fun and games

saturday night brings us to beverly's for game night. we're entertained by scategories, guesstures, and of course cranium, which we bring everywhere. this is a new crowd for us and we're introduced to brothers matt and kenny and their significant others laura and marcy. beverly and john are there as well so we have nice even numbers. a good spread of food is waiting for us.

sunday we pick up a tray of lo mein from panda express while wandering around marina del rey and scouting property. we like the area because it's close to the water and has lots of restaurants, but the schools are not as good as in santa monica. tonight we reunite with susan's former va/ucla colleagues at steve's house. the director of grecc, ted hahn, is stepping down. ted's a super nice guy and we wish him well as the team has been very kind to susan and hue.

much to our dismay, steve has the karaoke machine set up, and if you have heard either of us sing you'll know why we stay away from public vocal performances. this is no amateur event. in attendance we have flower, a karaoke jockey of sorts. she has a dozen cds labeled by genre and as any good mc breaks the ice by belting out the first.

susan and hue don't quite make it out to the dance floor and instead elect to learn/play mah jong. phoebe attempts to educate us in the ways of maj jong. it turns out being chinese doesn't automatically gift you with the ability to play, as hue and phoebe can attest to. luckily phoebe's husband is a better instructor and makes our second round go much smoother. we think phoebe was trying to fix the game and purposely give us bad advice. eventually phoebe's husband steps in and plays a few rounds with jenice and us. after a few wins by susan and our teacher, we finally start grasping how mah jong is played.

now if only we could only find regular partners to play with the set we brought home from china and have never used.