Friday, May 15, 2009

Winnie's Graduation

I know it has been a while since the last update, but what can I say, when it comes to prioritizing the wedding comes first. Anyway, this is a long post for this past weekend we spent in Houston for Phil's sister's graduation. Hopefully this will tie everyone over until we get back from the honeymoon.


We arrived in Houston late Thursday/early Friday and crashed after the long delay at the airport. On Friday we headed out to a Japanese buffet place called "Tokyo One".





Everyone was excited for the super cheap buffet, especially Phil - $11 for all you can eat. If only it was this cheap on the east coast.


Phil with his cousin Ray scoping out the desserts and trying to snag all of the creme brule.



While we were checking out the food we saw a sushi rice molding machine. They piled all the rice at the top and the machine spits out perfectly shaped balls of rice for the sushi. Kind of a cop out but I guess what do you expect for all you can eat sushi.

The Yu family full from all the eating.



After lunch we headed to Winnie's graduation reception. While we were waiting we played with the rocks on the table. Phil's aunts even tried to play pick up with them...that didn't work so well.


After the reception Winnie showed us where she worked.

Then it was off to dinner at Chris and Anna's.

On Saturday it was graduation time! Doesn't Winnie look so scholarly in her cap and gown?

It's Texas, so it was very hot. Phil and his cousin Ray tried to use the graduation programs to hide from the sun...eventually everyone just moved the chairs into the shade behind the building. Not a very good view of the ceremony, but it was nice and cool.



Once we were behind the cool shade of the building people started falling asleep. Including Phil...



After graduation we headed to a steak house called "Taste of Texas".

We waited for almost 2 hours for a table! They had free popcorn, nachos and drinks for people while they waited. We even got a free $100 gift card for the restaurant from a couple of drunk guys that were on their way out. So I guess the 2 hour long wait wasn't a total waste.

Here are Winnie and Chris enjoying the free popcorn and chips.


An interesting feature of this steak house is you have the option to pick your own meat.

Before we left on Sunday we had dim sum at Ocean Palace with Phil's immediate family and some distant relatives.



Ok, that's all for now... See you after the honeymoon!! ^__^

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Five Guys

Phil was away in Kentucky for work during the week of his birthday, but he got to celebrate with a lovely Ninja Turtles cupcake when he got back. For those of you who know Phil you can guess how excited he was.


While running around doing wedding related errands we stopped by the Five Guys in a mall nearby to grab some lunch. I was a newbie to Five Guys. They have a long list of free toppings to add to the burger. Overall not bad for a fast food type of place.


One unique part of Five Guys is they have free all-you-can eat peanuts. Phil was busy chowing down while we waited for our burgers.


Burger time...


The fries they gave us reminded me of fries at "The O" (The Original Hot Dog Shop) back in Pittsburgh, where they basically cover an entire lunch tray full of fries. When we ordered fries at Five Guys they placed our burgers in a paper bag, then filled a styrofoam cup with fries, placed the cup in the bug with the burgers and then proceeded to dump a whole bunch of fries in the bag on top of everything. We had to fish out all the fries to get to our food. At least they're not skimpy with their fries...


After Five Guys and some wedding band shopping (rings, not musical bands), we drove into Bridgewater to have dinner with Mandy and Tam.



My sister actually cooked - a very rare occasion. She usually sticks to baking.
Dinner included corn, spinach...


Nappa with mushrooms, and ma po tofu.


With some left over Thai noodles.

Hopefully there will be more interesting things to post after the wedding craziness is over.

Ocean Jewel

I'm a little behind on the updates, but considering we're only 3 weeks away from the wedding hopefully you'll forgive me...

The past couple of weekends we've been doing lots of last minute wedding stuff and making trips to and from NYC. We managed to fit in a trip to the Ocean Jewels restaurant, where Phil originally proposed, for some dim sum with our parents. Here's my mom posing with a random elephant at the restaurant while we waited for our table.


Phil had been craving dim sum for a while, so he was very excited. Lots of the usual stuff - spare ribs, ha gao...


Lots of rice noodle rolls (shrimp and beef)...


And of course, you can't go to dim sum with Phil without ordering cha siu bao (steamed pork bun). We almost didn't get any but in true Phil fashion we were able to befriend one of the waitresses who brought us over an order before they were all gone. What is it with Phil and people in food services?


After dim sum we stopped by the Flushing Mall to check out the florist. Right inside the mall is a little toilet display advertising some kind of new toilet design. Yea...the picture pretty much says it all...


My mom and me outside a Taiwanese restaurant chain.


There weren't too many stores in Flushing Mall, or at least none that were open while we were there, but we passed by a toy store and I couldn't resist taking a picture. Who said Hello Kitty had to be cute and cuddly? Although somehow Hello Kitty seems to make even being a pirate and a skull head look cute...maybe it has something to do with the huge pink bow.