party plane in the sky

Now that I'm in DC with reliable internet access that allows quick uploads of pictures, I'm going back to describing my traveling experience on Virgin America.

I got to the airport pretty early because I had a ton of luggage that needed to get checked and I figured if I had to lug all the suitcases myself, it might take me awhile. Surprisingly, it only took me 15 minutes to check in and get all my luggage checked. Pretty quickly if I do say so myself. Going through security, however, was another thirty minutes of my life.

There's the Virgin America plane waiting at the gate.
I hadn't had breakfast yet, so this was my first meal of the day -- Peet's Lemon & Rose hot tea and an almond croissant. I was also reading Julie & Julia while passing the time (the book is really different from the movie, mainly because the book is only about Julie).
The waiting area at Gate A11 waiting for boarding time.
And here is a photo of the interior of the Virgin America main cabin. They have pretty purple lights and "cool music" (their quote, not mine) in the lavatories. I walked by the First Class cabin and was envious of those people. If only I had $200 for the upgrade. Oh well, I sat in the main cabin with a handful of screaming toddlers but no one's complaining about that, are they? (I think children under age 10 should be banned from this airline.)
This is the view from my window seat, somewhere over Nevada or other.


And this, my friends, is the cool individual tv monitor at each seat. You can watch on demand movies for $8 each (apparently this is free in First Class), or a foreign film for $5 (not sure why there's a discrepancy between those categories). There's also on demand tv that ranges from free to $2 per episode. I just spent the 5+ hours flight watching satellite tv (NCIS marathon on USA).

And then there's the food menu, that ranges from $3 to $9...


...I opted for a free coke and brought my own lunch, $2.50 lunchables for adults.
Overall, it was a pretty good flight. In between watching satellite tv and eating, I was also online surfing the web (mostly looking through craigslist ads for apartments). It was kinda neat to email The Boy and keep him updated on my flight status while I was in the air, all the while emailing him pictures of the party plane that he still has yet to experience (he tells me Virgin America is the party plane to take to Vegas).

I really hate layovers, especially on cross country flights. And with non-stop flights from SFO to IAD starting at $119 each way, I'll gladly pay $15 per bag for checked luggage so as to enjoy the non-stop flight, the individual tv monitors, and wi-fi in the air. I am definitely going to use Virgin America again for my trips back to the West Coast.

Don't worry, Southwest, you still have my patronage for flying from BWI to BOS since you still carry the cheaper flights for that travel.

blogging at 35,000 feet

I am sitting in seat 15A on Virgin America Flight VX84, which departed San Francisco about an hour and a half ago and is headed for the nation's capital (Washington DC if you didn't know).

Why am I heading to DC? I'm going to start my year at GWU working on an LLM degree in International Law. Although I am tired of school, I'm actually pretty excited about starting at GWU. And a year flies by quickly, right? So this fourth year of law school should be a piece of cake.

How am I blogging while the plane is flying cross country? For $9.95 per flight, Virgin America allows you to be connected while you're in the air. The only downside I have experienced is that it takes FOREVER to upload photos, so I will save all my photos for another blog about all the benefits of flying Virgin America. (no subliminal messaging here)

The drink carts are coming by so I'm going to log off and eat my lunch while watching NCIS on the little tv screen in front me. Aww yeah!

taco salad

The Boy's mother decided to make taco salad for dinner last night. It was a very simple recipe that hit the spot. A light meal and yet fills the tummy without giving you that food coma aftereffect.
First, she browned some hamburger meat, drained it and then added regular taco seasoning from the packet. Then she added the taco meat to the salad. The salad part consisted of romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, corn and some jalapenos just for me. She also added shredded cheese to her salad, which I omitted from mine. Last to add is the corn chips (or tortilla chips, whichever you prefer).

She also had these breadsticks you can order from The Olive Garden and bake in your very own oven. The breadsticks were so delicious! It would go especially well with spaghetti. I'll have to see if there's an Olive Garden in SF so I can make some spaghetti and breadsticks for The Boy before I leave for DC.

outrageous brownies

For my birthday way back when (in April), L gave me this cool brownie pan that gives an edge to every slice of brownie.
It is a really nice quality pan, and it comes with a serving utensil!
Included with my gift of the brownie pan was also this box of Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownie Mix. So guess what? I used the brownie mix to make brownies in my new brownie pan!
In addition to the brownie mix, I needed two eggs and a stick of butter (1/4 lb). The directions are on the box, but you can have pictorial instructions here:

First, preheat oven to 350 degrees, butter and flour the brownie pan. Next, melt chocolate chunks and butter over a pot of boiling water...
...until it's smooth like this picture below.
Next, you mix the melted butter/chocolate into the package of brownie mix. Add the eggs and beat on low. (Optional - fold in walnuts.)
Then, put the mix into the brownie pan. This was a bit difficult because the mix fell out into a pile in the middle of the pan. I had to use a spatula to spread the mix around the edges and then try to gauge if it was evenly distributed.
Put the pan in the oven for EXACTLY 35 minutes. Do not leave in any longer than that! This is per Barefoot Contessa's instructions.
Take the pan out of the oven and let cool.
Cut up the pieces and serve. I was able to cut out 20 squares from this baker's edge pan.

Get a glass of milk and enjoy! These really were OUTRAGEOUS; so rich and delicious! YUM!

mini-donuts

The SF Giants held a mini-carnival of sorts during the weekends in July. We decided to take a study/work break (The Boy was working overtime and I tagged along to use his conference room to study) and stopped by the carnival for a little bit. It was located at the AT&T parking lot behind the Giants' stadium so it didn't take us very long to make two rounds. The admission fee was $5 per person, and we stayed for half an hour, max.

There was this one donut stand that tooted Donut Sundaes. I wanted to see what it was, and a donut sundae consists of a dozen mini donuts covered in chocolate sauce, sprinkles, whip cream, etc. I dubbed it a sugar high in a cone. Unfortunately, I didn't buy a donut sundae because I knew I'd get a sugar high and then crash immediately thereafter, and I had to study after this...so no donut sundae for me.
We need see the making of a mini-donut in action. I want one of these contraptions now. Wouldn't it be cool if I could make mini-donuts for anyone who came over to visit?

The Boy also played the Ring-a-Bottle game and won me a stuffed animal -- Marvin the Manatee. Isn't it cute?
Here's Marvin, coming along with us for a ride on MUNI so that we could get to work/study.

red velvet cupcakes

One day out of the blue, The Boy made a very strange request -- he wanted me to make him some red velvet cupcakes. It's a strange request because: 1) he does not eat sweets; 2) he has never asked me to make any kind of dessert for him; and 3) he was very adamant about using this cupcake mix from Crate & Barrel.

I was glad he wanted me to use a cupcake mix instead of making it from scratch because I was studying for the bar and really didn't want to spend a whole day making red velvet cupcakes from scratch. With the prepackaged mix, I could just add eggs and water and mix away! The mix was Barefoot Contessa's recipe.

The recipe said it was for 10 cupcakes, but I managed to have a little extra for a mini-cupcake of sorts. However, I was not working with a familiar oven, as I was living in a sublet for the summer. So I kept wondering if it was odd that the cupcakes were OVERflowing too much over the top.

I had to use two types of frosting because The Boy does not like cream cheese frosting, so he wanted me to improvise with the frosting choices. The Barefoot Contessa's mix came with powdered sugar for the cream cheese frosting. I made it anyway because cream cheese frosting is what goes on red velvet cupcakes. I then bought one of those Sara Lee pre-made frosting, the sugar free whipped brand and chose the Whip Cream frosting flavor.
Since I knew he couldn't eat two cupcakes in one sitting, I made this one especially for The Boy, half with the cream cheese frosting and half with the whipped cream frosting. The verdict -- he liked the whipped cream frosting much better.

The Boy requested red velvet cupcakes and I delivered. However, he ended up eating only three or four cupcakes, and I had the rest. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Now that I have more time on my hands, maybe I'll make some cupcakes tomorrow. Good idea!

back to real life

Hello World!!

I survived the California bar exam. There are some horror stories involved but I'll leave that for another day. I took it and I'm done. I'm pretty sure I bombed it but I really don't care anymore. The hard part is waiting for the results, which won't come out until November.

I had a great surprise the day after my exam. There was a nice big box waiting for me just inside the gate. I almost didn't even notice the box if it wasn't for Beau the puppy sniffing at it. Guess what was inside!

COOKIES!!


A very pretty bouquet of cookies, appropriately in the shape of margarita glasses. Thanks L!!
And also a dozen assorted cookies. I haven't touched the bouquet, and am working on the #3 of the 4 packages of cookies. All I can say is YUMMY!

Gotta run. Dinner's waiting.

cake art

These are cake entries at the Marin County Fair. Some are really good, like this picnic table below. The others are not Ace of Cakes material, but still better than anything I could do.

food art

I took a study break during the July 4th holiday and spent it at the Marin County Fair in California. There were a lot of interesting exhibits on display, and here are images of some of the food art. My favorite is the basket of lemons.