Entries Tagged as 'movies'

Hawaiian Thanksgiving with Billy and Ging Ging

November 28th, 2011 · 4 Comments


Billy & Dallas


Dallas

Two Hawaiian guys, slippers, Hawaiian t-shirts, hibachi, kalbi. Yep, looks like a Hawaiian-themed Thanksgiving!


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

For the holiday we went to visit Billy and Ging Ging in the East Bay. We’d originally planned on skipping all the traditional Thanksgiving food and just ordering Hawaiian platters from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, but whattaya know? L&L is closed on Thanksgiving. So we ended up making Thanksgiving dinner, but still tried for Hawaiian style instead of the American classics.


Hawaiian-Themed Thanksgiving Dinner

Dallas and Billy took care of the meats: Kalbi Korean short ribs and chicken katsu. Ging and I made the rest. Mostly Ging, ok at least under her supervision. We made a chinese salad with ramen crunchies, a warmed spinach/cranberry/pecan salad, tofu, mac salad (with and without wahoo/ono), mashed sweet potato, and fresh pineapple with li hing powder. For dessert we made haupia and a pumpkin mochi.


Damien & Matt

Matt and Amy joined us for dinner. Made made lemon meringue pie and they brought a couple bottles of wine as well.


Damien & Billy


Matt, Amy, Billy


Ging Ging, Damien, Dallas, Rachelle

Amy wasn’t sure what Billy and Ging meant when they said we were having Hawaiian foods for Thanksgiving but when we told her the menu she told us she was looking forward to all of that more than turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes!


Matt’s beautiful lemon meringue pie.


Lemon meringue pie, haupia, pumpkin mochi.

Ging and I prepared dessert plates for everyone. Each got a slice of Matt’s lemon meringue pie, a piece of haupia topped with chocolate pudding and freshly-whipped cream (kind of like haupia pie with no crust), and a piece of pumpkin mochi. The mochi didn’t really stand up to the sweetness of the pie or haupia, but when we ate it the next day on it’s own it was much better. The lemon mirengue pie was so delicious. I ate it for breakfast the next day too! And the haupia reminded me of Hawaii. I made it the night before. It was simple with a mix that Ging had from Lihue.


Ging (talking to her family & rubbing baby #2 due in April!), Matt, Amy, Billy, Damien, Dallas

After dinner and after Damien went to bed we watched a couple of movies: Super 8 and 50/50. I saw 50/50 in the theater and really liked it. I thought Super 8 was pretty good too.

I love turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pecan pie, but this was a good alternative dinner and I was glad we did it! Also, remind us to tell you the story about how Billy and Ging don’t have a TV but borrowed one (+Direct TV). And then Dallas and Billy had to configure it so we could watch the football games on Thanksgiving. Craziness!

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Up in the Air by Walter Kirn

November 25th, 2011 · No Comments


finished 11.18.11

The book and the movie for Up in the Air are very different. I’d already seen the movie and really liked it, when I picked up the book. I really enjoyed the first parts of the book, or maybe I just liked thinking about George Clooney a lot. He played the main character in the movie and I imagined him in the book too. After a while, though, it became clear that the movie was better than the book, which is rarely the case. If you’re interested in this story, see the movie!

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The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

September 1st, 2011 · No Comments


finished 08.31.11

I liked this book, didn’t love it, but liked it. It was a slow read for me. I liked the character Muriel the best and for some reason in my head she was played by Zooey Deschanel. I had no idea when I started the book, but I found out about half way through that there was a movie made from the book in 1988. Gina Davis played the Muriel role and she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the movie.

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Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

August 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment


finished 08.29.10

I read this entire 400-page book in one weekend. I had some issues with parts of the story, but it was obviously fast-paced and interesting enough to get me through the pages rapidly. Enjoyable, but not as good as The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I read 5 years ago while on vacation in Hawaii.

It should be noted that Dallas and I watched the movie version of The Time Traveler’s Wife on Saturday night and it was terrible. Just read the book!

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Toy Story 3, Margie’s Candies & Water Fights

July 27th, 2010 · No Comments

On Saturday Jessica and I had plans to see Toy Story 3 with Quinn. We met Jen and Quinn and Kristin and Limey at the theater at 10:30 a.m. My friend Marcus needed some kids to borrow to see the movie so he joined us too. The more the merrier!

I think Jen was a little fearful that Quinn would get freaked out and want to leave, but he was so into it. When Woody and Buzz made their first appearances he was so excited he just yelled “WOOOODYYY!!!” and “BUZZ LIGHTYEARR!” and at the end right when the credits started to roll he yelled out that he wanted to watch it again. So funny. He was so upset when we had to leave the theater.

Jess said she liked the movie too. Honestly, it was a bit dark and scary in some parts. I thought Quinn would be scared but he seemed ok.

After the movie we headed to Margie’s Candies on Montrose. I’d only been to the original Margie’s on Western (see here and here). Margie’s ice cream is the best. Actually, it’s the fudge sauce that’s the best.

We heard they also had food, so the plan was to get lunch, then get ice cream. Turns out that they don’t have a grill or anything so all they have for food is like cold sandwiches. They were nice enough to suggest we go just down the block to Dos Toritos, where they have both Mexican food and some grill items. I had a couple tacos, Jess had a grilled cheese. Theeeeennnnnn we headed back to Margie’s. I am happy to report that the new Margie’s doesn’t have those creepy dolls that the Margie’s on Western has, which was a blessing because there were creepy dolls in Toy Story 3 and I might have freaked out a little if they had followed me to the ice cream shop!

Jess was talking to me a bit more on Saturday and she asked if we could go to the park after lunch. While we were eating our ice cream Quinn asked Jess if she wanted to go to his house and play in his little pool, so we decided to do that. It was a hot day and it was good to cool off in the water. Jess and Quinn mostly just ran around the backyard and played in the pool and with a couple water guns. Jen and I both got a bit more wet than we’d have liked, but it felt good. Jess was talking a lot while we were playing, but mostly trying to tell Quinn and I to get her more water for her gun. I had to tell her not to be so bossy. Funny. Try to get the kid to talk for two days then basically have to tell her to be quiet!

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