A Thug's Life

Dear Uncle Sean and Auntie Connie:

Thanks for keepin' it real and giving me this fly Batman onesie for Christmas! Oh, and thanks for the kicks, Auntie Lisa and Uncle Tommy: Vans fo life!

Now everybody back up, 'cause I'm gonna work on my backspins...

From December 08

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Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It sure is freezing out there, at least for L.A. Better to just stay inside and watch some TV:



Or hang around and play with Auntie Lisa...



...or Auntie Alex:



Where's Uncle Eric, anyway? Oh, he just got here?!



I can't wait to finally meet him!

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Music: M83

Click here to listen to M83's "We Own the Sky"

We love the '80s. We love the warm, analog-synth sound tapestries weaved by The Cocteau Twins, and the heart-ache-y, self-absorbed innocence of teen-angst flicks like "Some Kind of Wonderful" and "Pretty in Pink."

Because we love all these things, we love M83.

Take a batch of neon shirts, some shoegazers, and a dash of dream pop, and you get this French indie outfit, fronted by a dude named Anthony Gonzalez.

More than any Moog- or Roland-resurrecting act we can think of (MGMT, Goldfrapp, Hot Chip, The Faint...), M83 achieves the same electric, heartbroken vibe of My Bloody Valentine or a John Hughes third act.


M83: "Graveyard Girl"

Driving, breathy, soaring, and occasionally, silly ("I’m 15 years old and I’m scared it might be too late to live. Aren’t you?"), just about every track on this record is great. "We Own the Sky," though, is so breathtaking in its simple, soaring lines, we just had to share it.

Electricity? Yes.

Warmth, sincerity, and lyricism? Also a big fat yes.

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The Huntington: Liu Fang Yuan

The Santiagos and Takasugis both love to garden. It's no wonder, then, that Chris's Mom called the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens her "favorite museum in the world." This means a lot, considering Mom has been to museums all over Europe and North America.

Since The Huntington recently opened its multi-million dollar Chinese Garden, called Liu Fang Yuan, or "the Garden of Flowing Fragrance", we had to take her and Dad for a look.


Aki and Daddy at the Huntington's Chinese Garden

Sean and Connie didn't exactly hate it, either. For one thing, they got to play with Aki in the great outdoors.

And for another, it was a great opportunity for Sean to play with his new, ultra-fancy SLR camera, which, as this picture can attest, is fast enough and sharp enough to snap hummingbirds mid-flight:


Check out more of Sean's snaps here on his blog

Aki seemed to be in just the right stage for the trip: all the vibrant colors, scents, sounds, and shapes -- honeysuckle, bougainvillea, rosemary -- made his eyes widen and his head turn.




The Huntington is vast, and we burned more than a few calories tramping under massive trees, over broad lawns, and through primly tended rose gardens. It's a good thing, too, since we'd been eating so much lately.

We didn't even have time to check out any of the galleries. Since Yuri and I bought memberships for the year, we can come back anytime, but we promised Sean and Connie we'd take them back when they were in L.A. again, if they wanted to go.



Which brings us to the icing on our cake: reading, a few days later, Sean's blog, where he said that he and Connie liked The Huntington so much they can't wait to go back.

We're right there with you, guys!

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Milestone?

"How you get so big eating food of this kind?"
-- Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

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Let it Snow!

We'd love to take Aki up to the Twin Cities someday to experience a "real" White Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Santiago would probably love that too, of course!

But we'll have to wait at least a year until we can introduce him to sledding, snowball fights, ice fishing with the Kelletts, or the Macy's 8th Floor Exhibit with the Hansons.

Luckily for Aki, though, it "snowed" in Old Town Pasadena recently. Dozens of families skidded around on a block of homemade snow, flanked by reindeer, snowmen, and, of course, Santa.



We met up with Suzanne, who told us about the event, Gary, and Isaac, sipped some free hot chocolate, and enjoyed a little Christmas people-watching. Not bad!

Maybe it wasn't quite the same as December in Minnesota. On the other hand, when it was time to leave, we didn't have any problems starting our car!

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Puttin' On the Langham

When Sean told us that he, Connie, Mom, and Dad were staying at The Langham, our first thought was, "When can we come over and eat?" After all, not only is The Langham (formerly the Ritz) Pasadena's poshest pad, it also has the only hotel-run restaurant in L.A. with a Michelin Star.

We'd eaten there twice when it was The Ritz: once after we got engaged, another time for Lisa's big 3-0. Michelin says they don't take into account the decor, ambience, etc. when rating restaurants, but in The Langham's case, it certainly couldn't hurt: French doors open onto a pillared terrace overlooking a pool; hummingbirds dart in and out of blossom-wreathed trellises.

The service is immaculate, too; it's the very definition of Old School. And the room's so hushed you can hear yourself digesting.


Mom, Yuri, and Sean all had the Traditional Langham Breakfast, a protein-heavy potpourri of eggs, hickory bacon, bangers (sausages), tomato compote, sautéed mushrooms, house potatoes, and an english muffin, while Connie had the American Breakfast, which is a little less epic.

Chris and Dad, on the other hand, decided to specialize, Dad with a perfectly executed smoked salmon Benedict, and Chris with a steak (petite and succulent) and basted eggs.

All of the breakfasts came with hash browned potatoes, which were really good: pressed flat into a crisp, buttery mesh. They also came with a little green surprise: a molded dollop of asparagus butter.



We washed everything down with coffee and grapefruit juice, which Connie passed off to us!, milky white and fresh as the first snow.

The prices aren't exactly bargain basement. But they're not through the roof either. And we're okay with shelling out a little extra once in a blue moon to eat like the other half.

Besides, validation in the dining room offset the $17(!) valet parking, and on top of it all, Sean had managed to book their rooms at a discount that made the concierge's eyes pop (way to bargain hunt, Sean!).

---

Sean on room rates: "The Internet is your friend!"

The only thing to do after eating like blue bloods is to loiter around the hotel like blue bloods, which is exactly what we did.

Besides being fancy, The Langham's also a a landmark. Before it was even The Ritz, it was the Huntington Hotel, which opened in 1907.

That's why the place has that superior, old money air to it (think of the hotel in "The Shining" minus the snow drifts and axe murderers): Colis Huntington was one of the "Big Four" who built the western part of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The grounds are sprawling and immaculate. They probably need a small army of gardeners, not to mention all the folks to tend to the villas, tea room, piano bar, cocktail party pools, and tennis courts.

It's a good thing, too: we needed to walk off all that food!

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Pretty Darn Thankful

This weekend, Aki gave thanks that he got to meet his Auntie Alex -- finally! -- who was back in town from Starbucksland.

Al joined the rest of us as we trouped down to Orange County to celebrate Turkey Day at Uncle Dean and Auntie Maxine's.



The place was aglow with the holiday spirit: DeMax's niece and nephew, Kyle and Megan, chased each other around the house (later, Megan sang a song); the Beetschens drove down from Rancho Cucomonga, and talked about studying abroad with Dad Takasugi; four or five bottles of wine were poured out -- before dinner! -- and everyone noshed on appetizers, while the house filled with the smell of roasting turkey, yams, and other goodies.



Aki decided to eat before everyone else. We fed him upstairs, where he quickly fell asleep. He slept like a rock. Having a full stomach had a lot do with it. But so did the peace and comfort that surrounded us. We could hear all the revelry down below, but everything was pleasantly muffled, like a warm sweater.

All the delicious smells and sounds wrapped him up in a cloud of contentment. We couldn't help thinking that this was why we love Thanksgiving so much: our own parents rocked and soothed us on Thanksgivings thirty years ago, with a mess of uncles and aunts tromping around the house below us, and all the delicious smells filling up every room in the house.


Uncle Dean carving up the bird

We could hear Uncle James and Auntie Mona wobbling, hooting, and hollering on Kyle's WiiFit; we could hear Megan giving an impromptu concert on the stairs; Alex passed out on the couch in front with a Blu-ray disc of Iron Man cranked full volume; and Dad Takasugi poured out the wine and told tales with Pam, Brittany, Lauren, and Brandon.


Tommy and a very big bottle of vodka


WiiCute: Megan and Kyle

By the time dinner was served, it already felt like the best Thanksgiving we'd ever had. Not because everyone we loved was able to be there, but because we were opening Aki's eyes to how great a gift it was to be able to be with the ones who could.


Next stop: Uncle Eric!

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