Bluefin Tuna Special

Yes, once again, I succumbed to the chopped tuna special at Ise, where I was for lunch with my buddy Ryohei (who, incidentally, is wisely moving up his son's eye surgery to utilize health insurance while it's still definitely available). Having witnessed the gigantic portion my friend Christine had last time, I persuaded Ryo to SPLIT the $18 special with me, which I personally think should be renamed The Tuna Tsunami. Dessert was 2 pieces of tamago sushi. Yum.

Note the size of the mound of bluefin tuna tartar. Note the tea cup and ramen bowl sizes for scale. Note that this was a huge bargain. Note that I [heart] Ise Restaurant and want to check out their other branches, even though Ryo says THEY don't have the killer lunch specials.

Continuing on in the food lust vein, tomorrow night, we are going to have dinner at Cho Dang Gol in midtown, which is -- shockingly -- NOT located on 32nd Street. Selecting instead the slightly rebellious 35th Street nearby, their food is a little more unique than the standard Korean bbq, etc. I've been meaning to go back there for years, ever since a meal there with my friends Dale, Julie, and Margaret. Their menu looks mouthwatering.

This continues a yum-yummity outing for Korean food on Saturday to Mandoo Bar with my friends Marci and Jackie (and Marci's highly entertaining parents) for Marci's belated birthday luau, where I had (way, way too much) mandoo ramen soup.

I have also been struck by a hankering to cook lately (please, pick yourselves up off the floor after fainting from shock) which I suspect is due to a confluence of factors: cooler weather, the desire to eat better (and stay within my WW goal range), and someone to share dinner with on a regular basis. Yippee!

My cravings lately are to try making pot roast (which I need a weekend afternoon for -- I have all of the ingredients ready [ !!! ]), a WW recipe for brussel sprouts with almonds (my engineer bought a basketful last weekend) or a blog recipe for roasted brussel sprouts with cranberries & balsamic butter (a/k/a how to add calories to something healthy), and the recipe from Eating Well Magazine for sweet & savory beef stew for two. I also really like that this magazine has recipes for TWO PEOPLE, not 8 or 6 or some other impractical number.

And in other cheery (semi-food-related) news, my sweetheart told me about a new LYS in Jersey City near him, Stockinette Knitting Cafe (official site which is currently empty-ish, so this person's blog is actually MUCH more informative, along with some pre-opening forum discussions and JC forum postings) since well, he has seen my insanely large stash and yet, he did not flee into the night. We're both looking forward to hanging out in the newly opened (Sept. 12th) knitting cafe at some point, for differing reasons : cafe & back garden (him), and yarn fondling (moi).

So lately, I guess the Two-Out-Of-Three Rule has been proven true: good job, good home, good boyfriend -- you can usually have 2 out of the 3, but you will rarely have all 3 simultaneously. I'm quite satisfied with the 2 stable jewels that I do have, and am philosophical about the precarious state of the third.

She likes him!

In fact, I think eventually she'll like my engineer more than she likes me (heh) but that's a problem I can live with most happily.

It helped that he paid for our lunch ;-P as stinginess is a cardinal sin in Chinese society. Heh. But then, my sister and both of his Chinese work colleagues reminded him that picking up the check was KEY. Heheheh.

My mom even behaved herself (mostly) and waited a whole 20 minutes before prompting me to get a move on with having kids. (My sister's comment that I didn't want kids fell on deaf ears, but hey, I can only ask for so many miracles.)

More importantly, my engineer likes her, since her opinion wouldn't have changed mine, but his opinion does make things easier for me. As with his parents, all is smoother if you like your loved one's relatives.

Actually, it was not so much as whether she'd like him (as the Magic 8 Ball would say, "All signs point to yes" since he is after all, a swell fella) but whether or not she'd make MY head explode.

So after we had a pleasant lunch, my sister took off (with undisguised relief that all had gone well... and by the way, the flower above is from her garden) and the three of us wandered around Chinatown shopping for shaoxing cooking wine (for him), fresh -- not canned -- water chestnuts (for his mom), and checking out a new Chinese grocery store on Mulberry St (for my mom). He asked her opinion as to which brand of shaoxing rice wine my mom preferred (the answer: Pagoda Brand, which you actually have to buy in a liquor store).

He likes her zongzi (more brownie points, but then her zongzi are fabulous... mmmm....) and cooks, and likes fish cheeks (we had fried whole red snapper). Plus, he has a graduate degree and is devoted to his parents, all adding up to a gazillion brownie points in her book.

Life is good.

My head hurts

I have an Excedrin-sized headache despite sucking down 2 extra strength tabs already, and 20 oz. of water.

So my sister is helping pave the way for mom to meet my engineer at lunch on Saturday (me, him, Sis, brother-in-law [for the non-Chinese speaking ghetto], and mom). Sis has been trying to impress upon mom the need NOT TO PESTER THE HELL OUT OF ME.

Therefore, please witness the following conversation they had, as related by my sister:

Sis:
We're going to meet her boyfriend. Now you can't go asking them about a wedding date, since Americans are more casual and meeting the family does not imply impending marriage. And don't bug her about when she's going to start having kids eother.

Mom:
Oh. Okay.

Mom:
So do you think they'll want an American or Chinese style wedding?

Sis:
What did I just say?

Mom:
Oh. Okay.

Mom:
She's not getting any younger you know. She had better get started if she's going to have kids.

Sis:
WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!

(Me:
Just kill me now. Please.)

Mom:
You know, I suspected she had a boyfriend, since I saw a photo of them together in her closet.

Sis:
Huh?

(Me:
Note - my mother has not been to my apartment since I closed on it 4 years ago.)

I need a drink. By comparison, my company imploding is a cakewalk.

My engineer is entirely sanguine, since, as he pointed out, he does not speak Chinese and will therefore be spared the worst of the interrogation. He will be asking my brother-in-law for tips about dealing with my migraine-inducing mom though.

We're in good hands

...with our new CEO. He actually knows what we do (not like the other guy) and he's honest (no B.S.) and managed to make everyone feel like there could be a light at the end of the tunnel that's NOT an oncoming train. So I took today's entry from the tagline for his old company, which he also rescued from the brink of ruin, I understand.

Not a whole lot of other new developments on either business or home fronts, but thought I'd share the good impression with y'all, since many of you have been kind enough to inquire as to how it's going at the current epicenter of the economic apocalypse [a phrase I steal shamelessly from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" on NPR].

Which also reminds me of something I ran across today: "How to avoid a major meltdown at work"

And just for fuzzy fun and cheer, here is a link to fun fun fun panda cub mayhem

And finally, a cool photo my engineer took when we were at the US Open last month:

Welcome to the implosion

I'm exhausted. Dunno how my engineer does it: work in NY, hospital in NJ, home, rinse, lather, repeat. Spent the last 4 days in the hospital with him & his parents as his dad underwent 2 cardiac implants (stents), and this was just 4 days. His poor dad has been in the hospital since mid-July for multiple surgeries, and has lost 30 lbs. Yikes.

So between that and my employer's impending implosion (well okay, it looks like it might be salvaged, but who knows?) a little hilarity was in order, I thought. (Besides using up more of my vacation days promptly seemed like a prudent idea, if you see what I mean.)
So the infamous harf (hat + scarf = harf) came out to play, since 4 days in the hospital does give one a lot of knitting time. I finally finished it (still need to do the giant pompom[s] though) at a whopping 8+ feet long. [Bonus: it made my guy's dad smile when we tried it on for him in his hospital room.]

The photo on the left was from my previous efforts last football season. The photo on the right, with my amused co-worker Julia modeling, is the almost-final result. So now Al, who is 6'5" and therefore requiring of an extremely long harf, can blind his fellow Cincinnati Bengals fans. Hee!

Between the hospital, possible unemployment, and not being home for several days, I discovered when I got home just how frazzled I was: while I had HIS keys in my purse, I had left MY keys at my honey's apartment this morning. Duh. That idiot mistake cost me $35 (lockout fee). Oh well.

What else? Oh, apparently after this weekend's travails, my engineer informed me tonight that his mom told him I am "marriage material" ( ! ! ! ) and he didn't seem averse to the idea ( ! ! ! ! ! )

And on THAT note, I am taking to my bed.

Irony

Is that what you call it when you wonder about cancelling a vacation for one reason, but wind up doing it for another? Or when you take a vacation day for one reason, but wind up using it for another? Or when your boyfriend sends you beautiful flowers because you're feeling like roadkill, but you wind up comforting him about a distressing event instead?

My engineer was thinking about cancelling his upcoming 2 week vacation to Thailand (he goes diving near Turtle Island -- whose Thai name I forget -- in the Gulf of Thailand) because well, there's been rioting in Bangkok. If so, his trip insurance would not have covered cancellation for civil unrest (insurers, as I well know consider that to fall in the category of acts of G*d). Instead, he's just cancelled it because his 78 year old dad is about to have exploratory heart surgery. Surprise!

So although he sent me those lovely, fragrant flowers yesterday because work and my psycho mom have been getting me down, enough so that I am taking tomorrow off as a mental health day, I spent last evening soothing him. And I will spend tomorrow in the hospital with his 80 year old mom (he took today off) so that he can clear the decks at work, instead of us both playing hooky.

Oh well. I consider a vacation day spent easing his mind -- and hers: she's a doll -- a vacation day well spent. (Besides, if I get laid off after September 25th, I'm certainly not giving my unused vacation days BACK!)

Yes, we just found out yesterday that their local hospital is transferring his dad to the cardiac specialists at St. Barnabas bright and early this morning at 8am, which is why I have been awake for 2 hours already: he got up before dawn so that he could go down to his family's house and drive his mom up to the hospital here. I foresee lots of iced coffee in my day.

On the bright side, this means I can go into work early and clear off my desk before I disappear tomorrow. Bonus: My early appearance will also shock my coworkers senseless. ;-P

And did I mention that I plan to introduce him to said psycho mom? Yeah, it's kinda serious. Although we haven't talked about Anything Permanent, I obviously feel a lot more secure in his feelings for me (or in the words of my PoW, I have "formed a secure attachment" -- hee! shrinkspeak is so funny sometimes). That, and verbal reinforcement from my sister (as in: "Mom, DON'T BUG HER about Things"), means I am feeling sanguine about this formerly terrifying prospect.

Oh, I completely forgot (funny, that): I qualified for WW Lifetime Status yesterday! This means that as long I stay no more than 2 lbs. above my goal weight (grand total of 43 lbs. lost) then all meetings are free. Forever. If I go above 2 lbs. (I can go below) then I pay a meeting attendance fee. And I think I have to weigh in officially (i.e., at a meeting) at least once a month, which is a good form of accountability.

Okay, off to face this hideous hordes of commuters and see if I can avoid the even more hideous WTC ceremonies this morning. Ugh.

Easy call

So tonight is kickoff for the new season, as I discovered during my walk home from the south end of Central Park, when the NFL had taken over Columbus Circle. I even got free tickets (just from walking by) for the concert @ 1:30 today. Alas, I cannot attend, as well, I have to, say, WORK.

The Giants' season opener will be telecast on NBC tonight. Or I could spend the evening curled up with my engineer. Hmmm...NO CONTEST. Football can wait. :-D

Oh, and his mom called me last night (!!!) as she wanted to chat with me about plans for this weekend. He told me later that she really wanted to make me feel welcome. Thank g*d we are too old for the "if my parents like them, I must break up with them immediately" reaction.

So I have bought them almond cookies and Jacques Torres chocolate as my hostess gifts. I think I will skip the moon cakes for now though, until I figure out the gout implications (his dad has it) besides which I went up 2 lbs. @ yesterday's WW weigh-in and I am not happy about it. Any more weight and I will have to start my lifetime membership requalification from scratch!

Hence, last night's walk home. I think I will drag my engineer out for some outdoor activities (ahem) this weekend as well. Will have to save up points for her meatloaf...yum....

The F-Word

Very tired, so tonight's post will have less-than-suave transitions between topics.

The bowl to the left shows less than HALF of the tuna tartar that was part of today's mysterious, Japanese-menu-only, special. What do you think? Would it have been, say, a pound of tuna?!

My friend's hand, and the soy sauce bottle, are shown for scale. Think about it.

Yes, tomorrow is WW weigh-in day, and after 4 days away (in distant Jersey City, heh) I am rather afraid of what the results will be tomorrow. The sashimi lunch was our attempt to be good. Of course, my udon special was not exactly light, since (a) noodles = points, and (b) it turned out to come with shrimp tempura. (Ah, the flip side of ordering from the Japanese menu when you don't read Japanese: the occasional surprise!)

And the sweater is being blocked, as I try to decide what fastening to shape (ties? buttons? hmmm...)

And the f-word refers to "fiancee" which is what my engineer's dad referred to me as. Granted, he was merely using it to put off a visit from the physical therapist, as in, "No we can't make an appt for this weekend, because my son's fiancee is visiting." (As you can imagine, this generated an immediate phone call from my engineer's mom.)

Now while his dad was merely using the word as an excuse, and not because it was actually TRUE, I find it interesting that neither my sweetheart or myself ran screaming into the night at the very concept.