Last Friday, we had dinner with Matilde, Kokomi, Jeannette, and Freeman. Jeannette and Freeman stayed to help me bake an apple pie. Freeman slept while Jeannette peeled and sliced the apples while I prepared the mixture. Poor Jeannette didn't get to taste the pie because she had to leave earlier, and I brought the pie to cousin Billy & Maggie's in Mountain View for a BBQ. It was a nice little family gathering since Esther was there along with my uncle and his kids and Billy's parents. It was crazy hot (90+ degrees) and so weird because on Monday it was like 60 degrees in the city.
Sunday was pretty uneventful. Edwin tried to get the new Apple iPhone, but was told at the store that their system was down. It's crazy to me the demand for this phone. I work on the Windows Mobile campaign and I get a free phone through work, but I still think about paying $200 plus a monthly fee for the new iPhone. Is that crazy? I know that a lot of MS employees have iPhones. How good of a product is Windows Mobile if you can't convince your own employees to use it? Part of me wants to tell MS to build a product like the iPhone and then we can help them to advertise it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
DC Days
Yikes! It's been a while since I posted. It's mostly because we went to DC last week to celebrate Mustafa and Ellen's wedding. We were there from Wednesday to Sunday, but the time went by so fast. When we arrived on Wednesday, Mustafa and Ellen picked us up from the airport and we went to dinner. We also got a tour of their new house. We forget that when we leave the Bay Area, the houses all seem SO BIG. They had a beautiful deck with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. I have bathroom envy when I still have to share our only bathroom with Edwin. Here are some photos from our trip:
On Thursday, we helped pick up all the liquor for the wedding. We purchased the recommended amount from the caterer. We should have anticipated that the 60 guests would not be able to consume the vast amounts of liquor that they recommended- especially when we knew about half the guests and most of them don't drink alcohol at all. I think that Sujay did his best to consume as much as possible. He had 4 drinks before dinner and quite a few after. I always thought that "wedding Sujay" was only affected by wine, but now I know that's not the case. More about that later. After we picked up the libations, we went shopping at the Leesburg outlet mall since we were in the vicinity and sales tax was only 5%. I didn't really get much, but Edwin was able to get some great deals. We then met up with Ellen & Mustafa and some of their out of town guests for some pizza and pasta.
Feeling guilty about not indulging in the more cultural aspects of DC, we decided to go to the Smithsonian with the Banerjees on Friday. I forgot how big it was and we were only able to make it to the Natural History museum where we saw the Hope Diamond, a butterfly exhibit, and lots of taxodermied animals. We had wanted to visit the American History museum, but it was closed for renovations. We also wanted to see the Aerospace museum, but we ran out of time. We took a brisk walk to the Capitol Building in the sweltering heat, made a short stop at the Washington Monument, and then went to visit Matilde's old high school. We made it back in time to enjoy a BBQ at Ellen & Mustafa's where we got to meet up with Michelle and Mike, Derek and Show, Bo and John, Jinn, Kristal, Greg, Wilson, and Lok. We haven't seen Wilson in forever so it was nice to catch up with him and his adventures in HK. Old friends = good times.
Saturday was the big day, but we managed to make a quick trip to Dupont Circle with the Banerjees and Jinn. We had a quick lunch at Wisemillers which Greg had recommended to us and realized that we were no longer in college as we were expecting seating with our meal. It was still tasty and so we dined al fresco on one of the Georgetown campus lawns. Unfortunately, we did not get to explore Dupont Circle as much as we would have liked because we needed to get back to get dressed. It was such a cute little area that reminded me of Beacon Street in Boston because of the cute boutiques and collegiate atmosphere.
We had begun to remark that Ellen and Mustafa didn't seem as stressed as most couples are on their wedding day and surmised that it was probably because this was their third wedding. (They were officially married in December with family only and had another celebration in London earlier this year.) They still had a ceremony and it was lovely. Ellen is one of our dearest friends and part of our wedding party. The words that they shared were so heart-felt and genuine that I don't know that there was a dry eye in the group. Even though they have been married in essence for 6 months, it seemed to me that they were just wed. They were also mercifully short in the hot weather. Pictures to be posted later. There was lots of dancing and then it was all over. We got to chauffer Sujay home because he was three sheets to the wind. We had to stop twice to let him expunge his dinner and drinks. All in all, it was a great night of celebration.
Sunday morning took us a little longer to wake up. We spent our last few hours at Ellen and Mustafa's and saying good-bye to friends before we had a long flights home. We had a connection in Phoenix and our layover turned out to be delayed due to some bogus SF weather claims. Luckily, they let us off the plane and we were able to fly standby to Oakland which was more convenient anyway. After so much activity, it was nice to be home.
This week was horrendous. Work has been killing me. I was working until past 1AM on Monday because of a deadline and I have worked after I got home every day this week. This is not normal for me thankfully, but it doesn't make it much easier. Today was the first day I didn't feel exhausted. This weekend cannot come soon enough!
On Thursday, we helped pick up all the liquor for the wedding. We purchased the recommended amount from the caterer. We should have anticipated that the 60 guests would not be able to consume the vast amounts of liquor that they recommended- especially when we knew about half the guests and most of them don't drink alcohol at all. I think that Sujay did his best to consume as much as possible. He had 4 drinks before dinner and quite a few after. I always thought that "wedding Sujay" was only affected by wine, but now I know that's not the case. More about that later. After we picked up the libations, we went shopping at the Leesburg outlet mall since we were in the vicinity and sales tax was only 5%. I didn't really get much, but Edwin was able to get some great deals. We then met up with Ellen & Mustafa and some of their out of town guests for some pizza and pasta.
Feeling guilty about not indulging in the more cultural aspects of DC, we decided to go to the Smithsonian with the Banerjees on Friday. I forgot how big it was and we were only able to make it to the Natural History museum where we saw the Hope Diamond, a butterfly exhibit, and lots of taxodermied animals. We had wanted to visit the American History museum, but it was closed for renovations. We also wanted to see the Aerospace museum, but we ran out of time. We took a brisk walk to the Capitol Building in the sweltering heat, made a short stop at the Washington Monument, and then went to visit Matilde's old high school. We made it back in time to enjoy a BBQ at Ellen & Mustafa's where we got to meet up with Michelle and Mike, Derek and Show, Bo and John, Jinn, Kristal, Greg, Wilson, and Lok. We haven't seen Wilson in forever so it was nice to catch up with him and his adventures in HK. Old friends = good times.
Saturday was the big day, but we managed to make a quick trip to Dupont Circle with the Banerjees and Jinn. We had a quick lunch at Wisemillers which Greg had recommended to us and realized that we were no longer in college as we were expecting seating with our meal. It was still tasty and so we dined al fresco on one of the Georgetown campus lawns. Unfortunately, we did not get to explore Dupont Circle as much as we would have liked because we needed to get back to get dressed. It was such a cute little area that reminded me of Beacon Street in Boston because of the cute boutiques and collegiate atmosphere.
We had begun to remark that Ellen and Mustafa didn't seem as stressed as most couples are on their wedding day and surmised that it was probably because this was their third wedding. (They were officially married in December with family only and had another celebration in London earlier this year.) They still had a ceremony and it was lovely. Ellen is one of our dearest friends and part of our wedding party. The words that they shared were so heart-felt and genuine that I don't know that there was a dry eye in the group. Even though they have been married in essence for 6 months, it seemed to me that they were just wed. They were also mercifully short in the hot weather. Pictures to be posted later. There was lots of dancing and then it was all over. We got to chauffer Sujay home because he was three sheets to the wind. We had to stop twice to let him expunge his dinner and drinks. All in all, it was a great night of celebration.
Sunday morning took us a little longer to wake up. We spent our last few hours at Ellen and Mustafa's and saying good-bye to friends before we had a long flights home. We had a connection in Phoenix and our layover turned out to be delayed due to some bogus SF weather claims. Luckily, they let us off the plane and we were able to fly standby to Oakland which was more convenient anyway. After so much activity, it was nice to be home.
This week was horrendous. Work has been killing me. I was working until past 1AM on Monday because of a deadline and I have worked after I got home every day this week. This is not normal for me thankfully, but it doesn't make it much easier. Today was the first day I didn't feel exhausted. This weekend cannot come soon enough!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
All in a Day's Hard Work
So I hope that everyone had a good time for the 4th of July. We had a great time. We had a BBQ. We thought that there would be 15 people attending, but then we had more than 30 people come. We started the day with the Alameda parade which is one of the longest parades in the country at 3.5 miles long. It was definitely a slice of Americana. Matilde, Kokomi, Sully, Eric, Wendy, Kian, and Teague joined us for the festivities. There were lots of people who came to the parade via bike. We drove, but were able to find parking only 3 blocks away. As a former city dweller, this was pretty incredible to us. We were able to get great views because the parade was so long that even at one of the busiest intersections on the island, we got front row seats. Here are some pictures of the parade.
After we left the parade, we went home to prepare for the BBQ. The day went by so quickly. Many people had more than 1 BBQ, so we ended the festivities around 5PM. This allowed us to go to Greg's BBQ in the evening in Emeryville where we tried to watch the fireworks, but because it was so cloudy, we weren't able to see much.
This weekend has gone by quickly too. We had a dinner in Oakland and then watched an Adam Sandler movie called Click. It was a fun movie. On Saturday, Jamie came over and helped us fix a LOT of little things around the house. Now I wish that I had taken "before" pictures. In one day, they hung the old kitchen cabinets in the garage, repaired the deck and stairs, fixed the gate latch, repaired the back screendoor, hung several window shades, and tore out the old shed acoustic ceiling. I was hoping for just the cabinets to be hung and maybe some deck repair. I never in my wildest dreams thought that they would be able to accomplish so much in one day. As Jamie kept saying, "Well, since we have all the tools out, what else can we do?" Here's a new addition to a good friend definition- helps you do home repair or clean raw sewage. Thanks Jamie!
After we left the parade, we went home to prepare for the BBQ. The day went by so quickly. Many people had more than 1 BBQ, so we ended the festivities around 5PM. This allowed us to go to Greg's BBQ in the evening in Emeryville where we tried to watch the fireworks, but because it was so cloudy, we weren't able to see much.
This weekend has gone by quickly too. We had a dinner in Oakland and then watched an Adam Sandler movie called Click. It was a fun movie. On Saturday, Jamie came over and helped us fix a LOT of little things around the house. Now I wish that I had taken "before" pictures. In one day, they hung the old kitchen cabinets in the garage, repaired the deck and stairs, fixed the gate latch, repaired the back screendoor, hung several window shades, and tore out the old shed acoustic ceiling. I was hoping for just the cabinets to be hung and maybe some deck repair. I never in my wildest dreams thought that they would be able to accomplish so much in one day. As Jamie kept saying, "Well, since we have all the tools out, what else can we do?" Here's a new addition to a good friend definition- helps you do home repair or clean raw sewage. Thanks Jamie!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
NYC and Freeman Jah George
Last week just flew by. As you know, I went to NYC for the week. Here was the day-by-day activities:
Tuesday-I arrived to a hot and sweaty NYC via SuperShuttle. Now, I lived in NYC for 2 years. In all that time, I never took SuperShuttle. Why did I start now? I should have just shared a taxi with someone from the airport. I waited 45 minutes just to board the shuttle. Then, I sat for another hour while we dropped off 3 other parties. I could not stand it any longer. I got out and took a taxi the rest of the way. It would have been faster and cheaper to take the subway. Note to self- SuperShuttle in SF good. SuperShuttle in NYC- very, very bad. I arrived at Priyanka and Matt's for a late night dinner. It was nice to catch up with them.
Wednesday- To prepare for Priyanka's birthday dinner, I wen to Union Square Farmer's Market with Matt to pick up some ingredients. It was really big and had a large selection. I really wish that I had known about this when I lived there because I was always frustrated with the lack of fresh foods though I am told that this market just started getting more popular within the last few years. I also got to meet up with my cousin Vivian. She happened to be on her way to Guatamala for a freelance job. We had lunch at Katz's Deli and then shopping in Soho. That night, I went in to Westchester with my cousin Amy to visit my uncle and aunt. We also went to Cosi for dinner. Cosi is a regional chain that is not in CA, but I used to have it for lunch a lot when I lived in NYC so it was another food to check off my list. These were some really good sandwiches.
Thursday- I met up with Amy in Times Square for Sapporo ramen. When I lived in NYC, I used to meet up with Amy for ramen lunch at least once a week. Then, I met up with Ellen for some more shopping. She came up from DC to hang out with me and Jinn since school was out. It was also Priyanka's birthday and her husband Matt cooked up a a gourmet vegetarian dinner. Matt has always been able to make vegetarian food appealing to me. I'm pretty much the biggest carnivore, but Matt makes vegetarian dishes so tasty that it makes me think that he must be sneaking in meat somehow. He did not disappoint. He started with a 3 types of picked beets on endive. I'm not a big beet fan and I normally don't like endive because I find it bitter. Matt has changed my mind. I think that the pickling tamed the bitter flavor. He then made a cilantro soup. I hate cilantro, but I thought that if anyone was going to change my mind about that soap-flavored herb, it would be Matt. I tried it and had more than I thought I would, but alas, even Matt could not change my mind about cilantro. I tried. The main course was the lasagna. Most people buy the sauce and noodles and call it day. Matt made the sauce and the lasagna noodles. Who does that? This is what makes Matt a gourmet. It was SO good. The noodles were thinner than most lasagna noodles and the sauce was so sweet. I loved it and I had 2 pieces. Then, Priyanka's friend Edina made a cake. Who are these people? How do they even have the materials at home to just whip up a cake? I was impressed. My friends will buy me a nice cake, but I can't imagine anyone having the time to bake an entire cake. Maybe Show. These people live in NYC. They have changed my perception of New Yorkers. I need to step up my hostess game. No more Costco parties- who am I kidding? We're having 15 people over Friday for a BBQ. You bet we're going to Costco. Maybe I'll plan for something homemade...
Friday- I started out the day by meeting Ellen in South Street Seaport to pick up Broadway tickets at TKTS. We worked our way up to the West Village for some lunch at Dirty Bird to Go which I thought was good, but expensive. The whole premise is that the chicken in organic and hormone-free. I guess that healthier chickens mean littler chickens because it was probably the smallest thigh I have ever eaten. It was tasty, but I don't know if it's worth triple the cost of Popeye's for half the food. We also went to The Ink Pad to pick up embossing materials for Jinn's birthday gift. It was a cool specialty store with more stamps than I have ever seen, but I'm not sure that it's for everyone. Then, Ellen and I went to Central Park to hang out. Before our Broadway show, we had dinner at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings with Amy and Sandi. This was probably my favorite new find in NYC. These dumplings were so tasty. All the food was very good. We thought that we had over-ordered, but we managed to finish everything. I think that my favorites were the crab and pork soup dumplings and the seafood fried flat noodles. Yum- my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I think that this will warrant a return the next time I'm in NYC. Haven't had dumplings this good in a while. We then went to watch Spring Awakenings, a new musical. I have to admit, I knew nothing about this show, but it has gotten some good reviews. The music was pretty good and the actors were pretty good, but I couldn't get into the storyline. It was supposed to take place in 1890 Germany, but the music was contemporary and I like my musicals to be more happy and cheesy. After the show, we met up with Bo and her boyfriend for some karaoke at Duet which Derek recommended. Show and Derek were supposed to join us, but unfortunately, Show's flight was delayed 1.5 hours. We managed to still have a blast. We were only going to stay an hour, but we ended up singing for 2 hours.
Sat- I started the day with some bagel and lox with Priyanka at a nearby bagel joint. I forgot how good a bagel and lox can taste. Another NYC food check. Jinn drove us out to her NJ summer house in Bradley Beach for a gourmet BBQ. Anyone going to Jinn's parties will never go hungry. She made pulled pork, hamburgers with garlic chunks, marinated chicken thighs, asparagus, portobella mushrooms, and red peppers. She also marinated salmon, but we were just too stuffed to eat cook it. We spent a few hours at the beach where I took a nice nap. I ended up napping 3 times that day. I think that all of the hustle and bustle of NYC caught up to me. It was really nice to be able to relax in NJ at the beach house.
Sun- For my final day, we made a visit to our friends Val and Jason's house in Brooklyn to meet their son Tyler. It was really great to catch up with them and again I was impressed by Jason's culinary skills. He made a steak with risotto while Val made a strawberry shortcake dessert from scratch. Like I said, these New Yorkers have made me realize that I need to make more of a culinary effort. It can be done!
It was a really busy trip, but I was happy that I was able to spend quality time with all of my friends and family. These are the only photos I have from the trip because Edwin took the camera with him to Nicaragua. This is a photo of me with my cousins Amy and Sandi after we gorged at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings.
Best news of all, Jeannette gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday. Here's a photo of uncle Edwin with his new nephew, Freeman.
Tuesday-I arrived to a hot and sweaty NYC via SuperShuttle. Now, I lived in NYC for 2 years. In all that time, I never took SuperShuttle. Why did I start now? I should have just shared a taxi with someone from the airport. I waited 45 minutes just to board the shuttle. Then, I sat for another hour while we dropped off 3 other parties. I could not stand it any longer. I got out and took a taxi the rest of the way. It would have been faster and cheaper to take the subway. Note to self- SuperShuttle in SF good. SuperShuttle in NYC- very, very bad. I arrived at Priyanka and Matt's for a late night dinner. It was nice to catch up with them.
Wednesday- To prepare for Priyanka's birthday dinner, I wen to Union Square Farmer's Market with Matt to pick up some ingredients. It was really big and had a large selection. I really wish that I had known about this when I lived there because I was always frustrated with the lack of fresh foods though I am told that this market just started getting more popular within the last few years. I also got to meet up with my cousin Vivian. She happened to be on her way to Guatamala for a freelance job. We had lunch at Katz's Deli and then shopping in Soho. That night, I went in to Westchester with my cousin Amy to visit my uncle and aunt. We also went to Cosi for dinner. Cosi is a regional chain that is not in CA, but I used to have it for lunch a lot when I lived in NYC so it was another food to check off my list. These were some really good sandwiches.
Thursday- I met up with Amy in Times Square for Sapporo ramen. When I lived in NYC, I used to meet up with Amy for ramen lunch at least once a week. Then, I met up with Ellen for some more shopping. She came up from DC to hang out with me and Jinn since school was out. It was also Priyanka's birthday and her husband Matt cooked up a a gourmet vegetarian dinner. Matt has always been able to make vegetarian food appealing to me. I'm pretty much the biggest carnivore, but Matt makes vegetarian dishes so tasty that it makes me think that he must be sneaking in meat somehow. He did not disappoint. He started with a 3 types of picked beets on endive. I'm not a big beet fan and I normally don't like endive because I find it bitter. Matt has changed my mind. I think that the pickling tamed the bitter flavor. He then made a cilantro soup. I hate cilantro, but I thought that if anyone was going to change my mind about that soap-flavored herb, it would be Matt. I tried it and had more than I thought I would, but alas, even Matt could not change my mind about cilantro. I tried. The main course was the lasagna. Most people buy the sauce and noodles and call it day. Matt made the sauce and the lasagna noodles. Who does that? This is what makes Matt a gourmet. It was SO good. The noodles were thinner than most lasagna noodles and the sauce was so sweet. I loved it and I had 2 pieces. Then, Priyanka's friend Edina made a cake. Who are these people? How do they even have the materials at home to just whip up a cake? I was impressed. My friends will buy me a nice cake, but I can't imagine anyone having the time to bake an entire cake. Maybe Show. These people live in NYC. They have changed my perception of New Yorkers. I need to step up my hostess game. No more Costco parties- who am I kidding? We're having 15 people over Friday for a BBQ. You bet we're going to Costco. Maybe I'll plan for something homemade...
Friday- I started out the day by meeting Ellen in South Street Seaport to pick up Broadway tickets at TKTS. We worked our way up to the West Village for some lunch at Dirty Bird to Go which I thought was good, but expensive. The whole premise is that the chicken in organic and hormone-free. I guess that healthier chickens mean littler chickens because it was probably the smallest thigh I have ever eaten. It was tasty, but I don't know if it's worth triple the cost of Popeye's for half the food. We also went to The Ink Pad to pick up embossing materials for Jinn's birthday gift. It was a cool specialty store with more stamps than I have ever seen, but I'm not sure that it's for everyone. Then, Ellen and I went to Central Park to hang out. Before our Broadway show, we had dinner at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings with Amy and Sandi. This was probably my favorite new find in NYC. These dumplings were so tasty. All the food was very good. We thought that we had over-ordered, but we managed to finish everything. I think that my favorites were the crab and pork soup dumplings and the seafood fried flat noodles. Yum- my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I think that this will warrant a return the next time I'm in NYC. Haven't had dumplings this good in a while. We then went to watch Spring Awakenings, a new musical. I have to admit, I knew nothing about this show, but it has gotten some good reviews. The music was pretty good and the actors were pretty good, but I couldn't get into the storyline. It was supposed to take place in 1890 Germany, but the music was contemporary and I like my musicals to be more happy and cheesy. After the show, we met up with Bo and her boyfriend for some karaoke at Duet which Derek recommended. Show and Derek were supposed to join us, but unfortunately, Show's flight was delayed 1.5 hours. We managed to still have a blast. We were only going to stay an hour, but we ended up singing for 2 hours.
Sat- I started the day with some bagel and lox with Priyanka at a nearby bagel joint. I forgot how good a bagel and lox can taste. Another NYC food check. Jinn drove us out to her NJ summer house in Bradley Beach for a gourmet BBQ. Anyone going to Jinn's parties will never go hungry. She made pulled pork, hamburgers with garlic chunks, marinated chicken thighs, asparagus, portobella mushrooms, and red peppers. She also marinated salmon, but we were just too stuffed to eat cook it. We spent a few hours at the beach where I took a nice nap. I ended up napping 3 times that day. I think that all of the hustle and bustle of NYC caught up to me. It was really nice to be able to relax in NJ at the beach house.
Sun- For my final day, we made a visit to our friends Val and Jason's house in Brooklyn to meet their son Tyler. It was really great to catch up with them and again I was impressed by Jason's culinary skills. He made a steak with risotto while Val made a strawberry shortcake dessert from scratch. Like I said, these New Yorkers have made me realize that I need to make more of a culinary effort. It can be done!
It was a really busy trip, but I was happy that I was able to spend quality time with all of my friends and family. These are the only photos I have from the trip because Edwin took the camera with him to Nicaragua. This is a photo of me with my cousins Amy and Sandi after we gorged at Joe's ShangHai Dumplings.
Best news of all, Jeannette gave birth to a baby boy on Sunday. Here's a photo of uncle Edwin with his new nephew, Freeman.
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