Taking a stroll

Tonight's stroll around the park was sponsored by the letter .... oh, sorry, wrong show ;)

Tonight the four of us got to take a little walk around Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. It was nice and relaxing and gave us a chance to ride in the new Nissan that Eileen and Zach got just a few months ago.

Here is the Walk Around the Lake Web Album

On our way home we got to see some real city life ... people walking to clubs and restaurants as well as a couple arguing with a police officer in the middle of the street and road signs warning of gunshots being fired in the area ... welcome to the city ;)

A big sendoff

Tonight we got to meet Leeny's co-workers. It was a farewell part for Elisa (above, far left) at Bill's Elbow South (a very odd name for a restaurant, we all agreed). It was fun to talk everyone and when our food came, we were all amazed as to how big the servings were !! That's America for you, I guess ;)

A few more pictures of those who attended
(sorry to Zach, Matt & myself ... I guess next time I need to make a checklist of everyone to make sure no one gets left out :S ) can be found in tonight's Web Album.

First things first ....

When we arrived safely into Orlando International Airport late last night, one step out of the airport was like walking into a hammam (Turkish bath or steam room) but we quickly got acclimated. And after Zach picked us up, we soon got to settle into our room for a good night's sleep. (Thanks again Zach !)

Today when Eileen woke up around 2 or 3-ish, she and I went to the store to stock up on groceries.

Much to our delight, we found a soy dessert that we figured that Matt might like.

The first thing he said when he saw the thing was 'You bought me panda poo ?" ... and we all burst out laughing ! It's been a reoccurring joke/comment ever since ;)

Surprisingly though, neither Eileen nor I really like the stuff, but Matt seemed to like it ! Hehe, oh well :)

On the road again .....

Or rather, on the road to be in the sky again ..... sorry for the delay in posting things ... but today we head off, bright and early, on our way to Orlando, Florida. Off to spend 6 weeks at Eileen & Zach's while our place gets repaired.

Woohoo !!! :D I'm excited :D I haven't seen them for almost a year, and Matt hasn't seen them since we came to visit for Christmas in 2005 ... so it's been a while ;)

We'll blog more from sunny Florida :)

Zulita's classroom

After setting up the bulletin boards, audio center, organizing the library and writing on a whole bunch of textbooks ... The room is finally done !

And it looks great !!!

Click here to check out a few pictures of Zulita's new classroom

Fun in the store ....

Here are Matt, Flora and Arianne having fun at Vons (a chain of supermarkets).

Flora made it quite clear that if anyone asked, she didn't know anyone or anything ;) And all Igor could do was laugh when he saw this monkey business ;)

Piano Concert in Loma Linda

In the early evening Igor, Flora, Arianne, Matt and I went back to the Loma Linda campus for a concert by Sam Ocampo. The concert was excellent and afterwards I got to see lots of old friends from Andrews University that had relocated to the area.
Here are also some pictures that I took of the campus:

Repas à la Française

Potluck, French-style :) We got to meet some francophones from the Loma Linda area today. We had so much fun talking and laughing that we barely even noticed the 100F+ weather. ;)

You'll find a few more pictures on the Fracophone Potluck album

Encore merci Chantal pour la recette du gâteau :) :) :)

Ants Attack !

These are a couple of pictures taken of what was left of the ants
when Gordon and Zulita got through with them :)
Yay, no more ants !

Togetherness

UPDATE: Norinne graciously sent me pictures of the fellowship meal.
Check out the Fellowship Meal Album
This is one of our new favorite symbols.
It's the symbol for potluck or fellowship dinner :)

We had our first fellowship dinner at our church since we moved here to southern California and it went off without a hitch. Thanks to the youth and several members who helped set up, set out, and clean up !!

I was a little too busy to take pictures of anything or anyone, but it seemed like we were at almost maximum capacity during the service, and I could almost swear that 90% of those people stayed afterward for the food. I heard nothing but good things, so I'm chalking this one up as a success. :D

Come on down !!!!

The group from Escondido went to 'The Price is Right' taping today. It was Drew Carey's 2nd taping of the day, but his first day of taping. We were 25 strong and made our presence known :) We also added an honorary member to our fold named Travis. He was in town interviewing and decided to come to the taping. After 4 hours of waiting in line, being interviewed and sitting in the studio audience, the show began.

Our new friend Travis got picked for the first 4 in contestant's row. On the 2nd round of bidding Travis won his prize and got up on stage with Drew :D We were going wild in the audience. And the game he got to play ? PLINKO !!!!! He won 3 Plinko chips and won $10,600 !!!! Absolutely unbelievable !!

Then the next person to be picked was Norrine from our group !!! She won the prize right off the bat to go up on stage. We were all going out of our minds !!! When she got up there, Rich (the announcer) told us all that she would be playing for ..... a brand new Pontiac Solstice !!! She was asked where she was coming from (like I said, our group made sure we were noticed ;) ), and she said the Escondido Seventh-day Adventist Academy. Then we saw what game she would play: Lucky 7. The premise: you are given 7 - $1 bills. The first number of the price of the car is revealed (usually a 1, like today). After that you need to guess each remaining digit of the price, and depending on how many numbers you were off by, you need to pay the difference. If at the end of the game you still have even $1 left, you can buy the car.

Suffice it to say we were all screaming at the tops of our lungs and wishing her on. She made it all the way to the 'Showcase Showdown' and we were beside ourselves. We ended the evening at Marie Challender (a restaurant that has awesome potato soup) and arrived home just after midnight. 3 cheers for Norrine !!!

Ps, 3 more cheers for Ashley who made 27 t-shirts in 48 hours !

'The Price is Right' web album

Pageant of the Masters

We spent the evening in Laguna Beach enjoying the sunset, a great Belgian restaurant and ended the evening off with a special treat, the Pageant of the Masters. This is where famous paintings and sculptures are recreated in life size paintings. It was a fun evening spent with Gordon, Zulita, David, Allan, and Nova :)

Though I couldn't take pictures of the show itself, I did take other pictures that we posted on our 'Pageant of the Masters' web album.

Demolition

This is a picture of what our kitchen currently looks like.

Pretty frustrating, isn't it ?

Happy Birthday Mom !

Happy happy birthday Mami :) :)

Love you !

Congrats Zulita :)

Today was Zulita's official 1st day of school. Although there weren't any of her kids at school yet, she did have to go in for meetings and to work on her classroom.

To celebrate we went to a really good Thai restaurant :) Sorry, no pictures ... we just ate really good stuff :) but if you come and visit us, we can take you there too.

Farewell to the McKinneys

Saying goodbye to old friends is never easy. But we know that moving and change are all part of life. We were happy to spend some time with the McKenzie family, the McKinneys family as well as the Milosavljevic family !! :)

Ritz and Dion, we know that you will be in good hands and if anything,
we (or some other member of the family) will try to make it out there sometime :)

Up in the air ... decisions to be made.

Well, some things have settled, others have been thrown up in the air.

Matt's business is booming, with more requests coming in on a daily basis. After our little water incident last week, however, we are still sorting out the problems.

Before and after this past weekend we had people come in and check for mold and water damage. The last thing we were told was that the kitchen and bathroom cabinets mights have to be replaced. Though this might sound like a good problem, people aren't giving us a timetable to work with ... so there's no telling if things could be done in a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

The final decision to approve all the work is up to our landlady, who is still unsure of what to do.

So, for at least the time being (meaning: Thursday) we're going to be invaded by industrial sized fans and dehumidifiers, hoping that those will do the trick.

Yummy lunch

After spinning the wheel of food, we went to 'Garden Center Cafe'.

Good food. Good portions. Just yummy :)

Shortcake and Family Reunions

The end of a very eventful weekend, we went back to Manhattan Beach to meet together with other Triantafilos of Southern California. We got to hear stories about the great-grandparents as well as other members that have since passed on.

The perfect ending to a great time with family:
a big meal and strawberry shortcake for dessert !

Can't wait to the next reunion :)

More pictures here at the Family Reunion Web Album

Hanging out ...

After driving around this afternoon, we were invited to the Arteaga's house to visit and hang out. It was a nice relaxing evening where we talked, laughed, and some even found their way to the hammocks :)

Santa Ana web album

Old friends

From La Sierra in Riverside, we went to Loma Linda. There, we stopped by the house of an old college roommate of Grandpa's. An added surprise was the visit of another friend of his from back in college. Our visit was short, but it was nice to be able to meet some people that knew my grandparents from way back when :)

A visit to Riverside

Today was an early rise and drive up to Riverside to meet up with friends at church. We then had lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant and finished off with a visit on the La Sierra campus. It was my first visit to the campus and I had fun taking pictures :)

Find more pictures here

Lunch on the green ... or almost ;)

An almost gourmet-level meal with grilled chicken, rice and salad, where everyone pitched in to help cook or prepare something. It was extra refreshing to be able to eat outside and watch the golfers putting on the green just below us.

We all ate to our heart's content (and then some ;) ), had a relaxing afternoon and then went to the Spanish Church in town for vespers.

Visiting the coast

Can't have a trip to California without going and visiting the beach :)

This morning Grandpa, Grandma and I went to Oceanside. It was a beautiful day (of course ;) ) and we got to walk all the way down to the pier and even stick our feet in the ocean.




We even found this cute little lemonade stand that makes fresh squeezed lemonade !! Very yummy and not chemically sweet either !

All in all, a very good morning for us.

Click here for more pictures at the beach.

Dust, sweat, and lots-o-hugs

I didn't take any pictures today.

Too much packing, too much hauling and just too little time before I drove up to Manhattan Beach to pick up my grandparents that came to visit.

But they're here now and we're getting everyone settled into their places for the weekend :)

Let there be more storage

We have a shed :) If you've already visited our place, you know space is an issue. It's not full yet, but trust me, I'll be filling all 113 cubic feet (3.2 cubic meters) really soon :)

But this has given us more space to host my grandparents that get here tomorrow !!
... we've gotten home and unloaded by about 11pm ... tomorrow WILL be a busy day.

Special side note: Thank you soooooooooooooo much Zulita and Gordon for helping us out of the tough spot we got ourselves into (the shed was too big to fit in our car !! )

Gordon's 1st day

Today was Day 1 of Gordon's vacation before he starts freelancing.

So to celebrate the occasion, the four of us went to see 'The Simpsons Movie' And we took a picture of Zulita and Gordon hanging out with the Simpsons after the movie :)