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197838083

Shooting to Wine & Dine

About Me


My Interests

I'd like to meet:

I'd like to meet my Grandpa George when he was my age. Unfortunately I wrote this just a few months before he passed-away earlier this year but I'll keep it just to share some fond memories that I have of him.

Back in the 1930's Grandpa George was part of the "Swinging Japanese-American Community" on the west coast traveling from LA to SF throwing dance parties for Japanese Americans - yeah imagine my shock when I realized grandpa was party promoter. Grandpa told stories of promoting parties from Seattle to San Pedro, even at the Herst Family Mansion in SF. After he got sent to the JA Internment camps my Grandpa still danced the night away with my Grandma, his response was "What else were we going to do?"

As every good grandpa does, Grandpa George taught me how to fish pursuing trout and bluegills in the foothills of LA. He was a big-time adventurer too, and fished the original long range recreational tuna boats out of San Diego and told marvelous stories of tuna gone wild for miles around. I was lucky enough to return the favor and even into his mid-eighties Grandpa George would still go fishing with me and reminisce his favorite tales.

In the end Grandpa George meet my Grandma Kimi at one of those magical "swinging" parties and with no "real job" the two of them eloped to Arizona and got married... much to the chagrin of my grandma's family. With a lot of love and of course sacrifice G&G managed to stay married for 70 long years. As a testament to his devotion to Grandma, Grandpa George even sacrificed his health as hers was declining and earlier this year in his words Grandpa George rejoined "the one and only love of my life".

Thanks Grandpa George.


My Blog

Today was my Lucky Day!!!

Because it was May and do you know what happens in May? Oil Wrestling!!! If you are confused imagine what I was thinking. After catching another night bus from Antalya into Izmir and then a Dolmus...
Posted by on Sun, 18 May 2008 05:30:00 GMT

Antalya

Almost by accident Tamer mentioned Berkay Ekim a Turkish diver that will not put down his Evolution. What? I needed to go diving with this guy. So after two agonizing days of trying to get wetsuits ...
Posted by on Sun, 11 May 2008 13:31:00 GMT

Constantinople

Funny, in my two previous trips to Istanbul in my haste to conduct business I had never taken the time to play tourist but being the unemployed traveler I have a few extra days : so off to Sultanahmet...
Posted by on Sat, 10 May 2008 05:34:00 GMT

Back to IST

Although Qatar proved itself to be an awakening of the possibilities of the future I was more than happy to escape the confines of the wind that kept us on shore with little more to do than toggle a s...
Posted by on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:18:00 GMT

Under Qatar

Well I couldn't think of any catchy or snazzy title for today's blog except I finally got to go diving!!! And what an adventure diving in Qatar can be. Although the winds were still brisk Mr. Mohamm...
Posted by on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:04:00 GMT

A Day in Doha

Here in Doha I was not only welcomed by Mr. Mohammed but also a wicked wind, a typical April phenomena in the Arabian Gulf, that prevented Mr. Mohammed's band of divers, me included, from venturing ou...
Posted by on Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:39:00 GMT

From my Kitchen Sink to Qatar

So there I am on a plane to Amsterdam, I pop in the brand new "OAHU STILL GET FISH DVD" and what happens? We have an audience. At 2 AM during this red-eye flight I turn around and there's all these...
Posted by on Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:48:00 GMT

Back Spearing

As many of you know the rush to update my blog is to chronicle my post corporate adventure. When the "trumpesque" words from Ed Hall my former director rained down "I am sorry, we are letting you go"...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:58:00 GMT

The Excecutive Decission

If anyone has missed my blogging recently I apologize, somehow between working 2 jobs (yes I consider HammerHead Spearguns a job) I am unable to find the time to allow the transfer of my thoughts to m...
Posted by on Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:37:00 GMT

SUGAR BOWL

New Year's in New Orleans to watch Hawaii play in the Sugar... ohhh did the game suck. But everything else was pretty good!!! We started planning this trip during Thanksgiving and it was an adventur...
Posted by on Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:48:00 GMT