Free Onion Rings this weekend at Burger King

http://www.bk.com

My NC-40 Birthday BBQ

If you're like me, with several kids, there's never a shortage of birthday parties. It seems like we've been averaging two parties a week every week since school let out. Most of these parties involve our core group of church families, so I know everyone and generally have a great time. But sometimes it's my kids' school friends, which I totally dread... Sorry, but I find it hard to go out and meet new parents. Them soccer moms are so clique-ish with their Mandarin gossip, Burberry purses, and luxury SUV's... and need I mention their freakish overachieving children? Gag! I quickly find myself among the only two dads there, so I get stuck trying to make conversation with that other poor soul. The party can't end soon enough.

So for my birthday, I begged the wife to let me invite my friends, regardless if my family liked them or not :) I wanted to invite everyone, but in the interest of saving my marriage, the wife suggested I only invite people that I don't normally see. Furthermore, in order to make me feel young (or at least younger), all adults had to be to be my age or older. Criteria: if you can't remember exactly where you were when you found out Bruce Lee died, you're too young.

The group that was finally assembled I affectionately refer to them as the "Loud & Proud Crowd." They have the largest appetites for life and have matching lungs to prove it. They talk about everything under the sun and no topic is forbidden, including personal hygiene and unflattering emissions. My mom even commented to me in another room that she's never heard so many women laugh so loud. I had to tell her one of those women was Dave.

Actually I was getting back at my new next-door Indian neighbors. Last week they had a party where they were singing Bollywood karaoke (I had no idea there was such a thing). That day I witnessed some of the most bizarre sounds... some questionably non-human. One could argue they were teaching goats how to bleat in unison. So with the all my windows facing their side open, we roared back to show them exactly how us Chinamen party! The only thing missing was the clacking of mahjong tiles.

Needless to say, the party was a total blast. Your closest friends will never leave early claiming, "it's past my kid's bedtime…" But since it was a work night and Patty was coming, we had to have an end time of 10 p.m., otherwise Patty would have started pulling that aerobed out of her purse.

I would encourage you 40-something people to throw yourself a birthday party every once in a while. You don't need to think about goodie-bags, bouncy houses or piñatas, just have a simple dinner party with fun people. I would venture to guess that for most people, the last time they had a party just for themselves was their baby shower or bachelor party. So forget about your kids' friends for once and just invite your own. And of course, be sure to invite me :)

Thanks to Matt for taking the great pics.

If you're a single woman looking to attract men (not these men though), throw a BBQ.

Up until now, they've only read about my famous loft. Now they finally get to experience it!

All my friends are low-maintenance, self-entertaining people.

I had to build a second loft for Justine. No stinky boys are allowed on this one.

My mom makes the plumpest gin dui's, unlike those golfball-sized, thick-skinned Chinatown variety.

Is he kung fu fighting or trying to pass gas? Either way, the girls were keeping their distance.

There's no such thing as having too big of a grill.

My multi-talented loving wife who cleaned, prepped, cooked and cleaned nonstop for two days! AND, she even packs my lunch for work! I think she knew from the very start that it wouldn't be easy being married to me!

With a party of this magnitude, security detail was left to the Angels.

Can't be any louder. Can't be any prouder!

Mama Cez
For another perspective of my party, please visit Mama Cez. Yes, my one-time guest blogger started her own blog. And she is a blogging machine!! I did offer her some suggestions for the title of her blog (The Cez Dispenser, Cez-Side Story, Take a Dip in the Cez-pool, etc.), but like any highly creative person, she came up with her own.  So if you like to read about the lives of people that are more intriguing than mine, while catching more of Matt's exquisite photography, you should follow her blog.

I love me some El Pollo Loco

Something cheap every day this month. Gotta love it!

http://www.elpolloloco.com/30thAnniversary/index.html

Birthday meals

Another good thing about your birthday is the free meals. Above is my Rooty Tooty Fresh N' Fruity meal at IHOP. When you sign up for the Pancake Revolution you'll get a free birthday meal. This sure beats fighting to get that free Denny's Grand Slam with a million other people early in the morning. I just went to my local IHOP within a two-week window of my birthday and got my free meal. And for the month of August, kids 12 and under eat for free every day, 4-10 p.m.

And speaking of Denny's, I just found out that they also offer a free birthday Grand Slam. I'm signing up for Denny's Rewards here. And just like IHOP, kids also eat free at Denny's from 4-10 p.m.

Every year I also go to Red Robin to get my free overpriced burger. Their $10 burgers come with endless fries, and the $4.45 kid meals come with endless chocolate milk or lemonade. You don't necessarily have to order the hamburger, so I opted for a Teriyaki Chicken burger. It was so good that I went to a second Red Robin for a second free meal two days later! But at my second visit, I wanted what my friend had at my first visit, the Ensenada Chicken platter. Since my coupon was only good for a burger, I ordered a burger for my friend, and my friend ordered the chicken platter for me! Plus I get to mooch off their endless fries! Also at the second visit, I got a free hot fudge ice cream sundae! (I'm guessing this depends on your waiter). Sign up for their E-Club here.

And don't forget about the dessert. You can sign up yourself, spouse, kids, parents, etc. for birthday clubs for both Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin Robbins.

Happy birthday and happy eating!

Jamba Juice BOGO

Free Donut Day today

Free breakfast tomorrow!

Only at San Francisco Bay Area restaurants. - Woohoo, that's where I live!!

Fine print:
Valid at participating San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose SUBWAY® locations . Valid only on 5/11/2010 from 7 a.m. - 10 a.m. Offer includes ANY Egg Muffin Melt and 8 oz. Beverage. Products may vary. No purchase necessary. Limit 1 per customer. Must be present at the time of order. No Extras or Substitutions. Offer includes egg or egg white omelets. Beverage includes 8 oz. coffee or fountain drink. Excludes decaffeinated coffee. No cash value. Not for sale. May not be combined with any other offers or discount cards.

LINK

Free Grand Slam at Denny's again

Just like last year, Denny's will once again offer a free Grand Slam breakfast on Tuesday, February 9. And like last year, I'm sure to be there again. It will be a great start to my long day of sitting in a courthouse listening to boring testimony. Yes, I am currently on jury duty.

Follow the link for more details:

http://www.dennys.com/superbowl/splash1.html

YFC Christmas Party

Here are some photos from our annual YFC Christmas party. This year over 70 people showed up for $5 prime rib (although they were a few shameless people who were still hungry and went to mooch off the YAF party in the next room). We had a very fun and competitive treasure hunt this year. My team came in first, so we got to line up for food first! Woohoo!

Like any other YFC meeting, one moment everyone is fine, the next they just start getting wierd.

"Phone, keys, kids.... hmm, what else am I missing?"

30 pounds of prime rib and LOTS of gravy, courtesy of the of the SF Fongs.

"Unk Hunk" is what Justine calls him.

Josh-E makes his long awaited debut. That's a lot of hair for 11 weeks!
Unfortunately they were left starving because Myron's team came in last.

Future choir members.

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

Friday Freebies: More Free Food

And for those of you who missed the free tacos last Tuesday, you're in luck:

Free Tacos Today at Jack in the Box

Friday Freebies

Friday Freebie: National Donut Day at Krispy Kreme

From a press release:

Did you know that National Doughnut Day is an annual observance? And this year, in honor of it being on June 5, Krispy Kreme is sharing five tips with customers, so they can make the most of this giveaway:

1. Share the freebie news with your friends and family so they can get a free doughnut, too.
2. Go to your local Krispy Kreme store and get your free doughnut.
3. While you're at Krispy Kreme, try Krispy Kreme Chillers(R) in refreshingly fruity flavors.
4. Take photos of you and your friends enjoying your free Krispy Kreme doughnut and share them with more friends through your favorite social networking sites.
5. Join "Friends of Krispy Kreme" on www.KrispyKreme.com and find out first about other freebies, discounts and promotions.

"Krispy Kreme is making life just a little sweeter for everyone on National Doughnut Day," says Ron Rupocinski, executive chef at Krispy Kreme. "So, on Friday, June 5, head to a participating store with your friends and family to share the sweet joy of a free Krispy Kreme doughnut."

No purchase is necessary to receive a free doughnut on National Doughnut Day, June 5. The offer is good for one doughnut per customer. To find a participating store near you, visit www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html.

KFC Hates Mother's Day

If you've downloaded the free KFC coupon, you'll notice that the coupon does not work on Mother's Day. In response to this, El Pollo Loco (my all-time favorite) will accept the KFC coupon on that day.

If you need the coupon, you can download it from me HERE. No software install required.

So print out a few copies. Go to KFC today or tomorrow, then to El Pollo Loco on Sunday and enjoy your 2 piece meal plus two small sides, two tortillas and fresh salsa with your KFC coupon.
I think you'll agree that the colonel is no match to the crazy chicken.

Happy Mother's Day.

3 p.m. UPDATE: KFC is now offering rain checks instead. Grrrr. LINK

More free chicken - Thank you Oprah!

LINK

Coupon available for printing from 9am CDT 5/5/09 to 9:59pm CDT 5/6/09. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the U.S. from 5/5/09 to 5/19/09, excluding 5/10/09. Note: You'll need to install a coupon printer application in order to get the coupon.

31 cent Scoop Nite Tonight 5-10 pm

Get there early and be prepared for a long line.
LINK

For free ice cream year-round, read my previous post:
Free Ice Cream

Friday Freebie - Cheap Chicken

Monday, April 27
Free Grilled Chicken at KFC.
LINK

Tuesday, April 28
Free Leg, Thigh and 2 Tortillas and Salsa at El Pollo Loco.
LINK

Through Thursday, April 30
Buy One Get One Free at Boston Market.
LINK


Every Tuesday
99 cents for leg and thigh. If you buy 5 orders, that's 10 pieces for $4.95!

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!