Anniversary

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of our first date. I still remember what a disaster it was!!

July 28, 2000 landed on a Friday and SQ had previously asked me out on a date that Tuesday of the same week. He had made dinner reservations at Baker St. Bistro for 7pm. He was working in Alameda and living in Berkeley at that time, and I was living with my parents in the Sunset. 5:30pm - he called and said he was running late because he needed to finish some things for work before he could leave. 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 came and went. I was getting furious and really hungry. He ran late at work; he got stuck in traffic; he got lost on his way to my house. He finally arrived at 8pm. He brought me red roses. But what's the use? We blew our 7pm reservations at Baker St. Bistro. I was super hungry and we ended up going to Yummy Yummy, a local restaurant near my house, to eat Pho. Yep, a bowl of Vietnamese soup noodle - a $6 dinner. I got a stomach ache because I didn't eat at the time I should have eaten. I wanted to go home. He didn't know about my stomach ache and didn't want to end the date so early. He took me to Eclipse in downtown SF to have drinks. As we waited to get in, I revealed to him that my stomach really hurts. He drove me home. What a night. What a first date! Judging on how distratous our first date went, I sometimes wonder how we still ended up together?! But I am so glad that we did.

Dish #7 please

I went to San Jose this Saturday with 4 girlfriends - purpose was to look for bridesmaid dresses for IT's upcoming January wedding. But what is a trip down to SJ without a stop at a Vietnamese restaurant?? We stopped by lunch at Tay Ho, where they serve one of my favorite dishes, Banh Cuon. It is a steamed rice roll with ground pork inside, served with the veggies, the Vietnamese sausage, Cha Lua, and the Vietnamese fish sauce. It was soooo yummy, not to mention that I have been craving to eat this dish for a couple of weeks! In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to eat it again!!

SQ's birthday

Friday was my hubby, SQ's birthday. We celebrated the day with a nice dinner at Plumpjack Cafe on Fillmore and Steiner. We got there around 7pm and found a parking space right outside the restaurant! SQ ordered sea scallops for appetizer and the Rib Eye for his entree. I got the cream of corn soup and a Roasted chicken. Right as we were enjoying the food, Gavin Newsom walked in! He wasn't dining there, but walked into the rear of the restaurant (where we were seated) to wait for his takeouts. As you know, Newsom owns Plumpjack, so he was merely in his kitchen getting his dinner. He waited there and chatted with the staff for a while since the food wasn't ready. I took a few quick glances at him. He was well-dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as usual, tall, and quite handsome. Ok, Ok, the birthday boy was handsome too.

Finally his food came and he walked out of the restaurant. It was one thing seeing Newsom on TV or in public event, but it's one thing seeing him in a private occasion. Odd. So we finished our food and shared an apricot tarte tartin. It was yummy.
Happy Birthday sweetie!

Family Camping

This past weekend, Sean and I went camping with my family at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenmore. It's located in the North Bay, about 7 miles away from Santa Rosa. It is a well-run and well-maintained campsite, with various hiking trails and beautiful scenery. They also have some modern conveniences such as a flushable toilet and running water. No showers though!


We drove there after work on Friday and got lost along the way. Nothing wrong with the directions given, it's just us. We weren't paying attention to the signs. We got there aroun 10pm - just enough time to set up tent!

The next morning, we did a short hike on one of many trails. We chose one that is well-shaded and not too long. This is one that is 1-mile long and shaded. It's pretty steep though as you can see in the picture. But it was good exercise. This hike is along a creek which also has a vista point of a waterfall. But too bad, it is dried up. We didn't see much water in the creek, nor any waterfall. We're definitely experiencing a drought this year.

After the hike, we went back to camp and grilled some hotdogs and hot links for lunch. Yum ! We rested a bit and played frisbees where we caught a record of 14 times without dropping the frisbee!! Yeah! That was tough! My sister MT created a scavenger hunt for us so we separated into teams for the challenge. We are graded for team work, creativity, and intelligence! And of course, our team won!!! We had to solve puzzles to get to the next clue, perform tasks and use our creativity to think of ways to accomplish the request. We are here brainstorming to solve the puzzles. We each won a gift certificate to Polly Ann Ice Cream!


After we were done with the game, we were hungry!! We cooked with our portable grill for our gourmet dinner! And I said Gourmet because we had chicken wings, steak, mushrooms, zucchini, and sea bass! It was delicious!! We were all so full!

Here is a picture with our tent, where we stayed for 2 nights. The ground was really hard because we didn't have mats. My back really hurts today, but it was still fun!

Group Shot (L to R):
Upper row: Ethan, Mary, Derek, Cindy, ME, and Sean
Lower row: Luck, Caitlin, Benny, Catherine, Bonnie, Carolyn, Cadence, and Crystal.
Missing from Picture: Herman and Evan

Pringles Reduced Fat Chips

Please, please take my advice: DO NOT BUY. It's not the same. 30% less fat, but 100% less the taste. Yuck.