Triscribe

Author: F C

  • Good partners

    Saturday judged three rounds of moot court. If you’re really into it, judging can be as draining as being up there as a moot court competitor. I didn’t judge the team from our school but they managed to advance to the nationals. The two members of the team work well together, complementing each other.

    On the Amazing Race, the chivalrous Korean Cho Bros are putting the best foot forward for Asian American racers with their good karma, singlehandedly helping 3 teams while catapulting from last place to fifth. The only question – what is up with their t-shirts? The Kuwait episode has to be one of the best editions of the race – hard puzzles in foreign languages, lots of driving around – think about this one for Emmy number five.

  • Patently Taxing Advice

    OK, now this takes the cake. Somebody’s got a patent for a method of creating a tax shelter. There is a whole list of patents of this type on the US Patent website. Unless it has something to do with recycling a stack of CCH books to make a lean-to, I don’t see how it ought to be patentable – it is purely an idea, not an invention, and it will be just horrible for attorneys having to wonder if there is some sort of patent associated with their advice. What’s next, Barry Sheck will get a patent for a method of freeing death row inmates using DNA? Andrew Oh has been checking up on the case in his blog.

  • Crash

    This is a catch-up post for the past week, because I was so sick coming back from my trip. Yesterday was P and I’s anniversary, so we went to the local favorite sushi restaurant where we were welcomed warmly (it was a dark and stormy night, there were not a lot of people there, and they could use an Asian couple in the window table to draw customers).

    My dad’s old office was on 73rd and York, so I spent a lot of summers growing up in the area where the plane crash occured Wednesday afternoon. There are ususally a lot of people walking around, especially connected with all of the hospitals in the area. It was a very sad way to go.

    Last Thursday through Sunday I was in Las Vegas for my friend’s bachelor party. All I have to say is what happened in Vegas is staying in Vegas. What happened afterwards? I drove with 3 hours of sleep and 3 days of clubbing and I was really suffering. After dropping one of the people at the airport, I drove 300 miles back to Orange County to meet up with Pei. Stopped once at Alien Jerkey in Baker, CA – the best thing going was a very clean bathroom and easy access to Gatorade. Barfed just before picking up gas. Made it back to Orange County at noon and spent the rest of the day sleeping, then awoke to a bowl of homemade pho. P and I made it to the plane finally and came back at 6. Overslept a lot this week. Probably will need this weekend as well to catch up from jet lag.

  • Tuesday – Wednesday recap

    Stayed at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf. I wish it had a minifridge, but otherwise it was comfortable and well situated. Valet parking was $38; kind of steep. Will keep it in mind for my next trip.

    Across the street is a Barnes & Noble – quiet, low traffic, high selection. Trader Joe’s and a Safeway make it really cheap to buy supplies.

    Took the Powell-Market cable car to Chinatown where we immediately went to the Golden Gate Bakery on Grant for moon cakes and egg custart tarts fresh out of the oven. I’ve had plenty of moon cakes in my life, but I’ve never had a fresh one – we get them all prepackaged in New York. The “dan tat” were huge – one inch deep custard and perfectly flaky crust. The line was out the door and down the street – it was really popular. We went to Ten Ren Tea to wash it down with tea.

    Down the street is the more touristy Eastern Bakery. They had good roast port buns, but they didn’t really have any line. The had this $400 100 yolk mooncake in the window, which no one seems to be interested in.

    Next door was the Wok Store, which had an extensive collection of seasoned woks. Pei was tempted to get one. Just outside we were chatting with two women and a baby about East/West coast stuff.

    We walked down Market Street to Yank Sing. Absolutely perfect dim sum at expense account prices. We ended up with 4 stamps in the “bonus zone” oun our ticket.

    We walked to the Embarcadero to Sur la Table and Ferry Market where we purchased a few ketchy items and a bit of wine. Then we took the F trolley car line to the Hard Rock Café to get P’s requisite pins, then walked down Fisherman’s Wharf to the Hotel.

    Our next excursion was to Trader Joe’s where we got lots of drinks and became jealous of what we don’t get in New York. Then we met up with my bro for dinner at Sushi on North Beach, where we got the omakase – lots of food. We treked to The Cannery, but most everything was closed. We abused our Muni passes by riding on all of the Cable cars – including the California line, which we had not ridden before. In the Financial district, we took the F line back to the hotel.

    The next day we loaded up on supplies at the Safeway, then drove back to Orange County. We only made a 20 minute pit stop to refuel and change drivers – highway gas was $3.02. We made it to the Costco in Laguna Negil, and bought cheap $2.52 gas there. We made it back to San Juan Capistrano at 7:30 and had a BBQ – ribs and steak — mmmm!

    Next ride to Las Vegas this afternoon!

  • 450 miles to Poke’

    Made our road trip from Orange County to San Francisco Tuesday. I was in charge of getting in and out of cities, and P handled driving the long wastelands between the north and south. At about the 100 mile mark, we stopped at Carl’s Jr. – I got the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, she got the $6 Angus Burger. Super bloat – they were huge! Good thing that we stopped – right afterwards was the smoke from the Day forest fire that was smoking since Labor Day. After about 100 more miles, we were able to get out of it. 400 miles later, made it to Costco to refuel (2.55 is a lot cheaper than 2.99 at the one place we passed on I-5). We’re staying at the Sheraton Fishermans Wharf – huge place, comfy king sized bed, wi-fi. Wished that they had a fridge, but otherwise it is a very comfortable place in a fantastic location. But $39 a day for parking – jeezus!

    Pacific Catch for dinner – we had Poke bowl and it was so awesome!!! Just think the best chirashi bowl, and multiply by 10. Absolutely recommended. Wandered around North Beach and got pasteries from Maria’s Bakery, then crashed watching a recording of Desparate Housewives.

  • Blocks

    Quick entry today. Sunday went to services at the Mission Basilica of San Juan Capistrano, which is a 20 year old recreation of the original Spanish mission church that was built at a nearby site and collapsed in an earthquake. A basilica is sort of half way between a regular church and a cathedral in size and prominance. Awesome artwork, and the place was packed.

    LegoLand! Every childhood playtime fantasy can be relived! It’s the one amusement park where the parents can have just as much fun as the kids. I think I had more fun here than at Disneyworld. P bumped into an old co-worker from when she worked for the City. Visited the Carlsbad Premium Outlets in search of a replacement safety blanket for the baby, but no luck – the discriminating tastes of the baby easily discerned the difference between the real thing and fakes. Dinner at Ruby’s, a 50’s diner recreation that had American Kobe beef on the menu. Go figure.

    On the road to San Francisco, hopefully getting there by the end of the day today.

  • Much about nothing

    Saturday turned out to be a lazy day; we didn’t get up until noon, and the baby was under the weather (too much partying at the luau last night) so we hung out, washed the SUV, read a gazillion books to the baby (at least he’s loving reading) and checked out the train station (and figured out that it wasn’t worth taking the train). I was just fine with it – it was a day to decompress; I think there was some disappointment about not going to Legoland today.

    Dinner was at the Beach House. P had the halibut, I had the surf and turf. Not bad.

    We’ll try to be more adventurous tomorrow.

  • In the OC

    Got into LAX way early Friday morning – like 3 am. We had a mechanical on the ground at JFK and they needed to replace a valve on the AC. We got free champagne and headphones. Once they did that we were able to have a relatively smooth flight and a pretty good 3 point landing.

    We’re staying for the weekend with my law school friend BV from my study abroad in Hong Kong, her husband M, also an attorney, and their 19 month son. He’s mostly well behaved and a bundle of fun, even though his sentences are only about 3 words long and are usually monosyllabic abbreviations of words.

    During the day we went to the farm to do some organic veggie shopping, and checked out downtown San Juan Capistrano. We then vegged on the patio for lunch. Later, we hiked up a trail overlooking the city with M. That night we went to BV’s twin nieces’ sweet 16 party, which was a luau pool party theme. BV’s sister catered the entire feast by herself, which was just amazing.

    Saturday, we’re doing LegoLand and Sunday it will be a BBQ in downtown LA. Then Monday we will head up north to visit my bro.

  • Fearless Worldwide Chocolate Culture

    Our friends from Meniscus Zine, P and myself saw Jet Li’s Fearless on Sunday, courtesy of American Express, which was having a Fandango ticket giveaway for cardmembers. That paid me back for this year’s membership fee. The movie was not bad as Jet Li’s swansong. I kind of joked that it was his “Rocky III”; it actually stylized the historical account of martial arts fighter Huo Yuanjia. We spent most of the movie trying to figure out where the remote village was, and which Chinese ethnic group was being represented. Most of the farming on the mountain sides was very Hakka, but the headdress Huo’s love interest was wearing wasn’t right.

    Afterwards, we went across the street to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Culture by the Bald Man, a bizarre emporium of food, drink and chocolate. You know how they put out the prize money on the poker table in the final round – it’s the same thing, but with chocolate. Great big bars of white and dark chocolate are put out on the center table like a coco-Fort Knox. Mounds of chocolate powders, beans, and blocks are in display cases throughout the dining room.

    I liked the hot chocolate. Most of these other places make a really obscenely chalky hot chocolate that turns to sludge when it gets cold. This one was subtle, not excessively cloying, and is a beverage that you could actually sip along with your meal. Not bad. The crepe that I had (savory, with not a single bit of chocolate in it) was not bad either. I couldn’t sleep afterwards with all of the caffeine though.

    Apparently Max Brenner has stores around the world, including Israel and Singapore. This Brenner dude has a lot of chutzpah.

    Amazing Race 10 is in Mongolia leading around horses, jeeps, and yaks. I like the idea of going in the westery direction. Cheerleaders out, yay! The Korean dudes are in the back half of the pack, though.

    T-minues 3 days before our trip to California. Let’s see what happens.

  • Triscribe Turning Three

    Triscribe turns 3 today! To imagine that this was just something I came up with one late night . Thanks especially for SSW and YC joining me on this ride!