MY WEEK IN PHOTOS: FEBRUARY 26–MARCH 4, 2018! (DOGS AND RAIN, HOMEMADE UDON AND YAKINIKU)

MY WEEK IN PHOTOS: FEBRUARY 26–MARCH 4, 2018! (DOGS AND RAIN, HOMEMADE UDON AND YAKINIKU)

Spent the work week at a professional development conference and waiting for rain to come to Los Angeles. Spent the weekend cooking and attempting to make my own udon and yakiniku.

Enjoy!

Spending three days this workweek at a user experience conference with full day workshops on things like usability testing and prototyping. My team at work has been shifting roles a bit. I’m grateful for all the additional training!

Day 1 complete.

Watching Bea slowly fall asleep on my lap

Tuesday morning we had some dog smelly anal glands issues with both Bea and Tweedy so I arrived extra early at 7am on the dot to get them expressed at the groomers since Zach has been dealing with a broken toe. HOWEVER, they were not open. I called and called and called and waited around till 7:40 and gave up. Bummer.

Tuesday it was going to *potentially* rain so that was exciting enough for me to bust out the rain jacket.

Walked out right after taking those gym selfies and HAHA the sky was perfect with fluffy white clouds. Maybe the weather forecast was wrong…

Leaving work to a beautiful pale pink and blue sunset

Literally dropped all my stuff to take a photo

Going home

Zach called in an order of pho for me to pick up on my way home and when I arrived I saw these gates. *Panic* I thought, aw man, TWICE in one day a business is randomly closed?!?! But they were open, just only accepting pick up orders.

Poor Sufi is still on his meds and is having to hangout in his crate. I went to change his water and noticed his toy had somehow gotten into the bowl like it was entering a jacuzzi.

Bea the snuggler

Thursday! Extra layer, extra happy

Been pooped from the conference this week, the workshops are intensive and long but really good.

Every night after work or conference I’ve been going home to work on a freelance job before my trip and help Zach with his toe and the dogs so was extra happy to grab happy hour with Tristan and Kiki on Thursday eve.

Our bar of choice

A few drinks in and they are talking about skin care

Friday! Finally the rain has come!

Last day of the conference, had about three bananas including one for the road.

I looove the weather.

Zach had to head off to a rehearsal so it was just me and the doggos. It was supposed to rain more, I was excited.

My banana from yesterday needs to boost its self confidence

Zach made some breakfast before hitting the road.

We let Sufi out of his crate to sit on the couch

Finished up the freelance work with the dogs next to me in bed. I looked outside and…IT WAS SUNNY?!?!

Decided to take the three dogs to a dog park I’d never been to before. My coworker recommended.

They know they are all going somewhere fun. Sufi especially happy to leave his crate.

This weird development is part of “Silicon Beach” where a bunch of tech companies have second offices from the Bay Area. It’s…got no personality and is pretty awful atmosphere wise but I have high hopes for the dog park.

I think everybody had the same idea and took their dogs out to the park as soon as the sun came out.

So cute! It actually has turf. The one we usually go to has dirt, and I was worried it’d be all muddy because of the rain.

I tried to enter the small dog area and a security guard (wow the dog park here has a security guard?!) told me I wasn’t allowed in. I asked why? He said only two dogs per person…

I guess that makes sense….but…dang it. I have never heard of a rule like this before. Maybe because this is a fancy dog park for fancy Silicon Beach people. I was tempted to tie Sufi to a nearby tree so he could relax in the shade while I took Tweedy and Bea in but I felt bad.

There were cute little walking trails behind the dog park that I just decided to take the dogs on, but I was sad! I wanted to do something special for them.

Headed back home

Tired and sweaty

#OrchidWatch! When will my babies bloom!?

I walked to the grocery store and was so tempted to get more.

Got home to Zach starting lunch prep

Going to make some shrimp tacos and guac

I’m on shrimp duty. Had to de-shell and de-vein them all and season.

Then I cooked those babies up

So yummy. Here’s the recipe if you are interested. (And don’t worry after I took that photo I realized I hadn’t put my corn tortillas on the stove for heat them up so I went ahead and did that.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening downloading photos from my phone, transferring to my hard drives, and backing up my hard drives. Took a looong time, I’d been putting it off! Happy to have a clear phone before my trip.

Sunday! Marukai, the Japanese market.

Came to pick up some lunch but also see if there were any Hinamatsuri goodies (Girl’s Day in Japan was the day before) and to try to get ingredients to grill and make homemade udon later.

Recharged and ready to cook

Lunch! Got a Hinamatsuri chirashi with sashimi and sweet rice and cute sakura tamago. Plus gyoza. And hand rolls.

Also said goodbye to Bea cuz she’s getting picked up today!

Kiki and Ders came over to hang. Kiki helped me prep and make my udon and yakiniku sauce for Japanese grill. I’ll do a full Yonsei Cooking when I’m back, I just wanted to try the recipe to make sure it was actually tasty!

It came out! I made the stock. Not the noodles. Maybe one day if I become an advanced homecook.

Grilled while watching the Oscars. I got pre-marinated yakiniku meats and prepped veggies and sauce and that’s it. Pretty simple and came out well!

*Why did Shape of Water win?!?!*

Next week I am off to Rome! Follow me over on Instagram if you’re curious what we get up to, I probably won’t get to a weekly post before I’m back. Thank you for reading!

Much love friends.