Dessert, anyone?

One of my favorite desserts is a Thai dish called Sticky Rice with Custard. It's not too bad with mango either. If you haven't had it, it's basically rice made with coconut milk and sugar, although that doesn't really do it justice.

Yum!
It's hard to find at most Thai restaurants and I used to obsess about being able to get it. The hubby even tried to make it himself but it wasn't quite the same.

However, since we are lucky enough to live very close to Thai Town in Los Angeles, we did some exploring and discovered an amazing Thai dessert place. Not only do they have sticky rice every day but they have an amazing array of other Thai desserts.

The other day I was having a craving so I drove up there and picked up a few dishes. I always try to pick out something new and this time I grabbed 3 things that I've never had that looked interesting.


One of the fun things of picking out something new at this place is guessing what the items will actually taste like from the ingredient list. For example, this dish listed only two ingredients: coconut milk and water chestnuts.


Hmmm...so what exactly made it green? I had to turn it over for the photo because from the top, it just looked white (the stuff in the lower right corner in the other pic). Now, don't get me wrong, it was actually really tasty but does anyone have any idea what the heck it is?

Toddler Travel

Why is it that it takes twice as long to recover from a vacation than you spend on it? We returned from our 5 day trip to Minnesota 10 days ago and I'm just now starting to get back on track.

I always have such high hopes when I get to the airport, but to no avail. I have the worst airplane karma of all time.

For example, on our last trip back from Thailand (pre-baby), we got to the airport very early and requested bulkhead seats so that we'd have a little more legroom on the 14 hour flight. Our friends did the same and we were seated in the same row.

When we get on the plane...well, while our friends have bulkhead, it turns out that there's actually an extra row in front of our seats. An extra large gentleman takes the seat directly in front of me and proceeds to fully recline his seat into my lap.

Basically, he's practically lying flat while I stare at his dandruffy head, unable to even cross my legs. He snoozed away while I fumed and contemplated punching him repeatedly in the head.

Since Baby Girl is such a good traveler (and we're really cheap), we did not buy a seat for her. We booked red eye flights both ways, figuring that they'd be less full and she would sleep the whole way. Well, half of that was true on the way out. The flight was completely packed but she did sleep so we were fine.

On the way back, we requested seats in the back of the plane, hoping we might get an empty row. We ended up in the second to last row, so far so good. Only this is the only row on the plane where the arm rests don't go up!

So much for Baby Girl comfortably laying across our laps and snoozing gently. The worst part was that, while our row was full, the row behind had one guy in it who stretched out across the seats. GRRR!

Anyway, we're back now with no permanent damage, except to my brain stem. Hopefully, I'll get out some regular posts now. At least until our next vacation.

Protesting thighs

I have absolutely no patience for technology. That's part of what makes me a terrible blogger. Every time I want to post a picture, I have to use a different computer in the house, spend 30 minutes working with the worst photo editing software on the planet, then try 3 or 4 times to get it to upload.

Only I usually give up after 2 tries. I've been trying to edit and post these pictures since Sunday night.

Anyway, this is how we spent this weekend. We finally got back out and went surfing. That's daddy surfing way back there in the background.


I love to surf but hate cold water and wetsuits. Nothing is more frustrating and demoralizing than trying to jam yourself into a skintight wetsuit and pull it up your protesting thighs. I suddenly have the name of my post!

We had a great time but our motto seems to be "it isn't fun until someone bleeds." Whenever we do something active, inevitably, one of us gets hurt. This time it was me.

I should have taken a picture of the scrapes on my arm and leg. Nothing like putting a little blood in the water when you're scared shitless of sharks.

I also burned the crap out of the tops of my feet. Brilliant me, I made sure to slather up Baby Girl with sunscreen but neglected to get all the sand off my feet when I put on the sunscreen.

Hello, lobster toes. Ouch! Especially since Baby Girl's favorite new hobby is "helping" mommy put on her shoes.

But look at the two of them post-surfing. What's a little blood when you get to hang out and look at those two mugs?