SF Giants Fan Fest!!!!!

day 36: Giants Fan Fest

the beautiful AT&T park was open yesterday to all Giants fans to celebrate the World Series win one more time. the players took their time to thank the fans for their support through the season, sign autographs, and interview. spirits were high and lots of pictures ensued. 

we couldn't resist a cartwheel picture

day 33, 34 and 35

 day 33: the dining table at the Hearst Castle. i really don't like this image but oh well.

 day 34: just some lamp. i like the texture on the brick.

day 35: my more than awesome friend, Trina, got me this oh so very befitting tshirt. bikes. reality. vneck. gray/black. awesome. thanks, love!

day trip!

Stefan and i took a day trip to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. i don't have any pictures of the castle to post because they all sucked. unfortunately i have a nice Canon Rebel xsi that i don't know how to use very well and am too lazy to figure out. and i generally like to get somewhat creative with photos, but all of the photos i took of the castle were lacking, boring, or somewhat blurry.

before we got to San Simeon, we stopped in Carmel for breakfast. we also stopped by the beach just to check it out and decided to climb a tree. i haven't climbed a tree since i was twelve, so this actually brought back some kid memories. it wasn't that tall but so what! oh, and if you notice, i'm wearing Stefan's shoes cause my boots were too slippery for tree climbing. it was like wearing clown shoes.

we drove along the coast and made our way to the castle just barely making our 1:20pm tour. just briefly i'll say that the Hearst Castle was grand for it's day. it cost William Randall Hearst approximately nine million dollars to build the castle including all of it's lavish additions. i'm sure with all the inflation, today it'd be about 10x that amount. there was an amazing outdoor pool, a Roman Empire inspired indoor pool, a theater, two tennis courst, a zoo, and miles of landscape. but again, you can't see that because i have no pictures that i deem worthy of posting.

as we drove we saw what looked like a beach full of amazingly large turds, which turned out to be elephant seals. we had no idea about this before we made our trip down, but apparently tis the season for beaching and birthing. seriously, there had to be more than a thousand elephant seals with their pups! it was quite a sight to see! (i have pictures of these cause i finally decided to put my camera on auto)
                                      

by far the cutest photo i got!

 

                      can you imaging driving and accidentally stumbling upon this? so. many. turds!

and of course, men will be men. many of the bull males with their giant fat noses, or whatever they may be, arched their backs tall so that they'd be seen and acknowledged. so typical.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!



if it's really the Lunar New Year, why do we call it "Chinese New Year?" i never hear people celebrating "Vietnamese New Year" or "Burmese New Year." is it because we are egocentric? even if that's the case, i don't mind being a part of it. i'm not saying Chinese people are any better than other ethnicities of people but i sure do like being Chinese and owning a part of the culture.

why you ask?

1. if i'm at a four way stop and i accidentally (and i indeed mean accidentally. i promise, i'm a decent driver.) go ahead of you even though it's your turn, i just give the "whoops" look and don't feel too terribly bad because i sort of assume that you'll just chalk it up to me being Asian. by default i must be a bad driver, right?

2. if i ever decide to get my Chinese name or something tattooed on me, i won't look too much like a cliche.

3. we have good food and use every type of cooking preparation known to man (except maybe some of that gastronomy stuff).but one of the simplest and most memorable things i've ever eaten is rice with liquid pig lard and soy sauce. it's what the poor village people like my mom and grandparents used to eat in China. it sounds pretty disgusting but it tastes soooo good. if you haven't tried it, don't knock it. and who doesn't like dim sum or wonton noodle soup?

4. i like that you are identified by your last name first. in Chinese i would be considered Choy Regina rather than the vice versa version of that. you are greeted with acknowledgement of your family before yourself. the importance of continuing a family's legacy with generations of a last name emotes an intense sense of pride in your family. i've seen elderly Chinese women meet and realize that they were from the same village or neighboring villages and just by that association they become fast friends.

5. the calligraphy is beautiful.

6. the language is harsh and everybody sounds like they've got a bullhorn strapped to their mouth. i know this one actually seems annoying, but on occasion it's actually comical. even if someone is just asking you to step aside, it seems like they are screaming bloody murder. but they don't mean it, it's just a part of the culture. and again, if i happen to be in a particularly loud mood, i just assume everybody will chalk my screaming up to being Chinese.

since the number 6 is lucky to (some of) the oh so very superstitious Chinese, i'll leave the list at that.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!! now where are those red envelopes??

getting Vegas ready

okay, Vegas is in exactly one month. time to buckle down. if you see me with any sweet thing in my hand, i give you permission to knock it out of my hands clear across the room without saying a word. go ahead. that means any type of dessert (pie, cake, cookies), candy (chocolate, sour patch kids) and pastries (chocolate croissants, muffins, etc.). hell let's extend this rule to anything fried or that has no good nutritional value also. you can just push my plate on to the floor. seriously, i encourage it! please withhold your reservations. and don't worry, i'll clean up the mess. you'll be doing me a favor!

fall off the bone

you know how they advertise baby back ribs as "fall off the bone good?" as a kid, my parents always purposely cooked ribs so that they stuck to the bone. it's probably a chinese thing. those who aren't chinese or asian just don't understand. one time we brought my grandma out to dinner and got her the lamb shanks. the plate was enormous and we thought she'd be happy she was getting her money's worth (yet another chinese thing: cheapness). she then cut off all of the meat and put it to the side asking if anybody wanted it. then she tore through those bones like a little old chinese cave woman gnawing at every little bit of cartilage and nook n' cranny she could get herself in to. she, like lots of chinese, like to really dig into bones. seriously, seeing those who've immigrated eating chicken bones is a pretty disturbing scene. trust me. you don't want to know what that looks like.

i've attempted to cook ribs in the oven before and they've never come out "fall off the bone." but today i did my research and to my surprise the ribs came out perfectly!! i don't have a picture because, well, the picture was pretty hideous. i'm an ammateur to the cooking world but i promise you this method is fool proof. here's the recipe if you ever want to try it yourself.

"fall off the bone" oven cooked baby back ribs
ingredients:

4 lbs pork ribs
3/4 c brown sugar
1 teaspoon hickory smoke salt (i just used regular salt)
1tbs paprika
1tbs garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
2c any bbq sauce

directions:

1. preheat oven to 300 degrees F
2. peel off tough membrane on bony side of ribs
3. mix sugar and spices together
4. rub all sides of the rib with rub
5. lay ribs over two layers of thick foil on a baking sheet, meat side down
6. lay two layers of thick foil on top of ribs and fold edges together to make a seal
7. bake for 2-2.5 hrs until meat sharts to shrink away from the ends of the bone.
8. remove from oven, uncover and drain excess juices from the pan
9. heat broiler
10. brush bony side of ribs with bbq sauce
11. broil for 1-2 minutes until the sauce is cooked on and bubbling
12. flip ribs over to brush meat side with bbq sauce
13. repeat broiling process

steamy kinda morning

day 32: that would be the sun beaming down on water beads that've collected on my car, causing the roof of my car to steam. see it? i saw that as i walked out of my house this morning and thought it looked way rad.