Saturday, November 9, 2002
Patrick and I spent the day at my sister Leilani's family's house. Rob was doing yard work when we got in, raking up the red, orange, and yellow fall leaves that had fallen everywhere. My cousin Alex Ko was in town planning to see a football game between USC and Stanford. Another cousin of mine, Johnson Young, came over and introduced us to his bride Chica—they had recently gotten married. My sister made chocolate chip scones for us from scratch using a great recipe from a friend of hers which made the scones a little airier and a lot moister, which we preferred over the drier and denser traditional recipe. Patrick and Lani talked about his Mandarin studies, and she let him borrow some picture books and brochures from when she lived in Taiwan for a year. Alex is working in sales for Ingram Micro, putting his business degree to good use. Later we had a dim sum lunch at Sam Kee (1696 S Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale, California, 408-737-9976)—an excellent choice for authentic dim sum dining. Johnson very generously picked up the lunch bill for us all (!). Thanks, J! Jeremy couldn't take a nap afterwards so we gave him piggy back rides and distracted him from his demands repeated throughout the day: "Mommy, I want candy!" or "Mommy, I want juice!" He gets along well with his new little brother, and we are glad to hear that Matthew sleeps even quieter than Jeremy did when he was younger. Alex and Johnson and Chica had taken off in the afternoon, but we stayed long enough to stay for dinner: Rob's barbecued chicken, Patrick's brown sugar carrots, Lani's steamed artichokes, and some steamed rice. Jeremy got leftover Halloween candy for dessert: a small box of Junior Mints. We left a little after dinner, a bit weary from the rambunctiousness of a 2-year-old but very satisfied with the day's proceedings. Lani and Rob also got some Williams-Sonoma gifts for me for my birthday: pecan pumpkin butter and pumpkin bread mix. Jeremy and Matthew made some artwork as the birthday card to go with it all. After we drove home, Patrick and I did a little work—him on his writing and me on Domenica's Web site.