Anthony is One!
Anthony is a very tall little boy
now! On his birthday, his neighbor Jane Margaret
came over to play, and he had a little
bit of birthday-cup-cake.
To celebrate, Anthony brought the whole family to Ruby's, where he shared his vegetable soup with Mommy, and he shared his avocado burger with Daddy, and he shared his french fries with Margie.
He especially liked drinking water from the bottom of the straw. "He's a little gerbil!" said Mommy.
He got a new outfit for his birthday, and wore it to play on the escalator in the mall. He went up and down seven times, but he is still a little bit scared when it's time to step off.
He topped off the day by playing outside in the most humungous thunderstorm of the year.
Tracy Weds Daniel Pierson
Tracy Yee and Daniel Pierson were married Saturday, August 14 in the Browncroft Church in Penfield. It was a beaufitul ceremony with more than 200 guests witnessing the exchange of vows. The groom's sister played the piano, one of the ushers sang a song, and one of the ushers blew his trumpet. The bride and groom just smiled and looked calm and happy thoughout the day.The wedding reception dinner was held at the Burgundy Basin Inn in Bushnell's Basin in Perinton. Guests were treated to a solo violin piece by the groom to the bride, a father-of-the-bride dance with the bride, a duet sung by some close friends of the couple and of course as is the custom in any Chinese wedding, lots and lots of food.
The 14th also happens to be Daniel's birthday... he turned 24 on his wedding day. Tracy is 22 years old. The couple met at Indiana University where both were undergraduates.
After the wedding festivities, the couple is off for their honeymoon for 2 weeks touring Europe.
Cook'n for Anthony
Just prior to Grandpa Paul's August trip to Phili, the Wayland Libary called and said that the book, "Cooking for Babies and Toddlers" by Sara Lewis was finally available. There's only one copy of this popular book in the entire Minuteman ( 9 or 10 towns) system of libraries. This is the best book we've seen so far, with lots of simple receipes, lot of "how-to pictures" to help in the preparation, and tasty sounding food for the baby/toddler.Mealtime can be tough as the baby approaches 1 year and older and he is likely to become more picky.... Therefore, we had better have some more exciting choices for him to choose from. Grandpa Paul needs help and it looks like this book will provide lots of ideas. Danger Mouse is already starting to eat a lot more things than formula and Gerbers baby food. O.K. Anthony, do you want cheese sticks or cowboy stew for lunch?
Mah-Jong Feast
Rachel and Paul hosted a "pot luck" dinner party that centered around Mah-Jong with two other local couples. Each family was to bring one dish and that was to be our dinner.... pretty simple, yes? Not with Chef Rachel in the kitchen. Would you believe that after snacks... pesto/tomato toast, fresh kiwi with peaches, nuts and a vegetable/chicken broth soup... it was finally time to sit down to dinner about 8pm. Everyone was pretty full by now, but as we sat for the main meal, there were 11 main courses included, steak kabob, bar-be-qued shrimp, curry chicken, garlic egg plant, broccoli, giant seascallops, begogi beef and salad, steamed eggs with chives, picked cucumber salad, steamed rice and more soup.As the guests tried to stand up from the table, there was no escaping desert. Paul had bought a custom ordered pie from his favorite pie shop, the Wellesley Bakery and Cafe.. this time it was peach and blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream!
There was so much food on the table at the end of the meal it looked as though we had not yet started when in actuality, we had finished! Do you think we went a bit overboard? Never fear. Rachel picked up the phone after our Mah-Jong guest had departed and invited her youngest brother's family to dinner the next night. Even after the second round of guests, this time 8 people eating essentailly the same food, there were still pleny of left-overs. Rachel took some of them for lunch at the office the next day and Paul knew that he didn't have to cook dinner for a couple more nights.
Midtown Tennis?
Uncle Yen invited Paul and Kevin to play tennis at his club, the Midtown Health Club. After a brief warm up, we quickly decided that Yen and Paul should team up against Kevin. Well after about six straight winning games by Kevin, we decided that we had had enough and decided to go for some refreshments.The Midtown Health Club is about the same price as the Wellesley Athletic Club which Paul belong to, but is considerable bigger and nicer.
Wonder Light on Control Panel
Ford Motor cars are famous for their warning lights on their control panels that read, "Service Engine". Drivers around the world often refer to this warning light as "the Wonder Light", meaning, I wonder what's wrong with my car engine. Many times, nothing can be found wrong with the car and the driver just drives around for years with his "Wonder Light" on!Well, one day before our intended drive to Upstate New York for a wedding, Rachel told the Handyman that her "Service Engine" light had just come and would he fix it. *&^%$#, you've got to be kidding. Framingham Ford never takes our car without an appointment. Well, sure enough, at 6:55 am the Handyman arrives at Framingham Ford and tries to sweet talk the service manager into taking his car. No luck! However, he does suggest that we go down the street to Bay State Lincoln Mercury and they might squeeze us in.
Luckily, Bay State does take the car. They start to put it through some electronic testing equipment, but the Handyman, who has another car with him has to run off to an 8:30 dental appointment. At 9:30 he returns to Bay State. The Service Manager their tells the Handyman, "You don't even want to know what's wrong with your car!" Of course he's correct, we really don't want to know.
"Well" he continues, "in this car, your gas tank is under pressure. If you don't close the gas cap all the way, the pressure can't build up, and the warning light will go off. You gas cap wasn't tight the last time you filled your gas." Just go to the cashiers and pay the bill and get your keys. At the cashiers, the bill was zero. Huray for Bay State!
Dim-Sum at Ocean Harbor
Grandpa Paul checked the provisions in Gladwyne and decided that he wanted to restock the fresh vegetables from Philadelphia's Chinatown. Nanny Margaret and Danger Mouse came along for the ride, so they were treated to a Dim-Sum lunch at the Ocean Harbor at 1023 Race Street, right next door to the indoor parking lot that we use at the corner of 11th and Race.The Weston Food Critic would rate the Dim-Sum as pretty good. Not up to NYC or Vancouver standards, but about as good as one gets in Boston and the staff is very friendly. Danger Mouse sat quietly during most of the lunch and particularly like the fried taro root with ground pork.. that was his favorite.
The following week, we went again with David, Kevin and Margaret. This time Anthony had two favorites. He liked the bread from the Char Su Bao and he loved drinking water from a straw that his father kept feeding him. Anthony, not quite 1 year old, seems to sit through an entire meal at most restaurants!
Rehersal Dinner
On the night preceeding Tracy's and Daniel's wedding, a rehersal dinner was held for the wedding party, family, and friends who had traveled long distances to come to the wedding. Paul and Rachel sat at a table that included many old Rochester friends, all of whom had moved away to other cities to live.Shui and Jenny Lee from HK, Frank and Marlene Yang from Newport Beach, Bill and Jenny Fung from Shia-mun, China, Dorathy and Donald Chen from the University of Virginia, and Helen Chui from Tustin, Ca. shared a table with Paul and Rachel. What fun it was to see and chat with such good and old friends.
Thanks go to Brian and Emily Yee who hosted this get- together that was held at the Jade Palace in Webster.
Weston's Hunter-Killer Back in Business
The Hunter-Killer is hunting Chipmunks and field mice again this summer. He's catching about one chipmunk and perhaps four or five field mice per week. This is down considerable from last year when he caught almost one chipmunk daily. The number of chipmunks is down considerably due mainly to the weather and the acorn crop which is small. Last year was a record acorn year and a record chipmunk year for New England.Not one to waste the hunting season and coming up empty, the Weston Hunter-Killer has also set traps for woodchucks and racoons who seem to enjoy eating Rachel's flowers. Boy, do they have their nerve!
