Ramen noodles

The other night Chris and I went out to dinner. We have a whole list of restaurants that we are wanting to try, so we headed toward a new place, Ramen Setagaya. Yes, they serve ramen noodles. Apparently making them is an art in Japan, so we decided to try the New York version of this Japanese specialty.

After just a 10 minute walk, we were at the door. Unfortunately, the first thing we saw...

CASH ONLY

This is not uncommon around here. But we are both bad about carrying cash. We didn't think we had enough for dinner, so our next stop...



Okay, now we're ready for ramen yumminess.







I would have a hard time repeating what it was that we ordered...





One of us had the fatter noodles, one had the skinnier noodles. Both dishes were very good! And it was a fun experience - all of the staff was japanese, and many of the patrons, so maybe this place is somewhat authentic.



I'd go back, but it isn't at the top of my list - I have so many other places to try!

We finished out the night with a stop at...



Milk Bar! My favorite dessert place. I think I've mentioned that they have different flavors of soft serve every month.



I had to try the Red Licorice - I LOVE red licorice. The ice cream was tasty. But I hadn't been there for a few months and had to have some delicious cereal milk. Chris got Sour Gummy soft serve.



He said it wasn't as sour as he had hoped. I liked it because it wasn't as sour as I had feared.

MOMA

No, I'm not crying out for my mother... Last week we went to the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA. It was such a fun day. I got off work at about 9 in the morning after working overnight, and I'd gotten a few hours of sleep so I was ready to do something fun. It was Thursday, Chris's day off and the start of his weekend since he has been working Saturday through Wednesday. Chris was the official photographer of the day. We went out to lunch at a place in our Diner's Deck, Bill's Gay 90's. I thought this would be a rowdy, college-type dive bar... I was really wrong. It was a little on the fancy side. Everything was very tasty and we saved $10 with our card. We still have about 50 more cards to go, and only six months left in the year... anybody want a $10 coupon to a Manhattan restaurant??



Then we met Jasand, who got us free tickets. Thanks, Jasand!! Chris hadn't been to MoMA before. It was more crowded than I expected for the daytime.



The museum is arranged in a timeline style, so you go through the older works first, up to the most recent stuff.



I think the most recent works are more interesting but I was pretty tired by the time we got to those.







I'll have to come back another time and start at the end!



Its funny how walking around and looking at art can wear you out.



This was one of my favorites - I loved the texture and the detail. I can't remember who the artist is (terrible, I know!) but it was in the same room as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, George Orozco so I'm assuming a mexican artist.



Then we went to happy hour but didn't take any pictures of that. :) Hopefully more posts soon!

Trip to Virginia

Last weekend, I had a fun opportunity to see my dad and stepmom, along with my niece and nephew, in Virginia. My dad and Joyce had driven out to spend some time with Joyce's daughter Tina and her family, and they watched the kids over the weekend while Tina and Mike were out of town. Unfortunately, since I was there over the weekend, I didn't get to see those two but I did get to have some fun with Tyler and Hayden. On Saturday when I arrived, my dad, Tyler, and I went right away to play some putt-putt.







Tyler's favorite hole (and mine too!) is one where you hit your ball into this stream at the tee, and then it goes down the stream and flows over a grate at the end and into the hole. Or you could go the boring route and just hit it down the turf, I guess. But we didn't do that!



Last time I visited, my camera battery died and I didn't get any photos of Hayden, so I made sure to have everything fully charged this time!









Like most toddlers, Hayden is very active! I got a lot of action shots.



You can see that Kaldi, their black lab, knows exactly where to hang out for maximum snacking opportunity.



I got to play some Wii with Tyler. I really think Mario baseball is one of the most fun games I've played on the Wii. I am starting to be convinced that we need to get one...





Lilly may not have figured out the hang-out-around-the-highchair bit yet, but she sure did love to give Hayden kisses. For the most part, Hayden just giggled.



I tried to get some nice shots of the kids with Mimi and Grandpa Don...













Fun was had by all!

Jeff and Shauna's wedding

Okay, as usual, I am a couple of weeks behind in my blog postings. But we went to Jeff and Shauna's wedding last week in Colorado, and it was a great time! Everything was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the actual event. I was filming, believe it or not! I filmed (I want to say "I videotaped" but there was no actual tape... so I'm not sure what terminology I should use!) the ceremony and parts of the reception. That was a lot of fun and it is fun to get to use our video camera.

I did, however, get some shots earlier on the big day. Chris must have done something nice for Jeff because he got the awesome job of picking up a keg at New Belgium for their reception. He brought the crew with him, and we all got to enjoy a few samples before the guys moved along to help get ready for the evening.

















As for the rest of the day, I'll follow the lead of Hans and post the photos from the photo booth - which was an awesome wedding idea. I think we may be stealing that one.

Wedding mania

I have to admit it - I have wedding fever. I literally lay awake when I'm on call at work, thinking about wedding stuff. It keeps me up! Argh! But I am having so much fun. Many of the things I'm doing are DIY, but this far in advance, it is hard to tell if I'm biting off more than I can chew. I love the things we've completed so far, and I want to believe I'm on schedule for getting everything done. But I guess we'll see!

I want lots of the things we're planning to be a surprise to people, so I don't want to talk details or post photos. I just had to say how much I appreciate Chris for putting up with my insanity! When I told him today about the wonderful plan I have for lighting the reception site, I thought he was going to nix it immediately. (I almost wanted to be talked out of it...) But he just asked a lot of questions and talked about how he thought we could do the logistics better. What a guy! I am definitely marrying the perfect man.