Chinese New Year Weekend - Sterling, Irving and all else that ends in "ing"

There are SOOOO many pictures from this Chinese New Year. For just the first weekend, I was able to select 75 pictures from Jason's collection of what seemed like thousands. I will try not to post them all on the blog but I'll make them available to view in a picture gallery. Let's get started!

On Feb. 9th, the first Saturday after Chinese New Year, we were invited by Sterling Bank and Trust to perform at four of their bank locations. Sterling has always been a great supporter of Cherng Loong since 2005 and we've helped open up and perform at numerous locations. In between those performance, we were also invited to perform at Designer, the hair salon that a few of the guys including myself go to, Johnny's Burgers, and Lam Hoa Thuan Restaurant, just to name a few. It was quite a busy day and it was great to see everyone come back to help out.

We started the day performing at the Irving St. Sterling location at around 10:30AM.



It's not that early but a lot of us like to sleep in. Just check out how tired we look.



We awakened three new lions that day. My dad came out and helped us out with the eye dotting ceremony and three Sterling employees had the honor of performing the dotting.



If we weren't awake, this long strip of firecrackers were sure to help us.



The lions have been dotted and are awakening. The new lions were really excited and a performance ensued.





We then headed down a few blocks to Designer. They always make it interesting for us with lettuce being hung throughout the place, oranges and extra red envelopes!





Even Paul came back to help us out on the drum.



We're either discussing a gameplan here or just need a quick kiss.



Lettuce and Lai Xi!



Working on the oranges...



... to wish good luck.





I recently got a haircut and they told me the performance was great.



After Designer, we headed over to the Taraval Street Sterling and it looks like Bradford's awake now.





After Taraval, it was about 1:00PM so we headed back to Irving St. to eat at Johnny's Burgers. Yes, Russell, you get to eat a burger too. You can let go of Kenneth now.



Not sure what's going on here.



Most of us ordered regular burgers. Maybe some bacon or mushrooms on some of them. But Bradford, Lerng and Michael saw something else that sparked their interest. When they got their food, we all couldn't help but notice it and looked over.



They ordered the monster 3 patty burgers. You might want to keep scrolling down if you don't want to witness the carnage that is the Johnny's Monster Burger.









Then Douglas "Shredder" Jue decided to show up. He must have smelled the food from his house or something.



He helped us on our way to the next Sterling Bank on Mission Street, where we performed again. This time, with full bellies, some flags and extra drummers.

















Even Justin and Elliot joined in on the fun. Elliot decided to show us exactly how long those pants really are.





The last of the Sterling banks was on San Bruno Ave. Jonathan and Bradford found some time to goof off while we played music and threw firecrackers.









After we finished off the last Sterling Bank, we again went back to Irving Street, where we performed for our lunch spot, Johnny's. Kenneth and Jason suited up for the first time since they were still known as the 2/3 of the Stooges.



Warren showed up after work and missed our lunch so of course he gets to have a burger as well while we performed.





Then we performed for a couple more times to end the day.













We got some fried chicken as a gift!



And Russell loved it!



After a long day, some of us winded down by playing Street Fighter.



We ate dinner at Lam Hoa Thuan and this has got to be enough pictures for now. Say goodbye, Kenneth and Fai!