SIGH

This has been a crazy time for me ... recently I've committed myself to finding a new job, contemplated moving to another city, had a major wreck on my brand spankin new mountain bike, and saw my dog nearly get mauled to death.

Unlike life, I'm gonna blog with one thing at a time.

So a dilemma that I know many Californians face is: should I stay or should I go? After living here for a year, I've unexpectedly found myself truly enjoying my life here. Yes, the traffic is bad. And materialism is a badge of pride. And downtown LA really sucks for such a huge city. And its the epicenter for the entertainment industry.(Yes, this is a bad thing.) But I've been seduced by the weather, the diversity of cultures, awesome Chinese food, proximity to the mountains and the outdoors, and all the cool places you can go within a days drive of LA. The biggest drawback that makes me seriously consider moving out of state? The ridiculous price of housing. Those who left in the last decade were the smart ones, the ones who didn't get sucked into the bubble. The ones who haven't had to declare personal bankruptcy and lose a lifetime of savings and possibly their only chance at homeownership.

I recently was offered a job that closely approximates what my dream job would be. The drawback? Denver. It's cold there in the winter, I don't relish playing in the snow, and I hate to say this, but it's awfully white. It's nice not being a minority in LA. But in Denver, I can own a great house well within my budget, still enjoy the outdoors, and be in the same city with some of my closest friends. And, my retirement and financial situation would have a much rosier outlook there.

Reading this post I can almost convince myself to move there. Almost. But not yet.

Delicious Wine - how I love thee

Our new every day table wine - under $15 and tasty. Not the typical California Cab - no over the top tannins or fruit explosion, but a really smooth, full body cabernet that goes well with most everything we eat. So far that would be Moroccan beef stew, grilled sausages, and lamb.
Obviously, we're carnivores. But it's also a nice mellow wine to drink after a long day, while watching movies, or settling in for a nice long soak in the tub. I'm indebted to my co-worker for introducing me to this wine, as well as the San Dimas Wine Shop where I purchase said wine. The tasting area may be tiny, but the tasting flights are filled with lots of lesser known California wineries, and all of good quality. The proprietress is a very knowledgeable lady who has guided me to lots of enjoyable wines and given good tips for our upcoming trip to Healdsburg. Definitely better than any experience I've ever had at BevMo.

Tis the season! (For backpacking!)

Last year, my major backpacking trip was a 4 day hike through the southern Sierras. Now, as the weather's warming up (70's and 80's this weekend!) - I'm ready to get outside! Watching the video for last year's trip is making me excited - maybe Olympic NP? Yosemite?

Hey! I think I missed the Bandwagon!

By no means do I claim to be a music connoisseur of any kind. While I love listening to music, I confess to having extremely bad taste. (Yes, I really think Shakira is awesome. And yeah, I've been known to sing along to Kelly Clarkson.) But, thanks to my brother-in-law Alex, I can round out my musical collection with some very respectable artists. At least according Pitchfork, for whatever that's worth. Well, I owe Alex one, cuz he turned me on to Arcade Fire with their album, Funeral. While most everyone else LOOOOOVED this album, I thought it was alright. Same goes for their newest album, Neon Bible. I didn't get what all the fuss was about. What people were raving over. That is until I saw Arcade Fire perform live at the Hollywood Bowl back in September.

The Hollywood Bowl is one of the coolest concert venues EVAH. Situated in a natural bowl, it's an outdoor amphitheater where the sound quality is amazing. Even better, they let you bring in your own food and wine. The only downside to the Hollywood Bowl is that most of the bowl-goers were total douchebags. But I digress.

The show opened with Wild Light, who sound along the same vein of Arcade Fire but lack the oomph. They were followed by LCD Soundsystem, which let me tell you - for an electric, dance, punky sound - were really great live. Heck, they were great live period. I hadn't heard much of their music before, but after their performance I've become a fan. In fact, I think James Murphy's vocals are much more impressive without whatever they do in the studio.



LCD Soundsystem was so good, I really didn't think Arcade Fire could top it. So here and now, I will freely admit, I was wrong. The Arcade Fire are probably the best performers I've ever seen live. The lineup itself is impressive with people playing violins, multiple guitars, two drum sets, the accordian, keyboards, etc. And, to use a word reflective of my 80's childhood and current geographic location, they were stoked. No overly cool rocker vibes, they were unabashedly excited and loving that they were performing. Their music, which I thought was just ok before, really came to life. To contrast, just a few weeks before I saw Spoon (whose music I really liked before seeing them live), and well, they almost put me to sleep. Now it's been over a month since the Arcade Fire show, and their music is still running though my head. So I know that most of you are probably thinking - Why is she gushing on about these guys? Everyone knows. Well, because a month after the show, I still get really excited about the whole experience! Pretty good concert, eh?

Hamachi

Aside from short period of time after consuming some bad supermarket sushi (big mistake, I know) I love eating sushi. One of my favorites is hamachi which has a buttery quality that I am addicted to. Luckily enough some extremely fresh hamachi was available from the Pasadena Farmer's Market's Fish Lady. The Fish Lady is awesome - not only does she supply a huge variety of very very fresh fish - she does her Saturday morning fishmongering in 4 inch heels, full on makeup and hair, and a cute outfit. And this on a morning that likely starts around 5AM.

After a fabulous week spent with Michael's good friends climbing in Joshua Tree, we were spent. They drove off to the airport this Sunday, and we basically did our best to laze around the house throughout the afternoon. So we decided on something really simple for dinner and Google yielded this recipe. Now I've never been a huge fan of Ming Tsai - nor have I disliked his show - he's just never been as interesting to me as some of the other celebrity chefs out there. But this preparation for Hamachi carpaccio was pretty good.



We had no problems gobbling this up.

A few changes I would make... As you can see, there was no pounding flat of this fish. I like the texture of slightly thicker slices rather than the paper thin, pounded pieces. You can also halve the soy syrup recipe, cuz that stuff is potent! And we still have a substantial amount left over. Also, I was sad that my curry oil was not as potent as I would have liked. Perhaps it was my curry powder? And maybe I should have toasted the powder prior to adding the oil.

In any case, it was a tasty and simple way to prepare our hamachi.

And it even smells good!

I don't typically love Pinot Noir. Light bodied, lighter colored, and not as wonderful to smell as wines I usually like to drink. Though maybe it was the fact I drank this after a very long day of activity in the hot sun, but I found this particular Pinot to be incredibly tasty. We purchased a few bottles of Cambria this summer while visiting Santa Ynez. And though Cambria Pinot is readily found in most wine stores everywhere, I had never tried this particular one from the Benchbreak Vineyard. Delicious! So much so that I woke up the next morning a little woozy. So much so that I need to get several more bottles.

Tarptent: double the pleasure...

Ugh. It's been tooooo long since my last post. But I've used the time well....a week before a multiday backpacking trip into the Sierras, I found an answer to my soon to be aching back.



Tarptent. BOTH a tarp AND a tent. The ultralight advantages of a tarp.... but the all enclosed, insect barrier and wind resistance of a tent. All in a small bundle weighing in at 2.5 pounds. My previous tent - the Marmot Equinox - was in the heavyweight division, 6.5 pounds. Even better? My particular tarptent, the Rainshadow 2, is roomy enough for 3 people, whereas the old heavyweight could only stomach 2.



Yep - 5'2" me, nearly 6' of my friend Jeff, and about 5'5" of my friend Jessica. Cozy enough but not too cozy... I'm in love with my new tent. Hopefully we'll spend some more quality time together soon.