Updates - Winter 2012

Pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay and Pescadero Beach

Was in the mood to pick out a pumpkin to carve for the Halloween even though none of the pumpkins were carved after we brought it home. It was cloudy but then it was clear as we migrated to Pescadero, about 20 minutes south of Half Moon Bay. It was nothing like the socal beaches. The beach was for the most part isolated and we strolled down the beach a little all the while enjoying the view of the pacific ocean and soaking up some vitamin d.

Birthday celebration and Halloween

Went to a bar in downtown Berkeley to have a few drinks and shoot some pools with some coworkers. No cake necessary, all in good company. For Halloween we collaborated with a few friends to form The Shark Week. We all met up at the DNA lounge in SF to get our groove on for the night. However, everyone lost each other as we entered the club. 

The Adoption of Talon
The misses have been wanting a new pet for a long while so decided to finally adopt a beardie for her. We've been searching around online for the appropriate pet shop and found one in Berkeley called The East Bay Vivarium that specifically carried reptiles and amphibians. I can't say that I've changed my mind about liking snakes even after visiting this store. This beardie, Talon, is practically Susan's pride and joy. Who can blame her though, the little fella is pretty handsome and fierce!

Home cooking (Pot roast, Roast chicken)

Now that we are united and living with each other we have been dedicating one day a week making dinner for the family. We've been having fun making non asian dishes as that's what we usually have when the Mum of the household cooks. Some of the dishes we made include a Pot roast and roast chicken. Both dishes seem very appropriate for the winter as it's been really cold and these food are warm and comforting. We bought our first free range chicken from a butcher and it definitely taste more organic then Foster Farm chickens.

Happy Holidays
We stayed home for the holidays this year, mostly cause it's still expensive for us to travel especially during this peak season. One of the bigger attractions this year was the showcasing of Christmas light in the Pleasanton/Livermore area. Again, this year the most spectacular house would have be to Deacon Dave's. I think they raised the ante to 300,000 bulbs. I can't even fathom how you would try to get all these bulbs up on your house without getting the wires tangled.

Badminton
Finally found a sport that we can both play, well technically the misses still has more experience than I do. Nevertheless, it's something new and fun that we both can enjoy. There's a small bay area badminton club called Bintang Academy (yes, very Chinese). We went to the Milpitas one recently during their afternoon sessions and it was a very spacious facility. Two birdies were whacked for a duration of 2 hours. The feathered birdie was destroyed in a matter of an hour. I guess it's cause I kept trying to smash it to her. Hopefully, in a few more months my game will improve with technique and practice so that I can offer some stiff competition to Susan. Then she will be mad.

Winter is just about half through and we hope to visit the snow in the Sierras soon so we can get some quality snowboarding time in. Until much adieu, stay warm and safe.

Summer Happenings!

California summers are something to be really fond of. Sunshine and blue sunshine all day everyday just puts a smile on my face. Despite the usual grind at work and family matters, there is always time for leisure and activities. 

Susan and I got to experience one of the fondest summers this year.

We went to our first music festival together, Outsidelands at San Francisco. Outsidelands was a complete surprise to me. The main stage's field was spacious enough to allow everyone to camp out with a blanket. 

Prior to watching live bands perform, we ventured off to the Heineken dome which was an indoor tent that echoed electronic music. In fact the ceiling looked something like this:

Foo Fighters put on a bloody good show. It's a pity they weren't headlining though. It would have been even more awesome if they could play a longer set. Regardless, we had a good time singing along to every song and rockin' out with the band and crowd. Rockin' out so hard that our bodies ached the next morning.

Everyone is still at a stable point in this part of the day.

We also saw Justice later that night and Neil Patrick Harris the next day at a comedy act in the Barbary. 

Finally we ended the festival with a few friends watching Metallica. The combination of fog, lasers, fireworks, and metal music playing in the background made it seem like we were in some sort of war field. It was rather epic.

Now why would someone go skydiving you ask? Because "floating" in air is pure bliss. It's as close to flying as anyone's going to get, except you're falling at a constant acceleration.

Happy people all geared up and ready to load the plane so we can jump out at 13000 feet. It was such a rush trying to get everyone onto the jump. It was as if we were signing our lives away through the waiver form.

I happened to win 4 Conan tickets so I invited Allan and Jess to accompany us in a double date. It was a very long wait before we got to see Conan live. We arrived early and hung around the area for a little bit. Once we got on the set we waited some more to see an interview between Conan and Ricky Gervais.

Caution: No photography/video was allowed prior to the TV recording, but we managed to get a picture of a Lego statue of Conan. 

We finally went on a family trip to Disneyland and rode on the newly renovated ride, Star Tours. It was so cool as it was a 3D ride, plus I hear there's over 20 different scenarios. 

We decided to go to a Korean restaurant in Garden Grove for dinner. We had the "black goat cassarole" It was filled with poppyseed and had a good kick of spice to it. 

We rushed back to Disneyland in hopes of getting back on time to catch the firework show. Unfortunately, we missed most of it. Instead, we walked around main street to do some shopping.

Susan tried to explain to me Duffy the Disney Bear. I had no idea what it was until we found the ears. 

Memorial Day Weekend

A much much delayed post -____-''

So much happened in this three day weekend. The main event was to celebrate our two year anniversary a few days ahead of the actual day. We were both so ecstatic to see each other.

The flight with Southwest was one the fastest plane rides I've ever been on. It took just about an hour to get from Oakland to Burbank. I gave Mrs. Babester one of my smirks when I saw her at the arrival gate followed by a tight squeeze and plenty of kisses on her FACE! 

The weekend went as followed:

We caught up on some quality rest on friday night and went out to the traditional dim sum outing with her YING YING and Aunt at her Dad's restaurant.

We finally traded in our raws for a new pair! This time with a better fit for the the both of us. Part of the struggle is buttoning up the jeans all the way for the first couple of weeks. AHHH, it feels good to have some high quality cardboard feeling jeans again. We also got ours at the same time this time so we'll be able to track our progress.

 

We had a nice stroll together through the Greystone mansion/park that has a lot of water fountains along with a small fish pond of koi fishes and turtles. It was cute watching the turtles jump into the water as some of them would flip over and get stuck.

My baby got me the levi commuters and a Star Wars Death Star lego set. Super excited to wear the jeans to bike and put together the lego set. I gave her a pair of Shwood sunnies and a bikini top; perfect for the approaching hot summer days!

We met up with Allan and his lady friend + sister at the Pint House in Fullerton. The place had a very "OC" feel to it. The night consisted mostly of beers, burgers, interesting convos. The best part of it all was when we were pretty buzzed and all went on the floor and danced our butts off. 

Finally, we got to go to Old Country for some authentic Taiwanese cafe food. I must admit the food selection isn't the best compared to your HK cafe but the green tea is one of the best I've ever tried.

What is the surprise of the day? We were driving towards the Hollywood sign, literally straight ahead of us and Mrs. Babester thought we were going to take one of those Hollywood tours. I I chuckled cause for once she couldn't guess what we were doing. I am TEH WINNAR. 

 We showed up at Sunset ranch for horseriding. It looked like they had at least two dozen horses. I kinda feel bad for these horses cause all they do is stay their stables and walk the same trails everyday. No wonder some of them were somewhat temperamental during our 1-hour ride. My lady's horse (Sherlock) was pretty well behaved until it decide to spew out all its POOP in front my horse (Shakespeare) The view of downtown LA area was spectacular. It was a really clear day for LA standards and it wasn't too hot either. Best weather to do outdoorsy stuff with my lady!

Took my baby to a steakhouse since I know she's been deprived of steak for a few months. I ordered her the ribeye knowing that she was craving steak but I guess she'd much rather enjoy a tender filet mignon. I feel like the steaks could have been more seasoned but it was still cooked well nonetheless.

We tried a new french style dessert, the Grand Marnier Souffles. It's basically a really light puffy, almost hallow cake that you fill with creme fresh. 

Finally watched The Avengers at the Arclight in Pasadena!!! The ending credit was so funny I spoke out "SHARWARMA!!!!!!" 

A socal trip during the summer is not complete until we visit a beach. We each enjoyed a nice scoop of I CLEEM (Pastachio and _________ ) at Manhattan beach and sunbathed the afternoon away. 

Month of Fooding

Looking over the numerous pictures in the past month, I can honestly say I ate out a lot as well as a lot of homemade goodness. Here are just some pictures.

Mother's day bbq chicken wings and baby back ribs

Bagel chips from Bagel Street Cafe

Hot Capola sandwich

Falafel and greek salad

Beef soon du bu

Vegetarian ham sandwich at a cafe in Oakland

Masala Dosa from Dosa and Biryani in Dublin, CA

Surprise

Mr. Babester POV


Twas a Friday morning when I strolled into work just like any other work day. Nothing special until I overheard my co-worker Steph talk about taking the "viet bus" down to LA. All of a sudden, a light bulb dinged. I knew it has been awhile since we've seen each other face to face so I made a spur of the moment decision to visit her this weekend. I slowly picked away at clues by texting her: "I hope you don't have to work tomorrow. You'll be so spent and mickery will be mad!". She quickly replied: "I don't need to work tomorrow! :D" Houston, we have green light! I was so anxious to finish up work and leave early so that I could quickly pack my weekend bag. 


Throughout the whole bus ride, my heart was thumping and my palms were sweaty like none other. I was so excited to surprise me lady! I couldn't wait to see her reaction and to see how over joyed she would be. The night went by quick as I slept overnight at my dad's hotel room. 


The morning after I woke up and picked up some specialty buns from PappaRich bakery in Pasadena and headed over to her house at around 8:30. I knew about her plans to hang out with Nicky shopping the day away so I knew I had to get to her house early enough. Luckily again, she texted me in the morning wishing me a good day at work. Twas another indicator for me to head over to her place.

Just moments before reaching to her house

So I show up to to Susan's house and rang the doorbell. She quickly opened the door and peeked through the gate door to see who it was. It seemed that initially she could not tell who I was but then her jaws dropped and her mouth was gaping open. Her facial expression was priceless. I must admit, it was a VERY exciting moment for the both of us. It was pure happiness! I, of course, gave her the biggest hug a boyfriend can give. We indulged our buns and just cheesed at each other.

The food settled extremely fast and we were hungry for lunch by the time we got to Nicky's house. We decided to try a new ramen place in Little Tokyo called Hakata Ramen Shin-Sen-Gumi. Good grief, that is a long name for a ramen shop. It was good to try a new ramen place though seeing as we pretty much ate at Orochon and Daikokuya plenty of times. I noticed an old couple (grandparents) with their grand daughter while we waited for our food. They were "boss" caused they were spending their Saturday with their granddaughter and drinking a mug of beer. I know for sure Susan and I will be like that.

On wards to shopping! I told Nicky to shop till she drops, which she pretty much did. Susan and I exchanged gifts with one another when we visited Zara. She got me a denim shirt and I got her a pair of skinny jeans. The jeans looked pretty bad ass with the gold plated zippers. She can probably wear that with the leather jacket I got her. Susan's outfit for the day was preppy/mature. That and she has such a beautiful smile to go along with it :D.  

We gave up shopping after visiting all the main stores. I really wanted a nice pint at the Congregation Alehouse Susan told me about but it was too far from the parking lot so I made the executive decision to eat Argentinian. The chicken I ordered was so so. It was too dried and didn't seem like it had enough of the citrus/herby flavor the menu described it to be. I definitely won't be trying anything chicken from that place. On the other hand, the empanada was my favorite.


626 market was chaotic as expected. It was crazier than walking in the streets of Hong Kong. A lot of the booths weren't really that interesting. I was expected a lot of cool gadgets and toys. I was expecting it to be like downtown LA fashion district, except with an asian twist. Nonetheless, it was cool to see everyone aimlessly walking. We aimlessly walked past a booth that had a live band playing jazzy tunes. I was really into the music and tried to dance with the lovergirl but didn't so that she would have felt embarassed about dancing in public. It's all good cause I still gave her a smooch!


The day went by too fast for I wanted to spend more time with her before going back to norcal. I decided to go to Porto's the following morning. Boy were we in for a treat? That place was huge for a bakery. I assumed it was going to be a normal sized bakery that could fit like 20 people or so. But this bakery was packed with at least a hundred people. It was all very confusing when I tried figure out how to place an order to go. Thankfully, Mrs. Babester figured out the take out line and we ordered some sammiches for lunch and some baked goods to take back up for my coworkers.

Before you know it, we ended up at Americana and then met up with my co-worker to hitch a ride back to norcal. The visit was short lived but it was refreshing to see my lover.


Mrs. Babester's POV


shocked about the whole ordeal. Anyways, here is how it went for me.


On Friday, I was exhausted. The last two or three hours of work went by super slow (it usually goes by fairly quickly for me), and I just could not seem to focus or stay awake. I could not sleep the night before (for some strange reason unrelated to caffeine/sugar) and was dragging myself through the day. To top off this lovely mood, it was raining. Hard.


I decided to finish my day early at 4:30pm. I normally stay until 6:00pm, but in all honesty, I was done with most of my work, and the rest had to be finished the next week. So I left early and decided to go through some retail therapy at a nearby mall alone. I perused a bit, purchased some small tidbits, and went on my way home.


During my shopping, my twinsy Angel called me.. I think.. or maybe I called her. Anyways, throughout work, I was texting her, so when I got off we chatted on the phone. There was a point during our conversation that I grew suspicious; we talked about shopping on Saturday just to hang out, but she had work during the day, so I decided to ask my hubby (not literally) Nicky to do some damage with me instead. We would meet up with twinsy afterwards for the 626 Asian Night Market event and loiter the streets of Pasadena.


For some reason, she wouldn't let me. She insisted I don't go out tomorrow until the night market.
..and she wouldn't tell me why.


Not that any of you readers (if anyone is reading this?) would know, but I enjoy "mysteries" and "puzzles" (which would explain my addiction to Picross 3D, word search puzzles, Scrabble, Ace Attorney, and Professor Layton), and so this just brought up a huge red flag in my brain screaming, "Okay.. this is suspicious.. WHAT COULD IT BE?!" Strangely enough, my first thought was, "Ben must be visiting. OMGawd IS HE COMING?!"


It made sense to me; why else would she not tell me? THAT HAS TO BE IT.


However, I did not want to raise my hopes.


So I finished my shopping and just went home. I texted Ben about this thought; I missed him so much, it was taking its toll on me, but he was already asleep. Later online, twinsy told me that she was trying to get the day off so she could join Nicky and I in shopping, but she couldn't. le disappoint. Back to the original plan. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I really had my hopes up.


Woke up refreshed the next day (FINALLY GOT 8 HOURS OF SLEEP!). It was early, probably around 9:00am, when I was getting ready, when I heard the doorbell. Probably a package. So I went to open the door.


Standing there with a smirk on his face, was my Mr. Babester! My jaw stood agape for what felt like forever (my jaw got tired after a bit). BEST SURPRISE EVER.


We had some buns Mr. Babester brought for breakfast and I finished getting ready and we went on our way to Nicky's house. After she got ready, we decided to go to Pasadena (where the 626 Night Market event is held) to do some shopping.

Of course, we had to have some lunch before a long day of shopping. Ramen it is; our favorite food to eat in Little Tokyo.

We went to get Jamba Juice, strolled through the streets to Banana Republic, J. Crew, Zara, H&M (not in that order) and ate at 1818 for some Argentinian food. It has been forever since I've last hung out with my hubby AND it has been forever (or so it felt) since I have last held my Mr. Babester's hand.

We bought each other clothes as gifts for after we started working. Mr. Babester bought Mrs. Babester a pair of skinny jeans and I bought him a denim shirt. Soon enough, we'll be matching each other in our denim shirts and skinny jeans.

626 was packed. Good grief I am SO glad we ate before we went. It's like opening a can of sardines... and vacuum-packing them. Regardless, we went into the hole of Asians and wandered into a tent of live performers, and then into a photobooth for some physical evidence of such fantasy. Finally when we got out, we tried contacting twinsy. But my cell phone wouldn't make calls. I texted. The text got DENIED. I think there was a jam? I don't know, but for some reason, Ben and my phone was busted. Hubby finally got in contact (DANG IPHONES) with twinsy, but in the end, we could not meet up. We managed to take some photo booth pictures despite the busy crowd and lines for the food stands.

After standing through the live performances, hubby's foot got cramped. We decided to sit at this picturesque bench that sat as a perimeter for a tree and waited for the pain to go away. As we sat there, we reminisced about the past: how Nicky and I met, the adventures we had when we were still in school, and how Mr. and Mrs. Babester came to be. It was freezing at 11:00 at night, but the warm memories kept us lively..


..Well, that and the watermelon tai chi hubby and Ben were doing did bust me up laughing.


We walked back to the parking garage where we parked Jetti (name of my car) and had to prepare to say goodbye to Mr. Babester as I had work the next day. But how often does Ben actually come down? As we arrived at the hotel, I gathered enough courage to ask for Sunday off so that I could see my lover for one more day. And I got it. So happy.


Ben quickly jolted into the hotel to gather his things (I'm sure he was rather excited) and got back into the car. We drove back to my house, where he would be staying in the guest room. Hubby left after chatting with my parents a bit, and we KO'd afterwards.


Sunday strolled by quickly. We slept in since we were exhausted from walking all day Saturday, and woke up only to drive to Porto's to pick up lunch and some pastries for Ben's co-worker (who was so kind to drop him off to the bus stop to get here). We ate.. then like the chub I am, I fell asleep. Woke up only to prepare to take him to Porto's again, where he was to meet his co-worker to carpool back.


They were running late. Thank you.


So we walked around Americana instead. We strolled through a shop or two, then bummed on the grass watching kids frolic around while the fountain played music to complement the streams of water spewing out.


Mr. Babester ordered some kimchi fried rice from Ahn-Jong for the trip back up. We drove back to Porto's (the established meet-up spot) and met up with his co-worker and friends. We packed up the car, hugged, kissed, and said our goodbye quickly. All too quickly. Wish that hug and kiss could have lasted just a bit longer. Would that make me too greedy?


I drove home with an empty passenger seat. Back to reality. Until next time, don't fret on small things cause life is full of surprises.

April Happenings

Work has been taking a toll on us for the past month. Working six days a week is no fun. It makes us miss our weekends with friends and family. Most of all, it makes us miss each other more. For the next couple of months it's going to be hard for us to find time to visit each other. We're going to shoot for memorial weekend (end of May). Speaking of which, that'll mark the two years of our relationship. That is bloody phenomenal. Time went by in the blink of an eye; must mean we've been having heaps with fun with each other. I have so many things planned for the next couple of months that I would like to do with my babygirl. Here's just a short list of things I had in mind:


-Complete Susan's biking lesson
-Try archery so we can become true snipers
-Cherry picking
-Visiting an oyster farm
-Napa Valley wine tasting
-Camping!
-Outside Lands Music Festival
-Gilroy Garlic Festival seeing as garlic is one of our favorite thing in food
-A getaway to the Catalina Islands
-Roadtrip up the coast of California visiting beautiful sights such as Carmel and Hearts' Castle
-NYC!
-Try more foodie hot spots!


After reviewing this list, it may seem like a lot to accomplish in a years' time but let's try and tackle this list this year. If we could, we'd probably do those events every other weekend. Heck we're only in our mid 20s, we definitely have to share these moments now. California summer is on its way so let's make the most of it and have FUN! Until next time, work hard and play hard! 


For now, a night out dancing to groovy music with my lady will suffice:

How does it sound if we spend the night out?

St. Patty's Weekend

My planned visit to Susan's place coincided with St. Patrick's weekend. We were so excited to see each other as it has been over a month of not seeing each other's faces.  The only reason we couldn't see each other sooner was cause we were both settled into our new jobs. We had high hopes that the weather would be sunny and warm but instead, it turned out to be a RAINY weekend. We had plans to visit the beach and check out each other's sexy bods without any prior workout or tanning. It was pouring on Saturday (as expected) so I decided that we hang out in La Brea area and visit the Los Angeles County of Modern Art (LACMA). This area sort of enchanting with its diverse Jewish community. Believe me, everyone there had the same clothing. All the men were dressed looking like rabbis and that's not a generalization. It was truly adventure time for the both of us as neither of us have ever been to an art museum with each other. Before heading to the museum, I needed to feed my baby's tummy so that she would have enough energy to keep up with her man while we walk for the rest of the day. We went to an Italian cafe called Cafe Verona off La Brea Ave for brunch. It was definitely a quaint cafe as most of the seating area was outside underneth a tent. It felt like we were in a greenhouse or something. Susan ordered the the Frittata dei belli and I ordered the Eggs Florentine (some fancy Italian dish names). Hers was more of a flat scrambled egg with goat cheese and spinach on top and mine consisted of a poached egg with spinach and hollandaise on top of english muffins. I must say that the goat cheese was a little overpowering in its pungent smell and the hollandaise sauce was rather tangy. Nonetheless, it was still delicious with its fresh ingredients and fruit to cleanse the palette. Will definitely have to try to make a homemade version of the eggs florentine for the misses.

After our meal, we wandered to the clothing store across the street called American Rag and spent some time there perusing through the clothes as well as the raw denim bar. We then went to buffalo exchange further down the street and shopped some more. At this point we were pretty spent (pun intended) after shopping for what seemed like almost a couple hours. I feel like we are old hags already.

Our adventure eventually led us to LACMA, finally I know. The art museum was sectioned off into a few buildings each with their own category of art exhibits. We went to the Japanese one at first and saw a bunch of scrolls along with a few Buddha sculptures. We walked through this section fairly quickly as it was kind of repetitive and the scrolls were dull in color. I suppose color was hard to come by back in the day. Though we did come across some interesting mini figurines made out of porcelain or something of that material. The coupled bunnies represents us!  

Shortly after, we visited the European art section and most of the art was focused around religion and struggle between people and their faith. Susan gave us a little art history lesson and how to interpret these paintings. Art is an abstract concept, much like religion. All you need to know is that "It's Art!"

 

Later that evening, we went to the local Irish Pub to celebrate St Patrick's Day with some fellow drunkards that had probably been at the bar since dawn. We enjoyed some simple Irish faire food, corned beef and cabbage along to some 70s rock n' roll tribute band.  Surprisingly, food can be just as delicious without any intricate cooking or ingredients. Shoot, the Irish did most of their cooking by braising meat and veggies. The food replenished our energy and we were ready to take on the rest of the night. Drank a few beers and rocked out to some music is definitely my type of night with my gal. We had intended to meet up with a few friends but they were all preoccupied with their events. That was a bummer but nonetheless, I still enjoyed my up close and personal time with my lady.

Hanging out at the bar with my love reminded me of our first date. Before heading back to the car, we were amused by the glowing neon lights of the 99cent store and went in to purchase a few snacks. Our adventure progressed back to the Chinatown/Little Tokyo area of downtown LA. We met up with Mr. John Conley and shared a few drinks and chatted at Wurstkuche and ended out night at Four Leaf. All in all, we had a quite a bit to drink. Twas an eventful night to say the least.