Kenny and Anne’s Party
Yeah, I know. It's called a wedding. But I'll let Kenny and Anne tell you all about that.
Believe in the Chimney Starter
If you are a believer in charcoals, even lump charcoals, or briquettes, you definitely should invest in one of these things. They're $14 bucks that will go a long way.
PHOTO COLLECTION
Yeah, I know. It’s called a wedding. But I’ll let Kenny and Anne tell you all about that. I’ll tell you about all the fun that happened around it. It’s not like they didn’t want us to celebrate.
The weather was perfect.
The food was perfect.
The drinks were definitely perfect.
I mean, it was an open bar of course. That only leads to dancing and taking random pictures as well as talking to an assortment of people you’ve just met while all of a sudden, you’d realize that just a few hours ago, someone, you’d recall as your friends, had just gotten married. And oh, that’s the time wisdom kicks in to tell you to put down that drink and look for a water bottle. Of course, I’m not that wise, and luckily, I kept my camera clicking away. All the way back to the hotel to capture all the drunken follies.
Of course, you won’t see those photos here. Sorry, FB friends only!
The one thing I do notice nowadays at my friends weddings, were the number of us single people left. Some you thought would never get married that do. And the ones that you always thought would that… were married. So What the heck am I going to do? I’m that guy everyone thought would be married. I’m nice. I chew with my mouth closed. And I got mad people skills. That’s when it hit me. I’ll write about, see if anyone cares, and when they write to me and propose their ever lasting love for my rudimentary writing, I’d simply respond “What? Hell no, you freak!”
Ah, you gotta admire it when two people can find themselves in this insane world.
Life by .
It basically boils down to how you stack your combustibles and funneling up the heat. You learn this from camping. Where you stack wood up and form a little cone. Inside, you put your newspaper or whatever catches fire easily, then light it up. Usually for firewood this may take one or two attempts. But with a chimney starter it’s rather a one shot deal. I mean it’s designed to funnel air from the bottom and drive heat upwards.
So what’s the point of all this?
It’s to stay away from gas and protect, or even, enhance the flavor of what you’re grilling. Even lighter fluid leaves a taste on food if you don’t wait long enough. Hell. You can even say it’s one step closer to lessen our dependence on gas. Ha. So let’s stop dousing coals with that overpriced lighter fluid and invest in a little chimney starter for a little more on price. Trust me. It makes things alot simpler. Even for someone as impatient as myself.
So over in Japantown you can find plenty of all you can eat shabu-shabu, even one with all you can drink. That was the favorite, Happy Shabu over on Fillmore, great place, great food, and a great people. The meat, beef or chicken, cut real thin to cook quickly in your individual pot. This seems great, but it wasn’t what getting together with friends was all about.
Enter Shabu House on Geary.
They have everything Happy Shabu had, plus some extras. For one, parking is easier out here. Being out in the Richmond area, there’s plenty of parking. They also have everything Happy Shabu had, standard plate of fillers (cabbage, spinach, mushroom, udon), but the udon was fresh and not dry. Also you get the choice of spicy miso or some other broth that I can’t remember right now. Not like the plain water you usually get. I’m sure you can get the water and seaweed thing if you ask, but us, we wanted to try out that miso broth. That was one gamble that turned out great. Midway through the meal, the soup was good enough to drink. Next, the place had all you can eat for $29.99 and add $10, you get all you can drink. It’s either beer or sake, and the beers were the large bottled Asahi and Sapporo’s. A big win? But wait, there’s more, they have this American Style Kobe, which is a grade below real Kobe but a grade higher than standard American beef. The stuff cooks so quickly and melts in your mouth. Decadence! They also serve cuts of lamb, but this place has shared pots. So for who ever may not like lamb, you gotta watch out. It does contaminate the broth for the non-lamb lovers. The place also has alot more room and can house larger parties than my old favorite. And if it couldn’t get any better, the meal ends with a free scoop of green tea or red bean ice cream.
Granted, that isn’t the best way to end a meal, when you’re buzzed from the beers and stuffed to the brink. But hey, it was still nice.
A great place. A hidden gem. And hopefully it won’t get mobbed by yelpers.
Oh wait, I’m one too.
Food by .
It sucks when a restaurant gets bought out. You know the owners are happy, but for the workers, it’s a different story. You see it in their attitudes. Still doing their best but holding in the bit of resentment for the whole situation. We saw it last night at Ramblas out in the Mission. They had two days left before they would close the doors and re-open as a Italian restaurant. Luckily, we had the chance to try out the menu before it disappeared.
The food was great considering the area had numerous tapas restaurants. For them, they had an amazing variety from an amazing Gambas al Ajillo to slightly over salted pork belly. Can’t complain about the saltiness having pitchers of drinks at the ready.
Kathy and Kevin came into town to hang out and having them meet everyone here was perfect. Not too noisy. Cozy. And not crammed packed.
For the first time being here, I have to say, it’s going to be missed.
Food by .
So here I am packing my bags once again, not for some vacation or excursion or even hiatus this time. This time I’m leaving sunny and warm Los Angeles for sunny and cool San Francisco where I start a new job that lands me in the gaming industry. Strange how I always wanted to join one after college. It would have been the ultimate dream, being a fan of every genre from first person shooters, strategy, adventure to even sports game. But now, after many years, after developing motion sickness, after playing the same type of game over and over again, repackaged with different graphics. Well it’s different.
That’s not to say things are bad career wise.
Matter of fact, it’s much better. Technically, the company doesn’t build games. It builds a virtual platform. And with this comes engineers from the gaming industry. But in no way does the cultural or the business work like a gaming company. So why does this make things better? Well, it’s the people. I get to work next to the best minds in the business. Not some engineers pushing out the next re-skinned game as fast as they could. Nope. These people have the architectural and quality mindset you’d find in dedicated engineers, not just developers. With their help, they are guiding me to paths I long forgotten. The engineering path. This was very different from the management role I was heading. I have to say though. This was made possible by a couple of people at my last job. They started me and this is where the sails are taking me now. And now, it seems the winds have blown me north. Silicon Valley here I am!
Life by .
After last year’s snowboarding season highlighter in Hokkaido, Japan, I knew this year would be difficult to top. How could you beat a week of constant snow that had the consistency of Utah’s light powder where you get fresh tracks in the tree runs that the locals never take. Not to mention the fantastic food in the lodges that don’t try to rape your wallet. All of which you get to experience with great friends.
So instead of trying to top it, why not try something different.
That meant rewinding our snowboard adolescence several years and head to the parks for some fun. Yeah, thirty year old men and women boarding like they were back in college. Of course, we didn’t come out unscathed.
Tung ends the season with a dislocated shoulder from a less that spectacular spill after a failed attempt at a rainbow box. And this wasn’t a spill off of it. It was more like he went up on the front with not enough speed, came back down, and decided to go around it. Nothing fast, nothing hard core, just casually went around to come down and meet us. Then he happened to fall, caught an edge or something, simple, nothing crazy, but when he put his arm out, it locked. The impact was like the perfect storm, at the right angle and at the right speed to knock it out of place. Ouch.
Then there was Joe. who didn’t see the bad angle I took off a jump. I took a good tumble. That would have been enough to tell everyone I did something wrong. Nope. Not quite. Joe took the same line, tumbled like you’d expect, and then sat there. He aggravated his old ankle injury. That kept him off boarding for a while.
Even the snowboarding heathen Jonathan got hurt. Again. Like Joe, he reinjured himself. But this wasn’t an ankle. It was his back. This was something to take seriously. He had a major accident several years back. One that almost took away his ability to walk and gave him a titanium vertebra and enough doctor visits to last a life time. And this all from over shooting a forty foot jump. Twice the size of the jump he did this time.
You’d think with everyone being hurt we’d miss out on this season’s Northstar pond skimming competition. Well, no…
It was Jeannie’s birthday on March 15th and Patrick had more than a celebration in mind. Even more than the scavenger hunt she was expected to do throughout the day. Apparently, Patrick had got a hold of all her friends, even some from out of town to participate. Each group waited at locations throughout the city with hints on where next to go. Of course, this lasted all day and ended up at the Cliff House overlooking the Pacific. That’s where Patrick was, waiting, to start their future together.
Patrick had asked me to make a video of the whole thing. I only came in to the picture half way through the day. Waiting with Joe and Tung. So I didn’t get the whole thing. We tought it ould be way too suspicious having me there from the start. But then again, I think she had a good idea of what was happening by the end. In any case, it all worked out well. Congrats!