Guests started arriving at noon, and the last guests didn’t depart until midnight — a long day. We ended up with a ton of leftovers, which we mostly ate over the following week. It also took several days afterwards to put most of the house back in order (although we still have tables out going into February). Still, we only do it once a year, and we enjoy having everyone over for a good time.

Like Thanksgiving, we had lots of food. Ron tried cooking a rib roast for the first time; it barely fit into our small oven. Even though Ron used a digital oven thermometer, the meat came out a little more done than the Gee family likes; next time, he’ll take the roast out at 130 degrees for medium rare. Iris made homemade mashed potatoes, Nikki made a refreshing salad, Paula brought a fruit salad, and Grace brought a pecan pie.

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Early Thanksgiving morning, Ron and the two girls ran in the Torrance Turkey Trot, a 3-mile run over by the Torrance Airport. Ron has run this race a couple of times before with Paula, and this is the first time the girls ran it. Stephanie ran in 28 minutes, Ron finished at 35 minutes, and Morgan came in at 54 minutes.

We had 16 people over for Thanksgiving dinner: Iris’ mom, Sue; Iris’ brother, Scott, and his son, Casey; Scott’s ex-wife (and Casey’s mom), Julie; Julie’s mom, Joyce; Julie’s cousin; Ron’s friend, Paula, and her three children, Niklas, Oliver, and Eliisa; and our new friend, Grace, and her daughter, Ava.

There was tons of food. We got a turkey and ham from Honey Baked, and Iris made garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, and baked yams. Paula brought a fruit salad, and we had LOTS of desserts, including a quarter-sheet chocolate cake with banana filling brought by Julie’s cousin.

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Our good friend and former babysitter, Bryce Fukuji, was married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Long Beach Museum of Art.

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We had a good dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Szechwan Seafood, in Lomita.

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We took Stephanie’s friend, Kimberley Davey, who was over on a holiday from England, to Disneyland for the evening. It happened that the Sangha Teens from Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple were also at Disneyland for the day, so the girls were able to join up with them, and Morgan had a friend to go on the rides with.

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Paula had looked up the recipe for Killer Shrimp, which has gone out of business. The taste was actually very, very close, perhaps needing a little more kick to it, but otherwise excellent. Paula also barbecued a mound of the moist pork ribs that she’s famous for. For dessert, cheesecake with fresh raspberries, and Stephanie and Morgan had made chocolate covered strawberries to take over. Lots of food; Ron was absolutely stuffed.

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Jane Flynn came into town for a short vacation, and we got together at Paula’s house for dinner along with Maureen Teague, one of the other techs that worked in the clinical lab. We had a lot of good Thai food, and for dessert, a birthday cake to celebrate Ron’s birthday.

Earlier in the day, Ron played a round of golf with Jane’s husband, Davis, at Los Verdes Golf Course in PV. It was a light day for golfers, probably because it was Mothers Day. Beautiful weather and spectacular views sort of made up for the unremarkable play of both Ron & Davis. The several cigars that were smoked along the way didn’t hurt, either.

Happy Year of the Rat!

Stephanie and Ron ran the Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker 5K. This was the second year in a row that they ran together. The weather was much better (it was pouring rain last year). They went with Ron’s co-worker/friend, Tom, and his wife, Aya. Tom’s friend, Paul, also met them at the course, which started in Chinatown over by Little Joe’s restaurant.

They ran into Ron’s Uncle Sam about a half hour before the race. Technically, Sam is Ron’s first cousin once removed (his father’s first cousin), but, as Chinese tradition goes, Ron’s always called him Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam said that he and maybe one other person are the only ones who have run in all of the Firecracker races since it began 30 years ago. Ron ran in a couple of the Firecracker 10K races about 20 years ago, and, man, it was (and still is) a hilly course.

Paul finished in 26:04, Uncle Sam ran in 29:36 (pretty good for a 73 year old), Stephanie came in at 33:20, Aya made 35:21, and Tom’s time somehow didn’t get posted. Ron ran in 38:27, about 5 minutes off his usual mark, but his knee has been bothering him the past few weeks and he’ll probably need to take a couple of months off from running to fully rest it. Hopefully it’s not a longterm thing.