Good Times in San Francisco !

[San] Francisco! That's fun to say.
- Buddy the Elf, Elf
(I thought the movie was funny)

This past weekend Joanne and I flew out to San Francisco for Scott and Jaime's wedding. We took Jet Blue up to Oakland and I was amazed at how much room they had in the seats. I spend all my time getting in some quality Tom & Jerry cartoons (provided by DirecTV) while Joanne put away a few of her Sudoku puzzles.


We stayed at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel on Nob Hill and boy did we feel swanky! The only downside is that we felt a little out of our league at this joint. Our excuse is that we got special discount rates for Scott and Jaime's wedding. We asked how we could get down to Fisherman's Wharf and they offered us the 'house car' (a new Mustang convertible). Since we didn't feel up to paying for parking we passed on the opportunity. Note to self: Intercontinental Hotels are very fancy. (Joanne and I once stayed at the Willard Intercontinental in D.C. - again for real cheap - and it was known for having regular hotel stays by Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln)

Joanne wanted to get some crab for dinner so we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf where we went to Nick's Lighthouse. We've eaten at this restaurant the last few times we've been in San Francisco and it's definitely our favorite place for crab. We recommend it!

Mmmmm....boy!

That next morning Joanne began working on her sourdough bread from Boudin's (we picked up some after dinner). It's her favorite and the only reason I mention it is that I find her method for eating it a little amusing. The inside is her favorite part since it's the softest; so she digs out a cave in the bread and eats the inside first. After a while you are left with a crust-only loaf of sourdough bread. I don't even think I'm supposed to be talking about any of this.

Moving on, the city offered some great sights (that pointy one is the Transamerica building).

We met up with Chang for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in Union Square. The Cheesecake Factory is located on the 8th floor of Macy's so we were able to wait outside on the balcony by the 'm' in Macy's (above the robot picture on the right).

Here is the view from the 'm' at the top of Macy's. It was an awesome day in San Francisco. Perfect weather, clear skies.

Chang experimented with the telephoto lens and took this picture of the statue at the top of the column in the center of Union Square.

For lunch, Joanne had the Chicken Marsala while Chang and I both had the Double BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. I would classify it as my favorite hamburger. I warned him that it was huge.

That evening, Joanne and I went to the Merchant's Exchange Building, where Scott and Jaime had both their wedding ceremony and reception. It was a beautiful wedding. Everyone in attendance was in tears after they exchanged the vows they had written to each other.

What also made their wedding unique was the head table arrangement. The bride, groom, groomsmen (with girlfriends) and bridesmaids (with boyfriends) were all at the head table. That was pretty cool. They also had a great motown band that played some great stuff. They were very talented and everyone had a great time on the dance floor.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Scott and Jaime Dever!

Late that night, Joanne and I went to have a couple drinks at the Top of The Mark, the restaurant/bar at the top of our hotel. They had a selection of 100 martinis. The Surfer martini was awesome (vodka, malibu rum, banana liqueur, and pineapple juice).

The next morning we had a fancy brunch buffet there. The food selection was awesome. Prime rib, honeybaked ham, caviar(?), omelettes, and a great set of desserts.

Soon it was time to go. Sad, but Sunday's weather didn't look as nice anyway. Here's a view of the houses on Nob Hill.

We flew Jet Blue on the way back and I am very impressed with their dual entry system. It made getting in and out of the plane a breeze.

Joanne and I had a great trip. Good times.

I dare you...

...to jump off the upper deck of Yankee Stadium into the safety net 40 feet below.
This guy said, "Yes."

I guess someone had to do it.

Here's the article from Yahoo.

Backstroke of the West

Reading other peoples' blogs allows you to find some great material. Being a big Star Wars fan, I thought it necessary to include it here.

Behold... Star Wars Episode III: Backstroke of the West

What is Backstroke of the West? It's the name of Star Wars Episode III, but translated from English to Chinese and back to English again. (Yes, they didn't even translate things properly that were written in English on the screen) Brilliant. What's even better is that the entire movie was translated in this manner.

Someone got their hands on a pirated version of Episode III that was first translated to Chinese, but then brought it back to English for our own entertainment. Here's a great scene where Anakin says, "Obi-wan, may the force be with you."

Check out even more screenshots from Star Wars Episode III: Backstroke of the West. They're all fantastic! You have to check them all out!

The wish power are together with you.

Golfing at The Lakes

Last week, Tony, Joel, Amy and I went to go play some golf at The Lakes in El Segundo. It was a good time except for the fact that I lost 3 balls and destroyed about 6 tees. If you're wondering: No, I'm not very good.



Here are some pictures of Joel, Amy, and myself attempting some putts. Thanks, Tony, for taking the pictures.

I hope that one breaks left.


Looks like Amy just made that one.


Look at that form!

Ouch.

One poll dies, another is born.

With the recent purchase of Reebok by Adidas (for $3.8 billion), Nike could be given a lot more competition than it has had in the past. Which company do you like better? I have posted a new poll. It's real simple. Take the 1 second and vote.
It's on the right side of the page. ----->

As for the last poll, here are the results from the 'Favorite Animated Series' poll:

Winner: The Simpsons (5 votes)
2nd Place: The Family Guy, South Park, Looney Tunes (4 votes)
3rd Place: He-Man, Thundercats, Robotech (3 votes)
4th Place: Duck Tales, Voltron (2 votes)
5th Place: Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gummi Bears (1 vote)
No love: Smurfs, GI Joe (0 votes)

Pong !

Last night, Joel came over and we played some Mario Kart and followed it up with some solid Atari time.

We played some Freeway (a very primitive, but almost better version of Frogger) and then Pong. Pong was awesome! Here you can see me beating Joel, but I think he was able to catch up and beat me on this match.

The best game variations of Pong are the ones where it turns the playing field into a foosball table. You control two paddles each, one offense and one defense. It gets pretty crazy because the ball speed increases with each successive hit. It's good stuff.

You should come over and play sometime.

Meet Anakin

This is Anakin Steuart Michele. She recently changed her name to Anakin because she was previously named Laura Ingalls Wilder Michele. Really. Her parents named her after the little frontier girl in the TV series 'Little House on the Prairie.' She changed it because she said "it just didn't fit." She said she was calling herself 'Anakin' long before everyone understood it as the birth name for Darth Vader.

Since there is a Princess Leah (reference blog entry on 6/22) and now an Anakin, maybe I should change my name to Obi-Wan Hirotsu. What do you think?

I work with some lame people...

Coming back from lunch, we drive around our parking lot to look for a parking space. All the spots are taken, except one....well, not really. This guy is pulled out of the parking space to put himself in the shade so he can enjoy his lunch in his car. He even moved to the passenger seat since there is more shade there. In addition, he strategically blocked the parking spot so he can return after he finishes his meal. Seriously. Who are these people?

Kobe's New Logo

As a followup to the post on 7/22, Nike has released Kobe's own logo for the Air Huarache 2K5 shoe. It's a pretty big deal...now he is in the ranks of Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Vince Carter, and Tiger Woods. I'm sure Nike was anxious to get it out since they have already had to wait 2 of the 5 years in his $40 million contract (that got set up just days before the rape accusation). I'm not a big fan of it, but what are you going to do?

Another Day at Disneyland

On Sunday, we went to Disneyland to enjoy the nice weather this past weekend. Whenever we get to Disneyland, I'm always interested to find out what floor of the 'Mickey and Friends' parking structure we will park on. It's been crowded at Disneyland all summer and since we arrived there a little late, we ended up parking on the Donald level (second from the top). No one really cares but me, but that's why I like the blog...you read it whether you want to know or not. And by the time you discover you don't really care, it's too late.


We enjoyed some ice cream and watched the new parade they set up for the 50th Anniversary. It's actually pretty good. I highly recommend you get a seat by the window of the ice cream shop so you can watch the parade out of the sun and in air conditioning.

And it looks like they are opening a new 'Finding Nemo" ride where they used to have the 'Submarine Voyage' ride. It won't open until 2007, but at least they are going to do something with that huge area next to the Matterhorn.

We then journeyed over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping (the girls wanted to go to Sephora), get some Jamba Juice, and have dinner at Naples. If you ever eat there, remember their 'medium' pizza is HUGE!

That night, we saw the Fireworks show again since Mom and Steph hadn't seen it. Here are some shots I took during the show. I thought they looked pretty cool.

Afterward, we went to go check out the new Space Mountain that opened a couple weeks ago. We had fastpasses and everything, but they had temporarily shut the ride down. Bummer. So, we'll have to wait until next time to check it out.




Looks like we are getting good use of our Annual Passes this year. We'll be back soon.

Poker Night

This past Saturday night, the 7 Card Studs got together for the July Poker Battle. This time the event was held at Kevin's house. Just before the game, we saw part of the World Poker Tour from this past April. We saw the crazy hand where Danny Nguyen caught running 7's and won the hand that he started off with a 1/2% chance of winning after the flop. That was crazy. Speaking of crazy hands, here's the flop we ran across during one of our Hold'em games.

We played until about 5:30am and here's how the table looked during the final chip count.

So, who won? I did!

So, now The Belt sits at my home on top of the TV. That's where it belongs.

Xena !

No, not the warrior princess. It's our new planet! It's only been tentatively named Xena (or 2003 UB313), but the new "10th rock from the sun" was discovered by astronomers in California. It's approximately a quarter the size of the Earth, but 3 times as far out as Pluto (its orbit around the sun takes 560 years). Astronomers couldn't find it until now because its orbit is tilted at a 45 degree angle with respect to all the other planetary orbits in our Solar System.

For your convenience, I have devised a new pneumonic device to remember all 10 planets in our solar system: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas Xylophone."

Stealth

Just kidding. Seriously, that movie just looks awful.

(In its defense, it did get 11% on RottenTomatoes.)