Browse Author: beakatude

Home Improvements

We got a good deal on 2 additional storage units in our building and got the keys this weekend.  So we spent a good part of the weekend putting stuff away, cleaning the house, fixing things, and rearranging furniture.

Jesse really got into it and even moved the stove out of its nook to level out the burners.  We always had an issue with oil rolling over to one side of the pan but not anymore!  Jes looked like a puppet behind the stove.

We also had a little drip under the sink for the past 2 years and finally found the source!  Of course this involved taking everything out from under the sink and taking apart the drain.  Luckily all went well without any major messes.

Today we moved both of our bikes, the trainer, and bike pump down to one of our storage units.  After a trip to Home Depot, Jes built a rack for them and voila!  The bikes stand upright inside their tiny little kennel!  Now with the bikes off the livingroom wall, we moved bookshelves, cabinets, and tables around.  In the process, we got to wipe everything down, vacuum and scrub the floors, and ended up with some extra space to use in the house. Hooray!  I’m glad we made the most of our rainy Sunday. By the way, it started raining this morning and hasn’t stopped all day. In fact, it’s coming down even harder now at 11 pm!

More Meat Cake and Some Fireworks

On Saturday night, we had dinner at Jack’s house.  Ryan made beef bourguignon with short ribs and some leftover prime rib that he had frozen from another dinner we had a while back.  It was delicious and re-purposed meat never tasted so good.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of it.  Shucks…that’s so unlike me!!

Later that evening, Jes and I went onto the roof of our building to watch the fireworks over AT&T Park.  It was the first night game of the season and we got a free show! This photo was taken with my Nikon in manual mode. I like how you can see the fireworks and what’s going on in the foreground. You can even see the party that’s going on in one of the units on the top floor!

Here’s another photo.  This one was taken with my little digi on “fireworks” mode.  Not too shabby but it didn’t get any of the ambient light from the building.  Weird.

Here’s a short video clip of the fireworks in case you were interested.  Not a bad view, huh?

Rainy Day Cookin’

What is it about lazy rainy Sundays that make me crave soup? After an unsuccessful attempt at going to Target this morning (apparently closed on Easter), I came home and threw two bags of chicken bones and giblets into a big pot of water.  With a few additions and little time on the stove, the house was filled with the aroma of chicken, coriander, and garlic…mmmm.

In the afternoon, we took a nice stroll in the rain with the dog and stopped at Safeway for some ingredients for dinner. I ended up making a big pot of rice, mapo tofu (out of the package, of course) with ground turkey, and pork-stuffed cucumber soup with the stock I made earlier. I even added a bit of my homemade garlic oil to the soup to finish it off.

When I tasted it, the flavor was close enough to give me a nostalgic feeling and Jes was saying it was almost as good as my Mommy’s soup. Phew!  Just last week he said that my Thai Chicken Curry was surprisingly tasty (and spicy) too.  I think I’m on a roll here, people!  I guess some of Mommy’s recipes are getting easier for me to remember now and it’s nice to know that a bit of the Magical House’s pixie dust has finally rubbed off onto me.  Thank goodness ‘cuz I’ve got a picky eater in my house.

Look who had too much ice cream…

Last night Jes made pot roast and the Sokol-Juns came over to eat with us.  When it was plated, Jack said “Cupcake?!”  Ryan corrected him by saying “No, it’s meat cake!”  So for the rest of the night, we ate our meat cake and Jack did too.

After dinner, Ryan turned on the YouTube clip that Jack has been watching over and over again at home.  He’s watched so much that he sings, plays his guitar, and follows along with gestures and clapping.  Michelle made some chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we all enjoyed them with some vanilla ice cream.  Jack loved it so much that he asked for more and we gave it to him.

As a result, we got a little performance from the little guy and I got a long clip of the action.  By the way, the spoon is a guitar and the bar stool is a microphone and the dog is playing back-up. Make sure to turn on your sound for the singing and narration in the background.  You can probably hear me laughing in the background too.  If it’s not funny, I guess you had to be there.

Orange is back.

Today was the first home exhibition game for the Giants and so the season has officially begun for the neighborhood.  This morning as I walked the dog, I noticed the lights on the stadium were on and the flag was flying high.  That’s how I know there’s a game today and I debated over and over in my head this morning about whether to drive to work today or not.  I think I lose either way.  Do I drive in traffic over the bridge or fight the crowds on Muni on my way home?  Hm…

The sunrise was spectacular this morning.  It’s one of the only good things about walking a dog before the sun wakes up.  As you can see in the first photo that it’s not even 7 am yet!  *sigh*  At least I got this shot of the sunrise over the water and below the clouds.  By the way, I must give props to my iPhone for helping me capture some pretty cool moments this past year.  This photo was uploaded straight from my phone.  Not bad, right?!

So, baseball season has arrived once again and there was a buzz of excitement this afternoon as Dog and I took our usual stroll around the stadium.  My favorite Muni dude, who does crowd control and helps us cross the street, was even there to greet us this afternoon.  He calls Koa “Rin Tin Tin” and remembers Mommy from one of the weeks that she was staying at our place while we were away.  He usually yells (as we cross the street) “Hey! How’s my Rin Tin Tin?!” and I’ll usually respond with “Hi, Muni Guy!”.  Sometimes he even has time to ask me “How’s your mom?!  She looks just like you!”  Funny.  I guess it’s nice to know that there’s someone out there that has your back among the Orange People (Giants fans).

Weekend Round-up

Had a pretty relaxing yet productive weekend.  On Saturday, we cleaned up the house and ran some errands.  On our way home we stopped at Best Buy and I used our numerous gift cards to help pay for a new Bamboo Craft by Wacom.  I’ve been wanting to get one for photo editing and it’s pretty neato.  It will, however, take a little getting used to.  It’s pretty sensitive to how much pressure you apply through the tip and I’ve always used a lot of pressure on my pencil when I write.  Here it is taking a break as I had my tuna-egg-pickle sammich lunch.  I’m using my Yelp shot glass as a pen holder. 🙂

On Sunday, we drove to Treasure Island for the first time and I got a couple shots of the bay from both sides of the island.  I’ve always wanted to check out the view and it was pretty cool.  We continued on the Bay Bridge and went to IKEA for the first time in a couple years.  Picked up a houseplant and got some soil at Home Depot.  It’s time to test out my purple thumb yet again with a brave little plant.