Tomorrow night I have a date with a guy I’m not really attracted to. I wonder why I said yes. I don’t really like dates. As a matter of fact, after 11 years of living in the US, I still don’t get the whole dating concept. I wonder how it was in Brazil, I really can’t remember it being too different, it just seemed more laid back.

Pure Brazil

Planet Rhythm 2004, Audio CD, $15.98

I can’t believe Tuna already left. Time just flew! It was great to see her again and I hope she enjoyed her trip.

Thursday, I left early to pick up Tuna from the airport and we then headed back to downtown Mountain View. We checked out our pub but it was a little dead so we ended up at F&A. It was 18 & over night so I felt like a grandma! We had both skipped dinner so we stopped by Denny’s before heading home. It’s amazing how there aren’t that many 24 hr restaurants or diners around here.

Friday, I worked from home for most of the day and then Tuna and I went shopping for the party. There were some older guys at Andronico’s who looked like they were there to pick up chicks. Very weird. The party was nice although several people couldn’t make it. I think some were afraid of driving over the Bay Bridge. Tuna became an expert at making Caipirinhas and people were drinking them as though they were lemonades.

Saturday we spent most of the day at the Stanford Mall but we didn’t buy too much stuff. We then met Su at Niebaum-Coppola for dinner. The food was great as usual. We then headed to Café Borrone to get some coffee but Su was a little freaked out by the men at the table next to us. We ended up at the pub again and made the bouncer happy since he’s totally in love with Tuna. She was very popular with the men there, especially the very short ones. Some of the people dancing were hilarious. Hopefully TT will write more about it since she took copious notes (our coasters had a “Notes:” section on the back).

Today, we woke up pretty early and I drove Tuna to the airport (after the obligatory stop at Jamba Juice). She made it back safely to Rochester and I already miss having her around. I hope Tuna and Chuck can come to Brazil in December.

I got my hair cut. You might be wondering why that would be newsworthy. Well, for a couple of reasons. One, I usually cut my own hair and hadn’t been to a hairdresser in 10 years. Two, this is probably the shortest my hair has ever been.

I had to kill some time before my hair appointment so I headed over to a café nearby. As soon as I sit down, this guy sits next to me and doesn’t shut his mouth for the next 20 minutes.

Thanks, Jenny and Aynne for the b-day wishes. Happy B-day to Aynne as well.

Let’s see… I got back from Boston Thursday night. The conference was ok, half of the talks were very useful and the other half was crap. Pretty typical for conferences. I did meet some great people from the Bay Area so that made it much better. We went out every night and got to try out some great restaurants and bars. We hung out in Harvard Square for the most part. On Wednesday night, Smitty took us to the Italian neighborhood in Boston. It looked surreal, almost like a movie set. I could almost see myself moving to Boston just so I could hang out at the North End.

Here’s a guide to the places we tried:

Casablanca Restaurant
The food was delicious, one of the best meals we had in Cambridge. The bar was also nice.

Legal Sea foods
This was just around the corner from the hotel. I’m a vegetarian so I had the greek salad both time we ate there. It was ok. They had this awesome onion strings thing which was delicious.

Fire & Ice
They call themselves an “improvisational grill”. You pick out the ingredients and they stir fry it. They had caipirinhas so that alone made it a great place.

Mamma Maria
This was a bit expensive but the food was simply amazing and you can’t beat the view from the upstairs window.

Caffe Vittoria
We went there for dessert and everything was so yummy it was hard to pick just one.

Wonder Bar
Live jazz and a menu with mostly cheese dishes. You can’t beat that!

John Harvard’s Brew House
Our hangout of choice at Harvard Square.

Shay’s
Total dive. My kind of place. =)

There were a couple other bars but I can’t remember what they were called.

airplanes
Flying wasn’t scary at all. I was actually pretty surprised at how unafraid I was. On our flight to Boston, we spotted the air marshal right away. He was this studly looking guy and all the flight attendants were openly flirting with the guy. They would start giggling as soon as they walked into a ten feet radius of the guy. His gun was pretty visible too. I guess that’s good since it helps the bad guys figure out whom to take out first and where they can find a gun.

back to reality
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been feeling a little blah. It’s difficult to come back to real life after you spend a whole week going out every night and meeting all kinds of new people. Today, Su, Nathan and I went to see Serendipity. It was cute in a predictable-and-overtly-romantic-chick-flick sort of way.

Serendipity

John DeBorman (Cinematographer). Miramax Home Entertainment 2001, DVD, $14.99

Last Saturday, Su and I went back to the pub. We were offered free tickets to go see Depeche Mode but we’re too old for that.

For concerts, not for Depeche Mode.

Depeche Mode - 101

Warner Strat. Mkt. 1989, DVD, $24.98

Last night was good. Heidi joined us and she even liked the place. First we had dinner at Amicis. Su hated the waiter. The poor kid couldn’t have been more than 16 years old. Then we headed to our new pub hangout (according to Su who is the official selector of hangout places). It was ok, there were lots of very old men there at first.

Then this guy came over and handed Su a fairly large bouquet of flowers. The guy was icky and he was obviously infatuated with Su. Fifteen minutes later, the waitress tells us that the guy with glasses (Su’s guy) wants to buy us drinks. Heidi and I already had drinks so Su ordered another Cosmo and debated on what the protocol was for thanking the guy. The cute Irish bartender didn’t seem to think that she had to go talk to him. Five minutes later the waitress comes over and asks Su if she’s going to go thank the guy. Unbelievable! I think, in the end, he came over to talk to her again. Before we left, he gave her his phone number(s), email address and wrote something cheesy like “Keep smiling”.

I forgot to mention, yesterday I was officially promoted to UI Design Manager. It was pretty exciting although I have been doing the manager job for over 6 months now; I just didn’t have the title.

Today, Su came by after work and we went to the mall together. It was nice; I hadn’t gone shopping with a friend since I moved to California. I got some makeup and a pair of pants. Su bought some nice shoes. We then came back to MV and had Indian food. The food was great but I ate way too much.

Girls’ night out was great. Su had several Cosmos (okay, she only had 3) and we wrote postcards to send to our remote friends (including Heidi who isn’t so remote but we thought that would convince her to join us next time).

Saturday was Nathan’s b-day party (more like a partylet) at my house. Su came over around noon with 6 bags of food from Whole Foods. Then we started worrying that there weren’t enough meat items for the men so we went and got some more food. In the end we had way too much food but at least there was something for everyone. We then went to get some coffee in downtown Mountain View. We were sitting outside and there was a crazy woman talking to us about crazy stuff.

Heidi and Chad were the first to show up. They brought me flowers (Su did too so my house is looking great now). Nathan and Eric arrived a bit later. Tyson (Nathan’s brother) and Kim (his gf) were also there. We played Cranium and the girls won (again).

Star Wars® Darth Vader

Hasbro, Toy, $9.99

Tonight I’m meeting Su for drinks and dinner. I’m really looking forward to going out in the middle of the week. Since all my friends turned 30, they only want to go out on weekends. But Su is cooler than that. She should be 29 again!

Saturday is Nathan’s b-day party at my place. He wants Star Wars Action Figures. I must admit I am embarrassed to be seen buying them. But I like Nathan so I’ll wear my sunglasses and see if I can find them at Target tonight.