Mason's 3rd Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Mason's 3rd birthday. In following the tradition of birthdays at the park (1st year at Kelly Park; 2nd year at Oakland Zoo), this year was at Tilden Park in Berkeley.

Upon seeing Veronica, she immediately asks why I haven't been blogging much lately. She insisted I must blog about this party and take lots of pictures because it's a tradition. Because her sister, who's overseas, relies on my blog to record this annual event. Oh, and another tradition is that every year I have to remind Patrick to cut the watermelon!

To Veronica and my other faithful readers, I apologize for the lack of blogging lately. It's hard to explain how the blogging mood comes and goes. Maybe it's because my life has been kinda uneventful lately. Maybe it's because I'm trying to spend more than my usual 30 minutes each night with the family. Or maybe it's because my job is miserable and draining due to me trying to maintain a balancing act of dealing with clueless management while at the same time being grateful I'm still employed.

Parties like these are what I look forward to all the time. It's such a blessing to be surrounded by friends, especially those I don't see every week like Pat and Milton. And it's such a joy to see all our children grow up together. I feel sorry for 75% of my coworkers who really don't have a life outside of work. Their goal in life is just to survive long enough to collect their pension.

Thanks Patrick and Veronica for not only a great get-together, but for also giving me reason to blog again!

Grandma demonstrating to Mason on how to impress the ladies.

"We have a LOT of food. I sure hope there is enough charcoal..."

This is like a scene at the start of a horror movie where a bunch of kids
wander into the woods and one by one they disappear.

Look, one is already missing...

In the end these adventurous kids all found their way back.
I just hope they don't go home with poison oak.

Ha! And you thought video games were violent...

For the record, it wasn't MY son that decapitated Mr. Gabba Gabba.

After Mr. Gabba Gabba was decapitated, a few other kids (not mine) decided to
further bash his head in. Their parents must be so proud.

"Um, why are you fools blowing MY cake??"

Jarod is excited to be the newest addition to our annual "Dads Picture."
The other three probably could care less.

He's patiently waiting for us to leave so he can feast in the garbage can.

Free Photo Book

Only one welcome gift per new customer per household. Valid for the first 100,000 qualified registrants. To qualify you must upload 50 or more photos to a new Shutterfly account between May 14-May 18. Free 8x8 hard photo cover book includes initial set of 20 pages. All incremental pages will be charged on a per page rate. Licensed premium photo books, Martha Stewart books, Creating Keepsakes books, Adventure books, leather, padded and soft photo cover books are not included in this reward. Stationery offer applies to 5x7 stationery cards only. Taxes, shipping and handling charges will apply. You have until June 24, 2009 to place your order. 25 free 4x6 prints not valid for in-store pickup and offer is valid 30 days from registration.

LINK

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

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.

Health advisory: Cover your mouth

Related link:
Swine Flu: Your Questions Answered

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!