I'm Good on Summer You Guys

a brief week off and then back to DC again.

absolutely delish Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato from the rooftop. BLTs a plenty.

finally cleaned up and took a pic of our workspace and also that I got a new computer and monitors two years ago.  A maxed out Mac Mini, NEC PA301W super heavy pro photo retouching monitor, LG 24UDS 4K monitor that I take on trips.

had some brut IPA at Greenpoint Beer and Ale.

our Korean Lady Hermit heirloom peppers finally produced something, Jen's sisters produced tons.

because I'm a no nothing and a dumb@$$ we ended up with very few hops and most dried up on the vine.  It's not so bad cuz the first year you're not supposed to get that much, it's the second year that it starts producing a lot.

For me Jubilat is the jewel of South Slope.  The Polish butcher where European butcher shop culture lives in Brooklyn.  Cheap prices and lots of smoked meats, all run by Polish people who are for the most part friendly

Lechuza self watering planters I got for half price from someone on craigslist, these are some of the nicer ones you can buy commercially.

Ok down to DC to see Stacy and Phil's new baby, Emma

lots of pupusa spots around Arlington, VA

Stone Tower Winery

Look what my grandma gave me. This is a DJ/Producer's dream. Lots of tasty soundbites on this 1958 vinyl set

got hit in the elbow with a pirate sword

safety first.

Bethany Beach 2018

I added 10 more photos to the MO DC post that I forgot so check it out if you care https://misadventuresofjason.blogspot.com/2018/09/mo-dc.html

Bethany Beach Delaware and the house we went to every year for many years as kids.  Josh and Julie have included us in friends and family so we took 8 days in August

Jen called this Twin Peaks

chuffed with myself for having tetris'd both our bikes safely in the back seat of the Black Stallion

The Choy fam came for a few days.

good ol' Viking Golf in Fenwick

The Frog Cafe or whatever its called in Bethany is closed now so we drove to Jimmy's Cafe in Fenwick which did the job.

Sandy Pony Donut truck in South Bethany makes actually great donuts but I found out it's from Chincoteague Island in Virginia, famous for its wild ponies.  Also bizarrely every summer this area has a bunch of European teenagers from what seemed like Eastern Europe that they hire as summer staff so my name ends up as Vincent instead of Jason. My buddy Marco from Madrid that I studied with in Japan said he and his buddies when they were 18 worked in Ocean City, MD for the summer at a hotel and didn't give a sh!t and had tons of fun and afterward drive a van across America before going back to Spain.  Maybe there's some kind of European program with the beach areas to help them staff up.

We rode our bikes to the Big Chill Beach Club which was only a 5 mile ride but in a pretty strong headwind and Jenny was not the most thrilled about that.

She was especially not thrilled that we would have to bike over this highway bridge but it turned out that the beach club was just to the right so we didn't have to cross it.

The Lams including Ronald Lam came for the weekend and Avan was being a little pain the whole time.  Poor Lams including Ronald Lam.

a box of donuts to appease the Yoo sisters.  We left a day early to catch Jen's Parents in DC before her dad had to leave the next day.

Kong Gook Su, soy milk based cold Korean soup

Pupatella in Arlington VA has certification from The Verace Pizza Napoletana Association in Napoli

Zachary's first day of 1st grade

after everyone left and we were all packed up and ready to leave the black stallion wouldn't start which isn't the first time.  Luckily I was able to get their SUV up in the yard and jumpstart it which was my first time jumping a car myself.  It was roasting hot.

Summer Variety

Jen's friend Tiffany styles celebs including new singer Anna Moon who has a Amy Winehouse pop vibe

Since it was free drinks at the event we walked down to K town and at and drank at Pocha which then caused us to go to karaoke just the two of us until some ungodly hour in the morning

Avan's 4th birthday, they rented out the back of the Chinese American Museum and we gave him a coloring book of my artwork 

oh yea the time of the year I've been waiting for.  Our heirloom tomatoes are coming in and making delicious gazpacho

also looking back in time now the hops were ready a while ago and a lot of them were left to wither because i'm a dumbas!

I had arepas in Bushwick the other week and was like these are not really that good, could I do better?  I made Venezuelan style with the stuff in-between the bread.  The arepas are made with masarepa which is cooked corn meal unlike masa which is uncooked and finer.

pork shoulder braised in roasted poblano, chicken stock, spices, etc wich cotija cheese and cilantro.  The final photo doesn't look that impressive or stuffed but they were actually great!

played petanque in the park til dark and these two "kids" were flying their remote controlled plane which was pretty cool I must say.

 

Stevers first time driving ever.  I took him to the Lowe's parking lot where we drove around for half an hour and security and other people probably thought we were looking for a place to engage in elicit sex acts. Eventually I took him out onto the surrounding streets of Gowanus where there isn't that much traffic and the he drove to my house and he got to experience rush hour intersections with baby strollers, lots of cyclists, angry people, stop lights, yielding to pedestrians when turning.  Welcome to NYC driving hell steven.

Big Buck Hunter HD now has a zombie game and credit card slot so you can just keep swiping games.

Virginia's Dad's 70th birthday.  We ended up at the Carousel in BK bridge park and went to check out Juliana's which they say is the best pizza in NYC.  The wait was 20 min so we erroneously marched on to Dekalb Food Market cuz there were some spots in there we wanted to try.  Basically all these food markets around now are a great way to spend a lot of money to not get full and get a 50 or 75% sized portion of food for the same price.  I guess these markets are great for visitors and guests but not for us so much.

Daigo Hand Roll Bar.  Delicious but again, you're gonna still be hungry.

There's also a craft beer vendor and we tried Arepa Lady which is delicious.

Went solo to Canisteo to take care of the dogs while the parents went to Virginia to visit grandma for the first time in a long time.  Cormac is now a very big boy.  I fed them lots of vitamins and supplements, pumpkin pie filling, chicken, tons of treats and walked them up the hill separately cuz cormac can't behave himself.

finallly bought a bluetooth capable radio for the car and dad helped install it.

had to take off the whole dashboard

forgot to take a photo of the end product but it all went back together and works great.  With the help of dad and youtube I saved myself many hours of time.  He knew how to solder all the wires and what to do with the left over one and to combine two onto one which i may or may not have been able to research online.  Thank you Dad Raish!  I drove the whole 5.5 hrs in silence on the way there cuz i had no battery charger and to see if i could do it and what would happen if i was left with my thoughts for that long.  I'm still alive.

also this Rain X stuff is awesome thanks pops.  this might seem like a mundane thing but our car is crap so any amount of preening it can get helps a lot.  And with the new radio the intrinsic personal value of the car has gone up a lot.

Sean was in town from Glasgow so after a night out we ended up at Karaoke at the only one I know of in the area in Gowanus in the back of a new Korean restaurant.

Jen saw the dog van that used to drive by Carroll Gardens at 11am every day parked on the side of the street with at least 5 visible dogs in this photo.  Is this Jeanne Raish's future......?