How to Train Your Dragon!

Just got back from watching this movie at the Century City IMAX in 3D.  OMG, cutest, funniest dragon movie ever!!!  They did such a great job with this movie!  That dragon is so meltingly cute.  There were so many funny parts...I was laughing all the way through the movie.  I was expecting it to be more cheesy and aimed at younger kids.

I still want to watch Alice in Wonderland.

differences in DDR style

Playing DDR with Lawrence can be interesting because our minds work so differently.  He tends to pick up the visual cues of the arrows reaching the top rather than listen to the beat to aurally anticipate the arrows.  I'm the opposite - if I had to rely solely on the visuals, I would find it very difficult to react in time.  Instead, I listen to the beat so I can anticipate the timing of the arrows.  This can come in handy when you've got a bunch of quarter, sixth, or eighth notes in quick succession.

I'm also better at jumping.  He's got longer, muscular legs and is very heavy on his feet.  That makes jumping a slow and clumsy process for him.  Thus, he hates playing songs that have lots of Air while I love them.  I've always loved jumping - I think it's the sudden burst of energy.  I can go all out, let go, and not hold back.  Give 100%.  Maybe that's why I hate long distance running?  You can't give 100% because the point is to hold back and maintain a steady state for a long time [zzzzzzz].

We played DDR last night because Lawrence realized he needs to lose weight so that he doesn't stretch out the seams of his new A.P.C. raw denim jeans.  We hope to go running tonight.

Tonight I also wanted to make buns.  I started on the fillings yesterday.  I have a slab of pork butt marinating in sauce.  I made a ground pork butt & napa cabbage filling.  The pork butt will go in the oven tonight and come out as delicious cha sao/cha siu (Chinese bbq pork).  I'm going to make two different bun doughs cause I'm following two different recipes.  In the end, I will [hopefully] have some steamed bbq pork buns and some sheng jian bao (Shanghai pan fried buns).

Inner Turmoil

Coding causes so many conflicting feelings.  I hate it when I've got two lines of nearly identical code, yet one works and the other one doesn't.  There must be a logical reason though, and I love following the logical trail to figure out the possibilities.  It's almost euphoric to finally figure out what was wrong.  A missed "+ 1" here, a forgotten cast from string to int there...and it's inevitably something stupid that makes you wonder at your own intelligence.  Am I smart for finding the problem, or stupid for letting it happen in the first place?!  :O  Slowly but surely, I will conquer this app!

Lawrence & Me

San Francisco trip - Saturday

Saturday morning we rented a car so we could drive North across the Golden Gate Bridge to Calistoga.  First we stopped off in Chinatown to pick up breakfast.  It was really crowded there due to the ongoing New Year's celebrations.  We stopped by the Golden Gate Bakery for egg tarts and were surprised there was no line.  Then again, their pastry maker passed away in 2007 and the crust just hasn't been the same since.  Since there was no line, we also didn't have fresh piping hot egg tarts.  The crust was still definitely not the super flaky delicacy of years past.  It pains me that they were not able to pass on the flaky pastry skills.  This place was a San Francisco landmark!  No more...  :(  We also picked up some dim sum to eat in the car.

It only took us a little over an hour to get to Calistoga.  We stayed at Solage, a spa that was rated #1 in Conde Nast for the Americas/Caribbean and #2 in Travel + Leisure magazine for U.S. & Canada.  Their restaurant/bar, Solbar, even has a Michelin star.  The service was great - the people who work there are super friendly and service oriented.  They even gave us some hot chai to drink when we checked in.  :)  The rooms were awesome - they had concrete floors and were like their own little cabin-like buildings.  The layout was open and spacious and the room had a sliding glass door that opened out to a covered patio.  The rooms come with a pair of bikes parked outside so you can ride around the property on them.  They also recommend you use them to ride into town (stores are two blocks away).  Their spa, restaurant, etc. all have bike racks in front for you to park your bikes.  Rooms for us were $320/night.

Saturday lunch we ate at Solbar.  The food was pretty awesome all around.  We ordered (it probably changes a bit daily):

• winter squash velouté - with crispy sage leaves and granny smith apples
• some creamy soup with chorizo that's not on their online menu
• spicy shrimp lettuce wraps - glass noodles, nam pla dipping sauce, avocado and pickled carrots
• salad of asian pears and winter greens - bibb lettuce, red cabbage, hosui pears, toasted cashews and chili-lime vinaigrette
• freshly baked sea salt flatbread - romesco sauce, salsa verde and white bean purée with pimentón de le vera
• LUCKY PIG - slow-roasted shoulder of long and bailey duroc pork, black sesame crepes, pickled pineapple, mongolian peanuts, lettuce cups and more
• meyer lemon pudding cake - meyer lemon caramel, blood orange granita, honey tuile

We all agreed that the flatbread was delicious, and it seemed each of us liked a different dipping sauce best.  The Lucky Pig came with a ton of super tender pork.  You got to build your own wrap and all the little condiments they gave were yummy too.

[the view from our patio]

After lunch, we rode in to town and walked down the main street to shop around a bit.  We then went back to Solage and decided to soak in the geothermal heated pools before our scheduled mud treatment.  There was a big pool and separated walled clothing-optional pools that were much hotter.  There was also a steam room heavy with a eucalyptus scent.  Sonny and I went to the clothing-optional pool but I chickened out of going nekkid.  It was a little weird at first but ultimately I regretted not taking full advantage of the experience.  7pm was our appointment for their signature "Mudslide for Two" treatment.  It was 3 parts - mud slathering/baking in a heated room and then rinse; a mineral bath in their footed tubs; and finally a relaxing twenty minutes in a reclined cushy chair, wrapped up in a luscious down comforter, with headphones that play new agey spa music.  It was verrrrry relaxing!  I loved the whole experience!  Well, except for one thing.  They need to replace those Bose headphones.  BOO BOSE!  We had tried to get the full spa package, but they were already booked (grrr at the last minute planning).  Even so, just the mudslide was pretty awesome.  Even Lawrence was able to unwind.  Next time I go to a spa, I'd like to try out some facial/skin treatments.

We ate dinner in the lounge area of Solbar where they serve you from a changing menu of small plates.  We loved the food...they had some really good dishes and the surprising thing was how affordable the prices were.  I should have written them down or at least taken photos of the menu.  :[

San Francisco trip - Friday

A few weeks ago it was suddenly decided we would go up to San Francisco for the weekend.  Josh and Lawrence needed to be in SF for a food tasting for one of their truck concepts.  I guess they decided to make a weekend out of it so I went up too.  Sonny, Josh's girlfriend was also there.  The tasting was on Friday.  Lawrence flew out of LAX at 6:30am.  I was going to as well but our plans were too last minute.  Instead, I left straight from work and took the FlyAway shuttle from Union Station to LAX.

I was really nervous the whole time because I was by myself.  I've gotten so used to having Lawrence around that having to do things like that by myself feels really weird.  Also, Lawrence didn't know where the Long Term Parking lot was and ended up parking in the lot across from the terminal, which charges $30/day.  I needed to get there early enough to move the car to long term parking.  Of course, I look up the maps for LAX way in advance and plan out my schedule with the bus times so that I have plenty of time to do all this.  I had plenty of time to spare, but I still got a little nauseous from the anxiety.  I speculated at Lawrence that this is why I've always tried to maintain a calm relaxed state, partitioning my mind so that I don't think about certain things.  If I'm constantly thinking about and worrying over everything at once like Lawrence does, I can get physically ill from the anxiety.

The flight was fine, just a little bit of scary turbulence and more anxiety.  I got onto the AirTrain, then the BART.  I helped some people figure out the BART ticketing system (Is it really so difficult?!  I suppose if you're in a rush and you don't read the instructions).  The others were already eating dinner in Chinatown so I had to take a taxi there.  I'm pretty sure that was the first time I had ever flagged down and took a taxi for myself, ever.  It wasn't so bad I suppose - the taxi driver didn't try to talk to me much.  I hate having to make small talk with random people cause I really don't know how to do it right.  O_o  Anyway, we ate at Yuet Lee.  We had crab, clams, some veggies, sweet/sour pork.  It was decently good but Josh didn't think it was anything special.  I suppose you have to think about it in the right way.  It's about as good as San Francisco Chinese food gets.  One can not compare that with the variety and quality of Chinese food available in Los Angeles.  That night we stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square.

doily blocking

crochet photo

Photo of my lace doily being blocked on a board with 60 pins.  An overhead shot of the same doily.  The lace doily I finished blocking yesterday.

monday workout

Monday was at Melody's house (yay!):

10lb sledgehammer:
- 30x circular swings on each side

6lb sledgehammer
- 30x vertical swings on each side
- 20x body twisting while holding the hammer sideways at a 90 degree angle

small ball peen hammer
- hold bottom of hammer with arm held straight out and let the end lower towards the arm, then pivot it straight back away from the arm

heavy ropes:
- 30sec. double wave pattern, both arms moving together
- 30sec. alternating wave pattern, arms alternating
- 30sec. sideways wave pattern, arms moving sideways out & in

25lb sandbags:
- lift, toss in arms, toss in hands, lift above head, toss back down in arms, then hands, then ground
- alternate lifting over a shoulder and touching the end to the ground
- alternate lifting over head to touch each shoulder

woah, earthquake!

At 4am, we had a 4.4 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter about 10 miles from us.  We felt it shake pretty hard although I don't recall the building creaking.  Lawrence was already awake and he quickly woke me up.  We tossed on our robes and went outside the building as a precaution.  It reinforced how we've laxed in our earthquake preparedness.  We had a backpack filled with emergency supplies, but then ate the cans of soup when we were low on food and dumped all the stuff out when we had to use the backpack.

Weekend in SF

I've decided to split this up into multiple posts.  There's just too much to write about for one go.  These posts are not really meant to be informative - more like a personal journal for me to record my impressions.

A couple weeks ago, we suddenly got the opportunity to go up to San Francisco to hang out with Josh & Sonny.  I wasn't able to be there Friday until late at night so I missed out on the food concept tasting.  Saturday we rented a car and drove up to Calistoga to stay at the Solage spa & resort.  We ate at their Michelin-starred restaurant, Solbar, and relaxed at the geothermally heated pools before getting a relaxing mud treatment.

Sunday we drove to Yountville for brunch at Ad Hoc, and then drove up & down the highway for wine tastings.  We stopped at Opus One, Robert Mondavi, & Joseph Phelps.  For a late lunch we went to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa and gorged ourselves on raw oysters.  We also tried a place there called Pica Pica Maize Kitchen.  It serves Venezuelan street food consisting of various fillings over your choice of three different corn breads.

For dinner, we were back in San Francisco and tried out Heaven's Dog.  Monday & Tuesday we relaxed in SF, shopping, eating, and looking at condos.  I didn't call anyone up to hang out with because I wasn't sure of Josh & Sonny's plans and I didn't feel like I should go run off on my own but Lawrence assures me that it would be normal if I want to do so next time.

Photo processing

Going through the recent photos on the camera so I can add pictures to my posts.  Meanwhile, here's a few old ones:

Muffin likes to molest me while I sleep:

And here she is looking sneaky:

Here's Lawrence 3 years ago when he first started his job at Maserati:

Annnnd, here he is this week just after he got a new haircut (wearing contacts too):

Here's a gorgeous domme at the Folsom Street Fair:

And this was the line for the LudoBites truck at the LA Street Food Fest, when it was still early:

Long posts

Ugh, long posts make me tired.  I have a post waiting to go about my trip to SF from a week ago but it just gets longer and longer.  I decided to remove the food reviews and turn those into separate posts...but that means I need to write even more to properly get down my thoughts on the food.

Maybe tonight.  I kind of want to bake some more.  Maybe cake?  Bread is waiting for me to get off my lazy bum to clean out my dough bucket.  It's got leftover dough from seriously....three months ago.  I'm scurred.

Workout & cookies

Tonight's workout:

- Holding onto one end of a 45 lb. bar with both arms held straight out, lunge to one side.  Lunge to the other side while bringing the end of the bar over.
- Lunges with a 24 lb. bar held on one shoulder, repeat with the bar held on the other shoulder.
- Raise the 24lb. bar, lifting it straight up hand over hand, then lower it hand over hand.
- Assisted pull-ups.
- With upper back resting on a balance ball and a bar held with arms straight, bring one tip over the head to touch the ground and then the other tip between the legs to touch the ground.

On my way home from the gym, I went to Sur La Table and bought a BeaterBlade mixer attachment with silicone wings that scrape the sides of the bowl and a Microplane zester.  I also stopped by Gelson's for a bag of key limes and a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour.  This was so I could make a batch of key lime meltaways, recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe).

[cooling on the rack after baking]

[after being coated with powdered sugar]

Delicious!  The flat beater attachment worked perfectly.  I might need a little more sugar in the dough.  I also wouldn't mind adding more lime zest.  I definitely need to use regular salt instead of Kosher salt, which was the only salt I had.  :<  The texture of the cookies, however, turned out perfectly light and powdery.  Too bad Lawrence doesn't like citrus zest of any sort in anything.  I'm too lazy to take pictures since it's so late at night.  I still have another log of the dough in the fridge so I'll take pictures of the next batch.

Thursday workout

Back into the groove of things~

- With hands on a bench, hop both feet over the bench, left and right (x15).
- Plyometric push-ups using the bar of the Smith machine (x15).
- One-legged jumps forward, back, left, right (x15) on each foot.
Repeated that set 4 times.

- With hanging from a pull-up bar, lift knees up as close to chest as possible (x15).
- With both hands held straight out, pull the cable sideways across body; flip around and do the same in the other direction (x15).

Note to self

Drinking lots of water may be good for my health, but I need to tone down the rate.  Needing to get up and go pee every half hour from drinking too much too quickly does not help productivity, especially when coding.

Old games that are not popular enough

My dad used to sign up for this magazine that would give you a floppy disk insert every month that had DOS software & games on it.  These disks kept me occupied in my elementary school days.  They had text-based adventure games, dungeon crawlers, first person shooters (pre-cursor to Doom),  puzzle games, word games, etc.

Sadly, I can't find any of them available for download on the internet.  I guess they JUST WEREN'T POPULAR ENOUGH.  ARGH.

ZZT
Conflagration
Catacomb 3D
Murder in the Museum
and a ton of others I don't remember the names of

There's also this one game that was on our copy of OS/2 Warp.  It was a puzzle game where you had a character that had to move boxes around on a tile-based grid.  It was similar to Chip's Challenge except there were no fancy water/fire/ice tiles and no monsters.  It just had one-way tiles and boxes arranged in specific ways.  The goal was to move the boxes to the indicated tiles.  I just can not for the life of me find any reference to this game.  O_O''

TV lineup

My current TV lineup & their resume dates.

March 1
Chuck (actually, I still need to catch up to the current episodes)
How I Met Your Mother
Big Bang Theory

March 8
House
Castle

April 1
Bones
Fringe