Houston for a few days

Hello everyone!

Snowmageddon is here in Boston!  BU has cancelled school for this evening and all of tomorrow, and everyone is prepping for 2-3 feet of snow and hurricane speed winds.  I have never experienced a blizzard before, so while I know that it's extremely dangerous, I'm also rather giddy to see a completely white world tomorrow when I wake up!  

outside my window a few days ago  =)

Being stuck at home for a full day and a half also gives me time to catch up on my blog!  I know it's been awhile, but since I got to Boston, I've been so swamped with school and my new job as an orchestra manager that it's been difficult to even find time to eat sometimes.  Needless to say, this snow day could not have come at a better time.  I'm looking forward to baking cookies, maybe drinking some hot chocolate, catching up on some homework, practicing, and just enjoying this God-send day off.

Now, to catch up on a few events before my life became incredibly hectic...
I spent a few days in Houston before school started, and though I couldn't see everyone I wanted to see due to lack of time, I still got to pack in a few adventures  =)

The first one, of course, (I mean, it's David and I haha) was going dancing!  We used to love going to Second Saturday Dances put on by USA Dance, and my visit coincided with the Second Saturday Dance for January, so we got to go!

It was before school started in Houston, so we didn't see all of the Rice dancers, but we did see a few of our old Rice friends + an adopted U of H dancer   haha.  They had a little 'photo booth' there, so obviously, we had to take the awkward dance family photo  ;)

Then, our old apartment reunited!!!!  

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you would be familiar with seeing Amulet around here since we were roommates for 2 years!  

it was really great to catch up, have some lunch, and some coffee to warm up in the frigid(?) Houston weather (little did I know what I would be facing in Boston)

Later, for tradition's sake, the double daters got together for some game night!  We used to do this so much, and Chris (Amulet's bf) has quite an extensive collection of board games, so we had to get together again while I was visiting  =)

We played a Polish game (I forget what it's called since it was in Polish) that was a cross between the game 'Dixit' and 'Clue' that got us all warmed up for a night of non-stop laughter.

we were joined by our favorite four-legged friend, Houdini!!  such a charmer this one  =)

After two rounds of the first game, we proceeded to build our castles with the game 'Castles of Mad King Ludwig' which was so much fun!  Chris built the fattest castle, Amulet had the most well-balanced castle, I had the sleepiest one, and David had the creepiest, strangest castle full of dungeons and other questionable underground rooms  haha

It was so good to be back hanging out and catching up with our favorite double date couple, and I hope that we get to do it more as we visit each other in our respective cities  =)

If you are in the New England area chillin with the blizzard Juno, I hope that you will stay warm and safe, and if you are enjoying the balmy weather in the 50's (like in Houston), then... well...  harumph.  haha  =)  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

--Janny

Amulet's birthday!!

Hello everyone!

Today is Amulet's Birthday!!  

To celebrate, we went and visited St. Arnold Brewery here in Houston.  I don't drink, and David rarely drinks, so we've never visited anywhere like it, and it was definitely an experience!

You walk through these giant ornate doors, and walk up the staircase that reminded David of his elementary school and me of a prison, and then you are at the 'Beer Hall'!  For $8, you get 4 tokens (for 4 glasses of beer usually) and a St. Arnold Brewery cup.

On either side of the hall, you can exchange your beer token for a beer, or in my case, root beer, and then you can go back to your table and hang out with your peeps, eat some food, play games, and enjoy the general chaos and the beer.

We brought some cake, chips and guac, and some other finger foods, and played some board games!

With the birthday girl!  =D

The boys getting really into the game (and the food  haha)

It was such a fun afternoon playing games with wonderful company, and celebrating the roomy's birthday!

So, Happy Birthday Amulet! Hope it was a wonderful one!
(Sorry the camera focused on the balloons and not yo face.. still learning how to use the camera, obviously  haha  =p)

--Janny

Another game night!

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes, we have game nights all the time (like here and here), and yes, I am blogging yet another one.  haha  If you haven't tried game nights with a couple of your closest friends (and add the four legged friends too if you are so inclined) you are totally missing out!  so grab a couple of your favorite games, people, and animals, food and block off a couple of hours to hang out.  It's as easy as that!

For our game night, we picked our favorite double date couple, a couple of poochies, multiple games, and some pizza, and we were set!

Here is David with pup #1, Pucci.  We were dogsitting her for the weekend, and she is such a delight! we can't wait to get a pup of our own!

pup #2, our favorite/the most regular four legged addition, Houdini, nicknamed 'jammies'

and Amulet getting really into the game with the help of pup #3, Odi!

And some deliciously greasy pizza!  mmmmhmm.  We usually try to eat healthy, but a little bit of grease once in awhile never hurts, and this was just so good!  

We started off with a quick little game called For Sale, which was so quick I didn't really get a chance to snap many photos other than this one of Odi and David  haha

Then we moved onto our favorite game of the night!  

Have you heard of Dixit? It's kind of like Pictionary and Apples to Apples got together and had a baby.. and it is so much fun!!

and the illustrations on the cards are really wonderful too.

So the gist of the game is that you pick a card and a saying that goes along with it, and the others choose a card from their hand that they think matches what you said.  Then, you lay it all down on the table and the other players try to guess which one was yours.  The tricky part is that you don't want to be too vague that no one guesses it (because then you don't get any points) but you also don't want to be too obvious because then everyone will guess yours and again, you won't get any points.  It's quite tricky to walk the line between the two, and the scientists in the group (the boys) had the hardest time coming up with a not too obvious description of the card  haha.  

Pictures below shows our last round, and we're dying because David, the obvious-king of the night put, down his last card, and without him even having to say anything, we all correctly guessed which one was his!    XD

The last game we played was Munchkin, and while it was fun, I think we were a bit too tired to be playing the game.. It has a pretty steep learning curve at first, but it would be fun to play it again =)

super focused David  =p

Overall, it was such a fun night with wonderful company (both the 2 legged and the 4 legged kind), and we can't wait to do it again soon!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

The Jazz Age

Hello everyone!

Friday night, we had a chance to go back in time and enjoy the roaring 20's, the Jazz Age!!!  A little time travel action, lots of Swing dancing, a live jazz band, Gatsby inspired outfits and makeup...  not bad of a lineup for a Friday night!

We donned our best 20's inspired dresses and head bands, did our best to copy 20's makeup (thanks Youtube tutorials!), got together with our 3-piece-suit-wearing men, and headed off to dance the night away! 

Well, after taking some photos of course  ;)

some selfies with my guy while waiting for Amulet to find her perfect shade of red lips..

oh, and look at these photos I found of our great grandparents waaaaay back in the 20's!  we look just like them, no?  =p  haha

please excuse the blurry quality of these photos...  Iphone camera doesn't do so well with time travelling I've found...   but the Jazz Band from Shepherd School of Music!!  they were definitely phenomenal even back then, mmmhhmmm.

some awesome lindy-ing and swing dancing!

It was a lot of fun, but the venue itself was a bit small for how many people showed up, so after a couple of hours, we said goodbye to the roaring 20's and came back to the present.  

All that time travelling left all of us famished, so we hit up the only place that we could think of that would be open at 1 in the morning; 59 Diner. I had never been there before, but I think diners have this quaint charm about them, so I had no objections.  =)

We ordered some milkshakes (which were awesome, btw!  I think Chris finished his in less than a minute!  haha), a healthy platter of hamburger, some chicken-fried steak, and I tried my very first chicken and waffles!  I know, I know,, I thought it was a weird mix at first too, but it's a southern thing, and I was feeling very adventurous  ;)    and you know what?  it was actually really good!  the sweetness of the waffles and the syrup mixes quite well with the saltiness of the chicken, and the honey mustard added just the right amount of zing to the mix.   A very satisfying 1 A.M breakfast indeed!

It was such a fun night, and a wonderful start to the weekend!
I hope you are all enjoying the weekend as well, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

My First Gingerbread House and Double Dates!

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays so far!  Before we all left Houston, Amulet & Chris and David & I got together for a little gingerbread house making!  

I have actually never made a gingerbread house before, so I thought we had to make everything from scratch (which would have been soo much work), but thankfully, Trader Joe's came to the rescue and all we had to do was play Lego!  so convenient!  and having two musicians and two engineers (or more importantly, boys) in the mix meant that the gingerbread house decorations became quite creative in the process  ;)

So here is the final product, complete with little sugar people in all sorts of places!

and the process!  with a whole lot of puppies! the best way to do just about anything in our opinion!

and some detail shots  ;)

I have to say, I did want to try eating it, you know, just to see if it actually tasted good, but once you finish the house, I found that it's pretty difficult to put a bite mark in it  haha!  We all left for our respective homes for break pretty soon thereafter, so I'm not sure if it's still standing all by its lonesome at our apartment or not... I guess I'll find out soon enough when I go back!

So that was one of our last double dates together, but here are a couple of others that happened during the month of December.

Have you guys seen that episode in 'How I met Your Mother' where Lilly and Marshall try to find a couple so they can have 'couple friends' to hang out with?  We totally get it now.  Since Amulet and I are room mates, it's kind of like we have a built-in double date couple, and it's been so nice!  no 3rd wheels here!  So we've been taking full advantage of the situation and visiting different eateries around Houston together!

On one of our double dates, David and I introduced Amulet and Chris to one of our favorite udon places in Houston--Nippon!  We've been there before, as seen here, and it's just the best place to visit on a chilly Houston evening! 

Another place we visited was an Asian fusion restaurant/bar/lounge called Ambrosia.  Amulet and Chris discovered it tucked away in a little neighborhood, so we went to go try it together.  They are definitely the more adventurous of the two couples in terms of eating out--David and I are more of a stay-in-and-cook kind of a couple--so it's been fun to expand our Houston eatery repertoire  ;)

It was such a cool little tapas kind of a place with awesome atmosphere and really interesting dishes, and we had a lot of fun ordering a bunch of different dishes and sharing.  They were all really delicious, though some are quite spicy, so make sure to ask the waiter about the spicyness level! It was a really fun double date, but it would also be a wonderful date spot, so gentlemen, if you are looking for somewhere to take your lady in Houston, give this one a shot  ;)

I can't wait for all four of us to be back in Houston for some more double dating action soon  ;)

Happy rest of the holiday season, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

RECITAL IS FINISHED!!!

Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

My recital is finished!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't even put into words how relieved I am to be able to say that because I injured my left wrist a week before the recital, and the whole week we weren't sure if I could play the recital at all.  If we had to move the recital, that would have been an awful nightmare because everything gets booked up here at Shepherd School of Music like a whole year in advance, not to mention juggling 10 different people's schedules who were involved...

but yes, I am glad it is over, and now I can get back to doing other things.  like living.  and blogging.  and practicing other repertoire...  haha

Anyway, here are some photos from the recital!
I forgot to take pictures of the reception table, but there were many different kinds of cookies, cream puffs (which we're going to do a recipe here soon), and the Trader Joe's Spinach Kale Dip.

The recital itself was an interesting venture with a coughing fit from the performer in the middle of a piece, as well as a wardrobe malfunction--if you wear an infinity dress, make sure you tie and knot the ribbons...  I just tucked the ends in, and... let's just say that is not a good idea if you're going to be on stage and you're going to be using your hands to do something else.  No worries, I caught it in time and there was no Janet Jackson episode, but man...  the most interesting recital experience ever.

Anyway I can't thank Mr. Lin enough for teaching me for the past year and a half, and always pushing me to my maximum.  I really feel like I'm going to look back on my graduate years as the years where I practiced like a crazy woman  haha  =)  but he is such an inspiration, and I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for where I am as a violinist!

and of course Neal, our studio pianist  =)  I don't know how he learns and plays so many different pieces that we play!  It's been so wonderful getting to work with him these past year and a half!

Oh!  and funny story: Betsy and I met when we were like...11?  we were in Tri-City Junior Youth Orchestra together, and we lost contact for like 8 years or something and then we realized we both were in Houston!!  Thank you Facebook.  So she came to my recital and it was SO much fun getting to catch up  =D

And of course, some ballrooming love  =)  we met through ballroom last year, and it's been so awesome to get to know and hang out with this girl  ;)  

and of course, the three people the recital could not have happened without these three people in my life!
my roomy for being so accommodating during my freak out week leading up to the recital where I was incredibly messy around the house because I guess my level of stress directly correlates to my messiness... she also baked cookies and got me flowers!  best roomy  =)
and my boy, of course, for dealing with the grumpy Janny during my injury episode, because when I can't play the violin and I want to practice, (because let's just admit it, sometimes we just don't feel like practicing!) I am rather grumpy.  Oh, and just being so supportive and helping me bake  =)
and Satoko!  We played Strauss together for the recital, and she has been such a trooper learning that sonata because man, that piano part is like a piano concerto!  and just being overall so accommodating throughout the whole process  =)

Thank you everyone for coming, and I am so thankful for everything and everyone in my life.  Feeling just so incredibly blessed  =)
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and thanks for stopping by!
--Janny