Kid A smiles!!!!

This almost never happens, especially around me. I can't even get a hug. Ah well.

Robot in Disguise

Makes ya sound and look like Optimus Prime. Kids have such cool toys these days!

Logan Pt. 2

Tiff and Ituha should be looking into modeling Logan. Really. Like many mixed race kids, he's downright beautiful. And smart. Kinda like nature is saying, "Yep, this is the right thing to do."

Logan

My nephew Logan Cloud. Five year old kid. We should find a way to bottle his energy.

Dad with his snow blower.

We guys love our toys... er... I mean TOOLS.

Aliens Ate my Brain

Brain sucking monster. Logan's toy alien.

I was impressed - this was part of a space adventure play set made by Matchbox that had absolutely nothing to do with any movie or cartoon. It was just a good old fashioned space playset. We had a lot of fun with it, and Logan loves the thing!

Detroit Airport (DTW)

Kid B and (gasp!) Kid A!

Wong Can Cook!

King of All Stir Fry, William Wong.

Little Girl Rockin'

Kid B and her new Fender Affinity Strat. Within 15 minutes she had picked out the first notes of "Surprise Symphony." She's not happy about what it's doing to the nails of her left hand, but art has it's price.
Rock on, Kid B!

Merry XXXmas!

You can't really see this, but they'd modified the lighting scheme so that this lawn decoration resembled a naked obese woman. Crazy!

The Gals

Wendy and some of the ladies at the "reception" dinner.

Wines Galore!

Yes, that's really a hat.

"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

Kid B thought I was joking. Pickled Pig's Feet.

IKEA Funny Hat Day

Word Use FAIL

"Bizarre Today."

In-deed! LOL!

Dinner Instructions

Wendy was working late at Tzu Chi.

6th Grade Concert!

Kid B and her classmates at the 6th Grade Band Concert. She got to lead the whole band onto and off of the stage! She played for me last night, and she's really getting the hang of the saxophone!
Good job, Kid B!

A Malay Specialty, combined with Chinese

Salted fish jalapeno eggplant, cocoanut rice (nasi lemak), curry rendang, and Winter Mellon soup!

SURPRISE!!!!

We are now officially MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!
I am.... so lucky. I only hope she is as lucky as me!
I really seriously almost cried during this...
We had the youngest Judge I have ever seen. Seriously. I think she might have been 19.

Living legend

Not every day that you have dinner with someone who history will remember as the pioneer of an art form.

Si Chi Ko and I got to talk a bit about the change in media from film to digital, and the how that removes about 75% of the "control" of the art form - film development, enlargement, and paper development are all areas of control and change, and with digital they're gone. Please, no lectures about Photoshop. I've been using it since version 3, and it's never going to be the same as an in-enlarger Sebattier effect.

During the "photo op," Si Chi Ko looked up at me... then up at Wendy... and began JUMPING. William Wong, the photographer, was good enough to get the shot - way to go William! What an excellent shot showing the character of the artist! Fun guy! I loved it when he was showing some of his portfolio to the conservative (mainly) Taiwanese folks, and he pulled out this outrageous nude of a man and a woman, facing each other, so the shot was from the side, angling angrily toward each other, backlit so ALL their body hair was just glowing, and the woman was about 8 months pregnant, and holding an antique movie camera.
He held it up, and the room went... silent.................. LOL!

Dinner with Si Chi Ko

The Taiwanese "Ansel Adams".

Lasagna, Giggle Style!

Lasagna with Asian Fusion, plus the best eggplant ever, with stir fried vegetables and vegetable soup!

Dinner time - again!

The aforementioned prawn salad, fat Viet noodles stir fried with beef and bean sprouts, One Kind of Bok Choy-like vegetable, and lotus root soup.

If you were reading a food review column, it would probably say something like, "...all this for only $40/person!"

It's like I'm suddenly living in some trendy, expensive fusion restaurant in Scottsdale.

Prawn Salad

Gigi's first attempt at prawn salad.

This has... Apples in a mayonnaise sauce, with prawns, and walnut halves coated in brown sugar and baked.

It sounds weird, but it's incredibly delicious.

First Cake!

Giggle's first ever cake from scratch!

Blueberry Chocolate. This is what happens when you leave Chiau Gy alone in a kitchen for nine hours.

Diet FAIL.

LOL!

UPDATE: 9:40pm. I ate a piece of the cake, after an hour or so of recovering from dinner.
My God.
It's not just chocolate, with blueberries on it, and cherries here and there. It's chiffon chocolate with blueberries IN it, hand made icing, and hand-ground dark chocolate sprinkles.
I was a bit concerned about the icing - remembering Gigi's aversion to "too sweet" things, like cake icing.
But THIS... not too sweet. Not too UN-sweet. Perfect, like you'd expect from someplace really expensive.
And it's from scratch. Like, starting with flour and milk. Nothing from a box (the cherries and blueberries were a pie filling, but only because that was convenient.)

My poor "Betty Crocker" strawberry cake with vanilla icing tasted like it was made out of wax compared to this.

It was even well decorated, for a first try! I'm sure Gigi will be practicing more. And I'll be the guinea pig. Last year it was cheese cake. This year chiffon cakes.

Goodbye, waist. Hello "Big Men's Clothing Shop".
:-/

Mmmmm! Squid Juice!

Now I know how to punish Kid B! LOL!

After we left Lee Lee's Market, we went to China King to eat. We've gotten to know Mike and Joyce, the new owners, and generally stop by there once a week.

We were eating, and Kid B was actually enjoying the tentacle-containing dishes, when a group of people Wendy and I know from Tzu Chi came in, led by Francis. Francis is Tzu Chi's organizer, and they were having a sort of belated wedding dinner for a couple young people. Francis insisted that we have the restaurant staff box up our dinner, and for us to join them. We tried to decline, but Francis does not take "no" for an answer! LOL!

So we spent the evening talking to Francis' son Sam (who I met last year - he's a young engineer, and also loves Porsches,) several of his friends, and some of the younger girls of Francis' family.

We had fun, and then left after an hour or so to continue our grocery shopping.

Reflections

Sometimes these things just... happen. We just have to be observant to notice them. This one stopped me in my tracks.

Queen of the Cheese Cake

Blueberry and Cherry, on top of cheesecake with orange in it. Delicious. The dinner party started wolfing these down before Thanksgiving dinner was even served.

"Mawwiage! Mawwiage is wot bwings us togevah today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dweam..."

We're Licensed to Wed! :-)

Sad Giggle....

Poor Giggle! So sad here.... She thought I said "meet me at the office" and I said "meet me at home" so she was so saaaaaaaaaad.

We'll get the marriage license tomorrow. Don't be sad Giggle!

Jeet Kune Giggle!

I found this "Enter the Dragon" looking t-shirt in a box of winter clothes. I immediately forced it on Chiau Gy. Isn't she cute! hehehe!

Just an old door...

I like urban decay. How much security are those shiny locks really giving?

Dinner time!

Blackened salmon steak, white rice, pepper salsa with shrimp, and tofu and "one kind of vegetable" soup. :-)

Batgiggle

LOL!!!

Again, time for dinner!

Chiau Gy is turning my blog into a food blog. hehe!

Today, on coming home, I was greeted by my tall graceful girl preparing pan fried salmon steaks accompanied with fresh mint leaf and onion dressing, One Kind of Mellon soup, and with a side of yet another Chiau Gy Original Creation involving farfalle pasta, chili sauce, and green onions.

Dessert was a fresh blended blackberry and blueberry yogurt smoothie.

How much would that be at a local restaurant, if you could find it??

Fusion Dinner!

You have to be careful when leaving Chiau Gy in a kitchen alone for nine hours. You'll wind up with something like this...
She put together a bunch of stuff, including spaghetti, a few kinds of cheese, pasta sauce, ketchup, thai chili sauce, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, and a few other things, baked it in the bowls, and wound up with something you'd not blink at paying $20 for at a restaurant.
Top it off with fresh, home-made cole slaw on sliced tomatoes as a side salad.

She is the kind of person who can make a banana split sundae even if she has no bananas, no ice cream, and no chocolate. It just... happens!

LAX Tom Bradley Terminal

Wendy and her parents, about to say "goodbye for now" before they boarded good ol' China Airlines Flight 007 from LAX to Taipei! That's my usual flight out as well.

I think her parents had a nice, relaxing time here. They at least know their daughter is in a comfortable and safe place. It's not the Taj Mahal, but we're working on it. :-)