The annual trip to FD is always fun. Having the bus at our booth made it feel comfortable to be at a race. Every year we close down the shop for race day. We bring Fatlace to the race though, so it’s all good. Our booth support team had things running like a well oiled machine. Big ups to Leslee! Team F/Stop was holding down the photos. José was running things on the track. Kenny, Andy, Mark and Felix all took awesome photos! Peep their blogs. It was my first time shooting on the island, and it was hella fun. I got some quick pointers from José that helped me get some cool shots. He also loaned me a 24mm-70mm lens while I was at the island. Thanks man! The only battle photos I have are of the controversial “one more time”. My opinion is that it should have happened the same day. The rest of the shots are practice runs for the top 16. That’s why the cars are so far apart. Next time, I’d like to shoot more heated battles.

Good to see some old and new friends. I ran into Sean from FLA who I met years ago. Last time I saw him was when my cousin was caught by a popo w/ a bad attitude doing a manji. At the booth was Jei “The Pho King”, Jay with the sick LS1 GS, Phil 360, Calvin, Tyler, Jose, John and Yu to name a few. It was nice to chill with a brewski at a sunny day like that.

On the way home I rode in the bus. That ride has a lot of character. It’s a panel bus shipped from Germany. You don’t see a lot of them around here. The sliding door with no side windows is hella rare. Inside you can see surf related stickers from around the world. That thing has history.

Feeling a bit hungry, we ventured into the crowded restaurant filled streets of North Beach. It was sunny and this meant that tons of people were out. Restaurants were packed and it was tough to maneuver the stroller around some of the people eating outdoors. There was no room for a stroller in any of the restaurants on the main strip, so we decided to go to Bocce Cafe which is a few blocks from all the madness. Not many tourists go there. I ordered a Filet Mignon and Mara had Ravioli. The food there is always good! If you go there at night, they have live jazz playing. When it was dessert time, Aiden let us know he was ready to go home, haha. We ended up getting a pint of mint chip at Baskin Robbins on the way home.

… to keep this waste of paper. Is there a way to opt out? I haven’t used the yellow pages this whole millenium. Funny how they need to remind us to keep it. How many people actually use it anymore? Should get phased out.

Aiden’s new ride has rims, welded joints and shocks. Those safety and comfort features sold me. Not to mention it was the lightest in the bunch with similar set ups.

It was hot at Marinella and Omar’s Baby shower in Oaktown. I thought the beer/nipple contest would be easy.

I was wrong and only finished half the beer. After the contest I took off the nipple and downed it. Refreshing!

I’m down for Mangos. Later found out these were cubes of cheese! (it was so hot in there)

Sunday was hot like an oven at Palo Alto. We stopped by Sprinkles for a little cupcaking.

Took out the SLR to document the temperature… then caught Mara and Trixie walking out.

… and took a sneaky shot when they got near, haha.

One is missing because Trixie took one before the shot! My top pick is the coconut/chocolate in the middle towards the back.

I’ve never tried any sound isolating or eliminating earphones before. These work pretty good. It comes with a fit kit inside the case which has two kinds of fittings. One kind fits like those foam ear plugs you wear at the shooting range or race tracks. The other kind is a harder plastic. I tried on the foam fitting ear pieces. While testing them out I vacuumed the house and did laundry. With low Volume, all I could hear was music. If it’s not air tight you won’t hear the bass very well. You can wear it over the back of your ear or from the front like conventional earphones. I’d recommend these to any of my friends. They fit well and sound pretty good. True test will be bringing it to the races or a plane trip.