prescription

For curing mid-afternoon onduty headache: Run six miles, take a shower, and then eat yummy mint frozen yogurt with chocolate sprinkles. Headache will be gone by the time you get back to your desk. No guarantees on how long it will stay away, if you persist on going back to your desk.

mystery weekend

A friend proposed a great idea today. She wants to start a "Mystery Weekend" group.

Three or four times a year, one person in the group would be responsible for planning a weekend getaway for everyone. There would be a budget limit and maybe a mileage or travel time limit, but otherwise the planner would be responsible for arranging everything: flights, lodging, transportation, and of course, sights and/or activities. Everyone else would find out where they were going only a day or two before the trip (just in time to pack).

I hope she follows through with the idea, because it sounds super fun.

new toy

I'm going on an extended vacation soon, so I decided to buy a new personal laptop. After all, it's been over 9 years since I bought my temperamental but still-functional Dell Latitude C600.

After some research, I settled on an ASUS 1005HA netbook. Originally I wanted to buy a Linux version, but I found it wasn't any cheaper, so I gave up and bought a Windows XP install.

(This one is white; mine is dark blue):


I've only been playing with it for a day, but it's pretty slick. It's teeny tiny at 10.3 x 7.0 x 1.0 (with a 92% scaled keyboard) and only 2.8 lbs, even with the 10.5 hour battery. I installed Chrome, Firefox, Skype, Picasa, and Putty, and I think that's all I'll ever need, so I can use the rest of the 160 GB of space to store photos.

superstardom

Yesterday, D and I went with some friends to check out the King Tut exhibit at the De Young. It was a pretty cool collection, but the galleries were really crowded, so we only spent about an hour inside, before retreating to other parts of the museum. I do like hanging out in the tower.

Afterwards, we dispersed, and the two of us decided we wanted to go to Burma Superstar for dinner. Since it was only just 5pm, so we thought we'd stop for some coffee across the street at the Blue Danube Coffee House (one of my high school hangouts, yay!). As we sat in the coffee house, we saw that the restaurant was quickly filling up. At 5:20pm, we decided it would be smarter to just eat an early dinner, rather than risk having to wait for a table. Our decision was well-timed, as we got one of the last two open tables. By 5:40pm, I heard the waitress tell someone on the phone that the wait would be an hour!

Anyway, we ordered three dishes:
- Platha and Dip: This appetizer was kind of similar to roti prata, and kind of similar to scallion pancakes (no scallions, of course). The dip was a chicken curry, and came with a surprising amount of meat. It was a nice change from other fried dough dishes.
- Tea Leaf Salad: This was my favorite dish; the tea leaf gave the salad an almost fermented flavor, which was interesting and yummy, but I liked the texture best; the lettucs was tossed with sunflower seeds, fried garlic, and yellow peas.
- Chicken Casserole w/ Cardamom Cinnamon Rice: The casserole was generously portioned, and very flavorful. In fact, my one complaint might have been that it was almost too flavorful; I think I'm used to having blander rice dishes. I also would have liked more raisins, but overall I enjoyed the dish.

El Paseo

Last weekend my parents took us to one of their favorite restaurants, El Paseo in Mill Valley. Unfortunately I had eaten too much earlier that day, so I wasn't able to order the chef's tasting menu. Instead, I had the "3-course dinner", with two appetizers and an entree. For my appetizers, I chose a goat cheese pastry and fig salad, plus tuna tartare with poached egg. The tuna had some kind of interesting pistachio crusty thing on top, but I still liked the goat cheese pastry better:


My entree was a mushroom and truffle risotto, which was fine (great mushrooms, adequate risotto), but D had a scallop dish which looked and tasted delicious:


We had six pints of Graeter's ice cream (expressed from Ohio!) waiting at home, so we passed on dessert.

The restaurant ambiance is nice but more traditional than modern/trendy, and the food is good, but I hear the menu doesn't change that often. I think I'll stick to only going with my parents.

bouncycastle++

A couple of years ago, for his birthday, one of my coworkers rented a bouncy castle. This year, he went one better, and rented an inflatable gladiator joust game. Fun!



It was actually more tiring than I expected, just holding the giant padded stick.

three cup chicken

I had a big bunch of basil left over from last week's veggie box, so I decided to make three cup chicken. I mostly used this recipe, but didn't bother with peppers, and as usual was a bit lax with measurements.

I think it turned out pretty well, except I couldn't find two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs at Safeway yesterday night at 9pm, so I ended up using one pound of thigh and one pound of breast. I am not fond of chicken breast.

Three Cup Chicken

1. Cut up a whole head of garlic and about half a piece of ginger, and stir-fry in 1/3 cup sesame oil for a few minutes.

2. Add 2 lbs of chicken (cut up into pieces), 1/3 cup rice wine, 1/3 cup soy sauce, and 3 tsp sugar. Continue to stir-fry until the chicken is mostly white, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Cut up 1 bunch of basil and 1 bunch of green onions (there should be about twice as much basil as onion) and add it to the chicken. Stir-fry on high heat for a few minutes, then serve.

properly celebrating achievement

We had a big (huge, really) milestone at work on Tuesday, so we celebrated with mimosas at 10am. Then we celebrated some more with wine and champagne after lunch, and again with beer & garlic fries at 4pm, followed by margaritas, chips & salsa at 5pm, making me late for carpool around 7pm.

I was amused by this conversation that I had with a coworker just now:

me:	Going to the gym?
coworker:	Ehh, my stomach feels kind of weird.
me:	Oh no, are you sick?
coworker:	Nah, my stomach hasn't felt right since I spent all day drunk on Tuesday.

these guys crack me up

One of my coworkers is having a baby, so this morning he put up a form asking people to submit name suggestions.

About half an hour he posted this message:
Ok...I'm all for getting creative name suggestions...but I can tell you now that "Optimus Prime" isn't going to make the cut.

fun 4th

Over 4th of July weekend, I attended a wedding in San Diego.

The wedding was scheduled for Friday the 3rd, but the ceremony wasn't until 5:30pm, so I figured I was safe booking a flight that arrived at 1:35pm. I guess nothing is safe when travelling on a holiday weekend!

After arriving in SAN, we caught the Thrifty rental car shuttle from Terminal 1. When we got to Terminal 2, there was a huge line of people; in fact, I'm pretty sure not everyone got on the shuttle, because we didn't all fit. Listening to the people who *did* get on, it sounded like they had been waiting for the shuttle for over an hour.

Once we got to the agency, we waited in line for nearly an hour and a half, to get our car, and we were third in line coming out of the shuttle. Some of the people who were towards the end of the line gave up; they must have walked or otherwise gone to another rental car place, I'm not sure how. Anyway, we finally got to our hotel before 4pm, so we still had time to shower and change, but it was a much closer call than we expected.

The wedding itself was fun, despite us not knowing most of the guests. The bride and groom had provided lots of fun props: Mardi Gras beads (the bride is from Louisiana), sparkly stickers, temporary tattoos, glow sticks, and bingo/mad libs type games on the reception and cocktail tables. They had also hired a balloon guy, who made balloon animals, hats, and other props for us to wear on the dance floor, while a live band played mostly 80's music. Outside the reception area, there was a photographer who was taking "prom-style" photos, so we camped it up for him.

One other touch that I liked: on their first date, the bride and groom had gone to a karaoke place and sung "Total Eclipse of the Heart" together. So, for the first dance, they taped a karaoke version of that song (with their own words!) and danced to that...very creative and fun.

Since the wedding was on a Friday, we had two days to hang out and explore the San Diego area. On the 4th, we went wandering around Old Town, Coronado, and La Jolla, before enjoying a great dinner at The Marine Room, a restaurant right on the beach in La Jolla. At times I felt like the waves were about to hit up against our window, which was a cool effect.

While shopping in Old Town, I ran across these cute wind chimes (but didn't buy any):


There was an "1800's style" celebration going on, and people were doing cakewalks and making cornhusk dolls:


We also spent some time checking out Coronado. People had set up tents and picnics all along the shore, in preparation for watching the late night fireworks over this nice view:


Afterwards we headed over to La Jolla, which was our favorite neighborhood. We only peeked at the beach part, though:


Finally, we had dinner at The Marine Room, which had gorgeous views:


From our table:


Our appetizer: Mano de Leon Diver Scallop and Foie, Purple Cauliflower Mousseline, Royal Trumpets, Brique Crisp, Truffle, Torani Amer Syrup:


D's entree: Sesame Peppered Ruby Red Ahi Tuna, Thai Rice, Mango Daikon Salad, Avocado Beignet, White Port Hibiscus Sauce:


My entree: Country Meadow Rack of Lamb, Black Current Mustard, Pistachio, St. Andre Bread Pudding, Rosebud Jam, Sage Garnacha Reduction


Dessert: Cobblestone Pie, Espresso and Vanilla Gelato, Chocolate Nuggets, Spiced Caramel:


The food was good, and they also had some creative drinks (I had a Lavendar Lemon Drop, D had a Mango Mojito), but I think the setting was definitely the star of the show. We stayed over two hours, until nearly sunset, and then drove back to downtown.

On Sunday, we got up late and drove to Carlsbad, where we spent many hours outlet shopping, also meeting up with a friend at the nearby Karl Strauss Brewing Company for a late lunch (or early dinner, I suppose). I think the Gilroy outlet mall is still larger, but some of the stores at Carlsbad were nicer; for instance there was a Barney's, a Dooney & Bourke, and even a Le Creuset.

From there we went directly to the airport, where we were only delayed an hour on our way home. I considered that par for the course, for a holiday weekend.

still eating Vosges

As I mentioned before, I bought 4-piece boxes of Vosges chocolate truffles to serve as wedding favors, for a wedding I attended a few weeks ago in Las Vegas. There is a "longer story".

Several weeks before the wedding, I called the Vosges headquarters to ask if I could pre-order the favors and have them shipped to the Las Vegas store. I was told that if I placed the order that way, I would still have to pay the shipping fees, and that it would be more cost-effective if I went directly to the Vegas store and purchased the chocolates on the spot. Additionally, that would allow me to choose specific flavors, assuming they were in stock at the store.

The wedding was on Saturday, so on Friday morning, I walked from the Bellagio to the Forum Shops to buy the chocolates. (It was nearly 100 degrees that day, so even though the two hotels are adjacent, it felt like a long walk.) I arrived shortly after the scheduled opening time of 10am, but the store was still closed. No problem, I figured they were running late.

By 10:45am I was getting annoyed. Finally, I called the Vosges headquarters in Chicago and asked them if their Las Vegas store was supposed to be open yet. They confirmed that it was and said they'd look into it. I left my name and number and asked them to call me when they figured it out.

Around 11:10am, I noticed someone opening the store, and hurried over. The salesperson (her name was Julie) apologized for the delay and said that the person who was supposed to open the store had never showed up, so the office in Chicago had called her to come instead. I felt kind of bad for her having to work on her day off, and apologized back. As a result we got along great, despite the rough start. (Chicago actually called her after the store opened to confirm that it was open and to make sure we had connected.

Throughout the time that she was assisting me, Julie was consistently friendly and helpful, even giving me samples of the truffles to help in my selection process. She was patient with my complicated order (she had to tie bows on 15 boxes, and number the boxes so I could keep track of which chocolates were in which box), and even gave me a complimentary box of truffles at the end, as an added apology.

I think that episode was a classic example of how exemplary customer service can really turn things around. I went from having a horrible impression of Vosges service to having a great one, due to Julie's handling of the situation, and as a result I will continue to buy Vosges chocolates, and to recommend them to friends and family. Everyone wins!

Anyway, that aside, between the samples, the favors themselves, the free box, and the couple of additional bars that I bought, I got to try lots of new flavors, and I've recorded my impressions here, in rough order of goodness.

First, the truffles:

Black Pearl: ginger + wasabi + dark chocolate + black sesame seeds

I've actually had this one many times before. It was excellent, just as I remembered.

Siam Citron: jasmine tea + lemongrass + fresh coconut + white chocolate + organic marigold petal

I think this is my favorite white chocolate truffle from Vosges. The tea flavor was quite strong, which balanced the sweetness of the white chocolate. The lemongrass was more of an aftertaste but was noticeable (and pleasant).

Summertime Love: dark chocolate + coconut, cafe au lait + white chocolate + cocoa powder

This pair of two truffles was available only for the summer, so of course I had to try it. The dark truffle had lots of coconut, which is unusual for Vosges. It was not bad but not that memorable. The light one was delicious, with a strong coffee flavor. It barely tasted like white chocolate at all, which is a plus in my book.

Rose Vert: tarragon + rose water + 65% dark chocolate + organic red rose petal

The initial taste was very flowery, with the tarragon coming in later. I liked it quite a bit; the flower taste would have been too much with a milk chocolate but the dark chocolate was bitter enough to offset it.

Jazz: cafe du monde & chicory coffee

Surprisingly, in comparison to the white Summertime Love truffle, this one did not have as much coffee flavor; it was much more subtle. Good, but not great.

Tian Nacu: Mexican vanilla bean + Venezuelan dark chocolate

I thought the vanilla flavor didn't stand out enough, or maybe the vanilla and dark chocolate didn't mix well and the flavors were too distinct? Overall it was a bit nondescript and was not a favorite.

Ambrosia: macadamia nuts + Cointreau + white chocolate

I thought there was not enough mac nut in this one. Not bad, but not that creative, either.

Rap: horseradish + lemon zest + praline + cocoa nibs

I expected to like this one a lot, but unfortunately I didn't. For once, the flavors did not blend well. The first taste was lemon, the last one was the praline, and there was not much horseradish at all.

Hip-Hop: Krug champagne + edible gold leaf + white chocolate truffle (33% cocoa butter)

This one sounded good (champagne + chocolate!) but it was way too sweet for me. It was very creamy and buttery, with a definite champagne taste.

The bars:

Habana: organic deep milk chocolate + crunchy plantains, 45% cacao

I usually love savory chocolate, so I was intrigued by the description, "Ecuadorian plantain chips", but this one was too salty; even more so than Mo's Bacon Bar.

Creole: New Orleans style chicory coffee + cocoa nibs + Sao Thome bittersweet chocolate, 70% cacao

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I found this bar too bitter. I liked the cocoa nib bar that I'd bought from Fleur de Cocoa a few weeks ago much better.

Organic Peanut Butter bonbon: organic deep milk chocolate + a soft, peanut butter center, 45% cacao

I was not a fan at all. The bar that I'd bought looked a bit oxidized, which probably didn't help, but I also disliked the soft (and too gooey) peanut butter layer.

So, my favorite truffle remains the Kaffir Lime (with the Sale del Mare and Black Pearl close behind), and my favorite bar, the Goji berry bar. I look forward to trying the Matcha bar, though.

once upon a time...

A friend that I've known since college recently joined my project at work. I was trying to explain our relationship to a coworker who is only a couple years out of school.

The conversation went something like this:

me:	I've known him forever. Since college. We worked together on a project sophomore year.
coworker:	<blank look>
me:	I've known him for almost 13 years.
coworker:	Wow!!

I'm guessing that was something to the effect of "Wow, you're old."

reasonable guess

Last night I made "breakfast for dinner" for games night. We served a tortilla chip, veggie, and sausage scramble, French toast, bacon, fried potatoes, and waffles with blueberries and bananas.

It was a bit hectic in the kitchen towards the end, and I slightly burnt a few pieces of French toast. I was in a hurry to get the pan freed up, so I dumped them on D's plate, saying "Can you eat these? They're kind of burnt."

Then, as we were trying out the waffle maker, the first waffle came out too brown, and I also handed it to D, commenting that it might be burnt.

The following exchange ensued:

friend:	Do you like burnt food, or something?
D:	No, I'm just the garbage disposal for food in general.

need more practice

I had lunch with a visiting Taiwan engineer today.

When I saw him, I greeted him in English, so we spent the first few minutes conversing in English. Of course his English was fine (probably better than my Chinese), but I started to feel like it was a waste for me not to speak Chinese, so I finally switched over.

I'm definitely out of practice, and my Chinese was liberally sprinkled with English terms (e.g. "firewall", "release schedule", "hiring process", "time zone", and lots more), but it felt good anyway.

Now I'm trying to think of a good way for me to practice some more, that doesn't involve me signing up for a Chinese class.

Peru: Day 7 (back in Cuzco)

On our last day in Peru, we woke up rested and refreshed after a good night's sleep. The free breakfast buffet at the Casa Andina seemed better the second time around, with quinoa cakes, small pancakes, toast made from round Peruvian bread (quite good), yogurt, cereal, and more.

After checking out and leaving our luggage, we headed up the hill towards San Blas, in a quest to buy some alpaca clothing. We ended up stopping at a store along the way, and making a very large purchase (I think six or seven people ended up buying things), with lots of bargaining. Sweaters which were originally quoted at 65 soles ended up being around 35 soles in the end, and gloves that were originally 28 soles ended up being 15 soles. I'm sure we could have done better if we had spent more time and effort, but we were already quite happy with the prices at that level.

We spent some time in the San Blas Square itself, where there were lots of street stands selling souvenirs. At one point we even walked into a small courtyard that looked like part of someone's house, but there was a souvenir shop there, too:


Afterwards, we walked back through the Plaza de Armas (dropping off our purchases at the hotel along the way) and returned to the Plaza de San Francisco. For lunch, we decided to graze off of the food stands in the Mercado Central:


D ordered a chicken plate that came with soup, salad, and rice, and only cost 3 soles total. I myself picked up a few more tamales (and confirmed that I liked the sweet ones better than the salty ones), and then we ordered a plate of mixed ceviche to share.

For "dessert", we bought fresh fruit/veggie juice from this woman:


We had been hovering in the area of the juice stands for awhile, when suddenly a random guy told us in English that we should order from one particular woman, and that he would tell her what to make us. It turned out that he was American but had been living in Cuzco for about 6 months, and he was showing his visiting friends around. Anyway, he said a few things to the juice vendor in Spanish, told us to pay her 12 soles, and then left, as she started to cut up ingredients. Every so often she would hold something up, like a carrot or beet, to confirm that we wanted it. The entire process took quite a long time, and in the end, the drink contained mango, pineapple, orange, banana, beets, carrots, alfalfa, bee pollen, maca powder, honey, and a mystery “extract”. (There may have been some additional fruits that I'm forgetting.) Anyway, it sounds terrible but was actually very tasty. We drained 5+ glasses and paid her 15 soles (the price seemed not very well determined and I didn't have any change).

After eating, we walked back to our hotel to catch a taxi to the airport (10 soles per van, 2 vans for 13 people). While we were waiting, I ran back up towards San Blas to buy some Peruvian pastries. I ended up with a pretty good apple tart, a much-too-sweet chocolate cake, and an extremely delicious caramel-filled, chocolate-glazed puff pastry. I ate half of it on the spot.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, so we were able to deal with the cancelled return tickets; the first of our many hurdles on our way home. I finished off my last few soles by buying a bottle of pisco for my coworkers (they had free samples at the duty-free shop!) and some Britt candy. Two delays, one rebooking, and 32 hours later, we arrived at home.

Later we joked that the four-day hike had been less tiring than the long trip back. It had certainly been much more rewarding!

Peru: Day 6 (aka Inca Trail: Day 4)

On our last day on the Inca Trail, we had to get up at 3:30am. At least we were treated to cake at breakfast, along with all the usual goodies:


We were in line at the checkpoint before 4:30am, with only 2 or 3 groups ahead of us. At 5am, the checkpoint opened, and we were on our way. It took over an hour and a half of pretty fast hiking for us to get to the Intipunku (aka the "Sun Gate"), but as a result, we got there in plenty of time to see the sunlight creeping towards Machu Picchu:


I took a billion pictures in the twenty minutes that we spent there, and then realized afterwards that time-lapsed video would probably have been more effective. Oh well. Here's one closeup:


It took another 45 minutes or so to walk from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu. We stopped a few times along the way, to look at some interesting rock formations, and to take some photos as we approached the site itself.

It was a little strange arriving at the entrance to Machu Picchu. There were tons of people, a restaurant, bathrooms (with toilet paper!), baggage storage facilities (where we were forced to check our trekking poles), etc. Generally, it just felt like there was too much infrastructure, and there were definitely too many people, many of whom looked like they just stepped out of an air-conditioned bus.

After a quick snack outside the gate, and some creative rearranging of our daypacks (Raul advised us that bags of a certain size were not allowed inside, and in fact some people ended up having to check their packs), we finally arrived at Machu Picchu.

For the first hour or two, we continued to follow Raul around while he showed us the important sites and gave us historical background:


After that, we were on our own. Raul gave us our bus and train tickets, instructed us on how to get to the stops and stations, and then we said goodbye to both guides.

I think we all felt a little lost without Raul and Edison, but despite that, we spent another hour or so wandering the (very large) site.

Many of the walls in Machu Picchu have been restored, and indeed we saw some people working on restoring the Temple of the Sun:


I think this particular wall had been left as is on purpose; I don't remember seeing another crumbling wall anywhere else:


The mountain in the background is Huayna Picchu. If we had wanted to climb it, we would have had to run from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu, in order to be one of the first 400 people in line to buy a ticket. We decided not to bother, and spent our time enjoying the sunrise instead. I think in the end we were all quite happy with that decision:


There were some nice valley views, too:



As we were walking around, we spotted a chinchilla! Unfortunately I had my wide-angle lens on at the time, but Tina managed to snag this shot:


Around 1:30pm, we decided to head down to the town of Aguas Calientes, as we were all starving. It turned out to be about 20 minutes away, via air-conditioned bus. Upon arrival, we went directly to the Apu Salkantay restaurant, where our duffel bags were being stored, and decided it was simplest just to eat there. Their thin-crust brick-oven pizza was quite good (or we were very hungry), and their dessert crepes weren't bad either.

After lunch, some of us decided to check out the famous hot springs. We were unfortunately quite disappointed, as the pools were crowded, lukewarm, and not entirely clean. We spent maybe 30-45 minutes there and then showered and left.

Generally, the town of Aguas Calientes was too touristy for my taste. At first I thought the marketplace looked fun, but we soon found out the prices were ridiculous. So, we walked around and checked out some of the squares and shops, but didn't buy anything:


Our train was scheduled to leave at 7pm, so around 6pm we went back to the restaurant to grab our bags, and then headed to the train station. The station served both the local train and the backpacker train, but there were separate entrances. It was interesting to notice how the local side was crowded and not very well maintained, while the backpacker side had a waiting area with a deli and pretty decent bathrooms.

When we got on the train, we discovered that somehow we'd gotten put on a Vistadome train (one level up from backpacker). As a result, we even had food service on the 1.5 hour ride; a sandwich, a piece of apple cake (pie?), and hot tea. The train took us to Ollantaytambo, where we caught a Llama Path bus back to Cuzco.

We arrived back at our hotel around 10:30pm, after having to walk several blocks with our luggage, due to some kind of street fair in the Plaza de Armas. After re-checking in (D and I got a much nicer/bigger room the second time around), we decided against more dinner. Instead, we took nice long hot showers, and then hung out watching TV, checking email, and catching up on news, before going to sleep.

After nearly four days of camping, it felt really great to be clean, comfortable, and in a bed. Nevertheless, we all agreed that it had been an unforgettable, challenging, but awesome experience, hiking the Inca Trail.

learned something today

Earlier this evening, I was given the opportunity to meet Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, to advocate on behalf of one of my favorite topics. The woman who set up the meeting is well-known in the Taiwanese-American community, but also serves on the board for Center for Reproductive Rights, so she brought a list of choice-related issues. It was quite educational for me, listening to her presentation of those topics.

For example: Until today, I was unaware that military hospitals are forbidden from providing abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. This holds true even if the servicewoman (or military dependent) wishes to pay for the procedure by herself. So, these women in uniform, who are overseas serving our country, are forced to seek local doctors (I'm trying to imagine how an American soldier would find a doctor to perform an abortion on her in Iraq?), or wait until they are able take the time to travel to a non-military American hospital. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, two California Congresswomen have introduced an amendment to make it possible for doctors to perform (privately funded) abortions at American bases, in countries where abortion is legal. I sincerely hope it passes.

so true

Overheard today at work (regarding Alexander's Steakhouse):
"White truffle oil *is* crack!"

Needless to say, my coworkers are brilliant.

Vegas wedding

I've been to over 40 weddings in my life, but until last weekend, I had yet to attend a Vegas wedding.

The phrase "Vegas wedding" tends to conjure up images of Elvis impersonators and drive-thru wedding chapels, but this one was actually very classy; no surprise really, since it was at the Bellagio.

Most of the guests arrived on Friday, but D and I flew in on Thursday, and took the bride and groom (D's cousin) to Nobu for dinner:


My favorite dishes were the tuna on fried lotus root (the tuna was well-marinated), the lobster tacos (lots of lobster meat), and the rock shrimp tempura (chopped into smaller pieces, for high batter-to-shrimp ratio).

On Friday, there was a rehearsal of sorts, followed by a group dinner at the Bellagio buffet. I had been disappointed by the Wynn buffet when we went in April (for lunch), because they hadn't any cocktail shrimp, crab, lobster, or interesting meats. Luckily, I was able to eat seafood and meat to my heart's content at the Bellagio; they had both snow crab and king crab, plus ostrich and elk, as well as the usual prime rib, etc. The desserts were so-so, but I managed to find a pretty good chocolate ganache cake, so I was happy.

After dinner, the guys and girls went their separate ways for some pre-wedding fun. There was much drinking and other merriment, but (unfortunately?) all of the good photos have been censored. We did manage to get the bride home around 4 in the morning. Luckily the wedding was scheduled for 6pm, so she didn't have to get up for hair and makeup until after noon.

The ceremony itself was on the "Terraza", in front of the famous Bellagio fountains:


After the ceremony, the house photographer (came with the wedding package) spent about an hour photographing the bride and groom, as well as the guests, all over the Bellagio. We even took some photos at the (empty) craps tables, which turned out nicely.

Here's one that I took in front of the Conservatory:


The reception was at the Prime Steakhouse, conveniently located inside the Bellagio. The decor was subtle and opulent, and the food was delicious. I enjoyed the truffled mashed potatoes and rack of lamb very much. I think the ribeye at Michael Mina's StripSteak might have been slightly better, though. (We also went there in April.)

I was in charge of wedding favors, so of course I bought chocolate from Vosges. I had some trouble with the pickup on Friday morning (will explain later) but in the end I had lots of fun picking all the flavors. I even came in under budget, with 4 truffles per box:


After dinner, we retired to the gorgeous Bellagio suite that the bride and groom were staying in, to have some wedding cake. D had ordered the cake from a local bakery and they had delivered it earlier in the evening. The top tier was chocolate and the bottom tier was white. That was slightly unfortunate because it turned out we liked the chocolate flavor much better, but it ended up not mattering much because there were tons of leftovers anyway:


We sat around for awhile working off the food coma, and then the bride and groom decided it was gambling time. They headed downstairs, along with part of the group, while those of us who remained repurposed the ceremony flowers, using them to decorate the bedroom:


I thought this was particularly inspired:


I'm not sure what time everyone ended up going to bed, but the bride and groom did get up in time for their 11am appointment with the photographer. The studio was amazingly fast; they provided the prints (as well as a DVD) on the spot. I guess a photo studio in Vegas must be used to clients who need to fly out the next day.

Peru: Day 5 (aka Inca Trail: Day 3)

I woke up around 6am on Day 3 and was relieved to find that my headache was completely gone.

Plus, I hadn't noticed the previous day, but there was a nice view from the second campsite as well:


After another yummy breakfast (this time the porridge was made of beans instead of oats), and more of the omnipresent coca tea, we were on our way:


The terrain was gently sloped (uphill), but it felt like a cakewalk compared to Day 2. We stopped often to admire the flowers and the views:



After a few hours, we arrived at a site called Phuyupatamarca:


It was an easy climb, even though supposedly it was the third highest point on the trail (3680m / 12,073ft), and there was a nice view from the top:



From there, it was only a couple more hours to another Inca site called Intipata. The site itself was less impressive than some of the others, but the view was spectacular. In fact, I think it was my favorite view on the entire trail. It probably helped that we were relaxed and well-rested:


We hung out at Intipata for awhile, enjoying the scenery, and I re-repaired my left hiking boot, which had started to fall apart pretty badly during the Day 2 descent:


We also took a couple more jumping photos before heading to our third campsite at Winay Wayna (a relatively low 2680m / 8792ft). It was only about 1pm when we arrived at our camp; just in time for lunch. We had several dishes as usual, but I was most impressed by the appetizer:


After lunch, we had nearly two hours to hang out. The Winay Wayna campsite was very fancy and had a restaurant, a hotel (!), and even hot showers. Some of us decided to pay for the shower (5 soles ~= $1.67). Others napped or rested in their tents:


There was also one game of Dominion played, at the tables outside the restaurant:


Just before sunset, Raul took us to the Winay Wayna ruins themselves. They were an easy 10-minute walk away, and quite impressive:



Finally, we had our last camp happy hour and dinner. Jorge really outdid himself with the vegetable carvings that night!


We were soon off to bed, to prepare for our 3:30am Day 4 wakeup call. (Raul wanted to make sure we got to Machu Picchu in plenty of time...)