A Creative Birthday Party


On Sunday night D and I went to licoreen’s birthday party. For those of you who don’t know, licoreen, my former college roommate, is an artist. She had a lot of her old artwork sitting around and had the great idea of holding a silent auction at her party. (Some of her art is seen here, on the bottom row). The proceeds went to two charities, World Team and International Justice Mission. D and I got in a mini bidding “war” over one painting, which we ended up buying! I’m still trying to figure out where it looks best, but I’m thinking over our fireplace, for now. We’ve moved up from posters! I was in charge of the food, although I felt like I didn’t really help too much.

Food Spread
I made waaay too much orange cream cheese dip for the strawberries.

Cupcakes
Reni made these cute cupcakes.

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Palm Springs Weekend

To celebrate our 2nd year wedding anniversay, D and I took a weekend trip to Palm Springs. On our way there, we made a breakfast stop at Hadleys and I had my date banana shake. Next we stopped at the Cabazon outlets. D found some deals at the Nike outlet for some more running gear. He was especially proud of the deal he found on a pair of shorts.

Then we drove to the Palm Springs tram, which rotates as it goes up the mountain. We ate lunch at the top and took in the view.


The food is really nothing to write home about, but here I am, doing it anyway. This is the “Santa Fe Chicken Wrap”.


An aerial view of Palm Springs.


There’s snow at the top of the San Jacinto mountains, even though it was in the 90’s in Palm Springs last week (it wasn’t that hot when we were there).

After coming back down the mountain, we checked into our hotel, the Doral Princess Desert Resort, which we bid on through Priceline.

D took a quick swim, even though it was windy, as can be seen here:

On Rachael Ray’s recommendation, we ate at the Kaiser Grille for dinner. I had made reservations for 5 p.m. (for the early bird special), but after walking on the main strip for a bit, D was famished. So, we ended up going to dinner at 4:30! I think that is a record for us.

The ambience is pretty nice.


Here is D’s pork chop. Overall, we enjoyed our food, but it wasn’t at the very top of any of our rankings. We overheard another couple talk about Rachael, too. I guess they didn’t pay very good attention to her though, because they neglected to ask about the early bird dinners. Apparently, the waiters keep them under wraps, so you have to specifically ask for the special menu. I felt bad because the woman ordered something from the regular menu that was also on the early bird menu, and the waiter did not even say anything! Doesn’t that seem unethical?

The next morning we went to another R.R. pick: More than a Mouthful Cafe. I’m afraid R.R. led us a bit astray with this one. It was kind of overpriced, and the portions, while large, did not really justify the prices. D enjoyed his eggs benedict and I had french toast with boysenberry syrup–yum. The menu even mentioned that the breakfast soup, which R.R. ordered on $40 a Day, was a “Food Network Favorite”.

Overall, it was a fun weekend get-away. D had fun zoom-zooming in the Mazda 6. The past two years have gone by pretty fast. I’m looking forward to the years to come.

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Welcome Home

It is a rare occasion that D and I go out on a weekday night. We made an exception last night, however, to join fellow YAGgers in welcoming ebidebbie home. She likes Thai food, so we met up at Thai Nakorn, which is close to WPC, on Garden Grove Blvd. This restaurant passes the previously mentioned authenticity test (there were a lot of what seemed to be Thai people). D and I had been once before and I must say it is delish. We ordered family-style and there was lots of food. D was happy to have the yellow curry (he claims I always make us order panang, not true). Of course, there was the requisite pad thai and chicken satay. I also really like the pad see ew (I think my littlest sis would like this–think Thai chow fun) although it is not listed by that name. I believe it is described as rice noodles with broccoli and chicken, or something). We also had a fried fish appetizer and something that looked like beef jerky. Oh yeah, there was also a beef salad and spicy soup. D can’t believe I never ate Thai food until I was in college. What can I say–I was missing out! Anyways, we’re glad that ebidebbie is back in the States! 🙂

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D’s Top Destinations

Top North American Destinations

City Travel – Urban Cities
1 New York, NY Y
2 San Francisco, CA Y
3 Chicago, IL Y
4 Boston, MA Y
5 Vancouver, BC Y
6 Washington D.C. Y
7 Seattle, WA Y
8 Montreal, QB N
9 New Orleans, LA N
10 Los Angeles, CA Y
City Travel – Beach Cities
1 Honolulu, HI Y
2 San Diego, CA Y
3 Miami, FL N
4 San Juan, PR N
5 Puerta Vallarta, Mexico Y

Adventure Travel – National Parks
1 Yosemite, CA Y
2 Grand Canyon, AZ Y
3 Yellowstone WY Y
4 Banff, AB N
5 Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica Y
Adventure Travel – Skiing
1 Whistler Blackcomb, BC Y
2 Snowbird / Alta, UT Y
3 Vail, CO N
4 Mammoth, CA N
5 Squaw Valley, CA Y
Adventure Travel – Islands
1 Maui, HI Y
2 Big Island, HI Y
3 Kauai, HI N
4 U.S. Virgin Islands: St. John N
5 Bahamas: Harbour Island N

Top California Weekend Trips
Northern
Carmel By-The-Sea
Napa
Southern
Laguna Beach
Palm Springs

Top Overseas Destinations I Have Visited
Europe
Paris, France
Zermatt, Switzerland
Asia
Hong Kong, China
Phuket, Thailand

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Crystal Cove

Yesterday D was getting cabin fever, so we took a trip to Crystal Cove, which is North of Laguna Beach and South of Newport. We actually ended up stopping by in Laguna first. There were a lot of people out and about.

Then we drove up PCH to Crystal Cove. I wanted to show D the area where my sis and bro-in-law got married but we didn’t see it. We took the trail down to the beach and had a nice stroll. There were hardly any other people around.

There a lot of shells everywhere but there are signs that it is against the law to collect any. This lobster tail? totally grossed me out:

We walked about a mile to this small group of old cottages that have been renovated and will soon be rented out.

Our goal was to go the Crystal Cove Shake Shack (which Rachael Ray visited for $40 a Day). However, there was no access to PCH from the beach in that area. There was a wooden staircase, but both the top and bottom were fenced off (you could still climb through the fence). We saw another couple come down the stairs and I was tempted to do it, but D half-joked “What would Jesus do?” We decided to just walk the mile back to our car and then drive.
The Shake Shack has a lot of different types of shakes but we settled on sharing a peach shake ($3.50). I wanted to try the date shake, but since we will soon be making a trip to Hadley’s, I figured I could just get it there. We sat on a little bench facing the ocean, with PCH behind us. Tip: there was a cop on a motorcycle who was nabbing all of these speedsters on that stretch of PCH, so watch out.

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Japanese Food on Good Friday

Some people say that you can tell a good Asian restaurant by the number of Asian people dining there, i.e. the more the better. Well, if that is true, the Japanese restaurant we went to last night wasn’t very good. We went to a place called Agasse in Cypress. (I have never seen so many Caucasians in a Japanese restaurant before in my life!) D liked his rainbow roll well enough (the most raw fish he has ever eaten, according to him) but I thought my beef teryiaki was pretty mediocre. Both of our dinners came with a mini scoop of green tea ice cream, so that was nice. I actually like the beef bowl at Flame Broiler better (which is under $5!)
D wanted me to take a picture of the rainbow bowl but I didn’t have my camera. So instead, here is a picture of the chicken/veggie bowl at Flame Broiler. This is the second year in a row we ate at a Japanese restaurant before going to Good Friday service…maybe it will become a tradition?

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Running

I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes (0.5 incline-treadmill) and I was going to run 4 miles in 45 minutes (0.5 incline-treadmill) however my treadmill automatically slowed at about 30 minutes, and then it was on cool down mode and kept slowing me down. I went on after someone and pressed the “quick start” button, but someone before me must have set it for 30 minutes. I am looking forward to upping my training a notch.

I went to RoadRuners’ Parking lot sale. I was looking for size 11 stability shoes and wanted to know if Ascis 2110 or Kayano’s were on sale. They were not, however the sales women told me that these Brooks Adrenaline GTS 5’s were on sale. I got it for $59.99 and then also a Nike Dri-fit shirt for $21.95. These are pretty good deals, however, L doesn’t think so. I told her the Kayano’s were $135, but it doesn’t seem to persuade her. Running is a pretty cheap sport, but L thinks I should get shoes and a shirt for $50! hah 🙂 maybe at Wal-mart.

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Spring Has Sprung


It doesn’t really feel like Spring yet even though we pushed the clocks back an hour. This past weekend I was able to brunch with some of my high school friends, D got a drug test for his new job, I picked out new eyeglass frames, and we bought a Costco membership. We also hung out with my fam so that the guys could watch the UCLA game on my parents’ big screen while the girls talked. It’s funny how it’s more evenly split now. For a long time, my Dad faced a 4:1 female to male ratio.
Yesterday D & I cooked a nice “Spring dinner” together: salmon (D), asparagus (L) and rice (D). The picture is of a cute “twinkie chick” my Mom made.

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