Company Holiday Good Time Get Together



The Cerritos Holiday Lunch and Recognition Ceremony

Wednesday December 19th was a good day at American Telephone and Telegraph. We had a Holiday/Year End Recognition lunch event at the Cerritos office. It was cool to have so many of the employees in one room. It's not often that we are all together as we are so spread out across Los Angeles.


Teresa, Me, Shelley, Tiffany, Cecilia and John

At the end of the day, Team Shubin cashed in on our winnings from an earlier sales contest. TeleNav sponsored a Happy Hour event for us at Macaroni Grill.


Me, Shelley, Cecilia and John

Even though we still had a few days of work before the end of year, it felt like vacation time was beginning. The team had a secret Santa gift exchange.


Tiffany, Teresa, Me, Shelley, and Cecilia

Not all the ladies are represented in this image. Val had already left, Patricia was unable to attend and Susan was busy talking with some one else. Both Marcus and Nick were also absent.


Julian, Diego, and John

Julian joined us since he is always willing to help consume adult bevs. Diego, our host, used to be a Team Shubin team member prior to taking the TeleNav Rep. role so it is always good to have him around. Of course, everyone recognizes John the fearless leader of the team.


Utena and Chelle

Utena our RIM rep shared the evening with us and the lovely Chelle graced us with her presence.


Susan, Teresa, Tiffany, Cecilia, Me, John, Shelley and Martin (Team Shubin)

Here the team claims their rank in the LA area. Notice I have a difference of opinion.


Nick

Nick was Marcus's secret santa, but since neither was in attendance Val decided we needed to open his gift. Always the jokester, Nick gift wrapped a lovely self portrait of himself for Marcus.


Nick and the Girls

Here the girls pose with the picture of Nick. We had a fun time and are happy to celebrate the teams' success, the end of the year and of course Christmas!

Naples Christmas Boat Parade




Saturday night we met up with some friends and went to our old neighborhood to see the Christmas boat parade. I couldn't figure out the new camera well enough to take night time photos, but I do have two videos. You can kind of sense the mood and the excitement of the event. The island totally comes alive during the month of December. The home owners decorate their homes so amazingly. It is really fun.

Happy Holiday Hour

Wednesday after work Chelle and I welcomed my coworkers into our home to celebrate Christmas.


Val, Nick, Erin, Tiffany and Cecilia

Chelle had decorated the house so nicely and the place smelled delicious. We had an assortment of appettizers, sweets and festive beverages. Chelle even made her famous hot spiced apple cider.


Julian talking to Crockett and Clementine.

The puppies were so good. Of course they had their usual competition to be the loudest dog in the house as the guest arrived, but once everyone was in they relaxed and even made some friends.


Ed, Glen, Susan and Joe

At work on Wednesday Glen and Joe visited from HTC to discuss the Tilt and its benefits to our business clients. Since they were in town, we had them come over and get to know the team a little better.


Julian and Nick

We had so much fun We are real happy to have such great coworkers.


Cecilia and Shelly

The last two weeks a cold/flu has been making the rounds. Cecilia was feeling the effects of it, but was a trooper and still came to visit.


Me, Octavio and Cesar

Chelle and I got rid of the pool in the back yard and replaced it with a portable fire pit. We all enjoyed the hot apple cider and sitting out by the fire. It's true there is no snow on the ground here, but it is cold (by California standards) and the brisk air makes the Christmas season feel right.

Santa in the Recording Studio

Renee and Ugo's Christmas Party



Saturday December 1st we convened at Renee and Ugo's home in Redondo Beach for our annual white elephant gift exchange. This year there were more people than the house could hold. The tree sat outside on the porch. It was awesome.



Chelle and me waiting for our turn to pick a gift from under the tree.



Chelle and Crystal



Ugo taking a picture of me taking picture of him taking a picture of me....



Christian, Lisa, and Sean. The scary thing is that Lisa is actually 5'10".



Chelle with our old neighbors and great friends Josh, Judy and Jaqueline (better known as J3)



The hostess of the party surrounded by her entourage.



Chelle and I with our driver.

Christmas Tree for the LA Crowes

Saturday Chelle and I went up in the mountains to find the perfect Christmas tree. We had to hike about a mile in the thick brush until we found the perfect tree. Next, we had to saw it down and all we had was a dull pocket knife. Chelle then carried the tree the mile back to the car as I was busy trying to get cellphone reception as I hadn't checked my email in over 45 minutes. We got back to the car, tied the tree to the top of the vehicle and drove back down the mountain to set it up and decorate it.



Just kidding, I never go 45 minutes without checking my email.



Ok, Ok none of that was true. We drove a mile down the street to the local Home Depot and paid $53 dollars for a tree that was already cut. But we did tie it to the roof and drive all the way back to the house with the tree precariously balanced on the top of the car.



Here is the tree before we put a bunch of shiny stuff on it.



This is what the tree looks like with all the pretty stuff attached.



After the tree decorating ceremony our friends Trent and Mike came down from the Valley to visit.



Us three dudes went for a curry at Ambala Dhaba in little India.



We then headed to Target to buy an outdoor fire pit to keep us warm as we all sat in the back yard the rest of the evening talking and enjoying some wine.



Chelle looks like she enjoyed the Turkey a bit too much during Thanksgiving.
...hey, where's Clementine?



OH! There she is!!!



I'm very proud of the size of my Dachshund.
(He was supposed to be a miniature but now weighs in at a whopping 22 pounds.)



The next morning Chelle made a fantastic breakfast for all of us. It was another fun weekend at the house. We certainly enjoying spending time with our friends.

Thanksgiving two oo7


Just maybe the cutest dachsund in the world.


No wait... this is the cutest dachsund in the world. Ok, they tie.


Cheers for Thanksgiving 2007.


mmmm


Happy Thanksgiving.


Clementine is patiently waiting for me to drop my food. She doesn't realize that I have been using a knife and fork for many years and can do so without dropping a bite.

Third Trip to Havasu

This last weekend Chelle and I made our third trip to Lake Havasu City, AZ in search of our future home away from home. Our very good friend Jake puppysat for us. The dogs seemed to know we were leaving and they weren't happy about it.



The last two trips we have taken the wieners with us, however this time was just for Chelle and I.



Crockett was especially unhappy about the idea of being left in California while we went off to sunny Arizona to look at houses. He crawled in the car as we were packing and wouldn't get out. We had to coerce him out with treats. He spent about 15 minutes in there while we were getting ready to go.



We finally hit the road and drove East.



We forgot about the time change and when we finally got out for our date, the kitchen was closed. We ended up eating at Chilli's and it was fine, but decided that Saturday we'd get an earlier start.



Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (9:30am ;-) for our full day of house hunting. This is the view out our door to the patio overlooking the lake. As you can, it is a horrible way to wake up (read: sarcasm).



We visited 11 houses on Saturday in hopes that we would find the perfect house. It was a frustrating day as we found nothing spectacular.



Saturday evening we went to the Mudshark Brewing Company for dinner. It is a Micro Brewer that makes some very nice beers and even sells Growlers to go. We really had a good time in spite of the lack of a dream home find.

When we got back to the hotel I got back on the computer and continued looking for houses. I found four more that I thought were interesting. Sunday morning after eating breakfast at Ihop we got back in touch with our fantastic realty team who was more than happy to show us the properties. You'll have to wait to see what the outcome of that day was.

To Be Continued....

We've been Elf-ed

My very good friend Patrick has made Chelle and I into Elfs. Take a look HERE.

A visit from Cowboy Keith

Friday night we had a very nice surprise visitor all the way from Nashville, TN. For those of you that have either lived in Music City USA or followed my music career, you may recognize Cowboy.




Cowboy used to run sound for All Star United. I had remembered it as being a longer time, but he claims it was only from 1998 to '99. Maybe it just seemed longer because it was so painful. Just kidding. It was an awesome time to be traveling together. Even though I don't get much of an opportunity to see Cowboy, he still feels like family to me. We shared a bunch of fun memories and had a great laugh.



He introduced Chelle and I to M'Lynn. She met him after he moved on from A.S.U. and started running sound for BR549. They have been friends ever since and whenever he makes it to L.A. they get together. M'Lynn was awesome and Chelle and I really enjoyed hanging out with her. We all went to dinner together and then stayed up quite late laughing about the good ol' days.



Saturday morning, we all went to CoCo's for breakfast, before they headed back up to Silverlake. Cowboy is now running sound for Peter Cetera, BR549 and Dena Carter. He also fronts his own band playing guitar and singing old time country tunes. Keep your eyes peeled, you may see him on the road or hear him on the radio sometime.