Sunday, February 22, 2009

Baby Crumpet 3.0

Mia's 3 years old birthday party!

We made Asian food since Lunar New Year was 2 days later.
Yakisoba with prawns
Singaporean curry with chicken
Ma Po Tofu with pork
Thai jasmine rice

Gracie & Adrian made cupcakes

I had special Jones Soda made up with a photo of Mia & Adrian on the bottle at My Jones Soda.

Thanks to everyone for coming!
Ewan, Leya, Leo, Jenn, Lily, Gracie, John, Cathy, Maya, Jenni, Jim, Nathan, Kim, Dante, Angie & Kai.

Somehow we survied the party without any major mishap, although we did lose Leo inside the fireplace for awhile (not like there was a fire or anything)

Mia had a FANTASTIC time.



Info dump - 2009 so far


The photo here was actually taken late last year & it came from a sleep test. Basically, they stick little nodes all over your body, stick tubes up your nose, then measure things like toe movements & heart rate while you sleep. The conclusion was I have very severe sleep apnea (I knew that already, but wanted a medical solution) so I now sleep with one of those sleep machines where tubes force air into my pipes. Quite fun really. I call it my darth vader mask.

First week of January went to Tokyo for a week. Hijinks ensue. Highlight was visiting Kiddy World in Harajuku - it's this 5 stories + basement behemonth retail store full of Hello Kitty stuff. Shopped like mad for Mia.

Quick trip down to San Diego & LA. Had dinner with cousins Lisa & Jeremy at El Bizcocho. Superb 7-course tasting menu paired with wine; but the highlight was definitely the dessert - an ice cream made from scratch at tableside! In a big silver bowl the waiter mixed guava juices, malibu rum, grand marnier & liquid nitrogen, mix & serve with freeze dried marshmellow. Wow.

Quick trip down to Portland, OR. Lots of great meals & good friends. Cocktail party at Brett Warnock who made margaritas with jalapeno peppers; dinners at La Calaca Comelona with Martens, Thea & Christine; pastrami at Kenny & Zukes; karaoke at The Ambassador with Jeremy; organic wild boar ribs at BBQ joint owned by Koreans with Rich. Only letdown was the Potato Champ was closed so I didn't get my poutine fix.

Attended NY Comic Con. 4 days of craziness ensue as I spend time with 77,000 of my close friends dressed as Chewbacca. Had an aswesome time. Evening highlights included bulgogi & norebang in K-town with Juyoun, Kurt & Tania; dinner at Sorella with Bernadette, Gretchen & their crazy clients; NY Noodle Town with Katherine & Nathan. Again, only snag was could not get to Joe's Shanghai (actually tried but line was too long)

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Crumpet 3.0 pre-party


Because we're holding her ''official'' party on the weekend, on her actual birthday (Monday Jan. 19th) we had a private dinner with Gracie to celebrate Baby Crumpet turning 3.

She got bunches of great presents from Gracie including an all-new princess outfit, wand & tiara.

From her parents she got a new rocking horse (from Goodwill) and a number of goodies from Japan including a Hello Kitty bistro set, Hello Kitty purse, Hello Kitty umbrella & Hello Kitty doll in a cow suit (nope, no theme at all here).

Ku 4.0

Yup, turned 40 this year.

Celebrated by having a bunch of friend over for lunch - Sam, Ian, Alex, Desiree, Masa, Nathan, Jim, Jenni, Cathy, John, Maya & Gracie. Thanks all!

Menu:
- Lamb tagine with preserved lemon
- Rice with saffron & cherry
- Chicken pastilla
- Apple upside cake with molasses

Visiting the Allens

The highlight of every trip to New England is a visit to the Allens - Kate, John, Sophia, Amelia, Olive & Sabine (the last 2 are cats)

The girls had a great time dressing up & generally run around the house.

The adults, with the aid of a baby-sitter, went to Blue Ginger - Ming Tsai's restaurant out in Wellesley

We had a gorgeous with dishes like foie gras-shittake shumai in sauternes-shallot sauce, sake-miso marinated Alaska butterfish, lamb osso buco claypot with herb-poblano pesto and seared Georges bank scallops with carrot-ginger sauce.

Can we go back there now?

Abby & Mia




Baby Crumpet & her cousin Abby - who are only 6 days apart - make quite a team.

One can only imagine the trouble these two will cause together once they grow up.

Holiday in Boston

Christmas at our family in Bedford, MA (with grandma Dot as special guest, seen here consulting Mia on a complex puzzle)

We ate like mad people facing the end of the world. The moment we arrived at the house there was already roast leg of lamb waiting in the oven. From there on it was 10 days of non-stop feasting.

Baby Crumpet got a lot of loot including a doll house + plenty of old toys that used to belong to Adrian (barbie, horse...etc)