The Letter "V"...

I didn't forget...I was just be lazy...but since Jenny reminded me:

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Jenny Kayano
May 29 (1 day ago)

subject: are you

Ever going to answer that V question? And why did you ask that question?

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Last week I asked about the Letter "V". On Saturday and Sunday, Aya, JT and I watch Sesame Street. We have watched enough times now to know that Elmo's World comes on at 37 past the hour.

In any case, at some point during Sesame Street they ask the number of the day and the letter of the day. Before knowing what each is, I yell out the answer like it is Jeopardy, "What is the number 19?"

When asked what word starts with the letter "V", I yelled out "Venereal Disease". Aya yelled out "vivacious". We both stopped and asked each other, "WHAT?"

I asked, "Who says "vivacious" to little kids?"
Aya replied, "Who says venereal disease?"

I said it starts with the letter V and that is way more important to teach JT than vivacious.

Thus, the question last week...what word do you think of that starts with the letter "V".

Miss Universe...

Did anyone catch the Miss Universe show? This bald chick made it into the top 15. Bald. This is suppose to be the best looking girls on the planet and you are telling me a bald chick beats out girls from Norway, Sweden and Denmark?

I mean, she isn't bad for being bald...but I think her baldness takes away from her looks because all I could think about was a bald girl in the top 15!

I think the judges had an asian fetish too. How could Japan, Korea, Thailand and India all make the Top 15? Actually, with the exception of Thailand, I thought they all looked pretty good. Singapore was pretty too.

Here were the top 5:


USA actually slipped and fell while starting her walk in the evening wear. You would have thought they would have elminated her from the Top 15.

I thought it was just me, but I thought Miss Japan looked more Korean and Miss Korea looked more Japanese. Not only that, but Japan seemed bitchy like a Korean girl and Korea seemed friendly and nice like a Japanese girl. Aya agreed with me as well.

Japan:

Korea:
Surprisingly, Japan won. Who knew?! Shows how much I know. I thought Venezula was a sure thing. When the show started I told Aya the asian girls were pretty but no way can they compete against the taller, better bodied women from South America and Europe.

Basketball...

Sadly, JT, Aya and I are still sick or recovering from being sick. Since we all weren't feeling well we didn't venture far from home this holiday weekend.

I got off at 11 on Friday, so Aya and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean. Unfortunately, we didn't stay for the credits. I hear there was an 'easter egg' during the credits but now I have no idea what it was. So, if anyone stayed for the credits let me know what happened.

I got JT a new basketball hoop. All the practicing must have helped because I subbed in basketball last week and made the game winning shot from near half court at the buzzer...on a shot that Jeff says is stupid because I like to practice that shot...see it paid off!

Anyway, I have been trying to get JT to 'shoot' the ball and not dunk the ball. He prefers to dunk and hang on the rim:


JT in action:

18 Months...

In a few days JT will be 18 months old. He went in for his 18 month checkup:

24 lbs 14 oz (he only gained 2 oz in the past 3 months)
33 inches long



Everything checked out a-ok, except he is pretty far behind in his speech. The doctor said that JT should be saying 20-25 words that strangers can understand. We think JT only has 6-8 words that strangers can understand. The doctor recommended a speech therapist if we are concerned about JT not speaking.

On one hand, it would be nicer if JT could speak instead of pointing and whining. On the other hand, I am sure once he starts talking he will pick it up fast. Hopefully in the next month JT will at least say ONE clear word other than Elmo.

Wicked...

Aya, JT and I are all recovering from colds so we didn't do a whole lot over the weekend. However, Sunday Aya and I went to see:

It was just what the Doctor ordered. We got to go out JT free for a few hours. We went to dinner at the Kodak Center and then watched the show.


Aya and I were in NYC 3 years ago when Wicked opened but we weren't able to get tickets. I was a little slow ordering the tickets for the LA show and then I waited until I got good seats but we finally made it.

The show was pretty good it was better than I expected. I guess for once it wasn't a love story. The story was good but I thought the performances and singing were just so-so. Still one of the top shows I have seen.

Orange Juice…

Why is it that the stupidest things can cause the biggest arguments?

One night, Aya was sitting down to eat a late dinner after putting JT down to bed and I was pouring a glass of orange juice. Aya was sitting down at the table next to the counter, about 1 foot away from the counter. As I reach for the cup, I knocked it down, towards Aya and the cup falls straight down. When the cup lands the juice erupt’s like a volcano with juice shooting towards the ceiling, the floor, the wall…and Aya.


Aya then slams down her pizza. Glares at me like I did it on purpose and then storms off. You would think she was trying to get nominated for an Oscar award or something.

I clean up the mess, Aya showers and comes back downstairs.

Aya then asks, “What happened to her pizza?”

I replied, “I didn’t know if you were done. You just stormed off, so I cleaned up everything and put everything away.

Aya answered, “I was literally soaked and had orange juice dripping down my head.”

I answered back, “Uh-huh…sure dripping…from a 6oz glass that landed on the floor…and not on your head. Last time I checked, you had two arms and two legs. If you are still hungry you can reheat your own food.”

Aya was mad because I spilled the orange juice and didn’t say, ‘sorry’. I was mad because it was an accident and I don’t feel like I should say, ‘sorry’. In addition, I thought I said sorry when it happened. I just don’t see the big deal in saying ‘sorry’ for something so trivial.

After 2 days, all was forgotten and forgiven…all that for spilled juice.

The letter “V”…

Okay reader participation time, I am curious, “What is the first word that you think of when you see the letter “V”?

Catalina Island Fire…

Is it just me? I don’t get how a fire can be so out of control on an ISLAND! Catalina Island is surrounded by water right? Why is it that the fire department doesn’t have like 10 water scooping airplanes that fly to Catalina, scoop up Pacific Ocean water and dump it on the fire?

If we even take it one step further and use the Griffith Park fires as an example, why couldn’t we do the same thing? In fact, didn’t we use water scooping planes for that fire?

Living in Southern Califonia, is it a big shock that we are in a drought and we have dry brush? It doesn’t seem like rocket science. Any brush fire, call in the planes, scoop up water and then dump it on the fire.

I think the city should call me the next time there is a fire so I can tell them to use the planes….better yet I should be Mayor.

Mothers Day....

Ahh, Mother's Day...what a great day! Normally, my family doesn't celebrate mother's day. We don't really do father's day either. However, other people celebrate mother's day...like Aya's family.

What does that mean? At first, I thought it was Aya getting together with her relatives and leaving JT at home with me for the day. I figure for Mother's Day, I can watch JT. Luckily, Aya's family all wanted to see JT. Initially, I thought it was family get together for women or mothers only (Aya's family does that...they call themselves the Joy Luck Club). Only AFTER did I find out the spouses all went...except for me (bet they were all jealous....and I did ask if they were going but Aya said, "No.")

In addition, my family also had a lunch. I think it was the first time they did something on Mother's Day. Since Aya was at her family function and I was home alone...I declined. Aya however went to my family function after her family function...again, I think I was the only no show.

Oh well, Mother's Day turned out to be a Miles day of L-O-U-N-G-E. I watched movies and the Dodger game. It was a little strange to be home alone for so long. Aya, JT and I have pretty much been glued to the hip since Aya got pregnant. I also felt a little guilty, so I cleaned all the blinds. Not guily that I was home lounging, but guilty because you can just get so much more done when JT isn't around that if feels like a wasted opportunity to do stuff when he isn't there.

Hopefully Father's Day will be a repeat of Mother's Day...I loved it!

Baby needs a new pair of shoes...

Newsweek came out with an article this week about the Stay-at-Home moms/dads. Basically, a stay at home parents would make $138,095 annually (based on a survey by salary.com). Here are just a few numbers:

$32,000 - the costs for the first two years of a baby's life.
$24,000 - the two year cost for each additional child

$190,980 - what an average middle class family will spend on average to raise a baby to age 18, not including college or lost wages from a parent who stays at home.

$1,589,793 - what it costs an average middle class child to age 18, including college and lost income from a parent who stays at home.

92 hours per week a stay-at-home mom works.

Who would have thought this little guy could be so expensive?

Bulldozer...

The highlight of JT's weekend was seeing a parked bulldozer. He was so excited to see the bulldozer up close and personal. You could tell in his eyes that he wanted to go on and ride the bulldozer. This from the kid, who 2 minutes earlier was scared of the horses on the merry-go-round.

Santa Monica Aquarium...

Aya is in NYC this week, so these next few posting will be shameless plugs for JT so Aya can see pictures of him on her crackberry.

This weekend we went to the Santa Monica Aquarium. Admission is $2 bucks but they recommend $5 bucks. I hate to be a cheap skate for something that is run by volunteers, but the place was tiny and kinda sucky. I think you can see more and better fish at the local pet shop. At least it was closer than the Long Beach Aquarium.

JT touching the star fish. He was kind of scared to touch them:

JT loves looking at the fish...unfortunately, there were only 3 tanks and they only contained fish you see off the Santa Monica pier...so they were all ugly and polluted looking.

Boys Day...

Saturday was Boys Day. My how fast time flies. Last year, Aya had to hold JT next to his Boys day fish:

This year, it was hard getting a picture of JT next to the fish! You know he is my son, because he was so pre-occupied sweeping and playing with the broom:

I know Roger Clemens signed with Yankee's but just in case the Yanks need another pitcher, JT may be available soon:

Luckily someone invented digital camera's and we got a good picture of JT in his fobber gear and his Boys Day fish:

Panera...

This weekend I realized one of the perks of working at LMB was that when it came time to service our cars, I could drop the cars off at work and use Mercedes shuttle service to take me the 12 blocks to work.

This past weekend we took Aya’s car to the shop which means we only have one car. Having one car translates to me being Aya and JT’s chauffeur. After picking up Aya from the dealer, we headed to Aya’s mommy and me class. Rather than go home and pick up Aya an hour later, I decided to head to Panera’s for some breakfast.

I knew things weren’t good when the guy had to take my order 3 times and got it wrong in the end. How hard is it to remember hot chocolate no whip cream, blueberry muffin for here?

I eagerly sit down to eat my breakfast and read my two news paper in peace with no wife or kid to bother me. Just my luck, a couple sits behind me and then instead of reading quietly, the wife reads the paper and then verbally translates the highlights to her husband. I am pretty sure the husband didn’t want the highlights and cared but he just sat there staring off into space eating his breakfast. He was probably jealous of me because I was by myself, reading alone.

Next up was this annoying little kid who kept running around by me. His dad came over and apologized and said this is what happens when you have kids. I was thinking, “Yeah, if I wanted to be annoyed while I ate I would have brought my own kid with me.” No problem though as JT is loud and annoying as well.

The straw that broke the camels back was this big ugly fat chick came over and sat by me. She then talked on her cell phone for the next 35 minutes! I was thinking why can’t you just invite your ugly friend to come eat with you next time instead of talking to her on the phone?

I don’t know what possessed the fat ugly girl to stop talking a second, but she paused, looked over at me and asked if I was done reading part of the newspaper and if she could read it. Naturally, I thought, “You are on the phone. Why do you want to read and talk to your friend at the same time?” Instead, in my best clear, concise voice I replied, “Sorry, I don’t speak english”. Then I kept reading my 2 newspapers.

I just happened to be on the sports section and no sooner did I reply back to the ugly black girl this dude walks by and asks me if he thinks the Lakers have a chance…and then we had a 5 minute conversation (in English) about the Lakers.

Stupid…Panera. I am not going back there again for breakfast.