New thing I learned today: In addition to the fruit, the word “kiwi” can refer to the bird, a New Zealander, or the New Zealand dollar. In New Zealand, the fruit is primarily called “kiwifruit” instead of “kiwi”.

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I’m unsure about internet access during our trip or if I’ll have time to post, so I’ll have to see y’all in December! :)

New thing I learned today: In New Zealand driving, “Yield” is instead called “Give Way”.

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I’m generally a pretty indifferent person who cares a lot about what people think of me… so why am I posting this? My mind’s already been really out of whack the last several weeks because of my own wedding. Being in California, the battle for Prop 8 has also been at its peak during the same period. Staying up late doing last minute crafting projects, I’ve had to constantly hear that stupid “Mom! Guess what I learned in school today!” commercial during every break of the Craig Ferguson Show. When I went to get my marriage license, I saw lesbian couples lined in front of us, rushing to get married because people were going to vote on whether or not their love is valid or equal. As I ran around Cupertino gathering supplies for my wedding, I watched a thousand Silicon Valley citizens march for Yes on Prop 8, carrying signs telling people to honk for Yes on Prop 8. And disgustingly enough, people honked back.

I got married on Saturday, not really thinking that in a few days, not everyone I know can get married where I got married. I woke up Wednesday morning, finding out that Prop 8 had passed. I felt sad, disappointed, and angry with my state. Really? Even in California?

So in my current not-so-stable emotional state, I shall take my newly gained bling and vulgarly express what I think about Prop 8. This is not meant to convince anyone of anything. I’m just making use of my first amendment rights (go america.) to show how fucked up I think this is. Gay marriage does not make my marriage any less sacred.

Pardon my already-flaking French manicured nails.

New thing I learned today: Depression cake is a cake recipe commonly made during the Great Depression that doesn’t use butter or eggs, ingredients that were hard to get during that period. Thanks to Eating Out Loud for the educational tidbit.

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My first instinct was to go for Samus’ helmet, but then I thought that maybe it’d be weird to pretty much be eating Samus’ head. So I originally sent a request to make a cake looking like Samus’ gunship, based off this First 4 Figures statue. Oftentimes, her ship shares a lot of similarities with her helmet, so I thought it’d be a good substitute. But after some thinking (and consultation with other folks who’ve played Metroid), I went back to the helmet because it was more recognizable, even to gamers who haven’t played Metroid games. (For the Metroid nerds that suggested I do metroids or Mother Brain… come on, there’s a bunch of non-gamer old people at the wedding…)

I sent Debbie links to another First 4 Figures statue page and the Metroid Database, but she was still having a hard time deriving the shape. What I ended up doing was, when Kelvin wasn’t home, busting out Super Smash Bros. Brawl, going to the trophies section, and taking video of relevant Samus trophies, zooming in and rotating so that the helmet could be seen at all angles. I even went through the effort of beating Classic Mode to get another trophy for more reference. I made the videos flv and sent links of the videos to her.

Debbie was cool with the idea, despite being a non-gamer and having no clue as to what Metroid is. All communication was through email, though once the payment, reference links, and order form was sent and all details were finalized, I didn’t hear from her ever again. I never got a preview of the cake (though it seems like she posted it on her flickr the day before my wedding), but based on her past work, I was fairly comfortable she could pull something together. And indeed she did. The final product at the reception:

Awesome. I didn’t get to see Kelvin’s expression seeing the cake since he ditched the bridal party to hang out in the reception area prior to the official bridal party entrance, but I’m told by groomsmen and other nerdboys that he was pleased to see the cake. Kelvin told me that, before he saw it, people kept asking him about what the cake was, and he had no idea what they were talking about. Ever wondered what the inside of Samus’ head looks like? Well, here ya go:

Samus brains = chocolate cake with chocolate chips and mint buttercream. Kelvin’s a fan of mint chip stuff, so this was best closest custom flavor I could get with Debbie’s repertoire of flavors. The cake is a bit on the sweet and heavy side for me, especially in comparison to the main wedding cake from La Patisserie, but it wasn’t bad at all. You can see from the cake slice some sort of weird sugary clay stuff used for sculpting the front. (It’s the yellowy stuff in the slice picture. It tastes like… sugary clay.)

Overall, I’m pretty stoked with the final product. The restaurant originally thought it was the wedding cake, so it hogged the wedding cake table spot until the real wedding cake people arrived and had to convince the restaurant otherwise. Too bad I didn’t maximize my nerd cred by having a Metroid wedding cake as well. Yeah, too bad.

Note: I’ll add more pics from other people (from pro photog, different angles) when I get them.

Picture yoinked from Debbie Does Cakes’ flickr, prior
to exposure to high humidity (it POURED that day)

Edited 11/11 to add: Apparently a couple people have discovered the cake through Debbie’s flickr, including Geekologie and Metroid Quarantine, with the latter getting on Kotaku, and then GoNintendo and back to Metroid Database (we’ve come full circle!).

Debbie told Metroid Quarantine:

The cake was a mint chip cake hand carved from round cakes, stacked, and iced in buttercream and then covered in fondant. The metallic parts were made of belgian modelling chocolate and painted with silver highlighter dust. The entire cake was airbrushed to add color and dimension to the metallic parts as well. The cake was a surprise for the Groom, he and the bride are huge fans of the game.

And yeah, all the parts that were neither cake nor buttercream didn’t taste too good. (Fondant in general is quite nasty.) I don’t remember how the modelling chocolate tasted, but I still have half of the helmet in my freezer, so I’ll have to make note of how it tastes later.

New thing I learned today: The idea of a groom’s cake originated in the South. It’s a cake separate from the frilly main wedding cake that often reflects the groom’s interest. The legend surrounding the groom’s cake is that if a single woman takes a slice of the cake and puts it under her pillow the night she receives it, she will dream of her future husband.

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It wasn’t very busy at 1:30 on a Friday afternoon. I saw a two or three people go up to windows alone, which was curious since I thought you needed two people to get anything done. There were also two lesbian couples in front of us, probably moving things along with the upcoming vote on Proposition 8. (Interestingly enough, there was also a sticker against prop 8 stuck under the “Line begins here” sign. I wonder if the clerk knew about that. btw, PLEASE VOTE! Especially NO on prop 8.) The wait wasn’t too long, especially since some people in the line didn’t have their applications ready and had to go to the back of the line and fill it out. I don’t really get why they put the applications in the front of the line and not towards the back, but whatever.

When it got to our turn, we gave the clerk lady at the window our application, which she typed onto the marriage license. She gave us some information sheets, including a fun health pamphlet called “Your Future Together” which talks about all the possible ways your new life together can bring you misery (i.e. domestic violence, STDs, genetic disorders). We paid the $79 fee and got a receipt (you know, for returns or exchanges :P ). We had to raise our right hand and confirm the application information was correct. Then we were told to sign the marriage license, at which point she recommended that we take pictures since it’s the only time we’d sign anything.

Kelvin signs…

And then I sign. I broke their “stay-inside-the-box” rule…
hopefully my marriage will still be valid :P

And we were done! I was surprised at how easy it is to get a marriage license; you don’t even need to give your social security number. Now we just need to find a witness and somebody who’s ordained, and then we’re REALLY done.

New thing I learned today: You can pay an extra $4 to get a confidential marriage license, where the record is not public and only the people getting married can get copy of the marriage certificate (except by court order). For a confidential license, you can only get married at the clerk recorder’s office, and both parties must already be living together.

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Jessica and I sat and chatted near the lady that stands at the podium and decides who gets what table. After sitting there for quite some time, the lady came to us and asked if we wanted the kitchen booth since it wasn’t reserved. Hungry and tired of waiting, we of course accepted. I was really excited, as I’d seen the table many times passing through the kitchen and always wanted to sit there, and now we were!

Yoko & Chris

The booth in the kitchen just fits 6 people, so it was perfect for us. It’s physically located in the kitchen and faces the area where the dishes come out, so you get to observe all the servers running around and retrieving food. Since it was a Saturday night (with freaking 90+ minute waits), it was pretty busy and entertaining to watch. We saw four different birthday cakes, including some disgusting-looking Halloween cake that had plastic spiders (very small and not-detailed toys, so didn’t freak me out to bad) all over on top of… I don’t know what they were on top of. The cake was totally unrecognizable. Regardless, it was fun to sit there and judge the different cakes.

Servers huddling around some cakes

Most of our entertainment was from listening to the guy who stands by the area where the food comes out and screams at the chefs nonstop. It was easy to figure out what the most popular dish was tonight after hearing him shout “CHICKEN SALTIMBOCCA!” at least twenty times. We also heard him shout some of the same words over and over again, like “Fire!” and “All day!”. Curious, we asked out servers what they meant. Our waitress didn’t know, realizing she heard it so many times but never thought to ask. So she asked for us, and we found it sorta meant “in process”. Like “Penne Arrabiatta all day!” means “There’s an order of Penne Arrabiatta, but you should already be making it or you better hurry the heck up and start making it!”

The guy who shouts at the chefs

Towards the end of our meal, the shouting guy, named Curtis, actually came over to our table (and by came over, I mean he turned around) and spoke with us since he knew we were curious about the lingo he was using, which was super cool. After re-explaining “all day”, he told us that “fire” means to start a dish. We also learned his role in the kitchen is called the “expediter” (sounds like a superhero) and that expediters control the flow of the food orders and are usually people who already have a lot of responsibilities, like managers. He also explained the kitchen booth, which is a regular table but can be reserved. For reservations, he recommended calling in several days ahead of time for the table, as there’s only two evening time slots available for it (5:30PM and 8:30PM). If there’s no reservation, any walk-in can get the table, which is what happened with us.

Jess & Ravi. Above them, it says “Se non sopporta il
calore, vattene dalla cucina!” which, based on babelfish,
seems to mean “if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen”?

Because of our seating and our yummy food (Caesar salad, Penne Arrabiatta, Chicken Parmigiana, and Cheese Manicotta), we had an excellent dinner. I had a good time observing the staff and learning a lot about the kitchen and the Bucca di Beppo kitchen booth. The info is certainly good to know if I ever want to sit there again.

Note to self: Next time, remember to take a picture of the food and get a group picture :P

New thing I learned today: “All day” actually means “in total” in restaurant lingo. So if multiple tables have the same order, yelling “spaghetti & meatballs 6 all day” means six orders have spaghetti and meatballs have been ordered or should be in the process of being made.

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In case you can’t tell from my complete lack of posting, we’re majorly busy. Bleh, tired.

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I finally got the guts to violate corporate policy and take a camera phone picture of it last week. Only took me THREE years :P I asked one of the test floor guys if he’d thought I’d get in trouble, and he just laughed at me. (You can see his reflection in the picture.)

New thing I learned today: There are three levels of warning: CAUTION (could be dangerous and might result in minor or moderate injury), WARNING (could be dangerous and might result in serious injury or even death), and DANGER (is dangerous and will result in serious injury or death).

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Saw this on GoNintendo last week. I’m actually semi-excited for LEGO Batman (I mean, it’s LEGOs and Batman!!!), so I’m excited for these toys as well. I’m not excited for eating McDonald’s at least once week for the next 8 weeks (well, I guess I technically don’t have to, but since I’m there anyway), and I think it’s lame that these LEGO toys are even stinking LEGOs. Their limbs are contorted, and I doubt they can be taken apart. Despite this, I’m still sold on them. As the weeks go on, I’ll make sure to update this post with pics as soon as I get some toys.

Edited 9/17 to add: WTF, the McDs by work sells toys individually for a $2.39!!! What a stinkin’ ripoff! I think the most expensive Burger King toys I’ve gotten in the past were $1.50 (but most places were $.99), and BK has way better quality toys. I mean, for 10 cents more at McDs, you get a burger, small fries, and sippy cup drink. I, of course, am now getting Happy Meals in conjunction with my Filet o’ Fishes, tho I’m splurging an extra $1 to get chicken nuggets and not have to eat their disgusting burgers. Bleh. At least they’ve switched back to cardboard boxes for the Happy Meals.

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