Tuesday 22 April 2014

March Madness 2014

Let me start by saying this covers a bit more than March. I wanted to condense a bunch of random photos and events together so I put them all under this one post. Enjoy!


At the end of February, we celebrated Brent's final days as a bachelor, per tradition, with much drinking. Perhaps not so much with tradition, we went "coffee cupping" (i.e. fancy coffee smelling/tasting) at Ritual Coffee in SF. I learned a lot about coffee aromas, flavors and origins that day. What an educational experience!

The Prometheus gang celebrated Molby's birthday with dinner at Benihana before some cosmic bowling. In addition to being eager fitness folks, we all enjoy a great meal (perhaps a little too enthusiastically).

Speaking of "great meal", Phil felt pretty hungry after Brent & Mary's wedding ceremony so we took a detour en route to the reception to pick up a "light snack" at Jack in the Box (which they don't have in NYC).

Congratulations to Mary & Brent! Lovely wedding and a very fun reception afterwards (so much so that I didn't get very many pictures of the shindig).



The day after, Phil, Nick & I decided to do some bowling before dinner. We had to work up an appetite somehow...

Because you always have to show up to All-You-Can-Eat Korean BBQ hungry!


Needing to bring something to Amy's B-day Potluck/seafood boil, I decided to turn this slab of Ahi Tuna into some Shoyu poke (including limu and kukui nut courtesy of Takahashi Market in San Mateo). So ono...

After everyone ate their fill, we brought out the blocks.

In continuation of Amy's B-day, I met up with her and Cortney for some cycling.

And our leisurely ride from Los Altos Hills to Woodside turned into the "Tour de Food" (pies - blueberry, dutch apple and strawberry rhubarb - from Woodside Bakery).

Then we rode down to Palo Alto and got an ice cream sundae. Happy Birthday Amy!

The next evening, on a Monday night no less, I headed up to San Francisco to catch Ryan's band on the Nor Cal stop of their West Coast tour. If you like indie rock (with folk and country influences sprinkled in). Click on over to theRiverbreaks.com and give their music a listen!

I had the fortune of being able to listen to this guy sing many open mic nights in Dunedin, but I had never previously heard him play with his band before. I'm glad you guys decided to drop into Nor Cal! Ryan, we don't get a chance to hang out nearly as often as I'd like. I think I owe you a visit out to the East Coast!

Marianne's, made in Santa Cruz, have a great flavor called 10/20 which has oreos and fudge in caramel ice cream. I'm pretty lucky I can walk to an ice cream shop from work if I ever have a burning desire for dessert!

The Prometheus folks took over Buffalo (burgers, bao and beers in Mountain View) for another "Foodie Friday" event. Quite a lot of fun to eat and hang out with this gang.


Thanks to Susanna, we got a reservation at State Bird Provisions in SF (by all accounts, very difficult to get due to the high demand). Despite all the hype, I'd say the food mostly lived up to the buzz. A miss or two, but generally very excellent (a sampling of the savory stuff up top and the sweets below). If you get a chance, definitely give it a try to taste some delicious little plates of creative food!

Lastly in this mega post, I present to you the 1st Annual Prometheus Cross Fit "Stupid Silly WOD" (workout of the day). We looked so happy here before the madness began...

It started with saltine crackers and a Powerade chug before we ran over to the grocery store parking lot to eat a banana without using our hands. The pic briefly shows a variety of the strategies utilized by the participants.

And after 50 sit-ups, we ran a mile to the In-n-out. After snapping this pic, the clock started again and we got to work eating a Double-Double.

Then we ran across the street to face our next challenge: Krispy Kreme donuts...

Molby doesn't look too enthusiastic about eating his donuts..

After another run, nothing makes you feel better (with that burger & donuts in your stomach) than burpees.

Timeout from the physical/food challenges for a good old fashioned algebra problem!

x+y=6, x-y=2, solve for x & y. Easy...right?

Then, after one last run, we finished with some beer. When the clock finally stopped, we all felt pretty terrible.

The final standings. I didn't make the podium, but I think I can be "proud" of finishing in a respectable position.

Thanks to Harrison (visiting for the weekend), for being a good sport and spectator during the challenge. It must've been really weird (and somewhat entertaining) to see us all suffer through that. After I recovered (by some small miracle) from all that food we got AYCE Korean BBQ. Additional thanks to Jason, Susanna (who also sufficiently recovered), Ed, Ryan - from NZ! - and Harrison for a fun dinner!

There you have it! A truly entertaining (February and) March! Hope the photos can convey a bit of the fun. Until next time...

Monday 14 April 2014

Day in SEA

Modern jets have the amazing ability to take us from one point to another in a relatively quick manner and allows people to connect, however brief, despite their everyday lives being separated by thousands of miles (and a pretty big ocean). This post tells the story of my ~24 hours in Seattle.


We left a cold, dark, rainy SFO on a 6:00am flight bound for colder but not so rainy SEA. The sun poked out from the partly cloudy skies as our plane approached the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Peter Shelton's cloudsandclunkers caught my eye just around the corner from our arrival gate.

Mum, Aunty Janet and I came up to visit Aunty Jackie. We brought fabric leis with us and Mum & Aunty Janet recited a customary oli (chant) as they gave the lei to Aunty Jackie.
Mum & Aunty Janet got to see Aunty Jackie's remodeled kitchen (and I some of the work in the backyard that I didn't see when I last visited a couple years ago) and we spent most of the afternoon talking story and catching up on life. We also went out to get groceries so that Aunty Jackie could prepare a lovely meal for dinner (and we picked up some choice desserts from Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle).

I gave Mum, Aunty Janet and Aunty Jackie some time together while I went and had a quick dinner with some old friends of mine in the Seattle area. I didn't get a pic of dinner with Kurt, Traci & Joel (unfortunately), but we had an awesome time at Ma'ono West Seattle to get some Hawaii-inspired cuisine (sadly, they ran out of their specialty: the fried chicken). While we ate dinner, it kinda snowed. We ran across the street for some warm pie before saying our goodbyes and driving off into the snowy night.

And by "kinda" snowed, I mean it gave the road a pretty good dusting that would challenge my driving skills (I don't think I've driven in snow since my semester abroad in NZ). I can't speak negatively of the Chrysler 200 as it seemed to handle the conditions better than I expected.

Friends Family. And with that, Mum, Aunty Janet and I said goodbye to Aunty Jackie. The day flew by quickly and we had to go back to our hotel for the night before it got too late (and too snowy).

It concerned me that the snow seemed to start falling a bit heavier as the night went on so I drove with great care on the way back to SEA. No sudden acceleration, braking or steering (especially in this front wheel drive compact car).

We made it safely through the night on the drive back to Avis (and saw more than our fair share of slipping and sliding vehicles out there on the roadways). Phew!

The view out of the hotel towards SEA. The snow stopped falling and our fear of subsequent flight cancellations subsided.

Our flight didn't get cancelled, but we had a delay for a couple hours.

We eventually left and we got quite a different kind of view after takeoff than we did on approach. Once at SFO, Mum and Aunty Janet headed over to the gate for their connecting flight home to HNL and we parted ways. What a whirlwind trip!

We didn't have a whole lot of time, but given Mum & Aunty Janet's respective busy travel schedules, it took a lot of stars aligning to allow for everyone to come together for this brief amount of time. Very much worth it I'd say.

Thursday 3 April 2014

SFO T3 Open House

A few years ago, SFO did an open house event prior to opening the remodeled Terminal 2. And I went to check it out. When I heard that they would do a similar event for the Terminal 3 opening, I jumped at the chance to check it out.


It seems weird to want to go to an airport without a plane ticket just to see a few things. I'm not the only weird one I guess.

18th Street Downgrade by Wayne Thiebaud. I think I took a picture of this previously (yeah, I did) where it previously hung in Terminal 3. Looks great in its new home. Still my favorite painting at SFO.

Saw some kids playing with this carpet representation of SFO's terminals and runways. Made me want to dig up my old Pan Am and Cathay B747 toys. I would've loved this as a kid love this.

Sky features 27 spheres suspended from the ceiling and works really well with the ambient, external and internal lighting of the terminal space to provide a fascinating piece where you might otherwise only expect to see boring ceiling tile. You can also see the kids choir signing at the bottom left of the frame.

Yeah, we did that.

Being the primary tenant of this new Terminal, United Airlines participated in the festivities in style, even bringing a B777 (3 class configuration) for folks to tour. Susanna decided to give the Business Class seat a try.

And then we waited a really long time in line for a chance to check out the cockpit. Yes, she asked the pilot to borrow his hat.

A view you don't often get outside of the First Officer's window. #planeselfie

Jason & I listen intently as the pilot answered our questions regarding the plane.

A close up of the controls. Wow.

They even built in a brand new Yoga room!

Jay DeFeo's Masquerade in Black features synthetic polymer and mixed media on masonite. As part of a series of works DeFeo produced in the 70's, it depicts a mechanical object painted in a forceful manner to suggest a being in motion. While dark, I think the theme works well being displayed at an airport where mechanical objects set about in rather forceful motion on a daily basis.

Thanks to Jason & Susanna for coming with me and also for doing a ton of walking so that I could get a lot of steps on my Fitbit!