Trina's bachelorette party

this past weekend was Trinaful. her bachelorette party and her wedding were all rolled into one weekend and it was awesome! friday night was her last night of freedom and it is apparently customary to dress the lady of the night in the most ridiculous things. this night Trina was adorned with a yellow feather boa, a veil, flashing ring, and a silver "bride to be" sash that ended up as a belt after it broke and was tied to her. thank goodness we didn't have the traditional penis whistles and flashing penis necklaces. talk about embarrassing! and whether the bride-to-be likes it or not, attention must be put on her, so she obligingly stuck her head out of the SUV limo and shouted the next day's plans, "i'm getting married!!"

a bunch of us in comfy clothes for the first activity. can you guess what we did??

steph and trina being goofs!

kris, trina, steph and meiche. <3

the first part of the bachelorette party was an exotic dancing class. haha!! damn me, i forgot to pack my knee and elbow pads along with my helmet!! and how exactly do you avoid indian burn from a pole?? answer: you don't!! 

check out our instructor. she totally looks like someone you'd expect to be teaching a stripper class, don't you think? i mean the whole go-go dancing librarian thing is hot, right? right? on a serious note, she had no boobs, no ass, the frizziest of hair, and geek glasses, but she could work a pole or a lap better than anybody! plus, if it's dark in a strip club, i'm sure dudes aren't caring all that much. 

oh man, i love this pic!! it's totally staged. steph was all about trying everything and was probably the most gung-ho person we had there that day! lucky Eddie!!

lucky Justin, too! look at them stems!

what a fool.

pretty good, Yee, pretty good!!

ha!

no seriously though, our instructor was good!! she taught us how to properly gyrate, booty dance, swing around poles without injuring wrists, etc. of course i'm sure we all could use more practice. i think each person at some point looked stupid. it was all in good fun. 

then on to AsiaSF for tranny fun!! is it okay to be jealous of a dude turned chick? if you don't already know, AsiaSF is a restaurant/show where all the servers and entertainment are transgenders. and not ugly transgenders who look nothing like women. these dudes really look like women. so much so that i'm positive every girl in there had a little hint of jealousy in them. the fake boobs, whatever. anybody can get fake boobs. but those tiny waists and those long slender legs? no amount of exercise or sugery would ever make me look that good!! 

uhh yeah. girls, you're pretty and all, but the AsiaSF girls, hawt! haha

awesome. where is your hand, woman!?!

i can't even picture what this chick looked like as a guy. 

there's kris. she's prettier than the trannies. haha!

my favorite tranny of the night!! she did all these awesome awkward kicking, fighting and punching motions along to music that included lots of "whoopows" and "whacks!" oh and for the record, i was not jealous of this tranny. puh-lease!! 

the ride back

the end.

Trina's bridal shower

Trina, one of my favorite people in this world, is getting married today! last week her bridesmaids threw her the best bridal shower.  Trina loves old timey movies and shows so choosing a theme was easy. her bridesmaids did an amazing job throwing her a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed bridal shower. everybody dressed up as Audrey Hepburn's character in that movie and everything was decorated according to the Tiffany's colors, light aqua-ish blue and white.

Audrey Hepburn is so classically beautiful it's almost annoying!! i've never seen a bad picture of her!

Trina in costume

cute cupcakes from Sibby's. yum!!

Jess, Meiche, Trina, Kim, me, and Nina

Steph!!! love her!! we are lifer friends. 

i am so fortunate to have such awesome friends. 

Nina, Jess and Phuong

Meiche, who just had little baby Bryli!! 

meet Bryli, our first baby!! by "our" i mean my group of lady friends. she is the spitting image if Meiche. her eyes, lips, cheeks and even hands are exactly like Meiche. she's also really tiny, which makes sense cause Meiche is a lil bit herself. she looks so much like Meiche that i felt kinda odd standing there looking at her. it felt like i was looking back in time at Michellio herself. 

scrapbooking for the bride-to-be. Trina loves scrapbooking. she hasn't done it in a while but it's one of her most favorite creative things to do. Trina's going to get a scrapbook at her wedding with pages that each guest at her bridal shower made filled with recipes, photos and kind words for the life ahead of her. 

my page. i'm making cheesecake lollipops as part of a dessert table for her wedding. i made a page with the recipe. the picture in the corner is a picture of Trina and I making a heart with our arms. it's one of my favorite pictures of all time. 

what do you least like about yourself?

the other day i was having dinner with one of the best conversationalists i know, Izelle. she poses random questions and keeps the ball rolling. plus she never really talks about the things i'm uninterested in like politics and world news. seriously, i'm really not into any of it. think i'm stupid or uneducated? be my guest, i could care less. well during our convo she mentioned a couple of her own personal disliked qualities and it got me thinking, what quality do i most dislike about myself?

the answer: lack of passion. i feel like people who are passionate experience many extremes in their lives. i feel like true natural passion allows people to feel and express all emotions ranging from sadness or anger to euphoria and amazement. i'm not saying that i don't experience these things, but i am saying that i question the frequency in which i feel any of those emotions compared to someone who has much more natural passion.

i was once told that i was apathetic. according to the dictionary this means:
1. having or showing little or no feeling or emotion :  spiritless
2. having little or no interest or concern:   indifferent

hhmmm. kinda true. if you can remember reading back from the very first paragraph, it's obvious i have little to no concern about politics and along with that, i don't mind if you don't think i'm smart. politics seems to be something that many people are interested in. what also seems to spark people's interest? what other people think about them. in just the beginning of this whole post i've already proven that i am pretty apathetic. i find this to be an unwanted quality, however i'm also not sure i want to change it. i can't say that i'm completely "spiritless" or "indifferent," but when it comes to other people's business, i leave it at that. theirs. not mine, therefore i don't have that much of an opinion on the subject unless my opinion is asked. at that point i have to actively think up an opinion otherwise the subject might get lost in my mind as just some occurrence that happened during the day.

i've seen many people get feisty over little nothings and i can't quite understand. someone cuts you off while driving and all of a sudden it's worth it to get out of your car and yell at a mofo? someone accidentally spills the tiniest splash from a drink on to your shoe in an ever so crowded elbow-to-elbow club and you are ready to lose some hair in a bitch fight? really? well just as much as these people are ready to knock someone's teeth out over something stupid, they are equally excited about their trip to Hawaii, their aunt's wedding, or a photography class they're taking.

i feel like i'm so easy going that unless someone is seriously hurt, nothing phases me. i don't get mad about a lot of things. someone spills a drink on me at a club where it is known that people are going to be drunk. drunk=clumsy. now by logic, if i am at this club where it is expected that drunkards are going to be spilling drinks, why would i get upset if it happens? it's inevitable that someone will spill a drink. if it so happens to be on me, then i should have known better than to be there if it means i may potentially have to knock a bitch out. so instead, i just don't get mad.

aside from not easily getting riled up, i also feel that i lack passion in a lot of things. for example, i like photography and i take pictures for fun sometimes. people say that i have a natural eye for it. but do i take classes to excel at it? no. do i even know how to use photoshop correctly? no. i bought a DSLR only to pay no respect to the manual and keep the setting on auto for the most part. i even started Project 365 at the beginning of this year and gave up after 60ish days. photography is just one aspect of where i feel i should be passionate, yet am not.

i wonder if my lack of passion is due to my sense of logic. i am definitely a logical thinker and hardly get lost in daydreams and artistic things. as a kid i wouldn't say i was too imaginative. sure, i had Barbies and played games like Lava (where the floor is lava and you have to stay on furniture in order to not burn to your death) but i don't remember making up random stories or having an imaginary friend. i wonder if my lack of imagination=lack of passion somehow. in my mind it makes sense. but it is 1:48am, so i might just potentially be rambling now.

swedish turkey meatballs

i'm not really sure what drove me to make this. i don't particularly ever have a craving for swedish meatballs. whenever i'm at Ikea, more often than not, the people i'm with want to get the swedish meatballs and i never really cared to get them. anyway, one day i made them for who-knows-what reason and it ended up being pretty damn good if i do say so myself.

meatballs


ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey meat
- 1/4 c breadcrumbs
- 1/4 milk
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbs oil

directions:
1. in a small bowl combine breadcrumbs and milk. set aside
2. in a skillet, heat oil and saute oions until soft
3. add garlic and cook for 1 minute. set aside and let cool slightly
4. in a large bowl combine turkey, breadcrumb/milk mixture, egg, onions and garlic, salt and pepper. use your hands to mix until well combined.
5. form 1 tbs sized balls
6. in the same skillet you cooked the onions in, heat 1 tbs butter and 1 tbs oil over medium heat. cook meatballs until brown on all sides and cooked through.

these turned out to be really moist, however they were more like mini patties than balls.

sauce


ingredients: 
- 2 tbs butter
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 4 gloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 c flour
- 4 c beef broth
- 1/2 c heavy cream
- salt and pepper

directions:
1. in the same skillet you cooked the meatballs in, saute onions and garlic until onions are just transparent
2. push onions to the side and add 2 tbs butter
3. when melted, add flour and whisk so that it doesn't clump up. cook until flour turns brown.
4. pour in beef broth, constantly mixing so that flour doesn't clump
5. add cream  and mix.
6. bring sauce to a simmer. continue to simmer until desired consistency. add salt and pepper to taste.

random happenings

i've always seen people man handle giant turkey legs at Disneyland and other various festivals and have never had the desire to try it. i could never understand why anybody would want to get full from eating pounds of turkey meat when there were other various fried things and deliciously crappy foods to eat. one day, at the North Beach Festival, my friend Libby assured me that i would not be disappointed with the turkey leg so i obliged and sunk my teeth into that monstrosity. and whaddayaknow? my life changed!!! it was so smokey good and more tender than i thought. and the bbq'd skin was perfect. it was actually so good that the next day i went to the San Mateo County Fair and got myself another one.

it was so big, we shared it between the three of us.

meet Libby: The Life Changer

check Libby creeping up on Eva.

                                                                                                                                                               

quite the unflattering photo

Stefan and i went to the Stern Grove Festival, which is free concerts in the park throughout summer. we went to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, who notably have worked with Amy Winehouse on her Back to Black album. it was insanely packed and there were people condensed all throughout the trees up the hill. we only stayed for a few songs but i always love going to festivals and things that involve the masses.

meet my brother's Waggly. we were dog sitting that day. this photo cracks me up! he obviously didn't want to be held upside down in a crowd of people with booming music! he looks like the Do Not Want Dog!!

hahaha!!!!

                                                                                                                                                          

it seems that my life revolves around food. along with eating everything from street tacos to eight course meals, i search recipes and browse foodgawker.com constantly. my dvr is filled with most shows food related. i love watching Top Chef, Top Chef: Masters and Top Chef: Just Desserts. is it really any surprise though? during a show they announced that the Top Chef Tour was "coming to a city near you!"

the Top Chef Tour was in town and lucky for me i happened to have the day off. Kim got tickets so that we could sit and taste samples of the food the two chefs made for battle. 

Helen and Kim

essentially the whole event is a 15 minute battle between two past Top Chef contestants. that day it was Fabio from season 5 and Ryan Scott from season 4.  they each have to use a main ingredient and no more than ten other ingredients along with one special ingredient. the main ingredient for the day was salmon. 

Fabio. he's really funny and yes, there is definitely a language barrier. also, just like on the show, he will talk and talk and talk and never answer the initial question. haha

salmon marinated in Red Bull with corn salad and breadcrumbs with pancetta. the addition of Red Bull seemed like an odd choice and i was nervous about it reminding me of a Jaeger bomb as the only time i have Red Bull is whilst drinking (and not because i like Red Bull in the slightest bit). it was good but nothing amazing. i was surprised that the Red Bull really only added a sweetness.

Ryan Scott who is behind the best food truck ever!!!

salmon marinated in tequila and lime with corn, radish and pumpkin seeds. this was really good, as i expected.

both guys schmoozing with the judges

in the end somehow Fabio won, but my vote would have been for Ryan Scott. fun times!!