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February 25, 2005
Dinner at Dong Baek & Novi's place
We went out to dinner with Gregg & Maya at Dong Baek - Korean Rest.
I tried to call Novi, but she is missing in action. The rest. was super packed, luckily we didn't have to wait long for our table.
Maya and I ordered the vegetarian bimbimbab. Didi and Gregg had the chicken and beef bulgogi.
After dinner, Novi called, they actually had dinner with Christina and Jose, I see. And she said we can come by to her place for drinks.
Allright! We would do that.
We just chatted and had beers (well not me of course, 30 more days to go). We tried to turn Maya to be a social drinker, so all of us made her to finish 1/2 bottle of beer (goosh, can't believe it was really hard for her).
Gregg was cheering and sang gospel song at the same time everytime Maya had a sip...Oh well, this boy is going straight to hell....hahhahhaaaa....
Finally, she was able to finish it. Horaaay to Maya. Next gathering we might have to raise the bar to 1 bottle. Be ready May!
Posted by hamdani family at 04:19 PM | Comments (1)
February 21, 2005
Eewwwww...what is that???
One lazy afternoon Didi and me were watching TV and I was munching Potato chips, as snacks. Surprise surprise I found something inside the bag. When I touched it, its kind of have a rubbery texture. I thought it was dried Jalapeno, but Didi said there’s no way it was jalapeno. Hmmmmm what would it be then.
Because I was the one who found and touched it, Didi had fun teasing me, and gave the nastiest thing he could think of, he said it could be rat sh*t, or whatever sh*t that would possibly came in that tiny shape. I’m planning to write a letter to the company and ask for their explanation. Hopefully I’ll get the respond soon.
Anyway I just want to share this, because next time it could be you!
Posted by hamdani family at 02:31 PM | Comments (3)
February 20, 2005
Sushi House in Alameda & Hulu House
After Church we went to have lunch with Kevin, Riana, Meme, Adrian, Sherly & Debby at Sushi House in Alameda before Kevin going back to Jakarta for good next Tuesday. According to them this is the best place for sushi rolls (they said, their friends drove from LA to come to this rest…hmmm is that good??)
On the way there, Didi said that there’s no way he would go back again to this rest, and the reason was simply because he didn’t want to pay the $3 Bay Bridge fee. Yup, I know, I know, I have a stingy husband.
Anyway, when we got there around 2.30 pm, the place was still packed and we had to wait for at least 40 minutes to get seated. Unfortunately for me, I still couldn’t eat those sushi rolls. So I just ordered Veggie Bento, which was ok.
We ordered loots rolls (I’ll review this later and what rolls you should order. Thanks Me for letting us know) and after Didi taste the rolls, my then stingy husband changed his mind and said, “these sushi rolls are sooo good, we have to go back here again!!!” Yeeehaaaaa, he’s not stingy after all. We're gonna go back after Easter for sure!!
We were done with lunch around 4.30 pm, and we wished Kevin good luck in Jakarta or Surabaya. Hope to see you soon man!
We went out again for dinner at 7.30 pm; this time is Hulu House with Novi, Steve, Tony & Maya. Unfortunately they don’t have any more Wonton Noodle, Oooh Noooo!!! I’ve been craving for this. But oh well, the rest are still good too, we ordered Laksa, Samosa, BBq pork Chi cong fan. Me and Didi was still quite full from lunch, so we only had Laksa. We stayed at Hulu until they closed around 9.00 pm. Then we decided to have dessert at dessert place on 7th Ave & Clement. And we went home around 11 pm.
Posted by hamdani family at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
Home Sweet Home
The weather was pretty much sucks. It was raining on and off. We spent the whole morning & afternoon at home watched DVDs (Curb your enthusiasm – comedy from HBO, Harold & Kumar - comedy & Control Room – documentary about Al-Jazeera).
Around dinner time, we were thinking about going out, but then again, the weather was sucks, and we weren’t sure where to go (we brainstormed either Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, Indian, Vegetarian, but none of them seem appealing to us), then Didi suggested having Hot Pot dinner, and Hot Pot it is. We went out to Ranch 99 to buy some veggie and other things to complete our dinner. We bought veggie sausage, veggie pork intestine, tofu, Chinese broccoli and a hot pot must - spring glory veggie (not sure what the Chinese name of this vegetables).
This is the 3rd Hot Pot dinner we had since I bought the portable gas stove and also the pot last Sunday with Novi. And sure we loooveeeee it!!!
The pot has the divider in the middle, so we both can have hot pot without creating a war. Well actually a little bit miscommunication happened before dinner. Didi was in charged for setting up the stove and the pot; he got creative and put Benito stock (fish stock) in both of the soup. Later when I found out, I told him that I don’t want anything in my soup, and he should’ve asked me, don’t just assume. Then I threw away the other half of the soup. He got upset and that made me upset too. But it didn’t last long; we both didn’t want to ruin our dinner.
This dinner just a healthy dinner, loots of veggie, loots of protein. I can’t wait to introduce this dinner to my parents when they are coming to visit me. I’m sure they’ll love it.
Posted by hamdani family at 10:22 AM | Comments (1)
February 18, 2005
Office Drama, Dinner @ Pizza Orgasmica & House Party
Thank God Its’ Friday, and it’s along weekend too (Monday is President’s Holiday, and I asked for a day off).
In the morning Maya had her wisdom teeth removed, and her dentist is just 2 blocks from my office. Thus after she’s done, I picked her up from the dentist, and dropped her off to her apartment. And I was back again in the office. (Actually I brought my camera with me, ready to take pictures of her, and captures the moment when she was still high, unfortunately she was completely sober when I picked her up, Darn it!!)
At work I had a fight, with one of the front desk staff. She’s a new employee, only been working for 1 month. (she has gut!!) She came to my office, pretty upset, and asked why her paycheck today is not much different than the last paycheck. I asked whether she has the old paycheck with her, and she said No. Didn’t like her attitude, I told her that she better talked to her Manager (Claudia) and I walked away and ignored her.
I guess she wasn’t satisfied with my answer, then she said loudly “Well, then you’re not Accounting”. Not sure what she meant, I just didn’t take crap from new employee. I confronted and screamed back at her. She still screaming said how come the hours she worked as night auditor with $25/hour rate were not in the paycheck. I screamed back “WHATT??? WHO MAKES $25/HR? WHO TOLD YOU THAT?”, She answered and spread her arms” EVERYBODY KNOWS NIGHT AUDITORS MAKE $25/HR!”, I asked “WHO TOLD YOU THAT???”, She said ”I FORGOT!!” I just couldn’t take it any more, I told her I don’t like her attitude, and ask her to leave. Bastard!!!
Oh my goosh, I had never this angry at work. That was a good 10 minutes of shouting back and forth. Surprisingly, I felt good afterwards. Anton from Puccini & Pinetti came, and I told him what happened, and he said in Indonesian “ yaaahhh, macan dilawan!!” hhehehheee……
After she left my office, I called Claudia, and told her what happened shortly, and demanded “I want her to apologize!!”
Mary Ann was not in her office when the cat fight happened, later I told her, and she was very surprised, because you know I was known as “Miss get along with everybody”. Yup, that’s so true. Mary Ann said, I should’ve told her that I don’t like her attitude and don’t want to talk to her again, then ignored her. Well, I did that, but didn’t stop just there.
Anyway, 2 hours later, she came back to my office, totally with different attitude, soft voice, friendly eyes, and she apologized. She said it was just misunderstood. Whatever!! I told her, anymore dispute with your paycheck, come to Claudia, don’t come to me.
Apart from that office drama, I got a call from Alvin, he said there would be a house party at his place tonight. And I asked what’s the occasion?, he said “ Fei fei wants to get drunk!!!”, oke, don’t worry, we’ll be there!! I told him that I made reservation at Pizza Orgasmica for dinner @ 7 pm., and he can join us tonight.
After work, Didi picked me up, we went to Novi’s house, stayed there for a while, then Fersan and Bill came. Not long after they came, we walked to Pizza Orgamisca.
I made reservation for 10 people, and 11 came. Me, Didi, Novi, Steve, Valen, Fersan, Bill, Reza, Karlina, Alvin and Rudy. We ordered the party package for 20 people, we got 6 large pizza & 4 pitchers of sodas. This way was a lot cheaper than we ordered individually. We were completely stuff and got a lot left over.
We finished our dinner around 9.30 pm, then went home to change and headed to Alvin-Reza’s place (also house for 5 other members). Not long after we were there, Lisa and Fei-fei came. Reka made jello shot, Gilda & Ajas made fried gizzard. And of course, evils were everywhere, Novi & Alvin tried to persuade me to break my Alcohol fasting. Nope, it’s not gonna happened guys, just wait in 37 more days oke??...heheheheeeee…
Lisa and Fei-fei quite a heavy drinker, they were just popping up those jelly shot, like popcorn. In 1 minute they had at least 5, and they also had mixed drink at the same time.
Wooww!! These girls are tough!! We had fun, watched them played X-box. Nobody was really drunk when we left around 12.45 am. It means we have to do it again.
Posted by hamdani family at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2005
Dinner @ TownHall & Dot Lounge
We had dinner at Town Hall Rest., we can call it Pre-Valentine’s dinner or just regular dinner, whatever! This restaurant has very good reviews, and also last Thursday, SF Chronicle Food Section had an article about Meat Balls, and Town Hall was one of the Restaurants on the article.
We didn’t make reservation, and I knew the Rest. was solid booked from 5.30-10.00pm, oh well, we just wanted to try. We came early, around 6 pm, and luckily, we got in (of course not in the main dining room). We could sit either at the communal table (hmmm we didn’t think so) or outside in the patio. And we chose to sit outside.
For appetizer Didi ordered the Meat Ball, and I (with regret had to break my Lent fasting) ordered Tuna tartar, because there was nothing else I could eat. For Entrée I had whole trout & Didi had Quail. For dessert we shared Cheesecake, which was allright. But I’ve heard from Mary Ann, the dessert to die for is: Butterscotch crème brule. Shut! She should’ve told me yesterday.
Anyway, overall was oke. We had to wait our entrees for quite a while though, and they weren’t hot. I think because they were slammed.
From Town Hall we went to Novi’s place, hang out there for a while, waited for Reza & Sandi. Then we went to Dot Lounge in Japan town. The lounge was pretty empty and the music was mellow. Definitely not for younger crowds. Alvin, Andry, Karlina, Rudy joined us later. It just suck I couldn’t drink, I’d love to try what the bartender made her, Tokyo tea, and it was quite strong. We were there until 12.30 am (and finally Gregg came), then went to New Sun Hongkong for porridge.
Posted by hamdani family at 07:46 PM | Comments (1)
February 11, 2005
5 years ago........
Today marks my 5th year working for Kimpton Group.
Yup, quite a long time for me, consider I’ve never had 1 year milestone when I was still in Jakarta. The longest was 9 months when I worked for Lippo Development Group as a sales person. After Lippo I worked for a Hongkong Souvenirs company (as an Assistant GM) for just 8 months before I moved to SF. (Before Lippo I survived for only 3 months). The reasons were always: I was easily bored with what I do. Luckily with I’m doing right now, I know how to keep myself busy. Yes, You got it right: BLOGGING!!!! Psssstttt…….
And here is the time frame:
In the early year of 2000, I just met my ex boyfriend – Didi (well he’s my husband now). And I was working at Gianni Versace Boutique in SF as a sales person. Didi was surprised that I have my Accounting Degree but work in sales. And honestly after I graduated I’ve never worked in my field, not even once. I even promised myself, I would never work behind the desk as an Accountant, because I just don’t like it (and look what I’m doing right now).
I always worked in Sales, and maybe that is what I like, meet new people. Not sure why I pursued my Degree in Accounting. I guess, I was being a good daughter; I followed what my Mom told me to do (Thanks Mom, I realize how important it is nowadays).
Anyway, after considered what Didi told me, I started look for a job. Honestly I was pretty lucky, I saw the advertisement for Acctg. Staff at SF Chronicle, faxed my resume, got interview with the Controller (I did it during my lunch hours), got 2nd interview the next day, and then they hired me. It happened very fast. (The 2nd interviewed was with Eric, he is the Property Controller at Prescott Hotel now, and we are become friends, sometimes we have drinks together).
So 5 years ago, on 02/11/00 I started my 1st day as Accounting Staff at Kuletos (I was also Part Time student at City College). Two months later, the Rest. Controller left the company and took the other Acct. staff with him. And that was when Mary Ann replaced him and she became my boss. We were short staff and I told Mary Ann I’d love to have more responsibilities (also more $$). And she gave me what I needed. Two months later, it happened again, I’d want to learn more. I asked her I wanted to do Journal Entry and Payroll. She trusted me and trained me and I got promoted as Restaurant Assistant Contoller (and of course I asked for another extra $$. More responsibilities = more money…..hehehehehehe)
In 2001 Mary Ann got promoted as Property Controller for Villa Florence & Kuletos, and the former Hotel Asst. Controller left the company. I knew that Mary Ann was looking for assistant for the hotel, and I promoted myself. Mary Ann was concerned I couldn’t handle the Hotel system. But I kept telling her that I would learn, and yada yada yada. And Thanks to her, she hired me! Yup a year later, I was Assistant Controller for Villa Florence Hotel (and also got 70% increase from my starting salary, not bad). Moral of the story: Keep asking, you have nothing to loose and you might get what you’ve asked for.
Even at work I had my ups and downs, during those dot com boomers, I had to supervise 2 Accounting staffs, but we had to laid them off after 9/11. And now I’m just by myself. Can’t describe how lucky I’m working with Mary Ann. She’s a great boss, and we develop relationship way more than just co-workers. Hey, I think that’s the reason why I’ve been working for 5 years. And Cheers to me!!!!
Posted by hamdani family at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
February 09, 2005
Gong Xi Fat Cai & Ash Wednesday
Gong Xi Fat Cai everybody. We wished you happiness and health this coming year.
In my family we’ve never really celebrated this day. My brothers and me never got angpao from older relatives. It’s just another day. Being borderline Chinese is hard, what I meant by that is, just like my family, we don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese, I called my big brother Mas instead of Kokoh, we are not really pure Chinese (I’m the 9th generation Chinese from my Mom’s and unknown from Dad’s side, comparing to Didi , he’s the 3rd generation Chinese, his grandparents from his Dad’s were from Mainland China, still fresh from the oven…hehhehehee). That’s why Didi considers me as a pribumi, not Chinese.
But I’m not a pribumi (native Indonesian) either. All the native Indonesians consider us Chinese, and I remembered when I was little, they used to harass/tease me and called me names, like: Amoy, Cina, Encik, Sipit, etc etc. And I hated it. I’ve never felt welcome, even in my home country. Also we lived in South Jakarta, and went to school whose most of the pupils are native Indonesians; sometimes I lied and told them that I wasn’t Chinese, made it easier to blend in. Therefore until now I have a lot of non-Chinese friends.
But now, living in the US specially San Francisco, I love it. This city is so diverse and so many cultures mix together. So being a Chinese is not a problem at all. But truly, deep down, am I Chinese or pribumi still linger in my mind. Anybody can help??
Apart from Chinese New Year, today is also Ash Wednesday, and I decided to give up Seafood and…sigh….(after long and debating consideration) Alcohol this Lent, for 40 days, yup 40 days!! Oh God, please bless my soul!!
Given up Seafood I don’t really care. Being pescaterian (just eat seafood and vegetables) for this past 7 years, make me get tired also with eating seafood. When we went out, most of the times I’d prefer just vegetables or tofu. However, given up alcohol is hard, because we drink occasionally, and definitely on the weekends. I know it’s gonna be hard, but I’ll just have to try.
I couldn’t go to Mass during luncheon because we had deadline today, but I went to St. Patrick after work with Anton. He suggested that I’d given up vegetables instead and eat meat….hahahhaaa…that’s funny!
Posted by hamdani family at 03:50 PM | Comments (9)
February 06, 2005
Lake Tahoe - last day
This morning was different than yesterday. Today there were no breakfasts prepared for us. I guess now is our turn then to prepared breakfast. Because we got a lot of left over from last night, Novi decided to make Fried Rice, Fried Noodle Fried Udon and stir-fry meat. Sorry Gregg, this time is Indonesian style.
Again big thanks to our Super Executive Chef: Mrs. Novi. She was the one who cooked all those foods. I just helped her chopped the veggies, tofu, green onions, broccoli, and also cleaned up. I had no confident to cook for more than 2 people. Novi thanks again!!
We were done with breakfast or brunch around noon, and then we cleaned up the house. Gregg said we could watch Super Bowl here and go back home after it’s done, but then that would be to late. So we just decided to go home whenever we were ready. But before we went home, Maya got a little accident. She got a splinter in one of her finger. And we had to get it out, which was very dramatic. Maya was just screaming franticly when Gregg & Steve tried to get it out by cutting her skin. Pheeuuuuh after a good 15 minutes, she was oke. And we were heading home. Good-bye everybody. Thanks again Gregg, and drive safely!!
We got back in SF around 6 pm, had dinner at Shalimar Pakistani Rest. with Yute & Fersan. And then dropped them off. What a great weekend, I think we should do this more often…hehehee…**wink wink to Gregg.
Posted by hamdani family at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2005
Lake Tahoe 2nd night - Snowmobile & Hot Pot dinner
The girls woke up around 10 am and the boys (except Gregg) were already up around 8 am. And the good thing: breakfast was ready waiting for us. Thanks to my hubby who made scrambled eggs, Steve who fried Turkey Bacon & made coffees. I love this, Life is good!!
After breakfast we pretty much just enjoyed and took our time around the house. We weren’t sure where to go. Some of us just mingled in the living room upstairs, Didi & Fersan just played pool. Later on we decided just to get out the house and headed up to Lake Tahoe.
First we had lunch at the Chinese Rest. in the area, not bad. After that we walked around the lake near by. And some of us decided to play snowmobile instead of going to South Lake Tahoe. Only 6 people wanted to play snowmobile, Didi & Me, Maya & Yute, and Gregg & Novi. We just rented for ½ hour. This was our first experience!! I was scared at first; especially the way Didi drove it. Faaassstttttt!!!! (Gregg stills the fastest though).
When the road path was straight Didi was going crazy. His speed was 50 miles/hr. He drove it standing up; to avoid the bumpy road ride. Meanwhile I as the passenger, had to hold on really tight to the side, afraid to fell off, and kept screaaaamiiing to him, asked him to lower his speed. Later on he told me, the louder I scream, the faster he drove it. Oooh soo sweet, Isn’t he such a caring husband?
I also had the chance to drive it, and of course I wanted to have revenge for what Didi had done to me, but I didn’t have the gut. I think my max speed was only 40 miles/hr. Overall all of us had so much fun!!
After snowmobile, we drove to Emerald Bay, and it was freeeziiing. We were there only for a few minutes. Took some pictures, and then drove back home.
Got home around 6 pm, all the girls prepared for our Hot Pot Dinner. And Gregg was busy grilling his salmon outside. The Hot Pot was perfect and very good! Especially in the cold weather. We had fake ham, fake fish, fake chicken drumstick, all kinds of tofu, veggies, and also meat for the meat lovers. Thanks for Novi who prepared and shopped for all those groceries. What could we do without you Nov? Not to forget, Gregg’s salmon was extremely good too. I guess we won’t need the Pepto Bismol after all….hahahhaaahaa…..
After dinner we watched The Grudge in the living room upstairs. Damn that movie was pretty scary. Maya barely watched it; she just covered her face with pillow. The movie ended around 1 am. Novi, Steve, Maya and Gregg went to bed. Meanwhile Reza, Fersan, Didi & Yute played pool. I just watched them 1 game, and went to bed around 1.30 am.
They all played pool until 3 am. What a good day.
Posted by hamdani family at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2005
Lake Tahoe - 1st night
Finally we went to Lake Tahoe and stayed at Gregg’s house. We got 9 people who finally said Yes! (Me, Didi, Novi, Steve, Yute, Fersan, Maya, Reza & of course Gregg).
We all went after work on Friday night. The first group went with Gregg, and Me, Didi, Fersan & Yute left around 8.30 pm.
We almost didn’t go, because right after picked up Fersan and filled up gas, the left tire was flat. Ooohh NO!!…we filled up with air and checked but there was no nail, regardless we were still nervous. Imagining what would happen if there were actually nail, and we were in the highway…. that would be bad news!!
I called Gregg (they were having dinner @ Fresh Choice in Vacaville) told him what happened, if we checked the tire again in Pinole and it was flat, that was it, we just went back home, and we would drove Saturday morning after we fixed it.
So nervously we left the city (with Fersan kept telling the danger of a flat tire if we drove 60 miles/hour, Thanks Dude! And shout up will you?). And we decided to check it on the next gas station, and after we passed Bay Bridge. The first checkpoint, the tire was still oke. Then when we were just on the Bridge, we felt a bump on the road, and Didi was shouting, “That’s it, that’s it, I feel it, I feel it, the fire is flat now, we got to get off from the Bridge”. Suddenly all of us were just quiet.
Didn’t know what to do or say. I was very nervous, because we can’t just pulled over on the Bridge and also all the cars drove fast, we can’t just stop in the middle of the road, that would create accidents. We thought to get off on Treasure Island, which another 10 minutes drive. But then we assumed if the tire was really flat, the steering wheel must have pulled in one direction, in this case, the wheel was in its normal direction. So we decided to just go and checked it in Berkeley.
We did, and thank God, the tire was oke. Allright Tahoe, here we come!!!
The commute was good, no traffic at all. That was the good thing we left the city around 9 pm. We just joked around in the car, sang Dewa’s songs. Crazyyyyy…
Finally we got at Gregg's house almost around midnight. What a big house!!
Me, Didi, Novi and Steve slept in 1 bedroom with 2 queen beds, Maya & Yute in the 2nd bedroom with 1 queen bed, and Fersan & Reza in the 3rd bedroom with the bunkbed.
Maya was the one who came up with the rooms arrangement, so anybody unhappy (Reza and Fersan maybe) blame it on her oke??…hhehheheeee…
All of us just chat in the living room and had light snack, and decided to watch Office Space, but halfway through all of us fell asleep. No wonder, it was 2.00 am…Time to go to bed!
Posted by hamdani family at 06:22 PM | Comments (1)