O'noir - Dinner in Pitch Black...

Tried out O Noir tonight.  An experience where you eat a meal in pitch black.  The servers are blind, so they were able to lead us and navigate the room pretty well.

The meal was set (ie. You first order in a room where there was light, pay for it, then you line up to be led into the dark room).  I wasn't sure if by not seeing if it made the flavor of the food come out more - but it was definitely a very interesting experience.

The City Iced Up...

Crazy weather this winter... city freezes over like how Arnold went to Gotham City...

Niagara Couple Day Trip!

Found a deal to go to Niagara - and seeing lil friend haven't been there with me, and we were on vacation.... So we went!

We started by driving by and having lunch at a Swiss Chalet.  Yummmyyy!

Upon arriving, we looked at the Festival of Lights and then went to Wine Tasting… 3 times… Mmmm...

We had a pretty nice view facing the waterfall.  The weather was cloudy and windy, but the view was definitely nice indeed!

TO for Xmas

First flight with lil friend! :).. and meet the parents day.. ba dum dah!

Murder mystery!

A living social deal comes up - and I finally get to go to something I've always wanted... a Murder Mystery Dinner!

The food wasn't that great, but it was super fun and super entertaining.  There were some guests who were dressed up for the occasion too!

3rd place winner - Charmander FC!!!

A cold evening.  But we played hard and secured 3rd place!

We went from second last, to last place, to not having a team, to 3rd place!  Good stuff!

Whistler Weekend

Two days in Whistler for Thanskgiving weekend.

First 3 runs super horrible, but towards the end it was good!

After skiing, went to the hot tub.  Turns out most of the other folks came in from Seattle but was from Canada..  originally.  Hahaha.. I think some were even from waterloo

The second night, came back for some 冬瓜盅  (this time a 4 person one) and  lil dragon dumplings!! :)

First soccer game win

@GSSL - First soccer game win... Only took 1.5 years.

Afterwards, went and had oyster again .. wuhahahah

Hungover and Spec Reviews

...Not a great combo at all.

Brings back those Timeout days from years back!

Benihana and Puerto Rico

Had a Dragon Benihana Punch, 3 bottles of sake and a lobster tail and steak... Delicious as always!

After dinner, and a flask worth of scotch later, we then went and played Puerto Rico, where I was tricked by Red Riding Hood, and lost because of it.   

Next time I shall have my revenge.. wuhahaha

Out of Shape Soccer on a Weekday Evening

After a few weeks of zero exercise, I was pretty out of shape.  On my first touch of the ball, I was running towards it, and was hoping to step on the ball and pivot on it to do a spin move so that I would do a 180 turn and trap the ball.. But instead, I totally missed the ball and fell backwards..lol.

The referee, who at this point sort of recognized me, and I guess remembering that I don’t suck THAT much, had a little smirk, and was trying hard to not burst out laughing.  My teammates though was less forgiving and busted out laughing, as did I.  This is a good reminder that I need to stay constantly active - so I don't look silly.

Oysters!!! Mmmm...

The engineer in me...

So looking at my old phone, I realized that the reason for the endless rebooting is because the power button is pushed in.  So I thought, if I can somehow pull that out a bit, then the phone would no longer reboot!

So off I went about this task, and eventually, SUCCESS.  My phone booted up without restarting, and I was able to pull out my photos.  More importantly, the lobster video!

Now will this turn out to be a $500 video?.. hrmm... But then again, the phone was defected originally.. perhaps I should have taken my own photo of it after my surgery.

Note: Fast forward a year.. I am hard at work trying to move my photos and videos to the cloud... but I can't find these pictures!!! :(.... so my moving lobster video and all that yummy food in Hawaii is gone forever...

New Replacement Phone Arrives

Having gone 2 days of no phone, it was an interesting experience.  Just didn't realize how much the phone is integrated into my daily life nowadays.  I think back to just I think two years ago, when I didn't have a 'data' phone, and I rarely used it.  It felt pretty weird in the last two days to not have access to the phone as I was walking down the hallway, or driving and using it for GPS...

Even though the new phone has arrived, all my lobster photos and videos are in the old phone... :(

Phone breaks...

Today my phone started endlessly rebooting.  Pretty annoying as it kept vibrating each time it does it.

All my photos :*(... if only I had been auto-saving to the cloud...

Victory well worth it...

Woke up early and drove back from Vanc just to make this game.  

Very worth it :).  Was too tired though and can't do the double header like i wanted.

Final score - 3-2!

Wintermelon Galore...

Went to Vanc this weekend for a wintermelon outing. 

Ordered the the large one (usually for 8 person table)... for 4 ppl.. wuhahahaha..  Had so much wintermelon.. Yummy... 

Car Nice Again…

Throughout the trip, the car people have been calling to say that they were done with fixing the car.  But since I was out of town, there was no way I could pick it up.  It was pretty cool of them though to basically have taken care of the repairs in a few days.

Picking up the car, it is nice again.  Sweet!

Week in Hawaii - Day 9 - Maui Day 4: Last Day

Today I decided to sleep in while little friend hit the beach one last time.

We bought some tuna from a grocery store, and ate outside the airport.  It was pretty yummy and delicious, but felt a bit ghetto... 

A short plane ride later, we were home... to the cold

Week in Hawaii - Day 8 - Maui Day 3: Bike Ride and Luau

Today's plan.  Wake up super early (~2:30am), then get bused up to the top of the volcano, catch the sunrise early, then bike down.

The bike ride was pretty cool.  The sunrise was pretty nice.  I did wish we could go faster when we were biking down.  It was a nice relaxing ride.  There was a minimum amount of pedaling, and it was pretty safe all throughout.  

Getting back to the base, went back to the hotel and took a nap... A 2 hour one  haha.. Everyday wehave been waking up early, and it is catching up to me.

After waking up, we had a drink and wings by the poolside.  The drink was very yummy.. Don't remember what it was now (lava flow I think its called - strawberry, coconut, and rum.. Mmmm)

Then we went to the Luau at the Grand Wailea.  It was funnnn AND we got really good seats.  We also the waitress from last night attending with her family.  She remembered us!

Our server tonight was great.  He gave me 2 drinks of everything.. And so within minutes table we had more glassware than the entire table! :)

Week in Hawaii - Day 7 - Maui Day 2: Road To Hana

Today we embarked on the Road to Hana.  Supposedly a super nice drive, rewarded by the 7 Sacred Pools at the end.

So we started at…10.45am (was suppose to start at 8.30) but got to milepost 10 by 11:21am.

Stopped by the aboretum along the way - and got bit 5 times.  There were lots of flower and it was pretty tropical.  It was hot and humid, and I was food for mosquitos.

At 12:30pm-ish we started going again... Didn't take any stop other than this beach as part of detour.. Pretty nice beach (this was past Hana between post 47 and 51). 

Finally we reached the 7 scared pools.  It wasn't all that cool.  It was more like 5 ponds with drippy waterfall (think it was low tide so the water wasn't overflowing).  So we pulled into the Chinese bus tour bus style mode.  We did a Quick Hike (0.5 miles), then pics, then jet.  By 2:50pm, we started heading back with no stops, arriving back in Kihei (Grand Wailea) by 5:32pm.

So Road to Hana: started at 10:45am, returned by 5:32pm from Kihei with three pit stops.  The distance itself isn't long, but it is the drivers and the curvyness of the road that makes the drive a 2.5 hour drive.

For dinner, we went to Humuhumunukunukuapua at the Grand Wailea, and I had a 3 lb Hawaii spike lobster.. They were doing half price per lb.  So a 3lb lobster regularly priced at $174, at just half that!  Lobster was huge… and yummy!

We also got there during the sunset, and it was pretty nice.  The pictures taken though weren't :(

Finishing up dinner, we got back to the hotel at 8.45pm, and got ready for tomolo's 2:40am pickup to go bike down a volcano!

Week in Hawaii - Day 6 - Maui Day 1 - Motokini Crater, Timeshare, and Mama's

We woke up at 5:30am to go scuba diving at the Motokini crater.  We went to the wrong meeting location in the beginning, and barely made getting onto the boat!

Getting there though, the crater itself was pretty non eventful.  The second dive closer to the coast was much cooler.  Saw stingrays, and a bunch of other cool fishes!

Still early in the morning, we walk to get snow cones for breakfast.  We then come across a booth that was doing cheap tickets for attractions and went to see what the catch is.  Turns out by going to a timeshare presentation, we can get cheap ticks to luau and bike ride :) - so we did that!

Sitting air conditioned for 2 hours, we were tempted about investing in your own life with vacations.  It was a pretty interesting pitch (saying that you can lock in the price of your stay - and if you plan to go to Hawaii once a year, then this is a pretty sweet deal). 

In the afternoon, after a nap, we went to the smooth sandy beach @ Kihei

For dinner, went to Mamas seafood restaurant ... Delicious.  What we ate:

• Home made bread
• Wasabi crusted calamari
• Mahi mahi with lobster n crab
• Octopus laua, wild boar
• Opakapaka

Did so much today!

Week in Hawaii - Day 5: Last day in Waikiki, Onwards to Maui

Today we were beach bums.  Spent the first few hours bumming around the beach.  Soaked in the sun, and also lounged around the salty ocean and floated around.  Because of the salt, it was super easy to float - so it was like lying on a water bed.  Nice and relaxing.

To finish it off, for lunch we went to a place near our hotel for some lobster sashimi.  When I first arrived, I had an Australian one, and today, I would be having one from Maine.  The best part about the whole experience was that when they served the lobster sashimi portion of the meal, the lobster actually moved!!!

The airport was crazily busy.  It was madness!  However, things did sort itself out and we got to Maui.  We walked to the nearest mall, found a place to eat dinner. Then went to sleep (since we had an early rise tomorrow).

Week in Hawaii - Day 4: Day of Wedding

Beach in Kuhio, then went to the famous udon place, then wedding reception at Hilton.

After that, we had a little bit of time, so I went for an afternoon snack :).  I had an Uni craving because of yesterday's dive, so went to a place close by for happy hour sashimi :)

Drink drink drink, hot hot hot.  Mmmmm... 

Week in Hawaii - Day 3: Scuba-ing with Sea Turtles!

Main event of the day - scuba!

Was pretty happy.  Saw a bunch of sea turtles - cowaabunga.  Pictures to come since we bought the CD - there were quite some good pictures there.

The company we ended going with was called: Island Divers - much better than Aquazone.  I mean, they actually showed up, not to mention the dive masters seemed pretty knowledgeable and pointed out some cool things.

At night, we went for a steak dinner (since the folks from Japan wanted to eat meat)... it wasn't that great :(.

Week in Hawaii - Day 2: 2.6 mile walk in Hakkei

This morning, we went to an Oden place.  And we decided to take a walk there.  It ended up being a 2.6 miles walk!  I was sweating like a madman throughout and was dripping in sweat!

But we arrived at Hakkei, and ate a ton there.  Good thing there was air conditioning.  The food was pretty interesting and it was a buffet style, so that was pretty cool.

Later on in the day, Aquazone cancels at 5.30 pm.  Wtf.. So had to scramble to find someone to take us for scuba tomorrow.  Needless to say that if anyone asks me for recommendation on who to use for scuba in Honululu, it will definitely not be Aquazone.  

Luckily, we were able to find someone to take us, and so crisis averted!  At night, we went to meet up with some of lil friend's friends at a gyu-kyaku.  Lots of meat, good beer (though didn't have much since we were scuba-ing tomolo), and fun times all around!

Week in Hawaii - Day 1: Mitch's Sushi and Sushi Sasabune

Leaving on a Saturday morning, we head towards Honululu for my first time (at least that I remember) in Hawaii!

The first stop - Fresh Sashimi!

Mitch's sushi

Lobster sashimi (Australian), own sake, Mmm...

Namako (sea cumcumber)

Lobster n umekarage (jellyfish)

Shimaji (japan popoa), sayori, snapper, Suzuki

Amaebi kimayaki

Lobster miso soup
A $10 taxi ride from the airport!

Sushi Sasabune (1417 South King St)

Canadian albacore

Baby squid w blue crab and sesame

Blue fin toro

Snapper and halibut
Golden eye snapper and hamachi

Scallop and king salmon

Kushi w Alaskan roe and pacific baked

Blue shrimp

Amberjack and king crab

Tuna tartar

Rock lobster

Sea eel and egg

Mochi and green tea ice cream

(Unfortunately, I lost all the pictures I had of this trip as I lost all the pictures on my phone shortly after this trip :( )

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 4 - Baby Giraffe Bust

For the final surprise, my plan was to take Lil Friend to the zoo.  Through some random searching, I found out that the zoo just got a baby giraffe, and knowing that she really liked giraffes, what a great way to end the weekend!

It was a sunny day, and not too cold either.  However, today didn't turn out as I hoped.  We woke up too late and by the time we got to the zoo, the baby giraffe had already been taken to the back.  So we missed seeing the baby giraffe.

It was a nice walk though... :)

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 3 - Dinner and Drinks

So as part of the daily surprise weekend, the 3rd surprise was would be a dinner with her best friend and her beau, and also some of her Seattle friends.

However, I think she did catch on for this one - though the restaurant she did not guess (I took the liberty of finding supposedly the 'best' Italian restaurant per yelp in Seattle - only to find it wasn't really that good :().  But the service was good :).

Afterwards, we went back to the Capitol Hill area for some drinks.  We got our own private room of sorts, and there was a drink called "Toronto" there.  Haha.

Nice calm night - but Day 3 complete!

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 2 - Happy Hour Fun

Today, the plan was to gather some of her university friends to surprise her and wish her happy birthday.

The plan: Her friends would try to get a head start to get to Schultzy's for their usual happy hour, with another friend of hers taking her for a slightly longer walk so that by the time she gets there, all her friends would already be there, ready to surprise her.  Then we go for dinner.

To make sure this lands, I have been corresponding with my secret spy (aka. her office mate) throughout on getting the right folks in the email and figuring out a place to go last week, and the secret spy would say that they would meet up for drinks after since they haven't talked for awhile.  I actually worked from home (actually from Regent), so that I could get a cake and avoid the evening rush hour, and to get there early to get a table.

What Happened:
All the pieces were set, ACTION!
As the morning moved on, I get an email in the morning that Lil Friend was feeling like crap (turns out the first night was a bit too fun :P), and she was thinking of ditching the seminar and thinking of going home - and thus also ditching the meeting w/ secret spy.  Luckily, they were able to keep her on campus, even if secret spy had to threaten Lil Friend at one point... hahaha.  Other than that, things went well - she was indeed surprised (though later she did say she suspected something was going on since everyone seemed to be trying to keep on her campus) - and the cake that I got was super yummy.

We then went to dinner, then at Lil Friend's request, after that we called it a night since she was really really tired.

Day 2 Complete!

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 1 - Dinner and a Flight

Last year was a custom watermelon cake made to order.  This year I figure I will go with the weekend long festivities approach - filled with friend and sprinkled with surprises.

To start off the evening, picked Lil Friend up for her first surprise.  The location was the Madison Conservatory, a place that she had wanted to go to for a while.  As always though, I am bad with surprises... Lil Friend knew immediately where we were going after one turn in the car.  Next time, I am going to pull a drive around for a half hour for no reason stunt like lil boy genius.  The food was good though, and it was a very nice ambiance.

After dinner, we went to Liberty for drinks (which was supposed to be a surprise but she figured it out too).  Through some day of phone calls and last minute coordination, we were able to make a reservation for the place.  It was fun times and the place even gave us Lil Friend a flight of Scotch for tasting.

Night one complete.

Birthday Weekend: Actual Day

With it being a Monday, and having a pretty eventful weekend, today was business as usual.

One last sushi outing tonight to round it all up!

Good nice night :)

Birthday Weekend: Sunday Spa

After a night out and lots of alcohol, today woke up groggily for the final day of the Birthday Weekend, and to think, my actual birthday hasn't even come about yet!

The surprise today... an outing to a spa!!!

It was up north and in a pretty quiet area.  There were 2 hot tubs, one cold water wooden tub outside, and a sauna inside.  Free drinks (non alcoholic) and snacks throughout.  It was a bit cloudy and little drizzly, but made it that much nicer.

As part of my present, lil friend got me a massage.  It was pretty nice.  The only weird part was the guy massaged my ear, like stick his fingers in it.  That was weird, and actually hurt a bit.  The rest though was good. Apparently though (as I read through the posts on the world wide web), ear massaging is suppose to be pretty good for you.

Most people there were older and walked around butt naked.  I and lil friend though wore our bathing suits.

All in all, was there for 3 hours or so before heading back.  Nice and relaxing.

Thank you!  Muaaah :)

Birthday Weekend: Mashiko and Karoake

Surprise #2: Started off the night at Mashiko - my favorite... This surprise the moment we started on the highway, I knew :). I am getting better at guessing.

The menu today was (sorry, no pictures :( ) - phone lost all my pictures :( )
1. Sea snail
2. Kumamoto oysters
3. Rainbow trout with ponzu sauce and infused with Shiso
4.Baby shrimp n Shigoku
5. Soft tofu w Ikura on top
6. Albacore with Macadamian nuts
7. Tako w bonito flakes
8. Scallop, sockeye, tuna
9. White king salmon tartar
10. Albalone satay
11. Herring
12. Rockfisk
13. Geoduck satay
14. Mochi

Got to see Dancing Beast and his gf, which I haven't seen in awhile.  As with all Mashiko outings, the omakase had to follow.  Mmmmm... Also had a ton of sake!

Second part of the night was karoake.  Singing and drinking and caking.  Funnnn... Though I have to say at this point, I was going in and out of memory given the amount I had drank before at Mashiko.

After Karoake, to finish off the night (since I hear they wouldn't extend our reservation), we walked over to a bar.  Lil genius somehow got me convinced I need to have a 30 year scotch - just like Dancing Beast on his birthdays.  So we did that.  30 year old Balvenie.  $200 a shot.... Wow.  I have to say, I swear I ordered a Macallan.

Fun fun night - haven't had a night like this in ages.  Thanks! :D

Birthday Weekend: Hot Pot Night

I was asked to go to AYCE hot pot today by lil friend.  Given the weather and my hunger, I thought, niceeeee, sure.

What I didn't know was that there were going to be others with us.  Surprise #1 - Success.

Afterwards, went to drink some wine and chat.
Got to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a while.  Very nice :).

Thanks for coming out!

Super Uber Invincibles Rebirth

Today marks the first day of the season for the Charmanders FC :).  A rebirth of the Super Uber Invincibles hahaha.

Result: We win our first game 5-1.  One person scored all 5 goals, I assisted on one :)

Also practiced in the morning too today.  So I hit 6000+ fuel points... I see rainbows and not fire and ice rings on the website now!!

Corson Building

To continue the restaurant blitz, tonight we went to Corson Building.  Turns out this place was right next to one of the soccer fields that I play at.

We were late getting here because my nap after work took a little bit longer than I thought :(.  But luckily they still sat us.  This place had an interesting seating arrangement.  Basically the room had two long picnic table benches, and the guests would just sit along it, order, and eat etc.  It was like a fancy cafeteria :P.

One weird thing this night, squinting my eyes I would only see black and white, then when I unsquinted, I would see color again.. weiiirddd.  Must be the lighting at the place or something.

15 Months!

I remembered... unlike last month :).

So to celebrate, we went to Cafe Juanita.
The dish that I remember best is the fois gras. That was probably the best that I've had seen I started eating it.  Delicious!  We actually recommended it to the table next to us because we thought it was so good.. hahaha

Come to think of it, in this past year, I have ate at a lot of different restaurants.  I should start a blog about all of them and comment on it.  Maybe I can be like a yelp! :)

Happy 15 months! :)

Paddleboard Yoga - Actually Doing It

After missing last month's, needed to use the groupon coupon and so booked one for today.

The weather turned out nice and it was pretty relaxing.  The moves went that hard (I think I was in a beginner class or something), so it worked to my advantage.  Seems like in this one, there was alot of sleeping and relaxing.  The instructor kept saying something about 'ancestor's ancestor's ancestor's...' to get us into the relaxed mode - thought that was a bit weird.  But meh, I guess it's part of the soothing experience.

Afterwards went for Poutine and Lousianna style food.  Mmmm.. Poutine!

Sushi Kappo Omakase

For dinner, hit up Sushi Kappo tonight.

Looking through the menu and seeing nothing really jumped out, I went for their $100 Omakase.

The menu:

• Shingoku with Ponsu Sauce
• Big eye tuna with mustard greens from the root top and wasabi sauce
• Chawamushi - had uni and mushroom inside it
• Steamed spot prawn with butter sake (If only they didn't cook it! :()
• Red Snapper Kama
• Various Sushi
• Mochi with Red Bean
• Not part of the omakase - but some sashimi :)

Final verdict: The meal was alright, but pretty pricey.  Mashiko still trumps all :)

A Deal At Wine Chateau

$258.96 - 2 platinum labels ($75/bottle), 1 L of grey goose, 12 yr highland park... Scooreee!

Why did I have to buy 4 bottles.  Reason: Shipping was a flat rate of ~$20, so I had to distribute the cost around the 5 bottles.  How else would it be a good deal :P

PNE - I win prizes!

Went to PNE today.

The highlight: I finally win prizes!.. $50 later... I scored 2 dragons (ok, that was really won by little friend.. but it was MY looney), a small happy face, and some little beer!

This year I also agained tried the soccer thing.  I got 3/4 cans knocked down... Soo close!

A Wedding in Vancouver

Today was little friend's brother's wedding.

Food was really yummy.  Sharks fin was yummmmmy, and I was given 3 abalone to eat.  Wuhahahaha. Not to mention the lobster, and the noodles etc.  Gooood times!

I did have one task assigned to me at the beginning of the reception.  To set up the projector in the other room.  Had to use some creative engineering skills to make that work.  It ended up sort of ok :).  I also helped delegate instructions and work with the wedding coordinator.  My new found managing skills put to good use!

The entrance was pretty cool - there was an old school Chinese carriage thing that the groomsmen carried the bride in, while the groom just walked in.  Hahaha.  Poor groomsmen!

The booze ran out midway through dinner.. haha.. We are such a bunch of alcoholics!  But I was still able to salvage some wine for myself :).

First Time @ Tavern Law

With lil genius, went to this place called Tavern Law.

Nice drinks.  Good times.  First time there... pretty decent place.  Nice atmosphere, will be back again!

Happy 6 years!

Car got keyed :(

So I wake up this morning (ok 3pm) to go grab something to eat.  Reaching my car, I noticed that it had been keyed all the way around.

Update: 8 panels... $3700 in damages... At my own place :(

Nishino - Sake and Omakase

Went to Nishino tonight for some Omakase and Sake in honor of Aman's birthday.

It was yummy.  Sake in a bamboo tube... tons of delicious food.

(Apologies for the poor pics - bamboo tube sake I guess was better than I thought :P)

PaddleBoard yoga bust...

We had booked to do paddleboard yoga today... but turns out we missed the time by a few hours... Errr.. Oops.

So instead, we walked around Golden Gardens and had ice cream :).  Also chilled at a kiddy playground for probably a good 30 to 40 minutes.  What I did observe though is the playground they have now is a lot saver.  There was this ball of rope thing which I think is the 21st century version of the good old monkey bars.  Much harder to hurt yourself on those I think (I still remember how PhD cousin broke her arm falling off one of those).  The other contraption they had there - a thing where you jump and and start spinning yourself... that one was a tad dangerous to me (which I guess if I compare that to the tire swing... it's not THAT dangerous).

Ahhh.. Kids these days... given so much safe things to play with... .. .

Finally scored at practice...

2nd 9am practice in a month.  Finally scored!  The weekday run really helped.

Another 5km-ish Run

Another Tuesday, another jog around the block.  Still clocking in at around the same pace though (~33 minutes).

I think I probably need something drastic to shock the system so I kick it into high gear.

Bye Bye BMO Account

Today I went to the bank, and closed my account.  BMO Account... Bye bye.

No more losing $25 every 3 months...

Anacortes - the big 3-0

There was no Anacortes last year, but this year it's back.  Didn't take Friday off this year, but instead, got in early on Saturday morning to get some good seats for super fresh Dungeness crab... Mmmm...

Even without kegs and funnels, barely played any beer pong or flip cup, but easily broke the 6 drink limit lol.  Went to sleep with the handle of black label and full bottle of Patron mixing happily inside my tummy... .. . not to mention the delicious crab meat.

Thx for hosting!

Canada vs. Mexico

Got into Seattle early today to catch the double header soccer game.. with the 8pm game being Canada vs. Mexico.  Canada put up a valiant effort - but still lost...

It was so much fun though.  Drinking beer (lots of it) and watching the game in some pretty awesome seats.  Now if only Canada won that would be even more awesome!

My third game watching soccer live.  One of these days I really should bring the long lens in and take photos.

Rock Climbing Adventure - Day 3: En route back home

Last day of the weekend, we went to portland for some shopping.

The one thing nice about Portland is that there are no taxes.
One thing I needed to get was a suit... and yup - got one!

For dinner, went to a restaurant called Little Bird.. Delicious!

Drive back was uneventful... which was good.  No speeding tickets, no being stuck in traffic :).

Rock Climbing Adventure - Day 2: Smith Rock Climbing

First Rock Climbing ever.  Fun. Hot.  I felt like a monkey as I climbed up the rocks.

It was a nice experience defnitely.

No star photos tonight.

Link to Pictures here

Rock Climbing Adventure - Day 1: En route to Smith Rock

Camping at Smith Rock.  First time at Portland Food Truck... Chicken Rice in a Wrap

Landed a wicked site for our tent.  A little cul de sac if you will.
Facing a cliff on the back, private area, and the tree was where an eagle is nesting.  Pretty sweet place indeed.

Also took some star photos too during the night.  With the private spot that overlooks the cliff, drinking beer and scotch and just leaving the shutter open.  Funnn

Salty's Brunch with Ema

Salty's brunch with Ema.  Super sunny and warm weekend.  Mmmm...

Mashiko with Ema

Haven't been for awhile now (by my standards).  Mmmmm...

The menu:

• Kumamoto oyster 
• Geoduck on lime w sea salt
• Sungiku (tong ho) pressed crysantheum with sesame
• Scallop cerviche with pineapple
• Shrimp of some sort
• Hamchi, mountain potatoe
• Poached abalone with shitake mushroom, onion
• Maguro tartar
• Sake poached oysters
• Salmon w Fuji
• Nishin, albacore Toro, white king,,ameabi
• Summa, summa bones, summa w mountain potatoes and red miso
• White king salmon kama
• Lichee w. Coconut sorbet

Happy 6 year and 1 year!!!

:).  Of course the place to eat at is... .. . Shiro!!!

Checkpoint on 5km

5 km - 33.50 min.  Need to speed that up to hit 10 km in 45 minutes... .. .

My first patent!!!

It's official!  My first patent...2nd author.. wuhahaha

Week in Toronto

A week (and a bit) in Toronto (5/16 to 5/26)...
5/17: Family Dinner
My lil nephew looking gooooood! :).  Kee kee kee

5/18:Making Dinner
Good deal on lobsters. So I made it... and ate it with Hermie and his lil friend/wife.  Mmmm...

5/19: Tracie's Wedding
The Polish tradition: Shot of vodka for each person entering the reception... that might be a tradition I may need to incorporate into mine :P
5/25: Dinner with Cous's
See both my niece and nephew!  And PhD cousin too! 

I was asked to dress nicer and not sport my normal PJ attire - so I spotted on a tie... only to be banned from wearing it before the guests showed up :(.

Rest of the week - catching up, dinners, lunches and bars at various places of my choosing... wuhahaha :)

Net result: 10 lbs heavier... .. A pound a day?  Have I become the arch-nemesis of Jenny Craig?

Movie Day Before Vacation :)

Work today consisted of
a) 10am early showing of Star Trek at a movie theater
b) Breakfast of popcorn and coke
c) Lunch of little dragon dumplings
Wuhahahaha....

Then got back in to wrap up a few things, and off I go prepare for my flight back home.  A red eye flight... barely watched any movies.  Sleepppy.

Ucluelet Adventure - Day II

Ucluelet Day II.  It was misty and rainy quite a bit.  With the watersport plan and hopes dashed, we set out to eat brunch :).  Huge portions, lots of food.

Then we went to check out the Pacific Rim.  The pacific rim trail there looks really nice to hike.  It was super rainy though, so we didn't actually hike the trail.  But I can only imagine how nice it would be to be hiking alongside the water, and just seeing that mountain and ocean as you walk along the path that is right on the edge.

The super rainy-ness does make it a pretty cool sight though.  The water was crashing up against the rock, and it almost looked like those stormy ship movies (apparently I hear the other thing people do around Ucluelet is storm watching... I can see why)

For dinner, we went to Norwood restaurant.  Delicious.  It wasn't too pricey either.  The desert was really yummy.

Ucluelet Adventure - Day I

So having arrived the night before to Vancouver, we woke up early this morning to drive to get onto the ferry to Nainamo.  The destination today is Ucluelet - a place on the west side of Vancouver island and what they call near the Pacific Rim (ie. touching the Pacific ocean).

The unit we stayed at was pretty good.  The deal came up on Groupon (or was it Living Social?), and it was a unit with a private outdoor hot tub outside, and an unit facing water and mountains... Waaaa.  Ballller!  Groupon deal for the win!  (The picture is the view from right outside the unit).

First thing we did once we got there?... Take a nap :).  It was a long drive and ferry - almost 6 hours in commute to get here.  Unfortunately though, this weekend the weather wasn't too great and it is forecasted to be gloomy and raining all weekend :(. 

As an aside, loading up on groceries at a convenience store.. They REALLY jack up the prices - $3.59 for coke?!.. talk about tricking tourists!

Salty's... 35+ oysters later.. Mmmm...

Lil Friend's friend from HK came down for training, and of course being the perfect tour guides we took her to Salty's (since she liked oysters).  All you can goodness.... Mmmm... Easily chowed down 35+ oysters.  Happy day :)

Afterwards, did some canoeing...

Soccer and Vancouver Guu

So after a fun night of Smashputt, the next afternoon was soccer in the rain. It was the last match of the season.  Our ringer came in and score 2 goals, but it wasn't enough and we ended up losing 4-2.  And with that, we have done ALOT worse (from '2 wins'... to 0 wins this season).....Sigggnnn

After the game, at the prompt of lil friend's friend who flew in, we took a trip up to Vancouver to meet up with another friend of lil friend who came in from HK for training.  We hit up Guu in Richmond at Aberdeen.  The food was pretty good there, and had a couple of pitchers of beer.. Mmmm... Sashimi, beer, ... lovely.

Needing more Japanese food, went to consult the original Vanc tour guide for a place to eat around the area, and landed at an Izakaya near where we had Karoake a few months back.  Tried the conch sashimi which was pretty cool, and had 6 large bottles of Asashi's between 4 people (but technically there was really 2.5 of us drinking :P)...  We did make it good deal, because it was I think buy 6 get 1 free it came out to be :)...

Mmmm... good food, good times.. another day in Vanc!

Smashputt!

Today, we were going to go to Smashputt.  Had wanted to try this last year but then we couldn't get tickets.  This year though, we could!

So to start off the night, we went for Hot Pot.  Never been to this place before, but it was surely pretty ghetto.  For one thing, there was a restriction on needing to get all types of beef that was given... and after the first order, they would serve the same thing again.. wtf!... Even though it didn't matter too much, but that really killed the AYCE concept.  Now to add to it, there was only one kind of vegetable... not that I usually mind since I eat very little of it.  But I think actually it was going bad since it tasted bitter.  Very crappy place... never going again (this was somewhere near I-District).

Afterwards, we went to Smashputt.  A mini golf + bar specially set it that only comes about a couple weeks each year.  The holes were pretty fun, but after 6 or 7, I got pretty tired waiting in line.  There was some pretty cool ones though... and not to mention I got a hole in one for one of them :). 

Funnnn night indeed!

Becoming a Lead

Today I officially become a Lead.

Few wise words given to me by others who have been doing this for years:
"Now you have to care when someone's dog dies"
"More responsibilities, more work... same pay"

Lol... Looking forward to it!

Wine Tasting At Goose Ridge (Living Social)

Utilized the Living Social coupon today to try out some wines. Went to the good ol' Woodenville area. I just realized that this might be the first time I've been to a tasting room outside that is not near a vine yard or winery.

This place looked like it was purely just for trying out wine and buying. The pours weren't that large (smallest pour I've seen), but the staff was friendly and super nice. The wines were pretty good, and the reserves' were definitely distinguishable from the non (the reserve were pretty tasty).

Right as we were about to leave, we scooted over to the winery next door, and they did two free pours just because they were trying to close. It was well worth it for them, because I ended up buying two bottles :). Mmmmmmm...

Crazy Hail Day

After losing 7-0 soccer (but not by forfeit... first time in 3 weeks), headed over to the West Side of town. On the way, it was cloudy, then it was pouring, and finally... it hailed. Yes, S.town, April... hail. Wow.

At night, went to this Lao and Thai restaurant. The food was pretty good there. First time I think having Lao cuisine. The food was pretty appetizing.. Mmm...

Mashiko - 3 bottles of sake with the dancing beast

An outing with the dancing beast, and we ended up having 3 bottles of sake (2 shown here), and the standard Omakase.  Mmmmm...

What did we eat?... See below:

Cherry Stone Clam and Kunimoto Oyster on Half Shell	Fuji apple cerviche with rockfish
Rockfish sashimi in ponzu sauce	Abalone (My favorite)
Maguro tartar with quail egg	Kale with miso glaze
Sushi: King Salmon, Coho, Albacore Toro, Kenpachi, Maguro	Apple snails
Halibut Roe and halibut	Sunba
Fried chia (tuna blood line)	Kimaki Mochi (Mochi with Black Sesame on Top)

Loving Nexus and Global Traveller Program

Loving Nexus and Global Traveler Program.

Not only is it good crossing from US to Canada, but even coming back from another part of the world. Sooo quick and simple. Turns out I don't even need to manually fill out I94s anymore!

$50 well worth it.

A Week in Germany: Day 7 - Final Train Ride and Flight Home

Having gotten to the hotel at 1am, woke up bright and early around 6am, to take one last train.

And back we come.  Germany trip... complete!

A Week in Germany: Day 6 - Dachau Museum and 1st Class Train to Frankfurt

The week in Germany was winding down.  Fully using the late check-out time of 12pm, wake up late and then proceed to go to the Dachau Museum.  Dachau was a place recommended to us by the school teacher who sat next to me on the plane when I asked about what there is to do in Munich (the teacher having been from there).  This was one of the concentration camps in WWII was.  The museum was set up really nicely and had lots of really fascinating information.  Being a sucker for history, it was a really really nice place to spend an afternoon at.  Just imaging the horrors that the people must have gone through during this time is beyond words.
For dinner, we went to another beer hall.  Just like the other one, it was very loud and noisy, but people were super friendly.  Once again, beer in my tummy.  The beer here - not much selection, but what is given is pretty tasty.

After dinner, we head back towards the train station, to take our "first class" train back to Frankfurt.  Unlike the other trains we took where we were in the second class train section, we scored these awesome tickets and would for the next couple hours be in the first class section.  Ballller!!!!

The train was pretty empty too, and added to the luxurious experience.  Combined with our Haribo gummy beers and cola bottles, we got ourselves a private booth.  To add to it all, the train conductor, seeing us an empty bag of Haribo gummies, comes by and offers the small pack Haribo gummy bears to us.  Now that's service!

Note: The first class ticket was 2 euros cheaper than the second class one.... and there is no third class 😁

A Week in Germany - Day 5: Munchen

We arrived in Munchen (Munich) at 7:30am.  Being super tired (didn't put on ear plugs 'til 3 hours before the train arrived... so didn't get much sleep) and also was feeling a bit sick, we walked to our hotel (which was < 500m from the train station) to see if we could do an early check-in.  Luckily, there was one room available and so they gave us the room!  Sweeeet!

So the first thing I did was took a shower, then totally crashed for the next few hours.  This was a swanky hotel and everything was modern looking and pretty.  The shower was also pretty nice (it was a waterfall type shower head).

Waking up at 1:30am, we then made our way to the BMW museum.  The museum was pretty cool and learned a lot about the history of BMW, not to mention seeing my dream car :).  Fully electric, doors that open upwards, and clear! 

After the museum, we headed back to the core of Munchen, to one of the famous beer halls.  One litre beers... Mmm...

A Week in Germany: Day 4 - Postdam Summer Palace

Today we went to Potsdam.  A small town just outside of Berlin where Frederick the Great's summer palace resides.

Comparing to the pictures online (sample: Wikipedia on the right) and the one I took (on the right).  This is definitely a palace for the summer... and not winter.  That, or the photographer needs to do a better job. 
The most interesting thing I thought were the beds.  They were super small.  They looked like kiddy beds.  The rest of the palace was in gold and the rooms were huge, but then these beds were super dinky - even in the master bedroom.

The town itself though was really pretty.  Didn't get a chance to walk around, but on the bus there, looked really pretty.

For dinner, we walked around and found sushi.  Lol...sushi in Berlin.  Surprisingly ok, though the variety was very lacking.

After that, off we go to the night train.  We will be in a 6 people room where lights go out at 9pm.

Munich, here we come!

A Week in Germany: Day 3 - Berlin Walking... Even More of It

Today we continue to check out the rest of Berlin and headed towards the famous tourist attraction - Checkpoint Charlie.

The checkpoint on its own wasn't too awesome, but knowing the history of it, made it pretty neat and thought provoking. 
 
I mean, if it wasn't mentioned that it was a checkpoint and have displays and historic information (and a dude's picture in the middle of the street), one would not even know this small strip was where face offs between US and USSR, heroic escapes and barb wire jumping happened. 

As part of walking around, we also went to the home of the Berlin philharmonic orchestra.  We couldn't get in on the 1pm free show, but we did end up getting onto the walking tour.  It was pretty cool.  The acoustics design in this place was craaaaazy.

With the Lonely Planet in hand, we also hit up the famous Curry 36 (not shown in pictures)  Here I learned another German word - Bichen = bread/bun.  I have to say, for all the talk about currywurst, it really wasn't all that it was made out to be.  A sausage with some curry powder, meh.  And the other thing was, where is Curry #1?

Just like yesterday, the cold biting winds got to us, and by this point, we were starting to feel sick.  But we wanted to go see the Berlin Wall (there was still one area where there was a couple miles of it).


Went inside a Hotel/café called Honululu.  They had a pretty cool lobby.  Here I had to take a quick nap because I was just so tired.  Once rejuvenated, we headed towards our tourist destination and lo and behold, right next to the Berlin Wall was Curry #1!!! 

Went back to the hotel and chilled a bit, then back to the subway to go for dinner.  We went to this area recommended by our hotel reception person that looks very much like the distillery district.  Had the rack of lamb there which was alright.  Nothing to scream about - seemed just like any other restaurant. 

Nike Fuel Points Total for the Day: 3,665.  Steps: 14,416.

A Week in Germany: Day 2 - Berlin Walking... Lots of It

So the plan today: Wake up early (at 8am), hit up a guided walking tour.  See the city of Berlin in all it's glory!

Actual: ...Woke up at 12pm, walked an hour and a half towards the Bradenburg Gate, saw the Reichstag from the outside, saw Hitler's bunker and a few memorials around the area.  But then as it got colder and colder... ended up at a coffee shop, then hit up in the Berlin's oldest restaurant and then some live music in a bar near the hotel :).

@Walking towards Brandenburg Gate:
Noticed that all the traffic lights had a musketeer. Turns out this was so that people would feel more safer and secure. Something as simple as what is put as a traffic light - who would have thought it'd work. 

@ Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag:
Fiddled around with my camera for 30 min+ trying to figure out how to take a photo that can actually see the gate. The photos didn't come out as nice as I hoped though. But at least I can say I was there!  Didn't get a chance to go inside the Reichstag (parliament building) though. Only saw it from the outside. It did look pretty cool, with a glass dome in the middle. 

@Post Brandenburg Gate:
After 2 hours+ outdoors, the -3 C weather got to both of us, and our weak west coast blood started feeling cold. So we sneaked inside a coffee shop and warmed up. We tried to brave a little more the cold cold outdoors, then started heading towards the oldest restaurant in Berlin. 

@ Zur Letzten Instanz (Oldest Restaurant in Berlin):
We were pretty lucky here. We walked in around 5ish without reservations, and landed a table. Throughout the rest of the night, we would see droves of people coming in either having reservations or tourists coming in here to want to eat, but get turned away.

I had the pork knuckle which was really tasty. Not to mention 2 1L jugs of beer. Mmmmm. German beer, no hangover, awesomeness!

Oh, and their desert was amazing. The apple struddle was delicious.

To end the night, went down the street to a bar w some live music.. B flat was the bar. What a good name for a music bar. 

Fun filled adventurous day!
Fuel point total: 3852. Steps: 13,423.

A Week in Germany: Day 1 - On train all day

Once at the Frankfurt airport, we would proceed to get the one day weekend ticket (Schones-Wochenende) - With 42 Euro, one could go anywhere in Germany on a train.  Boyyyy we will be using it good :).

A 10 hour train ride later (switching 3 trains), we arrive from Frankfurt to Berlin. 

Arrived at 10pm at hotel.  Super soldier travelling trip complete.  1 direct 10 hour flight, followed by a 10 hour train ride where we took a bunch of local trains.

The hotel was nice.  Very small, but very clean and just enough space.
The one thing though, the toilet cover needs to stay closed - guess the sewage system needs deodorant or something.

Oh, and the whole all plastic no cash worked pretty well.  There was almost no fee pulling money out. In fact, there wasn't even a transaction fee when I used my BoA credit card - it just charged the normal exchange rate.  Only for 1st Tech was there a 1% charge.  But even with that, that was much much cheaper than if I had gotten Euros in the US of A.  The key thing to do though is BEFORE leaving, you have to let the bank know you are travelling abroad - otherwise security these days will block you from taking cash out (as lil friend found out the hard way at Frankfurt :().

One other thing, Berlin in March is coooold.  Burrrrrr.

A Week in Germany: Day 0 - En route to Germany

Found a great deal on flights for spring break - $722 direct flight Saturday from SEA to Frankfurt.  And with that, off we go to Europe for the very first time. 

A bunch of firsts:
1) First trip I travel with just plastic and no cash.  Do feel nervous going all the whole to another country with non of their currency.  But with the exchange rate and bank fees super high, and researching online on what should be done, going with 0 euros and just a ton of plastic.

2) First time in Europe.  Weeeeeee.

3) My first ever out of country trip with any lil friend. Ooooo..

Alaskan King Crab Dinner

Mmm....

Crab ... my tummy... Connect!

Fuel Band + Auntie inspired run

Hearing that I am being outdone on a regular basis, today I was 800 fuel points away from hitting my goal. So heading to the gym, I ran.  Half an hour later.  2000 fuel points achieved!