We were at a Giants game, right?

Hmm, you wouldn't know it from the pictures taken, but we were at a Giant's home game - our last for the season. Guess which team hubbie supports. Makes us really popular at home games... This season, we treated ourselves to going in with a group of people to purchase club level seats for part of the season. I tell you, those seats were awesome. People actually come to take your food orders at your seat and deliver the food to you. We were by the third base line, so got great views.

The picture below is of Marie, the guest services usher for our section. She doesn't look she would or could do it, but she put the smack down on people who tried to sneak into the section. She was hilarious, and a huge Giants fan. Everytime there was a great Giants' play, she would dance around the section. For this picture, she snuggled right up to hubbie. She is great flirt with the guys!

San Francisco, where is the food of my peeps??

My friends, hubbie and I went to Doobu this weekend. It was one of my friend's first time going to a Korean restaurant. I think it can be overwhelming for someone who hasn't experienced it before. All these little side dishes come out - which, by the way should ALWAYS be free, and if they aren't, I say RUN out that "Korean" restaurant. Usually there are other sorts of things that come out for free, too, broth with some rice dishes, fish, noodles etc. but I noticed that SF restaurants don't always do that, which scandalized my Korean mom when she last came to visit. The flavorings in Korean food can be quite foreign, too, and spicy! But, I love it, grew up on it, and miss it terribly if I go without it for too long. I miss my mom's cooking!

I don't understand, but in a city that is famed for its gastronomical delights, it seems to me that San Francisco sadly lacks really good Korean restaurants. It makes me miss home and the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT) where you can get excellent Korean food at a cheaper price than the decent food out here for high prices. If we go out for Korean, we usually hit up these three:

My Tofu House - 4627 Geary Blvd. This place is really good and specializes in a spicy soft tofu stew, probably my favorite in SF, but long lines. Website is in Korean, but you can at least see the prices and offerings. And it's got to be authentic if the website is in Korean!

Brother's Korean BBQ - 4128 Geary Blvd I can't remember if the English writing is visible or not, but it is on Geary and 5th. Don't go to Brothers II, which doesn't let you cook at your table. I think this place is probably a little overrated, but the best in SF for Korean BBQ.
Doobu - 1723 Buchanan My backup choice when I don't want to wait in lines. Pretty good, too. Try their haemulpajun (seafood pancake) which is huge and comes out on a heated iron plate.

The Kitchen: Before and After

We recently remodeled our kitchen. We have even floors! We have cabinets! We have shelves! And most importantly, we have a dishwasher! Our contractor was a dream to work with and was in and out of there so quickly, we couldn't believe it.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Meeting Amy Tan and the Ubiquitous Fruit Cap

This past Saturday, my in-laws (who came up from Fresno), my husband and I went
to see the opera "The Bonesetter's Daughter" at the San Francisco Opera. Amy Tan, who wrote the original novel upon which the opera is based, and the libretto to the actual opera was there, and I got a chance to meet her. Note the dorky picture. (I will also note here that the top I am wearing is from BCBG and was originally over $120, but I bought it Nordstrom's Rack a while ago for about $35. Score! ) The production was unique, but I have to say that I enjoy the classic Italian operas much more. And again, as per our usual, we did not have our camera with us, although we knew that we were going to meet Amy Tan, hence the shaky camera phone pic.

In other news, everyone I know seems to be pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or just recently gave birth. For one of these soon-to-be-born babies, I knitted the Ann Norling Fruit Cap#10 for Kids. I purchased this pattern at Article Pract in Oakland, CA. This pattern is super easy to follow and knits pretty quickly (for those who are more diligent than I). I meant to have it finished in time for the baby shower,
but it was not to be. I think it turned out very nicely - I meant it to be like a grape, but people seem to think it is an eggplant (although to me it would seem to be a very underripe eggplant). It also seems that every baby who has a family friend or family member who knits has one of these ubiquitous Fruit Caps. But, I understand, because who wouldn't love these little cute caps
on a baby! In the ultimate turn of laziness/efficiency, I interoffice'd this cap to the mom-to-be, since she and I are fellow corporate peons. Don't worry, I sent her "real" gift in the proper manner in time for the baby shower - from the baby registry and gift wrapped.

Stuff Korean Moms Like

Hilarious site, and most of it is true! My Korean mom is gangsta about paying the check and rocks the Korean mom perm.

http://stuffkoreanmomslike.blogspot.com/

The Makings of a Bad Day

See pictures. Enough said.

A Moment for Knitting Geekiness

Today, I am so excited to report that I finally purchased The Knitter's Block by cocoknits at Article Pract in Oakland. Here's a picture of it - these interlocking foam pieces come packaged in a handy and cute little tote bag, together with a cloth to help absorb water and some stainless steel T-pins. Book does not come with kit! Just something else I picked up while at Article Pract.

I have never really blocked anything before, but now that I have a couple of baby sweaters under my belt, and a sweater for myself that I hope will be finished sometime this decade, I think this will be a good investment for my knitting future. I have a couple of scarves that could stand to use some light blocking, so will embark on my first blocking adventure with those. The wonderful staff at Article Pract told me to try steam blocking first, if I am wary of complete immersion in water. They told me to use the steam setting on my iron, and when I mentioned that I actually have a garment steamer because I tend to burn things with irons, their eyes widened and they both exclaimed "Oooo, a steamer!" Haha!

Guitar Heroes?

After countless hours wasted playing Guitar Heroes on Playstation, my husband and I decided that it was time to get off our asses and learn to play the real thing. I am, however, reminded of that certain South Park episode where the kids sit around playing Guitar Heroes and when Stan's father tries to teach them real guitar, the kids say "Real guitar is for old people."

It has been about 2 1/2 months since we made that decision, and we are by no means any good (could it be that you actually have to practice to become better?), but we thoroughly enjoy our lessons and learning together. We feel like rock stars, no matter how unwarranted that feeling may be. Today, my guitar teacher exclaimed that he wanted to take a picture of my hand playing the F bar chord as evidence of my progress, since I had stated during one lesson that I would never, ever, ever get my hand to play a bar chord. Today, we also learned how to play the song Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1 by The Flaming Lips, just because I happen to love that song and there aren't too many chords involved, at least on the guitar tab that we dug up on the internet... Here's pictures of my guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, which my guitar teacher has nicknamed "The Counselor" (as if I were good enough to name my guitar, haha).

But, alas, after lessons, I sludged my way back to the office to do corporate peon work on a Saturday afternoon, wasting this pretty day indoors. Ah well, I suppose my corporate peon work will fund my rock star life once that starts going!

The Happiest Place on Earth

We are back from Anaheim, CA where we spent the weekend in order to attend a wedding. Long story short, I didn't realize that the wedding was literally down the street from Disneyland. I have never been there so it would have been nice to take an extra day to go and see it just one time.

I was, however, super excited to learn that a pinkberry was located less than 3 miles from the hotel. We went twice in three days. I lament that we don't have a pinkberry in San Francisco. The closest thing we have, I think, is Tutti Melon, which is delicious, too, but pinkberry just seems to be a touch better in terms of the quality and taste of the actual frozen yogurt. When we first visited a pinkberry in LA, the line was out the door, around the block, and there were articles in the LA Times about the parking tickets people were receiving for double parking to get some of the yummy goodness. We also happened to run into that Asian actor dude from Harold and Kumar movie fame and his entourage when we were last in a pinkberry. I don't know if it was because of the time of day or the location, but this time around, there wasn't any line. The picture is from day two - natural frozen yogurt with whole blackberries and fresh pineapple. YUM!!

The wedding was pretty nice, but on the whole, I feel wedding'ed out. This will be the third wedding we have attended in the last 5 weeks, all of which required travel (Tahoe, Hawaii, and Anaheim). Granted the locations were all pleasant (Hawaii, especially!), and the weddings were sweet, but seriously, at this point, both my husband and I feel that we won't be attending another wedding unless the it's for a blood relative or bosom buddy.

WTF

Things have been a little slow at work lately, seems like the downturn in the economy is really affecting us all. In any case, I am trying not to stress out about the lack of work, and instead enjoy the lull by leaving the office a little early, etc. etc.

Yesterday was particularly dull and I thought that I would leave around 5ish or so. Until, someone walks into my office about a project at 4PM, which really was follow up on some previous work I had done for them. Incidentally, it seems that the earlier project was sent into a black hole because I didn't hear anything about it after I turned it in. Ok, nothing unusual about getting projects towards the end of the day - that's all in the life of a corporate peon, but THEN, they state "Well, I don't have time to go into the details now, so what time were you thinking about leaving tonight?" I figure 5PM isn't a great answer around here, so I stretch and say I would stick around until at least 6PM or so. This obviously wasn't a very acceptable answer given the squinched-up facial expression I got in return. In an exasperated tone, they said "Well, I will TRY to get to you before 6PM then..."

So I sit in my office, really just doing some meaningless stuff, waiting around for this person to return. 6PM rolls around, not a peep. Then I hear this person with their loud voice on the phone talking about said project to the client. As though they had done the original work, and as though I hadn't just been waiting around for their butt to come talk to me about it. After the call ended around 6:30 or so, I figured, surely this person will now come talk to me about the project. Nope. So at 7PM, I gave up, and perhaps incorrectly (but I was angry) left without telling that person I was leaving.

As an aside, this person has done similar things to me in the past, so I don't know why I get so upset. I should just think it par for the course. My favorite was when they told me to wait around for them at the end of the day, and after waiting for literally 2 hours until about 8:30PM or so, I went to peek in their office and they had LEFT, people! As in office was dark and no one there. WTF.

Medium Fat Cheesecake

This weekend was gorgeous and relaxing. I went to Imagiknit where I purchased totally

 unnecessary, but pretty yarn (Koigu Painter's Premium Merino) to make the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery. http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/PATTlaceribbon.html I actually intended the yarn for a modular scarf pattern from Art Yarns, but as I knitted it up, the yarn just looked muddy and weird. I have tried this Art Yarns pattern with another type of yarn with the same problem (Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend). Perhaps it is a plot by Art Yarns to make sure that you can only use their yarn and nothing else! One day, one day...

We had friends over on Labor Day for a BBQ dinner. Of course, we didn't sit in the yard which is under semi-construction (a story for another day), but we did grill the chicken outside and brought it back upstairs and indoors. I still say this counts as a BBQ. I also made a "low-fat cheesecake" with lemon curd and strawberries which was de-lee-ci-ous.http://www.recipezaar.com/166151 The recipe from Paula Deen calls for sugar substitute, neufchatel cheese (instead of full fat cream cheese), butter substitute and egg substitute. What the hell? Why even bother? And this from the lady whose recipes and cooking shows on tv always call for adding a stick of butter to everything. So, I mixed it up a bit and tried to make it lower fat. My husband called it a "medium fat" cheesecake. We all agreed that the medium fat cheesecake was a success.