There’s no better combination for a celebration: a birthday party at a baseball game. Sure, it’s not an A’s game (in fact, I have yet to go to an A’s game these past few weeks & have already been to two Giants games), but baseball is baseball! Even went through all the usual motions for a day reserved for the ol’ American pastime: arriving a few hours early for batting practice, eat unhealthy food, & jeering at the outfielders until I lose my voice. I love the sport.

The game was great, but our company was even better. Mel even got to celebrate her birthday in a wild fashion. Our favorite food vendor—selling hot chocolate that night—’creamed’ her at our request.

Happy 26th birthday, Mel! May we celebrate many more, hopefully at a ballpark.

Summer finally warmed up for us Bay Area folk. I’ve always wanted to go to a mid-week baseball day game, & now my wish has been fulfilled this season. We were lucky that on the most comfortable day this summer, our company bought a whole bunch of bleacher seats at the Giants game. After the success of our company’s outrageous anniversary party, our CEO thought it would be a blast to throw another company function. Baseball during work hours? Yes, please!

The game itself was good. You have to appreciate good baseball, even if it’s not played by your favorite team. The Giants stuck it out with the red-hot Cincinnati Reds, coming back to tie it up in the 11th inning after being killed earlier in the game.

Many of you know where my alliances lie, but visiting AT&T Park is always a treat. They have nicer things on this side of the Bay. The garlic fries, for example, can’t be beat.

Best part? Hanging out with good people from work. It’s nice to stretch out my legs outside the office, even though our office environment is far from being overly formal. I may have gone a bit overboard with my energy level, but I absolutely love baseball & it becomes hard to contain myself. Oh well, at least with that, I was able to get us on the big screen! (Not the first time this happened!)

It all started with the Creme Brulee Cart (@cremebruleecart). Though we still have yet to try it, it was the catalyst for our now growing food cart obsession. So when we heard about the SF Street Food Fest in the Mission last Saturday, we had to check it out.

The festival had a nice mix of established restaurants and food carts (a.k.a. taco trucks) selling a wide variety of foods representing a wide variety of cuisines spreading across the globe. The beautiful weather and the great vibe at the festival made it easy for us to spend several hours eating, people watching and soaking up the sun.

Some of our favorite street foods include: Roli Roti for their porchetta sandwich (we waited for 50 minutes at the festival and it was worth it), Curry Up Now for their deconstructed samosa (Ian recommends ordering online), Hapa SF for their sisig tacos, and Seoul on Wheels for their Korean tacos.

Next festival: this weekend at the Eat Real Fest in Oakland. Hopefully this time we can get to the Creme Brulee Cart before it sells out!

I love summer parties when they’re set up in our front yard. We’ve been in San Mateo for nearly two years, & we’ve noticed the downtown community tries to keep the spirit of the city alive through free events & street festivals throughout these warm months. A few weeks ago, the San Mateo Festa Foundation threw their annual Festa Italiana Community Street Fair just down the street from our apartment. A perfect way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The event had its share of adult activities—specifically the wine kiosks—but it was geared mainly for families & the little ones. Ice cream booths, foods on a stick & cannoli vendors abound for a quick pick-up-&-go atmosphere. Shiny plastic toys & bubble machines kept the children lively & jumping around from booth to booth. To top off the carnival-type atmosphere, there were even some kiddie rides set up right in front of the San Mateo train station. My sister’s family came to visit—a perfect type of event for two young parents, an infant, & a toddler.

The best part? When we got tired, we just picked up our stuff & made the five-minute walk back to our apartment to put up our feet. The little baby needed to stretch out outside of the carriage anyway.

Do we plan to go again next year? Most likely. It’s definitely not a huge festival by any means, but it’s a good reason to have people sample what downtown San Mateo has to offer.

I love my current job. Not only do I get to do the things that excite me at work & use the tools that I love to use, we come across some interesting opportunities.

One aspect of our company is our ability to produce high-quality viral videos that cater to the scientific industry. For example, biotech companies will hire our professional video team to produce videos that promote their new products. For the sake of saving time & costs, our video team will sometimes reach out to our office mates to act in their videos. In this video, I get to play an office wallflower witnessing a botched faith fall with an oversized eyedropper.

Of course, this isn’t the first time I’ve been one. In this one, I got to be a urban street performer out in the streets of San Francisco, about 1:47 into this video.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m far from being an actor. In fact, I think I gave it a shot in high school & did horribly. As long as I have a non-speaking role, however, I think I’ll be okay.

Anyway, here’s my newest work:

The night before she left, we all met up in Milpitas for a late night dinner before her trip. Our new friend Tristan from Switzerland even came by for a visit to celebrate with us!

We’ll miss you, but we’ll see you soon!

If there’s any reason to give up our early Sunday morning, it’s gotta be for a good cause, & it doesn’t get better than the annual AIDS Walk up in San Francisco. At this year’s AIDS walk, 25,000 volunteer walkers raised $3 million. We were proud to a part of that number.

Cindy joined the Google walk team & tagged along with her fellow Googler Amy, her friend Jason & her little pomeranian Marco. As a member of her team, she raised funds toward AIDS research. Thanks to all her friends & family who sponsored her as a walker!

We walked away (pun intended?) feeling good at the end of the day because:

• we helped an organization & research toward ending a long-standing epidemic
• our mere attendance is the best support we can provide for huge events like this
• we got some good exercise (Golden Gate Park’s punishing hills are a killer for your legs)
• it gave us a reason to visit San Francisco

The best part about visiting the City is sampling the diverse dining. On the way to our car, we unwounded with lunch on 9th avenue at Bistro 9.

We couldn’t be happier with the outcome of our celebration. The party was a success! Thank you to everyone who came out!

We got to see all our good friends, family, & I got to make new friends! We were expecting cold weather & rain on that Saturday, but we’re happy that we enjoyed the sun instead. Also, congratulations to our raffle winners & especially those who did really well on our survey! My cousin Myra scored 19 of the 20 questions correct. Very impressive.

For those who were wondering:

• The party was planned & maintained by our good friend (& my former co-worker) Jess.
• The main course was supplied by Sam’s Bar-B-Que in San Jose, the pies are from Heidi’s Pies in San Mateo, & the vanilla ice cream brand is called Treat in San Jose.
• Photography was by yjphotography.com.
• That was the first time I played wiffle ball. I hope I get to do it again sometime soon!

While Cindy & I finally get the long-needed rest, below are the photo highlights from the event for your enjoyment. You can check out the whole photo collection on my Flickr album.

Well, it’s not really a bag, more like a box. Just like the name suggests, it’s just a box filled with random crap. Oh well, all this stuff only cost me $3.00 (plus shipping, of course). My cheap swag goes like this:

• a small Slinky
• a mini tripod
• a photo bag for a small camera
• red & blue light sirens
• a baby blanket (not pictured cuz I gave it to my sister as a gift for her new baby)

Hopefully I have more bags of crap in my future!

My sister had her baby a few days early, but now we welcome her new, healthy baby girl Olivia Nazareno on May 10, 2010 at 12:30pm.

Sheryll is doing well, but is super tired, of course. Olivia’s older sister is happy that she finally has a playmate for her Tinkerbell games at home. More details to come!