happy 36th birthday, eddo!

Ha ha, just kidding, he only turned 26. :) But yeah, my little bro is 26 now! Crazy. It's funny, I expect him to be older, like 28 or so...but when I think back I can still imagine when he wore big glasses and orange shorts and played chess at Halecrest. My how times have changed...

Basically Eddo's 26th bday consisted of several days of activities, kind of like the Olympics only with less torches and more drinking, but just as many Chinese people. We started off with a dinner on Friday night with 30 of his closest friends at PPQ Dungeness Island. Here we are as I try to pry his nose off with a nutcracker and he tries to stab me in the eye with a crab fork. Awww, so sweet:



Note the bibs. Oh please note the bibs.

The crab fiesta was followed up by scorpion bowls at Trad'r Sams. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't scream at his friends to make sure he got home OK. Either he is becoming more responsible (he's not) or I am learning to trust him more (ok, maybe he is becoming more responsible).

Tuesday was Eddo's actual birthday and we headed to The Mint for some karaoke fun. Here's a photo of Mimi, Sarah, and Eddo singing "Zombie" by the Cranberries. They sang this with a full on Irish accent. "...with their tanks and their BOMs and their BOMS and their GONS! Za-am-beh-eh-eh-eh!"



We left before Eddo and I could pay homage to our dad with a duet to Neil Diamond's "Cracklin' Rosie", but not before we saw Maria and Eddo perform "I wanna F* you" by Akon and Snoop. Sorry, but I am having problems posting this video to YouTube. Will update the blog with video as soon as I can! For now here is photographic evidence:



Happy birthday, Eddo! I love you and I am proud of the man you are becoming.

Napa Valley Crazies Tour

This year Jeremy and I going down south for the holidays and pulling the whole "xmas eve with one set of parents, xmas day with the other." So we decided to do a little xmas getaway just the two of us, taste some wines, and finally use the gift certificate that Eddo got me for my bday to Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller's lower-rent version of The French Laundry.

We decided to do our tastings up in Calistoga in an attempt to avoid the annoying crowds on Saturdays in the wine country. We made it up to Napa late Saturday afternoon, which was actually quite nice because all the bumblies had already had their fill and gone back to their hotels to sober up before dinner. We chose a few wineries off the main drag for our tastings, and boy were we happy we did!

Our first stop was Frank Family Vineyards, which has two tasting rooms: one for sparkling wine and one for regular wine. We liked the sparkling wine alright there, but the other stuff just wasn't our cup of tea. Our wine jockey at Frank Family was totally crazy.

Me to Jeremy: "Do you think he's drunk?"
Jeremy: "I certainly hope so."

Our next stop was Dutch Henry Winery, which we absolutely loved! Their tastings are in an actual functional barrel room and there are photos of all the winemakers dressed up like they are in the old west.



Everything we tried their was ultra interesting and different. Their tasting notes said stuff like "Hide the women and children and grab some t-bones!" Anniko, our WJ, was totally crazy (are you sensing a theme here?). After she poured us a taste of the Cabernet Franc, she kept saying, "Franc is my good friend. He is always welcome at my house. Do you like Franc? Franc likes you." Yeah, certifiable! We loved her!

Our final destination was Cuvaison, which was located on an absolutely beautiful plot of land:



The wines here were a little more commercial, but still we found a bottle that we liked. Our WJ here was also completely insane, but in a way that we didn't like. They had these ultra tall wine glasses that were kind of ridiculous:



And now, for the main event: our dinner at Ad Hoc. YUM!!! Our first course was a BLT: Butter Lettuce salad with pork belly (it was supposed to have Tomato vinaigrette to put the T in BLT, but instead it came with a buttermilk dressing which was fantabulous).



We had our meal with a 2005 bottle of The OG Grenache by Betts and Scholl. Our waiter, Nessim, who was also completely insane, described it to us as "kind of unusual." Not sure what happened this weekend, but we seemed to be attracting both people and wines by that description. But yo, we absolutely loved that wine.



Our main course consisted of braised short ribs with roasted winter vegetables and mashed potatoes (described by our waiter as being made of "cream, cream, butter, cream, butter, butter, cream, cream, cream, butter, butter, and then some more cream", while he was making karate chops with his hands). Look at how excited I am!



This was followed up by a cheese course and apple pound cake, neither of which we could finish because we were too stuffed. I have to say, the cynical me thought they were taking the "low rent" thing a little too far, but when it comes down to it, they were giving us a 4 course menu with absolutely ginormous proportions for $45. Can't really fault that.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, where I gave Jeremy his new Wii. WHEEEEEE!!! He is sooo excited about it. In fact, he's playing right now as I type these words.

Jeremy: I can't believe you gave me a video game console! I've never had one before because I don't trust myself enough to have one.
Hope: Well, don't make me regret it. ;)

It was a quick, wonderful weekend getaway...check out all our photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopemeng/sets/72157603476419945/

Gobble Gobble

Jeremy hates traveling on Thanksgiving weekend and will do anything to avoid it. Thank goodness I married him! I LOVE the city Thanksgiving weekend. It is dead quiet, there is tons of parking, and no one is working so you don't feel guilty neglecting your to-do list.

This Thanksgiving was all about catching up on our housekeeping and dealing with the wreckage of Burning Man and the wedding. It has been a crazy few months! But we also had some time to make some good food, drink some good wine, and do a few social activities.

We started off Wednesday night on the right foot...with a couple glasses of Selim, a sparkling wine from Italy that MR and I tried at A16 (and then, like a good binder girl, she immediately found the following day on the Interweb). And yes, that's the flower arrangement that I made in class with the Melissas! Still standing!



For eatings, we made roasted squash stuffed with lentils, sausage, and kale. YUM!!!



On Thanksgiving day, in lieu of a turkey, we made horseradish and salt encrusted prime rib. Again, YUM!!! We cut up a bunch of veggies (sunchokes, cauliflower, parsnips, celery, carrot, and onion) and placed the meat directly on top of the veggies so they could soak up all the meaty goodness:



We also made some brussels sprouts with bacon, and some brown rice stuffing with pecans and dried cranberries. Here's my plate after it was all said and done:



And here are our happy faces as we prepare for the feast!



But wait, there's more! On Friday night, we went out to dinner with Eddo and Chris. Afterwards we ended up at The Mint, Eddo's favorite dive + karaoke bar. Oh my gaw, it was SO. MUCH. FUN! And actually, everyone there was really good! I kept telling Eddo that I thought we accidentally crashed the annual LGBT Choral Ensemble's Thanksgiving outing. Here's Eddo working "Chop Suey" by System of a Down:



Afterwards, Eddo and Chris and I sang "Waterfalls" by TLC, and then Eddo and I tried to karaoke "The Final Countdown." Turns out there's a lot more words in that song than just "It's the final coutdown! doo doo doo doo". Who knew?!?

Saturday we finally went with tradition and roasted a whole turkey. After our bellies were filled, we went and saw Beowulf in digital 3D. Not the most substantive film making, but it sure was fun to see on the big screen!

What a nice way to spend Thanksgiving...if only there were more 4 day weekends in our lives. :)