Holiday Update

Thanksgiving
Aisha and I spent Thanksgiving in California. We had originally planned a trip to Athens (Greece not Georgia). Given the health of my father, Aisha thought it best if we spent time with my family. She is definitely right.

I spent a week working in my company's San Francisco office. Got a chance to hang out Hugo and Darren in Berkeley. Saw Natalia's band play at nice neighborhood bar called Edinburgh Castle. It's divey enough for me to like it and it's on Geary and Post. NAtalia's crew was good.

I really enjoyed seeing Jodie. She's back at my company and working from home in the Northeast like me. Our trips to HQ coincided. Got a chance to catch up with her. We also had a welcome dinner for her in the Mission at the old Timo's space. RIP Timo's. I had my 22nd birthday there. My entourage of friends got completely wasted towards the end of dinner (we had been drinking since the early afternoon and had to wait until after 10pm to get a table for our size part). Next thing I know me and a few others are picking up chairs and throwing them around while laughing hysterically. We also stiffed them on the tip as there were some dead beats with us (always happens when you have a party that large). I'm still surprised they didn't kick us out.

I was able to take the train over to Berkeley on Sunday morning to have breakfast with Jodie at a Thai temple, see her sister Julie and Rob and see new-born Ben. What a good kid.

Aisha then flew in on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. She met me at the office the next day and of course proceeded to charm and chat it up with all my co-workers. We then walked over to the Ferry building to the bar at Slanted Door. I'd never been to their new location and it is great. Much better space than their old address in the Mission. She organized a dinner for her friends at Iluna Basque in North Beach. GREAT food! Quite possibly the best tapas I've had. Cha Cha Cha's (which I went to on the Friday before with some co-workers/friends) is still my favorite restaurant in SF for it's sheer fun factor, but Iluna Basque's tapas are on another level. I will be going back there for dinner for my trip to SF (again) next week.

We then spent Thanksgiving day with Aisha's family at her Mom's house. Got stuffed. I am salivating right now just remembering the meal. We then flew to LA to have Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom's.

My dad looked a lot better (I need to call home again for another update). My sister cooked EVERYTHING. She's GREAT! It was amazingly good. My mom's parents were there as well as her sister's family (6th aunt) and both their dogs. It was great having so many people and pets around. Charlie, my sister's dog, had a good time with the puppy. Oh yeah, we saw my mom get drunk for the first time (ever?).

Spent the next day walking Charlie with Aisha, my sister and brother at Santa Monica beach. Good times. We met Darren, who was also in town, and Akie for drinks at a bar/club in happening Old Town Alhambra. I was just looking for neighborhood dive, but this was the wrong neighborhood for it. Instead we walked into this place called Azul's (?). At first they weren't going to let me in because I had sneakers on. They're kidding right? Ain't no way in hell I was going to get bounced at a club in suburbia LA. We got in and wound up staying for the club part. It always feels good to dance with Aisha. She's the best.

Flew out on Sunday. I was an ass as I was stressing over the time and the fact that Aisha and I had to take two separate flights from two separate airports. I calmed down an hour later and called her to apologize. The usual story.

Back in NYC
We're starting to get into the swing of things in Manhattan. Met up with Nichols and went to an event at the Guggenheim that featured access to the museum floors and two DJs from somewhere (Europe?). The ironic thing was that I was telling Aisha that we haven't taken enough time to do any cultural things in NYC and here we were at the Guggenheim. The event was OK. I was looking to get crazy and do some serious dancing, but the lighting and ambience was all off. The show on Russian art was magnificent though. Got a chance to see Kadinsky's magnificent Blue Mountain (which I've always thought was called the blaue Reiters as that seemed more appropriate).

Next night went to a birthday party at the 40-40 club. It's owned by Jay-Z. The crowd was relatively mellow and comfortable. What I didn't like about it was that it was too sports-focused and not dance and mac focused. Met Aisha's friend Emily, who is a hoot. We're going to have her and her boyfriend over for dinner this weekend.

Woke up bright and early the next morning. I walked Mochi to Central Park. It was a magical morning. It was the first snow of the season and there was virgin snow everywhere in the City. The scenery was AMAZING. I let him off-leash at the Park. Mochi loved it. He played for almost 2 hours straight and was generally very good at listening to my guidance. He didn't want to leave and his coat was iced over from jumping and rollicking all over the snow. We took a cab home and he slept for the rest of the day.

The Plan
As mentioned, I'm going back to SF next week. Aisha will join me mid-week after her finals are over. We'll be in town for my company's holiday party at City hall. What a great venue. My company definitely knows how to throw a party (it was at MOCA last year). We'll then fly down to LA to spend a few days with my family and return to NYC in time for Christmas. Ebony will be in town to spend New Year's with us. After that, I'll be in Dublin again for two weeks of work.

Got a Response to my SPAM

I mass-emailed my friends letting them know about this blog. Surprisingly I got a response from my friend Msaada whom I haven't communicated with in probably 8 years. She's doing really well. In giving her a more fully detailed narrative of my recent life, I realized I could use what I had written as a basis for a blog update for all my loved ones to see:

-How've you been?
I'm good. I was a depressed alchoholic for a long time and that impeded a lot of my happiness and caused a lot of drama. Aisha's turned my life around almost 180 degrees. Hopefully I've had a similar positive impact on her life.

-How is your father doing now?
He's at home now and doing better. He met with the oncologist a week ago and the doctor said he was too physically weak from the stroke to even think of beginning chemotherapy. He's set for another meeting with the doc on the 10th and I hope he's improved enough where we can seriously discuss treatment options.

-How are your mom and sister?
They're good. My sister has become quite a down-to-earth and mature woman with an innate kindness and glimpses of artistic ability. I'd like to think of her as a better version of me. She's in her last year of undergrad studies at Cal Poly Pomona (I think) studying Nutrition. My brother is doing well too and is living in LA with my folks. He's working as a Finance analyst for a defense contractor.

-How is Aisha?
She's great. Aisha's taking the City by its horns and kicking its ass. The primary reason we moved out here is so that she can go back to school to study Fashion Marketing and Merchandising. We looked around some schools in the Bay Area, but it just sounded more fun and made more sense for her to study fashion in NY. She was able to find us an apartment, enroll for school and get two jobs within two weeks of our arrival here. She is in the process of quitting one job to spend more time on school and with me and the Mochster. She's also completely taken over the office at the other job she is keeping.

-How long have you been dating? How did you meet?
We've been dating for over three years now. Time goes by really fast. We met as peer project managers at a technology sales vendor we used to both work at. She had risen to become a Director responsible for one-half of her company's business. She hated it and has always wanted a career in fashion and here we are.

-What area of fashion is she interested in?
The business side. I asked her if she was excited to create some pieces by herself and said I was pleased that she'll learn how to sew. She turned to me and asked "Ain't there people I can hire for that?"

-What exactly is your occupation now?
I am responsible globally for the first-level support group at a software company based out of San Francisco. They were nice enough to move me to NYC and I work from home. What's really nice is since they are based out of SF, I get to fly back to California fairly often. I get to visit friends in the Bay Area as well as swing by LA.

-Are you happy and content?
Pretty much. You remember how the outer edges of a parabola always comes infinitely close to the Y-axis without ever touching it? That's where I am. Infinitely close to Nirvana. I do get the biological urge to go hump a woman's leg every so often.

Quick Rant on Design Blogs

As much as I love interior design and design in general, this blog will NOT become a generic design blog like so many I've seen recently.

[Sorry for the run-on intro sentence, but I did warn you that this is a rant.]

You know what I'm talking about. They're basically glorified photo wishlists of multi-thousand dollar designer pieces with no critical analysis, content or discussion. I've seen over 10 of these so far while looking for personal design resources.

Know what else bugs me about them besides them being generally less useful than staring at a manufacturer's catalog? The sheer incestuosness of this particular blogging community. You go to one site and then go to another and you'll see the exact same pictures on the same day. The "writers" of these blogs basically browse each other's sites and then cut and paste into their own site. Welcome to the 21st Century: the cut-and-paste dawn of the digital sampling monoculture.

Real design is timeless. Just like the concept of cool is timeless. They are timeless due to their originality. Uniqueness defies and defines eras. It is an insult to ape the scene like so many of these LA/SF/NYC cultural transients that are now termed "hipsters".

As a sidenote, why does everyone in Hollywood and Silver Lake have a goatee now? I know I'm being a bit hyperbolic, but that was the impression I got on my last visit to LA in September. When did these neighborhoods become "hot"? I remember growing up in LA and Hollywood was a dump. There are now million-dollar lofts on Skid Row. Ridiculous. These new residents have never hustled in their lives and now they're living the good life and ignoring their neighbors in the heart of urban misery USA.

The one good thing is that I have discovered http://www.apartmenttherapy.com

Granted, I'm an urban snob and seeing the occassional snapshots of modernist living spaces in Fremont, CA and suburbia USA leaves me amused in a bitter way. It's the equivalent scenario to me of the adoption of rap by white suburban kids. You can ape the words, but you can never feel the pain. It's soulless mimicry.

I think if I was black, I'd be angry all the time.

This is a picture of me not sitting in my chair.

Mochi, my sister and I on our last hike in Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley before our move.

Aisha looking stunning at the Linda Loudermilk Spring '06 Fashion Show during Fashion Week in NYC.

September Update

Mochi is now in NYC. He arrived via air at JFK (many, many thanks to Darren, Dan & Mel!!!) about a month ago. I then had to leave him in the kennel for a week as both Aisha and I were travelling.

Aisha is now back at home and the Mochster is home also. I'm in LA for another week as my father has been hospitalized due to a stroke. He is recovering ok from it as his mental faculties seem fine. He has some detoriation in his motor skills (which were already poor due to the advancement of his Parkinsons). The really bad news is that the doctors have found what is probably a cancerous growth in his right lung. If it has metastasized (i.e. spread to other parts of his body) then that's a death sentence. The initial prognosis is poor. Things ain't looking too hot.

My thanks to all my friends, family and co-workers who have expressed good wishes to us and my immediate family.

I'll be in SF the following week for work. It'll be a pretty hectic three months as I will be travelling quite a bit. I'll maybe be able to see Mochi half of the time as a result.

What gives me hope is that my mother, sister, Aisha and I have been throwing around the idea of potentially chipping in for a house in or around Berkeley in the future. Minimum timeframe for us to return to the Bay Area would be five years out as Aisha is in the process of completing her schooling and starting her fashion career in NYC. Our original long-term plan after NYC was a fashion hub somewhere in Europe (London, Paris or Milan). Given the change in my family situation, this will be revisited as time progresses.

Mochi is adjusting very well to being an ultra-urban dog. Berkeley looks like Yosemite compared to NYC. There ain't no grass. We consider ourselves lucky to have trees on our street. The silver lining is that there is the Carl Shulz park (sp?) and dog run a few blocks away from the apartment and I take him there religiously. Downside is that there ain't no grass or dirt in the dog run either. The large dog run is covered in pebbly gravel. Mochi does NOT like this. It is akin to walking in kitty litter. He does not like to walk in it, let alone run in it. He prefers to hop on the bench and let the other dogs visit him.

With all the travel and time away from Mochi due to our move and work, Moch has developed some symptoms of separation anxiety. The moment I step out to run some errands, he'll start baying like there's no tomorrow. I can hear him from the outside of the building as well as from four flights down. I've bought a muzzle both for his and my sake. It wouldn't do any good for either of us to be homeless.

What I do is if I step out of the apartment and he starts his antics, I go back in and muzzle him. If he stays quiet, he has free range of the apartment. It sounds draconian, but it works. After just two days of this, he understands that if he isn't quiet, I'll give him a cup of SHUT THE HELL UP! (movie reference courtesy of Aisha). He's been mostly good since.

We're HERE!!!

We made the move. We're in NYC. WOW.

It's hard for me to believe it, but I just walked away from my life in Berkeley for the past 10 years. Bye, bye and aloha.

We got into NYC at midnight last night and are staying in midtown with Nick and Kelly. I just finished the first phase of my work project just now and now have a relatively free mind to go look for apartments this afternoon with Aisha.

More updates to come.

Just remembered this dream...

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I was briefly the drummer for Garbage. I had gone to the try-out and I made the cut. This was when I was 16 or so and still in high school. They were an unknown band and I didn't think it was a big deal.

A little time passed and I was informed that the band was going on tour to some small gigs. I couldn't go because my parents said my first commitment was to school. As a result, the band ditched me and Butch Vig stepped in to play the drums himself. He had originally only planned to put the band together and produce it.

The memory of the dream hit me full in the face as I was lumbering to work at 6am that morning. It felt like this was the TRUTH and it was a rediscovered memory that unknown forces were trying to keep from me. I was so convinced of the TRUTH, that I made a mental note to Google it later that day. It then slipped my mind until now.

Googling this memory now...

waiting....

waiting...

waiting..

hmm....tried searches with variations on the words Garbage, band, my name, my given name, etc... and getting a bunch of hits but nothing pointing me down the right path. The unknown forces may have either erased all public knowledge of that time or this occurred in a separate lifetime/reality. I will have to sleep on this.

hmm....I remember a couple of other dreams from two nights ago. I've been dreaming about my work alot lately. Over half of the ones I remember involved work.

I was at my desk typing away on my station. Based on the light, it was probably late evening, but it could have been early morning. Suddenly, a very large black rat slinked by. The lenth of its body easily matched the length of my arm.

Suddenly a large, but slightly smaller white rat walked by in the opposite direction. Lastly, a small brown mouse walked by.

The symbolism and progression of these rodents are too good to pass up.

I immediately had another dream where I was skateboarding down the street and having a good time. Next thing I know my ride ain't going too hot. I'm slowing down and the board is slinking lower in the front. I hop off the board and examine it. The front two wheels are shredded. I have a feeling of blaming someone (I know who, but am too ashamed to admit it).

In the Garbage memory, I had a feeling of blaming my parents for holding me back. I think I gots to go and work out some issues over lunch now.

Flashback from 2001 - Manchester

I was packing up a few more of my things in preparation for my move to NY and came across these handwritten notes:

10/5/01 6:00 PM
Manchester, Lowry Gallery

Took the Eccles tram from City Centre to the Lowry Gallery. Seemed like a tourist thing to do and I am, after all, a toursit.

Didn't know it was a gallery dedicated to the ARTIST Lowry until I arrived. All the brochures made it sound like a happening place with a varied collection. When I arrived, I was informed that that the gallery was closed for refurbishing and would re-open next week. The only entertainment available at hand was a show I had neither the tickets nor the inclination to attend.

I figured now would be a good time to fill you in on my experiences in Manchester these past few days....

I was able to cover a lot of ground in two days. I was going to send you a postcard, but they only provide enough space for a soundbite.

I have visted all the neighborhoods surrounding the city centre:

- Castlefield
Famed for its one Roman ruin: an entryway to a fort circa 100AD. Being a great fan of history I was a bit underwhelmed.

- UMITS (University of Manchester, Institute of Technology & Science)
Typical of hte older, large building-ed universities one finds throughout Europe, I imagine. Red-bricked and solid, nothing at all like the beautiful open campuses one finds in the States.

- Chinatown
4 square blocks. 'Nuff said.

- Arnsdale Mall, nice mall...

- Deansgate
Like a miniature Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with expensive shops and people trying to look smart.

I walked north along Deansgate Road and found myself smack-dab in the Yuppie Quarter northwest of the City Centre. Along the way was Manchester's City council, a magnificent converted cathedral with a beautiful open square.

What's nice about Manchester is that there are clubs and music spread throughout the city (unlike being concentrated just mostly in one area like in SF), and the ambience/crowd exactly matches the neighborhood so there is no guessing.

Went to two clubs, Club K and another near UMITS which I can't recall the name of. DJs were very good in both venues. I had visited the Bohemian Party/Music area of the city. I get a sense that I have visited Manchester during a cultural downturn, similar to what I experience in San Francisco [the dot-com bust was in full effect at the time]. I get a sense that its glory years were about a decade or more ago.

I was the Dry Bar and was peppering the bartender with all my tourist questions. Apparently New Order had declared bankruptcy quite a few years ago and had sold their stake in the establishment. Now it semmed like every other bar on the street. Then again what makes a bar or any other place special is one's connection to it and its community. That's what I love about a place like Manhattan (and to a certain extent SF); they are historical places with a large transient population. Everyone, including the residents, are visitors. Wherever one goes, one meets open arms and receptive faces. It is a frontier attitude where the frontier is not specifically physical, but the end-goal is adventure. Every one is a comrade in this adventure in these types of cities.

Not so in today's Manchester. It is an established town with established people. The inhabitants are friendly, but seemed surprised to be talking to a visitor and didn't really know what to converse about besides football [England had clenched a World Cup berth that same weekend in a match at Manchester where David Beckham of the local Manchester United (think Lakers) team figured prominently] and the Manchester of old. I sense Britons are quite literate and musical people, but do not possess much curiosity. Perhaps this was due to their cultural courtesy.

The New Order show at the Apollo was quite overwhelming. I was front and center not more than five feet from Bernard Summer. I was used to intense crowds, but not a hopelessly drunk one. Things were fine and I was properly exhausted after the show. They played at least three Joy Division songs, including a very rousing rendition of "Love Will Tear Us Apart". The only low was a very bad rendition of "Bizarre Love Triangle". They will have to make it up to me in Glasgow and London.

I have to admit the level oif drinking I have found here to be fairly appalling. People really get fucked up here and the amount of day-to-day alchoholism is shocking. You know that show "Scared Straight"? Well, I've been "Scared Sober" and have been dry since my afternoon arrival on Wednesday.

I'll be taking the train to Glasgow from Picadilly Station tomorrow morning.

Thus ends the first chapter in my three-part vacation...

Update from the ranch

From: Thomas Vong
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 11:26 AM
To: 'darrenh'
Subject: RE: back at the ranch

Thank you SO much Darren. I know the kid must've had a good time with you guys. I'm glad he's been such a good guest. It also eases my mind when thinking of when he'll be staying with you in late August until we get settled in NYC.

Dublin is GREAT! I like it much better than Montreal. It's odd that this is my 2nd dual-language city in 2 weeks. We're going to the Guinness brewery on Saturday and will be going to Dublin's oldest pub tonight. It's a place called Mulligan's and it's right by the Liffey river. It's supposed to have the best Guinness in town because they store it in the cellar which is cooled by the river. Ain't that one of the most romantic thoughts in beer history?

I'll have a couple of pints in your and Mochi's honor.

Cheers,
Thomas

-----Original Message-----
From: darrenh
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 8:01 PM
To: Thomas Vong
Subject: back at the ranch

thomas,

your dog is great and we (the collective house) have been having a great time with him. i spoke with shevann yesterday and we are going to exchange the goods on friday afternoon. mochi hasn't gotten into any trouble and i have been taking him to work with me where everyone loves him. i hope dublin is great and i'll talk to you when you get back. i just wanted to send you a letter to let you know that you shouldn't worry about your kid. he is in good hands.

cheers,
darren

Hello Dublin

Two weeks removed from my wonderful weekend in Montreal with Aisha, I find myself in Dublin for yet another work assignment.

I flew out Saturday morning SFO time and arrived Sunday morning in Dublin. Due to the length of the flight, I was unable to stop by to visit my parents as I had planned.

I arrived at my hotel around 9am local time. Of course my room was not ready. My company's office is not in the City Center of Dublin (or anywhere near as I assumed), but in a completely boring suburban bourough called Leopardstown. The clean and quiet of this area had me a bit unhinged on arrival.

While the staff got my room ready, I took the "tram" (called LUAS) to the City Center. It's only 3 blocks away from the hotel, the day was looking to be beautiful and the train is supposed to come every 15 minutes. Of course it didn't show up for about 30 minutes when I happened to be waiting.

To pass the time and help get the lay of the land, I cornered a local and held her hostage with my tourist questions. I was able to discern that it rains a lot here in the Emerald Isle (quel surprise!), U2 is in the middle of holding a series of charity concerts (probably to help pay for Bono's PR push for a Nobel Prize), the City Center would be trashed as a result, got the goods on a few places to go, and that Leopardstown is supposed to be a fairly well off area. This last tidbit will prove to be useful should I find myself running low on Euros (fairly soon as my cab ride to the hotel cost EU 60!). I could probably go house-to-house and panhandle enough to get me back to the airport by the end of the week.

I arrived in the City Center, which proved to be fairly large and very pedestrian friendly. Aisha is looking forward to some shopping and sight-seeing when she arrives to join me later in the week, but I don't know if this city will meet our San Francisco/Manhattan-centric standards of sophistication.

I physically cringed as I walked past goon after Northern European goon. You know the type...the badly dressed trendy Eurotrash types wearing leather, oversized knockoff sunglasses and sleeveless shirts/midriffs baring a jelly-belly that somehow manage to traipse about fooling themselves into thinking that they are even remotely above repugnance. Damn I'm a snob, but I gotta say that Aisha and I will be raising the beauty level of this city significantly in our week here.

I also got a little depressed. The world is getting smaller and nothing feels unique to my jaded eye anymore. I miss the Mochster and especially Aisha terribly.

On the flip side, I feel confident that Aisha and I will be wonderfully happy wherever we wind up. She has so much charisma that she can make anyplace exciting, comfortable and unforgettable when I'm with her.

I walked a good part of the City Center, had breakfast and did not take one photo. Dissappointing. The world feels so drab without Aisha. I have a feeling that when she arrives, she'll make this City exciting for me with her exhuberance and energy just like she made Montreal so memorable.

I lover her so much.

Watertown and Beyond!!!

I am in Watertown, NY for the next two weeks. My company is releasing a new version of their software and I will be training my team for the first week and serve as an emergency escalation point the following week.

Next weekend is my birthday. I spent the weekend in LA with my family. It was very pleasant. Went to the dogpark (actually, it was a small dirt lot) with Charlie and my sister Carly. Then had some Vietnamese food with her and my mom.

It happened to be my parent's 30th wedding anniversary that day. WOW. Kind of balls me over that they've been together that long. It also reminds me I'll be 30 soon (not this year though).

We bought a chocolate-chocolate mousse cake in celebration. Aisha would've loved it. In fact I wish she could've made this trip. I forgot to ask her to come with me and she didn't say she wanted to go. Two desires passing through the night....

I then hung out with Akie and Goldie on Saturday night. We met in West LA at a place called Gaby's. My sister and Karl came with me. I met Akie's boyfriend Mike. Mark was also able to stop by. What a nice guy.

We then stopped at one of those "boba" places that are so prevalent in LA and played dominoes until late. Very G-rated.

My brother, sister and mom gave me early birthday presents. My brother gave me a very nice Fossil watch. All silver and steel and blue and very masculine. My sister got me a wine holder/champagne cooler and my mom got me a tea thermal. The thermal is racing red and is part of the same collection as one of my cocktail shakers. I told mom this and she didn't believe me.

I'll spend my birthday next weekend in Montreal. I'll drive in from Watertown and meet Aisha there. She is nice enough to work out of her company's office there and wait for me. I'm looking forward to seeing her and whooping it up and staying at the hotel we booked. It looked nice from the internet pictures we saw.

Monterey y Carmel

Just came back from a wonderful weekend in Monterey.

Aisha and I are trying to do as many NorCal events as we can before our move to NYC. We drove up to Monterey on Saturday to visit the Aquarium there. The aquarium itself was a slight letdown. We both agreed that the Long Beach Aquarium was more fun, interactive and had more displays and activities.

The unexpected highlight was meeting Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook. He was there to promote sustainable seafood. He signed a cookbook that we purchased and he also did a very entertaining cooking demonstration for about 40 minutes. The man is highly charismatic, witty and extremely funny.

Of course he was completely into Aisha. No big deal. Lots of people are. We spoke at length with Martin on the importance of his media role as a successful Chinese-American. He spoke eloquently of seeing himself as a cultural ambassador.

We then went shopping in Carmel. Aisha picked up some luggage at the Coach store. I nearly got my foot lopped off from a falling glass shelf there. Luckily my lightning quickness and instinctual cowardice got me out of the way with superhuman speed and I was unscathed.

We then found a wonderful dog accessories store. We got Mochi a couple of toys and a halter.

We went to a dinner at a place in Pacific Grove called Passion Fish. It was recommended by an acquaintance we have now labeled "Monterey Stacey". The restaurant was beautiful and the wine selection was large and CHEAP.

The food was pretty good. I only say that because the night before on Friday, we had a GREAT meal in North Beach at a place called Pinochio. Damn we're spoiled. My cioppino (what a classic SF dish) was amazing. Jerry was with us and he kept whining about how his dish sucked compared to mine. Now back to Passion Fish...it was all fairly good, but the one truly memorable item we had was the crab salad. It was WOW wonderful. It was a mista type salad with an Asian-inspired vinaigrette with some sesame oil. It was great.

We then spent the night in Monterey, woke up, had breakfast in Carmel and picked up a pair of doggy glasses for Henny. That's our friend Colin and Laura's dog. They were nice enough to dogsit Mochi at the last minute for us.

We then went back to the City and picked up Mochi and headed over to Aisha's mom's place. She decided to bbq. We showed up, had steak, potatoes, ribs and PRAWNs. Did I mention we're spoiled?

It was then back to the apartment for a quick change for dinner. I was to host a dinner in the City for some of our new employees. We met at Pier 33 at Crossing the Bar. It is an Indian fusion restaurant. I admit to having some concerns about the cuisine, but decided to keep an open mind. It wound up being very good. I think everyone had a good time and of course that was all that mattered.

Of course this is the Mochster.

This is me a few years removed. I feel comfortable sharing this picture as I have had significant plastic surgery to alter my appearance due to security reasons.

Some introductions....Aisha is on the right.

So it begins....

The second (and hopefully more organized) phase of my online life.

I've always had the urge to write, to put my thoughts down on paper. Like many of us afflicted and trained with corporate ADD, I find it hard to set aside an hour a day to do this. I figure blogging is a good way to allow myself this small joy.

This is actually my second blog. My first one is for Mochi at Dogster:

www.dogster.com/?138584

All these blogs will be part of Aisha and my home page. The purpose of our page is to keep our friends and family abreast of our lives.