snow today gone tomorrow

So there was this snowstorm on Saturday....

...and then the sun came out strong on Sunday and melted all the snow away.

I hear we're getting thunderstorms tonight.

Crazy weather!

freak snowstorm

Text message from me to The Boy: "It's snowing! Wah! And I just packed up the down comforter. :("

The Boy calls: How are you doing sweetums?

Me: Alright, considering.

The Boy: I'm wearing shorts.

Me: Shut up.

The Boy: It is SOOOO HOT outside right now. Going up to mom's house and she said it's scorching and I better wear shorts.

[side note: "hot" in SF means it is going to be in the 90s in Vacaville]

Me: It's snowing here. Shut up about the hot weather.

The Boy: I think I'm going to sit outside and soak in some sun.

Me: Okay, that's enough. I'm hanging up.

The Boy: Stay warm over there! I know I'll be warm.

Me: *click*
The weatherman on Channel 12 kept saying that the Colorado storm was coming our way, but I kept wishing that it wouldn't happen. I was hoping not to wake up to seeing a bunch of snow outside my window. And when I woke up this morning, I thought my wish was coming true because I woke up to pouring rain outside my window. Then as I was doing my reading for the week, I suddenly realized that it was quiet. Thinking that the rain had stopped, I looked out my window to see falling snow!

And now I have the heater on because my two sweaters, fleece pants and socks just aren't warm enough.

don't judge a pizza by its topping

I had lunch at Minsky's Pizza and ordered the lunch special of slice of pizza, side salad and a soda.

This was my slice of pepperoni pizza. Yep, that's one pepperoni on the pizza. Instead of complaining, I just ate it. And to my relief, there were more pepperonis hidden between the the layer of cheese and sauce. So, the moral of the story is: don't judge a book by its cover.

just desserts

The roommate and I decided to treat ourselves to dessert while we were waiting for a bowling lane down in the Power & Light District. We had desserts from Vivino Restaurant and Bar.
Above: Tiramisu.
Below: Oreo Cheesecake with vanilla and chocolate ice-cream.
Two hours later, we still didn't have a bowling lane but we did enjoy our desserts!

you know you're in law school if...

You know you're in law school if...

1. You know the term "GUNNER" has nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment.

2. You join a club because you forgot to bring your lunch that day.

3. You think the creator of the Socratic method should have his face lit on fire and beaten out with a rake.

4. You answer every question with "It depends..."

5. You can name at least 3 people you want to throw things at when they raise their hands in class.

6. The term "oral argument" is both scary and slightly arousing.

7. You think tequila shots are essential to ordered liberty.

8. You strive to someday own Blackacre.

9. Sometimes during arguments you're tempted to 12(b)(6) the offending friend or family member.

10. You're pretty sure the "reasonable prudent man" is a friendless tool who still lives with his mother.

List courtesy of our law school's AWLS (2008-2009).

yummy goodness galore

Nothing makes the tummy happier than a:
...a nice tall glass of Vietnamese ice coffee...

...some delicious spring rolls...

...and a nice big bowl of traditional Vietnamese vermicelli with an eggroll, BBQ pork and shrimp for dinner.

Even though I felt a bit sick from stuffing myself at dinner, I was still craving another springroll. Probably because the ice coffee kept me from falling asleep until 2 am and my belly got the midnight munchies!

Food courtesy of Vietnam Cafe.

dogs gone bowling

Our school is holding a bowling tournament as an end of the semester activity. The girls and I decided to sign up as a team and our initial idea was to wear wigs and be called "The Big Wigs." (There's also a costume contest associated with this bowling tournament.)

Then somehow the discussion of what our costumes should be lead to us dressing up as a different animals. And during class, HB decided to send us this picture to "encourage" the selection of animal costumes.


I had to use every ounce of my power to not burst out laughing in the middle of my Con Law class.

funny

The Boy: What picture do you have on your facebook profile page?

Me: umm...

The Boy: Do you have a picture of us as your profile pic?

Me: Not exactly. My profile picture is of a caterpillar sushi roll.

The Boy: Why does that not surprise me?

cupcakes baby!

I made a second trip to Baby Cakes today and invested in four cupcakes for my sweet tooth cravings.
The selections for today:

Two chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.
One red velvet cupcake with creamcheese frosting.
One vanilla cupcake with dulce de leche frosting.
I shared the cupcakes with the roommate. I split the red velvet and dulce de leche cupcakes in half and we each tried a half.

The red velvet cake is really moist and yummy. I thought the cream cheese filling could have been a little bit sweeter (it tasted a tiny bit sour so I hope that wasn't because the creamcheese had gone bad...).

The vanilla cake was also moist and yummy, and the dulce de leche frosting was caramelly delicious. There was just enough of a hint of caramel.

The two chocolate cupcakes are still sitting in the box waiting for us to devour later (perhaps after I finish this post).
cupcake photo art
Can't wait for my next trip back to Baby Cakes so I can try the rest of their selections.

asian buffet

Yesterday, the Asian-Pacific Islander Students Association (APILSA) held its annual dinner at my favorite Vietnamese buffet, Sung Son Restaurant. A lot of students, past and present, and honored guests such as professors, deans, actual lawyers with jobs were present for the food and entertainment. The food, of course, was a big hit.
The buffet line of food.

My first dish, a bowl of Hu Tieu Do Bien (clear noodles with seafood) from the noodle bar.
My first plate of food which consisted entirely of Vietnamese chicken salad and spring rolls.
My third plate with crab rangoon, bbq pork vermiccelli and fried sweet potato fries. Yep, I was full after all of that.

creepy intelligent ESPN website

Check out this website called Regifting Robin. It asks you to pick a number, do some math, look for the corresponding gift, and then it actually guesses what your gift is!

I did it ten times and Regifting Robin was right every single time. I had to stop because it was beginning to creep me out that this computer program knew what I was thinking in my head.

Click here to try it out yourself -- Regifting Robin.

PBR, QuikTrip and snow cones

PBR (professional bull riding) came to town again, so the girls and I decided to ditch law prom and go look at cowboy butts instead. (Click here for previous post about PBR.) This time, PBR was at the Sprint Center, the same place where I saw Janet Jackson in concert. It was interesting to see how they transformed the arena into a bull riding area filled with lots and lots of dirt. I sure hate to be the people cleaning up all that dirt afterwards.
The arena was PACKED full of fans (or people who had nothing else to do on a Saturday night). The show was also aired on television. I really liked the rodeo clown in this show because he provided all of the entertainment during the "commercials" and he was pretty funny with his singing and impersonations.

These were the best shots I could get of the bunking broncos. See that blue round thing? There were two "lucky fans" who won some contest and were able to watch the show from inside that blue thing. There was one bull to ran right into the blue thing, so the rodeo clown started asking those two fans if they saw their lives flash across their eyes. I'd be terrified of being anywhere that close to an angry bull.

This little boy above is a cowboy in training. He was so cute! He was dancing along to the tune of the music.

Like last time, we got our tickets as part of a family 4-pack that came with tickets and food. However, each ticket actually said "1 sandwich" instead of "4 hot dogs and 4 sodas" so we didn't luck out like last time when we were able to get 4 hot dogs and 4 sodas for each ticket. But the sandwiches were pretty good. They're from QuikTrip. I got the unhealthiest sandwich of all - the Classic Italian Sub - and it was yummy in the tummy.
The QuikTrip also had $1 slushes for 22 oz cups. I chose wild cherry flavor - something I haven't had since highschool. And I also topped off my dinner with a chocolate chip cookie. Yep, I was eating really healthy on that night.

I did stop short of ordering a snow cone, another thing that I haven't seen since high school. Look how pretty it is on the tray!

domo sushi & grill

CC and I had lunch at Domo Sushi & Grill in the Brookside area close to school. I shop at the grocery store across the street from the restaurant all the time, but just never actually noticed there was a Japanese restaurant there. The food was pretty tasty, and the price is just about the same as any other Japanese restuarant in KC (ie: pricey).
You can't skip sushi when eating at a Japanese restaurant, so we ordered the Caterpillar roll. It's kinda cute, with eyes and everything. Tasted even better than it looked, and I was not merciful in eating the head ("say goodbye caterpillar!" CHOMP).
I ordered the Yoshi Bowl off the lunch menu. I didn't exactly know what a Yoshi Bowl was since I never heard of it before and thought it'd be something new to try. The menu said it contained grilled pork and "vietnamese vinegrette" so I was a bit intrigued with that the vietnamese vinegrette was. Turned out a Yoshi Bowl is just a Vietnamese bowl of grilled pork, eggroll in vermicelli (bun cha gio thit nuong). The only difference was instead of vermecelli, there was flat rice noodles. And the vietnamese vinegrette was basically nuoc mam (sweet chili sauce). So since it was basically a Vietnamese dish that I would usually order at a Vietnamese restaurant, the Yoshi Bowl was a good selection for lunch.
CC chose the Tonkatsu lunch, which is breaded pork/chicken served with rice. CC chose the chicken. The breading on the chicken was exceptionnally done because it was not one bit soggy but somehow super crispy. And this dish was a true Japanese dish.

Now, here's a story I did not know about the restaurant: Back in 2007, a robber was eating dinner at Domo after he robbed a bank next door. The cops came into the restuarant to bust him and everything, and wouldn't let him finish dinner. Hilarious! I didn't know a local restaurant had such history! Click here for the full story (and somewhat of a review of the restaurant).

fogo de chao

My roommate is the carnivore of all carnivores - she LOVES red meat. So, when I heard there was this new restaurant in town that was being dubbed as "the meat buffet," I thought it was the perfect place to take her for her birthday lunch (even if the lunch was a month after her birthday...).

*editorial note* I wanted to take actual photos of the place, but it was quite upscale (even though not everyone was dressed upscale; everyone - including us - wore jeans, but that's probably because there was a bunch of snow outside). So, most of these pictures are taken from the menu that I grabbed on the way out. The actual food items are exactly the same way as it looks in these photos.

The meat buffet is at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian Steakhouse that is best described as a buffet with a never-ending supply of meats for your appetite. The way it works is that there are two parts to the buffet: 1) the salad bar buffet with a lot of selections, and you can go back as many times as you want to; and 2) the serving of the different kinds of meat right at your table-side. Below is a couple of pictures of what the salad bar buffet looks like:

And here comes the selections of meat. There were 15 different kinds of meat. We topped out at six. Yep, the carnivore roommate couldn't eat anymore meat either. But it was all still so good.

The meats we were able to stuff into our bellies:

-the Fraldinha, cut from teh bottom sirloin, and seasoned to perfection (description taken from the menu)
-Filet Mignon, succulent piece of meat cut from the tenderloin and seasoned to perfection. We also had the filet mignon wrapped in bacon, so I actually ate two full size pieces of filet mignon, which is A LOT of beef for me in one sitting.
-Beef Ancho (not sure why the image is sideways), the prime part of the ribe eye, beef ancho celebrates the rich flavor and the delectable texture of that elite cut. Do you also see the yellow balls of bread? It was like bread made out of butter, very creamy and light but still bready!
-Alcatra, cut from the top sirloin, this piece of meat is tender and full of flavor. Depending on whether you liked your beef rare, medium or well done, they shaved off the pieces in different places. Since I liked my meat well done to burnt crisp, the waiter only shaved off the outer edges for me.
-Cordeiro, fresh young leg of lamb sliced off the bone, and also served as chops. We had the lambchops, and I actually kinda liked it.
-Costela de Porco, tender pork ribs slow-roasted to perfection. Okay, this was the only meat I didn't like because it was really too dry and almost crispy. This was also the last piece of meat I could force down my throat before I had to go get another plate of salad just to balance out the meat/veggie ratio.
The meats that we didn't eat: Picanha (prime part of sirloin flavored with sea salt or garlic); Lombo (pork lin tender filets); Frango (chicken breasts and breasts wrapped in bacon); Linguica (robust pork sausages -- I wanted to try this but got too full to request a sample!).

Each person had this little disk that was red on one side and green on the other. Red means "STOP bringing the meat!" and green means "BRING ON THE MEAT, BABY!" So, as soon as we turned over our disks to the green side, a line of waiters with different meats would come by our tables and tell us what kind of meat they were serving, and then would serve us a piece of that meat. And once we thought we had enough meat on our plate, we quickly turned the disk back over to red so as not to encourage any more waiters to come by our tables.

The waitstaff was EXCELLENT, very attentive. Everytime I returned from the salad bar, there was a waiter holding my chair and waiting for me to sit down so he could push my chair back in. My glasses of water/coke never got below half empty. I always got my dishes exchanged out for new ones without being asked. And they all worked together, so you never had to look for your one waiter/waitress, but any of them would always come by to make sure you were happy.
And then we forced some dessert down our throats (because you can't have a birthday lunch without birthday dessert). My roommate had the triple chocolate mousse cake and I had the flan (actual pictures!). The flan was really good, but I thought it was a little too solid for me, because I always thought flan was a little jiggly like pudding. The chocolate mousse cake was really really sweet and I probably could have only eaten half of it. The roommate was able to eat 3/4 of it before calling it quits. She says she wished she had finished the whole thing because it was so good.

And how much did all this cost me? Well, the lunch buffet on Sundays is $34.50 a person, when I thought it was $24.50, which is the weekday price. I think dinner price is around $50 per person. Desserts and drinks are separate. So, um, yeah, this was a pricey lunch. But, I think the price is worth it since you're getting all the best parts of the cow/lamb/chicken/pork. I like to believe that the fact that I ate two really good pieces of filet mignon and a lamb chop was enough to cover the $34.50 because it would have cost just about that much or more at another steakhouse by ordering it a la carte. Oh yeah, there were also side dishes of rice, beans, mashed potatoes, polenta, and caramelized bananas on the table. So you see, there was a LOT OF FOOD.

And then I did not eat for the rest of the day because I was so full.