Ella and Francisco

We have a new blog format featuring our time-consuming passion: Ultimate Frisbee. The new theme may come as a shock since Ella and I like to keep our disc events hidden from everyone. We felt it was time to bring our shared hobby to the forefront; no more denying our reverence for the game. We also added widgets; little applications that allow us to share such scintillating information like what we’re reading, and the current month. The widgets are the little sections of information you see on the right. Neat!

I know we’re behind in adding entries. We have stories and pictures to share from such crazy recent events like Eugene and Arin’s wedding, Ultimate Frisbee Regionals and Sectionals, and a dinner we attended that featured a pug. New posts will emerge soon.

As Mr. Orson Welles used to say, “We will sell no wine, before its time.”

Yes, I wrote miscellanea in the title, and I meant it! Ella and I have been wantonly participating in various Ultimate Frisbee contests over the past few months. They include:

• Spring Leauge 2006
• Summer League 2006
• Texas2Finger 2006

I coached the league teams while trying to stay in shape for the Fall series. Ella has been helping build a women’s team, Fluffy Kitten. Summer League and Texas2Finger both took place in July, when the high temperatures in Texas cause spontaneous disc combustion, making catches and throws extra tricky. Thankfully Ella is a hydration expert and she keeps me from passing out, fully aware that carrying me off the field would require more than she can bench press.

The only other remarkable item from our playing this year is the first ever documented proof of the Cisco Roll. Deborah, our Riverside photographer who makes our exploits look inspiring, caught me doing my patented roll at Texas2Finger. This is a maneuver I learned to execute whenever I have to catch a disc that is below knee level. It spares me from undergoing arthroscopic surgery and adds a little pizzazz to my game.

Ella and I traveled to Minnesota to visit friends in the Twin Cities and my folks in Rochester. I dragged Ella to all my old haunts in St. Paul including the Tavern (for the walleye basket), Bruegger’s (for the bagels), O’Garas (for the beer), and Summit Avenue (for the beautiful houses). I introduced Ella to Summit Pale Ale, a wonderful Minnesota brew. We also visited my old apartments on Grand Avenue including the one Juan and I and his two cats used to share, back in the day.

The day was capped by visiting all my high school friend’s at the Kelly and Ger’s home in Blaine. I was overwhelmed to see that Carmen, Jeannine and Nathan’s daughter, was not only a bit older but within reaching distance of a steering wheel. She is only 3 to 4 years away from her driving license. I also got to see Anastasia, Nick, Ben, Charlie, and my godkids Carolina and Zak. We had a great time and it was just like high school except everybody got pregnant and had kids during study break.

I have great memories of my late twenties in the Twin Cities and everytime I come back I am always reminded of that time in my life when I was starting my career and sharing life with Juan and Cat, Gerald, Chris, Leah, Doug and Sara, Dave, Julie and Stephen, and many others.

My Dad and Luz-Maria met us for a day in the Twin Cities and then we all drove down to Rochester to stay in their appartment building. They’re building a house not far from their old house due to be completed in October. We had a wonderful time sharing meals, shopping, watching “Memoirs of a Geisha” and just conversing. Rochester has certainly grown as evidenced by the view from their 24th floor vantage point.

Ella was interviewed recently on one of our local news channels, KEYE. The news program was about the rise of teenage STDs. Agter the link, click on the Play button located on the upper right portion of the web page. The video begins with a commercial, then launches into the news report:

http://keyetv.com/local/local_story_116232100.html

Ella is an epidemiologist and works for the City of Austin. Her boss Dr. Adolfo Valadez was also interviewed.

This past weekend Ella and I traveled to her parents’ home in Farmington Hills, MI. They threw a little party at Shiro in our honor where I met all the family’s friends from the Filipino medical community. The afternoon was a blur of kind faces, lots of hellos and goodbyes, dancing, and some really great food. Below are some photos from the grand event:

Shiro has an interesting haunted background. Read about it here.

We also met our newest friends in Michigan including Isabel G., daughter of Jen and Zach, and Ian C., son of Mandy and Kevin. We also visited with Katy and Mike, Kristen and Earl, Mark, Ko-ling, Kevin’s brother Cliff, Shirley and Tim. Needless to say, we put some miles on the de Leon automobile.

Other events in our five day visit included catching a show at Second City Detroit, eating pancakes at the Original Pancake House in Grosse Pointe, dim sum at Shangri-La, sipping sangria in Ann Arbor, and bocce ball in Brighton. Lots of fun!

On March 18 and 19 I participated in my sixth CenTex (Central Texas) Ultimate Frisbee tournament. Teams from all over the region and country come to Austin to compete, including my team ”Riverside”. This tournament signals the start of the Ultimate Frisbee season that ends sometime in September with the championship series. CenTex usually catches advanced players like myself by surprise. And by “advanced”, I mean “aged”, and the “surprise” is the lack of conditioning and stamina that comes from not training over the winter. Although one could argue that this should not come as a surprise year after year.

Despite the windy and rainy day I showed up early to join my equally ”advanced” teammates. Many of the teams we play against are from colleges or consist of young athletes in their twenties. Riversiders tend to be older with the exception of the son of our captain who is just entering high school but plays like he’s in his twenties. Woody’s young age skews our median to somewhere around 34, which gives you an idea of how much older the rest of us are. During games our sideline becomes a collection of grumpy old guys rooting around their bags for Ibuprofen and sticky IcyHot tubes.

The games take place at the University of Texas’ intramural fields, probably the best fields in Texas. Because of the rain we had to relocate to fields in San Antonio on the second day. We did well this year, winning  a couple of games against teams we don’t usually beat.

Deborah Fulton, Greg’s wife, took some fabulous action photos of our games using her expensive-looking camera and lense. Her amazing photography proves that technology can triumph over slow and ailing reality. Thanks Deborah!

 http://www.pbase.com/skibaby/riverside

I included a few photos below from past tournaments to give you a taste of the fun and camaraderie we enjoy on the field and in the parking lot after the games. The parking lot is where we embellish the day’s athletic moments over beer and chips and enjoy the company of our good friends in Austin. Normally our team is the last to leave a tournament. As we pick up our chairs and coolers and bottles and get into our cars, you can always hear our parting call: “We won the parking lot again this year! Yeah Riverside!”.

Two of my favorite things in the world happened in Austin last week: South by Southwest (aka SXSW, South-by) and Spring Break. 

I love Spring Break because there’s no traffic.  Traffic here really slows me down. 

I love SXSW because when it’s going on, there’s an overabundance of cool bands, good movies, and interesting people from all over the world to see. 

SXSW is a now-gigantic interactive, film, and music industries conference that takes over the town for two weeks.  I first heard about SXSW in 1995, and I’ve gone to SXSW Music events every year that I’ve lived in Austin. 

This year, I finally made it to a SXSW film.  Last Sunday, I went to see the world premiere of Fired! at the Austin Convention Center with Francisco, Cheng, Cheng’s friend Ed, and a few hundred other people.  Chaos reigned at the Convention Center.  No one could tell where the lines started or ended.  Somehow we made it in.  We saw no celebrities in the audience, but they may have been too far away for us to recognize. 

I ended up liking the movie.  We talked about it for several blocks after leaving the Convention Center, and then on a corner after that.  Besides the funny stories actors and writers shared about being let go, the film also featured interviews with job fair attendees, politicians, economists, career counselors, and a look at the current state of the Michigan auto industry.  There’s even a play and a book.   

The weather was so pleasant downtown that Francisco, Cheng, and I decided to eat at the new Italian restaurant in the new 2nd Street District, Taverna.  It did not disappoint.  Every dish we ate tasted flavorful yet light, and service was friendly and prompt.  Plus, they serve a Budino chocolate cake!  We will definitely be back. 

Next up: SXSW Music Day 1.  Keep checking back for photos!

This year was our first set of holidays as a married unit. We spent them in Austin creating some new traditions as a family. For Christmas we bought some tree ornaments at Tesoros, a fun store that sells decorations from Mexico and Central and South America. We also purchased a small Christmas tree, which we named Stampy, after our favorite pet on the Simpsons. Naming the tree had some repercussions. We became too attached to the tree and when it came time to recycle it, well, let’s just say it’s hard to give up a friend to the city’s mulching service. Below we have a few pictures of us and our first tree (in memoriam), and pictures of New Year’s Eve at our friend John’s house. The New Year’s Eve pictures get progressively spectral (i.e. blurry) as the night wears on.

By the way, you may have noticed our sassy personalized aprons. They are our lovely engagement gifts from Gloria and Tony. The aprons help us remember who is who.

Ella and I had a great time in Honolulu and in Kauai during our honeymoon. We took in many great sights and really enjoyed surfing. On one of the nights we decided to attend the luau at our resort, this being my first time to Hawaii. The food was great and the entertainment was fun. However, we seemed to catch the fire juggler on a bad night. The clip below is from my tiny camera’s movie mode. It’s not the best quality but it seemed to catch every moment of the fire juggler’s struggles. Click the link below to view the video.

Fire Juggler

I just uploaded the wedding web site. It’s relocated at www.ellaandfrancisco.com/wedding/

You can find the links to everyone’s wedding photos at www.ellaandfrancisco.com/wedding/photos.htm

The link is also located in the list on the front page of this blog.