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beware of fried squid and Zoobles
Jul. 9th, 2011 10:54 pmToday's plan was for Sophia and I to meet up with other families with young children at New China Pearl in Woburn for dim sum, and then we would all take the kids somewhere outdoors to run around. Basically a good plan.
This wasn't my usual dim sum crowd, so I wasn't familiar with their pattern of food choices. I was not asking for much off the carts, trying to save room for the elusive spicy fried shrimp. Spicy fried shrimp never appeared. (Why is it always so challenging to get the spicy fried shrimp? They are the best!!!) It turned out that my dining companions were really into the sweet stuff. At one point I surveyed what was on the table and it was: doughnuts, custard, puffy buns filled with custard, puffy buns filled with sweetened bean paste, puffy buns filled with nobody knew what (but probably something sweet), and sesame buns. I was like, yikes, I need some serious protein, I am on the verge of a reactive hypoglycemic incident here with all this sweet stuff. Seafood emergency!!! Finally-- no spicy shrimp, but some fried squid which was (before today, heh) my second-favorite thing after the spicy shrimp. I ate some fried squid, and then some more, way too much, because everyone else was full after their custard buns etc. and I felt bad about so much squid going to waste. (Strangely enough, I thought I saw someone else eat a little bit of the squid, though.)
Then we went to a playground across the street from the Stone Zoo, which was nice, and had a bit of a walk in the Fells. I was raring to go on a major hike, except that we didn't have much water with us. Really, really wished for plenty more cold water. Sophia played nicely with the other kids.
( the icky part )
During supper I had Sophia give me the book so she wouldn't get food on it, so after supper, not having the book in hand, she started playing with the other children again. Someone had just gotten a Zooble play-set. The boy was under the mistaken understanding that the effective way to get a Zooble to open was to drop it or strike it. A grown-up was trying to tell him "no don't drop them they will break!" but neither the boy nor Sophia would listen to the grown-up. Sophia, of course, had to listen to the boy (he's four). So, of course, the Zooble that Sophia was playing with broke. She then took the Zooble that the boy was playing with, reasoning, I guess, that it was his fault anyway for having the lousy suggesting that they should drop the Zoobles. I considered that to be unjust (even if it was his idea) and so I made Sophia give up the second Zooble, upon which she started to melt down. She was pretty upset about having broken the Zooble, anyway. So, I decided that if she was suddenly so volatile, she must be tired, and it was Time To Go. Boy, that really made here completely melt down. She utterly refused to go, kicking at me and hurling verbal abuse at me as I tried to pick her up to take her out of there. So we made an un-graceful exit. After calming down about the Zoobles, Sophia grumped that she had not gotten to read the last 10 pages or so of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
It had the makings for an extremely pleasant weekend day. I would like to try something like that again, but next time, no fried squid from New China Pearl and NO MORE ZOOBLES DAMNIT!!!
This wasn't my usual dim sum crowd, so I wasn't familiar with their pattern of food choices. I was not asking for much off the carts, trying to save room for the elusive spicy fried shrimp. Spicy fried shrimp never appeared. (Why is it always so challenging to get the spicy fried shrimp? They are the best!!!) It turned out that my dining companions were really into the sweet stuff. At one point I surveyed what was on the table and it was: doughnuts, custard, puffy buns filled with custard, puffy buns filled with sweetened bean paste, puffy buns filled with nobody knew what (but probably something sweet), and sesame buns. I was like, yikes, I need some serious protein, I am on the verge of a reactive hypoglycemic incident here with all this sweet stuff. Seafood emergency!!! Finally-- no spicy shrimp, but some fried squid which was (before today, heh) my second-favorite thing after the spicy shrimp. I ate some fried squid, and then some more, way too much, because everyone else was full after their custard buns etc. and I felt bad about so much squid going to waste. (Strangely enough, I thought I saw someone else eat a little bit of the squid, though.)
Then we went to a playground across the street from the Stone Zoo, which was nice, and had a bit of a walk in the Fells. I was raring to go on a major hike, except that we didn't have much water with us. Really, really wished for plenty more cold water. Sophia played nicely with the other kids.
( the icky part )
During supper I had Sophia give me the book so she wouldn't get food on it, so after supper, not having the book in hand, she started playing with the other children again. Someone had just gotten a Zooble play-set. The boy was under the mistaken understanding that the effective way to get a Zooble to open was to drop it or strike it. A grown-up was trying to tell him "no don't drop them they will break!" but neither the boy nor Sophia would listen to the grown-up. Sophia, of course, had to listen to the boy (he's four). So, of course, the Zooble that Sophia was playing with broke. She then took the Zooble that the boy was playing with, reasoning, I guess, that it was his fault anyway for having the lousy suggesting that they should drop the Zoobles. I considered that to be unjust (even if it was his idea) and so I made Sophia give up the second Zooble, upon which she started to melt down. She was pretty upset about having broken the Zooble, anyway. So, I decided that if she was suddenly so volatile, she must be tired, and it was Time To Go. Boy, that really made here completely melt down. She utterly refused to go, kicking at me and hurling verbal abuse at me as I tried to pick her up to take her out of there. So we made an un-graceful exit. After calming down about the Zoobles, Sophia grumped that she had not gotten to read the last 10 pages or so of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
It had the makings for an extremely pleasant weekend day. I would like to try something like that again, but next time, no fried squid from New China Pearl and NO MORE ZOOBLES DAMNIT!!!
