Spring Cleaning

So when it's time to flip the mattress and your poor wife's little arms get tired, what do you do?

Well, let the ceiling take over and have a break of course!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

The Angels Game

We had a nice long weekend! Friday we went over to my cousins house to hear about recent ghost stories and give family support, Saturday we went kayaking in La Jolla (pictures to come later :), Sunday we went to the baseball game, Monday shopping, and Tuesday was the funeral.

Four days of sleeping in was great, waking up for work on Wednesday... not so fun.

Here are a couple pictures of the baseball game on Sunday. The Angels played the Dodgers away at Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium is pretty amazing, it was opened in 1962 and has that classic ballpark feel. We went with my Dad and Grandpa. It's funny because both are Angels fans even though they grew up in LA. Why is this? Well, apparently the Angels were an expantion team and were called the Los Angeles Angels. They played at Wrigley Field in LA in 1961 before moving to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Now remember the Dodgers are originally from Brooklyn, NY and moved to Los Angeles in 1958 (They formed in the 1890s as the Trolley Dodgers because of all the trolley's you had to dodge around Brooklyn but later they just went by Dodgers). Anyway, in 1966 the Angels moved to Anaheim Stadium and changed their name to the California Angels. Since then, they've been the Anaheim Angels and now back to the Los Angeles Angels (with the added) of Anaheim. So now I finally understand why my Dad and Grandpa have always supported the Angels!

Angels won 10-7!!! It was a great game and a beautiful day.

Luckily we were sat in the shade =>

The OC Fair Tickets Arrived!

The Orange County fair tickets arrived. You can check out the schedule at: http://www.ocfair.com/2009/

Fallbrook

Despite the rough end to last week, we decided to drive up to Fallbrook on Saturday (located in San Diego County) to pick out avocado trees for Jamie and my Dad. Fallbrook is known as the avocado capital of the world. Once upon a time this was true but these days most of the avocados are grown elsewhere. Although, they are probably still one of the largest producers of avocados in the U.S.

Yet, even though they are known for producing avocados, we sure struggled to find the nurseries selling the young trees. But, it all turned out for the best. As we were losing energy searching for a particular string of nurseries we stopped at Taco Bell to refuel and re-strategize our approach. After eating, my Mom saw someone who looked like they just might know what we were talking about and asked for directions. He was a very nice man and since he was heading that way offered to show us a good nursery he knew of. So there we went. He had said he would point when we reached the nursery but decided that he really didn't have much to do and accompanied us to pick out a good tree. While we were looking, he offered to take us to his grove and give us some of his own avocados. We all were a little hesitant, trying to figure out what his angle was or what he was trying to sell us. But after he had taken the time to show us the nursery we felt obliged to go and see what he was talking about. So after Dad and Jamie picked out two good looking fuerte avocado trees, we followed him to his place. His place turned out to be his home, which unfortunately, burnt down in the fires of 2007. He has yet to rebuild but they are now ready to get started. Him and his wife moved to Fallbrook in the 70s and bought a fruit stand to pay for the mortgage. They didn't know anything about fruit but started learning right away. They have since gotten out of the fruit selling business but continue to have avocado and other fruit trees on their land. He gave us two different varieties of avocados, the fuerte and the reed avocado. The reed avocado is huge and round. It's suppose to have a more nutty flavor and as soon as it ripens I will let you know what we think. An interesting point he brought up was that most grocery stores carry Hass Avocados because they do not bruise as easily not because they are the most flavorful. So can you imagine what else we are missing out on just becuase it won't travel well??

The view from his land was amazing.

We thanked him and he then offered to take us back to the freeway to get our new trees home. This has to be one of the nicest men we have ever met. He certainly made the trip special.

As we headed back we decided to make one more stop. Temecula is on the way home, so we decided to stop at one of the wineries for a quick tasting. A great way to end our trip =>

The wine was fantastic and the trip well worth it. Now we have to plant the tree. Unfortunately, avocado trees are a bit fussy when they are young. They like well drained water (a lot of it) and hot conditions. They also do not have any bark, so until their branches are long enough to cover the trunk you have to be careful that it doesn't get too much direct sun. I guess we will see how green a thumb we really have.

Here is one last picture of the view from the winery.

My Uncle

Chuck with Steve at our rehearsal dinner.

When you don't get to say goodbye it makes you re-think all that wasn't said. My uncle, Chuck Carrillo, passed away last Thursday, May 14th of a massive heart attack. It was so sudden and unexpected it makes it hard to unravel what happened. He died instantly and without pain but without the opportunity to say goodbye. I know my Aunt will feel his loss the most, they were always together. They ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together everyday (no exaggeration). She has her 3 kids for support and a grand kid on the way (for those of you who don't know, Mike & Terra are due in the fall) as well as the rest of the family to turn to, but we won't fill the empty space left behind.
I will miss my Uncle too. I could continue to mourn his loss and all that he left behind but I would rather cherish the time we had together and celebrate his life. I'm thankful he was always there. He was my godfather, my confirmation sponsor, and my 1st year assistant soccer coach (he helped my Dad get into coaching). He was always there for birthdays, graduations, weddings and anything else he was invited to and on top of all that he gave the best hugs in the world. I will miss him but I know he is still watching over us. Although we can't see him, he will still always be there.

Goodbye Uncle, thank you for everything; I will never forget you and all the memories we shared.

Happy (American) Mother's Day!

Mother's Day (Father's Day too but that is for another entry) has always intrigued me because so many countries celebrate it on different days all through the year. If it was based on a religious holiday (be it originally pagan or christian) you would think it would land within a few weeks or a certain time of the year. But Norway has their Mother's Day holiday in February and it continues on different dates throughout the year, with Indonesia celebrating it in December. So although I'm sure every country has their own reasons for celebrating it on a certain day, I'm only really interested in the U.S. and U.K. (obviously, ha!)

The early Christians celebrated the Mother's festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. It later incorporated all Mothers and was called Mothering Sunday. The English still celebrate it on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which is in March. I kind of find this amusing as the English tend to be more withdrawn from "Religion" but have still kept this Lenten tradition. But tradition is tradition so maybe it's not as surprising.

The English colonists who settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday. Apparently due to harsh conditions and conflicting views with their Puritan beliefs. In the U.S. it wasn't until 1872 that movements began to organize a day for mothers dedicated to peace (mainly pushed by all the death surrounding the Civil War). Then in 1907, Anna M. Jarvis, a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. The first Mother's Day observance was a church service honoring Anna's mother. Anna's hard work finally paid off in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers (partly due to the rise of the suffragist movement). So there you go...

Happy Mother's Day Theresa and Karen!!!

XoXoXo Jamie & Ang

LACMA

The last few weeks have been centered around the house; mainly buying stuff for the house and entertaining. So this weekend we decided to get back to what we enjoy (and finally get out of the house for a while). So we went out for the day to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (a.k.a. LACMA). They have an amazing collection of European and American paintings (although we did stay clear of most contemporary and modern art, as Jamie says "It's just not proper"). Their Latin America art collection was pretty impressive too, especially that of Ancient Mexico, we both really do enjoy the animated style of Aztec Ceramics and writing. Half way through our day we stopped at the cafe' for a cup of tea (it was a breezy day and this just hit the spot). Unfortunately, no individual pot of tea to share, just two paper cups but a day out just isn't the same without a tea break.

The other highlight of the day was the Pavilion for Japanese Art. Not only was the building amazing and custom built for this collection but the art was unbelievable as well.

Here is the Pavilion for Japanese Art.

This is the view from the *Brea Tar Pitts which is located right next to the Museum. The Tar smell is really strong and yes, animals and plants are still getting stuck in it. We visited the Tar Pitts a few years back so today we just went for a walk around the grounds.