Car is Fixed!

Got my car fixed a couple weeks ago. The work done to it took 7 days. It was suppose to be five but because of the snowy weather it postponed it for later.

I was a little sad to give up the rental hybrid but its nice to have my car back looking better than ever! Well, I guess when I drove it off the lot after I purchased, that was its prime...but you know what I mean.

I'm not exactly sure what work was done. I do believe that the wheel was replaced and there's new paint on the door, bumper, and wheel base. All that matters is that its lookin' good, right? I did however notice that they filled my tire with air rather than nitrogen. I'm sure that doesn't make too big of an impact on the car. I could always go down to Costco and get free nitrogen if I want.

Now for some angled action shots!

There is still part of me that wishes I pocketed that $1,968.16 but I know I made the right decision because looking at scratches every time I got in my car would drive me crazy. Now if it was on the passenger's side...

Breakfast Bowl

The church my dad and I go to hosted this "Breakfast Bowl". The speaker for the event was Michael Franzese, a former mob boss for the Colombo crime family in the 1980's. We heard him talk the week before, and afterwards, a pastor made an announcement that he would be speaking at the breakfast bowl and it would be a "completely different" topic. It would be about "sports". Since his talk that Sunday was enjoyable, we decided to purchase two $15 tickets for the bowl.

What does his talk end up being about? His life, which was pretty much word for word of the same talk he gave the Sunday before. I was completing his sentences in my head it was so similar. He did spend 15 minutes after his talk about sports betting. But I felt tricked into thinking he would be talking about something new that day. His talk was mostly about how he had it all. No respect for the law and had houses in each corner of the U.S., a boat, plane, and helicopter. He gave it all up because he met this good looking Hispanic Christian girl. He knew he had to change to make a life with her. So he did some time in prison and made a break from the family in 1993.

The breakfast was alright. For some reason I was hoping that it would be better. But I guess if you're supplying breakfast for 1600 smelly men, you can't get too fancy.

My plate consisted of bacon, eggs, pancake, home fries, sausage, danish, and a cup of fruit. I really just wanted some cream chipped beef, I love that stuff.

Year of the Rabbit

According to my resources, it is year of the rabbit! Chinese New Year/Tet was celebrated at my mom's church a couple weeks ago. It was a pretty hectic time. It seemed like my mom was hosting a party practically everyday.

Below is a veggie center piece she made as well as some banana leaf wrapped things. I have no idea what they're called but the ones made with banana in the center are the best.

Remember when my mom made my dad collect tree branches? Well this is what they were used for. Mostly center pieces on the tables as well as some bigger branches in these 5 foot vases. For some reason she left the price tags on the little charm ornament things.
The food was alright. Not much as much variety that there has been in the past. A little bean sprout salad, the banana leaf thing on the left, succulent Chinese roast pork top right, and some crazy rice noodle sheet things with pork roll.
I'm sure my mom lives for this event. She beats the drum for the lion dance and also sings on stage. She was really into this year moving around a lot.

Here is the priest my mom is always hanging out with, Father Quan.

Winter Wonderland

Blizzard! Well, not a real blizzard but for someone that has grown up in Saudi Arabia, it seems pretty close. A couple weeks ago we got a bunch of snow over the course of two days, at least 15 inches. Below are some pictures I took of the winter wonderland!

Every year this cherry blossom (small tree) looks like its dead but proves me otherwise when its in full blossom in the spring. I like cherry blossoms, but it seems as though their flowers fall off in a matter of weeks which is kind of a bummer.

Snow on the street!

Because my family is not normal and our three door garage is too full of junk to hide one car from the elements, I'm the only one in our neighborhood who is shoveling snow in the driveway even though the community has a plowing service that clears the driveways.

Below is a picture during my shuffling of the cars so I can get to the snow. This picture also features the Hybrid, which I have to give up today, rats! Even though it doesn't have as much "pick up" as the Mazda 6, its fancy gas efficiency, push to start button, XM radio, USB mp3 support, bluetooth, etc. far make up for it.
It happened to snow on a Wednesday aka "Trash Day" and of course I didn't get the trash out the night before so I had to shovel a path to the road and then shovel a nook out of the snow in the road to place the trash can.
I wish it would only snow on Mondays so I can get take advantage of the powder and "Men's Day" discount at Spring Mountain.

Trying to Bring Sexy Back

Woot! I got down to 177.5 lbs!

Despite the copious amount of food available to me, I've been able to keep my appetite under control. I have also been using one of those pull up bars that fit over the door frame. Of course at the time I'm writing this I'm more like 181 lbs after that dinner at William Penn Inn. But I'm sure I can get back down to 177 or lower in no time. I plan on trying to get under 170 lb. According to all the body mass index calculators out there, at my current weight I'm close to being described as "overweight". I know those BMI numbers don't take a lot into account but they still make me feel fat. :'(

Large Portions

While my Dad was down in Florida for some investment thing, my mom made me some pasta.

Yeah, she made all of this for me. No wonder I'm so fat. There is enough food here for five people easily. She has no concept of cooking just to meet your needs. So of course I was eating this for the next couple days. Mmm, leftover pasta. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate she likes to cook for me. But even when I say I just want a "little bit", we end up with this. It probably doesn't help that she visits Costco at least once a week.

This is Pedestrian at Best

Ever watch Top Chef? This one episode, Padma Lakshmi described the dish she tasted as "pedestrian at best". Really? I thought it was a little harsh. The other judges were not nearly as critical as she was. Anyway, the other night my parents, Father Quan, and myself went to William Penn Inn for dinner. My parents have been holding onto a 100 bone gift certificate for over a year and thought it was about time we use it. Father Quan also had 75 bones in gift cards as well. Of course between the four of us the bill was much more than that.

For my first course I got the Maine Lobster Bisque soup! I'm not even sure what bisque is. I just know I had crab bisque in Hilton Head one time and it was delicious. So was this by the way.

For the main course I played it safe and got the Penn's Surf n' Turf. Which is two crab cakes and a 6 oz filet. Both were very good. Its been a long time since I've had a fresh crab cake. The steak was good as well. My Dad and Father Quan had the rack of lamb. The lamb was very tender and cooked to near perfection. My Mom ordered the classic Surf n' Turf, 6 oz lobster tail and filet.
For dessert I had the "Inn" Cheesecake. It was the restaurants spin on a classic cheesecake which was also very good. I seem to go through phases when it comes to cheese cake. Sometimes I prefer it to be very light and other times dense and packed with flavor. This happened to be a little heavier and I was in the mood for it so it just made it that much better. Oh man I love cheese cake.
William Penn Inn is a pretty fancy place. Its been around since 1714! The best deal they have is their buffet in my opinion.

Camelback Mountain!

Got another snowboarding/ski trip in! This time it was Camelback Mountain. It was just Rich and I since it was a Friday. We wanted to take advantage of the midweek prices. We also saved 3 bones buy purchasing the tickets online.

I don't get it, their logo is a "M" made to look like two humps on a camel (bactrian), but this statue here is just a one hump camel (dromedary). Whatever, did you know that they use robot jockeys for camel races? A little fun fact for you, free of charge!

Rich has been skiing much longer than I have been snowboarding. That paired with skis being faster, he always beats me down the mountain as one can see in this picture below.
These pictures are actually stills taken from my flip camera. They aren't half bad! This is my first time using the feature in the included software.
What's skiing without alcohol? I'm not sure if it is legal or not, but we packed some cans in our jackets for the ski lift rides. This is my first time having Blue Moon in the can. I prefer bottles but cans are much more convenient to pack.
While on the one of the lifts, there is a trash can located under the path of the lift with a wooden funnel above it to help make the trash can. Rich and I both made it with our cans, there would be a prize for that or something.
We arrived at the mountain a little before 10:30 am and didn't head out until 6 pm. We took a couple pee breaks and a lunch but other than that we were on the mountain the whole time. I was expecting the trails to be a little longer but despite that it was a lot of fun! I think I prefer Blue Mountain, but last time I was there it was super crowded. With these smaller mountains its better to hit them during the week. Surprisingly, there was a good number of people on the slopes for a weekday but it wasn't too bad.

The Hybrid

While my car was in the auto repair shop, I was fortunate to get a rental car for free. The Hertz gave me a 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid! I've never been in a hybrid let alone been in one so I was really excited.

I was expecting some ridiculous gas mileage but apparently this whip only gets 33 city/34 highway mpg. Which is good but I thought these things were suppose to get 40 or something.

Its been really fun driving this car. It sounds like a golf cart when just the electric engine is running and it has a decent sound system. It has a USB port so you can plug in your iPod or other mp3 player. Of course while I was driving the "maintenance required" warning came on and wouldn't let view any information such as temperature, average speed, eco chart, etc. for more than 2 seconds before blinking the warning again. Luckily, I was able to reset it after spending 10 minutes reading the manual.
One of my favorite features of this car is the wireless key and the push to start button. Now I kind of wish my car was as cool as this one. At least my Mazda has a sunroof and a wicked cool spoiler!

Meet Cabo!

Manthan and Michele got a dog! Its one of those "designer" dogs. Its called a Peekapoo which is a mix between a Pekingese and Poodle. I think it was a toss up between going to Mexico or getting a puppy. As you can see they got the puppy and his name is Cabo.

Here you can see Manthan giving Cabo a bath as he managed to get poop smeared all over himself while in his crate. I guess that's normal for most puppies less than three months old.

You can see he's rather cute. Like a little Ewok or a maybe a baby Wookie.

He's calmed down a lot since the first time I saw him at the pet store. I even got him to pose for a couple pictures!
He's very playful and loves his toys with squeakers in them. One of his favorites is a stuffless ferret.
While taking him for one of this several walks, he decided to plop himself in the middle of the street and chew on a leaf.
Here he's chewing on a dried beef stick. He made quick work of the doggy bone that was given to him earlier. He only had too accidents today which I think is pretty good considering he's only been in the house for 4 days.
He's not crazy about his crate yet. I wouldn't either. Its very cold looking because there isn't any sort of mat or blanket for him. But there is a space heater next to the crate so he shouldn't get too cold.

Sushi Time!

My mom's priest friend wanted to take us out for dinner. He took us to this sushi buffet called Minado. I've been to a few sushi buffets in my time, they're never as good as sushi restaurants but for what they are they're alright.

There was a crazy spread at this place. I tried so many I forgot what I had even thought I snagged some pictures. The ones on the left are supposedly "Volcano Rolls" and the ones on the right are tempura ones but I forget what was in them. They were all really good. The deep fried ones were like crack. There seemed to be a pretty quick turnover on the sushi so they didn't stay out too long before getting eaten.

My second plate was a little more exotic. The purple looking sushi is died with beets! At the bottom of the picture we have eel, squid, and octopus! The one thing on this plate I wasn't crazy about was the mussel. This was the first time I've had a mussel cold and it almost ruined my meal. Not sure if it was just the way they prepared it or it was due to the nasty cold state it was in.
On this plate I believe we have some more tempura sushi, mango squid, coconut shrimp, grilled shrimp on a skewer, mini crab cake, some crazy raw beef stuff, and a cooked beef thing. This was the first time I've had grilled squid and it was quite enjoyable.
At this point was super stuffed but I just had to fit dessert in. I decided to go with a green tea theme. I got green tea ice cream, green tea cheese cake, and green tea sponge cake! The cakes were disappointing. I was really excited about the cheesecake but it didn't taste anything like cheese cake. The sponge cake was a little bit better but I would have liked some more green tea punch. The ice cream on the other hand was ballin'. Its so good I might have to put it on my top 5 favorite ice cream flavors! It kind of looks like green poop in the picture, but once you try it you'll be in love too.

If you're passing through the East Norriton area, you should hit this place up.

Cottage Run

Went to the cottage to look for my winter boots. I didn't find them and the cottage was colder than it was outside! Pretty nuts if you ask me. Look at these icicles just waiting to take someone's eye out.

Good amount of snow up here, I thought we were going to get the mini van stuck.

Brrrr!

My mom takes it upon herself to decorate for her church's Chinese New Year celebration. For that she has my dad collect tree branches so she can wire on flowers on them so they look like cherry blossoms, they turn out really nice!

I'm sure glad its not me in the snow cutting down branches.

Isn't that good lookin' bark on that tree? I think so.