happy hour

last thursday after our outdoor yoga class, kevin and i stopped by the starbright floral design for their 6-8pm happy hour! this shop is bright, spacious, and well-maintained. their assortment of plants are always in great condition when we pass by, and i'd been into their shop a few times, but always when on my way out. 

i had been eyeing one of their rubber plants for our garden. tonight we brought the little guy home, and picked up a cactus as well, and both for half off (woot woot)! in the pic below, they are recently reported and basking in the eastern and southern light. please don't grow up too fast!

polka dot plant

say hello to our 2" polka dot plant (hypoestes phyllostachya)! through a little digging online, i finally found the name of the little guy that we picked up at the sill over the weekend. let's see what a little indirect sunshine and spritzing will do for this fella.

dumpling night

avocados + organic multigrain bread + lemon = avocado toast.

wimbledon + calligraphy. saw a friend in the front row behind djokovic (!!).

排骨飯 (porkchop) and 鹽酥雞 (fried chicken) over rice at taiwan bear house. finally, a taiwanese cafe with some of our favorite bentos. definitely going back!

picked up a few new additions for our nursery: wheatgrass, schefflera arbicola, and one other whom's name i haven't found yet.

all hands on deck for dumpling night! a much needed get together with jay and kathy for a night of cooking and catching up together. note to self: must visit normandy!

2-gallons of kimchee go into the closet. learned that kevin's hands are too big to fit through mouth of jar. looking forward to checking up on these guys in two days!

tackling my to do list

i make to do lists almost every single day. yep, i take an 8.5 x 11 sheet of used printer paper, fold it in half, and jot down a to do list on a daily basis at work, adding to it throughout the day. and sometimes i'll combine my lists too! ooooh ~~~

most of the tasks are to be done in the evening or on the weekend, but knowing me, i tend to think of a million thing that i want to get done when i'm at the office well unable to do any of them from my desk. and i think i'm over-worked during the day, so when i get home, i go into home-lock-mode where all i want to do is get some food on the table and zone out for a while.

my lists keep me in line.

so today i finally tackled a couple items on my to do list, which included cleaning up the dining room table (aka throwing out stuff), sorting some clothes which have been piling up on our bedroom bench, and watering, repotting, and moving around the plants in our apartment.

it's nice to have some variety in terms of arrangement, and to say hello to different plants in the morning in the bathroom and along the sideboard. most of the plants we chose require low to mid-light, so they have all been pretty healthy so far.

below is one of our philodendrons, our recently acquired mistletoe fig bonzai tree, and an assortment including the string of pearls succulent, snake plant, tillandsia abdita red air plant, and marble queen.

overdue to catch up

one would think that living in manhattan would leave me with more time to do the things i enjoy (and less time doing things like commuting), but only part of that is true. although my commute to work and back is relatively painless (10-15 min each way), i'm still finding myself overdue for many of the things i enjoy, including catching up with girlfriends, body scrubs, pedicures, and facials!

tonight i was able to make one of my favorite activities happen as rose and i met at trestle for a long overdue dinner and catch-up session. we were trying to figure out the last time we actually made plans to hang out, and sadly, neither of us could quite remember! 

it was probably the muggiest day of the year, so we opted for indoor seating, and were greeted by the nicest waiter ever! rose enjoyed a lambrusco, which i learned was a bubbly red (quite tasty!) and i had a gruner. we were on the same page food-wise, and shared everything: yellowtail tartare, chicken liver pate with toast, and seared scallops with asparagus and spring peas! it was a very girly meal :) and we finished off the night with the mint chocolate lava cake with a side of creme fraiche.

when i got home, poor kevin was hovering over our new 6" baby fiddle leaf fig tree, which he had accidentally left on the southern window sill in the morning. too much sun exposure for +12 hours had left the plant so dehydrated that the top half was leaning to one side. we carefully repotted the little guy into a larger planter with fresh potting soil and soaked him thoroughly with water. hopefully he will be feeling and looking better in the morning. fingers x'd!

watermelons & figs

ever have one of those days where one thing after another goes wrong?

i did. these weren't radical life-changing things by any means, i mean, i recognize they are "first world problems", but nevertheless, when summed up, it can weigh down on you.

i wasn't feeling great or having the greatest day, and the weather was naaasty muggy out. it was enough reason for me to miss our last nyrr running class of the ten-class session, and decompress on the couch at the apartment.

after class, i met kevin at our local num pang for their famous pulled pork sando and kev treated us to some watermelon juice. :D it's one of my favorite drinks in taiwan and not that easy to find in nyc. i know i know, i should just pick up some watermelons and make it myself, but the thought of carrying a watermelon back to the apartment is not all that enticing.

also, here is a photo of the latest fig tree i received from hirt's garden! it's a variant of the one i ordered, but it's pretty cute too! the leaves are in the shapes of figs themselves, are green on top and yellow on the underside, and there is actually a small fig growing on the backside of the plant (not visible in this photo). i'll try to figure out exactly which of the +700 types of fig trees this may be and nurture it.

update: apparently it's called a mistletoe fig tree (ficus deltoidea)!

east village

it's been a long week of work, and the warmer weather is calling to us to be outdoors and not in the office! tonight kevin and i went down to the east village and visited the sixth street and avenue b community garden. it looks like a cute space with great potential in the warming weather. i found these little magenta flowers whose name i don't know, but i liked how they were hanging.

we finished off the night with dinner at cafe mogador just a couple blocks away. we shared everything - the mixed platter of babaganoush, hummus, arabic salad, and tabouli; roasted sardines; and a casablanca chicken tagine with chickpeas, raisins, onions, and a side of couscous. even though it's not taiwanese, it had a distinct similarity with my mom's home cooking.

and jess and ben arrived late tonight !!!!!!!!! :D

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.

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!

a day of potting

it was 42F out and cloudy - perfect for running weather! we ran to the FDR and back, for a total of 5.2 miles this morning. out of shape and a few pounds happier, i mean, heavier, i was winded by mile 3. uuf.

after the run, i took my princess time getting ready - la di da - i love long baths and showers on the weekends, and we headed to chinatown for lunch at nyonya. i let kevin run with the ordering and we had roti canai, prawn mee, bean sprouts, and half a hainan chicken & rice order. i tend to eat too much at nyonya and make myself sick, so i nibbled a little here and there.

then we made the long-awaited trip to the sill together! i chatted with eliza and andrea for a while about their plant recommendations based on location, lighting, and level of care needed. we have so far managed to keep healthy all the plants in the loft: a 4 ft fiddle leaf fig tree, a few snake plants, and a handful of succulents, so i'd say we have a non-black thumb. yellowish-greenish even perhaps.

we decided on a few additions to add to our small collection and a couple of custom-made stoneware clay pots and saucers. from the top right (clockwise), they are: vining philodendron, marble queen pothos, neon pothos, and dwarf zz plant. they are supposed to be relatively drama-free and easy to care for. 

i spent the afternoon repotting them and placed them around the apartment. it feels much livelier around here already :)

had a spontaneous roundabout with daisy at the new harbs around the corner (yay finally!). we shared the sakura tea, yuzu sencha tea, strawberry tarte, and rare cheesecake. the cakes were very light, fluffy, and tasty, and the teas, not too sweet, were a nice complement. we were wondering - what exactly is "rare cheesecake"? as it turns out, it's the japanese way of saying it's a non-baked cheesecake. LOL. im pretty sure that's the way cheesecake is traditionally made in the US as well. it was a fun, relaxing way to spend chilly sunday afternoon.

oh and HARBS. what exactly does it mean? the explanation is almost as classic as the "rare cheesecake" logic. harbs is derived from the word herbs, which are tasty and lovely to the taste. funny :)

and below are my potted friends! welcome home.

pioneer square

kevin went out early to do some hill repeats this morning while i caught up on my latest book, robert capa: a biography. after visiting the magnum photos exhibition and trying to visit fondation hcb in paris, i felt compelled to learn more about this photographer who led a famed, yet tumultuous life, which ended at just the age of 40. i was hoping to finish the book during this trip, but it seems like i've only gotten a third of the way through.

today we visited two more lofts in the pioneer square - downtown seattle area. i think kevin and i both felt an immediate connection with this one (top floor). this photo is taken from the building's batcave-like parking garage, which is parallel to a set of train tracks. there's something industrial, tangible, and historical we both love about trains. maybe it was because we loved watching the men who built america a few years back and learning about cornelius "commodore" vanderbilt's railroad empire. with a mess of unfinished walls, outdated kitchen and baths, and hundreds of feet of commercial electrical wiring, i'm not sure if this one will be our next project, but we did both individually love it.

in the afternoon, we walked around the u-dub (university of washington) campus where kevin's father did his residency +35 years ago. it was the start of spring and the sakura's were starting to bloom, making the cherry blossom quad a spectacle with hundreds of students and visitors picnicking, tossing frisbee and football (i so wanted to join in), posing for photo shoots (LOL!!), and more. 

i was enjoying the sight, but secretly thinking back to last march when we visited the quad on an early sunday morning and had the sakura to ourselves. it was towards the end of the blossom during our last visit, and the sakura petals covered the quad paths, creating quite a magical setting.

here is a photo of kevin and his mom in front of a magnolia tree. i think it's called a saucer magnolia or tulip tree, which is a hybrid between the lily magnolia and yulan magnolia. i generally see them in shades of white with a little pink, but these were magenta.

hello, pnw!

we started our weekend off with a 4-miler at nearby mercer slough. there is one hill on the east side (around mile 2) which i remember used to hurt quite a bit, but i think we are stronger mentally so we took it nice and easy and it was no obstacle. woohoo! it was 37F out, a bit cooler than we were expecting, but it kept us from overheating.

after a coffee and lemon glazed old-fashioned from top pot, we headed down to pioneer square to meet with a redfin agent, jimi lou steambarge (that's not a joke), to check out a loft on south jackson. the views were gorgeous and the unit had great bones, but would take a bit of work. maybe a fun project in the future?

explored occidental ave a little, visiting drygoods design, london plane, and zeitgeist coffee. dreamed a little about living in seattle and taking sewing classes at drygoods. took in the beautiful ranunculus and local artisan work at london plane. i was excited to learn that little shirley vases are made in seattle! they are carried by lots of home furnishing retailers these days, such as room and board and dwell. when we get our guest room set up a bit more, i hope to pick up a few. probably won't be having the chai latte from zeitgeist again as it's mostly spice, and not enough sweetness.

i think it was the first spring-like weekend for seattle-ites, as well as us new yorkers! the sun was shining brightly out and there was not a cloud in the sky. we finished off the afternoon with a walk through the botanical gardens, where liam showed us his favorite suspension bridge. here's a photo which i think pretty much sums up our afternoon: