You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2006.
Our 8th wedding anniversary falls on Thanksgiving this year so it was a double celebration. The usual routine is to go out for a nice evening out child-less but since it’s Thanksgiving we celebrated it as a family. So here’s the story; warning! as usual it may get very photo-intensive!
The day started off with this; a peacefully sleeping baby that didn’t want to get up even after a bath!
Aaawww! Being cute can sometimes have its virtues!
Morning Thanksgiving Feast at the Montessori; the girls warmed up playing in the classroom and at the playground
This is really Petra’s favorite; the slide and the other pastime is the swing
We later went to dinner having some Thanksgiving meal of our own version…Battered Onions w/ Jalapenos & Pickles
Plus Apricot Glazed Cornish Hen with green beans and stuffing and cranberry sauce…sorry forgot the pumpkin dessert which is really pretty but all ate up
Then the girls had a ball at the amusement park
And of course the train ride; no kid would miss that one
The train ride actually leads up to a shark voyage; first the girls went through an underwater aquarium filled with sharks from all over the world and this sighting!
Yes, that is of course the train; Nadya couldn’t miss the picture- it actually goes choo-choo!
Nadya, daddy and the big ole owl
And a closeup of the owl and its trainer
So yesterday was hubby’s birthday. If you would like to know how old he is, well he is 12 years older than me and I turned 3 decades old just the other day. I know, I know; he doesn’t look that old; perhaps you might want to ask him what his secret is …ahemm! thank the Mrs. for being such a good cook! Ha! Anyways, the chef surprised us with this birthday ice-cream treat. He had Mango flavor and I had Ginger Yumm!
That is him letting out his sheepish grin. On the work front we’re still considering where we will end up either Manhattan or Atlanta. Still up in the air. Busy busy researching taxes, and cost of living also where the good schools are for the girls. If it’s a nice blue-ribbon school suburb area, we’ll go public but if it’s urban we will unfortunately stick with private schools – just to be safe than sorry.
There - one of the low-tabled rooms at Osaka; feels just like we’re in Japan; very romantic and intimate atmosphere.
This was a house special, sort of like a free appetizer an equivalent of chips/ rolls you get at your normal restaurant. This is the Octopus-Calamari; and the fried tofu below are what we got on the house.
Sorry, didn’t quite make a good picture does it. Hubby already ate the other half only to realize I wanted to take a photo of the pretty dish.
Yumm…Sushi Sushi Sushi… this should inspire to go get some sushi tonight or tomorrow night that is if you are a sushi affecionado.
Our chef busy sprucing up the dishes.
My favorite handrolls; the Salmon and the Spider Roll made of Fresh Salmon and Soft Shell Crab.
Oh more handrolls for me! I know I was such a hungry woman, but don’t worry this time I’m not pregnant just hungry! I hope you have enjoyed the photos. Now, go, go out and get some FISH!
Hello everyone! I apologize for the delayed post but really the end of the year is a real busy time – too many festivities lined up in the family. Almost everyone except little Petra is a Scorpio baby and today is hubby’s birthday and we’re about to head out for a nice Sushi treat at Osaka (more photos later) and guess what our anniversary is at the end of this month as well. Talk about Thanksgiving, Xmas and all other great holidays!
On top of that, work has just swamped me like crazy, this is the time of the year where they try to squeeze out every inch of my usefulness before we head for Xmas… yeah really.
Anyways, since I’ve been really sinfully busy between work and home, I haven’t had the chance to post anything fibery, but I thought this would make up for some thoughts. So last week I was as usual at work and around lunch time I was crossing 34th and Broadway in Manhattan when I saw these lovely knit chic and fibery holiday wear in the display store window. I was too mesmerized by the designs, I thought it was a very great idea of infusing knitting and fiber onto clothes. They’re just so awesome I decided I had to have them… well not for myself but for my little ones at home.
I really love Xmas and the fall/winter season because of the festivities, ambience and weather. Plus it really is the end of the year which means more time to be with the family; not that we don’t spend much time but it’s family time absent work; which means just family time. I really can’t wait for the week of Dec 25th!
Here is the shot of the whole outfit. I think they’re just AWESOME!
This is the pair I bought for Petra; really CUTE!
This is the back of the fibery cuffed jeans.
For those of you that have been waiting so patiently for the winning entries, I have them here; I spent the whole day today organizing my fiber inventory and getting ready for Xmas Specials. Congrats again to the winners! I will contact you after I’m back from treating hubby to a Sushi dinner or if you would please email me, that would be great as I need your physical address so that I can get the fibers expediently off to you!
Not in any special order; the winners are:
Cheryl of cherylefrancis at yahoo dot com;
Anne of hanson at knitspot dot com;
Aija of oscillate at gmail dot com
Congratulations everyone. For those that were not picked, you were not so unlucky either. Please take advantage of my Free Shipping offer (only for contest participants) on regular priced fibers and products at www.MatahariSpinnery.com
Til later…
Work work work and more work; this year I had a real quiet birthday…
My husband slipped a 2 gig memory card into my Pentax camera the other day after he returned from a trip to Fry’s Electronics. I had always used a 1 gig card that I share and swop with my Contax (been too busy to get a separate one and always forgetting to) but now I don’t need to do that anymore, Yay!
After a full week’s work, we spent a nice quiet evening having dinner made of Southwest Homemade Tortilla Wraps with Chicken Breast, fresh veggies, cilantro dressing, fresh fruits and not forgetting my favorite British Stilton Mango-Ginger Cheese and Tiramisu treat from Central Market. Yummm!
It was a simple no frills evening, just what I needed after a long week. Despite the simplicity it was a perfect evening. After that I headed for some peace and quiet time being with the girls and a long restful sleep. This morning I woke up to this; a nice quiet stroll down the street with gorgeous trees. It is a nice day.
Now on to the birthday fiber sampler contest. For those of you enjoying the advantage of our November Specials BFL fiber and the Kromski wheels special promotions in our online store, I’d like to thank you for your purchases and support in our endeavor. For that and also to extend the birthday spirits, I am giving away a fiber sampler gift to 3 lucky winners. Why 3? Simply because I had to blow 3 candles on my birthday, and so did Nadya my little girl who had her birthday a week ago. Well, I am not 3 but if you guess right I am 3 decades old 
Anyways, each gift to this contest will consist of 8 oz variety of prepared fibers. (go to www.mataharispinnery.com for a visual teaser.
To enter, just leave me a comment to this post on what it means to you to be a year older/younger (however you see it) in your life, include your email address so that I can get in touch with you if you’re one of the lucky 3 winners. The winners will be drawn randomly and will be contacted at the end of the contest. Contest ends on November 12 at midnight Central time. Good luck!
Nadya rings the bell or knocks on the door, Petra awaits looking out for the ghouls of the night. It is chocolate candy time, and they were proud of it.
Here is a close-up over the shoulders. The girls continue carrying on with their candy spree…
Originally uploaded by arianiekeeney.
Look at her face; she was so happy greeting everyone on her rounds until she came to this house. O my god, she was just stricken. Should I get the candy? she thought.
This shot was taken with a slow suppressed flash. It gave a glowy super soft effect on the edges. We thought this was a pretty cool shot.
I love this shot. Ringing the bell to get candies. After the night is over, Nadya had some idea of the different kinds of ways to ring the bell, the different sounds to a door bell and the different heights to them. When she can’t reach the bell, she turned around and said “open open it open the door!”
The girls, in a profile shot. Eager to get more candies despite having two bags full
Yes they all had a lot of fun despite a cheesy birthday party going on in the background. Really if you organize one at Chucky Cheese, they’ll have the Chucky Cheese mouse and friends in mascots singing and dancing for the children. What we really found extra cheesy is when the servers started to dance cheesy in front of the kids and they don’t know what to make out of it. Some just stared in awe. It’s really much preferred to have the kids in the play area where they can construct their own version of fun! There is Nadya in the middle among the kids.
Both girls on the horses. As you can see Nadya is in the back and the foreground is Petra. This is their first round. It was hard to take a good photo because they were moving when we tried to take the shot.
She was so happy. We can’t remember or count how many tokens we used for the Merry Go Round. It made her day as you can tell by the smile in the photo.
At the end of the day we had the blowing of candles. It is pretty challenging to find something in replace of the usual cake and icing. Every year we try to be as innovative and adventurous as we can be. Stuffing a chockful of sugar and cream isn’t our idea of a healthy birthday for the kids. In fact they hardly get sugar or juice on an everyday basis so we had to compromise between fresh cream for icing and chocolate for flavor – just to be decadent for once and make up for the rest of the year. Happy birthday sweetie, we all love you.
