Returning to Chang's

Tonight we celebrated the Lunar New Year with a visit to P.F. Chang's, a place we hadn't been to in quite some time.  Maddie was looking at the menu earlier today and even yesterday, pretty excited for the food this evening.  And it was good too!  There wasn't much of a crowd tonight, as it was a weekday night, and that was just fine with us.

Maddie got a spicy selection, including some firecracker sushi and shrimp, and of course a spicy chicken meal too.  Mom and I opted for some more sedate selections, although still pretty tasty.  We also got some hot tea, some lemon ginger tea that was just perfect.

Maddie brought the 35mm camera with her and was taking pictures tonight, and of course we'll have to wait until they develop to see what came out.  But she had a great time this evening, and it was nice going out to celebrate the new year together.

It was certainly on the pricy side - I think this was about three or even four times as much as eating at Wang's.  But it was a special occasion, and we enjoyed it very much, all the way down to the Chinese fortune cookies at the end.  It's been ages since we've been there, the last time a bit controversial because Mom had quite the bad reaction to some food.  We didn't know if it was gluten or what, and we specified that there be no gluten in the food.  So we just decided not to come back for a while, just to play it safe.  Well, it's been a long, long time.  And no bad reactions tonight, I'm glad to say.  But look at this early picture of Maddie at P.F. Chang's from about fifteen years ago.  Wow.  Fifteen years ago.  Wow.

It was a decent day today.  Maddie has been working on a self-portrait that is coming along really well, a project where she's gridding out sections of a photograph and individually recreating each square on the grid with a pencil.  The hair has been the challenge, as usual, but it's coming along well.  She's also been developing film too - the artistic parts of school have been enjoyable. 

At KidPak,we were at a local middle school hosting a special session after school today, and also filming some fun games for KPTV.  And writing.  Always writing.  Although the nature of AI suggests that writing won't be as necessary in the future, or at least our writing things.  I'm glad I'm from a generation that remembers when music, art and writing were 100% created from the human mind, versus this point on, where you'll always be suspicious of AI involvement.  

So it was a good day today.  We read tonight before bed, and we said our prayers of course.  The Plush Entourage got tucked in, and then it was time for bed!  Happy New Year!