maggie’s muse.

To celebrate New Year's eve, my friends and I went to Hobson's Choice on Haight x Clayton. Read about my love for Hobson's here.

We ate a total of 3 pizzas that night! I was so sick of pizza. :X The drinks were delicious, but unfortunately, we couldn't get the bowls that night. :( So, our first round was served in red plastic cups and from there, we ordered non-house punch drinks.

I didn't want to go to a club and deal with massive amounts of people, so Hobson's was the perfect choice. It was somewhat low key and it was a night to celebrate with good friends.

Cheers to a happy and healthy 2009.

                         

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NYE_09.zip (3192 KB)

So the day after Christmas was at my friend, Michele's house. There was a potluck and like every Christmas, the highlight of the evening was white elephant (don't know what white elephant is? check out wikipedia here).

The game was with 23 people and I got my gift stolen twice! booo. I was upset that someone stole my Star Wars Mighty Muggs doll. Coincidentally, my boyfriend got an Indian Jones one and someone stole that too. In the end, we stole the Star Wars one back and I ended up with a picture frame.

Michele and AJ has the cutest dog ever. She's a French bulldog named Chloe and from the first picture, you can see AJ wiping her butt. ;)

We drank, we ate, we watched the UFC and the boys played poker. From the pictures you can see my friend, Vixay, having a BLAST. haha.

Thank you Michele and AJ!

                           

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Christmas_Micheles_tags_friend.zip (5546 KB)

Slowly trying to catch up.... So behind that I'm writing about Christmas! :X

                         

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Christmas_Kates_tags_friends.zip (3553 KB)

For my third Thanksgiving celebration, my friend, Kate, hosted a hot pot party at her place. It was another night filled with good food and of course, sangria.

We ate a decadent cheesecake - TWO cheesecakes on top of each other (plain and oreo) and played our favorite game, smoke or fire, with extra large cards. :)

Fun night...

                                         

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Thanksgiving_with_Friends_tags.zip (6050 KB)

Did I ever tell you that Hotmail sucks? There are attachment limits so I have to split the posts to attach more.... :(

                                         

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Party_Bruces_-_Part_3.zip (5576 KB)

My friend, Bruce, threw a get-together last Saturday at his spectacular 7th floor apartment. I love his place! Even if it's labeled as a studio, it's more spacious than a studio, and it's just the right amount of space for one person. Plus, it's down the street from me - convenience.

The weather was dreary and it was sprinkling by the time I got there to help with the party. It was definitely a lot of food and tedious to make the dumplings! The dumplings weren't hard to make, just...A TON.... I was pretty tired by the time I finished helping with everything. Throwing parties are certainly a lot of work! :P

The party was fun. It was a night filled with food, sangria and card games. :) Good times. As always.

Sorry the pictures are a bit out of focus. :( Hella didn't set up my camera correctly. Booo...

                                               

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Party_Bruces_tags_party_drinki.zip (6688 KB)

Finally got the pictures from last week's Election night imported...

My boyfriend had an impromptu party at his place and I wore my "Vote for ____" shirt. Vote for ice cream! Sucks that I covered most of my shirt. :P I was too busy focusing on my yummy margarita. ;) Our dear friend, Byong, had one too many drinks....... haha. Oh Byong...

Anyways, it was a fun and exciting night. Yay for Obama!

                   

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That_Momentus_Night._tags_part.zip (2505 KB)

For Halloween, instead of dressing up like a slutty angel, school girl, nurse, girl scout, maid or cowgirl, I went to Blakes in Berkeley to see my friends' band's show. Atama rocked it per usual (their next show is tomorrow, November 6 at Voo Doo Lounge in San Jose - check them out!). The second band was cool and the third band was....lame. The most funny part is watching the audience in costumes rocking out. I don't remember that many interesting costumes, but my friend, Jon killed it with his homemade storm tropper costume. The helmet was awesome and everyone got to try it on.

And for whatever reason, we randomly found a box of old electronics on top of our car when we got back.....wtf? Berkeley's fun. Always an interesting experience. :)

Check out my culinary delights from that night here and here.

                                                             

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Fun_in_Berkeley.zip (7283 KB)

Last Tuesday night, Jason, Mike and I went to a special private tasting for Macallan at Fort Mason. Although I'm not a scotch drinker, it was noted as a night to "celebrate the Macallan" and I was very interested in the event.

We stood in line for about 20 minutes before the doors opened and I was excited for the celebration to begin. The doors finally opened right at 8:30pm and the male dominated line slowly walked into the old building.

As I walked in, the interior looked sophisticated, elegant and old. You instantly knew there was a lot of history and I felt so privileged to be in it.

Each guest was given a beautiful half dollar sized golden token. Unfortunately, I had to surrender it if I wanted the first sampling of Macallan. First sip, wow. That's some hard scotch all right. ;)

We walked further into the room and was quickly greeted by the "ambassador/entertainer of the night," Eden, and waiters holding platters of hor devours. My friends and I walked into another room with seating and waited for the show to begin.

There was a 45 minute presentation of scotch 101, Macallan's history, the gorgeous distillery in Scotland (I want to visit!) and ultimately, five tastings of scotch. I had to add water and ice to mine, "neat" scotch is way too strong for me. ;P It's definitely some good stuff and by the end of the fifth tasting, I was persuaded to only drink Macallan if I was to ever order scotch. :P

As a thank you for filling out a survey and giving our email address, we each walked away with a gift bag that included a hat (what the?) and a small glass. I really wished I saved that token...I'd rather have that as a souvenir than a hat! :P

Ultimately, it was a marketing strategy to promote Macallan. I've heard of these types of events (disguising focus groups/market research as parties) in marketing books before, so it was great to actually be able to experience one. The event was a lot of fun and definitely a memorable, exquisite experience. I woud love to attend more stuff like this, even if I'll be receiving a lot of junk mail in the future. ;)

   

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Luxurious._Scotch._Macallan._t.zip (399 KB)