CTHB

Friday

1. Merle's surprise 50th 51st birthday party. Held at Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, it was a beautiful setup with fantastic food and a live band. It was somewhat dressy and classy, which was fun. Alas, Henry and I couldn't stay for more than an hour and a half, as we had committed to the next activity.
   
2. Friday night class for Jason Tsou's Kung Fu Academy. Turns out the classes are really quite casual, so we didn't need to be quite so punctual for the listed 9:00 p.m. start time on the website. On the other hand, we were able to chat with some of the other students and ultimately stayed until about midnight.
   

Saturday

1. Saturday morning class for Jason Tsou's Kung Fu Academy. Henry and I went back the next morning for the "larger" class to see what that was like. We had intended to stay from 10:00 to 12:30, but didn't end up leaving until close to 2:00. Got to see a lot more than we did the previous night. I'll probably write more about the school in a separate post.
   
2. Dim Sum. Right after class, we hit Ocean Star in Monterey Park for a dim sum lunch. Passed by a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Kym and had to wonder if I had previously misheard the restaurant's name as Pho Kyu. Either way, some other day, we'll have to come back with a camera. Maybe we'll try the food, too.
   
3. Speech by Thich Nat Hanh. By the time dim sum was done, I didn't have time to go home and change, so I got a ride straight to the speech by Thich Nat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has a monastery in Escondido, near San Diego. Good speech, but I was so tired after all that kung fu and food that I was drifting in and out of it.
   
4. Barbeque back at the house. Paul wanted to grill meat, so there was a large gathering back at the house. We had some Chinese dishes (courtesy of Henry) and fajitas, courtesy of Paul, Paul, and Eun. The gathering was large and probably the largest since the end of January, when we imposed the Fun Free February. Even got to meet a friend of Sarah's from UCLA. I hope I get to see her again.
   

Sunday

1. Slept in, but not too much. Changed the clocks forward an hour and ended up getting up around noon.
   
2. Dim Sum. Went to dim sum again, this time with Henry and Yong Bin at Ocean Seafood in Chinatown. Food, food, and more food. The bean curd sheet rolls were better here than at Ocean Star, in my opinion.
   
3. Food coma. Lay around the house for part of the afternoon, until Henry went to his friend's seder.
   
4. Played Soul Calibur till my thumb hurt. On the other hand, I unlocked all of the basic characters' endings and got up to Chapter 7 of the Weapon Master mode, which unlocked extra stages, games, and all but two of the characters. I'm also only 3000 gold away from a new outfit for Taki. ;)
   
5. Soup with Jamie, then Eun, then Henry. The slowly growing gathering around, big surprise, more food. Started with just me and Jamie and doubled in numbers as people got home from whatever else they were doing.
   

Plenty of stuff happening. Not sure another weekend like this will roll around any time soon. I'm surprised I had the energy for it, frankly. Next weekend, all that's planned so far is kung fu Friday and Saturday, and then a tax appointment on Sunday. Mind you, this weekend, only two things had been planned.

Tonight... I get my face read at a facial diagnosis class. I'll write about that later tonight.