First Presidio Christmas

Nothing says Christmas like guys playing video games! We have a tradition in our house where I buy Forrest and video game or two for Christmas and then he sits and plays it non-stop for about a week until he finishes the game... then he doesn't play until the next Christmas... In recent years, my brother has joined the fold and one year stayed for 72 straight hours. This year, we were able to fold Mr. Ireland into the xbox fold.

Ruthberg putting the finishing touches on one of the two christmas tables.. below is Sam chatting it up with Chelsea's parents and my dad. This year we had my parents, Forrest's parents, Chelsea's parents, Chelsea, Sam, Molly, Mike and Geer (one of Sam's friends) over for Christmas dinner... we had lots of fun prepping a prime rib feast for 13 adults and 1 munchkin.
YAY Molly emo and Uncle Mike at our house for Christmas (what I hope is just the beginning of a tradition)!!!

two men...two generations...one 16 pound prime rib. Forrest was getting some tips from big Forrest on prime rib cutting techniques. As man of the house it was his duty to cut the meat, but his dad had some pointers for him with his years of prime rib/turkey/ham carving experience :)

big bottles of vino - courtesy of emo/uncle mike... we went potluck style so each person contributed something to the overall meal.. it was the most perfect christmas meal + company + party ever...and Donut's glow in the dark skeleton pajamas were pretty rad too.

Hiroko's very gay birthday

And gay in a good way - brunch at Lime in SF can only be described as loud...and brimming with endless glasses of mimosas. It was 3 hours of hootin, hollerin good time. I literally felt like I needed a nap after that morning...and I wasn't even drinking!!! hahaha.

Linh coached me on what to wear because apparently I needed to get something trendy... you know "what the kids are wearing" so as to not stand out like a sore thumb...a sore preppy thumb at Lime. There were many a rounds of mimosas and shots for the birthday girl...leading to a much anticipated spanking of the host - Happy Birthday Hiroko! I'm very very happy to celebrate another fabulous year with you :)

grown up prom

Two weeks ago we went to Forrest's company party at the concourse over by 8th and Brannan...near the furniture and jewelery districts. Hiroko came over to baby (thank you!) and also take advantage of our in home washer and dryer. It was nice to get dressed up and go out with the hubbs and especially stay out late! The place was freaking packed and the featured band was Kool and the Gang which was pretty cool....basically I stuffed myself full of shrimp cocktail and lamb chops while trying diligently to drink more than 2 drinks hahahaha. But of course before we left for the party, Hiroko took a picture of us by the tree...

CIM Marathon...maybe next time

Donut braving the cold to cheer on Auntie Linh on her mission to complete 26.2 for a second time -go Auntie Linh! Amazingly I was able to run alongside Linh for about 1.5 miles at her 9 min mile pace...needless to say I wanted to puke the rest of the day because I don't run that fast...EVER. I really really wanted to run CIM and even made it up to 13 miles in my training but I started traveling for work (like a lot) and I started to get a really nagging pain in my pelvis...it literally felt like it was breaking. So I quit. And now I have a little set of love handles.
Last weekend we went up to Sacramento to visit the grandparents. Ann, Scott and Lincoln also came up for the weekend. It's wonderful to have cousins nearby so we can visit regularly. Check out some of the pics from Lincoln's site...

Let the holidays commence!

we made a date to meet up with Molly and Mike down by the YMCA for the annual tree lighting. It was so damned effing cold that I had Donut bundled up in a fleece snow suit..which is new and never worn but barely fit.
What's super awesome about this, is that we were able to go to a random neighborhood holiday event with Mike and Molly. It feels like it has been eons since they've been so close by... Now we get to see them ALL THE TIME! At least once a week and we even run into them randomly in the neighborhood - it is so awesome.

Helping momma with work.

Some days, I need to get started a lot earlier than when our nanny arrives. This particular morning, Donut decided to help me with my work. It's easier to keep her facing this way because otherwise she tries to type on the keyboard.

On the road...

Thank goodness our nanny sends me pictures of Donut during the day while I am traveling. Forrest also sends me pics and videos of Donut too. All these things make me feel a little better while on the road.

My jobs within the last 6 years has required some amount of travel. In the past it was for events and tradeshows so it was a lot of traveling. In recent years it was infrequent but about once a quarter I got on a plane for one thing or another. They were always opportunities for me to meet new people, check out new places and eat local fare. Lately though, it's not the party it once was. I don't know if all this climbing the corporate ladder is all it's cracked up to be...hahahaha because at 8pm I am in my hotel room working away for the next day's worth of meetings and tearing up the town. Has motherhood softened me? Nah...it has just made me appreciate sleep all that much more.

I've been on something like 15 planes in the last month and one more business trip to go...New York tonight through Tuesday. After this I should be set for a a few months on the work travel. I miss my family the minute I walk out of the house - ack!

Forrest has been such a champ - single parenting for weeks.. And with the help of my brother, our respective parents and our fabulous nanny, we're able to make this all work. I cannot wait for the holidays = time off!

Carving Pumpkins

Molly emo came over one night and we got to carving all those freaking pumpkins. In a recent neighborhood pumpkin patch silent auction, I made the mistake of WAY overbidding and came home with 3 pumpkins. Forrest later explained to me the mechanics and strategy around a silent auction....How the heck am I supposed to know these things?

Anyhoos..the carving was quite a fiasco because I had forgotten how tiring it is to scoop out the pumpkin guts and literally had some lactic acid buildup in my one arm and wasn't sure if I was going to need medical assistance to make it through the night. Beyond that Molly and I were commenting on the sad state of pumpkin carving utensils....and our mini saw tools both broke in the course of our carving party. We had to bring out the regular kitchen knives and then were glad we didn't start carving with adult beverages - trip to the emergency room averted.

All done - don't our pumpkins look thoroughly spooky? OMG - I cannot wait to go Christmas tree shopping!!! Holidays are so much more rad with kids around.

Baby + Me

Some alone time with Donut before poppa comes home from work. The time between when Herminia leaves until Forrest comes home is a really special time for me....just an hour or so to hang with the baby...start making dinner and hang with the baby. I don't want to be a cornball and say things like "i never knew you could love this much" blah blah blah...but this whole process has been rather amazing.

Meeting Amelie Du Chau

The title is a mild lie because I actually got to meet Amelie when she was first born at the hospital. A couple of weekends ago, Donut and I stopped by the Du Chau household to visit the little princess who is now an amazing 9 weeks! OMG - how did two months zip by so fast? She is adorable and so petite compared to our little chunk monster. Glad to hear that Laura is recovering well and enjoying motherhood too. Goodness gracious, just a mere handful of years ago we were all still hitting the bar/club scene for nights out on the town and now look at us...our entire conversation is around sleep, boobs and babies - hahahahaha

Donut checking out her new friend. She definitely was fascinated by the baby. I think she's getting old enough to be more aware of her surroundings and of other people.

Happy Choseuk

Forrest, Donut and I headed down to Peekadoodle to celebrate Choseuk with my newfound korean mama friends. So we never celebrated Choseuk growing up but the SF korean mamas celebrate it - why not?

Choseuk is a celebration of the harvest tied to the autumn equinox. I don't know why we never celebrated this...I have also heard of other people calling it the Korean Thanksgiving...maybe it's because our family is christian?? who knows - all I know is that Donut got to wear her hanbok again and I stuffed my face full of japchae and rice cakes!

Brunch with M+M at Ella's

This is how rad it is to have Molly and Mike in the city. We can randomly text each other and then walk over to brunch! AHHHHHHH...it is so exciting I cannot even contain myself. Donut was very super duper excited too.

Congrats to Hollis + Sal!

OMG OMG!!!
Hollis and Sal are engaged! WOOT WOOT

And in grand 'ol style too.. Way to go Sal for realizing what a treasure that Hollis is and moving forward on sealing the deal. I still cannot believe he carried the ring in the interior running shorts pocket for 26 miles of the Chicago marathon... Even more amazing is after all the hoopla of the proposal, the hugs and kisses...she still managed to somehow qualify for Boston - how fast was she really running?!?!?1

Check it out here

YES YES YES

I just weighed myself and I am back! Back to pre baby weight...but not pre baby body...what the hell am I supposed to do with all this extra skin around the middle? Make a jacket or a pair of shoes? It's not so much of a muffin top as a muffin droop. Things have definitely shifted...pangea has now become the continents..

Tiffany + Dean's Wedding

My office mate Tiffany got married on 9/20 at Foreign Cinema in the mission. They chose Shanghai during the 1930's as their theme and folks were traditional chinese or vietnamese outfits to the event. Tiffany and Dean looked fabulous and the food was pretty awesome too. Unfortunately, I am unable to take a clear picture these days.


For some reason we both look pretty tubby in the picture above even though we aren't. HA! Forrest's suit jacket is a bit too big now in the shoulders and the dress I am wearing is a bit obscene in the chest region...Hiroks - how on earth do you wear such a low cut top?!?! I think it's the angle in which we are standing that makes us look tubby...we should have turned in a bit more.

Yes...I bought skinny jeans

Saturday Forrest and I dropped off Donut at halmoni's house and then we headed over to Valley Fair to do some shopping. That's a picture of me in the fitting room with....yes...skinny jeans! I took a picture so I could email it to Hiroko for an opinion.

It's funny..I wear leggings, but for some reason found skinny jeans to be atrocious. But NOW...after having tried them on, I realize they are just REALLY expensive leggings with pockets and a zipper.

The spookiness begins!

Yesterday our neighborhood had a pumpkin patch...basically some enterprising young kiddos put together a pumpkin patch for their neighbors where they can buy pumpkins.

Minus the blemished ones which were a flat $5, the other pumpkins were sold via silent auction. I have learned that I am NOT a good silent auction participant...doubling the previous bid...hahaha! Well that did ensure that we ended up with ALL of the pumpkins that I wanted.

Different view of our haul....we got one blemished one...one regular one and one cinderella one! So each one of us have a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. I am SO excited for all these fun holidays - because now my grumpity grump hubbs cannot deny my enthusiasm for holidays because of Donut.

Molly is cuh-razy for Hello Kitty and while at Target the other day, I saw this cute Hello Kitty trick or treat bag...

On the bus....

That's Donut slobbering away. I packed her up in the bjorn and headed down the Chestnut St the other day for a little stroll and on the way back we took the #43 bus back to the Presidio. Kids under 5 ride free and I gotta say it was SUPER convenient to take the bus with the baby strapped to you in a bjorn...gonna start doing this more often.

So far it's not so bad...

It's been a bit crazy these past 2 weeks...as I have just returned to work and have not yet settled into a routine that includes time for anything besides the baby once I get home from work. The best part of work has been how much it makes me miss Donut so that the time once I get home is really more engaging. I do feel bad that I am only spending a few hours with her every day...instead of the bulk of the day, but isn't that what happens when momma goes back to work?

Where is my caramac?

Many many weeks ago, Hiroko mentioned that her new special friend brought her back caramacs from his vacation in Hawaii. I told her I wanted some because she mentioned that she was refraining from the fatty/sugar bomb... I am still waiting for my caramac..

But when I asked where it was, she emailed me the following picture.


That caramac is doing no good for nobody sitting at the bottom of the cup like that.

Mangosteens...holy shiz

In bags no less...I wonder what they taste like. These were the one thing that I didn't try while I was out in Singapore but I have heard people RAVE about them. Sadly it is probably irradiated to the point of being toxic to kill off any strange tropical bugs that it is possibly not that tasty...oh well...I'll still try it for science!

OK I give...the iPhone is pretty rad

So I just downloaded a new app for my iPhone called RunKeeper... and yes I got the paid version which was $9.99! Expensivo compared to all the $1 apps out there but I just tried it today and must admit it was pretty bad ass. It's like the Garmin thingy but without the heart rate monitor..and really, I'm not trying to win any Olympic medals here so who really cares about what my heart rate is. I'm really just concerned about total time, pace and distance.....

So this app is F-ing rad. It uses the GPS in the phone to calculate the distance and elevation...so it can easily calculate pace based on the amount of time that has passed. And the view is pretty cool too because of the integration to Google maps...you can see where you were running and it has some mile markers so you know what's happening.

YES YES YES! Eureka I have found the dragonfruit!

So on Friday I stopped over on Clement St in the inner richmond and found these....dragonfruit! I almost shit my pants!!! The only time I have ever had the opportunity to eat these was in Singapore and I have been craving them ever since. It's a shame that so many of those wonderful tropical fruits don't make it over to the states for mass sale at grocery stores (guavas, passionfruit, mangosteen, dragonfruit). But this market in the richmond did have dragonfruit and mangosteen.

I was so flippin excited that I only bought one and hand carried it (no bag) as I perused the Clement St. shops....hahahaha. They also had mangosteens so I'm gonng have to head back over there maybe today to pick up a couple.

These are the prettiest things when you cut them open! I learned that dragonfruit is part of the cactus family so this is a distant, asian cousin of the prickly pear. Makes sense to me - but I am sure glad these fruit don't have the exterior cactus prickles and interior seeds like the prickly pear. In flavor, these were like a mild kiwi...it makes me think they were not quite ripe because in Singapore, they had an almost mild watermelon flavor.

As for serving...no need to cut into pieces, the flesh is easily scoopable with a spoon and the skin is tough/thick enough that the spoon does not pierce through it.