Weekend with Jeanne and Kevin

Jeanne and Kevin were in town for the weekend. Jeanne, as usual, went to all the trouble to bring us a full suitcase of our favourite frozen buns and dumplings from the "Little Shanghai" restaurant which we frequented together back in the bay area. We are eternally grateful. So on Friday night, we took them to a Japanese restaurant called "Shun". It didn't knock our socks off but we liked the little place.







On Saturday, we met up for quick Starbucks breakfast sandwiches before boarding a 2 hour Argosy cruise around Seattle and to the Ballard locks. It was a beautiful day to be out in the water and enjoying some sunshine!




Jeanne Liang and Emil Tso - the next biggest soap opera stars.


Mag Teo and Will Yang - the current biggest dorks.






We love our friends but they are soooooooo boring that neither of us could stay awake.






For the record, this is the kind of physical abuse that Emil inflicts on all his "friends". This man is in dire need of psychological counseling. Just look at the joy in his face as he pulls my hair. Can you believe the violence...the injustice!


Dinner at Chiang's gourmet after some sightseeing. We ended the night with a karaoke session at Emil's.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

We had a big party to usher in the year of the rat. We cooked up a storm and had more than 12 dishes. Thanks to Emil, our head chef, we made pork & vege dumplings, fried yellow noodles with chives, fish 3 ways - steamed, sauteed & baked, 4 vege dishes (seasoned "big head vege", cucumber/daikon/jellyfish combo, garlic green beans and mustard greens with shitake mushroom), fried "new year cake", lamb stew/soup, Antje made delicious pink guava cake, and friends bought roast duck and chicken..I can't even name them all. The biggest hit of all was our new PS3 game - Rock band. I think everyone had fun and it was a great way to start this Chinese New year!


GuiZhi (KC) printed out some auspicious chinese characters for decoration. This one reads "Fortune" (Fu).


This reads "Spring" (Chun). They both are upside down to symbolize "arrival of".


Will hard at work on the dough for dumplings.




YuanZhou trying his hands at the dough. He looks the part.


He may not feel the part. "Its tiring!"




Emil and his dishes.


I helped!


Nicole and Giles to the rescue.


Sneaking in a song or 2 while cooking. Slackers!




Traditionally, the color red represents good luck.


We went all out with red balloons, red streamers, red napkins, red plastic cups, plates and bowls.


Some of us even wore red. Emil's socks were red. Subtle.
















Will and I gave out red packets ("Hong Bao") with lottery tickets!


"Did I win?"


"I won $2! Woohoo!"




Rocking it out with "Rock Band".




Hit it Amy!




Of course we played Mahjong!


"Hmmm.....big money big money..."