Southgate Garden

Jab Chae
Mon Doo
Kim Chee Chi Gae

So it's a hit and miss. Been here a few times and it sucked and sometimes it's not bad. Last night was decent. Service was quick, the food was decent, and the staff nice. Mon Doo was just ok but we both wanted spicy soup and that's what we got.

Gilbert's Main Street Bagel

Danny and Ivy mentioned this little deli joint in Bellevue to our attention a while back and we went there over the weekend for some breakfast. Look at the size of that blueberry pancake. Very moist and tasty. The chicken sausages were a bit dry. Neil enjoyed his omelete. This being a Jewish deli, they didn't have bacon :(

Time for bed

Max has realized that it's winter and he needs to be covered up. Hence, I find him on top of me under the blankets but as usual, he only wants to be partially covered.

My pick of movies for 2006

We've watched a lot of movies this past year as we always do. So with all these top 10 lists of the best movies for 2006, here's my top 5. There's a lot of new ones I haven't seen yet so obviously, I can't put them on the list. But I chose these 5 for their originality, storytelling, and would I pay to see it again. Here's goes in no particular order:

CASINO ROYALE
THE DEPARTED
APOCALYPTO
UNITED 93
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING

Wired Magazine

My new favorite magazine. www.wiredmagazine.com

Apocalypto

Despite the controversy over Mel Gibson, this movie was really good. Not a word of english, but that didn't matter much as it was like watching a foreign film and you just had to read the subtitles. With a cast of unknowns, the story was very powerful and the acting intense. All the talk about violence and bloodshed wasn't even an issue. It's nothing you haven't seen in any scarry horror gore movie.

I'd recommend this. However, I do wish there was a bit more of a political subplot for the fall of the mayans.

Xmas Eve

Dinner @ Zephyr

Fried Chicken
Flank steak

We ventured down to Kent Station to visit some friends grand opening of their nail salon but the opening was postponed and no one called to alert us. So we decided to eat at Zephyr which is part of Icon (Downtown Seattle). The atmosphere was very nice and the place was huge!

Service was excellent, food was just alright. The artichoke dip was bland. The salad didn't have beet in it and the waitress had to argue w/ the kitchen help that despite what they thought, there's NO beets in the salad. The steak was whatever. My fried chicken was very moist because it was dripping with oil, not flavor.

Our waitress and floor manager came by to ask how we were doing and we told them honestly what we thought and they comp the salad and dip.

We wanted to try the dessert but decided the whole meal was too boring to waste anymore time or $.

happy holidays

Latte

This is Eric's new dog, Latte. She's such a cute puppy! You know it's cold when you have to build a fire in Phoenix in the middle of December!

when you're down w/ a cold ...watch some dvds

Miami Vice. This movie blows. It's slow. The acting sucks. The story line is stupid. It's way too long. The music blows. Gong Li is there for eye candy. I can't understand half the words coming out of her mouth. Is she speaking english or chinese? Don't waste your time on this.
Oh hear's another stupid movie. Rosario Dawson is the only one who can act and I can't understand why she even bothered staring in this stupid movie. You would think Harold & Kumar goes to White Castle would be the most retarded movie but it's actually really original, and hilarious! This movie on the other hand is just lame. I like Kevin Smith, but everything about this movie blows! It's not funny, it's not clever, it's a lot of idiotic rantings and blubbering. Nate? Have you seen this?

Blood Diamond

saw Blood Diamond tonight. It's good to see Leonardo grow up to be a very powerful actor. He was incredible in The Departed and his performance in Blood Diamond was solid. I guess the next time you look at a diamond, you should ask if it's a conflict diamond, but how would you know?

Weekend Storm

A heavy rain and wind storm came through this past Thursday night knocking down trees and power lines throughout the city. It's now Sunday morning and we're feeling like refugees sleeping on Danny's floor. We went back this morning and there's tree debris everywhere and it's 40 degrees in the house. Still no power.

The first night we built a fire and slept in the living room. What a stupid idea. I had to get up every 2 hours to add wood to the fire and it didn't keep us warm at all.

Last night we all stayed over at Danny's and had a big hot pot dinner.

Hopefully, we'll have power restored tonight!!! It would be so nice to sleep in our own bed!

Eric@ Pali Lookout

More of HNL

I'll get copies of pictures from Eric when and if he ever returns to Phx. He's been stranded on HNL the past 36 hrs or so. I think he didn't want to go back anyways...

The sun wasn't strong which was a good thing. Went snorkeling at Hanuma Bay. Pay to park. Pay to get in. Watch a 9 minute video on how not to stand on the coral but people still do it. Pay to rent a locker and snorkel/fins. Pay to ride the tram up. I miss the good ol' days when it was FREE!
Relaxing in front of our hotel which was in front of the Honolulu Marathon finish line.

The best part of coming back was having fresh sweet papaya every morning.

What do you think of these pictures? All from the Blackjack phone. If you're steady, the quality is decent. It's a crappy phone if you try to take moving pictures as you can see the pictures from the U2 concert sucks ass! But overall, I love the phone.

We spent a lot of time wasting away on craiglists in our hotel room!

HNL Dec 7th to 12th

Returned to HNL just a few months after Hiram's wedding where we said we weren't coming back for a while. But it's U2 afterall and it was worth every penny! Eric and I stayed at a decent if not NY style small room w/ 2 twin beds. The last time I slept on a twin bed was back in college!

Ate a lot of food. Now we're even more fat!

Eric and his caffeine addiction @ Starbucks.

Soldout U2 concert.

Check out the flickr site for more pictures.

HNL ...I can't wait

What happened to my comment? As I was saying...My first U2 concert was (actually 2nd) because we saw them at Tacoma Dome and again in Vancouver BC with Becky, Teri, Patty, and Eric. Sugarcubes opened up!

Queen and YouTube

I wanted some new tunes somehow I ended up browing Queen/Freddie Mercury on iTunes. Then I went over to YouTube and found some nostalgic 80s videos of their songs. Check this one out...

Samsung BlackJack

I didn't like Danny's phone because I thought the volume of the calls weren't very loud and the ring tone was very soft. However, I've been reading up on the BlackJack and it's a lot of bang for the buck. I could have purchased my K790a however, there's no warranty and no returns. Even SE won't warranty their own product if you purchase it from their website, how #$%#$%$ retarded is that???

So I went ahead and got the Blackjack since the Wii wasn't available! hahahaah....

It's very different than a regular phone and there's a lot of features and getting use to buttons that I've never used before. The nice feature is that it has 3G technology which means it's FAST! The phone is 1.3mp which is OK. I'm still trying to figure out the email feature.

And this global warming sucks big time. It's snowing, hailing, freezing, lightning and thunder, power shortages, and ice everywhere is just terrible for business!!!

Happy Holidays!

New Balance Zip

I needed a new pair of sneaks and these were cool. It's not really brown as it's bronze. They're extremely comfy and cushiony. I was told that these were limited editions. Check em out, I guess they come in a variety of colors!

Phiten

www.phitenusa.com

I'm sure some of you have used Phiten and swear by it. Neil recently fell on his ass and we happened to walk by the Phiten store in downtown Seattle. They were extremely helpful and taped a lot of titanium G on Neil's back to relief pain.

I snagged a few dots and placed it on my wrist pulse points and it helped with my carpel tunnel issues.

They also have Aqua Gold and water and lotion and everything you can imagine that has gone through the Phiten process. I got a few socks that's suppose to help alleviate being on your feet all day long.

I'll keep you posted as to the results.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

You know my name

I DL Chris Cornell's opening song for Casino Royale. It sounds really good turned up LOUD on my iPod in my Yaris.

Mash Up Xanadu

I was ready someone's blog recently that a local bar was throwing a DJ event of Mash ups. This got me thinking as I was driving home that the earliest memory of a mash up was of Gene Kelly with ONJ in Xanadu. He was from the 50s and she was from the 80s and they were both singing a song each from their era and as it progressed, the 2 songs combined together to become one song.

I couldn't find it on YouTube but here's the last musical scene. And if you pay careful attention to the fashion, it's what HOT now. High boots, the color purple, animal print, flowy Muse clothing....Ahh! Nostalgia...

Happy Feet

Saw an afternoon matinee of Happy Feet with a theater full of kids and their parents. The only thing irritating was Robin Williams playing duo roles. He's funny, I like him, but he can be just a bit over the top! The music and dancing was a big hit with the kids! I looked around the theater a few times and children standing up dancing or bobbing their kids and giggling a lot. There were a few scenes probably too intense for kids but overall, it was cute.

Sony Ericsson

I went to watch Casino Royale again last night with Danny and Ivy. It was just as good as the first time and things made more sense during the second viewing because the movie does has a lot of plots. Reminds me a lot of The Bourne Franchise.
Perhaps it was the dinner last night, but I had a lot of random dreams blending into each other all night long.
But back to the SE. Obviously, Sony owns Columbia which made Casino Royale, hence every computer in the movie was a VAIO and every time they showed the phone, Sony Ericsson was featured prominantly across the entire movie screen! Self promotion every few minutes. If Sony made watches, I'm sure Bond wouldn't have been wearing an Omega!

So this is the K790a/ K800i phone. Of course, there's no GPS. Silver Ltd Edition. If anyone of you see it around the net for sale, feel free to notify me as I' ve decided that my Motorola SlVR replacement sucks ass.

And this is the M600 e-mail (Blackberry) Vesper Lynd used in the movie.

Casino Royale

Who needs Brosnan when you have Craig. This was by far, the best and freshest Bond in years. You can't compare him to Sean Connery but he kicks Roger Moore's ass!

The moview was over 2 hours but I'll go see it again and will probably buy it on DVD. Why? There was great action, great acting, Bond one liners, and the best part, in my opinion, is the human factor so lacking in the Bond films I grew up with.

Watching Casino Royale, I couldn't help but think how the fight scenes in Moore-Dalton-Brosnan movies were really about gadgetry and no one really gets hurt. Whereas, the fight scenes here are a bit brutal and not a single gadget and I didn't miss the scene of Q demonstrating all the gadgets Bond would end up using to get him out of a bind. In fact, the only gadget I wanted was his cell phone! Remember the K790a SE phone I've been wanting for months? It's the limited edition version in Silver. Kickass. And as difficult as it is to find the K790a in Brown, where the *$U)$#%U am I gonna find it in Silver?

I hope Daniel Craig sticks around for a few more and we see more of the new Bond! I give this 9 of out 10 stars. Why not 10? The movie was a bit too long and what's up with the stupid token old Chinese woman who didn't have a single line? Why bother?

I'm sick again

I don't think that AIRBORNE stuff works. I'm fizzling it a few times a day to help get rid of this head cold. It's not working! I'm coughing, wheezing, headache, stuff nose, so you can't sleep!

Nothing some DayQuil and NightQuil can't take care of but it's going on too long!

Less than a month before I see y'all locals again for Pearl Jam and U2. I could care less about PJ at this point and U2 NEVER dissappoints! They will rock. Anyone seen the new video they did with Green Day?

Weekend flicks

Took Hiram's recommendation and the theater was packed! There were some serious over the top scenes that will become classic! Then there were some really stupid ones.

Saw Saw III over the weekend. I don't know why Neil makes me watch these stupid movies. The first one was good like watching SCREAM. It was original and unexpected. Then we watched the 2nd one it was just whatever. Then I had to sit through this one and it was simply idiotic. I mean the premise is the same, there were some interesting scenes but overall, it was really a waste of my time.

Max unscrewed

Los Angeles

It was nice going to LA. The weather was very hot, sunny, and in the 90s. Can't beat that when Seattle is in the 50s and wet!

Sunrise @ 7:30am heading to Los Angeles

Downtown L.A. Our second home away from Home.
Mt. St. Helens. What a beautiful sight to behold.

LOST

Last night's episode of LOST was retarded. I felt it was boring and lame. Next week's episode looks a lot more interesting. The return of Boone was good though.

Heading out

Heading to dinner

Blue Ginger

Appetizers
Tempura
Seafood Tofu soup
My favorite part of dinner. All the little eats.

Robin Thicke

The son of TV's Growing Pains, Alan Thicke, Robin Thicke can sing!
I found him on iTunes and downloaded his new CD, The evolution of Robin Thicke. Very Prince, R&B, and what Justin Timberlake wishes he were...

www.robinthicke.com and check out his vids on youtube.

Thank You for Not Smoking

Go rent "Thank you for not smoking". Aaron Eckhart is #$%IU)O incredible. The movie is an awesome satire and comedy about the tobacco industry.

You taste like Fish Biscuit

I thought this episode of LOST was the best tonight. I wanted to kill everyone of the OTHERS. Ohh, it got my blood boiling. It's too much. NO wonder it's easier to watch it all at once, I can't stand this suspense.
And now there's The NINE. I can't stay up all night to watch these shows!

So back to Jun, Damn I 'm glad she shot the bitch and then I would have aimed up and shot the next person coming down and so forth...

Digging for the Truth

It's Sunday and I've spent the day cleaning out 10 bags of really old clothes that I haven't worn for a few years but couldn't let go. Well, it's gone now. It leaves me with about 2 dozen jeans I can't live without. My new favorite is PRPS and my inexpensive LEVI's is not only well made but it fits amazingly well. Who says you have to spend a few hundred bucks for a good fitting pair of jeans?

I just started watching "Digging for the Truth". Well it's got a good looking fella, Josh Berstein (who's like a modern Indiana Jones) and the story in each episode is really cool. Right now, they're discussing Stonehendge and the episode prior was about the Mayan Pyramids and I actually learned something and enjoyed watching it at the same time. Remember those horrible science shows we had to watch in high school with Richard Attenburrough and I swear, was there anyone awake?

Go check it out on The Discovery Channel, I think it's on 9pm on Mondays and reruns.

I've been obessing with this Rosemary chicken dish ever since Tyler Florence told me via his ads for Applebees that I had to try it. Well, it sucks from Applebees. So I went to PCC today and purchased everything I need to make my own. I'll let you know how my cooking turns out.

Mama is going to be away for almost 6 months. I've thrown out 3 bags of food from the fridge and I washed out the fridge. It's very empty and clean. Next up will be all her "herbs" that has been sitting in the kitchen for decades. Then the laundry room and garage.

There's this beautiful house on upper Queen Anne. It doesn't fit in with the rest of the victorians but I don't care. It's MODERN, it's a square with no yard, and it's open with lots of glass. It's the type of house I want to live in. Open, Zen, clean, and free of clutter.

300 the movie

Has anyone else seen the trailer for 300? Go to www.300themovie.com to check it out. I'm sure any Frank Miller fan will be anticipating this movie. I thought the trailer was amazing in terms of cinematography. In terms of the story or acting, I have no clue.

The Departed

We went to see The Departed tonight. Leonardo was amazing as well as the rest of the cast including Mark Walhberg, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and a list of other well knowns. Leave it to Sorcese to keep the story going as well as very intense. I haven't seen a movie this good in a long time. Well worth seeing again and purchasing when on DVD.

Lame and Gullible

I've always enjoyed watching Tyler Florence on the Food Network Channel and when you watch the repeated ads of him cooking his herb skillet chicken for Applebee's, all you can do is go try it.

The salad was way too drenched but the flavor was actually nice. The chicken was ok but after a few bites, I stopped eating. The ad actually ran on the TV while I was in Applebee's and it sure wasn't the same. Not to mention Neil's penne pasta with sausage was worse than frozen dinner. Bland and blah.

Of course, you're all saying, "Well, helloooo...What did you expect?"

Max's in school

Fall

This little leaf was hanging on for dear life on my way home from work.

Claim Jumper

Tanner enjoying a mouthful of Mud Pie.

Crunchy cheesesticks.
My favorite French Onion Soup. Hearty and beefy broth.
I think Tanner ate almost the whole thing. Then he started throwing the rest to the booth behind him.
I think it was at least 6 inches high.

Teri I guess had issues the next day. Jumbalaya... I think that was your problem.