Happy Birthday to my favorite virgo

Today is XT's bday... this picture was from 2 years maybe even 3 years prior when we celebrated our birthday together.

Today I'm thinking about her and the paths that has led to our friendship. She's a uniquely powerful and deeply spiritual sister.

I hope she's feeling the love that her west coast sisters are sending her way, so thankful for her friendship and her spirit. We miss her dearly and can't wait to see her again soon.


Birthday wishes for XT:

See the strength of your spirit
See the beauty you create in others around you
Find your love
Bring him home to your heart
Have adventures
Be young again....

Love you XT 

Birthday weekend

This has been an extremely full month. Where did time fly to? I came back from NY and now it's 1 week before the burn.

Saturday Shelaine threw a birthday bash for me, and it was everything I needed... good friends, good food, and very cool/chill place to hang out with everyone. I know I have lots of great friends, but I forget sometimes how many I have, and this weekend was a great reminder of the ways I've touched people. You can tell when these people take the time out to call, to set up and remember a special day. Elaine and Sion went all out on the food.. ahi tuna, tri-tip steak....they are so good to me.

Not to mention that I got a cool ass digital camera that all my friends pitched in for. Actually, it was quite a surprise. I am happy that people showed up out of their busy day to celebrate with me. An amazing, beautiful smelling candle for Carla/Sandy and a book I can't wait to read from Sara/Dan. Pictures of the party to come. 

Jersey Shore and NYC

Wednesday, I boarded the red-eye for Newark, NJ. Got in at 7:30am Thursday morning and picked up by the AG and family Glucks. Drove to the Jersey Shore - specifically Bradley Beach.

Moura is a friend of the Glucks, a retired nun with spunk and lots to say. She was actually quite intelligent and super cool. She owned a 5 bedroom house half a block from the beach. Dav, AG and I were blessed with the basement... I say blessed b/c the heat wave was ready to incinerate AG.

Of course I forgot to bring the card for the digital camera, and since we only had 1 car.... no pictures. Bummer. Wedding was beautiful though, very personal, and thoughtful. First wedding that started on TIME - even a few minutes early and we almost missed seeing AG as the Best Man. I had a blast and met everyone's family. Saturday morning we headed to NYC and got much needed AC in our hotel. Met up with AG's family for dinner that night. Sunday morning, took the train to Brooklyn and met AG's great Aunt and Uncle. Really sweet people. We walked the boardwalk on Coney Island and I had my first taste of Nathan's famous hotdogs... so much anticipation after reading Minty's blog and watching the annual Hot Dog eating event. It did taste different than other hot dog's I've had, but not enough to want to buy another one.

PS - I had another dream of Shelaine this morning.... we must be connected somehow. Anyways, long time ago - when I was journeying and going through a rough time, I had mentally reached out to Shelaine and they appeared magically within 2 minutes. Since then, they've been one of my closest friends and I've been having so many dreams of them lately. This one wasn't as weird as the last one. But I was in a dentist chair with an IV hooked to a tooth (I guess it was an innovative way to inject morphine for dental services).. and there was Shelaine, in the dentist office offering advice about - my career, relatinship etc.

Weird weird Dreams

Last night had reallly weird dreams. For a long period of time I didn't remember my dreams, but as of late (within the last 6 months) the dreams have been intense and very weird.

For example, had this dream that Elaine was pregnant. She's gonna kill me when she reads this ;)... it's not my fault, that's what I dreamt. I think it's b/c so many of our friends are getting pregnant or wanting to. And of course I dream about the one person who doesn't want to get pregnant right now.

Heehee.

Saturday heat wave

Next morning, I took Sashilya to Rituals for some waking up brew. Ilya and I dropped Sasha on Market - to meet up with her girlfriends and shop for wedding dresses.

Ilya and I went to brunch at Just for You in the dogpatch, ran into Charmaine from the PD's office. It was blazing hot and Ilya was so uncomfortable in his long hot shirt.

Afterwards, I trotted over to the east bay to spend some time with Smess. We walked from 2pm to 7pm... a good long walk, talking, stopping at cafe's, and shopping for an evening dress for Ven/Jen's wedding next weekend. Smesh was very good and spotted the one. I'll have to take pictures next week.

Oakland is gorgeous, parts of it. Where Smess lives (Rockridge), the greenary and foliage were amazing. I wanted to take pictures of all the flowers - but it wouldn't have done it justice. I do miss that in SF a lot.

We had a great time. It was awesome to catch up and do something mellow on the weekend, a good girl time treat.

Towards evening, Smess and I grabbed some Thai food and had an evening picnic out on her lawn. It had been gorgeous all day. Too beautiful for me to just call it an evening.

It was one of those nights as it should be in most places in the summer. The air was warm, not cold, not even cool. If there were fireflies, they would have come out. People were out and enjoying the weather.

I love nights like these in SF - they are rare (but with global warming surfacing, maybe they will become more of the norm). I'm not advocating global warming, but I can't deny enjoying one of the effects like this Saturday.
 

Saha's 1075 Sutter Street

Friday evening we ate at Saha's www.sahasf.com owned by Marmee and Mahammod who we camped with last year. It's Arabic fusion. I introduced Salim and Naphysa to Sahsilya since they lived in Seattle, and Marmme/Mahammod met them when they were visiting Salim. They loved the Russians immediately.


Ilya brought another couple, Valter and his fiancee (can't remember her name - so bad with names). Nice couple. We had Mahammod order for us and it was fantastic.
There hasn't been one thing on the menu I haven't liked. The lamb was a little undercooked for me, but I still enjoyed it so much. And the wine that Marmee picked out for us was phenomenal. I'll have to get the name.

Ilya was in town to interview at a startup gaming company. It's his dream job and he was super stressed and needed to relax. Unfortunately for us, he drank too much and passed out in the hotel lobby. We took him home and tucked him into bed.

The rest of us met up with Marmee and Mahommad at Ruby Skye to listen to Deep Dish. Ughh, I hate that place. Sasha and I ran from Steve the molester.. and ended up in the smoking room. We eventually had conversations with some really cool peeps, but realized that it was already 3am.
It was time to go home...  

Ipod - this morning's favorite selection

Burn One Down:

Let us burn one, from end to end.
And pass is over to me my friend.
Burn it long, but burn it slow, to light me up before I go.
If you don't like my fire, then don't come around.
Cause I'm gonna burn one down.
Yes I'm gonna burn one down

My choice is what i chose to do;
and if I'm causin no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you chose to be;
and if your causin no harm, then your alright with me.
If you dont like my fire, then don't come around, cause I'm gonna burn one down.
Yes i'm gonna burn one, down.

Herb the gift, from the Earth,
and what's from the earth is of the greatest worth.
So before u knock it, try it first.
and you'll see it's a blessing and it's not a curse.
If you dont like my fire, then don't come around, cause I'm gonna burn one down.
Yes i'm gonna burn one.

by Ben Harper

W Hotel - dog day

A month back, Rachel and I took the girls to the W Hotel for dogy day supported by BARK magazine. Here are the results. I have a twisted smile on bc I was snickering at the dog people who dressed up their pets in outlandish outfits. I don't mean BM outfits, as I would for our girls, but dressing them as they would their children.

There are people who have problems when dog owners dress up their dogs... I don't have that disdain, but if they are out of control in pink ruffles and bows in their ears... of course I'll snicker.

The girls got a lot of attention from Daschund lovers and lots of butt sniffing going on (and these people french kiss their dogs knowing about the butt licking). Well, we got a rise out of it all.
 

MMM... food

You can't tell from this picture, but my new dishes are gorgeous, I love them. Of course, they are square. But they have these cool bamboo etchings on the side.


Friday night AG and I went to our cafe, Rituals to get a macchiata... he's getting me hooked on caffeine - oh no. But they do such a great job artistically with the foam. My shot looked like a little apple, and AG's was a little heart.

Then I took him out on a date, we had wine at a cute bar in the Opera Plaza, then smoked a little and watched X-Men on the big screen.  

Girl's Night Out continued

This is us at Tunnel Top.

And this is the other end. Lots of great talks about life, relationships, where are we going? What are we doing? Marriage, babies? Argh... it was enough to put Elaine into a tizzy.
We all agreed that this event cannot be a one time event, especially for the summer. We'll have to recruit more women next time - for our monthly girl's night out. Rachel, Smesh... we hope to get you two out with us next. 

Girl's Night Out

Thursday, Elaine, Manisha, Elida and I had a little girl's night out in the city. We started off with summer cocktails at Manisha's in Russian Hill... I don't remember the name of the drink, but did remember asking what was in them (triple sec, vodka, rum and something else). It was a good way to start the evening. Plus, they are beautiful.


Then we went to Yabbie's Coastal Kitchn www.yabbiesrestaurant on Polk Street. Last time I was there was with Nigel - ugh, I can't believe I dated him. Anyways, there were tons of things on the menu that sounded amazing. Manisha and I wanted the clambake, nope all gone. Then we tried Cioppino's... gone too. I guess that's a good sign that the ingredients are fresh. Third time was a charm, and I ordered the sesame tuna and she ordered halibut. Actually, me, Elaine and Elida ordered the sesame tuna. It was very good. The waiter felt bad and ordered white wine on the house.

Elaine was itching by this point to go to Tunnel Top. In my day, they had the best looking Euro boys. Not that night though. And the music wasn't working for us. We had a couple of drinks then headed to some bar I can't remember the name of (on 6th street).

Continued above.
 

Neighbor, friend, treasure hunter

Last night I had dinner with my good friend Steve K. (aka SK111). He was my upstairs neighbor when I lived in Sausalito from 2000-2001. SK111 was catching me up on the last 2 years (we haven't seen each other for 14 months) of his life, with this year being the most exciting. He's such a great story teller, doesn't leave out details, but doesn't go on and on. He had me on the edge of my seat all evening.

SK111's an art dealer/collector. For the longest time, he dealt in Southeast Asian arts, specifically Phillipine art. But lately he's gotten into Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai. He travels constantly and knows museum curators and people from Christy's - very exciting life. Anyways, he's stumbled upon someone who's been collecting for over 40 years and is finally wanting to sell... and two purchases he's made so far, he's discovered to be extremely valuable - we're talking 14th and 15th century porcelain vases/jars worth in his estimate at least $600K each.

SK111 knows his shit, and he's the only treasure hunter I know of.

World Cup Weekend

Friday night AG and I went to dinner with Talens, his wife, and her brother Lampai to Cafe Mum's in Japan town serving all you eat Shabu Shabu (Japanese Hotpot) and also all you can drink (beer and sake). I made the mistake of drinking along with all the boys. I directed us home safeuly but don't remember too much after that, except hanging outside of my window and regurgitating all of my dinner. Nice.

Woke up the next day - late, to run errands before heading over to Marin for KT's wedding. Had a ball at the reception hanging out with PD's whom I haven't seen in ever so long.


Sunday morning, met up with Kerry, Brimeeza and the gant at Dolores Park to watch Italian boys play with French boys... They said 10,000 people were there, and it was truly an amazing feeling of sharing the park and the excitement of this sport.

We ended the evening at Shelaine's for a BM BBQ... god, what a weekend of friends, activities, and libations.

 

Hospital visit

Mie and Dav graciously invited us to meet their daughter Tesla at the hospital. Since Mie had a C-section, she's required to stay an additional 3 nights. AG and I brought sunflowers for momma, pappa and baby.. and some chocolate and banana cream pie from Tartine's but mie is on morphine and can't eat any yet - lucky Dav.

Here's Dav holding itty bitty Tesla... and AG too.. boys who hold babies are sooo cute.
 

Tesla Rhea Yaginuma

With a resounding anti-climatic splash... she's here. We thought she might have been born just as the fireworks were climaxing last night over the Bay. But she came this morning instead at 9:20am weighing in at 7lbs. Big momma, especially for tiny Mie.

How exciting, a new campalician! 

July 4th, 2006 Week Ender

Rounded out the 4 day weekend by having dinner with my lovely Kerry Monday evening. We caught up while gouging down a huge chicken sandwhich over french fries and Mitchell's strawberry shake, large at St. Francis Fountain on 24th (classic Soda Fountain dating back to 1918). God, all the running I did and here I am eating tons of food all weekend, coulda been worse.Tuesday morning we got the message off Mie's blog that her contractions have started... oh my. Man, for me, that's the scariest part of the process. Imagine pushing something that big outta your tummy through a small stretched out portal. I'm feeling it for Mie and hoping that they she and the baby are doing well. It's morning and we still haven't heard from them. I'm pretty sure they are just trying to recover, but we hope to hear the joyous news soon. Did end up going for a run and watching the hot Italian boys kick Germany's ass.. ClubOne installed larger screens on their treadmills and now I can watch tv while running my 5 miles - it sounds so American and bad, but watching hot men running around pumped up and agro helps keep my mind off of the laborious parts of the run. Afterwards we headed over to Shelaine's for a good 4th of July BBQ. Afterwards, AG and I decided to the do the "Fireworks" and headed on BART to Embarcardero. It was one of the clearest and warmest SF 4th. No fog, can you believe that? The evening was gorgeous and as we began our walk towards Pier 39, the evening sunset hues made you want to pat yourself on the back for living in this awesome city. It was a perfect summer evening in SF. Although I was bundled up for a cold summer evening on the wharf, I was surprised by the cool but not cold gentle breeze. So many things to do in SF and we were sure happy to have checked this one off the list, but it'll be awhile before I muster enough energy to want to deal with such a large crowd again, even for fireworks. Got home around 11 and passed out on the couch. 

4th of July Weekend

Friday AG, Rachel, CC, Elida, and I met at the Yaginuma's place aka De Haro household for dinner with Mie's Mom. I caught this picture of Mie - she was due July 2nd, but the little one has decided not to come out just yet. It was a little mindboggling to think that a little person is happy in there.

Food was delicious, Japanese rice, lots of fish and my favorite was the pickled radish salad, specially because it was so familiarly Vietnamese as well.

Saturday we went to Eddy and Manisha's to wish Eddy a safe journey to the Czeck. He's going back for a month to visit his entire family. We met some interesting friends of his - all young Georgians - lots of pretty girls and the guys were sweet, but we could feel the age difference. Wasn't too long ago I think that we were the young hot rockers at the party checking out the older kids.



Last night we picked up Sandy and Carla and took them to Brother's the infamous Korean BBQ. We got there and received a number from the waitress - during our wait, we ran to the Irish Bar next door to grab a drink. Came back just in time to get our seats. At this point we were starving. AG and I have been talking this up all day, and the anticipation plus the smoking hours before had our appetites way into cruise control.
We ordered tons of food, and then they sent over 2 additional dishes on the house. Not to mention all the little side dishes that come out with it, like my favorite fish patties and anchovies... I stopped early into it, my body could only take so much... and then watched the rest of the crew polish it off. We were being completely silly and just laughing the entire evening. They are such a fun couple to hang out with. At one point, they provided a little dish that had sweet rice flavored dessert. It's usually to clean the palate I believe, and I never thought of it as anything but dessert, probably because many Asians have such things. But understandably, Carla thought it was to rinse your fingers with and decided to wash them. We had a good little laugh about that. And on the way home, we turned up Billy Joel's greatest hits and sang all the way. They live close to us now, but once they move into their new house, we'll be even closer and I'm hoping we get to hang out with them more. Really, one of our favorite couples to hang out with.

When we got home, the pain really hit... my belly and intestines had been streched beyond their capacity, so much so that my back started aching. Usually at this point, I just throw up and have done with it. But because I had smoked, I dozed off and on for a good 4 more hours on the couch... and was still hurting when we rolled downstairs into bed. I woke up this morning still very much filled to the gill and in pain. One cup of coffee though helped...

Tonight I meet up with Kerry for some good catching up during dinner and possibly to have a drink with Ellen on her birthday bar hopping tour (if they decide to stop in the Mission). Tomorrow AG and I want to find a good place to watch the fireworks... I miss fireworks.