LA Zoo...

When Aya, JT and I went to the zoo last year and saw how much JT enjoyed the zoo, we signed up to be LA Zoo members. This past weekend they opened the zoo early for members to watch the animals get fed and they had trainer talks.

More than anything it was just nice being at the zoo with less people. The animals were pretty active. I am guessing they all get fed in the morning so they were either walking around waiting to eat or being fed.

After the zoo, we headed over to Traveltown to ride the train and look at real trains.

It is my right...

Yo, Yo, Yo...check it out!! After years and years of resisting because I did not want to double my chances of jury duty, I finally did it. I registered to vote:

I got my drivers license renewal in the mail and it came with a voter registration card. Interesting. I had always been too lazy to sign up. You know you go to the market or the mall and you have people soliciting you to vote. I always thought it was a scam.

I figured no excuses this time. Honestly, I never wanted to vote. The election never comes down to 100-99, or 99-99 with my vote being the tie-breaker. Never interested me at all before. I live my life in my own little world, work my job, pay my taxes and mind my own business.

Now with JT, I feel like I can't just "go along for the ride" anymore. If anything I have to at least do my part and express my opinion with a vote. Man, this being a parent thing sucks. I signed up to vote (doubling my chances for jury duty). I missed out on a vendor sponsored (which means FREE) happy hour to watch JT tonight because he is sick. What is happening to me?? Boo.

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Speaking of watching JT while he was sick. I have a little story. Aya put JT to sleep tonight, as she usually does. I offered because tonight is a big television night for Aya. Greys, CSI and ER. Aya said no and said she will watch JT.

I was downstairs and I heard someone running around upstairs. Hmm. I heard it again. Funny thing is I only heard one set of footsteps. I never heard another set. I come upstairs to check and it is JT running back and forth from his room into our room.

JT kind of laughs and goes to his room. I follow him and he points to Aya sleeping and laughs and runs back to our room. I put JT to sleep in our bed and about an hour later Aya strolls into the bedroom asking what happen?! Nice. Outwitted by a 22 month old kid.

22 months old...

JT is now 22 months old. How fast time seems to be flying by. I think I say that every month!

JT still isn't speaking a whole lot but he is at least trying to say more words now. He goes to the library once a week for story time. He just started taking exercise classes at the park as well. JT is also starting to pee in the toilet. Not on a regular basis but every night after he takes a bath he tries to take a squirt after this bath. So far about 75% of the time he goes.

On the downside, he still does not sleep thru the night and was up every 90 minutes yesterday. Since some people (Jen & Jeff) did not get an invite for my bbq last weekend, I just wanted to forewarn everyone...NO BIRTHDAY PARTY for JT this year. We are boycotting bdays again this year. Perhaps next year....maybe....ba-humbug! At least he gets Christmas!

End of summer BBQ

I suppose with the rare September rain storm that pretty marks the end of summer. No better way to end the summer than with a bbq!

Are you ready for some football??

Happy Friday everyone!! I just wanted to share an uplifting story to start off the weekend. A few weeks ago just before football season started, Aya, JT and I headed down to Long Beach to celebrate her cousin's 16th birthday.

Let's do a little math, I have been married for 8 years, dated for 2 years, so that would mean that I met Daniel when he was 6-7 years old. Daniel has always been a really nice and polite kid. The best part is that he likes sports and video games so I always have someone to hang out with at Aya's family functions.

We used to actually 'play' basketball and I would dominate. Now at 16, he is several inches taller than me so we won't be playing bball anytime soon. We do still play video games!! Being it was his 16th bday and I was coming over, Daniel went out and bought Madden 2007 before I came over.

We ate lunch and then we went upstairs for 30 minutes of smash mouth football. Let me spare you the details, but age and wisdom won out over youth and inexperience. *AHEM* Drull roll, puh-leeze.....I still got it!! Check, check, check it O-U-T!

I was the Bengals. Daniel was the Titans. Final score 42 - 22! Yes, some gamers may say that the game was not fair because I had the slightly better team, but I picked first so Daniel could have matched teams but he loves Vince Young. I gotta say video game Vince is way better than real life. The QB sneaks were killing me!

Little did Daniel know, that just a few weeks earlier, I got back into playing NCAA football and the controls are almost identical so I was ready for the easy kill. How much do I rock??? An old geezer going heads up with a teenager and I win. I truly am the greatest! I amaze myself at how I just get better and better.

More work...

First thing in the morning, my boss ran over to my cube and told me she needed to talk to me right away. I was a little nervous because I had just hit SEND for a job posting I saw and I thought she was calling me in to talk about me sending my resume. YIKES.

Turns out, it is the yearly review and bonus time at UMG. I guess reviews go from October to September. It was news to me...and better yet I got a raise. The raise isn't as much as I am used to as I usually get anywhere between 10% and 20%. However, I didn't think I would get anything at UMG so to get a raise was a nice surprise. I got the full increase and then some for only 9 months of work.

Perfect segway into my penny pinching count. I have spent ZERO dollars in the past two weeks on non-essentials. I think I have only bought lunch (a few times) and gas. Ugh, I totally forgot. Stupid valet parkers jacked my change! Grrr. I was tempted to call the valet company to complain. I am 99.9% sure they took my change because the night before I was at El Pollo Loco and I needed some change to pay. The line was long and I happened to notice the change in the astray was full and I had lots of quarters. I was thinking I should empty that out and start over.

I valet parked my car at the mall when we went to Santa Anita and when I got back I checked my ashray and my change was only half full...I was missing all the quarters. Yes, I know...who valets at the mall, right? Aya's company gave us money to either use the valet or keep the money. Since we were late we just decided to valet. Grr. I should make Aya reimburse me since it was her company function. Good thing I got a raise or else I would be MINUS money this week.

Product Meetings...

When I first started my job, my boss told me that one of the job perks is being invited to the weekly Products meetings. I know that doesn't sound that great, but remember I work in music, so by product that means I get to see music videos and/or artists.

At first I thought it was kind of lame. It starts at 9:00 am (which isn't bad since I start at 7:00) but they crank the volume on all the video's they play. Normally not a bad thing, but then I realized they do not always play music I like. Basically they play one video from each genre, country, top 40, rock, spanish, rap and alternative. To this day, I hate...H-A-T-E listening to spanish music.

We also get artists to come in and sing live in the conference room. The singers aren't 'popular' as they are bands coming in are usually just starting out. As corny as it sounds, it is pretty cool listening to live music usually backed with just an acoustic guitar. After the performance we usually get free cds, pictures and autographs.

Because of these product meetings I find myself listening to a lot more genres of music. Case in point, the music on my slide show from Monterey is Colbie Caillat. Several people emailed me to find out who that artist was on my slide show. She is a UMG artist and she was our top free itune download a month or so ago.

Of course this doesn't mean that I don't listen to my all time favorite...RAP. 9/11 was a big date for us because 50 Cent or Fiddy went against another UMG artist in Kayne West. BET and the radios were hyping the battle on who would sell more. I was excited as well and tried to listen to both albums early but I couldn't get a copy until 9/10. I suppose it didn't really matter because since I manage all the 'data' I already knew based on projections and shipments that Kayne was going to win.

I guess it isn't so bad when you can spend Friday mornings watching music videos!

A fungus among us...

I learned this weekend that you should *NOT* let a toddler stick there grubby finger in your eye. I was trying to get JT to take a nap so I was 'fake' sleeping. JT stuck his finger above my eye lid and tried to raise it to see my eye. JT's finger kind of slipped and poked me.

I didn't think anything of it besides getting poked in the eye but a few minutes later my eye started to itch and bother me. I started rubbing my eye and then it started to hurt and ended up looking like this:

The picture does not do my eye justice on how bad it looked. Luckily I had this medicine that I got from Jeffs office....7 years ago! I had an eye infection and the doctor gave me 5-6 packets of medicine. After the 3rd or 4th packet my eye cleared up so I decided not to use the rest and I saved it for future emergencies!! Good thing I didn't listen to Jeff and use all the medicine!

Who would have thought a toddler's grubby little germie invested finger could give me eye irritation!

D & B

I am back!! I was a little lazy last week to post updates. Sometimes I just have 'ZERO' going in my life and there is just nothing to write to about.

This past week Aya had her company event at Dave and Busters. It was my first time going to Dave and Busters. I love playing video games but Dave and Busters never interested me at all. As you can see I must be losing my touch as Aya beat me in a hunting game!


I have to say I was rather unimpressed by Dave & Busters. It was sort of likes a sport bar with bar food, drinks and video games. I would say it is like an adult Chucky Cheese. The other thing that got me was the kiddie games. Aya and I got 2 video cards worth $40 of video game credits. Unfortunately, we got there late and had to go to another party so we weren't going to use all our video game money so we decided to play 'kiddie' games where we can win 'tickets' and then redeem the tickets for prizes.

Aya and I thought we were doing great as we got close to 400 tickets. We happily entered the prize booth and lo and behold...400 tickets gets you squat! I was rather upset. Not because we couldn't get a good prize for JT, but because Aya and I spent about $35 (not our money, but that isn't the point) and all we got was a lame stuffed animal.

I kid you not, Dave and Busters is like Vegas for kids!! I was thinking if I came with JT and he burned through the video credit card and ** I HAD ** to pay for this stuffed animal I would be super upset! Thus, I am not boycotting Dave & Busters. Actually, the other reason is there is no Dave & Busters on the westside.

Awesome...

JT still doesn't talk but he says a few words. When he wants to get our attention he just makes annoying whining noises. It is super irritating and I refuse to answer unless he says, "Dad."

With Aya being away that only leaves me to entertain JT. I think JT realized that I don't answer when he whines. Unfortunately that means until I answer all I hear is, "Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad."

Even if I say, "Yes, Jack. I get, ""Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad."

Ugh. It is a toss up between what is worse the the whining or the constant "dad".

Thrify...

What makes it difficult when Aya and I look for a new house is the financial freedom. Right now, I can buy whatever I want and spend whatever without looking or caring at the price tag. After we decided NOT to buy the one house that we liked in the early summer, I have been a spending free.

Aya and I have been pretty busy this summer, Hawaii, Las Vegas and Monterey. I guess after Aya pointed out that my 3 baseball jersey are as much as a week of her suits I decided to stop spending money until November. Oh yeah, and the tennis ball machine.

I am now going to be like Jenny on Weight Watchers, except I won't be on weight watchers, I will just be 'el cheapo' for the next two months but putting a self imposed no spending on myself watch! I can still go and eat and happy hour, but no toys, gadgets or frivolous purchases...like the indoor remote control helicopter I bought (which sucked by the way and I ended up throwing it away).

I also recruited my little buddy to help me wash cars too!

Actually Aya is travelling the next few days so there will be the usual gratuitous pictures of JT so Aya can see him on her blackberry.

U.S. Open 2023

JT and Aya went to the tennis courts with me when I was using the ball machine and JT loved watching the balls. So much so that he stood right in front the machine and got hit in the face! He also threw a John McEnroe fit when the ball machine ran out of balls and he started hitting my favorite racket against the ground. Before I knew it my racket was broken. =(

I wasn't going to let JT ruin another racket, so today I went out and bought him his very own racket. He was 100% this afternoon....missed EVERY single ball!

Here is video of JT prepping for the U.S. Open in 2023. Notice the reflexs, the hand eye coordination, the grit and determination.

I mean who else can stand there so calmy and not even notice the balls go by! What a dork.

Sadly, the tennis adventure doesn't end there. Aya jumped in to hit some balls next. I warned her to be CAREFUL where she sits. Naturally JT was wandering around the court. Can you guess where this is going. This isn't rocket science is it. Yup, Aya took a forehand swing. JT was about 10 feet away. ** THUMP ** right off the side of JT's head. Brilliant! Too bad I didn't get that on video!

When did we turn into...

Aya and I were thinking the same thing that Saori wrote in one of her entries. Aya and I were just wondering, when did our baby turn into a toddler and when did our toddler turn into such a little person?!

Granted JT isn't even talking yet but he just seems to be growing up so fast. Not only is JT growing up but Aya and I were wondering when did we turn into adults?!


Just last week we purchased additional life insurance and finalized our living trust and will. We just wanted to be covered for the future. Thanks to only non-family member "you-know-who-you-are" for being a trust executor for JT.


With that being said, Aya and I only looked into setting up the trust for JT, but for everyone out there you should see if your parents have one for your family. It isn't so much so you can get your hands on anything your parents have but to ensure that it doesn't get taken by the government or tied up in probate. Kind of sad to think of a trust for your parents, but we all saw Lion King and you know the circle of life.


When you are little you just want to grow up so fast so you can do all the things your parents tell you NOT to do. After 21, it just seems like the years fly by so quickly and you want time to go slower.

More Monterey…

A few conversations between Aya and I on our Monterey trip:

American Eagle departs from Terminal 4 via bus and it takes you to a small terminal out on the tarmac where you wait for the smaller planes.

Miles: I am about to put on my headphones, so I can’t hear anything.
Miles: Did you want to talk to me instead?
Aya: No.
Miles: (I think I hear something on the PA)
Miles: Did they just make an announcement?
Aya: I dunno. I wasn’t listening.
Miles: How can you NOT listen?
Miles: We are the ONLY people in this terminal and you aren’t doing anything.
Aya: I was reading
Miles: So you can’t read and listen at the same time?
Miles: Can you breathe and read at the same time?
Miles: Retard.
Aya: I dunno, I just wasn’t paying attention.
Miles: But I just told you I wouldn’t be able to hear anything with my headphones on.
Aya: Sorry.

It turns out the PA was advising us that our plane had a maintenance issue and that we would be leaving later than expected.

This is why I am against another kid. Not only do I have to plan the trips, carry a majority of the bags, look after JT, but I apparently need to listen for every announcement as well.


This was conversation #2.

Aya: Blah, Blah, Blah
Aya: Are you even listening to me.
Miles: Yeah I heard you. I was listening.
Aya: What are you doing?
Aya: Why you looking at your hand?
Miles: I was picking my nose when you were talking.
Miles: I lost the booger and was seeing if it was on my hand somewhere.
Miles: Check my face…is the booger on my face?
Aya: Eeww, don’t touch me!

Do you know your way to....

....Monterey!!

Aya and I headed up to Monterey this weekend for a short getaway and to go to Russ wedding. Russ and I went to elementary, jr high and high school together. It was a short 90 minute flight to Monterey for only $5 bucks a person using our mileage. I figure we can't beat that kind of deal.

Aya and I have never been to Monterey. I have to say, I was a little disappointed about Monterey. I thought it would be more coastal....like right on the coast. I dunno, it was kind of like going to big fishermans village type of city. Nice, but so happy I didn't drive all the way there to see fishermans village.

In any case, we had some time to kill. I wanted to check out the Monterey Aquarium but Aya didn't want to. I think because we didn't have JT, she didn't want to do things that we would do with JT.

Instead we saw this 'scenic drive' called 17 mile drive. I figure, "Okay, I can drive down the coast 17 miles" in my Hyundai Elantra and check it out. The trip didn't start off well as we found out it you have to PAY to go on this drive. $9 bucks to go on this 'state' road. Argh. I hate paying to just drive on a road.

It ended up being a pretty fun drive. Since I paid the 9 bucks, I said we are going to have to stop and get our money's worth! We stopped at almost every stop on the 17 mile drive...no there was not 17 stops...there was 21 stops! In order to save my faithful followers some money, here is a video of our stops along the 17 mile drive. There is also pics of the wedding and Carmel.

We definitely had a better time in Carmel. The beach looked so nice. Aya liked Carmel better because it was more 'upscale'. Talk about snooty.

A fun weekend!