Welcoming 2016

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful new year!
It was extra special for us because it was the first time we were able be together to celebrate NYE and the new year together!

The obligatory NYE celebration photo  =)

and of course, the other obligatory photo of us being us  haha

David had been talking about the new Star Wars movie ever since it came out, so we decided to go watch it before having dinner.  Little did we know, it would be all sold out... all weekend...  So instead, we tried to go to the Boston Commons only to drive around for half an hour trying to find parking. At this point, it was looking a lot like our first anniversary misadventures...  haha  We gave up on Boston Commons, and tried to find something else to do.  By then, we didn't have much time until dinner, but we decided to try the Faneuil Hall anyway since it was only a few blocks away.

Thankfully, we were able to find parking, and we had a good time poking about in different stores. In one, I found a Princess Leia's hair-esq fluff muff, and we called that good enough for our Star Wars experience for the night  ;)

with the tree  =)  

It wasn't anything special--just walking around and shopping, but it was fun to just spend some time together.

For dinner, we decided to try a spot in Cambridge, recommended by our friends Daon and Tristan. They couldn't say enough good things about Oleana, so we got a reservation (which I highly recommend), and crossed the river! 

We weren't really sure what to get, so we started with the chef's choice vegetable sampler.  Because they were chef's choice, I'm not sure what they were called, but we had some sort of carrot hummus, followed by these amazing falafels... 

another carrot dish, but roasted this time, with some amazing crunchy something happening.  Maybe it was fried quinoa? I'm not sure, but it was delish!

The next dish was made of some sort of vegetable from the broccoli family, but it tasted a lot like kale!

And of course, we have to continue our tradition of getting lamb at date night! It was quite literally falling off of the bone, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

I think my least favorite was the dessert, which was a fried cream puff sort of a thing...  but I think that's usually what happens with me at most restaurants.  It's so difficult to get dessert just right at a restaurant!  I much prefer bakeries for desserts.

It was so wonderful to spend NYE together and to ring in the New Year. (yes, I actually stayed up until midnight, which took effort for this grandma  ;)  haha)  The next day, we left the hustle and the bustle of the city to hike Mt. Holyoke, but more on that will come in the next post! 

Happy New Year, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Bunker Hill Monument

Hello everyone!

Awhile back, we had a full house full of boys when David's brothers Jack and Jason came to visit.  In my family, I am the only girl surrounded by my baby bro and my baby cuz, and I realized during this weekend that when David and my family comes together, I will still be the only girl, even more outnumbered by boys!  Le sigh...  haha

Anyway, before gorging ourselves on hotpot, we went for a bit of an unintentional exercise to the Bunker Hill Monument. 'Unintentional' because initially, we just wanted a historical outing, not an exercise one,,, but have you climbed this thing?

We visited the museum, spent some time learning about the Revolutionary War history surrounding this landmark, and then started the long climb.  

guys. it was 294 steps.  Oh. my word.  

It might not have been so bad if we had climbed slower, but I went with three very fit boys, and I wanted to keep up with their pace, ya know?  I wasn't going to be the reason everyone had to slow down, so I kept pushing through the screaming thigh muscles.

I guess one good thing about going quicker is that the climb is over much sooner?  that's about it though..  haha

After spending a few moments at the top to catch our breaths, and to enjoy the view that can only be seen by being higher than anything else for miles, we started the climb down.  That was much easier haha

It was so much fun having them here, and I hope they will get to visit us more often!  =)

Have a safe and fun Halloween everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Boston Food Festival and Legal Seafood

Hello everyone!

Boston has gotten quite chilly recently, so I thought it would be fun to look back to only a week or two ago when the weather was quite balmy.

It's so hard these days to find time to do anything but work.  I'm rehearsing and playing with 3-4 orchestra at any given moment, and teaching BU undergraduate classes and a few of my private students.  Not to mention the fact that I still have my own school work to do!  And David's working on multiple projects all at once, trying to publish papers and presenting at different conferences around the country.  

But we think it's very important to still continue to go on dates, and do 'couple'y things with each other, so we have been trying to carve out a few hours for that every week.  And of course, whenever we have any free time, our favorite things to do together involve eating food.  and dance. But today's post is food oriented  =)

There was a food festival going on in Boston a few weekends ago, so we decided to check it out and enjoy what was to be one of the last really warm days in Boston!

The weather was absolutely glorious!

and you already know my love of farmer's market-esq settings  =)

I never thought of tomatoes as particularly delicious, but I'm always happy when things change my mind!  and these were absolutely delicious!  =D

my date =)

and what seemed like all of Boston out to enjoy the weather!

Jerk chicken!

I kinda wanted to go on this, but decided that I will just wait until I have lil bebes like the rest of the folks there haha

and because we tend to eat mostly Korean foods at home, we thought we would indulge David's side of the culture here ;)

green onion pancakes filled with pork belly!

mmm! Boston's never ending supply of fresh seafood!

and kids enjoying the fountain.  They were having so much fun, and their laughter was contagious!  It didn't succeed in getting us to go into the water ourselves, but we did spend quite awhile just watching them play  =)

Enjoying the last wear out of this sundress before I pack it away until next summer!

To continue with the fresh seafood theme, we visited Legal Seafood for a date one evening!

We had never been, and we were told that it was a must!

We ended up getting the New England Clam Chowder, crab cakes, and the seafood platter full of lobster, clams, and mussels!

haha, hi there Mr. Lobster.   Definitely David's handywork  ;)

It was pretty good, and the seafood was fresh.  The atmosphere wasn't anything special, but if you are just after basic, fresh seafood, this would be a good place to visit!

Even though there's laundry to be done, our floor hasn't been swept or mopped in more than a week, and of course, there's always practicing to be done, it has been quite therapeutic to just sit here after finishing grading and doing my own homework to do some 'journaling' on my little corner of the interweb =)

Thanks for stopping by to catch up on our lives, and have a wonderful day!

--Janny