Digital Impulses

Busy Friday, No Scrabble

This evening after my visit with Isa at TMMC, my brother Pete picked me up from the hospital and we went to the Redondo Beach pier to have dinner with Robert Hoppenrath (an old HS friend) and his cousin Mike.

Dinner at El Torito, was really good and the conversation was genial enough.  After dinner we drove over to Mr. Pockets in Manhattan Beach and played pool for about an hour or so.  It had been at least 1o years since I've played pool so all in all I think I did pretty well.

We played in teams of two and it was Robert and Pete against Mike and me. We lost all of the games we played but had a really good time. It's made me want to take up playing pool again.

Evan has Surgery

The reason we didn't play Scrabble tonight was that Bert's son Evan had Scoliosis surgery today and Bert spent all day at TMMC with his family awaiting the results of Evan's surgery.  That went well (thank God) and now it's a matter of Evan starting on his road to recovery also.

Drama with Pete

So this evening, before going up to PV to play Scrabble, my sister, mother, sister-in-law and myself met up at the El Torito Grill in Manhattan Beach near the corner of Artesia and Sepulveda to celebrate my brother's birthday.

What an unmitigated fucking disaster.

The service was abysmal, my food was spicy, the drinks took FOREVER to come to the table and the harried, scatter-brained waitress kept forgetting stuff that we ordered.  To top it all off, she brought my brother a hot fudge chocolate cake that was *cold* and then grimaced and said " Sorry.  I don't have anyone to sing you Happy Birthday" and left.

She then returned to the table moments later and stated that she "took a couple of the desserts" off of the bill to make up for the bad service.  Well, that did little to mollify my brother's incediary temper and so by the time the bill came to the table, my brother was steaming hot.

He grabbed his coat and keys, told his wife that he wanted to leave and then made perfunctory good-bye gestures to us outside the restaurant and proceeded to blow out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed, even going to the extent of ignoring a wave from me as he left.

This obviously left everyone feeling terrible and so we got into it over SMS text messages as I was driving up to Palos Verdes.  I took the time to mention to my brother how bad we all felt at his behavior and I got the token apology in response.

The dysfunction in this family seems to reach new and epic proportions with every family gathering.  I truly wonder how bad it has to get before it gets any better.  I hold little hope.

*sigh*.

Arturo Sandoval in concert: A Review

So this evening my Mom picked me up at home around 1730 and we drove over to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Art and met up with Pete and Patricia to see Arturo Sandoval in concert.

What an Experience!

Truly at a loss for words, for two hours last night, I was about 200 feet from pure genius. I knew a little about Sandoval, I knew he wasa jazz musician of great renown, but other than that, not much.

Wow.  Arturo Sandoval is truly a wonderful, masterful Latin jazz virtuoso.  The band he had playing with him was nothing than the very best of the very best.  The drummer, the percussionist, the bassist, the piano player... all of them were absolutely awesome.  The concert lasted 2 hours and it was an absolute delightful assault on the senses.

It's evident that the people on stage are the best of the best and they played like it.

Arturo Sandoval and his band are a great live act and I will be sure to see him the next time he comes to this neck of the woods.  Highly recommended.

It's never gonna end: Family Drama

*Sigh*.

Caught in the crossfire of an email that generated much angst among my two siblings. I had the not-very-bright idea of sharing the contents of said email with my Mom.

Predictably, I was then the recipient of a literal explosion of drama from Mom in the car on the way to lunch, during lunch at California Pizza Kitchen in Manhattan Beach and afterwards, when we left Pacific Theaters after having seen "Gone, baby, gone".

Once again, it was re-enforced to me that nearly everyone I know has baggage and it's baggage that carries some hugely unresolved issues.  I guess I need to learn a very important lesson:

There are some mouldering piles of leftover drama that should be left undisturbed, lest the smell that emanates from the disturbed pile become worse than it was when the pile was in the dank corner, teeming with flies and worms, disgusting, yes, but hiding the true soft middle center of putrid pink meat.

For the record, I got on the horn with my nephew David and had him log on to his mom's AOL account and delete the email that my brother sent.

And oh yeah, the women in this family don't want to hear the truth and/or deal with certain emotional realities.  To each his own, I suppose.

Tori's 7th birthday

This evening we had a great time at Hank's Bistro in Lawndale, near my house.  The occasion was to celebrate my niece Tori's 7th birthday (which is actually tomorrow).

Present at the shindig were Isa, Pete, Patricia, Dad, AJ, Tori, Patricia's son, and David's wife's kids.  Mom showed up about 40 minutes after we were all there and Perla was also a little late in arriving.

I had bought Tori a gift card from Toys R Us and she seemed to be happy to get it.  AJ and I went alone to the party, as Reyna was busy with the contractor and when 6:00 PM rolled around, they were still running around the house doing stuff.

After Perla, Isa and Dad left, we spent about 20 minutes more in the restaurant, listening to my brother Pete inspire my son with a talk about learning from history, think about things long-term, being patient, being smart. etc. 

He gave a particularly rousing expose on the life of Abraham Lincoln and how much he achieved despite coming from very humble beginnings.

We arrived back from the party a little before 9:00 P.M. and I spent some time in my office processing the pictures I took with my Nikon D40 and getting them uploaded to Flickr.

Pete's European Honeymoon pictures

After about three postponements, this evening we finally gathered at my mom's house for my brother to share with us the over 1,000 pictures he took when his new bride went on a cruise to Europe in early July.

My sister, mom and I were treated almost 2 hours worth of some pretty great pictures of Spain, Monte Carlo and Rome, Italy.  My brother seems to have a real knack for taking pictures and having them available on the web for viewing at any time is really convenient.

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.

Orange Ties and another day of skipped walking

Picking up the Wedding Suites
My son and I stopped by Men's Warehouse this evening and picked up the suits that I bought for my brother's wedding on Saturday.

Shopping for ties
After picking up the suits, my brother and I went shopping for Ties for the suits to his wedding on Saturday.  We first stopped by Macy's in Manhattan Village Mall but saw nothing there to our liking.  So, we drove over to Torrance to a small shop called the L.A. Suit Exchange.

There we were able to find some nice ties at a reasonable price.  Once we got the ties out of the way, there was a Starbucks next door, so we walked over there and bought some drinks and sat outside and chatted for a while.

Bert & Peter
On the way to the suit shop in Torrance, my brother and I discussed the current tension between him and Bert regarding all of the unspoken things that were left unsaid at the termination of their business partnership.

I am starting to suspect that things between these two are going to get much worse before they get any better.

Replacing the Black ink on mom's Lexmark X5470
After the ties and Starbucks I stopped by my mom's house for a little bit to install a new black toner ink cartridge for her. 

Pete's "bachelor" Party

This evening I attended a "bachelor" party for my brother, in anticipation of upcoming nuptials on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007.

Dinner @ Fleming's for Peter
Well, it was more like a "dinner" than a "party", as there were 5 guys in attendance and no wild women, striping or lap dances of any kind were to be had.

However the company was good, the food was excellent and a good time was had by all present.  I am very happy that my brother's "brother-in-law" to be took the time to put this together for him.

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.