Labor Day BBQ

We had a nice little BBQ in Ben & Uncle Rupert's backyard. Uncle Rupert & Ben live in consecutive houses on the same block and have their backyards combined into one large one. It's perfect for outdoor occasions and a rarity in the city.

DVDeals 8/31 - 9/6

There's not much going on this week with DVD releases and just a few sales, but it's better than nothing.

Best Buy Deals
- 10,000 BC for $9.99
- Transformers (w/ Optimus Prime mask) for $9.99
- Fast & Furious Trilogy for $9.99
- Beowulf (Director's Cut) for $9.99

Circuit City Deals
- Punisher for $4.99
- First Blood for $4.99
- First Blood II for $4.99
- Alien for $4.99

Signs of Autumn

Original Dates: September 1980 - September 1993

We're not even up to September yet, but it's felt like October for about a week now. Perhaps the transition to Fall has accelerated because school starts up early this year with a Sept. 2 Labor Day. There were certain signs in nature that reminded me of the beginning of the school year when I was a kid. There was of course the temperature drop that's a bit too cool for swimming. When my parents installed a pool, we would have parties almost every weekend. Friends and/or family from out of town would stay over for days at a time. When temperatures got cooler, less people would come over and gatherings would get smaller. The shortening of daylight symbolized that the fun days of Summer activities were over. I've always wanted to like Autumn because I feel more comfortable with its temperatures, but these memories of the end of leisure time are still triggered by the same changes in the environment that happen every year. There's also a smell in the air that I can't describe. Because of this, I don't think I can ever enjoy the beginning of Autumn.

Liam's Baptism

Today was baby Liam's big day as he officially entered the St. Paul & St. Andrew community. It was a great blessing for him to become part of the best environment in the city. All of the members are pretty close with each other and it often has a family feeling to it.


I usually don't get a chance to attend the Sunday service at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew since I spend weekends with family & friends in Queens. But I was able to shuffle my schedule since Liam's Baptism was already planned weeks ago. It was great to see everyone again. I usually only see the church community during the school year because of the volunteer work I do there.

Congratulations to Andrew, Joanne & Liam!

DVDeals 8/24 - 8/30

DVD Tuesday
There's nothing that interests me, but I'll post Heroes: Season 2 since everyone else in the world watches that series! Circuit City and Amazon both have it for $24.99, but you get a free film cell @ Circuit City. Best Buy has a special edition for $34.99 if you feel like getting a Kensei Mask with your DVDs.

Circuit City Deals
- The Island for $4.99
- John Q for $4.99
- Natural Born Killers for $4.99
- Italian Job for $4.99
- Blade for $4.99
- TMNT for $4.99
- Mission Impossible for $4.99
- Minority Report for $4.99

Carmine's (Times Square)

Location: 200 W. 44th St, New York, NY 10036
Cuisine: Italian
Hours: SUN (11am-11pm); MON (11:30am-11pm); TUE, THU, FRI (11:30am-12am); WED, SAT (11am-12am)
Phone: (212) 221-3800
Website: www.carminesnyc.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 9
Value: 8
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

Auntie Janice treated a bunch of us to lunch @ Carmine's today. So that makes it 3 times this year for my parents eating in Manhattan (the others being Michael Jordan's & Safran)... must be a record! We went to the 44th St. restaurant (the original is on Broadway & 90th), so parking was difficult, but the restaurant crowd level was comfortable. It was probably not as packed as other Times Square restaurants because Carmine's is family style, while Times Square is more for tourists and couples.


They started by giving us a fresh-baked bread basket, which was handy to keep around for the whole meal and was perfect for dipping into the entrees' sauces. We had fried calamari for the appetizer, which was a good amount for all 7 of us. Calamari is always a good, safe dish. It's hard to do wrong and everyone likes it. Out entree choices were mixed seafood linguine, chicken scallopine W/ lemon & butter and eggplant parmigiana. All of it was great. My initial thought of eating Italian was that it will be safe and at least good, but Carmine's truly stands out as one of the best I've had. All of the ingredients of each dish went well together. My unlikely favorite was the eggplant. It's a dish I usually don't get, not because it's bad, but because I usually prefer chicken or veal parm. I think I'll go for the eggplant more often now! The portions for all dishes were huge. This restaurant just wouldn't work for a 2-person meal. We were a party of 7 and only ordered 4 dishes, 2 of which were classified as appetizers!

The atmosphere was just as a family restaurant should be... spacious with great acoustics. We could hear each other talk just fine. There was no loud music in the background. They did a good job laying out the tables. The only negative was the less than clean restrooms. They just didn't match the presentation of the rest of the place.

DVDeals 8/17 - 8/23

DVD Tuesday
The only good item coming out will be Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 1. The surprise winner is Amazon. I haven't featured anything from them since the NY tax rules changed, but they finally made a move and lowered their price to offset the tax costs. The price ends up being $20.58 (tax included).

Best Buy Deals
- Lois & Clark (Seasons 1-3) for $16.99 each
- Braveheart (Collector's Ed.) for $8.99
- Shooter for $8.99

Circuit City Deals
- Aeon Flux for $6.99
- Tomb Raider Double Feature for $6.99
- Coming to America for $6.99
- Forrest Gump (Sp. Ed.) for $6.99
- 10,000 BC for $9.99

Frommer's iPhone App

We just launched a cool new iPhone/iPod touch app at work. The video below shows you what it can do:


Each city guide contains the full text from the books in interactive format with maps and points of interest. It's a great travel tool because of the interactive maps and location-based services. The iPhone & iPod touch are both very compact and have great built-in LCDs that can display maps and text clearly. Apps like this were attempted years ago, but the technology just wasn't there yet.

For more details and to purchase, click here.

Warren & Susan's Housewarming

On the phone with Kelly last Thursday, I was just telling her how nothing was really going on this weekend. Almost immediately after, my Mom called and told me about Warren & Susan's housewarming party. So Saturday alone consisted of Mitch & Elvira's visit and a housewarming party.

Here are photos from the rest of my Saturday:

DVDeals 8/10 - 8/16

DVD Tuesday
South Park: Season 11 is the most interesting title coming out this Tuesday. The best price I've seen is at Circuit City and Best Buy. They both have it for $29.99.

Best Buy Deals
- Demolition Man for $4.99
- Mask of Zorro for $4.99
- Under Siege for $4.99
- Enter the Dragon (Sp. Ed.) for $9.99
- Casion Royale for $9.99
- Saving Private Ryan (Sp. Ed.) for $9.99

Circuit City Deals
- Dragon for $4.99
- End of Days for $4.99
- The Order for $4.99
- Knock Off for $4.99
- Jackal for $4.99
- Star Wars I: Phantom Menace for $9.99
- Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones for $9.99
- Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith for $9.99

Note: Each week, there are usually a lot of Circuit City deals on older titles. It's worth mentioning that not all stores even have these title in stock. I noticed this after missing out on several occasions on Sunday morning. I'm giving a thumbs down to the Whitestone Circuit City in Flushing & the Uppe West Side one in Manhattan. The Union Sq. one usually has the titles.

Yun Tian Lou

Location: 133-54 41st Ave., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Hours: SUN-SAT (11am-2am)
Phone: (718) 888-0589
Prices: about $8/person (lunch)
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

Yun Tian Lou was new to me. My Mom had tried it for lunch last week with one of her friends and thought it was good enough for hosting out-of-town family. Mitch, Elvira & Auntie Elena visited us today from NJ. They had tickets to Mamma Mia and were able to swing by Flushing for a lunch meeting. As we were walking to the restaurant from my parents' office, I had to ask my Mom if she remembered where the place was because we were heading down 41st Avenue... a street that just has offices, apartments & a parking lot. But sure enough, Yun Tian Lou was the only restaurant on the street. And a good find it was.


Please click on the lower left of the slide show for details on the dishes as I added comments to the Picasa album. The staff was very polite and prompt in tending to the table's needs. As with most restaurants in the area, the value is great. There were 6 of us at the table and we ordered a combo that centered around their Peking Duck (+ 5 other dishes). The amount was just right. We were all full at the end with no leftovers. The space was narrow and long, smaller than most restaurants, but well decorated.

Note the "888" in their phone number!

Happy 08/08/08

It's 8/8/8 today and since the 2008 Olympics are in China, they purposely set the opening ceremony to begin at 8:08pm. There's a fixation on the number 8 because it's phonetically similar to the word for "wealth." People from Chinese countries pay top dollar for licence plates & phone numbers that have "888" in it. I'm sure there must've been an overload of weddings today as well. All of those things are controlled though... planned. True luck is something that comes unexpectedly... like childbirth expected in late August or September happening early. Which makes me proud to announce the newest member to my family, the lucky 8/8/8 daughter (to be named) of Julie Christine & Niño Mateo.

Congratulations!

The Dark Knight

Story: 9
Action: 7
Acting: 10
FX: 8
Durability: 8

I finally saw The Dark Knight on my second attempt. I tried 2 Fridays ago for the first showing at the Lincoln Center IMAX and it was sold out. I just went for the normal format this morning and the crowd level was much more comfortable. There couldn't have been more than 30 of us in the theater.

Picking up where Batman Begins left off, The Dark Knight centered around Batman's most well-known rival, the Joker. They also worked in Two-Face, Boss Maroni and a short bit with Scarecrow, but the pieces to the plot were done so well that the overload of characters didn't detract from the storyline (as it did in Spiderman 3). The first movie was a re-introduction of Batman for the modern audience. Dark Knight did a good job of transitioning him over
from a beginner to an expert crime fighter. He did more detective work in this one and he also had the arrogant Batman swagger as he cleaned up the streets.

The action was up to par with the amazing fight scenes from Batman Begins. They used the same base fighting style of KFM (Keysi Fighting Method). The new suit, vehicles and gadgets added a lot to the action and special effects. It's so non-stop that it doesn't feel like 2 hours & 30 minutes running time. By the end of the movie, I actually wanted it to be longer!

So many aspects of this film were impressive, but it was carried mostly by strong acting. Without it, a genre like this could become a children's movie like the previous versions. As a life-long Batman fan, I'm really enjoying the Christian Bale era. He easily beats out all of his predecessors because he does a great Batman and Bruce Wayne. Bale, Caine, Oldman & Freeman all reprised their roles from the first movie and continued the same level of acting. Maggie Gyllenhaal took over the role of Rachel Dawes from Katie Holmes. Gyllenhaal doesn't really look like Holmes, but I think she did a good job of continue the personality. She nailed down the attitude and mannerisms perfectly. The other new star was Heath Ledger playing the Joker. At first I thought that was an odd match. I couldn't see him in that role at all... very wacky compared to other characters he's played. Also, he doesn't really look like the Joker, who should be thin and elongated. This role really brought his acting up a notch because he played it just as it should be played. The Joker is supposed to be a psychotic serial killer, but still very smart and in control. Bale & Ledger are easily the best translation from comic to live action. I can tell that they also studied the voices from Batman: The Animated Series done by Mark Hamill (Joker) and Kevin Conroy (Batman).

I usually don't go to the theaters these days because of the prices, but just had to see this one on the big screen. So I spent $8.50 for a matinee showing & $10 on snacks... $18.50. The price of the special edition DVD will probably be $22... just a bit more!

Related: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Comics

Wesley's 1st B-Day @ Safran

Location: 88 7th Ave., New York, NY 10011
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Hours: SUN-THU (11:30am-11:30pm); FRI-SAT (11:30am-12am)
Phone: (212) 929-1778
Website: www.safran88.com
Prices: about $10/person (lunch); $20/person (dinner)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 9

Frequency: Unique

It was a nice afternoon for Wesley's Birthday party at Safran in Chelsea. With guests coming from NJ (West) and the Eastern part of Queens, Manhattan was the middle ground. Wil & Cindy were planning this event for a while, so every detail was taken care of.


Please see the Picasa album for full details. The restaurant review and birthday highlights have been spread out throughout the photos. One item I didn't get a chance to photograph (because I was too busy eating it) was the Bo Loc Lac, or teriyaki cubed steak with taro chips. That had to be one of the best tasting beef dishes I've ever had. That one dish alone bumped my food rating from 6 to 8!

Note: The arrangement with the VIP room and buffet style lunch was a custom setup. The price estimate above was just based on looking at the menu.

DVDeals 8/3 - 8/9

There's nothing worthy of mention coming out this Tuesday, but Stargate: Continuum is actually cheaper this week at Circuit City... $16.99.

Circuit City Deals
- The Fan for $7.99 (with digital copy)
- Man on Fire for $4.99
- Once Upon a Time in China for $4.99
- Universal Soldier: The Return for $4.99
- Ong Bak for $4.99
- Die Hard 2 for $4.99
- Princess Bride for $4.99
- Rocky for $4.99
- Major League for $6.99
- Top Gun (Special Ed.) for $6.99

Best Buy Deals
- X-Men for $3.99
- X2 for $3.99
- Space Balls for $3.99
- Unleashed for $3.99
- Enter the Dragon for $3.99
- War for $6.99
- Ghost Rider for $6.99
- Rocky Balboa for $6.99
- Casino Royale for $6.99

Target Deals
- A Knight's Tale for $5
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for $5
- Casino Royale for $10

Dragonboat 2008

The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival was a little different for me this year. Auntie Janice's cousin, Michael didn't participate, so she didn't come with me. Emily was also busy. Charlotte also had some schedule conflicts, but I hope she still finds time to go either later today or tomorrow so I can link to her professional shots. I went by myself early in the morning... around 9:40 and it was already pretty crowded. I got a chance to walk around to all of the booths and take a lot more photos than I normally do. The weather worked to my favor, pouring on before I arrived and right after I left... what luck! Unfortunately, the sky was gray for the entire time, so the photos don't look as vibrant.


I didn't spend too much time watching the races since Michael wasn't in it. Instead, I mostly walked around the festival area and looked for good camera angles. One of the things that amazed me is each sponsor is setup in exactly the same place every year... even the food stands. They're lined up in the same place and same order.

I mentioned that it's best to get food at Main St. instead of getting ripped off at the festival, but I actually tried out a few things just so I could review them. Details can be found in the Picasa album for this post. Just click on Dragonboat 2008 on the lower left of the slideshow.