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Camille!

fanvu.livejournal.com

wedding blog

Eating in Japan

The question people ask the most when asking about my trip is, "How was the food?"

I'm not going to sugarcoat the truth with lines like: "It was okay" or "Japanese food is the same everywhere" or "We get pretty good sushi here in SF"

It was simply... Amazing.

From the sushi to the shabu shabu to the yakatori to the late-night ramen run, everything was... Amazing.



One of the first days in Japan we were treated to lunch by a local restaurant owner. She had read about the girls traveling to Japan and was so moved that she wanted to share a traditional Japanese meal with 55 complete strangers.

Yummy!

Macaroni and Cheese or Cheese and Macaroni

I am obsessed with Macaroni and Cheese that is served in restaurants. I think it's because I only ever had it straight from the box.

But what makes a really good Mac and Cheese recipe?

And who makes the best Mac and Cheese in SF?

These are the questions, my dear reader, that I will attempt to answer in my ongoing investigation that will henceforth be known as...

The search for the best Macaroni and Cheese in San Francisco

or TSFTBMACISF for short.

TSFTBMACISF
Chapter 1

"We're going to OOLA"

This was the reply Chi Hien gave when I asked about where I could meet her and Kevin for drinks. I had never been to OOLA before. After a quick check on cityseach, I hopped in my car, drove through the city, turned onto 6th and made a left on Folsom.

The food, that my cousins had almost finished as I joined them, was tasty. There were some ribs and some fois gras ravioli. Kevin pointed out that it met one of their main requirements in a restaurant: open late for dinner. A quick scan down the dinner menu had me wondering if I should order anything but once I saw the side-dishes section it was all over:

Macaroni and Cheese: $4

"Pretty good." That was all I could think of at the time. The bread crumbs on top were a nice addition but overall the dish was a little on the bland side. A little more salt in the preparation would have gone a long way.

Since this is my first review I'll give it a middle of the road score of...

50

Jetlag

In response to Rayanne's comment...

It took me a full week to get over the jetlag coming back from Japan. I usually do okay with jetlag, as I can usually fall asleep anywhere at anytime. This particular time, however, was not so easy.

The first night back I slept for 10 hours. The second night back, I tried to stay awake to become really tired and ended up staying awake until 2AM. My plan backfired when I woke up at 5am and was wide awake.

This pattern has continued for the past week but I think I've finally gotten my schedule back to normal... if normal is playing poker until 4 in the morning and waking up at 2PM



Why do all Japanese people hold up 2 fingers in photographs? I never thought to ask what it is supposed to represent. It could be the bunny ears symbol. But probably not since the "bunnies" have moved from behind peoples heads and seem to be placed almost anywhere.

Could they be gang signs? Probably not.

The peace sign? Maybe.

Maybe it's just a sign that has lost its meaning over the years and turned into something that you can do with your hands in a photograph.

There. I like that the best. Somebody Japanese tell me the truth please...

traveling

With all the traveling I've done, I've noticed more and more that people the world over are alike in so many ways. While I travel to experience the differences in culture, language, history, geography, the most exciting part for me is interacting with different peoples and finding the similarities

Arigato

I didn't have a lot of free time on my trip to Japan. However, as little as there was, it was all amazing.














As soon as we stepped off the plane, the heat and humidity hit us like a warm and slightly moist blanket. I don't think I stopped sweating for the entire 2 weeks. That might explain why I look so shiny in all my photos.

Although you might think that being in charge of 44 teenage girls would be difficult, the other chaperons on the trip made things so easy.

nippon

stories to come...
still alive but it's hot as hell here
bye!!!

greetings from Japan!

Just saying a quick hello. Im on a break and am just catching up on email and stuff. Things have been fun here.　

毛Ｙボアrd
ｆｒｅａｋｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ
ｈａｈａ
ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ

Japan Itinerary

25 - SF to Tokyo
26, 27 Tokyo & Tachikawa City
28 - Tachikawa City & Chiba
29 - Chiba & Sapporo
30, 31 Sapporo
1 - Sapporo to Osaka to Kyoto
2, 3 Kyoto (My birthday)
4 Kyoto & Tokyo
5, 6, 7 Tokyo
8 - Tokyo to SF flight UA 852 arriving on the 8th at 9:30 AM

New posts...

Sara has been hounding me to post for quite some time now. However, the original reason this blog began in the first place was for me to have a place to put my thoughts and ideas down for Sara to see when I was away for the year in Santa Barbara. Now that I'm back and we see each other daily, I havn't had a compelling reason to post.

But I haven't forgotten you my faithful readers. The 2 or 3 of you should know that I will be posting on a more regular basis.

Especially as Sara's mom comes to live with us...

More to come

I too have a work uniform. Only, I get to wear pajamas...

Jury duty and other unrelated topics

The week after I moved back into town I was called in for jury duty. Normally I wouldn't mind as I find the whole process interesting and entertaining, but I hadn't even settled in or unpacked yet. To make a long story short, they had selected the 12 members of the jury, had sworn them in, and were just about to release the 17 of us that were left. One of the lawyers asked the judge:

"Shouldn't we select an alternate?"

That's right...

If life were a game of poker, I'd have been rivered.

At least the trial ended on the same day as they finished selecting the jury.

and...

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!

End of Days

I am so stressed out it is not even funny...

So much to do

so much to take care of

so little brain space.

Flying Fhatee Fanvu

Suckas and Jesus

I now present to you an IM between myself and Sara.

Fanvu says: man tournaments are for suckas, this cash game thing is awesome

Sara says: yep

Sara says: suckas and jesus

Sara says: ferguson, that is

It might not be funny to you, but it made me laugh.

New obsession of the week

I've been sucked into playing World of Warcraft with my cousins. It's amazing how much enjoyment I get out of running around and killing monsters with my gnome mage.

I named him "Fhatee" in honor of my real-world state of being.

WoW cut into my poker playing a little yesterday (meaning no morning session) and today I had to drive my roommate to the airport (no morning session) but I hope to get back into the swing of things by tomorrow.

I've also got a new goal for the final 4 weeks that I'm here. I'm going to aggressively try to move up in levels from playing 3/6 to playing 5/10 (full table. I'm just not comfortable yet playing short-handed). I figure I should try to make this move before I'm unemployed and see if I can sustain a reasonable win rate at the new level.

Sometimes you have to take a shot at a bigger game to see if you have what it takes.

This is my shot.

Of course I'll move back down if I don't reach my goal.

I'm playing 4 tables of 3/6 at the moment. I'm going to start changing one table at a time to 5/10 as I move from my bankroll of ~1800 to my bankroll goal of 3000.

Anyone want to guess on how long it'll take?

I put the over/under line at 14 days.

Another Road Trip

Driving up to SF today after rehearsal. Hope it stops raining.

I figure I've got 3 trips (including this one) left up to SF so I need to pack all my stuff for these 3 trips. I'm gonna leave clothes, my computer, and my tv for the last trip.

You know, all the essentials.

I've been getting killed at the poker tables. It's been pretty bloody. I've been reviewing my play on pokertracker and just like I thought, I've been catching great cards and getting run down by players that play any two cards.

Having a run of losing sessions is not my idea of a good time.

Day 31:

Session 1: +230
Session 2: -157.50

Daily Total: +72.50

Running total after 17 days: +1584.33

Day 30:

Session 1: -236.75
Session 2: -37

Daily Total: -273.75

Running total after 18 days: +1310.58

31 days to go...

One month left.

31 days.

744 hours.

44640 minutes.

But who's counting?

Day 32:

Session 1: +121

Running total after 16 days: +1511.83

Supplies!

Walking into the casino on Friday morning I had a specific monetary goal in mind. Although it's best not to be results minded when you're playing poker, it's hard to separate the two when you're ultimately playing with rent money.

If I go up $130 I'm buying a plane ticket home to surprise Sara.

We had talked about my flying up for the weekend but we both felt it was too expensive for just a weekend trip. I had to buy the ticket by Friday night so I knew this was my last chance to pull it off. It was an ambitious goal for one sitting but, like every other time that I take that short walk from my car to the poker room, I had high hopes.

The 4/8 game was a typical mix of players with only one person that I had played with before. D was sitting in seat 7. The only open seat was in seat 6. I really didn't feel like giving him position on me on every hand but there's not much you can do with only one seat open. He's a solid player that never gets out of line. His game is a little tight for my taste but then again my game is a little loose for his.

It didn't really matter much because we only get involved in 1 hand together. This one hand is the only hand in which I made a mental error in the entire session. I'm on the button with J4s when it's folded around to me. D is in the small blind and a tight unimaginative player is in the big blind. Of the 3 options available to me (call, raise, fold) I choose the worst of the 3. If I raise, I have a great chance of stealing the blinds either pre-flop or even on the flop with a bet. If I fold (what I should have done) I don't get involved in a short-handed pot with Jack high.

So I choose the worst option. I call and D shoots me a look like I had suddenly sprouted a second head. I immediately realize that he knows that I made a mistake. I mean seriously, with what range of hands would a call make sense on the button when everyone else has folded? Even if I raise and they both KNOW that I'm stealing, there's a good chance that they'll fold. Flop comes QTT. Check, check and I bet. D check-raises and I call. (My second mistake in one hand) I fold to a turn bet when a blank comes.

After 2 hours of solid play, I count my chips and realize that I'm looking at a $126 profit. $4 more dollars and I'm able to get on a plane and see my girl. If I hadn't made that mistake with D I'd be at $138 and on my way out the door. So I decide to ride it out and see how things fall. Folding every single hand for the next 2 hours (a real drag) brings me down to about $90 before I begin a nice little run that brings me all the way back up to $200.

Perfect reads and perfect play coupled with poor play by other players has me surprising Sara with a call on Saturday morning.

Hey! I've got a surprise for you but you have to do me a favor.

Uh, okay.

You have to pick me up at SFO in 90 minutes.

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! OKAY!

So I've spent a nice weekend in SF with Sara on other people's money.

It's nice when a plan comes together.

Surprise!

I've got some last minute plans for this weekend. I can't tell you about it or it'll ruin the surprise but I'll tell you all about it in a later post.

Until then...

Have a great weekend!

Day 35:

Session 1: +125.50
Session 2: +77.71

Daily Total: +203.21

Running total after 15 days: +1390.83

Ugh...

I hate losing.

I'm going to stay here this weekend and head up to SF next weekend. Probably play lots of poker and try to play through this bad run of cards. I have to start thinking about packing up and transporting all my things back home. Look for a longer post tomorrow. It's late here and I'm sleepy.

Day 36:

Session 1: -165.5

Running total after 14 days: +1187.62

Summer Plans

I'm flying out to Philadelphia for Truc and John's wedding on June 18. Then I'm returning home for a couple weeks. I'll be flying east again for the weekend of July 2 to Connecticut for another wedding. Then back to SF for a couple of weeks before I head to Japan on July 25.

I'm a little anxious and stressed about not having a source of income and having to travel so much this summer. I kind of wanted to just chill and do nothing or find a summer job but now I can do neither.

Enough complaining already! I'm going to Japan for free! Oh well, I guess I'll be mooching off friends and family the rest of my life so I better start now!

Day 37:

Session 1: +80.36
Session 2: +11.80

Daily total: +92.16

Running total after 13 days: +1353.12

My Ass

I hurt my ass in rehearsal today. Well more specifically I hurt my ass before rehearsal today.

It's dangerous being a conductor!

I had dropped some papers on the floor. I bent over with some conviction and some speed and banged my ass right on the edge of the piano. It hit right on the bone and I've been in pain since.

Don't laugh... it hurts!

Day 38:

Session 1: +146
Session 2: +116.50

Daily total: +262.50

Running total after 12 days: +1260.96

38 to go

The last time I went to a choral festival was for the ACDA national convention held in Chicago. This was back in my first year of grad school when I thought I knew everything and swore that everyone else that thought otherwise was wrong.

Wait, that's how it is now...

Except that now I know nothing and am pretty sure I know nothing. My roommate andI took a week off of school and flew out to check out the scene.

I have never ever seen such a high concentration of gay men in my life...

And I grew up in San Francisco.

My memories of that week have disintegrated over time but I swear that everyone I saw there was a gay man or a middle-aged woman. The funny thing is, my roommate was getting hit on by guys left and right. I was getting nada. Every concert we went to, a couple of guys would approach us. They would talk to my roommate and I would just be standing there like a little bitch. Not that I care but we could have been together, right? Sounds like a Seinfeld episode.

Maybe I throw off a vibe...

Day 39:

Session 1: +33.25
Session 2: -4.5

Daily total: +28.75

Running total after 11 days: +998.46

My second session started off down $150 after only ten minutes. I battled back and made it just short of even after 2 hours. I've never felt so happy to lose $4.

39 days to go...

I hung out with Sam most of Friday. We talked shop and ended up playing gin for a little while. I was up early but he went on a roll and nearly caught up before we had to stop for the day. I'll get him next time!

That's one game where I quickly run into the limitations of my memory. Like 7-card stud where you have to remember the cards that have been folded, in gin you have to remember the cards that have gone by. I was doing okay with remembering the cards he discarded but always forgot to add in my memory the cards he didn't pick up that I had discarded.

I came in 12th out of 150 in the Sunday poker tournament. At least I made some money. I played the best that I could but couldn't catch any cards or take advantage of weaker players near the end. I absolutely put this girl on tilt when I cracked her pocket Kings in the first level with my Q4. She kept asking how I could call a raise with Q4. I just smiled and stacked her chips.

Another week of teaching starts tomorrow. I'm debating whether or not to head to SF this coming weekend or the next weekend. I wonder if I can get a cheap(ish) flight up cause driving sucks. We'll see...

Day 41:

Session 1: +235.07
Session 2: -385.25
Deposit Bonus: +100

Daily total: -50.18

Day 40

Session 1: +238.27

Running total after 10 days: +961.72

Happy Friday!

Just a quick post to wish all of you a great weekend!

It's official. I'm going to Japan!

Dates are July 25-Aug 8. I'll be chaperoning a bunch of cool kids so it should be pretty neat. All my expenses are taken care of and I think I just need to buy one meal a day. I'm pretty excited as I've never been there. It's also going to be during the World Choral Symposium so that should be pretty cool too!

Tune in Monday for a funny story about the last choral conference I went to...

Are there poker rooms in Japan?

Just kidding...

Speaking of poker, I played like a piece of shit today. I really couldn't believe all the horrible plays I made. I may take tomorrow off depending on how my mood is.

My morning session started off with me calling an opponent down with just 2nd pair. He was betting the whole way with top pair of course. Over the course of the next two hours, I proceeded to call people down when I was holding medium pocket pairs with overcards on the board, bluff raising players on the river, and of course my favorite, calling raises on the turn with just top pair with a different pair on the board. All losing plays that set me in a foul mood.

I'm just lucky there are so many bad players that I didn't lose my entire bankroll playing this way.

The evening session started out in just the same fashion. The very first hand I see, I catch second pair and call down to the river.

Same bad play, same result. I kept making boneheaded plays left and right and watching my buyins get smaller and smaller. At one point on one table I busted out.

That's right, you heard me, in a cash game at 3/6 Hold'em, I bought in for $150 and used it all up.

I was down about $250 and was gonna quit a big loser on the day. Something inside me, however, pushed me to keep playing. Partly to see if I could get back in the black but mostly to see if I could mentally will myself to forget past losses and play the very best I could. So I tricked myself into not looking at how much I was down (by covering up my cash on the screen) and told myself to just play the very best you can for the next 60 minutes.

It worked.

Okay off to bed, I have to get up at 6 tomorrow to drive my roommate to the airport. See you all soon!

Session 1: -47.50
Session 2: +94

Daily total: +46.50

Running total after 8 days: +773.63

44...

I'm counting down the days until I leave Santa Barbara and rejoin my friends and family in San Francisco.

Day 44 started off pretty slow. I woke up around 10 AM after about 2 hours of hitting the snooze button. With the snooze going off every 9 minutes I hit the button 12 or 13 times. It is always a constant struggle between me and my alarm clock.

I always fight the good fight but in the end the alarm always wins.

I average about an hour of snooze every morning. I really do hate waking up! If I'm going to get up at 10 anyway, why don't I just set my alarm for that time? Because I absolutely intend to wake up at the time my alarm is set. The trouble is, I don't think I've ever gotten up when I've wanted to.

I also have this fear that if I set my alarm for 10 I'd get up at 12.

I played a session of poker today that went pretty poorly. Nothing major happened, just a slow drain on the bankroll. I went to work, came home and had a session where everything clicked.

Damn, variance is a bitch!

I'm gonna cut this post short and try to get some sleep so I can actually wake up with a minimum of snoozing...

like under an hour.

Day 44:

Session 1: -144.75
Session 2: +235

Daily total: +90.25

Running total after 7 days: +727.13

45...

I'm in the middle of a late night poker session that isn't going so well. I'm down about $100 at the moment and hope to be able to pull it back into the positive in the next hour.

My roommate got a new high tech espresso machine in the mail for his birthday. He offered to make me one after dinner. I of course said yes, not realizing that it was already 11PM. So I'm sitting here buzzing pretty hard right now.

The Amazing Race is down to 4 teams now. I've got to think that Rob and Amber are still the favorites to take it all. I wonder if any of the teams talk about splitting the money? If I was in the final four I think I would make private deals with each of the other teams and try to guarantee myself a nice payday whatever the outcome.

Today my good friend Robin called me and offered me a free trip to Japan.

Uh, okay...

Details to come in the following weeks. Tenative dates are July 24 - Aug 9. Yes I will once again be spending my birthday away from home.

4 sets in 4 minutes brought me back into the positive to finish this last session. Playing with idiots always helps too. Here's some entertaining chat for you. My buddy Sam likes to turn the chat feature off when he's playing but he misses these gems: My thoughts are in italics...

In this our latest episode of "idiot chat" mudhoney14 tries to educate dukedog71 after dukedog71 beats him out of a pot with a miracle river card.

#1922452107: dukedog71 wins $47.5 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, jacks.
#1922452107: dukedog71 wins $55.89 from the main pot with three of a kind, jacks.

mudhoney14: what a fing fish fuc
mudhoney14: go to the dollar tables duke, thats no way to play at this level
mudhoney14: Nobody like a fish
mudhoney14: Who but a fish call to hit a set with that board.
mudhoney14: Im trying but at this level there is no need for fish at the table
mudhoney14: That stuff should be saved for the 50 cent and dollar tables

Apparently mudhoney14 is trying to get all 3/6 players to play at a better level and that suckouts should never happen with higher stakes. That's an interesting theory mudhoney14. Please continue.

mudhoney14: At this level you learn to respect raises.

Oh I see, "respect" is something you "learn" by playing with more money on the table. People playing 30/60 must be very "respectful", huh? Let's jump forward 10 minutes and see how mudhoney14 is handling himself...

mudhoney14: Everyone else here had respected the other players and the level of play at 3/6 we dont need people like him coming up to this or higher levels playing on a string and a prayer,

Uh, that's how I make money. I take advantage of people playing over their heads and mistakes made by poor players.

mudhoney14: You can defend him all you want, but the bottom line is there is a certain amount of etequite at this level and if people sit they should observe those unritten rules.

Tell me mudhoney14, where can I find these unwritten rules so I may observe them?

mudhoney14: I dont mind losing it's part of the game, but beat me because you are playing the best hand not chasing.

Interesting thoughts mudhoney14. Let me put you on my buddy list so I may listen to your chat some more. Because not only do you sound like a monkey, you play like one too! Thanks mudhoney14 for getting me back into the positive tonight!

Day 45:

Session 1: -39.75
Session 2: +101.03

Daily total: +61.28

Running total after 6 days: +636.88

Popes have feelings too...

46...

My sister resigned from her job today.

Sara might not have a teaching position next year.

and I will be unemployed in 46 days.

I just played a SnG poker tournament where the other guy hit the last card in the deck that would beat me. Brutal. I had pocket sevens and caught a 7 on the flop. Some guy with pocket fours caught a 4 on the flop. We got all the money in the middle and he caught the miracle 4 on the turn. At least I finished 9th so I could write this post and go to bed. I think that's the first time someone has hit a 1-outer to beat me. There's only one worse way to lose a hand (someone catching 2 perfect cards on the turn and river) and when that day comes I'll be ready for it.

well maybe not. That beat was truly horrible.

I didn't do much today. Had a great session in the afternoon, went to work, and just couldn't get anything going in the evening.

Day 46:

Session 1: +283.75
Session 2: -40.25

$22 SnG: -22

Daily total: +221.50

Running total after 5 days: +575.6

I'm setting a goal of $1200-$3600 for the 50 days. This translates into $24-$72 a day. I was hoping to play 4 hours daily so that would mean $6-$18/hour. This is way below what I have been winning but I wanted to set a pretty easy goal. If I reach my goal sooner I'll reevaluate. So I've got about $600 left to go and 45 days to get there. Maybe my goal was too low?

50, 49, 48, 47...

The countdown continues...

I've got 46 days left until I leave Santa Barbara and I want to make sure every day is action-filled.

I spent time with my friend Jon this weekend. It was good to get out and have someone to talk to other than myself. Stayed up late playing Tiger Woods Golf and Madden 2005. I made a character that looked exactly like I do. I forgot to take a picture so you'll just have to take my word on it. Or not, I don't care.

We also went to the driving range (a real one and not a virtual one) to hit some golf balls. Jon gave me some pointers and I was finally able to hit the ball with some consistency. There are so many things to think about when you swing a golf club. The few times I had been to a range before I just took a driver and swung as hard as I could. I thought it was great if I could even hit the ball. Of course, this made the people I was standing next to extremely nervous as I would more often than not hit the metal dividing barrier between stations with a loud KLANG!

I have a new appreciation for all the professional golfers out there that make it look so easy. Did everyone catch Tiger's putt on 16 at this year's Masters? That was ridiculous. He's fun to watch, isn't he?

It's nice to know the best golfer in the world is Asian.

In poker news, I"m using a mod program to change the appearance of Party Poker so the chairs and tables are gone, replaced by just green felt. It helps clear the clutter of GameTimePlus. I'm also experimenting with the numbers in the PokerTracker auto-rating system but still havn't found something I'm completely happy with. And just in case someone was tracking me (just like I'm tracking everyone else) I changed my screenname. If anyone was wondering I had to miss the tourney this morning to let the gardner mow the lawn. And no that's not a euphemism.

Oh yeah, and I'm playing a lot too. Like in the past, I'm limiting myself to 2 hour sessions with a 5 minute break between hours. Here are some early results...

Day 50:
Session 1: +19.50
$22 SnG: +18
Daily total: +37.50

Day 49:
Session 1: +57.26
Session 2: -178.67
$22 SnG: +38
Daily total: -83.41
Running total: -45.90

I had a shaky start my first 2 days after taking about 2 weeks off. I think I was expecting more because of past success. I was trying to do too much and ultimately made some poor decisions. I was calling too often on the turn and river with just Ace high or an obvious losing top pair. I had faith, however, that fine-tuning my play would pay off in the long run.

Day 48:
Session 1: +195
$22 SnG: -22 (I made a bonehead play with 5 players left that knocked me out of this tourney.)
Daily total: +173
Running total: +127.10

Day 47:
Session 1: +249
$22 SnG: -22
Daily total: +227
Running total: +354.10

Have a great week everyone!