Honorable Mentions

There were things that happened last weekend, and the weekend before, that I didn't mention. I was waiting for the stars of the show to blog about it on their own blogs first. :D

I chose this photo, because I don't think they like their faces shown online.

Rosalynn and Jon (not my Jon) were married on Oct 7th. Beautiful wedding, there were a lot of personal touches. I think the flowers on the pews and the arrangements on the altar were done by hand, not a florist. The invitations and programs were all handmade. She blogged about all the plans leading up to the wedding on My Big Fat Chinese Wedding. I wondered if I would be reminded of my own wedding, since it was the same venue. But, it was so different, it felt just like them. :)

View from the window outside of Per Se

Jon (my Jon) turned 30 the same weekend. I was worried about him, since he had such a huge crisis when he turned 25. I surprised him with breakfast in bed (waffles, scrambled eggs, sausages, orange juice and coffee), matinee tickets to Spamalot and dinner at Per Se. I thought Spamalot was fun, but I didn't get some of the jokes. Jon loves Monty Python, he was rolling with laughter in the seat next to me. When he guessed we were going to Per Se, as we were walking to Columbus Circle, he was super excited. I have never paid so much for dinner, had such great food, nor felt so special. When they saw I was going to place my bag on the floor, they brought me a covered stool. We both had the Chef's tasting menu. The only difference was: I chose foie gras, the sea bream and Jon chose risotto with shaved truffles and soup. My favorite dish was the "Oysters and Pearls," a signature dish, it was fresh oysters and caviar in a tofu(?) custard. Delicious! Jon couldn't stop raving about the Wagyu beef, which we paid extra to eat together. It was like Kobe beef, but much richer. As the meal progressed, I got more and more drunk. I drank one glass of champagne and 1/4 of a glass of red wine. I'm a real lightweight. I'm surprised I was able to wobble out of there. Since I revealed that I was taking Jon to Las Vegas for his birthday, he has been begging me to make reservations for Bouchon which is another restaurant by Chef Thomas Keller.

Image from the NY Times, showing Neil Tennant on stage.

We saw the Pet Shop Boys' Concert in Radio City Hall on Oct 14th. Hubby was terrified that he would be the only straight person there. We had wonderful left side orchestra seats. When the music started, people started to stand up and dance. I knew hubby wanted to too, so I pushed him up and he was happily grooving along. Before long, I found myself shaking my butt along with the electronic tunes too. After the show, we rushed down to Virgin Megastore in Union Square, where the Pet Shop Boys would be signing their latest CDs and books. I don't know if it was the lack of food, but I became annoying (to hubby), giddily excited waiting on line. It was really cool to see them face to face, after seeing the concert. I nonchalantly told Neil how great the concert was (of course my heart was thumping in my chest) and he smiled and said thanks.

Jury Duty

So, sadly enough I went to jury duty again this year! On my birthday, a few months ago, I had to go with my dad, because he was selected and doesn't speak English. Today, I went for myself (damn you, Uncle Sam!). And of course it's for a criminal court: murder, rape, robbery... It gave me very bad flashbacks to when I served as a juror, at 21. I was selected to serve on a violent murder case. The accused was the same age as me and stared at me often. Funny, no one bothered asking me if I was uncomfortable serving at that time. I surely would have declined. On top of that, we saw the breaking news in the group room, that a helicopter crashed into a residential high rise, which, brought back September 11 memories. I still have post traumatic stress symptoms, I was only 2 blocks from the twin towers. And to add to the fun, the fire alarm kept ringing at irregular intervals. Only at the end of the day, did they announce they were just testing the system.

Image from the Wikipedia site.

I think the only highlight of the day, other than texting silly messages to my husband, was finding kohlrabi at our local Garden of Eden (market). My dad often cooks with it, and I have never seen it outside of Chinatown. I have been craving it recently to make fried rice, so it was very serendipitous. If you never had it before, it's a turnip like vegetable, but sweeter. I saw Lauren eat it raw in a salad once, she claimed it was tasty raw. I only knew it by the Chinese name (choy-gor) until today.

Crazy Times!

Yesterday, we staged a surprise birthday dinner for my hubby. It's been very hard to set up this year, with the weddings, my parents' impromptu getaway, my dad's birthday, the moon festival... I swear something is in the air, I've never felt more frantic. With all that said, I think Jon had a great time. He got to see some friends, have some tapas, enjoy a huge slice of Eileen's cheesecake. :9 I hope his friends had fun too.

This weekend was my cousin Pam's wedding. It was held at the Queen's Botanical Garden and the reception was at Linden Place. She's a very lucky girl (and not only because she married Marc). This Saturday was the coldest, gloomiest day this month. Right before she walked down the aisle, we all felt raindrops, but it didn't rain. It was the most collaborative wedding I have been to, where a lot of my family members were directly involved. My sister was a last minute matron of honor, Jon and I manned the reception tables. She looked beautiful and so happy that day.

On the knitting front, I have been making swatches for a circular shawl from A Gathering of Lace with my Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn in Caramel (I have ~10 balls left). But, I realized I had a UFO (Unfinished Object) that was a shawl (a long rectangular one). I think I was 30% done. It's the feather and fan shawl from Folk Shawls. See the picture below. Why am I starting another project? I do indeed have knitting ADD.


Jenna told me a while ago, it looks old due to the color combination. Thank goodness, she was honest, or else, I would be stuck with an item I hated. So, I frogged it (unravelled the whole thing). It is approximately 80", so that took a while. I decided to make the triangular version of the shawl only in white yarn, with the same feather and fan border at the bottom.

Here is the top front being knitted on circular needles.

If this shawl turns out to look like grandma's shawl too, I'll just give it to my grandma. She has crocheted me a lot of things.