Today Travalon and I had two missions: to see eagles and to find Lunar New Year decorations for Richard Bonomo's upcoming birthday party. (Lunar New Year is the theme of his party this year because last year his birthday was exactly on Lunar New Year, and this year it will still be during the fifteen days of celebration.) To that end, we went to the large Asian store near East Towne Mall with a food court. One of the shops in the food court is actually a florist, and they usually have decorations, but they were closed today. We did get some dumplings at the food court, because it's good luck to eat dumplings for Lunar New Year, since they look like money purses, so they will bring you wealth. We also went to Party City, where they have decorations for Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day, and even the Super Bowl, but not one thing for Lunar New Year. We gave up for a bit and just walked at East Towne, where Travalon bought me earrings for Valentine's Day to match my opal and pink sapphire ring.
After that we drove out to Sauk, where we saw eagles and ducks, specifically mergansers and goldeneyes. These first two photos are goldeneye ducks.
We came back from Sauk via the Beltline and went up Park Street to another big Asian store. No decorations there, but we did buy some dumplings and dropped them off at Rich's house. Then we stopped by the little Asian bakery near his house, because I had heard they have lotus paste buns. Indeed they had a spot for them, but they were sold out. However, they had moon cakes, which are good luck to eat for Lunar New Year, so I got one for me and one for Travalon. At Rich's house we had googled where to find Lunar New Year decorations and were surprised to see that Target and Walmart came up, so we went to the Target at Hilldale, and Travalon spotted a whole section for Lunar New Year decorations. They were very picked over, but we did find four garlands, two each of the characters for "Lucky" and "Spring." (I sent a photo to my colleague, and she told me what they meant. She was also dying of curiosity to find out where I found such a thing.) Then we went to Imperial Garden for our Lunar New Year dinner, since we had been sick during the first day of Lunar New Year (which was on the first this year). Happy Year of the Tiger! I had shrimp lo mein, since eating noodles for Lunar New Year is lucky because they are long so you will have a long life. Travalon got my usual dish, seafood sizzling rice, and he also got shrimp Rangoons, while I had a bowl of hot and sour soup. (I did have one Rangoon.) We had jasmine tea with dinner, and the hot and sour soup had lily buds in it. It seems like Asian cuisine makes more use of flowers than we traditionally do in Western cuisine, and Mideastern cuisine often uses rosewater. These things taste as delicious as they smell, and I feel like they make me very happy - we were so happy after dinner tonight! Maybe I should up my intake of flowers. On that note, Travalon will stop by the Asian bakery sometime, since it's right by his work, and see if they have the lotus paste buns again.
Famous Hat
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