Thane's B-Day - The Brew House in Eastlake

[The actual event happened on Friday, July 3rd]

[Update- Closed as of October 1, 2012] 

Thane was in town for his bday (which was actually a few days ago)...He had his 40th bday par-tay, shindig, soiree, get together, whatever you want to call it, at the Brew House in Eastlake by the Design Center...(they sell home furnishing kind of stuff here)
The reception area...

We sat off to the side near a front window:

Menu - Your basic pub food. Eh.

Nachos with cheese and carnitas. Even though we'd eaten earlier at Andres (that'll be posted eventually), I was ravenous and started picking at this...a lot!

The Ahi Poke with chips. The guys seemed to like this.

Our pizza with mushrooms and sausage. The crust was too doughy.

The following series of photos are pix of the other guests' food. They were good sports, letting me take pix. Don't remember whose food this was. Looks like chicken, but does it taste like chicken?

My salad or mixed greens with sun dried pears and candied walnuts. I had the blue cheese and balsamic dressing on the side for Bert's use only.

Another person who sat in front of me had the Fish and Chips. That is one huge portion!

The guy who sat in front of me had a trio of sliders. I wish I had ordered this...

I don't know what the hell this or who it belongs to but it looks utterly forgettable. I believe those are mashed potatoes...not glue!

Hamburger with blue cheese and onion rings:

This is Tatonka's food (see his trademark hand gesture) - The Crab Sandwich with sweet potato fries:

Happy Bday! Some sort of brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce...Man, we're all getting old! What's cool is that almost all of our friends are the same. We all went to the same junior high and high school, so most of us have been friends since at least 1981. That is a long ass fucking time. So, yeah, "40" is the big milestone year for most of us...Who else was there? Tatonka, Mr. Saliva, Thor, and a few other high school friends we hadn't seen in years, plus some of Thane's friends from the Bay Area who now live down here. It was so nice to see Thane again, especially so soon after our SF road trip! Happy Bday Thane and thanks for letting me eat some of that dessert!

Our 14th - C-Level & Cupcakes Squared

[Another late post commemorating our wedding anniv earlier last month, on July 1st! 8/8]
Our 14th anniversary was today and all I can say is that this year is so much better than last year's anniversary. I had some mean ass hives all over my body - most likely due to sun sensitivity as well as my body going out of wack from my treatment last year. When I went to the hospital to get checked for the hives (this was my 2nd appointment), they told me I had to go to ER because I had a fever over 100! WTF!

So, that's how we spent our wedding anniversary, in the damn hospital for nearly one week until my fever was gone. I definitely do not miss those damned early morning blood sample injections! On a nicer note, Bert, TC and I had lunch at C-Level/Island Prime on Harbor Island... C-Level/Island Prime. See the Yelp reviews here.



This was my drink - it was ginger ale with crushed basil and mint (it didn't look too fresh unfortunately). While I did enjoy the drink, it's just not very appetizing to see brown edges on herbs.Kinda dark where we sat.
Sweet potato fries. These were pretty damn tasty. Nice and crispy, not burnt. The thickness was just right too.
Calamari with what they called "Vietnamese" dipping sauce. I wasn't too fond of the chili spiked fish sauce. The flavor was way too strong for me to enjoy it.
My salad with mixed greens, red onion, and sun dried pear. The balsamic dressing (not pictured) and bleu cheese were on the side. While I liked my deconstructed salad, I found the bread a bit too crispy and flavorless.
Fettucine with Clams in a light cream sauce... The offending bread was put aside and uneated while the clams were inhaled.
Bert's Lobster BLT - light and fresh tasting, according to Bert. The lobster wasn't rubbery and every ingredient was cool and crisp. It came with a ramekin of melted butter (oh yeah).
TC's mac and cheese with fruit (instead of fries):
We walked along the bay in Harbor Island after lunch...
Me and TC walking along Harbor Island. God, my arms look so fkg fat! I bought that blouse in Gilroy on our way down to Pebble Beach during our vacay...I also have the same shirt as TC. It's by Simon Legno, the creator of Tokidoki. He has some low cost t-shirt designs at Target (see the line of Kids tees here), which is where I got that shirt. Hers is a M, while mine is an XL; I can still fit into some girl's XL! Yay!After our nice outing at Harbor Island, we went over to Point Loma to try this cupcake place one of my friends raves about. It's in a crappy looking strip mall, right next to Stump's Marketplace. The name Stump's just sounds so ugly. It reminds me of limb stumps, or finger stumps, or stumpy nubs. Ewww.This place was Cupcakes Squared. See the Yelp reviews here.
It's very tiny inside - it's basically a takout place. I don't remember a table inside the place, but there was one outside.
The square shape is a novelty indeed, but do these suckers taste any good?
There were lots of flavors to choose from...
I picked four mini ones (found out later that wasn't a good deal for my $$$ - $1.50 for the tiny one - less area in the smaller one than in the larger ones which go for $2.75 - more bang for your buck). This was for a friend - it's boxed up with a tulle ribbon! I broke out my Summer 2008 Tokidoki. The print is Carnavale, the bag style Graziosa (messenger bag). I have three of the same style but in three different prints (Carnivale, Concerto Punk and Celebrazione).
This was the vanilla cupcake with passionfruit frosting...I would have liked this more if the cupcake batter itself had passionfruit in it, rather than just the frosting. It had fresh lime zest as you can see.
This was chocolate (or was it coffee) with a chocolate frosting, topped with a coffee bean.
This was TC's mini lemon cupcake:
Ugh, you can see my jacked up fingernails. No nail polish. Dry cuticle skin!

So, yeah. Fourteen years...although we've been together for 24 years (since high school)!

R. I. P. John Hughes

Alas, the world has lost a true pop culture icon...

John Hughes, the director of such seminal 80's teen flicks, such as my fucking favorite movie of all time, "Sixteen Candles", as well as "The Breakfast Club", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Wierd Science" died at the age of 59 of a heart attack. Read more about it here and see a video tribue here. I've also included Time magazine's take here.

Hughes's movies (as well as the accompanying musical soundtracks) marked several milestones in my life in high school. I swear, just ask any semi-hip person over the age of 30 and I can almost bet you that they can at least name one of his movies and quote one or two lines from said movie. If they can't, then they didn't really experience the 80's and lived in a covered wagon churning their own butter and tilling the soil for their crops.

The first movie I ever watched over and over on the relatively new medium called VHS...(I also watched it on BETAMAX at Astroboi's house) was "Sixteen Candles". Molly Ringwald was so cringingly adorable! Her run-in's with the school geek were priceless. And...OMFG!!! Jake Ryan, played by Michael Schoeffling (a poor man's Matt Dillon, if you will)! Which high school girl wasn't in love with Jake Ryan? What about all the funny ass scenes with Gedde Watanabe, aka "Long Duk Dong"? Yes, I know it's an Asian stereotype, but shit, ALL OF HIS LINES ARE CLASSIC!



The first movie I ever saw in a theatre with Bert (yes, we were in high school...junior year...1986! that's right, I said it!) was "Pretty in Pink". It was at Sweetwater Pacific 6 (before the days of those huge ass multiplexes) in National City. I hated the fact that teensploitation queen Molly Ringwald ended up with that stuck up Blaine at the very end. She should have ended up with the evercool and lovesick Duckie (perfectly played by Jon Cryer). Aargh - the sight of Andrew McCarthy makes me want to throw rotten eggs at his blow dried coif.

That movie had a near perfect soundtrack. By "near perfect", I mean that it had a minimum of songs that I would fast forward on the tape deck in my car! Yes, I said tape deck!!!! Next, I'm going to say "Walkman", but I didn't have a damn Walkman because we were too poor to have one! The "Pretty in Pink Soundtrack" had songs like "Left of Center" by Suzanne Vega, "Bring on the Dancing Horses" by one of my fave bands, Echo & the Bunnymen", "Get to Know Ya" by Prince protege Jesse Johnson, the gorgeous synth ballad (if you can get it instrumental, it's much better) "Thieves Like Us" by New Order (I don't think this is on the actual soundtrack but they played that as well as "Elegia")....Wait, the official New Order song on the real soundtrack was "Shell Shock". And who can forget the finale , when Duckie and Andy arrive at the fucking prom with the synth-tastic "If You Leave" by Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark blaring in the background? Who wouldn't love this shit? Someone who lives under a rock or in a cave and listens to religious music, the blasted stylings of Yanni or the boring noodlings of Kenny G, that's who.

The first movie that Bert and I watched at my house on VHS was "Wierd Science" . That shit would never happen in real life though! Two nerds creating a bodacious chick out of a computer and they have their way with her...Yeah right. Dream on. So, yeah, this was our first movie which we watched. The movie was probably rented from the Wherehouse! Ha ha! And every scene with Bill Paxton as big brother Chet was also pretty damn funny, especially when he got turned into a slimy wanna-be Jabba the Hutt type creature spewing pus bubbles and excreting fart like noises. Can you believe that "Wierd Science" had future Oscar nominee, Robert Downey, Jr.?

Now that I'm 40 years old, I'm seeing a resurgence in all things 80's and teens today are discovering the joys of Mollie Ringwald, Long Duk Dong, Duckie, Ferris Bueller, and so on. The music featured in those films also bring on many good memories...Hell, I have most of them on my iPod because I live in a time warp. An 80's time warp. John Hughes...thanks for the memories. Your 80's flicks will live on forever...

We're Back! Ba Ren....

[Update - Closed in early 2012]

Here's another post that kind of got buried underneath a shit load of other posts. The day we got back from our SF trip, we went straight to my nephew's bday party at one of the local parks. I also had a dinner engagement with the ultra cool Food Ho of the deliciously named blog, The Pork Porn Pages, her husband the Food Pimp, and the super knowledgeable and always fascinating KirkK from Mmm-Yoso. And also, my husband Bert was able to join us in our food orgy...Kirk's wife, in absentia, was kind enough to call in some special orders ahead of time. You know, they're down with the owners and all. More details on some of these dishes here courtesy of Kirk's blog.

Because Kirk was here, we got cold appetizers. Sorry I don't know the name of this in Chinese, but this was some sort of meat jerky, flavored wit 5-spice.
Here's another shot of it without the flash.
This was also part of the cold appetizers. Kirk called this "husband and wife". There's bamboo, beans, and peanuts here. I forgot what the greens were. I want to say mustard, but correct me if I'm wrong Kirk.
This was one of the dishes that Kirk's wife ordered. It must be ordered way ahead of time because it is quite time consuming to make. The pumpkin dish is #129 - Steamed Whole Squash with pork. It's a kabocha squash that's steamed and filled with pork and garnished with green onions and cilantro. You can see the shininess of the plastic wrap around the pumpkin. Can you see the bits of pork? I really liked the tenderness of the squash.
#327 Stir Fried Beef with Pickled Mustard Greens. This wasn't so great. I didn't really like the pickled flavor but I was a good sport and tried a bit of this.
This was another dish that she pre-ordered for us. It's not on the menu either. This is a corn dish(Sweet Corn with Pine Nuts) which was really quite rich. According to Kirk, corn kernels are battered with duck egg yolk and deep fried. You could really taste the egginess in here. I also liked the saltiness of this dish, but be forewarned, if you eat too much of this, you may get full too quickly. This dish is a bit heavy, being fried in egg yolk and all. And yes, you can really taste the difference between regular chicken eggs and duck egg yolks in this dish.
#424 Hot Pepper Prawns. Oh hell yeah - this is a favorite of mine. You can eat the Szechuan peppercorns! Go ahead! Bite 'em! Let the heat spread over your tongue and numb you up. Forget about Novocaine, just chew up some of this shit instead. And if you're feeling adventurous, eat some of those chopped dried red peppers too. You'll really feel it immediately and also a few hours later. But it's worth the pain!
Another item ordered was :#143 - Fish Filet in Hot Sauce. I've had this twice previously and liked it each time. In fact, if I could choose my favorite dish of tonight, this would be tied with the Pepper Prawns. The fish in the hot sauce looks dangerously spicy, but it's really not. The fish is also pretty soft and just melts in your mouth. Lastly, no fkg fortune cookies! We got the beans/rice dessert! If Kirk wasn't there, they probably would have given us the fortune cookies since we weren't Chinese and/or weren't in the know. This is supposed to calm down your stomach. I didn't really like it the first time and cased on its mucousy properties. After that meal we just had, I welcomed it and ate most of it. It really did seem to soothe my stomach.
Even though we had loads of fun visiting the Bay Area, we were glad to be back in San Diego! It was a long ass day - driving home from OC, then going to the picnic, then cleaning up at home...Then coming here....Plus it was super hot today too. Looking forward to another outing at Ba Ren!

Comic Con on Sunday!

Okay, I've finally finished our SF road trip posts! It's about damn time. Just scroll below or check here to see all at once.

Started work last week. This new year round schedule kind of sucks only because it cut my vacation in half by one month! Anyhow, I have to live with it!

Looking forward to:

1 - As lame as this sounds, my hair cut this Saturday - gotta get my asymmetrical spikey do going on again...plus I adore my hair stylist! She is awesome!

2 -The new episode of True Blood this Sunday! Hello there! Did you see Episode 5? Woo! Viking flashback anyone? Even in the throes of death, Eric Northman was still an arrogant bastard..."Wherever I go...there will always be women...".

and 3 -
OMFG, the Comic Con this Sunday!!! We used to go on Thursdays and/or Fridays but since I have to work (and also because we don't have tickets for those days), we are going on Sunday!!



I'm going to miss all that crazy New Moon shit since that'll be tomorrow when I have work. A few of my students are planning to go so I'll probably get the deets from them. They're not Team Edward though - they are Team Taycob (ha ha, Taylor Lautner's the guy who plays Bella's new love interest, Jacob Black. This is the kid who played "Sharkboy" in the kid movie, "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl"). I'm not fanatical enough to wait overnight (some people are actually doing that right now as I type) and sleep on the sidewalk waiting to get in early tomorrow. Sheeyit, hell no! I mean, yes, RPattz will be there, but to be stuck in a room full of 6,000+ tweens/teens/gay twi-boys/twi-Moms/cougars screaming their heads off? No thanks. I'll have to YouTube the footage and crack up at home instead.

Last year it was crazy with "Twilight". Sunday should be a little less crazy but not by much. I'm not really looking for anything in particular. I plan to check out these booths:
Giant Robot, J-List, Summit (New Moon!), Bud Plant Books, Comic Relief (from Berkeley), Graphiti Grafix, Mile High Comics, Alcatraz High (featuring San Diego's own Bobby Rubio, a Pinoy who did "Avatar - the Last Airbender" and is now working for Pixar), Tokidoki (Simone Legno will also be there but not on Sunday), Drawn & Quarterly, Kitchen Sink Press, Dark Horse Comics, Vertigo, Bongo Comics (they do the Simpsons), Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and more shit that I can't think of. Also - I plan to check out the Alternative press section as well as any booths related to pop culture (for example, they had a 'Garbage Pail Kids' booth once). We may attend some cartooning workshops with our daughter too. Speaking of which...

TC will be in a very cool costume, which I will reveal after Comic Con is over! It's custom made and it's from an animated series! This lady I know from my gym is a seamstress. She makes costumes for the ballet. This is her first custom made costume for an animated series. It cost over $100 but it's worth it. For all the time and labor and the cost of materials, TC will be wearing this costume at least more than three times!