Kung Fu Bird Poo

Happy Chinese New Year!
We have the smallest (but oldest!) Chinatown in Canada here in Victoria, so Rebekah and I headed down there to see the parade. We thought that it started at noon, but it turned out not to start until 1:00. But we waited around and had some nice front row standing spots. As we were waiting, a kung fu bird dropped a kung fu bird poo from up high onto about 10 of us. Amazingly, it only landed on people's coats.

The entire thing was kind of a let down because we waited there at the edge of the sidewalk, then right when it started a flood of people stood in the street right in front of us and blocked our view. However, I was able to get a shot of this awesome kung fu mullet (he originally had a stick and looked like he was with a kung fu group), which I call a kung fullet:
Then finally the people started playing the drums and cymbals to wake up the lions:
Then the lions arrived and did a little dance:
The lions left to go collect the money and lettuce that stores hung in front of their door for good luck in the new year. We didn't stay to see them collect the money in the main part of Chinatown (where they started), because that was last.

($150 on that string)

Root Beer Peanut Butter BBQ Ribs

These were perhaps the best ribs I've ever tasted, very sweet and spicy. I essentially made up the recipe, and no one will guess the secret ingredients if you make it. Here it goes:

First, make a dry rub and rub it over about 750g (1.5 lb) of ribs (2 sets):

• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
  
• bit of salt

Let that sit for about a day in the fridge. Then make the bbq sauce out of the following (I'm trying to remember what I put in):

• 3 cups of root beer, boiled down to 1 cup
• 2 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice (from the bottle)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp peanut butter (much better than ketchup!)
  
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tbsp spicy chicken wing sauce
• 1/2 to 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar (great for the pork!)
  
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tbsp hickory bbq sauce (all I had left)
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  

I think that covers every reasonable sauce I could find in my fridge and cupboard. Then boil all those for about 15 minutes, stirring pretty often. You should end up with about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. Pour 1/3 the sauce in the slow cooker (Crockpot) and then put in the first set of ribs, then pour more sauce over them, then the second set, then the rest of the sauce. Cook that on low for about 6.5 hours. Then gobble them up.

KFC

I went to KFC tonight for dinner and they had up a sign that said, "Our original recipe now has 0g of trans fat." Does anyone else see a problem with that?

Haven't You Always Wanted a Monkey?

Five months after buying our tickets, Rebekah and I went to the Barenaked Ladies concert last Thursday night. They really put on a good show, especially with their improv and such. On the popular songs, they changed some of the words to localize it. They didn't sing Million Dollars until the 1st of 2 encores (2 songs in 1st, 1 in 2nd). Then there was general merriment and w00ting of throats. The backdrop of the stage was 5 pillars of LEDs that danced in patterns and sometimes looked like Windows Media Player. For now at least, you can see clips from the show here. The opening band was Tomi Swick, but they weren't nearly as good.

This show officially kicked off their tour across Canada (yes, they are a Canadian band, as you can tell from the "chesterfield" and "kraft dinner" references) from West to East. When the tickets went on sale, they were sold out very quickly, so they added another show for the night before (making that show the fake kickoff).

We went with what turned out to be 5 other people from church. We emailed Shane to see if he and Jana could give us a ride, but then we discovered that they both forgot about the concert! Good thing we asked for a ride to remind them.

Elaine, another friend from church, bought tickets before Christine bought ours so she got row 8, while we got row 40 (all on the floor). But then she ended up winning 2 front row tickets and backstage passes on the radio! She had to get rid of her horrible row 8 tickets and sold one to Nicole, Rebekah's roommate, who then wanted to sit with us, not in row 8 by herself. So she traded with a thrilled woman that was sitting next to us and was with a group of work colleagues, who apparently are easily ditched.