December in California 2015

Please forgive my spelling and punctuation; I'm a plumber and not a English major. Just read and have fun.

You can click on any of the pictures and they become larger.  
December 11th - It is nice to be back from Thailand.  Our car started right up and everything was just like we left it.  

We turned the hot water heater back on, uncovered the furniture and went to bed. 

We rested but back less than 18 hours and already in the swing of Christmas, it's a concert at Piecemakers.

In one of the pictures daughter Amy is smiling and her mother is wondering what I'm up to now.

December 13th - You never know where you will meet your friends. 

It is so great to see you Donna! 

December 14th - We have been resting and fighting jet-lag. 

Daeng has been making bows for Christmas and cooking noodles. 

She makes beautiful bows and delicious noodles. 

December 17th - We have been back a week and I think Daeng is back in the saddle, again. 

Maybe, I should say back in the hoop.

December 19th - I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes.

My birthday BJ raffle was done last night at 8:00 PM PST and Bobby Manson was 1st winner. 

Because we do not know her/him we drew a backup and Milo Duran Perez was drawn.

Daeng took her name out of the raffle saying: "Not me, I already have my green card!"

Milo, I love you but we hope we can get ahold of Bobby Manson.

Till then, it is onward through the Christmas holiday.

Merry Christmas to all!

We also want everyone to know, dressing up "Akha" is fun. 

Daeng thinks this snowman looks like me. 

December 21st - It's a Merry Christmas Celebration along with Daeng's and my birthdays.  

Daeng was born on Christmas Day in a pig barn along the Burma border. 

No written record but Daeng's Mother is Catholic and remembers it was Christmas.  

It was fun to hangout with all the family on the West Coast.  We all missed Mom. 

We have been doing some work, fixing furnaces. that's a good thing. 

December 23rd - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 

December 24th - We repaired a furnace for a couple that has been married 70 years.

Daeng loved their stuffed animals. 

The big one is named Randy. 

December 25th - Robert is going to open TOP for a get together at 7:00 AM this morning.

He said he would also make tweaker coffee. That is the kind that one cup will keep you up for four days.

I am going to stop at Yum-Yum Donuts to pick up the sugar. 

Welcome to the 32 hour meeting at The Other Place.

Then it's the meeting after the meeting with friends at Denny's.

Then it’s Christmas afternoon with daughter Amy, at Piecemakers. 

Life is great.

We hope everyone has a very happy holiday!

Work, work work as it has been cold and windy.  

We love to work as it gives us a feeling of accomplishment to help people and make money, also.

When we are not working, Daeng has been taking pieces of paper and making things with it.

She makes baskets, cell phone holders and all types of things. 

December 31st - We are going to stay home, go to bed early and try to stay awake to watch the ball drop in New York.

HAPPY NEW YEAR  to everyone. 

Winter in California 2014

Please forgive my spelling and punctuation, I'm a plumber and not an English major. Just read and have fun.
We had an uneventful trip to our home in California from Thailand. 

This winter was a little different, in my head, as Mom had passed away in September. Mom, you will always be loved and remembered. 

It was nice to be home. 

On my birthday, I got up early and went to see the folks at Flagship Health Care Center in Newport Beach.  I'm told that what you do on your birthday is what you will do the rest of the year.  

It is also a good excuse to eat a donut as I'm taking a bunch of donuts to these folks.

Yes, I'm on a diet. Daeng is trying to help me and she told me if I loose 30 more pounds I can be on top. 

After the visit to Flagship I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my driver's license.  Because I'm really old they had me take an eye test and written test.  

With my glasses I passed the eye test, I wear them all the time anyway, and the written test.  I thought it was a little strange that the man doing the written test made me stand for the taking of the test.  Anyway, I passed everything and they renewed my licence in California for five (5) more years. 

By the way, I love these glasses because when I wear them I can say: "I've got a heart on!"


My sister, Diane, found this old Christmas card from 1961, back in the day I was young, skinny and had lot's of hair. 

Christmas was very relaxed this year.  

Daeng was very happy with Santa, also. 

Spending time with friends over the holidays is always wonderful.

I had plans to take Daeng to New Orleans in February to give her the Mardi Gras experience.  When she found out how much it was going to cost she said: "NO, we can feed 16,000 meals to the kids in Thailand.  I could not argue with her. 

We also want to thank all the folks that donated money to help the "Kids in Thailand".  As many folks know we try to help the kids here on the Myanmar (Burma) border to have food, shelter and a friendly environment to learn. 


My Mother, before she died, told me she wanted Daeng to have the "Happy Bears" that I had given her many years ago.  You can see them in many of the pictures of Mom as she wore them almost all the time.

If you look closely at them you know why they are happy. 

Even though I typed the note in Daeng's card I got wet eyes when I read it to Daeng. The grieving process continues.   

You can always tell when Deang is in a good mood. I call it her food language. 


Here is an example. 

We think the best part of returning to California is to hang out with friends. 

Here is a picture of two of our friends. I call them the "Mud-Flap Girls" as they remind me of the pictures of girls on truck mud-flaps. 

We also got to spend some time and break bread with our friend Tom Rhiel and Catrina Bowman.  Tom has been doing websites and videos for us for many years, Thanks Tom. He also is a very funny man!

Catrina has a collect of Buddha's that we like to add to when possible. Her collection won an award at the Orange County Fair this summer. 

Daeng hand sewed the apron that Tom is wearing in the picture.  I think he looks great in it. 

It doesn't matter which home we are staying, there is always Thai rice and peanut butter. 


We, along with many other people in the world, think Jasmine rice is the best rice. It has a very nutty flavor. 

Our friends, Michael and Charlotte, took us to the river for Super Bowl.  

Daeng likes Laughlin better than Las Vegas.  She says that folks are more friendly in Laughlin.  

You can tell by the smile on her face, she does like to play the machines. 

Here is a picture of Daeng with here favorite American Breakfast. 

We did spend a little time in the Sport-book. 


Everyone else won but at the last minute I lost.  What a stupid play to pass the ball.  Oh well, it's only money.

While getting the thousand of old records ready to try and sell I came upon this old, beat up picture of me.  

It is back in the days when I would do anything to get attention. 

That is a lot of fire!  Brings back found thoughts of AMACO 100 Octane gasoline. 

That was the best tasting!

Over the last 70 plus years we have accumulated thousands of records, tapes and CD's.  Our Mother also had a ton of 78 and 45 rpm records.  Some looked good but we did not know what to do with them.  

A friend, Jeff Baker, suggested we take them to Ameoba Music in Hollywood as he had sold some of his collect to them.  They are the largest independent record store in the world. He said they were very honest and fair. 

We took the tons of records and dropped them off while we went to visit our friends, Lahna Turner and family. 

We had a fun time with them, as always.  We went to Sweet Lady Janes in Hollywood and ate pie. It was kind of like John Travolta in the movie Michael. We just had slices instead of the whole pie. Thanks Sweet Lady Janes for putting up with us. 

The unfortunate part is all those old records in front of Daeng have almost no value.  They gave us enough money to pay for our gas. The nice part is they are gone and out of our way. 

Well, it's time to get ready to fly back to the "Land of Smiles" for the spring.


We had our car serviced by Omar at 1 Stop Complete Auto Care. It is wonderful to find a repair garage that cares about you, the customer.  

Thanks Omar and good bye Simpson Chevrolet Dealer Service. You guys suck!

We will see you all again in June. 

Winter 2013-2014 USA

On December 1st we arrived back in California safely.  The trip back always messes with our minds as we leave Bangkok around 5:30 PM and arrive two hours later in Los Angeles.  Yep, two hours later after being in the air for over 15 hours.

The next day, after uncovering the rest of the furniture and our car, I had to go to Garden Grove to pick up some parts for the winter heating season.  

I was hungry so I stopped at Tommy's Restaurant on Chapman Avenue across from See's Candy and had a wonderful breakfast for $3.23, tax included.  

Folks, this was one of the best breakfasts I have had in the USA at any price.  Try it, you might like it. 

Daeng and I will be fixing heating systems here in Southern California until the end of February and then back to "The Land of Smiles" until the summer. 

Please do yourself a favor and check your furnace air filter.  Dirty air filters cause the most problems with furnaces so change or wash your air filter.  It is usually in the bottom of your furnace or in a filter grill where the air returns to your system to he heated. 

We do our filter when we change the clocks; the spring ahead and fall back time change.  Also, check the batteries in your smoke alarms.  

It is also better for your health to have a clean air filter.  Please remember you breath that air, also.

We also celebrated life with a lot of folks this winter. That means we ate lots of cake!  Congratulations to everyone. 

Daeng likes Christmas and all the decorating and package wrapping.  She does a beautiful job wrapping gifts, also.  

Here is a picture of my daughter Tina, Uncle Jimmy, our friend Bill and Daeng decorating my sister Diane's tree.  

Here is a gift that Daeng brought back from Thailand to give me for a Christmas gift.  

It is a paper clip holder for my desk.  

She said it looks like me sitting on the toilet.  We both laughed. 

The New Year celebrations were fun as well.

On New Years Eve, Daeng, sister Diane and I spent time with my Mother.  She is still hanging on at age 92 and is pretty sharp most of the time.

On television we watched the ball drop in New York City with Mom, had some sparkling apple and pomegranate juice.  We were in bed by 10:00 PM.  

Give us a break, we're old!

On Sunday, the family and a few friend got together to celebrate the New Year with Daeng's and my birthday.  

Daeng was born on Christmas Day in a pig barn in Thailand on the Myanmar (Burma) border.  There is no written record of her birth so all her identification shows here birthday as January 1st.  

I always kid here as she has two birthdays in a week. 

Last year, when she turned 40, I told her I was going to trade her in for two 20 year old girls.  She just put her hands on her hips, looked me straight in the eyes and said: "You're not wired for 220!"  I love her!


It is great to see friends that we miss when we are in Thailand.  Here is a picture of our friends Devin and Peg.

We also love visiting Michael and Charlotte in Wasco, California.  Wasco is a little above Bakersfield.  


You can read a few more stories regarding Bakersfield by clicking HERE.

Daeng handmade an apron for Charlotte.  I love this picture of her modeling it. 

Michael's son, Vincent, made the trip with us.  He was is a great traveler and was fun to be with. 

We also had dinner at a fund raiser put on by the "Friends of Jimmy K".  We had a great time.


I love the expression on Charlotte's face in this picture.  I was wondering where Michael's other hand is. 

I might also add we always have fun with our extended family.  

I had to laugh at Daeng as to soften her hair she puts on this mud like stuff that she brought from Thailand.  She mixed it up and put it into her hair.  Than she wraps it in a towel like rag and leaves it for at least 8 hours.  

I must admit, it does make her hair very soft. 

We worked a lot in December fixing heating systems but January and February were very warm months.  I think that Los Angeles broke their record for having the warmest January in written history.


It was okay for me as I'm getting to old to work very hard.  

We did get to go to a few conventions and hook up with some old friends. 

We had dinner at Todai's with our old friends, Paul and Cheryl Scaglione.  Cheryl gave me a DVD of the "Legend of Masty Huba".  If you you like to read more about him just click HERE.

Around 1980 a California artist, Andrew Taylor, painted a picture of me and titled it "Masti F. Huba".  

I don't know were the "F" comes from but you can guess.  

We also had some time to visit with my daughter, Amy, who lives and works with the Peacemaker group. To read more about their store just click HERE. 

The store is wonderful, the people are great and the food is always delicious.  

If you get to Costa Mesa, California just stop in and see them. 

It was a wonderful winter but it is time to return to our home in Thailand on the Myanmar (Burma) border.

I hope to get some of the medical work done done in Thailand, like joint lubricant injected into my knees, that was denied by my Medicare Advantage Plan through Anthem Blue Cross. 

Although the injections have been helping me for years, the insurance company says that they don't feel the health benefit is enough to justify the cost.  

The positive side is I can probably have the injection done cheaper cheaper in Thailand than my co-pay in the USA. 

We'll write more from Thailand.