if food were crack, i'd totally be a crack whore

okay, so i would've loved to mimic the musical stylings of tater and the monkey in this post, but i just don't have it in me. theirs were simply genius, while any sad little attempt on my part would just look lame and pathetic in comparison. heh.

yesterday was a fun day full of friends and food. for real.

first, the bean and i headed out to the shoppes at chino hills to meet my old friend curly and her adorable little girl. i guess we were both so caught up in chatting, getting caught up on each others' lives, and keeping our offspring from being too noisy or messy that i didn't get a single picture of them! oh, well. anyway, we had lunch at one of my favorite chain restaurants, california pizza kitchen. i know, i know, shut your piehole.

i usually go for the BLT pizza on honey wheat dough, but i decided to walk on the wild side and try something new - the asparagus and spinach spaghettini with shrimp. i snuck a quick pic while curly and mini-curly took a bathroom break, so it doesn't look particularly appetizing, but i was surprised to find that it really was pretty tasty.

i plucked the squishy middle out of the bread and broke it up into pieces for the bean, and when she was over it she had fun chewing on the crust.

she's finally sprouting two new teef, and they're SO close to cutting through. i'm really surprised she's been as even-tempered as she always is, since i know that teething can be quite painful. but my kid's a trooper. she smiles through damn near anything. if not for the major droolage over the last week or so, i'd never have guessed that anything was going on.

after we parted ways, i decided to walk off my lunch and busted out the stroller to browse the shops. this little plaza isn't very big, but i managed to scoop up some fun stuff from the victoria's secret "pink" line. the bean ended up falling asleep, so i picked up an iced latte from peet's coffee and then we headed home for a quick break before our next outing.

an hour later, we were back in the car and on our way to santa anita mall to meet up with tater (and later, amber) to do a little shopping before dinner with the joy luck club. we'd finally been successful in coordinating our schedules to meet up (which is damn near impossible), and were excited to see each other and eat some delicious soup dumplings at nearby din tai fung.

at nords, i finally found a couple of things that could possibly take the place of my beloved iPhone for my birthday wish list. i'd really wanted a pair of tall chocolate brown uggs last christmas, but of course, they sold out like tickle me elmos and cabbage patch kids, and were nowhere to be found. and then the warm summer months were upon us, and i forgot all about them.

these hideous things stood next to my coveted chocolate brown boots. tater and i nearly fell over our own feet in our haste to capture them on film. seriously, ugg? UGG!

the food at DTF is laced with crack. i just know it. and the most heavily-cracked-out items are these - juicy pork soup dumplings and sauteed green beans. i couldn't get enough of them, but i was able to restrain myself with the help of the bean, who squealed and laughed and played with everything she could reach on the table.

we walked over to the plaza next door to get dessert - delicious shaved ice with a plethora of toppings to choose from. amber and i chose to share one, since they were absolutely gigantic, not to mention that we weren't feeling as adventurous as the others in our topping selections. we ended up with condensed milk, coconut jelly, almond tofu, rice balls, and strangely enough, flan. plus, they drizzled some other crack-laced brown sugar syrup over it, and it was like a big bowl full of icy heaven.

our friendly, enthusiastic server happily took a group photo of us (which i totally swiped from the monkey. thanks, dude). i love that our joy luck club now includes amber :)

lastly, we finally broke down and ordered a new car seat for the bean. i'd been putting it off because it's just so convenient to be able to pull her out of the car, still strapped in, when she's fallen asleep during the ride. with the new big-girl seat, it stays in the car and i'll just have to hope that she can learn to fall back asleep when i pluck her out and either put her in the stroller, one of my zillion carriers, or bring her inside the house.

it arrived and right now it's in her room, so when we went in there to play, she immediately gravitated towards the new toy and climbed right in.

yay for new car seat!