Sochi Whiz

Leave it to the wife to come up with Olympic theme night:  beef stroganoff, pierogi, and Russian cake cookies. Da!

Other 2013 highlights

China

 As a mentioned, the GoGo's took a trip of lifetime last fall--to China.  It's like a different country over there.  Those Chinese have a different word for everything.  Here's a quick rundown of the highlights (for more, see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlZilDoj2uo ):

Day 1 - Beijing
MingDonalds
Bus with Emily
Summer Palace
Hotel
Mall for Hot Pot dinner
Swimming
Sleeping like dead pigs

Day 2
Buffet
Pearl Market
Zoo for pandas
Hutong (like Chinese ghetto)
Bell and Drum Towers
Rickshaw ride
Lunch at Kung Fu Lu's house
Tienanmen Square
Forbidden City
Massage of death

Day 3
Buffet
Jade Market
Great Wall
Fish restaurant
TMC/street market
Peking Duck dinner

Day 4
Buffet
To Shanghai
Bazarre
MingDonalds
Bund
Shuzhou
Sushi

Day 5
Buffet
Lingering Garden
Canal Ride
Farmers market
Chinese Fooood
Silk Factory
to Hang Zhou
Hotel Bar

Day 6
buffet
west lake boat ride
walk in park
green tea mountain
lunch with cake
to shanghai
dinner at element fresh
walk

Day 7
buffet
maglev train
88 floor jingtao tower
french concession/commie house
time square
dumpling lunch
haagen dazs
jinjao temple
more element fresh

Date Night

No, not tonight.  Last weekend.  With the wife.  But it was pretty cool, so I figured it was blog-worthy.  Cause we went to Los Angeles.

We have lived in California, as a couple, for some 7 or 8 years, on and off.  And during all that time, I think we have driven to Vegas more often than L.A., not counting times we drive through L.A. to get to somewhere else.  When craving the urban lifestyle, I'd rather head south to San Diego, which is a still confusing, but much more understandable city.  Having grown up in New York and Chicago, I need a grid.  L.A. just doesn't have a grid.  It's all over the place.

We started off with a quick trip to The Getty.  The museum itself is so beautiful and the tram ride up the hill so fun, that the incredible art is a bonus.  We got their just as the sun was setting over the sprawling metropolis.  Besides parking, it's free-which probably explained why it was so crowded on a Saturday night.  Took in some 19th century art: Rodins, a Pissaro, some Monet and Renoir, and a surprising Manet.  Love me some Manet.  By then we were starving, so we grabbed a snack (a cookie and a muffin and a coke) and hightailed it to dinner.

We drove downtown to Philippe's Original French Dip sandwich.  They got all kinds of meat they'll French dip for you!  Kind of a cool, throw-back scene.  Food was ok, but the mustard was killer.  Took a quick spin through Chinatown (maybe for next time).  And then we went to the One-Eyed Gypsy, which was kind of a goth/punk bar.  It was supposed to have skeet ball, but the carny games had been removed. We stayed for a pint.

Finally, we went to a real hipster neighborhood to visit Pie-Hole.  For pies.  It wasn't that late, but they were down to their last 2 pies.  Luckily, the custard thingy we had was pretty damn good.

Thought about going for a nightcap at an old-school, up-scale bar at the Biltmore, but we were full and had a big drive home.  That didn't stop us from actually considering stopping at Portillo's, though.  Cause, "there's always room for Portillos."

Super Bowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday, Groundhogs Day and my 2nd post of the year all on the same day?  I think my brain is going to explode.  Too much pressure!

Well, the groundhog saw his shadow and scared the Broncos out of the Meadowlands.  You'd have to be partaking of a "super" bowl of something to have enjoyed this debacle.  I don't know what was more disappointing:  the "game" or the commercials.  Really, Dylan hawking cars?  That's almost as sad as today's loss of great actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman (death by Shart), who was awesome in the Big Lebowski.  At least Bruno Mars rocked; not so much Chili Peppers.

At least it was pleasant around the ol' homestead.  Dogs went to the beach.  Josh went to the beach.   Jilly....not so much.  I normally would've, but it looks like the end of this Indian Winter.  We could stand some rain.

I made a fire and planted myself in front of the tube.  I said to the wife, "Wife, I would just like some chips and salsa and you..."   Chicken wings, potato skins, several dips, a few unexpected guests (Josh's posse came by and one Dad), and a lone bloody mary (I's gots to be up in 3 hours) later:  one fantastic Sunday.

At least I beat the spread...

Gong Hay Fat Choy!

I'm back blogger babies!  Maybe.  We'll see how it goes.  But right now, I feel a swell of communacative creativity a-cresting.  And why not it's 2014:  the year of the horse.  According to the ol' Chinese Zodiac, I'm a horse.  A horse of a different feather, that is.    Having recently graced the People's Republic, galloping back into the bloggie seems apropos.  

Did I mention it's 2014?  The United Nations designated 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming and Crystallography.  Whatever that is.  And, it's already February 1, 2014.  So, not only did we miss Latvia entering the Eurozone, but the blog lapse has caused us to skip over January and all of 2013.  (I was unprepared to continue blogging not having expected to survive the a-blog-alypse of 2012).  But we did with flying colors, health and happiness intact.  

We'll try to use some upcoming posts to fill you in on what was missed.  But some of the highlights included:  trips to Cabo and China, the girl child winning back to back volleyball seasons, the boy kid progressing swimmingly in skimming, beatering and skurfing (more later), great grades, a bar mitzvah, visits with family, occupational turmoil, and blah, blah, blog...

A poem by Jillian

There once was a dirty man

He dug through the trash to find dirty cans

Instead he found cake

So he wasted his time!

Oops...

That didn’t rhyme!

So the man ate the cake and went:

BLAH BLAH BLAH!

BLAH BLAH BLAH!

PLFFT PLFFT! PLFFT PLFFT!

ISHKABIBAL !ISHBABIBAL!