i can't even believe that tomorrow cavin and i are going to be homeowners. i know tomorrow after closing and we're back in OUR house, i'm going to turn to cavin and say, "um, did we just buy...a HOUSE?"

i thought i was nervous last week! today, after going to the bank and getting a cashier's check for a large, insane amount of money, i can't sit still. my hands are shaking, and i'm constantly freaking, making sure i didn't misplace the check, or it didn't get stolen from my bag. and to top it off, my stomach hurts!

30 days ago, when we started counting down the days, cavin told me that the days were going to fly by - and they have. two weeks ago, i was telling myself that we were going to start packing up all of the kalat we've been accumulating while living at my parents' house, and start cleaning up. but did we do any of that? uh, no. but in our defense, we DID decide on a couch, which took a lot of discussion of the pros and cons, and we started going to stores that sold things we might need, to find out prices, and hey! we made a list! but in the famous words of doug martsch, "but the plan won't accomplish anything, if it's not implemented." *sigh*

besides this minimal preparation, i guess we've been trying to deal with this soon-to-be major change in our lives. let's see if i can recap the ways we (well, at least me) have been "coping": dinner at cochon; drinks at james; buying new cell phones; duran duran at the mann (thanks bob&ga!); 3 pairs new shoes (for me); new clothes/coat (for me); taking crosby to the vet (is there such a thing as cat insurance??). so yeah, basically spending TONS of money before dropping major bones this friday. great way of "coping", right?

hopefully tomorrow everything will go smoothly: the seller will be moved out before walk-in and we're not waiting around, and that signing the paperwork won't result in me losing my patience (and getting carpal tunnel). if everything DOES go smoothly, i know the first thing i'll be doing: spending more money on built to spill tickets for both shows at the troc in september (perfect from now on, here i come!). i mean, i should get some sort of reward for successfully walking away from the house buying process only semi-scathed, right? hehe

Labels: home, music

this time next week, we will hopefully be new homeowners. i say "hopefully" because there have been a whole slew of things that has happened that has made me lose faith in human beings, in general.

the whole process has been a real struggle, and the most recent thing that has happened (which is stressing me out) is that the sellers' agent asked us if we could push our final walk through AFTER settlement. i've never bought a house before, but i'm fairly certain that it doesn't happen that way. i think the buyers need to walk through the house beforehand so that the house is in the condition they expect it to be in, with all of the seller's crap removed from the house for the walk through.

of course, poyu responded to the seller's agent, "uh, i'll talk to my clients, but i'm fairly certain they are going to say NO." (duh).

being the nice people we are, we are allowing them to finish moving the morning of settlement, and push back the walk through and settlement. so they are supposedly going to have movers come at 6am and hopefully be out of the house by 10am, so that we could have walk through at 10:15am, and then settlement at 11am. i'm very dubious about the entire moving process, because i've moved many times in my life (and been part of other's moving process) and i feel like i have a good grasp of how long it takes to move.

i'm not doubting the fact that it can get done in 4 hours, but honestly, when moving, you usually end up taking longer than you anticipated, no matter how much extra cushion time you add. and the fact that we KNOW that the seller's lady person is going to be out of town the night before, doesn't give me much confidence that things will be packed and ready to be moved out by the time the movers come (if they even come on time).

i'm concerned they are going to leave all their crap behind for us to get rid of because they didn't do it ahead of time. i'm worried because i'm going to feel rushed during the walk through, because we have to make the settlement at 11am (downtown). i'm stressed because if their move doesn't go as they planned, then we might be sitting around waiting for the sellers to finish moving, and then everything would get pushed back several hours. i'm annoyed at the seller for not having thought this plan all the way through ahead of time, thus affecting everyone's time (buyers, agents, titling company, etc). i'm nervous because a large chunk of the money we saved up will very soon be gone, and because for the past 6 months, we (me, cavin AND crosby) have grown comfortable living under my parents' roof and we're going to have to acclimate again (hopefully this will be the last time we move for a while).

i'm trying to think of everything we need to do to make settlement go as smoothly as possible. but not having bought a house before, i really have no idea what to expect. i really hope that things go as planned, because if they don't, knowing my temper, there might just be words exchanged between myself and the seller. watch out!

Labels: home, manayunk

i don't think i've written about sushi since we've moved back in the area. while my allegiance is always to kotobuki, there are some worthy contenders for getting our sushi on.

we haven't been actively exploring sushi restaurants, but we have gone to a few places (some since we've moved back, others while we were living in dc or nj). each has its pros and cons.

i would say that sagami has very fresh sushi, killer agadashi tofu as well as other japanese cuisine (other than sushi), is a byo, and has cozy feel to the place, but it's all the way in nj, so it's more of a i'm-bored-wanna-drive-to-nj? kind of place.

osaka is in chestnut hill, which is very close to where we live now, but it's expensive, and it's not a byo, so getting sake, wine, or liquor adds to the already high prices. [though, i just read this so maybe kirin ichiban is the (cheaper) way to go.]

speaking of high prices. while we haven't visited in a while, morimoto is spectacular, if by spectacular you mean having the freshest seafood (they have seafood tanks in the restaurant where they fish out your entree's main ingredient for you - at least they did the last time i was there). on the menu is my favorite dish of all time, rock shrimp tempura with spicy 'kochujan' aioli: light and crunchy batter on the outside, perfectly cooked sweet rock shrimp on the inside, coated with a sweet/sour fruit-based sauce (morimoto's take on the korean kochujan, a sweet and spicy bean paste) and masago (i seriously LOVE this dish!). this is definitely the kind of place you go to if you have a surplus of money lying around (hello economic stimulus!), or for a very special occasion.

our most recent find is bluefin. it's in a most unsuspecting strip mall in plymouth meeting, which happens to be a mere mile from my office. cavin and i have been a few times, and actually, we ordered a ~$100 tray of sushi for christmas 2007 for my family gathering. while it's not as cheap as kotobuki, their fish is quite fresh, and going for lunch isn't terribly expensive (today i had their 'sake lunch special': soup or salad, 1 spicy tuna roll and 4 salmon nigiri for $14). one of the other best things is that the sushi chef trained/worked with morimoto, and has added a 'spicy rock sundae' which pays tribute to morimoto's rock shrimp tempura dish. while it's not exactly the same as morimoto's version, it's a close match and definitely worth the price ($~9 vs morimoto's $18).

i suspect we'll be going to bluefin more often whenever a sushi craving strikes. the only downside is that it gets super crazy for dinner and if you forget to make a reservation, you are looking at a long wait, or dinner at bluefin another night.

bluefin sushi
1017 germantown pike
plymouth meeting, pa 19462
610.277.3917

Labels: philly, restaurant, sushi

if you're just finding out about dining out for life, then you're too late. it was yesterday. heh.

restaurants donated a percentage (most i've seen are 33%) of their profits yesterday to aids organizations. it was a great cause, and an excellent excuse to go out to dinner.

we were tempted to go to one of our favs, beau monde, but we decided to pass and try out adobe cafe, a southwestern restaurant in the roxborough/manayunk neighborhoods. [it's actually in roxborough, though, but a lot of people are like, 'roxborough? where's that?', to which i respond, 'have you heard of manayunk - it's right next to it.' and then most people have a general idea of where i'm talking about.]

i think this place has been here forever, though, i haven't gone to many restaurants in roxborough for the 15+ years i've lived in the area. so, hoping for the best, we gave it a try last night since we wanted to support dining out for life.

when you are driving/walking around the neighborhood, the building is hard to miss: it's a converted stucco home, painted an aztec-y, adobe orange, in a sea of white/tan row houses. there is an outside patio that has the potential for lazy, summer evening hangouts, but we didn't eat out there, as it was a little dreary out.

the hostess sat us towards the back section of the restaurant, and from our seats, we could see there was a bar area, and it was also good to see that the place was at the start of a busy evening - a good sign, maybe? or maybe not - could dining out for life possibly be one of those amateur "holidays" for going out - like valentine's day, or new years eve?

we started with a half pitcher of the red sangria, which wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything special. we also shared the french fried yams, which were lightly covered with melted cheese. again, nothing special, just sweet potato fries with shredded cheese melted on top.

my pork burrito was dubbed the title, "new mexican" because it had white beans (canned, i might add) instead of red or pinto beans. how fancy (not). the portion was large and someone in the kitchen had a heavy hand with the cheese in the filling (seriously - way too much). it was covered with some sort of canned imitation sour cream, which the chef squirted on with a bottle, no doubt. why he/she didn't just give a small side of fresh sour cream, one will always wonder. once i pulled the pork out of the flour tortilla and separated it from the cheese, it was, uh, edible? there was a side of grilled squash and mushrooms, which was bland, but at least didn't come from a can.

cavin ordered the combo: a tamale (not wrapped in a corn husk though), taquito (flauta), soft flour taco, and enchilada. i only took a small bite of his food, and while it was better than what i ordered, that's not really saying much. though it was only yesterday, i honestly don't remember what type of fillings were in his food, except for the chicken (in the soft flour taco), ONLY because we both were like, "oh look, there's cilantro in there".

both of our dishes were served with a yellow rice (boxed) mixed with lima beans (frozen) and corn (also frozen). and, of course, it was bland.

i know the economy is in a slump. and maybe adobe cafe's managers expected a busy night (for amateur restaurant goers). but why were the dishes totally lacking (lacking in what? EVERYTHING)???

so, i beg you adobe cafe: if you are going to serve mostly canned and prepared foods, at least try to sandra lee it up! come on! splurge and buy fresh herbs and add them to the canned sauces! buy fresh sour cream instead of the fake crap that you squeeze on the dishes - i'd much rather have been served one of those little plastic containers of the real stuff, than artfully squeezed faux sour cream any day. oh, and please season your food! there was seriously no salt added to any of the side dishes and my side of veggies could have used a quick marinade in olive oil and salt and pepper.

we spent a total of $45 and left totally unsatisfied. well, at least ~$15 went to a good cause. *sigh*

it was quite disappointing that adobe cafe could have been so great, but just fell so, so flat. i KNOW i can make dishes 10 times tastier than what i had last night (i should just open up a restaurant!). if i ever go back, maybe i'll have better luck drinking a michelada (which they actually have on their drink menu) and sitting outside on the patio.

adobe cafe
4550 mitchell street
philadelphia, pa 19128
215.483.3947

Labels: manayunk, restaurant