Pretty soon ski magazines will start to hit the mailbox

Which is always the true sign of end of summer.

 

This showed up in my inbox today, and it looks good.

Central Park Zoo Visit

The girls visited the Central Park Zoo today, and loved seeing

seals and penguins being feed
polar bears snoozing
snow leopards scratching
monkeys grooming
goats begging for food
pigs sniffing
toucans cracking

and more...

Click on the picture above for the full slide show.

First taste of cereal

Ilsa says "I'm a big girl, and can sit on the couch."

They did not like their first taste of cereal and started yelling after tasting it.

They wanted their bottle, and insisted on helping themselves.

I met some friends in my old wine tasting group last night, where we revisited the 1995 red Bordeaux, at age 15. They are now smooth, supple wines, much better than the raspy tannic wines they were at release. Friends posted their tasting notes here and here. We ate at Apiary, a downtown venue started by some of the same chefs/partners at the famous Veritas. It was good...but the sommelier was a bit sleazy.

Christening

The girls got christened this morning at Holy Trinity. Their godmothers Lauren (above) and Monica (below) wrangled them into their fancy gowns.

Ilsa was more cooperative this morning. Meribel started howling with outrage once she got anointed with the water

After the church service, due to heavy downpours in the city the planned for picnic in Central Park was moved back to our apartment. It was the girls first time seeing rain, as Sacramento has been dry since before they were born. So they sat on the couch and held court, like a pair of princesses.

All the girls extended cousins from Westchester and LI showed up, along with their great aunt and uncle. So there was a lot of excited children in the apartment. The girl in the middle, Karenna is the only girl on both sides of her family, so it must be vexing for her dealing with a whole cub scout troop of loud boys all the time.

A wedding on the ocean

Our friends David and Whitney got married on the seaside in Islip, New York. It's a quaint sea side town near Fire Island and the glitzy Hamptons beach scene. We got there early to get the girls ready so we walked through the village for few minutes.

Our family friends the Masons came too, and brought their older girls, who are holding the twins in this picture.

Here's the happy couple, David and Whitney. Whitney is a twin too, and her sister gave a moving speech as the matron of honor. Key advice to her new brother in law: don't borrow her clothes without asking. Hopefully our little ones listened to that too.

The girls conked out during most of the reception, completely ignoring the musical trends over time from the BeeGees to Madonna to Lady Gaga, and only woke up near the end when they wanted to look around for a little, especially for food. It took a long time to drive back into the city -- it seems like everyone is on the LIE on Saturdays.

Whole Foods in Time Warner Center

Meribel wearing her silly sailor hat, last weekend.

We ate lunch at Whole Foods in the basement of Time Warner Center in New York. Their semi prepared selection is vast, and is a good place to meet a group for lunch since everyone can choose what they like, arrive at different times, and still find a table spot.

On Thursday we went out for dinner at Sorella, a Piedmontese restaurant far downtown. It was superb. We had veal sweatbreads, a garden salad, a salumi platter with some rare -- and FDA unapproved -- 'lardo', and an odd pate covered muffin -- all paired up with a solid Clerico dolcetto. The whole lower East Side area has become more pleasant in the last decade -- it used to be a rough skid row.

Twinkies take Manhattan

The girls didn't sleep so well last night, but with all the travel and various changes that is understandable, so we all slept in a little this morning considering the time changes.  (We didn't get to bed til 2:30am).

 

We took the girls first to J's office where all her coworkers cooed over the twins.  They were on their best behaviour, as well as prettiest outfits, and impressed everyone.  After that we took them in their citystroller to La Bonne Soupe, a classic midtown French bistro, for lunch.  We both had crepes -- mine were stuffed with mushrooms and J had leeks in hers.  The girls took the opportunity to top up their tanks with Enfamil at the lunch table too. 

 

From there we went to Barnes & Noble and looked at magazines for a while.  It was a little hard to get out of the building since it wasn't so stroller friendly, but after finally finding the exit ramp, we stopped in at Pinkberrys for something cool and refreshing.  We then made a pit stop at the apartment for a diaper change and checked on the cleaners who are getting the place spic & span, since it had gotten dusty from being relatively vacant for a few months.  From there we went to the Bridge Market and picked up some tea, and then from there we made out way to Bed Bath and Beyond for batteries for the girls rented bouncy seats.  We decided to sit a while at Starbucks and read the local newspapers, while Ilsa sat on the table trying to grab things.

 

We have most of things we need for Fridays cocktail party, but needed a few white wines, so from there stopped at Garnets to order a few summer white wines for delivery tomorrow.  I ran into a market contact there and we ruminated on the changes in the fine wine market place for a little, but then Meribel blew a gasket and decided she had to go home immediately, so we piled into a taxi and came home, where the girls got changed and fed.   J is meeting her boss for a work dinner, and I am supervising the (now snoozing) girls, and plan on having some sushi in a little bit.  They are exhausted, and after a little bit time on their 'gym' have conked out on their boppies on the couch.  It has been a long 36 hours for them, so we'll let them get some rest before the big trip to the zoo to see the penguins.

Getting ready for NYC

We have packed all our bags and the girls are getting excited to fly out to NYC tomorrow morning.

The pets are less pleased, since they will stay behind, but we've arranged for a variety of food for them. According to my count, we have 14 different kinds of canned food for them, since they get fussy if anything repeats too frequently.

For ourselves, we are looking forward to revisiting our well above average neighbordhood sushi place.

Grandparents come visiting

The girls maternal grandparents came up for a weekend visit, which was punctuated by brunch at a south Indian restaurant in town called Kaveri. Above Ilsa plays with my sister in the dachshund outfit her aunt made her.

Grandma is reading a Dr. Seuss story to the girls, who are fascinated by the Cat in the Hat. Of course, one of our real (and insecure) cats, is fascinated by this too, and has hopped onto grandma's lap to hear the story too, and get his ears scratched.

After church on Sunday we went to the locally famous 'Pancake Circus' which serves disturbingly tall stacks of pancakes, and had breakfast before the grandparents hit the road. The pancakes are so large, that even I had leftovers, which if you've seen me around pancakes, you would assume either that something is wrong with the food, or that I was virulently ill.

The Pancake Circus and The Waffle Square duel with each other for best diner brunch in our neighborhood.

Visitors

Friends from South Africa, which is probably the farthest you can get from here via commercial airlines.

Dim Sum at New Canton, where we passed on the steamed chicken feet.

Grilling Niman ranch chops on the patio. Wrapped with rosemary and bacon, they were excelled as was chili rubbed eggplant.

The cats secret lair, under the rocking chair

The girls all dressed up before going to church. They handle it well, sleeping all the way through. In general they are getting through the night much better now, as their circadian rhythms start to kick in.

This is where the cats snooze, under the rocking chair, with a sheet on top of it, while the sun slices in through the blinds. The one in back resents having to share this with his brother.

Ilsa in her 'bumbo' a kind of squishy plastic chair, wearing a ribbon my sister found for her.

I made lemon pepper shrimp, sauteed spinach and rice the other night, and girls joined us for dinner, although they just sat in the bumbos, making gleeful gurgling noises.

No Shoes No Service

After breakfast and a little of the Muppet Show, the girls happily played in their baby gyms, smacking the hanging animals around for a while. Afterwards we bundled them up and went out to get more pet food. The animals have been rejecting their current fare, bored with the current choices.

After loading up on pet favorites, we went by Whole Foods, and broke some sanitary rules no doubt. For lunch on the way home we had some soup at Boudin, which was pretty good.

Spice Cabinet now Organized

So we got a new shipment from our spice merchant -- Penzeys -- who we enthusiastically recommend and organized our spice cabinet. Everything is now pseudo alphabetized, albeit within categories of usage. So baking items are in one area, Indian centric things in another. The cabinet is probably the best thing about the house. One pleasure in cooking is using all the cookbooks that get given to us by loved ones. The other night we made a salmon recipe from a 25 year old cookbook from some Belgian friends. Fantastic fish, and it reminded us of good times and faraway friends.

Neefers hopped up on Jenn's lap while she was feeding Ilsa. He has gotten increasingly unafraid of the girls, and won't budge off J's lap even if the girls start kicking him. This photo was taken with both optical and digital zoom, which is a feature I don't use that much. Panasonic now has some new pocket point & shoots outfitted with Leica 12x zoom lens, which is pretty astonishing for something that small. At some level, physics and optics start to becoming the bounds of what we can do with photography, but the Japanese manufacturers continue to push those bounds.

We went out for a bite at Bistro 33 -- #2 among East Sacramento restaurants according to Sacramento magazine -- and it was pretty good, as well as accommodating. Ilsa decided to start yelling while we were there, and we didn't realize the issue til we got home (she needed a diaper change). But we had an outside table far from other patrons so I don't think we disturbed anyone. This picture was shot a couple of different ways, but in the end I went with the night mode, which picked up more of the scenery outside the focus area. The software on my S90 makes anyone, or any lighting situation, look like a better photographer.

Visiting a new church

Neefers the cat has never heard of the expression: "more nervous than a cat in room full of rocking chairs". He has taken to snoozing curled up between the legs.

Last night we dropped off the girls at my mom's for a few hours and went out to celebrate my first year at my current employer. We tried a local haute cuisine place called Ambience. It was good, but despite the empty tables, the staff seemed to be in a hurry to hustle out the patrons. Our entire tasting menu was completed in 1hr 15min. We'll try it again at some point, as it was good, just not great, as 130 reviews on a web site seemed to suggest. Meribel is sitting in my mom's lap above, trying to decide if she wants to yell about some indignity, or demand food. My dad would have been 76 this weekend, and I wish he could have seen the girls.

We tried a new church this weekend - St. Johns in downtown Sacramento. After almost a year of 'church shopping' we think we have found a home we are comfortable with. We liked the people and pastoral staff we met. It's a historic building with beautiful stained glass, plentiful parking, and the congregation supports many service times, along with child care. Shallow as it may sound, those other aspects matter now too. The girls want to congratulate grandparents Charlie and Joyce on their 45th wedding anniversary, at least according to my interpretation of their babbling...

A weekend in Sonoma

Some pictures from our weekend trip up to Sonoma, where we attended a friend's party at the Nicholson Winery. Click on the pic above for a few more photos. (note the difference in quality vs pic below - above with Canon S90 below with Bbery phone camera)

Party dresses on!

The girls have put on their fancy party dresses that grandma gave them. They are ready to rock and roll at my colleagues surprise party here. We are in Sonoma, which is a cool 70F unlike Sacramento which was 95F when we left. We will have better pix with the real camera rather than this.
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Back home now

The twins handled their first airplane trip pretty well. Part of that was having enough baby gear, which was solved by using a company that rented baby equipment in LA. On the piano above, there are two bouncy chairs that they sent over, which were helpful in getting the girls to adjust to new surroundings. Prices as well as condition/quality of their offerings were good. It's not easy traveling with the girls -- and their Leono Helmsley like baggage train -- but services like that help.

After we landed in Sacramento, we put the girls in an airplane seat and snapped this picture. (They traveled on our laps for the flight) Meribel is on the left, and Ilsa on the right. They are wondering what they will do with their frequent flyer miles.

It was hot upon returning home, quite a change from 60F down south where the seabreezes cool LA off, to 98F hot inland Sacramento, baked by the central valley's heat.

Independance Day Pool Party

This was the fate of that big fish from the earlier post -- stuffed with dill and lemons and then roasted for 45min on the grill, where it took most of the space. With some beets and roast asparagus on the side, it made a fine dinner. Plus the scant leftovers provided the base for salmon scrambled eggs the next morning. Superb quality from Santa Monica Seafoods, well worth their premium pricing.

Before the pool party, Meribel had her own bath, in the pool of the kitchen sink. The girls like getting bathed and squawk when removed from the warm water.

The table of food, before the hordes descended and gobbled it all up. There were about 15 kids running and screaming in and around the pool, which was filled with strange inflatable pool toys. The toys all had cartoon names unrecognizable to me, although I suppose in two years I'll know Nemo and his ilk are. Whatever happened to playing Marco Polo?

Ilsa in the lovely outfit that Mauricio and Laetitia sent her. The twins got to wear their party dresses yesterday, showing off their new clothes to everyone. In the end, we decided not to let them dip their toes in the pool, so they could only look from afar at the festivities. Some friends also brought over a bushel of previously loved clothes that will fit the girls well. Thank you for that.