Cal Poly Graduation 2012

Last weekend we went down to San Luis Obispo (SLO) for my younger brother's graduation.  It is always such a joy to go back to our alma mater! The school, the town, the ocean - everything is so lovely there. But with only one day to play nostalgic-tourist (mostly in the Pismo area), it was hard to squeeze in all our favorites. We tried though!

The P!

We ate heavenly Firestone's tri-tip sandwiches and tromped around downtown SLO..

Braved down the creaky boards at Pismo pier...

A wild otter appeared!

Ate a ridiculously mouthwatering Old West Cinnamon Roll..

Looked for the sinkhole at Dinosaur Caves Park. But couldn't find it! Sob sob...maybe it eroded away?!

And finally ended the day with a "love boat" and sushi at Yanagi's.

The next day was the graduation! It was a great thing to watch Penga-bro walk.  The whole family is extremely proud of him.  It's been five years since Sak and I walked onto the same graduation field, so I felt extra emotional thinking about our own Cal Poly family from way-back-when.

Soooo many people.

After the main ceremony, I got to give him my washer lei! I can't say that the extra five pounds of weight was really appreciated, but that's not the point. Huhuhu.

And there's my perpetual derp-face. >.>"

Actually my mom and I ended up making so many leis that he was able to sell some prior to the graduation to raise money for his SF summer mission trip (in the tenderloin - please pray for him!).  Of course we still saved some leis just for him though.  I think he had over twenty at the end from friends and family. Not bad for a mainland grad.

There was a smaller ceremony just for mechanical engineers where all the grad's names were called.  Except the microphone broke and no one could hear anything.  You'd think that at a well-known engineering school, someone would at least try to fix the problem? Nope! No sound the whole time!

 Anyway, I'd say even more fun than the leis were these silly face fans I made to hand out. They were just slightly too small, but still a big hit!

Which is the real one?! Gah!

They were also useful for keeping cool, as it was a pretty warm weekend!

As sad as I'm sure Penga-Bro is to leave campus (and if he's not sad now he'll miss it later, I promise), he's got a great future lined up.  He'll be working in the Bay Area too, and it's always (or maybe I should say usually? Ha!) nice to have the family not too far away.

Classic, everyone-look-at-a-different-camera-now shot

Penga-Bro's duct-tape decorated hat. "He" being God. It's a clothing company in Hawaii. 

How was your graduation season? I always find them to be such joyous occasions!

(credit: some photos (mostly the good looking ones) taken by family members)

Pandan Cake

Have you ever had these green Vietnamese waffles? They are sooo good, especially when piping hot with a crispy outside and soft, steamy center...Mmm.

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Only recently did I learn why they are green though. :P It's this plant, pandan!

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Well, sometimes not the plant itself. Sometimes it's the plant extract and some green food coloring. :P I bought some from Ranch 99. :)

It smells terrible.  There's alcohol in it, to keep it fresh I guess? Don't do a direct sniff. Waft like a high school chem student!

Unfortunately I do not have a waffle maker, so I thought I'd make a pandan cake instead.  I used this recipe from My Food Trail,  though I definitely whacked my way through it.  I used regular sugar in place of caster sugar, coconut cream and cow milk in place of coconut milk, and a square pan instead of a ring pan. Oh, and I also converted all the gram measurements to tablespoons and such.  A little rounding involved..

I've never made a chiffon type cake before, and I don't think my whipped eggs were quite up to muster.

They were okay, but not fluffy mountains or anything.

The one thing I was really bummed about though was the lack of greenness!

No green. :(

Apparently, my pandan essence didn't have enough food coloring in it. I should have added my own.

The taste, however, was pretty delicious! It was kinda like a fluffy spongecake (though probably not as fluffy as it could have been), and the coconut/pandan flavor came out nicely.

Still-frozen cool hwip on top.

I still prefer waffles, but this cake wasn't so bad! Definitely needs to be green next time though.

Have you had pandan flavored food before? Was it greeeeeen?

DIY Zelda Kikwi Felty

So... *grin grin grin*

Praise the Lord (quite literally), I passed the PE exam!! As soon as I get my license in the mail I'll be able to add those two precious little letters after my name, yaay!

To celebrate, my family came over for a night of North Beach Pizza and beer. And then, because I don't drink beer too often, I was feeling manly, so I convinced my sister to turn off Portal 2 in favor of a rousing game of Shoot Many Robots, a PS3/compy downloadable game that does exactly what the title says. Get gun. Shoot robot. It's a fun co-op game, manlier than my usual fare, but a girl's got to diversify every so often, yeah? And since Alvina's husband was one of the game developers, I think you or your game-playing other should check it out. ;)

Anyway, in other news, Friend E let me borrow Zelda Skyward Sword.  I'm not too far along just yet, but already I'm really liking it. I love Groose's gangsta face and Ghirahim's fabulousness.

There's also cute little Pokemon-esque creatures in it called Kikwi, they have shrubs on their backs and make squealy little noises.

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Couldn't resist making a felty of one :)

For eyes, I thought it'd be easier to make them with white thread rather than try to cut small holes out of the black "mask" area.

Coaster time!

I didn't bother with his feet or hands because I got lazy. Or I was going for a minimalist approach.  That sounds better, right?  I think I will stick him in the game case for Friend E when I ever finish his game and give it back. Haha.

Kyuu!