Tag Archives: dogs

Good boy, Sumo

Look at this good boy! This photo was taken at the shelter over eight years ago. He looks so young in this photo. We got to enjoy his company for eight years to the day, but sadly, today he left us.

This was Sumo and Angel’s first day with us after Collin adopted them exactly eight years ago today. He wasn’t a young dog when we got him, although he certainly had the heart of a puppy!

Try as he might, Sumo was never able to bite that pesky stream of water.

Here he’s enjoying some flowers.

For Halloween this past year, Sumo dressed as a pirate… in Snapchat at least.

Back in 2010, I won a Tails doll at the OC Fair. Sumo seemed to have it out for him. He loved destroying toys and leaving the fluff everywhere. It’s been years since I’ve seen him do something like this.

He always knew how to get more pets, too. He’d roll from his side almost to his back, front legs up sort of like a begging position. We’d call it “dinosaur,” because they were like little t-rex arms. We’d rub his belly and give him pets, and he’d put his legs down. When we tried to walk away, he’d just dinosaur again, trapping us there.

I remember once there was thunder, and I was the only one home. Sumo and Angel ran upstairs to come to my room. They were pretty scared from the thunder and ran under my desk to stay near my feet. If I tried to walk around my room, they’d crowd around my feet to stay with me. I’m glad I could make you feel better, sweet boy.

Look at my tired boy taking a nap. You were always a good boy, Sumo – the best boy! I love you.

Stand up paddle boarding and the OC Night Market

This weekend held a few fun things – like stand up paddle boarding! First, I had the wrong address number, and we drove 10 minutes out of the way. Next, we used East instead of West in the address and drove 10 minutes incorrectly again. Finally, we got to the board rental place and locked the keys in the car. We decided to worry about that later because it was time for Kaylin, gem, and I to have fun!

gem wanted to do yoga, and then I wanted to do yoga too.

Due to wrist pain, I’ve been avoiding anything that puts pressure on my wrist, but you put a paddle board under me, and I decide I don’t care.

Oof.

I tried for a while to balance on one foot, but I just couldn’t do it. I guess that’s no big surprise.

We got to see lots of cool animals while on the water such as this SUP dog! It fell off the board once while we watched and just swam back up to the board. It had a handle on its harness, so its owner just picked it up and put it back on the board. Adorable! We also some saw some birds of course as well as seals or sea lions. I can never tell the difference, but they were cute and liked to aarf. One kept trying to jump onto a boat; we watched him a fail a few times while we cheered him on, but he gave up. Another was just napping and started aarfing at us when we got too close.

It was a ton of fun! The wind picked up near the end, making us take forever to get back. We were on the water for a bit under three hours, and I guess it was a pretty good work out. Unfortunately, I did get sunburned, but gem gave me aloe from her aloe plant! When we got back to the beach, Kaylin stayed with us while figured out the keys. Hooray for AAA.

After paddle boarding, gem and I grabbed lunch at Akropolis. The Greek food was amazing! We started with this huge appetizer platter. I was really craving dolma, and this platter delivered it and more. Everything was amazing.

We also had a Greek pizza, which I considered the best pizza I’d ever eaten. gem said it was just because I’m hungry, but I think that’s a valid factor. Experience counts.

It had sauce, cheese, gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and tzatziki. Oh, wow. It was really amazing.

I also talked with the guy working there a bit. He confirmed that it was Greek owned. He’s actually half Greek and half Persian, and he asked if I was Greek because he noticed my name on my card. Neither of us were taught Greek, although he knows Farsi, which is cool! I’d love to come back here.

That night I went to the OC Night Market with these awesome people, gem, Anela, and Jonathan.

We ate a bunch of tasty things like this donut with ice cream in the middle topped with chocolate chips and mini Oreos. Actually, it was just kind of meh. I don’t think the donut added anything except unneeded carbs, and I’ve had much better mint chocolate chip ice cream. But it was fun to eat it anyways haha. We also went back to the same booth that took an hour with our order last time; this time it only took a couple minutes, and the servings were much larger! Anela craved fries, so we ended up getting curry fries, garlic crab fries, and Spam fries. We all expected the Spam fries to be fries topped with Spam, but they were more literal. It was Spam cut likes fries and fried. Yummy but salty!

My biggest goal for the night was to find Orion’s Cookery and get their new Hot Cheetos Brick, essentially a Rice Krispies Treat made with Hot Cheetos instead of Rice Krispies. They only had two left when I bought mine. Huzzah! After my first, small bite, I thought it was a little odd – not bad but not amazing – and maybe slightly stale tasting. Then I ate more, and as I took a bigger bite, I was pretty impressed. Win!

Anela wanted the Turkish ice cream, with which she was familiar. I’d never heard of it. According to Wikipedia, it’s called dondurma and is also popular in Greece as dudurmas or kaimaki. It’s thicker than normal ice cream and more resistant to melting. The vendor let me take his picture before he got our ice cream. I liked his clothes! He makes a bit of a show of serving it, which also shows off how it’s different than our typical ice cream. He’d put it in a cone, swing it around such that typical ice cream would fall from the cone, hand it to Anela, twist and grab it back, etc. It was fun!

And how was it?

Tasty, tasty! I’d definitely get it again, especially given the show of it. Wikipedia also mentions that that showmanship is typical of dondurma vendors. Buy some if you get the chance!

Okay, that’s it. You can stop reading. Thanks! 🙂

Reggae and the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival

I did two interesting things this weekend, but I don’t have enough to say about each of them to make individual posts! First, I went The Point Restaurant and Bar in Dana Point with Anela and gem. Our friend Sean invited us to watch his dad’s reggae band. It was also Sean’s dad’s birthday! He seemed pretty popular!

The band was fun, playing a variety of reggae and classic rock covers. The venue was pretty cool too. It’s a bit far to go just for drinks, but if I was in the area or there was something happening there, I’d definitely go again.

The 30th annual Toshiba Tall Ships Festival was also in Dana Point! It was a beautiful day.

gem and I watched some pirates learn about Pirate High Tea from their admiral. It was an amusing performance in which the pirates struggle to understand the delicacies of having tea.

They also had dancers!

We met an adorable rat named Izzy the Pyrat! He had a little pirate’s hat and everything.

This blacksmith was making dice. He was pretty interesting and answered many of gem’s blacksmith questions.

He even made this rose.

Aboard one of the ships was a band playing amusing songs about being pirates. They’re called The Boo Hoo Crew. Despite claiming to be a children’s band, I liked them. “Old McPirate had a ship. / E-I-E yo ho!”

Then it was snack time. gem wanted to get corn, and it was buy two items, get a third free. I bought a corn dog with the corn so I could get an Arnold Palmer for free. They didn’t have any corn dogs ready unless I was willing to accept one with a split in the breading. Because I was okay with it, they even threw in an extra corn dog for free!

We got our corn all lathered up in mayo with a variety of delicious toppings.

gem was hungry!

While watching a weapons demonstration, we met the most adorable dog. His owner didn’t mind, so we showered him with attention.

Oh, right. Here’s the weapons demonstration itself.

And then we had dinner!

Jonah’s birthday, seeing Shaun, and Father’s Day

Today we went to a birthday party for gem’s newphew, Jonah. It was a lot of fun, but as usual at her family parties, I ate way too much. Cooking skill must run in the family!

We also got to play with this awesome dog. I believe her name was Nala. At one point she got in the house, and when they tried to get her to leave, she flattened out and refused to budge. Adorable.

After the party I stopped by Shaun’s place. He’s moving to Australia soon and was giving away some of this belongings. He gave me some dumbbells and the collector’s edition of The Burning Crusade. We stayed for a while and chatted, which was nice since I hadn’t seen him in a while. It takes a lot of courage and initiative to make such a big life-changing choice like moving to a new country. I hope it works out well for him!

After Shaun’s it was off to my dad’s house. He seems to be doing well, and I’m glad I got to talk to him on Father’s Day. We almost always argue about huge personal philosophies, politics, and the economy, but it’s nice that he gives me a point of view that’s often hard to see. On the way back to the car, I met a woman who asked for help a box out of her truck. She and another woman had purchased a new shed and needed to carry into the backyard. I helped them get it moved and talked for a bit. They were both very nice and offered me a ride if I needed and money for my help, both of which I declined. I didn’t want to take their money, and I didn’t actually need the ride.

Although I feel exhausted right now for some reason, it was a very nice day.