90 Degrees and Serendipitous

Why the long absence and sporadic posting? A day like today goes a long way toward explaining things. Packed with color, festivity, food, family, music, and strange coincidences, it was hard to find time to catch our breath, let alone update our blog. But we'll try to give it a shot, just to help us hold onto the day that much longer.

Bright and early, we met up with Aki's cousin Keagan at the L.A. Arboretum, for Easter egg hunts, painting, and oodles of other family friendly activities with a Beatrix Potter theme.

Aki and Keagan at the Arb

Afterwards, we dashed up Baldwin Ave. to Din Tai Fung, our favorite place for siu long bao (soup-filled dumplings), and met up with Aki's uncle Eric, and Yuri's cousin Mi-chan and her husband Ken, who are expecting their first child next month. We're so excited for you guys! We also bumped into one of Chris's former co-workers, Gloria from HR, who had helped Chris get paid-time-off back when Aki was born. And her own son, Steven, was a huge almost-two himself. Time flies.

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While Aki took his afternoon nap, Daddy brushed up his chops with the percussion section of the Crown City Symphony. Given that it's been about ten years since he picked up his sticks, this was a pretty dig deal.



We picked up a gift for Mi-chan at Giggle on Lake, then met up for dinner at Aki's grandparents' house, where we took home some several bags of Alaskan King and Dungeness from Boiling Crab (not too mention some cob corn, calamari, spicy catfish and fries...yum).

Since Baba was pretty wiped out from a day of teaching, she gave up her seat to Musica Angelica to Aki's Daddy, who polished off the day with Rameau and company, and discovered an old Obie classmate (and fellow current USC doctoral candidate -- weird coincidence!) behind the harpsichord.

Chris got a chance to reconnect with him for a bit at intermission -- and also downed some of our favorite coffee, provided by Jones -- and got to chat with Aki's grandpa about music, art, and all the stuff Chris is supposed to be writing/studying about right now.

Luckily, Aki and his Mommy are crashed out cozily in the next room. Time to write and study (which is the main reason we've been so slow to post, but thanks for sticking with us!)


We'll try to pack the next post with gratuitous shots of mouth-watering food!