Today I got to meet Natalie for the first time. She was born in December so since we were on the other side of the world, I hadn’t had the chance to meet her yet. She’s the daughter of my ex-boss when I was a chemistry intern. She cried the first time I held her but got better after some time.

This is the year of babies and engagements. These things seriously come in waves, I know at least 3 engagements and 6 pregnancies in the past year. The year we got married, I think we attended at least 7 weddings! But it’s good, I enjoy celebrating these happy occasions with friends.

After meeting Natalie, we went out to lunch at BJ’s in Cupertino. It’s right near one of the Apple campuses so it was a bit busy so we decided to sit outside since there was no wait.

We had the chicken potstickers, on a nicely decorated plate.. it looks a bit nicer than it tastes. I’m not sure what the carrots are there for besides garnish, they didn’t go well with the dish.

I had this huge chili angus burger. It’s basically an open face hamburger with tons of chil and cheese. It’s served with potato wedge fries and onion rings. It was way too much for me to eat so I only had about 2/3 and left most of the bread and sides. It’s what you call comfort food.

Afterwards we went to the huge mall in Santa Clara called Valley Fair. I lived in Santa Clara for a year doing my internship but I didn’t frequent this mall as much as I thought I would. I guess I was too busy studying or working or something. The mall is huge though, it’s a bit of a maze but it’s good because it has all the essential stores that I like.

I headed up to San Francisco for dinner with my friends Vicki and Joyce. This time I was craving for something a little healthier… House of Prime Rib, Zachary’s Pizza, Fried Chicken, Chili Burger.. now it’s time for raw fish and salad, so we met up at Pacific Catch on 9th Avenue near Irving. They have a location in the Marina that I’d been to a few times and I really love their poke salad or wasabi bowl (almost the same as salad except it comes with rice). Poke is a marinated raw ahi tuna and is delicious here! Oh, it’s marinated with things like soy sauce, sesame seeds, green onions, and other things that I don’t know.

Vicki and Joyce are big on sharing so that they can sample more things, so they had the appetizer sampler, the sweet potato fries are very yummy.

Plus a side order of poke.

I had the poke salad and loved it! It was very refreshing and I love the half avocado on the top.

I kept both ladies from their significant others so we called it night after chatting a bit after dinner. They have a mochi ice cream fondue which sounded really appetizing but were a bit too full to eat more. Next time…