Monday, March 9, 2009

Won't you take me to...Chinatown!Or My Old Man and the sea

So Saturday was the big Girl Scouts-at-the-mall shindig. Each troop picked a theme to decorate a booth and then everyone goes around to each booth visiting and doing activities. Lily's troop chose China as their theme.
Each girl contributed whatever they had on hand that was China-themed (or let's be honest here-pretty much anything even slightly 'Asian'.) I don't have a lot of Oriental or Chinese stuff. I wish I had some lovely rugs or tapestries or silks, but I don't, so I went to the dollar store and bought some LaChoy fortune cookies.
What?
We also had 1 Webkinz panda bear, and 2 of those wall hanging/calendars you get for free from Chinese takeout.
But the crowning glory was: the last minute Chinese costume I rigged up for Lily.
Now I realize I could've gone the easier route & made her a kimono, and I knew that was what everyone else was going to do, but kimonos are Japanese, darn it, not Chinese. So my goal was some sort of Mandarin blouse representation, made from the only Oriental-looking fabric from Walmart that I could find and no-sew iron on fabric tape. Pair it with black pants, white socks, black slippers, and a bun updo: voila! OK, I was a little disappointed, but mostly not. Because 1.) I wasn't required to bring a costume and 2.) just as we arrived, the leaders realized that one of the girls had walked off with one of their costumes and mine was the saving grace (in my mind.)
Kind of made me feel all warm inside. Good thing, too. Because I had Lily's booth assignment time wrong and returned her for her duty only to find them tearing down the whole thing. Apparently I was an hour off. She didn't start at 3pm-the whole thing ended at 3pm.
And that's how I do.
And then keeping with the Asian theme of the weekend, after dropping the kids off with my mom, Mark & I happened upon a Korean restaurant down in Cecil. How unexpected is that? We were on our way to the Home & Garden show in Pittsburgh when we spotted it.
It's just a tiny place, a former coffee shop with seating for about 10 people inside. It's called the Golden Pig, and that name alone would've been enough to tempt us to stop. I can't even tell you whether I've even seen a Korean restaurant, and I know I've never eaten at one, so I was pretty excited.
The proprietress is a beautiful and welcoming woman who chats with you and encourages you to try to pronounce the dishes you're ordering. I felt like I was sitting in my mom's kitchen. Welcomed, you know?
When folks would come in for their takeout, she would tell them, try the kimchi, and even if you don't like it, eat it anyway, because it's good for you. But I don't know how anyone couldn't like the kimchi because it was incredible. Everything was delicious.
So if you're in Cecil (the middle of nowhere,) I'd say stop in and eat your cabbage. It's good for you.
Sunday was my mom's wedding reception following her Jamaican wedding get-away. It was a really nice time, good food, and our newly extended family is really sweet. Mom is glowing, in my opinion, and looks prettier and happier than I've ever seen her. So, yay mom!
After that, after Mark upped his IQ at the open bar at mom's reception, we decided to put the fountain in the pond. It was already raining so what was a trip out on the boat with no plug, right?
Mr. Wizard stuffed a plastic shopping bag in the hole and had me shove off with a scrap of lumber as a paddle. We're all class and intelligence here.
I'll let the pictures speak for most of the story. Aggie did a fantastic job of capturing the whole thing. The only thing you can't really see is the one point where frustration, impatience, and multiple draft beers culminate in Mark yanking his boots off and mumbling 'I'm going in there.'
I didn't get overly excited. This is something that could happen at any time, beer or no beer. So I calmly suggested that it's probably not easier to manipulate a cinder block while treading water when you can barely manhandle it from the boat. And I made sure to remind him for the rest of the night that he should be thanking me for keeping him out of the pond. Should have let him do it.

5 comments:

Osage Bluff Quilter said...

Oh your postings are always so entertaining. I guess Mark with the beers made a great impression on the new step father in law!
Glad you both stayed ddry!
Osagebluffquilter and Osagebluffblacksmith

Amy said...

Love the photos! You guys are so intrepid! I so would have ended up in the water.

Sara said...

Well, I'm exagerating (making fun of Mark) a little about the beers. He had a lot (compared to me) but he was well behaved.
He doesn't get out of hand, he gets ambitious.
Everything is 'full steam ahead! And damn the torpedos!'
I've had a lot more fun since I met him, that's for sure!

Becky said...

The fountain does look great!

And I was just totally sure that the last photo in the sequence was going to be the boat underwater and the two of you swimming for shore.

Annette said...

I've passed that restaurant a thousand times and wondered about it. Do they have anything vegetarian? And I wonder if Ray would find anything there to his liking. The only thing I can get him to eat in a CHINESE restaurant is Sweet and Sour Chicken. Sigh. Not the most adventurous sort where his food is concerned.

Glad you and Mark didn't fall in.