listening to: "make it last"; 1TYM
after almost a week of knowing that she was on the island, i was finally able to meet up with asako saturday night, after jon's uncle's birthday dinner, which, by the way, was delicious. jon and i met up with her, as well as cody, brian and to my surprise, brian's girlfriend, kelly (i'll talk about that a bit later) at starbucks. we all only really meet up when asako's in town, about once a year. i know the others meet up a little more frequently, but i'm usually working when they have plans to go out for dinner.
for as long as i've known cody and brian, for about ten years now, brian has never had a girlfriend, so it was much to my surprise when i reached the table they were sitting at, to find brian sitting next to a girl, holding her hand. kelly seems very nice, unfortunately, i didn't get a chance to really meet her as we spent most of the time catching up with the ongoings of asako and my life. they make a really cute couple though. hopefully, i'll get to know her more.
the gang presented me with a copy of "authentic recipes of korea", as an early birthday present. to my amazement and enthusiasm, i came to find that the recipes in the book were created by chefs from the sorabol restaurant in the shilla seoul. if you recall, this the hotel that i want to stay at when/if we visit korea. i'm not quite sure if the hotel restaurant has any connection to the one here in honolulu or the chain of the same name in california, i'm not thinking so as the ones here seem less fine-dining than the one at the shilla.
i ... well, i guess, JON and i ... also received a mini baby countdown clock so that jon and i can countdown the days to arrival of the baby. at the moment, the clock displays one-hundred and seventy-eight days. =:o
thank you asako, cody, brian and kelly for the great presents. i have such wonderful friends!