happy 1st year anniversary to me!

last year, today, i kicked cancer's ass. naturally, i had to celebrate. it was planned last minute, but quite successful. betty and i went together. grace, bobby, tony and jordan showed up later to make our intimate party better i went to my usual place, xanh, to celebrate. shea, their bartender is the coolest. his presence helped make the celebrations fabulous. he also makes the best deviations.

and the cherry on top, kelly gave birth to her second beauty. so i had to go visit and meet sophia grace. please help me welcome sophia grace keiko burich. born earlier today @ 2:56p weighing in at 7 lbs & 15 oz and 20" long. what a cutie!

congrats to kelly & chris! and emily for being a big sister! ♥

a beautiful time

italian men seem to enjoy using the word, beautiful. the wine was beautiful. the eggplant parmigiana was beautiful. and we were told, were beautiful women. it was a beautiful time.

on saturday, my beautiful friend, funie invited me up to north beach for dinner. turns out she and another beautiful friend were there the day before and passed by this restaurant with flirtatious italian boys. which is just what i needed because i've been so busy with my new job that i've no time to even notice boys these days. è tutto qua in north beach not only has good food but also cute boys who flirt with you. and it seems like the most natural thing to them.

we started with a beautiful half bottle of red wine. it was smooth and flavorful. we had the eggplant parmigiana as a starter. it was cheesilicious. i ordered the spaghetti neri (the squid ink pasta with mixed seafood in a garlic and white wine sauce). it looked (as you can see) and tasted beautiful.
we completed our dinner with two cappuccinos and their panna cotta. funny story about the panna cotta. as i was looking at the dessert menu, the only thing i wanted was the panna cotta. i turned to funie and before i could say anything, she says she didn't really want anything sweet but would have the panna cotta. clearly, we are on the same wavelength. on many different (& pleasantly surprising) levels. before we could order, the host (above on the left) stops over and has one recommendation for us, their panna cotta. we weren't speaking very loud when we agreed on it and there was no way he could have heard. i was so flabbergasted by the coincidence of the panna cotta, that i started hitting him with the menu. crazy!

the panna cotta was so scrumptious that we didn't think to photograph it before inhaling it. it was quite delightful and i look forward to going back (with funie!) to try the rest of their menu.

linda linda linda

i watch a lot of anime so this very cute japanese film affectionately entitled linda linda linda came up on my netflix. named after the song (only 2 lindas) by the blue hearts, a japanese punk band influenced by the ramones (who make a fictional guest appearance). see/hear the song here. it's the version from the movie. very catchy, if you ask me.

the movie is about girls. teenage girls who come together randomly to form a band just to participate in a rock festival. well, the singer is the random component. she replaces the vocalist who had to leave the former band as a result of some cat fight with another former band member. the story includes a myriad of female social issues. the different lives each member of the band leads. there's a leader and followers. awkwardness between strangers and new friendships (kindred spirits are realized) and most entertaining, awkward relations with their male counterparts. the ending is not so surprising as it ends happily and makes you feel good, in general. it's about friendship and music, which i really enjoyed.

and most important, i now know how to write my name in japanese. hahaha.