New Shogun: Mission Viejo

As summer is winding down, it is heating up here in Southern California. We took it easy today...went swimming in the morning; D and I made some progress in painting k's room.

For dinner, we went to New Shogun in Mission Viejo. I think this is the first time we have eaten at a Japanese restaurant since returning from Japan! We used our Entertainment Book card for a BOGO on the Shogun Special Boat (reg. price $17.95/person). Although only meant for two people, it was plenty of food for us and the two kiddos.

It also comes with miso soup, salad and rice. We took home some leftovers, too. k liked the sesame chicken the best, but everything was good. We left very satisfied.

The Completed Sanrio Yogurtland Spoon Collection

Welcome to the family, My Melody (k's fave) and Keroppi! Who's next? Paul Frank?

Five Guys: Tustin

We had read/heard a lot about Five Guys and had high expectations. However, after reading the Yelp reviews for the new Tustin location, my expectations were lowered a bit.


A regular hamburger has two patties. We ordered one regular hamburger, two little hamburgers and one order of regular size fries. No drinks, and the total was $17. Now, I know Five Guys doesn't like to be compared to In n Out, but I'm pretty sure that same meal would cost under $10 there. D and I both had our burgers "all the way" which included a handful of toppings unavailable at In n Out, including mushrooms, pickles, etc. Although I appreciated the numbered stickers put on each hamburger corresponding to the receipt, I did not appreciate how each hamburger was wrapped in foil. It made the bun too mushy, especially with all of the extra toppings. The patty feels more handmade, and it is not as salty as In n Out, which could be good or bad. k's comment was that the fries tasted "burned".

Overall, I say we're sticking to In n Out, but I'm glad we tried Five Guys. Maybe if we're ever on the East Coast, we'll give them another try to see what all the hype is about.



Random conversation heard between k & n all weekend:
k: We're friends, right?
n: Yeah.
k: And Daddy's bad?
n: Yeah. Dada ba. (n's word for "bad").

Hanging Out in HB

I love the weather we've been having lately. Warm, but not too hot. Saturday was the perfect day to go to the beach. We went to Huntington Beach (state side, of course!)


However, playing in the sand is not much fun when you have a cut on your finger with a bandaid. (The cut was from earlier in the day due to an unfortunate incident with scissors).

Daddy's Back Home

Last week, D was in Baja helping build a home with other team members from our church. As you can see, the kids were happy to have him back home.



While he was gone, I managed to clean/organize our room/bathroom. Now onto the next challenge: our closet.

Flights and Sounds--Branford Marsalis Concert

After the kids went with my parents for a sleepover at their house, D and I went out for a date night. Our first stop was Barnes & Noble, one of our favorite places to go sans kids. Then we headed to the Great Park for a concert in the "Flights & Sounds" series held during the summer. The concerts are free, but parking is $10. We had never been to one of these concerts, so we had no idea what to expect. It is held outdoors, near the carousel and balloon. According to an article I read on the concert, there were about 3,000 in attendance. While it felt like a lot of people, it didn't feel like that many! We arrived before 7:30, and there was still plenty of open seating. A lot of people opted to bring blankets/chairs and sat on the grass to the sides of the stage for a picnic dinner...we'll have to do that next time. There was a limited cafe menu, but it is so nice you can bring your own food. No one searches your bag, either.

The concert was supposed to start at 8:00, but didn't start until a quarter past. I was excited to see the Branford Marsalis Quartet. I couldn't believe that we were able to see an artist of his caliber for free! (Well, technically $10). It really brought back memories of my jazz band days. I had forgotten how long jazz pieces can be. We left early, around 9:15, and the band had only played five songs. The piano player had a lot of solos, and later I read that the quartet has a "chamber orchestra" influence. I think I enjoy more uptempo, straight ahead stuff, but it was still great. Too bad we had our own peanut gallery seated directly one row behind us providing running commentary. (We also saw one of the pastors of our church a few rows ahead of us!)






(Pictures were not allowed, but I snuck one anyway...shh!)

Happy Birthday Zaza!

We celebrated my mom's birthday at Berkeley Dog in Irvine. k and n call her "Zaza" because she wanted a name other than "Grandma". At first, we thought "Sasa" would be cute, but k started saying Zaza, and it stuck.



Sampler of fried foods


We had fun playing with the Coke Freestyle machines. D made raspberry lemonade, cherry vanilla coke and orange coke, mixing diet and regular.


I think it is funny that there is a Berkeley Dog near UCI, and that these are the flags they chose to decorate the store. I realize that they have to pay homage to Berkeley since they serve the hot dogs from Top Dog, but it just seems weird. At first, I thought maybe they had all of the UC schools, but instead they just had a select few. Also, they had a helmet signed by Aaron Rodgers. I also find it funny that there are streets right around UCI named Stanford, Berkeley, and Marquette. I think UCI has a bit of an identity crisis. I noticed this Top Dog serves asian desserts (green tea, red bean sundae, etc.) Maybe that's the UCI touch? Actually, that comment would apply to several UC schools, so never mind.

Anyway, after dinner, the kids went home with my parents, and D and I headed out for our date night...more to come.

Gyro N Kabob

Wow...July came and went. k finished up her swim lessons, and even went down the slide on her last day (didn't think she would do it...I should have more confidence her, I guess).

I purchased a restaurant.com certificate to Gyro N Kabob in Tustin. It is part of a aging strip mall on Red Hill that is anchored by a Stater Brothers. There is a quite a variety of food there...L to R, a Korean-owned liquor store that sells homemade Korean food (bought a bag of frozen beef dumplings, will report back soon); pho restaurant ($3.99 bowls of pho on weekends), Tustin Pizza Shack; Gyro N Kabob (Afghani restaurant); Mexican bakery; Traditions (Indian restaurant).

As for Gyro N Kabob, we thought it opened at 11 a.m. on Saturday, but didn't open until noon, so we had to kill half an hour. We started with an appetizer called bolani. It was stuffed with potato and lightly pan fried. It comes with four pieces, but the kids couldn't wait for me to take a picture.

It was really good with the green sauce that comes in a squeeze bottle at all the tables. (The sauce went really well with the meats, as well).


Chicken kabob, reminded us of tandoori chicken.


Gyro plate, (beef and lamb)

The food was delicious, and came with a salad. The owner was very friendly with the kids and brought us out a pitcher of water so we could do our own refills, a nice touch. It was pretty empty when we were there, so hopefully it gets better business during other times of the week. It is fun to expose the kids to different types of food.