Mike’s Wine Dive
Posted on August 13, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Relationship.
On Saturday, the 4,020th day of marriage (also known as our 11th wedding anniversary), we decided to have a low key dinner at Mike’s Wine Dive. I think the last documented time we were there was Brian’s birthday a couple of years ago, so it has been a while. For our anniversary dinner, we wanted to pick a great restaurant that we don’t normally go to. Mike’s made Wine Spectator a few years already and we hadn’t been in ages, so Mike’s definitely fit the bill.
We started with Andrea’s hummus platter and deviled eggs.
Don’t let the presentation fool you. Yes, it looks messy and unappealing but it is so darn delicious. I wish they’d serve them by the dozen. LOL.
Brian shared a carafe of sangria with me.
The sangria at Mike’s is delicious. If I was a “happy hour” kind of girl, I’d be at Mike’s every night after work just for the sangria. LOL.
It’s so good, even Brian likes it.
Normally I would get the lobster mac & cheese, but we didn’t want to go too crazy so we opted for a smaller meal — chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Brian doesn’t like capers, but I thought they went great with the email. Mashed potatoes could have used more flavor, but I like my food really salty so it’s probably just me. It was fine and I didn’t complain.
Much to my disappointment the chocolate bag has been discontinued. What they had instead are these lame chocolate bowls. Execution is similar but it’s just not the same. The chocolate bag was awesome. This was just okay. It was enough to satiate my sugar craving, though.
Our server Corina was nice. She even took our photo. I’m not posting it because it’s not very good. Not because of her, but because of me. I just wasn’t feeling pretty that day. I wore my hair straight, which I haven’t done in a couple of years, and it looked really flat. That, and I’ve been feeling fat lately. Eating out probably isn’t helping but, hey, how often do you get to celebrate an 11th wedding anniversary? Some people never get there.
Here’s how we’ve celebrated in previous years…
2003: We went to dinner at Red Rock, followed by dancing at Copa Cabana and America’s Pub.
2004: Couples massage at Healing Waters and weekend at Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
2005: Most of our third anniversary was spent at the Historic Campbell Castle. We stayed in The Royal Court, the inn’s best room, for two nights. There may or may not have been a sex tape as a result of this weekend. 😉 Just kidding! We also got a couples massage at Healing Waters, our then favorite spa.
2006: We celebrated by going to Harrah’s NKC. We both played in a poker tournament. Brian took second place and won $400+ dollars.
2007: This was a big one because it was our fifth wedding anniversary. We wanted to do something special, but we couldn’t celebrate in August because I was in grad school and I didn’t want to miss classes or be unprepared for the start of the semester. We ended up celebrating a month early. We spent seven days at an all-inclusive resort in Jamaica and met some really cool people. For our actual anniversary weekend, we went to the drive-in. It was my first time.
2008: Our anniversary was sandwiched between a trip to Vegas for Cory and April’s wedding and then the WPT APL poker cruise so we pretty much just laid low. Brian got a new lawnmower.
2009: Couples massage at Serenity, Midwest Rockfest, Tanganyika. Nothing major since we had our trip to the Philippines coming up and we were focused on that.
2010: Dinner at Bonefish and dancing at Suede. We celebrated early because we had Logan stay with us during our actual anniversary weekend. I think this was the catalyst for our Friday night salsa ritual. We also went to see the Rush Time Machine Tour last August.
2011: This was the most exciting wedding anniversary celebration ever. I got an ambulance ride to the ER following dinner. Follow the link for the full story.
2012: We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house. Yup. We timed it so we actually signed papers on August 10. The real celebration happened in Kansas City a few days later, when we went to watch Journey perform — in the rain.
2013: This year we just had a low key dinner at Mike’s Wine Dive then went to see The Wolverine (great movie, by the way). The celebration continues later this week in Orlando. Of course, we celebrate our marriage everyday not just during our anniversary week. And that, my friends, is how you get to almost 15 years of being together.
Happy anniversary, baby!
Comment on This
New Saturday Routine
Posted on August 13, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Home Ownership, Zumba.
I want every Saturday to be like last Saturday. I’m actually looking forward to this new Saturday routine. I basically get to do two hours of Zumba — my own class at Evergreen at 9:30 AM and then Pam’s class at Orchard at 11:30 AM. I wish that there was less time in between classes so I didn’t have to sit around and wait so long to do the next round. Maybe I could move my class back to 10:00 AM. The 9:30 AM schedule has been really nice, though. If I could start my day even earlier, I would. No one wants to Zumba with me at 8:00 AM, though.
Here’s a picture of Brian bonding with Juan. They watch Saturday morning cartoons together while I teach my Zumba class. LOL.
Here’s a photo of me and Pam before her class started. I look like a mess already, but I had a head start and no outfit change between Zumba sessions.
The best part about Orchard Recreation Center (besides Pam’s Zumba classes, of course) is that it’s located just around the corner from my favorite Thai takeout joint, Thai House. So guess what we had for lunch that day. I know. Sorry, John.
I just couldn’t help myself. My love for food is probably the main reason why I will never, ever get skinny. I want to seriously lose weight, but I don’t want to miss out on all my favorite foods either. Ay, caramba!
1 Comment
Done and Done
Posted on August 4, 2013 by Ching under Projects.
Brian got these 70s era Star Wars blueprints from his dad several years ago. We finally pulled them out of storage recently because we wanted to use them to decorate the office. We had this crazy idea to get all of our favorites framed so we could hang them in the office. We had no idea that custom framing would cost so much.
Well, we kind of knew because we had some prints framed at Hobby Lobby several years ago, but I guess we’d forgotten. LOL.
We went to Michael’s this time because I found a 60% coupon for custom framing. Except, even with the coupon it was super expensive. As in, each frame was going to cost over $160 even after the discount. As many as we needed done, it was going to cost almost a grand for what we were trying to do.
We actually paid for the first two prints and everything. The nice lady at Michael’s said it would take a couple of weeks, which meant the prints would be ready while we were in Orlando. Anyway, as we were on our way out, I noticed that they were having a buy one get one sale on most of their frames. This got me thinking, why are we going to spend a grand framing these blueprints when we can do it ourselves for a fraction of the cost? So it’s not masterpiece glass? So what? The prints are just going to hang in the office anyway. Not like they’re gong to be on display in the living room.
So after buyer’s remorse kicked in, we went back to the custom framing area, apologized to the lady for being so flaky, and asked for a refund. We used $80 of the $320 to get four large frames and two smaller ones. We got a deal on those too because I had a 20% off everything (including sale items) coupon also. I’m Asian and I’m frugal. I’m all about coupons. LOL.
Here are some pictures of Brian hanging the freshly framed blueprints.
We did it the cheap way, but the prints look just fine.
These are the four big ones on the East wall.
The R2-D2 blueprint is framed by itself because of its orientation and, well, it’s R2-D2.
R2-D2 deserves to be in his own special frame. LOL.
The other blueprint that we framed separately is the mobquet landspeeder.
We didn’t originally plan to frame this one but we had an extra frame because of the BOGO offer. LOL. Anyway, I liked this one the best out of all the other blueprints that were left. So what do you guys think?
Personally, I think our office decor fits our nerdy personalities perfectly. I’m really happy with how the blueprints turned out. I’m even happier that we came to our senses and didn’t spend more than $80 on the whole project.
Comment on This
P.F. Chang’s – It’s Been a While
Posted on August 4, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Our friend Jorge was in town the other day and invited us to have dinner with him, Sid, and Laura at P.F. Chang’s. It’s been a while since we’d seen Jorge and even longer since we’d been to P.F. Chang’s, specially since we don’t live in that side of town anymore. We had a wonderful leisurely dinner with the group. Here are some photos…
Chang’s chicken lettuce wraps are a must have item at P.F. Chang’s. It’s their signature appetizer, kind of like how bang bang shrimp is to Bonefish Grill.
We also had some crab wontons, which I love, and spring rolls.
Sid ordered the flaming red wontons, which I didn’t try because I don’t like spicy foods. Brian had some, though. He said they weren’t that spicy.
For our meal, Brian and I shared our usual — Mongolian beef with eggplant instead of scallions. I love the eggplant at P.F. Chang’s. So yummy!
Jorge had the quinoa “fried rice” which is a special summer item. He says it’s his current favorite. Laura ordered some more chicken lettuce wraps and Sid had noodles.
I wasn’t going to drink, but couldn’t help myself because everyone else was. I had the Long Island rum tea which tasted even better than it looked.
I think it has been about a year since we’ve been to P.F. Chang’s. I’d forgotten how good the food is. Though I noticed that the prices are much higher also. I guess that’s inflation for you.
Anyway, here’s a picture that I found from our last visit to P.F. Chang’s… The photo was taken on August 3, 2012 when I was almost 15 lbs lighter than I am now. Man, those were the days! I’m going to have to stay away from P.F. Chang’s even longer if I ever hope to drop back down to that weight/size again. LOL.
Comment on This
My First Time
Posted on August 3, 2013 by Ching under Projects.
I did a presentation to a bunch of strangers (by strangers I mean people who are outside of our organization) for the first time via webinar. I hadn’t done that before. Thankfully my topic was something I was very familiar with — our quality assurance program at work (my area of responsibility).
Apparently I did a good job because I got this message from one of the First Quartile folks later that day. My work stresses me out sometimes, but it also makes me feel good. Compliments are always nice.
Last week was pretty much “presentation week” for me because the day before the First Quartile Community Insights Conference webinar I had to present at our Customer Care Quarterly Management Meeting also. Presentations are not my strength so I was pretty stressed about it, as you can imagine. So stressed that Brian and I found ourselves at the Nifty Nut House over our lunch break later that week.
While there I decided to get some treats for my team.
They all got little bags of chocolate rocks because they’re rock stars. Yeah, I’m nerdy like that. Have you ever had the chocolate rocks at Nifty Nut House? They’re yummy!
Comment on This
