Birthday Wishes!

Thanks everybody for all the birthday wishes!! Thursday was my birthday and I have to say it was a pretty good one. We had a Halloween party at work, so that was fun. Everyone dressed up and people brought their kids in. There was pizza,wine,beer,and snacks galore. It was a pretty good time. Then I came home and had lots of great presents waiting for me. A new car stereo, new boots, a crock pot, The Office Season 5, a purse, some money, lots of great cards, and best of all Jon got Kim a ticket to some out here for a visit! Woohoo! She is going to come out for a weekend in Dec so we can hang out! The birthday was great, but I did miss celebrating it with my twin! The birthday continued to the next day too! At work my coworkers took me out to lunch at a really yummy sushi place. they surprised me because they had scheduled a meeting at lunch but then told me they were really going to take me out to lunch. It was fun! They even got me a desert and sang me happy birthday! My boss got me a Starbucks card too! Then I went home early and Jon and I went out to dinner with Marcus and Lauren to celebrate at DISHDASH. It was really good and we had a great time. Now it is Halloween so the fun continues! Happy Halloween everybody!

So cute

This is a video of Sandy playing with her toys. Jon was really excited when he got Sandy to play tug a war.

Paintball!

So I know I haven't posted in a while. ( I am kind of bad at this.) Anyway so a couple of weekends ago Jon and I decided to go play paintball. We asked Marcus and Lauren to come with us, so we all got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Los Gatos. It was Lauren and I's first time so we were a little scared, but I was excited to play. When we finally got to the place and saw the other people we were gonna be playing with we got even more freaked out. I mean these guys had their own guns, were decked out in full camo and were super intense. We played anyway. It was really cold, but I had on LOTS of layers. (my way of trying to cushions the hits, it didn't really work well..) Once the games started I had a lot of fun. At first I wasn't very good and got out pretty quickly, but as the games went on I got the hang of it a little more. It was really fun despite the massive welts I have on my legs and arms. The course was really awesome. It has a massive hill and a lot of really cool bunkers to hide behind. Overall, Jon and I had a really great time and I would definitely go again, bruises and all.Jon surrendering! No he just got hit so he had to go...

The field

Farmer's Market = Yummy!

The last full day of mom and dad's trip we went to the Japantown Farmer's Market. If you remember from my last post I won a $10 gift certificate so I used it to buy some yummy stuff. I was really excited because they had squash blossoms which I have never seen in a grocery store. We used to grow squash at home so one time Scot stuffed them with cheese and fried them and they were really good, so that was on the menu for dinner! I think my dad was in heaven! All the fruits and vegetables were really fresh and beautiful. We stopped at the Mediterranean booth and bought hummus and olives. We also bought some wax bean, green beans, zucchini, Japanese eggplant, mushrooms, and squash blossoms. Mom also bought some Pecan Sandies and flat breads. There is quite a variety of things at the market and they always have beautiful flowers. We decided that for lunch we would buy some tamales from the tamale cart. The lady that was selling them kept yelling free samples so dad walked over to the cart to try them. There was a plate sitting on the cart right next to a bin of spoons so dad dove right in. After taking a bit a women walked over and picked up the plate and walked away. Apparently, those were not the free samples. It was pretty funny and the women and her wife were laughing about it too! We still bought the tamales and they were pretty good. No Pepe's from El Paso, but still tasty. Here are some more shots from the market.
After the Farmer's Market we went to Race Street Seafood to buy Rock cod and mussels for dinner. Mom and I did the prep work and dad did the cooking (while Jon played with Sandy) and we had an excellent dinner. It was a perfect way to end the trip! Once we finished dinner we played a final round of Phase 10 and hit the sack. The next morning I had to take mom and dad to the airport. It was a great trip and I was sad that it had to come to end. It was really great to have them come visit!

Spirit of Japantown!

So it just so happened that the weekend that mom and dad were in town there was a festival going on in Japantown. Since we live in Japantown we decided to head down there and see what it was all about. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot that day. Not Houston hot by any means, but hot for here anyway. The festival was literally one block from our apartment so we just walked. When we got there we were surprised to see an entire street filled with souped up cars. Not really our style but we looked for a little bit and then decided to head further into the festival. It was pretty average as far as festivals go, but we enjoyed getting to see a hula demonstration and the Taiko Japanese drummers, along with some rather colorful characters. We all entered a free raffle and miraculously Jon and I both won! My prize was quite a bit better than his though. I won a $10 gift certificate to the Japantown Farmer's Market and Jon won a Car's (the animated movie) activity booklet and a folder made from recycled cardboard. We grabbed some really yummy gyoza, chow mein, and osaka style okonomiyaki. It was really fun but after being out in heat for a couple of hours we headed back to the apartment and rested up. That night we went to see and Acapella comedy group called The Blanks and the San Jose Improv. It was really good! I highly recommend it to anybody that likes singing. Mom and dad really enjoyed it too. I think it was a definite winner. If you are a fan of the TV Show Scrubs you will recognize the group. It is Ted's (the lawyer) band. Anyway, so it was a really great day and we all had a blast!

Enjoying our lunch at the Spirit of Japantown Festival.
The Taiko Drummers. They were really good and looked like they were having a lot of fun!