Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana

I think Settebello Pizzeria has moved its way to the top of my list of favorite Pasadena eateries.

Apparently, there's an Italian based association called Vera Pizza Napoletana (VPN), whose purpose is to protect the integrity of pizza making from some 200 years ago when it began in Napoli, Italy. So what does this mean for us in Pasadena?

It means really good thin sliced pizza haha.

I tried the Pizza Carbonara which had a nice light crushed tomato sauce, fried egg, and pancetta. Sophy tried the special Pizza Spinaci which had spinich, mozarella, ricotta, prosciutto, and roasted almonds on top. What a strangely good combination.

On top of it, the pizzas are made in about 90 seconds in this wood fired pizza oven where one guy was rotating and cooking several pizzas at a time and at a frantic pace. Sitting at the "pizza bar" gave us a front row view of the cooking, and it probably added to the intrigue of this restaurant.

We also had an appetizer which had arugula and goat cheese wrapped with prosciutto in balsamic reduction. Finished dinner off with some Italian donut type things that were filled with nutella.

Can't wait to go again.

Lake Arrowhead

Went to Lake Arrowhead for our anniversary. Stayed at the Lake Arrowhead Resort which was really nice, had a real woodsy feel to it haha.

Went around Lake Arrowhead Village for a bit, did a little fishing, lots of eating, and a bit more fishing.

Went to BIN189 which was the hotel restaurant, and I'd probably give it 4 stars if I was a yelp user. What was really interesting was our breakfast at Belgian Waffle Works. Had a S'mores Belgian Waffle. Basically had chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge, graham cracker crumbs, marshmallow. and the waffle itself. Unique breakfast to say the least.

And, on top of it, Sophy caught a fish.

Heading up the mountain

View from the room (room was really nice, shoulda taken a picture)

Lakers v. Warriors

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

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

Kobe v. Melo

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

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

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.