Author: Pearl L

happy daylight savings time. i want my hour of sleep back! >:O

last saturday:
flew home to the bay area. had lunch at a really good little hole in the wall chinese place that just opened up near where we live. homestyle chinese recipes with a bit of a new twist. their chili oil wontons were exceptional, scallion fried pancakes were flavorful and not too greasy, and soup dumplings were steamed atop little rounds of cucumber, which added a refreshing flavor to the not-oily-at-all dumplings. i’m missing it already.

slept the rest of the afternoon before getting ready to celebrate alice’s birthday. dinner at scala’s was not bad, but a tad expensive. the food in general was quite good — the calamari appetizer was delicious, the caesar salad jer and i had was snappy and flavorful, the olive oil/vinegar/garlic bread dip was fragrant and tasty. my only complaint was that the main dish jer and i ordered, a sea scallop risotto, was a little bit disappointing. maybe risotto’s just not my thing, but the flavor balance seemed to be a bit off.

hit shanghai 1930 for an element party afterward, and although jer and i didn’t dance a whole lot (or drink at all, for that matter), it was fun hanging out at the table and catching up with folks i hadn’t talked to or seen in some time, especially ruth, ed, agnes, and kelvin. would have loved to catch up some more with more people (stacey and albert, in particular) but it was still nice seeing everyone there. makes me miss home a little bit more than i already do.

last sunday:
sleeping off saturday night and jer’s hellish week last week. mom fixed a really yummy amazing dinner of spare rib soup, yellow chives w/brown tofu and pork strips, shrimp and snow peas, home-roasted chicken, and celery/carrot/soybean sprout stirfry. i need to steal more recipes from me mum. :)

monday:
jer and i went to meet up with his mom in san francisco. we had lunch at boudin in embarcadero square, wandered into ferry building, then took a muni streetcar up to pier 39. picked up some saltwater taffy at the candy store at the end of the pier, watched some seals, then took a streetcar back to embarcadero, where we wandered around the shops at the center for a while longer before taking his mom back home. mom fixed some beef noodle soup for us as a quick dinner before taking jer to the BART station for his flight home.

saw eternal sunshine of the spotless mind with sarah later that night (lovely, beautiful movie.. i think it’s a favorite of mine now), then went home.

tuesday:
slept in, did some reading, did some job hunting online. dinner — bean sprouts with fried tofu, salmon, roasted chicken from the other night, and a couple other things i can’t remember (my memory is so shot). dad took me to the airport. hopped on a plane and flew home.

discovered my computer wouldn’t turn on. it’s still not turning on today.

wednesday:
my sister was still in town, so grabbed a late lunch with her at um’s tofu in gardena. dessert of hawaiian shaved ice at the shop in the same complex (highly recommended), and wandered around the hawaiian store two doors down. dinner — leftovers from lunch: bulgogi, tofu soup and rice

thursday:
cleaning day. took julie to the airport, then went to Fry’s on the way home. Picked up a dvd burner on sale for $70; have yet to install it.

friday:
ran around town looking for final fantasy tactics for the gameboy advance. finally located two copies at the eb games on PCH and Calle Mayor. Score! Dinner of dumplings and edamame. watched some movies on HBO (Conspiracy isn’t bad — Kenneth Branagh is such a good actor, but his talents are so wasted on a lot of the material out there now.)

yesterday:
lunch at chick fil-a with vanessa, fisshy, jenn w and marie. picked up a game stop membership (worked out cuz fisshy was getting games and could get a discount if i purchased a discounted membership i’d use anyway). got some candles at joanne’s while fisshy and jenn shopped for fabrics for their next projects (skirts and dresses for their friends.. that includes me, woohoo!). parted ways soon after, as they were going to a play in santa monica later that night. jer and i ran some errands before dinner (broccoli beef and picked radish), then hung around the house watching bad movies on HBO (collateral damage, anyone?) and donald trump making an ass of himself on SNL. tip: no matter how much you want it, seedless watermelon at this time of the year is really disgusting and spongy. not worth it.

quote of the day: while listening to the really long solo section in lynyrd skynyrd’s ‘freebird’ jer remarked that you don’t hear people playing like this on the radio anymore. “you have to be old or ugly to play like this.”

today: daylight savings time blows.

she joins the 24 club today. :) :) :) go wish her happy birthday if you haven’t already! >:O

especially for the folks in San Jose and Stockton.

Win a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle!! :D

had a very good eating weekend. I made a modified version of beef bowl for dinner last night that turned out to be ridiculously good. Here’s the recipe i ended up using (modified from the one i originally intended to use… long story)

Yummy tasty gyu-don (beef bowl w/egg)

4 C short grain rice (mm… sticky short grain rice…)
1 T canola oil
1 medium sized white onion
.8 lbs sukiyaki meat (the cheapest kind i found at marukai)
1/4 C mirin
1/4 C soy sauce
1 C water
1 t sugar
1/2 T hon-dashi
3 or 4 handfuls of prewashed bagged spinach (hey, it was leftover from spinach salad the night before)
4 large brown eggs, beaten

Cut onions into 1/2 inch wide slices and set aside. Heat wok on medium heat for a few seconds, then spread 1 T oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Allow oil to warm (but not get too hot) before adding onions. Saute onions until they are about 3/4 done (when the onions get golden and soft, but not soggy and browned). Add mirin, soy sauce, water, sugar, and hon-dashi to wok; stir to combine. Then add beef to the soupy mixture and cook for 10 or so minutes until meat is done. When meat is almost done, add the spinach, stirring and turning the soupy meaty mixture so the greens can cook.

After the meat and spinach are done, add the beaten eggs to the wok. When the eggs are set, you are done! Spoon over steaming hot bowl of rice and you’ve got a meal to make a non-vegetarian belly very happy. :)

I really want to try making a miso seared sea bass. If you happen to know of any good recipes (for sea bass or anything else really), please let me know! Ah yes, I could also use some good vegetarian recipes too. Can’t really live on meat alone. :)

but this is a cool link if you’re looking for a guide to color codes.

TripleColors (TnTLuoma.com)

WASHINGTON TODAY: House marks 25 years before the camera’s eye

– spiffy article on martha, barry bonds, and the double edged sword of celebrity
– The EPA says mercury isn’t so bad. Really!
– A new planet? Hi Sedna! :D
– Forgotten City Lies Beneath Edinburgh’s Streets
– Tori Spelling: Class Act :)
– Jay-Z’s Black Album mixed with Weezer’s Blue Album?!

my heart goes out to the families of those lost in the train bombings in madrid on march 11, 2004. may they rest in peace, and may the perpetrators be caught…

backing up an 80 gig hard drive is a rather tedious affair, especially considering i have only my old 4x sony crw-100 burner to help me out. the problem is that it was a lousy burner when i got it five years ago (not my fault, i promise) and it hasn’t gotten any better with age. needless to say, the going is very slow, and knowing that there are NEC dvd burners going for about $100 on newegg isn’t helping in the least bit. So I tell myself, “Pearl, you must save your pennies now or else you won’t be able to afford Coachella! and you don’t want to miss Coachella now, do you? How can you miss Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, the Pixies, Death Cab for Cutie, Basement Jaxx, Paul Van Dyk, Belle and Sebastian, Ferry Corsten, the Crystal Method, Air, the Black Keys, Bright Eyes, Junior Senior, the Rapture, Stereolab, and a million other awesome amazing bands? Oh and did I mention the Cure? Cursive? and the Thrills? I can keep going, but eventually it just gets to be meaningless shout-outs and name-dropping. Oh wait, too late, it already is.

Needless to say, Coachella is looking like it’s going to be freaking awesome this year, as it was last year and the year before (sorry, didn’t have the digicam then). I’d better not miss it because I blow $100 on a DVD drive I don’t need. Yet.

/end rant. Back to backing up…