We went down to LA for the holiday and spent the day before the 4th hanging out with Chris's aunt and cousin Sonia and Nicole (respectively). Sonia and Nicole and I went to the Salon to get our nails done (and a few things epilated). Then Chris's other cousins the Newlee's came over and we all played poker.
This picture's kind of funny because it looks like we were smooching but really we weren't. We were both just trying to make some silly expressions for Nicole, but the way our profiles lined up made it seem like we were aiming for each other.
Okay, this picture was taken several minutes after I confessed to kicking a hole in Chris's aunt Sonia's wall in a yoga demo gone awry. So I'm feeling very guilty and bad and contrite here, and trying to be as humble and pathetic as possible. Sonia (at left) was very forgiving.
There's something very "Chris" about the way his hand is positioned on his chest. His grandfather apparently walked around with his hands folded behind his back -- and I always remember this when I watch Chris or his dad walking around someplace, because they both have this kind of slow, gentlemanly quality that you'd think of when you think of an old man on a stroll with his hands behind his back. So the way Chris has laid his hand on his chest reminds me of the same, for some reason. I like it.
Nicole grew up at the beach, so the fishy quality of this picture is sort of right.
Halfway through the day Virginia and her boyfriend Michael Ham (Ham for short) came to pick us up and take us out to Lunch. Virginia is Chris's mom's best friend. She and Ham started dating relatively recently. If they get married, she'll be Virginia Ham.
Here's us on the other side of the table. We went to a Peruvian chain in Torrance, and I had a breakthrough idea that maybe the secret ingredient in my favorite Peruvian dish is a little soy sauce? Chris's family thinks I'm defaming the culinary traditions of their proud country.
Are those severed bunny fingers I see? I think Sonia's trying to play a trick on me.
This picture epitomizes our trips to LA pretty well. We all hang out in Sonia's living room laying all over each other on Sonia's comfy sofas and trying to figure out the tivo. I ventured outside briefly for a run around Alondra park and it was so hazy and hot I high-tailed it back inside for the cool comfort of an overstuffed sofa.
She just gets all excited when she sees a camera. I love this about her, really. Sonia knits, unaware of what's going on behind her. This was probably three in the afternoon and we hadn't gotten out of our pajamas.
Nicole thinks hard about something on TV. Was it Beastmaster or Romancing the Stone?
We had a bunch of things planned but ended up spending the rest of the evening playing poker and eating incredibly unhealthy food. Here Sonia has just won a hand. She did well overall.
Chris and Andrew hung in there for a while too. (Andrew is Chris's cousin.) They did this, I think, by only going in when they really knew they had something good. I find this wimpy.
Chris tries to spook the competition. That serious stare works well on my when we're in a fight but his family was not to be deterred.
Sonia has a different technique for scaring her opponents. The crazy lady gambit.
Meanwhile I just try to annoy everyone.
Case in point. (That's Nicole and Jonathan, two of Chris's cousins.)
Andrew's really adorable. He just turned 15 and every time I see him I try to fluster him by alluding to bodily functions or the process of becoming a man, but he's a real stoic and he's impossible to embarrass.
Halfway through the evening Martha, Andrew and Jonathan's mom stopped by. She's obviously a very attentive mom. (She's a real whipshot at cards, too.)
But the big winner from the evening was Jonathan, who is a little bit compulsive about gambling, if you ask me. After we were done we went out to a bar and then we were all tired and wanted to go home and he wanted to come back with us and play more poker. Crazy boy!
After years of clinical research, Chris disproves the hairy palms theory, only to discover that it really does make you blind.
What was he responding to? I can't remember. Could have been any number of inappropriate remarks from Nicole.
Sonia's scary when she's angry.Luckily she's not usually angry with me, though I did tempt my luck a lot this weekend. Mainly she was angry at Nicole.
Pretty girl somehow looking very much like a warthog.

That would be Nicole's
After lunch Sonia and Nicole and I went to get our nails done. The place was mobbed, so we had to wait a while.