Happy Birthday Hubs!

... and may we celebrate many more. You know you're getting old when you've to lie about your age to control the skeeze factor. :) But you'll always be 21 to me.

xoxo
Your biggest fan


Igor, E's birthday prez (Lego for grownups)


Oak tree and bluebells - spent the birthday weekend at his parents'


Climbed the oak tree to prove age hasn't made him less limber - E hangin' out


Hot dog roast! We even made our own skewers from tree branches. Had marshmallows afterwards.

Cherry Blossoms in DC

It's that time of the year again!

For our 4th consecutive year, we drove down to the capital for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. Our hostess extraordinaire M moved from Manassas to San Francisco (which incidentally also has a cherry blossom festival), and we didn't want to impose on our non-single friends, so this time we stayed at a hotel.

(Funny story about getting there: we didn't decide to go until Friday night. E had a little too much fun at a wine and cheese gathering that night and, well, the red wine didn't stick with him very long. During the few hours that he was sprawled on the bathroom floor, he insisted on still going and I finalized the itinerary. By Saturday morning, hangover or not, it was DC or bust.)

Took a bunch of pictures, of course. As usual, I'll leave the cherry blossom pics for the finale.

Saturday
We drove straight into the city - first stop, Georgetown. A quick healthy snack at Sweetgreen and a visit to Le Pain Quotidien to pick up jam and pastries, then we waited in line for cupcakes at the local boutique Georgetown Cupcake. (We're still fans of our neighborhood bakery Dozen.) We browsed in a few shops along M Street too.

Dinner: Kaz Sushi Bistro
The sashimi was divine - E and I concurred that the fish just melted like butter in your mouth. Fresh and tasty. E got the bento specially created for the sakura festival, and the dessert course was sweet red bean paste in sticky rice wrapped in salted cherry blossom leaf, with a tinge of coffee. I had a sinfully rich ginger creme brulee. What a great way to start the trip!

Sunday
Packed our touristy things (camera, water bottle, map) and headed for the metro station. First stop: brunch! The DC experience isn't complete without Sunday brunch at the Ebbitt.


Old Ebbitt Grill: Historic oyster bar and grill near the White House


When in an oyster bar, get oysters!

I couldn't resist getting oysters - half dozen Rappahannock River oysters. 'Plump and buttery'. E indulged in the Eggs Chesapeake, a combination of poached eggs and crab cake on English muffins.

After brunch, we walked around the National Mall and Tidal Basin simply admiring the explosion of blooms. Even though it was chilly, it was a beautiful day. Pics in a bit.

We visited the Sackler gallery for the exhibition of Edo paintings, then the National Air & Space Museum.


Grumman X-29

When we walked past this baby, E cooed like a little boy. It was his favorite plane as a child, and he's flown it many times on his dad's flight simulator. The wings face forward; there was a video and writeup on why that kind of instability worked.

Took a break from museum-hopping and headed to ACKC Cocoa Bar between Dupont Circle and Cardozo. Got brioches, hot chocolate (lavender for me, orange for hubs), and took a long walk along Q street admiring the townhouses.

Dinner: Zaytinya
One of our earlier times in DC, we visited Jaleo, a great tapas place; this time, we went to another resto by the same chef, José Andrés. It serves a great selection of mezze, Mediterranean tapas, and even the wine list was authentic to the region.



We ordered the following:

* Ayran - cool refreshing yoghurt drink. Went very well with all the dishes.
* Fattoush and Portakal Salatasi (oranges, pine nuts, feta etc. in orange blossom dressing)
* Squash couscous with zucchini and tomato-lemon broth
* Havuç Köftesi - carrot-apricot fritters with pistachio sauce which E was over the moon about. Excellent.
* Midyes - fried mussels on skewers with walnut tarator sauce.
* Lamb Kleftiko - spring lamb in phyllo, almost like a spanakopita, with yoghurt dressing and feta. Unusually good.

It was one of the best meals I've had - and that's saying a lot! Finally, we rounded up dinner with Lebanese arak, a strong anise liquor. It's even stronger in flavor than Greek ouzo and Turkish raki, so we sprang for it.


Two tall shots of El Massaya arak


"Keshak!" (Lebanese toast)

The cool thing about arak is louching - like absinthe, the clear liquid turns cloudy when you add cold water to it. 2 parts water, 1 part arak, add ice and enjoy. (Video of arak in action)

All gastronomic adventures made possible by my favorite reservation system, OpenTable - food without a 2-hr wait is the best kind of food.

Finally but definitely not least, the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We spent the holiday with E's parents, as usual. This year our dinner company, which has been gradually thinning, merged with another group that had also been declining in numbers; together, there were 20+ people, some familiar and some new. We made baked honey brie in phyllo dough with cranberry chutney and brought 2 bottles of wine. (Turned out that almost everyone brought wine, and there were over a dozen bottles on the kitchen counter... even deadlier than the book club!) Most of the people at dinner were university professors. The hostess and the 'core' group had met in Malawi during their time in the Peace Corps; one couple taught public policy together at a university in DC and flew often to Beijing and South Africa; another was going on a long trip to New Zealand. It was fascinating getting to know them. New traditions this year were pomegranate appetizers (and spraying the juice everywhere) and ping pong tourneys. Overall a fun evening, but it went by so quickly that the holiday was over before I knew it. All the anticipation...

Other highlights of the weekend include spending time in the country, meeting with family friends, and... oh, raking, raking, raking.


Hubs in a babushka, ready for an afternoon of toiling in the yard


Snow on the leaves


Leaves begone!


Two hours later... hubs and his rake take a break

We also took a jaunt through Bedford County just for kicks - visited the Bedford Springs Resort, a posh hotel tucked among hills and gorgeous hiking trails. ('Visit' means walk through the building, fawn over the architecture, read about the history, steal a cupcake or two that were set out in the foyer at 4pm for traditional English tea...) The parents-in-law were quite taken by it. Methinks Santa will give them a night's stay and dinner for two at Christmas.

Then we went to the infamously law-defying Gravity Hill! Hottest tourist spot in Bedford County. Incidentally, it's near the apple orchards we stopped at... (get it? apples? gravity?) The claim to fame is that one coasts uphill on this road, despite what physics and common sense tell us. We were skeptical, until we tried it a few times. There was another car on the little stretch of hill testing the claim too, over and over again. It's a clever optical illusion.

Here are videos that we took (hubs narrating):

Part I:

Drifting backwards ('uphill') while on neutral

Part II:

Uphill again, this time facing forward. The road really did look like an upward slope.

Not the most exciting videos, but now you know how this little hill got its name. We live for cheap thrills.

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And finally, let's give thanks to the beautiful month of November.



Taken right outside the house


Pretty weed that sticks to everything


On the road, near Blue Knob State Park, PA


Dusk, and a full moon rising as we were returning home from our adventures in Bedford, PA

Happy Halloween!

Ninja wants YOU...



... to have a fun Halloween. :)

(Pepper will be watching you)

Peachy

Lou Hei! With the S'porean kiddos at our alma mater

Happy (belated) Chinese New Year! Wishing everyone a prosperous year of the oinkers.

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* The last piece of my V-day gift arrived. It's great. Dianne Reeves is a goddess.
* E is a sick puppy. Oddly, he has been somewhat dependent on my little just-in-case vial of Chinese medicated oil for the sore back and sinuses. Can we say, bwah?
* My mid-year review at work went well. I feel like I hauled ass for a myriad of other projects, but in the end, the only thing that counts is what I can show - consider the behind-the-scenes work for everything else a charitable contribution of my time.
* It was 48 deg F today - it might as well be April. This heat wave could foil plans for snowboarding/skiing this weekend... boo. I guess that means we'll be doing our taxes (joy!).
* I miss home.

That is all.

Christmas/New Years post

Feliz Ano Nuevo to one and all! First post of 2007. Feel like I should take a moment to revel in this moment. Mmm. Okay.

** I added "tagging" to this blog, awkwardly I think. The pesky thing about porting a Wordpress template to Blogger is that it looks like Wordpress, but is still confined by Blogger rules, meaning no category tagging. I resorted to a crass del.icio.us hack - not the most elegant solution, but it'll have to do for now. **

Spent the holidays in Connecticut again. We packed the minivan full of wrapped gifts, food, snacks, suitcases, and zipped down the Interstate eastwards. We heard our hosts got a dog, and were worried that Tweety, the family cockatiel, had kicked the bucket at the ripe old age of 22, but we arrived to hear barking and incessant screeching. Good to see the bird again.



Nothing terribly exciting (other than the Boston sidetrip - see previous post), it was another PG-13 family vacation with a few things of note:

• Every year we have a theme, and this year it was 'Down Under', complete with didgeridoos, aboriginal clapsticks, costumes, and a scavenger hunt, where we needed an Aussie slang dictionary to decipher the clues.


• Jess went to the Bahamas and brought back some local rum. Our eggnogs were noggin' real fine.


• We tried cranberry panettone for the first time, and it was incredible! Can't believe what we've been missing all this time.


• Made our own pizzas one night - a regular chicken and vege, and a Hawaiian. To my surprise (horror?), the in-laws have never tried the latter. Sacre bleu! Unfortunately, after trying a piece, they didn't care for it.


• Got a glimpse of how house-training a dog can be fun and a pain in the butt. Lulu, the new dog (Jack Russell/unknown breed mix), has only been there for 3 months; getting to know a dog can be tricky business (pun intended). One of E's aunt's Christmas gifts was the Dog Whisperer training DVD set with Cesar Millan. We watched the entire first disc (after showing the folks the South Park episode with Cartman - we just had to)... wow. Other than being unnecessarily dramatic and a little far-fetched, it was pretty entertaining. But I'm glad we don't have a dog.


• I tried my hand at pottery for the very first time! Very cool. I loved the feel of cold wet clay; making something out of a pile of mud is a lot harder than it looks. My first pot turned out kinda gimpy, it's definitely not symmetrical but my mentor generously said it's "got character".
  
  
  First pot!

And since I'm fond of lists, here's another one for my Christmas loot:

• Sudoku puzzles and... a Sudoku Rubik's Cube! *evil*
• Silk Pashmina wrap
• Fresh Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans - just add rum/vodka to make my own extract (neato)
• Fuzzy socks!
• Barbara K toolbox
• Cool pieces of pottery
• Assortment of fancy tea
• Swarovski pendant
• Homemade honey from Jesse the beekeeper
• 2 Haruki Murakami novels in paperback

Hubby went all out this year. The first gift I opened was a Sigma bike computer - spot on. I rattled the next box, which was pretty light... After undoing the tangle of wrapping paper, the package revealed... an iPod Nano! Probably the most overrated and common gift this holiday, but whatevs. Back when MP3 players haven't become a mainstream must-have, I had gotten E the 4th generation iPod. Recently, I've been taking it with me to work, so I guess this was a clue that he wanted it back. :) Just as I was bubbling with joy, E pointed out the engraving he had ordered on the back, and I started bawling. (Okay, so I'm a girl.)

My gift for him was outdone by the wee music stick, but he still jumped for glee - 1GB of extra RAM for his new laptop. I got 4GB of memory, and he got some too. Fair's fair! (Though it was uncanny how we spontaneously got each other tech toys. A pair made in geek heaven.)


Boy's gift to me


My gift to boy

C'est ca, the Christmas line-up. On NYE, we toasted with the Spumante from our trip to the Finger Lakes and played with too many sparklers outside.

Phew. Mighty post, I'll say... so there you have it!

Gobble gobble

Pooped and dog tired, but figured I should mark the bloggie with a Thanksgiving recap.

Went to the in-laws' again, and had the turkey feast at dad-in-law's old colleague's up in Westmont. (It was really a test of willpower; it takes steely resolution to deny a second helping, even if you feel you're going to burst at the seams.) Like last year, I contributed a salad to dinner - just a classic Waldorf salad, nothing fancy, but I wanted an excuse to use the mango wood salad bowl set the hosts got us for our wedding. I wanted to give a little more than a lonely salad this year, so I added a mixed berry dish with mint-honey yogurt dressing for dessert, which I think ended up being more popular than the Waldorf. Our table at dinner was a riot; heard about a couple's adventures in Belo Horizonte, which fueled my unshakeable itch to visit that area (Brazil/Ecuador/Peru). Some day!

I skipped Black Friday entirely (*pat on my back*) and laughed while I read about the stampedes at the malls the next morning. Drove 4 hours west to spend Saturday and Sunday with C's family, old and new. When C and I were wee freshmen in college, I used to visit them all the time; now, with husbands and a baby, it was tres bizarre. Worlds collided. We stuffed our faces with incredible home-cooked food, cooed over Baby and played with puppies, huddled over board games and laughed over stories. C's sister didn't fly her dogs over from Texas, but her mum showed me little booties and a leopard print winter coat for her chihuahua. Ridiculous! Anyway, we had a great time and miss them sorely already.

Coming home to our little apartment in the city was a bummer, after what seemed like forever with a full house of family and friends. Still, nothing beats two warm kitties cuddling up to you and purring because they're happy to see you. :)

Halloween weekend

There were some kick-ass costumes. South Park's Satan, Ninja Turtle, Captain Zissou, robots (with freaky likeness), Gir, Gilligan of Gilligan's Island (complete with coconut drink), the whole cast of Kill Bill... Steve was a leaf-blower - he fixed a leaf on a baseball cap and occasionally puffed at it. I'm impressed at the number of men who are secure in their manhood - Britney Spears and Catholic/Japanese "schoolgirls", Chippendale, masked masochist... M was Beatrix Kiddo in a body-hugging yellow jumpsuit. Ballsy! (no pun intended - ha!)

I met a few celebrities on my rounds.


Jesus armed with a gun (incidentally, he is Jewish)


Jennie gives a scary impersonation


Chuck Noland and Wilson make a guest appearance

Each party had its characters; a fun time was had by all.


Elle Driver, The Bride, and Pai Mei getting it on


With Jamie and her crew of pirates

Happy Halloween!

Carnival! Part 2 (pics)

Friday started off warm and sunny - it was the perfect day for tank tops and flip flops. I slept in to recover from the previous night, but was still able to seize the day. Wandered around Midway for the better half of the afternoon, running into friends and acquaintances while taking pictures of the booths. This year's theme was 'A Different Time And Place', and there were a few outstanding booths:


Carnival on Midway



Everything from Aztec ruins and Atlantis to Chinese noodle house and Star Wars

What makes the booths so impressive is that the construction is solely a student effort. Beginning as early as January, the architecture and civil engineering majors in various organizations draw up blueprints of the structure; the materials are ordered from a hardware warehouse, and unskilled grunt workers (such as myself, when I was in college) were handed power tools and instructions. It was a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle for us. The art and design majors then get working on their part, calling the artistically competent to help with painting props, walls, etc. It's a major production and everybody invests a lot of time and energy into building these Disney World-worthy carnival booths. In the end, the booths stay up for 3 days, only to be torn down with sledgehammers on Sunday.

The weather turn ugly when ominous grey clouds rolled in and raindrops the size of ping pong balls threatened to dampen everyone's moods. By that time, I couldn't be fazed, but walking around in soggy flip flops is never fun. At 6pm, it was the dinner reunion with my adopted family at Harris Grill. We waited forever, but the food and company were worth it.

After dinner, we were on our way to the bars when C called to say she was... 4 months along! I screamed my head off. It was weird when she got married, even weirder when she bought a nice house in upstate NY, and now it's so weird it's incomprehensible. I'm so happy for her. :) I made her promise that I could buy junior all the baby clothes and toys I want.

I changed into less 'sunny daytime' wear and reconvened with the girls in Oakland. We hit a few bars before I left to pick up Alice at the station. Getting lost in Pittsburgh means meandering to the other side of town; I blamed the pouring rain. Alice joined me in the search for my husband, who had also regressed to his college days at his fraternity. We stayed up a little bit before throwing in the towel... old is old, we didn't have the stamina we used to.

Part 3 tomorrow...

Carnival! Part 1 (pics)

It has begun.

Even yesterday, I was already antsy - Josh and Mark had flown in from California and New York respectively, and we had begun our big cleanup of the apartment. Josh, E and I had dinner at Green Forest, a Brazilian BBQ place in Penn Hills. So good! I miss raw oysters, and boy do I miss hunks of cow grilled to perfection. Mmm mm. Today at work I was counting down the minutes till I could let my hair down and regress to my college days again.

First on the itinerary was the CS50 gala reception at the National Robotics Engineering Consortium. It was out in the ghettos of Lawrenceville, I was starting to feel overdressed... but they did the place up really nicely. Alumni, students and friends of the #1 ranking school for robotics/computer science rubbed shoulders among butler-passed hors d'oeuvres, chocolate fountain stations, and displays of 'celebrity' robots/autonomous machines created by students. There even was a 15-piece jazz band - it was Roger Humphries' group! How cool. After our fill of coconut shrimp, sushi and chocolate-dipped strawberries, we shimmied back to our neck of the woods and prepared to meet up with everyone at our favorite watering hole, PHI.

And *everyone* was there... I got so caught up talking I didn't even get my Midori sour! It was wild, man, wild.


With Angel and Angie


Hubby and Mags. She drinks jet fuel for breakfast.



J and J sandwich; Mag thinks it looks like fun and joins in

I love how even though everyone has moved on (busy jobs, spiffy cars, mortgage... being adult? what's that?), we can still come back to the place where we met and made so many memories, and create more memories just like old times. No distance is too great for friends. (Figuratively and literally - Fabric convinced his company to fly him back from Beijing! Impressive.)

This weekend is going to be so awesome. I just know it. I can't wait till tomorrow...

Happy Easter!

For the past few years, the one thing I've done for Easter was tag along with friends to mass, the other big church event besides Christmas. Last year I stepped it up and had Easter dinner with E's godmother, complete with Pashka and a very easy egg hunt. This year, however, Easter has gone to a whole new level.


Chickies on the Easter Eggspress caboose

When I woke up this morning at the in-laws', there were over a dozen boiled eggs sitting on the table. They were dyed turqoise, purple, pink, blue, yellow, green... So Easter-like, it amused me. I decorated the eggs with stickers of hats, chicks, wings, and fluffy tails; the eggs sat in painted wicker baskets, a paper box, and a paper train humorously named the 'Easter Eggspress'.

Instead of getting a basket chocked full of candy, E and I, still in our PJs, got a bag stuffed with practical goodies. The bag had everything from TSA-approved locks for our big trip this summer to lint brushes for our cat-hairy coats. It was like opening presents at Christmas - never knew Easter could be this fun too. Of course, it wasn't the same as getting marshmallow peeps or chocolate bunnies... :)

At the end of the morning, we reluctantly peeled the eggs so they could sit and chill with the pickled beets (yum!).


Eggshell confetti

A hunk o' ham is in the oven; cranberry bread is on its way. Looking forward to dinner...

Geeks are funny

Happy April Fool's. :)

Everyone wants to be Irish

Happy St. Patty's!

In the spirit of the holiday, I wore a little shamrock around today. Missed out on green beer though, which is a total shame. Unlike many others, I didn't get my drink on at 10am.

While everybody was out at pubs pretending to be Irish, Lauren and Obi came over for Indonesian fare and great conversation. They brought a New Zealand aperitif to go with dinner (goes quite well with Asian) and a little mouse toy to bribe kitty with. Among the night's topics were Dilbert land (work and the brilliant minds at work), $100,000 football pools, the new monogamy and loaded hypothetical questions, Tahiti and Nicaragua, recovering Catholics, Amish kids in reality TV shows, orange cola, mother-in-laws, learning Chinese with kid's textbooks (complete with big colorful pictures and giant fonts), neat gadgets, and hicks. They were a hoot.

I missed watching 'House' tonight, but I'll live.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Happy (belated) Mardi Gras!