Month: September 2006

In the OC

Got into LAX way early Friday morning – like 3 am. We had a mechanical on the ground at JFK and they needed to replace a valve on the AC. We got free champagne and headphones. Once they did that we were able to have a relatively smooth flight and a pretty good 3 point landing.

We’re staying for the weekend with my law school friend BV from my study abroad in Hong Kong, her husband M, also an attorney, and their 19 month son. He’s mostly well behaved and a bundle of fun, even though his sentences are only about 3 words long and are usually monosyllabic abbreviations of words.

During the day we went to the farm to do some organic veggie shopping, and checked out downtown San Juan Capistrano. We then vegged on the patio for lunch. Later, we hiked up a trail overlooking the city with M. That night we went to BV’s twin nieces’ sweet 16 party, which was a luau pool party theme. BV’s sister catered the entire feast by herself, which was just amazing.

Saturday, we’re doing LegoLand and Sunday it will be a BBQ in downtown LA. Then Monday we will head up north to visit my bro.

Countdown to Hawaii

Tomorrow I’m off via China Airlines to Lihue, Kauai… then 2 days in Molokai. I’m so looking forward to this. My staff has wished me well… relax and enjoy and not think about work. THey’ll make sure things are taken care of. I’m glad to know that. My growing issue with work was delegating and trusting them to take care of the things that needed to be handled. We’ve got a lot of work to do but people aren’t stepping up like I wish they would.

I think my expectations are too great. I can’t help it. I just finished completing my DISC profile and am a (D)ominance (also) with a high (C) component. For Myers-Briggs, I clearly am an INTJ profile (alternative report: comprehensive INTJ profile.

I need to enjoy my vacation!

Fearless Worldwide Chocolate Culture

Our friends from Meniscus Zine, P and myself saw Jet Li’s Fearless on Sunday, courtesy of American Express, which was having a Fandango ticket giveaway for cardmembers. That paid me back for this year’s membership fee. The movie was not bad as Jet Li’s swansong. I kind of joked that it was his “Rocky III”; it actually stylized the historical account of martial arts fighter Huo Yuanjia. We spent most of the movie trying to figure out where the remote village was, and which Chinese ethnic group was being represented. Most of the farming on the mountain sides was very Hakka, but the headdress Huo’s love interest was wearing wasn’t right.

Afterwards, we went across the street to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Culture by the Bald Man, a bizarre emporium of food, drink and chocolate. You know how they put out the prize money on the poker table in the final round – it’s the same thing, but with chocolate. Great big bars of white and dark chocolate are put out on the center table like a coco-Fort Knox. Mounds of chocolate powders, beans, and blocks are in display cases throughout the dining room.

I liked the hot chocolate. Most of these other places make a really obscenely chalky hot chocolate that turns to sludge when it gets cold. This one was subtle, not excessively cloying, and is a beverage that you could actually sip along with your meal. Not bad. The crepe that I had (savory, with not a single bit of chocolate in it) was not bad either. I couldn’t sleep afterwards with all of the caffeine though.

Apparently Max Brenner has stores around the world, including Israel and Singapore. This Brenner dude has a lot of chutzpah.

Amazing Race 10 is in Mongolia leading around horses, jeeps, and yaks. I like the idea of going in the westery direction. Cheerleaders out, yay! The Korean dudes are in the back half of the pack, though.

T-minues 3 days before our trip to California. Let’s see what happens.