Pizza n Basketball

Hanging out with Carlos & Kev tonight after work at B.J. Restaurant & Brewery in Brea. We watched two awesome games:


Texas beating W. Virginia with a buzzer-beater at .8 seconds.

The UCLA Bruins were behind nearly the entire game against Gonzaga, came back to beat them in the closing minutes 73 to 71 .



Oh, the pizza was good too!



-DB-

da Annual physical

Well, it was that time of the year again for me, the annual physical. Fun fun fun ... getting poked, prodded, and other things that I won't write here (needless to say no foreplay was involved for the PSA portion). Yep, boys ... once you hit 30 it's all down hill from there!



I have to say to that atleast after I made it into the examining room, things moved fairly quickly.

I made it back to the office just before lunchtime, breaking my pre-exam fast with a large combo bowl from Yoshinoya's Beef Bowl, a home made cookie, and bowl of Oxtail soup!

Epic Church retreat (March 24-26th)

I guess because I'm a control freak, I looked up all this info for this weekend's retreat. I think I'm riding up with my roomie, Mister Gamera-San since we both took the day off.

Here are some things from the Alpine Camp website:

http://www.alpine-cc.org/index.shtml


Directions to Alpine
From the 10 Fwy., go north on I-215 towards San Bernardino.
Bear right at "Mt. Resorts" onto Hwy. 30, east.
Exit at Waterman Ave. (Hwy. 18) and turn left (north) go up the mountain.
Proceed on Hwy. 18 towards Lake Arrowhead.
Continue 1/2 mile past the town of Rim Forest.
Turn left onto Daley Cyn. Rd. at the "Blue Jay" turnoff sign.
Turn left onto Hwy. 189 at the stop sign.
Turn right onto Grass Valley Rd. at the Shell Station
Bear left at the immediate intersection.
Turn left onto Club House Dr. (3rd left).
Registration is in the Redwood Lodge, the red building which is the second building on the left. Parking is available on both sides of the street.

Road and Weather Conditions
Click for Up-to-the-minute road conditions
or call CAL-TRANS at 1-800-427-7623.
Check Highways 18 and 189.

---------------

Packing List
Program Camps
Alpine Conference Center is located at an elevation of 5300 feet in the mountains. The weather is often subject to change. It is important to come prepared with the right clothing and items for all types of weather.

To aide in a quality experience, the following items are recommended.

Extras (if desired)Camera and FilmMoney for Gift & Snack Shop (Suggested amounts will vary on age of camper and season.)

Basic Packing ListBible, pencil, pen, notebookFlashlightDuffle bag, suitcase or backpackSleeping bag or bedding for a single bedPillowPajamas or sleeping clothesSocks & UnderwearShort sleeved shirtsShorts (optional)Long pants or jeansSweatshirt or Long Sleeve shirt or light jacketTennis shoes or Hiking Shoes (you may want to bring 2 pairs of shoes)Toiletry Items (Soap, Towel, Washcloth, Toothbrush, Toothpaste, etc.)An excited, fun-loving, can’t-wait-for-camp attitude

Summer Camp extras:
Lip protection & sun blockBeach towelSwimsuit (Please pack a modest one piece swimsuit.)

Winter Camp extras:
Waterproof Warm JacketLong underwearGloves or MittensWarm socks and extra pairsWarm bootsScarf or neck gatorHat (stocking or beanie)

Leave at Home:
Radios, “Walk mans,” disk players, etc.Pocket knives or other cutting tools“Gameboys,” or other electronic gamesSilly stringShaving creamBalloons

New "Lost" Episode tonight

After two weeks we finally get a new episode. I think tonight centers around the Korean woman, Sun. The trailer / teaser was something about a prego test that she wanted from Sawyer.


Next week, according to TV Guide is Locke's backstory again and something that will happen in "The Hatch".

Thanks Miss Veggie for the reminder.

-DB-

Flying is for da birds!

Just got back to LA ... coming back was a lot harder than flying back to Mississippi.



Breakfast was a greasy sauage n egg biscuit and some Propel water blend. It was pretty stormy on the runway.


I still give props to the Continental Airlines. Even when the weather was screwing up the flight schedule, they still came thru and got me back to LA! My flight left an hour late from Memphis so by the time I got to Houston, my connecting flight had already taken off. Good thing I went over to Customer Service as soon as possible. I was able to take the very next flight on to LAX. (Side note ... NWA sucks, their segment of my trip was pretty bad!).

Thanks Homer for giving me a ride to the Memphis airport this morning. 5am is not my favorite time of the day either. I'm glad you made it home thru the rainstorms.



The onboard movie coming back to LA was "Pride and Prejudice" with Keira Knightly! I was too cheap and sleepy to spring for the five bucks for the headsets. I just like watching Keira ...




Thanks Carey for the ride home! I hope you and your family liked "The Best Candy in TEXAS" ... I should have sprung for the "Armadillo Dropping" pralines (ha ha, actually I got a box of them a few years ago, yum!).




Back in LA with coffee in hand.

Gotta make a quick run for dinner stuff ... and catch "24" tonight!

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and prayers, my Mom is improving!

-DB-

Fishing n Golfing in da Delta

While I was home and in between the rain and visiting with my mom at the hospital, I got chance to go fishing and swing the golf club alittle bit. My brother found a set of discarded clubs and bag with a real wood driver and #3 wood and a set of Irons that I need to get.


Went out to the farm Friday with the Clan, the bass and crappies (White Perch) weren't biting so we went for the smaller breams (Sunfish) ... caught about 15 of them. My bro' fried them up last night, yum!

I spent most of the day sitting with my mom. I was able to get away for an hour or so to try out the "new" clubs! I went back out to the farm in the rain solo with some tees, and golf balls and started SMACKING balls all around the levee. Balls landed in the middle of the cotton field, in the ponds, and in some old duck pens. I ended cracking the #3 wood but did really well with the #3 Iron.



Well, gotta go eat dinner, visit with Mom and pack up for my flight back to LA tomorrow.

-DB-

Back Home in the Delta

I'm back in Mississippi this weekend. My flight was surprising good and mostly trouble free. I've never used Continential Airlines before but I found their staff to be very friendly, helpful and professional. Also, I found Houston's George Bush Airport to be huge compared to LAX (okay okay, Texas Sized, Peylin) but well designed especially with the connecting Tramways between terminals. I was also surprised to find that Continential Airlines still served meals inflight.



Thanks again to Carey for giving me a ride so early to LAX on Friday (5:00am) , I got to LAX in about 20 minutes or so and for a change; check in and TSA security was a breeze comparied to my previously flight in December.



Airport cafes/fast food places are still are joke and $$$. At LAX, I had a sit down breakfast at Ruby's Dinette for a breakfast burrito. I figured the BB would be loaded with everything including meat since the menu listed it at $7.99, then the waitress asked me if I wanted "BACON" with my burrito for an extra 1.19 or was that 1.99? I almost left, but I settled for my "MEATLESS" burrito and a moment of preflight reflection. Actually, the burrito was pretty good and I guess even appropriate if I was Catholic and was observing Lent on Friday (this was Thursday).


Flight to Houston was on time and smooth. Imagine my surprise when I got served a 2nd breakfast during cabin service. I was feeling like a "Hobbit" with my 2nd breakfast. The on board movie (another surprise) was "Chicken Little" which I chose not to watch nor purchase the keeper headsets for $5.00.



Got into Houston Bush Airport alittle earlier and had time to shop for Rockets (NBA) / Texans (NFL) sport calendars. Unfortunately, none of the airport shops had these local team calendars in stock. Settled for a preflight lunch since it was now 1pm CST (11am back in LA). Got ripped off at the local BBQ place for $9.00 plate of chopped BBQ, baked beans, and green beans.



Flight to Memphis was delayed for about 1/2 hour but once we were in the air, we got there in about an hour and 10 minutes or so.

Met my youngest brother for the two hour drive down to Greenwood. This was his 2nd round trip to the Memphis airport that day. He had to drop off our Uncle Mike from LA at 7am that morning and then run home for a job interview and then come back up to get me (125 miles each way). On the way home, I got a quick update on Mom's health situation and what a great job my bro' did to save Mom's life when minutes counted. I'm not so sure I would have had the same sense of presences to act the same way as he did. Homer, you're awesome!

Got back to Greenwood at 7:00 pm, saw the rest of the family at the restaurant for dinner. Went to the hospital to see Mom. She seem better than when I spoke to her a few days earlier.



Finally got to bed at 11:30 pm local time (9:30 LA time).

A very long day!

-DB-

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Happy St. Patty's to all you IRISHMEN (and IRISHWOMEN) out there!

-DB-

Akinoya Shabu-Shabu

Well, the losers of the mini bowling tourney last Friday had to buy lunch for the winning team ... we went to Akinoya's Shabu-Shabu in Cerritos to settle up. It was good!

- DB -

Flying back to Mississippi

Due to a family emergency, I'll be flying back to be with my folk in Mississippi for a few days. I should be back in LA on Monday, March 20th. For those of you whom I've already shared with on this, please continue to keep my family and I in prayer. Your comments are copied over to my Gmail addy.

Thanks,

-DB-

Sam Chu Lin - LA Times March 9 2005

From the Los Angeles Times
OBITUARIES
Sam Chu Lin, 67; Asian American Broadcast Pioneer Joined CBS News in 1970s, Worked for KTTV in L.A.
By Valerie J. Nelson
Times Staff Writer

March 9, 2006

Sam Chu Lin, who became one of the first Asian American newsmen to go to work for a major network when he joined CBS in the 1970s, has died. He was 67.

Chu Lin spent the last decade as a reporter for KTTV-TV Channel 11. He became ill Sunday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank after flying in from Phoenix and was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, said his son, Mark Chu Lin. The cause of death was still unknown.

As a child growing up in Greenville, Miss., Chu Lin listened to radio reports from around the world and resolved to be a witness to history. In the segregated South of the late 1950s, the high school student started out by reading the news at a local AM radio station when he couldn't even get a haircut in a white-owned barbershop.

With his deep, commanding voice he eventually covered many of the major stories of his time. He announced the fall of Saigon in 1975 from the CBS News desk in New York, and he was in Beijing for the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising.

He also made a point of filtering the issues of the day "through the lens of the Asian American experience," said Gwen Muranaka, an editor at the Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese American newspaper for which Chu Lin regularly wrote.

"It's a chance to use your roots for a positive purpose," Chu Lin once said.

His syndicated TV documentary, "Chu Lin Is an Old American Name," which told the story of the Chinese American experience through one family's eyes, won a National Headliner Award from the Press Club of Atlantic City, N.J. Chu Lin also helped persuade ABC's "Nightline" to produce a program in 1999 called "Asian American — When Your Neighbor Looks Like the Enemy."

"He was a reporter who went the extra 10 miles to make sure people knew who their Asian neighbors were," Stewart Kwoh, executive director and president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, said in a statement.

Chu Lin came to California as a reporter in the 1960s and worked for KTLA-TV Channel 5 and KFWB-AM (980) radio in Los Angeles and KRON-TV in the Bay Area.

Since 1995, he had commuted from his home in Sunnyvale, Calif., to work for KTTV-TV.

He wrote on Asian American affairs for AsianWeek and the San Francisco Examiner, among other publications, and contributed to the nationally broadcast radio program "Pacific Time," produced by the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco.

The Mississippi-born Chu Lin had degrees in journalism and communications from Michigan State University.

"His death really comes as a shock," Muranaka said. "Sam covered the Asian American community in a way no one else did."

His last name went back only two generations and was the result of a mistake. When his grandfather came to the United States, immigration authorities combined his given and last names, creating the Chu Lin family.

In addition to his son, Mark, Chu Lin is survived by his wife, Judy, and another son, Christopher.

Funeral services are pending.

Daphine's for lunch after service

Some of us got together with church friends (returning from Ireland - Vanessa & Alan and Junko visiting from Japan) for Greek food.

Salmon Collars, Boba Loca & 5 hours of "24"

Saturday was interesting, Nancy came by to catch up and hang out. My roomie, Mr. Gamera made smoked Salmon Collars and rice for us. After dinner, we went down the street for some Boba Loca and then watched five straight episodes of Season Five "24" in a row. Nance, you're a TV watching Fiend!!

-DB-