America's Kids' Day

On Saturday, September 15, 2007, Sarah and I took Mikey to the America's Kids' Day Fair. He seemed to have a good time. There were a lot of activities for the little kids to do.

BMW Ultimate Drive

This weekend, I went to the BMW Ultimate Drive event. On Saturday, I went to Sherman Oaks, and on Sunday, I went to Calabasas. BMW partnered up with the Susan G. Komen foundation to fight against breast cancer. For every mile I drive, they will donate $1 to the foundation. Not a bad deal! I get to drive (which I love doing) and also help out a great cause.

I drove pretty much every BMW that's currently sold. I loved driving through the twisty mountain roads of Mulholland Drive. I drove the Z4 roadster and 3.0 coupe, X5, X3, 328, 335i, 528, 535xi, 745, 650 coupe and convertible.

There was also some good food like sandwiches and other baked goodies.

The courses were pretty good. This was definitely the best driving event I've been to and plan on going again next near. The courses were about 11 to 14 miles long. That gave me enough time to really test out each car.

The Z4s were like race cars for the street. I would love to drive these cars everyday, if it weren't for the fact that it only seats two. Most of the time (about 90%) I drive alone, but sometimes, it helps to seat a few more people and haul more things. The Z4 coupe's growl was pretty loud. It sounded great. Z4s handle like go-karts compared to all the other ones. They're very agile and hug the road. I loved being able to carve the corners really fast. I liked the manumatic on it as well. You could shift with the levers on the steering wheel or use the shifter.

The 328 could well be the car that I purchase if I got a BMW. This is a real sports sedan. It handles really well and the seat fit me so well, it hugged me on the corners to keep me in place.

The 335 coupe was very fast. I won't say how fast I went on the freeways, but it could be enough to get this event canceled if people complained about seeing these cars fly through the roads. I noticed some disappointing turbo lag in the beginning, but once you get to the upper ranges of the tachometer, the engine really screams. The 2008 335 has nearly the same performance as the outgoing M3, so you could easily see why this car rocks. It has a V-6 twin turbo. I can only imagine how awesome the new M3 is going to be. I wonder how much faster and more powerful cars can get. I mean, seriously, we're complaining about oil and gas prices and people are concerned about the environment and yet car companies keep trying to outdo one another and themselves. The M5 has 500 horses. How much more horsepower will the next generations of M5s have?!

The 7 series was ultra-luxurious, but too big for my tastes. It's powerful, but the iDrive system confused a lot of people, including me in the beginning. It had too many toys that people had a hard time figuring out. I guess BMW had to justify the $90,000 price tag, so they included a ton of luxury features that I really don't need. It's fancy but unnecessary.

The 650 just rocks! The engine note sounds better than Pavarotti, god rest his soul. It's a deep throaty baritone. The 650 is like a really high end muscle car. A sweet ride if you can afford the $95,000+ price tag.

Community Yard Sale

On Saturday, September 8, 2007, I went to the community yard sale in my town. I sold our stuff for supercheap. I was getting tired due to lack of sleep and I didn't want to stand around in the hot sun any longer. I sold some of my books, junk, and clothes for $1.00; many times for only a few cents. Sometimes, I sold a bundle of clothes for only a buck. We had to make room for newer clothes and stuff in our apartment.

I'm not sure that the yard sale was worth the effort and time. Next time, I'm just going to donate all my junk to a charity.

I think I only made around $20 or less for a few hours of work. Other people seemed like yard sale pros. They had tables, chairs, tents, and lots of merchandise set up.

Earlier in the day, I almost got a speeding ticket around 4:00 a.m. after dropping my parents off at the airport for their Alaska cruise. I saw this car speeding up to me and thought it was a cop. It turned out it was. He followed me and then pulled up to the left side of me. Then he went behind me again and followed me for a long time. Finally, after seeing that I'm a nice guy (maybe), the cop took off somewhere else. I lucked out this time, but this is the reason that I should not get a very fast sports car. If I had a Ferrari or something, I'd be getting tickets all the time. With every car I get, I like to see what the car can do.

I'm so tired these days, because of lack of sleep from doing too many things. I should have gotten some rest this weekend, but I love cars so much that I just went to the BMW Ultimate Drive event this weekend anyway. The adrenaline from driving these cars hard kept me awake.

Mikey Afraid of the Water

Here's a short clip of me trying to show Mikey that there's no need to be afraid of the ocean water. He's kinda of a scaredy cat right now.

Jet Skis

On Labor Day, September 3, 2007, Sarah, Mikey, and Whoony (Mikey's Dad), and I went to Dana Point to go jetskiing. It was a heck of a lot of fun! The acceleration on those babies were incredible. I just felt pure speed and adrenaline when I squeezed the throttle. It felt like they accelerated from 0-50 in 2 seconds. I guess they're the motorcycles of the sea. With their light weight and low friction since they skim across the water, they go very fast. Even Sarah had fun, although she screamed with terror when I put it in full throttle. I almost lost my wife in the ocean, because it got very bumpy going across the choppy waves at top speed and she almost fell off. Every time, I felt her bumping up and down and losing her grip on me, I had to slow down, because it wouldn't be good if she fell off.

Mikey and Whoony were on their own jet ski, but Mikey was really scared. So, unfortunately, Whoony couldn't go that fast either.

Afterwards, we went swimming in one of the beaches in Laguna Beach. The weather there was very nice. It was much cooler than in L.A. Mikey was scared of the waves. He didn't even want to touch the water.

When we got home, we all played with Mikey's Nintendo Wii that his dad bought for him. Mikey beat me up in Wii Sports Boxing. He also kicked my butt in Bowling. His average is 180. He's also good at Tennis and Baseball. He's really good for a 5 year old kid. He might be the next video game champion when he grows up and enters those tournaments. He's had a lot of practice with the V Tech video game system for kids. We also played Wii Play, but that is a bunch of mini-games, which I felt was kinda cheesy. The Duck Hunt game felt just like the original Nintendo Duck-Hunt with the light gun back in the 1980's. Hasn't technology vastly improved in over 20 years?!

Sarah also liked playing with the Wii. Hopefully, she'll let me get one. I have to keep opening her eyes to the fun world of videogames so that she'll let me play them and buy a system. I totally regret selling my modded Xbox and PS2.

Sarah liked jetskiing so much that she wants to buy a couple when we buy a house with a big garage.

Now, I'm planning on other fun activities and adventures for us to go on. It's going to be tough getting her to go skydiving with me....

Sam and Deborah's Wedding

On Sunday, September 1, 2007, we went to Sam Oh and Deborah Lee's Wedding. It was at Centennial Heritage Museum in Santa Ana. Sam said it was the best birthday he ever had, since the wedding was on his birthday.

It was broiling over Labor Day weekend. Temperatures were over 110 all weekend in the valleys. I'm hoping it cools down soon. My wife and I had a hard time sleeping because it was so hot. I had 2 fans blowing on me while I was sleeping. The thermostat gauge was off the hook. It was so hot in my "penthouse" (top story) apartment, that you couldn't even see the needle, because it was all the way down and to the left, which must have meant that it was over 110 degrees inside.

That's why I didn't wear a suit to the wedding. It was not out of disrespect for Sam and Deb. I only wear suits when I absolutely have to like when I go to court. I can't believe attorneys have to wear suits in this type of heat. As an aside, I remember when I went to Korea for the Law School Summer Abroad Program. I had to wear a suit all the time, because I interned at a law firm in Seoul. I had to walk a mile to the bus stop or subway station in hot and humid conditions and walk another mile or so to the office. I was drenched in sweat. Wouldn't it look more professional if I was in a t-shirt and shorts instead of looking like I just got out of a sauna in my suit?

Sorry for going off on a tangent, but I hate summer heat. Sam and Deb's wedding was very nice. It was cooler in the evening. The wedding and dinner were held outside. I saw a bunch of my friends from UC San Diego. The only time I see some of them is at friends' weddings now. Some people in the pictures are: Chris, Jane, Max, Nick, Bill, and Phil.

On Sunday, Sarah and I went to the mall to try to stay cool. The mall wasn't even that cool because there were so many people inside.