Day Two: 3:45am. That Is All.

Iain had a nice day. We...well it was a good day except for the wake-up. Iain woke at 3:45, and went down again tonight at 6:30 or so. The bad news is: 3:45. The good news is that if he sticks to his pattern and sleeps 12 hours we'll see him again tomorrow morning around dawn. I can handle dawn.

But enough whining. We had a nice day today. The picture above is of the fountain feature on Joel's pool. The water shoots out in a perfect cylindrical jet, and arcs into the pool without a splash. Beautiful. But wait - there's more. A lighting system lights the pool (cycling through blue, green, pink and white color gels), and lights the jet of water in a different color. When it's intact you hardly see the light, but if you touch the water the resulting splash is colored - green for instance, as if it was neon.

Iain thinks this is THE MOST FUN EVER. He loves to splash the apparently solid jet of water. He loves the lights. He thinks the pool and its fountains are possibly the most entertaining geography he's ever encountered.

So he spent this evening out by the pool, sans clothing.

We went out for dim sum this morning, picked up Megan and Ricky, then shot over to Arcadia to Din Tai Fung Dumpling House. Megan and Ricky wanted to try it, and a little tickle in the back of my mind (not Iain reaching over the headrest) told me the Gastronomer had visited back in the day. She had, she loved it, and we agree.

Iain waited 30 minutes with ill-disguised impatience, but once seated he was a happy camper. He ate: hot spicy noodles, hot and sour soup, shrimp fried rice, and both red bean paste and red bean cake (which he dumped into the soup and then ate dripping with soup broth. It was weird, but he liked it.). He lovedlovedloved the soup, and would have bathed in it had The Dad permitted it.

We ate shrimp dumplings, veggie dumplings, pork dumplings, steamed pork buns, etc. I think we amused the waiters by being such ridiculous gluttons. And, apparently, two separate people commented that we were "brave" to bring Iain.

So kudos to Megan and Ricky for their excellent taste and company. We can hardly wait to see them again. Next time we hook up, Ricky's mom is going to make us Indian food for dinner. Read it and drool, peeps.


Let's talk about what Iain ate today:

• 4am: large bowl of cereal, one whole mandarin orange.
• 6am: half of a large apple.
• 8am: whole piece of toast with tons of butter, one whole mandarin orange.
• 12pm: noodles, rice, soup, cake, buns, red bean paste, water.
• 3pm: cinnamon bun (supposed to share with The Dad. Did not share.)
• 5pm: See above. Kiwi with yogurt. Milk. Demanded "Snack" afterward. Denied.
  

We had a dinner date, so after our dumpling adventure we had to run back down to Irvine to shop. Unfortunately we missed seeing an old friend with whom we had a date. Boo! Menu: chicken and beef skewers, Red Butter Lettuce Salad, sunomono (which I totally forgot to serve), and paella (chicken, chorizo, pork loin chunks, clams, cockles, mussels) made by our guests.

Yum. We're currently digesting (and some people are playing Madden's football game. Not me, of course. It's all Greek to me: "That was too bad, because now they're at the 12 with 24 to go and only a triple-decker intercept mode left in their tight-ended dive catch." Wha?)

Once we've recovered from the meat-a-palooza, it'll be time for fresh fruit tart and a taste of Moon Cake.

Tomorrow: sushi. Or else.

Overheard:
"24 to zero, guys."
"We suck!"