I Now Know How to Xiao Long Bao

I was walking back from the dentist today and noticed a plethora of fungi.

This was my favorite: a water meter cover broke creating this perfect little cave for mushrooms to create their own little civilization.

Meanwhile Ern was doing some important science of his own at school.

While waiting for our table at Din Tai Fung we helped the nearby Container Store rearrange some of its merchandise.

How to Bao

Another good day for the record books.

Dumplings and Tell-Tale Hearts

Brother Sam was in town so we took him to one of our favorites: Din Tai Fung!

They expanded into a new spot and it looks pretty baller.

I've always hated nigori sake but I think this was the moment I finally decided to memorize the name so that I would never accidentally order it or have to drink it ever again. It's milky, sweet, has rice solids in it... it feels like someone gave up midway through the process of making a non-crap sake and just bottled it to trick me.

We took a break on the way to the car to check out the arcade.

Later we handed off Ern and headed to the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy event at the Egyptian Theatre in Seattle.

The deal was they handed you a cocktail then did a live rendition of a Poe story. It was fun.

My favorite was "The Masque of the Red Death." Spooky.

 

Schoolboy Ern

Today Ern went in for his first official half day of big boy school.

Ern had so much food packed that his lunchbox was bigger than he was.

The school has an app where you can check Ernie's activities. They also post pictures which are like fun little presents randomly bestowed throughout the day. He sure doesn't seem to be missing me as much as I would like... 

A building full of new toys and people to play with is pretty much Ernie Shangri-La.

We had some takeout Din Tai Fung for lunch.

Ernie Neck, Activate!

Another day, another Ernesto neck exercise.

Thumb suck fail

Ernie love high contrast pictures. Now suckers might go out and "buy" such things but real ones know that a Din Tai Fung takeout bag held up by a wine bottle gets the job done.