Moonlit Jazz

What is it about the off season? Why am I so neglectful? Terrible, just terrible!

I’ve moved kiari.com to a different webhost. I decided to go with the same webhost as Leo Laporte! LOL! I’m such a goober. But I couldn’t resist the thought of more webspace for less money. My old webhost was GREAT, but I was only getting 500MB for $9.95 a month, which a decent deal. Now I’m getting 1000MB for $5.95 a month! Twice the webspace for almost half the price. I could not resist.

I have a dilemna though. I signed up for a year and by doing that I get a free domain name. It will point to a subdomain on my main domain. I was thinking of doing “wglonline.com” for my William Gregory Lee site. “WilliamGregoryLee.com” is also available, but it just seems like such a long URL. And what if he wants it for something official?

Maybe I should ask. 😛

I’m working on a story! Want to know more? Check out The Romantic Misadventures of Deputy Colby Davenport. I need to work on the story now!

I voted yesterday. No long lines, very easy. I think it’s because we live out in a town called Salida. 😉

I’m proud of all the people who voted. You all ROCK! And it doesn’t matter who you voted for, all that matters is that you voted. 🙂 There was more than just the presidency on the ballot.

Now can we just get on with our lives?

Ohhhh, and CONGRATULATIONS to Eric Chavez on the Gold Glove. Yeehaw!!!

Wedding day was fun! No, really. 😉 I must admit though, twas a LONG day.

We arrived at my parents’ house at about noon. My sister was still doing her hair. Ye gods! LOL! I got dressed and started walking to the church a few minutes before I was supposed to be there. People were milling around the front of the church and the groom was already there. 🙂

Church shots: in front of St. Felicitas, the newlyweds and the mother of the bride, bridal party coming back to the front of the church, bridesmaids…

The ceremony was LONG. Part of it was because it was a full mass (all the readings, the Gospel, and communion) along with the wedding ceremony stuff. And the priest told long stories during his time. 😛 I almost started crying when my cousin was walking down the aisle. I couldn’t believe it was finally happening!

After the church pictures, the bridal party piled into the limo for the drive into San Francisco. We had snacks (I had two pork buns!) and drinks and lots of conversations.

Groomsmen, the bride and groom, them again, bridesmaids…

We stopped at the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park for photos. The other bridesmaids were cold, but I found the cool air refreshing. LOL! We took some fun pictures.

Park pictures: Bridesmaid and Bride, the Bride, the married couple back, then front…

The limo ride was fun. We had lots of room and it was great not having to worry about getting lost. Timewise we were way behind, but no one was too worried about it. 😛

Limo shots of the bride and groom…

The restaurant sigh, an empty wine bottle dedicated to Firefighter Roy Chin (father of the bride and first Asian-American fire fighter for Oakland FD), the beautiful cake, the dinner menu…

The guests were already waiting at the Empress of China, but we didn’t go up right away. We took more pictures (the photographer was cool, btw) outside, then headed up to check out the full ballroom. Final guest count was around 460 people. YE GODS!

Camcam girls in each photo: Bev, Val, Sheilah; Bev & John; Sheilah & Bev; Val, Julie, Kevin, & Sheilah

The bride and groom headed up for the Tea Ceremony (I still don’t know exactly what happened there because I sat down in my chair to rest my feet), then the reception stuff started. The bridal party was introduced (woohoo for us!), then the bride and groom. The Lion Dance started, then the bride and groom had their first dance.

I think while the first courses came out, the best man made his speech. It was a good one. I almost started crying towards the end of it. 😛 Touching, very touching. And funny too. 🙂

Dinner was many courses but very tasty. I enjoyed the food very much. Yum!

Bride & Groom…

The cake was cut almost before the food was finished. The bridal party did a great job passing out the cake. I had fun doing that. I would pick up a tray and one of the groomsmen would take it from me to pass out. I only had to go out three times or so. Groovay!

Camcam family…

The dj got to play songs for maybe an hour. Lots of dancing by the people who stuck around. I must give props to Ryan for his groovin’ moves. Yowsa! 😀

The last song played after 11pm and then everything wound down. Thank goodness we had a room at the Holiday Inn Select just a block or so away! After saying our goodbyes, we walked to the hotel and had a decent night’s sleep…

According to the schedule, the Bride has been awake for at least half an hour and the groom is just waking up right now. As for me, Bridesmaid 3 (?), I have been awake for about ten minutes. And what do I do first? I turn on the computer! LOL!

How exciting! I wonder if my cousin is nervous right now. I remember when I got married. My sister and cousins stayed the night with me, I think, and we had Cinnabon for breakfast. My ceremony was at 11am, so we had to wake up early. We got ready and headed to my parents’ house and from there I just can’t remember too much. Like how did I get to the church?

The day ahead looks something like this: The husband is going to get us breakfast and I’m going to take a shower while he’s doing that. We’ll eat, get ready, then head to my parents’ house. They only live five minutes away (walking!) from the church. I’m going to get dressed there so that my dress will look as fresh as possible. LOL!

We have to be at St. Felicitas by 12:30pm, which should be easy enough. The ceremony looks to be about 45 minutes or so (Catholic weddings!), then it’s photo shoot at the church. 😀 The bridal party gets to limo it to San Francisco and we’re supposed to take pictures around the city before we hit the reception. Exciting!

My one duty at the reception is to pass out goodies to the little kids. Should I make them say “Trick or treat”? LOL! Dinner isn’t until 7pm, which probably means I’ll be starving by then. Hopefully there are little finger foods floating around. 😉

Hey, if it all happens like the above, I won’t really have to blog it later. LOL!

Until next time…

Ashlee Simpson Karaoke Edition iPod – Okay, I thought this was HILARIOUS!!!

And here’s my take on the whole thing, which is likely so yesterday, but hey, I’ve got time to write a little. LOL!

The difference between a performing artist and a recording artist…

Ashlee Simpson is a recording artist. They made her sing (I say that with a lot of generosity) and took her voice and worked magic (not enough, if you ask me) to produce the album that shot to number one. If anyone watched a moment of her reality show (I only watched a moment), you would know that she doesn’t really have a strong performing voice. Unless you like that kind of stuff. To each their own.

Harry Connick Jr., for example, is a performing artist. He never sounds the same on stage, but his musical performance, whether singing or playing, is consistent and pleasing to the ears. When he records his CDs, he and his band sit down and play each song all the way through, recording the performance in its entirety. One song at a time. I always think of his CDs as little live performances.I’m not going to say that I haven’t enjoyed the first ten or so times I’ve heard Ashlee’s song. “Pieces of Me” has a funky edginess to it. But I’m not disillusioned to believe that she’s a better singer than her sister. I’ve heard Jessica perform live and she’s amazing. I’d be scared to hear Ashlee perform live. From the one episode I saw on MTV, she would have a hard time doing a whole concert.

I enjoy the pop stuff and I take it for what it is. Recording artists cannot sing and dance and sound like their CDs when they perform live. I wouldn’t expect them to. But I’m not going to totally knock them either. They work hard to keep their lips in sync with the music while doing dance moves or what not. I couldn’t do it.

But I still think the link above is funny. 😉

The wedding is on Saturday. The Bride and Groom emailed the schedule today. It’s going to be nuts! 😛 But it’s good they’re organized.

Maid of honor & Bride & Groom & Best Man… the onlookers… Bride & Groom… more onlookers…

A lot of people attended the rehearsal at Saint Felicitas. It was probably the size of the wedding we recently attended in Las Vegas. Crazy. We walked from my parents’ house. They live five minutes (at the most) walking distance from the church. It was strange being in my old church after so long. I think the last time I was there was for an Ash Wednesday. Many moons ago…

Family shots…

It was nice seeing everyone though. Look, it’s my dad doing his karaoke thing. Ye gods! I think he was doing an Elvis song. Groovay.

The dinner was at the Manila Garden in Hayward. The husband actually ate all his food! He’s a picky eater, especially when it comes to Asian food. But the food there was yummy. Ahhh, lumpia!

The biggest rice cooker my eyes have seen, freshly cut squid, pansit and green beans and beef and the lumpia is beyond, halo halo…

Too bad I didn’t get a shot of the lumpia. I love lumpia, especially the little ones. I need to learn how to make that stuff. My comfort food…