While the girls were out, brother Bill and I played Tiger Woods golf on the Wii. Brother Bill turned Pro in all the Wii games. He obviously played with the Wii a lot while we visited the SF Bay area. I need to improve my status and keep up with Bill's professional skills.

Monday
It is Groundhog Day. I never get tired of watching that movie. Joel and Angelina are coming to see us. Jeff is coming too. Sim cooked a lot of noodles it seemed, but she told me there was never too much food for four adult men. Angelina didn't seem to eat a real meal other than snack. Does that happen with most kids? It is always such a joy to spend time with my twin sons and Angelina.

Tuesday
Today we are driving down to Fallbrook to Mike and Reggie's house. We are all going to the Escondido Wild Animal Park for the day. Fallbrook is about an hour and a half drive south of Anaheim. The drive was uneventful and shortly after getting to their house we all jumped into the car and headed off to the park. We spent about 4 hours exploring the park and watching all the animals. It was my first time there. Sim had been there before with Tuk and Mike and Reggie are members and go there often. They have most of the common animals from Africa including lion, giraffe, rhino, antelope, monkey and assorted birds, most of which are in open range areas with plenty of room for them to roam.

Back at Mike and Reggies, we picked a couple of bags of oranges and some avocados to take home with us. Mike has a dozen or so avocado trees and about 75 orange trees. After we talked for a while, we got hungary so we drove down the road to a Sushi place and enjoyed some Japanese food before heading back home.

Wednesday
I have an appointment with my cardiologist today. Earlier I had my MUGA test and today he is going to tell me the results. It turns out that my Ejection Fraction is 30%. Earlier tests measuring my EF had said it was as low as 10% and as high at 40%. So at least I know that 30% is the real number as the cardiologist told me that the MUGA test is the gold standard for measuring EF. So what does that mean? Well, the average person without any heart muscle damage has an EF of 55%. So with my EF of 30% , everything I do now is sort of a half-hearted effort.

Thursday
Played golf at Mile Square Park with with Mike, John and Jerry today. You know Mike already. John is a friend of Mikes from back in high school and Jerry is a friend of Johns. We had a good game. I shot a 96 which is about average for me. We got to see the resident foxes that live on 18th fairway of the golf course. After golf we all went over to Silky Sullivans for lunch.

Where is Sim? This is her words “ I am eating bon bons and doing absolutely nothing but sitting around in my PJs.”

Feb 8-14 (Anaheim, CA USA)
Sunday
Mikiko called Sim and they were on the phone for an hour. They obviously had a lot to catch up on. They were buddies while they were attending class at SJSU. Sim hired Mikiko to work at the Biltmore. After working with the Biltmore for year, Mikiko went back to Japan and lived there two or three years. She now is back to the U.S. and works for Japanese company. Sim has not seen Mikiko for at least three or four years, so I guess one hour on the phone made sense.

Monday
I am playing golf again today with Mike and John at Rancho San Joaquin. We have started to play golf once a week and I like it. John is retired, Mike is sort of retired and only goes in to the office now a couple of times per week so we all have time to play. I am going to miss this weekly activity when we finally go to Thailand.

I had a good round today and played fairly well. Mike brought me more oranges and avocados too. It was a great day.

Tuesday
Sim got a call from her niece today. Our shipment arrived in Bangkok. There was a problem however. It seems the shipping company, RAMA, did not crate all of our stuff. It was our understanding that the only thing that was not going to be crated was our bicycles. Apparently there is some damage, however the extent of the damage will not really be known until we get there to take a close look. Sim started writing emails to RAMA in Los Angeles and to the head office in New York to try to get an explanation as to why they did not crate up our stuff. We never really got an answer that satisfied us. Their excuse was that the available space in the container did not allow them to crate. We were upset because they did not call and tell us the situation. There was no hurry to sent the stuff and they could have waited for another container that was not as full.

Saturday
Happy Valentines day

Good news from Phuket. Sim's grand niece was born today. Sim was pretty excited to have an additional girl in her family. There are plenty boys, but just a few girls in her family.

Feb 15 -21 (Anaheim, CA USA)
Monday
I was scheduled to play golf today but the weather forecast predicted rain so we re-scheduled to play later in the week. Also, my friend Anita was going to come down from Los Angeles but that did not work out either. So Monday is a bust.

Tuesday
Sim shopped online all day today. She has quite a long list of presents to buy to take to her nieces, nephews and friends' kids in Thailand. I hope it all arrives before we leave and that we have room in our bags.

Wednesday
Played golf with John, Mike and a new friend named Jim today at Costa Mesa. We played the Los Lagos course again. I started playing Costa Mesa 40 years ago. My brothers and I would take our Mom out to play the Mesa Linda course there almost weekly. Mom liked Mesa Linda because it was short and flat; Los Lagos on the other hand is a little longer and more difficult.

We had a good game. I did not shoot a good round. It was in the high 90s, but I had fun as did everyone else.

Thursday
Sim had a lab test at Kaiser Lakeview today to draw some blood for testing. She said the staff at the blood draw stations were kind of rude and inattentive. None of the four lab staff bothered to acknowledge Sim when she appeared in the lab room as they caught up on their personal conversations. She had to politely interrupt them to ask who was going to take her. That kind of service did not surprise her, however, as our experience with Kaiser overall has not been very good to date.

Friday
We were waiting for brother Bob and Barbara to show up some time today. They drove about 800 miles from Oregon just to say goodbye to us. It was about 2 pm and we still had not heard from them. Brother Bill left three messages in the morning on what he thought was brother Bob's cell phone. So, he called again in the afternoon to find where they were, but he had to leave another message. It turned out Bill left messages on Barbara's cell phone, and she had not turned the phone on.

A little bit past 3 p.m., brother Bob knocked on the door without Barbara. She was exhausted from a very long drive and preferred to rest at the hotel. It was a bit cool on that day, but brother Bob wore a short sleeve shirt. I guess he is used to the much colder weather in Oregon. We went out to Outback for dinner because brother Bob is a beef and potatoes guy.

Saturday
Greg called yesterday and asked us to go to Cars and Coffee today. So, we are going to Cars and Coffee this morning. Brother Bill came along as well. Today the Jaguar mark was featured and there must have been 50 or so Jags there. Lots of old XKEs were represented. After walking around ogling the cars for a couple of hours we headed up the road to have breakfast at Knollwood (Home of the World Famous Hamburger) on Sand Canyon Ave. There were about 9 of us meeting for a bite to eat and we had to wait for a table large enough for all of us. Breakfast was delicious and the conversation lively. I had stuffed french toast. The stuffing was cream cheese and berry jelly. The cream cheese is probably not that good for my heart, but in moderation, once in a while that kind of stuff should not be too bad for me I think. Sim had spicy eggs with Chorizo sausage. Now that would do some damage to me.

We drove back to Bills and started preparation of the food for a family gathering later on in the day at my sister Judy's house. Brother Bob and Barbara came by Bill's house to follow us down to Judy's place.

After we prepared chicken satay appetizers we headed off down to Judys. Joel, Angelina and Jeff were already there when we arrived. We had a great time, eating, talking and playing with Angelina. Joel, Jeff and the baby left about 6 pm, and Bob and Barbara left about 9 pm, but Sim, Bill and I stayed and talked until late in the evening. I am going to miss my family when we go to Thailand.

Since we were all four together once again, we thought it would be fun to take a picture of all four of us posing exactly the same as the picture we took back in 1976 at Christmas at our Moms. We were really drunk that Xmas and we wanted to recreate the picture without the alcohol this time. After Sim found out Bob was going to drive back the next morning, she said he was nuts to spend only one evening after driving 800 miles. Oh well that is brother Bob.

Feb 22 – 28 (Anaheim, CA USA)
Sunday
Tonight we are having dinner with David and Larp at Fish in a Bottle a fusion sushi place in Yorba Linda. Larp suggested Chinese buffet, but Sim concerned about high sodium Chinese dishes. We changed to Japanese cuisine as it is healthier in our opinion. We searched on the internet for JPN restaurants that was in Yorba Linda area and found good reviews about Fish in a Bottle on Yelp.com. Sim liked the name of the restaurant, so we were set to dine there. Sim got some directions off the internet as the restaurant and location are new to us. Why don't you use your trusty Garmin GPS you are asking? Because I gave it to Joel. We can't use it in Thailand so I passed it down to my son.

We headed off to dinner and followed Sim's directions. Unfortunately the directions were incomplete and although they told me where to turn they did not tell me how far to go after I turned. We searched for the restaurant, and finally called the place for directions. I called David to say we were running late and got directions from him as well. Both sets of directions were the same and wouldn't you know, both were wrong. Both David and the restaurant assumed I was going west instead of east. After a 5 mile detour and several phone calls to David, we were talked into landing at the restaurant with turn by turn, block by block, business by business directions.

Was it worth it you ask? Well the food was just OK, and the service left a lot to be desired. Our wait person was indifferent, ineffective and slow, even though the restaurant was only partially full. We enjoyed the company nevertheless.

Monday
I am meeting John, my golfing buddy, in El Toro this morning at 7:15. We are driving down to Fallbrook to play golf with Mike on his local golf course. It is about a 1 hour and 45 minute drive to Fallbrook from Anaheim. John and I headed out after we met and I left my car in the mall parking lot. We found the golf course after a slight detour when John forgot the name of the road that the golf course was on. We made it on time however and met Mike in time to tee off on schedule. Fallbrook is a nice course and the weather was perfect for golf today.

Tuesday
We went shopping today at Macys. I don't need anything but Sim has too much time doing nothing so why not shop. It is a sort of like exercise, she said.

Wednesday
Today Sim finished up her online shopping for presents. It looks like everything is going to arrive on time and with some creative packing, all of the presents should fit in our luggage. We are allowed 2 checked bags each and they cannot weigh more than 50 lb. each.

Friday
Sim has a Doctors appointment at Kaiser. This appointment is to discuss her test results, the effect of the medication she is taking and whether it is working as designed. All good news from the doctor. The meds are working, the blood test show improvement. Although Sim gets the green light, the doctor ordered her to get one more lab test. So, she will have to come back to Kaiser for a blood test draw again tomorrow. After the draw tomorrow, she just needs to get blood work done every 3 months; same as me. I got blood drawn one last time too. I need to check my potassium levels quarterly to make sure it does not get depleted from the diuretics I take daily.

Tonight we are having a farewell dinner with Webmaster Dennis and his wife Katherine at Romano's Macaroni Grill. We have never eaten there and Sim is curious to know if they serve Macaroni. It was a really nice place, with excellent service and great food. We enjoyed some Chianti with dinner and had a blast with Dennis and Katherine. We really hope they will come to Thailand to visit us there. Oh yeah, we still do not know if they serve macaroni. Dennis and Katherine are a great and fun couple. We have great fun whenever we see them. Sim really adores Katherine. Some of you probably know Katherine is a ballet, Pilates, and flexibility instructor. She has produced 9 work out DVDs and Sim wanted to buy some. We went to their house after dinner to get the DVDs. Katherine gave them to Sim as a gift. Sim was so happy that she got Katherine's autographs on the DVDs.

That is it for February. Our next travelogue entry will be after we have been in Thailand for a month. Stay tuned for more of Jim and Sim's Great Adventure.