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so last week i turned 26 without much fanfare. to me, this is a good thing. some years i feel like doing something on a big scale involving my friends, usually dinner and partying afterward, but this year i felt like keeping it a lot more simple.

on my actual birthday, katie took me out for dinner to Oliveto’s where we had some great food, although the service needed some serious help. we split a couple of appetizers: house-made salami and bluefin tuna tartare. katie ordered the pasta with squid and i ordered the steak. the appetizers were delicious and katie’s pasta was very tasty. my steak was so-so… in hindsight i should have skipped the round eye cut and ordered something else like the rabbit loin. ah well, i’ll have to get that next time. katie had the rose wine, which a nice dry rose, and i ordered their “armando paro” and a greyhound. the armando was pear brandy, vodka and a couple of other things served as a martini and it was great. for dessert, we split a dark chocolate cake and plum ice cream with plum caramel sauce, the latter of which was interesting, but not quite what i was expecting since it was more sorbet-like than creamy like ice cream. overall, it was a nice relaxing day at work followed by good food and chilling at home afterward. oh yeah, katie got tickets for us to go watch the seahawks play the 49ers in SF! definitely psyched for that since many are picking the 49ers as the dark horse to steal the NFC West from seattle… we’ll see about that =)

on friday, some friends came over to oakland, and we had a really good dinner at Garibaldi’s, then came back to our place for dessert and drinks. despite some mixed reviews at chowhound, i found the food at Garibaldi’s to be really good. for an appetizer, we split a cheese plate, shoestring fries, and a spicy prawns dish, all of which were pretty good. i ordered the filet mignon (too much red meat this week…) and it came out accompanied by a mega tater-tot. the food was phenomenal. ben ordered the lamb dish that i was eying but back away from because of a pistachio couscous line item. he gave me a healthy sample of it and it was also extremely tasty, so much so that i preferred it to the filet. i sampled a bit of katie’s halibut dish and it was also very good. overall, i plan to return to Garibaldi’s after the great dining experience. the wines were good and my bengali gimlet with vodka in place of gin was pretty solid too (garam masala in a drink? who knew?). we came back to our place for a sundae bar and lots and lots of drinks. i made a limonata recipe i found off chowhound and it was pretty good. basically similar to a mojito, but made with lemon + vodka instead of lime + rum. by the time i crashed saturday morning, i was thankful i kept everything down. katie was away for all of 5 hours on saturday… and i was pretty tired the whole weekend. here are some pics from my birthday and the festivities on friday:

as can be inferred by what i wrote above, ben came to visit me for my birthday which was nice. i really like the tradition that we have going of visiting each other on/around birthdays because i always enjoy his company and catching up with him since we don’t live in the same area and haven’t for a really long time now.

don messaged me a belated birthday wish and lamented that we are getting old, since he also turned 26 in the month of august. i have to say, i don’t really feel like i’m getting old. i still feel young, energetic and ambitious yet comfortable with where i am in life. i probably would have felt very different if i had not made a conscious decision to change my lifestyle 3 months ago to start taking better care of myself. did some reflecting and came up with the following that i’m happy about accomplishing in my last year of life:

• started a new job that’s working out well for me. jump in pay didn’t hurt either.
• bit the bullet, bought a ring and finally got engaged after 4 1/2 years of dating an amazing girl i met in college
• found a new place and moved in with katie in oakland. leaving south bay, where i went to stanford and had most of my school friends was tough but worth it
• finally started to get serious about my health, having lost 20 lbs so far and on my way to losing more. i finally feel like i have good exercise and eating habits and that just makes me feel a lot better about myself and my future
• got some new wheels for my car! long overdue, found a great deal and i love the way my car looks now. it just needs a vortech, greddy TT build or hks supercharger (whenever those get released)…
• saved a lot of cash (see new job above)
• visited india with my parents. this was a huge deal for me since i hadn’t visited in 23 years. 4 1/2 weeks of amazing memories, awesome food and a little bit of illness
• took ~2 months off in between jobs (see India trip + moving to Oakland)

for this next year, my goals:

• save more for a nice down payment on a nice house in seattle next year
• lose more weight
• kick ass at my job and get my newly approved project off the ground and staffed up with ppl
• wedding plans + marriage
• travel more