Last post of 2009

Well well, long time no blog. Much has happened since my last entry.

Halloween was a fun day, both sets of parents came over to our house and cooked up a fabulous feast of lamb chops, beef steaks, salad, and greeted trick o' treaters all night. As this is our first year of getting to celebrate the holidays in our new house, we have had a lot of fun getting this geared up and in place. I wish we had taken a photo of what our front entry looked like...Chris put up a fancy multi-colored light that is sound sensitive, so every noise would trigger movement. He also got a mister and we carved pumpkins. Most of the kids were pretty cute and polite although we did have one group of kids who thought they could take as much as they wanted.

November seemed uneventful to me until (I mean, besides work) Thanksgiving. We met up with the Lees at the Poulsbo house. Chris and I decided to go a couple days early to help get things set up. The house was filthy! We spent a few hours cleaning the kitchen, the bathrooms, all of the sheets and towels. Why? Because the toilets were growing white molds and smelled horrible. There were mouse droppings all over the beds. If the new washer and dryer had not been installed, we would have had to go to a hotel room. As it was we stayed up until 230am waiting for our bedsheets to dry in order for us to go to sleep. The dinner itself on Thanksgiving day was tremendously delicious as we had a heritage turkey and all of the trimmings. The banana cream pies I made were a hit; I think this was the first holiday in a while that I did NOT make lemon squares! The day after Thanksgiving my parents came over the day, it was then that they told me that Spot (their cat of almost 15 years) had to be put down the previous night.

Yes -- Spot, my favorite orange kitty of all time who used to play fetch and carry a plastic toy dinosaur in its mouth had to be rushed to the emergency veterinarian on Thanksgiving night and there it was decided to put him down. He had been in poor health and was bleeding again. My brother tried to get a hold of me, but the Poulsbo house is so far off the beaten path there is no cell phone reception. At first I was just really upset that I wasn't able to be there with my family and the cat. What good would I have been though - being there would not have made the situation better. In the end it was better that I was not there. My Dad built Spot a casket and they buried him in the yard. He was really a good cat and although I have my own kitty now, I don't think there will ever be a cat just like Spot. I think cats must read minds - as I was typing this, Humboldt just starting staring at me with "big sad look at me because I am cute" kitty eyes.

To make Thanksgiving weekend even MORE memorable, I got sick! I got so sick that I lost my voice. It was the most unawesome sickness I have had in a while. I even called in sick to work. Bleah.

Running the background this whole time is the fact that I know my grandfather's health was not well. The second week of December he was admitted to the hospital and after tests were done, it was determined that he had lung cancer and not long to live. Just 3 days after he was transferred to Keiro (nursing home facility), he passed away on Saturday, December 12, 2009. Double bleah. The entire week following his death of course was having family in town, grieving, and getting ready for the burial. He was buried on Thursday, December 17, 2009. Most of the family was able to attend. The police escort took us the extremely long way from Renton to Seattle via I-5, 509, and eventually 99.

I now no longer have any blood-related grandparents. I miss my grandfather, he was 96 years old. If he and his father had not come to America, then I may very well not have the life I have today.

One positive thing that came from the burial day, we found a local-based butcher in Renton. After the day's activities we went to the shop and purchased some fine meats for dinner to end the day on a happy note. Joe came over and we ended up playing Super Mario Brothers on Wii.

So as you can tell from this entry, a lot has happened. Christmas was kind of the saving grace of positive upswing for 2009. We had an enjoyable Christmas with my Dad's relatives at my parents house. I made 2 trays of lemon squares and a red velvet cake. It was a weird Christmas though, no cat, no grandfather, not even snow or some other weather tragedy. Still I feel good and am "recovering" from Christmas.

Here's to 2009. Really a lot has happened though if you think about it. We accomplished a lot! We traveled to Alabama, bought a house, moved, took a vacation to Canada, adopted a cat, celebrated our first wedding anniversary, celebrated life and death. I am looking forward to 2010. Happy New Year! Gong Hay Fat Choy!

Quinn's on Capitol Hill - GO, go NOW!

Our gift to my brother for his birthday other than the 6 bottles of wine (thanks Chris!) was a dinner to anywhere he wanted to go within reason (a.k.a. flying to Paris for a 15 course meal, yeah not so much). It took Jody a while to figure it out, but in the end he decided he wanted to go to this gastropub named Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/) on Capitol Hill.

Chris and I immediately go to the webpage and check out the menu. Ok, so it was admittedly not impressive in the sense that there are no fluffy descriptions. "Bone marrow", "Fried Frogs Legs", "Rabbit Pate" - sounds neat and cool, but where are the adjectives, right? Plus Capitol Hill isn't exactly close (hey we live on the 'Eastside' now) and parking there is nearly impossible. But you know, you just got to do what you got to do. :)

Jody and Sakeneh come over, we carpool to Quinn's - and within 5 minutes of looking we found a parking spot - which was the was the first of many amazing features of the night. Walking up to Quinn's you first notice the extremely large and clean windows - and that the place is PACKED! It was overcrowded, loud, and freakishly Robson Street-esque. People of all ages wearing various stages of what they considered going-out-on-a-Saturday-night attire. Of course being Seattle and Cap Hill various couples and families as well, man/man, woman/woman, man/woman?, you get the point. The hostess had matching circa 1982 Barbie Pink sunglasses, undershirt, and belt with the Flashdance sweatshirt and leg warmers on and happily told us that a table would be about 30 minutes. Sitting in the entryway we were admiring the loft-garage feel, the hardwood ceilings, the brick and concrete pillars, and that the bar and tables looked inviting.

I don't think it was 30 minutes, maybe more like 15 and we were at our table - center front of the bar and next to the windows. We ordered some drinks. I know that Jody and Chris had quite a few types of beers, I am not a beer expert but I can tell you that they were all good. Jody is into home brewing and he and Chris were really enjoying each beer as the meal progressed. I ordered a drink made with rosemary bitters (yum) and later a Ginger beer. Sakeneh ordered a bourbon drink with cinnamon bitters that we sent back. The cinnamon bitters cocktail was the most disappointing thing of the entire evening. We did not let it hinder our excitement though.

Snacks were up first - chicken liver croquettes and spicy peanuts. Both delicious beyond belief. I don't know how much of it was because we were pretty hungry - but man I have got to figure out what was in those croquettes besides the liver. The nuts were so good we ordered another serving. I think the nuts were coated in a lightly beaten egg white with the seasonings -- THEN fried or pan fried. There was this awesome sweet-spicy crunch and the nuts were not greasy. The croquettes had a not-too-thin-not-too-thick crispy coating which contrasted nicely with the yummy filling.

We were hungry now. Our waitress who I wish I knew her name - she was very awesome and treated us well, she spaced out the rest of our order so that we had time to savor, enjoy, and digest everything. Up next was the Fois Gras. Remember how I said there were no adjectives on the menu? Well I think I know why...because there wouldn't be enough room to put all of the words. Seriously people, this fois gras was...good, delicious, savory, buttery, texture-perfect, colorful, seared in the most awesome way, served at perfect temperature...yeah you get the point. It was served on this broiche which was springy yet crunchy and an apple-walnut sauce. I need to stop thinking about it because now I want some.

Next up was the grilled romaine salad with olives, tomatos, vinegar-tasty-red onion pieces, also the fanciest poutine ever -- hand cut fries with melted fontina and chives sitting in a pool of demi glace (feel your arteries hardening yet?), AND a salted cod-mashed potato dip served with homemade thin potato chips. It was after this that I felt full and 4 out of 5 doctors would say "stop eating", but since we were with a doctor and he was still eating it was obviously OK to continue (haha).

Bone Marrow was next. With these little amazingly hot yet soft and toasted pieces of baguette. We were all expecting the generic little 1" pieces of marrow that we would need to pick up and suck on. Nope, not at Quinn's. The bone was at least 4" in length. Served with this citrus jam on the top minced to perfection. Delicious is all I can say. And yes, still feeling full, but again, kept on truckin'.

Butternut squash soup with curried croutons, endive salad with salted pork nestled at the bottom, and a fried sunny side-up duck egg. The soup was perhaps the only other disappointment of the evening (besides the cocktail with the cinnamon bitters) if you can call it that. Accompanied with all of the foods we had been eating it was a good comparison to help your palette recover from the flavors and fats and salts, but if I were to order it all by its lonesome I would probably not enjoy it nearly as much. The croutons on the soup were also a little soft - which I don't know if it was because we waited to taste the soup after we had the salad, but again croutons were more untoasted than toasted. The texture of the soup though so amazingly light and airy. The endive salad was amazing - the salted pork was crunchy and captured the flavors of american bacon and the chinese style of making "crunchy" fat pork without all of the 5-spice seasoning. The apples were just right and not too sweet and went with the fennel and endive pieces. The fried duck egg came a little late, but believe it or not was a great mouth feel with the salad.

My stomach was wishing I had worn elastic pants by this point, but nonetheless we had more food to consume. And we had all commented at this point that the remainder of our meal would be a true test to how good the food was - because we were all so freaking full that the food would need to be amazing.

Well...the food was amazing. Steak tartar - impressive that it was served on a chilled plate. The crostini that came with it were still warm and crispy but not brittle (awesome). The tartar had a lovely olive oil feel and which allowed you to appreciate the tomatos, chives, and black pepper. Then the mussels with chorizo - amazing sauce which I think was a whole stick of organic butter along with garlic cloves and flat leaf parsley. These mussels had a great sea-water flavor. I think the cooking time was from when the chef placed the liquid into the cast iron pot, covered it, and then the waitress brought it to us table side and uncovered it -- so perhaps a matter of 2 or 3 minutes?

Believe it or not it had been almost 3 hours by this point...still unrooted from our table we said what the hell let's have dessert. We asked for the menu to look at dessert (apparently after 11pm the menu switches to the late-might menu) and decided against the Whoopie Pie because hey there is only so much one should eat (haha), but had the apple pie with their homemade cinnamon-brown-sugar ice cream, chocolate pudding with a blueberry compote and a pile of whipped cream, and Bailey's irish cream brulee. The top on the brulee was a little thick and burnt, but the custard part was excellent, smooth and not too cold with the irish cream flavor throughout. The chocolate pudding was very chocolately without being scary dark or milky sweet. The pie was well good pie and the ice cream was a good compliment to the thick crumble crust. Accompanied by three double-espressos and a latte (mmm...Caffe Vita) it was now that I realized that I have to come back to Quinn's again, and also try Restaurant Zoe (http://restaurantzoe.com/) -- both are owned and operated by the same people.

In case you were wondering we went to Quinn's with the sheer idea of trying all of their small plates which we successfully did. I think if our stomachs could endure more food we would have ordered some large plates too - the wild boar sloppy joe, or the fish and chips, or even the steak with frites (yes, more frites). I am determined that the large plate items would be just as high quality as the small ones were. When I go again it has to be with another couple so that we can order and taste more items. I am sure that Jody and Sakeneh would be up for it!

All in all - Quinn's was a great place. Would I bring an 8 year old here? No. But Quinn's isn't designed for people with small appetites, small children, or people unwilling to try new things. Ok let me clarify... Quinn's seems like it would be a great place to stop in for a quick bite, but let's be honest - you are going to want more than one item from their menu, so don't cheat yourself out of something to the point of regret you owe it to yourself to try as much as you can handle, and then go for more. You can bring children here as there are signs that clearly mark where under 21 year olds can and can't be, but since when was the last time you knew of an 8 year old that would put up with a 3 hour meal? :)

Quinn's was also not grossly overpriced. The quality of food outshines the sometimes too loud Ska/Off-pop music that pumps out of the speakers. The price of this food is also amazing which I think is essential for places in Seattle these days. We consumed all of what you just read, at least 3 or 4 split-bottles of ale, cocktails, etc. -- 4 people for $250 TOTAL. AMAZING.

My only wish is that Quinn's would relocate to Kirkland or someplace with more parking. :) Ok, now I am beginning to sound like my parents...(haha) I am looking forward to my next trip to Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/).

Awesome Birthday Weekend

I have to take a few moments to reflect on the awesome event that was my birthday. Although it was on Friday, it seemed to span the entire weekend.

Friday:

• Arrive at work and am greeted by Danielle, who bestows a card and a Curious George toy
• Michael arrives with balloons
• Roger arrives with french pasteries (the start of my downward sugar spiral of shame)
• Danielle had mini Trophy cupcakes delivered
• Charlene and Cristina arrive with card and gift
• Surprise 2-dozen red roses delivery from Chris arrives, yay!
• I Love Sushi lunch fun with Charlene, Cristina, Tracy, and Danielle
• more sugar...
• Go home to a wonderous Otto's hot dog and french fry extravaganza along with my favorite cold pea salad, awesome cheeses, and pie (even though I fell asleep before I could enjoy the pie)

Saturday:

• Sleep in!
• Biscut-donuts for breakfast and yummy coffee (more sugar!)
• Trips to Target, Trader Joe's, and Starbucks (soy pumpkin-spice latte, mmmmmmmm)
• Go to my parents for homemade almond fried chicken, sweet and sour pork, wintermelon soup, veggies and ice cream cake
• Get home to realize the Huskies sucked ass (boooooooooooooo)

Sunday:

• Sleep in again!
• Tasty breakfast
• A trip out to Maltby to have Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream
• Grocery shopping
• More tasty cheeses, oysters, and some mackeral

Overall, a filling weekend as you can see. I don't remember having had so much sugar before I was to the point of shaking - that is how I was on Friday.

Anyway, another year arrives and I am happy to have it!

Wedding and vacation wrap-up - yippy!

Hello hello. My apologies for the late post as I have received quite a few messages from folks asking how was the wedding, when will my blog be updated, where are the photos, when is the reception again, where are you registered, and...was Elvis at your wedding?

Reception reminder - September 6, 2008. Those who were invited should know where and when, if not email Jonell...we are registered at Macy's and Sur La Table...and no Elvis was not at the wedding.

The wedding itself was awesome. Short and sweet just the way we wanted it. Before I dive into it, let me start from the beginning of the Las Vegas-Vancouver-Port Angeles adventure.

LAS VEGAS, NV
Wednesday, August 13:
Chris and I hop in the car, drive excitedly to the Green Bug lot (aka SeaTac Parking), get on the plane and all that jazz. I love flying because it gives me a chance to use my ipod iTouch for movies so I enjoyed Trading Places (IMO one of the best comedies of all time ever!). One of Chris's friends from Yakima was taking the same flight as us so we waited for him once we deboarded the plane and it was off to the Venetian. Our room...was huge. And fancy. It had two separate bathrooms and the master bathroom was as big as my living room (if not larger). The room had a wet bar - sadly not stocked. And a 10' round table. We ended up having dinner that night with Chris's friends at the Delmonico steakhouse in the Venetian. It was delicious and of course over the top.

Thursday, August 14:
We had a 9am tandem massage appointment at the Venetian's Spa. Now I have been to many a hotel spa in my lifetime, never have I been in one so HUGE nor swanky. This place kicks all other spas' asses and thensome. I talked with a hostess and she said that they are making the spa even BIGGER even though it has over 90 rooms. After the massages Chris got a break while I had my nails done. We had a small break and we met up with Johanna, Mark, and my parents and had some chinese lunch at the Venetian's asian noodle restaurant (forget the name right now, but it doesn't really matter - does it?), then it was off to the rehearsal. I thought the rehearsal was just right around 20 minutes but my Dad seemed to think that it should been longer. Again another break where we had to rush down to meet the wedding gown and suit cleaners - they only took cash and demanded we meet them in-person to receive items even though I was told more than once that the clothing could have been left with the bellhop and that we could pay via credit card... can you tell that that irked me only slightly?? (haha)

Another small irk was at 6pm we had a reservation at the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe for all of us to eat together -- but they would not seat us until everyone was present and they were going to cancel our reservation! I was on my cell phone trying to get a hold of all of the late people - luckily the hostess felt sorry for me and seated us without our entire party being on time... I am laughing about the whole thing now because it just seemed so stupid, but believe me at the time I was pretty irked. After a huge rehearsal dinner we went to see Wayne Brady with Karen, Phyllis, Jennifer, and Grandma. Wayne Brady - please stick with your improv-only routines as your singing was a bit much. Overall a good show though and it was fun!

Friday, August 15:
The BIG day has arrived. We have breakfast and then I proceed to spend 90 minutes in the salon getting my hair put-up and my make-up airbrushed on. Very exciting indeed. Johanna and Heather were nice enough to meet me early and help me get dressed. We walked over to the chapel which is in the Venezia Tower (a resort within a resort if you will) and I got to wait in the bridal room, but it ended up being that almost everyone at some point came into the room and chit-chatted with me for a while. I have to admit that I wasn't really nervous until I was left all alone for a few minutes - then I could feel my heart beating faster and I had that big-exam-I'm-going-to-hurl-feeling that quickly went away because Johanna came back in to wish me luck and gave me a hug (thanks!).

The ceremony itself was very short like I preluded to and we wanted it that way. Pastor Steve did a great job of being an easy-go-lucky guy and had a great sense of humor. After the ceremony we started the picture taking. NOTE the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

After much picture taking we had about 45 minutes to run back to the room, cool down, change and then head downstairs for the most incredible Italian meal I have had to date (sorry Mrs. Roberts, your cooking is outstanding too!). We had a huge meal at B&B Ristorante -- a Mario Batali restaurant in the Venetian. You may read one of my many pre-wedding posts for the exact menu; it was tremendous. The pork chop was SOOOOO good. Well, everything was good so I am not sure how else to describe it other than -- it was dang tasty. After dinner a bunch of us sat in our huge room and watched the Olympics -- because we are all obsessed with them. BTW, I miss the Olympics, but that in itself is another post.

Saturday, August 16:
We slept in and then went to our photography appointment which was suppost to start promptly at 11am. We arrive with a few minutes to spare and it was quickly apparently that Mr. and Mrs. Bridezilla (another couple) were going to run long and into our appointment. While Chris was giving the photography salesperson the evil stink-eye, someone finally got her attention and she let us at least sit down and look at our photos. I stepped out of the appointment briefly to talk to Johanna and Mark during which the salesperson apparently apologized profusely to Chris. I wish I had heard her doing so because it was rather rude of her to make us wait 20 minutes. In the end we ended up purchasing all of the digitals - which is great since we wanted the rights to reproduce and we are in the process right now of putting together a slide show which will be seen by those of you attending the reception.

After our appointment we spent a few hours with Marc and Tina and their two little ones. I thought it would be best to visit and have a room-service lunch since the kiddos may not like sitting in a restaurant. Boy was I ever right - the kids needed space to run around and just be kids. We said good-bye to them and then we hung out with Johanna and Mark for a while. We met up with Joe, Andrew, and Heather and had the glorious Wynn buffet for dinner. My stomach still hurts from thinking about it! We said good-bye to Johanna and Mark, and then the rest of us went and saw the Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. It was by far the best Cirque Du Soleil show I have seen in Las Vegas to date. Thanks Joe!

Sunday, August 17:
Basically flying home, unpacking, laundry, repacking.

VANCOUVER, BC
Monday, August 18:
A fast and fun drive up to Vancouver, BC. We checked into the Pan Pacific and had a great dinner at the hotel's restaurant - The Five Sails. If you enjoy gourmet food - particularly seafood, lamb, and duck at roughly $35-$45/entree prices - you need to go The Five Sails. This place is a hidden gem. The views from the tables first of all are fantastic - you get to see Grouse Mountain, the Lions Gate Bridge, a floating Chevron station, the future international broadcasting center for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a huge cruise ship if you are lucky. And since it is Vancouver it isn't ultra-shiek. Gore-tex loving, fleece and track-suit wearing, jeans with button-up shirt kind of people are Vanouverites. The food is also something that is such a pleasure to enjoy. By now I think we have had 2/3 of their menu and as always - delicious. I had the duck and Chris I believe had the lamb.

Tuesday, August 19:
We did our usual walking around Robson St. routine. We found one of those souvenir shops and got ourselves some Olympics stuff. I got a fleece, a curling pin with the cute mascots on it, and a magnet. Chris got some commemorative Canadian coins. You know the Canadian Mint is so much cooler than the US Mint. I highly doubt our government would ever consider printing coins that celebrate anything other than dead people. For dinner we had a reservation at the elusive Tojo's. First let me say that we thought about trying this place when we saw it featured on Anthony Bourdain's show from the travel channel. There was an episode where he went to Vancouver and he just went on and on about how he hated nature but he LOVED his friend's restaurant, Tojo's. So after some online scoping we said "why the heck not". Second if you are familiar with the Seinfeld episode with the soup nazi - I think that episode was based on someone like Tojo.

We walked into Tojo's and immediately I was impressed with the detail put into the interior design - the restaurant's ceiling panels slope with the shape of the building and you don't feel like this is a normal Japanese restaurant. Tojo approaches us and basically tells us "I tell you what to do, when to eat what with what, everything I make I invented - no copies, all original". We proceed to eat his version of omakase which IMO consisted of too many cooked entrees and not enough sushi or sashimi creations. Do not get me wrong - what he served us was in fact delicious and scrumptious and very ingenious. I just don't know if the whole meal (for two people now) was worth the $500+ Canadian we spent. Overall a good meal and I am glad that we went to try it out.

Wednesday, August 20:
We went on a new adventure to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary - just about a 20 minute drive out of Vancouver. This place is awesome and I cannot wait to go back. First it is very reasonable - I believe it was less than $10 Canadian for us to enter the park. Second you can buy a HUGE bag of bird feed - which BTW came in extremely handy - for only $.50 Canadian. The sanctuary is huge and extremely private and quiet. The most exciting birds we saw also decided to hunt us down. The red-headed Sandhill Cranes were extremely aggressive and there were warning signs all over saying such. On our stroll they found us -- and if it were not for the bird feed I am almost certain they would have found us more interesting than anything else. As Chris describes it - there is a scene in Jurassic Park where the velasoraptors are running after the fat computer guy whom I'll call Newman. The birds ran JUST like the velasoraptors.

After a break at the hotel we had dinner at C Restaurant. C has quickly become one of our favorite places to go when we can afford it. The times we have gone we have only had the wine-pairing dinner - which is a 6 course meal with 6 wines. Roughly $300+ Canadian for the both of us and extremely wonderful. My friend who is also a professional caterer, Char -- has also expressed her liking for the great C Restaurant. I encourage you to go to their website and look at their menu - exquisite.

Thursday, August 21:
Grouse Mountain was the destination of the day. We almost did not go because the weather looked like it was not going to clear up, but we went anyway. Not much had changed since either of us had gone up last although there is a new Lumberjack Show which I thought was pretty nifty. We got some great photos (I don't have those yet) of all of Vancouver once the skies cleared up.

We had planned to go to yet another elusive Vancouver establishment - the Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar -- and after some discussion we decided to not try it out this time and went back to The Five Sails where I had the halibut and Chris enjoyed "the catch" which was sablefish with maine lobster and prawns. We had the same server as from our first night in town and she was great fun as she shared her own favorites of Vancouver.

PORT ANGELES, WA
Friday, August 22:
We had to stop in Richmond, BC at Sun Sui Wah for dim sum. The new find was a dish that had pea vines supposidly with shrimp cake paste wrapped in a rice wrapper and fried in the shape of a pouch. Sounds weird I know but it was really quite good. Then I could not leave Canada without another Tim Horton's double-double so we hit up the Tim's in White Rock before crossing the border. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the NEXUS card? (haha)

We found our way to the Keystone ferry dock on Whidbey Island and after a ferry ride, drove from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, or PA as the locals call it. We checked into Domaine Madeleine Bed & Breakfast - our favorite place in the PA area to stay. The Ming Suite was delightful as always - Jeri had the mattress and the deck replaced so it was definitely spiffied up yet still felt like a home-away-from-home as it is very familiar to us. We had dinner at Michael's Divine Dining and we found out Michael was our server for the evening! The food and hospitality was superb and we could not have asked for a more comforting meal. I had the chicken marsala and Chris enjoyed the pork chop. For dessert Michael served us quite literally 2 pints of homemade boysenberry sorbet. Yum.

Saturday, August 23:
Jeri and her son Shawn served up an awesome 5 course breakfast (see the website if you don't believe me). Afterwards we spent the day at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge aka Dungeness Spit. It was high-tide so there was not way we were going to walk the 5.5 miles to the lighthouse; however, we did see some seals, seagulls and other birds about. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we both got sun-kissed on the cheeks.

Toga's International Cuisine was our decision for supper. Normally we may have opted to go to Victor's aka Sabai Thai, but we had just been there in July so Toga's it was. It was definitely not disappointing -- just really filling! Jeri was kind enough to stop by the restaurant earlier in the day and bought us a bottle of wine to go with our meal. Chris had a steak and I had the beef stroganoff. Again very good and so dangerously filling.

Sunday, August 24th:
After another breakfast we leave PA to encounter 2 hours of sitting on 101 - car accident and traffic was at a standstill. We got home around 530pm to yet another Sunday of laundry and catching up on emails.

And if you are still reading, congratulations, you deserve a quick picture (haha) preview:

Again ALL the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

T-minus 2 months and counting...

Ah yes...the invitations are FINALLY in the mail. We got all of the paper work done last weekend, but I didn't get around to stuffing and labeling until yesterday. Chris is still waiting to hear from some people about their addresses which is unfortunate because they will have less time to ponder and send back the response card, oh well such is life.

The weekend was great, lots of rest and trying to watch squirrels hack into our new bird feeders (those squirrels are clever). Yesterday was Father's Day and we went to my parents house for dinner and a short visit.

We have to make some time to go to the mall and pick up the suit - apparently all of the alterations are done. Speaking of new clothes I guess my Dad actually went out and bought new clothes (yes, people it is true - when I realized this my jaw was just as low as yours is right now) for the wedding. New pants, new sports jacket, new shirt, new tie - the whole thing. I am impressed that he took so much initiative. It reminds me that I need to scan the only photo I have of my Dad in clothing that isn't overalls and post it to my site -- just so people can see that my Dad has worn something other than overalls.

Anyway like I said it was a good weekend. This week is proving to be busy both in work and socially. I can't believe that it is less than 2 months before the Las Vegas sha-bang. Eeeeeeeeeeee!

Spot is cancer free!

Just read an email from my Mom - the vet said that the mass that was removed from my cat is benign and should not return at all. Yippy for Spot!

We are going through an abnormal heat wave for Seattle this weekend. We are getting ready to go to the Woodland Park Zoo and then to the Seattle Aquarium - wish us luck since who knows how many other people will be doing the same thing. Yesterday was a ghost town at work and after the work-day was over, Joe and Heather came over and we had a BBQ meat fest. We feasted on Kobe Beef hamburgers, bratwursts, and teriyaki-pineapple meatballs with a grilled pineapple and keylime pie for dessert. Today - the zoo and fishes like I said. Tomorrow I think Heather and I are going to hang out getting lost in West Seattle and then who knows what else, but I am positive it will involve a lot of screaming at the Wii while we play Mario Kart Wii.

Here's to my kitty and the great weekend!

Spot is clever

My Mom told me that Spot had to wear an Elizabethan collar and apparently he already "lost" it. Keep in mind my parents house is larger than average, but still - how can you not find a cat Elizabethan collar? I am hoping that someone got to take an embarassing photo of my cat (think large orange tabby), but in the mean time I found this photo courtesy of Google and Wikipedia:

Come to think of it, I had a cat that kinda looked like this a long time ago, but he never had to wear a collar especially one like this...

My kitty may have cancer

I was home on Sunday and I noticed that Spot (my orange tabby that weighs 16.5 lbs and is almost 13 years old, maybe older) had a funny lump. We all took a look and felt the lump - it was no larger than a pea, but considering it felt weird we asked my Dad to take Spot to the vet. Monday rolls around and Dad takes Spot to the vet and turns out that the lump may be cancerous! My poor kitty!

The results of the biopsy will not be known for another week, but it is sad to think that my fun little friend may have a painful future ahead of it. Spot already has feline diabetes and has to have shots twice a day as it is...oh and he also has glaucoma in both eyes.

Poor kitty...

Everything is fine... Happy Easter!

For those who have called or email or stopped by, thanks for all of your well wishes for my dad. He is doing remarkably well! He was able to leave the hospital Friday April 6th in the late afternoon. I know it sounds fast considering he was rushed to emergency surgery on Tuesday April 3rd, but like I said he is recovering "fairly well" as the hospital would say after a septuple-bypass surgery.

What else is happening (like there is room for anything else in my life right now) -- my friend Andrew is here visiting for a short time and today is Easter. The local paper has this Peeps contest and you should check out the photos: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/living2003652932/1.html

Other than the above, there is nothing more I can say except whew!

The phone call everyone fears...

I'm very tired mentally, physically and almost emotionally. My dad had an emergency septuple bypass surgery yesterday. He is recovering VERY well and should be discharged from the hospital by the weekend I hope. Today felt like daisies and rainbows and first day of class exciting compared to yesterday.

Again, my dad is doing fine, but I will feel a LOT better once he is at home, resting. More information to come later.

Wishes granted -- Pork Chop Recipe

Believe it or not, I have had a few requests (email, in-person, even IM) for this "pork chop" recipe. Believe it or not, it isn't terribly difficult, in fact it is very White Trash. I would say Asian Trash, but all of my non-Asian friends say there is "no such thing as Asian Trash".

So here we go. Pork Chop Recipe!
Ingredients:
- 4 to 6 pork chops -- rib chops preferred
- 1 box of Original Pork Shake n' Bake
- 1 packet of Pork Gravy (see earlier post about Pork Gravy woes of my parents)

Prepare a baking sheet with tin foil and a wire rack for cooking. The tin foil will make clean-up a snap (thank you Reynolds Foil commercial) and the wire rack will elevate the chops to keep them crispy. Once this is set up, set aside. Pre-heat oven to what it says on the Shake n' Bake box.

Each box of Shake n' Bake comes with 2 seasoning packets. Open one of the packets and dump contents onto a dinner plate. It helps if the plate has ridges so that the seasoning doesn't spill all over your kitchen. Take one chop at a time and individually press each side of the chop into the mix. The entire chop must be completely covered with the mix. Once coated, place onto prepared baking sheet with wire rack. Generally one package of seasoning will get you through 4 to 6 rib pork chops depending on size.

Bake the chops in the pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes. At the end of the baking, turn on your kitchen fan and switch the oven to broil; let chops broil for an additional 5 minutes. While chops are broiling, prepare gravy mix per directions on package. For creamier gravy substitute half of the water with milk.

Serve with your favorite starch (being Asian-Trash, we use rice) and vegetables. We often have had to make extra gravy for the rice. Also, to ensure that your meal is as authentic as my meal--have some Chinese Plum Sauce available. Pour some plum sauce onto the chop and/or mix directly into the gravy to taste. Bon Appetite!

To save a buck or two?

My parents have always cooked pork chops (rib chops, please!) one of two ways:
1) Shake and Bake Original Pork Coating
2) BBQed with Johnny's Fine Seasoning Salt

If they choose to cook the first way, it requires gravy. Yes, Pork Gravy. Over the years, the cooking and shopping in my immediately family has switched from my Mom to my Dad. So now Dad does all of the grocery shopping--which means Costco, Cash & Carry, 99 Ranch (asian speciality grocery store along the US West Coast) and the bi-monthly trip to Safeway. He shops the others at least once per calendar week. I receive a IM nudge from my Mom this past weekend, asking me about where to buy Pork Gravy in bulk. Yes, in bulk. Apparently Cash & Carry no longer carries Pork Gravy in large bulk container and my Dad is freaking out. Why? The individual packets of gravy you buy at the store such as below:


Apparently the individual packets are too costly for my Dad--they retail from $1.79 to $2.09 each (depending on which grocery store you go to) when not on sale. So I said "Why don't you just buy them when they are on sale?" but apparently that is just not what Dad wants. They are even thinking of driving up to Canada during Memorial Day weekend to check out the Canadian SuperStore to see if they have Pork Gravy for "cheaper".

Oy. Of course, we are also talking about the same man who when I was in high school--loaded us all into the family vehicle one Sunday and we went on a quest for Weed-B-Gon in the gallon sized containers--because as everyone knows, products are generally cheaper if you buy them in larger containers. We ended up driving all the way to Cle Elum (middle of Washington state kind of deal) to buy Weed-B-Gon by the gallon.

Well, today is Monday, but the sun has gone for now...and it's raining. What more will happen today?