Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving week(end) at Auntie's was awesome!

I actually attended our Monday and Tuesday lectures this week as to not have to play podcast catch-up.  It was okay, but I didn't like how I couldn't make flashcards as fast as I wanted due to the lack of a pause/replay button. 



Tuesday afternoon, I returned to Pizzeria Mozza for some more deliciousness in the form of pizza and dessert.  We got some crispy potato chunks, baked and then quickly fried with greens, and also some mussels for appetizer.  The mussels were cooked very well and had a great sauce.  I got two desserts so that I could have the restaurant favorite of butterscotch pudding and try the espresso grenadine.  I have to say that given the amount of food we ate, the lighter espresso grenadine actually went down a lot easier.

This picture of fat (fried) and cholesterol (mussels) will be used to explain to my doctors why I have atherosclerosis.

Yes, the egg is runny.  Yes we made a complete mess when we tried to split the pizza.

Prosciutto and greens.

Meatballs and onions

Coffee and Chocolates, my way.

With extra sugar!

Wednesday was study day, which didn't happen according to plan (no surprise there).  Auntie locked herself out of her office sans anything but the clothes on her back.  So I accompanied her via cab to the building management office to get the spare key.  After that I ate a leisurely brunch at Julienne's consisting of an open salmon sandwich and too many cups of milk tea.

That evening, Auntie, Cary, and I ate dinner at a new Shaangxi restaurant that recently opened in Arcadia and had been featured in the local Chinese paper. To be honest, the food was very disappointing. Very little of what we had tasted authentic. The lamb stew with bread cubes was mostly bread with maybe 2 pieces of lamb. The liangpi had no vegetables and the wrong sauce. The zhajiangmian had little meat and oddly sweet sauce. The bread and pork sandwich was the best out of the bunch and came close to what it is suppose to taste like. Essentially, I would never go back to this place and plan to visit Xian Ming Chi when I am in Manhattan to get the taste of false home out of my head.

Arrived without much of anything, including seasoning.

All bread and not much of anything else.

The only thing that made it even close to the right taste.

Thursday's big event was the traditional Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Auntie's friend. The two of them have been having Thanksgiving dinner at each other's place for the past 15+ years.  I now know why people gain so much weight during the holidays.  The meal that I had probably hit 3000+ calories...

I think the table was about to fall over.

So really, there were around 5 plates of meat.

Then it was Black Friday.  This year, I learned from the fun (because of Irina and Javi) but ultimately exhausting experience at the outlet mall last year, and did nearly all of my shopping online.  Except for one...

This little piece of metal and plastic is really quite expensive given its size.

But the shininess that I got access to does make up for it.

The day after, I was able to take Auntie out for a fun day of shopping and spa, showing off my smooth driving skills.  The massage place had a tiny store front, but gave great massages for a decent price.  I had a soothing hot stone massage while Auntie was relaxing with a Swedish massage.

Waiting for your massage appointment to start?  Look at this to pass the time.

Cooling down after a massage is encouraged in this quaint little day spa.