REMinLA

Lakers v. Warriors

2012-01-06T23:57:00.001-08:00

Saw the Lakers play the Warriors tonight in what was a pretty ugly game. Lakers definitely need to get younger and more athletic at the Point Guard position.

Monta Ellis was pretty fun to watch, basically getting to the basket at will. Some nice spin moves from that guy.

Steak station at Pala Casino buffet

2011-12-31T15:45:00.001-08:00

Two of my favorite things.....steak and dessert, both very good.

Kobe v. Melo

2011-12-30T00:02:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a very generous friend of ours, we got to go see the Lakers play the Knicks tonight. I've seen the Lakers play most of the teams in the NBA at least once, but I had never gone to see a Knicks game before tonight.

The Knicks kept the game close in the first quarter, but the Lakers pulled away and held the lead for the remainder of the game. McRoberts surprised me with his athleticism, and played pretty well. Kobe showed flashes of his old self with staggering moves and fakes while making some difficult shots.

Probably the most entertaining part of the game was watching Carmelo guard Kobe. Carmelo's always held the reputation of being a poor defender, but I'm impressed that he guarded Kobe, and did a decent job.

On the Lakers, I'm quite happy with the team so far, and with the new coaching staff. Things will hopefully get better with Bynum back, and if they could maybe just find a more serviceable PG, that would make me even more confident in them. But for now, the game was a lot of fun. We saw Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Kaley Cuoco from Big Bang Theory. Sophy even got to see the first ever Taiwanese American player in the NBA, Jeremy Lin.

Our First Christmas Tree in Pasadena

2011-12-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

Still building our collection of ornaments, but it's a start. So far we've got UCLA color lights, a whole bunch of balls, some mickey mouse heads, and 3 Disney ornaments haha.

Winds of Pasadena...and the aftermath

2011-12-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a storm! I don't know if I can really describe what happened, but if I can't, there's pictures too haha.

Wednesday night, while watching X-Factor, our cable internet went out, then about 10 minutes later, the tv goes out, and finally, the house went dark.

THE Event

I began getting ready for bed in the dark, and all of a sudden I saw blue shades of light coming through the windows with some hints of orange. I looked in the backyard, and sure enough the transformer at the top of the utility pole literally blew up. Sparks were flying, and broken wires were dancing around with blue flickering lights.

We grabbed some items and joined our neighbors outside for a short while. We went back inside, and that's when the real winds started to come. We watched as the top layer of shingles from our roof started falling on the front lawn piece by piece. In the backyard, Sheldon and Lui's dog houses were moved from their normal places to a new location of nature's choosing.

One of the lines that go from the utility pole to our house (I think it's either cable or phone) broke and started flying around.

Aftermath

Pasadena Water and Power reported that 6,155 customers were without service. We are part of the last 330 customers who have not had power restored. They worked on the major circuit issues, but now they're tackling more complex and unique situations on a house by house basis, so who knows haha.

Perhaps I'll let pictures describe what went on the night before.

Sheldon and Lui's take on the wind

Spent most of Thursday morning piling up these roofing shingles.

I think these came from this part of the roof

The messy utility pole and some of the downed wires in our backyard.

The downed cable wire and Sheldon and Lui's new dog house locations.

Some trees down the street. Trees were down all over Pasadena, forcing us to go through all sorts of detours just to find a street without a tree blocking the road. The crazy ones are where you sent the tree uprooted with a huge section of the sidewalk with it.

Traffic signals broken in half at 3 different intersections. This was the case in alot of parts of Pasadena.

Darth Lui and Convict Sheldon

2011-10-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Trying on their halloween costumes. Yes, we're like "those" people.

Fishing in Big Bear

2011-10-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Went out to Big Bear, rented a pontoon boat and did some fishing. As a group, we caught 14 Rainbow Trout, and I caught 3 of those (although mine were probably the smaller ones haha).

Sheldon and Lui came along for the fun too.

It's one thing to clean the fish, but it's even more work descaling it and removing the bones.

I stuffed a whole trout with some salt, pepper, cayenne, thyme, parsley, garlic cloves, and slices of lemon. Put it in some foil and threw it on the grill...not bad, although still had some skin sticking issues haha.

Technique Restaurant

2011-10-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Went to Technique Restaurant at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. The students run the restaurant doing everything from waiting on tables, expediting food, and of course, preparing the food. It's like watching Hell's Kitchen, but without Gordon Ramsay yelling at everyone.

The food was really good, and the best part... it's a 4 course dinner for $15 (or a 3 course for $12).

Here were my 4 choices.

1. Shrimp Risotto
2. Flatbread Special of the day (grapes with some sort of cheese...a little strange, but very good).
3. Pork Schnitzel with Spaetzle and charcuterie sauce
4. Chocolate Mousse

Dessert was soso, but everything else was really good.

As I was waiting for my first dish, I happened to glance toward the expediter and he yelled out to the cooks, "How long on the shrimp risotto, table __ is looking at me." Quite entertaining.

Anyway, Technique was pretty good, and definitely worth coming back, but hope you're persistent on getting reservations.

So long Seattle

2011-09-24T15:40:00.001-07:00

Leaving downtowb Seattle and heading for the airport. Heres some of the views from the train ride.

Kindat rough taking pictures from train but mt rainier is supposed to be in there somewhere.

Theo Chocolate Factory

2011-09-24T12:15:00.001-07:00

Took a tour of the first and only organic chocolate making factory, Theo's chocolate. I know, what do i care about organic, but tour was still interesting and of course, it came with chocolate samples.

Tom Douglas' Seatown

2011-09-23T20:18:00.001-07:00

Tom Douglas is a pretty well known chef/restauranteur in Seattle, so we tried one of his more casual restaurabts, Seatown. Pretty good, had the roast rub porchetta with some dripping potatoes, and sophy got the alaskan dungeness crab.

Cruise through Elliott Bay and to Lake Union

2011-09-23T17:24:00.001-07:00

Took a guided cruise tour while in Seattle. It started in Elliott Bay, made its way through Puget Sound. The locks brought us up to the level of the freshwater and we continued into Lake Union.

Beecher's Handmade Cheese

2011-09-23T12:40:00.001-07:00

Had lunch at Beecher's Handmade Cheese where they make cheese kurd. We ordered a tomato soup, mac n cheese, and a turkey grilled cheese, all of which was made with their flagship cheese. All very good, although as much as i love cheese, it got a little cheesy even for me.

Seattle Aquarium

2011-09-23T11:03:00.001-07:00

Long Beach and Monterey aquariums are much bigger but the Seattle one is really nicely done and you can get a great view of the sea otters!
They also have river otters!

Breakfast at Pike Place

2011-09-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Had breakfast at various places at Pike Place Market. Cinnamon Works, La Panier french bakery, Piroshky Piroshky....and i dont usually like salmon, but got to try some reeeeally good salmon at Pike Place Fish Market

Steelhead Diner

2011-09-22T20:38:00.001-07:00

Had dinner at the Steelhead Diner at Pike Market. I dont usually order fish, but i figured im not just at a seafood restaurant, but a seafood restaurant in seattle. With that, i went with the Sauteed Oregon Petrale Sole with bacon and marsala sauce. Delish.

Space Needle

2011-09-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

Via a convenient monorail from downtown, we made it to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. Unfortunately, they closed for a private event at 4:45. Damn it haha...

All we got to see was this fountain with the old Key Arena behind it. No wonder the sonics wanted to leave haha...

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Seattle's Underground Tour

2011-09-22T18:09:00.001-07:00

Took the Underground tour which i found to be pretty interesting, but you definitely have to be into a little history. Seattle has quite a unique history with the stories of the old underground city and the city built above it. The last picture is the old city which we now walk through underground.

Salumi

2011-09-22T15:51:00.001-07:00

Went to Salumi which apparently is owned by mario batali's relatives. They have a wide variety of salami and cured deli meats. Had the hot sopressatta with fresh mozarella, one of the best deli sandwiches ive had. Sophy got the mole type of salami.

Hello Seattle

2011-09-22T14:55:00.001-07:00

Arrived at Seattle International airport around noon and hopped aboard the relatively new Link Light Rail. For only $2.75, the train gets you to downtown in about 40 minutes.

Interesting scenery on the way included a river which we dont see in LA (la river doesnt count), lots of trees, and a lot of old houses. I meant to take pictures but never got around to it.

The train station in downtown is about a block from the Sheraton Seattle where we're staying, adding to the convenience of the train.

San Diego

2011-09-17T23:27:00.001-07:00

Originally, going to san diego was to watch sophy and some of our coworkers go skydiving. Unfortunately, due to bad business, skydiving was cancelled, but we continued with the sd plans for faye's birthday. Stayed T the Sheraton Harbor Island.

We gave kayaking in la jolla another try but this time with a motion sickness pill an hour in advance. (If u dont know what happened last time, check out last years blog from early july).

Went to a pizza place in gaslamp called bar basic which sells all sorts of pizza. Afterwards, went to the rooftop bar at the Marriott. Pretty cool cause you get this view of Petco Park.

UCLA v. San Jose State

2011-09-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

Went to UCLA's home opener against San Jose State. UCLA won, but they sure did make it difficult on themselves.

We didn't get season tickets this year, but we do plan on going to whatever games we can. Having season seats is pretty cool because you get to know the people around you, but it's also not a bad deal to sit in different parts of the stadium which is what we'll be doing this year. For yesterday's game, we got to sit closer to the middle (somewhere near the 30), and in the 8th row. Turns out though, even with all the lettered rows in front, the number 8 row is just a bit too close for watching football.

Boat Fishing in Newport Harbor

2011-09-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Got a deal on travelzoo for a discounted Skiff Boat rental at Newport Harbor, so today, Sophy, Dale, Mark and I rented a boat to go fishing.

Didn't catch a whole lot of stuff (4 fish between 4 people isn't a very good success rate), but the trip was pretty fun nonetheless. A 4 hour boat rental seems pretty long, but time flew by and at the end when we actually started catching stuff, we realized we had to head back to the docks to return the boat.

Looking forward to the next boat fishing trip...

Eaton Canyon

2011-09-04T13:03:00.001-07:00

Last time we tried Eaton Canyon, we only went about half way. The high streams almost went to sheldon's neck haha.

This time, with the water a bit lower, we made it to the waterfall. After trying to jump rock to rock across a couple streams, sheldon decided to just start walking through the water the rest of the way haha. Lui, on the other hand, seems to actually enjoy the water.

Dexter's Overnight Stay

2011-08-08T09:04:00.001-07:00

Our friends were out of town for the weekend, so Dexter spent the night with Sheldon and Lui.

Their first walk together went well, although towards the end, everyone had their own idea of what to do.

After the walk, it was almost time for bed, but not before some tricks, treats, and lounging around.

After the nightly routine, everyone retreated to their respective crates.

Of course, morning brought renewed energy for all.

Dexter wisely taking in the action from afar.

Sheldon with a timeout.

A bit more exploring.

After some playtime, yup, more rest...

Took them on another walk, which turned out to be much more successful.

We left for the beach for a few hours to go to a birthday party, and then upon our return, we let Dexter reunite with Sheldon and Lui. They had their dinner together, and then the exploring/playing continued.

After a long day, Dexter decided it was time for a dip in the pool.

Took them on one last walk together, and then brought Dexter back home.

The next day, Sheldon and Lui were still feeling the effects of an exciting weekend.

Sheldon's First Birthday

2011-07-11T22:43:00.001-07:00

Sheldon celebrated his first birthday today, July 11. We got him some mini cakes from Three Dog Bakery in Pasadena, same as the one at Farmer's Market in LA.

Sheldon's new friend, Lui, got to take part in the cake festivities.

Happy Birthday Sheldon!

Sheldon and Lui: Day 2

2011-07-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of Sheldon and Lui.

Lots of running and playing, then sleeping...run, then sleep...run, then sleep

Lui can easily outrun Sheldon, but Sheldon seems to be a bit stronger.

Waiting for the toy

Pulling for the toy

Both won?

Sheldon, meet Lui

2011-07-08T14:34:00.001-07:00

Sheldon's new friend is Lui, an American Eskimo. He's 1 1/2 years old. We got him from the Pasadena Humane Society where his previous owner dropped him off about a week ago. Apparently they moved to an apartment where they could not keep him.

He's quite well behaved, responds well to his name and even knows a couple commands.

Come by and meet him!

Fishing

2011-07-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

Trying to re-ignite my childhood hobby....fishing.

Started off by doing some pier fishing at Santa Monica. Went for the small fish to start haha, got about 7 of them, but maybe next time we'll try for something bigger, if they exist.

Here's a picture of Sophy's first catch, which was an extremely tiny Perch, luckily they got bigger after that haha, but as you can see from the picture, she was disappointed in her small catch lol.

Glee! Live at Staples Center

2011-05-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did go to see Glee in concert haha. Not bad, not bad at all (although last year was better)...

New Hobby

2011-05-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

As with any new hobby, you spend money on the main piece, but where they really get you is on all the accessories. You need to buy propane obviously, then the fun stuff like grilling tools, skewers, thermometers, cleaning brush, basting brush, and the list goes on...

Moved in!

2011-05-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

After about a week and a day, we are completely finished moving in and setting up.

Kitchen
BEFORE

AFTER

Dining Room
BEFORE

AFTER

Living Room
BEFORE

AFTER

The End!

Progress...

2011-05-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

For the past week, we've been moving into the new house which includes about 2 days of actual moving of stuff, a few deliveries, some furniture building, a lot of cleaning, and a lot of unpacking and setting up.

So far, we've made it out of the bedrooms and into the living room area in terms of unpacking and setting up. Here's some pictures...

Bathroom

Main Bedroom
BEFORE

AFTER

Guest Bedroom

Backyard
BEFORE (when it was a jungle)

AFTER (Sheldon's new territory)

Living room, kitchen, dining area pictures to come...

Downtown...I hardly knew ya

2011-05-09T08:22:00.001-07:00

It was a short run, but not a bad one...Got to experience what it's like to live in a city's downtown which meant walking 0.8 miles to work (1.6 round trip), walking to get food, walking walking walking. Of course, it's nothing like what living in an east coast city's downtown might be like as it may include more public transportation thereby decreasing the driving I did on the weekends and increasing my exploring radius on the weekdays.

At any rate, Los Angeles in general is just a different beast with "LA" cities stretching out about 15 miles in most directions from downtown and about 30 miles in some, but I digress.

Downtown LA was pretty cool, got to walk to Lakers and Clippers games, walked to the Downtown Art Walk, tried a few new downtown restaurants (Drago Centro was the best), saw the growing number of bars/clubs, saw the ever growing LA Live... I don't know if or when it'll ever live up to the original vision of being the "Times Square of the West" but I think it'll be something of its own kind as with everything else in LA. I'll miss out on Farmer's Field (new football stadium), Hooters across from Staples Center (which is currently hiring if you're interested), a couple new hotels across from the Marriott/Ritz Carlton, and probably a lot more new restaurants.

Anyway, this doesn't just signal the end of my time in downtown LA, but also the end of my 9 year run in LA...

Now, it's hello Pasadena!

Painted

2011-05-06T00:50:00.001-07:00

The house is now painted! I don't think the pictures quite capture the real color of it, but it came out pretty nice...You can see it in person soon.

Echo Mountain

2011-05-01T19:57:00.001-07:00

Went on a hike to the top of Echo Mountain, 5 miles roundtrip, basically to the peak of the mountain and back down haha... Got a few pictures of the city from the mountain, but strangely enough, I didn't take a picture of the main attraction, which is the ruins of a resort at the top of the mountain (White City) and a railroad (Mount Lowe railway) that used to go from the bottom to the top (would have preferred that method of getting to the top).

Took Sheldon on his first hike, and he got to go with his buddy Dexter...safe to say they'll both be sleeping through the rest of the day...

5

Pasadena City Hall

2011-04-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Sheldon getting his license to become an official Pasadena resident haha...

Key Day in Pasadena

2011-04-26T21:45:00.001-07:00

Congratulations babe!

Owners left their lovely yellow paint...jk, that will be changed

Kitchen needs some work, but it'll do for now!

Huge backyard! Can't wait to buy a bbq grill haha

Previous owners left us some nice parting gifts...some of which were kinda gross haha, but they also left some good stuff like a nice lawnmower, and they cleaned up pretty well too...

Move-in pictures to come....(probably a couple weeks)

White Rabbit Truck 6 lb burrito challenge

2011-04-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

6 eggs, 3 lbs of meat, 6 scoops of rice, 12 cheese slices wrapped in 6 tortillas....had to be finished in 30 minutes.

Samson made a very valiant effort to finish, but came up just a couple tortillas short. Quite impressive nonetheless.
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Shedding season

2011-04-07T23:39:00.001-07:00

Dang it Sheldon, dang it
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Sheldon gets fixed

2011-02-11T17:27:00.001-08:00

Clippers v. Bulls

2011-02-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

Come on Baron Davis, my fantasy team needs you...
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Spirit of the Swamp

2011-01-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Took an airboat tour and saw some gators...pretty fun riding through the swamp haha
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Airboat Tour

2011-01-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

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Haunted Mansion and Stitch's Great Escape

2011-01-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Haunted Mansion was very different on the inside and outside.

We also went on Stitch's Great Escape which was quite boring haha...
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Pirates of the Carribean

2011-01-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Small differences in some of the settings btwn Disney World and Disneyland's version
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Disney World's Magic Kingdom

2011-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hollywood Studios wasn't all that great...I'd say the only things worth seeing are Tower of Terror and Lights Motors Action

Anyhow, Disney Day 2 continued at Magic Kingdom (time to see if there's any differences from Disneyland)...

Update: So we parked at the Magic Kingdom lot, took a tram from the parking lot to the Ticket/Transportation Center. From there,we had two options to get to Magic Kingdom, either by monorail or ferry boat....
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Toy Story Midway Mania

2011-01-28T11:41:00.001-08:00

Ride is the same as at California Adventure but the line queue is a little different...
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Lights, Motors, Action stunt show

2011-01-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

Saw Indiana Jones stunt show, and that too was a bit of a disappointment.

Then we watched Lights Motors Action extreme stunt show, and that was probably the best attraction here at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Great show with very impressive car and driving stunts.
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Studio Backlot Tour

2011-01-28T08:09:00.000-08:00

Quite a disappointing backlot tour haha

Also saw Journey into Narnia, also boring, but Voyage with Little Mermaid was kinda cool haha.

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Tower of Terror

2011-01-28T06:23:00.001-08:00

Much different from the one at CA adventure....longer intro, elevator moves to the dropping area, and the drops aren't as intense. But the presentation is much better
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Disney's Hollywood Studios

2011-01-28T06:04:00.001-08:00

Day 4 of Theme Parks, day 2 at disney will start off with Disney's Hollywood Studios

Tired already, and we just got here haha
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Nemo and Fireworks

2011-01-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

My phone started to die after getting on this nemo ride which was basically the nemo submarine ride at disneyland except it wasn't under water lol....

Saw the Epcot fireworks which were far from impressive...

Epcot has some interesting parts, but definitely had its share of boring areas, definitely not one of the places I'd go to see if I had to pick and choose a park to go to
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Epcot - Morrocco, Paris, United Kingdom, and Canada

2011-01-27T15:02:00.001-08:00

Epcot World showcase was boring
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Epcot - Italy, America, Japan

2011-01-27T13:44:00.001-08:00

Italy looks like the Venetian in Vegas or vice versa I suppose
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Epcot - Norway, China, Germany

2011-01-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

Mexico, Norway, and China have all been pretty boring but Germany had some great chocolate caramel brownies...off to try some bratwurst lol
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Epcot - Mexico

2011-01-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

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Epcot

2011-01-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

Disney Day 1, part 2 at Epcot...(Forgot to take a picture at the front)

Went through Animal Kingdom from 9 to 2:30.
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Festival of the Lion King

2011-01-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

Great show at Animal Kingdom....acrobatics, singing, dancing, and a flaming stick being thrown around....
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Discovery Island

2011-01-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life

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Dinoland USA

2011-01-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

Mostly kid stuff but there was one Dinosaur ride that was alright.

Oh yea, there was a roller coaster in Asia, the Everest something....that ride was pretty cool, lots of unpredictability, which is probably why it gave me a headache haha.

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Asia and the Maharajah Trail

2011-01-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

Some bats, gibbons, and banteng lol
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Pangani Forest Trail and Africa

2011-01-27T07:02:00.000-08:00

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Kilamanjaro Safaris

2011-01-27T06:42:00.000-08:00

Fun safari ride to see the animals in the wild....much better than the "safari" at the SD Wild Animal Park haha
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Disney's Animal Kingdom

2011-01-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

Day 3 of theme parks, Day 1 of disney....
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Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

2011-01-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Probably the best ride at Universal....it's a simulator type of ride that goes back and forth between real scenery and a screen...
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Wizarding World of Harry Potter

2011-01-26T06:45:00.001-08:00

Day 2 of Universal Islands of Adventure....the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I'm not a big fan of Harry Potter, but the place is really well done.
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Storm

2011-01-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

and I don't mean the ride at Universal...

Walked to car to go out for dinner, and walked right back...

Apparently, there's Tornado and Flash Flood warnings all over florida.

In we stay
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The Lost Continent

2011-01-25T13:56:00.001-08:00

Saw this show, Poseidon's Fury, it was horrible. Then we watched The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad which is a stunt show...not bad, but its no Waterworld
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Jurassic Park

2011-01-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

Went on Jurassic Park, same one as in LA....they also have the discovery center which looks kinda like the one in the movie
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Marvel Super Hero Island

2011-01-25T11:35:00.001-08:00

Began with the Amazing adventures of Spiderman 3d ride which was pretty good, mostly cause of the 3d effect...
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Islands of Adventure

2011-01-25T10:44:00.001-08:00

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Universal Studios

2011-01-25T10:23:00.001-08:00

Went to Universal Orlando...

The scenery is nicer at this Universal, but as it seems to be the case with everything else, its more spread out haha...

Some things are the same as the LA version, but for the attractions unique to Orlando, Men in Black ride is pretty cool, they still have ET, Twister attraction is interesting, and the Animal Actors stage orangutang is much better than the one recently at Universal in LA....

Oh, they also have "Disaster" which is a pretty cool show, then they cap it off with Earthquake.

Got into the park at 9, finished at 12:30....

Off to Islands of Adventure

(Pictures will have to come when I upload from camera)
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Universal Orlando

2011-01-25T05:18:00.001-08:00

Day 1 of theme parks week and day 1 of universal...
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Publix

2011-01-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

When people on the east see "ralphs" or "vons" I wonder if they find it as weird as I find the name "publix" supermarket....
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Downtown Disney

2011-01-24T19:29:00.000-08:00

After a short walk through Disney Boardwalk, we moved on to Downtown Disney (which btw, all these places require such long drives between each one, long as in 5-10 mins)...

Downtown Disney wasn't that impressive compared to Anaheim's version. The orlando version is just more spread out and requires more walking.

We did try Bongo's Cuban, which was pretty good. We also had a Brownie Sundae from Ghirardelli which turned out to be well worth the price...
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Disney's Boardwalk

2011-01-24T15:27:00.001-08:00

Not much to see here, a few restaurants, but its a nice place to see
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Renaissance Orlando

2011-01-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

Staying at the Renaissance Orlando....it looks old, but its still nice. Its odd having this balcony that overlooks the hotel though haha
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MCO

2011-01-24T12:29:00.001-08:00

Just landed in Orlando....

Virgin's got some cool features on its entertainment system....music playlists, games, chat....but the satellite tv doesn't have as many channels as JetBlue
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LAX --> ORL

2011-01-24T07:32:00.001-08:00

Boarding the flight to Orlando...first time on Virgin, can't wait for the interactive games lol
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Train to bus to LAX

2011-01-24T06:39:00.001-08:00

One block to the 7th street/metro center station

5 min subway to Union Station

30 min Flyaway Bus to LAX

5 min through security
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Lakers v. Thunder

2011-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, Sophy got me tickets for the Lakers v. Thunder game. It was my first game at Staples where I got to take advantage of the short walk from my apartment to the game...

I was never a big fan of Russell Westbrook, but seeing him live was quite impressive, he torched the Lakers every time down.

Great game, and my guy Lamar Odom turned in 16 points.

Then, on the way home, we got some pictures of the Inside the NBA crew, my favorite basketball show.

Sheldon watching It's Me or the Dog on tv

2011-01-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

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Drago Centro for NYE

2011-01-02T21:24:00.001-08:00

I've always wanted to try the Drago brothers' various restaurants. The only one I've tried was Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills which has always been one of my favorite italian restaurants. For New Year's Eve dinner, we went to Drago Centro in Downtown LA...

We began with the "il tagliere di affettati con gnocco fritto" hahaha, which was described as "house selection of charcuterie, gnocco modena style"...still didn't mean much to me until I googled it of course. Basically, it's a selection of house prepared meats including proscuitto, salami, mortadella, capricola, and something else I don't remember. It also came with this fried bread that was the perfect complement to the meats...

Sophy and I each ordered our own pasta. I went with one of my normal pasta favorites, garganelli which has some sausage in it. Sophy went for the more adventurous "gli agnolotti" which was small pastas filled with duck.

We finished our dinner with the bone-in ribeye for two with potatoes and smoked hollandaise (okay there's other stuff but what do I care about carrots and fancy mushrooms). Anyhow, the steak was incredible. It was so tender and juicy on the inside while the outside had these crispier edges. The potato cake had a nice lemon taste to it and the smoked hollandaise was the best sauce I've ever had with a steak.

Found snow?

2011-01-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

Apparently, it's snowing right now in Palmdale...(about a week too late from having a white christmas)

Anyway, now that I don't live in Palmdale, I have to search for snow elsewhere. Some friends went snowboarding and skiing, so we tagged along and brought Sheldon to the snow...

Goodbye Park La Brea, Hello Downtown...

2010-12-28T20:36:00.001-08:00

After 7 years at Park La Brea, I have finally decided to leave it behind in exchange for a life in downtown.

Had a nice long run at Park La Brea starting on the 1st floor in Tower 43, to the 11th floor in Tower 38, and then to the 4th floor in Tower 37...The time there saw plenty of trips to the Grove and at least one trip a week to the Farmer's Market for dinner (of course Brazillian bbq at Pampas Grill was the best).

Park La Brea is a good apartment for the amount of space you get, and it's just an overall nice looking place. It is centrally located- 15 minute drive to Downtown, 15 minute drive to Santa Monica, 5 minute drive to Hollywood, 10 minute drive to Beverly Hills. I'll miss Park La Brea, so many more memories and stories than I could ever write in a blog....

And now, I say hello to downtown.

I anticipate somewhat frequent trips to LA Live, many trips to Ralphs around the corner, and trying many local eateries for dinner. It'll be the start of a new era, that is, taking a 10 minute walk to work.

Blackout

2010-12-21T19:30:00.001-08:00

I guess candles are a good investment when there's no electricity....
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Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways

2010-12-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

So earlier, I posted a picture from the street at Warner Brothers Studios around 1:00 AM. We had standby tickets for a taping for Ellen's show.

Check in time for standby guests was at 8 AM so we decided to arrive at 12:30 AM to give ourselves the best chance of getting into the taping. At 8 AM, they handed out priority numbers, and we got 255 and 256 (5th and 6th in standby) and then we were asked to come back at 1 PM. Around 2:30 PM, they began letting guaranteed ticket holders into the showing. I think there's about 250 guaranteed tickets per showing (since standby numbers started at 251).

Around 3:00 PM, they gave us the okay to cross the street and head over to the studio. As they were seating the guaranteed ticket holders, they informed us that they in fact had plenty of seats left for standby ticket holders, so we were in! I think in total, they probably allow somewhere between 250 and 275 people into the taping. Standby tickets seem to be sort of hit or miss. We talked to some people who had friends from previous tapings, and their taping only allowed in a few standbys. Our taping let in probably over 20 standbys.

Anyway, the reason for all this was Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways! So today, each of us in the audience received:

5 Jane Fonda workout DVDs (she was the guest)
20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary DVD collection (worth about $500)
Just Beats headphones by Dr. Dre
Just Beats in ear headphones by Dr. Dre
Gift card for The Beatles complete box collection on Itunes
$200 Visa Gift Card
Vectron Wave toy
Nintendo Wii
uDraw Studio & Tablet for Wii
Wii game: Pictionary
Wii game: Dood's Big Adventure

and here's the craziest part,

a $1650 value Springfree trampoline

Well worth the wait!

Waiting in line...

2010-12-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

at Warner Bros studios with standby tickets to see Ellen....(You must be wondering why the heck I'm waiting all night to see Ellen)

Anyway, got here at 12:30 AM and we are about 10th in line (luckily the crowd is split into two shows)...

Check in time is at 8 AM...
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Tailgating + UCLA/USC game

2010-12-05T02:02:00.000-08:00

Getting the food started around 3 PM...(looks like im falling asleep or something)

Lots of people had beer pong, we had pai gow...

Getting the fire started for barbecue round 2 (about 5:30 PM)

UCLA v. USC kickoff at 7:30

Sheldon reunited with his brothers

2010-11-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

Huntington Beach with Sheldon

2010-11-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

Sheldon (4 months) at the dog park

2010-11-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Updated: misc Sheldon

2010-11-07T21:08:00.001-08:00

Sheldon's first bath

Watching How to Train Your Dragon

Getting ready for the rain

UCLA Football

2010-11-06T23:50:00.000-07:00

We got season tickets for UCLA football this year, and after five games, I've finally decided to put up a couple of pictures.

UCLA is 3-2 at home, but their overall record is a completely different story haha...

At any rate, it's pretty fun goin to UCLA games, and our seats aren't bad.

What Sheldon knows

2010-10-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sheldon works for his dinner

2010-10-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sheldon and Dexter part II

2010-10-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Sheldon meets Dexter

2010-09-23T10:20:00.001-07:00

I know I know, this is turning into a Sheldon blog. It probably will be temporarily, so here's Sheldon meeting Dexter, the bigger version of him.

This video is courtesy of Sophy's friend Jess

Sheldon's antics

2010-09-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Swimming in the air and playing with a bully stick...