sushi murasaki

scallop carpaccio at sushi murasaki in costa mesa. i should have taken more pictures, but was too busy savoring my first real sushi in over 6 months, maybe a year. my parents spoil me! torched toro, shima aji, uni, squid with ika, amaebi, white eel, needlefish... oh so good. distance does make the heart grow fonder =P

end of space dragons 2009 dragonboat season

it's friday night, 3:18am, and i'm not asleep yet! not having practice at 7:30 the next morning is really making me feel like i can just stay up all night. this isn't going to be good for tomorrow...

the race last weekend was awesome. once again, ripple showed us a good time, and we almost-but-not-quite medalled. that's ok, we definitely rose to meet the competition.

this was also the first time this season that i've called a race! so i shamelessly stole this picture from the official sf dragonboat festival gallery, and share it here. blame davin, he's the one who told me about it.



goooo white boat!

other highlights:
- missing diana lui but dancing with mike, toliver, aditya and jill at the dropbox 2 million user mega party (trapeze artist! skanky cage dancers!)
- seeing jerome for the first time in years
- getting to women's finals
- ripple food (congee for breakfast sat morning? hell yeah)
- ripple pimp-wagon
- almost missing last red race >.<
- everyone telling me about the awesome tomatoes at the paddler's party
- 13 pullups
- getting super toned from running around all weekend and not eating enough
- cozy night in with mel watching breakin'
- clear view of the golden gate bridge
- lunch w/ angela, sophia, denise, matt and andy (random!!)
- constantly falling asleep at work

malibu, catalina and food

i'm tardy indeed. a month ago, i went to malibu with some space dragons and went climbing at the grotto (or echo cliffs, i'm not sure). we had a few newbs, including kevin, who'd never climbed before! but despite that, devant managed to teach me how to clean, and we successfully got almost everyone up a 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9... i think.

i wonder why i can never put together a trip to go climbing outdoors on my own. for one, i don't have the equipment for rope climbs. all i've got is my shoes, crash pad, harness and belay device. but i could go to bouldering places like stoney point... and perhaps there's some bouldering at malibu! it's a little frightening to go somewhere like that, so wild, though, without knowing where you're going first. every time i think of going to stoney point, malibu or joshua tree (especially malibu and josh, where there's generally a hike to get wherever you're trying to go), i worry about getting lost and never finding my way back. maybe for me, i have to be 100% committed and excited about doing something before i'm ready to make plans for it.

this is why friends like janet are so valuable. she makes plans. great ones =)! janet organized a trip to catalina just a few weeks ago. it was amazing - we took the catalina express to two harbors and kayaked out to parson's landing. there were 14 of us, and we stayed there for 2 nights. everything we brought to camp with us we packed on those kayaks: tents, sleeping bags, grills, food, water, etc. needless to say, the trip out to parson's landing was a little more difficult than the trip back to two harbors... but oh man, were we tired! the water in catalina was beautiful, so clear. kayaking there was wonderful, you could see into the kelp forests and see the garibaldi (beautiful golden fish) and some other schools of fish. some of us went snorkeling and diving in the kelp forests, and on the last day, some of us went kayaking around the caves near two harbors. that's when i lost mayana's snorkeling gear - by poking my head in the water and lying lengthwise on the boat, i could still see into the water without being fully submerged. as i rearranged myself back into sitting position, i lost my balance and tipped the boat over... and ended up getting submerged anyway. dumped mike into the water, too, since we were paddling tandem.

i went on an offsite with my team at work, and we ended up taking a boat ride from marina del rey to santa monica and back. on the way back, we saw dolphins feeding. a whole school of them, jumping and swimming.

lewis sent galen with a 4 or 5 pound bag full of tomatoes from his garden. yum! so, i leave you with some pictures of the lunch we made today, from recipes ronnie sent:
- http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/salad/weeknight-recipe-panzanella-061062
- http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/recipe-smoky-scallops-with-fennel-and-tomato-025547

Tsuruhashi

plum sauce wrapped in shiso and lean beef, chicken leg grilled with salt, outside skirt and yamakake wrapped in shiso and bacon. oh yeah, and cold noodle, bibimbap and vegetable soup!

take that, rewind it back

Remember how last week I tried to climb without stressing too much before the race while still getting my endurance workout in? I just jotted some stuff down afterwards while I was at YVR waiting for Tina:

A small success: 2 long traverses and some overhung stuff. I suppose it should be 'long', though, because my traverses are pretty sad! I have to improve my endurance to the point where I can make it around the gym on a single traverse. This time, I only made it about a 6th of the way, and I can only blame so much on people being in the way!

This weekend, the team's in Vancouver, competing at Rio Tinto Alcan, our biggest dragonboat race yet! This is where we find out exactly how we measure up against the best teams on the west coast. It's exciting, but I'm slightly apprehensive as far as my personal performance goes. I haven't really had time to train as much as I'd like. I've only been to 2 practices after falling off my bike and before that, only 4 or so after the cast came off! And it definitely feels like I haven't had a chance to get back into paddling form. All that means though, is that this weekend, it has to be mind over body! I can't let myself get tired in any of the races.

edit: pic of the men's boat after their first race on Saturday!

babies!!

still green and untouched! hope the bugs don't get 'em.

these are pictures of my tomato plant from the 15th, 18th and tonight. =D i think it's coming along pretty nicely, this is the first time i've really paid attention to growing a tomato plant, surprisingly enough! perhaps needs a little more water, some of the leaves are a little yellow. gotta ask robert what his magic is!

Tonight's regimen

Taking the vancouver dragonboat race into consideration. So, for tonight, I'm going to stick to endurance climbs and traverses and keep away from power moves! Wait, who am I kidding... I haven't done a power move since last year... >.<

i've tried this a few times

This is probably my fourth or fifth blog attempt. But I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm just not that technical, not that insightful, and if I'm going to blog, it should be about the things I do and enjoy doing! Maybe this one will stay.

This blog will be mainly about my work-aside passions: snowboarding (winter), paddling (dragonboat: mostly spring and summer, although we do practice year-round) and climbing (anytime i'm not doing the previous two). I may throw in a little hockey, once my leg heals enough. The last time I played hockey, the result was an ankle sprain and a fractured fibula! But that's no reason to give it up for good.

snowboarding
I snowboarded for the first time in winter 2002-03. This happened in the northeast US, so I learned mostly in the ice and wind of Killington, sometimes making it up to Sunday River and Jay Peak. I now live in Los Angeles, where the nearby peaks are less ice and wind and more slush and sun: Snow Summit, Bear and Moutain High. And when I'm lucky, it's Mammoth. =D

paddling
My buddy Emily got me to try this out in July 2007. Our team is the Space Dragons, and they are my second family. My first tournament was in Tempe, March 2008.

climbing
This is the sport I've kept at the longest, but I've been the least disciplined about it, sometimes going for months on end without it. The first time I ever climbed was in Paris, on the campus of l'Ecole Polytechnique, actually! I was there in the spring of 2003 for a semester abroad, and got to try out climbing (l'escalade, ou grimper) as my sports activity. I'm probably extremely lucky that my first outdoors climbing experience was in Fontainebleu, but I hadn't progressed enough to know that. Now, 6 years later, I might be able to appreciate the climbs there, but I haven't really made it past V2.

I recently purchased "Training for Climbing" by Eric Horst (recommended by Javier), and so far it's already surprised me that my weakness seems to be my physical ability, not my mental and psychological preparedness. So, a little more training in and out of the gym, and then perhaps I'll be able to take on Fontainebleu!