hosting people takes a lot of work, and it takes lots of planning and preparation. my best friend jj and his gf nikki made their somewhat annual trip to socal from august 22-28. jj usually has his annual...wait for it...STORM CON conference in anaheim. think of it as a less glamorous, coma-inducing, retarded step child to COMIC CON, minus the hot babes, crazy costumes, movie star celebs and free swag. up until this point, i thought the conference primarily consisted of a bunch of dudes talking about sewage pipes. jj quickly corrected me, and set me straight. it is a conference revolving around water treatment and drainage solutions. sounds like a party to me! nonetheless, the conference took a couple of days, so nikki (my nikki) and i were lucky enough to have jj and nikki stay with us afterwards! i must say, when jj and i get together, it's pretty much no-holds barred. much to the chagrin of nikki and nikki, they allowed us the luxury of being idiots, for at least a few days.

we made sure to plan ahead for places we wanted to take them and places they wanted to eat. we hit up this place in old town orange called "the perfect circle cupcakery" which was featured on cupcake wars on the foodnetwork, and won! the cupcakes were delicious. then we had a great dinner at this restaurant called rutabagorz. (oh, and the night before, we took them to this malaysion restaurant called penang malaysia for some roti canai!!!!)

the one thing you need to understand is that when nikki and jj are in town, you can't just sit and do nothing (which i love to do on a regular basis). i knew i had to plan some things for them, as i know they like to do a lot of activities. my nikki was lucky as she had to work thursday and friday, so she couldn't really join us for what i had planned.
we hit up some golf at hidden valley golf club in corona. this gem of a course is literally 4 miles from my house, and the views are fantastic. they had a promo running on facebook, so the rounds only cost $20 bucks each for 18 holes and a cart. you cannot beat that value!!! we did tee off after noon, which happened to be the hottest part of the day. being inland a bit, the temperature was up there...i know we were dabbling in the high 90s. nikki thought she was going to die, as she was burning all over. we couldn't get the sunscreen on her fast enough!

next we decided to do some mountain biking in the laguna beach. we figured that being close to the water meant cooler temps. only during the drive down there. we were pretty much exposed to the sun on top of the mountain, but the trails were awesome! however, it did take us almost an hour to get up the mountain. the terrain was all sandy and loose dirt so it made it more difficult to get to the top. when we did, the views were worth it. plus, all the trails were pretty much downhill. afterwards, we took a stroll to the beach, got some gelato and ate at a hole in the wall taco place off of pch. when we got home we were exhausted, and nikki's poor skin was red hot...it felt like it was giving off heat! we went for a massage and then a good dinner.

paddleboarding was next on the agenda. we went to paddle power in newport, and that was a lot of fun. we went around the harbor for an hour and half...i'll just end the story there...

we hit up the beach and boogie boarded. the waves were huge and the sun was beating down on us. it was the perfect day to be at the beach. we then picked up inga who happened to be in town doing a press junket for the 3D release of lion king. we headed back to our place for some margaritas, spritzers, and abnormally large portions of mexican food!!!

inga managed to get on the same flight and jj and nikki, so we took them to target for some last minute shopping and then to the airport. luckily there were no delays from hurricane irene, so they were good to go. honestly, the best way to spend a weekend...with good friends, good food, and good fun! thanks for coming out guys!

it has been way too long since my last post. i've learned over time that i really don't have to write a novel...but just a few lines updating my latest escapades.

so for diana and sally...here is my update.

this past weekend, (actually 2 weekends ago) i flew down to Denver to meet up with my old dragonboat team, the aquaholics. it's been over 3 years since i've actually paddled competitively, but i've been keeping as active as i can. i wasn't worried about the actually paddling, just the

actual racing itself.

but first, i had to contend with 2 days of hiking in the Rockies with JJ, Nikki, Cheryl, Dan and Christina. first things first, however, i was fortunate that my buddy who used to work with me at the Ducks recently got a job with the Colorado Avalanche. Kyle met up with me and my friends on the wednesday wehn we arrived. he gave us the lowdown on Denver, and told us that just the week prior, it rained for 11 days. luckily for us, the weather improved slightly.

the next day, we hit up some hiking trails up in estes lake. not sure where that is in relation to denver, but it took us about an hour or so to get there. i didn't realize that the altitude was going to affect me so much, but it literally felt like i was out of breath all the time, and that i cement blocks on my feet, as every step felt heavier than the first. bear lake was the name of the trail, and it was around 1.6 miles one way. it took us

a fair bit to get to the end, but it

was well worth it!

day 2 saw us hit up another trail, but i wasn't sure the name. i thinkit was called the ute trail named after an indian tribe. this trail was a little more open, as we drove to the top of the mountain, then took the trail literally on the mountain side. the ground was very uneven with a lot or rocky terrain. we saw some wild marmots running around (apparently drinking dan's piss) we saw the state flower of Colorado, and dan didn't collapse from a cardia arrest and fall down the mountain, so all in all, it was a good challenging hike.

saturday was the day of the festival. it was being held

on sloan lake just outside of denver. we got up early, as we had a full day of racing! from my understanding, we had 7 races in one day!!! seeing as its been awhile since i raced competitively, i knew this was going to be a challenge. suffice it to say, we did really well. we won the 500m championship, came in 3rd for the 250m (which i still think we won by the way) and then we won the 1000m grand championship. not bad for a team from toronto. afterwards, we celebrated like rockstars in downtown denver! the pic on the left is of freddy, our newly appointed drummer which we found the day of the race to drum our team! if i recall, he said that this was the best experience of his whole life!!!

sunday was our white water rafting day. wade did all the organizing, and it was awesome. funny thing is that we were given the wrong directions to the rafting company, so we ended up at another place, not knowing it was the wrong one. we all got geared up, ready to go, and then when they were announcing the groups, we were pretty much the last one standing. they asked us who we were, and we told them, but they had no listing for us whatsoever. we figured out that it was the wrong place, so we got changed, and drove a mile or 2 to the right company. we pretty much held up not only our group, but 30+ other people that were there. they were all cool about it, and we managed to get in our fill or white water rafting. the water was cold as ice as it was glacier water from the mountains. the rapids were pretty intense and everyone enjoyed. as soon as my balls defrosted, i was A-OK!!!

Dominator loves the SHOWER!!!

2. Home search

around this time, we also started checking out some model homes. we weren't really planning on buying a new house, but for some reason, i felt motivated to start searching just in case. plus, obama's tax credit was going to expire at the end of November (which is now extended till april of 2010, but we'll talk about that later!) which also kind of spurned this activity.

now keep in mind, i know nothing about real estate...i had no idea what escrow was, i even didn't know what a mortgage was...seriously! i quickly learned as a buddy of mine lent me his first time home buyers book, which really helped. we saw some awesome houses, really large ones, 4-5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3 car garages, on lots that were almost 10,000 sq. ft...the all ranged in and around 300-400k. suffice it to say, we got pre qualified for these places, but i don't think we were prepared to be paying that much in mortgage.

i was more interested in getting a brand new house, as i just didn't want to deal with any problems an older place would bring. i had a friend that just bought a place, and she was telling me every day of problems she was having, things they needed to replace, and renovate...

we got the invitation for our very first phase release. we were very excited, but didn't really know what to expect. my brother came with us, in order to give us some guidance and how the whole process worked. there were about 6-8 other groups that attended which i'm assuming were all pre approved as well. they had 6 homes going on sale, and people were selected in priority to choose the home they wanted. to our surprise, we were 2nd on the list...so when the called our name, i had no idea what to do. they asked if there was a home i wanted...so i chose. a single story 4 bedroom, 2,400 sq ft home on a 8,500 sq. ft lot. the house was going for $371,000. the took the home off the list...and then we started to get nervous..."did we just buy a house?" i thought to myself...? we met with the loan officer, and then the builder...they gave us a huge packet to read, went over finances and told us we had a week till they draw up the contract to either change our minds, or defer to the next phase.

so much info, i thought i was going to get an anxiety attack. nikki was worse, as she immediately hit the computer and started working on the finances.

while all this was going on, i was reading the newspaper, and saw an ad for a new housing development just up the street from my brother's place. the homes started at $249,000 and had all these builder incentives.

nikki and i thought it was a sign, so we checked it out. houses were really nice, in a gated community, with all the incentives you can think of. before you know it, we put an offer on one of those homes, went back to the other builder, told them we changed our minds, and took our $10,000 check. it was all so dizzying...

after we signed the contract, 2 months later, our house was built, and we were closing. literally like a whirlwind. we are now 3 months into our new home and we absolutely love it. it's more house than we're used to so it's going to take some time to fill up every room.

i can't stress enough how hard it is it keep this blog up to date...but i digress. here are some updates over the past couple of months!

1. August 09

JJ and Nikki came out for a visit. It was more for a work conference for J, but we did manage to fit in some quality time. this was essentially the first time we got to really hang out with Nikki (J's) and it was a lot of fun. we took took a road trip to Santa Barbara, and took a ferry to the Channel Islands, and did some cave kayaking and hiking. it was beautiful.

well, this have been an eventful week, and it isn't even finished yet. first of all, i want to so congratulations to my friend sally who just got married on july 17. i unfortunately could not attend, but looking at some of the pictures, it looks like they had lots of fun.

now moving to this week, i knew it was going to be a busy one. my birthday was this past tuesday...and i had a lovely dinner with my family at this new chinese restaurant. it was called king lobster...so with a name like that it had to be good!!! nonetheless, everyone enjoyed and the lobster was really good too (considering it was $40 bucks for just the lobster!!!)

wednesday was a very eventful day. our dept was having a sort of team building event at del mar. jack daniel's invited us down for the day...i had no idea what to expect, but from what people told me (STEPH, that's you!) it was the biggest day in san diego for people to take a day off...it literally felt like the whole population of san diego was making their way through the gates. let's just say, sites, sounds, and huge elaborate...hats where on display!!! everyone seemed to be decked out, and the vibe was just awesome. good time, good people, good betting (or bad betting) it was an amazing day...and i will leave it at that!

check out this link of just a sample of what we saw opening day!
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/around_town/fashion/Check_Out_the_Del_Mar_Scene.html?cid=45442962&sid=393359

well, we are well into summer, and the weather is really starting to warm up. not sure how it is back in my home town of toronto, but here in LA, it's up in the 90's almost every day...actually, i just got back from vegas over the weekend, and the weather peaked at around 111 degrees...

i must say, everytime i go to vegas, there seems to be a new resort or casino going up...it's hard to keep up.

whoa...how long has it been? i can't even remember the last time i posted something. probably, just prior to the summer.

well, i'm sure lots has happened, but i can't really remember much right now. i do know that canada day just past, and now we're inching closer to july 4th long weekned. to commmemorate, we have been given half day thursday, then friday off as well!!! whoohooo!

my parents are in town visiting till the end of august...which is cool. however, they are staying with my brother in corona, so i don't see them all the time...which is fine. once a week or once every 2 weeks is just enough for me to get my fill of my mom's cooking!

i started p90x as well...roughly a month ago! i just survived phase 1 which lasted 4 weeks. let's just say, it really kicked my ass...almost everyday. now moving onto phase 2, i'm into a whole new set of exercises which are once again, kicking my ass. i just have to remember that i have only 2 months left...i'll let you know how it goes.

draft day came and went for both nhl and nba...raptors didn't do much and will most likely not make the playoffs again this year. chris bosh should be traded this year, because there is no was he will resign in 2010. the leafs are just as terrible. they haven't made any big moves and will most likely not make playoffs...good luck burkie!

the ducks on the other hand, have neidermeyer returning and selanne. plus we acquired some great draft picks, got younger, and save lots of money!!! playoff bound once again.