Pumpkin Patch

We went with some of our friends to Joan's Farm & Pumpkin Patch for the little ones to have their very first pumpkin patch experience.  Clementine ran around to look at the big pumpkins, the medium pumpkins, and the small pumpkins. 

That pumpkin looks a little big for you, Clementine!  And don't look now, but I think there's a ghost behind you...
Click HERE for the rest of the pictures.

Cayucos

We spent the weekend of September 6-9 at a 1970s style beach house in Cayucos, about 4 hours away from San Francisco. Together with our friends Tammy & Marco & their little boy Luca, and Jenn & Ryan with their kiddies Kaila & Dante, we spent time at the local beaches, wandered around the beach towns, and watched the toddlers play with each others toys and scream out "MINE!"

Click HERE for our photos.

Lil Maysie Jo

We visited our friends Lauren & Charles and their new little girl Maysie Jo, who was born about a week after Clementine. They own/run a catering company (Lauren is the chef) and will be moving to Sonoma this week.

Russell and I have had many crazy adventures over the years with Lauren, and now here we are embarking on our next journeys.

Siete de Mayo Party! Oh, and a Baby Shower too!

Our friends Justa & Tammy threw us a baby shower! Well, knowing Russell and I, it couldn't be a standard baby shower party. We decided to have a Fiesta to celebrate Cinco de Mayo AND a baby shower together! Tammy made gigantic colored pompoms and did all the decorations. Justa worked with Russell on the activities: A "Message To Baby Gong" from our guests, and a guess at "What Will Baby Gong Look Like". We also had a custom-made pinata shaped like a baby... please don't think that's an indicator of what kind of parents we'll be!

Isa flew up from LA for this party, and got to have a preview of what it feels like to be an Auntie. Many of our friends already have chirruns of their own, and a whole new slew of babies were born in the past year (ours will be the 8th). There were tykes galore running around all over the house! Friends were telling us to "get used to it - this will be your life soon!" Ai ya...

Click HERE for our pics.

Click on this image to get a closer look of the potential Baby Gongs.

O Tannenbaum

We had our annual Xmas tree ornament-making party, and boy oh boy did our friends deliver this year! Here's a creepy christmas poem, music and words by Russell, and read by a friend.

Ramping it up

Russell's birthday brunch at The Ramp

Bobby & Gracie!

Perpetual bachelor Bob finally got married! He & his girl Grace are such the happy couple. Congratulations you two!

From Bob&Grace Wedding

More pics HERE.

K-O-K with JoSun & SikeMo

A rooftop barbecue and karaoke party at Joanne Sun & Mike Sowalsky's condo proved to be our undoing. These are two very dangerous people. Beware.

The Fourth

Isa, Jay, and Marley-dog drove up from SoCal to spend the July 4th weekend up north. They spent Friday night in Elk Grove with the Chuidian family (and had a Filipino food feast courtesy of Tita Yeyet, from what I heard!), and drove to San Francisco to spend the rest of the 3-day weekend with us!
We had a small backyard grillfest with some old friends who have just moved back to San Francisco. The sun came out for a second, just enough to warm us up before the afternoon fog blew in. Well, that's Ocean Beach living for you!

Sun Day

It was one of those ultra-rare days when the sun is actually shining in our usually fog-bound Outer Sunset District neighborhood. So we just had to drop everything and take advantage by having a backyard barbecue brunch cookout with Justa and Drew. And what would brunch be without bottomless bloody marys?


The weather was rather warm for Corser's taste, so he started acting like a dog (for once) and dug himself a cool little nest in the shady sandy soil.


For more mouthwatering pictures of our barbecue, click HERE.

Local Time in Kauai

We escaped to Kauai for 6 days in May. And it's a true "escape", complete with secluded beaches, small-town life, and empty wide open roads stretching out into the sky before you. Our hotel, the Aston Islander on the Beach, was on the border of the towns of Waipouli & Kapaa, which is on the East Shore, halfway between the North and the South coasts (the Western side of the island isn't very navigable). This central location made it easy for us to travel easily to various beaches & destinations. Our hotel was also a few minutes drive to the town of Kapaa, where a few of our friends were born, raised, and still live.

Some highlights:
-- Making our way through many of Kauai's beaches on the North, East, and South shores. A few were pretty popular, most were almost deserted. The surf, weather, and terrain varied from beach to beach, and some were more suited to swimming, snorkeling, or just lying out on the beach away from the waves.
-- Watching our pal Aldrine ROCK a live show (that links to another performance a few months ago, but so what, he's frickin amazing)
-- Chowing down on the BEST coconut manju, seafood poke, saimin noodles, and shave ice (yes, we are NOW Hawaiian Blizzard shave ice believers!) thanks to our friends' advice
-- Learning the intricacies of local pidgin language (examples: Never using the word "are", Saying "slippahs" instead of "flip flops", and Heavy utilization of sound effects)
-- Wending our way through Waimea Canyon
-- Ziplining through gorges in the rain

Click HERE for our pictures. Warning: there are a LOT! We'll be posting videos soon too.


We had a blast hanging out with our Kauai buddies, checking out the sights, and soaking up the sun (in between the rain) while laying on the 3rd or 4th beach of the day. Thank you so much to Ryan & Emmi, Aldrine, and Aaron for being such great hosts during our visit!

Happy Birthdaoke!

For my 35th birthday, Russell treated me & our close friends to food, drinks, and karaoke at The Spot Lounge. It's one block away from our house, which is a very good (and sometimes a bad) thing for us because it's too darn easy to stumble home from.
That's me & big bro Roland on the mic. For more embarassing pictures of the shameless debauchery, click HERE.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Russell for such a memorable 35th birthday celebration! You are officially the Best Husband Ever!

Snowbound

Russell, Corser, and I spent a weekend in Tahoe with some old friends. We used to go on snowboarding trips with these folks ALL the time, and haven't done so in the past few years. Mostly because everyone's got KIDS now!
Well, we've got a little guy of our own too. We took him out to the snow park with all the kiddies, and he was a very good boy.
Click HERE for the pics.

Fugly Sweaters Galore!

"... don we now our gay apparel..."

We held our annual Tree-Trimming Party, in which our friends come over and make the ornaments that will adorn our tree this year. Taking inspiration from our 1970s-1980s childhood memories, we christened this as our Ugly Holiday Sweater party. Our guests came bedecked and bedazzled in their fugliest holiday finest (and we said, the more obnoxious, the better!)



Justa came over early to help prepare the holiday spread (thank you Justa!) There was soooo much food, which kept arriving all night long as more people arrived! Our friends looooove to eat!

Click HERE for our pics. Fa la la laaa, la la la laaaaaaaaaaa!

A Winter Wonderland

St George Spirits in Alameda is truly one of the most magical places on earth. It's a craft distillery located in an old air force hangar (next to the Mythbusters shop), where they make the most exquisite small-batch hand-crafted spirits, including eau de vies (which are like grappa) and liqueurs, single malt whiskeys, and Hangar One Vodka (we are huge fans). Last year they debuted Absinthe Verte , the first absinthe legally made in the United States since 1912. We have a bottle of that too, and it's incredibly smooth and oh so delicious.

They recently released their handmade agave spirit, Agua Azul, otherwise known to most folks as tequila. However, just like how all "real" champagne has to be made in France's Champagne region, all "real" tequila must be made in Jalisco, Mexico - otherwise one cannot call it tequila. Just like the rest of the St George stuff, it's made on-site in their hangar (with agave pinas that they exported from Mexico), and thus can only legally be called an "agave-based spirit".

St. George hosts Open House events a few times a year, and this time around the theme was "1980s Winter Prom". For $40, they gave attendees tickets for 4 cocktails, 1 absinthe cocktail, 1 photograph at the photo station, and unlimited (ahem) "tastings" of all of their spirits. It goes without saying that there was also plenty of water stations to keep everyone hydrated, and plenty of hearty yummy food to keep the spirits in check.

Russell, Alden, and I had a blast. For more pics of the debauchery, click HERE.

Haute Dawgs

Lauren and Charles held a DIY Hot Dog Barbecue Party at their place today. Lauren has her own successful catering business (she makes a kickass award-winning chocolate-chipotle chili), and she put together some creative gourmet twists on these regular old turkey franks.



Ahhhh so many fond memories of partying with our girl Lauren. It's no surprise why we love her so.


More pics HERE. Congratulations to Charles and Lauren on your engagement!

Mando+Linda

Russell, Corser, and I drove down to LA and kicked it at my sister Isa's & Jay's swank new place in Toluca Lake over the weekend. We were attending the wedding of our buddy Armando and his ladylove Linda, who got hitched this past Saturday, July 27. The wedding ceremony and dinner reception took place at the beautiful Ambassador Campus in Pasadena.

Click HERE to see a few pics from our camera.


Here's a peek at Armando from the archives:


Felicidades, Mando y Linda!

Jammin 'Cots

Our friends Tony & Asuncion have a prolific apricot tree in their backyard which is just sagging with fruit. They can't give away their apricots fast enough, and we saw bushels of the almost-ripe fruit covering the branches. We managed to take home a bagful (shoulda taken more, dangit!), and I made some apricot-lime jam with our loot. I didn't want a sweet jam, and using a judicious amount of sugar with juices/zest of 2 limes resulted in some amazing tart-yet-fruity-sweet jam, thick and luscious like lemon curd. This stuff was heavenly on thin-sliced toast, and even better on Kashi TLC crackers with cream cheese. Now I want to try it with some chevre, or on top of cheesecake, ice cream, or waffles...

Garden of Eatin

We spent Sunday afternoon gawking at our friends Tung & Lisa's backyard garden in San Leandro, which they've been attending to all summer. It's their first garden in their first year at their first house, and it's growing like gangbusters.

In one corner of the yard, they are growing different kinds of tomatoes, Chinese gourd squashes, cucumbers, melons, eggplants, snap peas, and various Vietnamese herbs & mints.

And along the fence, they've got several hot chili pepper & bell pepper plants, different basils and more herbs, a row of corn, and and apple tree.

Lisa's kids Nathan and Isabelle are enthusiastic gardeners and veggie eaters too. Seeing them care for the plants, talk so enthusiastically about their gardening, and munching down heartily on the healthy food harvested from their back yard is just the coolest thing ever. Tung generously gave us a little chili pepper plant to take home (along with his instructions), and we hope that it survives the cold San Francisco beachside weather.

A day in Jinguashi & Jioufen / Goodbye

Back in Taipei, Tammy took us to this hidden hole in the wall for a Taiwanese breakfast of sweet & savory soy milks and fried things. Now with fuel in our bellies, we took the train to Jinguashi and Jioufen, both on the northeast coast of Taiwan.

We checked out the historic town of Jinguashi first, which is an old Japanese-era mining town. They've preserved a lot of their historical buildings and have a museum about the area's history. Being that it's all built on hillsides, getting lost in this town was quite an ordeal since it involved a lot of walking up and down unmarked back alleys comprised entirely of stairs. Let's just say that we burnt off a LOT of that morning's fried breakfast.

We then took a bus to Jioufen, down the hill. This quaint little town is essentially one big market alley that snakes through small shops & food stalls. The food here was amazing, and we ate things that were so entirely foreign and bizarre and delicious. We would taste, eat, shop, taste, and eat some more. Wending our way through to one end, we rested up at the Jioufen Teahouse during sunset. We later took a train back to Taipei, and had a nightcap at the Taipei Bear Bar (yes, "Bear" in the gayest sense of the word).

The next day was our last shopping day, and we met up with Tammy's sister-in-law (who was also from/visiting Taipei) to do some street market shopping. Later that night, Tammy's friend Zoey took us to an all-you-can-eat Taiwanese barbecue dinner, at which we consumed an obscene amount of meat. Still reeking of delicious barbecue smoke, we headed to In House lounge where we met up with her other friends Nina & Peggy for a last night of drinks before going home to the US the next day.

Pictures can be found HERE.