recent happenings

Cali!

nearly a couple of months ago, this little cutie turned 1 year old! although i don't get to see her very often, it's awesome seeing her learn new things. my favorite new thing that she does is when she see's something tasty she goes "mmMmm" with inflection. it's so cute!

she obviously had a lady bug themed bday...

baby cakes!!!

Lia, Jerilyn and myself

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me, Jerilyn, Lia and Ciara

it's hard to believe that i've known these three ladies for over six years now. we were fast friends when we all endured the radiology program at KPSAHS together. in fact we became friends so quickly that within our first week of school we all got notes to go into the teachers office for talking too much. we spent long grueling school days together which turned into real friendships. recently we've all had things to celebrate. Ciara was moving (and has since) to New Orleans, a place where she feels free and can get some time to relax and take life slowly. Lia was (and has since) gotten married to the man who is truly her best friend. we went out to celebrate these two before some big life changes. we went out for some drinking and dancing, which is always a good time with these girls. 

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Comedy Jam!!!

i feel that stand-up comedy is one of the best ways to spend your time. true, a lot of comedians are horrible and feel like a waste of time, but sometimes there's that set that gets you physically slapping your knee and clapping your hands uncontrollably. those are the ones that make sifting through the bad ones worth it. every year i look forward to the Wild 94.9 Comedy Jam. this year they had Gabriel Iglesias, Kat Williams, Dave Chapelle, Jo Koy, and Chris Tucker, along with a few lesser names. 

Crystal, Laura, Jeremy, Darrick (covered by Jeremy's big head), and Jason

Jerilyn and i

Stefan and i

Dave Chapelle! 

i finally i had the chance to see Dave Chapelle. ever since his show went off air, it has been on my list of things to do/people to see before i go. i was warned that he replaces rehearsed stand-up with a lot of him just talking and observing. he used some old stand up and then talked some but i didn't mind. he was still funny. but who surprisingly stole the show was Jo Koy. i've seen that guy on Chelsea Lately a bunch of time and have never really thought he was that funny. but at the Comedy Jam i could not stop laughing while he was on stage. i think the difference between thought out practiced jokes versus the impromptu blurt of random jokes and funny faces he does on Lately spans completely opposite ends of the funny spectrum. 

comedy is best shared in a crowd of people roaring with laughter. it was crazy packed on the lawn at The Shoreline Amphithearter. people stepped all over our blankets to try to get through, the slant of the hill was a killer to our backs over the five hours we spent sitting on the ground, and the cold air was rough. but with everybody there for the same reason, it seemed like a giant picnic. the cold weather, aching backs and foot print covered blankets didn't matter because once a comedian said something hysterical, it was all forgotten. 

kale, sausage and white bean soup

a simple kale soup is the perfect thing to warm you up on those cold, foggy days where you just want to curl up in your snuggie (not that i'm the owner of one, but kinda wish i did) and watch reruns of Full House or Punky Brewster. okay, so maybe not everybody loves Full House or Punky Brewster, but they will always hold a special place in my heart! it doesn't matter. what we're talking about here is soup, really. this soup is hearty as it's full of fibrous kale, protein and healthy legumes. it's easy and doesn't require a lot of simmer time so it's perfect for days when you really don't want to spend more than 20 minutes making dinner.

kale, sausage and white bean soup
adapted from this recipe

ingredients:


- olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups kale, washed and torn into bite sized pieces
- 1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 hot links
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 tbs half and half

directions:


1. cut hot links into bite sized pieces and brown with olive oil in pot on medium high heat. set aside.
2. cook onions in the same pan until translucent
3. add in garlic and cook for another minute
4. add chicken broth and bring to a boil
5. drop in bay leaf and stir in kale
6. cook until kale is wilted (about 8 min)
7. stir in white beans and sausage and heat through (about 5 mins)
8. add in half and half

50/50- a must see!!

i like to do random things. lucky for me my good friend Helen likes to invite me along to preview screenings of movies i've never heard about. free movies are my thing. i don't even care if i have no idea what the story involves. if it's free, why not kill a couple of hours being entertained? the worst that can happen is that the movie bites and i walk out.

so there's a movie coming out on sept 30 called 50/50 that i was fortunate enough to watch the other day. the storyline is simple. the gist is that Joseph Gordon Levitt's character finds out that he has cancer and the movie follows him through it. had this movie not been free, i may have never gone out of my way to see it, but now that i've seen it i can't stop thinking about it. it's the most awesome dramedy!  there is nothing that i didn't like about it. it is simple, heartfelt and comical. it had me laughing the whole time while still maintaining it's integrity with a serious focus on cancer. i want to do my part to spread the word about this movie. so please watch the trailer and go see it when it comes out. Joseph Gordon Levitt is sweet eye candy and Seth Rogan is funny as shit!

chronicles of a chunk: II

--as a child i ate Hungry Man frozen dinners for snack time after school. again. as a child i ate Hungry Man frozen dinners. a meal meant for a burly grown adult male sufficed as my after school acitivity. but of course i wasn't limited to just that salt laden meal as my afternoon pick me up. other examples of my afternoon snacks included a whole can of chili with a half bag of Tostitos, Marie Calender's frozen chicken fettucini alfredo, Totino's pizza rolls and of course Bagel Bites dipped in ranch dressing. i think the serving size for bagel bites is like two or something measly. me? i ate twelve. seriously, fat kid Regina could potentially have given Kobayashi a run for his money.

--on occasion my parents would go to Reno for the weekend and let my brother and i stay home alone. it was exciting for us to act like big kids able to take care of ourselves. for my brother, Jeremy, the best part of them leaving was the freedom to play video games or do nothing at all the whole weekend. for me, the highlight was that they'd leave us food money and we could walk down to McDonald's or Pizza Hut. one of those weekends my brother and i headed out with ten bucks in hand to walk to Pizza Hut to score some delicious dinner. we walked for what seemed like ages and i huffed and puffed. i felt like the pressure in my chest was going to make my ribs burst open. by the time i got to PH i couldn't even imagine ordering. i didn't have enough energy in my body to do anything but try to get some oxygen running through it. i couldn't breathe! i remember it distinctly feeling like i had a giant fish bowl over my head and i was breathing in nothing but stale useless air. i thought i had developed asthma! i looked at my brother amazed that he was roaming around the arcade area not feeling the same way i did. we had gone the same distance. why was he fine and i was about to die? oh, yeah....it's probably all that extra chubs. my huge puffy cheeks probably took up space in my face causing a stricture to my windpipe. and you know what makes this story most embarrassing? the walk from our house to PH was only about half a mile away downhill. when my parents returned i told them all about how i needed to see a doctor because i had developed asthma. then i was told i just needed to start running. true that.


in case you care to read more about my childhood chub status:  chronicles of a chunk: I

*i write these chronicles because being a chubby kid has been a huge part in forming the current me. they're things i remember that i now think are funny. and to be quite honest, i figure someone out there can identify with the same things. if they ever come across these chronicles and have felt the same, i hope they, too, are able to laugh it off as they live their currently healthier lifestyle.

Marin Century

me being a goof on the bike. i didn't want to pay for these pics so i just took them off the website. 

one day a few months ago Stefan asked if i wanted to ride the Marin Century and without thinking i responded "sure." now please understand that's ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE MILES on a tiny little hard bike seat! at the time i didn't think much about it but when i tried to recall last year's ride i could only remember it not being sooo bad yet proclaiming that i didn't want to ride my bike for at least three months after the ride. everything else about the ride i had wiped out of my memory.

now because my mind tricked me into thinking the ride was easier than i thought, i had no real desire to train for it. between last year's century and this year's century i probably only got on my bike a total of 15 times or so. that really is nothing as far as keeping in good cycling shape goes. i decided to rely on my ability to endure. slow and steady wins the race, right? but in this case it just gets you to the finish line in one piece.

early in the morning we headed out to Marin. we got our bib numbers and headed out to the starting line.  we began our ride at 7:55am surrounded by the cold dewy morning air. i had on a tank top meant for cycling and a pair of those funny shiny butt padded pants that cyclists all wear. i also wore a long sleeved shirt that i was willing to throw away in case the sun decided it wanted to come out later in the day. i had my running shoes on with my feet in the pedal baskets and lacked sunglasses. i didn't look like a cyclist. and i'm not one. i just like to ride my bike.

wow. creepy rider coming through!! 

it was a cold first few miles but soon after riding your body begins to heat up. nine miles into the ride we hit our first rest stop. they provided us with plenty of snacks and hydration but after only nine miles of riding, i didn't feel the need to fuel up. we stayed for less than five minutes and took off. you don't really want to rest too long anyway because your body quickly becomes cold, making starting again harder. the next fifteen miles or so felt fine, although i didn't remember the ride being as hilly as it was last year. but then again, i was in much better shape last year. (a year ago i had been training for a half marathon, running an average of 25 or so miles a week, cycling and doing other exercises. i had also cut out desserts for a couple of months at that time). as we rode on we encountered plenty of rolling hills that weren't that fun but not too challenging either. the second rest stop came at mile 27. again we stayed only a few minutes, filling up on water and orange slices and pb&js.

off we went again. this portion was much flatter but around mile 53 or so there was a substantial hill that made me think "why did i sign up for this again!!! last year i didn't ride my bike for three months after! this hill is a jerkface!!!" i really began to regret even starting the ride. throughout the ride thus far i felt like my bike was sluggish. i kept thinking that it shouldn't be this hard to push on the flat parts and the hills seemed harder than they should have. but then i thought about it and realized i couldn't blame the bike. it was obviously me that wasn't quite as in shape as last year.

i reached the third rest stop at mile 57 feeling defeated. i was crazy tired and almost contemplated telling the people who organized the ride to drive me back to the finish line. i figured Stefan could go on ahead without me and i could wait happily for him at the finish. i mean, i'd already gone nearly 60 miles. that's pretty damn good. when i found him at the rest stop i learned that he was pretty tired himself. we took the opportunity to take a real break this time. we refueled and rested for about 30 minutes. i ate a ton of trail mix and chips. they also had some rosemary raisin foccacia that tasted like heaven, so naturally i scarfed down a few of those. after resting i felt better. there was only about 45 miles left and i've definitely done 45 miles fairly easily before. plus, i'd done this ride just last year. i knew i could do it again.

Stefan fist pounding the camera. haha! it was an accident. 

to my dismay the moment we left the rest stop we reached a hill that was steep as all hell. i rode most of it but towards the top i had to hop off my bike and walk about 300 feet. know that i hate getting off my bike. if i'm going to do something, i want to do it without handicap and i felt like walking was a little slump in my ride. i felt like i'd given up. sure, it was only 300ft out of 105 miles, but i hated that i had to get off. again i couldn't help but replay my own voice in my head, "whyyyyyyy did you do this to yourself? note to self: do NOT sign up again next year!" but you know what? after i reached the top and descended, i continued to ride. and i knew i could complete it. by mile 75 i told myself that there were only 30 miles left and that on a normal day 30 miles doesn't even seem like that big a deal.

i rode and rode and didn't feel like i hated the ride anymore. i just wanted to complete it. it wasn't fun per se, but the accomplishment of completing such a long ride always feels good. at about mile 90 i felt physically fine but mentally i didn't care to ride anymore. i just wanted to finish the last fifteen miles, get in a position that wasn't upright fetal and eat the meal at the end. at mile 93, just when i could see the light at the end of the tunnel, i got a flat tire. GAH!! forreal?? i called Stefan to come to my rescue and like a good boyfriend, he came back to save me. unfortunately he doesn't have too much experience changing tubes. fortunately for the both of us a stranger who knows much more about cycling than we do came and helped me. upon inspection we found that the tiniest piece of glass was slowly letting air out of my tube. this got me wondering whether the glass was in my bike somewhere at the beginning of the ride. remember throughout the ride i kept thinking that my bike felt sluggish. could i have been riding around with a flimsy tube this whole time?? seriously? oh, i just rode 93 miles with a semi-inflated tube, no big deal. NOT! geez! i wonder if i would have had a better ride if i'd found that glass earlier. with a new tube in, i finished the ride. we got to the finish line in the afternoon and i couldn't have been more happy for the ride to be over with. we got our lunch and i finished it off with a much deserved Hagen Daaz ice cream bar.

at this point i was pretty tired and didn't really want an ugly face on the internets for the world to see. 

even though the ride seemed harder than i recall it being last year, i'm glad i did it. it's always nice to be able to say you did something that not everybody can just get up and do. and even with no training whatsoever, i managed to complete 105 miles on a bike for the second time in my life. will there be a third time? who knows! we'll have to wait until next year to find out.

wait, where's my "thank you?"

last night as i approached my car having left the gym, a woman shouted "hey! wait!!" i turned around to see an asian lady with slightly peppered shoulder length hair. she looked to be in her early 40's, was mousy looking and had on round thin wire framed glasses. we had an exchange that went exactly like this:

bizarre:   do you carry two dollars on you?
me:   uhh, i don't know. yes? let me see. (i pull out my wallet and see that i do in fact have two dollars)
bizarre:   i need two dollars to put minutes on my phone
me:   two dollars? how do you put minutes on your phone with two physical dollars?
bizarre:   it's a prepaid phone. i'll go to 7-eleven right there (seemingly sarcastic but after our exchange i realized she's just a tad odd)
me:   oh. ummm suuuuurrree. here you go.
(at this point bizarre begins to walk away with the two bucks and i am opening the door to my car)
bizarre:   what do you do if you've had a bad day and you don't know what to do?
me (caught off guard):   what? i.....i......
bizarre:   you can't talk to your mom or dad because they'll tell you you're wrong. (mind you, she's like 40) so what do you do? exercise?
me:   i don't know the specifics of what you're talking about but.....umm.......talk to friends?
bizarre (shouts):   talk to friends?
me:   yes.
she turns away and leaves


now i have a few things to say about this.
1) why does she need to put money on her prepaid phone when she could have easily asked the nice people at the 24 Hr Fitness to use their phone? really, how much could $2 really bought her in phone minutes nowadays, especially after tax? like a minute and a half of talk time?
2) why does she even have a prepaid phone? to my knowledge based on shows such as Dateline and 20/20, only people who are scheming to murder or rob a bank have prepaid phones. who exactly was i giving my money too?
3) i was ready to hand over two bucks before the woman even told me that it was meant to buy minutes for her phone. i figured what woman in the 'burbs would ask for two whole dollars if she didn't really need it? i quickly realized she was some sort of distraught so not once did i question why she wanted my money. what's two dollars to me? a pack of Extra mint chocolate dessert gum that i probably won't chew more than one stick of anyway? sure. here's two bucks. but WHERE IS MY " THANK YOU????" she literally turned around and walked away without the courtesy of saying a simple "thank you." she asked me for money. i wasn't asking to give her money!! i could have potentially just made her day better by helping her seek whatever it is she needed....or helped her plan a murder i guess. but either way why didn't she say "thank you?" that kinda stuff drives me crazy! it's common courtesy! social etiquette! it's human decency to acknowledge someone who has done something for you. i know she was having a bad day or is a murderer but damn! i deserve a "thanks!"

San Diego Foodstravaganza

a few weeks ago Kim went to San Diego for a conference that her work sent her for. i joined her for a few days to take advantage of her free room at the Hard Rock Hotel. we are completely into food, so i turned it into a food trip. i mean, i'd been to SD many times in my life so there wasn't anything there that i really wanted to do. the SD zoo, Seaworld, La Jolla and beaches, etc. been there, done that. whenever Kim could break free from her conference, we'd go eat. and while Kim was busy during her conference, i went to go eat. haha.

day 1: at the new terminal 2 in SF they've got a bunch of great food options. there at 6am, with no intention of getting breakfast, i turned my head and noticed Tyler Florence's station. upon browsing their menu items, i couldn't help myself but to get a waffle. why did i do that? i wasn't even hungry. but the waffle was good. my only gripe is that i asked for some syrup to go and they gave me Smucker's sugar free syrup. sugar free??? i'm eating a freakin sugar laden waffle, why would i want sugar free anything on top of it? anyway, i ate less than a quarter of it because i knew the day ahead of me was going to be food filled.

i got to SD around 9am, checked in at the Hard Rock and immediately headed out for a walk to Hash House A GoGo. still, i wasn't very hungry, but this was the beginning of the foodstravaganza, so i had to! in no rush to get there, i decided to walk the 2.5 miles to get there. Kim had warned me about how massive their dishes were but i knew i had to go. people always talk about Hash House and i'd never been so i wanted to check it out.

i opted for the corned beef hash. this thing was insanely massive. even on those days when i feel like i could chew my own arm off, i don't think i could finish this. unfortunately the corned beef was a bit on the chewy side and the pieces were so big that i could never get corned beef and potato or egg in at the same time. i ate as much as i possibly could, which was only about 1/3 (on a not hungry stomach). 

i couldn't pass up the chance to try an iced banana creme brulee latte. this, too, was massive and had a nice subtle banana flavor. 

i trekked back to the Hard Rock on a full stomach to meet up with Kim, who had a break from her conference. she hadn't eaten yet, so we headed to La Puerta for her to get some tacos. we realized that La Puerta was known for their carne asada fries, so we got an order of that as well. not even slightly hungry, i still ate a third of the fries. they were good, but nothing amazing. i've had better carne asada fries from a little joint called Roberto's. 

carne asada fries. good, but no wow factor.

Kim headed back to her conference and i headed to a cupcake shop i noticed on my stroll around town. i went to Heavenly Cupcake and picked up a couple of cupcakes for us to try later in the day. 

lemon coconut and banana peanut butter

while Kim did her work thing, i hung around the hotel room watching tv and looking up things to eat for the remaining two days ahead of us. for dinner on our first night we had reservations at Nobu. Kim's always wanted to go so this was a must while in SD. we went a little early to take advantage of their happy hour menu. 

shiso peppers. flash fried and okay. i've had much better shiso peppers prepared by lightly battering and deep frying.

crab with crispy rice. 

the crispy rice was formed in blocks on skewers. i really liked this dish. the rice had a nice crunchy texture to oppose the mushiness of the crab salad. 

their famous hamachi(?) with jalapeno and ponzu. this was a good dish, however i feel like i've had even better versions of this (Morimoto Napa for sure!!). but Kim says that Nobu was the pioneer for dishes like this, so i guess i have to give them a little credit. 

beef skewers with some kind of sauce that i didn't love. it had waaaay too much paprika in it for my liking.

fish n chips. 

hiding under the delicious lightly fried fries was an equally lightly battered and fried bass that was really effing good.

the famous miso cod. buttery, seasoned and cooked perfectly. 

deliciously fatty toro, and some not delicious tomago. ugh. i don't even understand why anybody would want sweet eggs like that for sushi when they could have fish. but Kim says she judges whether a sushi chef is worthy based on their tomago so we ordered it. blah!

i forgot what they called this but essentially it ended up being just like a bananas foster. good, but not what we thought it was going to be. 

this was supposed to be a tiramisu mochi but it tasted like a whole lot of nothing. 

disappointed with dessert at Nobu and having rested for a little over half an hour, we decided to walk to Extraordinary Desserts to fix our sweet tooths. unbeknown to us, the walk was about a 1.4 miles away and took us through the more ghetto part of SD. there were homeless taking their nighttime whiz on the walls and sleeping bags lined the crevices between buildings. coming from SF, homeless people aren't a shocking sight, however we weren't prepared strut down a street laden with them. at least in SD where the homeless reside seems a lot more tame than 6th St. or the rest of the tenderloin. "these desserts better be extraordinary as them claim" rang through our heads as we walked holding our breaths to avoid the stench of homies (what i call homeless). 

chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and a vanilla custard brulee. very rich and good, however the brulee did not come through at all. 

coffee toffee ice cream. a tad icy. no coffee toffee will ever beat Bi-Rite's in SF. 

lemon ricotta cake with berries. light and moist. 

insanely full from the whole days eats, we went back to the hotel room to get into our jammies with ever so appealing elastic waistbands. abdomens protruding, we climbed into our respective beds. but then i noticed that box of cupcakes that we hadn't touched. there was no way we could eat those the next day because they'd be dried out and it wouldn't be a fair assessment of their cupcake making skills. so we decided to take one bite from each cupcake. i took a bite of the lemon coconut first and upon the touch of my tongue my body instantly told me "NO!!! WTF are you doing? you've stored up enough energy to last you a week! why would you do this to me? no. more. food!!!" i physically could not chew/swallow that bite of cupcake. i had to spit it out. not because it didn't taste good, but because my body wasn't having any of it. now i couldn't not try the banana peanut butter one. but this time i knew what the reaction would be. i took a bite, intending on just tasting it and then spitting it out. and so i did. that seems like some kind of eating disorder, doesn't it? chewing to taste, then spitting it out to avoid calories. my god that was some kind of experience. my body was mad. haha!

day 2:  this day Kim had a short day at the conference so we decided to go to Disneyland!! while she was at the conference i made it a point to go to the gym and run five miles. all of that food energy had to go somewhere!! around noon we got a car, picked up some sandwiches from a place called Enoteca Style and headed off. one of the sandwiches were really good. salami, provolone, mortadella and a garlic aioli. i thoroughly enjoyed it but failed to take a picture of it as Disneyland was on my mind. 

just being a geek! excited to enter California Adventure. 

this was Kim's first time on the Tower of Terror!! Muuuaaahahahahaha!! 

i love this ride. so much fun! 

haha!! me looking over at Kim to make sure she was enjoying the ride as much as i was!! 

we had a limited amount of time at the happiest place on earth. we'd gotten there around 2pm and had dinner reservations back in SD at 9pm so we had to plan out our day and only go to the important rides. our plan at California Adventure was to tackle Tower of Terror, Screamin' and Soarin'. at Disneyland we wanted to check out the new Star Tours and ride Space Mountain (the best ride in life!). unfortunately we ran out of time and didn't make it to Space Mountain, however we somehow squeezed in the Little Mermaid ride. 

can i just say how much i love Disneyland? the second i step foot into the park that feeling of childish nostalgia overcomes me and i feel like i've been transported into a different world. with every other theme park, i still feel like my normal self ventured into a place with cool rides, but at Disneyland i feel like i've stepped into a cartoon and my normal life is a past time. it's not even the rides that get me, it's simply being surrounded by cobble stone streets, a magical castle and a parade of blinking lights. i don't know why i don't make it an annual thing to go to Disneyland. i really should. it's the ultimate awesome! 

our 9:30 reservations were at a restaurant called Searsucker. the chef is Brian Malarkey, who was on Top Chef Season 3 and has won many awards that boast he is the best chef in San Diego. the place is huge with high ceilings. it's bustling and alive with people. i loved being there. it was unpretentious and just a nice place to hang out at. 

gourgeres, or "cheddar puffs" at Searsucker. yum! light and creamy! <3

shrimp n grits. i loved this dish. i don't generally like grits, but when they are done well they can be fantastic. cheesy grits is the way to go!

raclette with blackberry. if you haven't had raclette, it's pretty much a cheese cooked in a pan so that it's melted and the bottom crisps up a bit. the cheese portion of this was really good with the bread, however i think the blackberry overwhelmed the cheese with too much sweet for my taste buds. 

oh my god! duck fat fries with proscuitto crumble and homemade ketchup. the heavens were with Malarkey when he made these. man was this a great dish! 

beef cheek with tongue and cactus. great dish. the cheek was incredibly soft and the texture was much like oxtail, and oxtail is my favorite meat. 

corn with jalapeno and bacon. just as you'd expect it to be. 

key lime pie. good, but we were so full we hardly touched it.

the Elvis sundae!!! peanut butter ice cream with bacon, banana, peanuts and caramel. i loved this. me and Elvis know what's up with food. 

us, with our stomachs wanting to explode.

day 3: Kim was pretty busy with the conference this day so i  set out to do my own thing. i ran another five miles to try and work off all of the crazy food i'd been eating and then roamed around town. i found a place called Neighborhood on Yelp and headed there for lunch. upon walking into the restaurant you are greeted with a big Jesus at the door. i opted to sit outside at the nice little area with faux grass.

small cobb. i needed to get some greens in me. the bacon in this was really good. not sure what made it special but it was tasty. and the onion rings were lightly fried. 

jalapeno mac n cheese. delightfully creamy and spicy!! 

i spent the rest of my day at a cafe called Lion. they served Lion brand coffee from Hawaii. i got an iced thai mocha which was espresso, chocolate powder and condensed milk. a tad sweet, but i still enjoyed it. i spent a good three hours or so sitting there reading The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. as a chinese girl with parents who immigrated from China/Hong Kong, i've got to say my life was very different from her children's lives.i think i turned out alright despite the fact that  i play no instruments nor was ever pressured by my parents to overachieve. haha!! 

thai mocha

i intended on leaving from SD on my 8:15pm flight, however it was delayed until 11:15pm. seriously? 3 hours??? i knew i could only blame SF for it's fogginess. with a few extra hours, i decided that rather than have my dinner at the airport i'd find something around town. again, via Yelp, i found The Kebab Shop. astonishingly, the food there was ca-razy good!! the saffron rice was seasoned well, the lamb and beef gyro was incredibly flavorful and the tabouleh was refreshingly good. i ate half and took the rest with me for the awesome time i was going to have sitting solo at the airport with nothing to do. 

good god this was yummy!!

and that is the end of the SD foodstravaganza. needless to say, the next few days consisted of fruit and light clean foods. and at the gym i still feel like i'm working off that Elvis sundae, but it was well worth it!