Weekend Update

Today is National Baked Alaska Day, but I'm not that ambitious. Instead, I will recap our weekend.


We went to an art-themed birthday party for this cute little 4 year old girl.

The kids had fun working on the mural.





n enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes, especially the chocolate chips

On Sunday, D helped organize an udon luncheon for 300+ people at our church.

(pre-broth)


Our pastor's niece is in the women's choir at Azusa Pacific University, Bel Canto.
They gave a concert after the luncheon, which the kids and I enjoyed. It was a good weekend.

Happy National Popcorn Day

Apparently, there is some dispute as to whether national popcorn day is today (January 31) or January 19. We're just going with today to keep up the momentum.


I made kettle corn on the stove using the recipe here. k was squealing with delight when the corn started popping.


n missed out on the pop corn popping, but he ate some when he woke up from his nap.

Happy National Croissant Day

I have decided to have our family celebrate national food holidays. I think it will help inspire me to try new things with the kids and break up the monotony. We'll see how long I can stick with it.

Today, January 30th happens to be National Croissant Day, which is a nice way to start.

Ralphs has 18 ct. packages of mini croissants for $5.99. Just thought that might be helpful for someone to know. They would be perfect for a tea party.

Unrelated to National Croissant Day: Someone thought it would be a good idea to drink his yogurt (k gave him the idea).

Gohan Bistro

My sister is now a quarter century old. To celebrate we went to a new restaurant called Gohan Bistro (parents had a Groupon). The interior is much nicer than its strip mall location. The regular waitress was not there, so service was a little bumpy in the beginning. I think it is described as "home-style" Japanese cooking, so no funky fusion rolls here. I ordered the tuna donburi, which is out of the ordinary for me. I just felt like trying something different.

They give you a LOT of tuna. Both D and I could not even finish it. It had a nice kick to it, added by the dollop of wasabi "salsa".

My mom had the tempura don. I thought it was good overall (I had some of D's tempura), but there were some unidentifiable pieces that were kind of strange.


D had the salmon combo. The piece of salmon was kind of on the small side, but with everything else (and the miso soup), it was a good amount for lunch.


The kids split a chicken teriyaki meal, and it was not enough for them. I thought it was interesting that it comes with macaroni salad. n is very unpredictable in his eating habits, so I never know if he is going to barely eat a few morsels or fight k for the last piece.

Just realized that I neglected to take pictures of my family. I need to work harder on that. :)

Happy Chinese New Year

Dinner courtesy of Pandy-X. Please don't judge.

2011 Football

Out of the three teams I follow, two had better seasons than in 2010.

Cal Golden Bears were 7-6 in 2011, two games better than in 2010 (5-7).
San Francisco 49ers made it to the NFC Championship game and were 13-3 in the regular season, 7 games better than in 2010 (6-10).

Only the Indiana Hoosiers had a worse season. They were four games worse in 2011 than 2010. 1-11 in 2011, vs 5-7 in 2010.

So not bad overall. The 49ers are back!!. However, the Hoosiers are as bad as ever. But one good thing is that they have no where to go but up!

Smoke Detectors and Tasti D Lite

We had a low key MLK weekend. I was complaining to D that we didn't do anything "blog-worthy". D jokingly told me to post about him replacing four smoke detectors (yes 4!). So, here you go:

Too bad I don't have a picture of him actually installing it. This one in particular, in our bedroom, was difficult because the ceiling goes up higher than a normal ceiling. I heard some sounds of frustration, but it ended with success.

We tried out a new place called Tasti D Lite. Their claim is that it is not ice cream, and it is not yogurt. That leaves me to wonder what exactly it is.

This picture reminds me that we need to cut n's hair. :)


We shared chocolate macaroon and mango yogurt (I guess they do serve yogurt also). The employee helping us was very enthusiastic/friendly, and directed us to a big sign and told us to look at all of their low calorie options. D was more interested in the sign so he could pick out one of the most high-calorie options (the yogurt)!

Have you noticed the trend of menus listing the calories next to all of the entrees? It is supposed to make everyone more health-conscious, right? Well, it has the opposite effect for D. Last week, D scanned the calorie counts on a restaurant menu just so he could pick out one of the more calorie-rich entrees. Oh, to be a runner!

The rest of the weekend was filled with going to the park, researching flooring options and watching television (football for D and Golden Globes for me).