Ah pasta. Mushroom ravioli with garden sage tossed in butter and olive oil and topped with fresh ground pepper. Simple and delicious.
Our magical pineapple plant appeared again this year. Out of 2 big pots, we had about 4 pineapples. This was by far the biggest.
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Solar Conference, Anaheim 10-26
Seeing as we were going to be in Anaheim for 2 days, instead of booking a room at the Sheraton or Westin, we stayed at the happiest place on earth. Ah Disneyland, the Grand Californian. For kicks, I told them it was our anniversary. I know they are fast and loose with special occasion mementos and aside from the big "Happy anniversary" buttons, the two queen beds ended up like this:
You'd think one bed would be more romantic....
The next morning, we were having breakfast with our business partner but it's a bit hard to concentrate with the life size chipmunks harassing you every 5 minutes.
Truth be told, the breakfast at Storytellers Cafe was good and the best part were the mickey waffles. Even Mark was impressed. And he hates mice.
I made my rounds of the convention on the second of the three days. That evening, we had dinner at Napa Rose and then attended the private party at the park. Too bad the Indiana Jones ride was down. That's the best one, I think.
The next day, my plan was to visit the Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus Outlets. That was interesting. I ended up with my first pair of Louboutins. Yeah!
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Thanksgiving
What a great day. Workout, massage, dinner at Anisette with the in-laws and then Kooza at the pier. An amazing Cirque du Soleil experience. Go go go if you can.
The weekend was spent in Las Vegas. Eating and drinking punctuated with sleep and tennis.
Aureole, B&B, red square, verandah, kapit bahay, my new favorite bar Parasol Down at the Wynn. Highlights include
fresh donuts at Vernadah, white truffle pasta at B&B, not having by throat close up completely at B&B after drinking the first oz of wine from a new bottle (scary) and kare kare at kapit bahay.On Saturday, we booked a tennis court at Ballys for two hours and that was great fun.
Whenever we check into the Four Seasons, they leave kid welcome things for us. That's left over from when my sister and her family came to Vegas with us. I don't want to correct them, cuz it's fun to see what they come up with.
Post B&B and then a nightcap at Parasol Up. (Down was closed)
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Chicago 12-02-09
In lieu of traveling to Chicago during the nutty holidays, I decided to visit in between but also for Frances's birthday.
Asusual, the kids were super cute.
Asusual, the kids were super cute.
They even put the tree up. Hey, Santa hasn't been here yet!
On Frances's actual birthday, I made pasta imported from Santa Monica. Troppo tartufi just like I like it. I even brought in my truffle shaver. To hell with TSA!The next night, Jun was kind enough to babysit while the girls went to Bon Soiree. I had read about their 13 course tasting menu and by golly, I wanted to try it. We were told to be there by 6pm and I thought that was way too early. I was wrong. We didn't roll out of their until past 11. Five plus hours and 14 courses later.
Here is a small sampling of what we had:
This was a marshmallow scallop. Or was it scallop marshmallow? Either way, if you overthought it, it would be lost on you. Just eat, don't think.Did I mention the place is BYOB? I would love to come back here with a few more people and really wine taste at the same time.
In any event, it was a great dining experience. The service was perfect and unbeknownst to us, our server had been pointing us out to other diners impressed with the ease with which we finished each dish. Yup, we are pigs, check us out bee-atches.
The next night, Justin and Melissa were on kid duty so Jun, Frances and I could go out.
We ended up at Otom.
TRENDY.
The food was hit and miss. Mac and cheese-too salty. Short ribs-delicious.
The best part was the miscommunication between the servers and the bartender. As a result, we ended up with three free glasses of wine.
The plan was to go hear some blues after but wouldn't you know it, we ended up at Margies Candies and had hot fudge sundaes.
Scratch that, I also ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. I needed to try one. Old school. It reminded me of eating at Wags when I was in gradeschool.
Yes, Wags, the diner attached to Walgreens.
Saturday night, was the cousin party. Good times.
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