Saturday, April 08, 2023

Car Seat Safety and Green Hell

Today we went to a car seat instructional course in the parking lot at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.




It turns out that car seats are pretty complicated and there are about 8 different ways of installing one in a car. It was overwhelming at times.





Our carseat instructor lady told us a couple of times that we were going to have a large baby. That was a little bit strange and I'm not sure what that prediction was based on.



Some of the practice babies were having better childhoods than others.



I guess some European seat belts don't lock when you pull them, so there's an additional metal piece that you are supposed to use to secure the belt. Sitting down has never been so much work.





Once we had mastered the art of putting a child in a car we headed to the big city to watch some Major League Soccer.



The entire state of Washington is processing some major alcohol related trauma. It's going to be ok.





I was attending my very first US professional soccer match for a special occasion: St. Louis CITY SC was in town facing off against the Seattle Sounders FC! I like the pretension of calling Seattle's a "football club". We get it, you did a semester in Ireland. That's very cool.


It was fun seeing the quirky culture of the Sounders. I suppose it's possible that every soccer game does the same thing. I would not know.
















I like "Welcome to Green Hell" because it's both threatening and environmentally responsible.



Ramadan break!



Lydia and I had a rare sports difference of opinion on this match. Usually we both support whatever team is from St. Louis if they are playing, and then whatever team is from Seattle if they are not. Pretty simple rule, no? Well in this instance there was a bit of a situation. You see, I'm a deal boy. I smell a deal, I pursue the deal, I obtain the deal. 


Kellogg's had a promotion where if you bought a few products then you would get a gift card that you could use at the MLS store. Well I figured out that Pringles was the cheapest product on the approved list, I waited until I found them on sale and then... I bought numerous cans of them. Enough cans to get a personalized authentic team jersey. Success was in reach. Well St. Louis' team is brand new and they didn't release the official jersey yet, so I had to wait. Well I waited and waited. Almost an entire year, until my points were about to expire. Still no jersey was available. So I had to make an executive decision to switch my allegiances and go with a Sounders jersey. St. Louis had their chance and they blew it.




There was some Din Tai Fung in attendance.






Betrayal brought to you by Pringles worked out in this instance because the Sounders were doing some damage today. Plus this situation gave me the added benefit of being able to talk trash to everyone back home.



A lot of butts were hurt and I earned a teardrop emoji or two from my former friends. It sucks to suck I guess.



This was Lydia's chance to paint her belly like a soccer ball, but she blew it.



Wednesday, April 05, 2023

Tomo Arigato

We went to the hospital for what would be our final ultrasound.


The doctor said that these were pictures of a normal human baby and not a monkey picking its nose. I guess time will tell.



We celebrated the continued presence of our primate fetus with a trip to TOMO for dinner.



This was one of those set course situations which simplifies my life.





"Dungeness Crab, Haiga Rice, Grenobloise"



"Japanese Sweet Potato, Kimchi, Ennis Hazelnut, Soy Milk"



"Gigante Beans, Nettle, Tendon"





"Porchetta, Leeks, Raab"





"Braised Cabbage + Furikake"



"Buttermilk Rhubarb, Caramelized Cacao Nib, Tarragon"





We saw another table getting this odd flavored kakigori with lemon marmalade, fenugreek, and fennel. And I says to myself: "Lydia's growing a mammal of some sort and she deserves to have a few desserts today! I will of course also have a few bites."



And so it was done.

All the Immersions and Diversions

Tonight we went to WNDR Museum Seattle with our friends Shubra and Sumit.


The exhibits were a lot of interactive, immersive types of art installations. This light up floor mirror hallway thing was interesting.









With this thing you pressed different buttons and different parts of the display would light up and play music. There was also a table where a lady was handing out miracle berry tablets. I've tried miracle berries before in Japan back in the day. The berry blocks the sour and maybe bitter receptors in your mouth, but leaves the sweet receptors alone. So when you bite into a lemon for example it tastes like the most wonderful lemonade you've ever tasted because all that's left for you to sense is the sugar of the fruit. I thought that this was super fun and very unexpected.





























When everything had been immersively experienced we popped into Itsumono to try some fun Japanese food. This wild thing was a:
"Seattle Dog Musubi

arabiki sausage, cream cheese, caramelized onion, sriracha"


This was a good example of the playful fusions this place offers.



"Chocolate Mochi A La Mode
chocolate mochi cake, burnt white chocolate, dark chocolate ganache, vanilla gelato"



"Loco Moco Scotch Egg

hamburger, egg, mac salad, rice"




"Wagyu Don
wagyu hanger steak, yoshinoya beef fat sauce, onions, rice"

Saturday, April 01, 2023

Free Laughs

I was very proud of myself for winning an Instagram giveaway for tickets to a comedy show. Bonus points was that it was at the Kirkland Performance Center which meant we could just walk right on over. It was funny because the giveaway was for three tickets. After they contacted me and said I had won, I was like: "what the hell am I supposed to do with three tickets?" so they bumped it up to four. 


They could have bumped it up to 40 and still have plenty of room. The place was less than half full. The headliner was Kabir Singh, who has been on America’s Got Talent and did writing on Family Guy. He was decent. Derek and Gabby went for the other two tickets so that was fun.