I Don't Ask For Much (Anh Might Disagree)

I know I didn't just sit around ALL day waiting for the repair tech only to have him show up at 4pm and tell me he doesn't have all the required parts to complete the repair!!! Ugggh! Somebody is lucky that it's raining, and they didn't cheat me out of a day at the beach during Spring Break. That's all I can say! Is it that hard to pick up a phone?

Speaking of Spring Break, I'm starting to feel pretty bad for Jaxon and Baylor. We're on day 5 of gloomy, rainy weather and more nasty stuff is in the forecast for tomorrow! I guess it followed us home from Atlanta which is actually a good thing because our region desperately needs the moisture to curtail the dry conditions and subsequent brush fires. HOWEVER, I really think Mother Nature could have planned more accordingly and not rained on everyone's plans during the break. Mean old witch!

Tales From the Backseat

This weekend, the entire family loaded up and set out for the bright lights of Hotlanta, otherwise known as The ATL or BaBa's house. Well, I spent several hours wedged between the boys' booster seats in the second row because it was Aunt Nguyen's turn in the driver's seat, and Anh continues to argue that he gets motion sickness in the back seat. I think he's just continuing some tale he told during childhood to take permanent possession of the front seat. Anyhow, Aunt Nguyen suffered through a few hours seated between the boys who are surprisingly high maintenance in the car. Okay! Okay! It's really not all that surprising, but one would think that the radio, DVD player, Nintendo DS, and iPhones would provide plenty of distraction and at least a bit of entertainment. I guess harassing the person next to you is just more fun! So sensing that Aunt Nguyen was reaching her breaking point, I offered to switch places. She gladly accepted!

The backseat turned out to be highly entertaining. I'll share my favorite conversation from the journey up & back. One the way there, 5 1/2 hours into the 6 hour road trip, Baylor promptly announced that he didn't want to visit BaBa. Nevermind the fact that he had talked about going to BaBa's house ALL day long even throwing a tantrum at one point because we weren't leaving for BaBa's house after picking Jaxon up from school. My explanation that we needed to wait for Daddy and Aunt Nguyen to get off work because they wanted to join us was completely UNACCEPTABLE! Nope, with only minutes until our arrival, Baylor wanted to go home. Sorry, kid! Luckily, he got over it as soon as be saw BaBa. Of course, Baylor wanted to be showered with attention. He just didn't appreciate the extra long car ride that was required.

On the way home, a police car with it's lights flashing and siren wailing goes flying past us. Aunt Nguyen who was driving at the time said, "Whew! I thought they were after me, but I really wasn't going that fast." I jokingly said to Baylor, "I thought they were after you because you're such a bad boy." Baylor didn't miss a beat and shouted back, "No, they're after you!" Of course Jaxon had to chime in and said, "They're after Baylor because he stole something from their office." I looked at Baylor in time to see him nodding his head as he proudly muttered, "Yep!" Ummmmm...What?!

Cold Hard Cash

Recently, Anh overheard the following conversation as Jaxon and Baylor ate breakfast...

Baylor: "Jaxon, you have some money?"

Jaxon: "Yes, but it's mine."

Baylor: "I need some money."

Jaxon: "You should ask Daddy."

Baylor: "Daddy don't have any money. Where's Mommy?"

Ha! Baylor knows how things work around here!

Arena Antics

While I doubt the current NFL lockout and drama will have any lasting impact on the game, Anh and I decided to be proactive (just in case) and attended our very first arena football game last week. Not knowing what to expect, we joined our friends with season tickets so they could fill us in on all the subtle differences. These are the same friends with front row season tickets at the Orlando Magic basketball games. So logically, Anh and I expected great seats at the Sharks arena. We were NOT disappointed! Front row on the 50-yard field!
The shortened field was an obvious difference from the classic version of the game. It felt incredibly small and even smaller as the players crashed into the padded wall inches from our faces. Sitting in the front row, you had to be alert at all times. At any moment, a ball or player could be headed into your personal space. More than one spectator left after being nailed with an overthrown football. Now, I'm sure I would have felt differently had I suffered from direct impact, but I loved the fact that the game was practically taking place in my lap. Sometimes, it's easy to "zone-out" or become distracted at sporting events due to all the activity buzzing around you. We simply couldn't take that risk at this game. I didn't miss a single second!
Another advantage to sitting in the first few rows was the likelihood of leaving with a free souvenir. It's just like baseball. If you catch a ball, it's yours! We came close. Anh had his fingertips on the ball at one point, but he fumbled. I guess he's a bit rusty from those high school glory days. Ha! Oh well, the boys have enough footballs anyway and bringing home another one might have tipped them off to the fact that we excluded them from a sports outing. That news would not go over well with our two sports nuts!
Luckily for those two boys, Anh and I had a fabulous time and look forward to attending another game this season. We'll be sure to take the whole family next time, but I think higher seats will be necessary. There is no break from parenting, and my two kids are the ultimate distraction. Higher seats will insure my head isn't rattled, just my nerves.

Work

That's what the blog has started to feel like, and that's why my entries are becoming sporadic. It's not that I don't love sharing the silly stories from our day to day lives, it's just that my brain hasn't been tuned in for a while, and I struggle to combine the words to formulate sentences. I strive for witty, but sometimes end up settling for anything that passes as legible. I think I'm suffering from Spring Break-itis. It used to strike when I was in school and needed a break from all the work that those pesky teachers expected of me.

Of course, I'm hardly due for a vacation. We only just returned from Charleston. So, I don't know what my problem is except to say that I've been distracted. I find myself making time for everything except the blog. Even laundry has trumped the blog lately. Yikes! It was only recently as I looked back at some of my older entries that I realized, the blog is awesome! I've recorded so many moments from our lives that undoubtedly would have been long forgotten if not for the blog. As you know days/weeks will pass and I struggle to come up with material that I deem worthy of sharing...material that I think others will find entertaining. What I failed to realize is that it's the silly/stupid/mundane stuff that really needs to be documented. It's my crazy boys and their even crazier antics that make me laugh when I go back and reread the entries from long ago.

I'll remember the big moments and big trips that we take. It's the little things and my own crazy thoughts that get lost in the shuffle and fast pace of life. So, I will try to keep things simple which will hopefully inspire me to share more regularly. Life doesn't always have to be sooooo grand! Lesson learned!

Potty Mouth

Oh goodness! Baylor seems to have developed quite the potty mouth recently. Wonder who he picked that up from?! I'll admit too, that it's getting out of control. You know it's bad when you overhear your 6-year old correcting the 2-year as they play video games. Every couple of seconds I hear, "Dammit!" followed by "Don't say that!" or "We don't use that word!" Well, at least we aren't supposed to...Oops! It was equally shocking for Aunt Nguyen to hear Baylor exclaim, "What the hell?!" when he walked back into the playroom after lunch one day and discovered someone had paused his DVD that he left playing. Another big oops moment for us all.

However, the most shocking incident of all came this past weekend as we were driving to a friend's party. Anh forgot that we are right smack in the middle of Spring Break season and tried to take the scenic route to the party, right through downtown which is jam-packed with tourists and should be avoided at all costs. As soon as Anh realized his error, he tried to backtrack to the main road which required a left turn at one of the city's busiest intersections. Finally, there was a break in traffic and we were going to have a chance to make a quick left and be on our way. Wouldn't you know it, a car came barreling around the corner and robbed us of our chance to make the turn. As the driver, Anh was annoyed and shouted, "F-cker!" For those that steer clear of colorful language and 4-letter words, Anh's dirty word rhymes with "trucker."

Anyhow, I wasn't too worried about Anh's lack of verbal restraint because the boys were both wearing their headphones in the backseat as they watched a movie. Well, evidently, that wasn't enough of a distraction because for the next five minutes Baylor echoed the same question over & over & over again as I tried my best to ignore him and not make a big deal out of the situation because that would guarantee regular use of the new phrase. No, Baylor doesn't miss ANYTHING and asked us repeatedly "Who's a ftutter?" Alrighty then! Don't everyone rush to nominate us as Parents of the Year! At least, his pronunciation is a bit off. Should he use the new lingo at school, maybe they won't understand him. One can always hope!

Food + Friends = Fun

On Day 2 of the festival, our group expanded. Our friend, Alexis, arrived from California for 28 hours of non-stop indulgence. At least, that was the plan. Friday night, Alexis boarded a 9:30pm flight on the West coast, made two connections, and finally landed in Charleston at approximately 10:00am Saturday morning. Extreme? Absolutely! Especially, when you factor in that his departing flight was scheduled 2:30pm on Sunday. That's Alexis!Saturday's agenda included a visit to the festival's Main Tasting Tent and a Big Bottle Tasting & Auction. There were tons of "foodie celebrities" milling around including quite a few Top Chef contestants. We were able to meet fan favorites Dave Martin, Carla Hall, and my personal favorite Kevin Gillespie!

We also had the chance to pick up a few tips on tasting techniques from Andrea Immer Robinson who was hosting the Big Bottles Tasting and Auction. She's one of the United State's 9 female Master Sommeliers. There are only 11 females in the entire world to obtain this title! I used to watch her show on the Fine Living Network and appreciate her down-to-earth style when it comes to discussing wine. Let's face it, that's not typical. The term "wine snob" was invented for a reason.As our group wandered from table to table, we were offered tastings from various bottle sizes. First, you received a pour from the typical 750ml bottle that everyone is familiar with. A second pour from a larger magnum (1.5 litre) bottle followed, and some winemakers were offering a third pour from an even larger double magnum (3 litre) bottle. Winemakers explained that the larger bottles age better and result in better wine because more oxygen is captured in the bottling process. At least, I think that's what they said. Ha! My palate is clearly underdeveloped because I couldn't taste a difference. I guess I won't be named as a Master Sommelier anytime soon! One thing we could all appreciate were the fabulous cheese and chocolate options offered to the crowd. We fell in love with the velvety smooth chocolate provided by a local shop and stopped off at the store for more on the walk back to the hotel that afternoon. Truly delicious!As the auction got underway, we commented that the crowd seemed largely uninterested. Well, I guess they started with the "crap" because very quickly things got heated. Bidding wars broke out over the larger magnums, double magnums, and imperial (6 litres) bottles that were being offered. Two bidders even resorted to name calling during one auction! The show, however, resulted over a 10-person private dinner at a winery in Napa. The winemaker was even on hand to witness the battle for his event! An older lady and gentleman boldly bid for the fabulous experience all the while exchanging the nastiest looks as the bidding went back & forth. Want to see the ugly side of wealth, check out the auction scene! Oh my! This was over wine. I wonder what car and art auctions are like?Wine, chocolate, and drunk people with too much money (I wish for that problem.) = a FABULOUS day! Unfortunately, by sunset, we were back to being a party of four. The jetlag that Alexis was battling most of the day turned out to be a horrible stomach bug, and he was down for the count. Sooooooo not how we had planned for his visit to go!Despite the fact that I felt like we were abandoning Alexis at his hour of need, we set out for our final event on Saturday night. Alexis insisted that with a little sleep he'd feel better and promised to try and join us later in the evening. At that point, we were all still in a bit of denial and believed exhaustion was merely taking it's toll on him. Wrong!

I told Alexis on Sunday morning, "I wish I could tell you that you didn't miss much, but the After Party was awesome!" I still can't believe he flew all that way and missed out on the grand finale! Sometimes life is so unfair. On a positive note, I can say with certainty that we'll try for a "do-over" next year.For those of us who weren't at death's door, the party continued late (very late) into the evening. The After Party was sponsored by Charleston Magazine, and they really did pull out all the stops. Ticket holders decked out in cocktail attire roamed an event tent that had been transformed in merely 3 hours into a fabulous South Beach-inspired soiree.The sparkling wine was FLOWING...for guests seated in various lounge areas...or roaming the massive event space. Booths offering imaginative hor d'oeuvres and desserts lined the entire perimeter, and DJs spinning a mix that incorporated the latest hits and classic party tunes were perched on a raised sound booth in the center of all the action.Footage from the festival's events flashed on the ENORMOUS screens mounted overhead. As soon as we entered, we simply had to stand still for a moment scanning the entire scene to take it all in. We were impressed!We sampled the four featured cocktails and did our absolute best to try all the food offerings.We failed! There was just too much! One of the more creative offerings was sweet potato cotton candy. A little strange to me, but everyone else enjoyed it.I actually preferred the extraordinarily flavorful more mundane offerings like the carnitas soft taco and shrimp tamales. There was truly something for everyone!Oddly enough, at the party, we ran to another friend who was visiting from Kansas City. Jeremy (not pictured) was in town with two of his friends for the festival. Very quickly, we all bonded with Jeremy's friend Evan and his wife Dion. Dion is an on-air news personality in North Carolina. So, of course, we had to get a picture with her. That way, when she hits the "big time" and is hosting The Today Show or Good Morning America, we can say, "We knew her back when..."Really though, it was an incredible evening spent with old and new friends in our absolute favorite Southern city. The perfect ending to the perfect getaway!

I said it before & I'll say it again, "MARK YOUR CALENDARS, PEOPLE!!! March 1-4, 2012...2012 Charleston Food & Wine Festival!

A Taste of Perfection

After a brief pit stop at the hotel to shower, change, and partake in the manager's wine reception (exactly what we needed) but not necessarily in that order (priorities), we made our way to Anson Restaurant for a dinner prepared by Bryan Voltaggio from Top Chef. Several of Charleston's top restaurants were selected to participate in the Wine & Food Festival's Dine-Around evening. For the occasion, each of the renowned local restaurant chefs were paired with a visiting "celebrity" chef and winemaker and challenged to create a memorable evening for festival guests. Man oh man did our crew succeed! To sum up our experience with one word...WOW!After a cocktail reception with sparkling wine and passed hor d'oeuvres, we were ushered upstairs to the dining room where we were seated with two locals. What a treat for them! Our excitement fueled with hours of drinking made us a "lively" bunch. In a good way though, I think. Bryan Voltaggio came out briefly to introduce himself as if we didn't all know who he is and purchase our dinner tickets based solely on his participation. Every person in the room was there specifically to see if his culinary talent lives up to all the hype. It did.

Of course, Bryan can't take all the credit. The menu was a collaborative effort with Anson's resident chef, Jeremy Holst. As it turns out, there were two "WOW" dishes out of the 5 courses, and each of the chefs was responsible for one. Bryan stole the show with

The First Course:

Sablefish with Black Forbidden Rice, Carrot Tarragon Vinaigrette, & Soy Air

Fabulous!The Second Course:

Shaved Ham, Watermelon Radish, Pickled Mustard Seed, Julienne Crispy Pig Ear, Golden Pea Tendrils, Red Sorrel, & Heirloom Apple VinaigretteThe Third Course:

Shenandoah Valley Squab, Buckwheat, Orange Braised Endive, & Red Ribbon MustardThe Fourth Course:

(Chef Holst's Successful Attempt to 1-Up a Top Chef)

Tournedo of Deckle, Creamed Spinach Custard, Roasted Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Red Wine Jus, & Maxim PotatoesAnd as a Finale:

Dulce de Leche with Pineapple & Lime Sorbet.

Each course was paired with a wine from David Arthur Vineyard in Napa Valley, CA. Winemaker David Long was on hand to present each wine and share the humorous history of the winery that was founded by his family. David confessed that he started experimenting with wine making when he was 16 years old! Forget sneaking a little booze. This guy was making his own! At 60 years of age, he's certainly perfected his craft. By the end of the evening, we were buddies and planning a trip to visit him Napa.Before departing, we thanked Chef Holst for our fabulous evening and confirmed that Scott was indeed correct when he identified one of our fellow diners as Charleston's mayors. I just thought it was the wine playing tricks on Scott. Nope, the man knows his mayors!

Truly a fabulous ending to an AMAZING day! Imaginative & artistic food, a never empty wine glass, and some of the best friends you could ever ask for - all the ingredients for a perfect day. Cheers!

Plantation Life

Friday, our first true festival day, was magical. It will go down in history as one of my favorite days ever. I'm not exaggerating! However, I will say that the day got off to a questionable start. When Anh, Scott, Geraldine, and I stepped out of the hotel that morning, it was cold, windy, and overcast. It was the definition of dreary. Not exactly the type of day that you want to spend outside, but rather curled up by the fire. Even though both of our rooms were equipped with working fireplaces, we decided to be positive and set out to catch our shuttle to the plantation. After all, there was wine & food to be consumed. You can't pass that up regardless of the weather!

During the ride to Middleton Plantation, something amazing happened. The clouds parted allowing the warm sunshine to break through. It turned out to be a picturesque day to say the least! After a quick "before" photo, we were off to explore the gardens and grounds. Ellen, our tour guide, lead us to the Camilla Garden which was at it's peak during our visit. Sadly, we were a bit too early for the Azaleas and the Rose Gardens. Oh well, now we have an excuse to go back.

Not even 100 feet into the tour, we were already commenting on the incredible beauty of the landscape. It was so peaceful, you couldn't help imagining the old days when the grounds were probably buzzing with activity. What a glorious age...Unless of course you were one of the 100 slaves in charge of creating and then maintaining the glorious gardens. I imagine they weren't too thrilled with the project or life in general, and that's putting it mildly. Of course, the plantation maintains that they have very little information about the plantation during the era of slavery. To me, that translates to "We don't like to talk about that. So let's move along with the tour."Today, there are only 10 people on staff to the care for the plantation. Although, it seems like there are quite a few volunteers like Ellen, our guide, that are willing to lend a helping hand.Everywhere you look, there's a breathtaking view: sunny formal gardens with perfectly manicured hedges, massive twisted old oak trees, flowers in every color of the rainbow, winding rivers and shaded ponds, a hundred of so bottles of wine just begging to be sampled. I tell you, it was HEAVEN!We started to question how any of the other festival events could possibly top our visit to the plantation, and we had only been there 20 minutes! As we made our way from tasting station to station, we sipped our wine and snapped pictures of everything in a desperate attempt to somehow capture a little piece of the extraordinary time and take it home with us.We walked the path along the flooded rice fields that run parallel to the river and eventually stumbled upon the famous statue of the Wood Nymph which was hidden to protect it from destruction by the Union soldiers during the Civil War. So many history lessons occurred at that very site and in the surrounding area. I'd share some the details, but history class also doubled as time to write my friends notes in high school. Dang it! I knew that would come back to haunt me. Oh well, watch Gone With The Wind. You'll get the basics. Ha!This was the view from the last tasting station before we took a break for lunch. That's right, not the last wine station just the last stop prior to the dining tent. We had only visited about half of the stations by that point, but we didn't want to miss a thing and feared the dining room would run out of the good stuff.

We could not have been more wrong. The event organizers did an excellent job and planned for everything. We wandered from food station to food station sampling the offerings, and then went back for seconds of our favorites. Parched from all the tasty treats, we made a stop by the wine bar for a few more samples before back out into the sunshine for round two of Wine Around Garden tour.On the way to the main house, we passed a simple cabin known as Eliza's House. The house is named for the last known occupant a former slave from the plantation. The sign in front of the house seemed to gloss over the fact that it once housed slaves and instead focused on the more recent tenants that were merely descendants of slaves. We can't rewrite history, but they certainly made an attempt or two to whitewash it just like the cabin walls.The mansion itself was off limits to us without purchasing an additional ticket. I guess they didn't want a bunch of "drunks" in close proximity to priceless antiques. Probably a good call on their part!The back yard was more impressive to us anyway. The mansion overlooks the famed Butterfly Lakes, named for the flying beauty that inspired the shape of the man-made ponds. Unfortunately, an aerial view was not available and my iPhone lacked the wide lens necessary for the shot. You'll just have to take my word for it.Our final station looked directly out on the Butterfly Lakes, and we couldn't help lingering. The view was impressive, we weren't ready to head back to the shuttle and leave this amazing spot, and the wine was really flowing by that point. At the start of the event, samples had been the typical small pours that one would expect. As the day went on, the pours became more and more generous. One event volunteer even joked, "Well, they told me to do what it takes to make people happy. I'm just doing my job!"Nineteen stations and a dining tent with no less than 4 wines to sample at each stop. You do the math because we certainly couldn't be that point in the day! As you can imagine, the crowd that was tame and quiet on the ride out had been transformed into a massive collection of Chatty Cathys!As much as we hated the thought, we had to call it a day and head back to the trolley. You might remember that I shared a "before" picture at the beginning of this entry. Well, this isn't technically the photo that I had planned to use as the "after," but I gave my word that I wouldn't post "that" photo of two sleeping beauties on the shuttle. So, this one will just have to do. It was quite a day, and I'm grateful we shared in it together. I'm sure we'll cherish these memories for years to come...hopefully over a glass of wine.