C came over to visit, and since we're both always craving sushi, I thought we'd treat ourselves to a beautiful sushi platter from Sashimiya:

This was only the regular sushi platter, and not even the chef's special! Look how many vibrant, super fresh pieces of sushi we got! I will definitely be back, maybe even this week. The chef chooses what type of fish to use, based on the varieties they receive, and so the next platter might have a different assortment of sushi. Exciting. 

The California roll used real crab meat, and it didn't need excessive amounts of mayo to generate flavor. I regret giving one piece to baby S to try, because she kept on asking for more, more, more! I want more sushi...

Speaking of baby S, she's definitely spoiled already, especially with food, because we give her whatever she asks for, other than really sugary food. With salty foods, we'll try to rinse off any sauce and salt before sharing it with her, and even then, I'm sure her daily sodium intake is probably too much. We can only make do with what we have though, and fed is best... 

She has also been showing more personality, and one of those traits would be a general lack of perseverance. Today, she figured out how to stack up blocks, and had a huge tantrum when she knocked down her tower and couldn't get past 4 blocks. It terrified her poor grandma, who was also playing with her at the time. What can you expect from a less than 2 year old toddler? 

The positive I see is that she knows how to express her emotions. It's going to be a long journey for her to learn to be patient and anger management...

On a side note, there has been a very persistent fly in our house for the last 3 days. Usually, flies in our house land on a window and get the smack down pretty quickly. This one must be a different mutation because it has been able to dodge all of our attacks. It's also smart enough to perch on surfaces that are harder for us to smack. 

How did people survive before tissues and paper towels were invented? Handkerchiefs I suppose. 

Since moving to an older house, we've increased our consumption of paper towels and tissues because they're just great at absorbing grease, which we don't want to pour down our drain, which gets clogged much more easily. Since allowing the grandparents into our COVID-19 bubble to help with childcare, we've also seen an increase in the number of tissues left lying around on our various surfaces - coffee tables, media console, counter tops, random floors. The proximity of paper towels just makes it way too convenient to use them instead of getting up to get a cloth. 

I'm sure there are times when I've reached for a nearby tissue or paper towel or napkin to wipe one small spot of spilled water, and left the paper product on the surface of whatever I wiped for use again later. Honestly though, I never remember to reuse it, and I end up forgetting what I used that lonely napkin for previously, so it ends up in the trash. It's different in my own home too, because I know they're my germs, and not somebody else's. 

I'm going to have to put up "DO NOT LITTER" signs in my living room soon.

Actually, a large part of our napkin stash is from take out sushi restaurants, like Sushi Garden, Sushi Mura, and Sushi High. This was our late night order from Sushi High the other night, stack of napkins not shown in photo: 

    

The salmon aburi (middle small pic) was tasty. The others were not remarkable, but it helped with our 10PM sushi cravings. 

Again, I'm a bit behind on posting this week because of moving and all, but I STILL MADE IT AND THAT IS WHAT COUNTS. We moved back to my parents' house this week, because we're in between homes. Overall, I felt much more relaxed while at my parents' house than living in my 2 bedroom apartment (can you even call that second room a bedroom???), even though there's a pile of boxes and clutter crammed into a small basement in an over 50 year old house. The pile of boxes and stuff was right next to me, in full view, and I had to wonder how we were able to keep so much stuff inside our teeny apartment. 

Even though there are fewer shops within walking distance this week, life felt more convenient. It was just so nice to have child care within the distance of going up a flight of stairs. H had a shorter commute to work, and could make it home earlier for S's night time routine. 

Apartment living was too fast paced, cramped, and stressful.  Let's see how I feel about house living after a few more days. 

One thing about house living that hasn't changed is that we can still order food delivery! 

Look at how much food we had delivered Sushi Mura last night. Some of it was meant for baby S, but she fell asleep before we could get it prepared. Salmon sashimi (top left corner) was really good. Alaska roll (under the sashimi, on the left) could've used more of the sauce on top of it, but adding pepper was a good touch. The deep fried stuff was no longer fresh - we needed an air fryer to perk it back up (air fryer is our work in progress). The piece de resistance (I'm too tired to figure out accents on this computer...) was the volcano roll with salmon!  

It's just a pile of deep fried rice with more deep fried tempura or panko bits, surrounding a spicy salmon and cucumber mix. Love that spicy sauce with the crispy cucumbers. 

All of it was actually very similar to Sushi Garden in terms of volume. I prefer the Sushi Garden Alaska roll though, because they're slightly more generous with the sauce. 

That's it for now, there's too much going on and I do not have the words right now to try to be creative. 

Oh, one more thing. Some people really don't change - think before you speak please! Biggest eye rolls today when N accused J of messing up the meeting times! Maybe it was a joke...

After tying the knot (literally, performing a knot tying ceremony before signing our marriage license) with H, we went for our first adventure as a married couple. This wasn't a honeymoon, because we went with his family from overseas, and we were touring them around a bit (they're very self sufficient, and probably didn't need us, but it was good to spend time with new family). It was chaotic to prepare for this trip, since we left only 2 days after the wedding. There was still a few loose ends to clean up. For example, where did all of our Instax cameras end up? Who do we still owe money to? Who had all of our wedding gifts? 

Amidst all of this, we found ourselves packed up into H's trusty old 4Runner, and heading north along the Sea to Sky highway. We arrived fairly late the first day of the trip, and we were ready to eat. The post wedding versions of H and I were constantly ravenous. He was finally done with dieting and didn't have a suit to fit into, and I was finally getting my appetite back after the relief of no longer stressing out over the party planning.

Sushi Village was still open at 8PM, and when we walked in, there was still a packed room of diners and even a short line up. 

From left to right, Beautiful Roll, Caterpillar Roll, Agedashi Tofu, Squid. Small bowl contained a pretty much inedible gomae. There should have been a warning on it, for those with kidney problems to stay away, because of the high salt content. 

The Beautiful Roll, which I think was basically a chopped scallop roll with avocado wrapped around it, was really good, and I would order this again. The texture of the squid was that perfect crunchiness, but again, the salt level was extremely high, so I picked at the pieces that weren't swimming in the sauce. The other options were just OK, but for that Beautiful Roll, I'll give this place a 4 out of 5.

D and I went to Take’s Sushi (pronounced TAH-KAY’S SUSHI), following a long day in the office. With some coworkers, you never want to see them after work, and with others, I don’t mind hanging out. I had never been, and apparently this is one of the best spots for sushi. Turns out that the rolls were amazing! The fish was very fresh, and there was a good ratio of rice to mayo to fish/fillings. I would absolutely return when the cravings for sushi kick in. The appetizers were decent, nothing special, so feel free to pass on those.

Here’s a shot of the unagi:

Here’s their Dragon Roll, with unagi on top of the california roll, and the Alaska roll (definitely a favourite) in the background:



D took these photos for me on his Pixel 2, because I left my phone at home.



I did remember my phone on this hike with V to the upper portions of Shannon Falls:



Beautiful hike. Drone shots to come.

Take me back to the sushi and hike please! I don’t want to have to focus on adult life responsiblities…

How do I make tofu look exciting?

Pretty delicious. H is on a no carb diet (it’s working), so for dinner, we opted for some low carb options at Sushiholic. Actual sushi was out of the question for him, so we ordered some tofu and salmon sashimi. Raw fish craving satisfied. Their food was fresh and delicious, and the restaurant is always packed during dinner time.

Started YYoga. Impossible to go everyday this week though… So much going on at work and in real life. I went to the 6AM class on Tuesday, and it was amazing – so energized for the whole day and it even lasted through to today. $40 for 1st timers at Yyoga.

Will go back again to both places.