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.
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.
We made it back to Thailand but wanted to tell you how great our summer in America was. Also, please forgive the spelling and punctuation error. Remember, I'm a plumber and not an English major.
We had a wonderful Summer. We returned from Thailand in June. It took us a little while to get over jet-lag and get back into the fast way of life in California.
I called this posting "Cake and Friends" because we spent a lot of time having cake with friends. We love cake and the birthday celebrations that the cake and candles represent.
One of the very cool things that Daeng, the little Thai girl and my wonderful wife, did for Father's Day was to wrap my aluminum invoice box in heavy paper. I had been complaining about the metal box making scratches on our car dash everything I touched the invoice box to it.
She wrapped it in heavy elephant dung paper. I though, how fitting to have a plumber's invoice box covered with elephant poop.
The nice part is the elephant must have eaten a lot of bananas so now my invoice box smells like bananas. If you don't believe me, the next time you see us just ask for a sniff.
We started off with cake for Angelina's, our great-grand daughter, birthday party.
Daeng says she doesn't mind being a great-grandmother but dislikes being married to a great-grandfather.
We also had fun with our great-grandson, Isaiah. He is really cute and minds well. He had a wonderful time in the bubble bounce.
They both love their grandmother as you can see in this picture.
We love cake and celebrations so we started off with a couple of our friends celebration the good life. Again, we love cake and celebrations.
It was great to spend some time with our friend's Robin and Carol. Congratulations to Carol, as well.
George and Jean's cake was delicious, also. Congratulations to you both.
We also love those huge birthday cards.
Then we got busy with visiting friends. Pat Leborio invited us to his show at the Irvine Improv. Pat is a very funny man. He also believes laughter is healing.
Pat is wearing a very cool shirt, also. Thanks Pat!
Oh, I almost forgot, it was nice to see our sister, Diane, in the Huntington Beach Independence Day Parade. She is very active in the Assistance League of Huntington Beach.
Our mother turned 92 on July 22, 2013. We had a BIG party with lots of friends and family.
To start things off, my sister Sylvana with husband Rick, daughter and son Shelsea and Ian flew in from New York to surprise her. She was very surprised. She had more surprises to come.
On her birthday, Shivaraj picked her up in his special taxi and drove her to Diane's home.
Diane had arranged with Piecemakers, from Costa Mesa, for tent and stage as well as the Piecemaker Band to play for her birthday. They were playing when she arrived.
I was glad to see everyone. My youngest daughter Amy is with Piecemakers so she came along. My oldest daughter, Tina, was present, too. Amy is sitting next to Daeng and Tina is on the right.
Eric Schwartz, aka: Smooth-E and Suburban Homeboy came by and spent some time with Mom. Mom has done a couple of videos with Eric and is very fond of him. Here are two videos with Eric. Just click on names: Chocolate Coins and White Hurr.
She was very surprised and very happy to see him.
We had lots of other entertainment folks and family come by. Tom Riehl, our website host and funny guy along with his fiancé, Catrina, with lots of Mom's friends came to her wonderful party. My sister Diane is a real party maker. Thanks Sis!
Now, what do we do for her 93rd birthday?
Next, cake for Pat. Congratulations, you help lots of people.
Then, YEA!, it's my turn. I also want to thank everyone along the NA Program for helping me stay clean for over 17 years!
Now, my sponsor told me that because I had been clean for 17 years, I had to go to 17 different meetings, share in 17 meetings for 17 minutes as well as putting 17 dollars in each meeting's basket. I'm looking for a new sponsor!
By the way, I did the 17 meetings and went all the way to Bakersfield to have cake with some friends from that area. Thanks, it was a fun time for all.
Daeng likes all the fruits and vegetables that are grown in central California. We bought back a car load for good stuff to eat.
This picture of Daeng is in a pecan grove.
This summer, at a show at the Improv, we also hooked up with an old friend Rebecca Arthur . My question is: "Do you think Rebecca makes Daeng look short?"
It was also fun to spend some time with our old friend, Love You Long Time Sam. We go back a few years.
Now, the fun and cake, as well as the summer, is only about half over. It was a long and fun summer. We got to spend some time at the pool with Lahna Turner, April, August and Ralphie May. We loved this picture of April and Ralphie with April holding the Reserved Sign. She is "Reserved" for Dad!
More cake for our friend Jeannie. Congratulations!
Cake is for us young folks. Here are a couple of pictures at April's birthday party. You tell me, who is having the most fun, the kids or the adults?
Everyone is dancing!
It's piñata time. I want some candy!
Okay, more cake for everyone!
Okay, enough cake. How about a little trip to learn about the 37th President of the United States of America?
Sounds like fun and he was born right here in Orange County in the City of Yorba Linda.
Here is the bed he was born in.
Here Daeng standing with some world powers.
She is the best looking!
How about a trip to the largest food market I have ever been in. The funny part is it is right here on Main Street in Santa Ana.
Daeng say the produce is wonderful and the prices are really cheap.
Fresh tortillas, also.
Time for more cake.
Congratulations Susan!
Okay, how about a little fishing?
My friend, Richard, likes to fish so he bought a little fishing boat. It is 65 foot long.
We went to San Diego to see him. Daeng had fun right at the dock.
We also eat like kings, we love fresh fish.
Although we did not go to sea, Tony, Richard's friend who has been in and around the fishing business since he was a kid, helped Daeng catch fish right at the dock.
She had a blast!
Let me introduce you to the rest of the crew. This is Sissi, Her job is to keep the Sea Gulls off the boat.
She also models the new style "Doggy Life Vests".
Then we have Nicky. Nicky's job is to keep the seals away. Nicky swims about six hours a day while on seal watch.
We had a wonderful time with Richard, Tony, Sissi and Nicky.
Thank you!
Yea, more cake. Last week we celebrated Matt and Milo's accomplishments. congratulations to you both!
Then it was my little sister's birthday. The day before we left California we celebrated with Mom, sister Diane and my daughter Tina. I did block out the number candles, at her request. You know how those girls are.
We had a great summer and I gained seven pounds eating all the cake. Now it's diet time in Thailand.
