Happy B-Day Joe

Joe Chincuanco Today is Joe Chincuanco's birthday - my buddy from CSUSM senior project, and later a co-worker at TechFlow. Unfortunately, I could not make his celebration tonight, but I don't think he'll miss me much since 40" people are showing "popular guy". Anyway, Feliz Cumpleaños, Señor Huevos Viejos. "Thanks to Paul for the baby picture"

I'm still TIRED "Dancing, Partying, etc."!!!

Laetitia, Mary Murphy, Porfirio
The party at Champion Ballroom was pretty cool this last Saturday "photos". There show was divided up into 3 acts, and there were video presentations and general dancing in-between. One video clip showed Laetitia and me at our first ballroom competition. We hopefully made up for that clip by performing our Viennese in the 3rd act. Anyway, I'm still tired, between video taping the event, the time spent fixing up our Viennese, and the late nights. Now we've got to get focused on this weekend's Emerald Ball.

Lots of Dancing Coming Up

Tonight we have two dance lessons. Our first one will be with Toni Redpath, finishing up our Viennese remix, and then onto Michael Mead, where we will continue our technique path. Tomorrow night is Champion Ballroom's 15th anniversary party, where there will be a lot of great shows. John Selby and his new partner Klair are going to debut, and we'll get to see the Champion staples like Philip/Olga, Tom/Evelyn, Mary and staff. We're going to give our Viennese a trial run in the last set before an audience. Following us, Hunter and Maria Johnson will be dancing, and at the end of the night, Toni and Michael are Waltzing! This should be exciting, and great preparation for Emerald Ball next weekend in LA.

Too Big? Too Bad!

Can you believe with all the high gas prices and packed parking lots, people seem to think it's American to drive beasts that swallow up parking spaces, roadways, and middle-east oil? As I've already mentioned on PorfLand, I walk to work quite a bit, and I realize that not a lot of people can, but if you have to drive to work, do you really need to drive something that we all end up paying for in the end? We pay by giving up parking spaces, giving up the chance to turn right when you're in the right lane, give up our independence just a little more because you need more fuel, oh and what about those emissions... I think I've said all I can say for now, but makes you kinda go hmmmmmm, eh?

A Trip to the Old Stomping Ground

Santa moved from Carpinteria to Oxnard On Saturday, Laetitia and I took a drive up the coast, stopping in the LA garment district, where she got a good deal on some crystal jewelry. Up in Santa Barbara, we visited with Brian and Manija, and that evening we did a performance for Ken and Miye Ota's UCSB cotillion ballroom dance. Brian and I got to catch up some more later at the Hollipat, where we stayed over, and on Sunday, Laetitia and I stopped at Disneyland again, to get on some of the rides we missed last time, like Pirates and the Tea Cups. Anyway, I'm really tired from all the driving, but I'm glad we got to visit with some friends, take some pictures, and practice our dance routines for the upcoming Emerald Ball.

Don't Run Over the Guy Walking

I've been walking to work everyday this week, well, except the day Paul picked me up, but walking has been a good way of waking me up and getting used to the daylight savings time switch. Today was perfect, since it was foggy and a little cold, so once I got going, the temperature was just right, so I didn't get to work all sweaty. I crank up the iPod, but have to be careful at the intersections, because people are pretty clueless when it comes to being aware of pedestrians. I'm pretty lucky to live this close to work, and I really notice this when I walk over the freeway overpass and see the cars all stacked up. Also, It also never hurts giving Señor Bolero a rest.

Spring Cleaning, Kind of... Dusted off the VHS

I spent some time this weekend converting some VHS to DVD, since the tapes are supposed to disintegrate over time, and some of the tapes I have are pushing 15 years. As I get around to it, I may post some of the highlights from my personal collection. For now, you can enjoy my high school wrestling clip, should you wish to see me in a very tight outfit.

Rockin' My New Jeans

This last weekend, Laetitia bought me some new jeans, since all of my old ones have been hanging on me since this past Summer, when I ended 15 lbs lighter after our 6 month diet and preparing for the Ballroom Nationals. I was reluctant getting any new clothes sooner, just in case there was any rebound after I welcomed carbs back into my diet, but the weight has stayed off - in fact, I dropped 5 more lbs in the Fall. We're still dancing about every day, and taking our private lessons every week, and we split about every meal we get at restaurants, because the portions they give patrons are HUGE! That doesn't mean I have cut cookies completely out of my diet "those are my kryptonite".

Señor Bolero fue al Médico

Señor Bolero, Porfirio's Ford Escort You may have already seen him, but in case you have not been formally introduced, my 1986 Ford Escort "L" is named Señor Bolero. For some time now, the brakes have been a little less responsive than I would like, and I don't want anyone to get the impression that Señor Bolero is unsafe, so I took him to Evan's Tires, for a brake service.
Señor Bolero never disappoints us when he has a trip to the "doctor", and this time he needed a master cylinder, two front rotors, and a drum cleaning. We use Señor Bolero as our daily driver to the ballroom, so we wanted to make sure we were in the best of hands, even though I wonder why I am putting any money into a car that is going to roll 200,000 very soon.

Never too old for Disneyland, huh?

Since my parents couldn't make it down to San Diego this weekend, we changed our plans. Laetitia had to go to LA to get some fabric to make a new ballgown anyway. Honestly, going to the fabric district in LA is not my favorite thing, but the weather was great, so it was nice way to get out of the house.
Laetitia on Big Thunder Mountain On the way back, we decided to make good on the annual passes we purchased for New Year's and had some fun at Disneyland. I posted some photos including pictures taken while Big Thunder Mountain was in motion... no hands makes it funner, right?
Anyway, I guess it's back to work tomorrow, but at least we broke the routine a bit.

Family Fun Was Cancelled

Today, Mom and Dad were supposed to be in Del Mar for the weekend because the Good Guys Car Club is having its annual national classics and hot rod show at the fairgrounds. Well, on their drive south last night, I guess the electrical started acting up on their 1934 Ford Cabriolet and they had no rear tail lights. They were only about an hour into their drive, and were stopped in Santa Maria where they were meeting up with some friends. Looks like they can't fix it, and decided it was too much trouble to come the rest of the way sad.
I guess I'll have to plan a trip up that way again soon, since I the last two times I have seen them were Thanksgiving and then briefly on Dad's birthday in February.