Mama's House

How many of these mistakes have you made? I suppose Roland and maybe EJ should also keep this in mind for the near future.

Shocked. That's how I felt when I viewed these rankings. I mean how can you leave off the Dillon Panthers? They were state champs of Texas, they're returning three of their best players in the awesome backfield trio of Smash, Riggins, and Saracen - I don't care if none of those guys made Grady Hunt's list of 100, Voodoo Tatum has nothing on them - and they have the best team chant of, "Clear eyes, Full Hearts, Can't lose!"

Sure they lost one of the best up-and-coming coaches in Coach Taylor to the collegiate level but coach's wife and daughter are still in town, that has to count for something right? Without those two, who knows if Saracen would have coped as well without Julie with all that happened to him last season, caring for a demented grandma, father in Iraq, having to step in for the nation's top rated qb prospect; and who knows if Riggins would even have been academically eligible for the team; a big thanks to Lance for that too, although he definitely needs to disband Crucifictorious. The team also came up with more than its fair share of miracle wins but who's to say this same group of miracle workers can't perform those tasks yet again?

Fact is, this is not only a talented, experienced team but a team that came out on top in one of the most emotionally draining seasons no team should be asked to endure.

Ok, so I wasn't shocked, but I was clearly disappointed. Anyway, maybe this year's squad could use the rankings snub as motivation. I can't wait for the Friday Night Lights to come and the new season to kick off on October 5, hope you're as excited as I am.

From EJ's 22nd birthday celebration at Dave & Buster's in Arcadia.

The latest:

• T-shirt design has been pretty much finalized finally.
  
• Food is still being discussed. What is certain is that there will be burgers and dogs as well as chips and dip. Not yet finalized are the Filipino dishes that will be served though expect it to dominate the menu that day.
  
• Calls are still being made to anyone with Fonacier blood as relatives nationwide and even from the Philippines are expressing interest in the family reunion.

Morningstar Farms® Grillers® Original

Description: Classic burger flavor, veggie-style.

Method of preparation used: Grilled and served on a bun with cheese.

Wayne: Why are the patties so small?
EJ: Vegetarians eat small portions.
Wayne: Does that say something about the quality of their fake meat?
EJ: Probably.
Wayne: It has an odd aftertaste.
EJ: It tastes like egg roll.
Wayne: It does taste like Chinese food.
EJ: It tastes like the egg roll meat filling, maybe egg roll meat isn't real meat.
Wayne: Maybe.

Due to the crappy family tree we have now (good job Wayne ). My Dad and I are have started to build out our own famiy tree. You should be soon getting emails from geni.com. Everyone should sign into this service, register and fill out their information. Also please fill out the family tree to best of your ability adding people and their e-mail addresses.

We are the Mighty Bruins,
The best team in the West.
We’re marching on to victory,
To conquer all the rest.

We are the Mighty Bruins,
Triumphant evermore.
You can hear from far and near,
The Mighty Bruin roar!

U! (3 claps)
C! (3 claps)
L! (3 claps)
A! (3 claps)

U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Today's game.

Cousin Cruise Trip 2008

Let's do it! - 3
Let's do something else please. - 1
I hate you all... - 1
I'll do that or whatever else. - 0

We really need to come up with a better name than "Family Bar Night," any suggestions? Well for those of you who were not able to make it out last Friday night here are the highlights:

• Sara started off the night desperately in need of one of these after finding herself much in the same situation that inspired that product. But with a bit of peer pressure she gave it the old college try with use of her palm... and spilled a good portion of her Corona on the bar, which was probably for the best. However, all was not lost, we were given the tip that one should insert their thumb, if thumb is not large enough to cover the opening, into the bottleneck to help prevent overflow.
  
• I learned that one of the tricks to getting is to style my hair before I go to sleep.
  
• Austin and EJ were mistaken for brothers and for some reason they sat right next to each other and ordered the same exact thing off the menu, earning a Bobbsey Twins remark from our waiter.
  
• Jade loudly mistook a Scooby Snack for something else entirely and I mean entirely something else.
  
• We compared "I was so drunk I..." stories and it was unanimously decided that Annette won that one hands down.
  
• After drinks and dinner for most, all nine of us made our way across the parking lot to hangout at Walmart.
  
• Austin considered eating a piece of candy bar from the dirty floor of Walmart.

And that was pretty much the night.

So in honor of EJ's 22nd I was thinking maybe I'd list 22 reasons why EJ makes for a good cousin but then realized I couldn't even think of 5 reasons thought it would better if everyone contributed. I'll start us all off,

1. He went to a decent college, meaning at least he didn't go to USC.
   
2. He has good taste in music.
   
3. Unlike Austin, he likes family, or at least he doesn't say he doesn't like Austin does.
   
4. He's not Roland.*

So can we come up with 18 more reasons in the comments as to why we like EJ as a cousin? And EJ, try not to cheat.

*If Roland reads this, I'm only kidding and if not, it's so funny because it's so true.

So for the past couple of weeks internet access here at Mama's house has been spotty at best. A guy from Time Warner came over today and diagnosed it as a hardware compatibility issue between the all-in-one cable modem and wireless router with the integrated wireless laptops. He gave us a couple of wireless internet cards to fix the problem and also suggested that I switch to a separate cable modem and wireless router.

So if you plan on coming over this weekend and expect to have wireless, well you better rethink that unless you have an external card.

So not only do we have EJ's birthday to celebrate this coming weekend but we also have Labor Day to celebrate and that will be happening Sunday, the day before Labor Day, at Mama's house. Ribs, ribeye steak, watermelon, corn, and other things will be had. Feel free to bring whatever you want and hopefully what you want is what I want.

Also, who wants to go to the batting cages that day?

UPDATE: Directions to the batting cages nearest Mama's house.

View Larger Map

*Or what I like to call, "the weekend we get sick of each other."

Eat. Drink. Play.

@ Dave and Busters in Arcadia (the closest one)

I need to know who can make it for dinner on Saturday, Sept 1st around 7:30pm so we can make reservations. I'm inviting all the cousins and maybe a few friends for the dinner, but anyone is welcome to come after. Please call me or just post a comment to RSVP. I don't think a lot of people will come, but last time I thought that (my going away to college party), I was very wrong. So yea, it'd be great if you guys can make it out. Btw, Friday's last Friday was fun and hoping for the same atmosphere/crowd :)

The 2008 Princeton Review released its annual list of the top party schools in the nation and FanNation rightfully ponders,

We’re trying to figure out how any college party could top UCLA’s annual undie run, especially after seeing these pics, but the Bruins didn’t even make the Top 20, so what do we know?

In case you're not keeping close tabs on comments to previous posts, here's what you may have missed:

Re: Cousin Cruise 2008, Melanie comments about the cost,

If we go in the beginning of May it will be about $300-$400 per person. If we go anytime after that then it will be about $400-$500 per person.

Re: Fonacier Family Reunion T-Shirts, Anonymous asks for help in designing the t-shirt. So whomever wants to do that better get started on thinking up some ideas, which you can try out here.

Re: Family Bar Night, Faye and Annette ask what time we're all getting together. Austin says he'll be there 6:30ish and really people if you want to know if something is still on and what time it's on just look over to the right of this site and you should notice a calendar.

Re: Family Softball Team, this is sad but probably true.

Hope you tried the last family recipe. Lindsey told me she was going to give it a try but I don't think she got around to it. Anyway, this recipe is just as easy as the last - it's basically only adding layers of ingredients on top of a fillet of fish - but it can definitely look like you put a lot of effort into it.

Ingredients:

Salmon fillet(s)
Roasted unsalted Macadamia nuts
Panko bread crumbs
Parsley (optional)
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Season salmon fillets with salt and pepper. Also, chop up parsley and spread over salmon fillets.
   
2. Lay a layer of panko bread crumbs over the salmon fillets.
   
3. Crush macadamia nuts in a Ziploc bag with the side of a large knife, mallet, or the back of a spoon. Then spread a layer of crushed nuts over the fillets. Also, season again, this time you're seasoning the panko bread crumbs and the nuts, with a little salt and pepper.
   
4. Grease the baking dish, pan, aluminum foil, or whatever you use to put the fish into the oven with a little oil or butter so that the fish won't stick and leave in the oven for about 10 mins. for every inch of thickness at the thickest part of the fish or until desired doneness.
   
5. To brown the nuts, pop under the broiler for just a few seconds - keep the broiler oven door open and eye out on them while browning because they will burn quick.
   
6. Enjoy best salmon EVER.

Notes:

So you might be asking yourself wtf are Panko bread crumbs (especially if you didn't bother to click on the helpful link I gave you). Simply put, they're just Japanese bread crumbs that can be easily found in the Asian aisle of almost any supermarket, though I prefer to get mine at Trader Joe's. Do NOT substitute any other kind of bread crumbs.

Wild, fresh caught salmon is obviously the best kind to get and it does make a huge difference in taste but can be expensive so feel free to use salmon that is farm raised. However, please try to stay away from the fish that says "color added."

Try not to go overboard with the use of bread crumbs and nuts. You want to cover the top of the fish with the panko and the nuts but you don't want too thick of a layer. Just try to make sure there's more fish than crumbs and nuts.

As always, feel free to tweak in whatever way. As for me, I like to squirt a little lemon juice onto the fillets before seasoning and I use dill instead of parsley. I also like to mix in a little melted butter with the Panko bread crumbs and the macadamia nuts in the Ziploc bag before laying it on the salmon.

I will see y'all tomorrow for bar night. Are the kids coming shall we get a table or are we simpy going to sit at the bar? Anyone know when happy hour starts / stops. I shall see everyone there.

So I've got EJ and Austin interested in starting a softball team come April 2008. A long ways away I know but I figured I'd gauge the interest and see if I should push to put a team together. We would need at least 5 women and 5 men to field a co-recreation team. We would probably play our games at Mason Park, during the evening, one day a week, and for about 14 weeks.

Now if you've seen me play, you know you don't have to be good at all to play on this team. I just thought it would be nice if we could all do something together every once in a while that was fun and this would only be for fun as we would probably get our asses handed to us every single game.

So what do you guys say?

Ah yes, it is Oliver's birthday today. And it's not some insignificant birthday like his 8th, but rather it is his 21st birthday. So what are we to do on this on this special occasion? Should we take him out on a trip? Perhaps we could spend a day at the beach with him, where he could enjoy the Pacific sunshine;or make it a night in Old Mandalay, where he could party after dark; or we could take him to Manhattan, where he could party until he dies? Those last two places are probably out of our budget.

What about gifts? What gift would bring a smile to Oliver on his 21st? Maybe we could get him a piece of ass. Of course, we should make sure that piece of ass doesn't come with an Adam's Apple. After all it would only be prudent of us to make sure he gets what he deserves rather than something he doesn't before he pulls down his zipper. Maybe a nice girl from Alaska is what we should get him, though I don't know how the family would take to having a baby Eskimo. Maybe the whole idea of getting him a girl is wrong though, after all, from what I hear, Oliver is quite the player.

Austin? EJ? Any ideas? All kidding aside, I'm sure the three of us, or is it the three of us, could think of something peachie to get Oliver that would make his birthday absolute heaven or at least almost heaven. So any ideas as to what to do or get for Oliver's 21st? Anyone?

Fuck it, let's just get him a few drinks.

Now everybody be good and wish Oliver a happy 21st in the comments.

Who is up for a bar Friday the 24th? Something simply and user-friendly like Fridays or of some equivalent of that.