Pacific NW, Part 3

On Thursday we went to EMP, which is the Experience Music Project opened by Paul Allen. The exterior architecture was really neat.


And I was able to get an artsy picture of the reflection of the Space Needle off of one of the exterior walls:



Inside the EMP I have to admit that I was expecting a little more. However, the guitar tornado was kind of neat, though the guitar nerd in me noted that these were really cheap guitars and some of them had either no strings or their electronics and/or hardware stripped out:



Some of Jimi's memorabilia was there, and I thought those were cool, especially the smashed guitars:


Adjacent to the EMP was the Sci Fi museum. I'm not really a sci fi nerd, but I appreciated some of the displays like this Terminator replica.



Later on we went to Fred Meyer to shop (in appreciation for the Fred Meyer day at the Pacific Science Center). We saw some really weird pumpkins and squash - notice the one whitish pumpkin growing out of the orange one.

Pacific NW, Part 2

After spending Tuesday with family and friends, we headed down to my Aunt's farm in Woodburn, Oregon. It's such a great farm. The steer mooed at us when they saw us coming.



There were also two dogs, Polly and Pounder, a barn cat, a turkey and some chickens. My kids had so much fun playing fetch with Polly. My daughter carried around the barn cat, and L and I enjoyed petting Pounder, who was loving the attention. But the highlight of the farm, at this time of year, is the tomato vineyard, where they grow the most beautiful heirloom and grape tomatoes.


The farm was especially bountiful thanks to the outstanding weather, and it was so easy to just eat these from out of the boxes in the barn.




Tomatoes aren't the only things that they grow. There were also these really yummy raspberries....



....some strawberries, buckwheat, apples, and sunflowers:

Pacific NW, Part 1

We spent all of last week in the Pacific Northwest, and we couldn't have had better weather. It was sunny and cool, the perfect weather for viewing Seattle from the Space Needle.


From the viewing deck there were beautiful views of Puget Sound, Lake Union, and Downtown Seattle.


Fortunately that day, it was Fred Meyer day at the Pacific Science Center, so admission was free (thanks Fred!). The exhibits were incredible, from a giant playable acoustic guitar, to the Mindbender Mansion, where you solved various puzzles, to a real meteor that you could lift, but by far the most impressive thing to do was the Butterfly Room, a huge greenhouse that was filled with butterflies flying all around you. A butterfly landed on my daughter's hand and stayed there for a long time!



That evening we had dinner at Genki Sushi, where there were salmon heads decorating the wall.

First game, first win for the Titans!!

My team, the Titans (in purple above), played an amazing game and pulled off our first win (6-5), on our first game. I'm so proud of the boys and I'm still pumped up, 9 hours later!!

Meet the newest member of our family

We promised our daughter a guinea pig for finishing up a full summer of summer school and swim classes. We went down to the Humane Society today to adopt a guinea pig and they had a few cute ones. "Teriyaki", as my daughter named him, was the only one that was not afraid to be picked up by me. She sat out all afternoon to watch him in his new home!!

Had a really nice stay-cation a few weeks ago

at the Kahala hotel. When you live in Hawaii, it makes sense in the summertime to get out to the hotels and beaches and have a relaxing day out in the sun.

Fortunately to fit in with my current healthy eating plan, there were lots of really nice Japanese pickled vegetables. (note that I conveniently left out the photo of my second plate which had the ham and potatoes on it!)



After brunch we took a walk out on the beach and the kids couldn't resist walking in the ocean!

We really need to do this more often.

Attended a nice wedding this weekend

and I found a few places to take some nice pictures. Still practicing using my new digital camera.

This first shot is at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe, Hawaii.


This is a shot of the wedding cake at the reception at the Ko'olau Golf Course.

After two weeks on the ranch

Sonic has lost a LOT of weight. But it was great to see that he's still alive! He has made a whole bunch of new chicken friends and is hanging out with them, despite being the only white chicken in the bunch. We were not super sure it was him because he looks SO different, but he was the only white chicken there, where previously there weren't any.

It's a BOY!!!!! (unfortunately)

A few weeks ago my daughter brought home the chick that hatched in her class. We were intending to keep it as a pet, if it turned out to be a female. Well, it appears that his comb is coming out, and the bright red color indicates that Sonic (the name given to him by the kindergarten class) is a "he". Unfortunately, roosters crow and are not allowed in our town, so we will be saying goodbye to him soon. And more unfortunately, our family has grown attached to him.

Drumming

I've played guitar and bass in bands for almost 30 years, and prior to a few years ago I've never played drums. A few years ago I picked up an electric drum set so that I could have band practices at my house, but I never learned how to play. Over the last few months, I've been practicing, and I'm still pretty amateur, but I'm slowly learning.

The first half of the above video is a song I'm playing called "Bittersweet" by a band called Fuel. My old band Giant Wheel Throw used to cover this song, and I know it well on guitar. The second half of the video is me just trying out some fills, very sloppily. Hopefully I will get these fills down and learn some new ones.

Final game

Today my U10 boys team played our final game. We played one of the toughest teams in our league and won 3 to 0. Early on in the season we started out rough, having been down 1 win and 4 losses by mid season, but we managed to pull it out in the end to finish off the season 4 wins and 5 losses, having only lost one game in the second half of the season.

Me watching the game

The boys played really hard today and the way the team jelled during the last few games and practices was a stark contrast to the very Bad News Bears quality that we started out with.

My son dribbling the ball

I'm not going to say that the kids were the easiest to work with, but they all had such great personalities and I will miss them a lot. I already got one request to "be on your team again next season", so that was flattering. The parents were simply outstanding and so full of support, and as a coach they were the best parents I could have hoped for.

The kids all gave me a "Gatorade moment", but instead of dumping a big cooler on me, they filled up their water shooters with cold water and blasted me (thanks, whoever put those in the goodie bags!!) But it was all in good fun, and actually felt nice as it was really warm today.

I got a nice goodie basket from the team, along with a framed team picture and a $50 Sports Authority gift card. Rawk!!

California Screamin

Last October we went to Disney's California Adventure Park, and they have a great rollercoaster called California Screamin'. What a great coaster - the loop de loop is early on in the ride but it gets your adrenaline going so that you're pumped up for the drops and turns. For this video I sat next to a girl who showed why the ride is called California Screamin. I'm glad I managed to hold onto the camera!!

White Elephant Sale score

We had a white elephant and bake sale at work today. I scored a pair of nice melamine bowls, and some kalamansee, which is a small lime that is used in the filipino dish called pancit (which, incidentally, I'm making for the soccer pot luck this weekend).

Popo's Chinese New Year Feast

This post is for my brother who lives in L.A. and couldn't be here for Chinese New Year.

My mom makes a wonderful spread for Chinese New Year and has the whole family over. Mom works so hard to make these meals and plate them nicely, so I had snap some pics!

Fishcake and spinach stuffed eggs
Cold plate with roast meats:

Char siu ribs:
Steamed fish with ginger and scallions:
Kau yuk with buns
E-mein with shiitake and green beans
Jai (monk's food):

Peanut butter cookies

I made peanut butter cookies from scratch for the bake sale. Yum!

Swoosh!!

I'm not 100% sure I'm supposed to be posting these pics, but last October we visited the corporate offices of a well known swooshy logo'd shoe company in Oregon. A friend who works there got us in to the well secured "campus" to see where she works, but we only got to tour outside of the buildings. Above is a lake which separates the various parts of the campus.

Since we don't get the full effect of the fall season in Hawaii, where the climate is very stable and tropical, we always marvel at the beauty of the turning leaves.


And here are the offices where the designers work, carefully measuring athletes and coming up with swooshy logo'd shoes and apparel. Imagine Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods walking into your office. How cool would that be?


What an awesome place to work! Too bad Ni.... I mean, the swooshy logo'd place doesn't hire engineers. Or maybe they do. Hmmmm.........

DeMaris Farm

Last October we went to Oregon for my grandpa's 90th birthday. It was a fun trip. My aunt and uncle own a farm in Woodburn, which is between Portland and Salem.

It is a wonderful farm. My uncle grows beautiful tomatoes that are the sweetest and tastiest tomatoes you will ever eat. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pics of the ripe tomatoes but here are some on the vines.



My uncle was also growing some pumpkins for Halloween carving. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to carve any before we left.


He also raises steer. They were just calf when we were there, so he was bottle feeding them. He also goes to other farms to buy turnips, which he feeds to the calves.


It was a fun trip and I'm glad we got to spend a little bit of time on the farm!

Happy New Year's / Valentine's Day

Kung Hee Fat Choy! Today is Chinese New Year's. This year, Chinese New Year's coincides with Valentine's Day. My mom always prepares Chinese New Year's dinner. For dessert, I made some chocolate hazelnut won tons, which are the perfect way to marry the two occasions!

I'd like to say I thought of this myself, but I happened across this recipe this morning on Food Network as Giada DeLaurentis was preparing what she called "chocolate hazelnut ravioli", using won ton wrappers. You take some store bought won ton wrappers, fill with Nutella, and fry in oil. When it comes out, you sprinkle a little bit of confectioner's sugar and top with a candied mint. Yum!!

Nitrous Extreme

New camera

We have picture taking tomorrow, and I picked up a Canon EOS Rebel XSi this past week. I've been wanting a digital SLR for quite some time now, and team picture taking was a nice excuse to finally order it from Amazon. I've been trying to replicate the aperture settings that one of our parents used last year to take team photos, but I'm still working on some lighting issues of taking pics outdoors. Hopefully this means this blog will finally get better pictures, but I'm also still just a very amateur photographer with no skills! I guess things can only get better from here!!

Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is a Japanese dish that is made with lean pork (I used pork loin), dipped in a batter of cornstarch and egg, then coated in panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and fried.

It's a very simple dish that is served with a side of Tonkatsu sauce, which is ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and a little bit of Tabasco. It sure hits the spot on a day where we have a long soccer practice and come home hungry.

My hands

Okay, I gotta say this, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I work in an office. I sit behind a desk all day. My hands aren't really subjected to much abuse, other than the looming threat of carpal tunnel syndrome from typing all day.

Occasionally, we need to get out in the field to log water wells. Typically we will drop a reel of measuring tape down a well, sometimes as deep as 1500 feet. To extract the tape back up, we have to manually pull it up. Lifting 1500 feet of tape isn't as easy as it sounds. For one, all of the tape, plus the equipment attached to the bottom, weighs about 30 pounds at the very bottom, Imagine, one foot of tape might only weigh a few ounces, but multiply a few ounces by 1500 feet and you get.... well, you get something pretty heavy!! Plus there's an $8000 probe at the bottom of it that weighs about 8 or 9 pounds.

The second problem is that since the tape goes into water, the tape is slippery. And there are rocks all over the tape from where it hits the sides of the open hole portion of the well. So basically you are gripping REALLY hard to not let it slip, but gripping the little rocks as well.

Now, being that I'm a guitar player, I really try to take care of my fingers. Having said that, ten years ago I almost sliced off my fingertip with a cleaver (that was the last time I used a cleaver), but that's another story for another time.

Anyway, after a day of pulling tape (it's really only about 30 minutes of pulling that you're doing in one day), here's what my hands looked like:

Amateur plumbing, part II

I finally received the correct parts for my shower control valve from Kohler. Whereas the last time I had a really funny moment of high pressure water shooting out at me because I neglected to turn off the main property valve, this time all went well. However, being as lazy as I am and also slightly more cockily confident, I once again didn't turn off the main property valve.

Fortunately there are valves at the supply lines right at the fixture, so I turned them off there. I can't say I didn't have a slight bit of fear when removing the mix valve though.

Now the constant drip of the leaky valve is gone, though now my wife says that it's kind of weird not to be able to hear the leaky drip.

Kettle corn

Sometimes when we're in downtown Honolulu, we drive to this vacant parking lot where a concession is set up to sell kettle corn. If you're not familiar with kettle corn, it's popcorn with sugar added.

I've always wondered when the sugar was added to the popcorn as it's cooking, because if you add it too early it will burn, and if you add it too late it will clump up or it won't melt. My uncle recently told me to add it at the very end of the popping.

Typically I make popcorn in my wok. First I coat the bottom with vegetable oil (or sometimes for a treat I add bacon drippings, if I have them). Then I turn the heat on and add the raw kernels and cover it. In about 3 minutes it starts popping, and I shake the wok to redistribute the kernels. You need the cover on because the first kernels will pop out of the wok. But after most of the popcorn is popped, the volume of the popcorn will keep popping kernels in. At this point, you open the lid and add sugar, at about twice the volume of the oil you added. If you let it sit for about a minute more, the heat inside of the wok will caramelize the sugar. After that, you open the lid and add salt.

My kids love this! If I make too much in the afternoon, they will fill up on it and not eat dinner!!

Next I'm going to try a healthier alternative with olive oil, but I'm not sure how it will taste. I also have an olive oil based margarine that I want to try.

The Dollhouse is just about finished

No, it's not another project for my daughter's class or something. It's the Fox series "Dollhouse", whose series is about to come to an end after just two seasons.

This show was my first introduction to a Joss Whedon series (his claim to fame was Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and judging by what I know about his other shows, this one was different in that it was more science fiction than horror/fantasy. The premise is that there is a huge corporation who is experimenting in neuroscience and has perfected a way to wipe a brain clean, and imprint it with a new personality. The "Dollhouse" is an underground lab in L.A. who rents out their "dolls", or people who have come to the corporation more or less voluntarily to have their brains wiped for 5 years, for various "engagements" (for the most part prostitution).

The initial development of the show was slow and focused on individual "engagements", but there was always a psychological / physical threat. As a result, the series got off to a slow start. But as the show progressed, it took a thematic turn to a blend of The X-Files and The Matrix, with a little bit of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. While the acting in the series was bland at best, the storyline was continuously intriguing and complex.

The series wrapped up rather nicely with some very unexpected twists and turns, one of which was almost in a Darth Vaderian "I am your FATHER" moment.

I'm bummed that this series has come to an end, but like a good movie I enjoyed seeing it through. If you haven't seen this show and get a chance, download a few episodes on iTunes and you'll be hooked. It really starts getting good in the middle of season 1. Or better yet, pick up the series DVD. We just bought season 1 and will probably buy season 2 when it comes out.