Dim Sum With The Wongs

A few weeks ago Sophia found a great book at the library entitled, "Dim Sum For Everyone," by Grace Lin. Before reading this book with her, I'd never heard of the Chinese dim sum cuisine. Together we discovered that dim sum, which translates to "little hearts," consists of a wide variety of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. "Dim Sum For Everyone" has brightly stylized illustrations of these dishes, such as Fried Shrimp, Egg Tarts, and Dumplings—all of which Sophia thought looked really yummy.

After reading "Dim Sum For Everyone" upon request at least five times every day for a week, Sophia's dream of trying out the food came true. Our good friend who was visiting noticed the book on our coffee table. It just so happens that her family goes out for dim sum in Ann Arbor fairly often, and she invited us to come along the following Sunday.

Today was the big day. We met the Wong family at Lai Lai, a cute little restaurant on Carpenter Road. The Wongs, who were experts on the menu, helped us figure out what we might like, and let us try out some of their selections too. Stephen liked everything, and Sophia liked the fried shrimp balls, egg tarts, and turnip cakes, which were a favorite of Cassidy's. Unfortunately I was unable to eat anything from the dim sum menu since I'm on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, so I ordered steamed chicken and snow peas with no sauce. Hmmmm. Salt and pepper helped a little. I though dim sum was supposed to be "for EVERYONE." Darn it.

Ready, Steady, Go!

On Tuesday Sophia starts preschool at Allen Creek. Aside from the weekly ballet class she took this summer, this is the first big thing Sophia will do without Mommy or Daddy. A few weeks ago, she had told me she was scared about preschool and didn't want to be away from me during the day. But after our visit to meet her teachers a couple days ago, Sophia informs me that she doesn't want me to stay with her during the first week as we'd planned. We'll see about that. Mommy might NEED to stay with you for at least the first day!

I am so excited for Sophia, and also a little emotional that my girl is getting her first set of wings. I know she's ready for it. She knows she's ready for it. And Cassidy is totally ready to play with all of Sophia's toys while she's not looking!

The Naked Gun

Apparently, some guy was running around naked in our neighborhood last night to prove to his girlfriend that, like getting married, you need to take risks in life. As he was running, he saw a couple walking and decided to hide in some bushes. He soon found that he was taking more of a risk than just exposing his frank and beans. A 28 year old man pulled out a .40 caliber hand gun and ordered him to get out of the bushes. When he decided to run, the armed man chased after him. The gunman fired a shot and bare ass hit the ground, sustaining only minor injuries from the fall. The gunman was arrested for aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon, but released the next day. The naked man wasn't charged, but may end up becoming so risk averse that he becomes a never-nude.

For some reason we didn't hear any of this happening last night, but we had plenty of people call and leave voicemails to let us know it happened. We got a voicemail from WWJ News Radio 95.0 who were looking for some juicy first hand accounts, as well as Amy's mom, who had read about it in her local Muskegon newspaper. I must have been too busy killing vampires and orcs in Oblivion to notice.

Liberty Lofts - For BMW Owners With Money to Burn

Even though I don't own a BMW, I just got the "Exclusive Priority Email Invitation" for the upcoming Liberty Lofts. Morningside Ann Arbor LLC, which is redeveloping the Eaton factory at the corner of 1st & Liberty into condos, is having a Preferred Preview Event on March 3 from 5-9pm at the construction site. They're hoping to get perspective buyers to reserve a loft prior to their Public Grand Opening March 5-6. Units will be for sale from Mid $200,000s to $600,000s.

Looking at the floorplans, it sure seems like a lot of bread to be putting down for a condo near downtown Ann Arbor. For instance, to buy the cheapest unit, which will most likely go for $250,000, you're looking at getting 1 bed, 1 bath in 844 sq. ft.. It seems as if Morningside may have overrated Ann Arbor. Especially the part that's sitting on a flood plain next to the railroad tracks.

Are You Ready For High Impact Aerobics?!?

After my first few months of aerobics, I've realized that you really aren't doing aerobics unless it's cardioblast with Jonas.

HIGH ENERGY!

For the un-initiated, aerobics might bring to mind Richard Simmons, with his receding hair line perma-perm, "Sweatin' to the Oldies" with a bunch of lard butts. That simply isn't aerobics. That isn't Jonas aerobics.

Aerobics is High Energy! To be doing aerobics, there must be a heavy dose of House, Disco, and Dance music. Something that not only keeps your energy level up, but makes you feel like you're clubbing rather than prancing about like a wee girl. Float away, you fairy!

Additionally, the instructor must be enthusiastic. It's imperative. It just makes everything cooler (woop, woop!). And, as a bonus level of intensity, the instructor will need to have a euro-accent. The accent, however, must be domestic enough to understand commands, because nobody wants to end up looking like they're on Sprockets. Also, it helps if the instructor is a professor of robotics, because that's just teh awesome.

Not convinced that aerobics is your bag? Then check out Jonas's cardioblast class, through U-Move, and find out what hundreds of beautiful college women already know. Sweating is not an option!

Sexy time

Check out S3, the safe sex store in Ann Arbor if you're interested in picking up some bedroom zest. Beth, the store owner, is extremely nice and makes what could be a very awkward moment enjoyable.

Pacific Rim by Kana

One of the major pluses about Ann Arbor is the quantity, quality, and diversity of its restaurants. I've lived here for 7 years and I still haven't been to half of the restaurants yet. In my seamingly never ending quest to visit all of the eating establishments in Ann Arbor, with the exception of fast food joints, Amy and I went to Pacific Rim by Kana for our 4th anniversary (Brought to us in-part by Amy's parents). Let's just say it was a big mistake to have waited this long to eat at Kana.

Casting aside all suggestions by my cow orkers, I ordered the Yellow Tuna and Amy the Halibut. Both were extremely exceptional in both presentation and flavor. Amy squirmed a bit about the fish eggs that were decorating the top of her meal, but got over it after realizing that she eats chicken eggs all the time (cooked of course). We finished up with a piece of warm dark chocolate cake with homemade mocha ice cream (I know, I know. Ice cream is dead, but they didn't have any gelato:).

The owner, Young Bok (Y.B.), is acutely attuned with his dining audience. Not only is the wait staff top-notch (didn't meet Ben though), Y.B. personally socializes with each patron. The attention to detail was appreciated, and I'm sure I won't overlook Kana again next time we go to dinner. Maybe next time I'll follow my cow orkers' advice and get the sesame scallops and the banana roll.

The Death of Ice Cream

Amy and I have been interested in trying out the new American Spoon Foods Gelato Cafe next to the Michigan Theater ever since it opened up a few weeks ago. We finally took the plunge after watching Swimming Pool, a great date movie (lots of boobies ;).

The first time we saw this cafe, we were walking by as they were finishing up their grand opening. Initially, we had thought they were just selling American Spoon Jam and Jelly, which didn't really make sense economically. Then, on a later shopping trip, we realized that they were selling Gelato and Sorbetto too. Gelato is an Italian Ice-cream, which is denser and contains less milkfat than American Ice-cream. Sorbetto, which is much fruitier than gelato, contains almost no fat. The fun part is that you get to mix 2 to 3 Gelatos and Sorbettos together. I got wild blueberry and black rasberry. Yum! I'm never going to Stucchi's again!

The experience is very unique. You get a small cup full of your concoction and a tiny spoon, which is more of a handi-snacks cheese and crackers stick than a spoon. But the flavor is so rich that you don't need large portions to enjoy it. Afterwards, you don't feel bloated and regretful that you just pounded around 800 calories of thick, saturated fatty ice-cream. You feel pleasant.

Ann Arbor Cars

After seeing George's post regarding the eccentricity of the cars in Ann Arbor, I'm going to try and document every crazy car that I come across with my digicam. Lucky for me, my first prey was parked right outside my house. This is actually a very classy make-over job compared to the regular junk-glued-to-car look you see all too often in Ann Arbor. I give this an 8 out of 10. The detail in the work and over all look is very appealing. A little work on the tires and chrome, however, would go a long way in making this car a show stopper.