nothing edifying

Al, Yut, and I went to get drinks Friday before . Doood, even though it was a short (4 day) work week, it seemed really long.

Yum, needed that:p

After happy hour, we met up with Julie to go to Sea Salt for dinner.

Always delicious! Although the big ones were a little big, even for me.

Yummilicious. These were gobbled up fast, and we sopped up the juices with the bread.

Yut got the lobster roll, which was buttery goodness.

Al got the oyster po’ boy.

Julie and I both got the fish ‘n’ chips. Now my cousin K, who has NEVER had fish n chips, knows what they look like, at least.

Anyhows, it was all delicious:) Afterwards we went to Gelaterio Naia for gelato:)

So first my cousin in Taiwan and her husband have a webcam.

Kitty also has a webcam.

Then CT got a webcam.

So I jumped on the bandwagon.

Now I got one, too.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with it, really, but it could be fun… And not that I’ve spoken to her in a while, but im-ing, and voice chat or voip if possible, and webcamming to Asia is cheap and easy compared to phone calls and visits… which is how this whole thing was justified. Gah, no self control:p

One of the best things about visiting parents is all the good food I get to eat:)

I think it’s especially good in the LA suburbs (east away from LA), cos not only is it good, it’s CHEAP, which gives me a sense of satisfaction to go with the food:D

On Saturday, for lunch, we went to this restaurant called Home Style in Monterey Park (both are guesses, actually:p). They have this fried dungeness crab with deep fried garlic dish for $1.99/pound. This crab was about 3 lbs, so this whole dish cost $5.99. You can’t buy crab for that much even if you wanted to deal with the frying of the garlic and the crab. And it’s oh so delicious. Well crab is yummy anyhows, but them garlic pieces are delectable.

Seafoody Clay Pot dish.

Clams with Basil — this is actually on my plate, and I already ate one:p

Yut’s fave, Salt and Pepper Shrimp. We were thinking about the fish tails from the grilled fish at kaiseki and the shrimp tails from this or tempura, and Yut had this brilliant idea where they take these crunchy shrimp and fish tails and package them as a salty snack. Wow, would that sell! Although we would probably buy some to try at least, I don’t know if anyone else would.

On Sunday, our nephew came over. He’s 2 and sooo cute. He made Yut get his tricycle and chase him (on his train thing) around the backyard. Pretty funny stuff:) He’s tireless and wore Yut out completely. Everyone else sat around enjoying the spectacle.

Today, we went to have dim sum. Each dish was like $2.10, which is pretty low. It’s less on non-holidays or weekends, and both prices used to be lower, but they raised the prices recently.

We flew back today, then took AirBART and BART home. We just missed the train so we had to wait at the BART station for a while.

I wandered around a bit and took random pictures of the view from the platform.

Yut and ♥Boxy♥ got first place at the Beginner Class of the Agility Trial:)

Was fun, but I’m glad to be home.

So we did decide to go see The Constant Gardener, and I’m so glad we did. I loved this movie. It felt so real and heartfelt to me. And thoughtful. I’m not saying it’s perfect, like for example I think the director uses too much of the handheld camera style. Maybe cos the particular scenes were shot with a handheld, but sometimes I just wanted it to be clearer and steadier:p But I really enjoyed it, and not just in a “it was good fun, so don’t think about it too much” sort of way, better than that.

I have a hard time writing these little mini-reviews because I don’t want to give too much away, ever. Also, sometimes, right after I watch a movie I will love it or hate it or feel eh about it, but then it grows on me or grows on my nerves. But this felt good to me, and I’m still thinking about it, and it made me cry (disclaimer: I cry easily:p).

The movie was like a thriller, driven by a love story. What I mean is, all the action in the movie was because of Justin’s (Ralph Fiennes) love for his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), despite everything. You know a lot of times, the hero of the movie becomes a superhero in response to trauma (the whole “you’ve pushed me too far!!!” thing) or something. Justin does become stronger and more courageous and such, but not superhumanly so, just trying his best within his capabilities, and in a way that made his efforts more amazing. Ralph Fiennes was just awesome.

I thought it was a great movie, maybe the best this year so far. Although as a disclaimer, I should say that I haven’t seen all that many movies for this year. Also, Yut thought it was good, but I don’t think he thought it was as good as I thought it was. Still thought it was a “darn good movie for this year” though:p

On an off topic, have you noticed that the people who complain the loudest about the rudesbies that mess up their movie watching experiences with cell phones tend to be the older or at least middle aged people? And yet this movie, which had maybe 3 other people besides us who I felt were sort of our age, and the rest were older couples, yet there were 2 cell phones that went off. The people turned them off right away but seriously, how hard is it to turn it off in the first place? Like when the ubiquitous “please turn off your cell phones” ads come on??? In contrast, when we went to see Red Eye, there were a lot more people, almost all of them youngish and no one’s cell phone rang.

Also, speaking of Red Eye, I forgot to mention, Colby Donaldson (he of Survivor 2: The Australian Outback) was in it! He was the head security guy. I saw him and kept on wondering where I’d seen him before cos I knew I had, so I dawdled on my way out of the theater to watch the credits til I saw his name:p

This weekend we’ve seen a lot of movies. Yut’s parents go to sleep early and wake up early which is the exact opposite of us. Plus they have cars:)

First we rented Equilibrium which Cliff recommended a while back. I’d totally forgotten, but Yut saw it at Blockbuster and so we got it. I’ll admit, I was afraid it was going to be stupid because science fiction (and fantasy a lot) movies are AWFUL! But it was really good! Lots of fun:) Somewhat on the violent side, but you’ll notice there isn’t actually a lot of blood — although I thought there were two scenes that were somewhat gratuitous. Also I like Christian Bale a lot now — cos he’s BATMAN! But also really good:) I’ve seen it twice now and listened to the commentaries, which is not something Yut is into, but that’s ok cos he’s playing with lappy instead:p Well admittedly, after the first time, I was really reading and watching and posting at the same time. But still the movie is great fun:)

Yesterday, we finally saw Red Eye which I’ve been wanting to see cos I actually like both main leads (Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams). Also lots of fun. Dude, she was just so resourceful and didn’t give up. And he was so so cold. I think I want to see 28 Days Later again to watch him do the human/heroic thing:p

Today, we are thinking of going to watch The Constant Gardener with Ralph Fiennes. I read Stephen Hunter’s review (Pulitzer Prize winning critic at The Washington Post) and he said it was Fiennes’s best performance since The English Patient… well, that’s fine, but I hated The English Patient. Ralph Fiennes was ok, I guess, but it’s not like I’m some sort of expert who’s able to distinguish between a good and great performance so I don’t know, I just remember being really annoyed:p So we’ll see.

—EDIT—
I just wanted to add that when we went to Blockbuster, we were originally trying to rent Double Indemnity but they didn’t have it. Grrrrrrr…

Labor Day weekend is a popular traveling weekend. I know this cos dooood, there were a ton of people at the airport when we went to fly to visit my in-laws. I think it was worse than July 4th weekend. Although of course, the most recent flight is almost always the worst:p

But! While we were at the airport waiting for boarding, I saw this kid, playing with his DS. And he was using his stylus a lot. Now, of course a lot of DS games can utilize the stylus, but I automatically thought NINTENDOGS! I dithered a lot, wondering if I ought to go check, or if that’d be too freaky weird. But finally, I thought, “Fuck it.”

So I walked up to where he was sitting and said, “Dude, are you playing Nintendogs???” And he looked up (cute kid, around 10?) and was like, “Yeah…” And I was all, “OMG, I have one too!” (which was duh cos I had my DS clutched in my hand.) Making him look up at me caused his dog to mess up his Agility Trial (ooops) but then we let our dogs play:) He had a toy poodle, so now I can buy one from the kennel, but I don’t think I can handle another dog:p

I went and bought nothingedifying.com yesterday, so it’s mine. On one hand, I didn’t think anyone would ever buy nothingedifying cos I mean… it’s just not something you’d say much. I don’t even know if it’s proper English.

But Yahoo! was having a domain registration sale, so I figured, why the hell not. Also, someone has mim.com! And Yut’s name too! So it’s nuts.

Right now, I haven’t decided to do anything with it, so it just re-directs to this same page, maybe I’ll do something with it later:)

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:)