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Through various experimentation, we have discovered Liam’s favorite word…. “kick.” He starts laughing his head off when he hears it. Switching back to the “Boo!” game has little or no effect.

Through continued tests on our son, we’ve discovered that he reacts in a similar fashion to the words “rick”, “mick”, “sick”, “pick”, “lick”, “brick”, and “wick”.

Here’s a video of Liam being cute, with the word. I, on the other hand, sound like an idiot.

Well, we attempted to hike to the Bridge to Nowhere.

The Bridge to Nowhere is a bridge that was built in 1936 in the San Gabriel forest. Basically, it was part of an extension of highway 39 (Beach Blvd, which goes all the way up into Asuza). It was to be an alternate route to the high desert. Shortly after construction of the bridge, however, the road to and from the bridge was washed out by a massive flood. So now there stands, 5 miles deep in the hills, a large stone bridge with no roads.

It was a J hike. J. Demars (Mike), Jason, Jason, John, and Josh. Mike and the Jasons planned to spend the night at a campground just past the bridge, while John and I were day hikers, and heading back the same day.

This was the best hike I have ever been on. There were several river crossings in which the water went past our knees. We stopped at a nice shaded, sandy spot overlooking the river to have our lunch. There weren’t very many hikers for quite awhile… but there were plenty of people in the river panning for gold. As well as a few adventurous fishermen.

About three hours into the hike John and I thought it would be a good idea to turn around. If it was really going to take us three additional hours to hike back we were sure to be late for other plans that night. We said goodbye to the three J’s and headed back.

The hike back went by at a much faster pace, and the trail was much easier to find. We probably only crossed the river three times, as opposed to the eight or so crossings on the way in. The three hour hike in turned into a one hour hike back.

The meeting of the minds! Last weekend Clare and I headed up to Mike and Michelle’s to brew another batch of beer. Mike and I headed out to Steinfillers in Long Beach to pick up a new set of ingredients. This time we went for “Red Ale” (scroll down the page to see it).

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Woo! Clare and Liam got me an AWESOME “covered bicycle trailer”, The Burley Bee. Once Liam can hold his head up, we’re hitting the roads (and trails!).

Liam and Clare are doing well. The little one has started to fuss a bit more. He’s much more vocal during the day and night. Mostly just little wimpers, grunts, and whines. He rarely cries (*knock on wood*).

Clare’s been given the OK to drive again, and has had more strength with each day. Today we’ll be going over to Mason Park in Irvine for a picnic and walk.

I love Father’s Day!

Woo! Today I got my birthday presents from Clare early!

To go along with the theme… she got me my very own bowling ball, ball bag, and bowling shoes! Rockin’! I’ve always wanted my own bowling ball (even though I really don’t bowl very much… that’ll change now!)

The shop she bought it from was very cool. The staff were awesome, chatting us up the whole time they were measuring my fingers, giving us tips (bowling, and baby, tips). They custom drilled the holes in the ball and we were off on our way. I’ll post on Tuesday night, after I’ve tried my new gear out!

After my mom’s surgery, we celebrated at the nearby Cheesecake Factory with drinks. From left to right: Sam (old friend of the family), Aunt Susie (Aunt from Venezuela), Aunt Joan (Aunt from Florida), Cousin Susie (Aunt Susie daughter that lives in New York). And not seen in the picture is my brother, just to my Cousin’s left.

What a great weekend! First, for Valentine’s Day, Clare and I decided to go down to San Diego to go to the San Diego Zoo (we’re yearly pass holders) and to “Museum Row” right next door. Upon arrival we decided to go right to the Museums, armed with two French bread bagettes, salami, pate, and olive tapenade. We walked around, ate, went into the Natural History Museum. It was great!

Then, for my birthday on Saturday, Clare took me (and a group of friends) to the horse races at Santa Anita! It was a blast!! Then afterwards we all came back to our house for continued gambling (Clare gave me a gambling table and card-shuffler for Christmas) and partying. Also, I got the coolest birthday cake ever, designed by my roomate Marc.

Woo!!

That’s right, Bubba Ho-Tep, the latest satirical horror flick starring Bruce Campbell.

On Saturday I went to the 2:40pm showing at the University Edwards because Bruce was going to be there! It was a sold out show… with an amazing number of freaks in line. The movie was horrible…. horrible and FANTASTIC! The story of an aging Elvis Presley in a nursing home with an African American JFK, saving their small community from a soul-thirsting mummy.

After the movie Bruce did a Question and Answer session. Some of the questions were as bad as the movie… the whole time he was incredibly sarcastic about his career and his movies: “Are you disappointed that there wasn’t more interest in Bubba Ho-Tep from the big motion picture companies?” “Uh… you just saw the movie, right?”

Unfortunately he didn’t do any signings afterwards.

Oh, also… Returner looks DAMN cool!!!

Had a really fun weekend. My cousins from Malaysia were in town, and stayed at our house for the weekend. Lots of swimming, bbq’ing, drinking. It was my cousin John, his wife Ashley, and their three children: Molly (5), Megan (4), and Jackson (6 months). Jackson is a BIG little kid!

John’s friend from college, John, drove up from San Diego with his family on Saturday (his wife and two kids), and we all went swimming. It was great to have so many laughing kids around the pool, diving and splashing.

Sunday we went to Main St., Huntington Beach for lunch before they left.

Some pictures from the weekend!

Finally! The project I’ve been working on for the last six months has gone live!
www.startrek.com was launched on August 1st, just in time for the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

I wish I could say that I’m entirely out from under it, but the people at Paramount have a finely tuned eye for detail, and there are still a few bugs to be worked out. Definitely nice to be able to say I was the Tech lead for this project, though!