Liberalism is a Disease - A San Francisco writer explains in clear terms the failures of liberalism in the San Francisco Bay Area. As anyone who lives or works in the city can tell you, San Francisco remains a launching pad for an ever-growing army of homeless drunks, drug-addicts and psychopaths—all of this in spite of social spending that approaches $40,000 annually per homeless person. The city government’s attempt to help the poor through rent control has also backfired. Today, rent control in San Francisco only benefits those who need it least: the limousine liberal. Thank God I’m not the only one here who realizes that liberals are slowly destroying San Francisco.

Restaurant Reviews - This weekend centered around eating at restaurants. Yesterday, Jenny and I took her assistant at Levi’s—Michelle—to 168 Restaurant in El Cerrito. All they talked about was work, work, work. I knew many of the names they were mentioning, but their discussion was centered mostly on petty office politics, which didn’t interest me. When I’m home, the last thing I want to talk about is work. I refuse to work at home. I’d rather stay at work late and go to work on weekends then bring a laptop home to sign-on remotely.

We had hot and sour soup, rice cakes, string beans, clay pot fish, stir-fried beef, and I had my trademark watermelon juice. To my surprise, we finished everything we ordered. I’ll give this meal three stars. For dessert, we had flan/custard at Goldilocks, a Filipino restaurant (Michelle is Filipino). For a change, we talked about terrorists and our families. Then Jenny spotted miniature ceramic fruit at this Thai knickknack store, and had to spend $20 to decorate our kitchen.

When we were driving Michelle home, I asked them to talk about something other than work. Which finally brought us to the original reason why we went out to eat: we were trying to set Michelle up with another friend. That person was a no-show. Thirty seconds into our discussion about Michelle’s love life, we reached her apartment and said goodnight to her. To be continued…

Today we ate at Banana Island in Daly City for the third weekend in a row. Jenny’s friend James is part owner and manager of the restaurant. We first drove to San Francisco and I worked out at the Bay Club in Levi’s Plaza while Jenny waited for Mera, Soli and me. Then we drove down to Banana Island. For a Sunday night, the restaurant was pretty crowded. For a change, I did not stuff myself to the gills. We had the usual Malaysian/Thai/Singaporean food. Everything was yummy. I discovered that kids (Soli) can be fussy eaters. I hope our kids won’t be so fussy.

Next week we’re going to skip Banana Island, but in two weeks we’ll take Jenny’s parents, and Jenny’s mom’s friend there for Jenny’s mom’s birthday. A week after that, I think we’ll go there again with some other friends. I forget who. I think we’ll be Banana Islanded out by the time Jenny gives birth. But the restaurant is good, especially that crepe-like pancake that they serve with currry sauce. Good going, James Lin--three and a half stars for your efforts.

Hi Winner - I finally found my wedding invitation list from New Jersey and got in touch with my good friend Diane Vedutis (Ford) from my AT&T days. She got married last year (I owe her a wedding gift) and is now expecting her first child in July. She’s also no longer at AT&T and moved out to the boonies of New Jersey. She’ll always be a ‘winner’ in my book.