Basketball...

I briefly ended my basketball retirement to play in the Tigers Tournament this past weekend. I was kinda curious if I would miss playing and if I could even play at all since I haven't played in two months. I guess the swimming and weights are working because I wasn't tired in the tournament.

I miss seeing the guys at basketball but other than that I felt like I wasn't missing much. I guess not playing is still fairly 'new' to me. I am enjoying having more free time to do other things. I have free nights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday now...although I fill that time with tennis and softball.

I am not closing the door out on basketball just yet but I think the refrigerator door is closing.

Housing...

Two weeks ago Aya and I went to look at the new homes on the Bluffs at Westchester. Initially, the homes were going to sell for less than a million dollars. A million dollars was still out of our price range but if the house was nice we said we would try to find a way to make it work.

Open house started at 10:00 and when we got there at 10:30 the place was packed and almost all the parking spots were already taken. There was two sets of homes available, 3 at the lower end price and 3 at the higher end price. We checked out all 6 homes and Aya and I really enjoyed one house. It was everything that we look for in other homes. We decided to look into the asking price....$1.7 million dollars!

As we were leaving we were thinking who can afford $1.7 million dollars?? I broke out the mortgage calculator for fun and said 500k down what would my payments be....$11,000 a month! OUCH! The home was nice....but not 11k nice.

It was the first time Aya and I talked about moving out of state for a better house.

6 Months...

JT is 6 months old now. We just came back from the doctors and here are the stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 8 ozs

Height: 27 inches

Voodoo Magic

Since I stopped playing basketball, I haven't had the need to go to the Voodoo Doctor as much. Sadly, I had to make an emergency visit today. My neck was so sore that I couldn't move it side to side or up or down. I haven't been able to sleep for almost a week now.

Last week, I was making a play in the outfield while playing softball and I slipped on the wet grass while spinning to make a throw into the infield. I felt a sharp pain but I didn't think anything of it. The next day it was sore. Then I played tennis, swam, lifted weights and moved some furniture in the following days and my neck just got worse.

I wasn't sure what Voodoo Victor was going to do but after some major adjustments and accupunture I was almost as good as new. I don't think I have ever gone in for treatment for something so sore before and Victor has never said, "No playing." He has recommended that "I don't play but never NO". Today, he flat out said, "No playing any sport for at least one week".

A simple play in softball in the outfield and I get hurt. Looks like I may retire from softball after one season.

In the park on a Saturday afternoon...

We went to check out the boats at the park on Saturday.



Aya and JT with sporty ORANGE sunglasses from Uncle Jeff.

Aloha Friday

The guys at work decided to have Aloha Friday, so JT and I also had Aloha Friday:

Okay, here is JT and me at our finest!

Knowing your body....

I have quit basketball and moved on to softball. Boy does time go by quickly. When I played basketball I didn't feel too old. Now, that I am in softball my reflexs are slower, timing is off and I am generally just clumsy. In my mind, I can see and know what to do, but my body just doesn't respond. My only saving grace is that I haven't played on a regular basis for at least 10 years.

So after the first game, I had booted some balls and made a few errors. I woke up the next day and I was hobbling around. My knee was aching and my arm was a little sore. I just kept thinking I am old!

Two days later my knee is still super sore. It was sore enough where I was thinking I am going to ask Dawn to work on my knee. A few days later Dawn stopped by the house and I asked her to look at my leg. When I showed her my knee I noticed that I had a softball size bruise on my knee and it was all purple. Hmm, no wonder my knee hurt. Dawn said there is nothing she can do for a bruise.

Funny thing was, I never noticed the bruise. After the first day I stopped looking. I noticed a dark spot but I just thought it was dirt. I never thought it was a bruise. Upon closer inspection, I had another bruise/welt on my shin and a bruise on my other leg. I guess all the balls I missed that bounced off my legs.

This one is just for Jeff:

So I dove for a ball last week and got a big strawberry on my knee. When I got home I cleaned it out and it was all pussing and nasty. I was thinking how can I get this to stop. (No, I didn't jump in the pool...that day....the next day, I did to go swimming though).

So, I thought, hmm, a alcohol pad will probably clean out my cut AND stop the pussing. I was just about to do that when Dawn called and I ran the idea by her. According to her two things would happen. One, it would hurt. Two, it wouldn't stop the pussing. She also said it was one of the stupidiest things she had ever heard. I was then advised if JT was hurt that I was NOT to administer any of my remedies.

JT & Nicole

Saturday was spent with my family for Aiden's birthday. Sunday we spent the day in Long Beach with Aya's family for Mother's Day.

Here is a picture of JT and Nicole. Yes, they are cousins. Can you see the similarities?

Aiden and JT

That's my boy squealing like a little piggy!!

G14

So apparently the photo of Aya sleeping was suppose to be G14 (classified). It wasn't good enough that Saori "said" she sleeps the same way because there are no "photos" of Saori's on the internet.

I know there have been an AWFUL lot of photos of JT and this is mostly just a blog about JT now. I realized the blog was slowly transitioning to a blog of JT but in all honesty, JT takes up most of my time outside work. I wish I could write about more entertaining stories about Aya and I but the truth is having a kid just makes us tired. When we aren't watching JT, we are doing errands or things around the house so we just don't have the time anymore.

I have to admit, I have had a little writers block as well. It is much easier to post photos then to think of random topics. I do have to say when things are going well in your life there really isn't much to say. I am just happy things are going well.

Aya noticed that a lot of people commented on the picture about her....so we know people are reading the blog, so post any question and I will answer it. I will make it a Q&A blog.

Mount Ayako...

How many guys out there are accused of taking all the blankets? How many times do you wake up in the morning to hear that you took up most of the bed? How many times have you been falsely accused with no evidence to back you up?

I too have been one of those victims....until now. About a week ago, I went to sleep after Aya and as I entered the bedroom I noticed she was laying on her back with one knee up and the other leg crossing her knee. It was quite bizarre. I got a good chuckle and went to bed. The next I asked her what the heck she was doing and naturally Aya had no recollection.

Well, last night I went to bed after Aya and I noticed a volcano in the middle of the bed. Upon closer inspection I noticed it was Aya in her bizarre sleeping pose. Not to falsely accused of making up stories I ran to get the camera to capture this:

Riddle me this Batman, who the heck sleeps like this???

More Certification

I was out of the office last week getting more training. I took another MicroStrategy certification test and I passed. Phew. This class was the one I was not looking foward too. I had passed two other exams but this one might have been the hardest. I did better than I expected, but I am just glad I am done. At least I think I am done. I might take one more class but that will be it!

My one year anniversary is also coming up. I have almost been at LowerMyBills for a year. Normally, 1 year is about how long I last. Good news is that I got another raise and if I stay until June I also get a bonus. It isn't Ayako kinda bonus, but at least something to look forward too.

I already miss driving my Celica and I have been thinking what can I get to replace it. Funny, when I was 16, I wanted a Mercedes. I don't know why. I would check out all the cars in Car and Driver and I thought Mercedes was the car for me. Of course I wanted the full AMG kit on my benz.

After high school I thought it was lame to read Car and Driver and look at all the cars I could never have or afford. Luckily, I have been very fortunate and I was able to get a Mercedes. I had always liked the Boxster as well...never thought I would own one and again, thankfully and luckily I was able to own one. So, that brings me to present day and my tag line:

"I have everything that I've dreamt of having when I was a little boy, except now that I am older, I dream of even more!".

So the next cars on my list: The Ferrari F1 or the Bentley Continental Silver Spur. I guess I will throw the Caymen on the list as well as that is more likely. Here is to dreaming big!

Sad to say goodbye

The day finally came on Saturday. I got rid of the Celica. It was hard getting rid of a perfectly good car but I guess the car was on it's last legs. The battery was dying, the radio went out, the cd changer got jammed.

Believe it or not it was harder than I thought to get rid of the car. The first charity I contacted grilled me about the car being operable. Then they asked if it would pass smog. I said no. They said how can you donate a car that might cost someone more money to fix it than buy it? Geez, I am donating the car, do I care if it doesn't pass smog? Gimmie a break.

Luckily Make-a-Wish Foundation takes the car no matter what condition. Running, not running, smog or no smog. Well, I am down to just one car per driver now.

So long old buddy.

Boys Day

Not only was Friday, Cinco de Miles, but it was boys day. I guess children's day in Japan. Notice how the boys get shafted again and get their day combined with girls? Here is JT and Aya with JT's fish.

Aya's Aunty had sent JT a yukata from Japan:

Saturday we went to my parents house to fly our fish (my fish is blue and Dawn's fish is the small red fish). My dad had his original fish from when he was born made from paper and hand painted. 3 generations of Yoshioka men.

JTs Bouncer

Aya and I went to Babies R Us over the weekend to get *ONE* thing....a high chair. We ended up walking out with a high chair, bouncer, toys, plates, spoons, picture frames and bibs. This is why I can't retire. Baby stuff is expensive.

Aya and I felt like he had to get some better toys because my parents have some cool stuff at their house. Some stuff we take over weekly and other things Melissa has given to us. We figure to make our house 'cool' on the weekends we needed to get JT some stuff that Grandpa and Grandma don't have....like this bouncer.

F-O-O-D

This has been a week of FIRSTS for JT. Uncle Ted and Aunty Margie visited for his first hawaiin visitors. JT has his first tooth. No pictures of the tooth yet. Finally, we started JT on rice cereal this week. I expected it to be super messy but JT ate well. He takes after his mommy.

For the past 2 weeks JT has just been staring at us when we eat. He even smacks when we eat as well. Hopefully the rice cereal will get him to sleep through the night.

JT's first 'gulp' of food:

Open wide:

Hmmm, is it good?

Nope. It isn't that good!!

JT Laughing

Aloha!

This weekend JT had his hawaiian visitors. Uncle Ted and Aunty Margie stopped by for breakfast during their layover.

JT was in good mood and was smiling away. JT must have really liked Uncle Ted because he would laugh when he looked at Uncle.