Wackyloonies

Prelude:

Kaki and Jonah got married awhile ago. They visited my sister Tiffany in San Fransisco on her birthday and did a civil ceramony in some official San Francisco government building. It was nice. The day before the ceremony/Tiffy’s birthday we got into town. We were able to get pictures of everyone being cute with Z.

Tiffy likes Zelda a lot, and she talks about that fact a lot.

Kaki and Zelda

Jonah and Zelda

Daddy and Zelda (she looks a little funny in this one.)

So we’re off to City Hall (I think, I don’t quite remember.)

Brian says, “I think I’m pretty sure I’m showing all my top teeth off.”

I’m not clear on what everyone is looking at.

My guess is that Brian is taking this picture.

So Kaki and Jonah are about to be wed, I heard that it’s a heavy burden to be a ring-bearer. Brian seems pretty cool about it all though. However, I look awfully intent on filming.

Kaki and Jonah stand and listen to the stranger.

One ring!

Surrounded by people recording for the future, but not standing in the present.

Two ring! Note: Even Tiffy is on a camera.

Kaki cries, how touching…

Brian and Zelda are thinking, “yay Kaki and Jonah are married.”

Happy couple…

and all those present to witness the event.

This is March 7th, 2005. Tiffany’s birthday, and the day Kaki and Jonah got married.

Now we flash forward to May 12th, 2006.

So we take a red-eye flight out of Los Angeles, yikes. Baby sleeps the whole flight so that’s at least the best possible result we could expect. Unfortunately, the best result, in this case, is a night where Zelda sleeps 5 hours from 11 pm PDT to 7 am EDT. Zelda was basically welcoming the beginning of tomorrow in the middle of the night. Not fun for her, not fun for us.
Anyways, we get there and take a cab to Marty’s apartment where we proceed to immediately go to sleep. After a short nap we’re up and ready to meet up with additional family members. After the standard poor planning that most families use as their rubric for all things that require coordination we set out to eat at a nearby restaurant.

Kaki & Jonah. They’ve been married for about a year, but tomorrow on May 13th (which oddly enough is my birthday) they are going to have a big celebration for their marriage which was the year before on Tiffany’s birthday.

Tiffany, Zelda, and Shana at food meeting #1.

Funny street sign, no relevance.

We head to Kaki and Jonah’s that night and hang out. There sits Marty. After, we head back to Marty’s to go to sleep for the night.

Zelda wakes the next morning with a hang-over. Drunk on time inebriation.

Zelda showing off how cute she can be in a group.

With a nice hat.

Cristina and Nick, they’ll get married later in the year.

Christine, Brian’s girlfriend and Zelda’s friend too.

It’s worth mentioning that we left my suit jacket at Marty’s apartment and had to rush back to get it.

We’re off to the Kitano Hotel where the reception will be held. The subway is fun with a crap load of luggage.

This is what you see when you leave the subway station nearest to our destination.

This Botero Fat Dog sculpture is very special to the Kitano Hotel

Me and Zelda waiting for the reception to start.

My dad, teaching Zelda to tie her shoes

So the party begins. Yoshio and Tomoyuki.

My dad giving a speech. Shocking. And what he said was very funny. You kind of had to be there.

Oh, aren’t my pictures of the city at night nice?

Zelda, Shana, and Cristina dancing at the party.

That’s my fourth glass of whiskey and ice.

So after the reception everyone goes out for drinks. It’s my birthday so I feel compelled to drink with my siblings.

Kaki has a few drinks, not a common event. I suppose she rarely has wedding receptions either.

Mom and Ray.

Four, perhaps five more drinks?

Those eyes of Nick’s aren’t focused on any particular object, and Cristina keeps saying she’s awake.
So we all get back to the hotel and go to sleep very late.  The next morning people are waking up and trying get themselves together to check-out.  This is where the, “Zelda’s least fun week of her life” part of the story starts up.  It’s worth mentioning that Zelda’s least fun week would have been a lot less fun if we weren’t out and about doing neat things.  We’re giving Zelda a bath and she’s particularly sensitive and crying more than usual.  We eventually notice that her left arm is swollen around the elbow and there’s a little bruise.  None of us could think of what might have happened.  So we’re being extra nice to Zelda as we check out and head to Larchmont to hang out with family that live there.  Oh, by the way, its also Mother’s Day.  In the end everyone was kind of too tired to do much other than eat and lounge around (not that family get-togethers aren’t almost always exactly that.)

They are tired. Everyone is tired.

Over the course of the day Zelda came to calling that stuffed animal, “Neko, neko.”

Here’s a nice picture of my dad’s mother, brothers, and sister.  Of course, dad isn’t giving much consideration to the picture taking.  We’re also trying to confuse them all by taking pictures of the group from two different angles, hunce my aunt Shoko looking to the left.

Well, we head back to Kaki’s place that night.  Here’s a cute baby photo transition.

That night we go to eat at an italian food place with Adam and Elina.  Zelda, strangely enough, took a real liking to tripe during this meal.  “Mo…  mo tripe?” was heard many times.