Welcome to Camp Penitentiary

We went camping this weekend with Alan's high school friends at Lake Camanche. It was sooo hot that most of the time we just sat around, trying to find shade wherever we could. We also went swimming in the lake, but the bottom felt so mushy that it kinda freaked me out. But it was cooler in the water, so it was ok.

We got there on Friday night and our campsite was at the edge of the lake, but there was a barbed-wire fence in between the lake and us, hence the nickname Camp Penitentiary. We had hot dogs, burgers, and bbq chicken one night. Eggs and bacon/kielbasa sausage for breakfast, and korean bbq and more chicken another night. We put the korean bbq on dry ice when we got there and by the time we wanted to grill them, they were all stuck together like a huge rock! So we spent about an hour trying to pry them off each other, but ended up just cutting pieces off. It was good, nonetheless.

Reminded me of when our families used to go camping near Merced where it was really really hot. Camping in tents is fun though. The bathrooms at this place were pretty clean and there was even warm water in the showers (free! not quarter-operated). So overall, a good camping trip!

Welcome New Blogger!

Another new blogger! Welcome Johanna, my fellow-New Yorker-turned-Chicagoan-but-Bay-Area(n)-at-heart, to the great world of blogging! Can't wait to hear all your stories :)

Call first
When you decide on a restaurant, you should probably call first to see if they're open the day you want to go. As you can probably tell, I made plans at this Thai restaurant on Geary on Sunday night, but when Alan and I got there, it was closed on Sundays!

I was meeting one of my co-workers for dinner before our other co-workers show near there, so I just picked the restaurant based on the citysearch.com reviews. I didn't have her cell number but good thing there were a whole bunch of restaurants on Clement that were open, so we just picked another Thai restaurant instead. Food was yummy, the show (our co-worker is the drummer in a band) was cool and everything worked out ok.

Banyan Garden and Sin City
Saturday night we went to dinner with the whole fam to our favorite restaurant - Banyan Garden. Then we rented Sin City and xXx: State of the Union with my two free rentals that expired on Sunday. Sin City was really strange, I thought. I didn't quite get it, plus the disc we got kept pausing and skipping a few seconds, including the last scene - so we didn't really know what happened to the girl in the elevator. Anyone see it?

Anyways, still haven't watched the second movie. Hopefully it's better than the first - at least Scott Speedman is in it :)

"I wonder if I take you home..."
We saw the Black Eyed Peas this past Saturday at SBC Park (along with Jem opening for Dave Matthews Band). BEP was awesome! I love how all of them just dance around the stage during the song and at some points they all dance the same moves together. Anyway, I was hoping they would sing part of those songs in Tagalog, but I guess it wouldn't have been too appropriate given the DMB crowd. The whole setup at SBC was cool too - they put the stage in front of the bleachers, had seats on the whole field. I got field tickets on ebay for $17.50 each! Since everyone on the field was standing the whole time, we eventually went up to the lower deck during the last half of DMB so we could just sit and watch...

Club Q
After the concert we headed over to Club Q for Cole's birthday. Cute place, and open bar from 10-11pm! The music was cool but I was feeling (yet again... is this going to be a regular thing now???) old, since the crowd was relatively young. And to emphasize our "oldness", we left at around midnight.

Baby Aaron
He keeps getting cuter and cuter every day. We hung out with him on Sunday and I swear I could play with him forever, as long as he stayed happy and didn't start crying :) His thing now is trying to crawl, but not quite moving yet. He gets up on all four's and tries to push his way across, but ends up just rolling over. Once he gets mobile though, I'm sure he'll be a handful :) Funny that before baby Aaron, I had never held a baby so much in my life. I was actually scared at first, but now it's just a regular thing.

Happy Birthday Eileen!
Happy 27th Birthday Eileen! Hope you're having fun in DC and can't wait to see you in Chicago next month :)

Happy Anniv Ma & Da!
Happy 32nd Anniversary to my parents!! I was looking at their wedding album over the weekend and they look so young! And I also noticed that their type of album is similar to ours - where the pages are the actual picture and they are thick. Cool!

Slow week
Slow week this week - not much to write about. :)

Dragon Bar
I think it's my current favorite bar/lounge in the city. We went here after dinner at Cha Cha Cha on Saturday since Johanna was in the bay this past weekend. Cha Cha Cha of course was delicious... I could go on and on about the mussels. So we headed over to Dragon Bar and although it was pretty packed it was still fun dancing. They played pretty good music - some old school songs and also new songs too. We stayed until it closed!

The Universe Within
Heidi and I went to the exhibit on Sunday and it was really really interesting! I recommend you go there if you can - it's at the Masonic Center until Sept 4. It's amazing how the human body works and all the parts that make it up.

Much Ado About Nothing
By far my favorite Shakespeare comedy, simply because I've seen the movie (with big stars such as Denzel, Keanu, Robert Sean Leonard, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, and Kate Beckinsale!!! I think it was her first movie), understand the whole plot and each scene, and it's funny too! My mom, Heidi, and I brought blankets to sit on, blankets to bundle ourselves with and food to eat on the lawn at the park in San Mateo. Go see it! If not in San Mateo, then in either Oakland or SF where it will be playing next.

Random
Found these pics of our honeymoon when we were hanging out with Kitchie and Jerry. Funny! We were pretending to dance :) Can't wait to hang out again when they come in Sept! We're going to see Wicked and the Giants/Cubs game!

"Can I get another Amen?" "Amen!"
Lyrics from my current favorite song to listen to at work or in the car on the radio. Anyone know what song it's from? Name that tune.

Softball loss
We lost our first softball game last night. The score was like 11-6. We tried to get a rally going in the last inning, but didn't quite get enough runs. It was fun anyway... I had a couple plays from 2nd to 1st and 2 singles.

Shakespeare in the Park 2005
They're doing Much Ado About Nothing this year for free Shakespeare in the Park! I've been going to this for the past 4 years I think... I loved my Shakespeare class at Cal and this one's my favorite Shakespeare comedy since I know the story and watched the movie version a whole bunch of times, so I can pretty much follow what's happening... I think my sister, mom and I are going this Sunday night at 7:30pm in San Mateo. Anyone wanna go?

Another New Blogger!!
Welcome Oscar to the wonderful world of blogging!! Can't wait to read stories about your school adventures in Chicago! Have a great year!

Bachelorette Party bus!
Saturday night we went to dinner at Chevy's in SSF for Stacy's bachelorette then boarded a party bus that took us to a whole bunch of clubs downtown. We hit Sake Lab, Dragon Bar, Glas Kat, Loft 11, Rouge, and a lot of other ones. Most of the time we walked in, stayed for about 10 minutes, then left. All the girls wore all black except for the bride. It was a fun night - I like going out in the city and seeing the different clubs since I don't do it often anymore.


Pasalubong
My mom came back from the Philippines on Thursday and brought me back a whole bunch of stuff from there. I asked her to buy me 3/4 sleeve-collared shirts for work since I like the material that they use there, and they're cheap! And also pastillas (milk candy), oil-blotting sheets, cornik (like Corn Nuts), and a car charger, earpiece, and 3 new faceplates for Alan's phone. Thanks Ma! Alan and I are thinking of taking a trip over there to see relatives on both sides.

Lazy Sunday
Went to church at St. Augustine's since we stayed over in Daly City after the bachelor(ette) parties. Then went over to Abby & Mike's to hang out and see baby Aaron. Poor baby was so sad because he's teething and we couldn't make him laugh. Fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours while Alan was working. Then went over to Joel's for dinner. Nice to see him and everyone else. Ate all their strawberry laffy taffy.... it was so good :)

Softball and rollerblading
Yesterday I had softball practice, even though only 3 people showed up. We ended up taking batting practice - one pitcher, one hitter, and one fielder. So tired after fielding all the balls that the other two hit (since I didn't pitch). But good practice for tonight's game. Thanks Judy for playing for our team since we need women!

When Alan got home we went rollerblading around the neighborhood and admired what different people did to the front landscaping of their homes. We're trying to get ideas, for when we eventually start working on it. We still need to do our backyard too! But so expensive... anyone know a good, reasonable landscaping company to use?