Happy Birthday, Crystal!

A quick birthday shout-out to my dear friend, Crystal. I'm at work so I can't post much, but in case you're reading, hope you have a good one!

Massive photo update for the lazy blogger in me

Has it really been almost a month since I last updated? Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so in lieu of my usual wordy posts, I'm going the lazy route...

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Gabe and I spent Thanksgiving Day with my family, then headed to the Bay Area early Friday morning. It was a fun-filled weekend with good friends and of course, good food! Being back in the Bay Area reminded us of how much we miss living there, and most of all, how much we miss our friends!

Friday night dinner at House of Prime Rib with Jeff, Mel and Greg. I think I have officially OD'ed on prime rib and mashed potatoes, if you can believe it.

Jeff and Mel


G-Unit: Greg, Gloria and Gabe


Saturday Dim Sum and Farmer's Market with Susie and Ed (bummer, no pictures). We also managed to squeeze in a game of Scrabble. Heh! Then, it was off to a little pre-reunion gathering with wine and h'or dourves at the Sibley's.

Look at the beautiful veggies from their own garden! I wish I had taken a picture of the entire spread, including all the delicious cheeses and pate.


Jia and Kyle enjoying themselves. Brooke and Megan in deep conversation.


The boys


Saturday night dinner at St. Michael's Alley, where I had some delicious butternut squash risotto. How come I never knew about this hidden gem in downtown Palo Alto?

The girls


Afterward, we all headed to our 10 year high school reunion. It was great catching up with old friends and seeing how much everyone has changed (or stayed the same, in some cases). Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from the event. I think the boys had more fun taking silly pictures of themselves...

Gabe and Kyle doing who-knows-what


But I do love the following pictures that Gabe took of me, Ryan and Jia. Hilarious.

Typical picture of Jia and Ryan, with half of Ryan's face cut out. (This is due to their height difference)


Now we understand how Ryan feels.


Anyway, that's pretty the weekend in a nutshell. We left the Bay Area around noon and stopped by Pleasanton to have a quick lunch with Whei. (It was great to see you, girl!) Then, another eight hours on the road, due to yucky Thanksgiving weekend traffic. We're just glad we got home okay.

Special thanks to Susie for letting me rest at her place and for taking us to Pinky and Valley Fair, and to Brooke and Kyle for their warm hospitality! Can't wait to see you guys again.

Mini-Sac Reunion

Some of you may not know this, but I lived in Sacramento for about two years from 2002-2004. While the city itself left much to be desired, I am thankful for the friends I made during my time there. Without them (and Gabe), the dinner get-togethers, and Alias nights at YC's Land Park house, I would've been pretty miserable. Most of us have gone our separate ways now, so it was nice to meet up again in LA, of all places.

Me and YC, my Taiwanese "fliend" and the only other person I know who shares my excitement over food.


(Part of) the old gang doing what we do best: eating! Pear, me, YC, Will, Gabe and Tim at Chabuya Tokyo Noodle House, my new favorite ramen place.


Funny picture of YC taking a big bite of a Beard Papa's cream puff.

Patty's Birthday

My first time at The Edison, a very cool bar that still retains many of its architectural and mechanical artifacts from its history as Downtown LA's first private power plant.

See the funky lights behind me and Gabe.


Me, Patty, and Jackie O (my fruity drink that tasted very good)


Jane, Patty and me. Patty unsuccessfully trying to sip her drink through the stirrer, which was NOT a straw!

Bad Food Cravings

Lately, I've been experiencing all sorts of bad-for-me food cravings. This whole business of eating better is not easy! Some of my recent cravings:

1) Chicken pot pie - I miss those frozen Aussie ones from Costco that I used to eat in college. They came in these convenient hot-pocket type pouches. I know I've graduated to better quality food, but I can't think of a good chicken pot pie place off the top of my head.
2) Thick cut steak fries with seasoned salt - You know, the cayenne pepper looking stuff that they put on amusement park fries.
3) Jalapeno Cheddar Boulder Chips - These are similar to Kettle Chips, but with a nice, spicy kick. I got hooked on these during Jia's bachelorette party weekend, in Boulder, of course.
4) Chocolate gelato - Saw this on the Olive Garden dessert menu the other day, as I was being a good girl and only having minestrone soup for lunch.
5) Donuts (any kind, I don't discriminate) - When I was driving Crystal home from yoga last night, we were stopped at a light and I noticed a Winchell's donut shop on the corner. That brief encounter suddenly put donuts back on my foodar. (FYI - that's food radar).

This afternoon, while chatting with Jane, the Hawaiian Transplant friend, I started salivating at the thought of spam musubi. Who ever imagined that a block of plain white rice, topped with a piece of fried spam and wrapped in a strip of seaweed, could taste so good? Now, I know what some of you people are thinking: "Gross, canned meat" or "Didn't you read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in 11th grade?"* As a matter of fact, I did. And I still like spam and would eat it in a heartbeat. So there.

Here's proof from our recent Hawaiian adventure:

*Yes, we were ghetto and ate it in the car in front of 7-eleven. It was THAT good. I couldn't wait until we got to the hiking destination.

Also, I'm willing to bet $10 that 9/10 people who thumb their noses at spam have never even tasted it. All I have to say is don't knock it until you've tried it.

*Editor's note: On second thought, this statement would only be true if I had a readership of > five. I think it's pretty safe to assume that all five of my faithful readers like spam, too. Right?

ARGH!

Being the anal-retentive person that I am, it's driving me nuts that the spacing in my last post differs from all the previous ones. I even attempted to "troubleshoot" the HTML but can't figure out what's causing the problem.

Two thumbs down for Blogger's limited formatting capabilities! I've noticed that it sometimes does weird things when I upload images. Bah humbug!