29 September 2008

strange weather.

baja california, mexico. sometime in the early 2000s.


i woke up this morning to the sound of thunder and pouring rain, even though the sun could still be seen. halfway to work, there were neither clouds nor wet roads. how freaking weird. and then it randomly started raining after lunch for a little bit.

28 September 2008

end-of-september-ness.

orange parasol at santa anita race track's kids area.

i organized a TD outing for saturday, that turned out to be far more successful than i expected. first we grabbed lunch at din tai fung in arcadia - and we had twenty people show up! the food was great, and cheap (for such a large group) and it was a good time. it's nice to see the TDs outside of work, not talking about work. then, about half of us went to watch some horse racing over at the santa anita race track. it was a sweltering hot day, but still a lot of fun. i was able to take a lot of good pictures too!

the rest of my weekend was pretty low key consisting of watching baseball, lilo&stitch, playing around with my new holga at the santa monica pier and cooking semi-homemade meals (thanks, trader joe's!).

the phillies clinched the NLeast, and the brewers got wildcard, which means the dodgers will be facing the cubs first in the NLDS. i'm completely torn, but i've come to the conlusion that i'm okay with the cubs knocking the dodgers out this early in the post season ONLY if they end up winning the world series. otherwise, i'll be pissed. i also hope that whoever loses this series, that they don't get swept, so that i can go to two games in LA. wooooooo - october!

25 September 2008

ohana means family

fresh mushrooms at a street market in tainan, taiwan.

ah, so this news has appeared on a couple animation blogs already so i feel no guilt at saying it - chris sanders, writer and director of lilo&stitch (and the voice of stitch), is the new director for how to train your dragon (the movie i'm working on)! woohoo!

ALSO, after last night, the dodgers magic number is down to ONE. playoffs here we come..!

22 September 2008

valentino!

snake at the philadelphia zoo.

dinnered at valentino this weekend with dan, mike, zai, juney and lucy. it was wine&dineLA (or something) and they had a $60 pre-fixe menu. it was absolutely fantastic, and i still can't stop thinking about the home-made cumin pappardelle with braised short ribs and chesnut ragu. or the pea soup with scallops! or the ricotta palate teaser! mmm.. i'm hungry just typing about it.

in baseball news, dan and i have tickets to dodgers playoff games!! i'm so excited.

17 September 2008

ocean side living.

building mid-demolition in philadelphia.

it was a milestone birthday for my brother this past weekened. and a completely unrelated bbq was thrown at zai's beach house in malibu - always a good time. also dinner'ed at nobu malibu - the omakase dinner we had was excellent, though less focused on sushi/sashimi and more on izakaya, and while really good, i don't think it's quite worth all the hype and cost. i'd rather go to takao any day.

09 September 2008

clean palate.

paper lantern in taiwan.

dinnered at palate in glendale last night. it's a very surprising place given its location. the food menu was small and nicely priced - but the food was excellent, as was our waiter. the wine selection is kind of ridiculous. and the buttered is churned in-house. i won't go into much detail or anything, we started with a cheese plate and the heirloom tomato salad. for the main course i had the brodetto - clams, shrimp, monk fish and halibut over grits - which was amazing. we split the flourless chocolate cake for dessert. nothing was very large, but i wouldn't quite say it was small plates / tapas style.

i've also been to a lot of other really good places lately, but i've been too lazy to review. here's a quick list of some of them (off the top of my head):

amandine (breakfast/bakery)
c&0's (italian)
cobras&matadors (spanish tapas, BYO)
lattitude thai (thai)
little door (french/mediterranean)
mao's (chinese)
palmeri (italian)
sasabune (japanese)
taiko (japanese)
takao (japanese)
tasca (spanish tapas and wine bar)
toscana (italian)

08 September 2008

addendum.

tulips in washington, DC.

despite my previous post making it sound like i'm unhappy with things right now, it's not that i'm unhappy or that things are terrible. no, they're not perfect or optimal, but i really am damn lucky to be living the life i am right now, and i really have no real basis for complaint.

06 September 2008

balance.



so since moving home, i've been trying to balance the level of independence/freedom i'm accustomed to in college with being the good taiwanese daughter by living at home and dealing with all that entails. well, it seems that i've finally hit the point where that isn't really possible without some major stretching of the truth (read: lying and deception). *sigh*

on a happier note, since their eight-game losing streak recently, the dodgers have come back and won six in a row, and are only half a game behind the dbacks. hopefully they beat them again tonight and jump nicely into first place.

02 September 2008

a winning record.

dodger stadium.

i've been to eight dodgers games this season. they've won all eight! now if they could only make it to the playoffs and maybe end the season above .500? just maybe..? obviously i need to go to more games.