Mixygirl's Las Vegas Birthday Part I

In the beginning of March, Jober, Mixygirl, and I headed to Vegas via airplane to celebrate Mixygirl's birthday.  It was quite the fun weekend.  Our plane was running behind, so the second we got in we caught a cab to Emeril's Fish House, at at the MGM for dinner.  The restaurant's interior and exterior decor has changed drastically compared to the last time we've been.  Its very hip and upscale looking now.  I think the MGM renovated the look of their entire restaurant row, and it turned out pretty cool.  We opted for the tasting menu. 

The starter was Maine Lobster and Osetra Caviar Timbale with lemon herb aioli, phyllo crackers, and baby arugula.  The wine pairing was a Roederer Estate Brute Rose sparkling wine from Anderson Valley, CA.

Next up was seared jumbo gulf shrimp on spring vegetable rice with smoked tomato butter sauce and balsamic extraction.  As you can see, I forgot to take the picture before I ate half of the dish!  It was paired with St. Joseph Blanc Deschangs, M Chapoutier '98 from Rhone Valley, France.  Next up was my favorite dish of the night, a heartily spiced Pepper seared Ahi tuna on roasted pepper and stir fried cabbage slaw with carrot and fennel coulis and cilantro creme fraiche (Super DHS).  It was paired with Calera Mt. Harlan Chardonnay '99 from Mt. Harlan, California. 

Here's an open shot of that tasty tuna.  Next up was herb crusted Texas redfish on crawfish, spinash, and potato hash with sauteed haricot vert, creole corn maque choux, and spicy tomato glaze.  It was accompanied by Adelsheim Vineyard Pinot Noir '02 from Oregon.

Final entree was grilled gulf escolar on spinach smashed potatoes with sauteed asparagus and crabmeat hollandaise and emeril's worcestershire sauce (Super DHS).  It was accompanied with Le Volte, Tenuta dell Ornellaia '02  from Tuscany Italy.  Final dish was Traditional Banana Fosters over vanilla bean ice cream served with rare cream superior solera reserva, Emilio Lustau , from Jerez Y Manzanilla Spain.  The host explained how bananas foster was invented b/c of an extra shipment of bananas to a restaurant.  The owner didn't know how to get rid of all the bananas before they rotted, so the owner's daughter came up with bananas foster which ended up being a big hit. 

Side note on the meal, got in a little confrontation.  During the meal there was a lady going around taking pictures for people.  Kinda like what they do when you get in at an amusement park.  Well, her assistant was standing right next to our table, and we asked him to take a picture from our camera for us, which he refused.  We were pretty pissed b/c we were laying down good money for this meal, and we're not an amusement park.  Complained to the manager, and they made the guy leave.  Picture above is when they agreed to take our picture for us.

Finally made it to the TI after the Emeril's dinner.  Now, you all remember that I hate the new TI sign.  However, I guess they're trying to appeal to a more 20's age crowd.  They changed the pirate show to more of a risque dancing show, and they have a cool club off of their little cove.  I really thought the TI was cool inside, and a more affordable alternative in a good location on the strip.  I even sunk to buying a magnet of the new logo which I used to despise.

For our final event of the night, we headed off to the Frontier casino for some gambling.   Mostly hit the black jack tables.  I have to say that I got on a roll.  Won pretty big playing black jack.  I think I only lost one hand.  Then I headed off with Jober to roulette which I normally don't play.  Played two spins, and hit my numbers both times!!!  I knew to leave then before the streak ran out.  Jober didn't do so hot that night, but that luck would soon reverse itself in the next part of our story.

Had a great weekend. Jober and Yuli threw a wine and cheese tasting party at our place.  Good turnout and great company.  Jober had cowokers and friends over.  Also in attendance were Juddy, Greyhound, Toro, and Bagel.  My favorite cheese of the night was the Roaring 40's Blue Cheese from Tasmania.  Really sweet tasting for a blue.  Also had fun last night with Mixygirl and my parents at a dinner with my Dad's side of the family.  Got to hang out with my Dad's cousin's son Winston.  He's an attorney for the California attorney general's antitrust division in downtown LA.  He had lots of cool stories to share.  Still need to post the March Vegas trip pictures which turned out really cool.  Also, Greedymonger is visiting from No-Cal.  He brought over Akki. Akki and Kapono have been wrestling non-stop for two days now.  It looked a little rough at first, but I think they are definitely enjoying themselves.  Kapono also enjoyed himself on Saturday at his first puppy training class ever.  It was very fun.  There were three other dogs, a bichon, a golden retriever, and a doberman.  Kapono was pretty scared at first, but the lessons went very well.  It was also funny seeing the golden retriever pin down the doberman.  Also forgot to mention that the dentist's appointment on Friday was very fun.  I felt like the Bill Murray character in Little Shop of Horrors.  I was very into getting my novacaine shot.  Couldn't feel the left lower side of my face for like three hours.  Met up with Juddy across the street afterwards to see his office.  It was pretty cool. 

I went to the dentist yesterday and he told me I have two cavities!!!  I haven't had a cavity since I was 6 years old!!!   Getting cavities is Jober's expertise.  I think its cause I chew a lot of dentyne at work so I don't talk to my patients with bad breath.  speaking of other dental nightmares, Kapono was chewing on something after he visited my bathroom.  I took it out of his mouth and found a Gillette Mach 3 razor blade!!!  Luckily there didn't seem to be any damage done.

The Untold Stories of the ER first episode of the season is going to be on April 4th at 9pm on The Learning Channel.   I'm going to be in the first part about the snake bite victim.

Last Week a "Laser" Descended Upon Mixygirl's Eye

So, despite an impending laser peeling off a flap of her cornea, Mixygirl looked quite calm and relaxed that morning.  She'll never need those glasses ever again.  Even when her eyeballs fall out in the future like on the Simpsons, she won't need glasses (just sunglasses to hide the empty eye sockets).

In case she was permanently blinded by the procedure, Mixygirl enjoyed a quiet moment by the pond outside the Lasik center.  A couple of ducks crossed our path on the way in, which Mixygirl said was supposed to bring good luck. 

The Lasik center Mixy went to was called TLC.  The doctor at that site is Wendall Wong.  He was really friendly, had great bedside manner, and was pretty well regarded.  He's really tan because he has a second house in Maui (I should've gone into opthalmology).  When you go to a lasik center, it helps to know that celebrities have placed their trust in the same doctor.  Well I was more than happy to see that the hottest actress out of all the 80's movies, Leslie Easterbrook who played Sargent Debbie Callahan from Police Academy, had her Lasik done with Dr. Wong.  (Who can forget the scene when she came out of the swimming pool with a wet t-shirt)

After an initial eye exam, Mixygirl and I went to a relaxation room and hung out on lazy boy chairs (until I got kicked off of mine for the other patient). They also gave Mixygirl a valium and two advils.   Next they put a shower cap on her and escorted her to the lasik room.  I got to stand outside and take pictures from the door.  No cellphones though, apparently the machine is really sensitive to cell phones.

So Mixygirl is lying on a table that swivels between two machines.  One is the custom laser that uses a cool laser to cut a flap off of the top layer of the cornea.  The other machine is the actual lasik machine that uses a laser to reshape the inner part of the cornea.  They have special cutting equipment to make the flaps, but the custom laser flap creating machine is more accurate (you have to pay more for it, but what kind of dumbass would skimp when it comes to their lasik surgery).  I got to see the procedure as it went on b/c there's a TV screen that projects what is going on in the room. 

The pic on the left is the actual lasik machine reshaping the cornea.  On the right is an illustration of the procedure.  Looks pretty unremarkable right.  Well, in real life, what I saw was pretty forceful and traumatic appearing.  They make it sounds like the laser gently creating a flap that is pulled off.  What they don't mention is that pulling the flap off after the laser creates it involves putting a hockey-stick like piece of equipment between the flap and the rest of th cornea and tugging pretty hard til the flap slides off.  Nasty!!!

Apparently immediately after the procedure Mixygirl could read a wall clock without any corrective lenses.  The next part of the procedure I would say was the worst.  They put these freakishly taped together plastic eye shields on your face.  You can't take them off til the next day.  Doing dozens of procedures like this in a week, don't you think they could come up with something more normal looking, like goggles, or something.  If you think that's freakish, the picture on the right is after adding the sunglasses they provided.  Reminds me of the scene in the Princess Bride when Westley threatens to fight Prince Humperdink "To the PAIN!!!"

After the procedure, we got take out from an awesome BBQ restaurant in Torrance, called Lucille's.  Its the second time I've been there and I really enjoy their food.  They have an awesome appetizer made out of baby back ribs that are then covered in batter kind of like KFC original fried chicken coating, and then fried.

Mixygirl slept the whole day after (with the aid of a dalmane sleeping pill and a vicodin provided by TLC).  I was going to go to Shonen Knife that night in the OC, but I was too tired, so I didn't make it.  The next morning we returned to TLC for the eye re-check.  At 8am it was like a parade of freaks b/c all the people with the procedure from the day before, wearing their freak goggles were in the waiting room together.  Coincidentally, one of my nurse co-workers was there as well and we had fun hanging out.  The eye checked out A-OK, so we left.  Mixy's vision is still pretty good, so I think I will probably consider getting it in the future. 

So, while were in the Southbay we decided to take advantage again and eat something that we couldn't get on the Westside.  There's this pretty famous chicken sandwich chain called Chick-fil-A.  I think its mostly popular in the South.  I've never seen any before in the Southern California area.  I have to say that their signature dish, the regular chicken sandwich was pretty perfect.  Tender and moist.  Highlights the chicken and not too gimmicky.  Has anyone else had Chick-fil-A before?

After those frightening pictures of Mixygirl after lasik, I thought that a handful of Kapono pictures might ease the pain.  You should've been there a couple nights ago when Kapono peed on our comforter.  The way Mixygirl was screaming, I thought someone had just gotten killed. 

Back at Wilson High, I had these two best friends.  Til the school bus came, and took my friends away.

I just got off work this morning. I'm really bleary eyed and tired.  Just stayed up watching Desperate Housewives and 24.  Work was pretty fun at Olive View, which it always is.  The new Beck album is pretty good.  Still have to post about Vegas, Mixygirl's bizarro lasik pictures.  Mixygirl just did our taxes last night.   Good thing cause it doubled my business deductions.  Also, just downloaded the new Weezer song Beverly Hills off of Itunes.  It's OK, but not up to Pinkerton levels of greatness.  In my tiredness, just decided to google pictures of the band that dog.  They're so cute.  You should check out the albums Retreat from the Sun, and Totally Crushed Out.  Another great band that is unfortunatley defunct.  Saw many a great that dog show back in the day, and it just breaks my heart looking at these pictures.  Reminds me of the Geraldine Fibbers who were another incredible LA band that I can't believe aren't together anymore.  Just mind-blowing when I saw them live.  Whatever happened to bands that just scared you, and drew you in and wouldn't let go.  Check out the Geraldine Fibbers album Butch which was an incredible masterpiece.  Just also would like to give a shout out to Juddy as well. 

In the words of the Butthole Surfers, Satan Satan Satan!!!

I was just going through old pictures on my computer to use as wallpapers when I bumped into this picture of Juddy from Monchik's wedding last September.  I think it captures the inner essence of the subject.

Had lunch with Virgil and Jober at Echigo today.  Tried the Loup de Mer (sea wolf) sushi.  It was better as a cooked fish that Mixygirl had with Torosushi at Watergrill this weekend.  Everything else was great as usual.  Took Kapono to get his shots.  There was a bigger puppy there with "kennel cough" (caused by bordetella bronchiseptica, pictured above).  The dog was coughing a lot and then it hocked out a big puddle of phlegm.  Needless to say, I didn't let Kapono have contact with it.

Is that Sanitary?

Saw a great DVD yesterday, the definitive Ramones Documentary that came out last year called End of the Century.  As most of you know I've loved the Ramones forever.  They are one of the bands that I can truly say changed my life, and my attitudes regarding life.  The documentary is a no holds barred, bullshit free look at the complete happenings of the Ramones throughout their career.  I had seen 2-3 prior documentaries about the Ramones before, but this one is definitely definitive.  The mood was at most times sad and disturbing, but the fact that these four crazy, geeky guys invented punk rock and wrote so many classic songs, and touched so many outcasts' lives is just incredible.  It's so wrong that THE band that should've become huge, ended up still playing just clubs for their entire career.  Sadder still, is that Dee Dee, Johnny, and Joey have all died so quickly at such relatively young ages after retirement from the band.  Its almost as if they were put on this earth to send us a very special message through the band, and as soon as the band was over, they were taken away.  Check out the DVD.

On the left is a great rack of lamb dish that mixygirl prepared for me earlier in the week.  We had a great bottle of Mondavi Tokalon Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 with it.  On the right begs the question at the beginning of this post,  "Is french kissing your puppy sanitary?".

I had a couple really difficult shifts the last couple of days so yesterday, St. Patrick's day  turned out to be surprisingly pleasant.  Mixy and Toro have been going to cooking classes at The New School of Cooking in Culver City.  Yesterday Toro got out of work late, so Mixy begged me at the last minute to go with her instead.  I was supposed to meet up with UCLA ER alumni at El Cholo for drinks and dinner.  I haven't seen some of these guys in more than a year, so I really didn't want to miss that.  Mixygirl had a fit and strong armed me into going with her to cooking class.  She was convinced that I could still make it at El Cholo if she dropped me off after cooking class.  Well, the class turned out to be really fun and cool.  There were about 16 attendees.  This day we learned how to cook different fish recipes.  The way the class works, is that the instructor goes over general tips first, then she goes through about six different recipes which different groups of two will be cooking in the second half of the class.  After the didactic portion, we drew slips of paper out of a bowl to see which recipe we would be cooking.  Mixygirl was OK with any recipe except the fish tacos, because she's afraid of deep frying things (mental images of massive hot oil burns, I guess).  Guess what I drew, beer battered mahi mahi fish tacos!!!

So, my first thought, was fish tacos?!?!? Lame, I can get that at Wahoo's or Rubio's, or better yet, San Diego.  The cooking process turned out seriously like Iron Chef America.  It was very hectic, with people running and yelling everywhere.  In one hour, Mixy and I had to thinly shred cabbage, make a lime mayonnaise dressing, shred cilantro, grill corn tortillas, chop the mahi-mahi filet into bite size chunks, make the beer batter (It was just 1 3/4 cup of flour mixed with 1 cup of corona), and then deep fry three batches of the battered mahi-mahi chunks.  I think our recipe was the most time and labor intensive.  I was definitely feeling the pressure, when the other students' dishes were plated, and the instructor was rushing me in my final tortilla grilling phase, it felt like on Iron Chef, when the clock is about to run down.  Well, in the end we all got a glass of white wine and ate everybody's dishes.  I really enjoyed one person's accompaniment of a fennel/red onion salad.  The slight anise taste of the fennel was awesome and went really well with the fish.  Other standouts included a seared albacore tuna, artichoke crusted salmon, and steamed bass chinese style with black bean sauce.  However my favorite dish of the night was the Fish Tacos!!!   And that wasn't just because I cooked it myself.  For some reason having really fresh moist fish, and sauce from freshly squeezed limes made it amongst the best fish tacos I have ever had.  It wasn't just my opinion either, everybody kept raving about our dish, and people kept going back for more, until it was all gone (the only dish that was completely eaten).  Well I had a great time and would be interested in going back (if you want to join us just give me a call).  When Mixygirl finally drove me back to El Cholo to meet my ER friends, they were paying the bill, and all getting ready to leave (lame).  I did get to chit chat for a few minutes, but that was it.

During the past week I had some really stressful situations at work all clumped together in a short amount of time.  A couple days ago at work I felt like I was going to go out of my mind.  I had a break in between a meeting, and starting my shift, and I needed to chill out/vent.  I thought of watching a movie, but nothing in the theatre looked good, so I drove to Palos Verdes.  Fortunately where I work in Torrance is literally 5 minutes from the ocean.  It was just breathtaking to drive along the cliffside, and watch surfers, and the beautiful ocean.  It defnitely gave me the recharge I needed to make it through my shift.