Here and There

Last weekend, Carey and I took our daughters to see Wicked. Both of us had seen it before with our wives, but our two little thespians were begging to see it, so off to the Pantages we went. My daughter had prepped by watching The Wizard of Oz, listening to the Broadway Soundtrack and studying the liner notes; she's a really smart girl, but even I was surprised that she was able to not only follow along, but understand a lot of the little nuances in the story. They both really enjoyed the show, which delighted us dads. As a big treat the girls were able to take photos with and collect autographs from some of the main cast members, including John Rubenstein (the Wizard), Joanne Whorley, and the gals who played Elphaba and Nessa Rose. After the show, we had a wicked dinner at Roscoe's.


Dorene and I get a chance every now and then to spend a day together without the kids. When we do, we try new restaurants that we want to eat at, shop a bit, lounge around - pretty much all the things our kids don't have much tolerance for. It's funny, but when we're out and about, we'll talk about all the things our kids would be saying (think: whining) as we travel from place to place. Anyway, for our birthdays, and thanks to the Jeu's, we made our way up to the familiar but always delightful Pasadena (close to home, but enough to do for a day). Had meals at two hole-in-the wall diners that were featured in Jonathan Gold's Counter Intelligence column: Taquito Mexicana #2 just north of the 210, like being in madre's kitchen, and Pie and Burger on Lake and California, a diner that got stuck in the 50's, really. A big treat was finally seeing Juno (I know, sad, we don't get out much), a cute film which starts out a little cliched (which is part of the set-up), and ends up with a nice twist with surprising depth; bonus is a great soundtrack and closing song. BTW, another very good sweet/sad movie about reluctant motherhood is Waitress.


It's nice (and rare) meeting other pastors with similar DNA for their communities; I met Gideon Tsang through Pastor Ken Fong last year at the Q conference and we really clicked; got to hang out with him a bit this week; got to finally meet Eugene Cho briefly yesterday; both were speaking at Asian American Leadership Conference held here in Fullerton. I have a lot to learn from them. Check out their church's websites, great stuff:
vox veniae
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