Browse Month: September 2019

My 44th Birthday

My birthday celebration started early the week before when Ranee invited us to the winery at Jack London Square last Friday evening. It was a gorgeous evening with lots of sparkling wine to sip and taste.

Ranee also got us a bottle of sparkling rose to share. The kids played on the lawn all evening and we got to sit and unwind.

If that wasn’t fun enough already, we got to hang out AGAIN the following night!

We dropped the kids off at Jimmy and Eleen’s house (thanks guys!) and took an Uber to the city. We had tickets to see JANET!!!

We had purchased these tickets months ago and the Chase Center just opened a few weeks ago.

It was so nice to see Ishya smiling after the passing of her mom (my aunt).

Janet was awesome and sang what seemed like ALL HER SONGS.

The Chase Center was on their feet and he had such a good time.

The following week, we flew down to Cerritos to celebrate the actual birthday with Brother who turned 40!!

We had a family dinner at Lawry’s and then went out for dessert at David Chang’s milk bar.

The following night, we went to see Ali Wong at The Wiltern.

Interestingly, she had a strict no-device rule. We had to go through security at the entrance and lock our phones and smart watches in a bag that we carry around with us but can’t unlock until the show is done. It was a fun experiment and reminder of how things used to be when we were younger and didn’t have cell phones.

Ali was really funny and so was the guy that opened for her! Good show.

My last bit of birthday fun was the day after when we arrived back in Alameda. Just the 4 of us went out for Korean BBQ and stuffed ourselves silly.

Jes’ 44th Birthday

Yesterday, we celebrated Jes’ birthday on his actual birthday. We took the day off work, sent the kids to school, and then went to Napa for lunch at Bouchon.

We started the meal with the salade lyonnaise and salmon rillettes.

Jes ordered the steak frites and I got a giant bowl of mussels in a garlic butter broth.

For dessert, they gave him a little package of their chocolate bouchons. So cute!

A trip to Bouchon would not be complete without stopping at their bakery next door. I wanted to get all the things but ended up with just a few goodies to share with kids later that evening.

Peanut made Jes a card complete with balloons, fish stickers, and his own writing. He chose to sign it “Peanut”.

The kids sang “Happy Birthday” and helped him blow out the candles on his lemon tart and chocolate eclair.

The next day, we had dinner at Ian’s house. He invited us over for some wagyu beef that he bought for Jesse.

What had also been planned was a surprise visit by all the guys at the end of the night.

They arrived with cakes and whiskey.

We were all in on it and he was indeed surprised. That was very cool of them to do that for him.

 

Appreciated

I received this gift from my boss today and it felt so nice to be appreciated.