Shout-out to Puops

Taken last year during Chinese camp

The kids are certainly lucky to have Puo Puo and Dae and I are certainly lucky as well! She has had them all week while we were out hitting the city and now relaxing at home (and that's no walk in the park).

I go to pick them up tomorrow. Can't wait to see them! As always, a huge thanks, mom!!!

(p.s. I had exactly two chores to complete while I had my time alone at home: Clean out the garage and purge the boys' toys. I would say I did it to about 80% completion. That's good enough for me right now :)

NYC Wrap-Up

We returned home last night from another fun and food-filled fest in NYC. The gloriousness of eating out in a big city!

1) Sushi Nakazawa: We watched "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" a while back on Netflix and were tempted to go all the way to Japan just to eat at Jiro's restaurant. We obviously didn't make it to Japan so we settled for his apprentice's (Daisuke Nakazawa) restaurant in New York. Reservations were hard to come by and we had to get online at 9pm exactly 30 days prior to the date to secure a spot at the sushi bar, but it was worth it. He served up 21 pieces of sushi and it was absolutely delicious!

Funny notes about the restaurant: You can use your hands or chopsticks. He says either is fine. He wants you to eat it right away to experience the correct temperature of the fish. There is no soy sauce on the side so no dipping. There was ginger. He angles the fish at 45 degrees to you. So if you're right handed he angles the fish at 10/4 o'clock. He noticed everyone who was left handed and angled theirs at 8/2 o'clock. There was a total of 10 people at the bar. The scallops were so fresh they still moved when he touched them on your plate. He killed the shrimp in front of us! Just split them in half and took off the shell. Then we ate them :)

I loved the first mackerel, the tuna, the chicken grunt fish (weird name), the two smoked fish, the tamago at the end, and the yuzu sorbet. The only one I didn't like was the sea urchin.

He posed for pics with everyone

Their time has come

3 types of mackerel

4 types of tuna - albacore to toro

2) Balthazar: I had heard about Balthazar for years but thought it might just be a tourist trap. We ended up trying it for lunch and it actually felt like being in Paris. A little pricey for lunch, but it was a nice experience. The beet salad was really, really good and the coq au vin was just ok. Seemed kind of dry.

Bad photo, but captures the restaurant well

3) Soho: We were already in Soho and I remembered the Kardashian's store was in Soho! So of course I had to drag Dae there and snap a photo. The store was small, and definitely nothing to write home about.

4) SoulCycle: I had also heard of SoulCycle through all of the fine literature that I subscribe to (magazines) and tried it out on Sunday. The music was absolutely thumping - it was so energizing. I hate cycling and even I was energized. It was 45 minutes and it was pretty hard, and I wasn't even spinning nearly as many revolutions as the instructor or some of the really fit people in the front row. (But seriously it's $35 per class - how is that even sustainable for regular people? Luckily, first-timers get a a special rate of $20 and free shoe rental.)

5) Chelsea Market: Recommended by a friend at work. An indoor market with lots of food and merchandise vendors. It was a nice cool break from the hotness!

6) Other stuff:

Dae's new shoes from the Clark's store. With all the sophisticated shopping options in New York, we ended up going for the 2 for $99 shoe special at Clark's (I got in on 2 pairs) and a couple of hours at Bloomingdale's. We are officially on our way to senior citizenship!

Out & About in NYC

1) Eating

Nice Green Bo restaurant in Chinatown. It takes second place to Joe's Shanghai for soup dumplings, but the green onion pancake was really good.

Jongro BBQ in Koreatown. Very delicious.  James & Gina, who we meet up with every time in NYC.

Some sort of chiggae - Korean soup

Fried ice cream at a street fair in Harlem

Chicken kebabs in Harlem

2) Museums: We never go to museums in NYC, but made the exception to go to the Museum of Moving Image in Queens to see the Mad Men exhibit. Really cool - they had the actual sets from the kitchen and Don's last office. The detail with regard to the 50's and 60's sets is amazing (like the stapler, and typewriter, chairs, desks, notebooks, pencils and pens, phones, the crackers above the fridge, the appliances, the cleaning supplies)

3) Hitting the Bronx for a Yankees game! Yankees vs. Mariners, Yankees won 2-1

A-Rod! He's designated hitter these days

My hairstyle-of-the-trip. Braids. It is so hot and humid - can't wear hair down in any way.

Me and Jeter

4) Getting Groomed

Dae was 38-years overdue for some eyebrow grooming. They did eyebrow threading for $5 in Queens. Price was right!

Much neater, less mad-looking-eyebrow Dae

Foot massage (and back massage) in Chinatown. This place, Zu Yuan, was awesome. $75 grand total for Dae's 1 hour foot massage and my 30 minute foot massage and 30 minute back massage.

Sleepin'

5) Star Gazing

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys were seated in the row behind us on flight from SEA to JFK!

Obama's caravan passed by me 2x in New York. Barricaded streets, lots of police cars and tinted black SUV's - like 30 vehicles in a row.

I don't think we will ever see such a traffic-less street in New York City again

6) Riding the subway

Dae spotted a big old subway rat (with a long tail) along the tracks.

Our hotel is one block from Grand Central Station. It actually does not make subway travel easier, since it takes forever to get to the correct train within Grand Central. Better bet is just to catch one of the street subway stops.

7) Touristy Stuff

Pretty view of Empire State Building from a rooftop bar

Yes, karaoke. First time in 15+ years? I am terrible! Dae, after a few beverages, was surprisingly on-key but was also very loud.

Pretty building, don't know name

Pre-New York, we drove with the kids to Seattle on Thursday. I-90 was closed for rock blasting so we made a stop in Roslyn, a cute little town where Northern Exposure was filmed. It's quite small and I am not sure which streets were on film, but here it is. Kids were already decked out in their PJ's when we made the unexpected pit stop.

Cousins with their Longhorn attire from Aunty Ev and Uncle Jeff's trip to Texas. Olin is laying on the floor. See next photo...

Little Olin passed out post-tantrum.

This tantrum face. It's permanent, I think.

Two Little Lees, Sittin' in a Tree

Tree in our backyard. They're both in there, but Leelee is camouflaged a little bit.

In major breaking news: Olin fell off the jungle gym yesterday and I saw a bloody lip and minorly bloody gums. I was hoping and praying it was not the sister to the tooth that was lost prematurely last year, but my hopes were dashed when he pointed straight at good old Tooth #E. Otherwise known as the lone remaining central incisor. It's slightly mobile. Sometimes these teeth will tighten up on their own, sometimes they are totally fine, sometimes they darken over time but are still fine, and sometimes they become so mobile they have to be taken out. I am hoping for either of the first two outcomes!

Summer Camp(sssss)

I signed Christian up for a million summer camps this summer, plus his first piano lesson. Not intentionally; they just all sounded interesting and before I knew it he was signed up for one after another.

Reading/Math computer camp at Jefferson Elementary - 4 weeks
Swim and Tennis camp at CBRC - 1 week
Piano Lessons - weekly
Science Camp at Columbia Basin College (CBC) - 1 week
Chinese camp with my mom in Bellevue - 1 week
Golf Camp at Buckskin golf - 3 days
VBS at Richland Baptist Church - 1 week
YMCA soccer - 6 weeks

He has been going to Science Camp with his classmate Zohair. Dae and I thought he would really enjoy it, and he most certainly does. He has a very curious, very scientific mind. Always trying to figure things out, and quite successful in figuring things out!

Self-application of sunblock for Science camp

Olin was searching high and low for his own camera to take a picture of this jelly bean. I finally told him he could just use my camera to take a picture of it. He then said he wanted to send it to Adrienne to show her his potty treat.

The boys made this train, and Leelee gave us a very detailed description of all the different compartments. The red couch is actually made up of a 'front lobby' and 'main lobby'. (Where he learned to effectively use the the word lobby I have no idea). Olin is holding a service tray with beverages.

Christian's First Day of Piano!

He did well! I love Onnie (my piano teacher, and now my and Leelee's). These are my piano hopes and dreams for him:

1) I hope he likes it
2) I hope he practices
3) I hope he does not beg, for years, to quit, as I did to my mom.


Below: That crazy Olin sitting backward, naked and sandwiched behind Baba while Baba researches New York restaurants.

Sidenote: Olin had an epic tantrum last week at their first (and only) day of CBRC day camp. I had to leave work early at 4pm to pick them up. They told me that, as they had taken Olin on a 'trial basis' (he's not 4 yet, and their minimum age is 4), it 'wasn't working out'. Eek.

So, August 9 marks a very important day of us as our nanny will finally be returning from China. Luckily I did not schedule many days of work this month. Olin would have had to fend for himself!

(Oh, and apparently he did not want to leave the swimming pool and that set off the hour of total mayhem.)