My Lego Universe

The first toy I ever owned as far back as I can remember were Legos. All the pieces then were mainly square or rectangle blocks in red, blue, yellow and white. I grew up playing Legos with my childhood friend Goff. I recall recreating aircraft carriers and battle scenes from our favorite movie, Midway. Then after 1977, we really had to use our imagination to make X-Wings and Tie Fighters as Star Wars hit the screen. Man, how I loved Star Wars and Legos!

Fast forward 35 years and I still love Star Wars and I still love my Legos. Maybe even more so because now I have the ability to buy any set I want, plus I share that love with my children. With so many to choose from every year, I really have to practice restraint whenever I'm shopping at Amazon. A typical Amazon shopping trip will go like this: First I'll place a $15-20 item in the cart, then I'll add a $40 Lego set to qualify for free shipping. Totally justifiable right?

I did not start collecting Legos until about six years ago when my boys started developing a deep interest in them. Since then, I've spent several hundred dollars every year buying Legos. Some we give away for gifts, some we buy used, and some are hidden away that no one will uncover until I'm dead. Make no mistake, these are my Legos. But don't feel sorry for my kids, they still get plenty with their birthdays and Christmas gifts, and certain sets I open just to get the minifigures. Together, it adds up to quite a bit. We have more Legos than anyone I know. The only problem that keeps coming up is where to display them.

After researching some ideas online, I purchased a 16x20 shadow box from Michael's on sale for $15. Using black foam core, I assembled a shelf for my minifigures. I glued in some 2x12 baseplates and voilà—instant storage display for my most prized characters. Inside the case they'll never get dusty, never taken apart, and never molested by curious, filthy fingers. I value my Legos.

Believe me, I could easily fill the entire case with minifigures, but my boys were already complaining that I confiscated way too many characters. Oh boohoo, Qui-gon Jinn me a river! So being the gracious and merciful father that I am, I limited myself to just 60 minifigures. To fill the extra space on top, I created a grid for the mini-ships from the Advent Calendars. And below I created a snow scene to display the holiday and Hoth characters. All in all, only 95 elements are represented.

You may question how I can spend so much on Legos. It's just a toy! Well, all normal guys have some sort of hobby, some sort of collection. Just like women, guys spend money on things they personally value, regardless of what others think. I see it this way: I don't buy new cars, I don't go to games or concerts, I don't ski, I don't do Starbucks or Quickly, I don't buy fashion sunglasses or shoes, I don't buy video games or Blurays, and I don't have monthly cable or cell phone bills. If you think about your monthly budget for those items, it comes out to a lot of money, and a lot of Legos! Plus, you know I'll never pay full prices.

In this noisy day and age of video games, social media and ADHD, Lego is a quiet welcome alternative that not only spurs creativity, but also encourages problem-solving skills. You can play both on your own and with a friend. But to me, the absolute number one best thing about playing with Legos: Lego-time is time with my kids.

Time flies, and I'm already dreading that day when I'll have to pack all the Legos away. It will be a sad moment for me. Hopefully when they have kids of their own, they'll look back at this time and cherish the things we built together. I hope they'll realize how lucky they were having an awesome, nutty Lego-fanatic dad such as me. And if I'm still alive to play with my grandchildren, maybe, just maybe, I'll unearth those extra-special sets I've been saving...

We'll see.

Gilroy Gardens for $12

LINK: http://www.gilroygardens.org/schoolspecial.html

Family Day Today 4-8. Kids eat free.

Family Day 2009

The CRA is working with First Lady Maria Shriver to recruit restaurants for a statewide Family Day promotion Sept. 23. Family Day is celebrated in an effort to encourage families to spend quality time dining together.

To participate, your restaurant will offer a special Family Day promotion from 4 to 8 p.m. Sept. 23, either:

• a free child’s meal with the purchase of an entrée (limit two per table) OR
• a free entrée for a child with the purchase of an adult entrée (limit two per table).

Two options are available to accommodate restaurants that don’t offer a children’s menu and still want to participate in this promotion.

Participating Family Day restaurants
(California only - I see El Pollo Loco and Pasta Pomodoro on there!)

LINK

If you can't make it out tonight, you can visit Boston Market until October 31 and get your free kids meal there.

LINK

Gilroy Gardens for under $10

Link: Gilroy Gardens

Gilroy Gardens is probably one of the more wholesome family-oriented places you can take your small children. No foul-mouthed greasy punks, ghetto bangers, or teenage moms like at Great America or Six Flags. Just proper families with polite and obedient children like yours and mine :)

And now is the best time to go since the weather is cooling down because Gilroy can get plenty hot. We go at least once a year. And we always like to go with other families. That way, someone else can watch and entertain your kids while you sneak off and eat garlic fries by yourself (you know who you are).

Below are some photos from our last trip there this summer.

Most of the rides had zero lines, you just walk on (over and over again).

No gangbangers, but Asian drivers everywhere!

The view from atop the ferris wheel. "Daddy, something hit me on top of the head..."

The future greasy teens and ghetto bangers.

Free Museum Day on Mother's Day

KORET MUSEUM DAYS 2009:
BAY AREA MUSEUMS OFFER FREE MOTHER'S DAY ADMISSION
IN HONOR OF KORET FOUNDATION'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY

San Francisco, CA - Celebrate Koret's 30th anniversary with a Mother's Day trip to the museum on Sunday, May 10, 2009. Seventeen Koret-supported Bay Area museums are offering free admission, encouraging visitors to enjoy the Bay Area's world-class amenities.

The Mother's Day event marks the second time that Koret has hosted Koret Museum Days, offering free admission on Mother's Day to Bay Area museum-goers. In 2004, a similar event in celebration of the foundation's 25th anniversary drew 55,000 visitors to 13 participating museums, inspiring a trend in corporate philanthropy-supported free weekend admission.
Museums participating in Koret Museum Days 2009 include:

• Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
• Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito
• Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland
• Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
• The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
• M.H. de Young Museum
• Exploratorium, San Francisco
• Legion of Honor, San Francisco
• Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley
• Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
• Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
• Oakland Museum of California
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• San Francisco Zoo
• San Jose Museum of Art
• IMAX movie at the Tech Innovation Museum in San Jose
• Zeum, San Francisco

LINK

Free Ice Cream

Tomorrow, get your free cone at Ben & Jerry's. Honestly, I've never been to Ben & Jerry's because there are none where I live or work. The closest one to me is the one at the Coliseum, which is not participating. Then there's Jack London Square... quite inconvenient.

But if you want local free ice cream, I suggest you sign up for Baskin Robbin's Birthday club. Every year we get emails during our birthdays to get a free kids scoop of ice cream. They encourage you to sign up not only yourselves, your kids, but also your siblings. Thanks to both of our rather large families, I get free coupons year-round! My brother's birthday is between the boys' birthdays. So we print out all 3 and get 3 scoops so that Justine won't get left out. You can also print out several copies and visit other Baskin Robbins within the 2 week allowance to maximize your deal too. We visited 3 BK's in 3 days!

And a reminder, next Wednesday, April 29 is 31¢ Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins from 5-10 p.m.

For fancier (pricier) ice cream, Cold Stone Creamery also has a birthday club. But their redemption policy is a lot more stringent. You have to preselect which particular store you plan to go to, then they will print out a store-specific coupon that you can only use once. What a bunch of killjoys! But considering our boys' birthdays are just a few days apart, we can still get them together. But like B&J, their locations aren't very local to us either.

And don't forget your free Redbox code for today is: M6FR97

Shameless!

If you're on Facebook and have the same demographic of friends that I do, you'll notice that 50% of the photos posted are of their children. Another 30% are of their vacation – with their children. The leftover 20% are of photos of their own childhood, or of their pets, or single adults partying with their alcoholic friends.

It's quite shameless how some parents like to flaunt photos of their kids assuming that all the world is just dying to see them. These are the same parents that plaster their car bumpers with those annoying Honor Student stickers (which I can easily print out of our laser printer). Sure, YOU might think you have the world's cutest kids, but then so does the next person and the person after that. So which one is it? Yours? Hers? His?? Fact is, none of them are because quite frankly, we all know who I think is the cutest. Sorry.

But unlike those other parents, you'll never see me parading my kids all over the net. Nope. Remember, my photos are not about my kids, but about my artistic journey toward photographic excellence. It's not about the subject, but rather it's all about composition, storytelling, and creative coloring and cropping. I can't help it if my favorite test subject just happens to be my daughter.

In my busy life, whenever I want to practice photography, it's all about convenience. We rarely get to travel. And at parties, my finger are always too covered with grease and cheese powder to pick up the camera. But Justine, everyday she's always in my line of sight. Hey, sometimes you just got to work with what you've got. Am I right?

Below are some photos from a recent wedding banquet where I was sharpening my photo skills. I guess shooting the bride and groom wasn't as convenient as shooting the kids. Oh well.

:)

She loves them...

She leaves them.

Why is it all the beautiful girls always have a weirdo brother? Never fails.

Correction. Make that two weirdo brothers.

I bet you've never seen fried rice look like that.

Forget the fried rice, I'd rather have a grape fruit rollup!

Freebie Friday – Free activities

For those of you who don't have any plans tomorrow and need a reason to get out of the house, here are a few free local events for young families:

Saturday, February 21, 2009

• 10 - 11 a.m.
  Pottery Barn Kids Decorating Series
  - Easy & Affordable Decorating for Kids' Rooms
  RSVP required
  
  
• 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
  Thomas Playdate at Toys R Us
  - Enjoy storytime, coloring fun, Thomas trivia, and Free giveaways!
  
  
• 2 - 3:30 p.m.
  Elmo is Turning 3 at Borders/Waldenbooks
  - Help celebrate the birthday of one of our favorite Sesame Street friends with a party just for kids. The family fun includes storytime, games, and giveaways.

More Holiday Gatherings

People keep telling me to post more photos and to not talk so much. Ok.

These were taken after we woke up from Wednesday's hotpot party: Thursday (Christmas with each side of the family), Friday (dinner with the other other other Fongs) and Saturday (Red Egg/Birthday party) at the Great Wall Buffet.

Three types of meat, three types of starch, countless desserts
and only one vegetable. My kind of meal!

Can you guess why she's smiling? She will soon be a part of our family.

Hands down the greasiest Chinese food ever.

Claypot rice cooker and steamed turkey. Correction: charcoal-smoked turkey.

I know Lil, I told you I wasn't going to post this pic, but you look way too good!

My boys are the mild ones.

Justine LOVES "Ashee."

Ahh, how sweet! How can you NOT let them jump on the bed?

Future rehab patients.

Oli had a red egg party the same time last year! We're already looking forward to next year!

My favorite Scrabble opponent (because I usually beat her).

If it weren't for the DS, these kids would've been running all over the restaurant
and knocking people over and causing injuries and breaking dishes.
See, the DS already paid for itself!

I locked my keys in my car and somehow we ended up at the Mormon Temple.
Strange day indeed.

Happy New Year to you all!!

Merry Christmas from the Fongs

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hurry and watch it now. Video expires on January 15. Hmm, should I buy it?

9 more years...

Only nine more years of happiness... and then she turns into a teenager :(

Final Destination: Legoland

Legoland is a great place to take photos. The sights and creativity are absolutely amazing!
It's hard to lug around an SLR to all these parks, so I used our Canon Powershot S2is.

Even when made with Legos, SF Chinatown still looks filthy.

The kids spent a LOT of time at the playground. Good time for parents to rest.

I missed Scott's photo workshop in NY. So this will have to do.

Vegas was awesome. The only thing missing was the hookers :0

The gardeners were humongous!
Hey, isn't that Martin's apartment next to the yellow building?

The wheels were not made of Legos. I was so disappointed!

You can NOT get better parking than this! Even the handicapped people had to walk farther than us. I told you traveling with the Leong's had its benefits!

Did I mention the lines were really long and slow? This guy was in front of us.

Day 2: Knott's Berry Farm

After 15 hours at Disneyland and maybe 5 hours of sleep, Knott's was a welcome destination to slow down. Since we stayed at the Knott's Resort Hotel, it was a short walk to the park.

Camp Snoopy was great for our kids. They had plenty of carnival-like rides for those under 48" and some small coasters too. But there was this big inflatable bouncer that caused Dustin to break out in an allergic reaction. Maybe it was latex? His skin got all red, bumpy and itchy. Fortunately a trip to first aid and some Benadryl cleared it all up. But still, no one wanted to touch him all day.

The rest of the park featured many death-defying roller coasters for the more daring – not me. After my second roller coaster ride, I sadly realized that I'm getting too old for this. My stomach can't handle the thrills like it used to. The speed and the spinning really forced me to make a conscious effort not to toss my cookies. Plus I was still recovering from the day before. Yeah, I'm a wimp.

The park was pretty empty and most rides we got on in less than 15 minutes and some we just walked on. And surveying our group, most of us actually preferred Knott's over Disneyland. Maybe because our boys don't really care too much about Disney characters. Or maybe because many of the Disney attractions were a bit scary. Or maybe there wasn't that pressure that we had to do everything... Knott's was quite relaxing.

Some of the rides were quite insane. Above is a video of Andy and Alicia aboard the Xcellerator (not that you can see them). Notice how fast it shoots out of the gate.

Other milder rides included several train rides and even a horse-drawn stagecoach ride, which are great if you want to take your toddler with you. The ice skating show was good too. The only downside was the clientele: more sleazy teenagers and some ghetto folks.

To me, the best part was the Mrs. Knott's fried chicken dinner! There was a long wait at the restaurant so we just took it to go. It was a huge bucket with sides for $22. More than enough to feed both families. Clearly the best meal bargain of the week.