Proud Of You, Clippers!

Had the privilege of witnesses the Clippers last game of the season, in person, last night.  Thankfully, unlike most years, the last game was in the playoffs this time around.  Didn't matter that our seats were practically holding the walls up, nosebleeds (hmm, now that i think about it, I'm going to blame the altitude up there to my drunkenness).

Thank you for the first of many great seasons to come.  There's a new power team in LA ladies and gentlemen, and they don't wear woman's colors (purple and yellow, really? :cough: feminine :cough:)

Consolation bacon wrapped "danger dogs" outside the Staples Center

Angels Baseball 2012

Pujols sucks this year, which in turn means the Angels suck. Doesn't quite explain our bullpen throwing little league pitches down the pipe but oh well. Still going to enjoy this season at the ballpark instead of on TV. Helmet Nachos are REALLY big.

Megadeth + Motorhead

Nostalgia concert for me. Adolescence reminiscing at its finest.

Nightclubbing Like a Son of a Bitch

There was no stopping this dude. Never mind the fact that he was the only one in the club that wasn't personally invited by Polo, the birthday boy. Never mind the fact that he was 20+ years older than everyone in the joint.

Ball so hard his tie don't even need a collar!

Bruxie

We finally checked out this restaurant in Orange. We had a prolonged convo about how it SHOULD be pronounced, but forgot to ask one of the employees to validate which of the following is correct: Bruhk-see, Brook-see, or Bruh-see (since the French spell Brussels "Bruxelles" and Bruxie is actually derived from that). We've heard literally these three pronunciations, but if you really want to be technical, then the latter should be the correct one. Anyway, we do plan on going back to check out the rest of the menu since it isn't very extensive.

National Coffee Day

Coffee, you helped me out a lot these past couple of (stressful) years. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be finishing school in November. Thanks for being so cheap and delicious. You better bet I'll be faithful for the rest of my life.

Blackout Wedding

Best part about going to/being in a wedding at a hotel? Not having to worry about getting home. Queue in: The Blackout Wedding. I had the amazing privilege of being part of Chris Ngo, one of my long time best friends, and his beautiful wife Sophia Ngo's wedding this past weekend.

520 people. Enough said.

Food From Heaven

Being half mexican AND living in Southern California makes for a TON of Mexican food consumption. In a sense, I may not be The King of Yelp: Andy Cool but I am a sort of expert when it comes to Mexican dishes. So rest assured when I boldly state, "This is hands down the best mexican food dish I've ever tasted in my entire life."

After a drunken rampage of Cabo San Lucas' downtown bars and nightlife, Chris Ngo's bachelor party gang was famished. I busted our a little bit of the 'ol espanol and to our cab driver and voila we ended up at Taqueria "El Paisa". Our driver could not stop raving about how delicious this dish was going to be. So fast in fact, Du Tran admitted "I tried to pick up on what he was saying but he was talking so fast."

Imported cheese from Mexico's version of Wisconsin (Chihauhau), imported carne asada from the finest suppliers of beef in all of Mexico (Sonora), and habanero salsa so good, but spicy, that it made Johnny Vo cry.

I introduce to you, the REAL carne asada fries: Papas con Queso y Asada.

Labor Day Weekend: FYF Fest, LA

We went to Altamont's FYF hippie fest yesterday, and while the music was awesome (Weakerthans, Broken Social Scene, The Descendants and Explosions in the Sky were my favorites), the audience/concert goers on the other hand were a HUGE distraction. Hideous outfit after hideous oufit; Above the belly button unflattering shorts on girls, dick cutting "skinny" jean shorts (when I say shorts I mean last winter's pants, turned this summer's shorts via a pair of elementary school scissors) on guys, etc. Plain and simple, this generation is trying way to hard to look unappealing to the opposite sex.

The event was held at Los Angeles Historic Park. However, this "park" was 90% dirt and straw and only 10% actual grass. And, I'm sure I could have counted all the trees on one hand. Not really sure what this "park" looks like on a normal day, but I can't imagine even a dog would enjoy this historic place.

All in all, the music was just good enough to make the day enjoyable. If it wasn't for the Beard Papa's the next morning, I'd have more to gripe about.

Hillcrest Sunday Lunch - The Range

We ventured to Hillcrest (Sarah's backyard: she works in the area and opts for casual sight seeing walks instead of the quite popular 'food' on her lunch breaks) for lunch on Sunday aiming to introduce me to a place she has been frequenting lately. But, after waiting a good 15 minutes for even an acknowledgment that we were in the building, let alone a greeting or a drink order, we decided to journey elsewhere. Literally a few steps down the street we ran into The Range.

The Range is the newest spot in Hillcrest, opened two weeks ago but was already crawling with patrons. They feature a great, simple selection of organic ingredient dishes. Burgers, sandwiches, salads AND breakfast all day long!

We split a Julian hard cider that was awesome; not too dry, perfect sourness and 6.99% alcohol! I got the hand breaded with potato chips chicken strips with a Belgian waffle and Sarah got a pear, roasted almonds and blue cheese salad. Both were absolutely perfect, but as always Sarah enjoyed mine better than hers, regardless of what she'll tell you.

Oceanside Trip

Oceanside is usually just an eye blink as we make our short journey to each other. But, every once in awhile we meet half way and explore the coastal city and its slow moving atmosphere. This time we met for dinner, some dessert, and a stroll on their pier (which, exactly like every other pier I've been on in California, has a Ruby's on the end of it. Ruby definitely has a corner on that market. Well played Ruby.

We grabbed burgers at Ty's Burger House, which Sarah wasn't too thrilled with but once I switched burgers with her she was more than satisfied. (Go with the Bacon Bleu Cheese burger). We also grabbed some dessert at Petite Madeline Bakery. Ok, I'll be honest, we ate dessert BEFORE the burgers since we saw the bakery first. After all, it's not a rule that dessert has to come after dinner. I live by my own rules, I'm a rebel you hear?

Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market

We've been wanting to check the Pasadena Flea Market out for awhile now. We didn't expect too much since we both knew it would be filled with massive loads of garbage and yard sale diarrhea, with very minimal items that would entice us. We also knew the owners of said enticing items would be looking to break the bank. What we didn't anticipate was the 90+ degree heat.

After paying an ass-raping $8 entrance fee, apiece, we began to scour for cool miscellaneous nick-knacks, all the while keeping our eyes peeled for vintage furniture and toys. After an hour, all we had amassed was a $1 book detailing Scottish kilt plaid patterns and their respective family name backgrounds, and a $5 frozen lemonade. Seeing $650 price tags for a pair of knock off Herman Miller chairs wasn't really helping either.

I was determined to not leave empty handed when I came across this piece; a vintage smoking ears ashtray. Not as old as it looks, but still great living room fodder, seeing as we don't smoke. Lay the cigarette in his mouth and the smoke escapes through his ear holes; classic 1950's handcrafted miscellany.

Peter's Gourmade

After seeing Hieu Ngo rant and rave about this semi new spot in Tustin, the missus and I figured we'd try it out. We were not disappointed one bit. We decided to sample the entire menu; we got the ABC Burger (avocado, bacon and cheese)and the Chipotle Chicken Sandwich.

Random Memory #7: Two Years

WARNING: CHEESE ALERT.

Jesse and I celebrated our two-year anniversary a week ago so here's a post to make it memorable. Definitely filled with peaks and valleys like most relationships, but we're here! This actually marks the blog's 2nd birthday as well--prolly just a couple of month's later. I dedicate this song to the mister :)



Here are some pics from our dinner celebration

America, The Obese: An Exhibition (aka Fairgrounds)

The fair attracts fatties whether or not they're literal (fatties). We missed the SD fair, so we're making up by attending OC fair as often as humanly (rather arterially) possible. We've gone once so far and it was an exciting experience. I especially liked the Ice Museum--15 degrees inside; definitely refreshing on a hot day.

Shark

Little Mermaid's Father

Don't think this was done yet

Anyway, onto the more exciting stuff like food. We should've died that day considering all of the stuff we ate. Well more like I should've died cause I have a bit of a cholesterol problem. Anyway, not the point. America, this is why we're fat:

San Francisco 4th of July Trip

Some of our blogging hiatus can be attributed to our SF trip for the 4th. The rest of our blogging hiatus is attributed to our working long days to pay for our SF trip for the 4th. All in all, it was entirely worth it. Stopped by my boy Colin's shop The Darkside Initiative and got a Carhartt UK jacket. Hit up Double Punch for our vinyl toy fix. And got to meet some of Sarah's cousins, who were fun as hell to hang out with. We even got a stripper to tip US $12 in ones, of which we used $11 to purchase late night drunken pizza slices. We bar hopped North Beach and ended up at Rogue Ales Public House, an all Rogue beer pub. A pint of Double Chocolate Stout was definitely had. And were major tourists as we watched the fireworks display at Fisherman's Wharf.

Yet, all I have to show for it (until Sarah uploads pictures from her camera) is this delicious clam chowder and shrimp poopboy sandwich we had on Pier 39.

3rd Annual Pre-Fourth of July Bike Ride

So I finally got to partake in host Bryan Bello's 3rd annual Pre-Fourth of July bike ride and pub crawl. It normally takes place on July 3rd but I had requested it take place on the 2nd since Sarah and I were heading up to San Francisco on the 3rd. Bryan, being the true best friend that he is, obliged.

Luche Libre Mask Wearing World Record

Bryan and I were present for Angel Stadium's record setting "Most People Wearing Snuggies in the Same Location" night last year, so only fitting we'd be back again this year for "Most People Wearing Luche Libre Masks in the Same Location" record.

Tui, Ken and Mark came along this year. Next year, whatever the record may be, I'm pretty certain our gang will grow ten fold.

Before the game we loaded up on bacon wrapped hot dogs being served up in the parking lot. I must say, these are head and shoulders above the diarrhea inducing bacon wrapped hot dogs you get outside LA based events served by old Hispanic ladies teetering on midget status.

Sorry for the bad picture, you're honestly lucky I was even able to get a picture before I ate the entire thing.

King Smurf

We spent Saturday in LA: ate at The Counter "Build Your Own Burger" restaurant on Sunset and Fairfax, shopped at Meltdown toy store on Sunset, grabbed some drinks at Riordan's Tavern on Figueroa, and finally the Staples Center to witness the Clippers beat up on the Raptors.

Here's some pics of our pickups

Ashley Wood's World War Robot "Dropcloth" hand designed by ThreeA toys

10" King Smurf coin bank imported from Belgium

And we're not typically "Marvel" fans, or any comic books for that matter, but I love the bulkiness, detail and size of these two figures:
Marvel Select Incredible Hulk

Marvel Select Thing

Dr. Doom, Hulk & Toy Story Legos

We were in Las Vegas this weekend for March Madness and made a point to stop by one of our favorite show's shop, Pawn Stars. Chumlee wasn't there but his face sure was plastered all over merchandise. After the Pawn Stars visit we drove over to Toy Shack; which is owned by Johnny Jimenez. On the show, Johnny is often called in as "Rick's buddy" to appraise toys and drop some knowledge.

We picked up a Dr. Doom 12", an Incredible Hulk 12" and Toy Story Legos.