Grossman family west

Earlier this week we received a gift for Avi—a really cool piggy bank called a Big Belly Bank. We’d really love to write the generous giver of the gift a proper thank-you note but we have no idea who you are! We checked inside the box and the return address on the box (Elizabethtown, NY), checked our Amazon.com Baby Registry (which keeps track, automatically, of anything ordered from there), and we even tried to call the store that sells these to figure it out… but we’ve come up empty-handed.

So, Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous Gift Giver–thank you! Please don’t stay anonymous forever!

Did you give Avi this cool personalized Big Belly Bank??

This past weekend, 9 adults, 2 Little Ones, and a cute pooch made the short 3-hour drive to Lake Tahoe for some spring skiing. The Laskey and Grossman Families (including Debbie and Scout), along with Jon, Julie, Sean, and Christine filled a cabin in Truckee on Friday night and hit Squaw Valley on Saturday before heading home on Sunday. Some highlights:

1) Everyone handled one meal and all teams rose to the occasion: shrimp tacos, breakfast burritos, chicken pot pie, and breakfast sandwiches kept us all healthy and happy. The biggest meal delight probably came from Debbie, though, who took a family Trifle recipe and modified it to make it “K4P,” as she called it (many times). For those of you who do not speak in text message lingo, “K4P” translates into “Kosher for Passover.” Anyway, although Debbie made about 18 lbs of trifle (it weighed more than Dahlia and Avi combined), it was all devoured within two days.

2) Avi and Dahlia had another “date,” though their parents are always around (annoying!), so it may be moving into the “friend zone.”

3) While watching the Little Ones for a couple of hours so the moms could ski, the dads got hit on by more women in the lodge than had ever spoken to them in their entire lives. We are sure that it was because of the fantastic tans that we had earned in the morning–not because we were two young dads watching our two infants.

4) Avi skied. No he didn’t, just kidding. He did seem to enjoy the lodge, though, so he’s GOING to be a great skier. Or, at the very least, a truly great apres-skier.

5) There was some great skiing and the weather was beautiful. There’s now a Lake Tahoe album in the Photo Gallery!

View from Squaw, the Lake over our shoulders

A while ago, when nobody was looking, we posted a video and photos from the weekend that Joel and Holly got engaged. You can find them both in the photo gallery (scroll to the bottom), or using these direct links: proposal weekend photo set and the proposal video (that is, a retelling of how it went down, by Holly).

For now, I’m just making an announcement that we’re twittering. Maybe later, I’ll embed the tweets here. We’ll see.

You can follow us (well, Joel) here: http://twitter.com/kivieg

This past weekend we celebrated our friend Vlada’s 30th birthday with a pair of surprise events coordinated by Michal, her husband. Lucky for you, both events produced some fun pictures. First, we surprised Vlada just outside the Bi-Rite creamery, about a dozen of her friends from all over the country (including Seattle and New York). We grabbed some deliciousness at Tartine and strolled up to Dolores Park for some eatin’. Avi came, and posed for some pictures with some new friends, which we’ve added to the Avi and Friends Photo Album.

Buddy, Vlada, Jasmine, and Avi at Dolores Park

Then, later that night, Uncle Dave and Dara babysat our man Avi so that Holly and Joel could have our first night out (!) for a fun time at Fandorin, a Russian restaurant that served up a banquet of deliciousness, dancing, and, according to Michal “enough vodka to make you feel Russian.” We had a blast and posted some of our pictures on Flickr (slideshow). Happy Birthday, Vlada!

Holly’s sister, Robin, arrived a couple of days ago and we’ve loved having her here. More on that later. Last night, we had a nice adult dinner (at the table and everything), complete with a bottle of wine (Holly’s first in 9 months!). Typically, not blog-worthy, but this wine was impressively delicious. Robin has worked in the restaurant industry for years and studied under a sommelier in San Diego. She called this bottle “an elegant and masterful blend that is full bodied with soft low notes and tantalizing surprises as it opens up. I am very impressed!” Wow. Holly and I just called it delicious. Apparently some fancy-pants reviewer also confirmed what my plebian palette had deduced: Robert Parker gave this wine 91 points.

The bottle? A 2006 Syrah by Ross Andrew Winery. FULL DISCLOSURE: Ross and his wife Alexandra also happen to be friends of ours, though if we hadn’t liked the wine, it wouldn’t have gotten a blog entry! You can even order a bottle for yourself online.

This one is ours. Get your own bottle at RossAndrewWinery.com

It turns out we had one casualty of the Bris besides Avi’s foreskin: we’re missing a point-and-shoot camera. If you accidentally took one that wasn’t yours, please email Joel (details on the About page) so we can get it back home. Thanks.

Am I Hot Or Not, Local.

Finally we can answer that age old question: which city has the most beautiful “average people”?

I’m disappointed that I can’t rate the photos from the map–that’s the most addictive part of Hot or Not. If they add that, I’d bet that this would put Hot or Not back on the map, so to speak.

I’m also a bit surprised that Hot Or Not is hosting this on their servers, and more surprised that Google hasn’t taken it down yet (seeing as it’s a commercial site that makes money off of the ads).

Nevertheless, I applaud the creativity!

joel