Holiday Gifts

One of the quotes from a father basically says he’s got the money, so why not do it? I’ll tell you why. If you give your daughter a Mercedes convertible and diamond jewelry for her sweet 16, what’s left for graduation? Or marriage? That’s already answered for us. For graduating high school, the older daughter got a Bentley, diamonds, and two homes in India. Was the older daughter surprised? Yeah, she was only expecting a Bentley and one home.

An important part of getting a lot done around the house is having a good breakfast that doesn’t take a lot of time. Our staple has become banana bread. We always keep bananas on hand for snacks for the two-year-old of the manor. A side effect seems to be that we often have over-ripe fruit to use. The perfect solution is banana bread. The recipe I use has been in the family for awhile–we received it as a wedding gift from my grandmother. We love eating it with a little peanut butter, which adds protein and helps it stick to our ribs.

i thought caryn should do something fun that she’s never before done on her birthday, so i suggested going wine tasting in Napa. we gathered a group of 7 people and hired a limo to take us around. it was so damn fun. the limo picked us up in SF and we spent the day driving around, drinking champagne in the limo, eating bread/cheese, and having a good time. man, limos are so fun!! we ended up going to 4 wineries: Madonna Estate, Robert Mondavi, Peju, and Mumm. at Mondavi we got a tour of the winery where they explained how grapes are grown, how wine is made and stored, etc. i thought it was pretty interesting. tasting wine at all the different places was a lot of fun. i dont really know much about wine, so it was cool to try such a wide variety of different kinds.

I think thats it for me.. I’m going to watch ER and do some ball exersizes. OH! We decided on a florist for the wedding. My friend Lindsay recommended a local florist that my mom actually knows (mom works down the road from the florist and all the businesses in the area have a little community of businesses). Lindsay said that out of all the vendors she dealt with for her wedding last July, this florist was the best and the only vendor she would want to work with again. So mom talked to her and said that we just have to call her about 6 months ahead! So one more thing off the list for now. I think I will start a page for wedding vendor reviews so I can give info to people about who I have dealt with and how their services are/were.

Frascati Wine celebrates its 40th birthday as a DOC wine (DOC: Denominazione Origine Controllata), among the orchids, in Monte Porzio Catone, surroundings of Rome, from April 21 through 25.

Peter Stone, the Chinese teacher who stayed at my home in november, gave me a gift for my parents: Chinese “wine”. I think something got mixed up in translation though, because last time I checked, wine isn’t 106 proof. And also the last time I checked, my parents didn’t drink 106 proof alcohol- or any for that matter.

I went to Target this morning to buy a wedding gift and exchange some shorts for Little Girl. Every time I’ve bought something off a registry in the past (be it wedding or baby), all they do is scan the bar code attached to the couple’s name and then scan in the products you are buying. Simple. Makes sense. But apparently at Target, you are expected to CIRCLE the products you bought so they can scan them in off the registry as well. Because you know I have nothing better to do while I’m shopping with my toddler.

These are some very good wines, probably some of Australia’s best when it comes to Rhone Valley blends. It is just a shame that they are out of price reach for anything other than very special occasions for most people. “The Struie” is probably the best “value” in the lineup, but other Shiraz wines at $55 can be much better.

At the request of some friends and family members I’ve begun to think about appropriate gifts for the upcoming anniversary of my birth. I figure that we’re all allowed three types of birthday wishes: the ginormous-realistic wishes; the smaller-reasonable-more-realistic wishes; and the extremely-unlikely-because-pigs-haven’t-yet-grown-wings wishes.

I know the next technical Holiday, After this upcoming Sunday’s Easter is actually Mothers Day. But I can’t help to be the type of person to look ahead further then that. Also I am more of a ‘giver’ then a ‘receiver’ so when I saw these fathers day gift baskets I couldn’t help but think about what the girl’s and I are going to get ‘Nader for Father’s Day. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a Tornado/Storm Chaser gift basket yet, so I guess I am going to have to come up with something alternative.

As I reflected on this, I realized that children tend to remember the little things: fixing the broken bike, going for a walk down at the river, taking out the nasty splinter, and best of all, being available when they need to talk. The big vacation, special birthday party, expensive Christmas gift all may be meaningful at the time, but what our kids need is us, folding down the computer screen, turning over the book, listening, empathizing, considering, and then giving them the words they need. Little things like these make for a life time of investment.

You see yesterday, one of my Dad’s friends hand-delivered my belated birthday gift all the way from Hawaii: a Sonicare toothbrush.

I hadn’t planned on incorporating more diamonds into my ring, but while cleaning at my folks’ house, I rediscovered a pair of earrings given to me years ago - they were once my great grandmother’s. I never had worn them because the settings didn’t seem very sturdy and I feared losing them. The original plan, I believe, was to get new settings and/or backings for them eventually. But looking at them, I realized they were a perfect size to accent my ring. The gold for my band contains the melted down settings from the earrings and a piece of chain from a necklace of my mother’s. The diamonds actually turned out to be slightly different sizes: .08 and .09 carat, but the difference was only noticable when the jeweler put them on a black tray.

In 1890, Chicago millionaire Marshall Field bought the small house and property at 1919 S Prairie Ave, located right next to his own spectacular home, and commissioned architect Daniel Burnham to construct the 30,000-square-foot mansion for his newly married son. Sure makes that cappacino maker you gave for your last wedding gift seem inadequate.

Friday was my last day as a contractor, Monday I start my full time employee position, so my officemates insisted we needed to go out for lunch. I was just going to go to the cafeteria with Barb but Chandrika insisted we needed to go someplace "far away". I suggested Sankt Gertruds Kloster (some say it is one of top restaurants in the world, it is very good). It's far away and the type of restaurant you would go to for special occasions. But the frown I got when I told my officemates where it was told me that wasn't what they had in mind. We settled for Todai in Redmond. It's not Sankt Gertruds Kloster but it is very good and several thousand miles closer. It is one of Barb's favorite restaurants and my (former) officemates, Chandrika and Eric, both gave it high marks.