Kimchi and Rice Is Nice

This past Sunday, we celebrated the end of summer away from the furnace that is Bakersfield [it's 100+ degrees as I write this at home right now!] with food and friends at my paternal grandparents' Orange County beach house. This has become something of an annual tradition, started back when we were young(-er) and pre-baby, but it's amazing to see how the march of time changes things—this year, there were like 10 kids at the party, ranging from 6 months to 4 years. We even had a changing station well-stocked with wipes and a napping station (well, a pack-n-play) that went unused, probably because of the other new addition to the party—the ever-popular kiddie pool in the backyard.

Food was plentiful: kalbi and bratwurst from the kettle grill [I always make our Chinese Texan friend grill, 'cause I can't pass up the humor inherent in the stereotype and plus, what do I know? I use propane at home], "island" fried chicken from the nearest branch of a local plate-lunch mini-chain we love, a trayful of "authentic" Trader Joe's gyoza, assorted salads and healthy-type things, and a whole mess of not-healthy-but-oh-so-good desserts (carrot cake and tres leches cake, flan, cookies, I'm sure I'm forgetting something).... I love that we have friends who love food as much as we do. Heh.

The crowd was our most diverse (read: more non-doctors!) yet, including la dra.'s residency buddies, some Bako folks, a few old friends of mine, and, most exciting, some new blogging friends. We were happy to meet off-line, for the first time, Kimchi Mama Weigook Saram, her husband A and their daughter K, and Kimchi Mama Nina, her Rice Daddy husband Charlie and their son Caius. Also with us were fellow Rice Daddy Mr. Maestro (a RL friend who I dragged into this when we started), his wife the Headmistress, and their son Penguin (who had the distinction of being the youngest baby there).


It's always nice to find that the virtual community you've plugged into, made connections with on-line really can translate into real life. La dra., The Pumpkin and I had a great time hanging out with the Kimchi Mamas' and Rice Daddies' families, and hopefully, we can continue to foster and strengthen these connections both on- and off-line [or just eat lots of food and let the kids run all over the place, that's good too].

[BTW, in the photo at the top left, that's Nina and Caius, Weigook Saram and K, and me and The Pumpkin—Charlie was hiding behind his own camera for that one; in the bottom right, that's Mr. Maestro dipping Penguin into a bucket of water, as the full-size kiddie pool kinda freaked him out.]