A Banner Month Part 1

I think I'm going to spend all of July catching up on what was one of the more insane Junes in Lagerfeld life history.  That month was OFF. THE. CHAINS.

First of all, these nuggets turned the big 0-3.  Which is like, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

We had the grandmothers over for a twins birthday dinner of their favorite meal (spaghetti and meatballs and a homemade ice cream cake I made).  Guys, buying ice cream cake is such a rip off!  Homemade ice cream cake is the stuff that dreams are made of.  Chocolate cookie crust, a layer of chocolate ice cream, a layer of Momofuku Milk Bar's chocolate crumb, a layer of vanilla bean ice cream, topped with fudge sauce?  I froze it and then added more warmed fudge sauce after with some dollops of whipped cream.  It was SO GOOD.

We also went to an old skool jungle rave that weekend?  Just the two of us but we ran into our buddy Burton there and we had a good night of dancing to old skool hardcore music and early early jungle and it was THE BEST, although we were predictably wrecked on the Sunday.  We still pulled ourselves together and did things with the kids, we just did it feeling like a bag of a-holes.  As always, doing things that make you feel like people, even if there is the inevitable bag of a-holes backlash, is the only thing that makes us functioning parents and people.  If we DIDN'T do it?  I'd be even worse of a parent, guaranteed.

Giant useless disco ball at the rave.

 Peppa Pig birthday cake evolution.

On their actual birthday, I had a pretty brilliant idea - I invited all the neighbours and the kids on the street out onto the street for pizza, snacks, juice and cake, and then just leveraged the play that happens after work anyway.  It was AMAZING!  The entire party cost about $140, and that was $100 worth of party sized pizzas.  In lieu of gifts I asked the kids to make the twins cards and the kids stepped up and it was so, so, so cute.  I also made a Peppa Pig cake and it looked like Peppa and I mean, that's all one can really ask for at the end of the day, right?

I did the birthday "interview" questions and I wish I had recorded it.  It was so funny.

Here are Twin B's answers:

What is your favorite color?      White

What is your favorite toy?  The Rocket

What is your favorite thing to eat? Peanut butter toast and yogurt

What is your favorite movie? Wreck It Ralph

What is your favorite outfit to wear?  Thomas!  (Thomas Pajamas)

What are your favorite animals? Gorilla

What does Mama do for work? Treasures!

What does Baba do for work? Go to school

What is your favorite book?  Peppa Pig!

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Playing with my light sabre

Who is your best friend? Joel (neighbour)

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Tooth Fairy

What's your favorite game to play?  Poop

What's your favorite thing to do with Mama? Poop on the toilet

What's your favorite thing to do with Baba?  Eat breakfast on the couch

What's your favorite special treat?  cake

If you could go anywhere, where would you want to go?  The dinosaur one

What makes you happy?  I like to cut up papers

What makes you sad?  Quincy hits me with the horse in the head

What makes you scared?  Pirates of the Caribbean

LOL at wanting to be a Tooth Fairy when he grows up.

Here are Twin A's answers:

What is your favorite color?    Blue

What is your favorite toy?  My crown (his birthday crown)

What is your favorite thing to eat? cake

What is your favorite movie? The King and Belle (Beauty and the Beast)

What is your favorite outfit to wear?  Diapers

What are your favorite animals? Horse and a cow

What does Mama do for work? Go to a minion tower

What does Baba do for work? Buy money

What is your favorite book?  Wreck It Ralph Christmas Story

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Playing with my light sabre and my rocket

Who is your best friend? You! (Mama)

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Ummmm...Dinosaur

What's your favorite game to play?  Having my birthday presents!

What's your favorite thing to do with Mama? Poopy

What's your favorite thing to do with Baba?  Pooping on Baba

What's your favorite special treat?  Having cake

If you could go anywhere, where would you want to go?  To Mister Stink

What makes you happy?  When the caterpillar turns into a butterfly

What makes you sad?  When Lenny hits me

What makes you scared?  I’m scared of spiders

LOL at "diapers" being  a person's favorite outfit to wear.  Also, a caterpillar turning into a butterfly making him happy???  So cute.  I know that both of their answers are influenced by external (read: older sibling) factors, but getting some insight into the swirling mass of confusion that is a preschooler's brain is pretty fascinating/hilarious.

The valley of tears, aka Kindergarten graduation. The Big Yam's teacher organized a ceremony, with little caps and diplomas.  Each kid had their own framed photo with them in a cap and gown.  Then there was a small party.  I went in late to work and almost cried my guts out.  I can't believe that this guy is going into grade one next year.  Like, recess with the big kids, no longer in the kindie pen.  IN WITH THE GEN POP.  How does that even work?!????  I hope he's gonna be okay.

We also went to see my outlaw sis perform as part of LuminaTO. The site for LuminaTO this year was a decommissioned generating station, the Hearn Power Plant.  It's on the east side, so we rode our bikes out there and brought the kids.  The Hearn was VERY raw.  My neighbour told me they put $60 million into it? Not really sure where the money went.  There was some space cleared inside for live performances, and art, but in between were piles of concrete and rubble.  It was pretty cool and I hope they can continue to use the spot in the future.

Big Yam's wedding pre-game routine involved playing hard at the beach and then solo-slamming back a bag of pepperoni.

And finally, those first two weeks in June culminated in my brother's wedding, at Deer Park Lodge, on the banks of Lake Huron, which is gorgeous beyond measure.  It looks like the Caribbean and maybe that's due to pollution and agricultural run-off, but I gotta say, I don't even care?  I mean, I do care, but also, not really.  Haha.

We arrived on Friday, mid-day and immediately hit the beach.  There was a pot-luck barbecue that night, and we hung with our friends from CLE.  The next day was more beaching, and then the ceremony, and then the reception and dancing, and we busted out the next day.

I still can't quite believe that my brother is married now?  I'm trying to put down in words what it means to have siblings, and it is late, and I am writing to fulfill my mum's desires for more blog content, and I'm finding my writing muscles have atrophied somewhat.  I love my family.  My relationship with each of the members of my family hasn't always been easy, or smooth, or effortless. Despite growing up essentially within the same set of parameters, we are all very different individuals, but what I love about my family is how, when external pressure is applied, we close ranks, salt the earth, and raze the ground upon which our aggressors stand.

There is a 16 year age gap between my eldest sibling and my youngest.  We are different people, with different values, and beliefs, and modes of operation, and yet.  And yet, there is nothing quite like having people to bear witness to your family with you.  Your parents can't do it.  They're their own thing.  Your siblings are the ones you get to complain, and reminisce, and enjoy your parents with.  That bank of shared memories, in-jokes, after-the-parents-have-gone-to-bed shenanigans...that's something that only your siblings can know and understand.

I was so proud of my siblings at that wedding.  I was proud of my brother for being an adult (not that marriage makes you an adult, but I think being able to put together a wedding certainly does).  I was proud of my youngest brother for being a good best man, being an adult, and giving a really touching speech.  I was proud of my sister, for singing a speech from the musical Hamilton and the two of us coming up with something on the fly to say (we were asked to say something about 30 minutes before we took the podium) and for being both a sister and mother-hen to us all.  I was proud of my outlaw brother, my new outlaw sister, and my youngest brother's girlfriend, for taking one look at our crazy clan and being okay with us, in all our unpolished, behind-closed-doors, s**t talking, occasional arguing, screaming, disheveled glory.  I was proud of my mum and Big D, for raising us 4 accomplished, bright kids, and not really having any plan or fixed pedagogy when doing so, other than inculcating in us the concept that family and honest are the most important things in the world.

I loved hearing my brother's high school friends speak.  I loved hanging with them at the wedding.  I loved being able to spend time with my family in this gorgeous setting and spend a long weekend relaxing.  When my sister sang the toast from Hamilton, one of my brother's friends from the audience called back the response.  It was so cute.

Fin.

U.S. Election Day!

Aside from the choices made to elect the next POTUS, I'm extra nervous and on tenterhooks today on account of the fact that my outlaw bro will find out whether he gets elected to be District Attorney.  It's nerve-racking!  I semi-strongly believe that the differences between Obama and Romney are largely negligible and I'm worried about what the Republican party is likely to do in the wake of a loss (whether they're likely to go more far right and abandon the moderate centre), but my investment in this election is mostly from the perspective of wanting Uncle Rico to win.

Go go Uncle Rico!  

At the very least, I'm happy that my lovely sister and her family no longer have to participate in the absurd farce that is US electoral politics and campaigning.

Yesterday I had a terrible, awful, no good very bad day.  I came home and dinner wasn't ready and so we ate late and I was crochety.  As an attempt to re-align the family, I started the "What was your favorite part of the day?" round.  

Me: "Big Yam, what was your favorite part of the day?"

Big Yam: *not missing a beat* "Meatballs."

LOL!  He looked right into my eyes, too.  He believed it.  So funny!  He's a bit of an unreliable witness - I'm not sure that he actually had meatballs or came in contact with meatballs yesterday.  

In other funny news.  I was emailing my sis to find out what I should get for Little Big Cuz's 2nd birthday.  She emailed me back, "I just asked him and, no joke, he said 'Big Yam' and when I asked him if he wanted to SEE the Big Yam, he said yes."  !!!!!  So cute!  I love that the two cousins love each other so darned hard.

This weekend was legit.  Friday night was Ladies' Night on my street.  We went to the Riverside Public House.  It was pretty good!  I ordered the burger but I should have ordered the fried chicken.  You get two drumsticks and a thigh (I tried my neighbour's) and it's perfect, crunchy, juicy fried chicken served with a heap of mashed potatoes and kale with gravy.  All this for $14, which I think is a great price.  I highly recommend it and wished I had ordered it instead of what I did get.  I ordered the burger, which was fine - delicious, juicy, with skinny salty fries, but the fried chicken was much better.  I split some appetizers with my neighbour as well - a mussel and lobster chowder and chanterelles on toast.  I love love love chanterelles - what's not to love about a pile of buttery, rich, gorgeous sautéed mushrooms piled on toast?  Absolutely nothing, that's what.  

Saturday was Lolly's wedding - it was a beautiful affair in a beautiful space with amazing food.  We sat at a table with the full slew of kdubsguelph crew and it was one of the few times we've ever had to sit at a table at a wedding without the (seemingly) obligatory random couple shoe-horned in.  It was great!  Uncle Jesse made this video that they screened during the reception - it's adorable.  He's so talented.  

The Irish Artist - A Wedding Film from Jesse A on Vimeo.

Then SMckay slept over and we woke up the next morning and gave the Big Yam a haircut and she bought us McDonald's and we gossiped.  Maybe it's a by-product of being raised by super-strict Asian parents who were always like, "why would you ever want to sleep somewhere OTHER than your own bed?" but I don't think I'll ever get tired of friend sleepovers.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm particularly well suited to communal living.  I just think it's the funnest to come home to your besties!  I would happily lose the ability to walk around the house naked for living with friends again.  I'm a big proponent of it taking a village.  Which is all to say that I love it when SMckay sleeps over.  

Anyway, I drove her home and picked up Momma D, who had extensive hand surgery last Tuesday, which means that she's not really equipped to be on her own for long stretches until she gets the hang of doing everything one-handed.  She came over and we napped and snoozed and watched movies and ate pizza.  It was lovely.  I banged off another batch of cookies (hazelnut thumbprints) and made hot chocolate and we were cozy on the couch.  I didn't feel like I particularly got the benefit of the extra hour, but we made up for it that night by going to bed at 8:30pm and not waking until 6am the next morning.  Bliss!

Last night's (rescued) dinner: sunchoke soup with bacon, cheddar cheese, and chives.  This was soooo good!  I love Jerusalem artichokes so much.  The flavour is so unique.  I had wanted to smoke the sunchokes but didn't get around to it on Sunday.

Tonight we had the roomie and T over for dinner.  We had a baked pasta with ricotta, mozzarella, and a turkey tomato sauce.  With an arugala & radicchio salad with parm and lemon juice.  I also made us ginger molasses cookies.  That up there is the PERFECT blanket of cheese with the PERFECT amount of browning for chew/goo.

We got our MPAC assessment in the mail today.  Ugh.  It's so bittersweet.  The good news is: according to MPAC, our house has increased 135% in value since we bought it (and actually, the appraised price then was more than we paid for the house).  The bad news is that our property tax rates will go up accordingly.  

Fin.

NEVER...

...take a baby/toddler to a wedding.

I know you were thinking that I was going to end that with..."fall in love" *cue Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You* but no.  Never fall in love is TOTALLY a rule for bodyguards, don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you to take that proscription lightly.  But for any parents and prospective parents out there, even if your baby/toddler is invited to the wedding, don't take them.  Seriously.  It's the worst.  It just ruins your time.  They're not having fun, because there aren't any other kids there and it's a late night, and you don't have any fun, because you're worried about them or trying to eat roast beef one handed with a giant 30 pound sack of potatoes out cold over your shoulder.  It's a giant fun-suck.

We went to the Dotytron's uncle's wedding last night.  In Ancaster.  ON A SUNDAY NIGHT.  I don't know what I was expecting - I figured a Sunday night wedding would be a quickie civil ceremony followed by a quick dinner - I figured I'd be home by 9:30-10, at the latest.  I didn't factor on a hour plus long cocktail reception and a 45 minute ceremony and the full slate of speeches.  I just didn't.  It's my fault.  We also made the monumentally horrible decision to carpool with Momma D...so we couldn't leave.  NEVER EVER EVER NOT TAKE YOUR OWN CAR, PEOPLE!  Be you not so foolish as I-and-I (we)!  All we wanted was to be able to hop in the car, grab some McDonald's and head home.  But we were trapped!  The poor little Bubba was a good sport, he really was.  He didn't cry or complain, but he got really tired and overwhelmed by a million old white people.  I don't blame him, really.  Also the Ancaster Old Mill, while a gorgeous spot for a wedding, is weirdly committed to stupid details like NOT HAVING PROPER HIGH CHAIRS.  Instead, what they have is these weird wooden things with this cloth crotch-strap that you tie around your kid.  Even CRACKER BARREL, which is FULLY committed to being period-correct, has a decent (wooden) high chair that you can strap your kid into.

Anyway, that's my advice for you.  You want to drink and have a good time and not have your genuine happiness for the couple getting hitched to be marred by your own seething resentment at your own stupidity for not seeing clearly how your evening would go down with a toddler in tow.

The pluses: the Dotytron's new suit looks banging.  We got him a new charcoal suit and tie and it's a much more modern cut than he's used to.  He's spent the ENTIRE time since picking up the suit complaining about how he "hates his new suit" and how the pants are "skin tight" but when he put the suit on, he looked like a stone fox.  You don't put someone who is 6'4" and naturally slender in a boxy suit.

I wore this vintage, dusty rose dress I bought years ago.  It's really quite flattering and I wore my platform Seychelles and looked pretty hotsy if I do say so myself.  That's me and the Big Yam up there - the Big Yam already looked a little peaked.

It didn't help that the wedding followed the Big Yam's birthday lunch - AYCE Indian food.  My family came and Dr. Rei and Hanbo and Momma D and Ehmdo.  It was fun!  Big D came and it was the best.  He totally turns it on when he's out and it's so cute.  I love it when Big D turns it on.  It's the BEST.  You're always like, "uhh, who IS that guy!?!" cracking jokes and yukking it up and pestering my brother on cell phone plan details.  

It didn't help that the night before, I was up til midnight putting together the Big Yam's play kitchen.  Imagine putting together an Ikea fridge, stove, counter, oven, microwave, cabinets, sink and phone...BUT MINI:

There is only one word for it: hell.  It took me just over 2 hours and I almost stripped a few screws AND all the skin off my thumb in the process.

It didn't help that we had spent that afternoon at my friend P's Annual Competition Backyard BBQ, which raises funds for Common Ground Co-Operative.  P is a maniac.  He turns his backyard (which is giant) into a hay-strewn, tent-bedecked mini Toronto Underground Market.  AND he enters like 3 different categories and cooks up a brisket that is tasty enough to make you cry tears of joy.  He is an inspiration to us all.  

TOO MANY THINGS this past weekend!  TOO MANY THINGS.  

In other news, today I found out that the job interview I had been preparing for, for the past two weeks, has been cancelled and they decided to not post the position after all.  This was of course, EXTREMELY DEMORALIZING.  I was primed!  I was ready!  I really really really wanted the opportunity to do this job!      At the very least, I really really really wanted the opportunity to INTERVIEW for this job!  

On Friday night we had burgers & sweet potato fries.  

I love me a good old fashioned homemade burger.

Saturday's post Mandarin school homemade sausage and egg McMuffins.

On Saturday night we had that Thai coconut curry soup with rice noodles.

Last night we had grilled cheese sandwiches with freezer minestrone/wedding soup reheated together.  Then I chased that with a billion pounds of wedding-favour shortbread and the Big Yam's portion of prime rib (which was HUGE) from the wedding.  THIS IS OFF THE RECORD, MY FITNESS PAL!  Snitches get stitches!  I'm clearly stress eating my face off.

Tonight we had "sorry they decided to cancel the interview" takeout fried chicken and butter tarts and a million shortbread cookies.  THIS IS OFF THE RECORD, MY FITNESS PAL!

Fin.

kdubsguelphtdot represent!

hottest crew of friends to ever storm a wedding - evidence:







oh, and the bride and groom looked pretty damn foine too:


how adorable are they? C is positively radiant!

so effing cute! the mcmichael gallery is an absolutely stunning spot - the gallery itself (where the reception was held) is all rustic stone and wood beams and the outside features hills (the ceremony was outdoors on top of a hill) overlook rolling wooded glens. the sun was shining, love was in the air, and we got to be there for our nearest and dearest. is there anything better? and we got to welcome J & A into the ranks of homeowners...helping homeowners! they bought what sounds like from all accounts an absolutely gorgeous abode in the kdubs for a fraction of what we pay in toronto without all the headaches. they bought big fabo!

i'm feeling a leetle better about our hovel. i know we did the right thing. we didn't overpay - we got something with room to appreciate with a little bit of elbow grease and a whole lotta cash infusion. we went by again yesterday to pick the colour for the master bedroom:

corn husk green on the left, citron on the right. i think we're going with citron. i think it'll look really nice with the colour of our teak headboard and bed - and we're not doing the whole room. most of the rooms save my craft room and the dining room are going to be 3 walls of white with 1 accent wall in a colour. i think it would look awesome with this marimekko bedding set:

the citron wall is also going to be broken up with some floating shelves, probably ikea lack ones in white - so we can display some posters or prints or something - or just have some prints displayed with bulldog clips:



yesterday was bucktown. we woke up early and then immediately figured out how much paint we *think* we're going to need and then busted ass to home depot to buy s**tloads of paint so that we could get that 30% off deal. then we came back and i made us sunday breakkie (challah french toast spread with passionfruit butter we brought back from hawaii - it's a fruit butter so that means there's no butter in there, it's just a super-thick, spreadable, passionfruit elixir from the gods).

after breakkie the dotytron went to rip out baseboards and i went to town painting my desk and this other piece of furniture, then we hauled our butts over to C & A's place to drop them off at the airport but we got stuck in traffic for the CNE so we were literally pissing ourselves worried that we were going to make them miss their flight for their HONEYMOON. then we came home and i cooked a bunch of stuff to bring over to the old roomie and l'army's house for dinner. they had steaks and corn and hosted and i brought that cucumber, radish, feta and dill salad, hasselback potatoes with bacon-scallion-dill sour cream topping, and a cherry tart with brown butter almond streusel. the cherry tart was THE BOMB.





today is more bucktown. the dotytron is lesson planning and i'm doing more painting and hopefully spraypainting our new filing cabinet a fire-engine red. then we're hoping to make it to the house so that there can be more baseboard removal and i can clean the kitchen and then we're going to go for a hamcamp reunion with possibly my brother s-dawg and my friend L to see bwong's new digs and do some latinfest 09 thing that's happening up there which apparently involves flautas and churros (SOLD!)

then tomorrow is the dotytron's first day of school and the electric work starts on the house!

eeps!

fin.