i love these girls...but not in a creepy pedophilia type way

so about fifteen minutes ago my friend Jon sent me a link to the first video you see below. within the first five seconds of the song i fell in love! meet Lennon and Maisy stella. this girl's vocals are amazing for a 12 yr. old. she's got a great quality in her voice. her sister is only 8 and she's effing awesome as well. i sort of wish i were their older sister so that i could brag about them rather than seeming like a creepster, but le sigh, i am not white. 

thanks, Jon, for not disappointing me with a link to something stupid!!

Jason Mraz' "I Won't Give Up"

Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend"

holy hell can't stop listening to them!! 

154:365 Napa, once again

154:365 Napa, once again

153:365 barrel cave

because i didn't have a day 153 photo. this is a photo i took of the barrel cave at Cade Winery.

on saturday i took a trip to Napa with a bunch of people for wine tasting and good food. i'm not much of a wine drinker, but rarely pass up an opportunity to hang out with people and spend a sunny day out.

susan, Libby, Jeff, Eva, Jared, me, Caroline, Leyen, Lilian and Gary

we first headed to addendum for fried chicken. remember, i recently went to Napa specifically for the Ad Hoc fried chicken, only to have gone on the wrong Monday? well lucky me, Lilian suggested addendum for lunch this day and i finally got to try the fried chicken.

3 piece fried chicken, cornbread, corn succotash, potato salad. $20 after tax/tip. it was super flavorful and juicy, perfectly crisp and just right. though i love hot sauce with fried chicken, it wasn't necessary this day.

we next headed to beautiful Cade Winery for wine tasting as well as a tour. this winery is located on Howell Mountain, so it provided for gorgeous views of Napa.

le boys

le girls

next we went to Ladera for another wine tasting. at this point tasting wine became less and less appealing to me because i don't like wine in any shape or form anyhow. i just gave Caroline all of my wine.

we also went to grab a to-go dinner from Rutherford Grill, which we ate at a picnic table at an closed restaurant across from Bouchon. i forgot to take pictures because i could not wait to get up in that. good food, but in my opinion there are better things to eat in Napa. plus, the Hillstone in SF is basically the same food. 

La Costanera

i bought a $30 for $60 certificate for La Costanera, a one Michelin star Peruvian restaurant located along highway 1. the restaurant resides in what used to be Chart House. Chart House was a restaurant i always wanted to go to when i was a kid because it looked like it was in the shape of an odd pyramid. 

this is a horrible picture and doesn't really capture what it's like in the restaurant. the walls are glass and directly outside is the ocean. it's the perfect place to spend watching the sunset.

La Costanera is a good place to take a date because of said sunset, but also because they offer a lot of small plate options for sharing. i took my mom as my date because frankly i feel like i've seen friends nonstop lately and needed a break from them! haha jk. but i haven't seen any family in a while so i figured who better to take than my own mom.

 cebiche chino- ahi tuna, ginger, soy-tamarindo infused leche de tigre
fresh, light, vinegary, textural. 

yucca balls- stuffed with chorizo, olives and raisins. served with a curry sauce

i liked this dish a lot. it was interesting for someone who doesn't love raisins....

shrimp with squash, sweet potato and mint, in a curry sauce

the mint added a nice brightness. 

langostino crocantes- quinoa encrusted shrimp served with sweet potato puree and bbq sauce

lightly crisp and very well done. favorite dish of the night.

mac n cheese- with truffle oil and bacon

a basic mac n cheese. they added $3 for the truffle but i didn't taste one hint of truffle.

potato chips crusted dungeness crab cake with shiitake mushrooms

this didn't have very much crab in it, though it was still a tasty dish. the overly sweet sauce underneath sort of took away from it all. 

while i thought the food overall was good, i don't know if it deserves a Michelin star. 

151:365 Giants vs. the who again??

151:365 Giants vs. the who again??
went to the Giants game last night. 

headed to the city solo on Caltrain. you can drink on that train so naturally i grabbed whatever i had. vodka and diet coke in an old peanut butter jar. you know me, always keepin it classy!!
had some drinks at Lucky Strike

Augs, me, Kris and Muri

Erich, Ceaze, Muri, Darrell, Karl, me, Fern and Augs

Kris had to catch up so here she is with too much jameson

ran into Martin at the game! love this fool!!

and Nina!! love her more!! haha, just kidding BD, just kidding!!

at some point i got the crazy crab sandwich, which when you've been drinking, is exceptionally good and well worth $16.

ha! Kris and i...and Darrell




then things got a little weird with me and a bobble....

memorial day bbq and steph visits!

a few weeks ago Nick suggested that we (our awesome coworkers) have a bbq rather than do the usually happy hour. on most weekends it'd be impossible to have everybody we wanted there off of work. see, when you work in a hospital coverage is necessary 24 hrs of the day so it's hard to have everybody off work at the same time. luckily it worked out that most people were off of work on Memorial Day, so we quickly researched parks and threw together a plan of action. 

Tony!!! one of the guys i spent two years with carpooling to x-ray school and whom i also spent with at my clinical sites. this guy is awesome and i miss his humor. but he tells me that if we worked together i would hate him. so maybe it's better you stay at the VA, Tone. haha! 

myself, Muri and Uyen

Muri is notorious for forcing alcohol upon people. all day long jameson shots were poured. amongst about ten or twelve people five bottles and a handle of jameson were killed. needless to say we were ALL pretty faded by the time the bbq was done. 

Steven, Uyen, Edgar, Jess, Natasha, Abe, Karl, Muri, myself, Tan, Tony. unfortunately i didn't get pictures of Hong with his family and Mike.

the little cute family! Alyssa taught me some Nicki Minaj dance moves. haha. she's better than i am.

cheers to these two for coming to join us after having driven home from camping just before meeting us! Jess, you're funny. don't ever kiss my forehead ever again. haha!!

Nick, myself and Tony.

Natasha, sad because she's white and wishes she was Asian like the rest of us. she's our honorary asian.

Natasha and Muri are so gay for each other. i think Natasha loves me, but lusts Muri. haha!! it's okay, at the end of the day she's going to be coming home with me....literally!! she's my future roomie! 

Ruby, Ian and Chris made it later in the day. Chris is not pictured because he's probably catching up getting hammered.

this whole bbq was his idea. i just offered myself to reserve the picnic table. so thanks, Nick, for the bbq! it was lots of fun!

as for my hair, it looks like i took a cue from Donald Trump with that combover.

at this point everybody was all sorts of drunk. and see what i mean about Natasha and Muri lusting each other? 

LOL!!! 

some time during the bbq my friend Steph said she was going to come and visit. she lives over an hour away now, so i rarely get to see her. after the bbq i rushed home to meet her and her husband, Eddie. Kris came to join because she, too, never gets to see Steph. still sort of  hella drunk from the bbq, i was a horrible host. i stayed up and talked to them for all of 45 minutes before falling asleep on the couch. whoops! good thing i know she loves me and won't hold it against me!! 

love you, Steph!!

okay for a moment i wondered why the F my hand was on Eddie's abdomen. then i noticed that it was a giant hand compared to my own. whew, so i'm going to infer that that's Eddie's own hand on his abdomen. haha.