Is it Asian Night?

The Pies have been married for 2 years now! Ever since that fateful day at Starbucks (read recap below) we have been in love for 11 years :)

Swoon! The flowers Mr. Pie brought to my office in person!We took our cute little selves to Taps in Brea. We've dined here before and were very impressed with their baked oysters. We still are. Delish!

We also chose Taps because we had the Entertainment Book coupon - buy 1 entree, get 1 free. Hey, if I save money on dinner, I get a nicer present, right? I'm no fool.

I chose the lamb with a mint sauce. Um, just ok. To tell you the truth, the fact that it came out with the green sauce on top was not appetizing to me.

Mr. Pie had the halibut. It was better.

Taps use to be much better than we remembered. We do still want to try out their brunch some time.

Dessert was on the house and celebrated us - that was a nice touch!

Happy Anniversary to us!

So I can text now?

If you've been a loyal blog reader of mine or have known me since I was 12, you would already know that my all time favorite band in the entire world is New Kids on the Block. I went to see them with a fun group of girls one Friday night at Irvine Meadows. We had the best time, tailgating in the parking lot and singing along with the entire crowd for 3 hours. I went home, exhausted and elated, relishing in the fact that I've seen them 3x since Oct '08. This is from someone who missed out on their concerts when they were huge in 1989! It was awesome and I was so happy and content because who knew if they would ever tour again? And with that in mind, I fell happily asleep.

Fast forward 8 hours.

I got a text message from MommaPink, thanking me for last night and how much fun she had. I texted back, same here! Then her next text was just jokingly saying, hey, PoppaPink said we should got Vegas tonight to see them. I laughed it off, as did she. But then the texts got more serious. Yes, we should go, PoppaPink was actually encouraging this! I cooked breakfast for Mr. Pie and the texting began more furiously. We should go, we shouldn't go, we are nuts, we are crazy, blah blah.

Fast forward 4 hours.

I was on Travelocity, looking up hotel/airfare packages. This couldn't possibly be happening right? Right?

Fast forward 2 hours.

I'm at the Pinks!

These girls have no idea their Momma was about to board a plane!

Fast forward 1 hour.

We are on the shuttle to LAX!

And then at the airport, we had bloody marys. With McDonald's. Heh.

We took off and MommaPink (bless her heart - she is frightened of flying!) asked me if she could text when the portable device approval was given. I laughed. She is so funny!

(The bloody marys helped her with the fear of flying - hee!)

At the airport, we took a taxi to our hotel, Marriott Courtyard which is away from the strip but very very nice! We loved it!

Here is MommaPink, probably dreaming of Joey.

But no, she's really staring at the crane we have in our view!

We freshened up a bit before dinner ;)

Since the concert was at the Palms,we knew Little Buddha would be our choice for dinner. It was delicious!!

We are a little excited - hahaha.

And then it was time. The concert was kickass. Truly. The show was better than Irvine and again the entire venue was singing and dancing.

I love you Jonathan!

And then it was over :(

But our Vegas trip was just right in the middle ;) We got drinks at the bar and walked around. MommaPink noticed the Poker Room first and then she noticed the Celebrity Poker tournament sign and then she noticed... LUCKY FROM GENERAL HOSPITAL! Hello, only our favorite soap ever. You know Lucky - Luke & Laura's kid! So the poker room manager is watching us stare at Lucky (I still don't know his real name). We thought he was going to kick us out but he said, what are you girls staring at? We told him it was Lucky and he goes, want to meet him? He totally INTERRUPTS Lucky and Lucky himself even stood up to hug us and take pics - in the middle of his game with 10 other people! After that, MommaPink and I didn't know what we should do with ourselves! We got more drinks at the bar and next to it was a lounge area that was pretty hopping. So we went in there and there was a cover band, covering all of the recent songs. It was so much fun! We maneuvered to the front of the stage, the energy was awesome and we danced our little hearts out. Then at the end, the singer was pulling people onstage! I danced on the stage at 2 am in the morning! It was over before we knew it and we headed back to our hotel. We then took a nap :)

Fast forward 3 hours.

We slowly packed up our overnight bags and headed to the airport. It was so much fun and we were sad to leave Vegas (I had to make BabySasa's 1st birthday party at noon that day). I was so thrilled to have shared it with MommaPink! These are our after pics. Hahaha! Now about that cruise next May...

"Tall Mocha Frap"

Those were the very first words I ever spoke to Mr. Pie.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Mr. Pie and I were on our way to run errands when he suggested that we stopped at Starbucks for a nice cold drink. I happily agreed and while he was on the phone with a client, I waited for our coffee orders by the pick up counter. I noticed this thing attached to the side of the espresso machine and it made me smile:

It is a timer and one of the first things I noticed about Mr. Pie. It takes me back to 11 years ago, the summer before my senior year at college. I was there for the summer, had a crazy and wild roommate and we were off doing crazy and wild things. Summer classes were only for a month and before we knew it, it was finals week. The apartment seemed small and distracting so CrazyGirl suggested we go to the Starbucks in town to get some coffee and to study. So off we went, in sweatpants and our backpacks. I remember it being a sunny afternoon and as we opened the door to Starbucks, I locked eyes with the cutest barista I had ever seen there. Why had I never seen him before? We moved to the counter and I remember the CuteBaristaGuy asking us for our order and that's when I said the very first words:

"Tall mocha frap."

I remember his smile, I remember some kind of banter back and forth, not exactly what and then CrazyGirl and I settled down with our backpacks and I proceeded to pretend to study while wondering about CuteBaristaGuy. All of a sudden I heard him say "I'm taking my break" and I squirmed in my seat, wondering where he was going. All of a sudden, he was seated at our table and set down his timer (he only had a 15 min break). CrazyGirl was much better with guy speak so she was the talker while I hid behind this:

Yes. I had a book stand. Shut up!

He said something to me, it was a blur and then his break was over. As he was walking away, I said to CrazyGirl that she should give him her number as he seemed interested in her. She shook her head and said that he wasn't her type. So what did I do the following week? Oh, I went into that Starbucks practically every day! And then on the 3rd day when I hadn't ran into him yet, I casually asked his co-worker where he was. I think she took the hint because the next time I saw him, a week later, during the actual day of finals, he seemed a bit shyer around me. After turning in my take home final, CrazyGirl and I decided to celebrate. We hit Duke's for a nice dinner then headed to the local bar. It was only 8 pm and we were already a bit tipsy. Ok, I was a lot more tipsy! So who decides to walk in the door than CuteBaristaGuy himself! I was beside myself but what can I say, I was also empowered with liquid courage :) He took one look at us, brought over his beer and sat down. What did I do?

I wrapped my legs around his.

YES. Me. The girl who could barely speak more than 3 words to him at the coffee shop was now all of a sudden the bravest person in the world.

(By the way, Mr. Pie loves telling this story and is very good at it.)

So we talked and talked and at one point, I actually asked CuteBaristaGuy when we were getting married. Oh the horror. I also spilled his beer on him. Yeah. This guy was sooo going to call me. At the end of the night, our other roommate came to pick us up and CuteBaristaGuy walked us out. I had given him my phone number and made him repeat it a couple of times. We made a date for the following Tuesday. Back at the apartment, we were giggling about CuteBaristaGuy and someone told me to give him a call. He couldn't possibly be home right? It was only about 10 minutes since we had left the bar. So I dialed and who picks up? YES. CuteBaristaGuy. We talked until about 4 in the morning!

Our first date was CuteBaristaGuy making me dinner at his place and the rest is history. We are now living happily ever after :)

Pre 4th of July BBQ

A few weeks ago, Peldia came to visit us with little P. The doggies sized her up and down, decided she was harmless and was ok with her :) I was a little worried that they would try and jump on her but overall, they were pretty good. Mr. Pie smoked a beer can chicken and also baby back ribs. Great company + delicious food = an awesome evening.

Here's the man with his chicken partner

Mmmmmmm chicken!

Mmmmmmm ribs!!

Homemade pasta salad

Desserts! I made little apple pies and Peldia brought over a Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake. Divine.

See? The food was so delish, we didn't even take pics of ourselves!

My new fave

No witty title this time, just my new found love for smoked duck, a la Mr. Pie. He came home from work, cleaned the duck and threw it in the smoker. 3 hours later, I was in heaven! Mr. Pie also made a side of sweet rice which we had never had before. It's one of my new faves. It's a bit on the al dente side if that's how you like your rice. Also, he made one of the best duck sauces ever. I don't know what went in it but it was delicious! Oh and to top it off, he put enoki mushrooms in another sauce. Heavenly combination! I pronounce this my new fave dish.

By the way, I'm out of order on blog posting. Hope you don't mind! I'm just dropping hints on what I would like my next meal to be - haha.

Happy Friday!

Mr. Pie, being a goofball while getting ready for work (that is the "tie" I had on top of his anniversary gift box which contained dress shirts). He's so silly :)

Someone stole my "nom nom nom"

Mr. Pie pointed this out to me last night - that someone had a blog post with that title. And then I realized, I have not food posted in a long time! Maybe I'm still too Vegas-lagged from Saturday - hee. Mr. Pie has cooked and that is the reason why I will bust out the Wii Active every night from now on and get around with the step-o-meter. He is always making sure we have deliciousness in our lives!

Feast your eyes on these yummy plates!

Homemade meatballs in a white sauce with spinach on top of pastaSo creamy and divine!

Lobsters in white sauce on top of sweet jasmine rice with a side of asparagus. Fantastic. I literally had no words.

This is the cutest thing about Mr. Pie - he is always making sure the dish looks "restaurant served" by garnishing with lemons or parsley, etc. Yes, I live the life! Tonight, Mr. Pie is making roast duck. This is why I had to food blog today to make room for tomorrow!

We got Lucky in Vegas!

Yesterday, MommaPink and I did the craziest thing. We hopped on a plane to go to Vegas. For 13 hours. To see NKOTB in concert.

It was awesome.

We partied like rockstars.

I will fill you in on the entire trip as soon as I'm not so beat anymore!