Summer Spectacular @ Cameron Park

Cameron Park Lake: Great place to spend a summer evening

From a local colleague's recommendation, a few of us spent last Saturday evening at a pre 4th of July festivities at his community in Cameron Park called Summer Spectacular. The annual event is held at the park lake and has the usual assortment of stalls selling crafts and food which is supposed to be capped off with a great fireworks display.

The fair was nothing much to write home about, so after a cursory look at the stalls, we went to grab the best available spot for the evening finale. Most of the good locations were already taken but we managed to find an empty spot that we thought was pretty decent (We later found out that we sat under a lamp post... that explains why no one wanted the place. Fortunately, it did not distract from the evening display).

The fireworks started around 8:45pm once dusk came and it was just awesome. The fantastic light show lasted more than 20minutes and was the best I've seen yet. The New Year fireworks display at Sacremento absolutely suck and this one more than made up for it.

Here's a sampling of shots I managed to snap with my newly bought tripod. My digi cam was set up for a 5 second exposure with an aperture of F8.0. I didn't focus too much on fiddling with the settings as I wanted to pay attention to the show. In hindsight, I could have use a shorter exposure, which should produce better shots by having less diffusion in the light streaks.

Enjoy. I know I did. :) (Click on any pic for a larger view)

Rebates

Today I finally received my last rebate from last year's Black Friday mad shopping spree. It took this Canadian company 7 freaking months (Black Friday fell on Nov 25 last year) to send me the measly $10 check; I actually wrote off any thoughts of getting this but what a surprise. This made last year's Black Friday a complete success as I managed to get back all the rebates, totalling $423. Hahaha, yeah, I spent a bomb on electronic toys... but quite a few were FAR (Free after rebates), so what the heck.

The rebate bought back memories of the fun times spent coordinating the spree. 5 of us met a few times to find the best bargains and coordinate activities at my place a few days before the event. The basic idea was each went to a particular store and grab the stuff for everyone based on the list we made up. This way, we managed to get over 90% of the stuff we wanted ( most of the really good stuff were extremely limited in numbers). Oh, the good old times:D We were actually lining up at 2am waiting for the stores to open at 6am in the freaking cold....and it even drizzled a bit...

My haul: lots of FAR stuff. The receipts are in the front. :D

The crowd at Fry's Electronics @ 5-6am Nov 25 2005. And more were coming by the minute.

Shrooms

Always loved the taste of mushrooms; shitake mushrooms are a particular favourite back home. Over in the states, the widely available variety are button mushrooms and they're heavenly.....

My mind's foggy but I can't seem to recall the button shrooms back in Msia tasting so good; the ones over here are whiter and larger compared to the canned pathetically small brown ones we find back in Msia.

Been using sauted shrooms in most of my cooking in the past month and it's one of the things I can't get bored of consuming.....

Did you know that in the old days, Egyptian royalty were the only one who could eat shrooms? Commoners couldn't even touch them. I wholeheartedly support with the Egyptian pharoahs who had such foresight to corner the market......

Enough blogging; time to plan my next shroom feast.......

-Burp. Excuse me.

To continue on the culinary vein, here's some shots of the sinfully delicious treats I had the fortune to try.....Denny's Pancakes swimming in maple syrup
Roadside clam chowder

Chicken Teriyaki dinner setyummy Gelato
Typical diner breakfast Seafood anyone?

Applebee's Pork RibsPink's famous chili dogs

ESPN the Zone's Back Back Back RibsHonourig the Italian flag

Sushi feast

Dragon roll

Chilli's Monterey Chicken & Baby Back Ribs

One of those days

Lethargy sets in; the inclination and motivation to be productive seeps away as the day goes on. Counting moments, passing time with attempts to focus interspersed with frequent breaks of surfing and chatter. Mind's half awake and the inner child is screaming his head off for a change. Welcome to my world.

-Sigh. Snap out of it.



As I toil through the day, my mind takes flight and it made a nostalgic stop down memory lane....

Took these shots of the river bank at Negro Bar, Folsom. According to a friend, the 1st African Americans set up a thriving community here before there was a town in Folsom. It's now a State Park and a popular site for recreational activities like BBQs.

The expatriates had a BBQ here last October. Didn't know half the crowd and the dialogue progressed smoothly in mandarin throughout the evening, leaving me lots of time to experiment with my camera as soon as I grabbed the tripod someone bought along.

Am I still me?

A friend asked me if this year long trip has changed me. Have I? It's kinda hard to judge yourself; somethings are just clearer when seen from the outside. Let's not talk about the superficial stuff; we were referring to the intrinsics that define you. Your principles and outlook in life; not your hairstyle, weight or the way you talk (though that could be a sign of deeper things....)

Granted, the experiences and the exposure to the workstyle, culture & life here has widen my perspective. It's been a great eye opener and I've grown in so many aspects that I doubt I would have had I stayed back in Penang.

Having said that, I somehow feel that I'm essentially still the same impatient clumsy guy I was a year back. I still have the same habits and interests, I still get worked up about idiotic behaviour and I have still have yet to achieve the level of fitness that I always wanted. In other words, I'm still the same lazy slacker you all know and love. Grin.

What do you think dear readers? Am I different? Of course I am, but how much so?

-Must be one of those introspective days..... Tales of death and endings tend to have such an effect on me.

Brentwood

Although recently we had a 3 day weekend with Memorial Day falling on a Monday, I decided against joining the rest who were heading to either Vegas or Yellowstone National Park. Been to Vegas twice and the 16 hour drive after work to reach Yellowstone did not really appeal to me. Must be getting old......

Anyway, the few of us left in Folsom decided to do something that's easy on the wallet as well as the body. On a friend's suggestion, we took a leisurely drive southwards to Brentwood to try our hand at cherry-picking. There's various fruit farms in the county and it's supposed to be cherry season amongst others.

The 2 hour drive down there flew by but the 1st 2 cherry farms we came to were closed! The 1st farm was packed with people swarming the cherry trees and the 2nd told us that we came too early in the season. Due to the late Spring this year, most of the cherries were not fully ripened...They were selling picked cherries at the fruit stands but we wanted to actually choose and pick our own cherries.

Since we were in the vicinity, we decided to check if there were other farms opened for self-picking. Luck must be on our side and we found that the Lopez Ranch was open for business.

The Lopez Ranch: Rows upon rows of trees brimming full of juicy cherries!

The locals call this U-pick and we were each given a basket to hold the fruits that we selectively picked off the trees. There's no entry charge and you only pay for the fruits that you want to bring back. In other words, we can sample/eat/gorge ourselves on as many cherries as your stomach can hold while in the farm.

Eagerly, we dove right in and starting picking. Fresh, ripe cherries are absolutely heavenly delicious! Throw away those preserved, sweetend canned stuff you typically find on cakes/pastries; that ain't cherries. They don't even come close to the sweet juicy crunchy texture of the real thing...

Ripe Rainier Cherries....excellent!Mouth watering ain't it?

I never appreciated cherries before this. Past encounters with the preserved kind and "Cherry" flavoured drinks like Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke didn't help change my opinion; in fact, it just killed any lingering desire for this fruit. Now, call me a believer:)

In the end, we didn't really picked all that much. Guessed we sampled enough to sate us. Grin. I think for every ripe cherry I picked, I must have consumed at least the same amount in the search for ripe sweet cherries. Guessed we just got tired of walking on our full bellies with the sun on our backs. :)

Our haul. Another couple and I combined for the bottom bucket of the 3.

Compared with the amount the locals typically buy back.....