Plus One

Priscilla Ahn - A Good Day

A good day indeed, but I'll let my brother share the news. Congratulations you two.

P.S. Natalie was a pretty close guess.

Elementary

Feist - Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming

I just returned from almost 6 days up in the bay, sunday night to friday evening. It was great; spent time with friends and family, ate way too much food, bought a new jacket, saw the sights and much more. This first Christmas away from home was definitely different but at the same time delightfully familiar with the whole family there (except for my dad). The only damper is that we had to come back home before dear Natalie was born. But it's ok, I'll have plenty of opportunities to spend time with my niece in the future. See you soon.

Last night was our pre-Christmas eve dinner. Mom smuggled a whole suitcase full of food up on Southwest Airlines and we finished almost all of it. Just a few bowls leftover for breakfast today...

Wilted

We didn't want her to come on the day Cal lost in the Poinsettia Bowl anyway.

Fashionably Late

Today is Dec 23rd- the baby's due date. It looks like, however, she is going to be keeping everyone waiting a little while longer. I guess we had better get used to her taking her time.

Maybe she has a flare for drama, and has been biding her time until Ba Noi (Grandma) is here? Well, she's here 'til Christmas!

Tanenbaum

We downsized the tree this year and it fits perfectly in our new layout.

We acquired a few new ornaments this year, and this one's my favorite. It's the iconic outdoor pool at Hearst Castle, and it's 3D.

Best & Worst of the weekend

This was the first weekend in months and months that we simply relaxed. It was blissful. with all the excitement of the baby coming and the holidays, we are stoked to just be able to chill just the two of us. Not many more of these weekends...

Bests:
- Nothing to move, assemble, clean, or organize!
- Put up and decorated our Xmas tree. House smells like Christmas now.
- Went to a movie- Avatar. Pretty good, solid B+
- Dinner at Laurie and Sophia's (and a homemade apple pie)
- Nap

Worst:
- I bought these poinsettia plants 3 for $12. Great deal, right? Turns out they are kind of sorry and make me kind of sad when I look at them.

Guessing Game

We had 55 people from the various baby showers make guesses on the baby's arrival date and time. So far, 8 guesses have already passed, including Liz's guess, which was yesterday at 4:15pm (we were shopping). The official due date is December 23. I guessed, December 20, 10:15pm.


The latest date? Guessed by Dina Gee- January 8, 8:37am!

Best & Worst of the weekend

Bests:
- Liz's last day of work before going on her maternity leave!
- Choosing a new rug. I know, we are are domesticated.
- Achieving 98% status on baby readiness.

Worsts:
- Realizing that 100% readiness is not possible. Oh well, she's coming any day now, ready or not.

Tonga

Thursday night Liz's parents took us to the Fairmont to celebrate what Lynn calls Liz's "semi-retirement," meaning the beginning of her maternity leave from her office. We checked out the giant gingerbread house, and then went downstairs to the Tonga Room for fruity drinks, the Tonga Buffet, and indoor rain (of course!). They do a great job with everything at that place. Click the photo above for more pics.

Happy Happy

Congrats M+C! a little video message from the Bay.

Garlic Fun Time

G made these great garlic noodles that were a hit Sunday and wanted to share the recipe with y'all. Two keys to making it authentic- crab butter, and you have to squat asian-style.

INGREDIENTS:
For the sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha
2 tablespoons michiu (rice cooking wine)
3 tablespoons kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
2 tablespoons mirin

For the noodles
1 pound fresh egg noodles, chow mein thickness
3 ounces unsalted butter
4 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 pound meat from a 1 1/2- to 2-pound Dungeness crab
Reserved crab "butter"
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Chopped cilantro, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Boil 3 quarts of water, and cook egg noodles to al dente, about 6-8 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinse in cold water and set aside.
Combine butter and garlic in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Once butter begins to brown and garlic gets fragrant (about 1 minute), add the egg noodles and stir until butter coats them evenly.
Turn heat to high. Continue to saute for 3 minutes, adding the sauce mixture and combining evenly with the noodles. Once noodles have been cooked through (2 minutes), add the crabmeat and "butter" (tomalley), if using, and cook for an additional 1 minute.
Stir in lemon juice. Serve noodles on a plate, top with cilantro. Note: Fish sauce, sriracha, michiu, kecap manis and mirin can be found at Asian markets. To extract "butter" or tomalley from a crab, lift off top shell and spoon out the thick yellow substance.

Best & Worst of the Weekend- Liz's Birthday Edition

Superb friends and family weekend with lots of bests including:

-Saturday night at Ben and Tina's in Pacifica, with gift exchange and beer pong, resulting in lots of holiday trash talking. Luckily we escaped before the poker started otherwise I'd have been $40 poorer I am sure.

-Secret Santa delivered an early present- a yard glass of beer complete with stand! AND a 32 of the High Life with roadside emergency kit!

-A full house of family and friends to help us celebrate Liz's birthday. We'll soon have another December birthday (we hope).

-G's new recipe crab butter garlic noodles- tune in later this week for more details.

-Raymond and Bo sharing great news!

-Mike and Caroline sharing great news!

And a couple of worsts:

-Missing Chen's fly-by visit Friday night

-Cal getting a Husky beat down in Seattle. Bowl-bound none-the-less...

Party Time

Jens Lekman - Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa Liz

Happy birthday Liz! (don't mind that the song is actually for a Lisa). I can't wait to say happy birthday to little Natalie in a few weeks.

P.S. I'm calling the baby Natalie until you reveal the name.

Buckshot Review

Last night we went to Buckshot for the first time (3rd and Geary). It was Viv's birthday, hence the Tuesday night outing.

In a previous life, it was Alpha Bar, and before that some Irish pub. It's present incarnation is super low-key and fun, with skee-ball (they host a league), some old-skool arcade games, and a great, small kitchen. The poor girl in her tiny kitchen was not expecting the 15 of us to descend on her on a Tuesday night, but she did an excellent job supplying us with pork sausage corn dogs (A), mac&cheese (B+), chicken fried bacon (surprisingly only a C), and sloppy joes (A+). $2 PBRs were the cherries on top. Definitely be back!