It’s funny what a good cup of coffee is able to do for the soul. Amidst a hectic week, in addition to the usual client consultations and pitches, life’s little annoyances seemed to work their ugly heads in. Spontaneous surprises, dismal discoveries and last minute adjustments. A lot can change in a week, or a day, or over the span of literally minutes.

Awhile ago Colin mentioned Barefoot Coffee Roasters, located within a strip-mall on Stevens Creek Boulevard. I wanted to check it out immediately, however days have this funny habit of turning into months and sometimes years. I was finally able to check it out about 2 months ago, and that cup successfully turned my something of a habit for the dark sobering brew into an affection.

If you’ve ever been on a road trip with me or woken up early at some resort you’d know that I’m not too particular where that coffee came from; Starbucks, McDonald’s, the local 76 station or even the hotel lobby. I just need a cup. Even after spending a brief moment in Seattle, Barefoot has been the epitome of my java experience.

Staring into a cup one often finds one’s self lost in thought, reflection, and a soothing, warm, all too familiar embrace. Well, maybe you don’t, but for that moment I forget all of life’s little annoyances, undesirable traits, and short comings. Coffee shouldn’t be just another method/step of waking up, but an encounter with all your senses.

-Wallace

ps. Joe says we’re going to Blue Bottle in Hayes Valley next time I’m up in the city (and not shit faced stumbling to naan and curry). Curtis (You’re friendly neighborhood lawyer) and Jason (Stasis Engineering) agrees. Also, those that argue that coffee is bad for you? Check out the its benefits, they far out weigh the risks and less then pleasant effects. Not that a little thing like that would stop me anyways.

What made last week and this past weekend special? I finally caught up with Rickey, and grabbed a drink with Tania prior to her adventure in Crotia. Caught Paul, Justin and Ryan not only on the same night but the same venue. Seeing Judy, who brought back old drowned out memories of alcohol filled nights and popping like champagne bottles in the early morning. Seeing Vu was totally awesome, and soaking with Crystal wrapped things up.

That is all.

-Wallace

It was Wednesday and I was freaking out as a package from Charles & Marie was missing. I caught the little disclaimer at the bottom of the site saying that: all items will be shipped within 10 days of the order, “un-oh,” I thought, “I’m screwed, I need that this weekend. Saturday in fact!” I end up shooting a email over to Charles & Marie not really expecting an answer but to my surprise Marcus shoots a email back saying that they are stuck in customs and they will overnight the package over so I will have them by Friday. Wow…now that is service. I did in fact receive them along with a very nice hand written note.

This weekend was full of celebrations, we begin with Fred & Christine’s wedding which took place at San Juan Bautista and wrapped up at John’s magnificiant house/vineyard in Morgan Hill. It was a much welcomed surprise to catch Manu Gill at the ceremony, we caught up, shared a few laughs, and fully enjoyed the show Fred and Christine put on. Of course the catered dinner from Il Fornaio was the highlight of the fantastic evening, the pistachio crusted halibut served with grapes in a white wine sauce was definitely the shining star in my personal opinion. I’d share the entire menu, but the 9 course meal is worthy of its own blog entry.

The stars covered the sky and Saturday came to a close. Sunday was another hectic day, with some time to spare I hopped onto the bike and pounded my first 60 mile ride in well over 2 months. It felt great, then I discovered my brother’s graduation was at 2pm not 4pm. We rushed up to UC Davis and proceeded to sit, and sit, and sit, and sit some more. UCD is known for their drawn out and uncomfortable graduations however they split the entire class up into 4 groups this year and housed it indoors, it went smoothly except for one usher trying to confiscate a drink from me.

Congrats Daniel! A job well done. Not only that, this Sunday was Father’s Day as well! After visiting my folk’s at their house, I realized I have not been to the house in over a year. How fast time flies. The town has changed so much, new developments are sprouting up everywhere and they got this whole vegtable garden operation going on in the back yard. Shibby.

To top things off Sabin of CarbonLord delivered these shirts earlier then I expected. They’re really well done, awesome textile material and the screening on these is flawless. When he told me ‘anvil’ shirts, I was questioning them, but these are top notch. Just like his handlebars, cranks, seat posts, and skewers. Watch out for Team CarbonLord at this year’s Tour de Peninsula!

Phew.

-Wallace

omghi2stevejobs

Hah…check that out, it’s Steve Job’s SL55. This all started when Duan saw some dood in socal with a Apple hat that he had to have. The guy told him one is only able to obtain the said hat at the company store within Apple Headquarters, Mecca, in Cupertino, Ca. Guess who Duan bothered, and with this I told him I’ll nab his hat the following day. As I pulled into the Visitor lot I noticed a plateless SL55, Jobs is infamous for this vehicle so I chuckled at the thought. After oogling at a freshly Dinan’d M5, I checked out the SL55 and IT DID BELONG TO STEVE JOBS!!! Check out the photo gallery for the rest of the story.

Following the eventful morning I went to Banana Republic to buy some Father’s Day threads, as they have a larger small and medium selection then Valley Fair. They also happened to just finished remodelling. I am led to believe that the architect is an idiot, and am going to petition for windex and all window cleaning agents to be outlawed in retail locations. After the cute cashier rang me up, I made my way to the familiar double doors. The sun was shining right through the glass and I was busy punching a reply email into my blackjack. When I noticed that familiar, every so trustworthy door knob missing it was too late. My weight, momentum and forward motion sent me forehead first into the plexiglass pane. *TWACK* HOLY CRAP WTF JUST HAPPENED?! I thought, after realizing that the said door did not exist I turned back and noticed a shocked and concerned cashier and customer. I waved them off and stumbled out onto University Ave. There, I was still seeing stars and thought I was going to faint. Stammering around I finally made it to the back parking lot where I decided that I should be ok and proceeded to go to Bunches instead of the car. Smert =) I now have a goose egg of a bump above my left brow (that blackjack is going to be the end of me).

Crystal wondering upstairs

We scoped out the De Young Museum last Saturday in lieu of the BFD concert at Shoreline. Nothing too special except excellent, reasonably priced cafe food and the Vivian Westwood travelling exhibit which I got in trouble for photographing. They didn’t make me erase my photos, so I figured I’d share. 1) The exhibit has left the bay. 2) I went through the trouble, you might as well see it for free.

G Pure Energy

The never ending crap that ends up on my desk. I’ve been a huge fan of RedBull and have wondered from time to time to Sobe, No Fear, Monster, and a countless oblivian of energy drinks. However…this one, this one is special. From the makers of Voss Water, they bring you G Pure Energy. I have yet to break the cap as it’s just too pretty, and frankly I’m addicted to Barefoot Coffee Roasters. I’ll let you know how it is when I need a pick me up, in the meantime it’s a fridge decoration.

-Wallace

Although I do eat out more then the average person, it’s not secret that I also cook. After freeloading some meals from Jonathan, I offered to cook for him and Alycia and this spurred talks of an Iron Chef style competition. What I imagined as a small group and simple dishes turned into all the drama of kitchen stadium and maybe more. Alycia really turned this into a production, and quite an entertaining evening.

The secret ingredient was pineapple, a fruit that I’ve never cooked with, in fact the only things that popped into my head were cocktails for the first few minutes. Shortly after I worked up a menu however due to lack of time and kitchen accessories I axed it and went with a simpler menu that Nick recommended: Cold Pineapple Soup, Pineapple Glazed Pork Chops, and French Toast w/Pineapple Foster a la mode. The original menu had a Pineapple Creme Brulee and I was thinking about just wrapping pineapple in bacon as an appitizer. Anyways after a frenzy fueled ingredient gathering at Whole Foods and a quick trip to the liquor store I arrived at the met by 5:25pm and got aquainted to the kitchen. Lacking pots, pans, spices, untensils, it was quite a challenge. Janice being nice enough to shuttle between the 8th and 3rd floor with pots, pans, a food processor, and misc items.

Things just seemed to go wrong, which I delt with; the food processor leaked soup everywhere, the cookie mold thing didn’t exactly work out, and I nearly gave up after I found out the ice cream was nearly devoured. Sucking it up I finished a touch after 8pm, where as Jonathan took upwards of an extra hour. However he told me he was pulling out all the stops, I didn’t think he was serious…

He was; his menu consisted beef and pineapple empanadas, walnut encrusted rack of lamb, and pineapple cupcakes no doubt for Janice. After the score cards were tallied in, Jonathan was declared the winner. Definitely the better chef this night, and both of us agreed this is probably the last iron chef we’re willing to do. The amount of effort, prep, etc that it took was just insane. Next time we’re working together to build just one fantastic all stops pulled meal.

-Wallace

my neighbor’s coconut mochi & my blackjack

Funny how things work out, and how we’re constantly in some new stage of our lives. Larry and I had drinks at Park Place last night, we haven’t seen each other in quite some time and even longer was our bartender Dennis who greeted me with “Happy New Year!” As the night melted into that familiar warm Macallen 18 induced sensation, I reflected on how things have changed during the last brief 6 months and questionable 6 years.

For the first time that I can recall both Larry, myself, and Sia of all people are in an actual somewhat functional relationship. For the majority of the time we’ve practiced a steady consistancy of the single life or some kind of disfunctional, migrane causing, emotion rupturing relationship, that is…until Clara, Crystal and Shebani appeared in our lives. Who knows what the future holds for us, but as our rock glasses clinked, it was only with well wishes and the best of intentions. Either way…and update on ADE is a definite.

I’ve learned quite a bit about my friends in general within the last 6 years, back in high school we thought we were going to conquer the world. Being raised and and surrounded in an enviroment so tainted with a concentration of genius, old business practices and exploding new wealth, combined with the fact we were spoonfed the falicy of us being smarter, harder working, and in general better then the rest of the population we thought we were unstoppable. “Becoming a Captain of Industry.” as Rich puts it, the rest of us merely invisioned becoming a ‘cooler’ Bill Gates or local legends such as Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Jerry Yang or Guy Kawasaki. Leaving high school with such a mentality and going to college was a pure mind fuck, and our first dose of reality. We were the cream of the crop within our respective high schools but once in college we were surrounded with people just as smart and motivated, and in many cases smarter, harder working and even more motivated. Our blind confidence was also our handicap; this becomes a reoccuring theme for the next 6 years.

Having left college to explore the real world, and discovering that the real world consists of interview after interview. Realizing what one wants to do, what one wishes to do, and what one has to do. That being said, I’ve personally mellowed out quite a bit; especially within the last 3 years. Humbled, in a word. My motivations, desires, goals, people I associate with, definition of the ideal girl, and life in general has changed quite a few times. In high school I remember wanting to forge a career in tech, after my first semister as a MIS major I realized that was not the route for me. In hindsight and with a little exaggeration I was spoiled, self-centered brat. It was no wonder I earned the reputation of a jerk, these days I fully admit I’m self fulfilling but am also more compassionate, caring, attentive, and aware of other’s well being. Exotic vehicles and mansions fueled my motivation in high school, these days its friends, family, giving back and solid relationships.

I like the way things are going right now, of course they could be better (there is always room for improvement), but I’m more or less content. Looks like I’ll be joining Baynet again, my family is ever supportive, my friends have their entire lives unfolding ahead of them, Crystal’s been great, and I even get along with my neighbors now! (the old ones moved out) They even brought me coconut mochi earlier this week, and without embellishing my thoughts, they tasted fantastic, probably the best mochi I’ve had thus far. I’m happy.

-Wallace

PS. Yih…I expect you to kick Hodgkin’s Lymphoma’s butt. I’m cheering for you.