Archive for the year 2008
Interesting Day Yesterday
Posted on June 22, 2008 by Ching under Life.
Patricia tried a new nostril hair waxing procedure on me. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. She is still perfecting the technique so she asked if Brian would want to be a guinea pig and try it. I told her he probably wouldn’t. He’s a big baby when it comes to hair waxing. However, I relented and said she could try asking.
She must be a really good salesperson, because she miraculously convinced Brian to give it a shot. I so wish that I had my camera phone in the room with me. Of course, I couldn’t see it while she was performing it on me. However, I was able to watch her do it to Brian. It’s pretty interesting.
She uses a cold wax, which is dark green in color. She applies it to your nostrils, being careful not to apply it too far inside. Your nostril hairs are there for a reason so you don’t want to remove all of them — only the unsightly ones closest to the opening. Anyway, it looked like Brian had gigantic boogers. It was a comical sight.
As soon as the wax is dry, she removes it. The hair is stuck to the wax and so it just pull off like magic. It is brilliant! Brian said that it really didn’t hurt, which is the same observation I made. Patricia trimmed his eyebrows and waxed his unibrow as a perk for agreeing to be guinea pig, I guess. Well, she is just really nice and she does that sort of thing. Brian said that getting his unibrow waxed hurt worse.
So there you have it. A relatively painless procedure for getting rid of those unsightly nostril hairs that seem to peek out at the most inopportune times. I think the procedure is about $10 to $15 bucks. I told Brian that he could just do this every couple of months instead of trimming with his nose hair trimmer, which he forgets to do anyway. LOL.
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Dinner at the Brubakers
Posted on June 21, 2008 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Travel.
We were supposed to have dinner with Brian’s parents on Friday night, but I found out on Tuesday that we had a phone system upgrade that same evening. I had volunteered to stay through the whole thing a couple of weeks ago, but had forgotten all about it.
Pam Joni and I stayed. It was supposed to finish at 11:00 PM on Friday night, if all went well. Things never go perfectly so we were there until almost 2:00 AM the next day. It still wasn’t finished so they all went back this morning. I couldn’t because I had a full Saturday with my waxing, April’s bridal shower, and poker. I had originally planned to work out in the morning, but I nixed that idea so I could get some sleep.
Anyway, dinner got moved to Thursday night. We brought the bottle of Malbec that we won at Carrabba’s. It didn’t go that great with chili dogs, but we drank some anyway. LOL. Here are post-dinner some pictures of Brian and Dave goofing off.
Here’s a picture of our pasalubong:
They brought us some chocolates also. Yum! We haven’t eaten them all yet. Anyway, here are some photos from their trip.
I’m hosting all of the photos on my Flickr. Check them out.
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Yet Another Reason to Love Carrabba’s
Posted on June 18, 2008 by Ching under Flickr, Food and Drink.
We just got home from a fantastic evening at Carrabba’s. We received an invite for a complimentary food and wine tasting to celebrate the return of the summer season. Ashley, the server who helped us on our last visit, recognized us and directed us to the appropriate area.
I had not had the opportunity to write about our last experience at Carrabba’s but suffice it to say Ashley was phenomenal. I was foolish enough to order a carafe of sangria for myself. I have no idea why I thought that I would be able to consume it all. By the second glass, I was already crying uncle. Ashley was not only attentive and friendly, but she anticipated our needs. Instead of having to ask what to do about the remaining sangria, she told us that she was checking with a manager to see if the remainder could be rebottled for us. They were able to do it and so we took the rest of my sangria home that evening. We had at least two more glasses left so it was really nice of them to do that for us.
Ashley dazzled us that evening with the quality of service she provided. We were so pleased that we sent a compliment to Carrabba’s via their web site. A couple of weeks later, we received a nice note back from the regional manager thanking us for sending the positive feedback. She also gave us a coupon for free appetizer or dessert on her.
When we ran into Ashley tonight, she thanked us for the compliment and told us that she got a free tie out of it. That is their form of recognition. That was really nice. I’m glad that she got recognized for her hard work and for going the extra mile. Joe, the owner, also came by and thanked us for sending the compliment for Ashley.
Brian said that Ashley told him that she saw our food blog in the paper a could of weeks ago, and she made the comment to him that the food pictures finally made sense. We get a few strange looks sometimes because I take pictures of everything I eat. Apparrently, Joe has seen the food blog too. I thought that was neat.
Anyway, back to the tasting.
The cheeses offered were romano and fontina. The wines from Jacob’s Liquor were as follows: Librandi Ciro Bianco 2007 (Calabria, Italy); Ducarosso Chianti Reserva 2003 (Tuscany, Italy); Montevina Terra d’Oro Zinfandel 2005 (Amador, California); and Pascual Toso Reserve Malbec 2006 (Mendoza, Argentina). The Jacob’s rep came by right before the tasting began and explained everything. He also came by to check on us a few times throughout the evening. There was a drawing for bottles of wine and dinner certificates that evening and we actually won a bottle of the Malbec. We are bringing it to Brian’s parents’ house tomorrow.
There were five courses during the tasting. Here are some photos:
The Bianco was paired with the crab stuffed shrimp and lemon butter sauce shown above. This was really good. The crab stuffing reminded me of crab cakes, which I love. I was really happy with it because then I got to enjoy crab and shrimp — two of my most favorite seafood items. Brian doesn’t usually like seafood, but he loved this appetizer. That’s truly a testament to how good it is. Oh, and the white wine is my most favorite out of the four options.
Incidentally, the crab stuffed shrimp is going on the specials menu in the next two weeks. I believe it will be offered as one of the special items for the next three months.
Next came the Mediterranean chicken salad and pesto vinaigrette paired with the Chianti. The Chianti was my least favorite of the four wines. This salad was really good, though. I thought the pesto vinaigrette dressing was fabulous. The chicken that they served with it the same chicken that is served in the chicken gratella dish. Brian and I both agreed that we could see ourselves making meals out of the salads on our next visit.
Then we had the veggie ravioli and roasted red pepper sauce paired with the Zinfandel. This was good, but I’m not a big fan of it because I’m not much of a veggie eater. I like my meats. The sauce is really good, though. The roasted red pepper sauce is the same sauce that they used to serve along with the crab cakes (no longer on the menu).
The veal marsala paired with the Malbec was the last food item. It was good, except I’m not too fond of veal. Our entire table agreed that this would be good with a tenderloin, or pork medallions, or something.
Finally, they served us mini mocha mousse desserts and pomegranate martinis. The chocolate mousse was superb. I think Brian and I have found our new favorite dessert. Too bad it won’t be on the menu for another month and a half. The pomegranate martinis probably would have been better had I not eaten dessert first. The sweetness made the martini taste stronger and more bitter. It was good pomegranate martini, though. Brian gave me his so I got his as a bonus.
It was a wonderful evening altogether. Joe came by several times throughout the night to provide us with more information about how the dishes are prepared and to see how we liked everything. We were really pleased with how smoothly everything went. And, we had the opportunity to meet some really fantastic people. Joe said that these tastings are normally held every third Wednesday of the month for $25 per person. The next one is on July 16. We might just do that and Bring Jan and Brian’s parents, too. I’m thinking they might enjoy it.
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Videos from Saturday
Posted on June 17, 2008 by Ching under Toys.
We participated in the Augusta parade and KMMH open house last Saturday, June 14. Here are some videos:
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Our Day with Grandma and Grandpa
Posted on June 15, 2008 by Ching under Family.
Brian and I took grandma and grandpa to lunch at Cheddar’s. It was their first time there. Grandma had the chicken tortilla soup. She said it was very good. Grandpa really liked the bacon cheeseburger. He said it was the best he’d ever had. We need to take him to TJ’s. LOL.
Brian and I split an entree of chicken and steak. It wasn’t too bad. Altogether the food was good. The service was was kind of blah. Oh, well.
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