There were a couple things about this book that resonated with me. The first is the addictive behavior of a young kid playing a video game. And not just any video game, but the video games my generation grew up on: NES, Super Mario Brothers, Zelda and the like. I actually wasn't that good at these games back in the day, but I wasted hours down at Freeway Variety, the local five and dime store, watching my friends play (oddly the only mention of Freeway online is the glossary for a movie from some guys who grew up in my "hood"). To this day there's still a few friends who I can say, "Elf needs food" and they'll finish the saying with, "badly!".

The second thing that resonated with me was that at that age, I read a lot of comic books. I would go to Comic Relief (clearly I haven't been in a while, I just found out they're closed, R.I.P.), go around the corner and by two slices from Arinell Pizza (it was 1/2 the size back in my day. Really!) and sit and read comics. That same night I'd go home and read every comic I'd gotten that day. Then I'd re-read them. How does this tie into Level Up? Well, I just couldn't wait to start, let alone finish, the graphic novel, so I sat and read it as fast as I could, just like back in my salad days. Just like the protagonist in the book and his video games.

One big difference between eating Arinell's pizza or 10 rolls of Smarties 'til I'm sick while I read comics and graphic novels, is now I'm all grown up! I can have adult drinks while I read. Ya know, like Bees Knees! My wife recommended a recipe from Not without Salt. Bees knees are tasty! Oddly, I think I might try the next ones with a bit of rosemary:

• 2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz Honey Syrup
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice

NWOS suggests doing the honey syrup like simple syrup: 1 to 1 of honey to water, bring to simmer, let cool and use. However, I cheated and just did the 1 to 1 measurement using piping hot water, and then stirring the bejeesus out of it. Worked fine and no dirty pan.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now on to the tasty Vodka. This is slight variation on the standard Cosmo:

• 1 part Imperia vodka
• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part cranberry cocktail
• Juice from 1/2 a small lime

The best part? I'd tried to do the same with tripple sec and a lemon the night before and my super cool wife bought me the right proper Cointreau and a lime. I came home to find this (see first pic) which I had to make into a tasty drink using the above proportions:

I started by taking the recipe from Chronicle Books', "Mini Bar: Vodka":

• 2 shots vodka
• 1/2 shot vermouth

Pour the two ingredients over ice in a shaker, shake, decant into an iced glass and add in twist (w00t!) or olives (gross).

My version is the same, but instead of vermouth, I used the pickle juice and instead of a twist I used some of the jalapenos. The end result is oh my, just so tasty! I'm not sure why I'm adding these photos, they're pretty bland and poorly lit.

Ingredients:

• 1 super heaping teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably, fair trade and organic)
• 1 teaspoon sugar (maybe two if you're using milk. we use sweetened soy milk so we cut it down to 1)
• 1 mug of milk

Steps:

• Measure ingredients into your mug
• Spoon in 4-5 teaspoons of hot milk into the mug and thoroughly stir into a slurry
• Pour in milk while stiring

Enjoy! (ostensibly the 4th step ;)

Last night I did a ride from our house, through downtown oakland, through china town, past laney, all the way south down to the park street bridge, all the way around alameda, and the double back almost the same way you came. Along the way I went through the defunct airforce base. The next photo after 411 30th shots are the HUGE doors (no street view) on the base. I love 'em! On the way back I stumbled upon The Hotel Oakland. Woah! This building is 1 square block and looks like it's from New York city. It's on 13th off of Broadway, who knew?! Wikipedia suggests it's on the list of Alameda County Historical Landmarks and some random site has this history:

"A residence and health center for the elderly. The building housed the finest hotel in Oakland until it went out of business in the Great Depression; in 1943 it became an army hospital and by the 1960s a VA hospital. From 1963 to 1979 it was vacant, before being reborn into its current use."

Lastly, a sunset shot of the good ol tribune tower. Hi Modern Cafe!

My friend's blog got hacked! This is because of a WordPress exploit that allows a user to create an admin user and log into your blog. They can then upload random stuffs to do all sorts of nasties. Your best bet is to first check that your blog hasn't been hacked and then upgrade to the latest version. Sadly, if you've already been hacked, the new admin user in there and upgrading won't boot this user. Plip has upgraded as we weren't hacked, but we lost our Plipish theme. That'll come back soon, promise.

Our friend from twtitw joined us for a commute on the Ferry to SF. It's a lovely way to commute, they take bicycles and sometimes you get spooky fog! Then, when you get to SF, you're at the ferry building where you can get tasty treats. See pics below.

I was commuting home from a friends house on Wednesday night and there was a big sign that said "Wet plates ahead". Just before there was one that said "Dirty Knives on Left" and after one said "Sporks in Road".

Our fave famers market still has strawberries. OMG, do they! Look at this huge one. Can you believe it's organic?

With the sunlight fading sooner and sooner each night, I'm going for more and more sunset rides. Here's another pic for the latest on Thursday night.

Finally, our venus fly trap is blooming! Fun.