Saturday, August 28, 2004
Woke up too early—5:00 AM. Ate ramen. Went back to bed. Patrick woke up the normal time—around 7:30 AM. Georges had called yesterday to say that today they would be fixing the plumbing in the morning, so Patrick and I didn't want to be around. We packed up and drove out to Clement Street so that I could show him Kamei Restaurant Supply. We got some dim sum beforehand at Tong Palace (415-668-3988, 933 Clement Street). The food quality and decor are typical of most dim sum restaurants in San Francisco. One of the waitrons was a classmate named Jimmy from Patrick's Chinese class last semester, but he didn't seem to recognize Patrick. We bought a wooden lemon reamer at Kamei. Patrick laughs at the word "reamer" every time he reads it. Picked up Tony An and went to Hao's housewarming at the observatory. We arrived around 4:05 PM, missing the start of the party by 5 minutes. We would have arrived exactly at 4:00 PM if it weren't for the amusing circus-like procedure with the front gate. We met Kenneth and many others. Hao had burgers, hot dogs, gardenburgers, chicken boobs, chips, and desserts. Everyone brought drinks. We couldn't stay long, however. Around 6:30 PM we returned to San Francisco to see Nico Santos perform stand-up comedy at 50 Mason. Simma, Nina, Jesse, Brian, and Kelly showed up a little late and stood against the back wall during the show. We met Nico through Brian and Kelly and Jesse, and Nico has been just starting out his comedy career. He's fantastic, and it's no surprise since he's been making us laugh over and over again since we've known him. Susan Alexander declared him to be an up and coming comic, and we heartily agree. Other comics we especially liked were Enzo Lombard-Quintero and Alfred Muller. After the show, we met Brian's brother J.J. who was in town visiting for the weekend. We all returned to BriKelJess's. Patrick and I got a bite to eat from Azteca. We all went for a drink briefly on the patio at The Pilsner. When Patrick and I drove home, it was quite late (for us)—maybe 1:00 AM. Georges and the plumbing guys never did seem to show up and do the work.