Yum
I made Thai Coconut Sticky Rice this week and had extra mangoes left over. So I made a second batch this weekend. I used my mom’s secret recipe and used her microwave method. It rocks!
Family Time!
Saturday was filled with family time. In the morning, I gave the dog a bath in the backyard and he was NOT happy. It was sunnier on the driveway out front so we tied him up there to dry off and I busted out my picnic blanket from the trunk to join him. I took the sunshine for granted when I lived in SoCal but now it’s like a luxury to me. So sad. I laid out while reading my Kindle and later my mom joined me with a lawnchair. Yes, it’s pretty ghetto to be hanging out on the driveway (not even the lawn) but it was awesome and I got my Vitamin D for the weekend.
Later, we all went to the Cerritos Mall and watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It was fun sneaking in my Frozen Yogurt and hanging out with my family. The movie was pretty entertaining too!
For dinner, we drove down to OC to meet up with Marie and the boys. Cole is so big now and was super grumpy from being out in the sun all day. Brandon was his usual crazy self. The sushi was awesome and it was so nice to catch up with Marie.
When I hang out with her and the boys, it makes me miss living in Irvine.
Afterward, we dropped off my mom at home and then headed over to Ti and Thilan’s condo down the street. We were supposed to go singing in Garden Grove but this was just as good.
They were having an after-party for Titus’ 1st Bday and I got to meet Dominic, Krishani’s newborn. Melanie’s little girl Makenzie was also there and took a liking to Jes.
Surprisingly, she was pretty much attached to him the whole night and used him as a chair while we were singing. We were all confused and he actually didn’t mind the company.
On Sunday, we had lunch with my parents and drove back to SF. Luckily it took only 6.5 hours and we had a whole evening to hang out with another day to spare before going back to work. This was a good Memorial Day weekend.
Here are the photos from our weekend in Cerritos.
It was a long drive.
On Friday morning, we left the house around 9:30 am and had a pretty smooth drive with the exception of a 6-mile stretch near Buttonwillow where they closed the road to one lane. We even stopped at In-N-Out for lunch and the dog some time with his head out the window.
We got to Dodgers Stadium around 3:30 with another 1.5 hours to go. We had a dinner reservation for Lawry’s at 7:00 so we decided to just go straight to Beverly Hills instead of Cerritos. With about 2 hours to kill, we stopped at a park on La Cienega to walk the dog. Then we stopped at a local Coffee Bean to change our clothes.
At 6:30, we pulled up to the restaurant and valeted the car AND the dog! Heh heh. The valet guys were super cool about it and even rolled down the windows for him in the garage. The prime rib was yummy as usual and we also kicked in the standard peanut joke for my brother.
After dinner, we gave the dog to my parents who drove home and Brother took us to MILK for some ice cream sandwiches made with large French macarons. Yum.
We finally got to my parents’ house around 11:00 after a 14-hour ride from SF to Cerritos.
Lazy
We had a super lazy day today. I got up at 9:30 and lazied around until about 11 to walk the dog. Poor dog. Around 3:00, we finally changed out of our PJs and headed out to the dry cleaners and then had some lunch. We walked down to The Creamery, which is just down the street but we never considered trying it until today. I don’t usually blog about salads but I really enjoyed my hipster lunch. Mine was the baby arugula fresh mozzerella and tomato salad and Jes had the salmon crepe.
Afterward, we went home and watched the last half of the first season of Glee. I just started watching this season’s episodes and found Season 1 on Netflix. So, Jes and I watched the entire season on our DVD that streams “Watch Instantly” material. Yep, Jes likes Glee. Heh heh. It makes sense. He can actually hold a tune (unlike Brother and I) and has said that some of their versions are better than the originals.
For dinner, Jes smoked up the house while cooking the prime ribeye that we bought last weekend. It had been thawing in the fridge all week and was finally ready to cook before rotting. It was tasty and dog got a tasty snack too.
Afternoon in Napa
On Saturday, we took a little trip to Napa with the Agustins. We picked up sandwiches from Genova and looked for a place to picnic. At first, we stopped at Mondavi hoping to just sit outside in the sun to enjoy our sandwiches but that didn’t work out. The security guard came by and said they didn’t have a permit for it and proceeded to stand there until we packed up and left. We took a drive down the street and decided to just stop off the side of a small road for an impromptu picnic next to the railroad tracks. It turned out to be the perfect spot.
The next stop was Opus One where we got scolded for trying to throw our trash in their restroom. The front desk lady said they only had one trash can but she was lying. We found a dumpster out back and also 3 more trashcans in the restroom. Well, we still got a tasting and enjoyed a glass of wine with a beautiful view of the area.
The barrel tasting event was fun and Eleen had a good time tasting all the cheese too. Beemster was her favorite that day.
We also met the actual winemaker. She looked so normal and younger than we imagined. She was also so friendly and happy to talk to us about the different wines.
Before dinner, we stopped Alpha Omega for one more tasting and some time out in the sun. They have a pretty cool patio overlooking a big fountain/pool area. I also found out that they actually have a real picnic area! I think we’ll be back there the next time we have some sandwiches to eat.
For dinner, we went to Bar Terra. My favorite was the soft jidori egg and uni in a savory broth. Mm…what a nice way to end the day.
Here are the rest of the photos.
Late Q1 Visit
One of our New Year’s Resolutions is to visit the parents once per quarter. We were a little late but April is better than not at all. The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Cerritos was the warmth. I was outside with shorts, a t-shirt, and no hoodie. Aaaahhh…we lucked out on being home during a sunny 83-degree weekend. Even the dog enjoyed it. I took him out to the backyard and we lounged out in the sun.
On Saturday, we had lunch with Jes’ parents. We met up at a Chinese restaurant in Garden Grove and had a tasty tasty Chinese beef burrito that was fried. Mmm…
On Sunday, I took Jes back to Mitsuwa for his favorite bowl of ramen. He was afraid that it had been so long that the hype in his head was just that, hype. But it wasn’t! It’s still ranked #1.
After lunch we stopped at the Irvine house to check on it. It was really weird driving through the neighborhood and stepping into our little birdhouse again 4 years later. I was so happy to see my Japanese maple tree alive and HUGE! We cleaned up the pond and the neighbors came by to hang out like old times. Hopefully we’ll have renters soon.
On Sunday afternoon, we met up with the family for a big Thai feast. It was so nice to hang out with the cousins and their kids again. Makes me miss being away from them even more after I leave.
On Monday morning I had to get up really early to get to the BMW dealership to get our brakes checked. We got a big red warning light on the way down and it seemed pretty serious. It’s a good thing we got it checked out because we had to replace the brake pads AND rotors. Ouch. I guess it was a good thing we took Monday off.
The drive up and down I-5 was long and boring but totally worth it. 2nd Quarter ends in June and we’re due for another visit. Hm…when can we drive down again? I’ll keep you posted.
Here are photos from the weekend (and the Janet concert).
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