DC visitors galore - to Mike and Jill's place in Tampa. What a blast! BBQ'ing, partying, tailgating, boating, tech conference visit, swimming, watching the skins lose, and all around fun. Pictures here mostly from the boating trip around the tampa bay area and Anne Marie Island. You can also view pictures on Rich and Suzy's site here:
Another year, another halloween - more stories, fun, costumes, and excitement. I, personally hate that I missed my first one in awhile. Pictures are up and you can find them through the links below. Enjoy. -Mike
Here's our final day in DC which was totally chill. I had to leave around 3pm that day anyway. We made a quick visit to my Mom's place... hoping to surprise her but turns out she went to Atlantic City for the weekend. We then went to Jhason and Virginie's place to visit and meet Isabelle. She is sooo cute btw. We also saw Jhason's amazing job with the baby room and his new additions to his photo studio.
Pictures from Saturday. Jason, Andy, Chris, and myself played two rounds of golf and then we had an impromtu BBQ at Dabu Castle. Saturday night we ended up chilling at the house at playing much xbox soccer
Here's pictures from Day 3 of my DC Trip. Friday was spent chilling out the house for me while peeps were at work. Then Chris took me to a happy hour at one of his friend's house. Then afterwards - a couple of us met up at Rock Bottom in Bethesda. -Mike
Here's pictures from Day 2 of my trip. I slept in most of thursday morning while everybody was working :). Chris and I played golf after work with one of his co-workers. It poured rain like crazy right around the 7th hole but we played on and "rainman" was born (inside joke). I wish I had my camera during that golf match but I forgot it. Later that night we met up with Chris and Jason who were at home warming up the xbox for us. We all when out to the Shark Club later for pool and drinks. -Mike
Pictures from the long weekend when I came back to visit DC. I had such a blast... it was great seeing everybody and hanging out like old times. Thanks for coming out ya all. Here's day 1 of the trip - I was in town between May 10th and May 14th. Wednesday night when I arrived - Chris picked me up. Then we met up with Shawn and Shawn's roommate Alyssa (not sure if I spelled that right) at Sweet Water and some other place afterwards (I forget). -Mike
More pictures from the Cinco de Mayo party in Tampa. These are from Tom's camera. Hmmm... what does everybody think about a memorial weekend bbq/pool party for the next one ? :)
Here's album Part I from the Cinco de Mayo party down in Tampa. Tom, Matt, Marcus, and I hosted at our house Friday night. We had such a blast. Thanks for all those that joined us in the festivities... hope everybody had as much fun as I did. I had too much fun way too early and sometime in the evening I stopped taking pictures completely. If you have pictures of the party, let us know so we can post links or more pictures up. 'Till the next party... :)
The April Fool's House Party in Tampa. We celebrated people's birthdays that were right around late March and early April. Happy Birthday Tom and Marucs. -Mike
Rob visited Tampa and the South Dabu crew went out for food and drinks. We eventually made our way over to Whisky Park North to celebrate a friends Birthday party. On Saturday they all helped in what was supposed to be the transport of a basketball hoop (long story). -Mike
Pictures from the Hyatt in Orlando. This is where the conference that Chris attended was held. We finally arrived around lunch time after a crazy night. He atleast got to attend the last half of the conference. The hotel was amazing. Later in the evening we walked around downtown Orlando near Church Street. Definitely a future hang out spot. -Mike
As the Harley didn't have to be returned until 3:30PM, we all decided to take another bike trip. This time we rode down to Brandon to meet up with Jill and her bike. Then we all took a ride through farm lands (nice straight-aways and curves) - an area called Wimauma. Again, tons of fun - the DABU South bike gang is slowly expanding. These pictures are also slightly out of order from consolidating the three cameras together.
One of my favorite Florida days to date. Tom and I rented a Harley Davidson (Road King Custom) for Chris to enjoy for the weekend as the three of us toured the entire Tampa Bay area. We basically made a complete counter-clockwise ride around the bay... from tampa to St. Petersburg/Clearwater... then back up to Tampa. The weather was just amazing. We took a couple of stops on the way... hitting some beaches, restaurants, rest stops... and drove over a lot of the famous bridges in the area. The pictures are all out of order as we consolidated pictures from three different cameras. Sorry about that, I'll fix it at some point when I get some extra time. -Mike
Chris visits Florida on St. Patty's Day! Tom and Mike picked him up at the airport and the party immediately began. This night was a Bennigans run as we hit the stadium Bennigans and then the Channelside Bennigans. 97X was hosting the Stadium Bennigans... they covered the whole outside parking lot, had a band... and a couple of games. Later the crew met up with Jill, Karen, and Leona at the Channelside Bennigans. Much fun, laughter, drinks... and dancing was had! Some photos out of order due to picture consolidation from multiple cameras.
Tom, Mike, Jackie, and Brandy at a concert in Jannus Landing, St. Pete, Florida. Beautiful weather, drinks, random people, facial expressions galore... and loud music courtesy of G. Love & Special Sauce.
Tom and Mike... hanging with new found friends in Tampa. This party turned out to be a friend of a friend of a friend... mostly college students in the chemistry department or something. Hence the abnormal amount of Asian people at the party. Everybody ended up participating in the apple pie shooters. Just a warning... a lot of the pictures of the apple pie shots are kinda disgusting... lol... but fun nonetheless. What are apple pie shots, here's a description from Wikipedia:
The Apple Pie Shooter is a cocktail for which two people are required. For the recipe, see the Bartending wikibook.
It is served to a designated drinker who sits in a chair with their head back and mouth open. The second person pours the apple juice, and then the vodka into the mouth. In order for the full taste of the drink to be released, the drinker must keep his or her throat closed, this also prevents choking. The second person then adds a good size shot of whipped cream and a light sprinkling of the cinnamon sugar. The drinker then sits up, swishes to mix the ingredients, swallows. There can be different recipes for this shot; some do 1 part vodka, 1 part apple juice; others do 2:1 parts, it all depends on how strong the shot is wanted.
Okay, so too much partying the night before and we missed the Pirate Invasion completely. However, the Gasparilla Parade is almost an all day event so we finally got there by about 3pm in the afternoon. By about 5 or 6pm we were totally trashed and ended up losing each other in the crowd. After another hour or so of walking and trying to find each other we did finally meet up at some bar that seemed like miles away. Then a couple of us left the bar, waiting another hour to find a taxi... but finally made our way to Dallas Bull.
After recuperating throughout the day on friday, we finally ended up taking our DC visitors to Channelside in Tampa for some food, drinking, dancing, and all around partying. We met up with Jackie and some of her friends by the time we got to Banana Joes.
Shawn arrived into Tampa around 7PM on thursday the 26th. When we picked him up we immediately were on our way to celebrate his birthday. We had dinner at Flemings and had some awesome steak and seafood. We then stopped at a couple bars near the house, "Tampa Ale House" and "Whiskey Park North". We had such a good time and ended up closing the place down. Then a late night walk over to Dennys for food replinishment.
Chris arrived into Tampa late wednesday night. We immediately got the night started. The next moning we discovered things we left all thoughout the house that reminded us of our silliness the night before. Later in the day Chris and I had an awesome golf game at the Tampa Palms Country Club. Thanks Kim.
As if dim sum lunch wasn't enough... Tom and Kim came into town that evening. After we picked them up we headed into Bethesda for more food and laughs at Jaleo. There was definitely a theme going on the entire New Year's weekend. We had sushi, dim sum, and then tapas that weekend... all very similar in presentation. I think some of us dont have to eat for about a week or so.
The morning after... or should we say the afternoon after. A couple of us decided to hit dim sum for a late afternoon lunch. Great hangover recuperation food. Always great to get the gang together for food and laughs. Mmmmm, I want more shrimp!
Here's some pictures from this past new year's eve in Georgetown. We partied at Cabanas and Riverside Grille at the waterfront. Thanks to Elisha, Ishu, Jen, Rasika, and Vanessa for putting this together. We had an amazing time. Post-party was held at Raskika's House. Happy 2006 Everybody!
People flew in, friends drove in, friends invited more friends... Halloween Party 2005 was a huge success with the most packed house we've ever seen. Halloween Party 2005 Photos are now online. If this album is not enough for ya, you can check out more halloween photos at the following sites (check back for added links):
A bunch of us arrived before the Halloween party and we had a Pre-Halloween gathering the night before. This album includes pictures from that night and then the following day preparing for the Halloween party.
This is Day 3 of the Weekend Party... mostly spent cleaning, recuperating, and relaxing. We went to Clearwater Beach for the afternoon where we had a Hulk Hogan sighting... and silly us, nobody was able to take a picture. Later in the evening we headed over to Whiskey Park North. It's great being able to just walk over there. Enjoy the pictures! More pictures of this day can be viewed at Suzy.dabu.com
Here's pictures from the big party day - "The Kelly and Mike's Birthday, Housewarming, Super Cool fun Luau Party". Tom, Kim, Kelly, and Mike want to thank all who were able to join in on the fun. Everybody seemed to have a good time mingling and enjoying the party. We sure had a blast. Until the next one. Want more party pictures, here's more:
Suzy.dabu.com - 75 Photos
Dylan Green dot com- 102 Photos
CindyAndRoland.dabu.com - 108 Photos
Rich.dabu.com - 104 Photos
Here are photos the day before the big party when Suzy, Darren, Jesse, and Dylan arrived from the DC area. This was on Thursday, Oct. 20th. We ended up prepping the house and then hung out at International Plaza while we picked up our latest arrival. Then ended up walking over to Whiskey Park North from the house for more fun. More pictures on this day at Suzy.dabu.com
Tom, Kim, Sara, and Mike at a Tampa Bay Lightning game at the St. Pete Times Forum. The Lightning ended up losing in overtime and after a shootout. Pre and Post game drinks done at local Beniggans at Channelside
Preparations for DABU Resort party well under way. This one is being called the Wilma-Luau smash bash. We are stocked and ready to go. Expecting DABU DCers as early as tomorrow. Check out photos from some of our preparations.
Little did I know - Filipinos actually had an ancient scripting text called Baybayin. Time for that tattoo I've always wanted. Being bored... fooled around with writing DABU in Baybayin and using actions within Adobe Photoshop. -Mike
Wow, been a long time since I've been to a concert. A couple of us went to the Foo Fighters/Weezer concert this past weekend at the St. Pete Times Forum down in Florida. I love the Foo Fighters and had such a blast. The place was great too... I can't wait to see a hockey game there. Great atmosphere, great friends, beer, and music... what more can ya ask for? After the concert we went to the Stadium Ben-Niggans for some grub. Oh, I also posted live videos of the bands at http://videos.dabu.com, just look for the link lower on the page. Enjoy. -Mike
Pictures from Emma's Birthday dinner. Emma had her official birthday about a week ago but Tom and I took her out Friday night to a really nice Argentinian Restaurant in Ewok Village. I was so sad that I had already eaten as there was much meat that could have been had. Jan, Emma, and Kim are such wonderful people and new additions to the DABU Family.
Ricky and Ollie had their wedding this past weekend. I had such a good time hanging out with friends and making new ones. Enjoy the pictures. I still have a bunch more to upload but wont get a chance to do so until tomorrow. -Mike
I came back to visit DC for the weekend (for a wedding) and some of us hung out in Georgetown for the evening. Chris picked me up at the airport, then we met up with Darren at his place... then met Jhason and Virginie at a French Bistro in Georgetown. Andy and Shelly met up with us shortly afterwards. -Mike
Rich Koza hosts a trip to Ocean City, MD about once a year around the 3rd weekend in August. Thanks go out to him and his grandparents for allowing us to stay at there place for the weekend. This year the attendees were Rich, Jhason, Virginie, Kevin, Julie, Chris, Darren, and Mike. More pictures of the trip can also be seen on Jhason's website and Rich's website.
Andreas came into the DC area and looks like he had a blast with the DABU crew. Rich posted up some very nice pictures on his website. I'm very jealous... wish I was there to party with you all! Sorry I missed ya Andreas, too bad you didn't vacation like a week earlier. -Mike
Our friend Jesse Cooper was on an episode of the 5th Wheel on July 28, 2004. A couple of us got together at Mike's apartment for game night and then gathered around to watch the show. We had the video footage but accidentally lost it (sorry Jesse). So here's actual screen captures of the show on the tube. Gratz to Jesse on some awesome stuff. You can find out more on Jesse at his website http://www.jessereedcooper.com
So what does D.A.B.U. actually stand for? Well, there's actually been so many iterations to the acronym. The real meaning behind the name though is a group of friends that enjoy hanging out and having fun. We're a very tight nit group but love to meet new people and try new things. I will tell you that the letter D stands for "Drunken". Now before you go making assumptions... just know that we were major fans of Drunken Master II. If you're a Jackie Chan fan, Drunken Master II is without a doubt the best of his work. Watching that movie in college led to a lot of funny "drunken" moments and at one point we started to catalog all those events. We started an e-mail that we passed around the group and created "The Drunken List". To visitors the drunken list might look a bit strange, but to most of us it'll bring back tons of memories. Enjoy DABU... and by all means, if you have more drunken memories... post comments!
Ran across Tom's Graduation scrap book. When Tom graduated from college and was heading to Europe, DABU put together a little scrap book for him. Scanned the photos and they are now online, enjoy.
We had a pre-going away party for Mike and a couple of us hung out at DABU Castle for the evening. We got a bit crazy and decided to shoot some Motorcycle Modeling pictures for some unknown reason. You can also view more of them towards the end of Rich's Motorcycles album
Jhason and Virginie married on July 9th, 2005. Finally getting around to posting more pictures. You can also view more pictures at the following locations:
Just finally getting around to posting some more pictures from Roland and Cindy's BBQ a couple of weeks back. Small album, but enjoy nonetheless.
Oh my word...were we ever this young. I swear we look like 12 years old in all of these pictures. For those wondering when and where DABU started...it started in 1995 in the International Dorm at the University of Maryland, College Park. Go Terps! Lou posted pictures up on his website The Peru Times and you can view the Old Skool album here. Suzy's Site also has the following albums: Dabu Daze Pt. 1 and Dabu Daze Pt. 2. Check them out, post comments and/or more captions!
The first DABU Resort area party. My first night here we (Tom, Chris, and myself) decided to check out the locals. Every tuesday night they have a big thing going on at the Hyde Park club. This is the same place we tried to go for Jhason's bachelor party weekend but they wouldn't allow us in as a bachelor party unless we called ahead of time. It was a lot of fun. We got there at 1030 and it was sorta dead...but by about 11PM they quickly just started rolling in and the place was packed. We met so many people which was cool. A couple of people we discovered had just moved there recently (one girl from New Jersey and then some guy from DC as well). The guy from DC told me about this website he started at http://joinmehere.com. It's pretty interesting. Originally he had started two websites...GeorgetownParty.com and TampaSocial.com. Just recently both of those sites merged to become joinmehere.com. Basically a site to network and meet new people from both the DC area and the Tampa area at the local clubs and such. Apparently wednesday nights there's a big thing going on at the Green Iguana. Have no idea where that is. Chris and I got pretty crazy but were having fun meeting the locals so may hit Iguana tonight.
-Mike
Here's pictures from Mike's Farewell BBQ. It was a blast and a good turn out. The lumpia went way too fast. More pictures from the party can be found at the following locations:
Thought I'd share these photos with the gang. I've been packing for the past couple of weeks, preparing for my trip to Florida... and came across photos that were almost 10 years old. Can you believe that? That's how old D.A.B.U. is basically! -B.A.