Faith

Omakase at Naked Fish

N and I have been wanting to try the omakase (chef’s choice tasting menu) at Naked Fish Bistro for a while and my birthday seemed like a great excuse to do so.

To order the omakase you make a reservation in advance and let them know if there’s anything you don’t eat (we said there wasn’t). And then when you arrive you’re presented with several courses of with delicious, beautiful surprises.

I don’t know if I remember the details correctly, but starting at the top and left to right:

hamachi / angel hair seaweed in vinegar / Kumamoto oyster
sashimi: scallop, hamachi, otorro, salmon
tempura sweet fish, mushrooms, and okra
egg custard with unni and crab
miso cod with pickled ginger root
lamb with mushrooms and potatoes
nigiri: torro, mackerel, gizzard shad
azuki bean mochi

The food was wonderful and it was felt luxurious to be able to enjoy it in such a leisurely manner (the meal lasted over over 2 hours) with N and our friends Satomi and Jens. It was a memorable evening.

Birthday Dinners

My birthday is later this week so tonight we went over to N’s parents’ house for a little family dinner.

It was delicious and we finished the evening with two (!) birthday cakes, one from our favorite vegan bakery in Salt Lake, City Cakes. Ever since we found out about E’s food allergies all of our family’s birthday cakes have been vegan and City Cake’s lemon cake is my favorite. It’s incredibly moist, almost like pound cake, and has a great flavor. I wish I had the recipe.

We’ll probably take the kids out for a low-key dinner (maybe fish tacos?) on my birthday and then on Saturday N and I are going out to eat at a Japanese place I’m excited about.

I always try to take full advantage of any excuses not to cook dinner 🙂

Room Mom

I don’t want to jinx it–but I think I have finally gotten my feet under me (phew!) The first month of school was crazy but I mostly have myself to blame. When we attended back-to-school night I noticed that there were two slots for people to sign up at room parents for E’s class. I had already signed up to help in the classroom and for class parties but it was later in the day and no one had signed up to be room parent yet so I put my name down for one of the spots WHICH I HAVE COME TO REGRET.

No one else signed up, so it’s just me being Room Mom. I think I’ve spent over 6 hours since school started writing and responding emails, creating spreadsheets to coordinate volunteers’ schedules, creating a calendar, attending meetings, emailing parents to get volunteers for the school carnival, emailing parents AGAIN to beg them to hep with the carnival because no one volunteered, etc…ugh.

But things seemed to have calmed down and in October the only thing I need to plan is the class Halloween party which shouldn’t be too bad. On the positive side, being Room Mom means that I have a fairly good idea of what’s going on it the classroom which is nice. E’s teacher is awesome–a fun, chill-but-firm man who has been teaching for 30 years. I was worried about E’s transition to all-day school but he has been doing well. I think/hope he’s going to have a great year.

First Day of School

Today was a big day around here–E’s first day of 1st grade (all-day school–ack!) and Mimi’s first day of preschool.

Today has been all over the place, emotionally. I often have trouble sleeping the night before a change in my routine and this morning I bolted wide awake at 4am, 5am, and then again at 6:10am, scared that I had missed my alarm and overslept. It was my first day driving a carpool to E’s school and I was nervous about being late to pick up the other kids.

E came home from school and told me about his new class. He said that he sat by a girl named Savannah and mentioned offhand that she called him “honey” and blew kisses at him and that they are BFLs (best friends for life). I think E is most excited that his classroom has computers in it which he can’t wait to use. I wonder if they get to play The Oregon Trail in first grade.

Mimi has been looking forward to going to school for the past year. She loves hanging out with other kids and has always been fairly independent so I knew she would have a fun time at preschool. As soon as we got to the classroom she went right in and started playing toys without even a backward glance.

I started to get a little bit sentimental and mopey about my babies growing up so quickly but then I went home and read a novel while I ate my lunch in blissful peace and somehow I cheered right up 😉

Two Koreas

Loved this flow-motion video of the North Korean capital. It’s fascinating but I’m still not convinced it would be a good idea to visit. (Three Americans are being detained in North Korea right now.)

And now for something very different, here’s a fun mashup of some of the top Kpop hits of 2014 so far.

Some of my favorite Kpop groups have new songs coming out in the next few months–so excited!

Sequim: Olympic Game Farm

The main purpose of our trip to Sequim was to visit the Olympic Game Farm which houses retired showbiz animals. You can drive through the farm and feed the animals (whole-wheat only!) bread.

We all (the kids, my mom, my brother Steven, and I) had a lot of fun. On the way home we got a much-needed car wash. Buffalo drool is quite, um, impressive.

Previous visits: 2009 and 2012

Sequim: Lavender Farm

While we were in WA we drove up the Olympic peninsula and spent the day in Sequim, a little town nestled in a sunny microclimate which allows it to be the lavender capital of North America.

We were mainly in town to visit the Olympic Game Farm but we stopped by one of the many lavender farms to look around.

Besides the incredible smell the most remarkable thing about the farm was the sound. Walk a few feet into the fields and you’re surrounded on all sides by the loud droning of bees. They were everywhere and made E nervous; Mimi was oblivious (as she often is).

The kids were feeling squirrely after being in the car all day, and so this is what happened when I asked my mom to take my picture with them.

After a pep talk (and a teeny bit of yelling) I got them to take a better photo with my mom.

Sequim is a great place to visit if you’re in the area. We usually do a day trip every time we visit my parents and I always look forward to it. Check out little baby E here on a previous visit.

Carol’s Beach

One of the great things about the Puget Sound area is that there are so many beaches. They’re usually rocky and muddy instead instead of sandy but are still a lot of fun for kids.

One of the the highlights of visiting Olympia is getting together with my friend Carol. On this last visit Carol packed a picnic lunch which we took down to her neighborhood beach and let the kids run around.

There was a little stream that ran under a bridge and down to the sound. The kids had so much fun exploring and splashing in the water.

We were the only one on the beach; it was wonderfully relaxing just to sit and chat with Carol and watch the kids play–so much so that I didn’t notice the time passing and ended up with an impressive sunburn.

My Korean Perm

I’ve heard good things about Korean digital or setting perms but there are no salons in Salt Lake City that offer them. So when I was up in WA I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get one.

Uploading my consciousness to the hive mind

Crazy looking, right? This machine is imported from Korea and uses heat and ceramic rollers to set the curls.

My mom took me to the Korean stylist she frequents. I was scared of ending up with an ajumma hair style, worries that were not assuaged when the stylist was sporting a very ajumma-ish hairstyle herself and didn’t speak much English.

But I showed her photos of what I wanted and she said that a setting perm and a cut with lots of layers would give me the style I wanted. I think she could tell I was a little nervous so she admonished me to trust her, so I did. Don’t mess with an ajumma!

I’m really happy with how it turned out.

The curls/waves are supposed to last for 6-12 months and are really low maintenance. My stylist said if I want more pronounced curls to twist my hair into ringlets as I blow-dry it or that I could just towel-dry my hair for looser waves which is what I usually do (and what I did in the photo above). If I feel like getting fancy I’ll put my hair up in two buns overnight and in the morning I have a ton of curls.

This is the first time I’ve done anything major to my hair and happy (and relived!) with how it turned out.

The whole process (cut-perm-style) took about 3 hours. I don’t remember all the different steps but Karen Cheng, an Australian blogger I follow, has a good post about her experience getting a similar perm.

Home from WA

We’re back from spending two weeks in Washington state. My parents and brother Steven still live in the area where I grew up, and it’s always nice to spend time with them and bask in nostalgia for a bit. We also spent a few days visiting N’s brother Ken and his family which was great too.

I took too many photos and will be sorting through them and posting my favorites in the next week or so, so check back 🙂