today i was hit by a pelican.

the pelicans that hang out at the pier down in oceanside california are pretty unafraid of people. they are also known to bite from what i've heard. luckily, i wasn't bitten, but when the guy that works on the bait shop on the pier shooed a couple away, one of them hit me in the leg with their wing during take-off. they are some ugly, smelly birds up-close, but very majestic when they're flying.

 

  

today i went on an aircraft carrier.

the USS Midway is permanently docked in the san diego harbor and has been converted to a museum. you can tour the carrier itself to get a sense of what life was like on one, as well as check out a bunch of awesome planes and helicopters on the top/flight deck.

 

 

more photos can be found here.

today i saw striped bamboo.

i think it's called painted bamboo or something, but it's totally natural, and very strange to see.

today i saw wyatt earp.

well, not exactly. there is a guy at work who dresses old-western-steampunk. he has a handlebar mustache, wears old fashioned yet finely tailored wild-west looking clothing and even has a pocketwatch on a chain. he reminds me of my idea of a train conductor from the turn of the last century. anyway, i have zero idea who he is or what his name is, but i just happened to walk past his desk on my way back from a meeting and his studio-issued name tag said wyatt earp. wyatt-freaking-earp!!! my mind was blown! unfortunately, there is no wyatt earp in our company directory, which means he went out of his way to make a name tag that looks company issued (and by company issued, i mean a little piece of plastic with our name printed on it). now my curiousity is severly peaked and i'm making it my mission to find out who he is without asking him directly.

ps. if you're reading this and you personally know this wyatt earp character, please don't tell me his name! it'd be fun to do some detective work (=

today i saw a hummingbird nest.

someone showed me where they found a little hummingbird nest, with the hummingbird sitting stock still on top of it! pretty awesome - i'll have to bring my camera and zoom lens in to get a picture of it tomorrow.

today i ate a half-grapefruit with a spoon.

i've never understood why people eat it that way. growing up we always peeled our grapefruits to eat the innards - and while it's not as pretty or clean as eating it with a spoon, you get so much more grapefruit that way. anyway, i was craving a grapefruit, and they have them at work for breakfast already sliced in half for you. it's very difficult to properly peel a half grapefruit (which is why i've never gotten it before) so i tried the spoon method. i don't like it and it's squirtyness. the little juice cup you get at the end is kind of nice though - but still, so much uneaten pulp!

today i got a call from the dodgers.

it's not as exciting as it sounds, but someone from within the dodgers organization called to see if i wanted to buy a season ticket package of any sort. i told them that john already got me two mini season plans. then they asked, sounding somewhat desperate, whether i knew anyone who'd be interested in buying some sort of group package. i instantly thought it'd be a great idea for work, so i had them send me some information that i have since forwarded to human resources here at dreamworks. i know i won't say no to discounted game tix!

today i made quinoa.

while researching vegetarianism, i came across quinoa. here's what wikipedia has to say about its nutritional value:

In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthy choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

it's really good too - cous-cous-like - and easy to make. i put it in the rice cooker with some vegetable stock, and once that was done, mixed it really quickly in a heated pan with some butter, garlic and shallots. i'll definitely be making more of it ensure i'm getting enough protein in my diet.

today i've been pescetarian for a week!

while i technically started my pescetarian ways a week and a half ago, i had some meat last saturday at the grain tasting. since then however, i've had absolutely no non-seafood meat! it's really not too hard, and i'm not getting any serious cravings or feeling too tempted. maybe after awhile i can become full vegetarian, and maybe eventually even vegan! but we'll have to see about that..

today i saw conan o'brien's last tonight show episode.

it's quite a bummer that it's over after only seven months. maybe we can get him to do a voice for one of our movies!

today i saw wes anderson.

wes anderson and jeffrey katzenberg chatting at DWA.

we had a dreamtalk event at work today, and the guest was wes anderson! it was an hour long and jeffrey asked him some questions about his experiences making fantastic mr. fox - though he talked a bit too about some of his other movies. it was a lot of fun, mr. anderson is quite hilarious. i have much better pictures on my camera, so i will update this post when i've uploaded them which can be found here.

today i ate rutabaga.

while dinnering at palate food+wine with dan, mike and cat, we ordered a roasted rutabaga dish. i've never had it before, and it roasted very nicely and was quite tasty.

today i started reading the story of edgar sawtelle.

wikipedia says:

The novel is a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet in rural Wisconsin. The titular character is a mute boy who, after his father is killed, runs away from but then returns to his usurped home, hoping to prove his suspicions that his uncle murdered his father.

it's the third book i'm reading on my nook, after tokyo vice and eating animals.

today i saw coffee wearing a jacket

while lunching at LAMILLCOFFEE today in silverlake, dan ordered an "eva solo" coffee. this is the description on the menu:

In the industry, coffee tasting is called, ‘cupping’.  This brewing method creates a cup in the same extraction process that a professional coffee taster would use.

it came out in a little carafe with a jacket! that's got to be about as cute as coffee gets.

on a side note, we were at lamill to meet up with crystal - who i haven't seen since my freshman year of college! - and her boyfriend who recently moved to los angeles.

today i saw snuggies for dogs.

while doing some shopping at bed bath & beyond yesterday, we walked by a section of pet accessories and furnishings - and they had snuggies for dogs! how ridiculous is that?

today i had a beer float.

juney and lucy had another tasting for their grain venture, and mike supplied the beer. lucy made an almond gelato which mike paired with a sour cherry belgian ale to make a super delicious beer float. the other foods were delicious as well!

today i watched the princess and the frog.

i think i stopped watching disney 2D animated movies after their rendition of hercules, and then they stopped making them not too many years after. i've been super excited for the princess and the frog (which i keep calling the princess and the pea for some reason) but kept holding off on watching it, but this week at work we finally received the screener for it. i felt it was great visually, though it kept reminding me of other movies, and i felt the music was just okay. definitely worth watching however.

today i saw my dad fly a helicopter.

it was just a little toy helicopter, but he was having so much fun and had the happiest expression on his face like a little kid.

today i learned to ice skate backwards.

well, kinda. dan had attempted to teach me once a year earlier, and i wasn't very good at it at all. in fact, if he weren't pushing, i couldn't move more than a few inches backwards. we decided to go skating tonight and i was much better this time! i'm still not great, and my feet get out of synch pretty easily, but i was able to pull him around the rink a couple times (a very slow couple of times). i did manage to take one pretty nasty fall, though that was while skating forwards - and now i have some lovely bruised knees to show for it.

today i had mee krob.

ah, mee krob. i've seen it on menus of many thai restos before, but never ordered it. i don't know if it's a real thai dish (in the sense that, for example, chop suey isn't a real chinese dish and completely made up), but it sure is tasty.

today i saw mark mcgwire confess to steroid use.

it's a sad, sad day.

today i had bread pudding french toast.

i love lots of different kinds of foods, but there are a few things i always order (or at least really want to order) if its on the menu. two of those things are french toast and bread pudding. so today when we had brunch at three square down in venice, and i saw bread pudding french toast on the menu, i just had to order it. in the photo above, i the pancake-y looking things in the upper left. it was a little too dense for my tastes and not as good as a good french toast (like from amandine in west LA) or a good bread pudding (like nook in west LA, or blue plate oysterette in santa monica). it did taste good however, and everything else we had there was really good.

today i made steamed fish.

i cook fish and seafood relatively often, but i've never personally used steaming since i never had a large enough steamer. i borrowed one from my mom earlier this week and for dinner tonight, decided to steam some swordfish steaks that we've had sitting in the freezer for awhile. it just drizzled on some olive oil, soy sauce and sprinkled with kosher salt and ginger slizzies on top. it came out really really good - and it's so easy too!

today i watched invictus.

it's a pretty good movie, but what was really cool about it for me was learning some more about both south african history and rugby (and how brutal it is!). it also reminded me of one of my best friends, who is from south africa and an avid rugby fan.

today i watched my dad make mie jiang.

directly translated, mie jiang is rice milk. the kind my dad makes, and that my brother buys from the supermarket, is a combination of rice, toasted peanuts, water and sugar.

today i realized i watch lots of discovery.

and by discovery, i mean the discovery channel. in the past month or so of there not being any new episodes of the shows i typically watch (and it not being baseball season), i've begun defaulting to the discovery channel and its mythbusters, dirty jobs and other re-runs.

today i started on a new show.

yay! my entire time at dreamworks animation i've been on how to train you dragon, which comes out this march (and you should totally go see it!), which means things have slowed down enough in my department that i've been moved to another show - puss in boots! and yes, it's a spin-off of the shrek series. onto the next two years of my life..

today i pulled a back muscle.

back pain is nothing new to me, but while recovering at home from the flu today, i managed to pull a muscle in my lower back. it didn't leave me immobile, it just made mobility very very very painful. double ow.

today i saw a deformed great dane.

lots of people walk their dogs along ocean ave in santa monica, and dan and i have started taking walks there ourselves just for the sake of a little dog-watching. there have been some awesome sightings, but today we saw an amazing great dane. however, when he stood up, the lower joints of his front legs fan outwards and seem to bend the wrong way. it was very sad as movement looked difficult, especially for such a large dog. luckily, it looks like he has a good, caring owner.

today i learned some PHP & CSS.

dan and i are looking into wordpress for a potential blog, which also means looking into PHP and CSS. today i started going through an online tutorial for creating a wordpress theme. all very interesting stuff.

today i saw rose parade floats up close.

growing up i would watch the rose parade every year. today we decided to go check out the actual floats, which i've never done before. it was pretty mind-blowing to see the construction of the floats and their organic material up close. my favorite float was the one created by natural balanced pet foods, which had a giant bulldog and a little ski slope behind it.. with real bulldogs "snowboarding" down it! my other favorites were from the city of anaheim (a baseball-themed for the 2010 all-star game) and the city of downey (jewels of the pacific with beautiful jellyfish, pufferfish and other sea creatures).