Tina

Company Luau

Another busy weekend. No weddings this time though!
We took Friday off and went to Wild Rivers, the water park in Irvine. I hadn't been to a water park since I was like 12 years old but it was super fun!
Saturday was our company picnic at Ski Beach in Mission Bay, Luau theme this year. We had the regular fun stuff like kayaking and the astro jump but this time we had hula dancing and a fire dancer. When it got dark we moved down to the beach and had a bonfire and made s'mores. We had random people coming up to us telling us that our company really knows how to throw a party...DUH.

Vertex.Luau

Wedding and a marathon

Continuing on with wedding season (possibly the end?), Saturday was Janice and (A)polo's wedding. Ceremony was at a church in Mission Valley and reception was at the Marina Village. Beautiful place. Reception was lots of fun, it felt like we were in a club. Line at the bathroom, line at the bar, hip-hop music and crazy lights on the dance floor. Only difference was the drinks were free and the grandma was out there getting her groove on.

Janice and Polo's Wedding

Had to wake up EARLY Sunday morning for the AFC Half Marathon. After dropping Javi off, Chile and I took a nap in the car in the zoo parking lot. Woke up around 8, walked to the finish line and actually got to see Javi cross.

AFC.Half.08.19

Matt and Sarah's Wedding

As wedding season continues...
This weekend we celebrated Matt and Sarah's wedding. Matt and Javi have been friends since elementary school so he was one of the groomsmen. Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at Fleming's. I don't know about their steak since I didn't have any, apparently its the best you can get in SD, but the creme brulee was absolutely amazing!
Saturday was the wedding at the beautiful Torrey Pines Lodge. The ceremony was on the 18th hole of the golf course.
The reception was tons of fun and we stayed till the end and closed down the dance floor. Then we headed over to the hotel bar and hung out with the bride and groom until 1am.
Sunday morning we had brunch at one of their relatives' beautiful home in Del Mar. Even though we never left San Diego it felt like we got to get away and relax for a little bit. Spending time with some of our close friends was an added bonus.

Matt.Sarah.Wedding08.11

Sunday we went to visit my sister and her new puppy, Haathi. He is so adorable!

Haathi08.12

Vertex Padres game and Cole's Happy 30th

Went to the Padres v. Giants game Sunday afternoon. Sucked that Bonds didn't play but we kinda figured that especially since he already hit 755 the night before we thought he'd probably wait to hit the record breaker in SF. Oh well at least we got to see Trevor time, eventhough he gave up a two run homer right when he got out there. As always sitting in the picnic terrace was awesome, good food, good drinks, great view and wonderful people. Got some good shots of Trev and the other players warming up, they even threw us a few balls and signed them for us. Also a couple of pictures of Extraordinary Dessert Saturday night we took Rex, Chay, and Ruby since they had never been before.

Vertex.Padres.08.05

Damian got all of us SD tattoos to put on. Padres won and swept the series, fun times.
After the game we went to Cole's surprise birthday party. We had a good time eating, drinking and catching up with everyone. They had casino tables set up and eventhough I didn't play I still somehow won a raffle and a Nordstrom's gift card :o)

Cole.30th.Bday

Comic Con 2007

Last weekend was Comic Con. Thanks to Javi's friend we got free professional badges again, this time a full 4-day pass.
Thursday night after work we went to go see the new Superman Doomsday movie. The line was super super long and we thought we weren't going to get in to the 8:30 show but we ended up getting in and watching the movie and seeing the panel, it was pretty neat.
Friday morning the traffic near the convention center was freaking insane. Javi had an appt to donate blood so he got out and walked the rest of the way then I drove around for 55 minutes trying to find parking! Finally I parked at some smog check place where some shady guy was charging $15 and took the petty cab to the Convention Center. But I was bummed that we missed seeing Stan Lee, he was my favorite last year. We got to see the Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis panels which were pretty neat. Didn't really get to see a lot of the booths this year but of course we stopped by the LEGO booth and entered the drawing to win the new Millenium Falcon and Gold C3PO. We also saw the actor who played Darth Vadar, but my favorite was the PINK R2. We met up with Matt, Sarah, Raul, Alan and Audrey and walked around with them a little bit too.
In the evening we went to go see Kevin Smith, he was so freaking hilarious! We also saw the whole pilot for the new show he is directing called Reapers, it was pretty funny. We wanted to stay until 10PM to watch the Spike and Mike's Gauntlet but we were pretty tired after Kevin Smith so we went home and played Guitar Hero instead. It would have been cool to go back on Saturday and see the other stuff but we were so busy the rest of the weekend we didn't get a chance, oh well there's always next year!

ComicCon.2007

Victor's Last Day

Last Friday was Victor's last day at Vertex, he is leaving us to go to Med School at St. George in the Caribbean. Since Javi and I took Friday off to go to Comic Con we celebrated on Thursday by taking Victor out to lunch and then having some cake.
Its weird not seeing Victor everyday at work and not hearing his crazy dodge SRT-10 truck with a viper engine pulling into the lot but at least we still get to see him outside of work. Saturday night Destiny threw him a surprise party at Zocalo grill in Old Town. I'm really going to miss him when he actually leaves the country.

VictorsLastDay

Pageant of the Masters

Went to the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach. The Pageant of the Masters was an incredible show. They have a bunch of volunteers that duplicate famous works of art using real people, live narration and a professional orchestra. Its amazing to see these people moving around and then all of a sudden you can't tell who was real and who is part of the painting or sculpture. The gallery outside the show was also pretty neat. Most of the tickets are probably sold out by now but I think the show runs through the end of August so if you have an opportunity to see it I would recommend it!
Here is the website if you want to check it out:
http://www.foapom.com/site/overview_pom.asp

Pageant of the Masters

You boys like MEXI-CO?

We went down to Mexico this weekend to celebrate Adrian's 30th birthday (again).
Rented a condo in Calafia which is about 20 minutes south of Rosarito. Our condo was beautiful and right on the beach.
Stayed up late Friday night after we got there playing card games. I've never had so much fun playing a game of bullshit (f**k up!) I guess it helps when everyone is drinking and forgets how to count.
Saturday morning we got to sleep in past 10, which never happens anymore. Javi and I took a walk down to the beach while all the slackers were still getting ready and enjoyed the morning ocean breeze.
Then we all went down to Puerto Nuevo for the best lobster ever! All the other restaurants were pretty much empty but Adrian and Diana insisted we had to go to the one with the big long line. 45 minutes we got a table and it was soooo worth it.
After we were all stuffed and had to roll out we walked around the town. We found this guy making crazy glass sculptures and Javi got me a little fairy with my name on it :o) The guy made it right in front of us with nothing but a tube of glass, a flame and his hands. It only took him about 20 minutes, so cool.

Mexico07.14

Sea World!

Took Friday off and went to Sea World. We were there all day and got to do pretty much everything. Tons and tons of fun. We did a picnic for the Shamu show which was totally worth the money to have reserved seating and good food.
The night shows and fireworks were also really good.

SeaWorld06.29

Had a busy Saturday lots and lots of fun though.
In the morning we went up to Escondido for beer tasting and a tour at Stone Brewery. I'm not a big fan of the hoppy beers but there were a couple there that I liked. Everyone had a really good time and was pretty toasted by the end of the trip. On the bus ride home Brian in his drunken state provided entertainment for all.

StoneBrewery06.30

After beer tasting we rushed home to get ready and went downtown for a cocktail/ pre-party at the U.S. Grant. Then we walked over to Spreckels Theater to see Avenue Q. So freaking funny. If you haven't heard of it, its a broadway show that is sort of like Seasame Street meets South Park. Hilarious! This is the first time its been on tour in the west coast and Saturday was opening night. I strongly recommend seeing it.

AvenueQ06.30

Our one and only non-booked weekend in June was fun and relaxing. Went shopping on Saturday...semi-annual sales, sushi and flowers :)
Had dinner with Cynthia and Ruben Saturday night and watched the new Pirates movie afterwards. It was so good to see them. Even though she lives a block away from me I hadn't seen Cynthia in over 6 months and hadn't seen Ruben in probably 2 years.
Cynthia was telling us how they had gone to the humane society looking for a kitten and didn't find any.
The next day Javi's brother, Raul, called me saying his friend's cat had kittens and there was one left that needed a home.
He sent me pictures and I passed them along to Cynthia, it was love at first sight. Raul brought the kitty over last night and Cynthia came and got her. Her name is Mojito.

Mojito.Kitten

Weekend

Had a busy busy weekend again.
Saturday we ran a bunch of errands. Met up with Hugo and Nancy to give them their wedding presents. We didn't want them to have to drag them all the way down from LA since they were already in S.D. Got to see preggy Nancy, she is getting so big! Only 3 more months to baby time.
We also went to the Marathon Expo so Javi could pick up his bib and goodies. Then we took Chile to the "grand" opening of the new dog hotel and doggie day camp downtown. But there was nothing grand about it. It was dirty and smelled bad. I don't think Chile will be staying there anytime soon. Chile did meet her mini-me there though, named "Sienna" which is what I thought about naming Chile when I got her. The pet hotel we had her stay in La Jolla when we went to Maui was really nice and clean so I think thats the one we'll be sticking with.

DoggieDayCamp06.02

Saturday night we had a company bowling night. So much fun. My bowling is not so good, apparently your ball shouldn't get any air and should stay out of the gutter...I didn't get the hang of that until the end. But I did get better as the night went on and even got some strikes and spares.

Bowling06.02

Sunday was the Rock and Roll Marathon. Javi ran it again this year along with his brothers who were running it for the first time. I woke up at 4am to take them to the start line, then parked my car at MCRD (finish line) and took the trolley to mile 13 and waited there for 2 hours for Javi to run by. Then I took the trolley back to MCRD had to wait in the security line to get on base and then waited for Javi to cross the finish line, but missed him! Darn it, everytime! Next time...
All three of the guys did really well and i'm so proud of them!
We went to Urban Mo's after the run (formerly known as Hamburger Mary's) in Hillcrest. That place is awesome. Except all the guys still had their running shorts on and it is a very gay hangout. All of them got hit on and I had to protect Javi from being molested. I thought it was hilarious...

Rock and Roll Marathon June 3, 2007

Nancy and Hugo's Wedding

After the CF Walk Saturday morning we rushed home to get ready and headed up to LA for Nancy and Hugo's Wedding. Thanks to LA's wonderful traffic at any given time of day it took us two and a half hours to get up there. Just in time for the last 20 minutes of the ceremony. The church was beautiful and the reception afterwards was so much fun. A live salsa band!
Congratulations to Nancy and Hugo! I have never known a more caring and thoughtful couple and we are so thankful to have them as friends.

Nancy.Hugo.Wedding

Wowie Maui!

We spent 5 wonderful days in Maui and got back on Tuesday.
We were on the go the whole time, no relaxing on the beach for us (as if we couldn't do that here in SD anyway).
The first night we took it easy and went out to dinner at Roy's. Unlike the Roy's in CA there is no extravagant torches lighting up the outside and no fancy schmancy interior. Roy's was originally a Hawaiian based restaurant. Excellent fish!

Maui.Day1

Second day we went on a snorkel cruise at 6:30AM. The catamaran took us first to Molokini (an offshore island) where the visibility in the water was 180ft! It was like swimming in a fish tank, so clear. We took some pictures with an underwater camera but haven't developed those yet. Then we went to Turtle Town and got to swim with some huge sea turtles.
That same night we went to the Royal Lahaina Luau. We opted for the VIP treatment and were waited on like royalty. Instead of standing in line in the hot sun for general admission we were escorted to a private open bar where we hung out with some other travelers from SD. They came and took us to our front row seats right before the Luau started and we got to hit the buffet line first. We also didn't have to get up and get our drinks because they brought them to us. Awesome!

Maui.Day2

Third day we hit the Road to Hana bright and early. Our guide book, Maui Revealed, was lent to us by Karen and led us to a lot of private waterfalls that it seemed no one else knew about. Some of them were right off the road and some we had to hike a bit to get to but all were beautiful. My favorite was the Blue Pool that was about 3 miles off the road. The locals don't like tourists coming there so there are all sorts of "No Trespassing" signs and a big sign that says "Blue Pool is Closed" but at the end of the dirt road before you start hiking a person charges $2 to park on their property. It was totally worth it!

Maui.Day3

Fourth day we biked 38 miles down the Haleakala volcano. It was a dormant volcano for a long time but just got put back on the active list. Too bad it didn't erupt while we were there. After the bike ride we went for a drive on the coast and hiked along the beach where the last lava flow in Maui happened.

Maui.Day4

Fifth day, so sad to leave. We shopped around in Pa'ia for a bit and then checked out the Twin Falls that we skipped when we did the road to Hana. There were a lot of people at the first waterfall but there was no one at the second and we had a private picnic lunch right in front of the waterfall. Then it was time to go to the airport and head home. I cant wait to go back!

Maui.Day5

Black tie party

Saturday night we went to a black tie event to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation. The event was held at John's lovely home. There were lots of yummy appetizers, wine tasting, and tons and tons of wine to drink afterwards. Javi donated a salsa lesson and I, once again, got to be his lovely assistant.
It was a fun night and I think we raised a lot of money for the foundation.

Party04.28

Busy Weekend

Binh and Diem were in town from the Bay Area so we kicked off the weekend meeting them and a few other friends at Bandar downtown for dinner. Then we walked over to Yardhouse for some drinks and catch up and "story-time".
Saturday we went to the expo to pick up Javi's race stuff and then to the hospital to meet the new baby!
Elan Cruz Medina was born April 19, 2007. A whopping 8lbs, 1oz with a FULL head of hair.
Elan is so adorable, we love him already. Congratulations to Lena and JR!

BabyElan04.21.07

Sunday was a busy day. Took Javi to the starting line at 6am. Came back home to walk Chile and get ready then headed over to the finish line at La Jolla Cove. It was a beautiful day and perfect place to end the La Jolla Half Marathon.
Our intent was to go home and rest but Javi's cousins came over with their 5 year old son and of course we wanted to play so no nap time for us.

La.Jolla.HalfMarathon04.22

Sunday night we went to the Gwen Stefani concert with Akon as the opening act, Sujin, Lisa and Lydia came with us too. Akon sang a lot of good songs that I didn't even know were his songs! Gwen was good but I definitely liked her ballads (slower songs) better than the fast "gangsta shit" she thinks she can do. The concert as a whole was pretty fun and luckily it didn't start raining until it was over.

Gwen.Stefani.Concert04.22

Next on the agenda...SLEEP.

I Love the 80s

Totally awesome weekend.
Saturday we met Javi's parents for dinner. They just got back from their 3 week vacation traveling around South America and had some pretty crazy stories.
Went to Dina's 80s birthday party. We played 80s trivial pursuit, hoola-hooped, and Double-Dare...all made into drinking games of course. As always we had tons of fun and got to catch up with good friends.

Dina.80s.Party

Sunday we finally got rid of the tree that has been haunting us for weeks. The guys finally broke down and called someone to come help them. Everyone in the neighborhood was slowing down as they drove by and gave us thumbs up and congratulations.
After doing a little dance on its grave we filled up the four foot hole and are trying to forget that there ever was a tree there.

Tree.Demolitian.Round3

Carlsbad 5000

On Sunday I ran my very first race, the Carlsbad 5K. Since the most I had ever run since high school was about 1.5 miles it turned out to be a little hard but I had Dana, Lisa, and Sara running with me which made it bearable. Javi had his race a little before ours and Monique was with us until the gun and then she was off. We all had a lot of fun and did better than we thought we would. To celebrate we went out to Pizza Port afterwards to get back all the calories we lost.
Stefan, Lisa's boyfriend, was our photographer/stuff holder. Still waiting to get the pictures from him.
I don't think there are any half-marathons or full ones in my near future, for now I am content being Javi's cheerleader and seeing him and Stefan and everyone else on the side cheering for me right before the finish line made me realize how much it really does help. It was good to experience it once and maybe I'll train some more and do it again next year. In the mean time I'm waddling around like a duck and have to take the elevator up and down at work because my legs and back are so sore!

What really happened when the death star blew up

Freaking hilarious....

CA Adventure

Another fun Disney filled Friday off of work, so spoiled.
This time at CA Adventure. We walked around with our Mickey and Minnie ears like a couple of goober tourists but had oh so much fun doing it and got to take some cute pictures. We were a lot smarter with our fast passes this time and took advantage of the single rider lines (still got to ride together) so we rode EVERYTHING once and some even twice. Of course we still had time to hit up Downtown Disney at the end of the night to get to the LEGO store before they closed :-)

Disneyland!

Took the day off last Friday and went to Disneyland! The weather was perfect and more importantly the lines were SHORT. We were there from 9am to midnight and STILL didn't see everything. We have to go back soon for CA Adventure since we got the 2fer. We actually got to take a picture with Mickey who was hiding in a secluded room at the back of his house, got stuck on the pirates of the carribean, and the fireworks were my favorite. I was sad that they had the wishing well area closed off but then we went back and it was open! And if anyone has ever wondered what happens to the turkey that the President pardons every Thanksgiving (I might just be the only person who has wondered that) he lives at the Disneyland petting zoo!
The Buzz Lightyear ride was awesome. Video game and ride all in one. We went on it three times, and Javi kicked my butt all three times. It was still fun though!

Disneyland_2007

Vertex Whale Watching Trip

The first event I have coordinated on my own being on the Events Committee at work was a Whale Watching Trip this past Saturday. The weather was nice and we saw 4 whales swimming around doing whale things. Although its fun and exciting to see the whales in their natural habitat and not doing tricks and dancing for people like at Sea World I think my whale watching days might be over for a while. The whole thing is about 3.5 hours and way too long to be sitting on a boat doing nothing. But if you still haven't done it even once I highly recommend it.

Tree Demolition

A job that we thought would take only a few hours ended up taking all of Saturday. The tree in Javi's front yard, although it was pretty when it had leaves, had roots that were going into the foundation of the house so it had to go. Even with 5 grown men and me and his mom helping that thing was a bear to get out. Just the roots were gigantic and almost impossible to pull up by hand, we had to use a chainsaw to cut them up. Also I used a saw zaw for the first time which was kinda fun. Javi's dad is like MacGyver and had all these neat tricks and tools to get the tree down. We lost daylight so the stump is still there until next time. We didn't have enough energy by the end of the day to finish that anyway.
At the end of the day the final score Tree:1 Us: 0 The tree kicked our butts!

Tree_Demolition_3_March_2007

LASIK

Javier had his lasery eye surgery done yesterday and it went great. Yesterday he had a -9 prescription in both eyes (that means he was pretty much blind without glasses or contacts) and today he has better than 20/20 vision. The whole procedure took about 10 minutes and it was awesome. I got to watch them do it and it was a little scary and kinda gross but absolutely amazing. I'm still debating whether I want to get it or not and I'm still scared but it would be so neat to not have to ever put contacts on again.

Enjoy

My friend Elisa sent me this today, I thought it was intriguing and puts things into perspective.

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won't survive the week.
If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.
If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare, especially in the United States.
If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,
but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God's healing touch.
If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.
You are so blessed in ways
you may never even know.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out.
Your heart is open to where ever love takes you!

Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out

Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking

What turns you off: fighting and conflict

Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?