So our Halloween came and went. I had a memorable home made costume as a giant "bug" as a response to a recent visit by an Inspector from Hell from Health Department. This ill-intentioned inspector falsely and unfairly reported and I contested but the judge didn't believe me. So I'm charged with upward of $1000 in fines and almost deciding to quit. Their every visit is so discouraging, but this time I really wanted to quit. What they ask you is to keep everything protected, keep everything at right temperature, and basically not to touch any food. So you can't think about cooking. All day you're supposed to poke your thermometer around in various foods and make sure everything is at the right temperature. This is what they would like us to do as a food operator. Does that sound fun? Reasonable? By the way she didn't find any vermin, so I put on this costume. "What do you think of this, Health Department!"

Then Thanksgiving came and went. My little turkey was beautifully roasted with bacon on top as usual. And super crispy bacon strips always go fast! As tiring as it is, this is the most important holiday for me- after Taiyo's birthday.

Taiyo has been so obsessed with his Christmas wish list this year. And I've been trying not to give too much ideas about Santa Clause since I don't celebrate Christmas, but of course he already knows all about it. Every year, I ask bunch of people if they think Santa should come. They all say he should. But I still ask. And how long this is supposed to go on? My fellow veteran parent the other day told me, you can't fight it. You have to go with the flow. So I did. We went to Macy's to see Santa. When I told him that we're going to see Santa at Macy's, he said, "There's Santa at Macy's? Is it a real Santa, or Mall Santa?" I said I don't know. We'll find out. I feel I'm too honest sometimes. To my surprise, he decided to leave the lengthy list at home and decided to just ask for periscope and microscope. Decoration at the store was so pretty- as soon as we walked into Macy's Taiyo whispered into my ear, "I think I'm going to faint." Upstairs, Taiyo sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted. This was kind of a little Santa, so Taiyo looked too big to be sitting on his lap. But afterwards, Taiyo told me he was real. I guess it's all right to believe in something- even if it's not real- especially at his age. And you have to let go of a bit of your credit and let someone else take it. So I'll be the ghost gifter.

Then we went up to Empire State Building. First time for Taiyo, and I haven't been there more than 10 years. No. It was Black Friday, and stores were crazy, but this major tourist attraction was nice and empty. After so many years in the city, I realized I was able to tell Taiyo much more about places. I can tell which patch is what park, and which building we've been to. Taiyo was already recognizing some of the landmarks, too, like Flatiron Building. The city was curiously beautiful from above.

Another long weekend trip due north over Columbus Day. We were blessed with possibly the last warm weekend. First stop: Farm Project at Saunders Farm in Garrison. As we entered the farm, cows were grazing alongside sculptures in pasture. We loved it. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. And there were much more cows than humans in the field. Sun was warm, and leaves were changing colors. What a perfect afternoon that was.


Next day we went on a bi-plane ride - 15 minute trip over Hudson, forests and pastures. It was simply awesome. I've never flew on anything other than commercial aircraft, so it was first time for both of us. We loved it. At $65 per person, it was a treat. Being with a kid was a good excuse to do something like this.


Then we went antiquing in Hudson. This city is dubbed Brooklyn of Hudson Valley, and it sure felt comfortable with antique shops, galleries, cafes and such. I felt we could move there the next day. They also got lots of cute old houses. We loved it.




Next day was for apples! Beautiful plump apples ready to drop to ground! This was at my old favorite farm destination of 20 years- at Greig Farm in Red Hook, New York. We also picked up some pumpkins in a vast pumpkin field, then spent a quality time with goats, his favorite farm animal. Theirs was cute dwarf goats. Except for the traffic coming back, everything was just perfect for this little weekend trip.

Month of July in the country went fast. But time in City goes definitely faster. We zapped through August. Since we were never gone that long, recovery took longer than expected. But once I was back to work, it was non-stop cycle again. I was quickly reminded why I badly needed some time off. But I had to surrender and get caught up with the city life again. We also had lots of fun. Here's some stuff we did in August.

Enormous Hello Kitty Time Capsule- he put some of his baby toys inside.


I think this was my favorite pizza of the month. At Ogliastro in Prospect Heights.

Just checking teeth at Mr. Brainwash pop-up gallery.

Dining at Bubby's after nice stroll on High Line.

Look how happy he is to be buried in sand at Jones Beach.

It was $5. At least it had to be big.

"A moon over Playland," a photo by Taiyo.

He ate the whole plate of pancakes because I told him he can get a donut if he finished his food. I hope he's not going to turn into a Homer Simpson.

Puppet show in Central Park-always a great place to hang out. They got the bestest playgrounds!

One more week to go, and I'm feeling a bit deflated. "Time" had been a big factor in my very first extended vacation. For months, I was so looking forward to it, I was counting days until July. Customers were shocked everytime I mentioned that I was closing for a month. Then since I got here, I kept reminding myself how many days were left. I wish I could handle this time issue better- I think it's taking half of the fun out of the whole experience.

We finally went to check out this joint on Main Street "Rock Da Pasta." Everytime we drove by, Taiyo would chant "Rock Da Pasta! Rock Da Pasta!" although I was never sure if he knew my favorite Clash song. As we walked into the little funky joint, I felt like I was time warped to good old East Village. It was exactly like what we used to have around East Village- like 20 years ago. There were bar stools made with old guitars. Fun and funky, totally unpretentious but with theme and belief. Ceiling was adorned with vinyl records. Under glass tabletops were torn paper napkins with short messages and passages by people who passed through there. Menu was original and rather ambitious, with dishes named after rock stars and iconic classic songs. The dishes were also grouped with such terms like "Opening Acts" or "Headliners." Taiyo of course would go for simple "Spaghetti with Grateful Red Sauce" and I decided on "Pesto Palooza," which was described as "this festival of lime chicken artichoke hearts, red pepper coulis & cilantro pesto takes center stage over penne, armed up with fresh avocado and balsamic vinegar reduction." Doesn't it sound crazy? Many dishes sounded kind of crazy and this one really made me wonder how it tastes like. It was surprisingly delicious. We both liked the food. Taiyo also loved the garlic bread and he snatched half of mine too. Our waiter was also sweet and I truly enjoyed my time-trippy meal. Sun in low western sky was filling the dining room with amber light, adding to my nostalgic feeling.

The month is already at mid-point and of course I'm not as much done as I wanted but we surely having lots of fun adventures! Over the weekend we made it up to one of the crag of Shawangunk Mountains. We didn't try the challenging vertical ascent on the rocks- the family we passed by told us, "I've seen 7-8 year-old climb up." But I didn't want to get stuck in the middle, so we hiked around to the top, which was fairly steep toward the end. Then we were rewarded with stunning views!

I was just reading about these wild edibles in local publication, and I decided to give it a try. Yes, these are wild edible weed, small succulent purslane and clover-like wood sorrel, and that can be commonly found around house. Yes, I found them around the house and they are even packed with nutrients. But when I began harvesting I quickly realized that they are so small it's time consuming to collect enough to amount to a 'dish.' So I just sprinkled them over my salad, and except visually, they didn't add too much to it. So my beautiful lunch today was salad with lettuce, pickled radish, cucumber, and these cute wild edibles, and soba noodle with pesto, topped with fish flakes (most everything taste better with fish flakes, in my opinion, and the dish suddenly turns Japanese) and red pickled ginger.

We have spent already 1/3 of our time here and feels like we are just settling down. The other day we visited the sculpture garden at Unison Arts Center just down the road from us. It was a nice quiet place in the woods and we explored newly installed works. He read most of the titles himself.

Today we crossed the bridge over to Poughkeepsie. Coming from this side where it's mostly farmland and mountains around us, busy large chain store lined highway in Poughkeepsie suddenly made me feel like we were in New Jersey all of a sudden. We were heading to his favorite trampoline place "Bounce!" I wanted to save it for a bad weather day, but he kept begging to go- we were there when we spent the New Year vacation up here. And that time it was packed and we had to wait for a while for his jump time. So this time I called ahead and the girl on the phone said, "oh, you don't need a reservation. Just come in." It was true. It was almost totally empty. There were only three of them in the Jr. area that was for 5 and under. So Taiyo had a quality jumping time to workout a serious sweat. He fell asleep in less than a minute when we got in the car and I changed the plan to hit Balloon Festival. Maybe tomorrow.

The deck quickly heats up in the sun, so I decided to set up my workstation under the big maple tree. It gives me a perfect shade and plenty of fresh air, but I realized that I have to get used to all kinds of tiny insects landing on my arms, notebooks, and laptop. Aside from the tiny creatures, I'm enjoying in the yard watching butterflies dance and birds dive into the yard for their prey. This morning after dropping off Taiyo at Phillies Bridge Farm for his summer camp day 1, I enjoyed running along quiet and shady Wallkill Valley Rail Trail which runs nearby. I ran through farm lands, with chipmunks, birds and rabbits.

Not very Hudson Valley lunch today except the scallions - Cold udon with avocado, topped with grated ginger and garlic, chopped scallions, ponzu and sesame oil to finish.