Kelly's Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Kelly's birthday. It was a pretty busy Friday (I managed to sell off the Lazyboy I found in my garage!) so it was nice to just unwind and hang out with friends. Dinner was at the old Krung Thai on Winchester. Reservations was definitely a good idea. Service was good and once we ordered, the food came at an amazing speed. It's funny how people will complain when food takes too long to arrive, but then when it comes too quick you wonder how did they do it so quick. There were 10 of us and each ordered one dish. We had lots of variety... pad thai, pineapple fried rice, fishcake, todmun (sp?) salad, and a variety of curries. Yummy!

For dessert, Andy had picked up 2 cakes from Kelly's favorite bakery, Satura, in Los Altos. Both the chocolate and strawberry cakes were very good. Not too sweet, just perfect.

Then it was time to head over to Camino Karaoke in Santa Clara. Long and I stopped at Albertsons to load up some wine coolers and hard lemonade. We sneaked these in to help expedite the singing. ;-) We were there for about 2 hours. The girls - Jess, Gly, Kelly and I sang. We enjoyed Kelly's Chinese and Japanese songs. Fabio was a natural, of course. Ricky added his own funny sound effects. And Andy and Long were more into lip-syncing. haha. Fun night!

Sweet Girls

Little girls are as sweet as cotton candy! Well, that's what I like to think... until they start acting up, which means it's time for me to go home. ;-) I got quite a workout since Xissy insisted on having me dance with her the whole night. And Allyssa just wants to do whatever her big sister is doing. Haha... I think my sis and I were just like that too. We had such a great time growing up. Having a sister is just so much fun.

We'll Miss Our Homie

We recently spent some quality time with our dear friend CY before he left for Malaysia. We've had lots of fun times together and will surely miss him. But we do wish him all the best.

Today

feels like a milestone. I finally bought my ticket to Milan. August 12th is only 3 weeks away! Granted, it's only for 3 months on a tourist visa. And it was really tough getting to this point (let's not go into the nervous breakdowns I've suffered in the last weeks). I'm relieved, excited but mostly emotionally exhausted from the week. Now the packing starts!

Future MBA'er

Guess who in the picture is our Future MBA Grad? :-)

We got together this past Sunday to celebrate Prat and Suri's angelic baby boy's 1st birthday. I loaded up on delicious Indian cuisine and caught up with some fellow MBA alumni. We really need to see each other more often than once a year!

Burgers and Hotdogs

This past weekend, we got together for a good ol' American cookout... hamburgers and hotdogs, thanks to Andy! This might have been the first time he actually cooked for us. Yay, keep it up! For dessert, we stuffed ourselves further with homemade caramel flan and tiramisu. Unfortunately, no one had any more room for the ice cream Quddus brought. We sure don't fool around when it comes to dessert!

I Heart KEANE

Berkeley Community Theatre - January 27, 2007

Don't know if you can tell, but I've just 'rediscovered' YouTube. Hehe. And so this weekend I've gone back and tried to rescue some of the videos I've taken in the past, but have always been imprisoned in my pc.

Earlier this year, Long had gotten tickets to see Keane, and insisted several times that I would like them. I was stubborn at first, but then I caved and listened to their two albums... and have been hooked since! The lyrics and melodies really get to me.

They were absolutely wonderful live. (Could it also be that I had my sweetie with me?) I hope I'll be able to see them in Europe some time. That would be so great!

4th of July Fireworks

This year I watched the fireworks again with friends at Santa Clara's Central Park. It was a perfect warm summer evening and we stopped at Kirk's Steakburgers to grab burgers before strolling over to the park for a picnic.

The fireworks show was great... especially the breathtaking finale that took everyone by surprise. The sky just burst into a cloud of glittery gold powder. I recorded some video and I loved how you can just hear everyone gasp in awe and disbelief at the pretty display. For some reason it just refuses to upload and believe me I've tried several times. So here is just some regular footage from the show. (You can hear some commentary in the background, thanks to Yvonne!)



I realize that I've celebrated quite a number of July 4th's. Even though I still see myself as foreigner, I do feel some twinges of loyalty and love for this country of USA. Countless of beautiful memories and friendships have been experienced here, and I will always carry them close to my heart.

A Thai Temple

Who knew there exists a Thai temple out in the Fremont foothills? Well, of course we weren't there on a Sunday to pray. (Although we did spend a couple minutes chanting with the monks).



We were there for the food!

Every Sunday volunteers will cook up authentic Thai dishes, which are offered to the public to raise money for the temple. We sampled almost everything - pad thai, grilled beef, chicken, fish wrapped in banana leaf, mango salad, noodle soup, sticky rice with mango and iced tea. It sounds like alot for just the 6 of us! Everything was about $5 on average. Tasty and for a good cause, right?