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).