Important Stuff

It was Ned's birthday, and we were going to treat him and Marta to dinner at a restaurant in Sacramento, but first I had to finish my origami article.

This is the article for which I did several interviews, and attended a class. It was supposed to be published about now, actually, but the origami meeting was moved up to the beginning of the month, so we decided to postpone the article until their September meeting.

I spent the day going over my interviews and researching origami on the web. It's incredible what you learn when you go into something like this cold. If you ever have nothing better to do, just Google "Origami" and see what sorts of things you come up with. You'll be amazed at what you learn.

While I was working, I got a message from Tom, with this picture attached. This is Brianna on her way to her first day at pre-school. Big Day. I told Tom before he knew it, he would be walking her down the aisle on her wedding day!

(note that not only is she carrying a huge lunch box, but she is also wearing a backpack! A lot of responsibility for a 2-1/2 year old!)

Laurel reports that she had a great first day.

She had a moment when she realized we weren't coming with her, and apparently another when the teacher left, but they said she played really independently - just needed to see her teacher to make sure someone... was still there for her! I'm actually glad she had such an awareness! I got there and she beamed "Mommy came back for you!"

I told Laurel it would probably be best if we didn't tell Brianna that her Daddy had cried for two weeks whenever I dropped him off at school. (Of course that was kindergarten, not preschool. I remember the crossing guard promised to keep an eye on him for me, and when I walked back up to school to pick him up each day, the guard would let me know how long he cried before he finally settled down. Loved that crossing guard!)

The origami article got finished and turned in and with that done and the review of 42nd Street finished and turned in at the crack of dawn, I was feeling rather productive, so unusual for me!

We had made plans to meet Ned and Marta at P.F. Chang's restaurant in Sacramento at 7:30. Nice that it was later rather than earlier, since this had been a 108-degree day in Sacramento and by 7:30 it was finally below 100.

P.F. Chang's is kind of an upscale Chinese bistro with a menu that caters to the tastes that Americans have for Oriental foods (i.e., nothing "unusual sounding" on the menu!)

We had a big spread that included crab won ton, spring rolls, wok seared lamb, vegetarian double fried noodles, coconut vegetarian curry and crispy honey shrimp with walnuts.

We were all pretty much stuffed when we finished dinner, but they have adopted the lead of Applebees and serve little shot-glass sized desserts (I wonder, now that I'm so fluent in "chef" from watching all the Top Chef shows, if this is kind of a dessert version of an amuse bouche). Each is only $2 and is just the perfect thing to have at the end of a big meal--enough to make you think you've had something sweet, but not so much that you feel bloated after finishing it.

Ned and Walt each had this little apple pie treat while Marta and I each had a raspberry cheesecake.

(I should also note that Ned is nearing the end of his toothless period. He is finally having his new permanent front teeth attached in the next few weeks)

The evening was just very nice and we were home before 10. Perfect.