beakatude – Page 21 – Do you have beakatude?

This is why he shaved his head.

By beakatude
on Oct 14, 2015
in chuckle, life, outta here, projects, yum

In September, Jes went on a business trip to Shenzhen, China.

On his first morning, he had just returned from the gym and knocked his head on the corner of the tv in his room. There was a giant gash and I’m sure there was a lot of blood too. So, he took a cab to the hospital and needed stitches. He said the whole experience at the Chinese hospital was a bit scary.

For the rest of the week, he held meetings with a lovely bandage around his head to keep the gauze in place.

Later in the week, a coworker bought him a hat that he wore instead.

He also had some pretty tasty food while he was there. I love this photo of Squirt and his big bowl of jellyfish.

When he came home, he went to Supercuts and had all his hair shaved off.

Dinner Party

By beakatude
on Oct 12, 2015
in friends, holidays, yum

With the fall being a big birthday month, Vyl suggested that we all get together to celebrate. We scored a reservation in our Clubroom so the usual families came over on Saturday and we got caught up while the kids played. Jes cooked up some steak sandwiches, Michelle prepared a tomato salad with homegrown tomatoes, and Vyl baked up a chocolate cake.

Good times…just wish we could do it more often like we used to.

Birthday Weekend

By beakatude
on Sep 30, 2015
in family, holidays, outings, yum

On the weekend leading up to my birthday, the rest of my family came up to hang out and celebrate. It’s always nice when Brother and I can celebrate out birthdays together. This weekend was especially cool because it was my 40th.

They flew up on Saturday and they finally got to meet Peanut for the first time.

For lunch, we walked over to Taco Bell Cantina. It had just opened earlier this week and we ordered a feast on Mexican Pizzas, crunchy tacos, and bunch of random other stuff. It had been a long time since I last had Taco Bell and it was delicious. 🙂

In the afternoon, we all went to the SF Zoo by train. We had a couple meltdowns by Miss KK but it ended on a happy note. Phew.

For dinner, we went to Hog Island. That too was a feast. I had the clam chowder and a couple raw oysters.

Brother ordered a few other things and the crudo was my favorite dish (pictured below).The waitress managed to get a pretty good photo of the whole group with the bridge in the background. Jesse is missing because he was home sleeping with a case of jet lag.

The next day, we met up with Jason and Jia for brunch at Little Skillet/Victor Hall. It was a great venue for our big group since we didn’t need a reservation and they have lots of big tables. We took over the back table in the corner, which had lots of room for the strollers. It’s crazy now with 3 infants and 2 little girls.

For dinner, we had reservations at House of Prime Rib. I’d rather be at Lawry’s but this is the second best thing.

Despite the early reservation time, they still made us wait. As a consolation, we got free desserts! Dinner was a little hectic since Peanut was not in the mood to nap.

So, he sat in my lap for most of the meal.

On Monday, our actual birthday, we drove up to Napa for the day.

After lunch, we went to Sterling Vineyard and everyone enjoyed the gondola ride up. This is one of our first family photos together. Too bad Peanut was sleeping.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at Bouchon Bakery to pick up some treats.

Brother and I ordered like we were at Taco Bell again.

Dinner was at Ad Hoc and they were serving fried chicken that night.

We had a ton of food, which got packed up to go after dinner.

There was enough for us to have another feast the next day for lunch!

What a fun weekend and birthday with the family!!

I’m 40.

By beakatude
on Sep 28, 2015
in holidays, life

Well, I just had my 40th birthday and I’m feeling pretty good. To commemorate this milestone birthday, I thought I’d reflect on the past decade (2005-2015). Let’s walk down memory lane, shall we?

Places we visited:

New York City, NY
Hawaii (Oahu and Maui)
Philadelphia, PA
Portland, OR
Canada (Vancouver)
Mexico (Ensenada, Puerto Vallarta)
Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket)
Italy (Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Milan)
France (Paris)
England (London)
Belize
Guatemala

Life Changes:

Moved to SF in 2007.
Bought our second home: a 1-bedroom condo in the city.
Got a new job in the medical setting and made some really good friends at work.
Had two beautiful kids. (Life goal: Have 2 kids before I turn 40 – check!).

Events:

Most of our friends got married during this decade and many of them also had kids. Luckily for us, there were a bunch of us who waited to have kids in our late 30s so that we weren’t the only ones struggling with raising babies/small children.
I had abdominal surgery in 2013 to repair an umbilical hernia that was a result of my first pregnancy.
Koa passed away in 2013 and I still think of him daily.
Both of my parents retired and my brother got married.
Jes and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary in 2012. We’ve also been officially together for half our lives (20 years this fall)!!

Accomplishments:

I learned how to sail in the San Francisco Bay.
I got a teaching position at my alma mater and worked as an Assistant Professor for a semester. I was also a regular guest speaker at another OT school in the Bay Area and gave a lecture to the Clinical Nutrition program at Cal.

I’ve gotta say that that my 30s were fun and came with a lot of change and growth. Let’s hope my 40s bring good health, happiness, and more growth.

Go Beak Go!

By beakatude
on Sep 19, 2015
in go beak go, outings, peanut

After Peanut turned 6 weeks old, I decided to give jogging a try for the first time since January. My doctor said to take it easy so that’s what I did. On Tuesday, I met up with Ranee and we pushed our strollers around Lake Merritt together. I jogged most of it and we went around the whole 3-mile route. Despite some soreness in my quads later that evening, I felt pretty good. Thanks for running with me, Ranee!!

On Friday, I went out for a 2-mile stroller run on The Embarcadero and it was so nice to be back out there in my running shoes. I managed to run a 12-minute/mile pace and I wasn’t sore afterward. Yay me! Hopefully this is the restart of my running habit.

Shoe Sale

By beakatude
on Sep 10, 2015
in outings, yum

On Thursday morning, I went to the Toms Warehouse Sale in San Mateo with Peanut and my mom. The doors opened at 10am and we arrived just before 10. The line had already snaked around the building but there was plenty of shade and we weren’t too far from the door. The wait wasn’t too bad and I had time to feed and change Peanut before it was our turn to go inside. At 11:00, we got wristbands and then waited another 30 minutes.

Once inside, everything was surprisingly calm and organized. The shoes were organized by size in clusters of 6 boxes. They had lots of classic styles and colors with lots of inventory. I had everyone’s shoe sizes recorded in my phone and sent photos and messages to everyone for their color preferences.

I ended up getting a pair for everyone in the family including 2 for me, 2 for KK, 1 for Jes, 2 for Alice, and 1 pair each for Jia, Jason, Brother, and Joy. The women’s slip-ons were $24 each, mens’ slip-ons were $19 each, and tinys were $15 each. Not bad.

While I shopped, my mom got in line to pay, which saved us a lot of time. There was a station where the staff counted up the shoes by style and category and then zip-tied the bags. They also made sure that we didn’t have more than 15 items (their limit per customer). The last step was the credit card line, which was pretty quick.