Author: Ed

Day One, evening



Tonight, we visited the new swanky Palm Springs restaurant, The Tropicale. Of course, with an exterior like that one, you knew it would be glamorous.


We are happy to report the ambiance was nice and the martinis were tasty. However, the food wasn’t quite as delectable as we expected.


Ah well, we can’t complain. We’ve got big plans at The Viceroy tomorrow – stay tuned!

Happy New Year – and Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today was Dad’s 69th Birthday, and a big New Years Celebration was held for all the local (and visiting) Kims at a cousin’s house nearby in Cypress.

Once we arrived, some of the traditional Korean New Years Celebrations began. First, all the younger kids bowed to the respected elders in attendance:

(Cousins on the left, Dad, Aunt Grace, Uncle Luke)

Wish we got a better picture, but here are the kids ready for their bow:

Little Luke and Jeffrey even donned their hanboks!

Then, Aunt Grace read an excerpt from the Upper Room and led the day’s prayer:

After some traditions, we sat down for another one: a great big lunch with lots of delicious Korean food, along with Ddukgook (only a way to spell this out phoenetically!) which is a soup filled with tasty dumplings, rice cake and eggs. We were stuffed!

Of course, after lunch came the birthday cake, and it was time to celebrate Dad’s birthday!


We got Dad a pretty cool art book for his birthday – 30,000 years of art. The book is HUGE! We told him the book could also double as exercise equipment.

We regret not getting more pictures, but we had a great day catching up with family and enjoying the New Year’s start together.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Christmas at the Faceys!

Christmas is a longstanding and cherished Facey tradition, and Christmas 2007 was another fun-filled (and delicious) day with good times, lots of decorations, and lots of awesome gifts!

We regret that this is the only real picture of the Facey living room – it’s blurry and doesn’t quite show all the details – Larry and Mary Anne (with a little help from Carrie and Ed) got the Christmas spirit flowing with all those Christmas decorations and of course Larry’s handmade Christmas stockings for all of the Facey clan…including a new one for Ella!
Speaking of Ella, this was her first Christmas, and her first taste of what a Facey Christmas is all about. As you can see, she’ll do just fine. :)
As a baby bonus, little Taylor (the Facey kids’ cousin) was able to make it too, along with Debbie and Millie.

As you can see here, there was plenty of Christmas present mayhem!

What the pics don’t show is the wonderful food, the viewings of High School Musical (now we finally know what that’s all about), and the awesome gift that we, Eric, and Shirley got – a trip to Vegas (yeah baby) to see Terry Fator, the out-of-this-world ventriloquist that won America’s Got Talent!
It was a very Merry Christmas – we were pooped by the end, but feeling very merry indeed.

Pretty Smart!

Ed’s loved the little Smart car that’s been available in Europe for years and has been extremely excited about the Smart finally coming to the US soon. Anyways, the day draws nearer and they’ve set up a temporary space in Venice that showcases the car in this amazing modern house on Abbot Kinney. We don’t know what blew us away more…the house or the car!


The Smart House is located at 1319 Abbot-Kinney. It’s three stories, very modern and very open. There was a Smart downstairs (and ones you could actually drive out in back…more on that later). We were both dying over the honeycomb screen and chairs.

The next two floors included the main living room and kitchen, as well as additional chill areas. All in white!

And finally, the best looking espresso machine ever…

The space is being used as a Smart art gallery as well. Lots of cool and witty pieces, mostly Smart related.

However – on to the car itself. It’s tiny and meant for really congested urban areas. You see them everywhere in European cities. It’s no “toy” car though…Smart is a sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz and is meant to survive crashes as well as any normal-sized car. Anyways, it was smart (knee slapper, we know) to locate this temporary Smart space in Venice on Abbot Kinney…one of the most congested and hip areas of LA.

The Smart is not only efficient (averages well over 40mpg), but it’s a very fashionable and stylish little piece, with body panels that are removable should you want to change colors on a whim. And inside, you’re met with cool shapes and fabric patterns, and it’s huge given the tiny exterior. Basically, this is a car as a fashion accessory as much as it’s a mode of transportation.

Driving it shows it’s a real car…it doesn’t feel unsafe and in fact feels particularly solid. Here’s Ed about to take it for a spin.

Anyways, we hope this car does well. We like everything the car stands for – the efficiency, frugality, and high style. Heck, it’s the only car that has a permanent place in MoMA’s collection for its design! And props to the Smart House too – the presentation of it all totally successfully communicated the Smart “lifestyle”. For more modern greatness, see the pics here.

And, another draw is you might even have a celebrity sighting while you’re there like we did…Jessica Biel was there today checking out the Smart House with a few sidekicks. Go check it out!