They told each other No gifts for Valentines, though they both agreed just to have a simple dinner at a neighborhood Ristorante. That was a week before Valentines day.
One of them thought he'd surprise the other half with a box of chocolates. So on Valentines Day, he picked up a heart shaped box with a lace dotted with hearts. A box of chocolates wouldn't be considered a gift, afterall. Unbeknownst to him, his other half is also busy looking for something for Valentines. They both got their surprises that evening. Afterall, it is better to give that to receive.
~rl
I went to the Diptyque store on Maiden Lane to check out possible gifts for Mijo on Valentines. Some of the scents sold in the store come not only in sprays but also in solid form. I thought this would be perfect for Mijo to have something he can carry with him to the gym at noon that is small and solid and still smells like his scent when he leaves the house in the morning. If you enjoy scents and fragrances, this store is for you.
Inside their shop, it gives you that old European charm and they have nothing but perfumes that come in different aroma, shapes and sizes. This is perfumes galore!
Nope. It was not my birthday. It was Mijo's! I took him to RN74. RN74 is an urban wine bar and restaurant located in downtown inside the Millenium Tower. If you have heard of RN74 before, it is because RN74 is short for Route Nationale 74 which is the main highway that runs through the Burgundy wine region of France. I have heard and read a lot of good things about this restaurant and we both haven't been there for dinner so I thought Mijo's birthday is a good excuse to go check it out. In a nutshell, Mijo was genuinely impressed with the place, the atmosphere, the service, the wine and the food. And I totally agree.
One of the civic duties of being an American citizen is to serve on a jury. Mijo tried to talk me out of it. A coworker Z did the same thing but I guess, deep inside, I wanted to check out for myself how the American justice system works. Well, at least how the lower courts function. In the end, I discovered that lots of people share Mijo and Z's sentiments about Jury Duty. Everyone tries to be excused from this community service so the entire jury selection process becomes like a big soap opera. To make the story short, I got summoned to go to jury duty and while I was at the Hall of Justice from 8am till 4pm, with two fifteen minute breaks and a lunch break, I was not selected as one of the twelve jurors.
We heard that it won't be raining on Saturday night. Since we've been confined inside the house the entire day either doing house chores or catching up at work, we decided to brave the cold and step outside to watch the Chinese Lunar Parade in downtown. Besides, it is always fun to watch this parade and it has been ages since the last time we saw it in person.
It is the Year of the Dragon so what do you expect? Of course, dragons and there were lots of them. Here are the ones that we liked because of their size, color, lighting effects, and movement.
This is supposed to be the mother of all dragons that night. It is over 250 feet in length and it is bathed in red and yellow lights. It gleams while it moves. We saw this by chance on our way back home. 
Earlier that evening, we maxed out watching the parade because it started getting really cold. After getting hot chocolate at a nearby cafe, we heard this loud popping sound of firecrackers while walking down toward the Montgomery BART station. We followed the smoke and saw this huge dragon. How lucky was that? The picture on the right is the tail end of the dragon.
I wish I understood Bahasa. For the past weeks, I've been enjoying listening to YUNA's cd album called Decorate on my iPhone. Yuna is a Malaysian singer-song writer who sings in English and Bahasa. Her album Decorate is a delightful collection of acoustic Indie folk music.
The San Francisco Ballet's Program 1 for 2012 is Onegin. Onegin, in my regular guy un-ballet jargon, is a story of a small town girl who is enamored with big city boy but big city boy thinks little of small town girl which ended up breaking her heart. Then big city boy started flirting with his best friend's girlfriend which angered his best friend. Best friend and big city boy started fighting over the girlfriend, which turned into a duel, eventually killing the best friend. This made big city boy regrets everything and leave town. When he returns from his long absence, he discovers small town girl is now married to a Prince. Big city boy realizes he is truly and madly in love with small town girl but it is all too late for big city boy. Too late. The ballet is based on Alexander Pushkin's poem Eugene Onegin and the music was composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The binge eating that started in December didn't stop on New Year's eve and continued on to January. For this blog entry, I am not going to bore you with all the dinners, fabulous or not, that I've had in restaurants in the city. What I will do though, is tell you all about the desserts I've sampled for the entire month. I think that is more interesting.
When I say dessert, it is something sweet and eaten after a meal. More often than not, dessert, more than the main meal, is something I totally look forward to when dining out.