Happy (Belated) Chinese New Year! Even though that was ages ago, it was only this past weekend that San Franciscans celebrated the Lunar New Year with the annual Chinese New Year parade. It just so happened that Mother Nature decided to throw a little party of her own in the form of a storm with heavy rain & wind. Lucky us!
Despite the crazy weather, tons of equally crazy people (myself included) lined the parade route to catch a glimpse of the festivities. The rain & wind even behaved reasonably nicely early on. The highlights included a few floats related to the Olympics (complete with the posse of Beijing mascots...yes those mascots), little elementary school kids doing Chinese cultural things (loosely choreographed dancing and the odd dragon or two) and of course a float with a giant golden rat (year of the Rat represent). Admittedly, it was decided that we would leave when the rain started getting heavy (say, about 40 min into the thing) and the wind began picking up (and started to cut effortlessly through the rows of people who, until then, provided me with some makeshift windbreak). For lack of any photos of the floats, which were difficult to acquire because of my poor positioning behind several individuals, here's a photo of the three of us who braved the weather to indulge in the celebrations: Kim, Dorothy, Me.
Enjoy the photo and brief recount of events. I hope that'll suffice for today. Cheers!
Howdy everyone! It's been a busy February and I apologize for my prolonged absence. Work's been busy and I've also been keeping busy on the weekends as well. I haven't been as diligent with the photo taking as I had hoped, but here are a few pics of what's been going on during this second month of 2008!
So, there's a cool pet store in Mountain View where they have all sorts of exotic pets and what not. I thought it'd be cool to take a pic of this nautilus which was just cruising around from one side of the tank to the other. That would make a cool pet! My co-workers and I were fascinated by all the different creepy reptiles, tropical fish and the like. They even had a little stingray! Check out the shop (and Maru Ichi Ramen...the awesome restaurant on Castro St. where we dined before dropping into this shop) if you're in the neighborhood.
So, I did a bit of cooking again and this would've been my dish of the month had I not actually cooked this at the end of January. Pretty much just some simple salmon cakes (salmon, potato & a few other things breaded and fried) with a nice light parsley sauce. Not too shabby though it was a little more potato than salmon this time around. You cook and you learn...
So, the weekend before last was my first big road trip since coming up here. I drove on down to LA on a lovely weekend (where it managed to touch 80 degrees F during the day) and spent a day with some of the peeps down there who I hadn't seen in quite some time. Shout out to Josh, Darren, Priscilla (ahem...I'm waiting for your pics!), Bro & Grant. A grand old time before Deryck & I headed down to San Diego to visit Brad. We ate at a cool Italian place and went go-karting (where the dude jotted my name down as "Adrian Limon" on the score sheet). Sadly, no pics of the karting (which I must do more often in the future) but here's a pic of dinner: Italian Trio of meat sauce lasagna, eggplant parmesan and ravioli. I was pretty stuffed after that and I'm sure my karting times would've been faster without the extra weight...
Not too many pics of people but here's one of me with the cap that we nabbed from the kart place. I almost look like I could play on the USC football team!
So, from Brad's my brother and I went to Petco Park to see the USA Sevens Rugby tournament to see NZ! It was such a lovely day down in SD.
Here's NZ leading Kenya in the semi-final 31-6. They honestly played awesome rugby throughout the tourney and with the victory over Kenya, set a new record for consecutive victories (35 to be exact).
Dunno if any of you doubted that NZ would win, but they did. They triumphed in the final over a determined South Africa who fought hard before NZ gained ascendency and finished on top to be crowned USA Sevens Champs! It was awesome to be able to watch some rugby (even though it was the abbreviated 7-a-side version) and some good old fashioned Kiwi dominance. We managed to have a great time despite the long waits between NZ matches and the expensive stadium food. After the late finish, I took Deryck back to Oxy, ate dinner and drove back to the Bay Area. Home by 3am and work at 9:30am. Lovely weekend all in all!
So, if you're wondering who some of the people I work with are, this photo will help to satisfy your curiosity. There's Nick & Priyanshu on a motorcycle when we went to the (moto) bike shop just down the street from the office. Both guys are fellow rock climbers (we go a few times a week) and my Rock Band band mates.
And finally, while this past weekend wasn't quite as exciting as the previous one, I cooked some ramen at Nick's before we all got a nice Rock Band game session in. That's a miso ramen with some thin sliced beef, tofu, nori and tempura shrimp. Tasty!
Okey dokes. So you're more or less caught up with my activities. Much thanks to Brad & Darren for providing shelter for Deryck & I to crash. It was a lot of fun visiting everyone down South! A couple more weeks to go before we're done with the month. I can't wait for March to roll by! You'll see why soon enough. Take care everyone. Cheers!
For the sake of trying something new, here's a brief little video blog entry I've filmed for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think and we'll see if I will do any more recorded ramblings in the future. All that's certain is that I'm definitely not the next lonelygirl15...
Hello, hello. One of the things I've really been enjoying about life since coming up here is finally having the time to cook my own meals and also having a kitchen that can support that goal. While sometimes I don't have all the time that I'd like to prepare (especially during the weekdays), having a gas stove, a tidy kitchen and the will-to-cook has really helped. So, I'd like to share with you all what's been cooked up in my kitchen this month. We'll see if I can present to you folks some different, exciting dishes each month. Here we go:
On the left, we have a Cherry Tomato & White Wine Pasta along with some green beans & red capsicums (bell peppers). The pasta was inspired by a recipe that I saw online for a simple sauce with crushed cherry tomatoes and capers. Instead of the capers, I threw in some onions and a splash of wine. I also used fresh tomatoes rather than the ones from the jar that the recipe suggested. Turned out pretty well I think with a very light, palatable flavour. On the right, there's a bowl of corn chowder that I made from a recipe on epicurious.com. I had done this a couple years back (you may or may not remember this Darren) but it came out a bit too watery. This time around, I added a good amount of corn starch to thicken it up to be more chowder-like in consistency without changing the yummy taste. I made a huge pot that, thankfully, has lasted for a very long time. Yum.
So there you have it. That's one of the meals that I've prepared for myself during this first month of the New Year. Tune in (sometime) next month when I bring you another wonderful dish from my kitchen! Cheers!
Sir Edmund Hillary
1919-2008
A truly sad day in history today as one of the most well-known and respected New Zealanders in the world has passed away. Though he will best be remembered for being the first to conquer Everest, arguably his most important accomplishment of all has been helping the people of Nepal. While he will be missed, his legacy shall continue to live on through his family and the Himalayan Trust he established. May you rest in peace Sir Ed. Your life has been an inspiration to me and many others.
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