Going to the "Pork"!

Yesterday, after a period of warming up the park (that is, before Maddie arrived), Iain met the lovely lady of West Hollywood. She wore moccasins.

At first, Iain held back a bit. You know how first dates can be. Awkward. But later, things loosened up considerably.

It helped that The Staff provided libations.

They're boring, though, The Staff. Talk, talk, talk. And all about history and historians and dull stuff like that. Maddie and Iain decided that playing train was way better.

They've made another date, for later this week. Iain can hardly wait. I know this because he's sitting calmly, watching vintage Sesame Street. Gotta be nerves.

Candy Corn!

OMG Ponies.

I found a stash of candy corn (totally while in pursuit of a legitimate item - a bowl for Iain) and Joel said I could eat some "at my own risk." You can tell he's a lawyer.

Apparently, their origins are obscure. As in, unknown vintage. But I figure: nothing about candy corn is natural, so what could go bad? It's like finding a bonus twinkie. Unless it's more than 17 years old, it's FINE!

Yum.

Choo Choo!

Photo from the Tustin, CA, Department of Parks website. Photo is a hyperlink.

This afternoon, we spent a significant amount of time at the park above. That play area you see is but one of three interlocking play areas, each very different. Check it out. It's a truly wonderful park, but (get this) one of three just along this one little stretch of Tustin, CA. We saw three other little playgrounds, apparently discarded on the way (or perhaps they fell off the truck?) that don't belong to city parks.

But this is the one we chose. Why? Look at that picture again. Yes, my friends. That's a toy train for kids to climb on. See:

The train has multiple cars, so you can sit in the little dining car, climb into the engine block, or ride in the cargo flat. Iain chose to do all three. For a long time. Do I need to tell you how he felt about this?


"Uh, Oh. Something wrong on the line. I better check it out."

"Gotta adjust this baby so she runs clean. Coal engines! Always something."

Coming up: Chris and Maddie join us for lunch and play. It was epic, that's all I'm saying. We plan to recreate the magic later in the week at Maddie's house (so The Staff can talk without constantly going "Oh! It's ok, everyone falls in the sand now and then.")

Mmmm...Coffee

My mug this morning. It made the coffee taste better, I think.

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!"

Flora and Fauna

Joel's backyard is like a fantasy. A good one, with swimming and fresh limes. See above, and if you're feeling stiff and need a way to relax, below:

The flowers are incredible. Bird of paradise, below, is blooming in profusion everywhere. And I'm not the only one who likes it. Check out the fellow in the second shot. He has a red head.




Pretty colors of every description:


But the nice thing about the garden is that it's restrained. There are fruit trees (lime, lemon and pomegranate), flowers including that gorgeous baby above, and rock formations. But it's simple and pleasing rather than blowsy. I love it.

Dim sum: tick tock tick tock. T minus 1 hour and counting.

And in case you were wondering: Iain went to bed last night around 4:30 and slept until this morning at 3:45am. So that's 7:30 to 6:45am EST. Pretty good, but hard to be up and about here before 4am.

Things I Forgot About LA

Hi. I'm in LA! Guess what, the sun's shining and it's 70 degrees!

1. Wow. The women here are mostly normal. But there are a few (everywhere) who are fascinating-looking. As in: skintight black leggings, plus white knit knee-high socks plus beat up brown boots with a 5 inch heel, plus a fur coat (it's 70 here!), plus a chihuahua in a bag. Or: painted-on black shiny leggings, skin-tight black tank with sequins (at noon), patent leather peep-toe heels (6 inch heels, platform), butt-length black hair, sunglasses.

2. I forgot that they like to pretend that the cell-phone towers are trees. They put fake branches on them. But only for about 20 feet, so it's kind of hilarious because they look like pathetic, dying trees.

3. Even though you can get sushi, dim sum, churrascuria, and anything else your little heart desires, in the end Chik-fil-A nuggets are still a delicious choice when you're hungry.


Iain decided that he wanted to take some photographs ("pic-ur!"), so he took a shot at our host, Joel: