Want to go back in time? BA flight #952

So, I just came back from a 2 week trip to Germany. I am simply too lazy to upload a bunch of pictures and write about it. Maybe I will later. But for now, here's a screenshot of the flight status for a the London to Munich flight on British Airways. Please note the arrival time...and date -both scheduled and actual.

If you showed up at the scheduled time, you missed your flight by over 40 years. Sorry!  =D

Just a quick pick to show the size of the beers at Oktoberfest in Munich!

Full Day at DCA

Yesterday, we went to Disneyland California Adventure. I think that was the most time I've spent at Disneyland parks in a LONG time, and definitely the longest I've spent at Disney's California Adventure (DCA). We got there at maybe 8:45 AM ish and left the park at close to 10 PM (then had dinner at Downtown Disney, so we didn't leave the area until almost midnight or so!).  It was SO much fun and we did a lot. We rode all of the rides in Cars Land (including Luigi's Flying Tires, which I hadn't ridden before. It was surprisingly fun) and a few of our other favorites. I hadn't gone so early in a long time, but that is seriously the best time to get there. We got a Fast Pass for Radiator Springs Racers (seriously though, when we got out pass at 9am or so our fast pass was for 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Yep, that's why they were totally gone not long after 10 AM), and were able to get on rides so much faster (ex. 13 minutes for Tower of Terror).

I sure hope this elevator works....

Uh-Oh!

They have a few of the costumes and props from the ABC TV show, Once Upon A Time on display.

I had wanted to try the Carthay Circle Restaurant since I heard that there was going to be one in that tall cool-looking building that I could see over the blocked-off construction zone. It was REALLY good! It's such a nice, beautiful building with old photographs of actors and Walt Disney.

My sister & my mom with their Wildberry Lemonade (yumm!)

The chicken and strawberry salad. This is what I got and it was quite light and refreshing. 

Tagliatelle with chicken meatballs. My dad & sister got this and it was yummy too!

Banana Split Monte Cristo. Pretty good!

A nice riesling at the wine bar (near that winery-themed restaurant near Car's Land) while waiting for our fast pass return time for RSR.

So, as I mentioned above we got the fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers. Made a HUGE difference. Our total time from entering the fast pass line to walking back onto Route 66 was 35 minutes. Big difference from last time- which was 3 hours in line (granted, last time the ride broke down for an hour. It broke down for a long time yesterday too, but not when our fast passes were on! =D)

Trying to be stereotypical?

So, I'm registered officially as a Republican (but I vote however I want), and as such I was somehow automatically added to a few party emails. I got the below email today. Title: "This Saturday is Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Day!"

Umm...really?!?! That is SO stereotypical, and it's an official event! Alcohol, guns and tobacco. Seriously. Maybe I need to officially change to Democrat. 

Automated Bathroom

So, I recently went to a very automated bathroom. Look, you wave at the sensor to open the door! Germ free's the way to be! [It did also have, of course, the automatic soap dispenser, faucet & paper towel dispenser. Interestingly, the toilet was NOT automated]. I hope more bathrooms end up like this, it will save paper (maybe, if they bring in a hand dryer - which they can do if people don't have to worry about touching a germy door handle) and be cleaner (fewer people brining their paper towel over to open the door and then either missing the trash can when they toss it that way or drop it on the floor if there isn't a nearby trashcan like litterbugs).

FINALLY got to the new DCA

Last weekend, I finally went to the new, updates Disney's California Adventure. I went for exactly 3 reasons: 1) Go to the Disney Starbucks, 2) Ride Radiator Springs Racers and 3) Go to the Ghirardelli. Well, I accomplished 2 of these things because RSR was down (aka broken). When you google it, there are several articles & blog posts about it breaking down a lot. Be prepared.

First, let's start with the Disney Starbucks! It's not super obvious, which I had heard before. They tried to blend it into the park, and I think they succeeded. I saw people with the cups, but there wasn't a huge green siren beckoning you forward. I remembered reading a blog post about the Starbucks really being called the FIdler, Fifer and Practical Cafe, so I looked that up on the Disney Mobile App (Nota Bene: this is a great app that is now FREE (it used to be $9.99) which has the locations of rides, restaurants, etc, gives you the wait times and fast pass times for the rides, the type of food at all the restaurants, and things like that) and found it. In the picture below, you see that there is a sign that says Starbucks, but in muted colors that kind of blend in and that's it. The Starbucks has it's full menu and special cups that say Disney Parks! I wish there was a Disney Starbucks *mug* though.

 View of the outside of the Starbucks

Pictures of the menu board 

 Disney Parks Starbucks cold cup.

The Starbucks has this cute Disney newspaper to enjoy with your drink.

Welcome to Cars Land!!! SUPER cute and it really does look like the movie came to life!

I also managed to get to the Ghirardelli. It looks similar to its other locations. It was good, but I think they were a little stingy about the fudge sauce. In the regular Ghirardelli locations, they practically cover the ice cream in fudge, which makes sense because they specialize in chocolate after all. I also miss the "for here" ice cream cups that they have in their regular locations. At DCA, they're all in to-go containers, which makes sense because kids + glass containers = problems. But I do miss them. Anyways, next time I go I'll ask for extra sauce, and it'll be fine. Other than that, it has a similar feel to the rest.

Hopefully, next time I go I'll be able to ride on the Radiator Springs Racers!!! I *did* go on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree though, and it's a lot of fun. Relatively short line, relatively long ride, and fun. Recommended. 

Stay safe from the unexpected

I just saw the Avengers (yes, finally. I know the movie came out at least a month ago...). Just as a note, I really enjoyed it despite not having seen any of the movies for the individual superheros.

Anyways, I got to thinking. If ever there is an alien invasion or a super villain or anything like that, you better hope that you aren't in a big city. If you're in New York City, you're totally out of luck. If you're in Los Angeles, you're a little better off but not really. If something like that were ever to happen, the only people alive and living in a place without significant damage will be those living in Montana and North Dakota. I'm pretty sure.

I really hope I'd be safe. I mean, I'm an hour away from LA, so I should be good...right? =D

Take a Culinary Journey with me...

This post is all about food....

This is "The Great with Bacon" with a side salad and tomato soup from Boudin SF in the South Coast Mall. Seriously, the best grilled cheese that I've had in a loooong time, maybe ever!

The Portola Coffee Lab is a coffee shop inside of the OC Mart Mix in Costa Mesa. It's such a cool coffee shop because it's science lab style (as you can see). I got a mocha made with chocolate ganache and they put a design on it. So cute!

More coffee! This is from the Hidden House Coffee shop (across the train tracks in old San Juan).

My first work dinner! Aulani & Classic Vacations treated us to dinner at Roy's Newport Beach. Apparently, there is a Roy's near Aulani in Hawaii too. The food was good! Although a lot of it was seafood...

Creme de la Crepe in Old Pasadena. Yummm

This next series is from Napa Rose, the restaurant inside of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland/California Adventure. [Side note: SO excited for June at the parks! Ghirardelli, Starbucks, Cars Land, Matterhorn....yesss] We went there for the first time yesterday as part of Mothers Day weekend. SO GOOD!

 The soup of the day made with poblano, potato & filet.

 Filet Mignon

Truffled Mac & Cheese 

Strawberry & Rhubarb Crisp

Wine bottles (& glasses!) with Disney-Pixar imagery signed by John Lasseter (I think. It could just be part of the design, though). I'm assuming that they're from his family's vineyard, but made specially designed for the restaurant. I would SO buy one if I could though. So cute!!!

Red, White and Bluezz

My parents & I went to a restaurant in Pasadena last weekend, and I'm just adding the pictures of the food....the restaurant was called RedWhite+Bluezz, and it's a restaurant that has live jazz playing. It was a nice atmosphere, and the food was pretty good.

 Fried Mac & Cheese. 

 Creole Pasta Primavera. Good, but I would have liked more spice or pepper or something.

 "Beignets" with apple compote and browned butter ice cream. Interesting. Good in its own way, but definitely interesting.

 Some sort of brownie thing my dad got. The ice cream was good. The "brownie" was more like a flourless chocolate cake, which we weren't expecting. A true brownie would've been better.

On a totally other note, I have seen maybe 3 cars this week that are this bright deep magenta color (you can sort of tell in this picture). It looked REALLY good on the VW bug though.

Sooooo funny

My mom sent this to me, and it is hilarious:

MY NEW PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN

Love this Doctor! 

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this

true? 

A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on

exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you

live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want

to live longer? Take nap. 

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake? 

A: Oh no. Wine made from fruit. Brandy distilled wine, that mean they take

water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also

made of grain. Bottom up! 

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio? 

A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you

have two body, your ratio two to one. 

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise

program? 

A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No pain...good! 

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you? 

A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food fried in vegetable oil. How getting more

vegetable be bad? 

Q : Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the

middle? 

A: Oh no! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing

sit-up if you want bigger stomach. 

Q: Is chocolate bad for me? 

A: You crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good

food around! 

Q: Is swimming good for your figure? 

A: If swimming good for figure, explain whale to me.

Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle? 

A: Hey! 'Round' is shape! 

Well... I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about

food and diets. 

And remember: 

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving

safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in

sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly

used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO, what a ride!!" 

AND..... 

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition

and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting

nutritional studies. 

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than

Americans. 

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than

Americans. 

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks

than Americans. 

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than

Americans... 

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and

suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what

kills you.

Yummy Places

A blog post mostly about food...

St. Patrick's Day!!!

So, on St. Patrick's Day my parents were in San Diego so I had my St. Patty's day meal by myself. It was also super rainy and windy that day (much like today. What is with out weather?!?!), so I brought food home. I got....

The Guinness Braised Corned Beef Reuben from The Counter, a design your own burger place in Irvine.

A yummy St. Pat's day themed cupcake from the Cupcake Store (in Mission Viejo. They also have a stand in Downtown Disney though...)

Just a normal Saturday

So, I recently found this little coffee shop in San Clemente called Zebra Coffehouse. They have great muffins (my favorite so far is the zucchini-blueberry) that they'll warm up for you. Yummy and a great place to read and relax with a mocha or a cappuccino.

Evening in South Africa

I got a Groupon for Mozambique (Laguna Beach) last year, but I kept forgetting to use it. So I finally used it the day before it expired. It was pretty good! I had always wanted to go in there because I've driven by it so many times. Below is a picture of the Piri Piri Chicken Pops on top of grilled pineapple with a spicy slaw. This is huge, and the appetizer!!!

On a non-food related note...

I discovered that my Scrabble app can be put in French! So I changed it on the iPad (so as to not mess up my amazing stats on my iPhone), and I've not been doing too badly. Granted, I've been playing on easy mode, which is way too easy for me in English, but still! Considering I haven't really been doing anything with my French in months? (maybe closer to years?) My one question is, though, why can't I put it in Spanish?!?!

A Tale of Insurance

...that's good!

So, on Sunday I was just minding my own business driving down Avery Pkwy when out of nowhere a car slams into me from behind. I had seen that car with the two young guys in it at the top of the hill because they were in the lane next to me right next to me. As I drove down, I checked my mirrors (good driving habit), and I saw that they were still at the light even though it had turned green a while ago. Then I continued on my way, then heard a sudden screech of tires and then BAM! Likely distracted driving. At first I thought they were on something, and they still might be. *maybe* they were smoking cigarettes, but who knows...

Anyways, so my car is in the shop possibly until the end of the month! To fix my car costs $2,000. Fortunately (I now love insurance companies), they are paying for pretty much all of it. It didn't look that bad, but so it goes. The guy's car was not quite totaled but totally bad and leaking something out the front. But it *was* their fault, so I think that's fair.

It's *only* 500 calories

So, I saw an add for Carl's Jr's new turkey burger which they advertise as under 500 calories. What I thought when I saw that was: 500 calories is still a lot! OK, if the average person can have 2,000 calories in one day, then that's kind of ok within that amount, although this is the basic turkey burger, not one of the more tasty seeming ones and without fries or a drink or anything, and people might be like "I chose the healthier burger, so let me get (insert additional likely unhealthy thing here). I know they would; I think like that sometimes. But then I went to the website to look at the nutrition, as you can see above. I *know* that A LOT of the food we eat out is unhealthy and loaded with things we shouldn't have, but still. Wow. 23g fat! Ok, so I must admit that I am not a super healthy eater all of the time. I eat healthy most of the time so I can eat unhealthy things some of the time. But really, these stats are comparable to an In-N-Out cheeseburger (read: yummy burger with CHEESE)...An In-N-Out cheeseburger has 480 calories, 27g fat, 60g cholesterol, 39g carb, 3g fiber & 29g protein. So, they are pretty much equally unhealthy, but the turkey burger is claiming to be healthy by saying that it's under 500 calories, which really does not mean much. Clearly.

So, it's been FOREVER

It's been a long time. A lot to say, but I cannot always remember what I wanted to say, so we'll see how it goes...

SO I got a new job at AmEx, as you probably know, which is going great! I like it and I have a good feeling about it. At my last job, I always felt that it would be temporary and the excitement over being hired was quickly tempered by being unsure about it. Not so here. It's cool to learn about all of the destinations, and all of the cruises & tours that go to many awesome places. I've definitely added some places to visit recently. As well as places that I want to visit again and spend more time in, like Spain and Portugal.  Even France! I know, after my semester abroad I was sort of disillusioned about France, but I now think I could go back to go to the places I didn't really visit before (ex. Champagne region, Provence,...).

I also want to go on  a Celebrity cruise. I have since one of their ships was in pretty much every port that we were in on my recent(ish) Princess Cruise in the Baltic. On one of their ships, they have small rooms made with single, young travelers in mind. The rooms are a more economical way for the solo traveller to cruise. On most cruises, a solo traveler has to pay the per-person cost, and then 50% of the per person cost on top of that (Ex. A cruise that is $2000 per person, will cost a solo traveller $3000). Plus, those solo rooms (which can fit 2) have access to the exclusive suite lounges. Super cool. Plus Celebrity has very modern ships.

Anyways, hmm...I got to use my language skills! Someone came in who needed to send something financial (traveller's cheque? I don't know) and I helped double-check the address because all of the instructions were in French. For Spanish, someone came in who only spoke Spanish and had a question about gift cards. I'm not sure if it went so well because he didn't seem to fully understand. At first I did, and he left and I thought it went well. Then he came back with more questions and I still don't fully know what his issue was (the first part I got. He asked if he could exchange gift cards for cash and we got that question sorted out. Then he asked how they work, and I explained that. Then he said he couldn't use it at the gas station and I thought I relayed that, and he left. Then he came back asking about a PIN number for it, and I'm not really sure if he tried the card while he was gone and the machine asked for a number, or if he was just asking if there was one). I also realized that I need to brush up on some vocab...

Umm...what else? I am still learning German on Rosetta Stone. I do my lessons during lunch, which is a convenient time. I also just got a book on German grammar, which will be so helpful because the thing with Rosetta Stone is that you don't really learn the grammar well; I don't know why exactly some things are arranged or spelled differently, but with the book hopefully I will!

Neverland 5k

Last weekend, my parents & I did the Neverland 5K. We almost didn't, sort of. We were supposed to pick up our packets that day (Friday, Jan 27) by 7pm, and we got there at 7:30. Fortunately, they had a little stand near the entrance to the park area where they had the race bibs and stuff. We had to go to the expo the next day for our shirts though. It was interesting to go at night. They lit up the castle in different colors and the colored fountains in California Adventure were going (not World of Color though. Would've been cool, but people would likely have stopped to watch instead of finishing the race). I think I still like the early morning one better (it's also cheaper because for the Neverland 5k they included a twilight ticket to Disneyland valid only that weekend, but we're annual passholders, so...yeah), but this was fun. And the first one they've done! A lot of people were running/walking with wings in honor of Tinker Bell, and before the start of the race, Tinker Bell flew above the castle (a very brave move, especially considering how very windy it was that night). We were also a lot closer to the beginning than we were last year, so my times are more correct. I finished Mile 1 at 14:18, Mile 2 at 27:37, and the whole thing at under 41 minutes (I don't remember the exact time). Not too bad considering I walked it and my ankle is still a bit sketchy. Anyways, here are some pics: