After reading about my friend Jessica’s vacation and food adventures, I learned that raspberry soup existed! I was intrigued, and I made it last night. It was super tasty!
I might fiddle with the ratio of ingredients in the future, but I was pretty pleased. It’s raspberries, yogurt, sugar, and a little bit of wine. Pretty simple. A lot of people seem to strain out the raspberry seeds, but I like them, so I left them in the soup. It was a nice dessert soup!
Saturday night was Hatha for Hunger, a Halloween gala hosted through Purple Yoga to raise money for hungry children. It was held at the Long Beach Museum of Art and kicked off with two yoga classes – an outdoor sunset vinyasa flow and an indoor gentle flow.
I chose the outdoor class and had my mat near the front so I could easily see the ocean. It was quite beautiful and hosted by two of my favorite instructors, Alex and Sean, as well as Scott, who I didn’t know.
Here’s the view at the end. It was one of the most enjoyable classes I’ve even taken.
I took the easy path and wore my Aquabats costume. I didn’t put together a new costume, and this seemed like the easiest costume in which to do yoga. gem went as a mermaid!
Here’s a photo of me and Alex after the class.
Sean didn’t club too many people during class.
Here’s a great photo of Sean and gem. I’m glad I got one in which you can actually see gem’s costume.
Here I am with Sterling the wrestler and Megan as a… okay, I think I can remember it all… mermaid, butterfly, unicorn… and Flavor Flav if you consider her clock purse (not shown).
Oh, and I wore the socks my grandmother gave me a few months ago because she confused me for someone else and thought I loved crazy socks. One has burgers and the other has fries. I think it goes well with the Aquabats costume.
I squeezed into the frame with gem, Jai, and Kel for this great photo.
Last but not least, I danced with Forrest Gump (JT). Such an awesome costume!
It was a super fun evening. Besides yoga and taking photos, there was also some wine and champagne, great music, and lots of socializing. DJ Dory was there, playing music for the outdoor flow and the party afterwards. I also made some new friends, talking about yoga, working out, music, dancing, and more. Yay for new friends! I’m thankful to everyone who helped make it what it was, including staff and attendees alike!
(But sorry to my other friends at Rita’s party that I didn’t see, heh. I was too sleepy.)
It’s Back to the Future Day! Today’s the day in the “future” that the heroes of Back to the Future visit in the second movie. At 4:29 PM today the time machine should appear in California!
Check out the cool video posted by the Back to the Future Trilogy Facebook page!
I would have included photos from the Spectacles performance, Improv to the Future, but apparently I didn’t take any. What?! I wrote about it though.
Cirque du Soleil was in town this weekend, and there was no way I’d miss it. I went with gem Friday night to watch Kurios under the Grand Chapiteau!
Everything I read indicated that this was one of the best Cirque du Soleil presentations to date. It really was fantastic, but it’s hard to conclude any sort of “winner” when every Cirque show is amazing.
I really had to resist purchasing goggles and a hat. They would have integrated with an Aquabats costume in a fun way!
The show had a steampunk aesthetic and was filled with lots of typical performances, great music, and some more novel performances.
I particularly enjoy the scenes that involve some extreme showcase of the human body with which I have some personal familiarity in a minor way. For example, the aerial bike scene that involved a woman riding a bike that was attached to a cable. She rode it around the stage before riding it through the air, and then performed a trapeze-like act on it. It reminded me of aerial hoops, and while I’ve never done that, I know people who have. The contortionists were another example. The back bends they did were so amazing. When I do back bends, they don’t look like theirs!
One act, the invisible circus, has one perform showcasing a variety of “acts” involving invisible performers and animals. It’s all about his reaction and some prop movements. I particularly enjoyed the invisible lion, mostly because it’s an interesting consideration of animals in the circus.
Of the more atypical acts, there was a chair balancing act that had an inverted version happening concurrently from the ceiling with a performer stacking chairs downward. At first, I thought it was a projection, but nope, it was happening! There was also a performer in another act using his hands like puppets to act out scenes. This was filmed and projected above on a floating balloon that was really cool.
Kurios was an excellent show that was truly inspiring. I just wish I had another Cirque du Soleil show approaching to anticipate! Whatever comes next, I know I’ll love it too.
Earlier this month, I spent a little over a week in Michigan with a day in Canada. Duncan visits family there and asked if I wanted to come this year. Of course! We stayed with his dad, Dan, who was incredibly accomdating. I’d met him previously, but it was nice getting to know him as well as Duncan’s brother, Griffin. There’s a sense of humor that runs in his family I think. After a layover in Denver, we arrived in Detroit early Saturday morning, went back to Dan’s house, and slept for a bit. That evening, we spent some time seeing Ann Arbor. 
Ann Arbor has these little fairy doors scattered around the city. We only saw one, but they seemed pretty interesting to me.
You can read about them at Wikipedia’s Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor. If I went back, I’d spend more time looking for the others. 
We spent some time walking around the University of Michigan, which was pretty cool. I saw Tau Beta Pi’s Bent and had to get a picture with it! Ann Arbor had a really cool downtown area and was a great city overall. The weather was nice too; it was the first time I had ever been that far north or east, so it was quite a bit different. The day we landed, the high was about 15 degrees lower than Irvine’s low. 
On Sunday we left for the cottage. We spent a lot of time visiting cities near it, eating, taking in the sights, and playing board games. I like how quickly Dan and Griffin learned our inside jokes. Oh, Loaded Questions’ “Duncan questions.” There’s another picture of the cottage at the top of this post.
I know this isn’t a fantastic shot or anything, but it was cool seeing so much of the night sky there. 
The cottage was right on the lake, so it seemed like a beautiful spot for some yoga. Thanks for the photo, Griffin! It was really amazing seeing the changing colors of the trees too even if they weren’t fully changing yet. I felt like every day I’d be amazed all over again. 
One of the highlights (yeah, it was a highlight!) was learning to skip stones on the lake. Simple, yet fun. 
We visited Mackinac Island after driving to the Upper Peninsula, which was pretty cool. It was a fort used in the Revolutionary War (among other wars). It seemed surreal to be thinking about the Revolutionary War.
Cars weren’t allowed on the island, but there were plenty of horses. Oh, and there was fudge. I bought two pounds of fudge to take home. Unfortunately, most of it’s gone by now. 
Every fort needs some cannons.
Did you know that this region has black squirrels? Black squirrels! 
The island had plenty of trees.
Here’s a shot of me while I was there. Thanks, Duncan.
Birds totally bore me at zoos, but I learned that I like taking photographs of them. This guy really wanted our fudge. 
During our mini-vacation to the cottage, we also visited this lighthouse.
It was just a tad foggy but very beautiful.
After returning to Ann Arbor, we met with Jackie and Kenneth. I know I should have visited sooner, but at least I did eventually!
We all went out to eat at the Jolly Pumpkin, which was amazing, except I ate way too much pizza. It was really wonderful talking with Jackie and Kenneth again. I’m glad it just felt like old times. It’s funny how many nights I spent talking with Jackie back in college. It makes me all nostalgic!
Duncan and I had to represent Robot House by doing the robot in front of Robot Supply and Repair.
We also saw a ton of cool street art!
On Thursday, Griffin got us lost in the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit. I thought we might have to live there when the elevators wouldn’t let us back out. 
What’s with Detroit and secret places? We walked all around Slows BBQ before realizing this was the door.
At the John K. King Used and Rare Books store, I bought a book called The World of Odysseus. I’m excited to read it! 
That night we had White Castle for dinner. Um, you know how frozen White Castle food sucks? The fast food joint is actually pretty tasty! Granted I felt sick the next day (as I was told I might), but I’ve already found myself craving it again.
It was time to head to Canada on Friday! I hadn’t left the country before this and was super excited. Even if Canada isn’t that culturally different, it was still thrilling. I rented a car, and we started by going to Niagara Falls. 
See, I guess I like birds now.
I was surprised that it wasn’t louder. It was breathtaking though. Give California some of that water, jerks. 
Here’s me and Duncan courtesy of a friendly stranger. Duncan had been to the US side before and said the view was much better from the Canadian side. 
Before driving to Toronto, I had some coffee and a Canadian Maple donut from Tim Horton’s. I had to be cliche. It was good, and there really are a ton of Tim Horton’s in Canada.
Toronto doesn’t make a big deal about this, but apparently Dr. Mario lives there. Amazing. 
We had dinner and drinks at The Lockhart, a bar inspired by Harry Potter. The food was good, and the cocktails were amazing. I had The Captain Picard, “(2oz)Earl Grey Infused (Bombay) Gin, Agave, Lime, Tonic,” and a Cafe Moscow, “(3oz)Espresso infused Vodka, Baileys, Kahlua, Agave, Choc. Sprinkles (opt.), Coffee Bitters.” 
The next day we spent most of the day looking for sights from Scott Pilgrim, although we also went to the University of Toronto and a few other places.
Sonic Boom is a record store at which Scott Pilgrim shops. It was pretty cool, and I bought a shirt.
Here’s the library at which Scott sees Ramona rollerblade up the counter. 
This park was used in the movie, although there was a lot of post-production done on the scene.
While not super recognizable, the house with the bit of blue was used at Scott Pilgrim’s place in the film. 
Casa Loma was where Lucas Lee was filming in Scott Pilgrim.
Think I could do a grindy thingy on that rail? 
Scott Pilgrim and friends eat at Pizza Pizza, and now I do too. Not bad. 
Pizza Pizza also served poutine, which killed two birds with one stone.
Lee’s Palace is where Sex Bob-omb opens for The Clash at Demonhead. We didn’t go inside, but it sure had an awesome exterior!
Here’s one final shot for the vacation, me standing outside Lee’s Palace.
It was such a great trip! I wish I could have done more, but honestly, we really packed a lot into the vacation.
I have plenty more of my photographs posted on Flickr, and I’ll have more up on social media too. Thanks to everybody who made the trip great – Duncan, Dan, Griffin, Jackie, Kenneth, and a lot of others!
Happy October! While I didn’t get as much reading done in September as I wanted, I did a lot of other things. I took 30 yoga classes in 30 days at Purple Yoga, which was fun! When I realized I was close, I decided I could totally do it. And it was easy!
I also got the New Student Special at Atomic Ballroom, giving access to unlimited classes for a week. I took 24 dance classes and went to 12 dances, including evenings at Atomic Ballroom, Folly at Dapper Day, and dancing in Downtown Disney. You can see a lot of wristbands in the photo at the top. Alicia took this great photo one of the nights we went to Atomic. Yoda tried to squeeze into the photo too.
I don’t know who Cynthia is, but I’m stealing Luke’s Snap since I’m in it too.
I tried 6-Count Lindy Hop, 8-Count Lindy Hop, Salsa, Country Two Step, West Coast Swing, Country Line Dancing, Collegiate Shag, Bolero, Foxtrot, Milonga, Argentine Tango, Cha Cha, and Charleston classes. I already like Lindy Hop, and it’s still my favorite, but I found that I really enjoyed Argentine Tango and Country Line Dancing too – all for completely different reasons. Oh, and I might have tried to belly dance too. There’s totally no video. Thanks gem, Anela, Luke, and new friends for making the week fun! I ran into old friends and acquaintances and met a lot of new, cool people at Atomic too.
And I did squeeze in two tragedies by Euripides and some of The Aeneid as well as picking up Super Mario Maker. My body’s ready for tomorrow’s vacation! Time for Michigan with Duncan! I’m going with him on his yearly trip, leaving Friday and returning a little over a week later. Plans include a cottage, dinner with old friends, Canada, Niagara Falls, and Detroit – a nice combination of staying busy while also resting. Let’s go!
Atomic Ballroom’s Student Showcase was this weekend. Because gem’s loud and quick to yell when told that the loudest person wins tickets, she won tickets to the show. The theme was “Celebrate the Magic” featuring Disney music. It was pretty awesome! I particularly liked watching the shadows dance when these two were in the right position on stage. Besides this, I didn’t take many photos.
The performers were really good. It was nice to see people of so many different levels dance. I’m sure it took a lot of guts for some of them to get up there. I really enjoyed pieces such as “Kiss the GIrl” from The Little Mermaid, featuring a shimmery, mermaid-tail-like dress, “Strangers Like Me” from Tarzan, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan, and “Friend Like Me” from Aladdin with an awesome dance (that suddenly made me really sad when I thought of Robin Williams and then the closing of Disney’s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular. I just noticed while looking at the program that one of the dancers in that Aladdin piece, Jeff Glass, is a psychiatrist at the Long Beach VA. How cool! For all I know, he could have helped my father.
Oh, and I have to add that there was an adorable little girl doing some of the transitions. One time she was a mermaid, one time she ran across the stage dressed as Indiana Jones and running from a “boulder,” and one time she was Rapunzel.
After the showcase, there were complimentary refreshments. I ate too much, but the food was delicious. It was a lovely evening!
Dapper Day was here this weekend! I was the expo for about 15 minutes right before it closed due to traffic. Ugh! On the bright side, I won a free bow tie from xoelle through an Instragram repost contest and got to pick it up!
There was some stress as I waited in line to see if we could get tickets to Folly, the after party, while gem spent a good hour trying to park. Luckily, we did get inside the party. Folly had drinks, a live swing band, a keyboardist and bassist in another room, and lots of dancing upstairs at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen.
gem captured me enjoying my White Russian.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, because I still wanted to share this photo of us in line.
Here’s another shot of us while we waited in line.
gem enjoyed the fireworks while wearing xoelle’s business card in her hair.
We were hoping to meet some other friends there, but no one came. However, we made some new friends. It was an awesome night anyways with drinks, lots of dancing, and great music. Super fun!
Is it time to go back to Cauldron Ice Cream yet? No? Oh well – hopefully soon. I went on the weekend, and it was really cool. This is the s’mores flavor in a puffle. The puffle is a waffle cone, but it’s definitely different than what you typically imagine for ice cream. It’s apparently “Hong Kong style,” but I don’t really know what that is exactly. I expected those bubbles to literally be bubbles filled with air, but they aren’t hollow at all. They’re pure, soft deliciousness, perfect to soak up the ice cream flavor. I’m sure it’s more carbs than a typical cone, but it was great. I actually had a dream about the puffle the night before I got to try it. It didn’t disappoint.
The ice cream flavors were quite good and very interesting as well. Most of the ice creams came with toppings as well with balanced flavors combining beautifully. I ordered the s’mores ice cream. “Double chocolate ice cream layered with graham cracker. Topped with marshmallow fluff cream and then toasted for the full campfire experience.” S’mores are one of my favorite desserts, so I knew I had to try it. I love the incorporation of the graham cracker and marshmallow fluff cream. I wouldn’t expect to need the graham cracker given the similar puffle, but I appreciated the crunch (and of course the authenticity of the s’more). The marshmallow fluff cream was great; it wouldn’t have been a s’more without it.
The H2O Rose was also quite impressive with its notable floral flavor. It truly tasted like roses. It looked the part as well in a beautiful pink and sprinkled with rose sugar. While I didn’t take a photo of it myself, Anela provided me her photograph! While I have a thing for chocolate, the H2O Rose might have been my favorite item as an artistic whole and my second favorite flavor I tasted. See how it’s arranged like an actual rose? I should try a new flavor next time I go, but I’m really tempted to order this.
I tried more than that though. I was also impressed with the taste of the Vietnamese Coffee. Although the presentation wasn’t quite as special, it was my third favorite flavor. The Earl Grey Lavender was another floral flavor that was fun to pair with the Vietnamese Coffee. Rainbow Road was milk ice cream and Fruity Pebbles. I believe it was supposed to be topped with Fruity Pebbles as well, but they missed that in our order. While good, I think it was my least favorite flavor of the six I tried. On the plus side, it made me get a song about Rainbow Road stuck in my head. Lastly, I tried Strawberry Shortcake. It sounds like it should be unexciting, but I suppose classics are classic for a reason. This was one of the better strawberry ice creams I’ve had.
Their menu lists “September 2015 flavors,” seemingly implying that the flavors change monthly. I don’t know if they all rotate or only some, but I’ll be interested to see what happens next month However, there’s more I want to try in September still such as the Sea Salted Caramel Crunch, featuring caramel ice cream and pretzel bits. There’s also the Cirque de la Crème: “Pieces of circus animal crackers mixed throughout, for a taste of nostalgia in every bite. Topped with rainbow sprinkles and a mystery animal cracker.” Doesn’t that sound adorable? As if they hadn’t already hooked me, they end the description with “a mystery animal cracker.” Yes, please!
I went wakeboarding with my family this weekend at Puddingstone in San Dimas. I’ve wakeboarded twice before this, but it was my cousins’ and brother’s first time. It’s a ton of fun, but I can definitely admit that I’m sore the next day. That video was my longest go. Thanks to my cousin Haley for recording!
Here’s Mitch. He was definitely getting much better near the end, but I stopped recording when my phone got close to dying.
Here’s Haley, who actually stood up briefly on her first attempt. She was pretty amazing.
Lastly, this is my brother, James. He’s been on the boat previously, but this was his first time wakeboarding. I’m glad he tried it!
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