nothing edifying

I would just like to say that I was only there from 5 to before 6:20 or something cos I have class at 6:30, so after that, til 8 or so I was in class. So there:p

It was nice though, a couple of drinks after work:D

I also had dinner there — Portobello Al Balsamico which is a mushroom baked in garlic and olive oil with a balsalmic vinegar sauce. Polenta (?) on the side. Yums:)

Oh and Dog is now also a disc competition champion (the beginner level only). But I haven’t tried the agility trials cos he gets into the tube and stays there, whining just a tad, poor little guy.

I tried to teach Dog “spin” for chasing his own tail, but that didn’t work, so I trained him on “chase,” but then he got confused with “shake,” so I retrained him for “handshake” but I forget sometimes. I can’t seem to get him to jump and beg tho:(

misa, we need to get together again so our dogs can play:) Also anyone else who decides to get Nintendogs:p

Y’see, you can tell it was a long day cos it’s taken me three days just to post about it. And each post was rather substantial (in length if not in content:p).

Anyhows, the rest of the Long Long Long day was spent looking for that special combination of Nintendo DS (system) and Nintendogs (game). This is, by the way, a semi-abbreviated account of what happened:p And it’s still pretty long, so if you wanna, you can just scroll down to see the good stuff:D

Basically, after we hung out with all them lil tykes at Tyler’s birthday party, we drove to Walmart looking for a DS. I was mildly anti-Walmart, but they were selling the DS with Super Mario 64 for the price of the DS. I never played the game back on the N64, so I thought it might be fun. Omg, that parking lot was sheer madness! You know how usually at a shopping center the back spots are actually pretty empty so as long as you’re willing to hoof it a bit, parking’s at least easy in the back? Well at the new Walmart in Oakland, the whole parking lot was FULL! Was crazy. Then we went in, and dude, the minute I stepped inside I wanted out already. There were so many people! And so many tall narrow aisles! I hate shopping, really. But we were there, so we went looking for the DS. First they couldn’t find anyone with the keys, then there wasn’t anyone with information (although the cashier who tried to help us was nice), then when the assistant manager showed up, she claimed that prices online aren’t reflected in-store. Which makes no sense since there’s a “Shop Online!” station right next to the cashier’s office. Well we tried to say, “Uh…are you sure about this?” and even one of the sales associates was like, “Really?” But the assistant manager INSISTED. So we left. Anyhows since we were going to Menlo Park for dinner, we decided to stop at Union City which has this huge shopping center with every store imaginable. We know this shopping center because everytime we go down to South Bay to see misa and neb, the In N Out calls our names, although we mostly resist. The whole time we are making this decision, we talked about how this was way too much effort; we shoulda listened to ourselves. I guess it’s not too often we have a car:p

Well, the Union City Walmart was horrific too. The sales associate said that it was a special bundle and even though the bundle was just a DS and a game, too bad, they were out of the bundled ones. Well that’s fine I guess, but that doesn’t explain the first Walmart then. Anyhows, so now I don’t even wanna buy from Walmart, bundle or no, so we go to Best Buy. But they’re sold out of the DS. I buy the game anyhows cos doood, now I am just sad. On the way out of the shopping center, we see a Game Crazy store, so we try there, but they’re out of the DS as well. They suggest Walmart, to which I reply, “I hate Walmart.” and without batting an eyelash, they suggest Best Buy, but of course, they’re sold out.

By this time, it’s getting close to our reservation time, so we are thinking that we’ll just have to call it quits, and buy at EB the next day or something. Luckily, misa and neb take us to a Target after dinner right before they close, so I get my DS after all.

I actually got two copies of Nintendogs cos I got the chihuahua version first, when that was all they had left, but then I thought I’d like the lab version, so we got that at Best Buy after a day of DS disappointment, but then since misa has the lab version, I decided to keep the chihuahua version, cos truthfully, they are all pretty damn cute.

Now I have a German Shepherd named Dog who is the smartest and cutest little guy around:) He’s already won the Open level of the obedience trials. Genius, I tell ya:)

misa and neb took us to Kaygetsu in Menlo Park for kaiseki, which is like Japanese prix fixe. I think misa or neb would be better able to describe, but I’ll do the best I can.

We got there first, so I had time to take pictures of the table setting:)

This is the saki zuke (starter). The description says that it’s “vinegar/gelatin coated seafood” in the green leaf wrapped thing. I know it doesn’t sound appetizing, but it was good:) The next thing is “steamed chicken, asparagus, red and yellow bell pepper with black sesame sauce.” The chicken was like any other chilled chicken, although v. tender and good, but the black sesame sauce made it more than that:) Then it’s “red crab with edamame jelly” and lastly “squid with spicy cod fish roe, rolled with seaweed, deep fried with spicy rice cracker” which was amazing! They didn’t mention the shiso but there was shiso and it was ever so delicious. This last one was our fave:)

Suimono (clear broth) consisting of “hamo fish with noodles, yuzu (no idea), plum.” This felt like swanky comfort food to me when I was eating it. The next day, even though I thought the appetizer thing was so good, it was all the brothy dishes that I craved.

Tsukuri (sashimi): “daily selection of sashimi” I think the sashimi under the shiso leaf was amber jack (yum!), then striped jack (Yut liked this one), then the red one was maguro, and then two pieces of salmon. I think that salmon was super good, and usually I’m not a salmon sashimi fan.

Yaki mono (grilled dish): “dried and grilled ayu (sweet fish) served with tade (water pepper) vinegar, pickled hollowed burdock, grilled manganji pepper, sansho flowed baby sardines.” This was amazing!!! Yut and I both cleaned off both of our plates, bones and all. The fish was really good with that green vinegar. We also talked misa into eating the fish tails:) I liked the rest of it too, but the fish was the best.

Taki awase (slow cooked dish): “kobe style beef, cooked with sweet soy hirousu (minced and fried tofu), green bean, Japanese potato, carrot, spaghetti squash, eggplant, cooked in fish broth.” This was good, I especially liked the hirousu:)

Gohan mono (rice dish): “salmon [sic] with clear broth, topped with salmon, pickled vegetables.” When Yut saw the description, he was pretty curious about the salmon on salmon, and took the cover off right away to check it out. But it was just a misprint — should be rice with clear broth. This made me think of all the times I put soup (especially miso) on my rice and ate it like a ricey soup and my mom told me I was eating it pig slop style and now it turns out I’m just a gourmand and my run-on sentence capability is pretty good, too:) Anyhows, it was delicious also:)

Last was the house-made original dessert: “fig compote, condensed milk sorbet with red bean topping, green tea syrup” which reminded me of red bean condensed milk slushy which I always eat bushels full of in Taiwan:) Well just the milk sorbet and red bean topping part. The fig compote was really good. “That was one yummy ass fig” is how Yut put it:) I didn’t even know I liked fig:p

Anyhows, by this time, we were all really full, so luckily dinner was done:)

Saturday (to me, it’s still today:p) has been a v. long day.

Today was Tyler’s birthday party. For him, we woke up earlier than we wanted to:p But still, it was actually pretty fun. Dooooood though, so many children! We ate tons of really good kalbi and chapchae (I think that’s what it was:) ) and spinach stuff and seaweed stuff.

Then the games began. This pinata was so strong, it took a while to break:p Look at all the kids! Was like Munchkinland, nice place, ok to visit, but we’re leaving and going to Oz. Something like that:p

Afterwards, we drove around a lot looking for a Nintendo DS. But that story later:p Then we had dinner with misa and neb, but that story also later.

I am soooo tired right now, so I am going to bed:p

Gawd, it’s been a long time since I had to do a lot of writing.

I was taking some notes today and by the end, my hand hurt.

My handwriting started to get smaller and closer together and squigglier and generally crabbier as I went on.

This hurts more than when I’ve gamed too much and my mouse hand (which coincidentally is my pen hand) starts to hurt.

So the moral of the story is, gaming is better than studying.

I’m like some kind of Aesop:D

Have you ever heard your computer beeping really loudly and insistently out of the blue? Oh my god it’s the most irritating thing imaginable.

Well it’s even worse when it’s a server (not a domain controller or anything like that, just a small standalone). Them server-making people evidently decided that if something is wrong with a server, everyone in that wing of the floor should be able to hear it whine about its pain, even behind closed doors. How do you fix it when you can barely think?! Geez, I thought I was a good whiner:p

But you know, for once, I’m kinda glad my cell phone is semi-broken. I got called about the server, and I was like, “So what’s up?” and he incredulously said, “You can’t hear it?” and I insouciantly replied, “Nope! My phone is messed and I’m sitting in a loud bus besides.” Hahaha:) I’m just lucky my cell didn’t decide to hang up on him before I figured out there was a problem. Technology:p

(Guess it’s an adverb kind of post:D )

We saw Kung Fu Hustle today:) Soooo funny. A lot of fun to watch. Much better than Shaolin Soccer (starring and directed by the same guy, Stephen Chow) to me.

Lately we’ve been watching so many movies that Netflix (or similar) would finally be worth it. But the thing is, we’re not like this all the time. And Nintendogs comes out today!!! Oooh yes. We are going to get a Nintendo DS just for that. I’m excited, it looks so cute:D So yeah, after that, who knows:) Also, Civ IV is out this year. And DDR Mario Mix. Hopefully, anyways. So after I get my hands on Nintendogs, we’ll see how much movie watching we do.

We had lunch at Wikiwiki Hawaiian BBQ which just opened today. It replaced this rotisserie chicken place but the decor didn’t change much. I mean, they repainted and hung some cool Hawaiian stick figure theme lights but it didn’t do enough to alleviate the cafeteria feel of the space.

Anyhows, the menu has stuff like loco moco, kalua pork, pork lau lau, chicken katsu, beef curry, mahi mahi, bbq short ribs, and musubi, etcetc. A lot of Hawaiian stuff:) Since it was our first time, we decided to try the loco moco and the kalua pork & pork lau lau plates.

The loco moco had more of a slightly sweet teriyaki based gravy than a regular gravy. I think loco moco is better with gravy. It was fine, but it definitely doesn’t compare to the loco moco we had at L&L in Hawaii:p

The kalua pork was actually pretty yummy, nice and tender. The laulau was a disappointment though. Even though the taro leaf package looks pretty big, there’s actually not that much stuff inside. Also, I’m not sure if they just didn’t properly steam it or what, but the pork inside was tough and dry. Oh well.

All the food seems to come out in these paper boxes regardless of if you are getting take out or eating there. And also, it is only just the first day it opened, so things probably need time to settle down. And I would go back to try some of their other stuff, and maybe even the kalua pork again, but definitely no more lau lau:p

On our way home from Wikiwiki, we stopped by Blockbuster cos we got these coupons in the mail from some class action lawsuit or something. Cos of those coupons, we’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. We’ve seen Sideways, which I actually thought was pretty good. It definitely had its moments. A lot of people I’ve spoken with have said that they thought it was overrated, cos of the hype you know “the best indie movie yadayada” but I felt like it was a really charming movie, with its loser main leads. Yesterday we watched Mystic River, which was amazing. Really heartbreaking good stuff. It was just great all around. I don’t even know what to say more about it. Today we rented African Queen on VHS(!) cos it’s not available on DVD. I don’t get why not, but I guess Blockbuster’s not a great place for seeing old movies:p

Oh and Lingo wanted the top left pair of sneakers (the blue ones) and the bottom right pair of loafers (is that what they’re called?). So K and I were both sort of right:p

We have a lot of Lingo’s shoes around, just sitting there for years now. So Yut took a photo of them and Lingo is going to decide which one(s) he still wants. Now I have more shoes to post up! :)

Most of Lingo’s shoes are boring. I’m just not into sneakers, but clearly, he is:p The brown shoes on the bottom right are the nicest, albiet dusty.

So that’s my guess for which one he’ll pick:)