Brian's Birthday:

Wow. Thanks to everyone for showing up!

I expected 10, maybe 12... eighteen showed up!! =D

Barry & Kim, Alicia & Rex, Dave, Kim, Viet, Billy, Cheston, Amit, Pearl & Jer, Alex and her BF, Thomas & Theresa, Nishant... damn. Good friends. Nice crowd. Sufficiently careful in their poisoning of me with alcohol that I didn't die. Awwwwwwwww! How sweet! =P

Initially things looked like a disaster. Original plan was to go to El Cholo at 8pm for dinner with the expected 10 people. Called earlier that afternoon, they were completely booked, no reservations. Showed up early with Dave, the earlier 60 minute wait turned into 2 hours plus. Had a beer and chips, frantically made new plans, diverted everyone to Curry House on Sawtelle with Barry's help. Alicia and Pearl were already almost there...

Got everyone collected, finally. Crap, wow, this is cool, people are still showing up. It's now 8:30pm and people are still coming-- better let them know our group is getting bigger... meanwhile, since most of us are from UCLA, we find out who knows each other. Since Pearl, Thomas, and I have all supposedly known the entire campus at one time or another, that's pretty crazy...

Finally enough tables clear for them to seat us. Only the table is too small, so we hijack more tables. Order food. Alex and Barry immediately evaluate how much alcohol I need. Works great, but Thomas is at the other end of the table and orders for me too, so I end up with two large sakes and a large Kirin. Two? Ok, no big *hic* deal...

I'm not quite sure how well everyone got along, but Cheston and Billy found that Rex also works at Edwards AFB, we shared UCLA EE and CS stories of hell between half of everyone, stuff like that. I don't think anyone got bitten or anything, so it seems like it was all good.

It's pretty late, things end up breaking up. Barry & Kim, Pearl & Jer, Alex & her BF all part companies with us, then it's off to Westwood Brewing Company. I had a snakebite and maybe something else (no idea to be honest), then off to Thomas' pad for a shot of something (liquor and OJ?) and then a beer before we all crashed. That was a GOOD birthday. Thanks everyone!

(continued below...)

Woke up the next morning after sleeping on Dave's couch-- amazingly I wasn't hungover, must have had more water than I thought before I passed out-- then left Dave to run his errands and went out to Din Tai Fung with Billy, Viet, Cheston, and two of their friends for lunch. Hung around in Arcadia/Santa Anita that afternoon, then back to Westwood. Ran off with Barry, Kim, and Dave to get El Cholo that night, since it turns out Barry & Kim had never been there! (neither had Alex or the other Kim! WTF?) Dinner was very yummy, but unfortunately Shrek 2 was sold out after dinner.

Split up again, then back to Westwood Brewing Company to meet up with Billy, Viet, Cheston, Kim, Nishant, etc. again for Nishant's birthday as well. Two birthdays! I know... crazy!

Most of us crashed at Viet's place, then dim sum the next morning for lunch. George had just flown in from Taiwan for business, so he drove out from Rowland Heights to West LA and we had dim sum at Royal Star off Wilshire. Yummy. Spent the day at 3rd Street Promenade, playing basketball at Sunset Rec (where Cheston stuffed himself inside the trunk of Billy's Maxima), and stuff... eventually had dinner and watched the Lakers lose to the Pistons. Woohoo. What a crazy weekend.

Crazy, but a good weekend.

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Saturday: Nishant's birthday

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