my life as I completed all the coursework required for an MBA degree from Cal State San Marcos and graduated from the program. The ceremony was kind of long. And I had a hathead sunburn after it was all over. My dad’s camcorder ran out of battery power, so he didn’t get the whole thing on video.

Officially an MBA

Afterwards, Josephine had to go home to finish cooking for the grad party, so my parents, along with Stuart and Marjot, took Tony and me to lunch. I decided that we should go to Applebees. And it turned out that we had one of the worst waitresses ever. She was so lazy. And most likely my parents did not leave a tip, which would be not only appropriate, but extremely funny. Because of their own party to get ready for the next day, my parents went back home, while Tony and I returned to our home to get ready for the festivities.

Eatin’ Good (?)
in the Neighborhood

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Tags: CSUSM, education_and_training, Events, family, Friends, MBA, parties

Last night at Starbucks near the CSUSM campus, I met Sean Voisen for his insight into the software development industry. Sean has a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA. I found Sean’s blog via the journalist/photographer Andrew.

So I may take some computer classes at Palomar, but most likely not this summer since I just finished an MBA and am starting another degree 12 days after graduation. I think I am crazy.

We talked some computers, mostly about UCLA and Sean’s leukemia. He is a cool, fellow Bruin. At Starbucks, we met another Bruin, a film major named Johnson. He is originally from Oceanside, went to Palomar, then transferred to UCLA, now works for a film company in Solana Beach.

You never know who might run into. Maybe we should start a North County San Diego Bruin Club. Or not.

Tags: cancer, Events, leukemia, UCLA

I’m definitely not a baseball fan. In fact, I think I have fallen asleep at almost every single MLB game I have attended. However, the CSUSM Alumni Association is hosting a Cougar Tailgate party at PETCO Park on June 25th. I bought three tickets for only $40, which includes food and drink. I think that’s a great deal. My family has wanted to see the new ballpark for some time now, so this is a great opportunity.

The new PETCO Park

Join us for the 4th annual Cougar Night at Petco Park on Saturday, June 25, when the Padres play an Inter-league game vs. the Seattle Mariners.

Tickets are $20, and Alumni Association Members will receive a special buy-one-get-one free deal. The alumni special is good for the first ticket purchase only and will not apply to additional ticket purchases.

Seats will be located in LOWER RIGHT FIELD RESERVE, and your ticket also provides entrance into the FREE Couger Night catered tailgate party, sponsored by California Coast Credit Union and the CSUSM Alumni Association. The tailgate party will run from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

CSUSM Alumni Association

Tags: alumni-association, baseball, CSUSM, Events, Padres

This past Saturday evening the MBA Student Association hosted its year-end Spring Banquet in honor of the MBA graduates of 2005, which includes me! It was a great event at Dave & Buster’s restaurant in Mission Valley, right down the street from my soon-to-be former employer A Corp.

The evening started out with its technical difficulties as we did not want to pay an additional $250 to use their projection unit in the banquet room. But after some creative bargaining, we were able to secure the use of the projection unit and sound system at no additional cost to the organization.

Dinner was fantastic: vegetables, fettuccine, white sauce, grilled chicken, and the salad were tremendous, especially the salad and dressing, which were exquisite. There were also shrimp kabobs.

I gave a 10 minute spiel, lauding our organization’s accomplishments, showing my 7-minute movie slide show I made. I also praised our organization’s president, Michelle, and presented her with a plaque of appreciation for her vision and efforts this year to help us to be such a successful organization.

What a great year for the MBA Student Association. The experience was very rewarding.

Tags: CSUSM, education_and_training, Events, Food, MBA

Yesterday was our sixth anniversary!

We exchanged gifts in the morning. I gave Josephine a bottle of Dream Angels Divine body splash from Victoria’s Secrets, a wrought iron plant stand and four hanging candle holder thingies (I forget the actual name of these things). I received Quicken 2005 for Mac. (It seems that I am slowly replacing my PC desktop with my PowerBook G4 laptop, which is clearly a superior machine.)

Josephine’s Gifts

Hanging Candle Holders for the Patio

To celebrate, we decided to eat Sunday brunch at the 94th Aero Squadron in Balboa. This is a great restaurant. I had eaten here once before with A Corp at a lunch buffet. To take advantage of an “early bird” savings, we skipped church and got to the restaurant by 9:00 AM. There was already a long line of people waiting to get inside.

Front of the 94th Aero Squadron

The hostess who greeted us knew Josephine from Mt. Carmel High School. I didn’t recognize her at first because she looked all grown up, but she was Jordana, one of my former students at Mesa Verde Middle School. She joked with us how she took my algebra class three times, which is true (7th and 8th grade, and then in 9th grade summer school at the high school). She definitely should have passed the first time, but she never did any work. I asked for a window seat since we had connections now.
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Tags: anniverary, Events, Food, love

We went to Anaheim on Saturday to my aunt/uncle’s new home for a reception for my cousin, Marjot, and her husband and three kids. I had not seen her since I was 11 years old on a family vacation to the Philippines.

Marjot and Me

Funny moment: During a group birthday cake celebration, one of my other cousin’s sons, Jerrick, was coughing without covering his mouth while we were singing Happy Birthday. The problem was that he was standing in front of the cake! So we skipped the cake due to the extra frosting provided.

Jerrick - little guy in blue

Tags: Events, family

Last April 16th we had an appointment at the Cemetary Office at San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside to get some information about cemetary plots, etc. A burial site is one of the details we have planned for as we are drafting our trust/will before we leave for Greece. So we get to the mission and on the cemetary office door is a note: “Office closed due to illness. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

And this is from the guy who told me on the phone to be sure to let him know if I had a change in plans and couldn’t make it.

So we decided to walk around and look. The cemetary is a very nice place, very peaceful and beautiful. I got the idea about this place from Andrew.

San Luis Rey Mission Cemetary

But after not being able to talk to anyone, we decided to look elsewhere. We found a place just up the street, called Eternal Hills Memorial Park. It’s also beautiful in a different way than the mission. But what we like about it is that it’s a “one-stop shop” where family can plan all final arrangements from mortuary services to burial, even flowers and memorial services. I think this type of place makes it easy for family members at what will obviously be a stressful time. Eternal Hills (not the mission) is where we have decided to be buried when the time comes.

Tags: death, estate, Events