anniversary!

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary last night, by going to dinner at Mistral in Redwood Shores. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly and getting dark by the time we got there, so we did not sit by the water. But we ate like king and queen.

Wow, so two years of living under the 3 'Rings: Sharing, Caring, and Suffering.
Just kidding honey, I love ya cutie. But next year you better get me a nice gift!

photogenic

On Sunday I went to the End of Summer 5 meet being held by the NorCal Lexus owners club. Lots of tricked-up cars to look at. Over 130 cars showed up, the bulk of them being IS and GS models. I took lots of photos so here they are.

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j118/pmok_mr2/EOS5/?start=all




What's that? Oh just some junk in the trunk...

accession

I'm happy to announce a new addition to the household. Loyal readers may recall that back in February we briefly had a pair of betta fish but they kicked the bucket in record time. Well that was the end of our fish-owning aspirations for a while, but some time has passed now and I guess it was about time to give it a shot again. And just in the nick of time, fortune brings us another chance. My bro-in-law J. brought home another betta fish that he won at a carnival, and we dubbed him Spencer.

Spencer's a tough little guy, he was awful hungry when we brought him home. We feed him twice a day but sometimes we forget. The other day V. forgot to give him dinner when I was working late, and the following morning when I fed him he seemed downright angry, snapping up the food with a quick gulp that I could actually hear. Anyways he seems to be holding up quite well and we look forward to many days of watching him flap his little blue fins and munching on some grub.

egress

We are approaching the end of an era. The Schumacher era in Formula 1 racing. Last night I watched the F1 race at Monza, Italy which took place this past weekend.

Some memorable moments, and now a historic race since it is Michael Schumacher's last F1 race at Monza with Ferrari. For those of you who didn't catch it, Schumacher took the win, Alonso blew his engine, and now Schuey is only 2 points behind Alonso for the driver's championship with 3 races to go.

And after the race, Schuey announced his retirement after this season. He almost got teary in the interview room afterward. You could definitely see the tension between team director Jean Todt and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo after he took the checkered flag, Jean Todt wanted nothing to do with Luca. Seems like Todt wanted Schuey to stay on, but upper management in Ferrari wants him out. Looks like Ferrari is going to sign on Kimi Raikkonen to team with Massa next year. Kimi, who races for McLaren Mercedes until the end of this season, finished 2nd in the race and during the celebratory anthems Schuey had some private words with him on the podium ... I wonder what he said. "Good luck filling my shoes", "Watch out for Jean Todt's bear-hugs", or "Be ready to lose some weight, this red outfit makes you look 20 pounds heavier".

For me though, the greatest part of the race was watching 22-yr old Robert Kubica for BMW hold off Felipe Massa and manage to take 3rd place, making it onto the F1 podium for the first time in only his 3rd F1 race. The BMW cars were very fast on the straights but slower in the corners than the Ferraris, and Kubica held his own against much more experienced drivers.

Schumacher has 90 career wins in F1 racing, and holds nearly all the records in the sport. Most wins, most podium finishes, etc. He is generally recognized as the greatest race car driver in the modern era. But he has also been involved in a number of racing controversies, especially in the 2006 season that has caused other drivers like Alonso to call him the "most unsporting driver" ever. But I think I'm going to miss watching him, before, during and after the race. Even after so many race wins, he still looks genuinely thrilled every time he wins. In contrast, his replacement Kimi has the personality of a wood cabinet. I've never seen a more downbeat guy in the post-race interview room. But maybe that's because he's always coming in 2nd or 3rd to Schumacher and Alonso -- maybe next year he'll actually crack a smile when he finishes first.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/32453/

fulfillment

Last week after the track day I was able to indulge in one of my culinary quests that I previously mentioned. Coming back from Willows, CA we took a short detour into Woodland, CA and had dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's restaurant there -- it is apparently the only Ruby Tuesday in Northern California and would typically entail an hour and a half drive from home but since we were up there already I suggested it to my friends and they were up for it. Of course I was going to order their Triple Prime burger since I keep seeing ads for this burger on TV, but I was sorely tempted by the giant photos of ribs, steaks and other scrumptious items in their menu.

Obviously you can tell a lot about a restaurant by its menu, and the Ruby Tuesday's menu is no exception. It's a 6 page menu of which 2 pages are dedicated to the different variants of burgers that they offer. Say no more, I clearly came to the right place.

To recap, the triple prime burger patty is made from 3 freshly ground prime meats: prime tenderloin, prime ribeye, and prime sirloin. It's also sandwiched with a fabulously fluffy bun with a sort of crescented top; it's like eating a steak burger surrounded by a croissant bun. And oh momma, it was good. The wait for the food once we had ordered was a little long, but in the end it was truly worth it. Their french fries that accompanied the burger were not bad either. I shall have to come up with more excuses to swing by Woodland from time to time.

That's not the only food craving I satisfied last week though, I finally succumbed to the siren call of some fried chicken. After a late night of work I stopped by Popeye's Chicken in Newark and picked up a 10-piece box of fried chicken, some mashed potatoes and a few corn-on-the-cobs. The corn was a mistake, because it turned out to be bland, but the spicy-flavored chicken and mash were every bit as good as I had hoped, and it's another item I can cross off my gastronomical to-do-list. There's definitely some guilt after a meal like that, but hey, it's only a momentary thing, and then you're picking up the next chicken wing.

While I'm on the binging confessional, I also did the unthinkable this Labor Day weekend -- we hit up a buffet today. I haven't been to a buffet in a long while, must have been years since the last one. But for the long weekend we went up to visit my Dad in Lincoln, CA and of course we had to pay a visit to the nearby Thunder Valley Casino. They offer a buffet lunch and dinner called "the Feast". And on weekdays it's only $9.99 for lunch. Need I say more? We ate ourselves silly -- for me the high point was the beef fajitas, some italian sausages, and the delectable dessert bar. I tried to stick to mostly protein and veggies, keeping the carbs to a minimum. But we walked out of there hurtin', man. To compensate I didn't really eat much of a dinner, I had more than enough nourishment for the day.

Tomorrow is a new day, and we'll probably eat like monks for the rest of the week to atone for our weekend indulgences.