Drumming

I've played guitar and bass in bands for almost 30 years, and prior to a few years ago I've never played drums. A few years ago I picked up an electric drum set so that I could have band practices at my house, but I never learned how to play. Over the last few months, I've been practicing, and I'm still pretty amateur, but I'm slowly learning.

The first half of the above video is a song I'm playing called "Bittersweet" by a band called Fuel. My old band Giant Wheel Throw used to cover this song, and I know it well on guitar. The second half of the video is me just trying out some fills, very sloppily. Hopefully I will get these fills down and learn some new ones.

Final game

Today my U10 boys team played our final game. We played one of the toughest teams in our league and won 3 to 0. Early on in the season we started out rough, having been down 1 win and 4 losses by mid season, but we managed to pull it out in the end to finish off the season 4 wins and 5 losses, having only lost one game in the second half of the season.

Me watching the game

The boys played really hard today and the way the team jelled during the last few games and practices was a stark contrast to the very Bad News Bears quality that we started out with.

My son dribbling the ball

I'm not going to say that the kids were the easiest to work with, but they all had such great personalities and I will miss them a lot. I already got one request to "be on your team again next season", so that was flattering. The parents were simply outstanding and so full of support, and as a coach they were the best parents I could have hoped for.

The kids all gave me a "Gatorade moment", but instead of dumping a big cooler on me, they filled up their water shooters with cold water and blasted me (thanks, whoever put those in the goodie bags!!) But it was all in good fun, and actually felt nice as it was really warm today.

I got a nice goodie basket from the team, along with a framed team picture and a $50 Sports Authority gift card. Rawk!!

California Screamin

Last October we went to Disney's California Adventure Park, and they have a great rollercoaster called California Screamin'. What a great coaster - the loop de loop is early on in the ride but it gets your adrenaline going so that you're pumped up for the drops and turns. For this video I sat next to a girl who showed why the ride is called California Screamin. I'm glad I managed to hold onto the camera!!

White Elephant Sale score

We had a white elephant and bake sale at work today. I scored a pair of nice melamine bowls, and some kalamansee, which is a small lime that is used in the filipino dish called pancit (which, incidentally, I'm making for the soccer pot luck this weekend).

Popo's Chinese New Year Feast

This post is for my brother who lives in L.A. and couldn't be here for Chinese New Year.

My mom makes a wonderful spread for Chinese New Year and has the whole family over. Mom works so hard to make these meals and plate them nicely, so I had snap some pics!

Fishcake and spinach stuffed eggs
Cold plate with roast meats:

Char siu ribs:
Steamed fish with ginger and scallions:
Kau yuk with buns
E-mein with shiitake and green beans
Jai (monk's food):

Peanut butter cookies

I made peanut butter cookies from scratch for the bake sale. Yum!