yosemite - day 2

monday we met up with my cousin and friends for brunch at the posh ahwahnee hotel, which has a gorgeous dining room that allows for giant swaths of light to illuminate the space. plus, they have their own beer - ahwahnee amber - by the mammoth brewing company!




caroline and friends headed back to los angeles, so we soldiered on to check out lower yosemite falls, which is an easy 0.5 mile jaunt to the base of the falls. at this time of year, the water is so powerful that everybody within a stone's throw got wet.




from the falls, we jumped back into our car and headed south to wawona to check out the mariposa grove of giant sequoias. we only had just over an hour because the shuttles stop running at 6pm, so we raced thru the grove to check out as much as we could. two of the main attractions are the grizzly giant (the oldest tree at approximately 1900-2400 years old) and the tunnel tree - the only living tree with a tunnel in it.




we headed back to our cabin to make dinner, consume the last of our alcohol/groceries and get a good night's sleep, as we planned to depart the next morning at 5am for our ascent of half dome...

yosemite - day 1

cruised up to yosemite from los angeles for the first time on sunday, july 3 by way of the 5N, 99N and 41N. stopped for breakfast in none other than jeb's in sonora, CA (see left) and even drove thru selma, CA, the raisin capital of the world and home of sun-maid. who knew?


outside of a tour bus breaking down on the 41N, the drive was thankfully uneventful. we stopped in oakhurst - the last city before entering the park - to fill up on gas and groceries before hitting the south entrance of the park. my cousin arrived the day before (saturday) and it took her 30 minutes just to enter, and 2 full hours to get to the valley floor. our spacious 3-bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin was located at yosemite west, just north of wawona and in a secluded enclave about 15 miles from the valley floor. we arrived just before 4pm to unload the car, then headed up to glacier point to sneak in a hike and to catch sunset:




just south of glacier point, we did a 1.1 mile jaunt to sentinel dome to check out the amazing view, then proceeded to glacier point for the real stunner: a 360 degree live, panoramic postcard of yosemite - including half dome, el capitan, yosemite falls, etc. - in all its beauty.




we rushed back to the cabin to celebrate independence day weekend with none other than sausages, potato salad, baked beans, vodka and beer (anderson valley summer solstice and lost coast tangerine wheat, mind you). FYI cell service and wifi were non-existent at yosemite west, so it made plans to arrange brunch the next morning with my cousin quite difficult. ended up having to use my credit card with the landline just to leave a message, but all was good...

new outfit

cropped pants today.


recognize.

monday musings

finally got back into some parkour training this past weekend after having slightly adjusted our training regimen to prepare for the mud run. i forgot just how sore one can be, so you'll have to forgive my scuffling around these next few days, yowzers. though i temporarily lost some of my strength and timing, i made up for it on the running end of things, as i never dreamed i could average a 7-minute per mile pace over 4+ miles. i never considered myself to be a runner, but finishing the mud run strong definitely gave me hope. i think my next challenge needs to be of the half marathon variety...

i was invited to the world premiere of tom hanks' LARRY CROWNE at the mann chinese tonight, but sadly had to pass up the opportunity because i can barely move haha...

lastly, getting ready for our first attempt at half dome, so i've been busy helping heidi piece together the right things to bring - being her first time at such a strenuous day hike. sadly nobody in our group has a water purifier, so it looks like i'll be forced to lug a few extra water bottles, since my camelbak only holds 3 liters. weather will be of chief concern, since temps are threatening to be in the 90s...

ASYMCA mud run - aftermath

and... saturday's race was a success! even though vim and i were the last to start in the individual race category (more on that later), we made up enough time to finish in the neighborhood of an hour and 20 minutes. not bad for our first time out and definitely a benchmark to surpass in the future...

the race was at 9am and though instructions advised us to arrive at 6am, we left LA around 5:45am and arrived at the camp pendleton exit at 7:10am - only to see a stonewall procession of cars doing the same. it took us nearly 35 minutes to get off the freeway, then it was another 8 miles to the parking lot.



from there, we hoofed it to the starting area, figured out we were at the starting gate for teams only, then made a mad dash to the start line for individuals where we were the last to shove off. about a 1/2 mile in, we were greeted by marines blasting water with a fire hose, so our indoctrination was underway...

the first few miles were spent maneuvering around fellow contestants, all the while going uphill. here's where our training up paseo miramar came in handy - we practiced on inclines leading up to the race - only ours were much steeper in practice. at about the halfway mark, the course snaked its way downhill and we got to play in river crossings, mud walls and a reservoir crossing totalling about 5 feet high.

at about the 5.5 mile marker is where slippery hill is located - a long, treacherous hill with lousy footing and marines up top spraying the ground and you silly. i sprinted up this with whatever juice i had left, then made a mad dash into the long 30-foot mud pit, before finally crossing the finish line on fumes. celebratory margaritas were consumed minutes later, followed by a trip to pizza port carlsbad to revel in our craziness...

2011 EYBL session #3 - los angeles

saturday marked the start of session #3 of nike's EYBL (elite youth basketball league) regular season, and this time around kyle and i went in armed. having received media credentials from scout.com's the devil's den, we went to work covering the event on behalf of the duke blue devils, ranging from player evaluation to interviews with some of duke's recent commits (rasheed sulaimon) and top targets (alex poythress). head here for all the inside scoop:

http://duke.scout.com/

in the meantime, some captures from yesterday's action. bottom right is UNC commit PG marcus paige:

new camera!

been keepin the nose to the grindstone, so i didn't realize it had been that long between blog entries! apologies.

moving on - and thanks to my man obama for giving us taxpayers a break - my refund check, which was originally supposed to be $71, arrived to the tune of $471.

booyah!

instead of being practical and setting it aside to pay bills, i made the executive decision to pick up a new camera. so voila! here's the olympus PEN E-PL1, which is a 12.3 megapixel interchangeable lens camera in the micro four-thirds format. it's a step up from the point & shoots but without the bulk of a DSLR, so call it the best of both worlds...


and here are the first photos i took in my backyard earlier today:

2011 hollywood beer pong tournament

this past weekend my co-workers and i took our wares to capitol city sports bar & grill for the 2011 hollywood beer pong tourney. it was my first time taking part - only my 2nd time playing beer pong for that matter - and it was a doozy, as 128 teams in eight different brackets duked it out to see who would be the crème de la crème of the entertainment industry.




we entered two teams of two - darek/erica and maura/i - and we managed to acquit ourselves quite nicely. darek/erica advanced to the 2nd round before bowing out, whereas maura & i took down paradigm and CAA before meeting our maker in the 3rd round.




http://www.hollywoodbeerpong.com/

happy mother's day!

a timely ode to my one and only mom
necessary on my part and long overdue
essentially but a laundry list of items
on how i can finally say thank you

for not buying more cocoa pebbles when i was a tyke
in a strange way teaching me the value of a dollar
yet affording the best education a kid could have
at all boys schools! turning me into a scholar

for my musical appreciation and relative pitch
all a result from the privelege of playing cello
to counterbalancing dad's stern right hand
by continuing to remain calm and mellow

saturdays would find us making kimchee in a tub
or maybe washing and picking bean sprouts
followed by countless nervous sunday mornings
spending time with montana, marino & fouts

if i was wrong or ever got into trouble
you were there to help, always at the ready
with a big hug and non-judgmental eyes
not to mention the best kalbi jim & spaghetti

so enjoy today with all your might
a day off of which you deserve so clearly
and please know that then, now and forever more
your son loves you very dearly.

kauai - day 5

wednesday in kauai was much more relaxed, as we had brunch in kapa'a at ono family restaurant and feasted on good local food. more importantly, there's a shop next door that rents cruiser bikes - 2 bikes for 2 hours for $10 total! - that enabled us to go up and down the new coastal path, otherwise known as ke ala hele makalae.

it's a newly constructed $30 million bike path along the coconut coast that offers unparalleled, stunning views just a few feet away from the shore:

we settled on having dinner at roy's in poipu, as i wanted to try the food on chef yamaguchi's homeland after singing the praises of the seriously addictive butterfish here in socal. we had a few minutes to spare, so here's a peek at the gorgeous poipu bay golf course.

and here's spouting horn park, where the poipu surf channels into a natural lava tube and sprays a huge spout of water upwards during large swells.