Dinner @ Daniel

Hey Mom, do you like my dress?

Yes, I like the dress. But what shoes?

Remy, Sky & Mikki

Have you ever gone out for dinner and come back from an experience?

Seth celebrated 27 birthdays before we met. On Saturday, the two of us, with our three children (21 years worth, but I digress), put on our grown up clothes and headed into Manhattan to celebrate his 27th birthday together since we met 10,000 days ago. OK, it is his 54th birthday but it is so much more fun to look at it in numbers.

Mikki, who will be 8,000 days old in a few days, and Pierre, her ami, planned a dinner party for us at Daniel that was extraordinary and wonderful. Here we are in the kitchen with the magical people who create these culinary works of art everyday. I realized that my days of planning birthday parties for my children are coming quietly to an end. Two are voting, the youngest now has a deep voice that squeaks only when the other two pin him down to be tickled. They don’t believe in Santa Claus, or Hanukah Harry. But I know they believe that some things are worth suspending your world for to celebrate, like love in its achingly precious beginnings. And love that is 10,000 days old.

dans la cuisine

Year of the Poodle: Big Lug Big Love

Stuff Seth says

Guys say the most amazing things.  Things  that would never cross my mind in a million years.  Or my friend Andrea’s.  Here are a few examples:

1.  What David said after our run

“Softscrub in the shower works great.”  David said.  “I use it on my body, on the tiles and if I’m still in my bathing suit I wash that too.  I do three things at once.  No brainer!”

“How can something that can take mold off your bathtub be good for your skin?”  I was mystified by his disregard for the unleashed power of bleach disinfectant yet I marvelled at his logic.

“You do it once a week.  It shakes up your cleaning routine, sort of like interval training when you want to kick up your running.”

Andrea brought a plate of fresh fruit to the table and shot me a you-pick-your-battles smile.

You certainly do.

2. What Seth said after I lost 11 pounds

“I don’t get it.  I just lost all this weight on my Lemonade Diet and I still have a tummy.”

“Honey, you don’t understand.  Weight loss is based the theory of everywhereness.  You just lost the equivalent of two 5 pound bags of sugar all over your body.  Look,  let’s say this picture of a balloon around a bowlegged cowboy is you.  Now, we take away the pounds you lost by letting out some air from the balloon.  And that’s you!”

“So, you’re telling me  I look like a deflated bowlegged cowboy.”

“Yes! And you’re not fat.”

Sigh!

Anybody else with something to share with us?  Oh, and if any of you know a better way to scan sketches so they look clean, please let me know!

Year of the Poodle: Mildred, my Jewish mother-in-law

Wisdom comes from many places.

A certain kind of wisdom born of a sense of the sublime and the ridiculous came from Mildred, my quintessential Jewish mother-in-law.  She was a change agent from an earlier time.  A nonprofit nana who believed in making the world a better place, one pot roast at a time.  “Do good and eat, kindeleh (Yiddish for child)!   Oy! God forbid you get sick.  So, don’t be such a big shot.  Wear a sweater.”

While I come from a family marinated in Confucianism and other kinds of Chinese ways at looking at life, marrying Seth and catapulting myself into a casually Jewish family made my life wonderfully and forever meshuganah (Yiddish for crazy),  filled with moments that make me scramble for my sketchbook.

Like this zinger.

And that, dear readers, is how I became a nonprofit knitter in the Year of the Poodle, my life in pictures.

I miss Mildred everyday.  If you have a Jewish mother-in-law story, I would love to hear it!

My Big Fat Family Reunion

Here we are again!

One year, Uncle Bob designed blue T shirts with “hsiung” written in Chinese. I am thinking that we should do washable tattoos next year or -

T shirts that clearly identify us zum beispiel (for example in German):

1.    Hi! I’m # 2 daughter of # 1 sister

or

2.    Hi! I’m the yang gwei dz (crazy foreign devil in Chinese) married to # 1 daughter of # 1 sister

I’m a big believer in clarity.

Anyway, this is the video I created with a Flip video camera and Windows Movie Maker – both extremely easy to use. I read a great review of the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 for $100 that uses Carl Zeiss optics which are used in most of Sony’s CyberShot digital cameras including the one featuring 12.1 megapixels that I always carry with me. The pictures I take in close ups are very sharp. The Pro 9000 also has a 2 megapixel sensor that translates into 720 high definition video. It can be used on desktop monitors and clip on to portable screens too.

Today, I going to spend some time with a Canon G10 digital camera that Seth gave me for my birthday.  When I was in college, my photography teacher told us to take notes on settings as we shot so that we would remember how to improve and recreate the shots we liked.

I think that’s cool – using a trusty low tech notebook and pen to learn digital photography.

Anyone have any advice on how to shoot great pix with this camera?  I am sure all of you know more about this than I do.  Got a reunion to shoot next year and I want to be good with this camera!