Obligatory Post-Holiday Entry

I am a bit tired right now (more on that later), so this post will be a bit brief, and not fully encompass everything that has happened since I last blogged. Also, I took almost entirely film photographs rather than digital, so if those pictures ever grace this blog, it will probably be a while as I haven't even finished the roll of film yet. Lastly, omission does not equate unimportance.

I had a great holiday vacation. Friday, December 22nd, Yilin and I went to Montreal to visit her family for Christmas and New Year's Eve. A lot of the time was spent seeing Montreal, which was great. I haven't had much of a chance to do that in the past.

Christmas dinner was awesome. Literally. I was so stuffed it might as well have been Thanksgiving, especially since there was a huge turkey. In fact, every day we ate a lot, with Christmas, Dec 26th, and New Year's Eve being the biggest of the feasts, but not by much.

Yilin and I also took care of some wedding stuff, meeting up with our wedding planner, Elyna, and meeting the photographer, tent people, getting info on the DJ, meeting the florist. It was good to get this stuff out of the way.

New Year's Eve was spent at home, with Yilin, Yen-I (her brother), and I cooking dinner for her parents. I did the least amount of work, but I am OK with that.

Her parents drove us back to New York and stayed for the week. Unfortunately, I managed to get sick. Today is my attempt at a first day back at work (although I have been coming in for 2 or 3 hours every day to check on my mice, etc.) As a result, I didn't spend a whole lot of time with them here, although we went to the Metropolitan Opera to see The First Emperor starring non other than Placido Domingo. It was a very interesting production: a combination of Chinese opera and western opera. While some lines were in Mandarin, the vast majority was in English. (That was probably the weirdest part for me, to hear an opera in English.) The costumes and sets were amazing. I feel, however, that my lack of familiarity with Chinese opera prevented me from truly appreciating it.

Tuesday night we went to Babbo, one of Iron Chef Mario Batali's restaurants. (If you remember, this is one of the two men who Yilin loves more than me, the other being Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.) Even though I was very congested and couldn't smell anything, I enjoyed the restaurant. But it wasn't what I expected: it was louder than I would've liked, less expensive than I thought it would be (Yilin told me it was really expensive, so naturally I thought in the range of $200+ per person), and only a few of the dishes appealed to me when reading the menu. But, I was sick, so food in general wasn't extremely appetizing. I think I will have to go back when I am healthier to get a better feel for it. (Note: This place is Yilin's favorite Italian restaurant. You have to call one month in advance for reservations, and you can't reserve a table more than one month in advance, i.e. if you want to eat there on February 18th, you'd better call at 10am on January 18th and hope to get through.)

Most of the rest of the week I was sick.

Saturday my parents visited and all of us hung out and had a good time. We found a really good, reasonably priced, Italian restaurant near Columbus Circle called Puttanesca. Everyone thought the food was really good, and entrees were around $14-18 for the pasta dishes.

I have a few other things to devote single posts to, but they are for other days. Check back tomorrow.