Eagle Powers

Dumbarton Pier - Sat. 6/27

2009-06-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

First time at the pier with a buddy of mine. He's never fished the bay before so based on someone's previous post I thought we'd go for some sharks and rays. To my surprise, I hooked up on a good sized striper at the start of the low tide. Squid was the bait. Measured out at about 30 in.

And also got into a leapord shark. Saw several sturgies breaching early morning. My buddy hooked into something big too but it cut his line... probably another shark.

DJ Funktual's Top 10 Samples in Hip Hop History Parts 1 and 2

2009-05-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

We know hip hop artists sample lots of different songs, older songs, funk songs, r&b, soul songs. This guy breaks it down for you:

Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill - SD

2009-05-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Can someone in SD check this out? Ei and I watched this on 3D last night (that's Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives for the uninitiated) and it looks awesome. Fresh seafood and that's all they do. Maybe Chris can go and check it out since he is Mr. Yelp Elite.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-water-seafood-market-and-grill-san-diego

New MacBook Pro 15"

2009-04-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

At work, my PC refresh date came up. I chose the Mac option. I already have a MacBook Pro 17" and I have been impressed with it, even though I run Vista on it most of the time (I need Windows for work apps).

So, when the Mac refresh option came up I decided that the new uni-body casing of the new MacBooks would be a good choice. I am happy so far. The new keyboard is easier to mash on with my big fingers. And the new single unit trackpad/clicker is a welcome change. I also like the black monitor bezel. Now the question is, do I install Vista in Bootcamp or not?

Stephanie our pet Pug Passed Away Today

2009-03-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today is a very sad day. Stephanie our Pug is with her sister DJ now in heaven (Stephy and DJ were sisters from the same litter and I bought them as pets in 1996. DJ passed away 5 years ago). We will miss Stephy so much. She has been our loyal friend and our baby for 13 years. We will always remember her.

The other night she came in from outside and she stumbled and laid down on the carpet. She was breathing hard. I think she may have had a heart attack. Over the next day she seemed ok, she ate some of her food and rested. Last night she was breathing hard again. She laid down on the bed with me with her head on my leg. Her breathing calmed down a bit. When I woke up it was quiet and I found her in the bathroom.

This morning I took her to the Humane Society. Eileen and I decided we would not do a formal burial in a Pet Cemetery like we did with DJ, but we know that Stephy knows we love her the same. She gave us so much joy and memories and we will never forget.

In Loving Memory - Stephanie Paule 1996 - 2009

Sturgeon At Last!

2009-03-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

After many trips on the water in search of Sturgeon, the hard work finally paid off. Mark and Dad lost their Sturgeon Virginity. Check out Mark's post on FishSniffer for the details. Congrats Mark and Dad!

http://www.fishsniffer.com/cgi-bin/forumsyabb/YaBB.pl?num=1236623037

I have a few songs for this post...

"At Last... my Sturgeon has come along..."

"Finally... it's happened to me... a Sturgeon's right in front my face and I just can't hide it..."

"Like a Sturgeon... caught for the very first time... "

Super Bowl Weekend on the Delta

2009-02-02T17:58:00.001-08:00

Mark, JR and I went out for Sturgeon again this past weekend. We left Saturday night got to the launch around 11 PM. As we were cruising in the dark to where we wanted to start fishing, we ran aground in 1.5 ft. of water. It was low tide and we got too close to an island. We tried getting out but we were stuck. We waited for about an hour and a half and the tide started to come up. We used the anchor to pull us to deeper water and we were out.

We continued out to PG&E, fished for an hour or two for nothing. Then, we headed out to Honker Bay where we watched the sun come up. There we had no luck with keeper sturgeon only a couple of shakers that JR pulled up. Mark did manage to get a keeper striper though. Next, we originally planned to call it a day and watch the Super Bowl but we said "da ell wid dat". We wanted to fish. We tried Chain Island and again, no luck except a bunch of flounders and I think JR had another shaker sturgeon there too.

Finally before we called it a day we tried one more spot in Broad Slough and there JR pulled in a keeper striper and Mark, two big ones - ~26" and the other maybe 28".

Here are the pics:

JR's shaker Sturgy

Marvin's shaker Sturgy

JR with another shaker

A big ship that came close to us as we were anchored at Chain Island

Mark's 26 incher burly hook in da lipsch

Mark and the 26 incher

Mark wrapped up the day with this hog. This is his Ben Affleck pose. Not the real Ben Affleck. Look at the picture below. It's a guy on Fish Sniffer who catches lots of big Stripers on topwater lures who looks like Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck's fish is bigger... hehe.

Dad's Los Vaqueros Monster Striper

2009-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

This is the monster striped bass that Dad pulled out of Los Vaqueros last week. He and his buddy took out a rental boat and he was trolling a hair raiser. He played it for a half an hour before landing it to the boat. They had no net. I don't know the length but I think he said it was a 17 lb'er.

Dad's Big Clifton Court Striper

2009-02-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic from Dad's camera. This is his 31 inch striped bass he caught at Clifton Court Forebay.

Max got a haircut

2009-01-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

And afterwards he wanted a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries... I know not health food, but it's what his grampa feeds him for lunch ;-)

First (almost keeper) Sturgeon

2009-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

Mark and I decided to do an overnight fishing trip on the boat. The last time we were out fishing, we met a guy who was going out for sturgeon as we were leaving. He told us he caught a 46" sturgeon the night before. He said night is a good time to go.

So we packed up lots of clothing, sleeping bags, food. Mark brought his propane latern and stove. We launched around 2 or 3 PM on a Saturday out of Antioch. We were armed with Grass and Ghost shrimp.

First we tried out by the Big Cut in Suisun bay but no luck except for a croaker hook in a berry (inside joke). After night fall we moved around and settled on anchoring out by Honker light 27. Around midnight just after the coffee was made, I get a jingle on my Ugly Stik Tiger rod. I go to check it and I feel some tapping so I set the hook. I started reeling in and it didn't feel too heavy. I think I told Mark that it might be a shaker or trash fish. But as it started getting close to the boat it made a run back down. At that point, I knew it was something sizeable.

It made another run towards the boat. I was worried as it was peeling line that I might get spooled or break off. The line I had on was maybe 25 lb. test mono. Luckily it held on and as the fish got closer I told Mark to get the net. He woke up JR to help. Then Mark said "Whoa! There it is!" The fish surfaced. It looked like it might be a keeper. Mark tried to net it and it freaked out and went back down. I reeled it back and it was finally netted. Hi fives!

We got the dino in the boat and Mark measured it out... only 40". The slot is 46" minimum and 66" maximum. We took pics and released her back in. The adrenaline was pumping and we were definitely hooked.

After that, Mark managed to hook into his first ever delta sturgeon, a small shaker. He pulled up 3 more shakers as the night went on. We also landed some Starry flounders.

In the morning we moved to PG&E for lots of shaker stripers, one shaker sturgeon and two keeper stripers.

The night pics aren't that good since they were taken with a cell phone camera but here they are. All in all, it was a good first time overnighter trip... cold but fun.

ISE Show

2009-01-23T13:26:00.001-08:00

The International Sportsman's Expo came to town early January in San Mateo. I had never been to the show before so I decided to go with Ei to check it out. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but it was cool to check out the boats and look for deals on fishing gear. Fisherman's warehouse was selling old rods 50 cents a foot. I picked up a ten footer and a seven. Ten foot rod for 5 bucks, can't beat that. I also grabbed two Daiwa spinning reels - two for $25.

They also had a tank full of Largemouth Bass, Catfish, Stripers and baitfish for a demo. Here are some pics of the tank:

Launching out of Pittsburg

2009-01-23T13:23:00.000-08:00

No not where the Steelers play. Pittsburg, California.

This was our first time launching out of McAvoy's in Pittsburg. It was me, Mark, Dad and JR. It was a slow day of fishing but JR landed this keeper before sunset.

Dad's Fishing Buddies

2009-01-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last year, Dad invited a couple of his buddies out on the boat to fish for stripers in the Delta. On one trip we went out with the homeboy Joe. Another trip on Dec. 30 we went out with the homeboy Chris. Dad met these guys fishing at Clifton Court Forebay and thought they might get a kick out of trying for stripers from the boat.

During the trip with Chris, I managed to catch this 23" Striper out by Honker Bay on a fast incoming tide.

Quarry Lakes

2009-01-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

Quarry Lakes is a spot close to where I live, about a 20 minute drive. The lake is stocked weekly with Mt. Lassen Trout. It can often be tough to get the fish to bite. I managed one trout in the 2-3 lb. class and on another trip another single trout in the 1-2 lb. range.

JR caught the world's smallest Bass

Catching up - Fishing Stories

2009-01-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Catching up (pun intended). I haven't blogged in a long time. But a lot has happened on the fishing front. We've been out with the boat several times since the last post. And also, tried some local lake action from the bank/pier. And lately, Mark and I have become hooked (pun intended again) on Sturgeon fishing.

Here are some pics to get caught up:

Back at the end of November, Mark, JR, Justin and I launched out of Martinez to fish the mothball fleet. This was one of the scariest adventures of my life. The fog was so thick you couldn't see 10 feet in front of the boat. It was cold and the bridge fog horn kept going off. Anyway, we managed to slowly make our way out by the fleet and these ghost ships appeared out of the fog. It was all very eerie. We hoped the fog would burn off by late morning but it lasted until the afternoon. During all of this, I managed to hook my first ever shaker Sturgeon. I caught two itty bitty ones and didn't even know they were on my line.

I'll post pic from our other trips in seperate posts)

Here's the first shaker sturgeon. Notice the thick fog in the background.
Here's the second shaker. Fog burned off.

Reserve ships from the Mothball Fleet.

Striper Fishing at Rio Vista

2008-11-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we took the boat out to Rio Vista for some striper fishing.

On Saturday, it was just me and Dad. We launched at Rivers End and traveled all the way up to Rio Vista through the Delta. It was a very long boat ride. And at the end of the day it was pouring rain.

Sunday it was me, Dad, Mark and JR. This time we drove the boat to Rio Vista and launched near the bridge.

Both days were good fishing. Saturday Dad caught a 20 incher, I caught an 18 incher. Sunday we were one short of being at limit. The biggest was mine a 21.5 incher. Dad was the luckiest. He caught 5 of our 7 fish.

Saturday - Dad's 20 incher

Sunday - JR's 18 inch striper. JR landed the first two fish.

Sunday. Dad's first catch.

21.5 Incher

Rio Vista Bridge

Mark's weird shaped shaker

Our catch

JR's starry flounder

A Day On The Delta

2008-10-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I saw a craigslist ad that said "Free Boat". It was posted 20 minutes before I saw it. I emailed the guy, he replied and to make a long story short, I got a free boat. It's an older fiberglass, tri-hull boat from 1975, but it was in decent condition and the engine supposedly ran.

Why did he give it away free? His wife said he had to get rid of it quickly because it had been sitting for 3 years and they needed the room on the side of their house for their dog.

So, after taking it in for service, getting the registration stickers and cleaning it up, we decided to take it out for the maiden voyage this past weekend. We launched from the River's End Marina about 10 minutes from Mil and Jimmy's house in Mountain House. We cruised up the Delta to Discovery Bay and back. And we did a little fishing too.

On board, it was me, Jimmy, Dad, Justin, Mildred, Ei, Jacqueline and Max. Here are some pics:

Launching the Boat, lots of yelling because it was our first time launching plus Capt. Marvin drove the boat up the pier because he had it in forwad instead of reverse ;-) Rookies...

Admiral Bernie, fishing expert

Ei, Marvin and Max. Max slept through the whole boat ride.

Deck hands... Jacqueline and Justin. This was on Saturday. We went out again on Sunday and Justin caught a nice 18.5 inch Striper!

Capt. Jimmy and crew

The "skipper" and his first mate

The Aguilars and Max at the dock

The free cheeseburger boat... maiden voyage successful

Flower Power

2008-09-04T04:33:00.001-07:00

IMG_0537
Originally uploaded by marvin_paule

This is a test blog post using the Flickr Beta integration.

Flickr

2008-09-04T04:32:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Another Flickr Test

2008-09-04T04:30:00.000-07:00

This time I posted a pic from Flickr using the picture's URL.

The Pines

2008-08-22T14:18:00.001-07:00

Have you ever gone to a place from your past that brings back nostalgic memories? I spent a part of my childhood growing up in a neighborhood called The Pines in Milpitas. It was the 70's. We moved there when I was around 5. I went to Kindergarten through 4th grade at the neighborhood school - Pearl Zanker Elementary.

We lived on Sunrise Way. The street led up to a hilly park that had a curved path ending up at the school. It was a fun time. We rode our bikes there over and around the hilly mounds. We had kite fights at the park. There was even an old rocket at one of the playgrounds.

On the way home last night, it was still light out when I picked up Max, so I wanted to take him somewhere where he could run around and let loose. The Pines was sort of on the way home so we stopped there and he went wild. He climbed and ran and even wanted to play tag with the older kids. The slides there were really tall and fast so I went down with him and he loved it. As Dad would say... "Oh he lob it".

BMW European Delivery

2008-08-21T15:15:00.001-07:00

I got to chatting with an old friend from work today. His name is Mike. I hadn't talked to him since this time last year. Back then he told me he was going to order a 335i Bimmer and pick it up in Germany. I've heard of people doing this and it's cool he got to do it for his new car. Check out his pics on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20688436@N07/sets/72157603157982412/

What's European Delivery? It's a program where you purchase the car in America, and then go to Germany to pick it up. While there you can drive it on the autobahn, around town, basically anywhere you want. They register the car and even include 14 days of insurance. They even have drop-off locations throughout Europe for your convenience.

Claim Jumper

2008-08-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last night Sasha celebrated her 10th birthday at Claim Jumper. They just opened a new one in Fremont on Auto Mall. It's just like the many CJ's in the chain that are out there. Service was good, food was good and I got to chase Max around the building a few times.

Happy Birthday Sasha!

Check out the "brontosaurus ribs" that Ei and Dar shared. The plate looks reasonable in the picture, but when they first brought it out, the ribs were hangning off the side.

I had the Top Sirloin, a wannabe Filet Mignon, but still pretty good. The baked sweet potato was tasty with butter and brown sugar.

Falafel's Drive-In

2008-08-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Read my review on Yelp http://marvinp.yelp.com/ This place has been here since 1966. My parents had a restaurant down the street from this place back in the 80's and we used to drive by all the time. But I never tried it until recently. Glad I finally did. Ei and Max liked it too!

My Yelp

2008-08-18T02:56:00.000-07:00

http://marvinp.yelp.com/

Check out my latest reviews... Kalesa and Frozos.

Oini...

2008-08-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

Taken from "Kapampangan in Ten Easy Lessons" by Ernie Tarlac
http://maxpages.com/lesson

LESSON 1 - QUITE COMMON EXPRESSIONS
The first lesson is a vocabulary builder. Like in
business, we need some capital, and in this case,
the vocabulary you will absorb in here will serve
as the capital.
Below are one-word expressions, together with their
translations in English and sometimes in Tagalog. Try to
memorize as many of these useful quotations as you
can:

caluguran daca - I love you.
cabalen - (kababayan) town mate
tará - (tayo na) let's go
tara - let's all go now
ana - come on, let's do it
siguí - go ahead
wa - (oo) yes (informal)
opu - (opo) yes (formal, with respect)
alí - (hinde) no
tabalu - (ewan) I don't know
siguru - perhaps
pilán - (ilan) how many?
nanu - (ano) what?
ninu - (sino) who?
baquit - why?
macananu - (paano) how?
capilán - (kaylan) when?
nucarin - (nasaan) where?
pota - (mamaya) in just a little while; later
cánian - (ngayon) very soon at any time now
nándin - (kanina) a while ago
saguli - (sandali) just a little while, I'll be right with you
bucas - tomorrow
napun - (kahapon) yesterday
ngeni - (ngayon) now; today
queng Domingo (sa darating na Linggo) this coming Sunday
quetang Domingo (noong nakaraan na Linggo) last Sunday
macádua - in two days
nacadua - two days ago
oíni - (eto) "here", "there you are" (when handing something)
oreni - "here", "there you are" (with a plural sense)
iní - (ito) this
deni - these
den - those (near the one spoken to)
deta - those (far from both the speaker and the one spoken to)
yan - (iyon) that (near the one spoken to)
itá - that (far from both the speaker and the one spoken to)
queta - (doon) there; over there
carín - there, over there; yonder
quen - (diyan) there (near the one spoken to)
queni - (dito) here, over here (far from the one spoken to)
queti - here (includes the location of the one spoken to)
ala - (wala) nothing; none; there isn't any
atín - (mayroon) there is
salamat - thanks; thank you
másqui na - (kahit na) even then
e bali - (hindi bale) it doesn't matter
acu - (ako) I
icami - (kami) we (I and others)
itamu - (tayo) we (I, you and others)
icata - we (the two of us)
ica - (ikaw) you (singular)
icayu -(kayo) you (plural)
ya - (siya) he/she/it
ila - (sila) they
sayang - what a waste! how wasteful!
arimuan - so as to save; it's economical!
abe - (kaibigan) companion, pal
masalese - (mahusay) good! great! wonderful!
areglado - (ayos) all right! excellent!
malicsi - quick!
bilis - quick!
nu anti - (gaano karami) how much? - in quantity
magcanu - how much? - in money
sanu - (alin) which? which one?
macanian - (ganyan, ganito)like this; this way
masisiadu - too much; excessive
milalalu - too much; excessive
comusta - hello; how are you
o sigue ne - o.k., see you; see you later; so long
dispu - 1.(tao po) hello, anybody home? 2. God bless you.
macacalale - careful
buyset - darn it; darn you!
sabi na - (sabi niya) he/she said
dapat - should be!
sucat - should be!
cailangan - should be!
atyu - (nandito) here; present
aguiang capilan - (kahit na kaylan) anytime, everytime
siempre - of course!
neh - okay; huh?
rugo - oh how I sympathize...! - used when sympathizing
naman! - oh dear!
na naman! - again?!
astuna - (tama na) that's enough; stop it
capa - (teka) wait a minute
capamu - wait a minute
ante - let me have it
para - stop here! - used when on a passenger bus
aria - go now - used on drivers
sana - how I wish it were that way!
mequeni - (hali ca) come here
mananu ca - how do you feel? - refers to health
nananu ca - what are you doing?
ayba - 1. no; no way! 2. give me a break! are you sure?
ay - (hinde) no -used when declining or refusing
aruy - oh gee, oh my gosh!
aray - ouch!
aru - oh my!
aro - oh so! - used when trying to arouse guilt on one
oy - yeah! - used when being called
hoy - hey!
neng cai - (kung minsan) sometimes; at times
quegana-gana - (lahat) all; everybody
yata - it seems likely
caibat - (pagkatapos) afterwards
aldoldo - (araw-araw) everyday
aguiang macananu - "of course"

Thank You Randy Pausch

2008-07-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the inspiration and valuable lessons on how to lead a life. May you rest in peace.

The "Last Lecture"

Randy Pausch ABC Special about the "Last Lecture", April 2008

Mark's Birthday at the Morrocan Restaurant

2008-07-20T00:00:00.001-07:00

To celebrate Mark's birthday Lisa came up with this crazy idea to eat at a Morrocan restaurant and watch belly dancers. What we experienced was "magic".

Enter Menara's Moraccan Restaurant in San Jose, CA and cue up the Disney's Aladdin soundtrack.

Traditional decor, hukas, camels, etc. Check! Smell of Pine Sol... Check!

Enter... the "magic". Morrocan Magic made with 5 kinds of juices, 2 kinds of RAM, er I mean rum, Jimmy and... well "magic".

Meet the belly dancers... wow, Morrocans bear a striking resemblance to California white folks.

Belly dancing is an equal opportunity employer. Even yo nana got a job.

Mildred and Jimmy let the "magic" begin.

And soon, the guys are part of the belly dancing entertainment.

Mark poses with the Belly Dancer's magic stick (of course we don't know where the magic stick has been.)

And now it's the ladies turn to learn the art of belly dancing.

Mark and Lisa playing out a fantasy with the magic stick.

Mark poses with the stick.

The ladies strike a pose.

Marvin and Juan demonstrate balancing the "magic" - Juan on his enormous pecs, Marvin on his enormous belly.

Marvin's belly holds up well, but Juan's pecs lose balance and some "magic" is lost.

Mark and Lisa after a few glasses of "magic".

When the magic kicks in, the homies get crunk.

At this point, things start to get crazier. The table across from us is also celebrating a birthday with a pirate theme.

Mark posing with his birfday fez.

And now, the pirates have joined forces with the magicians.

What's crazy about this picture is the guy in the pink shirt is holding a vial containing a sample of his friend's cremated remains. Is that nuts or what? Later, pink shirt guy did the splits!

Now the dead guy in the vial is in Clevelands!

Magic makes you happy.

Rumor has it that this particular Morrocan restaurant has often turned from innocent belly dancing and dinner into sinful orgies. We begin to see signs that the rumor might prove itself true.

More signs of orgyanization in the dark depths of the pirate caves.

More evidence that things are going downhill quickly. Some dude puts the pirate mustache in his crackalacka.

Mark graciously accepts his autographed bottle of pure Morrocan authentic... something or other.

Mark outside makin' off with the fez.

Colleen shows the pirates' pinata, before performing a baton routine.

Meanwhile two delinquents push each other down the street in an office chair. You know this is a great neighborhood for a classy Morrocan restaurant.

Lisa squats.

Time to go. Party's over.

I Survived a Japanese Game Show

2008-07-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

Old news... but I just caught it for the first time last night. Very funny though. Watch it!

http://abc.go.com/summer/isurvivedajapanesegame/index

Pics From My Phone

2008-07-16T14:04:00.003-07:00

Here are some pics that I had in my phone that I just downloaded:

Max driving the car at the play place inside Valley Fair Mall

Max climbing fish

Ryan's snapping turtle that lives in the fountain in front of their house

The turtle whisperer

A new home site at Cielo in Rancho Santa Fe, almost 2 acres for the bargain price of 1 mil.

The back of a new home construction at Cielo

My Mom and Max

Happy Birthday Mark!

2008-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

It's Mark's birthday today. Mark's my only brother. My little brother. Well he's not so little anymore. He could probably kick my butt. Anyway, Mil treated us (Cisco Paule's) out for lunch today at Hobee's for Mark's Birthday. Mark and Mil wore the required uniform (they are both wearing khaki pants). They forgot to call Me and Minnie so we weren't coordinated. Notice Mark is being good with his Mediterranean low carb salad... but later he treated himself to a nice free piece of birthday coffee cake with whipped cream on top.

Rest in Peace Uncle Frank

2008-07-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

Frank Malit Paule Sr.
United States Navy Retired, Vietnam War Veteran
My father's oldest and only brother
Passed away July 6, 2008
He was 76 years of age.

3 Generations of Paule's in the picture below, taken the day before Uncle passed:

1st generation - Bernardo (Dad) and Uncle Frank
2nd generation - Marvin
3rd generation - Maximilian (21 months old)

That 4th of July weekend when the picture was taken, my Dad and his brother Frank sat on the couches you see in the picture. This was at my Auntie Aimee's house (my Dad and Uncle's youngest sister). The first night when Uncle Frank came over he and Dad stayed up until 3 AM talking, catching up on old times even when the lights went out. In fact, when morning came, Uncle told my Dad that he was mad at him. My Dad asked why. He said because he was still talking and Dad just started snoring. My Dad explained that he fell asleep because he just took his medicine and it makes him drowsy. My Dad later told me that they only maybe once ever did that - stay up and talk all night until they fell asleep. Growing up, by the time my Dad was 5 or 6, Uncle Frank already left for Manila to go to school.

That morning, Auntie told me to tell Uncle Frank that we were going to plan a reunion in the Philippines, next fiesta time in honor of their father (my grandpa) Francisco Paule. When I told that to Uncle Frank, he asked if I knew that my grandpa was fond of women and he has maybe 20 or more children? I said yes and told him that my Dad helped me with a family tree some time ago (http://paulefamily.tribalpages.com/). I showed him the family tree on my laptop and he helped me correct a few things - names of family members that my Dad didn't know.

Later, he asked me if I got everything I needed for the family tree. I told him I did and I would get more details with help from my cousin Raibyn. Then he began to tell me maybe 3 or 4 stories all in a row - about his childhood, about his time in the Navy and how he was proud of his oldest son Frank Jr. who also a Navy Veteran passed away last year. He said he received one achievement in the Navy but Frank Jr. received 5 and he was very proud of him for that.

All my relatives were in a hurry that morning to go to the beach, and they tried to give me the eye as to say cut away from the conversation with Uncle, we need to go now. But I just stayed and listened to him until the very last minute and let him talk. I'm glad I did. It gave me good memories of him.

My fondest childhood memory of Uncle Frank was when I was 9 or 10 and we were visiting at his house in San Diego, his sons were into dirt bikes and they had a Honda Z50 mini trail bike that the boys outgrew. He let me have it and we took it home to Milpitas in our van. I had great memories riding that trailbike around our front yard before the yard was landscaped. After going in an oval over and over again, it turned into a dirt track. And especially the time I was riding down Jacklin Avenue, a major street in Milpitas with my sister Minnie riding on the back and we got pulled over by the police. We had no license plate and that trailbike was probably not legal for the street. Anyway, I'll remember Uncle for giving me the minbike and having those fun times.

We'll miss you Uncle. You had a tough life some times but you were strong and we are glad we were able to spend time with you in your last days here. Hopefully, you felt before you left us that we love you very much. You had a smile on your face and you were happy to be with family. You remind us not to take life for granted. There is no time for arguing, fighting or bickering. We should spend and enjoy our time together and not let petty things get in the way and make us lose time. Safe travels, Uncle. You'll be missed and remembered.

Go Large

2008-07-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, we decided to try and see if Maximilian was ready to sit through a movie at the theater. We brought him to see Wall*E. By the time we got there he was asleep but he woke up when the movie started.

It went well for a while. He was quiet, sat still and was interested in the movie. But half way through, he decided to get up and start yelling "Gordon! Gordon!". (Gordon is the name of a train from Thomas the Tank Engine).

Then, he started wandering and wanted to run up and down the aisles. Sigh... guess he's not ready yet. We got a refund and went home wondering how the movie ended. Thankfully, we found a way to watch the ending... but we won't reveal that here ;-)

For those who have seen the movie, I thought this was an interesting website:

http://www.buynlarge.com/

And looks like you can buy some BnL gear here:

http://www.zazzle.com/buynlarge

Prime Minister of Lithuania

2008-07-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

10 minutes of my day today was spent with the Lithuanian Prime Minister, Gediminas Kirkilas. He came for an Executive Briefing and demonstration of our company's products. I was scheduled to spend 30 minutes demonstrating the latest in Unified Communications and Emerging Technologies - Digital Signage, IP Interoperability and Video Surveillance.

He was surrounded by lots of these guys - secret service. They look just like they do in the movies - dark suits, sunglasses, the coiled earpiece.

Unfortunately, things were behind schedule so it was requested the demo go quickly. So 10 minutes into the demo they started to shake my hand and said great demo, thanks and left. I guess they must have been very hungry - it was past 2 PM and they had not eaten lunch yet. The feedback was good though - the Prime Minister was impressed with the demo of our products using the latest technologies.

A's vs. Phillies - June 25, 2008

2008-06-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

The company I work for (which will remain nameless except to say it is not the "food" company), has season tickets to the Oakland A's. So, my boss says, hey you're going to the game. Who am I to argue?

The tickets are not just any season tickets, but Diamond Level seats. These are the best seats in the house, directly behind the ump at home plate. Normally they go for a couple hundred bucks a piece. Included, you get VIP parking, free food and drinks.

I invited Mil, Jimmy, Justin, Minnie and brought along Maximilian. It was Max's first baseball game ever. Game started at 7:05 PM. Before leaving home I programmed the DVR to record. Check out the YouTube clip below.

Ok, ok, with the video quality, these could be anybody's fuzzy faces, but come over and watch the vid at my place in HD, it's much more convincing. Anyway, I'll link to Jimmy's pics once he has them up.

Of course, it would have been even better if the A's actually won, but sometimes you can have your cake but you can't eat it... or something like that.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-06-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

You say it's your birthday... da da da da da... it's my birthday too.

Macbook Pro 17"... running Vista?

2008-06-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

My group at work found some "extra" money in the budget so the boss put in an order for 4 fully loaded Macbook Pros 17". Some director questioned the purchase when the shipment arrived, but after "quarantining" the macs for a period of time, the director forgot all about it and now we have our Macs.

I've been a Windows user for years. I've never had a Mac. I was impressed right away - beautiful, minimalist design. Great software package, easy to use UI. Most of all the screen on the thing is just gorgeous. I also like the two finger scroll and two finger tap right clicking.

After a while though I realized I have some apps at work on Windows that I just work faster in. I spend much time in Outlook. So I tried Mac Office 2008 and Entourage (Outlook for the Mac). Entourage is not quite Outlook. We also use Sametime for IM at work and I'm used to that. I tried Adium in OS X, but meh it's just ok for me.

So... using the included bootcamp program, I split the hard drive in half - one half for Mac, the other for Vista. By now everyone knows you can run Vista on the Mac. You can even install VMWare Fusion for the Mac and run Vista simultaneously as a Virtual Machine.

I tried the VM option... running Vista along with OS X but read a blog from someone that said Vista flies on the Macbook Pro. I booted to Vista only and wow. It's fast. And by the way, I really think Vista is a decent OS. I haven't had any crashes or major issues... yet.

So now for work, I boot into Vista. When I go home, I boot into OS X. You may scream bloody sacralige... running Vista on the Macbook Pro... disappointment. But hey, daddy's got to get work done at work and do it fast. At home I can be the cool young guy on the right with the casual clothes and full head of hair. Well maybe not the full head of hair.

Wild n' Out - The THS

2008-06-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

Regarding pnc post - http://www.pralinesncream.com/2008/06/wild-n-out.html

What reallly happened...