Labors Of Love

Ok ok, two and a half weeks is too long in between posts, I agree, but honestly this blog has become a labor of love. I love writing it and I love the reactions from my fans (err…family, whatever), but the labor of actually STARTING a post is mentally draining for me. I have written this very post in my head several times, but every time I sit down to put fingers to keys, something “more important” comes up. Maybe I should get checked out for adult ADD?

Great, now I just spent twenty minutes on WebMD trying to see if that’s a legit diagnosis, which it is. Sounds like a cop out to me, but I digress. My point of this little rant is that I will make a New Year’s Resolution to post more frequently in 2014, or at least until I’ve proven Gomez wrong about blogging. I know, no one actually keeps their resolutions, but I will keep this one. (And yes, I know everyone says they actually will keep their resolutions then proceed to fail, but have some faith!)

In my last post I mentioned that the Thanksgiving feast gave me the urge to continue sharpening my budding home-cooking skills by making spinach and ricottta ravioli from scratch. I don’t know what made me think this was a good idea, considering I’ve never once attempted making pasta or bread or anything of the sort, but I was determined to do this. In hindsight I probably should have started with an easier pasta, like anything that isn’t ravioli. The plan was I would make the ravioli, Lo would do the sauce, and ML the salad and bread. I started the process a couple hours before we were due to eat, that way in case things went wrong I would have plenty of time to order some actual ravioli.

Less than 4 minutes into the dough making I was ready to call it quits and head to the store. It was a debacle. As soon as I touched the dough I knew something was wrong. The recipe made it sound so easy! Just mix the eggs, flour, salt and water, knead, roll and then presto…you have pasta dough. Well, that couldn’t have been any further from the truth. What really happens is this – you mix together the ingredients and attempt to knead the “dough” but you can’t because the “dough” is stickier than Tom Brady’s hair gel. At this point you can’t go any further because your hands and arms are covered in a floury goo and your girlfriend is laughing hysterically at you. So you do your best (read: not very well) to not get too frustrated as you wash your unevolved dinner off your hands and start anew, but not without first furiously Googling “how to make pasta dough that’s not so damn sticky“.

The key my friends is flour. Flour makes pasta dough unsticky! I’m sure all you experienced pasta makers out there could have told me that (thanks for answering the phone Ma!), but it’s sometimes best to learn these lesson on your own. Most recipes I found called for 2 cups of flour and 3 eggs for a pound of pasta. Mine ended up with about 6 cups because that was the only way I could touch the dough. I found the trick to keep your hands and counter top lightly dusted in flour the whole time you’re mixing and kneading the dough. After I got through the harrowing beginning, the rest of the experiment wasn’t too much trouble, but was extremely labor intensive. It took ≈an hour to knead, hand roll and fill the dough. By the time it was ready to drop in the water it actually looked like ravioli!

Mercifully, Lo didn’t take pics of the first attempt

To my delight (and extreme relief) the ravioli tasted amazing, thanks in large part to Lo’s sauce and the salad and bread from ML. Anything that takes 2+ hours to make better taste good! Before I try pasta again I will definitely be investing in a pasta machine.

Worth the wait…and stress

Now on to my other labor of love!

FINAL MOVEMBER UPDATE

Much to my regret, and my mother’s satisfaction, my moustache is now no más. Gone like the dinosaurs and Bernie Kosar’s credibility. But this moustache died for a great cause and should be rejoiced. The duster and I raised $651 for the Movember campaign, completely obliterating my original $200 goal. I would like to extend a huge, hairy thank you to those of you who donated to the cause. Thank you for helping me change the face of men’s health. I can’t wait to do it again next year, my upper lip is already getting cold.

What a month!

A face not even a mother could love

The next few weeks will be spent between San Diego, Scottsdale, and Dallas before heading home to Cleveland for the holidays! Hopefully I will get some golf in before subjecting myself to the torture that is a Midwest winter.

Cheers,

—

MWMcK

Bankers Hill

Song of the Day: “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey

Turkey Week

The past couple days have been spent hiking, biking, TRXing and any other type of exercise I can muster the energy to perform in order to burn off the immense amount of food I ate Thursday and Friday.  If your TGives was anything like mine, I’m sure you’re feeling the same way.

Oh sorry, is it snowing where you are?

Since Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks (stating the obvious huh?), I would like to take this time to give thanks to something that is very important to me this time of year.

THE DEEP FRYER

It should be mandatory that every turkey ever made be deep fried. Is there some way to make this a law? Maybe we can sneak it into Obamacare somehow.  I am not even a big fan of turkey, but a deep fried turkey is tough to top. The bird comes out moist and delicious in less than half the time it takes to roast. Deep frying is basically a foolproff way to cook the turkey (if you don’t count the extreme dangers that a deep fryer presents). The turkey I prepared Thursday was my fourth deep fried bird in the past year, and I’m only getting better. I did two things differently this time around – 1) Brined the turkey for 14 hours and 2) Let the bird rest before cutting. Wanna do this yourself next Turkey Day? Follow these easy steps:

1. Brine unfrozen turkey with neck and giblets removed for 10-16 hours (1 pound brown sugar, 1 pound salt, a bunch of water in a 5 gallon bucket)
2. Take out of brine, dry off COMPLETELY and let rest at room temp for 30 mins
3. Heat deep fryer full of peanut oil to 375° and drop DRY turkey in SLOWLY
4. Fry turkey till it reaches temp of 155° (approx 3.5 mins per pound) and let rest for 30 mins before cutting. Carry over cooking will allow turkey to reach temp of 161°
5. Slice and enjoy. Don’t forget to eat the skin, it’s the best part
6. To spice it up, try applying a spice rub or injecting a spicy marinade in after brining

Rise and brine

Getting familiar with my food

SLOWLY. Seriously

If yours doesn’t look exactly like this, start over. And call Dominos

To go along with the palatable poultry, Lo and I also made three different types of stuffing from scratch. [I should probably clarify that we were cooking for her whole family, this wasn't just for Lo and me.] I felt like my Uncle David, spending the whole day in the kitchen, and I loved it. One stuffing was my recipe, the other two were ML’s. All three turned out amazing I’m relieved to say. First we made a cornbread and bacon stuffing. Homemade cornbread (Jiffy of course), hickory smoked bacon, white bread, garlic, celery, onions, and eggs. The other two dishes were ML’s recipe. The first was your basic stuffing, but we used 4 different kinds of bread (white, french, rye and pretzel bread). The second was this same recipe but with sausage in it. One tip for homemade stuffing – bake the bread first. Just enough to get it crispy and dry it out.

Cornbread & bacon. These are a few of my favorite things

The finished product. My stomach hurts looking at this

All this cooking gave me the itch to do some more kitchen work before I head back to Phoenix/Scottsdale so tonight I’m making 3 different types of homemade ravioli and Lo is doing the sauce from scratch. I’ve never tried making pasta before so this should be fun (Dominos will be on speed dial).

I hope each and everyone of you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving and that you spent it with people you love. Thanks to all of my readers!

MOVEMBER UPDATE

Another thing I’m thankful for this time of year are cookie dusters, push brooms, and soup strainers AKA moustaches. With only five days left in Movember my duster has raised $315 for men’s health awareness. Thanks for the support guys! Worldwide donations are over $73 million with $24.6 million coming from Canada (eh they love facial hair up there eh). The USofA is in fourth place with $11.6 million. I’m proud to be part of such a great cause and everyone who donated should be proud too. There is still time left if you haven’t donated. To support my moustache campaign, click here. To read more about why I’m doing this, click here. If I reach $500, I will keep the duster till 2013 (sorry Mom)!

Vote for the best push broom!

Aaron Rodgers

Paddy Harrington

Alexi Lalas

Me and my moustache cookie

I haven’t posted any golf pics in awhile, so I hope you enjoy this one (probably the best non-ocean golf pic I’ve taken)

The 8th at sunset. TPC Scottsdale Champions Course

My thanks to you,

—

MWMcK

SDCA

Song of the Day: “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” by Bob Dylan and The Band

A Day With The Vets

As I’ve mentioned before in this forum, my job brings me to some amazing places and affords me the opportunity to have some special experiences, but this past Friday topped them all. While in Las Vegas for work I was lucky enough to be a part of a fitting event at Butch Harmon‘s School of Golf for the Harmon’s Heroes Foundation. Harmon’s Heroes is an organization started by Butch Harmon (Golf Digest‘s #1 ranked golf teacher) to raise money for combat-wounded and disability-rated veterans. During Veterans Day weekend, 11 injured troops were brought to Butch’s school at Rio Secco to be fit and built a full set of clubs. This was followed by two rounds of golf at Bali Hai for the 2012 Harmon’s Heroes Golf Classic.

Working with these men and women was a truly humbling and inspiring experience. The troops we worked with suffered lost limbs, third degree burns, and paralysis while defending our country. Yet all I heard the whole day was laughter. [Some of this laughter was directed at me as I spent ten minutes chasing Liberty, a Great Dane service dog, around the range when she got loose from her owner. Note to self- next time use a golf cart when trying to corral a dog the size of a horse. Or get in better shape.] The group was just excited to be there and to work with Butch and his team. They were grateful to everyone working with them, but this was the absolute least we could do to repay them. These veterans have given everything to protect our country and they deserve to be treated like the heroes that they are. I cannot put into words how much this experience meant to me. Thank you to all the troops who have served and to those currently protecting America (especially you PK).

I did not take any pictures of the event since I was working, but check out Butch’s Twitter page to see some pics of the vets. I am not sure of Twitter’s copyright laws so I will not post them directly, but they are worth looking at (plus you get to see the dog I chased).

Movember Update

So far I am already 75% of the way to my goal and the month isn’t even halfway over! A big thank you to all those who have donated so far, it means a lot. I am still trying to figure out how my one month old nephew already has a credit card and knows how to make donations online. Kids these day, I’ll tell ya. As promised, here is an update of what the mo currently looks like (apparently I have red and blonde facial hair). It’s not quite to Doc Holliday level, but it’s getting there. To all those who haven’t donated, see my original post for more info on the cause and click here to donate. Any donation is a huge addition to the fight!

My mother says she’ll donate for me to shave it, and she hasn’t even seen it yet! Hope you like it Ma!

God Bless America,

—

MWMcK

PHX

Song of the Day: “Star Spangled Banner” by Jimi Hendrix

Merry #Movember

For those of you who know me, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve never sported any facial hair in my lifetime (aside from a floundered attempt at some chin-whiskers in my early twenties. Glory days?). This stylistic shunning is not solely by choice. To be honest, I have the facial-hair-growing capabilities of a seventh grader. But I’m ok with that. I’ve learned to accept it and I’ve moved on from any delusions of myself rocking a Burt Reynold’s man-stache or Jim Morrison-like beard.

UNTIL NOW

Why now? Because of Movember my friends. Movember, for the unaware, is a charity that encourages men around the world to sport the ‘stache to raise awareness for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer. You can support these moustachioed males, known as Mo Bros (or Brahs if you’re a west coaster), by donating to their Mo Space page. Donations to the Movember cause go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, LIVESTRONG Foundation, and programs run directly by the Movember organization. These are important issues that affect hundreds of thousands of men each year. My “Movember Motivation” says it all:

“Prostate/testicular cancer is serious. So are moustaches. Let’s find a cure, and look good doing it.”

I know that there are a lot of worthy causes for people’s generous donations, especially with Sandy battering the East Coast, but any amount you can give to battle these diseases will help the fight. My goal by the end of Movember is $200 and a moustache to match Doc Holliday in Tombstone. [Truth be told, I just hope some hair grows so I don't look too foolish] I hope that you will help me achieve this goal by donating to my Mo Space page and forwarding this on to anyone else who will support the cause. If nothing else, you get hilarious photo updates of my moustache throughout the month!

 

Maybe by next Movember

Doc Holliday – My Movember Muse

Movember Facts:

• 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime
• This year 242,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed 
• This year 8,290 men will be diagnosed with testicular cancer

If you’d like to help change these statistics, please donate to me by: 

*Donating online at: http://mobro.co/mwmckenna85

*Writing a check payable to ‘Movember’, referencing my Registration ID: 4392193 and mailing it to: Movember, PO Box 2726, Venice CA 90294-2726
 

For more details, take a look at the Programs We Fund section on the Movember website: http://us.movember.com/about/funding-overview/

Thank you in advance for supporting my efforts to change the face of men’s health. 
 

Michael McKenna

 

Movember is a registered 501 (c)(3) charity, donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

1 Wedding and a Hurricane

Where to start?! Meeting my nephew? Final round at Acacia? Seeing my Philly fam? Merion? Shannon’s wedding? Dodging Sandy? It was a busy week! Chronologically would probably be easiest to follow, but first I have to say I feel a lot of pressure writing this after learning how many people are actually reading this (even though its mostly family). At least the reviews were positive! Thanks for the support guys.

The week started with a trip to Cleveland and my first meeting with my nephew/godson/future best ball partner Jack. I gotta say, I was a little apprehensive holding the little guy, as I am with all babies (yes, I think they are breakable), but once I got over the nerves it was awesome. Like anyone born in the 80′s-90′s, I thoroughly overuse the word “awesome”, but that’s the only word I have to describe it! I was able to spend a lot of time with him and the new parents (and Brady, my nemesis), but not enough! I can’t wait to get back to see him in December.

I didn’t drop him!

We were scheduled to play one of my all-time favorite courses, Canterbury, on Tuesday but Mother Nature interfered with my plans, as she would several times on this trip. Must be that time of the month/hurricane season. Instead Juan and I played Acacia for the final time on Wednesday. Acacia is a classic course that holds a lot of memories for me. It was the first golf course I ever played and I still remember holing an impossible 50+ foot putt from the back of the 4th (now 13th) green. I can honestly say I wouldn’t be where I am today without courses like Acacia, Shaker Heights CC, and Canterbury. Acacia also gave me an affinity for great designers like Donald Ross. Juan has been a member there for the past 3 years so I’ve spent a fair amount of time there recently. I hope the staff all has successful transitions to their next clubs because they’ve done a wonderful job at Acacia. It’s a shame that Cleveland Metroparks bought it and is turning it into a nature preserve or something like that. I don’t know what preserves nature more than a golf course, but whatever. I could go on and on about the travesty of shutting down classic courses like Acacia, but no one wants to hear that. My final round was a good one (15 pars, 3 bogeys), but the best part was “losing” to my brother on his home course and playing the final round with him.

Fond Farewell

Speaking of great golf courses, I was fortunate enough (thanks Pete!) to play the East Course at Merion Golf Club on Friday. I have many courses left on my golf bucket list, but I was able to knock off my top two (Cypress Point Club and Merion GC East) in the past year. Merion has always meant a lot to me not only because of its history (Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, more USGA Championships than any other course), but also because of its location. My dad grew up 5 miles away from the course and we went to Philadelphia every year for Thanksgiving. For years I would drive by this beautiful course and finally I was able to play it! What an amazing opportunity to walk those fairways with my uncle and father. Just like Cypress, I had to remind myself to breathe for the first few holes. I didn’t play as well as I hoped (I had the pressure of beating my dad’s low round of 74 on my mind), but I could have shot 65 and enjoyed it just the same. My dad always told me it was a man’s golf course, and after playing I agree, but with one addendum: it’s a smart man’s golf course. The course is only 6,592 yards long (on the card) but needs to be played with surgical precision. That’s why Jones and Hogan had so much success there. Next year’s U.S. Open will be unlike any other we’ve seen in recent years. You literally cannot miss on this golf course without being penalized by either the rough, ridiculously deep bunkers, or one of the roads that circumvent the course. Your winner? Luke Donald (bet it now). [A huge thank you to the member who was kind enough to bring us as his guests. You made a dream come true!]

Pops and I on 18 at the plaque commemorating Ben Hogan’s famous 1 iron in the 1950 U.S. Open

Plaque on the 18th fairway at Merion East Golf Course commemorating Ben Hogan’s famous shot from the 1950 U.S. Open (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been playing a lot of great courses the past two years, but nothing has topped these two rounds with my brother and father. Thanks guys!

OK, OK, I’m done waxing poetic about golf. The real reason I was in Philadelphia was for my cousin Shannon’s wedding. The wedding was awesome (see? told ya I overuse it) and Shannon looked beautiful as always. Steve and Patty put on an amazing party at Overbrook, not that we expected anything less. Andy and Mike were kind enough to let Bridgedawg and I (and our dates!) crash at their house for the weekend. Poor Grant and Lo came in for a whirlwind 36 hour trip and Lo missed seeing the city for the second straight year (thanks a lot Sandy!). It was great seeing all of my Philly family. Unfortunately I am not back there enough, especially since moving out west. Anybody up for a McKenna Family reunion in California?! I must say that between McKenna, Sammy, Claire, Riley and Taylor I have the cutest little cousins in the world! I hope to see all of you guys again soon.

Sorry Shannon, but Nana got you for prettiest girl in the room!

Cheeeeeeesssseeee

We were supposed to stay in Philadelphia for an extra day, but Sandy said no chance. I wish it could have been longer, the lack of cheesesteaks I had is appalling. To all my friends and family on the East Coast, stay safe! And hopefully you have power so you can read this! (Selfish? Maybe. But you constitute 98.5% of my readers!).

Sandy’s a b**ch!

I just finished two good books – The Panther by Nelson DeMille and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Reviews will be on the Kindling tab soon!

Stay dry,

—

MWMcK

Sunny San Diego

Song of the Day: “Up On Cripple Creek” by The Band

Course Ratings: 11/10 for both!

Delayed….But Headed Home

I planned on writing this post at 30,000 feet, but the San Francisco weather had other ideas about my travel plans today. Sorry Jack, you will have to wait till tomorrow to meet me! So what better way to pass the time in John Wayne Airport than write. It’s either that or reflecting on the misery that is my fantasy football team.

Why am I at the airport on a Monday instead of my usual Tuesday travel day? Cause I’m headed back to Cleveland and Philly! The next week will be filled with babies, family, amazing golf (Canterbury and Merion), and a wedding. I love SD, but its nice to come back east a couple times a year, especially if there’s no snow on the ground (I’m allergic to cold weather). I was anticipating coming home to a Lola burger with Porky Fries from Michael Symon’s B-Spot, but that will have to wait for another day (I’m sure my cholesterol level will thank me for missing that meal).

Sushi gameplan

 

This week Lo and I went to a sushi class at Sushi On A Roll. As you may have been able to deduce so far, I am a huge sushi fan. Like most Americans, I started off with California and Spicy Tuna rolls. Lately though, I have been trying to expand my pallet with more traditional types of sushi. The rolls that we typically see in the states, with the rice on the outside, are very Americanized. Traditionally, sushi is either a piece of sashimi grade fish on top of clump of vinegared rice, a smaller roll with seaweed (nori) on the outside, or a hand roll. Ichiro Mashita, an L.A. sushi chef in the 60′s, started putting rice on the outside because his American customers didn’t like the texture of the nori. [Mashita is also responsible for putting avocado in rolls as a substitute for fatty tuna and creating the California roll.] Our sushi teacher, Jeff, started off the class discussing the importance of rice. The rice is what makes or breaks the sushi. I’ve never paid much attention to the rice until I tasted Jeff’s. It was just so much better than any sushi rice I’ve had. It takes them almost two hours to make one batch of rice! Most sushi restaurants tend to use too much vinegar in their rice which makes it wet and clumpy. Fortunately for the class, Jeff and his team already had rice prepared for us. All we had to do was make the rolls! Simple, right?

The first roll we made was the California roll (obvi). A California roll consist of imitation Krab (whitefish made to resemble crab leg meat) and avocado rolled with the rice on the outside. After some demonstrations from Jeff, we were let loose to roll some ourselves. I was shocked at how easy it was. Spread the rice on the bamboo mat, lay a half sheet of seaweed on top, layer Krab and avocado and roll! This is certainly something you can do at home if you can figure out how to make the rice correctly. After the California roll we moved on to Spicy Tuna hand rolls. For the hand roll we took a half sheet of nori, spread rice on part of it, layered Spicy Tuna (and Sriracha in my case) on top and rolled it into a cone shape. It looks like a green ice cream cone. Hand rolls are popular late night treats for people leaving the bars in Japan.  Hand rolls are incredibly easy and quick to make. Jeff suggested having sushi parties and letting people make their own hand rolls with different fillings (your invite is in the mail).

Jeff doing his thing

Our first rolls!

Cali rolls and hand rolls

 

I am not big into taking classes (hence the reason I went to golf school over college), but this was a lot of fun. It was a very basic class, but covers everything you need to know. Once you get the gist of it, you can put literally anything inside the rolls (I just had one with nacho cheese on it). Just make sure you make the rice correctly and get good fish. Hint for the fish – smell it. If it smells like fish, its not fresh. Fresh sashimi grade fish shouldn’t smell fishy! If you have any sushi tips, please leave a comment. For a great documentary on sushi, check out Jiro Dreams of Sushi

It’s finalllllllly time to board, next post will be from east coast time.

Wheels up,

—

MWMcK

Terminal B

Song of the Day: “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons

 

 

 

What a Week!

When I was 16, I paid $0.99 for a gallon of gas. I also walked uphill to school BOTH WAYS in the snow, but that’s a story for a different time. Yesterday I paid $4.93. If this trend continues, my new nephew (congrats JAMIV, you’re first blog mention!) will be paying approximately $57.63 per gallon when he gets his license (DISCLAIMER: I was never very good at math). Now that we have that depressing thought out of the way, let’s get on to more fun and exciting matters!

Red Bull Stratos – Felix Baumgartner (Photo credit: cattias.photos)

A lot has happened since I last wrote here. The 2032 U.S. Open and Masters Champion was born, Joe Biden laughed A LOT, I celebrated my two year anniversary with the lovely Lo, a guy jumped out of a balloon 24+ miles above the earth, we went to the air show (‘Merica!) , and Psy was my sushi chef. Quite the week!

On Wednesday my nephew Jack was born! Mims now has the pleasure of not carrying around an extra 8 pounds 9 ounces, my mother is finally forced to decide on her grandmother name (please Lord, if you grant me one thing, don’t let her choose Coco), and Brady has to deal with not being the most important thing in John and Mims’ life. Mom and baby are both happy and healthy and I cannot wait to meet him next week.

The new darling of the house, sorry Brady

Lo and I had our two year anniversary on Friday (what a lucky girl!) and celebrated at The Melting Pot on Saturday. My first time at The Melting Pot and I must say I was impressed. The food was awesome (anything dipped in melted cheese usually is), but the service was phenomenal. We were greeted with a “happy anniversary!” from the hostess then given a handwritten anniversary card signed by the whole staff. That’s definitely a way to get a return customer.

Personalized card?? Nice touch!

The place is a little pricey (thanks Groupon!), but a fun meal to do every once in a while. For those of you who haven’t been, it’s not your typical dinner spot. You get four courses: cheese fondue, salad, entrée, and dessert fondue. You have several different choices for each course. The first course is a cheese fondue with bread, apples, and vegetables for dipping. Second course is a salad. Our entrée had filet, chicken, teriyaki sirloin, shrimp, and spinach and cheese ravioli. Everything is presented raw and you cook it yourself in the fondue pot. Our cooking method was Coq Au Vin, a vegetable broth with burgundy wine. The final course was a cookies and cream chocolate fondue. All of it was delicious, but the real fun is cooking everything yourself. The best part of the night though was the company (I’m actually the lucky one). Here’s to another two years!

Sunday was a very aeronautical day for us. After gorging on pancakes at Richard Walker’s Pancake House, we watched Felix Baumgartner jump out of a balloon from 24.5 miles above the earth breaking three world records in the process:

• Fastest freefall: 834.38 miles per hour (breaking the sound barrier)
• Highest freefall: 128,000 feet
• Highest manned balloon flight: 128,097 feet

This classifies as one of those “where were you when…” moments in my book. Felix accomplished this exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in an airplane. I loved his final words before the jump – “Sometimes you have to go really high to understand how small you are.” Remarkably, this wasn’t the longest freefall. Col. Joe Kittinger, the inspiration for the Red Bull Stratos project, still holds the record at 4 minutes, 36 seconds. Felix missed this mark by 17 seconds.

This accomplishment seemed even more unbelievable after attending the MCAS Miramar Air Show. Watching planes fly by at the speed of sound and realizing that someone just did that IN A FREEFALL is mind-boggling. The highlight of the air show was watching the AV-8B Harrier jet takeoff/land vertically and hover in place. My pictures do not do it justice, so do yourself a favor and watch this. It was even moving backwards at one point! Watching the Raptors, Super Hornets, and Harriers makes me glad I’m an American and not an American enemy.

Badass

Hover-er

Sunday was capped off with a movie (solo while Lo shopped) and a hilarious dinner. I highly recommend seeing Argo. Ben Affleck is getting better and better at this acting/directing thing (see: The Town). For more background on this flick, read Joshua Bearman’s Wired piece, the article that inspired the movie. Our dinner at Love Boat Sushi featured a sushi chef who did the “Gangnam Style” dance, nicknamed Lo “Princess” and gave us complimentary “Mary Jane” ice cream. The guy was a character. An interesting sushi chef just makes the meal.

Sombrero Gangnam Style?

No travel this week as we are working in America’s Finest City. Stay tuned for the next post which will most likely be about our sushi making class on Thursday!

Off to the beach,

—

MWMcK

A coffee shop (true blogger now)

Song of the Day: “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” by Eli Young Band