Look what I found...

Last summer in Colorado. Me, EA, Billy at Ween. Oh so hot, but what a night. Front of the stage, stealing their beers. Sweating to the oldies for hours. Glen (the keyboardist) snapped our photo. Excellent.

Alcoholism starts early...

Vaughn the beer drinker. This was from our friends wedding we went to back in June, I think, maybe July. Vaughn was seriously into my bottle of beer. That's my boy!

WWJD - What Would Juli Do?

This is too funny... I love the attitude the guitar player is throwing out there.



Jesus is a friend of mine??? I guess now he is, since I've watched this 10 times in the last hour. Jesus likes youtube? Who doesn't.

I'm kinda digging the whole, Jesus/Ska thing going on. Especially since Juli used to be a big ska fan in high school, and maybe I kinda was a closet one at 14. I did own a Reel Big Fish album at one point in my life, but I never painted ska checkers on my car like Celia did (or so Juli says).

Happy Birthday to Yo Momster!

Last night Juli puked on poor Jonesy!

Yes, you read the title correctly, she puked on the dog. And not just a little bit that splashed on his paw... She puked on the dog! Jonesy had a puke mohawk running down his head, neck and back. It was so awesome. It was also so disgusting.

Last night was pretty much the first time that we've gone out since having Vaughn - 10 months! We've had a dinner here or there, and seen a movie once or twice, but it then hurried home right away... It's kinda hard when family isn't close by or all your friends are complete retards... so last night our friend Veronica, (who is not retarded) offered to babysit while we went out and whopped it up.

Wade (Fake Wade loser!) was Djing at some lame bar, but it was super fun, we got wasted and danced and Juli was super stoked that a bunch of dudes kept hitting on her every time I went to the bar or the bathroom. She was mixing beers and vodka and after about her 6th one I knew she was gonna be hurting bad. When we got home, she didn't want to wake up Vaughn so we were hanging out in the backyard (Ali was there too) and she decided that instead of puking in the bathroom and waking up Vaughn, she would just spew in the lawn in the back. As she was puking, Jonesy was getting all up in her shit like always... The next thing I know is I'm inside and Jonesy comes walking in wearing a vomit blanket on his back. Kinda like a little puke-poncho. Ewwwwww.

Juli just laughed and got into bed. I cleaned up the dog and then we laughed for 20 minutes. She was mumbling and slurring, saying, "I told you I was going to do it!" I said, "you told me you were going to puke, but not on the dog!" and she's all, "same thing". Apparently so. I think she's going to be pissed at me for writing this, but it was so fucking funny i just couldn't resist. I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a photo.

So next time someone says they are going to puke - it really means they are going to puke on your dog. Awesome.

Off to the wiener dog races

Yesterday, as part of our "Semana de Juli" we attended the Old World Octoberfest in Huntington Beach. The "Semana de Juli" is Juli's weekly festival that either starts or ends on her birthday. This year we are starting a week early and we'll end on her birthday, October 4th. Yesterday I made breakfast, complete with mimosas and after drinking a bottle of champagne at 8 am, Juli got to take a nice long nap before we headed over to Old World to listen to some live German music, drink a few Spaten, eat some sauerkraut and mashed taters, and of course, watch the wiener dog races. People were seriously getting all riled up about the races. It was pretty funny watching the weirdos get all huffy and puffy about a freaking dog running 100 feet surrounded by a crowd of drunken idiots screaming their names. One of the dogs was named "Harry Wiener" - he was a favorite to win, but got sidetracked by some bitch in the semifinals and lost.

Today we are continuing the celebrations by taking a cruise through the harbor in a Duffy boat, Tuesday is dinner in Los Feliz with Ali, Wade and Tarik, Wednesday is "The Dark Knight" at the IMAX theater, Thursday we go bowling (fuck yeah), Friday, the Black Lips and Japanese Motors are playing at Detroit, and Saturday we are just going out to get "really drunk" as Juli puts it. Good week.

I survived another September...

Well, it's not over yet... But the month of September is always a crazy one and I feel like it's never going to end. Tradeshows are fun, but they take an incredible toll on me, both physically and mentally. It's so hard being away from Juli and Vaughn for so long, and it's hard for her to rationalize that in between all the drinking and dinners and late night shenanigans that we're actually getting a lot of work done... Then after almost two full weeks of that it's my birthday, which this year we spent in Los Gatos at a wedding. Not my idea of the perfect bday, but the wedding was amazing and in the end it was peachy - the Stratton's are good people and we were stoked to be a part of it. At some point I'll post a photo of the winery/house where they were married.... Totally awesome to say the least.

The night before we went up there, Juli and I had planned to go out to dinner with a couple of our friends, Skye, Brooke and Tabitha (who is currently in the running for the 2nd place prize of cutest pregnant girl ever - Juli of course is the champ). BUT, as I got home from another stressful day at work, I got a huge "Surprise" when I walked in the door and a dozen of our closest friends were at our house waiting for me to come home. I knew she was up to something... But I was very surprised. We had a few drinks, ate a delicious dinner prepared by Ali and Wade (he eats!) and then had the best birthday cake I've ever had... Handmade by the best wife/mommy in the world. It was red velvet cake with vanilla frosting, yummy! Thinking back now, I realize that I have such a rad group of friends, and the best family a guy could ask for...

7 years ago... tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the 7th year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on NYC. Tomorrow is also a day where I'm driving to LAX and getting on a cross country flight to Orlando at 8:45 am. It's kinda got me thinking a little bit about it, but you really can't live that way, and if some asshole is going to do something that like that there's not really anything you or anyone else can do about it. I can't believe that people actually can rationally think that killing a bunch of people and yourself in a mass murder/suicide attack is going to help you get to a better place in your version of the "afterlife". What if this is it and those people are just dust? Do you even know it then? I guess not. Anyway, I didn't mean to get into religion here, just thinking about it and hoping that no one tries anything stupid.

I really like to pull my pork!

One of the only things that I really miss about Florida is the BBQ. Charlie and Jake's, Mmmmmmmmmm. Memaw's, Mmmmmmmm. Hushpuppies, Mmmmmmm. So the other day I was thinking about eating some good pulled pork and decided that if some redneck in Florida can make it, then I can too. I knew you could make it in a Crock Pot, and since Juli and I got one as a wedding gift and only used it once or twice in the last year and a half, I had to give it a shot.

I googled "pulled pork - crock pot" and tried the first recipe that came up - of course I improvised. The recipe called for a 2-4 pound piece of pork butt or shoulder, 2 onions, salt and pepper, a jar of BBQ sauce and a can of ginger ale. I got all of these, but substituted a Newcastle for the ginger ale.

I sliced the onions into hockey pucks and laid them in the Crock, then laid the pork butt on top (mine was 3.25 lbs.) after generously salt and peppering the bitch. I had a few more onion slices so I through those babies on top and then drenched her with that bottle of Newcastle. Then I drank the other 5 that came in the six pack while the pork was sitting in the pot. It cooked on low for 12 hours - I started at 6:30 and the buzzer woke me up and 6:30 am, even though the awesome smell of pork and onions had Juli and I waking up all night sniffing the air.

I turned off the Crock and took the top off, the piggie steam was everywhere and the meat was perfect! Then I took Joneser for a walk and let it cool down, after an hour I pulled it out in pieces, cause it was so tender that chunks were coming off every time I picked it up. I threw out the pieces of fat that were left, dumped out the beer and onions, and threw the meat back in the Crock. Then I dumped a whole jar (18 oz.) of Stubb's Hickory Smoked BBQ sauce in there with about a half a minced onion leftover from the slices the day before. Back on low for 3 more hours, and WHAM! The best damn pulled pork I've ever eaten.

We had so much pulled pork that we took some to a BBQ the next day, and everyone loved it there too. We even got a pizza dough and made pulled pork BBQ pizza. Damn it was good. I am the redneck top chef/kithen master/Crock Pot king. And I rule.

Next up, Carnitas. Same recipe, just less liquid and some hot spicy things! I'm going to steal some Daddle Peppers from Robbie and make that shit buuuuurn.

9 Months - Holy SHIT!

Tomorrow Vaughn will be exactly 9 months old... Damn that went fast! He is the best baby in the world though, and it gets better everyday!!!!

Joey giving me some more shit like always

Vaughn's got some big feet!

Day trip for fish

Yesterday we went fishing. Robbie, Joey, Trevor and I. After looking for the elusive patties for a few hours we went in to the Coronados and decided to catch some of the smaller shittier fish. Robbie caught the biggest Lingcod, even though I had it on a few seconds earlier (my bait was in his mouth), Joey caught the most fish - he about doubled ours, Trevor caught only one more than me, even though I caught four, the last one I caught was a technicality 'cause it was by far the smallest - even smaller than the piece of squid I was using... Saw lots of whales and dolphins, that was pretty cool.

Going to the Land Down Under?

I don't want to jinx anything... but things look like they are lining up right... Maybe there is something to this prayer stuff... Looks like Vaughn has a good chance of having an Australian accent... Needless to say, we are getting very excited. We'll keep you posted...

Some people aren't going to like this...

And they are the people that bought a Prius thinking they are going to save the world...

Beach day in Newport!

We've had a heat wave from hell all week, it's been over 90 everyday and our house tends to get a bit hot, so this morning we got up early and loaded the car and headed down to the beach. We parked down by 12th street and got a good spot in the sand, I jumped in the water and caught a few waves bodysurfing... water is about 70 degrees, nice and comfy. Juli and Vaughn were chilling under the umbrella and took a little nap for a while. We took Vaughn down to the water a few times and dipped his feet in to the same results - screaming! It is pretty cold once you first step in but only for a second. Even Juli managed to take a dip to cool off. There were a bunch of little kids all playing around us - I can't wait for Vaughn to be old enough to run around and jump in the ocean! Ok, here's some pics...

New Photos of the Vaughnster...

Had a few pics backed up on the camera, figured I'd get some off and email them to the grandparents, so I might as well put them on here too! These are from the last week or so around the house... more to come.

BBQ on Sunday, come hump a hot dog with us!

Vaughn ready for the beach!

Test from my iPhone.... I've stepped up the technology. Now blogging from anywhere via iPhone. Computers are crazy.

We got bitten by the snake...

The Cobrasnake that is. Sweet. Skye told me that I'm now part of the "in" crowd. I dunno know if I wanna be a part of the "in" crowd. Is that all I need to do? Just get my photo taken and put on the Cobrasnake? I don't have to ride a $2000.00 fixed queer bike around town and get run over by cars? I don't have to hang out at Cinespace? Or wear a V-Neck tee shirt with an all over print? Or dress like a color blind middle aged down-syndrome guy? I don't have to have some hot ass slut hanging on me at all times... Oh wait, I got that one. I guess I'm in. Drinking beers all night with your wife at the hipster party while your six-month-old baby sleeps in his carriage while bands are playing a few feet away is what I think makes us part of the "in" crowd. See ya at Sejour on Thursday night bitches!