Wide Awake at 3 a.m.

Neko was a friendly, happy-go-lucky cat who never seemed to worry about anything. Even just a couple months ago, she was so active and playful that we thought she would live to at least 20. Unfortunately, she fell ill suddenly and after a month or so of daily home treatment it was clear that she wasn’t going to get better. We decided to say goodbye to her tonight. Neko and her sister, Shadow, can play together again in kitty heaven. Rest in peace.

Brandon enjoyed a quiet first Christmas with mom and dad. It took all day to get through the presents because Brandon got tired after opening about five and had to take a nap. On the other hand, it took Shiloh and Gracie about 30 seconds to open their presents and were excited to get new toys. Neko spent Christmas at the hospital due to kidney failure; we’re very worried but hoping for the best. Brandon is healthy and getting bigger and stronger every day — and he’s talking up a storm!

We enjoyed a big family Thanksgiving with grandparents Nobu and Ayako and aunties Sayuri, Mioi and Ayumi joining us in Santa Monica. Everyone enjoyed spending time with Brandon. Grandma Ayako came from Daly City right after her retirement in early June to help us during Mags’ pregnancy and has stayed with us until now. She was so much help and we’re so thankful. We’re going to miss her very much — especially Yuichiro-chan (Brandon).

Brandon Wade came home today after 36 days in the Santa Monica-UCLA NICU, a week shy of his original birth date. Although it was difficult at times, we feel extremely fortunate that Brandon had the world-class care of the doctors and nurses there. We visited multiple times a day and we consider the staff there like family — we’ll miss them. But we can’t tell you how excited we are to have our son home with us now! Aside from being six weeks early, we were blessed that there were no significant complications. He was discharged this afternoon at almost 6 lbs. 11 oz. and over 20 inches long.

Brandon Wade Hanaoka was born on Saturday, July 12th at 12:57 am on the day he turned 34 weeks (gestational age) via emergency Caesarian section. Mags went into labor 3 weeks ago and was put on hospital bed rest, her water broke 1.5 weeks ago, Brandon was breached (upside down)… what a troublemaker! But now we have a feisty 4 lb. 12 oz. bundle of love! He will be spending many weeks to come in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) but we’re very optimistic that he’ll come home when he’s ready as a strong, healthy boy. We are very proud parents!

We just came back from a wonderful 9-day trip to Lāna’i. The small Hawaiin island only has one town with two markets, and the deer outnumber the people 2:1. They also have two resorts, both managed by Four Seasons. We stayed at Mānele Bay (but also visited The Lodge at Kō’ele a couple times). The highlight of the trip was definitely the spinner dolphins! Every morning, after a night of feeding, the dolphins would make their way back to the protected bay to play and rest. From the resort, we can see them coming in; we just walk down a 2-minute trail down to the beach, put on some snorkeling gear, and swim right out to them! It was amazing! Aside from relaxing by the pool, we also took archery lessons, hit some golf balls, and walked around. But, mostly, we just relaxed.

I’ve posted some pictures on Flickr.

Our beloved Shadow amazed everyone with how hard she’s fought her cancer. But she was getting tired and we decided a week ago that today would be the day that we let her go. At her heaviest, she was 15 pounds; today, she was a little over 5. Although it was very difficult and sad, we knew the time was right. Shadow was still herself and purred until the very, very end. She was my best friend. I love her and I’ll miss her tremendously. Rest in peace my little angel.

What a year! Gracie and Shiloh both celebrated their first birthdays, both Mags and I switched jobs, we bought the home we plan to grow old in, and Shadow spent the entire year fighting cancer. About six weeks ago, during surgery, we found that Shadow had another, much more aggressive cancer, and the doctors felt that she only had a few days or weeks left. But we’ve been taking special care of her and, to the surprise of all the doctors, and to our joy, she continues to purr us to sleep at night! We took this picture today — the first one ever with all of us. It was quite the adventure, but well worth it! Especially since Shadow is on her ninth life…

Happy Holidays from the Hanaokas (00:24)

Shiloh is 1-year-old today! She got a lot of great presents from her friends and shared her birthday cookie with her big sis Gracie. Shiloh is still recovering from getting spayed last week but you wouldn’t know it.

We spent a week in sunny Ireland! It had rained nearly all summer but the sun finally came out while we were there and it was just beautiful! I lived there for nearly a year back in 1994 but Mags had never been.

August 5th was the first anniversary of the death of my dear friend Larry Wade and we wanted to spend it with his friends and family. We had the first Larry Wade Rememberance Day that included a benefit golf tournament at the Foxrock Golf Club for a college fund that’s been setup for Larry’s three young children, Troy, Hannah and Dylan. Lesley came over from New York and presented the winners with the Larry Wade Memorial Trophy.

We spent the weekend with Larry’s wonderful family including his parents, Richard and Joan, his five brothers, Tom, Richard, John, Vinny and Mark, and his sister Anne. John and his family were kind enough to let us stay with them; they showed us around town and took us on a day trip to Powerscourt.

We also spent a couple days with our close friends, Córa and Dave, and met their 6-month old Aoife. Aoife’s the cutest, happiest, most easy-going baby we’ve ever met.

Mags and I love Ireland. It will always be a part of our lives and hope to be going back again before too long.

After 7 1/2 years at Ask.com, it was time for a change of scenery and so I recently started at Yahoo! as VP of Engineering Operations responsible for products like Sponsored Search and Content Match. It’s been a couple months now and I think Yahoo! is a fantastic company with great people and incredible opportunities — I’m very excited to be there.

Magdalena also started a new job around the same time. She is still with Sanofi-Aventis but has been promoted to Hospital Sales from Pharmaceutical Representative. She is also enjoying the challenges of her new position.

We have bought a wonderful home in our dream neighborhood, North of Montana, in Santa Monica. We couldn’t be happier! It’s less than a mile from the beach and just over 3 miles away from our home on Virginia which, sadly, we will be selling. We will miss our backyard the most — but, over time, we plan to fix-up our new home just as nicely! All our furry children adjusted quickly to their new home.

Our precious Gracie is a 1-year-old today! She and her little sister, Shiloh, went to Sparky’s this morning to get prettied up for her little birthday celebration.

In 1997, IDOC (and several other localization companies) were acquired by Bowne and formed Bowne Global Solutions. But for 10+ years prior to that, we were a smaller, tightly-knit localization company based in Los Angeles with offices in Dublin and Rio de Janeiro. The other night, we had a memorable mini-reunion dinner. Although I keep in touch with many of my former colleagues (and friends), I hadn’t seen some of them since the mid 90s! I spent nearly 8 years with IDOC (and Bowne Global Solutions) — I left back in late 1999.

To help all of us keep in touch, I’ve created a private Yahoo! Group called IDOCers. We’ve posted pictures from the dinner, vintage IDOC photos, there’s an address book, message board, group e-mail, etc. So, if you’re a former IDOCer, let me know and come join the group! We’d love to hear from you!

Mags and I spent several days near Cancun to attend our friends Tanya & Chris’ wedding. It was our first time on the Carribean side of Mexico and it was also our first time at an all inclusive resort (El Dorado Royale). It was beautiful and relaxing, we spent quality time with Tanya, Chris and their wonderful friends and family, and spent almost the entire time on premise. We did get to do a little exploring — Tanya arranged an exciting day trip where we saw the Mayan ruins at Tulum and marine wildlife at Xel-Há Park. And the wedding was beautiful and tons of fun! Congratulations Tanya and Chris!

Iguana and Badger at Xel-Há (00:21)

Our beloved 13-year old black cat, Shadow, was diagnosed with terminal cancer (gastric lymphoma) in mid-December. We started chemo therapy and she’s responding extremely well. In fact, she’s more active now than she’s been in years! We hope that Shadow will be with us for a couple more years — it’s a possibility and we’re praying for the best. We’re spending extra time with her now and feeding her whatever she wants. She was on a strict diet for a while because she’s overweight — but that doesn’t really matter anymore… Shadow sleeps with us every night and purrs us to sleep.

Shadow’s Stuck and Asks for Help (00:21)

Gracie is a big sis now! We got Shiloh on December 20th at 9 weeks old. She was already almost 3 lbs. and much (ahem) wider and rounder than Gracie ever was. Shiloh’s a Bichon Frise too and will probably look more like a typical one than Gracie (who’s very lean and has long, long legs). But both love to give kisses! We love Gracie so much we couldn’t resist getting another one.

Gracie and Shiloh Playing (00:34)

We want to wish all of you a Happy Holidays and the very best for 2007!

The Hanaoka Family - Chris, Mags, Shadow, Neko, Gracie and Shiloh!

I’ve been maintaining a separate blog on MySpace.com for several months now — more out of curiousity than anything else. But I was pleasantly surprised by the response and realized that I’d need to switch to a better platform if it were going to continue to grow. I chose Typepad, migrated some of the content over and am now happy to announce the launch of thepinkbelly.com! The thepinkbelly.com sidebar lists the last several posts and has links to subscribe via RSS and e-mail.

Why is it called thepinkbelly.com? Gracie has the cutest pink belly and loves getting tummy rubs!

This also means the discontinuation of Chris’ Stuff Sack on MySpace.com. In memory of that blog, I’m sharing my funny British Railways photocard (circa 1994) which is my profile picture on MySpace.com.

Gracie is a little over 4 months old now and she was getting a little shaggy. So today we took her to our local pet salon Sparky’s for her first haircut! The staff loved Gracie and Bill was fantastic. Gracie was very well-behaved and got a little first-haircut present from them that she absolutely loves. They did a great job — Mags and I love it!

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 5th, I lost a dear friend of mine, Larry Wade, in a tragic drowning accident while we were hiking in Mammoth Mountain. As I write this, a month later, I am still in disbelief. I don’t think I will ever get over his loss. He was the wisest, most sincere man I’ve ever known. He always saw the good in everything and lived life to the fullest. I looked up to him constantly and always knew how incredibly lucky I was to have him as a colleague, mentor and, most importantly, friend.

His friends and colleagues created a wonderful tribute site that I encourage you to visit. There are wonderful testimonials, Larry’s brother Tom’s eulogy, and information for the Larry Wade Children’s Memorial Fund. Larry was married to his true love, Lesley, and his pride and joy were his three young children, Troy, Hannah and Dylan.

Good-bye, dear friend. May you rest in peace. You will remain in my heart forever.

We’re back from our honeymoon! We stayed in Kapalua, Maui for 4 days and Hualalai, Hawaii (The Big Island) for 4 days. It was very relaxing. Unlike a lot of our vacations, we pretty much did nothing but enjoy the resorts and all of its amenities.

We started playing golf! Well…sort of. We took a couple golf lessons from the pro and spent some time at the driving range every day except for one. On that day, we drove from Hualalai near Kona on the west coast to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park near Hilo on the east coast. We left at the crack of dawn and didn’t get back until dusk. We had to spend at least one day venturing out to see some of the island’s beautiful sites since we’d never been on The Big Island before.

We have a private photo set on Flickr with our honeymoon pics. If you need access, let me know.

Magdalena and I were married on the evening of August 19th at Rancho Sol Del Pacifico in Malibu. The entire evening was like a fairytale. From being with our closest friends and family to the ceremony, food, location, floral arrangements, decor and band. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect evening!

It was a lot of fun planning it for the past year too. We got to meet and work with a lot of incredible people — first and foremost, our wonderful wedding coordinator Tobey Dodge. The entire experience was amazing and I’m a little sad it’s over. Well… not really. It was pretty stressful too and Magdalena spent almost every evening and weekend doing something wedding-related. I’m not sure what she’s going to do now…

We have tons of fantastic photos to help us remember our special day. I’ve created a private group on Flickr where you can see and share photos from the entire weekend and a private photo set with all the professional pics (500+). If you need access, let me know. You’ll need to have a Flickr account (which is free) first.

Gracie’s nine-weeks old now and 3 lbs. 6 oz. She’s growing fast! We’ve posted some more pictures on Flickr. My sisters came down to puppysit for a couple days while we went to our friend’s wedding near Palm Springs. Today is also our engagement anniversary — I proposed to Magdalena last year in Paris. Our wedding is only six weeks away…

Gracie Loves Her Toys… (01:21)

We have a new addition to our family! We named our six-week old, 1 lb. 13 oz. Bichon Frise puppy Gracie. Mags and I picked her up on Friday from Woodland Hills. We were worried about how our two senior cats (Shadow and Neko) would respond to a puppy, so we were allowed to try her out over the weekend. Although not thrilled with the ball of energy, Shadow and Neko didn’t seem to mind too much (…by the second day). We know what a huge responsibility a puppy is (hardly slept the first night) but we already love Gracie very much and couldn’t imagine giving her up! We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us… but we’re really enjoying it. Welcome Gracie!