Breakfast with Halima

Yesterday morning I got the chance to have breakfast with a dear friend of mine. It is crazy that she moved from Wisconsin and now lives here with her husband, Nils, and baby Mayen (who shares my birthday and will be turning one this year) and I haven't seen her since last fall. We had a great time catching up over breakfast as we both go to work late on Fridays. Halima and I met during the orthopedic clinical residency we did 5 years ago (WOW 5 years already). I look forward to spending more time with her and her family soon!


Self portrait on Fillmore Street

Laurel's Wedding Shower

Given that I am behind on the blog, I thought I would that the opportunity to catch up.
On Sunday March 16th, Alyson, Joyce and I carpooled down to Los Altos to Laurel's wedding shower. It was a lovely event with lots of incredible food and fun. If you would like to get more details on the spread, link over to the Yung's blog where Joyce has done a great job giving a full description. We are very excited for Chris and Laurel's Wedding on April 26th.

Quick picture at Joyce's house before heading out.


Joyce, Me, Laurel, Alyson and Lynna

Sunday Night Dinner

This week we had a Sunday Night Dinner at a hot pot place in San Mateo. Unfortunately for Dave, he was unable to attend as he was on a plane to Austin, Texas. After dropping him off at the airport, I proceeded to the Yung's house to hang out there for a little while. It was great fun to play with Mady after she woke up from her nap. We then headed on to the restaurant to meet the rest of the gang (Lynna, Dave, Emmett, Rich, Caroline, Zoe, Emmet and various other visiting families).

This is the face of a new game Madeline is playing. It consists of squinting up your face. I am a good competitor at this game as I have big cheeks too!

Here you can see the steam rising off the pots. Lynna, Emmet and Rich look very serious about their dinners.

Mom and Mady.

Little Emmett looking quite stylish while enjoying his ice cream in a chocolate sprinkle cone.

This is the pose one gets when asking "Do you like your ice cream, Emmett?"

Happy Birthday Joyce!

Although it is a few weeks early, Joyce and I had a girls day out on Sunday to celebrate her upcoming birthday. We went to Le P'tit Laurent in Glen Park for brunch and then headed to Union Square for some shopping. It was a beautiful day in the city and I so enjoyed getting some one on one time with Joyce. I will still be ready to say "Happy Birthday" for real on March 29th!

"Discovery Day"

On Saturday March 8th, Dave planned a "Discovery Day" date. I was told that I would need to be ready to go early afternoon and would be busy for the day. The date started with a hike down in San Bruno. The trail was from Sneath Road up to the Sweeney trail. At the top, we landed at the spot that the Portola Expedition "discovered" the San Francisco Bay. According to the guide book, we would be able to see the Pacific Ocean out to the Farallon Islands, north to Mount Tamalpais and the Golden Gate Bridge and east at the San Andreas Lake. As you can observe from the pictures, we saw a lot of fog. We had a great time despite the fog and really enjoyed being outside and seeing very few other people along the trail. It was eerie and peaceful.








Part two of "Discovery Day" was a trip down to Moss Beach Landing to watch the beautiful sunset. This was a discovery for me as I had never been here before and had this great experience.








The final stop on "Discovery Day" was Cetrella Restaurant in Half Moon Bay. Not only had I never been to this restaurant, but I had not been to Half Moon Bay is at least 20 years, if at all (truly don't remember). We had a lovely time enjoying glasses of wine in the bar and then proceeding onto a stellar dinner. We had skate fish for an appetizer. I had the sea bream fish which is a type of snapper from the Mediterranean and Dave had the salmon. It was a wonderful dinner and we truly enjoyed our evening together. I guess I better get planning now for the next one to try and match the creativeness Dave put into this date!

Debbie's 27th on the 27th

On February 27th, 2008, Debbie Siebold turned 27 years old. We were lucky enough to help her celebrate at a Moroccan restaurant in Oakland.

Here is Dave "tipping" the belly dancer


Here the birthday girl gets some dancing lessons. She was a REALLY good sport!



Forget the birthday cake. How about warm bananas and oranges instead. Noticed her lessons paid off as Debbie got "tipped" $5. Pretty good for a novice.


Being the birthday girl is tiring!


It was quite a night for a school night. Very much fun!

Brunch with the Shahkars

On Sunday, February 24th, Alyson and Shahien made their way into the city to meet Dave and I for brunch. We went to a hole-in-the-wall place called "John's Ocean Beach Cafe" which is down by, you got it, Ocean beach. The atmosphere and service isn't a lot to talk about, but the old pictures on the wall and the food makes it worth going here. We then took a walk down to the beach to see the huge waves that were being created by the large, off-shore storms. It was quite windy and impressive.