This Boy Elroy

Some Photos

Here are some photos if you haven't already seen them on my Flickr.

Breakfast at Tartine.
Dolores park after brekkie at Tartine.
Brad enjoying the park.

Four years ago

I was going back into the annals of my Flickr account and came upon this forgotten photo:

Taken in 2004 at the Kennedy memorial in Dallas. I look like a child, I have no facial hair, and I'm so smushy looking. I still have the hoodie, it's the comfiest!

Lunch with a view.

Dorothée and I picked up her boyfriend Jay to get some tacos at Fuel City today. After we got our food Jay suggested we go eat on the rooftop deck of his office. I didn't have my camera with me but I had my phone. With a bit of manipulation I captured our view. It was a splendid lunch.

March 2008 12 of 12

Good morning, 7:30 am

Brekkie, 8:00 am

At work, 9:00 am

Lunch, 12:00 pm

Wisteria, 12:15pm

Doin' what we do, 2:00 pm

Sciency, 2:30pm

Resistance is futile, 5:30pm

Off to the gym, 5:40pm

Desert, 10:00pm

Puppet, 10:20pm

Puppet with pundits, 10:25pm

Gratuitous

Well that certainly was an exciting super Tuesday, no? I thought it was interesting on both sides. Perhaps this could be decided in Texas? It is the second most populous state and has a large number of delegates. Imagine, my vote actually counting towards something in Texas! Too cool!

I don't really have much else to report right now so here's a gratuitous photo of me flexing my arms.

Oh my gods, I'm turning into Brett Cajun.

Oh My

I found this on PopSucker.net.

Wow. I mean I don't know what to say. If ever there was a time when someone put themselves out there, this would be it.

Note of interest: I met Julie Newmar when I was a child. It was at the Marriott Marquis Theater when I went with my family to see the musical, "Me and My Girl." My brother pointed out to me that I was sitting next to her during the whole first act and I didn't even know. When she came back to her seat at intermission I told her that I loved her as Catwoman. She smiled, said thank you, and told me I was a handsome little boy.

New Year's Day

Happy New Year everyone! Brad was pretty wiped out from his trip to Baltimore so we opted to stay in on NYE. We picked up a bottle of champagne, some cheese, and a piece of cake and got comfortable.

I made my traditional "chaise" that I have to make whenever I open a bottle of champagne.

You know you want to sit on Madame Clicquot's face.

For lunch Brad, me, Dorothée, and Jay went to dumplings at our favorite dumpling house, Jeng Chi. The tradition originates from my family. Because my mother would slave away in the kitchen all through the holidays, she insisted that she would not cook on New Years Day so we went out to eat. The only restaurants that used to be open on New Years Day were Chinese restaurants so we'd always go out to Chinese food. When Brad and I moved to Dallas we found out about Jeng Chi from a review in D Magazine and have been eating there ever since. The dumplings, in my opinion, cannot be beat!

The hot and sour soup is the best I've had other than my mom's (mom took Chinese cooking classes and makes some really great dishes), and it's loaded with good stuff!

Scallion pancakes, just delicious.

Pork and napa dumplings.

Small juicy dumplings, these are our favorite! Inside the soft noodle is pork and an extremely flavorful broth. They're small, they're juicy, they're delicious.

After the feast that only cost $34 we went for a stroll in the shopping center.

We found a store that has a ton of Sanrio stuff. Brad and I were so pleased to see so much Chococat merchandise, we're big fans of his. I had to hold Brad back or he would have bought every Chococat item in the store, remember I said we need to be more abstemious this year, but at least I know what to fill his stocking with next year!

Our final stop was the Asian grocery store. I didn't realize there were so many varieties of instant noodle soups and in so many colorful packages.

For the piece de resistance I give you this photo that I have titled, Only In Texas. It's self explanatory.

12 of 12 December 2007

Off to work with my lunch. Actually I had to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned first, 8:50am.

It was cold and wet, 8:55am.

My teeth are clean! 10:30am.

Gift cards from the parents were waiting at work when I arrived. 11:00am.

Pretty holly in the backyard of our building at work. Would it be okay if I clipped some to decormate my house? 12:00pm.

Afternoon coffee. 2:29pm.

Flurochrome conjugated antibodies, the tools of my trade. 4:00pm.

Home for a brief bit before going out again. 4:45pm.

Out at the mall, shopping before we see a movie. 6:15pm.

Pokemon. 6:30pm.

Getting our tickets for the Golden Compass. 7:00pm.

Waiting for the movie to start. My new favorite time to go to the movies is Wednesday night, nobody is there. I loved The Golden Compass!

If you want to learn more about 12 of 12 or if you want to participate go to Untitled Chad Darnell Project.

Check Mii Out

There's a new channel on the Wii called Check Mii Out. Basically it's a place where you can show off the Miis you've created on your Wii and I have to say there are some really creative Miis that people have made with the limited facial parts that the Mii channel offers. The one true constant on the Check Mii Out Channel is the ubiquitous Michael Jackson Mii, it seems every owner of a Wii has made him on their console.

The channel also has contests, and the first contest, in sync with the launch of the new Mario game, was to make a Mii of Mario without his cap. If you play the new Mario you see everyone's favorite ruddy Italian plumber without his hat on. However the contest is judged by anyone and everyone and you're urged to choose the Mii that best represents the character, so you don't necessarily have to have the most accurate representation. I got 4th level for my Mario Mii, not too bad. After the competition you can make a postcard as a souvenir for the contest. Here's mine:

You see the real Mario, my mario, and my Mii sitting quite daintily amongst the flowers. That pink blob is Darin after a cocktail.

I love these in-game "snapshots" and the only way to get them onto my Flickr account is by taking a photo of my TV. That's my one big issue with the Wii. You can register an email address to send messages to from the Wii but you cannot send any in-game snapshots you take to email addresses, only to other Wii consoles. I doubt that will change so I'll have to continue photographing my TV like a complete nerd.

Oh, and I'd like better facial hair options as well Nintendo.

Saturday View

The weather has been brisk here in Dallas and I, for one, love it! I had to go out and get some more wood for our fireplace tonight and I was thrilled to have to put on my cap and scarf for the trip. Those of you who live in the northern climes are probably thinking WTF? Although I'm originally from NYC, I've been living in places that don't really get winter so the cold weather is a novelty for me.

One of my favorite burger places here in Dallas, Who's Who Burgers, which serves a 100% Kobe beef burger. It's quite delicious, they have good fries too.

Finally, a photo that Dorothee took of me in the kitchen on Thanksgiving.