Steamed black mussel with pan-roasted sea scallops in a Pesto basil white wine broth
This sparkling Australian wine was so sweet! I loved it.
I got the filet mignon…
…while Dan got the rack of lamb.
Bon appetit!
They gave us a dessert sampler since it was our anniversary. Everything was great!
A beautiful sunset greeted us after our dinner.
It’s been six years since our wedding and over 11 years since the beginning of our journey as a couple. We’re so blessed to have had so many wonderful years and memories together, and we look forward to several more! Can’t wait to see what the future holds. I know it’ll be a beautiful life as long as I have Dan by my side. ♥ Love you, hubby!
July 26th marked our five year wedding anniversary, and while continue to have daily nausea and am not really able to enjoy food these days, we still wanted to keep with our tradition of going to a nice anniversary dinner to celebrate. My parents volunteered to watch Mio while we dined at Nostos, a delicious local Greek restaurant in Tysons Corner.
My favorite was the perfectly seared sea scallops!
Fried fresh calamari with lobster tomato sauce
Enjoying our first dinner date out sans Mio in months! I could only eat a little of each dish, but it was all delicious.
Meat sampler of biftekakia, chicken skewers, lamb chops
The handsome hubby! Happy anniversary ♥
I’m so happy to be celebrating five years since our wedding, and a decade since embarking on this journey together! I’m so grateful to have such a wonderful husband; especially these days when pregnancy fatigue and nausea have flattened me like a steamroller, he takes care of Mio when he gets back from work so I can get some extra rest, goes on late night runs to bring me whatever food I might be able to stomach even when I don’t ask him to, and just picks up the slack wherever I am failing. Thank you Dan for being the best husband to me and father to our children, my best friend, biggest supporter, daily foot-masseuse, personal cookie baker and sandwich chef, and just being my favorite person in the world. To many more years together… I love you! ♥
Remembering 4.16.07. This day will never be the same for me and so many others from Virginia Tech. It seems that with each passing year, April is a month more and more crowded with heartbreak for too many. It is with a heavy heart that we remember our fallen friends and classmates, but it’s so important that we never, ever forget.
The late Dr. Zenobia Lawrence Hikes said it best at the dedication of the April 16th Memorial on August 19, 2007:
(Listen to the actual podcast here.)
On behalf of the entire university community, I thank each of you for being with us on this very solemn occasion. We particularly acknowledge the families of the deceased; the injured and other surviving students and their families; our faculty and staff; new students; those who have been involved with crisis management, recovery, and support; and all who have grieved.
On April 16, 2007, the peace that comes with learning was shattered on our campus, and the academy forever changed. As a result of the horrific tragedy that day, our hearts have been crushed, our spirits shaken, and our minds and bodies left weary. None of us anywhere in the world were mentally prepared for a tragedy of this magnitude in higher education.
Yet, in the midst of our insurmountable grief, we have been embraced by our colleagues in the Virginia Tech community and by friends old and new–our brothers and sisters from around the world. In the process, the Virginia Tech family has become not only closer, but it has also become larger.
Anyone who reads the biographies of the fallen is struck by their exceptional talent and goodness. Regardless of age, each had accomplished much but had much, much more to give. We, as survivors, have a responsibility to continue their unrealized service.
Today, we join together as a community to honor, commemorate, and pay tribute to the talented minds of those innocent individuals who were taken from us far too soon. These cherished members of the Virginia Tech family–the young, gifted minds searching for knowledge and the dedicated, talented professors imparting that knowledge–will never be forgotten.
With our native limestone as the base, we have etched their names into the foundation of this great university. The dedication of this memorial marks our determination to treasure the beautiful lives they lived.
As we move forward, their spirits will always be with us, permeating our commitment to education. Teaching and learning were central to their lives, and we will continue to invent the future through our university’s steadfast dedication to teaching and learning, to research and discovery, to service and engagement, and to innovation.
It is our sincere hope that in the years ahead, all who walk this path will remember their special gifts and seek to fulfill their unrealized service.
April 16 is a difficult day every year, no matter how many years have passed. And yet it is particularly painful this year as yesterday’s tragedy at the Boston Marathon weighs heavily on our minds… our heartache over such unfathomable events just seems endless. I hope that one day, we will see an end to such senseless violence.
Today and every day, I live for 32 ♥ We are Virginia Tech.
Love to the Hokie Nation and to Boston.
Our wedding anniversary is July 26th, but because we’ll be on a plane to Hawaii that day, we decided to celebrate it early this weekend with a dinner date at La Fondue in Saratoga. We drove down to the South Bay and dropped Mio off with the grandparents (since they live in San Jose now) so that we could enjoy a lovely evening to ourselves. It had been a while since we’d had a date night, so it was so nice to just have that time together as a couple, knowing that Mio was in good hands.
Friends had told us about what an amazing dining experience La Fondue was and how it was the perfect restaurant for a romantic dinner and special occasions. I’d been wanting to go for years but we hadn’t because it’s kind of far from the East Bay where we live, and it was too fancy for us to just swing by on past occasions when we did happen to find ourselves in the area. But this year, since we needed to drop Mio off in the South Bay anyway, we decided that it was the perfect opportunity to finally visit what is easily the best fondue restaurant in the Bay Area.
Outside of La Fondue in Saratoga
The decor inside the restaurant was very retro and artsy… I loved it!
Each table had one of these cool lamps, which feature a gold gun as the handle.
We opted for the punsch cooking method, which is spiced red wine with cloves and rosemary.
It was very flavorful, with no fat or broth.
The hubster enjoying the dinner. All the meats were wonderful.
Ever the seafood lover, my favorites were the shrimp and sea scallops!
Dan is overwhelmed by all the options and possible combinations for the chocolate fondue.
After much deliberation over which chocolate fondue we wanted, we decided to go with The Decadent One, which is a dark and milk chocolate bowl, mixed with espresso, kahlua, and creme. The array of desserts they brought for us to dip into the chocolate was very impressive! There were strawberries, bananas, grapes, apples, marshmallows, cream puffs, wafer cookie sticks, cream cheese balls, cookie dough, pound cake, and even Snickers chocolates! And you request extra of your favorites afterwards. (I was too full at the end, but Dan requested extra strawberries.) Even Dan said that as much as he hated to admit it, the dessert was his favorite part of the meal!
A heavenly selection of desserts!
I tried the strawberry first…
…because there are few things that are sweeter than a chocolate-covered strawberry!
marshmallows + chocolate = always amazing!
Our waiter even brought us some champagne on the house for our anniversary! 🙂
Anniversary champagne! The strawberry was a nice touch.
Cheers, hubby!
It was such a memorable, romantic, and delicious dinner! The ambience, the food, the service… everything was so perfect. We both agreed that this was probably our favorite anniversary dinner yet. It’ll be hard to top this one, but we look forward to many more anniversaries together.
Marriage is not always easy — in fact, it can be a pretty bumpy ride and at times unbelievably trying — but it’s been a wonderful journey thusfar, and we wouldn’t change a moment of it. We’re not perfect and don’t pretend to be; marriage is a constant work in progress, but I believe that’s what makes it so exciting and worthwhile. There’s no better partner I could imagine weathering life’s challenges and experiencing all of its wonders and joys with. I’m so thankful every day to have Dan by my side, knowing that he’ll be with me wherever life takes us. Happy (early) anniversary, Dan — I love you! ♥
Exactly one year ago last year, on March 11 at 2:46 pm Japan time, the country was rocked by a massive earthquake and tsunami which killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis. While Japan has made great strides in the recovery effort in the affected areas, the Japanese people are still suffering from the physical damage and emotional trauma brought on by the triple disaster.
At the time, I was less than a month away from giving birth to Mio, and I could do very little else to contribute to the relief effort than to donate money while caring for a newborn baby in the months following the disaster. However, my family was far from uninvolved in the relief effort — my father spent several sleepless nights interpreting between the US and Japanese governments to discuss how to control the nuclear crisis, and my sister Miwa spent a part of her summer volunteering for the Japanese Red Cross in Ishinomaki to bring aid to one of the most heavily damaged cities — and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“The pain of one part of humankind is the pain of the whole of humankind. And the human species and the planet Earth are one body. What happens to one part of the body happens to the whole body.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
While we may be living on the other side of the globe from Japan, we are all connected. Seeing the images and hearing the stories of the victims brought heartbreak to people around the world. At the same time, many of us were inspired by the resilience, selflessness, compassion, and strength exhibited by the Japanese people in their darkest hours. I continue to pray for the victims and their families, and hope that Japan can persist in rebuilding to see brighter days.
