I miss you Maman

I can’t believe its been almost a year since I lost my mom to cancer. What’s worse is when I go to sleep and I have dreams about her. Dreams are magical when you are still in it. Everything feels so real. My mom came to visit me in a dream. We were at the beach, on a balcony, just talking, catching up. It felt so real. She was asking me about my new motorcycle, and how things were going. I asked her how she was doing. In my mind, she was still alive. I even said how glad I was she was still alive and how I had a nightmare that she passed. She just smiled and played with my hair.

When she was alive, she lived with my aunt and uncle. They recently moved, so when I asked her (in my dream) how she liked her new place, in my mind I was talking about Woodbridge, not heaven. She told me she was happy, but she missed us. And I told her that great that she’s happy, and that I wanted to come by and visit her. She looked at me puzzled, and walked away.

I woke up. And my heart broke all over again.

Butchering a Whole chicken

Yep. I did it. Just because I wanted to see what it was like. Armed with very sharp knives, I broke down a chicken into 8 pieces. However, due to Shoppers’ cheap chicken prices, I don’t know how much I really saved, since that was a lot of work. There are a lot of squishy things in the middle of a whole chicken. Keep that in mind. This is going to get messy.

The opponent? A 4 lb young chicken. Inside? Gizzard, guts, and the neck. Take those out.

Slice through the breast bone and you have got it open perfectly down the middle. Then feel your way around where things will naturally come apart. It was easier than I expected. You get two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks, and two wings. I saved the carcass in the freezer, in case I need to make chicken stock later in life. SO USEFUL!

After rinsing the bone shards and blood off the pieces of chicken. I followed the Neely’s oven fried chicken recipe. Of course I didn’t measure anything. And I added lots of love, but if you want the recipe…check the link!

Spicy, crunchy, delicious! 😀 And super healthy, because it was skinless and oven baked. Who woulda thought!?

Cars for Cause: April 22

April 22, 2012: George Mason University, 4500 Patriot Circle Lot K Fairfax, VA 
11AM-5PM 

Cancer sucks. They say 1 in 3 people will be affected by cancer. For those of you that followed me through last year, know I lost my mother to cancer last year, the day after mother’s day from a STAGE 4 diagnosis. Sadly, it took losing our mother, to make us open our eyes to grab the bull by the horns and live life.

After our mother’s death, my brother looked at what we had to go through, and decided that other people shouldn’t have to suffer the hard times as we did. He wanted to make a difference. So he took his passion, cars, and tried to make something of it. Starting an unclassified car club (meaning, any type, any mods can join as long as you had the love for it) and making it official, naming it Team Unclassified and then building an event (to be held annually) supporting, you guessed it, the fight against cancer.

Bring in countless numbers of car enthusiasts, Team Unclassified, along with George Mason’s Patriot Motorsports, and you have Cars for a Cause,  to be held this weekend at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.  Profits from the event will support The Children’s Hospital and 4 year old Isabel “Warrior Princess” who is diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and is receiving treatment at the Children’s National Medical Center in D.C.

There will plenty to do at the event if drooling over shiny cars isn’t going to cut it for you. Bring your kids! Bring your dogs. There will be a children activities booth, food vendors, a raffle, industry vendors as well as the SHOW part of event, where cars compete for best in a multitude of categories. Dyno will also be available for RWD, AWD and FWD!! See what your car is capable of!

I will be there, and I hope you will be too! Details on flyer and as follows :

SOME VENDORS AND SUPPORTERS OF THE EVENT:

  • Insane Stance & Offset (ISO)
  • Canibeat
  • Mischief.TV
  • PTUNING
  • D&V Autobody
  • Xclusiv: Alliance
  • National G Club
  • Dyno on the go
  • ASSASSIN INDUSTRIES
  • LOW STANDARDS MINI TRUCK CLUB
  • Zen Bistro
  • & MANY MORE…

***ENTRANCE FEES***
$5 PER CAR (driver will get a free raffle ticket at the door)
$1 PER Passenger/Walk-ins
RAFFLE TICKETS -$1.00 per extra raffle ticket OR $5.00 for 7 tickets

***CAR SHOW*** 
There will be six classes for this show. There is a minimum of ten entries per class for validation of class. Maximum is 20 cars per class, first come first serve. Due to limited space.
Best of:
Import
Euro
Domestic
Tuner
Stance 
Truck
Judging will be made by ISO (Insane Stance and Offset), Canibeat, and Mischief.tv.
Trophies will be awarded.

***CAR SHOW ENTRY***
Deadline to pre-register is March 24, 2012 @$15, day of show is $20.
For show entry please email show entry coordinators
Enter Subject line: CFC Show entry.
JoJo.UNclassified@gmail.com
For these following car classes: Import, Stance, Tuner

Pastor.UNclassified@gmail.com
For these following classes: Domestic, Euro, Truck

Send Full name, phone number, picture of your ride, details of modifications and our coordinators will respond with info on how to reserve your entry. If there are not enough entries at day of show, you will be refunded.

Fees for pre-registration: $15
Late registration at the door: $20

Burgers, Burgers, Burgers

(From Cheeburger Cheeburger)

Bacon cheeseburgers. Because really, it’s not really a burger with out cheese and bacon…amirite? Yes I am reading a book about healthy detoxing, and why our bodies aren’t meant to break down large quantities of meat or consume the milk of a cow as an adult. I get it. But. I. Can’t. Stop. Eating. What is it about a juicy hunk of meat covered in cheese and bacon and pickles and mushrooms that make me throw all my new disturbing knowledge to the wind?

The world may never know.

In the past 4 months I’ve been to about 5 different burger places (maybe more, some multiple times).
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(From BGR Joint)Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
(From 5Guys)Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
(From In & OUT)Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug(From Umami)

You know what I just realized? I don’t make burgers at home. Yeah, they are on the grill when we have cookouts, but I don’t really eat them at home. I’ve never tried to gather up the fixin’s and made my own burger. HM. I think I prefer to go to burger joints. Have you ever seen the episode of HIMYM when Marshal was looking for the burger place, and would not let Robin eat a burger unless it was THE BURGER? Yes I am still searching for that burger. But these do the job, for now.

Comments:

  • Cheeburger Cheeburger: Love the angus beef, not too fond of the bun, like the zesty seasoning, and the sweet potato fries. Like drinking out of a jar, and all you can imagine toppings included, (bacon and sauteed mushrooms extra)
  • Five Guys: Gets the job done when I really want a burger. Bun gets soggy, cajun fries are awesome, but nothing to write home about.
  • BGR Joint: Love the bun. Love the sauce. Thick bacon, all around good choice. Super messy, the way I like it.
  • In & Out Burger: super messy. NO BACON?!?! ‘nuf said.
  • Umami: Not your traditional burger joint but amazing tastes all around…too bad its on the west coast only 🙁

Know of anymore DC/Northern VA burger places I need to sink my teeth into? Please let me know.

Brunch: Fireflies in Del Ray

YES! I found a brunch place who’s eggs benedict doesn’t taste like vinegar. HAPPY FACE. However, they don’t have a classic benedict, and I don’t like the texture of prosciutto (under eggs, I enjoy duck prosciutto and regular prosciutto atop my rustic pizza). But all in all the food was delicious. And the service was awesome. They have outdoor seating and Del Ray is just a cute neighborhood to be in! I will definitely want to go back to Fireflies again for brunch, to try out other things, since their eggs benedict did so well. OH and I want more belgian waffles. NOM NOM.

However, brunch hopping I will go, because food makes me happy! Any more brunch suggestions? I will be going back to Birch and Barley this weekend. So excited!

Jo Koy LIVE!

I love comedy. Seeing a stand up comic live is even better. Especially when you are close enough to heckle. And I’m a heck of a heckler. Jo Koy is one of my (many) favorite comedians. I first watched him on Chelsea Lately (my favorite late night talk show). For the longest time I thought he was gay, because Chelsea always makes fun of him for being gay and asian…Which he’s not, and he’s only half. Half Asian, not half gay. I love Chelsea, but she makes fun of tattooed people, and Asians a lot…. both of which I am.

Any hoooo. JO KOY was in DC last week. I tweet him and follow his instagram and this cool guy actually tweets back. *swooon. For Vitya’s birthday, we went to see him for his first show…and I went to see him again SATURDAY for his last show.

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He.Is.Awesome.

I was laughing so hard, and well worth seeing him twice, on the same tour. The main jokes were the same, but because he can hear us yelling random things, sometimes he’d steer his jokes that way, so both him and Orlando Baxter (his opening act) had a couple jokes here and there that made me laugh even harder because I was hearing it for the first time.

I got to meet him twice last week, since he holds meet and greets after his show. They didn’t let us take ANY pictures ourselves, so I have to wait for his people to upload them from their camera.

He is definitely a fun guy. I hope to be friends with him in real life. Harhar. Actually I should give him a break. He knows I exist. That’s all that matters to me.

Definitely check his comedy specials if you can, one of them is on netflix, and Lights Out just came out last week.