carlsons' candids

this weekend, momma chiang came into town for a whirlwind visit and and to help us with a big project (reveal to come in a few days!) as you can see, there was lots of food involved and good company too.

we ended the weekend around a lazy susan at x.o. taste - authentic, not too greasy chinese food. when the bill came, momma chiang reached for it as mark eyed the bill. but her fast, trained chinese hands were too skilled in the food check game for mark, so all mark could say was:, "ummmm we'd like to help with the bill." here's the kicker folks, and by kicker, i mean SHOCKER! momma chiang replied, "no, that is not the chinese way. i pay for it." husband and i looked at each other and busted out laughing, because this is the first either of us have heard of this new-fangled chinese way. after we stopped laughing, husband managed to say, "i feel like i've been lied to the past couple years of my life." but we'll ride on the adkins' coattails for a free chinese meal any day! thanks momma and thanks adkins! you helped us learn a very, very valuable, and might i add, new, cultural lesson.

big bro, what do you think of momma's new assertion?

on another note, who watched the olympics opening ceremony? can we give a collective shout: "i want those three hours of my life back!!!!" i'm not sure what's worse: the opening ceremony itself, or the fact that we watched the entire thing, thinking, there was a big wow factor just coming up and if we kept watching then we would not miss it. somehow, we managed to watch the whole thing, and miss the big wow of the opening ceremony. but onto the games. U-S-A!

happy monday and let the countdown to the weekend begin!