Christmas in NY

I like Christmas time. I get to have caramel apple cider from Starbucks, nice pressies, and indulge in consumerism (both pre and post x'mas). This year, despite our grand plans to spend Christmas at some exotic locale, we ended up going down to NY yet again. Not that it wasn't as much fun! We got to see my cousin and A and N.

As usual Moxie sticks her nose in the wrapping paper. She has to inspect everything:


We had dinner at Sushi of Gari on Friday night. N thinks this is one of the best sushi places in NYC (less pretentious and greater focus on the food). She must have spent a fortune in her quest for perfect sushi. haha


I know, I know, we always seem to be eating sushi! A and N were shocked that we weren't floored by Chutoro. Scacrilege but I'll say it ... Chutoro just doesn't do it for me. I get a bigger kick from eating uni :D Anyway the sushi was good, though not a wow. Maybe I'm just not a big fan of fusion style sushi ... or maybe we should have gotten the omekase.



We also had a soba lunch on Saturday at Sobaya. I got the cold soba (their specialty) and Tororo set. I loved it! Tororo is japanese yam served over rice. The tororo is white and gooey with the texture of mooshed up cereal. Weird but I like gooey stuff. Why don't they have a place like this in Boston? :( Oh and they make their own soba with ingredients flown from Japan. Though the Japanese purist might be horrified to find that the soba is actually handmade by a little hispanic guy heehee.



Ok ok lest you think that we eat only Japanese food, we did grudgingly go for Italian on Saturday at Assenzio in East Village. The buffalo mozerella with prosciutto was good. I also learned that buffalo mozerella is made from buffalo milk. Hrmmm....

My Jumbo Shrimp with Black Pasta dish:


On Christmas day we watched Memoirs of a Geisha. I had to watch it since I read the book, even though I knew it'd suck. The movie was slow zzz and it was awful watching supposedly Japanese people speak with a Chinese accent. I can tell myself that they're speaking Japanese, but it gets tricky when the americans come. They still speak English, though the chubby geisha pumpkin adopts an american accent. HRMMM. I'll give it a 5/10, at least I enjoyed looking at the pretty kimonos haha.

Of course the gifts! The best one ... for me from me. Yay a mulberry bag! Saks where is my order???? We also got a mini convection oven from my generous cousin L and a cool free people scarf, also a $25 starbucks gift card that I promptly spent. Very cool!

A My Humps Christmas

This has to be the strangest christmas card ever!! So tacky but so funny. Picture the 3 wise men scene done to Black Eyed Pea's My Humps. Yikes!!! You have to see this for yourself!

I gotta admit watching it is addictive. Here are the actual lyrics for My Humps ...

A sneak preview:

OK OK Pocky!

OMG my pocky obsession is out of control. I picked up 4 boxes of Pocky from Kotobukiya the other day. Almond Crush Pocky, Kurame (Sesame) Pocky, Reverse Pocky (I thought this was so clever - it's inside out geddit? haha), and Marron Toppo which isn't technically pocky. I have no idea what Marron is but I suspect it's some kind of Japanese chestnut that you can only find in a the fall? Someone please enlighten me!

My Pocky stash:


And check out these Pocky commercials. They're hilarious!

Little Monk Pocky

Crazy Pocky - They still eat pocky the same way they did 15 years ago .... left to right ...snap!

Medival Pocky - They sword play with pocky in this one *gasp* kill me now

No blog entry is complete without the quiz:

You Are Reverse Pocky

Your attitude: rebellious and clever Non-conformist, but curiously a trendsetter With you, up is down... and it's a wild ride!

What Flavor Pocky Are You?


In any case I've found new direction in life. I want to try all the pocky flavors!!! Eeeha! I have chocolate, strawbelli, green tea mousse, creme brulee, pumpkin, milk, sesame, reverse, almond crush, men's pocky, honey mustard pretz, salad pretz, under my belt.

A Wedding Gift

M and G gave us tickets to see the Ansel Adams exhibit at the MFA in Boston as a wedding gift earlier this year. They know that hubs is into photography so this was really thoughtful and sweet of them. Though being the ungrateful people that we are, we procrastinated till today when we finally decided it was time to go before the exhibit closed at the end of the year.

When we got to the musuem, it was packed and the tickets were sold out??? Erhhh I didn't know that tickets ever sold out at a museum :p. Thankfully as we were about to turn around and head back, one of the very nice ushers gave us two tickets for FREE! Apparently 2 people had cancelled. Yipee! Good wedding mojo?

Hubs and I both preferred his portrait shots though he's really known for his work with landscape and scenery. BLASHPEMY eh. Not as blasphemous as a comment we saw in the guestbook "good photos but would be better if colorized" ... I hope the person was kidding haha.

There are these random men around the musuem:

Which celebrity do you look like?

Read about MyHeritage.com today on digg. It's supposedly able to do face recognition on a photo you submit and tell you what celebrity you look like. Oooh what fun right? Of course it has more meaningful purposes too :) for example you can use it to find long lost relatives or trace family lines.

Perfect timing. We have a release going out at work tonight so what better time to try this new toy while waiting haha. Apparently I look like Hilary Duff in one and Renee Zwelleger in another. Hrmpf. Guess they haven't uploaded any photos of asian celebrities :p

Alrighty people make sure to try it out and let me know who you look like!

Is my face that chubby???


Oooh I likey she's like 20 and I'm not ...

Oooh I likey she's like 20 and I'm not :)

Snow Day

It snowed like a $*#$ on Friday and we're covered in a good half foot of snow. I hate it when it snows since I have to wear 'sensible shoes'. I twisted my ankle last year navigating the snow in my 3 inch heels so no more being gung ho. I am getting old ...boohoo :(

Moxie on the other hand loves snow. Maybe it's because she has a nice warm fur coat on all the time. She isn't even fazed by the fact that the snow is sometimes taller than she is. She just hops through it like a bunny. It's really quite funny. I took a video today when we took her for her daily walk.

What a silly looking mox! Her legs are too short.


Here's me with the mox

Purses R'us

Help I'm drowning in the deluge of christmas sales. My will power is weak with an empty wallet to match. I did however successfully avoid buying a new bag at the botkier.com sale. Yes ladies there's a huge sale with $600 bags marked down to $175. Bring on the credit cards! For those of you on a shopping ban, please cover your ears! *nyah nyah nyah*

I've recently discovered these bag blogs too :) to help me keep up to date on my obsession ...

The Bag Blog
The Bag Lady
In My Bag
Manolo's Prada Blog
Bag Crazy
Purseuing

Oh yes, and this weekend there's a 30% off coupon for the Gap and Banana Republic. 20% off at Lord and Taylor and Macys, Bloomie's coupons, and a Gucci Sale. There's also a 20% off smartbargains.com coupon floating around. Let me know if you want the codes or coupons. I'm afraid of the damage I'm gonna do ... help me please :(

An American Girl

We checked out the American Girl store in NYC over the weekend and boy was it a mad house! There was actually a line to get in. You'd think it were a new trendy club or something. Apparently American Girl dolls are the latest 'IN' toy for girls aged 7 and up. There are 2 kinds of dolls 1) Historical Character Dolls that come with their own story 2) Just Like You dolls that look like you. Freaky eh? You can even dress like your doll. Of course these dolls don't come cheap at almost $100 a pop!

Hubs and K were rolling their eyes at the insanity of it all while kicking themselves for not coming up with such a money making idea. There are American Girl magazine, movies, books, furniture, clothes for dolls, clothes for girls, pets, the list goes on. The most ingenious (or incredulous) part I must say is the doll hair salon! You can actually bring your doll to have her hair done. $10 for a sassy ponytail, $20 for elaborate braids. They put the dolls in little chairs with aprons ... I was quite fascinated. It's all a little cute, a little nuts.

Erh yes I am a hair stylist ... for dolls. What is the world coming to??? :P


Does this look like me? LOL