Jazz at Yoshi’s

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:18:15 -0700

My dad, stepmom, stepsis, and her man took me to see some jazz at Yoshi’s on Fillmore. It was an amazing show. Some sushi, edamame, and really good jazz. Life can’t get any better, right? Right. After the show we walked over to the restaurant side and had some delicious desserts. Yay birthday!

My dad and stepmom thought it would be hilarious to get me a book to improve my personal life. Haha good one. They also got me one for business and one for entertainment.

I apologize for the crappy picture above. The iPhone clearly doesn’t handle low light environments well.

Private Wine Tasting at Sebastiani

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:02:04 -0700

As a thank you for my one year of membership at Sebastiani Vineyard & Winery in Sonoma, CA I was offered a private tasting event for myself and five friends. We started off with a quick tour of the vineyard where we learned about the local soil and got to try some grapes right off the vines. Afterwards we were escorted into the August Room. Each seat was arranged with a customized menu that said “Welcome David Klein & Guests.” Very cool. I’m definitely framing that. We had two Chardonnays, two Merlots, and two Cabernet Sauvignons. In the middle of the table were several cheese samplings as well. Sebastiani is awesome. I always enjoy seeing Dwight and Angelo when I go up there (look for them if you ever go because they’ll make sure you have a good time).

After the tasting we went over to Sonoma Square and had lunch at my favorite restaurant, The Girl & The Fig.

Sigh. I love Sonoma.

Personal Training

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:48:08 -0700

I signed up for a 5 week personal training package at 24 Hour Fitness. The photo above is my local branch at the corner of Post & Van Ness (credit goes to Flickr user T.L.A.).

My trainer’s name is Joe. He’s a badass lifter. He beat the shit out of me. I am very sore today. What’s funny is I’m actually pretty strong. I’ve been lifting regularly for over a year now, but the difference is Joe makes every set count. Instead of just completing a routine, taking a break, and doing another routine, Joe adds something unique each time:

don’t stop until you can’t do another rep
hold the last rep for 10 seconds and let it down really slowly
don’t rest between routines so you maintain a high tempo workout
on the last set of a routine do 10 reps then decrease the weight and do another 10 reps then decrease the weight and do another 10 reps.
etc.

These techniques really push the body. You burn more calories during the workout, and you use tiny stabilizer muscles that aren’t ready for this.

What I normally do on a chest/back day is complete a chest routine (3 sets) then a back routine (3 sets) and so on. Joe instead has me do one set of a chest routine and then one set of a back routine and so on until 3 sets of each routine are complete. I was really surprised by this since this keeps you running around the gym constantly.

The biggest surprise was I am no longer using barbells. Only dumbbells. Those increases my range of motion during routines, it helps build mass, and it forces the little muscles to kick in for balance. It also hurts like hell. :)

4 more weeks. I’m hoping to learn as much as possible so I can correct my mistakes and exercise more efficiently. We’ll see what happens...

Birthday Partay

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:46:24 -0700

Thank you everyone who came out last night for my birthday party. I hope everyone had a great time. Here’s the rundown:

The festivities began at 6pm in my apartment. I picked up some ingredients for drinks (including Absolut Los Angeles which is delicious), chips, salsa, and guacamole. I gave everyone a huge window to arrive by saying the doors to my place open at 6pm and we’re leaving at 7:30 for the restaurant/club. Naturally most people began arriving an hour late.

After serving some drinks we left with about half the group. This terrified me since the reservation with the prie fixe menu was made for a lot more people. People kept calling and saying they’d just meet us at the restaurant/club. Alright.

We took the #12 bus to 1st & Harrison and then walked the rest. This was hilarious. Who has ever heard of a group of people going out and using the bus to get there? Actually maybe I should start doing that more often haha.

We got to TempleSF right on time (photo above is one of the rooms there). Somehow, the huge table managed to fill itself after about twenty minutes. This was very relieving since I didn’t really want to pay for people who didn’t show up.

The restaurant in Temple is called Prana. It’s actually just the main room of the club with some big tables for parties. They served everyone wonton chips with 3 different dipping sauces, and a tuna tartar sample. So far so good. Then we got to pick an appetizer and entree from the menu that my friend Jen and I put together:

Appetizers:
Heirloom Tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, opal basil, gold balsamic-yuzu caramel, kaffir lime leaf oil.
Goat cheese-stuffed Eggplant Pakora, green papaya slaw, tomato chutney.
Organic field greens, yuzu vinaigrette, candied mangos, toybox tomatoes.
Coconut corn bisque, fresh curry leaves, corn & spicy cheddar wontons.

Meals:
Pan roasted sea bass, hen of the wood mushroom gravy, vegetable chow fun.
Organic Tandoor Chicken, tomato-yogurt salad, spicy sambar, saffron rice.
Braised Lamb Shank in Adobo, forbidden rice, yuzu peppercress.
Rice crusted Portobello Mushroom Scaloppini, chile-lime butter, sautéed broccolini, nori polenta.

In my opinion it was great. The cocktails menu was also very creative and delicious. One ginger-based drink, one pomegranate-based drink, etc. For dessert Jen brought my favorite cake: Cheesecake Factory’s Banana Cream Cheesecake. If you are a dessert guru and you are rolling your eyes at my selection, I apologize for I am not very experienced in decadent desserts. As soon as dinner ended and the bill was haphazardly paid, the tables were cleared and the music got louder.

Temple has three rooms with different music and bars everywhere. 2 rooms have decent house music playing, and one has hip hop. The main room has scantily clad dancers on tables which is always a nice touch to a club. Some dancing, some drinks, some sweat, and some laughs.

I highly recommend Temple for large-ish events. The woman I spoke to several times for handling menus and prices is named Alison. She’s a sweetheart and she introduced herself during dinner. I also considered getting a table with bottle service but it was just too expensive ($250 for a bottle of Lotus Vodka before tax & tip for example).

Ricky slept over and this morning I introduced him to the magical world of Blue Bottle Coffee.

That’s it. Happy #25 for me.

Web Survey

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 23:02:47 -0700

I took a web related survey. Very exciting. Credit goes to Laran Evans.

Birthday Ishtima

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 19:52:01 -0700

Yup. It’s August 7th. My birthday. Yay. Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes. I love just about all of you. Here’s some messages that I’d like to share:

“Dude. Birthday. Happy.” - Ron, the reason I have a binary clock.

“Happy Birthday! I’m sorry I can’t make it across the country for your party but it sounds fun! Hope you had a grest rest of the summer, although I’m sure my visit was the highlight of it :) And remember, keep up that Gilman smile!” - Rachel, my little Pachey. Gilman smile will be tattooed on my face Saturday night.

“Happy Birthday brother :)!” - Jay, Chordial for life.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY” - Katie, most hilarious girl ever.

“Happy birthday Dave!” - Lindsay, Crocker all the way.

“Happy birthday dude!” - Luke, rockin’ the convertible baby.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY” - Tara, I poked her during a dance once.

“Happy Birthday David!!! Sorry that we can’t connect on our birthdays, but do hope you have fun.” Jackie, you bet she’s sorry! Haha.

“Happy birthday David! Happy happy happy birthday! I’m going to get a bunch of girls in Temple to give you birthday spankings. And the fun part is, you and I both know I’m totally serious.” - Jen, I’m terrified.

“HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! =) Hope you had a great day. I will meet you sometime on Sat. I promise! =)” - Holly, she better be there or else...

“Happy Bday!!!” - Marion, Sholom for life baby.

“Happy Birthday, David!! I’ve missed you - come home!” - Anne, what did you just whisper?

“Happy Birthday! Great excuse to have a drink or two.” Kristin, Galoobs are going to win next time we play volleyball.

“Happy birthday David!!! Have a great day! :)” - Neena, I’m not looking at your face right now.

“HAPPY HAPPY DAY DAVID! Enjoy and celebrate.” - Barbara, coolest Stanford prof.

“You will have a table tomorrow. Happy birthday.” - Josh, I can’t wait to see that table again.

Powerpage Mobile Broadband

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:44:54 -0700

Here’s my mobile broadband discussion.

Read me!

Startupschwag 8th Arrival

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:57:05 -0700

Here’s a video of me going through the contents of my eighth Startupschwag shipment.

Plurk t-shirt.

Price Advance sticker. Way to go Roddy!

Direct link: http://www.viddyou.com/viddstream?videoid=38255.

Startupschwag 7th Arrival

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:54:15 -0700

Here’s a video of me going through the contents of my seventh Startupschwag shipment.

Disqus t-shirt.

Direct link: http://www.viddyou.com/viddstream?videoid=36283.

Elizabeth’s Wedding

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:09:50 -0700

Well that’s it. She’s all grown up. Haha. What an amazing weekend. Here’s the rundown...

Day 1:
Flew to Denver airport. Ate at Sonic for the first time ever. Can’t decide if it was decent or meh. Checked in at Residence Inn (2 bedroom suite with 6 people!). Went to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. Went to a bar across the street. Met an awesome girl. Drank too much. Discovered the Lindsay Lohan shot: red headed slut with a splash of Coke. Very clever.

Day 2:
Went to lunch at The Egg & I -- lots of cutesy pun named entrees. The girl I met at the bar took me to her favorite tea place. Went to rehearsal dinner. Drank way too much (open bar).

Day 3:
Went to lunch at a New Orleans style restaurant. The girl I met at the bar took me on a hike in Boulder near the Flatirons. Arrived 2 minutes late to the wedding and missed the bride walk down the aisle. So weak. Reception was awesome. Drank way too much (open bar). Danced with the bride’s mother. Really fun night.

Day 4:
Flew home.

I can’t believe it. Elizabeth is the first close friend from high school to get married. I’m really happy for her. Those of you who know me well can guess my other feelings of course.

Photos from the trip. The girl standing next to me in the above photo is Neena “Nips Wow Balls” Rao.