words can't even come close to describin' the time i had back home. it was a super crazy and busy time, from chillin' in da bay, headin' to sac, back to da bay, then down to LA, then back up to da bay. it was good to see da fam, da homies as well as meetin' some new peeps along da way.
here's da summary...
da bay, pt.1
tho da plane was delayed 1.5 hrs @ da gate, it was cool chattin' it up with this girl who sat next to me. it was weird seein' the plane goin' from darkness and catchin' up to daylight.
parents picked me up @ sfo and then we headed home. uncle ron took chris (he was in town still from ben's bday), ben and me out for some pho. then went to go see bryson for the first time.
jet lag kicked in and i passed out there. russ' parents and my parents ended up comin' there for dinner.
kicked it @ cal's afterwards and went to get some jack in da box. ultimate breakfast sandwich baby!!!
next day, had lunch with grandma. 
then went to the cemetary to pay respects. after that, met up with tri and headed to thallassa. 
came back home and had dinner with: uncle david, aunty nancy, uncle cal, aunty nat, russ, arlene, bryson, brandon and brian. since my mom won $500 on da radio and uncle cal was the one who contacted her, she treated to this phat chinese dinner. 
peking duck was grubbin'. 
after dinner, headed over to tony's. finally got to check out tony's new pad. pretty dope ass 62" hdtv.
had some snacks and drank.
next day, took mika (rick's wife) and yoko (one of mika's bridesmaids) on the sf tour. 
started off @ pier 39, 
then took the cable car to the cable car museum (first time for me), 
walked back to pier 39 for lunch (crab cakes and clam chowder in bread bowl). 
then drove down lombard st.
then palace of fine arts (first time for me), 
over the golden gate to vista point. 
then took the san rafael bridge back over and met up with mika's friends at this korean restaurant. 
after that, headed over to dave & busters to meet up with leslie and brian, her fiancee. it was good catchin' up with her and finally meetin' brian. 
i really wanted to go to the weddin', which is this labor weekend, but my work schedule sucks this year! aaarrggghh!!!!!
sac
the next day, headed out to sac. it was nice to make that drive up. must've made that drive over 200 times while i was livin' there. 
went to da old office and was shocked to see how much junk there is. watched don and jook play some bf2. don's new laptop is pretty dope. 
donato & jookie
went to olive garden with don and was quite surprised to see how nice it became. 
we killed a bottle of penfolds shiraz and had tons of leftovers. 
headed over to jookie's afterwards and got to see how big is daughter hannah got. 
jook also had this pretty nice plasma on da wall. 
chilled there for a while and kinda passed out for a little bit. only to be awakend by 4, lickin' my face.
since don and damien had a hockey game, i just chilled with hoolie and his friends and played some hold 'em. when don got home, we started digitally archivin' some of dvds on 3 machines from his massive collection of 1800+ dvds. 
here's just a small sample of what he has...
next day, continued to archive stuff while hoolie try to sell me on wow (world of warcraft). met up with all da guys (jim, paul, damien, hoolie, jookie, don, fernando) for lunch @ aldaberto's and got the infamous california burrito. 
headed back to da house to finish archivin'. took a little nap and then met up with some more guys from prima past and present (bt showed up too) at what used to be river rock. 
l-r: donato, bt, jookie, jim
hoolie
it some new high end type of pub now. i was pleasantly surprised to see this one hostess that greeted us. made me realize some stuff u just don't see in japan. chilled there for a bit and then headed across the street to chili's. 
hmmm...what should i get??? i wonder what don wants?
chelle and jookie's cousin came thru as well. got the full rack of ribs. 
jookie got this
to pass the time, started to flip the coasters. i was able to about 25 or so. not sure what jookie is excited about, i'm only on 2 here
then most of us headed downtown to the limelight, a place i went to quite a few times when i was in school. 
damien
jager shot with jager shirt
it was good to see jon and carla. kenji even came thru for a minute. somehow we all started to play this dice game called "7, 14, 21". 
the young bucks
the bearded posse
me, kenji & don
the rules: with 5 dice, only counting 1's, each person rolls and you count by ones all the way around. when you roll @ 7 or over, you get to choose the drink. then you continue the count. @ 14, that person has to pay for the drink. @ 21, that person has to drink the drink. first game, don had to not only pay for the drink but drink it as well.
his reaction to this
bt as usual, starts gettin' these weird shots for me. 
jon is a master of the self photo
long islands and washington apples
after the washington apples; it wasn't that bad, jook!
the losers from round 3 & 4 of 7, 14, 21
the amazin' power of shots
not sure what fernando & damien are doin'
it's ok don, what jon doesn't know what hurt him...
hey don, what are ya doin' with my wife???
..........
gettin' ready for hold 'em
hooli checkin' his auctions on world of warcraft
it was koo just to hangout with everyone and catch up. we all went back to don/hoolie/damien's house and played some more hold 'em. for some reason the southern comfort came out. 
hoolie made these chocolate cake shots
at first it tasted like shiet, but the aftertaste did taste like a chocolate cake
after that, it gets really fuzzy. that's what great about havin' a digicam, you can go back and what you did.
da bay, pt.2
don and i both drove back home and met up with tri @ hooters in dublin. grubbin' wings, garlic fries and shrimp. it was koo to be able to watch some preseason football and drink with the fellas.
came back home and then got ready to go out to body rock @ soluna lounge. 
we help promote da event so we got in fo free. it was a nice little bar/lounge. saw reuben there and met up with lark and one of her friends, yugo, who's japanese. 
we chilled there til closin' and then got some mexican food. 
this is what yugo got
the hot sauce there was hella hot! 
the burrito was grubbin' and after that went home and crashed out.
the next day, met up with mike and his girl in oakland chinatown for some dim sum. 
we ended up goin' to this place that wasn't there when i was here last. it's a pretty big place. we had to wait a bit but when we got seated it was on. mike's friend's family is the owner of the place, so she hooked us up with some stuff. 
afterwards, headed out to berkeley to have another drink with tri. we played some pool and just kicked it. from there, went straight to castro valley to have dinner with mom and pops @ sazio.
had some grubbin' veal picatta and sauteed shrimp. topped it off with some tiramisu and coffee. 
minestrone soup
can't have italian w/o some chianti
pops had this
this is what i had
headed over to the fongs afterwards cuz dana was in town. 
i don't think she can ever take a straight pic
she just ran a sprint triathalon that day. we then headed over to tony's so that dana could check out his place. the fellas were all there. ben and tony were playin' with their new treos. the screen on those are pretty dope. 
the next day, had to wake up pretty early to go out to san ramon to meet up with mitch (buddy from back in da day and former bball coach) and his family for breakfast. finally was able to meet his two kids. it was kinda nice to practice my japanese with his wife and son. we went to ihop for breakfast and got this grubbin' veggie omelette. came back to da house and just chilled and caught up. 
rikiya
momoka
met up with ray @ stoneridge and finally got to see "nina". it's his '92 supercharged nsx w/lamborghini doors. 2 screens, dope ass system, dvd changer, etc... he had to get back to work so i went shoppin'. picked up some t-shirts @ champs (6 for $20). other than that, really didn't buy too much.
after that, went to ray & setsu's to drop off some gifts and say hi. their grandsons were there and boy, have they grown! they're taller than me now but i'm always gonna be big kevin and the grandson little kevin. dan came by (brandon & kevin's dad) and we drank and chatted. stephanie (dan's wife) came thru too. ended up stayin' there for some ribs and salad. i still couldn't believe that brandon got his wisdom teeth pulled that day and wasn't swollen at all. i was shocked of his tech knowledge. felt kinda weird to be talk with him about that kind of stuff. these kids are sure growin' up fast. 
brandon, big kevin, little kevin
then headed over to tony's house. had tri pick up 3 zachary's pizzas. we were just playin' halo 2 and fight night. those games are pretty dope. especially playin' them on tony's tv. 
some grubbin' zachary's
nina with her doors open
not sure how i could play with my eyes closed...
LA
the next mornin' @ frickin' 0500, we headed down to LA. i was up pretty late that night so i don't really remember the trip down. after pickin' up one of my mom's friends and droppin' her off in LA, we arrived @ my sis' @ around 1300. right before that, we picked up some in n out for lunch. never had animal style fries before. i finally got to see and hold my niece, maile. she has these huge cheeks which makes it look she doesn't have a neck. but she's so cute tho! 
maile and grandpa
maile and grandma
for dinner that night, we headed to this hawaiian restaurant. my sis' hawaiian friends have given it a thumbs up, so you know that it's grubbin'. had some spam musubi, chicken wings and i ordered this macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. my sis ordered michiko (sweet rice flour) fried chicken. the somen salad was grubbin' too. came back and just chilled. 
mom got this
michelle got this
i got this
the next day, we all went to long beach to eat at the crab pot. if ya'll love seafood, this is one place you should go. i've even been to the one in seattle! for all ya'll that don't know, you order these sets of seafood and they bring it to you in a big bowl and then dump it on the table and you go to town. you have melted butter, mallet and cracker to work your way thru the 3 kinds of crab and even lobster. there's sausage, potatoes and corn in there as well. 
afterwards we went to frys to check out their computers. later that evenin', dana came over after work and we all ate leftovers for dinner. 
next day, chilled and went shoppin'. did some major damage @ old navy. also picked up some stuff for my friends back in japan. that night, ross got my dad and i tix to go see amateur boxin' @ the irvine marriott. since ross was goin' straight there from work, i drove the supra out there. man, that car was pretty clean. good power (turbo) and nice stereo. however, it made me appreciate my car a little bit cuz it didn't have a short shift. it really does make a big difference. it was my first time @ a boxin' event. ross got us these phat seats, second row. you can see the sweat splatter when the boxers got hit. the seats also were in prime location of when the ring card girls came. it was koo to see: aaron, eric and louis and meet ken and jason. pops and grubbed on some tacos and washed it down with a mountain dew. 
the next day, went to buy the computer @ costco for my sis & ross. it was a nice little compaq: amd64 ahtlon 3400, 1gb ram, 200 gb hd, dvd± dl 16x, 9-1media card reader, & 17" lcd all for $899. came home to set that up. uncle fred and aunty jeanne came by to see the baby. 
they went to the casino while we headed to this italian restaurant for dinner. had this tasty seafood pasta that i couldn't even eat half of. i was too stuffed from the fried calamari and bread. 
after dinner, went to see weddin' crashers with ross and aaron. man, that movie was hilarious. all the reviews from friends couldn't overhype it. it's that funny.
the next day, finished gettin' the computer set up and then headed out to irvine to me up with bill, pimpa, jeff & christy at this sports bar called the corner office. pimpa was hella hungry so she ordered all these appetizers and bill and i split this turkey avocado sandwich. washed it all down with a nice cold guiness. 
headed back to my sis' and then went with my parents to my uncle & aunty's house in LA. 
got to the house and went straight to da pool. did a few laps then just chilled. my uncle finally made the move to dvds from vhs a few years ago. he also got a brand new 50something inch tv. pops started to drink and moms was organizin' all the dvds. my aunty came home and then we started to drink wine. austin and his whole family came thru too. finally got to meet jade and lola. mei and nat are so big now. they've become young ladies now. d is 10 now and is talkin' up a storm. my cousin austin hasn't changed a bit. he's still the joker that i grew up with. my sis, ross and da baby came for dinner too. aunt minnie, glen and john dropped by to say hi but didn't stay long. can't believe lauren is gonna skip high school and go straight to college.
we all ate dinner outside overlookin' the city landscape. uncle lyle lit up all the tiki torches and played hawaiian music. while the kids did karaoke, the adults were just chillin' outside and enjoyin' some nice cubans. was supposed to meet up with jamie but she never got back to me '_' it kinda worked out for the best cuz i got to spend more time with my cousins. 
the next mornin', got to drive the h2. well...more like back it up so that i could take a pic with it. 
we dropped aunt minnie's to say hi. got to talk to glen a bit bout IT stuff. with the way things are lookin' now, might actually have to use it. after that, we went to go pick up my mom's friend and then we drove home. had lunch just after the grapevine @ ihop and got home @ around 1800.
da bay, pt.3
since cal and brandon had to go to vegas for a shoe convention, this was the last night to kick with them. so we gathered up da troops, even brian (and his new '05 TL) and russ came out and we headed to thallassa again for some drinks. somehow shots started to appear and things got a little fuzzy once again. but it was koo havin' all da homies there. we headed over to top dog and i got a hot link and chicken anduille. headed to cal and brandon's store. still under construction but it was nice to finally get a hands on visual. as were walkin' back, ray decided to get another hot link. couldn't believe it!?! 
brian's navi
the next day, went to get some vietnamese sandwiches @ ba le with brian, ben and thuy. came back to brian's and chilled. played some pool with ben. he beat me the first 2 games but when i used the light saber cue, i went on a phat winnin' streak. beat him 2x, scratched out the next game against russ but then won 3 in a row. the cue really makes a difference. 
after that, we all went out to eat @ the b st. restaurant. every dish was $5 and we got tons of food. it was a nice final farewell dinner with the homies and parents. 
headed over to eric's afterwards. he's got a nice house in this new little development. chilled there for a bit and then went over to tony's. tri came thru with beers and we played xbox and kicked it til like 0330. 
came back home and started to pack. put on the star wars montage video. pretty much packed all the gifts into my suitcase and clothes into a duffle bag. woke up, packed the car and then headed to the airport but right as we were about to get onto da 101, i didn't have my cell phone with me, so we had to go all da way back home to get it. still got to the airport with plenty of time. 
just want to thank all da fam and friends that took the time to kick it. not sure when i'm gonna be back next...
aite then,
kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
木曜日, 9月 01, 2005.
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