Koreatown, Part 2

I spent one whole day wandering the streets of Koreatown. Some reviewers have labeled it as "ghetto" but I disagree. It certainly isn't fancy and it's not very touristy either. It is a small bit of Los Angeles where Korean culture is king. There is a museum but I didn't go there. Instead I went shopping.

There are at least two shopping malls and they are withing walking distance from each other. I completely explored the smaller of the two before meeting up with Dude-Man. We ate a late lunch at the food court in the Koreatown Galleria -

There were so many yummy things to try so I ordered enough food feed a good-sized family. Dude-man was amazed when the food kept coming. I was beside myself with gluttonous joy -

My new favorite drink is a passionfruit smoothie with tapioca balls.  It's called bubble tea or Boba and it is total heaven!

Normally I would have shunned the drink since the thought of sucking up chewy tapioca balls while drinking a smoothie does not sound appealing to my American taste buds but the Super Junior boys kept raving about it while they were in Taiwan so I thought I'd give it a try. Dude-Man did not try it. His loss!

We ate so much food and I bought so much stuff that we had to go back to the hotel. And so off we waddled to the subway.

Later that night we were back for some Korean Barbecue -

Holy cow! It was delicious! And it was all you can eat! We rolled back to the car and drove around taking more pictures and remarking on how we felt like we were actually traveling in a far distant country -

The next day I got to go to E3 with Dude-Man. He worked hard telling people about the Cars 2 game and showing them how awesome it is -

And I wandered around wishing I was back in Koreatown. I know, lame. As soon as he was done my wish became reality and we were back in the blink of an eye. And of course we ate MORE yummy food -

All in all it was a great little vacation. And surprisingly enough, even though we ate sooo much food we both lost a bit of weight (which was another plus). So if you ever find yourself in Los Angeles but wish you were in an exotic place head over to Koreatown and eat yourself silly. Yum. Yum. Yum!

Sing It, Baby!

Here is Kyuhyun "teaching" Eunhyuk how to sing Hot Times -



Epic FAIL! TeeHee!

And  the lesson continues -



Kyuhyun is a terrible teacher! Poor Eunhyuk! Every time Kyuhyun starts to laugh he hits Eunhyuk. They should be a comedy team.

Admittedly, Eunhyuk is not the greatest singer in the group but he gives it a good try. Also, when you can't hit the note, then just skip it. I shall use that bit of knowledge the next time I sing at church. Dude-Man says I sing a bit off key sometimes so now I know how to cover it up.

Here is the big finish! They sing a duet. So sweetly -



Maybe it wasn't sweet all the time but it was good for a laugh. Sometimes I wonder how they get anything done because they are so silly. But then again, I like silly, so I'm not complaining. When they are good, they are very, very good. And when they are bad, they are very, very BAD!

The lesson to be learned is to always try your best. And if you're going to fail, fail big and then it will be funny. Because, if you can't be awesome then you should be funny. The funnier the better. And if you laugh at yourself everyone will laugh with you. But only if you're funny. So be funny. Unless you can be awesome.

Here is the Hot Times video and it is awesome -

Koreatown, Part 1

This week Dude-Man and I are in L.A. It is a work trip and he gets to go to E3 (computer geek heaven). I am tagging along just for fun. And because I get to go to Koreatown-

Koreatown is a neighborhood in Los Angeles where you feel like you just flew across the Pacific Ocean and yet you experience no jet lag. Awesome!

The signs on the shops are in Korean-

Even the buses can fool you into believing that you are in South Korea. I didn't think I could experience a China Cultural Tour by bus while remaining in the USA, but I guess I am wrong-

All day long I heard people speak in Korean. And smelled Korean food. And saw Korean stuff. It was fun. But the best thing was the food.

Super Junior does commercials for KyoChon Chicken-

And so that is the first place we ate. It didn't look like much but looks can be deceiving-

KyoChon Chicken specializes in chicken wings. They are hot and spicy or sweet and crispy. Since it was our first time we tried the sampler platter which had a bit of everything including breaded chicken tenders and spicy chicken legs-

It was totally delicious. The chicken legs were out-of-this-world spicy but still so tasty. Dude-Man has a very discerning palate when it comes to chicken wings and he says these are definite winners.

If only there was one in Utah... Sigh.

SMTown Live - Now YOU Can Watch It Live!!!

This weekend there will be an SMTown Live concert held in Paris. What is SMTown Live? Let me tell you! It is a concert of the major groups of SM Entertainment. Super Junior is one of those groups. So is SHINee. And Girls Generation. And f(x). And TVXQ. All of them are amazing performers and I'm sure that YOU would have an awesome time watching the events. I will let Super Junior explain how you can -










So now that you know go to facebook and like SMTown. That's it!

Look at Me Sew!

One thing I have learned from the Super Junior boys is to follow your passion, whatever it may be and to give everything you try your best effort.

Last fall I gathered my courage and took a sewing class. My sister practically twisted my arm to get me to go (apparently she is sometimes my courage). Anyway, I made some pajama bottoms for Giggles. She loved them so much that I never got a chance to hem them.

Then we took a class where we made Really Cute Aprons. I'd show a picture, but I gave it to my Mother-in-law. But take my word for it, it was a Really Cute Apron.

For Christmas I made pajama bottoms for me and my kids. Check it out-

I have to admit that making those pajama bottoms nearly killed me. I procrastinated working on them until the WEEK OF CHRISTMAS! Am I crazy or what? I think so.

After that debacle I decided to keep a good distance between me and the sewing machine. Until there was a handbag that I just had to make. So once again I signed up for classes and made this awesome bag-

It has become my tae kwon do bag and it totally rocks!

As if that wasn't enough I signed up for a class to make a cute hat to give to Giggles for her birthday. Since it was crazy hat day at school I ended up giving it to her a little early-

I'm starting to feel a little bit confident around the sewing machine. I'm also starting to feel a little bit confident about using a pattern. However, I am completely unconfident  about sewing anything without a pattern. And I am extremely outside my comfort zone when thinking about taking an article of clothing and making it into something else.

And yet, that is exactly what I have done with the help of Meredith from the blog YOURS, MINE, and OURS. I had a pair of capris that no longer fit since I've lost some weight. They are really cute and I didn't really want to get rid of them. But I have this rule that I can't wear clothes that are too big because I feel sloppy and fat when I wear them. A few weeks ago Meredith gave tutorials that show you how to take something and turn it into something else. So I took those capris and turned them into a skirt-

How fabulous is that?