California Love

My Little Superstar

My little boy will be starting in Kindergarten in the fall. The last few months since I updated we have gone through some major changes in our life.

But I have to start off with my little man first. We had applied to 6 private schools in LA and after attending tours, coffees, open houses, interviews, test and playdates for Reggie (yes, I felt like I was applying to college) we finally got our decisions back 2 weeks ago. He was accepted at 3 schools and waitlisted at 3 schools which put us in a very fortunate situation since we had options which isn't typical in the LA or NY private school process. LA Times actually wrote an article recently talking about the lengths people go to get their child into private school (http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-kindergarten6apr06,1,2056137.story?track=rss ) . Well I certaintly did not submit a full page essay on his strengths and weakness - I think he or I would need therapy if I submitted an entire essay - sheesh people they are 4 1/2 years old. I have to say I was not stressed about whether he would get into school but was more stressed as to whether I was making the right decision to send him to private school vs. public school.

So after Reggie graduates preschool in June he will be attending Brentwood School which is an amazing school which I think he will thrive at.

Other big news - we finally moved. We finished our renovations toward the end of Jan (luckily our super cool dual flush toilet was installed the day we moved in) and we have been happily getting settled in to our new place. We really love living in Santa Monica in a small condo complex that is walking distance to restaurants and parks. It is so nice to sometimes walk! So we hope you make it out to LA and come visit us.

Other random news - besides Eric our beta fish we now have 2 turtles - Swim-A-Lot and Rocky because one swims a lot and the other likes to hang out on the rocks.

I've joined an adult kickball league and our first game is next week - Go Team Cobra Kai & I've started an 8 week Boot Camp sponsored by Men's Health so hopefully I will be in shape for my volcano hike in Guatemala.

So lots of good stuff happening and of course its 70 degrees so can't complain too much:)

Happy "Belated" New Year

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have been MIA for awhile but life has been extremely busy. Firstly I (+Reggie) should be moving next week. We are finally leaving the comforts of Mariners Village and moving a few miles north to Santa Monica. I finally found a place to buy and closed Escrow Dec 27th. After dragging my feet and seeing other people make the commitment I finally decided to seriously find a place and not wait for my loft dreams to materialize in Marina Del Rey (the loft I wanted to buy is still not on the market after more than 12 months after faulty construction). CA real estate is definitely different and unlike NY - typical escrow is 30 days, you do not need to coordinate 12 people to attend closing - in fact you don't even have to be there and I was actually in Tahoe at the time of my closing. So now I am a proud homeowner and I hope you all come to visit. I live 2 blocks from I think the best burger place in LA - Counter and I have Starbucks, Sushi, Gourmet Cookies, Boba Tea, Farmers Market, Trader Joes, and McDonalds (Reggie called his cousin to gloat about the last one) all within walking distance. I am super happy to not always have to drive and my commute is less than 5 min which is unnatural for LA. We should be moving in next week or 2 - currently in the middle of renovations and waiting for a toilet that is on back order. Every time I go to see the progress of the new place - there is a new hole or something that needs to be done that was not communicated in the very beginning. But I am at the home stretch and have started packing up the old place.

The 2nd reason for my craziness is getting Reggie into an independent school for Kindergarten. We are applying to 6 schools which means 6 school tours, 6 interviews, 4 playdates with the school, special open houses and coffees. So with the combination of overseeing my renovations and getting Reggie into private school I have been out of the office alot and catching up on work in the evenings.

So this leads to why I was unable to send out the annual Reggie holiday card. The thought of having to address 80+ cards was too stressful and I have decided to wait until a random holiday to make up for xmas. I felt very guilty that there will be a missing holiday card for 07 but I will make it up and do something once we get settled.

Once I finish the place and locate my missing digital camera I will send over pics of the new place. Hope everyone's new year is starting off fabulous!

HSL

Name in Print

So i found out today that my name is mentioned in a book written by an ex - Doubleclick employee David Sidor. He was employee #15 and the book is of course about someone when experienced the ups and down of the internet boom and bust.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PJoc_o166-AC&pg=PA63&dq=david+sidor+hwa-shi&sig=pBFoyKbNTiGd-oxZaqpZ8KIths4

The cool thing is my name is mentioned in the book but the odd thing is that I am mentioned in this Mt.Snow ski party that I did not attend. I'm glad that I was memorable enough person to be included in his book (although he did forget the 3rd H in my name) and now I have proof of my time in the in the industry. Maybe I can reference this in my resume?

Sorry life is a bit nutty

We went cabin camping with the family recently and here are some pics

We picked up a new client and its take over my life. I've been working so hard and it reminds me of the days when i worked for the bank and I had to go on vacation every 3 months to stay sane. So I booked a trip to Cabo for 5 days - it was going to be just me & reggie and I somehow invited my parents, niece, and nephew. should be fun but not sure how relaxing or stress free it will be. Will have lots of margaritas to keep sane.

I had nice girls weekend and celebrated Jameka's bday. We did alot of stuff - afternon team at the Biltmore, Dinner at The Huntley, danced 80-90's music at BarCopa, Shopping, Margaritas at Baja Cantina (2x - can you tell I love margaritas now), Beyonce concert, and actually caught up on sleep. It was fun to hang with the girls and Reggie is in CT visiting his Dad. I miss him alot and look foward to having him back.

I was a judge at a mechanical bull riding contest recently which was alot of fun. I will post some of those pixs soon

Let's see other things coming up: Nike Remix Run (Can't wait to see Naughty By Nature, Hammer, Dawn from En Vogue) - lets hope I get there on time unlike last year - Going to see JT - Tent camping later this month- I think those of the major things I am looking foward to in Sept.

I need to plan a trip to NY soon - I may go around thanksgiving and will let you guys know if that happens.

Ok time to sleep!

Sorry for the delay - I finally have my Thailand trip report posted and many pixs from my trip. I am still waiting for Kathy to uplodad her pixs and so there will probably be some more to share. Sorry if the posts seems out of order and but I couldn't shift the order of the posts so if you want to read the trip report first scroll to the first post about the trip and work your way back up.

I'll try to post later this week pixs from my nephew & nieces bday party - there are some great pictures of Reggie and my niece and nephew. I hired a photographer recently to take some pixs of me & reggie and will post some of those pixs. I will try and do this all before I head to Big Bear for Reggie's first camping experience.