Week of January 15: Snow Dog

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This week, lots of snow fell up in Lake Tahoe. We decided to pack up for a mini road trip and head up to the mountains for Kodi's first introduction to snow. Kodi is a 3 yr old Siberian Husky but he has never seen snow. So Andrea and I were very excited to see how he would react. My friends Luke and Nannette live up in South Lake Tahoe and graciously offered to have us stay with them. I've known Nan since my college days at UC Davis and she had gotten married to Luke last October. We had not seen Nan and Luke since the wedding so we were also excited to spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Luke was down in North Lake Tahoe with a friend who had come up from San Diego. But Andrea, Nan, Kodi and I spent some quality time together snow shoeing up to Fallen Leaf Lake.

Kodi's thought bubble... 'What is this stuff? This isn't powdered sugar!!' This was Kodi's first introduction to snow.

By the time we got to Fallen Leaf Lake, Kodi was quite used to the snow and was trotting around off leash by himself. Here is Nan and Andrea enjoying the sunshine.

Left: Nan and I walking around Fallen Leaf Lake. Right: Andi and I with a reach around self-service shot. What talent!

Week of January 8: Giddy Up Cowboy

This week, I traveled for work to the Informatica Sales Kickoff. It appeared that I had joined Informatica just at the right time. Traditionally, Informatica's Sales Kickoffs were held in exotic places and this year, my first year, would be no different. Hello Dallas, Texas!!! Yeee Hawww!

We all know the obvious factoids about the Lone Start State. Texas is the home of JR Ewing, GDuyba Bush and Barney the Dinosaur. But did you also know these interesting gems about Texas? :

• More wool comes from the state of Texas than any other state in the United States.
• Texas is the only state to enter the United States by treaty instead of territorial annexation.
• The state was an independent nation from 1836 to 1845.
• Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The Dublin Dr Pepper, 85 miles west of Waco, still uses pure imperial cane sugar in its product. There is no period after the Dr in Dr Pepper.
• The first suspension bridge in the United States was the Waco Bridge. Built in 1870 and still in use today as a pedestrian crossing of the Brazos River.
• Texas comes from the Hasinai Indian word tejas meaning friends or allies.
• El Paso is closer to Needles, California than it is to Dallas.
• More land is farmed in Texas than in any other state.
• The nation's first convenience stores, the vast 7-Eleven chain, now in 18 countries, started in Dallas in 1922.

Now, don't you want to move there?

The Sales Kickoff was actually a lot of work. I would have guessed from the nature of those attending, mostly Sales people, it would have been just a formal business disguise for an all expenses paid 'we are so great' party (my previous experiences from other companies) but it turned out to be three days of 7 AM to 5 PM back-to-back meetings and presentations. And I had to present at one of the meetings! Needless to say, my presentation was flawless and inspiring. With my presentation out of the way on Day 1, I managed to sneak out for a bit and check out a few sights.

Not many Asians can pull this look off like I can. You can't tell from this picture but I was wearing a pair of cowboy boots to match! Who says cowboys don't wear Banana Republic's Stretch Poplin Dress Shirt with J Crew's Boot Cut Jeans? All that was missing from this picture was a mustang horse and perhaps a bandanna around my neck.

This is located in the West End Historic District of Dallas. The building on the right was where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot that assassinated our president John F. Kennedy.

The X marks the exact spot where JFK was when he was shot.

The picture on the left is the view from the X spot to the Dealey Plaza, the building where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shot. The picture on the right shows 'the grassy knoll', the area where many conspiracy theorists believe shots -- and probably the fatal one -- were fired at President Kennedy.

Week of January 1: Happy New Year

The Warriors
For Christmas, much to Andrea’s joy, her parents, Karen and Rick, gave me a game called The Warriors for my Xbox. This game is based on the 1979 cult classic movie by the same name. Perhaps it was Karen and Rick’s way of getting me mentally prepared for this game but they originally presented me with The Warriors for Play Station 2. And if you’ve ever tried to jam a square peg into a round hole, you know that you can’t play a PS2 game on the Xbox. I had to endure the torture of staring at the unplayable game for a week. So by the time I got The Warriors for my Xbox, my anticipation and my expectation for this game had surpassed any reasonable standard. Would The Warriors live up to my hype?

"Can you dig it?"

The Warriors playing spin the bottle with the Furies

The answer was (and still is) YES and then some. I know most of you are not regular gamers and for the most part, I don’t consider myself neither. So I won’t really go into the painful details. I will say this much though… there is a lot of violence and foul language (the f-word is pretty commonly used) and I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. But if you can live past those minor moral standards, the game is pretty fun and very clever. One advice… make sure you have the hardware to enjoy the game, as I have come to find out. My trusted companion of probably 10 years, the 27 inch Sharp TV, is having a hard time “hanging” with The Warriors. The screen is going out and I am no longer able to make out the dark underworld of The Warriors’ turf. I guess it’s a glorious way for a TV to go. Or perhaps it’s Andrea’s way of controlling the amount of my game play. I hear the price of HDTV is pretty reasonable these days… hint, hint!

Fantasy Football
Andrea and I, along with 8 of our friends, belong to a Fantasy Football league. It’s a lot of fun, trash talking and even a little of NFL education. Since joining the league last year, Andrea has fully embraced Fantasy Football and even complained a few days ago that her Thursdays (the day that most people started adjusting the starting lineup unless you were Vin) now seemed a little empty.

This year yielded a disastrous outcome for me. I could go into a non-stop rant about why my team imploded but the end result was that I came in last place. The penalty for coming in last? I now have to host the Super Bowl party. As for Andrea, she failed to make the cut for the playoff round but she won the consolation round which put her in 5th place… well ahead of me. Andrea has been pretty good at not rubbing it in and has graciously offered to supervise my team for next year. I am sooo lucky! Grrr!!!!

Week of December 25: Crab boil for Crabby Weather

On Friday (12/30), Andrea and I hosted our first crab boil of the season. After the failed first attempt (see November 6 blog), I was determined to make this happen. We had invited my parents, my brother (BK), my sister (Stephanie) and brother-in-law (Doug), and the parents Doug (Doug, Sr. and Roberta) weeks ahead and had patiently waited for this day to come. When Friday finally rolled around, Andrea and I were very concerned. It had rained continuously for a week and the report from the harbor master at Pillar Point was that, as of Thursday morning, no boats were selling crab due to the weather but a few boats were making their way out on Thursday when there was a break in the weather. There was no additional information when I called the Pillar Point's Fishfone early Friday morning. To top it off, the weather was moving in and it began to sprinkle. The odds were against us. What were we to do? Take a gamble and drive an hour (each way) to Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point Harbor and hope that there were live crab? Postpone the crab boil? Pizza Party? With no clear favorable alternative, I did what a real man would do... I took a gamble, braved the storm and headed down to Half Moon Bay. With my Patagonia extreme rain gear on, Kodi, my fearless dog by my side and driving my lean-mean-baby-blue-station-wagon-driving-machine, I thought I had a fighting chance of returning home safely with some crab.

As Kodi and I approached Pillar Point, we could feel the stormy Pacific crashing against the harbor. There were no boats outside the harbor and the parking lot was virtually empty. The fish guide whiteboard outside the harbor master, which usually was packed with names and locations of boats selling crab was blank! My heart sank. But I didn't give up. I had gotten up at 7 AM and had driven for an hour and I wasn't about to let a little week long storm deprive me of a crab boil... I had to keep hope alive. I began to scan up and down all of the docks for any sign of activity. Docks A, B, C... all quiet. D, E, F... nothing as well. Then as my eagle like eyes glanced over Dock G, I noticed a man, nay a brave buccaneer, shoring his boat and unloading his catch. I could see the heat plume still rising from the boat's chimney. I quickly grabbed my cooler, zipped up my rain gear and headed out into the rain towards Dock G. As I dashed out of my baby blue station wagon, I could hear Kodi's howl cheering me on. At that very moment, the rain stopped and the sun peaked through the clouds. At Dock G, I had found what I was looking for... I found crab. The boat had just got in... barely beating the storm surge in. From what the Capt'n was telling me and from my observation around the harbor, he was the only "crazy son of a b**ch" to make the crab run. The Capt'n told me that he didn't expect to find anyone at the docks to buy his catch that I was as crazy of a "son of a b**ch" as he was. I took that as the ultimate compliment and I was rewarded with the first pick of his catch. The Capt'n stated that because no one had made a crab run in over a week, his crabs were very fresh and very large. Indeed, they were. I bought 9 crabs, weight totaling over 20 pounds. They were all very lively. I threw them into my cooler, packed ice over them, and started my journey home.

At home, I was greeted a hero welcome by Andrea and again later that day by my hungry and appreciative family as they feasted on the crabs.

All happy faces enjoying our crab. For the first time that I can ever recall, Doug Jr. was very quiet during his meal... not even self-humoring jokes from his mouth!


After the meal, we had some fun playing with Karaoke Revolution on our Xbox. In the father vs. son head-to-head competition, Doug Sr. schooled Jr. Even American Idol's William Hung would have laughed at Jr's performance.

Ray's Crab Boil Recipe
Hardware:

• Outdoor Burner. I used the Kick "A" Banjo Outdoor Propane Stove. If you're cooking for a smaller number, you can do it inside on your stove... but it will smell like crab for a week!
• Big Pot. I believe mine was at least 30 quart size.

Seasoning:

• Sea salt. Enough to have the water taste as salty as the ocean.
• Vinegar. About 1/3 of the bottle. It helps the meat of the crab separate from the shell.
• Season mix. You can use Old Bay or Zatarain's powder mix. I used about 1/3 of Whole Foods' Spicy Shrimp Boil mix.
• 3 lemons cut into halves.
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 whole garlic head (no need to peel)

Other ingredients:

• Dungeness Crabs
• Potatoes
• Corn

What to do:

Fill pot with 2/3 full of water. Salt water, put in all spices and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Insert all the crab (or as many as it will fit with a couple of inches of water level to spare). Throw in the corn. Bring water back to boil and cook for 20 minutes. Remove crabs to let them cool. Remove the corn and potatoes and keep them warm (cover in foil and keep in oven). Clean the crab. Serve with corn, potatoes, crusty fresh bread and melted butter on the side (optional). Eat!

Week of December 18: Rick and Karen (Andrea's Parents) In CA For Christmas

This year Andrea and I were unable to make it down to Minnesota for the holidays mostly because I have no vacation time accrued at work. Damn the Man! However, we were very fortunate that Rick and Karen had decided to make the trip out here and spend a week with us. With the rest of the family (Andrea's brother Scott, sister in-law Brenda and niece Kaia) in Iowa (Brenda's mom) and with the wonderful Minnesota winter, it didn't take a whole lot of arm twisting to get Rick and Karen here. Rick and Karen left the cold snowy, frozen lakes of Bemidji, Minnesota only to be greeted by the wet cold rain of the Bay Area, California. However, the rainy storms didn't put a damper on our holiday spirit.

Andrea and I managed to put Rick and Karen to work priming and painting our downstairs bedroom, while Andrea and I played Tiger Woods Golf on our XBox (just kidding!). They do good work... I highly recommend them! After they completed their chores (nothing's free at the Kims), we managed to have some fun...

A beautiful day at John Muir National Monument. The trees behind are over 300 Ft tall! Even Paul Bunyan would have had trouble with these.


We stopped for lunch at the Cliff House in San Francisco, which was built in 1863. Is that an oyster Karen is eating??!! Of course not... she's stealing Rick's French Toast!


My uncle (aka The Bottomless Pit), seen here devouring the hors d'oeuvres while my sister, Stephanie is feverishly replenishing the baguette, hosted the Christmas dinner.


All business at the "adult's table". We had 3 kinds of desserts, including Scandinavian favorites, Lefse and Krumkaka. Brian is giving the desserts a quick once-over to see which slice is the biggest and the crispiest while Andrea is getting ready to protect her slice.

This is our family!!!

Week of December 11: Kodi's Rough Life

This week has been a busy week. Mostly we worked on home projects. The master bedroom wall paper removal and painting is now complete and we've moved onto painting the downstairs bedroom. The bathroom contractors are hard at work and we're really starting to see it resemble an actual bathroom.

On Saturday, my parents came over for dinner. We headed out to Citron Restaurant in Oakland. Great Osso Buco... very yummy! After dinner, my mom and Andrea headed to San Francisco for the 7 PM showing of the Nutcracker presented by the San Francisco Ballet, while my dad and I headed home to kick back and enjoy the digestion of our fine dinner. Strange how we both elected not to go to the ballet... hmmm. Both my mom and Andrea enjoyed the Nutcracker very much.

Through all the excitement of the holidays and the chaos of our daily life, Kodi has managed to stay calm and not get stressed out. He's continuing to do what he does best... nap. We've enrolled Kodi in an obedience class which starts in January. Kodi is a fantastic dog but we (more than Kodi) need some work in recall and leash-walking manners. Kodi is looking forward to making more friends and learning new tricks!

Kodi just can't seem to get enough of playing with his favorite toy, the Green Frog.

Kodi is actually practicing pulling the sled... I think this exercise is called High Performance Visualization Training.

This is how Kodi enthusiastically greets us when we come home from work. Can't you tell how much he's excited? Down boy!

One thing about the holidays... Kodi has lots of visitors. Rusalka (left) and Blackberry (right) are his bestest friends.

Week of December 4: No Time To Smell The Roses

With the holiday season fast approaching, our schedule has shifted from high gear to overdrive. As if our work, bathroom remodel, mater bedroom wall paper removal & repainting, downstairs bedroom painting, and backyard landscaping wasn't enough, we decided to live it up a little this week and managed to fit in a White Elephant Gift Exchange party on Friday and a Date Night dinner on Saturday. Andrea and I finally decided that our ultimate holiday gift would be to have two clones of ourselves each. Has anyone seen the movie, Multiplicity?

Friday Night: White Elephant Gift Exchange

Our friends Leslie and Jenny hosted the party at their home in San Francisco. It was obvious that both Leslie and Jenny really worked hard "working from home" to cook and decorate for the party.

Jenny's thinking 'Who put more vodka in my drink'? Andrea or Vin... you decide.

Leslie had her eye set on the cute flower beanie hat... unfortunately Rob did as well.

While free food, free drinks and catching up with friends are always nice, we were all there for mostly one thing... ending up with the best gift at the expense of your friends or at least ensuring that the special someone ends up with the crappiest gift.

This year two clear winners (or losers depending on your perspective) emerged from the exchange. Both Simon and Lauren were left with exquisite surprises as no one dared to take these marvelous treasures away from them. Some of the gift items that were preferred over Simon and Lauren's gifts were as follows:

• Jumper Cables
• Foot Spa
• Paint By Numbers
• Stress Balls
• Lip Gloss

So what did they end up with? To no one's surprise, the winning gifts were adult related products. Simon won the top draw with a couple of doses of Viagra and a pack of Handz Off Gum, while Lauren was close behind with a jar of Vaseline and a couple of Girls Gone Wild DVDs. They both acted disgusted and mortified but we all knew better... both Simon (with his wife Sharon) and Lauren (with her boyfriend Jason) would enjoy their early Christmas gifts. Ho-Ho-Ho... Merry Christmas!

Both Simon and his wife Sharon seemed a little too happy with the White Elephant gift. In fact with those little blue pills, Simon's on his way to becoming the White Elephant himself!!!

"I think I already have this one!" Really... who doesn't?

Oh and as for Andrea and I? Andrea ended up with the Paint By Numbers book (which she misplaced at the party) and I ended up with two stress balls and a mini flashlight. The mini flashlight will come in very handy when I pull speaker wires through my living room walls!!!

Saturday Night: We Clean Up Pretty Good

Andrea and I spent most of Saturday hot and sweaty in our master bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter! We were busy stripping the last remaining globs of wall paper and finally removing all the glue off the plaster walls. If you are one of the fortunate few that has never heard any bleeping words coming out of Andrea or my mouth, you would have thought that we were a couple of sailors on shore leave. Wall paper is bad. Wall paper on top of wall paper is double bad. Wall paper on top of wall paper with layers of paint on top is @#*$-ing bad!

After a full day of peeling, scraping and sponging we headed to San Francisco to reward ourselves for a hard day's work. A few weeks ago, Andrea and I had a Date Night at Milano, an Italian restaurant not too far from our house. Andrea ordered the Tanglerini pomodore con Gamberetti and I ordered the Risotto Tatto mare e Zafferano. What we got was il crappo! So this time, we decided to do it right and go somewhere we knew the food would be good.

We arrived at Jardiniere around 8:30 PM for our dinner reservation. After laboring all day, a part of me had wanted to stay at home and relax. But once we arrived at Jardiniere, we were instantly surrounded by it's pleasant and luxurious atmosphere and I was glad I had decided to go on the Date. By the time we sat at our table, my stomach was growling loud enough to have gotten notice had it not been for the 3 piece jazz band playing a mix of Christmas tunes and Bee Bops. A little red wine, a little bread (with lot of butter of course), and a few laughs later we were ready for our meal.

Stairs leading up to our table. The picture on right is the exact table we sat at.

Andrea started with the Warm Bread Salad with Baby Artichokes and Marinated Bellwether Farm Crescenza Cheese, followed by the Cream of Mushroom Soup with Port Reduction. And for her main course Andrea chose the Alaskan Sablefish with Escarole, Smoked Bacon, Gala Apples, Fingerling Potatoes and Beurre Noisette... very delicious and very healthy I'm sure. Unlike Andrea, I was hungry. So naturally I had to have the Chef's Six Course Tasting Menu. I didn't think that 6 courses of extremely rich food were quite enough so I ordered an additional appetizer consisting of four fresh Oysters on the Half Shell with Champagne Mignonette and Fresh Horseradish. After slurping down the four Oysters, I was finally ready for my 6 course meal to begin. The following were the contents of my meal:

1. Santa Barbara Prawns with Braised Matsutake Mushrooms, Baby Artichokes, Wild Arugula and Preserved Lemon Aioli,
2. Poached Salmon with Tsar Nicoulai California Estate Caviar with Traditional Garnish,
3. Roasted Butternut Squash with Wild Rice, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Swiss Chard, Braised Chestnuts and Truffle Nage,
4. Dry Aged New York Steak with Roasted Celery Root, Baby Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Creamed Nettles and Sauce Bordelaise,
5. Colorado Blue Cheese plate, and
6. Pecan Pie with Sweet Potato Ice Cream.

Reading the list above now, I am shocked and ashmed at myself for being able to eat all that (I also had a cup of coffee as well). How can something that felt so right be but a shameless display of pure gluttony? Especially after the Thanksgiving feast! Perhaps that's why even after that cup of coffee, I struggled to stay awake on the ride home and passed out immediately when my head hit my pillow. All I can say is that Andrea is truly lucky and blessed to have found a life long Date partner like me!

Week of November 27: Poke & Shiso... Main Ingredients For My Can Of Whoop Ass

Every year, our good friends, the Whitemans (picture on left: Brandon, Max, Shannon) host a holiday competition party. In the past, it had been an ongoing gingerbread house making contest between boys versus girls. The history of the gingerbread house contest is riddled with foul play and unfair judging. Last year, we finally took the judging to the streets of downtown Burlingame and had strangers cast their votes. Needless to say, it was a landslide victory for the boys. The people had spoken!

Last years Gingerbread House contest victory

This year, the Whitemans decided to mix things up a bit and announced a new challenge… an individual cook/bake off. The rules were simple. Everyone would bring either an appetizer or a dessert to share with everyone. And at the end, everyone would vote for 1 winner (you couldn’t vote for yourself… I found this out later after I voted for myself). Andrea and I welcomed this challenge and eagerly awaited our opportunity to display our cooking/baking prowess. It was pretty clear from early on that Andrea would enter her dessert while I took on an appetizer. And after much debate and soul searching, we both came up with our entry recipes. Andrea chose to make her famous Galaktoboureko and I elected to make an Ahi Poke. Galaktoboureko is also known as Greek Milk Pie but let me tell you, it should be called Butter Pie instead. Ahi Poke is a simple Hawaiian dish Andrea and I fell in love with at Sensei Sushi Restaurant in Maui. It’s raw marinated Ahi tuna salad or as Andrea likes to call it “Pure Goodness”.

Early Saturday morning, we finished our shopping for the ingredients that would be paramount for a Kim victory. We were supremely confident of a win. The only question was whether Andrea or I will be #1. Living in Oakland, we are very fortunate to have the diversity to find any cooking ingredient imaginable. We started off at Piedmont Grocery and got most of the items. We had to make a couple of extra stops for the specialty secret-weapon items. We got our fresh sushi grade Ahi from Hapuku Fish Shop and some Korean Shiso leaves (kkae nnip in Korean) from Koreana Plaza. With all our grocery bags filled, we came home and began the creation of our respective master pieces. With Andrea’s Galaktoboureko (try saying that 3 times real fast, or even saying it once real slow), the coolest part of making it was when Andrea pulled the pie out of the oven and poured the sugar syrup into the pie. The syrup boiled and sizzled as it seeped its way through the buttered layers of filo (you gain weight just thinking about it). Not to be outdone, I battered the Shiso leaves and deep fried them nice and crispy to make edible serving plates for my Ahi Poke.

My beautiful Ahi Poke with deep fried Shiso leaves

With our tasty creations in hand, we arrived at the Whitemans. The competition was fierce. From Laura’s Baked Artichoke Dip, to Sharron’s Crackers with Wasabi Cream and Shrimp, to Abby’s Tennessee Pumpkin Square, to name a few, everyone had brought their A-game or at least they tried. In life, we consider ourselves to be very blessed when we find ourselves in that rare moment where we shine brightly above all the others. And we celebrate those moments as great human achievements… The Catch, Sir Edmund Hillary’s Ascent of Mt. Everest and The Breaking of the Sound Barrier to name a few. Some people search their whole lives for that one moment. Friends, you all know me as the down-to-earth, humble, modest good person. So I say this with sincere humility…

I’M NUMBER ONE!!!

Please, it wasn’t even close. By an almost unanimous vote, I crushed the Tennessee Pumpkin Square, stomped on the Artichoke Dip, splattered the Galaktoboureko and chewed up Mike’s Chicken Wings. I’ve got one thing to say for the losers in the competition… YOU GOT SERVED!!! (except to my sweet wife I say, you got robbed… that crappy fish wasn’t even cooked!)

Brandon anouncing the winner... ME!

For being crowned the Champion, I was presented with the magnificent Silver Spoon Trophy. I’m toying with several ideas for displaying the Silver Spoon. I could go with the more traditional approach by bronzing and mounting the Spoon with the engraving “Master Chef Extraordinaire” or I could go with a non-traditional approach and attach the Spoon to a fat necklace as the center piece so I could wear it around for all to jealously admire. Any suggestions? One final thought, you heard it here; I plan on a 3-pete, then retiring from the competition and going into the Hall of Fame on top!

My Competition (aka Losers)

Natalie, Andrea, Blair, The Johnsons (Nellie, Ella & Mike)

Abby, Laura, Jessica, Harriet and Sarah