Digital Impulses

Dinner @ Benihana in Torrance, CA

Having another delicious dinner at Benihana. I love this place!

Dinner at McCormicks and Scrabble in PV

This evening we met up with the Rojas for dinner at McCormick's & Schmicks seafood restaurant in El Segundo.  We had dinner reservations at 1815 and we arrived on time, but, typically, we had to wait for The Rojas to show up.   Thankfully, we only had to wait a few minutes since they were not running that late.

Dinner was pretty good and the service was very good.  Amazingly, even Bert found little to complain about.  The only real negative of the evening was the fact that after a tip, the bill came to an even $300.00

After dinner, I dropped the wife off at home and drove off to play Scrabble in PV, where the atmosphere was pleasant enough and I won one out of three games.

Dinner at Benihana: Enrique is the best!

This evening we had dinner at Benihana in Torrance at around 1800.  We were seated right away and wonders of wonders, we had Enrique as a cook, who happens to be the greatest single chef we have ever had at Benihana.

This guy just has a certain touch when he cooks and it turns out SO GOOD every time he cooks for us.  Now mind you, we have been going to this Benihana since early 2001 (over 7 years) and every time,and I mean EVERY time that Enrique cooks for us, it turns out spectacular.

I'll never forget one time I was driving in my car and I was listening to a foodie radio show on KABC 790 here in Los Angeles.  It was a very well known chef called Mario Martinoli and he was describing an evening he had with his kid at Benihana in Torrance.

He started out the review as just a very so-so experience until he started talking about the show that Enrique puts on and the quality of his food.  Needless to say, Mario ended the review of Benihana on a very high note and really praised Enrique as a chef and recommended the restaurant and Enrique in particular as a great place to eat.

If you're ever in Torrance, California and are looking for a tremendous dining experience, try Benihana and ask for Enrique to cook for you.  He has been there 19 years and there is no one like him cooking there.

Very highly recommended.

Friday Evening: Dinner at McCormick & Schmick

So the wife and I ended up at McCormick & Schmick's this evening for dinner by ourselves, as Patty and Bert were entertaining Fabby and Dave, some friends of Patty who were here from Chicago.

We had to wait for about 45 minutes but we were eventually seated and had an OK time. We got a good waiter and the food was fine, except for the fact that my steak was a little peppery.  My wife really likes the tilapia fish there, so we will end up going back.

However, to spend $127 (incld. tip) for two people seems to me a little high.  We love eating at Benihana and we can usually eat there for about $90.00.  Seems like a better deal to me, to be quite honest.

Dinner at Benihana with the Rojas's

Uneventful Friday, with a nice dinner at Benihana that was slightly marred by the fact that my wife ended up getting there 25 minutes late and as a result of it, we had to wait to be seated a little while.

Bert didn't like that very much, of course.

Once we sat down to eat, the food was just OK, since the cook put an excessive amount of ground pepper on the food and then we got a waitress who up and disappeared from the table ofter one or two visits and as such got about a 5% tip.

Scrabble at Bert's was very competitive and fun, and I managed to pull out 2 out of the 3 games.  I am currently playing the best Scrabble of my life, bar none.  I really hope to keep this up the rest of this year.

Piggie's in the morning, Benihanas at night

This was a typically routine Sunday wherein my time was sandwiched in between a visit to Piggie's in the morning to have breakfast with Isa and Mom and dinner at Benihana's in Santa Monica.

Breakfast at Piggies
Piggies in the morning with my mom and sister was contentious, because my sister took exception to my suggesting to her that she should just take the high road with my cousin Perla and let bygones be bygones.

She had her prototypical fit and from there on it was a matter of just finishing my breakfast so that I could go home and get away.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing at home until it was time to get ready to drive to Santa Monica to have dinner with my wife and a friend. 

Dinner at Benihanas
Dinner at Benihanas was very pleasant and the conversation was great.  We made it back home well before 10, where I decided to call itr a night to prepare for the upcoming week at home.

Bert in Las Vegas for the Packing Expo
So this morning, Bert left for Las Vegas to attend a Packing Convention that runs until Wednesday morning.  He will be returning to Los Angeles Wednesday night.

4th of July 2007

Celebrating the 4th
What a nice, if slightly unexpected, fun, relaxing 4th of July. 

Spent the morning lounging around the house, until the early afternoon, when my son and I decided to drive around the South Bay looking for Fireworks.

After about a 1/2 an hour of searching we found a local Phantom Fireworks stand and purchased about $150 worth of fireworks from them.  My son bought all of the stuff that he wanted and I did as well.  Afterwards, I drove back to the CVS near the house to buy some plastic lawn chairs to aid in sitting the guests we were expecting.

Around 6:00 P.M. my sister and mom arrived and we had dinner.  A little later, a friend of my sister's arrived and we then sat around outside chatting, waiting for it to get dark enough to start the fireworks show.  Due to the DST time change in March this year, it was nearly 8:45 P.M. before it was anywhere near dark enough to begin.

Begin we did, after my nephew David arrived with his girlfriend's kids.  Once we got started and I brought my Nikon D40 out, I took some shots of the kids having fun with the fireworks and everyone seemed to have a really good time.

We called it a night just before 10:00 P.M, which allowed my mom to get home in time to watch the CBSD special on TV that had the Boston Pops playing accompanied by a rather spectacular fireworks show. 

All in all, it was one of the funnest 4th's I can remember in a long, long time. Woot.

19th Anniversary

So, this Sunday passed pretty much like any other Sunday, save for the fact that it was my 19th Anniversary and so needed commemorating somehow.

Around 5:00 P.M. or so, we drove over to Benihana Steakhouse in Torrance and had dinner there.  The food was delicious as usual and the service was up to par.  We had no wait (we were seated virtually immediately) and generally had a really pleasant experience.

After dinner we just went home and I called it a night not long after 10:00 PM.

Pete's Wedding

Getting Dressed
The afternoon of the wedding rolled around and after my son and I returned from getting manicures and haircuts, we proceeded to take showers and get ready for the wedding by dressing in our suits.  Actually, my son took all of his stuff and drove to his girlfriend's in Huntington Beach, where he proceeded to get dressed over there and brought her to the wedding later.

Getting ready was really stress free and much better than I expected, because I suspected that something (something missing, ill-fitting, etc.) was *bound* to happen.  Nothing did and that was great.  Having previously agreed with my wife that I would get ready and go on my own, I did just that.

Getting There
Nary a problem.  I took off by myself and arrived there about 20 minutes later.  I was very early and I seemed to be the 1st of the guests to arrive. I arrived early enough that set-up of the tables and everything else was still taking place. 

Camera Setup
Seeing as to how I arrived extra early, I took the time to set up my Nikon D40 and tripod in different places around the area where the wedding was going to take place.  I took a few reference images and just waited for my brother to arrive.

Seeing Family
Eventually, my son and his girlfriend arrived (after being lost for a good 1/2 an hour) and the rest of the invited family showed up as well.  It was good to see a lot of people that I don't see every day, including my cousin Perla and her mom my Aunt Romelia.

The Wedding
Eventually, 6:30 P.M rolled around and the wedding itself started.  The priest was a little long-winded but I thought he officiated a very beautiful ceremony.  My brother and my new sister-in-law Patricia looked great together and it was very touching to se how emotional Patricia got when it was her turn to recite her Wedding Vows.

The ceremony itself proceeded perfectly and was great.  My niece Tori behaved great and did an awesome job as a ring girl.  Yay Tori!

The "Toast"
As is routine in my life now-a-days, I was caught completely unprepared to offer a toast (100% my fault, I just flaked and never got around to preparing notes for it) to my brother and his wife.  I had to wing and I think I did a reasonable job.  At least no one has said anything rude about my performance. So Far. That has gotten back to me.  I wonder what they *really* think?  Hmm.

The Reception
After the ceremony and the toast, We all got seated and proceeded to eat, dance and listen to some great music.  The Italian food was great  and the music was excellent.  It was combination of Jazz, Pop and Opera selected by my brother Peter.  It included Frank Sinatra, Andrea Bochelli, Placido Domingo, and the Buena Vista Social Club. 

It was truly an awesome reception and I had a really relaxing and just overall fabulous time.

Going Home
At around 11:00  P.M., when it was decided that no trip to  club down the street for further dancing was going to happen, the wife and I walked out to our cars and headed home without any problems, taking Ocean to 3rd Street to the 710 Long Beach Freeway to the 405 San Diego Freeway.

All in all it was a very nice wedding that was remarkably drama-free.  I am very happy for my brother and his new bride.   I hope this works out for both of them and that they spend the rest of ther lives together.

Pete's 38th B-Day: A nice evening in Long Beach

Pete's 38th B-Day Party
As I wrote earlier, this evening we celebrated Pete's 38th birthday at Buono's Pizza II in Long Beach at the corner of Ocean and Pacific.

Aside from a little difficulty getting there because we went to Buono's Pizza I on Willow street, everything went pretty well.  After we knew we had to go to the other restaurant, Mom, who had been in the car with Isa, hopped in my car and we drove over to the correct restaurant via her instructions.

All in all, I had a great time.  The food was great and I was able to really use my Nikon D40 to take lots of pictures for Pete to keep later.

Issues
Upon getting there, we walked in to find out that the tables for us had been arranged outside on the Patio and my sister took immediate issue with that because she thought it was too cold for her and the Bronchitis she just got over recently.

So, she requested that we move inside and they did, Of course, my sister took grave exception to the fact that my brother seemed a little unsettled at the prospect of having to move everyone inside when his plans were to have all sit outside and eat by the candlelight.

After we moved inside and sat down, a good time was had by all, including my son and his girlfriend who arrived about 10 minutes after I did.

The Drive Home: A.J. and the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro
On the way home from Pete's party, I had a bad incident with A.J.  He was following me in his car with his girlfriend and I made a mistake by turning West down Ocean Blvd.  Unfortunately, Ocean Blvd. has no easy way of turning off of it or making a U-Turn and it leads directly to the Long Beach Pier, The Vincent Thomas Bridge and San Pedro after that.

When I saw what I had done and that we had no choice but to cross the Vincent Thomas bridge, I freaked out because I knew that A.J. would be losing his mind in the car behind me.  I tried calling him on his cell, but he wouldn't answer (of course, he was too scared to let go of the wheel).

Eventually, we got past the bridge and we jumped on the 110 Harbor Freeway.   We exited Pacific Coast Highway and I pulled over so we could talk.  It was very nerve-racking for him, but he got through it.  So they followed me all the way to Hawthorne Blvd., where they turned right and I turned left to head up to P.V.

Late Scrabble in P.V.
After getting A.J. headed on his way home, I drove up to Palos Verdes to play Scrabble with Bert.  I arrived there right around 10:00 P.M. and the atmosphere was OK.  As I walked in the house, I got to meet a mother and her son who happens to be a friend of Bert's kids.

Scrabble Mojo has disappeared
Continuing the horrid mental and emotional pit that I have been in, I lost both games of Scrabble by large margins.  I seem to have completely lost what little "Scrabble Mojo" I had accumulated recently. Be it fortune or my own Karma, Bert seems to get most of the good tiles when he needs them and has accordingly been placing big scores at an alarming rate.

Of course, being the smug, self-satisfied Bastard that he is, it is getting increasingly unbearable to lose to this guy as frequently as I have been lately.  I need to do something to initiate a reversal of fortune in my Scrabble play.  Maybe the upcoming weekend off will help some.  We'll see.