theparkerfamily.org » Wedding http://theparkerfamily.org/musings parker + spindler = comedy Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:16:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 eats: brasserie les halles http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/12494 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/12494#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:48:45 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=12494 []
i’m slightly embarrassed to say that i’m becoming a bit of an Anthony Bourdain fan-boy.

i’ve read several of his books (including his best known, Kitchen Confidential), his travel channel show “no reservations” is the only food show that i watch with any regularity, and we’ve just gotten hooked on his new show, “the layover”.

not sure exactly where the allure has come from, but he’s my kind of chef — his food is relatively simple fare, and he is a chef from a time before Martha Stewart and Williams Sonoma conspired to ruin the public’s notion of the equipment required to cook and consume food “properly.”

and he doesn’t say the word “bam!” after adding each ingredient.

so, it was with GREAT trepidation that i booked a table for two at his Park Avenue eatery, Brasserie Les Halles. i was scared to death that it would suck, that it would be as charming as a Las Vegas themed mega-restaurant, and that i would be outed as a fan-boy to boot.

i had no reason for the fear or the loathing — the food was outstanding, down to the smallest touches.

we had to push the bread to the opposite side of the table, so we wouldn’t ruin dinner. the mussels had a sauce (Portuguese) that quickly caused us to break out the bread again in reckless disregard for the swelling of our stomachs. we had so many “okay, this is the last frite and i mean it” that we lost count.

and all that was before dinner arrived.

i had a plate of pork big enough to make a man weep — smoked pork loin, veal sausage, frankfurter, smoked bacon, boiled potatoes and sauerkraut. i don’t even like pork loin, and it was easily the best thing i’ve eaten in 10 years.

it was legitimately outstanding, regardless of the reality television flashbacks.

don’t get me wrong, we had our bits of celebrity worship — we were waited on by veteran waiter tim, we saw the back of long-time owner Philippe Lajaunie’s head, and executive chef Carlos Llaguno was behind the glass when we peaked through the kitchen window.

the best bit was the restaurant itself was as unassuming as any you’ll find. if it seats 120 people, it’s not by much. decor doesn’t look like its been updated in 50 years. the floor was stuffed mostly by locals, or at least tourists who knew how to blend in. when we asked for a quiet table to celebrate our anniversary, we got (easily) the best table in the restaurant.

and, the whole thing — two glasses of wine, one double sized appetizer, two entrees, two deserts, two coffees — was $120. i’ve paid twice as much in D.C., for half the meal.

my existence as an anthony bourdain fan-boy continues on, unabated. a simple, dirty pleasure in a complex world of food and reality television.

and i feel great.

]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/12494/feed 0 happy new year! http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9449 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9449#comments Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:37:52 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=9449 []
sometime, ask me how much i love my wife — and the talimos. amen.
]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9449/feed 0 anniversary http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9009 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9009#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:03:19 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=9009 []
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it’s our second consecutive year celebrating our October wedding anniversary during the first week of December.

so, we’ve now officially celebrated our anniversary in December more than we’ve celebrated it in October. we talked about just “moving” our anniversary to December, but i’m a little nervous that’d mean we wouldn’t actually celebrate it until February.

we had a late dinner at georgia brown’s (which made me realize i’ve was selling it short as “just a brunch place”) followed by drinks at the willard (we were cold, it was warm) and then dessert back in our neighborhood (the heights).

conversation was exactly what you’d expect — the baby we left at home, where we should go on vacation next year, TSA screening regulations, the desintigration of party unity on Capitol Hill, the rise of hyperpartisanship and it’s impact on the american psyche — you know, the usual stuff.

yup.

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
christmas decoration downtown, washington, dc
]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/9009/feed 0 *sigh* http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/8174 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/8174#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:57:44 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=8174 []
a special anniversary for the lady sparkler and i tonight, celebrating three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days without accidentally killing our daughter — go team!
]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/8174/feed 1 anniversary, apparently http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/7391 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/7391#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:32:05 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=7391 []
the lady sparkler and i got a call from my mother today, wishing us a happy third wedding anniversary. we both looked at each other and said:

wait, it’s our anniversary?

apparently.

UPDATE: aunt melissa has volunteered to babysit for us on a night of our choosing to help us go out and celebrate. yay :)

]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/7391/feed 0 anniversary, revisited http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/3515 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/3515#comments Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:04:00 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=3515 []
IMG_1126, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
we already had what’s becoming a long standing tradition of screwing up our anniversary, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when sparklet popped out three weeks early on the night we were due to celebrate our second anniversary.

so, when the spindler sisters — who’ve already been saving our bacon all week long — offered to sparklet-sit for us tonight, we grabbed our fancy clothes and flew out the door and had that anniversary dinner we’d been talking about since October and then tacked on a quick trip to the Capitol Christmas tree.

we were a little preocupied about things to talk about that didn’t involve diapers (and we already have a long-standing prohibition about talking work at social events) but in the end we did okay (we stared at each other without speaking). turns out that we enjoyed it enough to do it again in a couple of weeks.

Explore the Photo Set:
anniversary, revisited
]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/3515/feed 0 how i met your mother: date shirt (special 2nd anniversary edition) http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/2711 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/2711#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:54:13 +0000 evancparker http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=2711 photo-2
dear sparklet,

this is the sixth in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

today is mommy and daddy’s second wedding anniversary, but (as you you’ve probably noticed by the time you are old enough to read) we’re not very good at celebrating these things.

on our very first anniversary, we were supposed to go camping in Delaware, but bailed at the last minute and instead had dinner at a roadside mexican restaurant somewhere out route 50.

this year, we were going to go to our favorite restaurant (Acadiana) but it turns out the whole place was rented out for some kind of event. so instead, tonight i put on my “date shirt,” took mommy out for BBQ at the site of one of our earliest dates, and we’ll save Acadiana for next week.

(which is kinda funny, because that’s exactly what happened to mommy and daddy last year, too.)

which reminds me …

a long, long time ago, your mommy and daddy were just two nervous people who were trying to figure out how to talk to each other. which, i’m sure, must seem *really* strange to you by now.

before we were dating, your mommy asked me to come over to a dinner party she was having at the house she shared with Auntie Melissa.

it turns out that one of her previously invited friends couldn’t make it (thank you, Gannon!) and since mommy was looking for an excuse to ask daddy out, it seemed like a good idea at the time to invite me in his place.

unfortunately, i looked like a mess. i hadn’t cut my hair in about two years (so i guess i didn’t look all that different then i do now) and hadn’t bought any “impress a girl” clothes in in that time either.

naturally, i did what any boy in my situation would do — i turned to a female friend to bail me out.

Emmy and i setup a time to get my hair cut (by about 9 inches) and she even tagged along for moral support. in fact, your mommy ended up coming, too … i think mainly because mommy wanted to make sure that daddy and Emmy didn’t develop a “thing” before she could have her dinner party.

the following weekend, right before the party, Emmy and I took an emergency trip to Friendship Heights (the Gap) and she helped me find something that looked nice, but not *too* nice.

the shirt we bought? it’s daddy’s “date shirt” (which you can see in the photo above).

dinner was great. Uncle Cole and Aunt Skye were there, and the four of us talked for hours, and then I stayed behind to help mommy with the dishes.

By the time we were done eating, talking, cleaning and talking, it was 6 am the next morning. Not wanting to end the the “evening” quite yet, we walked down to the Alexandria waterfront, and then had breakfast at Table Talk (which is still one of our favorite’s).

At that point, I knew your mommy was something special … and had a feeling that your mommy and i had a nice future ahead of us. i didn’t know quite how long it would take, but I knew she would be worth the wait.

love,
daddy (& mommy)

UPDATE: no Acadiana for us quite yet…! the restaurant called to confirm our reservation as we were sitting in the labor and delivery room, waiting for you to be born.

so, instead, we “formally” celebrated our anniversary with you in our laps, eating mommy’s favorite pizza (goat cheese and bacon) from our long-time favorite pizza place (Listrani’s).

and while it certainly wasn’t what we were expecting, it was a perfect way to celebrate none-the-less.

]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/2711/feed 0 some assembly (not) required http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1123 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1123#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:47:51 +0000 evancparker http://www.theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=1123 well, i’m officially old now. interestingly enough, this realization didn’t come from a mortgage, or a life insurance that gives the lady sparkler financial incentive for my death, or from friends having wedding after wedding after wedding, or from going to a party and being the only one there without kids.

it came, instead, from pottery barn.

last week, we went anniversary present shopping and settled on a 33%-off console table to replace a piece of crap we bought at Ikea five years ago. it wasn’t in stock, but they had extras at the big, bad warehouse in the sky, and promised to ship one over to a store-near-us as soon as they could.

well, we got the call yesterday, crossed the bridge into rural Arlington to go pick it up. when we pulled up front, a very nice boy wheeled the box out to our car … and that’s when all hell broke loose.

the box was enormous. like really big. like “size of a piece of furniture” big.

there are apparently places in the world where you can buy furniture that doesn’t require assembly. more importantly, there are apparently places in the world where you can buy furniture which requires something bigger that a Volkswagen Jetta.

now, don’t get me wrong … i had heard rumors of such extravagance, but bushed them aide as if tales of the fortress of Atlantis, or a land filled with Unicorns, or a country of people who’d reelect some one from the Bush family. i mean, really … would would have thought such a place existed?!?

after getting a grip on our new found alternate reality, “very nice boy pottery barn boy” led us to the conclusion that the Jetta just wasn’t going to cut it (and we galloped off to rent a pick up truck from ZipCar).

but, let this serve as a cautionary tale for the youth of america. there comes a time when you will be allowed to vote, sent to war, drink, and afford to buy furniture that comes assembled — assuming that you catch a really good sale.

so, excercise your rights (responsibilities?) with caution …

]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1123/feed 0 year-old wedding cake http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1084 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1084#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:17:31 +0000 evancparker http://www.theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=1084
it’s amazing, but eating year old wedding cake really isn’t that bad … granted, the lady sparkler spent twenty minutes, a box of aluminum foil and a box of saran wrap getting the cake ready for the freezer, but when it came out it was all yummy goodness.
]]> http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1084/feed 0 first attempt at anniversary fails, couple reshedules for friday http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1007 http://theparkerfamily.org/musings/posts/1007#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:11:47 +0000 evancparker http://www.theparkerfamily.org/musings/?p=1007

it’s our anniversary, and the lady sparkler and I packed up Saturday for some light camping along the Delaware shore (cape helopen, near rehobeth).

the first problem is that she’s been fighting a cold, and it seemed to take up residence as the weekend went on. second problem was that the beach town was packed with old white people and their funny accents (the origin of which we never did figure out).

but besides side-stepping octagenarians, we had a good lunch (authentic, takeout fish and chips) at the beach before heading bailing for the quiet serenity of the nearby state park.

turns out that the economy really is in the toilet, because while every motel had bountiful vacancies, the campsite was quite literally packed with miserable looking middle-class white people. we checked in, and found our allotted 8 foot square patch of sand surrounded on all sides by kids, dogs and cars.

our site seemed to have the special designation of being the dog run for the neighbooring sites, which would have been about 2 feet from our tent once pitched. i am pretty certain that I have never seen such a small “campsite” before, and (we decided) hope to never again.

so, given the illness, the kids, the dogs, and the funny accents, we decided to take a long walk around the cape, eat some cheesy-so-bad-it’s-good Mexican food (Chevy’s) along the highway home and call it a day.

in full disclosure, the day was by no means a wash … we had gorgeous weather, a beautiful hike, and a wonderful day trip. we’re going to celebrate our anniversary on Friday instead, with a meal at our favorite-est fancy restaurant in the world — Acadiana — like good affluent, married white-people should.

hopefully we’ll have less sickness, and we’ll definitely have less funny accents.

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