In Sus' words "don't be a hero". Doing silly things like that mean you hurt your knee while doing 100m shuttle runs (at least I went out in the lead). Suffice it to say, I've got to take it easy for a while...
So Deryck came to the States for a visit during Chinese New Year week. In reviewing all the pics during that time, apparently all I have to show are these Sushi buffet pictures. We ate an obscene amount of food at Sushi Factory in Milpitas and while I felt pretty terrible afterwards, I think with a tally of 3 rolls, 3 nigiri, firecracker shrimp appetizer, soup and salad per person (6 people total), we won handily.
We even got to play some Wii U in that evening also! Thanks Ed!
When Deryck and I got home, we had to make 煎年糕 (pan-fried Gao) as an auspicious dessert for CNY. 恭喜發財！
At work, we had a potluck and trivia contest for President's Day. In an attempt to choose an obscure president to present I inadvertently learned quite a bit about a number of obscure presidents and that was enough for me to win the contest by the margin of a couple points. My prize: a US$2 bill!
As you may have seen on this blog or elsewhere, I appreciate japanese food and dino nuggets. In this particular instance I again combined those two likes. Delicious.
In working on her thesis, Mari had been communicating with Ari at Westside Trading Post. He generously offered some tickets to check out the Art of the Americas West (an extensive showcase of Native American arts) held annually up in Marin, which we graciously accepted. I had never seen such variety and quality of Native American arts before and certainly not where I could get up close to and touch some of those works, which helped to enhance my appreciation of it all. Thanks Ari for inviting us up to meet you and experience this wonderful show in person!
The AoA show was held at one of the associated buildings in the Marin Center and being up there gave us the opportunity to also see and appreciate the main auditorium (shown above), which was (part of) the last commission by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Beautiful weather, beautiful building.
Weeks ago I signed up for this "5K Color Run" with a bunch of the folks from the gym. Then I hurt my knee. But, since this was really just a simple, and relatively flat, 5K I said what the heck. Even though I could only walk, it turned out to be incredibly fun. Thanks of course to my friends from the gym (who you'll all see in these pics) and Elise for making this a great experience.
Let the coloring begin! One thing to note, we're hundreds of feet from the start line...
The whole idea here is that you run this 5K course and during it all, there are stations where you are "attacked" (playfully of course) by powdered color. Furthermore, each participant is given a small bag of color to disperse as they please (hence us being covered in color well before the "official" start). This picture above was also taken before the start (you'll notice many of the folks in the background still have pristine, white t-shirts). Anyways, this fun run is a twist on the Hindu Holi Festival (festival of colours) which itself derives from a religious story and serves to usher in Spring and celebrate love (from what I gleaned by glancing at the wiki page anyways).
Our group "strong" pose post-run.
And of course the jumping pose as well!
And why not one more with the "runicorn", the official mascot of the Color Run!
After getting smashed with color on Saturday, I had a quieter, yet just as fun Sunday which saw Phil drop by for a visit. So, Nick, me, Noelle & Phil got together for some Dim Sum in Millbrae!
Noelle, Phil and I headed up to the city afterwards to fulfill Phil's desire to visit the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. While there, I got to sample this tasty (yet probably overpriced) genmaicha (roasted brown rice tea).
As can often be the case, a beautiful day on the peninsula does not preclude a foggy/chilly day in the city. Despite the less than ideal weather, we still very much enjoyed the well manicured gardens, ponds and temples that the Tea Gardens had to offer us.
The Tea Garden visit of course cannot be complete without sampling the tea (check) and also seeing the Buddha statue (double check).
In an effort to get indoors and away from the cold wind outside, we popped into the de Young Museum for an afternoon snack (french fries for me) and to see the view from Hamon Tower (which wasn't that nice given the cloud and fog). While in the museum lobby, I noticed this Wayne Thiebaud painting, Three Machines. I've certainly become a Thiebaud fan of late for his use of bright colors, clear geometric shapes and, of course, many works depicting food as the subject.
After exiting the de Young, we popped on over to the Cal Academy of Sciences Museum with the intention of checking out the building exterior. As we neared, we noticed that they actually were allowing folks in for free! Bonus! Phil and I spent a while exploring the museum and even spent several minutes observing Claude the albino alligator (who, as you can see, was pretty chill). We wandered throughout the aquatic exhibits, the living roof, penguin area and the temporary earthquake exhibit but didn't have enough time to see the planetarium or the rainforest dome unfortunately. Next time!
Phew! There we go everyone. I've made it to March and have just about caught up the blog! I hope you all enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed experiencing all of the food and activity from the other side of the lens. Cheers!
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