Of Christmas Brunches and Other Surprises

To finish up the "Ida weekend," where we essentially spent some good time with the Muffin since she's moving back to Norway, a bunch of us met up at Garage Restaurant for Brunch and mimosas.

I didn't think the breakfast was that good, to be honest. I wouldn't return there for the food. The mimosas were great, though, and I had a great many of them.

After we went to Stonewall Inn for some pool and more drinks. We got a little carried away, and ended up spending most of the afternoon there instead of at the movies as we had originally planned. A good time was had by all, though. The crowd at the Stonewall (at least on a Sunday afternoon) is friendly and mellow, which sometimes is all one wants.

I stumbled my way into the subway and eventually to Mi Cariños', where I proceeded to fall asleep for an hour or two before we went to have some crepes with Pam and Laura. I have tried savory crepes before, but nothing had prepared me for the awesomeness that is Crepes with Nutella. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures for you.

What I do have pictures of, is of my early Christmas present. Nervous because I've been talking about buying one for myself, Mi Cariño decided to give me my gift early. I won't keep you in suspense: It's a Kindle!

It couldn't be awesomer. It's a touch kindle, wifi with ads - which means that when I put it to sleep, I get an ad from Amazon. I don't mind the ads at all, since they only appear when I'm not reading and at the bottom of the main page when I'm searching for the book I'm going to read next.

Best present ever. I've named her Santana. I'm already in love.

Anything Goes

Today I made Ida and Mi Cariño wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get in line to score cheap tickets to see "Anything Goes" with the wonderful Sutton Foster and the only Joel Grey. It was cold and windy, and we were the first ones in line, which Ida and Mi Cariño did not appreciate as much as I did. I took a picture of them but will not post, since I would like for them to continue to be in speaking terms with me.

That is my stolen pic at the stage at the end of the show. I don't know how people record entire numbers - the ushers were hella serious about making sure no one had a phone out at any time! They were even talking to each other through walkies about possible transgressors.

I loved it. I was even more surprised to see that the wonderful Kelly Bishop was part of the cast. She was great! Still dancing around gracefully and wonderfully like it's nobody's business. The show had many lovely old songs, and Sutton is great at being "old timey Broadway." Plus she's sexy as all freaking get-go.

Originally we were supposed to go dancing after, but we were all just too beat to do it. Instead we had something to drink at XXL, then went our separate ways.

Vacation all I ever wanted!

Today began my "Holidays" vacation - I am off until next year! I worked until 1:30pm, then came home to this wonderful meal cooked by my mother.

Locrío de pollo with a banana, and a wonderful salad comprised of romaine, carrots, chayotes, cucumbers, radishes, and an oil, vinegar and onions dressing. Lick your fingers good, and the perfect start to a vacation!

Later tonight the girls and I will have our "Christmas/Hannukah Dinner." This is our second year having it, and it's kind of nice - we're going back to the same steak place where we ate last year to exchange gifts, have some good conversation, and devour some meat.

Holidays...

So, last year Mi Cariño and I did a gingerbread house to celebrate the holidays. This year she came up with the idea for us to do our own ornaments.

We met after work in Queens, and the setting this time was cozier. We made the ornaments with pieces of cloth, needle and thread. It was easy, since I've done similar things with manualidades  growing up, but I'm just not really good at combining colors and what not. We were there with Mi Cariño's friend/coworker Becky, who chose some really nice colors, as did Mi Cariño. Ah well, everyone has their own strengths. Here's the finished product:

Mine is in the bottom left, the one with the crazy colors. Mi Cariño's is the beautiful one up top.

Afterward we were all ready for dinner, and so we walked to Wave, a Thai place we've been to several times now, but it's quite tasty. In an effort for something different, I went with Tofu Cashew Nut: onions, mushroom, carrots, baby corn and peppers. Couple that with some white rice:

YUM! I quite enjoyed it. Hopefully we'll be able to continue coming up with fun Holiday things to do in the years to come.

California Dreaming, Day 7

Today, we had a big break between interviews and so we took an extra long lunch break and drove to Old Town, San Diego. I enjoyed using the filters in my camera app. Some sightseeing shots:

Since today was also my last day of recording in California, we decided to live up the rest of the day and after everything was packed and put away, we took the short drive to Sunset Cliffs, CA to enjoy a nice sunset. Some shots:

I love this shot of Alex in silhouette. Totally jealous that we couldn't replicate it with me. 

This is a horribly drawn K & Y within a heart. Cuz I'm sappy like that. 

All the fresh air left us starving and so we met up with Alex's friend Billy and headed to Phil's BBQ. We had to wait about thirty minutes in a line that snaked around the building, but it was completely worth it. Waiters would come out every once in a while and provide people with an onion ring to make the wait bearable. At Phil's, you order at the counter, pick up your food and stuff, then hope to try to find a place. I realize that most "tasty" BBQ places do this. Because I felt adventurous I went with the pulled pork, and a ginormous order of fries to share with Alex.

To boot they had malted vinegar, which was amazing. It took forever to eat this, and both Alex and I gave it a valiant try. I did eat more than he did, and I had a great time rubbing it in cuz ha ha! Reminded me of my High School years at Church, where on Saturday nights our idea of fun was daring each other to see who could eat more, or the spiciest thing, and stuff like that. I always won at the eat more contests, because Mama didn't raise no fool.

Now to get ready for New York! This trip was exhausting, everything from my thumb being hurt to the time difference from NY, which made phone calls to Mi Cariño short and unfulfilling. I'm glad that this is my last recording trip of the year!

California Dreaming, Day 6

Some travel days, I'm not in the mood for anything. Today, I ate in my room and watched episodes of Gilmore Girls. Here's a picture of a piece of art hanging on the office building where we worked today.

California Dreaming, Day 5

Today, worked at the Los Angeles Museum of Holocaust - but didn't have a chance to walk through its exhibits. It is a great big building with lots of cool concrete to feel under your fingers and some sharp angles in the main lobby.

It was a short recording day, although it began early. As soon as we were done, Alex and I headed to Canter's Deli, which is supposed to be an L.A. Institution. It looked like a NY Deli. I had regular meatloaf, but forgot to take a picture.

After, we began the trek to San Diego, stopping first very briefly (as in, as long as the stoplight took) outside of Paramount Pictures, just to say I saw something Hollywood'y.

We also got to enjoy the sight of some palm trees adorning the streets

The drive to San Diego wasn't too bad, considering that we left around quittin' time. It's nice to be able to use the carpool lane at such a times like this. The fun part was driving all the way down to the wrong hotel in San Diego - thankfully the right one wasn't too far away, but it wasn't as nice as the first one so that was a bit of a letdown.

California Dreaming, Days 3 and 4

What a long day. We had a full recording day, then made our way from Salinas to San Francisco. The way in took longer, since we hit rush hour BUT we had the fun part of enjoying the Carpool Lane, even making up a little ditty to the tune of "Carwash."

Once in San Fran, I crashed at my co-worker Natalia's place, which was much more comfortable than I expected if still a bit awkward. She hooked me up with dinner - I don't remember what it was.

Day 4 was a travel day - I got to see the San Francisco booth, then flew down to Los Angeles. It was my first time there, and the movies don't kid: traffic can be a killer. And all the driving you've got to do! It took a little over an hour from the airport to my hotel. Once there I gave a call to Mi Cariño's dear friend Kristie, and I met up with her and her girlfriend Emily - we had purchased tickets to go see "Bring it on: The Musical."

We almost didn't make it thanks to the traffic, but we got there just when we should've. Lin-Manuel Miranda of In The Heights fame is the lyricist for this musical, main reason why we were interested. At the theater we met up with Kristie and Emily's friend Miguel, who coincidentally also had tickets. The show was decent enough, even though the music was not extremely memorable. The actors were pretty impressive with their jumping and what not.

After, we drove around to a hip diner-like place... I just can't remember the name. I wasn't bowled over by it all. I had a turkey meatloaf sandwich. Pretty unimpressive.

I was nervous since I was essentially hanging out for the first time with Mi Cariño's friends without her, but they were so open and friendly and fun that time flew. All in all, I'm excited about Bring It On: The Musical eventually making it to Broadway, and getting to enjoy the changes it'll go through after the tour.

California Dreaming, Day 2

I made it through a day of facilitating with a wonky hand. To celebrate, we drove off to Big Sur, to enjoy the hella amazing view.

Later, we drove to Monterey, to get some Thai Food at Krua Thai. It was a great little place, although a bit cold and unprepared for that kind of weather. There were veggie rolls,

this evening I had spicy noodles with tofu.

California Dreaming, Day 1

Today starts a week long tour of California. Super excited about it - except that I hurt my hand while playing Volleyball yesterday. My hand felt like hell while flying and all I kept thinking was that my thumb was broken. But, I'm nothing if not a professional, and so I got on a plane, on my own with two bags of equipment and flew all the way to San Francisco Airport to meet up with Kevin.

From San Francisco he drove us to Salinas, California. It's not a small town at all, but it has that kind of feel. However, blocks away from our hotel we found an In-n-Out, and that just made my night. It's simple, delicious, and you've got those little bible verses pre-printed on the food wrappers to entertain you.

After, Kevin and I made our way to Salinas Valley Emergency Group Hospital. The place, was amazing. I was seen almost immediately, and I was incredibly impressed by the equipment and how organized it all was. Ah, to have health insurance and have a private hospital nearby! My thumb was only sprained, but it meant that I get to spend my week with my hand looking like this:

Oh yea. Really looking forward to setting up the equipment and writing my log sheets. /end sarcasm.

Feliz Cumpleaños, Cariño

Mi Cariño decided at the last minute that she did want a birthday celebration after all, and so we got together with some of her friends and headed to El Barrio in search of some good food. We ended up at Amor Cubano.

The place is pretty nice; they have live music on Tuesday nights, which we enjoyed while we drank delicious Sangria.

I enjoyed some vaca frita and white rice. I also stole someone's maduros. The live band sang Feliz Cumpleaños, Salsa style. A good night all around.

The fun part was teasing mi Cariño, who knew that all her friends knew what she was getting as a birthday present. She didn't find out until Wednesday night, when I tricked her into thinking we were going to happy hour with my coworkers, but instead we saw The Lion King. It was great - we were mezzanine but able to see everything clearly. Hopefully it was a great start to her new year.

Day Trips

So: Ida, Steph, and I finally were able to find a day when we were all free and so we piled on Steph's car and drove to Norwalk, CT for some friends time. It was just like old times, but it also wasn't - we've grown in the past four years, changed... I think however, that the core of who we are as people remains the same and thus... the Aquarium!

But before that there was brunch at Chocopologie, and at brunch they were delicious mimosas. Alas, I deleted all of my pictures of this day except for one.

I followed that with a Croque Monsieur, even though I was afraid of what the eggs would taste like, with their country potatoes. The whole thing was pretty tasty, but I don't think I would try that plate again. Not because it wasn't good, but it just didn't leave me day dreaming of it.

After spending some good time just chatting, we made our way to the Aquarium and in a last minute decision (and because we'd had a late start) we decided to actually bypass the aquatic animals to see animals on the IMAX screen - especifically "Born to be Wild," the movie.

It was adorable! Awesome! Fun and sweet, and completely awe inducing. I don't have enough big and good words to say. My only complaint is that it was too short - I wanted more! It was great to watch it on an IMAX screen where it was all nice and purty and SO big.

After, however, we couldn't just call it quits and so we headed back to Chocopologie (although pool was considered) for dessert. We began it with some chocolatinies. And just in case that wasn't enough chocolate we shared some chocolate fondue

It was all just too much chocolate for me, so I took it easy. Can't say that I'm worshipping at the altar of Chocolatinies, but it was a good new flavor to taste!

We finished the wonderful day by having some italian, and playing the board game "Broadway Star!" - Spoiler: I didn't do too badly, so maybe there's hope for me and Broadway.

Working Sunday

Naomi and I had to work at the New York Booth today. Working on a Sunday is never fun, but at least I get to work with Naomi, which I haven't done in a while. To make it all better, we decided to go for a tasty lunch away from the booth during a lull in between interviews.

Since Naomi is now Vegan, we walked around until we found a Vegan Chinese Food Restaurant she had been to before, Buddha Bodai.

We decided to share our meal and we began by some delicious vegan dumplings. I went all out and had them pan fried instead of steamed.

Then we went for the General Tso's "Chicken" and some white rice.

This meal was DELICIOUS. I'm running back here the first chance I get - the general tso was not too heavy, the "chicken" was the perfect consistency, and all is right with the world after you eat this meal.

We rushed back to work to find that our afternoon interviews had been cancelled - which wasn't that big of a deal, since I had to go to midtown after to buy some things. Not a bad working sunday after all.

Que me des tu cariño...

So, Mi Cariño's birthday is coming up, and I've been toying with different presents and what not. One idea, since her birthday falls in the middle of the week is to cook for her. But that sounds cheesy, not to mention that I think she wants a shindig (a quiet one) with friends around that are not me.

Since I have no big plans for this beautiful Saturday, I decided to just cook while she's away working on her poetry. This has not been at all influenced by all the talking she did last night while we were at her Line Sister's home - you know, where she's talking about how I keep talking about knowing how to cook but that I've yet to cook for her and what not. This was unfortunate because indeed, I tried to cook for her on one of my days off last week, but it just didn't work out. In any case, this was my idea, don't you let her tell you any different.

This was quite the nerve wracking experience, and I wasn't sure as to what to cook. I decided to go for something easy and that I've often cooked: Locrio de salami. Now, Mi Cariño is not a habitual salami eater, but I figured she would eat it if I cooked it and so I went along. Locrio de Salami is special for me because it was one of the first meals I learned to cook, but most importantly it was one of the first (if not the first) meal I cooked that I was proud of.

In any case, the day began with shopping ingredients for the meal: rice, salami (of course), the appropriate seasonings, bananas, cabbage and tomatoes. Once back it was a matter of pre-cooking the salami, adding the seasonings, water, and when that boiled, the rice. Then it was just to cover it and wait.

Cooking rice is horrible. I never get the ratio of water to rice right it feels, but I got really lucky this time I think. While the rice was cooking I prepared the salad, which consisted of cabbage, some carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. When Mi Cariño got home, I asked if she wanted maduros as well, but I think she wisely wanted to take it slow.

Here's the finished product:

If I do say so myself, it was pretty tasty. I think Mi Cariño enjoyed it, too. So, not too bad.

Team Jacob

Ida and I bought our tickets early, chose a place a little out of the way so that we wouldn't run into a whole lot of people, and we were nice and ready for a midnight showing of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part I.

Before hand we went for some Thai food, because we both love it. We went to Laut, which was close to the theater, and began the meal with some singha beers. We followed the meal with some veggie steamed dumplings.

I decided to try out their tofu pad thai, although I thought of getting something new, but couldn't be bothered about it. Although it looked terribly appetizing, I was incredibly disappointed with their pad thai. Ida, however, was happy with her meal.

After, we stood in line in the freezing cold with a bunch of a lot more women (and girls) to wait until it was time to be in the theater. We purchased a special deal that allowed us to see the previous movie and already be in place nice and warm by midnight when the new movie began - a similar deal to what we did for Harry Potter, but we didn't care enough to watch all three movies before hand.

In between movies, the theater played a bit of a trivia game, which was fun, since I won a prize. I no longer remember what question I answered, but it was kind of obscure. We tried to win a prize for Ida as well, but couldn't think of the answers fast enough. I chose me a Jacob shirt as my prize, since he is all kinds of cute and adorable.

The movie itself was... okay. I mean, it's not like the source material is that great to begin with, right? As much as I enjoy making fun of the movies and books, I think that they are just a nice enough plot, that plays on the desires of women that have accepted the fairy tale bs - you know, meet that one man that will be sooooo perfect and sooooo awesome, etc., etc., throw-up-cakes. I find it good fluff. The movie stayed pretty close to the first half of the book, and it was interesting to see how and what they chose to cut out.

The sad part of walking out of the theater and grabbing a cab around Park Avenue was knowing that I won't be watching the next movie with Ida. These things are infinitely much more fun when you've got someone that enjoys them as you do by your side.

Barbecue and Drivin' part deux

At the end of our recording day, we had to drive back to Kansas City and it was my turn at the wheel. I tried not to think about it too much, telling myself when I did that I had done it before, and just because this time it would sneak into night time, there wasn't going to be a difference.

This time the drive was faster since I wasn't so afraid to hit the gas pedal. I chose my "buddy," a small truck that  looked to be heading in my direction and just stuck with him, and that helped a lot. Jackie was also helpful in letting me know when to change lanes and why.

Happiness didn't last long though - there was more traffic on the way in than out, and when we entered Kansas City itself things were moving a lot slower for me. To boot, night sort of creeped up on us, and having never driven at night time I totally freaked out: I couldn't see the cars behind me, all I saw were two points of light and they blinded me, and I couldn't see the actual lane lines. So I pulled out as soon as I possibly could, did some very dangerous driving in the process, and handed the car to Jackie, who I assume was okay with it since she wanted to remain alive.

As a reward for a long day we went for some BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's. The place is a legit restaurant, but it's also a gas station, with novelties for sale out front. There's no table service, and it was nice and crowded thanks to the presence of a filming crew - apparently some kid who had accepted a football scholarship was having some BBQ in front of the cameras.

I didn't mind one bit. I went ahead and chose the beef brisket with a side of creamy slaw and some white bread toast.

Although the brisket was a bit cold, it was quite delicious and I didn't hesitate on dispatching that rather quickly.

After, we headed over to Brookside on Naomi's recommendation, to have some custard at Foo's. We had to drive around quite a bit, and we were lucky that we arrived just as the owner was reopening the doors.

It being November the place wasn't crawling with people, but we were lucky to have somewhere to sit and eat. We were lucky that we had the chance to get the history of the place from the owner, a woman in her 50's, who was quite nice and friendly. I had the Butterpecan Concrete.

She added cookie dough and it was perfect. If you go to KC, you should always make stopping at Foo's a priority.

When in Kansas

While driving out of the base, Jackie and I spied a shooting range. Even though we're both hella liberal and conscientious and crap, our first thought when I said the words out loud were "Let's go shootin'!" We made a U Turn as soon as legally possible and headed to Godfrey's.

Inside we immediately let them know that we hadn't even looked at a gun before. (Well, I did once, but I barely remember the occasion.) In any case, the helpful girl behind the counter didn't even bat a lash and just gave us the gun "with less recoil." We bought a pack of a 100 bullets, got some protective eyewear for Jackie (I didn't need any thanks to my glasses) and we headed inside.

Thankfully the range was pretty empty, and there was an employee that was nice enough to show us how to safely load the gun and hold it to minimize the recoil. Here's me being badass:

Here's the gun, which Jackie and I shared. I don't remember the kind, to be quite honest.

Turns out I'm a good shot:

It was a pretty surreal experience - it was almost like playing a video game. Although the gun felt heavy in my hands and I was aware to always point it forward, when pulling the trigger there was no feeling of the significance of what I was doing. It would be as easy to shoot a person as it is to shoot a piece of paper (movement-wise) and that freaked me the heck out. The fact that this is why there's so much death in the world - because this is so easy. It can even be fun - I delighted upon hitting the target where I wanted to hit it. I don't know. I don't see myself trying to do this ever again, but I'm glad that we tried it.

After we went for a walk to a Korean restaurant down the road. I can't remember the name and frankly have no desire to search for it, because the food wasn't that great. I usually love Asian food in general, but Korean is not one of my preferred types.

I had three kinds of kimchi, some fried dumpling, and beef fried rice (except it wasn't called that.) Meh. Though not a bad night for our last night in Kansas.

Flatlands

Monday night in Junction City/Fort Riley, KS. There's not much to do, and the movie theaters are too far. Jackie and I didn't get to see a single group of military people wearing fatigues running drills while working at one of the Elementary School's in the Fort. They were a good group of people though! After searching around, we ended up at Napoli's, the area's Italian restaurant.

In an effort to be different, I got me something that involved grilled chicken, noodles, tomatoes, and broccoli. I can't remember the name of the dish. It was deeply disappointing, specially since Jackie got what seemed like a delish lasagna. Not an auspicious beginning for Kansas.

Barbecue and Drivin'

So, I get to go to Kansas, via Kansas City, Missouri. (Confusing, I know, but hey.) I met up with Jackie at the airport, and we made our way to Arthur Bryant's, thanks to Naomi's recommendation.

After my wonderful experience in McComb, I decided to give pulled pork a chance one more time. Plus, it was under "house specialties." I paired it with a diet coke, to steady the nerves. It came with a side of fries and atop a slice of wonderbread.

That was so good, I have no way to describe it and give it justice. It felt heavy, and bone filling, and delicious. And it gave me the courage to drive two hours in the highway, over to Fort Riley, Kansas. Oy to the Vey.

Bryant Park

After years of asking my friends to go with me to Bryant Park to ice skate, I finally made my way there with Mi Cariño and two of my nieces.

The evening started with a walk around the shops, some really bad hot chocolate, a mad dash for socks at the store, and the excitement from the girls who were skating for the first time.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the completely happy experience I hoped for, since one of my nieces fell - face first. After that she had no desire to skate, and so we made our way out of the rink, and to the closest McDonald's.  Alas, I'm still glad I got to go to Bryant Park - Finally. All's end that ends well though, because we finished the night at home, watching movies and eating Frito con Carne, made by my sister in law.

I will love you 'til my dying day...

Finally the day arrived to go see Brandi Carlile in Concert. After an amazing birthday weekend that included dinner at Cesar's, and an Idina Menzel concert, this was just the way to start my 31st year in this earth with a bang. Because we felt like it, Mi Cariño and I stopped by Heartland Brewery first. I was craving a real meatloaf after my Chicago experience. 

First, some pumpkin ale, which brought many memories of sneaking to the Heartland Brewery at the bottom of the Empire State Building with my friends during lunch hour. 

They had a pre-fixe deal and so we went for it. Thus the Spinach Dip appetizer

To my deep disappointment, the meatloaf had been taken off the menu. I made do with some steak and potatoes. 

The meal ended with some pie. It was not very memorable. 

We spent the rest of our time at the restaurant trying to guess which of the groups present were also attending Brandi's concert (since Heartland was practically next to the concert hall.)

Brandi was everything I imagined she would be live, and the best part was to get to share her with Mi Cariño. 

All Hallows Eve

In preparation for my birthday, Mi Cariño and I went to the Lower East Side (or is it NoLiTa now?) to do some shopping. It happened to be Halloween. Kids were cute. We ate some deliciously expensive pizza that claimed to be the best in the world, at Lombardi's Pizza.

After, we stopped by Rice to Riches to get some arroz con leche for my Mami. I didn't take a picture of that, unfortunately.

More Thai in Chicago

Went to Penny's Restaurant, which ended up being Thai. This time we took the "EL" to get there, and it was fun. No trains compare to a NYC Subway.

I had some tofu pineapple fried rice.

Meh. Afterward we walked around the neighborhood, the name of which I can no longer remember. It was interesting though - a combination of awesome tiny stores and big chains. Some of the views: