Category Archives: Family

remembering my dad

14 Tuesday Dec 2010

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Me at approximately 18 mos with my dad

My dad was hard on me when I was growing up and even to some extend as an adult – until he had Alzheimer’s.  Then as Al says, we saw the softer side of my dad. My mom always assures me that although he was tough on me  and wasn’t the most encouraging dad, he loved me.  I am always reassured of this when I look back at early photos of him with me.  Today marks the fifth year since his death.

I wonder if I will be able to relate to my dad better, now that I’m a parent?  I’m sure he’s looking down and smiling at this granddaughter.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 25

08 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by in Adoption, Family, friends, weekend

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My weekend actually began on Friday, because I took the day off.  I tried to accomplish a lot in one day.  The best part was having a girl’s luncheon with some of my friends who have adopted from China. Gwen and Kathy were eager to welcome me to the parenthood club and I learned quite a few things from them.  Click here for more thoughts on our journey to our daughter.

On Saturday, we took my niece Maddie to the Noah’s Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Center.  It’s a really fun interactive exhibit for young kids where all the animals are made out of recycled materials.

Maddie with a Zebra at "Noah's Ark" Exhibit

The "mane" is made out of brushes

Maddie played with the "vegetables" for over 30 minutes

Maddie played with the "vegetables" for over half an hour.

Too much vegetable play for Maddie

Sunday, I spent FIVE hours at the mall.  Pretty amazing for someone who doesn’t like to shop (I don’t count Target).  I accompanied a young lady (13 years) on a shopping spree.  We were granting her wish through the Make a Wish Foundation of Los Angeles.  We went through a lot of clothes and shoes and in the end, ran out of time to complete the shopping tour.  Never fear, she can go back to finish it with her family.

We closed out Sunday with a meal at a very traditional steakhouse in Westchester.  It’s an institution really.

It's probably been around since the 1960s. How do we know?

um, I think it's the photo of a very young Liberace and the owner on the wall that gives it away.

Thank you Steve and Hind for a great evening of laughter, friendship and food.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 23

24 Sunday Oct 2010

Posted by in Adoption, Family, friends, weekend

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A lot of my weekend was moving furniture from one room to another as we prepare to turn our tv room into my mother’s bedroom and turn my mother’s bedroom into a room for our daughter that we’re adopting from China.  That leaves a tv without a home.  So we’re moving that into the living room.  So three rooms in a disarray!

I know I love this little girl very much, because she will have a closet twice the size of mine.  Funny, the smallest person in our family will have the biggest closet.  Wondering how much a 2 year old can have?  I also launched another blog devoted to her, Quinn.  Click here to learn about Quinn.

We did take a nice break from moving and organizing on Sunday to go to the farmers’ market in Mar Vista.  We just love this place.  We met up with friends and the kids seemed to really enjoy their food.

Julien with a chocolate crepe.

Jake with remnants of PB&J

Avery teething

We accomplished so much this weekend, but it was great to just hang out and chat for a few hours.

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 22

17 Sunday Oct 2010

Posted by in Family, Musings, weekend

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A surprised Noi

 

It’s been a very gray and drizzly weekend here in So. California.  But we managed to make it to San Diego for the second weekend in a row to celebrate another family birthday.  This weekend it was our sister-in-law, Noi.  Al’s sister arranged for a surprise dinner party of just family.

It was nice just to hang out with everyone and chat for a bit.  Although we weren’t able to stay too long.  Cathy’s brother-in-law, Mark used to own a bakery and thus he is the designated birthday cake maker.  He did not disappoint with his beautiful cake with raspberries and strawberries covered with whipped cream and white chocolate.

 

Happy birthday Noi!

 

I decided to go through some old photos and stumbled upon my photos from my trip to France in 2001.  And decided I really need to scan my favorites and toss all the bad photos (this was in the day of film and there were a lot of bad photos).  It was actually an enjoyable afternoon. I thought I post a few highlights, because it pretty much rained the entire time we were in France so the weather reminded me of this weekend.

 

Notre Dame Gargoyles peering down onto Paris

 

 

Umbrellas abound at Le Louvre

 

 

 

My friend Liz and I hiked through Provence. It rained everyday at 3p.m.

 

 

We passed through Manadrom Shambhasalem. I thought we had stumbled into a Star Trek set.

 

 

It a holy town near Verdon Gorges and it celebrates all reglions. Note the Hindu and Christian references. There was a giant Buddha too.

 

Apparently the weather is going to continue being gray and dreary.  How easy it is to become accustom to sunny weather all the time.  We need this so that we can all appreciate what we have 90% of the time in Southern California.

Bits of my weekend: vol. 21

10 Sunday Oct 2010

Posted by in Coco, Family

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This was a tough weekend for me.  A first in five years without my dog, Coco.  But my sister-in-law, Ally and brother-in-law, Paul gave us a wonderful, thoughtful gift.  A gift of life – a Mandarin orange tree to remind us of our great companion.  We’re calling the tree, the Coco Tree. We spent part of Sunday planting it.

Coco Tree

On Saturday, we meet up with our friend Michelle and her little baby, Max.

 

I was a lucky Auntie, because I got to hold Max

 

 

Is he a Gerber Baby or what?

 

 

Max and his momma

 

 

a goodbye drool

 

And we got to spend some quality time with the family.  Al’s brother Paul celebrated a birthday (I won’t name which one).  It was great to see everyone.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 19

26 Sunday Sep 2010

Posted by in Family, weekend

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My weekend can be summed up by a little act (okay two) that happened Friday night.

  • Act 1 – our friend Bill brought over a piece of white truffle wrapped in a paper towel as a gift.  It would have looked more like a drug deal if it hadn’t happened in our kitchen. The cost of the white truffle: $1,600/pound
  • Act 2 - I threw the piece of paper towel away, thinking it was trash.  We had company for dinner and I was trying to be efficient.

Good news – I retrieved it after being asked where it was and realizing what I had done. But this became the neverending story of the weekend.  Kicked off by a post to Facebook by my dear husband, Al.

This little bit of a thing is probably worth a few hundred bucks

I got even luckier, because we got the entire Quattrocchi family together for a day in Dana Point.  And this story was shared multiple times.

The weather was great and in true Quattrocchi fashion we could have feed a third world nation with the amount of food we had.  Here are some of the highlights.

Al gets a birthday poster from the Sperrazzo kids

Noi, Kaydee, Kaylee & John

Kite flying skills were developed.

heads of the Q Clan

Bocce anyone?

Ally and me (two of the Q wives)


Bits of my weekend: Vol 11

01 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in Family, food, friends, Remodel

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I started this weekend off with a cool new closet!  Anyone who lives in an house built before the 70s can probably relate – no closet space. Our house was built in the 1950s.  Clearly they didn’t have nearly the amount of stuff we have (Costco didn’t exist).  I am trying to get rid of stuff.  But I always desire (note, not saying I am) to be more organized.  So we had our hall closet for miscellaneous stuff turned into a new built in closet.

Hall closet with 4 fixed shelves

Turned into a more functional closet with drawers and adjustable shelves.

built in closet for modern times: 5 drawers and 3 adjustable shelves

Saturday we had another Iron Chef Competition and we were ready to play!

Iron Chef theme/ingredient: olives

Al cut his crostini in the shape of olive leaves in hopes to capture presentation points. He topped a mixture of four olives on ricotta with lemon zest & parsley.

Donna & Eric decided to keep their crostini au natural and topped their green olives mixed with orange zest with smoked salmon. Garnished with orange wedges on a platter painted with olives.

Millie & Michael blew out the competition with their presentation. They used edible flowers and Italian bread sticks for garnish. The salad was flavorful with spinach, cranberries, pistachios and olives. Their wine pairing was the best. We knew the competition was over when they pulled out the edible flowers.

Shelley & Joe, fresh from their honeymoon in Italy, brought out the squid ink pasta, ahi tuna, cherry tomatoes - garnished with olives. Delicious!

Shelley demonstrates that size really does matter. The squid ink pasta was noticably bigger and better. Thank you to Bradley who first brought it to the attention of the judges.

I tried to add presentation points by bringing my own green square paper plates. The olive oil cake had grand marnier and orange zest. We served it with blackberries mascerated in sugar, lemon olive oil and orange zest. Final two garnishes - vanilla ice cream, some green olives and a small drizzle of lemon olive oil.

Winners: Everyone – we had a great time

Winners of the competition:  Millie & Michael

Today is my birthday AND my brother-in-law, John David’s.  Happy birthday John.  I received an amazing gift from my husband.  I just started group guitar lessons – I am a beginner.  But my husband arranged for me to pick my new Martin guitar after my lesson last week.  I thought I was onto him.  I thought I was getting a guitar stand.  Well he didn’t give me that, but I did get it from my in-laws!

there are no excuses for not practicing...

Lastly I got to spend my birthday with a bunch of people I really care about.

birthday dinner with some of my family

Enzo & Angela's homemade parpadelle with shaved truffles

I knew it would be just like old times.

my second birthday with a few chosen friends

National summer pastime

13 Tuesday Jul 2010

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Yellowstone National Park - when I was 3

When I was young, we visited a lot of national parks and camped a lot.  It was inexpensive and allow us to see the U.S.  As an immigrant, my dad was very excited to explore the United States. I often think so many people who grow up here in the U.S. never get that excitement – they take it for granted.  My friend Kathy just returned from a two-week road trip adventure and our friend Joe just left to take his kids to the Pacific Northwest on a tour of national parks.

There’s nothing like the smell of a campfire and the chill of the night as you snuggle deep into your sleeping bag. I miss that and my dad’s passion.

Dying for those dioramas

05 Monday Jul 2010

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African mammals with James & Maddie

Today I stole James and Maddie from Grandpa and Nana for the afternoon and took them to the Natural History Museum.  We started at the Science Center, but the displays didn’t capture the attention of Mr. James or Miss Maddie.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

They just kept asking me when we could see the dinosaurs?  So off we went to the Natural History Museum.

the dinosaur

Which reminds of a trip six years ago when we took Jessica and John Paul to the museum and they were 7 and 5.  James and Maddie are 6 and 4 respectfully.

2004, Jessica and JP under the "dinosaur." The year James was born. Maddie was still a twinkle in her father's eye.

We finished the day off with frozen yogurt.

Maddie with a mouthful of vanilla wafers and James finishing off his gummy worms and bears

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