spring is here

blossoms in nyc are in full bloom at madison square park! this is just a small preview ...

met with kevin at the belgian beer cafe after work for a quick drink before we had our respective dinners with friends separately. it's been a while since we have actually met up for a drink after work without having dinner together afterwards. actually the last time i recall having a drink together after work was back in july 2014 after his first day at freddie mac!

the belgian beer cafe is in a great location, right at the northwest corner of madison square park, and the venue is spacious with high ceilings and big floor to ceiling windows. the decor reminded me of a commercial fast food restaurant, however, and the patrons were largely tourists. the beer menu lives up to the restaurant's name as it is quite extensive, and i'd come back for a no-hassle easy drink.

dinner afterwards at the little beet table with sharon and daisy, though fun, was not all that memorable because dais was not feeling well :( we did have a chance to hear about sharon's trip to taiwan and all the excitement around their upcoming baby boy, due in early october :)

family guy

we spent a good amount of time tonight catching up on family guy episodes on the dvr. it is the best cartoon ever, and seth mcfarlane is a genius. i cannot believe he does the voices for peter griffin, brian, stewie, and quagmire! and where else can a 2 year old baby boy give birth to 6 puppies after a week of pregnancy?

and, oh yea, hooray! we closed today. home sweet home on the pnw :)

humiliation

my company hosted its second annual spa event for clients on the top floor of the nomura holdings new york headquarters this evening. for this event, the top floor is elegantly transformed into an spa-like oasis with white leather seating, diffused lighting, manicure-pedicure stations, massage chairs, and bobbi brown makeover stations, flanked by the infamous nomura sushi chef, a fully stocked bar, charcuterie, and more.

when my client, jacqueline, arrived, we were lucky enough to slide into two massage chairs and release the tensino . then jacque did a bobbi brown makeover while i made rounds around the room. when a pedicure seat finally opened up, i walked towards it, only to be stopped by a client who blatantly and loudly mistook me for a beautician and asked if i was ready for her.

!!!! :( talk about humiliation. even though i had already turned many shades of pink and purple, i didn't want to make her feel bad, but her salesperson explained to her that i worked at instinet and was not here to do her pedicure.

on a happier note, when i got back to the apartment, i saw that our new fiddle leaf fig tree that we picked up two weekends ago had sprouted its first new leaf! it's a light shade of green and so soft, healthy, and shiny! there's another one peeping out as well - how exciting!

it's a nice feeling to take care of something and watch it grow, and after a couple months, i think we've finally found the right spots for these finicky guys where they receive the right amount of indirect light in the apartment.

hard knock life

two wsj articles, in particular, resonated with me yesterday, and i've included links and excerpts to them below.

why coding should be added to school curriculums

Not every child who learns to write will become a novelist, nor everyone who learns algebra a mathematician, yet we treat both as foundational skills that all children should learn. Coding is the same, say educators like Messrs. Partovi and Mr. Resnick, who are pushing for it to be available to every child in America.

“When you learn to code, you start thinking about processes in the world,” says Mitchell Resnick, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor heading up the effort to build the child-friendly programming language Scratch.

Whether it’s understanding how complicated systems like economies work or tackling a problem in a stepwise fashion, coding is uniquely suited to training children not just how to solve problems, but also how to express themselves, says Mr. Resnick.

“What’s fascinating about computer science is that it requires analytical skills, problem solving and creativity, while also being both foundational and vocational,” says Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, a nonprofit organization that promotes coding education. “I’m not sure there’s any other field that’s all those combined.”

family business: helpful or harmful?

When Paul Massey III was attending St. Lawrence University in 2011, he talked to his father about working for the family business, the commercial real-estate sales brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services.

Paul Massey Jr. told his son that it was fine to go into real estate, but not at Massey Knakal, which he co-founded.

“I gave him the talk,” recalled Mr. Massey, 55 years old, who with partner Robert Knakal sold their firm to Cushman & Wakefield this year for $100 million.

That father-son talk was an unusual one for the head of a big New York real-estate business to have. Many fathers start grooming their sons and daughters to start taking over at an early age.

marbled tea eggs

i had trouble sleeping last night and felt queasy in the morning, so we skipped our short 4miler race at central park in the morning (thank you, hubby, for understanding). but since we were up, we went for a short run on the west side highway, and finished up with some stretching at the gym and a delicious breakfast at sullivan street bakery, which i think is quickly becoming our neighborhood go-to spot on the weekends. 

located smack dab in between our apartment and the west side highway, sullivan street bakery has a casual ambiance, and most importantly, delicious breads and tasty and relatively healthy breakfast+lunch menu options. best of all, it's not on any "top places to brunch" lists in the city so you don't have hoards of trendy brunchsetters. you can see them baking the breads in the corner of the bakery, and i've been told their bombolonis are delicious so looking forward to trying it next time!

in the afternoon, we relaxed to gershwin and a few episodes of family guys, and took our time preparing dinner. i made 茶叶蛋 (chinese marbled tea eggs) for the first time, and it is surprisingly simple to make. requiring preparation time of just 10 minutes, and cooking time of 45 minutes (longer if you want to steep the eggs for more flavor and color), this is a dish i will definitely be preparing often in the future. 

kevin made a tasty pork-jalapeno-vermicelli dish and not pictured below is the wild-caught cod marinated in shio koji.

washoku day

it was a breezy, cool saturday morning. so chilly that i started off my day with my uggs on, quite a difference from the highs of 80F that we experienced last saturday at glenn's farewell luau.

my close friend and college roommate, winnie, was in town from phoenix so we had a nice brunch with a couple friends at upland, a starr restaurant showcasing the contemporary california cuisines of justin smilie, former chef at il buco alimentari. it's been quite a long time since we last saw each other, about 1.5 years, and there have been lots of changes since we last saw each other, so it was good to catch up. would be fun to end up in the same region of the US again one day in the future!

we met up with elyse & estella, who were hanging out at the union square farmer's market, and kevin who walked over from the apt, and strolled through the plants and flowers section together. estella was in a bright and cheery mood, and feeling very social, yet shy :) she showed us her favorite flower at the market - blue hydrangea - and kept her mom actively chasing after her throughout the park. she also made a wish with a penny at the fountain. yep, estella wished for cheese and her mom made her wish come true - GOUDA! it's been fun watching this little girl grow up the last 2.5 years so far.

in the afternoon, we watched a japanese food film at the cinema village, washoku, which was mildly entertaining and sadly a bit of a letdown. it touched on many areas of japanese washoku, which are japanese ingredients, preparation, and cuisine, but the documentary was a bit all over the place so left us wishing for more. there was an interesting bit on how washoku has been brought to the US, but it also felt a tad bit propoganda-ish for the ny mutual trading co, the largest importer of japanese goods into the US.

our saving grace was trying out ramen lab on the northern edge of chinatown, a ramen bar opened by the folks who brought us delicious ramen noodles which are used in almost every ramen shop in nyc, sun noodles. there are 10 seats available at ramen lab, and when i say seats, i actually mean, standing room. there are two ramens on the menu: i had the shoyu ramen with charsu and onsen tamago, and kevin had the xo vegetarian miso-based ramen with charsu and onsen tamago, and we shared an order of gyoza. the noodles were nice and chewy (QQ~!) and i really liked my shoyu ramen. it was flavorful, but not greasy or heavy feeling, and the gyoza was tasty as well. i think i still prefer my gyoza with vinegar though, versus the dipping sauce they provided. overall, an excellentexperience despite the 45 minute wait. 

i know, jen doesn't do lines but this was an exception :)

boursin pasta with spring peas

tonight i took a page from a cup of jo's blog and prepared a boursin pasta with spring peas based on her recipe. all the ingredients are available at whole foods and chelsea (whole wheat shell pasta, garlic & herb boursin, and organic peas), and i upgraded our pasta with the whole wheat version. it took all of 15 minutes to prepare this easy tasty dinner :)

an american in paris

what's a thursday night without a broadway show?

after a busy winter-spring season of shows, "an american in paris" may have topped them all. the choreography, the music, the set design, the costumes, and the gorgeous palace theatre!

based on the compositions of george gershwin in 1928, "an american in paris" was adapted into a film in the 1950s starring gene kelly, which won six oscars in 1951. on broadway, internationally reknowned choreographer christopher wheeldon, 42, who started his career at the royal ballet school, orchestrated a magnificent 3-hour performance with evoked feelings of curiosity, romanticism, empathy, sensuality, and awe, as we followed the lives of americans living in paris through and immediately after world war ii to the trumpets and trombones of george gershwin's snazzy melodies.

robert fairchild and leanne cope played the roles of the two main characters, jerry and lise, and were both making their broadway debuts. an unbelievable debut it was! there was acting, singing, and incredible dancing. the sets were fairly simply constructed, usually a reconfiguration of scenes on wheels and creative lighting, but never failed to illuminate the city of lights. we were brought to the seine, the eiffel, the grand boulevards, and the cafes. and i could watch leanne cope dance forever ...

i was completely mesmerized by the music, the dance, the voice, the costumes, and the sets. the reviews i read were validated and i hope to find another opportunity to revisit this show once more, perhaps with my mom and sister.

and for a little taste of gershwin ~~~ here is an excerpt of the 1951 gene kelly performance of an american in paris. it makes me want to be held and dance!

allergies 1, jen 0

started the morning off with a dulce de leche (my fave flave, thanks to dais!) DOUGH donut from oren's, which i learned is no longer carrying doughbut plant!

then welps.

today was my most miserable day of allergy symptoms in what feels like years. from morning to night, i experienced throbbing sinuses, serious congestion, uncontrollable sneezes, and a non-stop runny nose. my coworker gave me an allegra in the morning (24 hr non-drowsy over-the-counter pill), which contains the active ingredient, fexofenadine, an antihistamine, however, it made little difference and the symptoms persisted throughout the day and into the evening.

before bed, i was complaining how miserable i felt and how i was dreading trying to fall asleep, and kevin suggested i take a claritin-d (12 hr non-drowsy over-the-counter pill), which contains the active ingredients, loratadine, an antihistamine, and psuedophedrine, a decongestant.

---

i'm not sure whether it was the claritin-d, or the fact that it rained overnight, or the fact that temperatures dropped by 15 degrees overnight, but i had the best night of sleep in a couple of weeks, and woke up naturally at 6am, well before my alarm! go claritin-d!

1.7 mile repeats

it was a beautiful evening so we decided to take the 1 train up to 72nd street and walk east across the park towards ps6 for our 6:45pm nyrr running classes. the magnolias and cherry blossoms were in full bloom! and we saw a cardinal on the park ground, about five feet away from the walking path. it was the first time we had ever seen a living cardinal, and it looks exactly like cartoon depictions (and st louis cardinal jerseys).

as we approached ps6, some of the coaches were hanging around the entrance and smiled at us as we entered the building, bellowing "the couple that runs together, stays together!" that's the second time i've heard that expression yet, and i think it makes both of us smile :)

practice sounded not too bad initially, but was actually quite painful today, partly because i have not moved the legs since last wednesday.  one mile jog each to and from the starting point, and then we did 2 x 1.7 mile repeats. i joined pace group 2 this time, since i felt fairly comfortable in pace group 3 during the last running class.

baaaad move.

i found it difficult to keep up during the first loop, but managed to finish within my pace group at 12:14 (7:11 mile pace). the second loop was another story, finished towards the end of my pace group at 12:25 (7:18 mile pace). but anyways, i guess that's how you get faster!

wore my new asics quick lyte single tab socks (got them at the asics sample sale last week) and they were AWESOME. super thin, breathable, and kept my feet cool through the workout. definitely going to get more of these for the upcoming training season!

the chengs

our custom address stamp from paper source arrived this weekend! 

i chose a strong, yet simple design. the font type is sans serif, and there are  bold horizontal lines delineating the design, giving it a bit of an industrial feel. practically speaking, it will save us both a lot of time addressing envelopes.

one of these days when i'm no longer working in the financial services industry, i'm going to reward myself with a typography class. we're just steps away from sva, parsons, and FIT after all!

the highline

today was in the 50s, much cooler than saturday, and perfect weather for strolling through the city. with blue bottle coffees and cookie in hand and dennis in his babybjorn carrier, we walked the length of the highline from 14th street up to the jacob javitts center on 34th street.

we stopped by sullivan street bakery on the way back for a low-key, DELICIOUS lunch. i have to say, this is one of my new favorite spots for the healthy, flavorful low key breakfast/lunch, for parties of 3-4 or less. there are just 14-16 table seats and 6-8 counter stools, but there are also benches outside (doesn't hurt that it's two blocks away from our apt). allyson had a salad with poached eggs mixed in, and i had soft eggs and proscuitto on streci. so glad to have found and tried this spot!

al and i left with first to give dennis his nap, and we found some natural one-on-one time to catch up ... although we've not lived in the same city since the age of 11, it's one of those friendships where you don't have to explain anything. we always start off just where we left off somehow, or catch each other up. the last few years, we have been lucky enough to see each other one or twice a year, and i hope we can make an effort to continue this in the future!

this is the last photo we took together, and with the little man, dennis! :) it has been much quieter since he left, but not in a good way! i can't believe that the next time we meet, most likely dennis will be walking and possibly talking ...

in the evening, we stopped by the black door with rose and dustin to wish our friend, jessica, a happy 30th! kris/we did a pretty good job i think :)

aloha, glenn

it was a beautiful day today, the sunniest, warmest day all year, where temperatures were as high as 80F in the afternoon.

kevin was still feeling ill from the flu or food poisoning (we haven't been able to figure it out), and hadn't eaten a thing all day on friday. luckily he was able to keep down some 糜 (congee) in the morning, his first morsel of food in 36 hours. al and john went for a run together on the WSH while i watched dennis.

dennis hasn't begun crawling yet, so it was pretty fun and easy :) after returning, john and al made us a high-protein brunch consisting of eggs, asparagus, onions, and shitake mushrooms. it was super tasty!

in the afternoon, we headed over to saied's building to prepare and decorate for the surprise farewell luau bbq. while it was 80F bright and sunny everywhere else, in the common bbq area, we had shade, diffused light, and +100 ft of leis!

the guys took care of the bbq'ing and food, while susan and i coordinated the decor, signage, and desserts. i think it turned out pretty nice and glenn seemed super happy to not have been forgotten. 

after +15 years on the mainland, it's time to say good bye ... 

glenn was my closest male friend in college and after college. and while i'm not the type to show my sadness or cry when someone close to me is moving on, i definitely feel it deep inside. i prefer to think about a move as a better move for my friend.

i felt extremely lucky to have been known glenn, one of THE most laid-back people i have ever met in my freshman year at carnegie mellon in 1999. thick and thin, we've been through it all together. and to be able to spend his last day in the mainland together, with all our friends and new significant others, along with my oldest childhood friend, allyson, and her family, i am once again left feeling very blessed.

the last group shot we'll take for a while :) yep, that's a slideshow on the wall in the background!

meet dennis!

what's the difference between duncan hines "butter golden" and "classic yellow"? LOL. i picked up the latter to make for glenn's surprise farewell luau.

and welcomed my little man, dennis mahoney, to nyc!

its only a play

i practically skipped out of the office at 5:25pm on thursday evening, excited to meet dais for a quick dinner at city kitchen before catching the star-studded performance, "it's only a play", at the bernad jacobs theatre on 45th street.

since we've tried the ramen at kuro obi, an ippudo-concept restaurant, and the tacos at gabriela's tacqueria, we thought we'd give schawarma from illili box a try. btw, the takeaway ramen is flavorful, yet light enough for lunch. the tacqueria was tasty, though the portions a bit on the small side. at ilili, dais had the duck schawarma and i had the falafel beiruiti, both over greens, and phoenician fries.

we probably should have been tipped off by the fact that there were no rotating rotisseries at ilili box, but it was actually when i bit into a piece of falafel and thought - "oh, this must be a crouton", that we realized there was something very wrong. it was basically a pile of crunchy deep fried bread crumbs on a bed of iceberg lettuce slathered with tahini, and let's just say that daisy's duck meat was extremely tough and with little flavor. the fries were nicely done, but the allepo garlic whip had the consistency of something not very fresh. two thumbs down!!

in contrast, "it's only a play" was far more agreeable for our palettes than dinner. although we were disappointed to find out upon arriving that nathan lane and stockard channing's roles would be played by their understudies, we did discover a blossoming broadway star, micah stock. and it was my first time to see matthew broderick live! 

the plot of the play is interesting - the entire play takes place in the art deco master bedroom of a budding producer, where an assortment of friends and artists await nervously for the late-night reviews of the opening night of their play. we get to see a side of "theatre" that is generally behind closed doors and not privy to those outside of the theatre. we see the highs and lows, the rancid gossip, and the differing career goals of various individuals involved in theatre - producer, playwright, director, actress, critic, fading actor, and aspiring actor/artist/singer/coat check staff.

framing

happy hump day!

rather than hopping off the desk multiple times to accept deliveries, i took the day off today to take care of a few things around the apartment and accept delivery for our new credenza from bludot, dip-dyed stools from serena & lily, and planters from terrain. 

for the last few months, we've been making weekly trips to the goodwill to donate clothes and shoes, and to the strand to donate books, and slowly accumulating furniture and plants. with the exception of dining table chairs which we still haven't decided on, i think we are finally done with furniture for the living space. in fact, after visiting our neighbors in 11BC the other night, i think we have far more pieces than them, and need to be careful about keeping the space open.

now, onto the walls! :)

we have three pieces which i want to get framed. the first is a print called "festival on south street 1930" by kuo hsueh-hu (郭雪湖). it is a colorful depiction of taipei’s famous dihua street (迪化街) during the lunar new year festival on south street (南街殷賑). i found the piece in a fun hakka blue shop on dihua street in march and kevin and i both fell in love with it instantly.

the other two pieces were paintings by my currently 95-year old grandmother. a few years ago, my grandmother sustained a few injuries in a series and as a result was feeling feeble and sad, and beginning to pull away from her painting, dancing, and mahjong activities. in an attempt to motivate her to resume those activities and regain confidence in her own health, i asked her to paint me two paintings that i could hang up in my home. she seemed reluctant at first, but upon my next visit to taiwan (kevin and my first trip back together) in december 2012, she proudly presented me with three gorgeous paintings! i will describe them and their significance in a separate post.

so i spent this afternoon looking at frames and mattes, and speaking with custom framing specialists at michaels on 22nd street and aifriedman on 18th st. i have framed just two pieces before, and basically just picked a simple frame and dropped them off at a framing shop in the west village years ago. it was amazing to speak with the custom framing specialist, lionel, at aifriendman. previously, lionel had worked at different galleries in the city, and still works to set up shows for friends and artists. his knowledge about the different mounting techniques and frames was extensive, and i respected the advice he offered and his aesthetic abilities.

in the end, i am thinking of going with a thicker white beveled-edge matte with a thin walnut frame and uv protection glass for the kuo piece, and a light taupe silk matte with a wooden frame with gold detailing made in france for the pieces by my grandmother. the kuo piece will go above the new credenza in the living room, which is flooded with southern light throughout the day, so without the uv protective coated glass, the print would inevitably fade. the other two pieces will go in our bedroom, which has northern light and blackout shades, so it shouldn't need the uv glass in this apartment.

price tag? ridiculous, but hey, you only do it once right?

green coffee

for the last few months, kevin has been preparing pourover coffee and packing it into our toppot insulated mugs in the mornings. i usually need more time than him to get ready for work in the morning, so i try to line up my hair, makeup, and accessorizing time with his coffee making time. LOL. usually i still need more time though and he's waiting for me with his jacket and shoes on at the front door.

i'd assumed that kevin was making artisanal coffee each morning in part because it tasted better, as a personal hobby, and to kill time waiting for me, but today he mentioned to me that it was also in part to save on buying coffee and wasting paper cups day after day.

this put a huge smile on my face ... we both keep nalgene's at the office for drinking water and i also keep a pair of chopsticks (as not to use the bleached wooden chopsticks from various food vendors). a next step would be to reduce the use of plastic cutlery at the office - currently i use one spoon and one fork a day at the office. if everyone did this, it would create a whole lot of unnecessary trash.

so maybe next week i'll bring in my own spoon and fork. this will require a little time each day to bring my cutlery to the kitchen and wash them, but it's the least i can do for mother earth :) we try to be as green as possible at home too, reusing and repurposing as many disposable containers as possible, and recycling the others. in fact, our recycling container fills up many times faster than our trash bin.

i talk about reducing reusing repurposing and recycling too much though :p

on another note, my friend from japan has officially moved to the USA!!! welcome, yvonne! i was so happy to bring her for your first officially american meal at chipotle ~ chicken burrito bowl ~ this afternoon! and i have a new friend for spa trips in flushing!

asics gel-excel33 3

i was the first and the only one on-line at the VIP asics sample sale at 30th/fifth ave this evening. maybe it's the japanese in me ... but i managed to pick up my first pair of asics shoes - the gel-excel33 3! 

we took them for a short spin on the west side highway afterwards and it was quite heavenly. literally. the shoes have fluidgel and rearfoot gel cushioning systems in the midsole and heel, respectively, so there's an extra bounce in each step. i can see why so many senior citizens wear sneakers, in particular, asics. while they may not win awards for aesthetics, the construction and technology seems good so far.

having not run for a week (me, not kevin, who has been consistently getting out for his 6-8 mile runs, rain or shine!), i ran just 3.5 miles and had a difficult time even with that. uuf.

i was recently very impressed by a fellow strava-runner who takes down mileage on a daily basis. i'd like to be able to do that. it's not a matter of physical exertion either, it's more having the mental strength and consistency to lace up the sneakers and get outside for a run, even if it's just a short one. we'll see :)

the new guys (middle shelf on the left bookcase) are assimilating quite nicely!

smorgasburg

another gorgeous cool day without a cloud in the sky, and like clockwork, i was up before 7am this morning. i don't know why this happens to me on the weekends in the spring and summer, because as soon as the weekdays roll around, i have serious problems waking up for work!

as soon as kevin left for his run, simon woke up and nursed his hangover after a late night of partying, and i spent the morning baking a new batch of granola (with pistachios and blueberries!) and prepping some of the ingredients for dinner that night. for the last few months, i've felt sluggish, sick, and jetlagged, but finally, this weekend i felt more like myself again.

as we waited for simon to get ready, i took a short walk to the floral district and brought home some new succulent critters!

around 1pm, we made our way over to smorgasburg in brooklyn heights. having eaten just a half cup's worth of rice porridge that morning, i was ready to buckle over from hunger, so we got maine style lobster rolls from luke's, the very first booth we saw. hahaha ... it was so so tasty! don't think i've had lobster since last may in maine. we also had deep fried anchovies from bonchovi, cookies n cream organic from ice cream from blue marble ice cream, chicken parm sliders from sunday gravy, and my FAVORITE, maple lemonade and butternut squash sugar donut from rockville market farm.

and after what seems like a week of eating out, finally an easy dinner for two :)

plant propagation

i spent a couple hours this afternoon repotting a few plants, and using the cutting method to propagate one of our snake plants. kevin had a little fun with his new canon g7x and here are the results.

best: spaghetti with parmigiano reggiano and parma prosciutto and linguine with uni are my unequivocal favorites at basta pasta. tonight we shared them with simon, one of kevin's best friends from college. and followed up with momofuku milk bar's cereal milk soft serve with cereal crunch. a delicious way to end the day!

worst: sunny blue skies and and earlier sunrises will mean setting my alarm earlier on the weekends to get our runs in. i think in july/august last summer, we were starting our runs/rides around 4:30am to avoid the harsh and sweltering rays of the sun.

smile: we met kevin's mother's sister's husband's brother (<-- hahaha), wife, and son, for brunch this morning at the midtown landmarc. they are total foodies and love exploring cafes ~ oodles of energy and so much fun. difficult to believe they're our parents' generation!

the little beet table

happy friday! this was the first full week of work in a while for me and it wasn't as bad as one would think, especially without the jetlag. looking forward to some beautiful weather this weekend and hosting some relatives and friends in town!

best: amazing dinner with yuki at the little beet table in gramercy. we usually hang out in larger groups, with the cmu friends or with the hubbies, so it was really nice to have dinner with yuki one-on-one. who knew we would have so much to talk about! and more than i realized in common as well. the food at  little beet table was PHENOMENAL, although as yuki pointed out, there were definitely more females in the restaurant, likely due to its somewhat lighter menu with a focus on healthy, fresh, farm ingredients. we shared the mushroom flatbread, roasted chicken (one breast and one thigh), artichoke special, and sweet potatoes on the side. it was all super tasty, and our servers were really helpful and attentive. can't wait to come back with kevin and girlfriends!

worst: picked up my favorite falafel, hummus, and couscous salad from pret and realized when i returned to my desk that i had forgotten the shallot vinaigrette dressing! doh. luckily my teammate lent me her giant bottles of EVOO and basalmic vinaigrette.

smile: stumbled upon this art installation project by teresita fernandez "fata morgana" at madison square park on my way to dinner. its stunning! i love how the park has been transformed through the years from a sketchy derelict obstacle to its current gorgeous inviting communal area.

jordan & vic's

after publishing a set of forecasts at work which have been haunting me for a few days, i finally felt the sigh of relief this afternoon that i'd needed. yay. now onto the new project ... but trying to take it slow and not stress myself out over deadlines.

below is a photo of the gorgeous vaulted ceilings of the salmon tower building at 11 west 42nd street, across from bryant park. i walk through it at least once a week and love the details in the art deco midtown buildings. the vaulted ceilings here remind me of tiling in the manhattan municipal building, where we took some of our engagement photos. and now i'm thinking about the gorgeous gustavino tiles in grand central. 

oh i would love to take an architecture 101 tour of nyc one day!

met jordan for dinner at vic's in noho after work, and we had a really nice time catching up. not many updates on my end, but a plethora of interesting new things on jordan's side, as usual. the menu at vic's was quite extensive, especially the "MID" section, and i found myself a little anxious that i wasn't going to be able to try all the different dishes. lol. 

in the end, we shared the roasted heirloom carrots with parsley, dill, capers, and roasted shallots, jordan had the roasted chicken with spring onions, fingerling potatoes, and mustard garlic sauce, and i had the grilled flank steak with artichokes, salmoriglio, fingerling potatoes, and breadcrumbs. i happened to order a sangiovese with my dinner, and it was quite a nice pairing. i really savored and enjoyed all of the dishes we ordered, and cleaned off the parsley sauce from the heirloom carrots dish. definitely want to go back to try some of the other dishes!

best: catching up with my friend and former colleague, jordan, in noho. jordan and i met almost exactly six years ago when i moved back from tokyo (april 9, 2009) and joined nomura new york in the world financial center downtown. after our three years together working on the nomura program trading desk, our paths have diverged significantly, but our friendship remains strong, if not stronger. our common dream lies in moving to seattle one day :)

worst: browsing at club monaco. why is it that everything looks so nice? i want it all ...

smile: offering to watch mimi, jordan's 14 year old cat, during their south america roadtrip next year, and then realizing kevin is allergic to cats. whoops. no kitty for us!

happy birthday, baby sister

twenty-seven years ago today, my mom gave birth to my little sister, jessica. for many years now, people could hardly guess that we are seven years apart, as jess has a pretty mature disposition and gets along with my friends easily.

my memories of jess as a baby are faint, but i do recall sharing a room with her when she was a newborn and i was about 7-8 years old. apparently she would wake up crying multiple times each night and my parents would rush into our bedroom, but i slept like the dead. never heard it once!

there are other memories as well, but a few of my favorites which stand out:

• when jess was still crawling and learning to walk, the four of us would sit at the dining table for dinner while she rolled around the dining area in her walker. because there is a step between our dining and living room, we would usually line the floor where the step was with couch pillows just in case she were to head in that direction. one night while we were busy digging into dinner, i remember we heard a "plunk"! we looked in the direction of the noise, and jess had rolled herself over the step and onto the pillows. we quickly ran over to pick her up. lol.
• when jess was 2-3 years old, my dad drove us three kids to a mcdonald's somewhere in new jersey to meet my mom, who was rehearsing all day for a choir concert that evening. i believe we were meeting her to drive up to the concert together or something. my dad had taken the opportunity to give jess a haircut that day, and surprise my mom with his handywork. i think my mom was a little stunned, as were the rest of us, because my sister's hair had actually been cut with a bowl on top of her head, and it showed. lol.
• when jess was starting high school, she took the train up and stayed with me in the city for a weekend in my first rental apartment on 30th street. i remember bringing her to serendipity for the cold hot chocolate, and taking her on the subways and just hanging out in the city. she had glasses and braces back then :)
• during the spring of her junior year at nyu, i moved back from tokyo and we moved into a large west village elevator apartment together. it was a pretty large apartment with lofty ceilings, and we shared the bedroom, and still had room to spare. we shared a lot of good memories during that year, and i think it was that experience which really brought us closer to where we are today.

back when i was young, i had no idea what my parents meant when they told us "one day you will become best friends with your siblings and thank us for it". each day, however, it becomes clearer and clearer. so today, in addition to wishing my sister the happiest of birthdays, i also thanked my parents for giving and raising a wonderful daughter who i can call my best friend.

and another piece of great news ~~ my SIL, carlin, gave birth to her second daughter, lina mae cheng, this morning in los angeles! so i now have two wonderful ladies in my life who share this wonderful day.

feeling extremely humbled and blessed today.

still jetlagging

i spent most of the day trying to get over my hangover and napping, which is contradictory, but whatever. in the evening, we made our first homemade dinner since the asia trip and tried a new brand of 烏魚子 ~ super intense flavors!

best: tasty lunch at dimsum gogo! this is our go-to stop for semi-authentic hong kong dimsum. my favorite dishes are the duck dumplings, pea shoot dumplings, and chicken bamboo leaf rice.

worst: woke up at 4am after just four hours of sleep last night. why is my body doing this to me? couldn't get back to sleep so migrated to the living room chaise and caught up on some reading and emails.

smile: kevin let me nap for four hours from 1-5pm this afternoon. 'nuff said!

scotland run

we ran the nyrr scotland run 10k this morning, our first race of the season, and the weather turned out pretty nice! 48F and 61% humidity. kevin now starts in a faster corral than me, so we no longer start the race off together or run any portion of it together. i miss running with him, but it's better for him to be competing with faster peers who can challenge him to improve and it's working!

since i haven't really done a run longer than 3 miles in a couple months, my plan was to take it easy and treat it as a long training run. the first mile went quicker than expected though, and i hate increasing splits, so i tried my best to hold on for the next five. since we ran clockwise in the park, we did harlem hill backwards to our benefit, but i still wasn't able to pick up the pace for miles 5 & 6. finished the race with 7:40 mile splits, about the same pace as when i raced it two years ago. haha ... no improvement :p

after the race, we ran into brian yuen for coffee and a fun post race recap & analysis at bouchon at the time warner center. it was the perfect way to spend a saturday morning.

met up with glenn and nick (in town for the long wkd from chitown!) for brunch at the dutch, where i had the fresh cheese omlet with a side of bibb salad and ale bread, and kevin had the smoked salmon & bagel with soft scrambled eggs and trout roe. our meals were delicious, and relatively healthy feeling too - not greasy at all, which is my kind of meal! i paired my brunch with a clean green juice blend, which contains kale, spinach, cucumber, lime, pineapple, and mint, and kevin had his third cup of coffee for the morning. LOL.

for dinner, we met up with glenn and nick again, as well as a few other cmu friends, at jack's wife freda's, to welcome grace and dallas back to nyc. it was a nice reunion for us all, as we haven't seen dallas since last summer before his most recent and last deployment. after dinner, we hosted an impromptu gathering at the loft to watch wisconsin kick some kentucky butt in the final 4s. 

wisconsin vs duke REMATCH on monday for the 2015 ncaa championship!

best: malva pudding at jack's wife's freda's! it doesn't look too special, but it tastes oh so good and relatively light. it's basically a soft caramelized muffin-texture dessert with a side of creme fraiche.

worst: still jetlagging this weekend ... we were able to keep ourselves up by doing mind-numbing activities such as box folding though. managed to clean up the office after an hour of box folding and paper shredding.

smile: one of kevin's colleagues at work was also running this morning's race and, for some reason, felt the need to hype up the race and start a market with all their former colleagues about their race times. what was supposed to be a fun race ending up being somewhat of a stressful pissing match as former colleagues were betting on kevin beating this guy by as much as 8 minutes. i was very annoyed because now kevin would be stressed out about the race and had people pinging him all week long about how much money they had on him, this spread, and it was basically our first race of the season. in the end, kevin kicked that guy's ass big time and beat him by 8:05 minutes :) regardless of how he performed next to that jerk, im proud of him for the vast improvement in his time!