This past weekend was blistering hot. a BALMY 95 degrees, as read by my Audi's temp-ometer on the ride back from little Saigon. If you live anywhere near the Bay Area, you know that our spoiled asses can't handle record highs such as these. Ngoc and I slept for 3 hours on our carpeted living room floor, unofficially the coolest place in the apartment, on Friday evening.

We didn't want to let the heat overcome our good spirits, so we organized a little bbq at Great Stoneface Park in North-north Berkeley (our new favorite picnic spot!). J-fire, Ngoc and myself had spent an afternoon here prior, throwing ourselves at the Great Stone Face stand start (V4), the hardest 4 I've ever hopped on. But on Saturday, climbing took a back seat to good company and Maxine (pictured above). Ngoc made a rare appearance in a lovely skirt...if only she truly knew how much I like seeing her in skirts and dresses, she'd be wearing them all the time.

On Sunday, we cooked Paella! It was delicious, but we definitely have a few "tweaks" for our recipe next time we do a paella night (This weekend?!?!). Ngoc is uber scared of pan oil, as you will notice below.