Comic Con Part 1

Freed from the responsibility of attending jury duty last Thursday July 21, Bert and I were free to attend the biggest pop culture event in the U.S. and the biggest convention event in San Diego, the Comic Con International (formerly known as the San Diego Comic Con and heretofore referred to as the "Con"). We got good parking since we left early after dropping off TC at school (we took her that following Sunday). Saw our friend Supe in line ahead of us and he was gracious enough to leave his hallowed spot 30 feet ahead of us in line to join us peons. Actually, it was quite nice having a friend there with which to spend the time. We had more than 1 hour and a half to kill while waiting for the Con to open at 10 am. While in line upstairs, we saw many in costume, including a black Wonder Woman, a slighly pudgy Vulcan, and various Superman and Spiderman get ups. We saw more elaborate costumes later on the Convention floor.

Aargh I'm having trouble posting pics... Here's a few from last Thursday. This booth is Mile High Comics where Bert found some of his compilations (correct me if I'm wrong). Unfortunately all graphic novels were only 20% off. You have to really hunt for bargains (50% tables).

My mission was just to get the newest issue of Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve (#10) at the Drawn & Quarterly booth. At the Fantagraphics booth, I found out I already had #23 of Eightball by Daniel Clowes. I did not really buy anything that day.
I loved this cartoon "The Tick" when it used to be on Cartoon Network in the early 90's. They will finally be releasing all episodes on DVD in late August (correction - they wil be releasing Season 1, but only 12 out of 13 episodes due to an unauthorized use of Cindy Crawford's image). The guy who mans the booth is from the Massachussetts area. He has a major New England accent. Long live The Tick and his trusty sidekick, Arthur! Spoon!!!

The entrance near section C. This was right before we saw the Elvis Stormtrooper. I'll be posting his pic later. Damn formatting.
A view outside of the Convention Center. As you can see, construction of overpriced condos is happening all over the Gaslamp quarter. It was pretty hot that day too, about 80+ degrees.

Here is another view of the convention center from across the trolley tracks. This is when we took a break to eat lunch.

Here's a T-Shirt that I will NEVER buy for TC. FK the Disney princesses and all that they stand for.

Check this out...

Oh my God! This looks so good...Thit Heo Nuong (Vietnamese pork chops) ...

Here's the recipe and a delicious photo!

Thanks to Reggie of Kau Kau Time! (food blog) for this recipe --->it's one of the links on my sidebar (see?)

You can buy lemon grass at your local Seafood City or Asian food market. Unfortunately, I don't think they would have it at Vons, Albertsons, Henry's or Ralphs.

I think I'll make this for our next get together besides Kalbi ribs.

Five Things

My First "Meme"

Five Things in My Freezer :
1) edamame beans from Costco
2) a box of absolutely horrible tasting popsicles (Durian flavor---bought on a whim at Ranch 99 with the thought that it might actually taste good! Ugh!)
3) Magnolia ube ice cream (yum!)
4) strawberries in a ziplock bag (for use in a future smoothie)
5) teriyaki chicken breasts (also from Costco)

Five Things in My Closet:
1) at least 30 pairs of shoes (95% of them black)
2) an ironing board
3) a hanging sweater organizer filled with anything but sweaters
4) a motley assortment of purses I don't use that I should get rid of
5) three stacked laundry baskets

Five Things in My Car:
1) my new Joe Bataan "Afrofilipino" CD
2) a sticky and dirty penny in the drink/cup holder
3) a half-filled mini lotion container
4) various pens that may or may not contain ink
5) scotch tape

Five Things in My Purse:
1) my everpresent MAC lipstick (shade: Media) & cheap NYX lipliner (shade: Y2K)
2) a rat tail comb
3) my cheap Mossimo wallet from Tar-jay
4) a mini dental floss from the goodie bag my dentist gave me
5) a compact mirror in the shape of Chococat's head

Heaven Sent Desserts

After dinner at Cucina Italiana last Friday, we decided to try the new bakery on the corner of University and 30th St. in North Park. It was a freaking hot day and we ended up eating at a table out front and watched people traverse the streets of North Park.

Shogun and I had the same dessert. It was the "Heavenly Halo", which, according to their menu is: a "chocolate drizzled pate a choux ring with hazelnut and whipped cream" ($4). It was like eating a fluffy cream puff cloud. Quite delicious indeed. Bert and I shared this together.

TC wanted two chocolate covered strawberries (D'oh! at $2.75 each! Ouch!). She enjoyed dipping the strawberries into the chocolate dots. I wonder why one was more sparsely decorated with dots? Hmmm...
Their coffee cups were quite curvaceous.

Lotus' dessert was the Dutch Apple Pie which consisted of "cinnamon spiced baked apples in a flaky crust drizzled in cajeta sauce; served with vanilla ice cream & melted sugar halo decor" ( the sugar halo had cinammon in it); this was $6.50. That crust was good!

Another culinary adventure with HotFudge

Last Wednesday, HotFudge and I looked at a few furniture places in PB and a few boutique shops. For lunch, she suggested a Lebanese place off of University and Alabama Street in North Park.
The place is: Mama's Bakery; here's another review . You order in this tiny storefront then you can wait out front or by the side where there is a VERY GREEN PATIO. It's pretty cheap and from what I remember, our orders were about $3.99 each.

Dammit, I tried a different layout of photos and I couldn't delete one without deleting all and starting over again. So, pardon that big blank white space you see above...Sheeyit. Anyways, below is part of the green patio and above as well. You can see the window where you pick up your food. That's HotFudge's orange shirt by the way. She ordered some (free) extra sides of garlic paste (oh my God, that stuff was STRONG!) and tahini sauce (ground sesame paste).
We both ordered meat pies. Kind of like a Lebanese calzone but made with Lebanese flatbread baked in a sajj (oven). Mine had ground beef and spinach. HotFudge's meat pie had ground beef, feta cheese and spinach. There were a few tomatoes in there as well.
I had ordered a beef wrap along with the meat pie. I was intending to save 90% of it for Bert. The meat pie was very flavorful; I enjoyed the filling very much although I only ate some of the bread wrapper. You can see the tiny cup filled with garlic paste. I almost ate all of it and regretted it later. Garlic breath is hard to get rid of!

Harar Ethiopian Restaurant

Last week, HotFudge and I went out for a late lunch. Our original destination was Sang Dao, a Laotian restaurant in Logan Heights (43rd and National, across from the Victory Outreach Church). We arrived at 2'ish and the sign said 'Closed'. WTF??? Undeterred by this momentary setback, HotFudge suggested that we try an Ethiopian place that she had visited many times in the past. So we made our way to the place via the 805 and headed west on El Cajon Blvd. Right next to a gas station is Harar Ethiopian Restaurant. Here's a link to where we went: Harar Restaurant . It is a very tiny restaurant that looks like a hole in the wall.

On a side note, another Ethiopian place that HotFudge recommends is: Red Sea Restaurant . Here's the menu. Everything is pretty inexpensive and they have a buffet every Friday starting at 6 pm.

This is a bar area. Towards the back is an outdoor patio dining area since the interior of the restaurant is so small.

Wall hangings near our table.


Our appetizers were the sambussas, which were fried rectangular pastries. They were $1.50 for two (good deal!) so we had one set of beef and one set of lentils. This was similar to an Indian samosa which is also filled with either a spiced meat or vegetable mixture.

***CORRECTION** (7/28) The sambussas were $1.50 for one. : (

I had the Yebbo Siga, which was spiced beef in red peppered sauce, served with a small salad on top of injera, which is an unleavened (flat) bread made out of teff (a grain from Ethiopia that is said to be quite nutritious) or buckwheat. I had a bit of a curdlike cheese on my plate (not cottage). My plate was $6.99.

This was a side basket of injera, the spongy flat bread that goes with every Ethiopian meal. Kind of tastes sour. I wasn't crazy about the texture, but it was worth a try. It's all rolled up here.

HotFudge had the combination plate which included the Yebbo Siga (spiced beef), Yebeg Siga Wot (spiced lamb), and Yedero Wot (spiced chicken). She also ordered a side of steamed and spiced spinach. Her entree was either $7.99 or $8.99.

For the price, it was a satisfying meal for the both of us. We barely touched the side basket of injera since we ate the the edges of the injera on our entree plates. I really liked my entree because it was spicy, but not so spicy that I would be chugging down glasses of water to extinguish the heat. It was spicy enough but not enough to give me a raging case of diarrhea the next day. I should know. I was bracing myself for it. Thank goodness it didn't happen!

Furniture Shopping

What a hot ass week it's been. I mean, hellishly hot!

Turns out that Vagabond in South Park was booked up for Friday night due to an event called "Walkabout" (conjures up images of Crocodile Dundee). Lotus saved the day by choosing a very nice Italian place, Cucina Italiana in Clairemont. You can read her blog about it. Shogun chose a very nice white house wine (sorry, I don't like reds unless they're super sweet) - his gnocchi was also yummy! Thanks for letting me have a bit! Dessert was at a fairly new dessert place on 30th and University, called Heaven Sent. I still think that Extraordinary Desserts and Just Fabulous have better presentation, although I really liked my dessert. (pictures to post later).

Saturday was spent furniture shopping with Bert. Lotus was kind enough to have TC over at her house so she could have fun running through Mt. Tiki-Soki instead of slogging through furniture places with us.

We headed to PB:
Garnet - We got there, but it was closed (at 11 am?).
Underground Furniture - Got our tall 5-drawer dresser there and two nightstands. It has a bit of an Asian look to it and the wood is Espresso colored with brushed silver handles on the dresser and drawers.
Garnet - Decided to check it on our way back and it was open (11:40 am)! Got our bed there. A king size. Low profile platform bed with a fairly big headboard. Also same color wood as dresser and nightstands bought at previous store.

Ikea - lunch and off to look for a TV stand and shelving. Although we didn't get anything from Ikea that day, we have a good idea of what we want. The Benno TV stand in brown/black with two narrow brown/black Billy bookcases (with doors on the lower halves) as well as one or two brown/black Lack shelves to be placed above the TV.

Mission Valley Target - Got 2 lampshades on clearance ($3.48!!!); they are white with a black botanical print on it. Hmmm...wonder if this will work. Also got 1 sculpural black lamp base (this will actually be returned).

So...all we need is a new King size mattress, sheets, comforters, pillows, etc. A TV too... Oh yeah, and paint for the walls. Need to decide what shades also. Decisions, decisions...

By the way, the 600 threadcount sheets at Target may be a nice price but the colors are hideous. Our crappy choices were: burgundy, sage, cream and navy blue. Fk!!!! Whatever happened to plain old white??? I think I'm going to have to shop at a higher end store now dammit.

I went to Mervyn's today in Pt. Loma to see their choices. The highest threadcount was 500 but the colors, were again, mofugly and lacked the one color that I need and want the most: white.

Comic Con photos to be saved for a later post.

Update

Wednesday: Lunch at Mama's Bakery (Lebanese deli) with HotFudge after furniture window shopping.

Thursday: 1st day of Comic Con with husband. Had fun hanging out in line to get in with Superman.

coolest costume ever: the Elvis Stormtrooper (will post his pic in a later blog)

Friday: dinner at Cucina Italia in Clairemont with Lotus and Shogun

Weekend:
Saturday: More furniture shopping but this time with Bert. Must replace 11-year old bedroom furniture set. Must step into the 21st century. If there's enough time, perhaps see "Clerks II".

Sunday: Comic Con with TC.

Drum roll please...

And the answer to the photo quiz, "Guess what this is?"


Peacock Poo.


Thane wrote: Giant sunflower seed
Missyshow wrote: Turtle turd (this was a step in the right direction)
Bert wrote: Hawaiian jalapeno


Peacock excrement courtesy of the wild peacocks running freely at the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo on the Big Island.

Jury Duty NO!!!! Comic Con YES!!!!

Nerd that I am...Comic Con here we come! Looking for the new Optic Nerve #10 by Adrian Tomine (if it's there) and any new issues of Daniel Clowes' Eightball. I think I need #23. I'd like to get the screenplay for "Art School Confidential" as well. Hopefully I can also meet Martin Cendreda, a favorite (Filipino to boot!) comic artist (also from D & Q) again. Bert already has his wish list ready.

Today I went furniture window shopping with HotFudge in PB. Went to Underground and Garnet and also looked at Pangaea, a global accessories/art/clothing/knicknack store. It was fun as always hanging out with HotFudge. Lunch was at Mama's Kitchen on Alabama Street (off of El Cajon Blvd.). The weather was actually pleasant today, not the hellishly hot days we've been having lately.

The venue for Friday's dinner will be changed due to no reservations at the desired time due to South Park's "Walkabout" event. Dinner venues to be reviewed, mulled over, determined, and chosen later. Thanks Lotus for your superior brainstorming capabilities.

July 4th delicacy

Ever had one of these?



It's a Krispy Kreme burger which were consumed at the July 4th party at Lotus & Shogun's abode.

One of our friends bought a dozen Krispy Kremes. They were sliced in half and grilled, then filled with the patty and regular burgeraccoutrements. You'll notice that the sugary side faces down on the meat. I had one bite of bert's and it tasted much too sweet for me. I didn't like the sweetness of the sugar mixing with meat and ketchup! Ugh!

Calypso Cafe

Sunday night I went out with a couple of fellow educator friends. Normally there are four of us, but one was missing because her mother was in town. The venue: Calypso Cafe in Encinitas. It located on 576 N. Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas. Since we hardly ever go up North, this venue was chosen by one of my good friends and an excellent choice it was. The Cafe seemed like a cottage that was converted into a restaurant. Her brother had performed there before with his jazz band so she wanted us to check out the venue for ourselves. We were able to get parking on a nearby side street. There was live music playing as we walked in (bossa nova plus various jazz standards). The walls are painted with bright jungle/rain forest scenes. There are jewel toned glass lamps hanging from the ceiling. It was a relaxing atmosphere. The prices were not cheap, but they weren't wallet busting either. Figure about $16 and up for an entree. We were the only minorities there. I kept expecting to see Jeff Spicoli breeze through the door.

Our waiter started us off with their house sangria and bread with a very rich salsa which consisted of tomatoes, chilies, pineapple, balsamic vinegar, capers, green onions, and a few other ingredients that I couldn't remember. There was a bit of a kick to it and it tasted very good. For an appetizer, we ordered calamari with mango salsa. Calamari differs from place to place. Some serve it as 'rings' or 'strips', while others will serve the tiny squid tentacles and all. This version was like a triangular squid (sorry, but that's what calamari is, as ugly as it sounds) shaped candy corn, but huge. It was breaded and stacked pointy side up on spring greens. The salsa was also very good and spicy, but not so much to make you sweat. My friend who chose the place had the lobster ravioli which was in a tomato cream sauce. The raviolis were pillow-shaped and there were about five big ones in there.

Our other dinner companion had the salmon penne with white cream sauce. That was also very delicious. She said the pasta was cooked just the way she liked it, 'al dente'. The salmon was really rich tasting and I couldn't resist having a bit more of hers.

Lastly, my entree was the seafood linguine with my choice of a white cream sauce. Still pleasantly reeling from Vagabond's moules-frites, I chose this dish because it had mussels in it, as well as scallops, shrimp and salmon. The two roasted peppers were a nice touch and weren't even spicy at all. I ended up eating only half of it since the portion was pretty large. It made for a nice lunch the next day. Sorry for the crappy picture quality.

In all, it was a nice evening out with good friends who work in the same field. Most of my other very dear friends are not in education, so I don't bore them with my stories about school and students, etc. We four usually have lunch or dinner once a month to relax as well as gripe! We trade "war" stories and restaurant/book recommendations with each other. Next month is our missing person's birthday so we will take her out to dinner somewhere, perhaps a place where we've all never been before. Every dinner out with these ladies is always a culinary adventure.

1st Grade already...

School begins again

Today was TC's first day of school; she is now in first grade...In fact, I must pick her up now...will come back later...

reminder to post:

Lunch yesterday at Harar Ethiopian Restaurant with HotFudge and dinner a few nights ago at the Calypso Cafe in Encinitas...

Jury Duty vs. Comic Con

Sitting on the bench or walking the cavernous Convention Center?

Please please please please I hope I don't get called for jury duty on Thursday!!! We plan to go to the Comic Con - the first official day, not including Wednesday's Preview night which is reserved for those die-hards who get the 4-day pass. That's the night they get to snag all the good stuff first! But anyhoo, I hope I don't get called in! Otherwise, if I do, Bert gets the day off anyways and may go without his wife...me! :(

Not to worry, we will go on Sunday for sure with TC in tow, wearing her Supergirl costume. Last year that was her Halloween costume. None of that girly ass Disney Princess shit like all of the other girls in her class. She chose Supergirl. A noble, strong role model. I was happy to see that she was a noncomformist as well. In REAL LIFE girls should learn that they don't have to be weak, flirty/coquettish, and dependent on men to rescue/save them. I hate the fact that Ariel had to give up her underwater life just to be with that pussy Eric. Yeah, yeah, true love, schmoo love. Yeah, yeah, it was HER choice in the movie...Eric should have joined HER watery world and gave up his life.

There are a few redeeming qualities in Belle from Beauty and the Beast (although I don't like the underlying shades of interspecies bestiality). She was smart, independent (and of course, motherless like all of the so called Disney "heroines") and was not afraid to stand up to the boorish Gaston. Sleeping Beauty? I think playing catatonic and waiting for any old dude to kiss you and wake you from your deathlike slumber ISN'T the way to go. What if the guy ended up being a fat, ugly plumber and not a prince? What about Cinderella? So what if she had a SMALL FOOT that fit the glass slipper? Another Disney princess that had one good quality was Mulan simply because she knew martial arts and could definitely a guy's KICK ASS. That's it.

The hyperfeminization of these female Disney characters is despicable to me and all the marketing that goes with the Disney princess is of course, geared to make loads of $$$ from over supplicating parents who want to please their increasingly demanding offspring, in turn, grooming them to become horrid, greedy consumers who must have all things Disney like the Princess phone, make up kit, clothing, costumes gowns, and toilet paper with said likenesses.

The hypersexualition of other "girl-geared" toys of a crappy nature include the Aryan/anorexic Barbie and her brood of wanna-be multi-ethnic friends, who by the way, lack distinct ethnic features and look exactly like Barbie in everyway, except for the color of their skin and hair. I think Mattel believes that American girls don't want to play with kinky haired, flat nosed, chocolate/tan Barbies, with eyes other than blue; that's why you see those dolls in the toy outlets because no one wants them, along with the awful Bratz, the Baby Bratz (baby dolls that look like miniature sluts? hell to the NO!) and their mortal enemies, the My Scene dolls....Aaaargh!!!

By the way, I hope you recognize some of my sarcasm...But seriously, I HATE the Disney princesses to the nth degree.

Huh, all this because of a Supergirl costume...let me get off my diatribe now.

The King and the Mongoose

*The prolific nature of these posts is brought to you by yours truly, a bored educator on summer vacation with lots of time on her hands...

And this, everyone is King Kamehameha the Great himself...The first ruler of Hawaii.

According to Wikipedia: "Kamehameha, also known as Kamehameha I and Kamehameha the Great (circa 1758 – 1819), unified the Hawaiian Islands in battle and formally established the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1810".

This particular statue is in Hilo. The white sign you see below is for Bert's co-worker who is Russian. There's a photoshopped picture of him holding the flag of his soccer team's rival. A bit of an in-joke among the co-workers.


At the Queen Liluokalani Botanical Gardens in Hilo, Bert saw a tiny mongoose on the black lava rocks below. Look closely in the middle and you can see him.

And he's off...

There he goes!

Another creature Bert saw at the gardens that day.

A bamboo grove.
History Alert: Queen Lydia Liliuokalani was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed to the United States and Queen Liliuokalani was forced to give up her throne. Queen Liliuokalani was deposed in 1893 by a group who advocated for the Republic of Hawaii. Considered a gifted songwriter, she penned the classic Hawaiian song, "Aloha Oe".

Nuts, collon and pineapple!

We visited my aunt and uncle in Kea'au, which is a small town 10 minutes away from downtown Hilo. They wanted us to see the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut Farm. There were hundres of acres filled with nut trees.


Hey, wanna hold some of deze nutz?

After a full day of sightseeing at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, walking through the Thurston Lava Tube, visiting the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, etc, we had a delicious homecooked dinner at their place. My uncle grilled kalbi (Korean shortribs - beef), salmon, game hen, with sides of broccoli and garden salad, plus rice of course. The soda cans were Aloha Sun Passionfruit Guava.

At a local food market in Hilo, I spied these gorgeous anthuriums.

Here are some vibrant purple skinned onions, along with taro root (which is used to make poi, a starchy paste that tastes like glue, ugh!).

This ginger flower was near our hotel, right after a brief rainshower.

Bert's breakfast: Fried rice with two scrambled eggs, topped with grilled Portuguese sausage and green onions.
At Volcanoes National Park - one of the craters near Kilauea.

This following photos are from Oahu. This was the name of a local food joint we visited one night for dinner. My friend called them before closing (8 p.m.) and asked if they would stay open for us. Fortunately, they did, but I was wracked with trepidation, thinking of that one scene in the movie, "Waiting" where the cooks are all waiting anxiously for closing time but at the last minute, customers walk in. As revenge, the cooks do awful things to their food. I would hope that didn't happen with us. The crew seemed to be nice guys and they got our food ready quickly. I'm sure they wanted to get out and go home.

My friend had a Hawaiian plate lunch. This particular entree had a scoop of rice, a cup of poi, lau lau (chicken or fish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed), kalua pig (shredded and baked pork).

Another friend had the Loco Moco, a favorite of many. You can get this and other variations of the Loco Moco at the local Hawaiian food joints in San Diego like Da Kines, Island Boy Grille and L & L Barbeque. This is rice with a hamburger patty which is smothered in gravy and topped with two eggs of your choice. He chose a side of corn as well. When confronted with the heart attack qualities of his meal, he said, "It is what it is."

A sign we saw at the ubiquitous ABC stores (think of 7-11 but on EVERY corner). Yes, there were tons of Japanese tourists everywhere in Oahu. Hey, I remember seeing a sign at the Otay Mesa Wal-Mart that said, "Aceptamos Pesos"!

Also seen at the ABC store were these cookies with an unappetizing name, "Collon" (yeah, yeah, I know it should only have one 'l').

Another shot of another ginger flower near our hotel in Waikiki.

We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation like any other tourist.

History Lesson Alert: Filipino workers were recruited since 1906 to work in the pineapple (and sugarcane) fields of Hawaii. They were called 'Sakadas' (government contract workers) and were recruited largely to supplant the Japanese and Chinese workers who, at the time, refused to work for low wages and were on strike. The Filipinos laborers worked long hours harvesting cane and pineapple in the hot sun for very little pay. Another example of an ethnic group being exploited as a cheap labor are today's Latinos who work in the agricultural fields in California and neighboring states. (okay, I'll take off my educator hat now).

I thought this was an unusual looking pineapple. This variety was from Vietnam.

The night view from our hotel room. We were on the 22nd floor of the Renaissance Ilikai in Waikiki. We had a city view; the street below is Ala Moana Blvd. This is the hotel made famous in the opening credits of Hawaii 5-0 where Jack Lord is on a balcony looking towards Diamond Head.