Tag Archives: food

All quiet on the western front…

I haven’t been posting much lately since I’ve been busy at a new temporary month-long job down here in sunny California.

Been meeting a ton of people and making new friends, as well as visiting my mom (my dad is in China right now), brother, sister, and high school friends.

Eating some good food:

  • Pizz’a Chicago — mmm good deep-dish!
  • that place on El Camino that used to be Senor Taco — sopas con carnitas!
  • Dynasty for dim sum — pretty good…
  • In-N-Out — double-double animal style
  • some new Szichuan place for really red broth beef noodle soup, scallops, etc.
  • quite good catered breakfasts and lunches at the job, too!

Playing some games:

  • Ra — Aaron doesn’t like this game.  That’s okay because it was just me and Chris and new friend Jessica.  🙂
  • Carcassonne — Jessica kicked Chris and my asses.
  • Fury of Dracula — the 1987 version.  Dracula was totally pwned.
  • Hearts — fun, old school game
  • D&D 4th Ed. — really brief intro to combat pretty much through a one-shot adventure run by Chris.  Not entirely sure how I feel about it now, as each class doesn’t seem as distinct as in 3.5, but there’s definitely more balance I think.
  • dodgeball at Jump Sky High — hella tiring!  I’ve gone before so I was prepared but damn.

Gonna try to meet up with Chris, Grey, and SG again this weekend to play Chris’s new game Pillars of the Earth and maybe War of the Ring or something.

Scott here 2 weekends ago; us in New York City last weekend

We were in New York over the weekend for a wedding ceremony for my brother Max and new sis-in-law Nancy (and Nancy’s sister Nora and her new husband Brice)! Song Gong joined us there and it was fun as hell. Photos soon.

Impossibly tiny hotel room, especially the bathroom, at the Hudson Hotel which seemed to be more of a dance club for locals than peaceful rest for guests. Crazy taxis putting those found in Crazy Taxi to shame. (Lanes have no meaning.) A subway where half the stops seemed to be under construction making for lots of walking. Really good pastrami at Katz’s Deli (better than Carnegie Deli). A really nice day of walking around Central Park. Some slices of pizza at Sacco (near our hotel recommended by our concierge and good). Good museum going at the Whitney‘s biennial. An amazing lunch at Crema, a restaurant owned by Julieta, chef and wife of a high school friend, Jafe. (BTW, this was our best meal in NYC. Go eat there!) Incredibly good scallops and honey walnut prawn at the wedding banquet (Chatham Square Restaurant) where these three French girls at our table (cousins of Brice) didn’t eat anything!. Completely soaking rain one night after visiting Jafe and Julieta the night after the wedding banquet after they couldn’t make it because Jafe sprained his ankle while trying to catch an express subway to meet up with us (ouch!). Really nice pastries at Veniero’s. Two great grocery and dry goods stores: Zabar’s and Kalustyan’s. And a whole lot more! At one point we even had a cannoli in our pocket. But we didn’t have enough time to go everywhere we wanted. Next time it’ll have to be a week… or longer.

And the week before Scott was in town, up from Portland. He, Brian, Erik, Ari, and I played lots of games: Pandemic, Zombietown, Clans, Family Business, and Race for the Galaxy. We also watched The Forbidden Kingdom, the Jackie Chan, Jet Li movie out now. Fun