hello, fremont

hello, fremont, home to a seven tonne statue of vladimir lenin, a megalithic troll beneath a bridge, and the fuselage of a cold war rocket that proclaims that the small area is indeed the center of the universe. hello, too, to a fantastic greek restaurant that i did not think could be found outside kitsilano, where the servers speak greek (as opposed to when you go to any japanese restaurant and the owner and all the chefs speak korean, and to the untrained caucasian eyes and ears, no one knows the difference!). it satisfied my craving for dolmathes, and, surprisingly, "gyro meat" (ie meat sans the folded pita) that had exactly the moistness and flavor that i think all donairs on rotating spits should have, though they be turkish.









after wandering through the farmer's market in its off season and boutiques that boasted $500 sweaters, we found a very unassuming little chocolate shop on a side street back to the car, and it was brimming with every chocolate sample known to man, with women in blue gloves constantly breaking up more expensive bars for tasting. 425 degrees later and in the comfort of my home, we enjoyed lovely little hotcakes. we also made it to pike place, where i had yet another sesame red bean ball (best use of $1.75 ever), and then back across the 520 to bellevue square in the nick of time to go to indulge the crafty teacher friend with the container store and paper source. did i mention we slept in and went to the later church service to start our adventure past noon.....and dinner consisted of a very spontaneous baguette paired with rosemary infused beecher's cheese that we sliced with fabric scissors. the scissors also worked to half-up my sesame bean-ball, dim-sum-chopping style. we capped off our evening with my favorite movie, and several more rounds of carcasonne. thanks for a fantastically action-packed sunday, natasha, i had such a blast.

2 &1/2 boxes of penne....

...boiled itself into far too much volume for my very large serving bowl, and far too much food for 11 people irregardless of the crepes, rice (to which bao said: where's the meat?), and 5 bowls of spinach salad. meet jeff's cute new maltese, toby, and our game of cranium.

happy birthday, dad

we went to anthony's restaurant for brunch and they boasted some good bacon. perhaps next time i need not to order and just live off the fresh blueberry coffee cake and fruit platter they serve before the meal like other restaurants serve bread. i've been known to eat the equivalent of eight peoples' share of the bread basket.

my mom said the first thing jason park said to her at the wedding was, "are you just as crazy as ever?" she also said that vanessa had said i'd warned her about her. happy early birthday to my dad who said "yessssssssssss" and raised his arms in the air like a child on christmas day when he opened up the box to his lightweight cordless drill.

weekend

anthony may just well be the best singer that has ever hit our house... in tune and very, very loud. lotsa soul. aside from our wedding, we hadn't seen him in perhaps two years...and he brought along our classmate's sister, katty (anthony's spelling better be right). so all you out there that have yet to visit...please do! you'll always be invited back again, although be prepared to have your photo taken.

best man

this is a delayed post on my end, but thank you, thanh and gerry, for visiting. i love how i was so preoccupied with buying barbeque fluid, which we already had. i thought you'd be happy to hear that i bought two sets of barbeque utensils today...i don't know how we made it through an entire summer of grilling without any. thanks for the bathmat! it's kicka$$ soft and has inspired me to buy towels to also coordinate with the gorgeous marimekko shower curtain that natasha and nicole got for me.