A Top Eleven List for 2011

Hey everybody, Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone! I haven't seen most of you all in a minute (for reals) and I hope you all have had a warm and lovely holidays. A lot of great things happened this year.

To reflect on simple and good things and to honor the year 2011, I have decided to make a Top Eleven (and a half) list of my favorite meals of the past year (in some kind of order I guess, not necessarily from cheaper to more expensive, as I did not have to pay the big bucks for some of these if you'll read.)

11. Las Cazuelas, 5707 North Figueroa Street, Highland Park (L.A.), CA
Great mix of Mexicano and Salvadoreno food. You can share three pupusas (awesome if you had not yet had them with the salsa roja and pickled cabbage...go now, anywhere they serve them), a coctel de camarones (shrimp cocktail) and platanos fritos (fried plantains) for LESS THAN $18. I AM FULL each time.

10. Folliero's 5566 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park (L.A.), CA
This spot literally is two blocks from Cazuelas. A couple of things: this might be, pound for pound pricewise and tastewise, the best pizza in the area. I love ordering anchovies and dicing them up into the clam pasta with white sauce. AND THEY DON'T CHARGE a corkage fee for wine. Folliero's, how I adore thee.

(9 1/2. At home, I made Tortilla Soup a couple of times, and it is a fave. It is cheap to do and takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to prepare. Also, there is soup for days afterward. Here is the recipe from Bigoven.com: link

9. also loved anytime my fiancee made arroz caldo, a filipino stew comprising rice and chicken, ginger and onions, lots of lemon and some potatoes. Then you top it with chopped green onions and fried minced garlic. It is so damn good, but I can't divulge her recipe; we can say that she prefers to use chicken thighs as they don't dry out and get tough and stringy like chicken breast sometimes can. Click for a picture and description of this yumminess. Some Asian countries know this dish as congee.)

8. Gaja Moc 2383 Lomita Blvd, Lomita, CA
Japanese plates can be enjoyed here. The Okonomiyaki here is great, especially for the reason that you cook it yourself on a (VERY) hot grill in the middle of your table. Their food is so tasty and there are many options to choose from. I also savored the takoyaki. I will be coming back here very soon.

7. 15.quince grill and cantina 363 Main St., Jerome, AZ
Earlier this past spring I visited parts of Arizona with the school. I took the kids to a former mining town (once one of the richest in the whole world during boomtimes) called Jerome. Now it is an artist's enclave that sports one of the best Mexican restaurants I have ever had the pleasure of trying. Killer salsa verde!!! Also incredible crucifix art, which is probably no longer up, but I bought one for my mom. Want to visit here in the winter time. Streets are so steep.

6. A Ri Rang Tofu House 529 E Valley Blvd., Ste 128, San Gabriel, CA
This was the second Korean tofu soup place I had been to. The girlfriend (at the time she was not yet betrothed to me) suggested, and you might as well consider me a delighted little Korean girl at one of these places. The soup is steaming, bubbling hot when it gets to your table, and the little plates of chilled banchan offer little different counterpoints to this awesomeness. OMG for reals KK.

5. Bacaro LA 2308 S Union Ave, near downtown Los Angeles, CA
Just a cool, cool place that serves all kinds of wine and beers while really focusing on serving great food. Just go look at the reviews from this link. The servings are tapas-style (standouts include the burger--it has a fried egg atop it, the mac and cheese, and the chicken piccata-style dish) though this is an Italian-inspired place. Don't go expecting huge portions and enjoy the huge tastes.

4. The Park Restaurant 1400 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park (L.A.), CA
I officially proposed to my fiancee here (just for good measure, she said "yes" twice that day). They have a thing for Friday dinners called Supper Club which included four courses (dessert is one of them) that were all completely solid. I had the Caesar salad, some nice veggies, a Chilean Sea Bass and a scrumptious dessert for only 20 bucks! I think this deal is 15 dollars on Tuesday nights!

3. Kous Kous 3940 4th AV #110, San Diego, CA
Went here twice in the past year. If you have never tried Moroccan food before, make this a first stop with complete confidence. The Moroccan mint tea will chill you out, or you can get your krunk on with one of many signature cocktails they serve. There is a family meal with three or four courses that is just BOMB. BOMB.

2. Mon Ami Gabi-Paris Hotel and Resort 3655 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV
If I knew a French dude who could cook up a steak and french fries like that, I would want him to be my homey, too! One of the few times she and I ate red meat this year, and it was totally worth it. Only qualm was that we thought we'd reserved an al fresco (outside) table to watch the jumping water show across the street at the Bellagio, but had to settle for listening to the music and catching glimpses of it from inside. Flourless chocolate cake was impressive and I had to be wheeled around Vegas for the rest of the night. Couldn't even play Pai Gow no mo'.

1. Saison 2124 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA
Three things:
First, they are a 2 Michelin star-rated restaurant. Second, the fiancee's brother works there; thus, our entire meal was comp'ed. Last, it was the single most interesting and memorable dining experience I have ever had. It was a 15-course meal (and red, red wine) and just about knocked us out. In a good way. youtube video

SO... there is it! I hope you enjoyed the list. I have to go exercise now.

Fall 2011

Alison is 1 year old!!!!

Moving Out

Moving into a new place should be fun, shouldn't it? It's easy to move all of the heavy furniture and wrap up the glassware, fun to pack up all of the belongings and donate or otherwise trash things you don't necessarily need any more, and inspiring to make a needed change in your living quarters. Am I right?

People who think this way have probably never moved before. Knowing a lot of us Rat Racers, I have seen that moving is a necessary evil (maybe even beneficial?) from time to time. Having known many of you for years, of course we've gotten new roommates, wanted bigger apartments (or houses), broken up with significant others, and even gotten jobs or situations many hours (sometimes many hundreds of miles) away. And we all know one thing: Moving sucks donkey balls. Changing addresses, being uprooted, feeling like you live in a hotel...not to mention all of the work involved in dealing with the various things and trinkets one amasses over the years. Among this trove of goodies, for me at least, is included:

1 Ronco Pocket Fisherman (piece of crap)
a Chinese Lunar New Year red Lantern
a framed portrait of Vito and Michael Corleone
a pair of Perfect Pushups
a massive collection of porno magazines my cousin left with me when he and wife had a baby (he didn't want the poor child thinking her father was a sex-crazed weirdo)
too many baseball cards and comic books. Why did I buy the cards? At least I can read the comix on the toilet.
a Ripstick (kind of like a skateboard, except deadlier.)

I had confiscated that last item from a kid who was subsequently kicked out of school for brandishing a fake I.D. and getting caught trying to buy liquor for a hotel room party. I have also acquired other types of contraband, such as a pair of scissors from a kid who was threatening to stab one of his dormmates with a shiv. The two had started an argument with racial slurs that included an octopus and some of the usual epithets we hear all the time. The dormmate had protected himself by fending the interloper off with an aluminum baseball bat, which I also confiscated.

This last episode is what sent me over the feeling of wanting to move away from dorm and relinquishing my responsibilities of taking care of these international students to actually taking steps to move away and get my own place. There are three things I knew I would not miss about being a dorm father once I tendered my resignation letter: getting knocks at my door at all hours of the day when I was on duty (and also frequently when I was off), having my weekends taken over by supervising/taking kids on trips, and the dreaded post-midnight fire alarm.

Being a dorm father means that you are these children's parents, basically. First and foremost, you are there to provide discipline in times when they need to do homework because all they want to do is play video games. It is hard to pry a kid from the World of Warcraft, for example. Also, you have to resolve conflicts between those who have had things stolen and those you have suspected have stolen, after you have determined that they have, in fact, stolen. You are also there to provide a shoulder to cry on, a presence in the emergency room, and above all, a listening ear. I have dealt with kids who are struggling with the fresh onslaught of adjusting to the amount of work that high school classes present; seen broken noses, compound fractures, and a case of pneumonia; and advised a teen through losing his best friend because they were both getting played by a neighborhood floozy. It's hard and unforgiving work, but it is rewarding to see the kids start making their own decisions and dealing with their consequences. It's the only way to learn! Although most times the kids don't even realize you are helping them, and you realize what it feels like to be taken for granted, eventually they come to their senses and thank you for your help. It's eventually rewarding. Yet there are also fun times.

A lot of time as a dorm father I spent driving on trips. Trips to the mall, the ice skating rink, Tokyo Town. These comprise whole weekends. It was nice to get some spending money and head out once in a while, but I am sure that I will be loving having ALL of my weekends free from now on! Although it was nice to get to a place and telling the students to scram for a while, it is time to start rediscovering the real meaning of TGIF.

Finally, the fire alarm. This was no ordinary alarm. This was my nemesis, whisking me from my dreams to a place where I stuporically looked for some pants, stumbled out of my apartment while yelling, as loud as I could, "Fire! Everybody out!" then running to the school's kitchen to find out that some senior has been smoking cigarettes in the north wing bathroom again and silence that sunuvabeeyotch.

I have less than I week to live (at the dorm) now. Although this has made me into a different (perhaps more responsible) person, I can't want to see what kind of person I will be once out of the dorms again. Perhaps more appreciative of the quiet, perhaps a bit better equipped for adulthood. We'll see.

Upon Re-Watching TRON: Legacy

I was thinking about how much The Matrix must have been influenced by the original TRON and how much TRON: Legacy takes from The Matrix. I recently re-watched TRON: Legacy on DVD and found it to be not the hot mess that I remembered from the theater. I might have been projecting my frustration about having to wear sunglasses during a movie that takes place almost completely in the dark on to the content of the film. I have to say that even on just plain old DVD the movie looks awesome, visually its a pretty unique experience. I can't say anything about the soundtrack except that its amazing and perfect for the movie.
I remember thinking that Jeff Bridges performance in particular was completely muddled and inconsistent, but I didn't find it to be the case this time around. It's not his best work, but it's TRON so just be glad he came back for the sequel.

Don't get me wrong, its far from a perfect movie, there are a lot of "huh?" moments in there. I think that primarily because there are about 3 movies going on at the same time. I know that a TRON sequel has been in development for about 10 years. (My TRON DVD has a teaser for something called TRON: Killer App.) I think what probably happened was that the script in its current form is an amalgam of about 3 or 4 different scripts.

I will say that my biggest frustration with the new TRON is that the story of the character Tron is missing. He has transformed into something called The Rinzler and has a last minute realization/ redemption but then dies, seemingly. I would have liked to see the backstory on that.

Some bullshit

Some of you know (because I love to brag about it) and some of you don't know, but I am part of a team that is opening a new school next year. This school is run by teachers so we get to do all of the work hiring more teachers for our program.

So I got a resume from someone who is looking to get a math teaching job. I'm trying to not violate confidentiality, so I'm going to be intentionally vague. This applicant graduated from a certain famous technical school on the east coast that is a rival to the very famous technical school that is very close to where. Said person then went on to get a teaching credential and masters from another very prestigious university on the east coast. Think about the one people consider the best school in the country. That's the one. Not only does this person have this ridiculous education, but this person also has a ton of experience in the community where our school is volunteering in many non-profit organizations that I know and respect. The resume literally includes experience watching over the performance of space shuttle engines as they are in flight. And this person wants to teach math in a high school in a poor area of the east valley. The exact person our government talks about wanting to get into teaching math in our schools.

Oh, and I can't hire this person because of budget cuts and contract seniority rules.

Welcome to our American system of education.