The first time I met Steve was at his friend Peter's house up in San Francisco. He was helping his friends gut the whole place and rebuild it. He gave us a tour, and the whole time I was thinking, "Wow, this guy knows how to use tools...what a stud!" :)

The first time Mike met Steve is when we accidentally bumped into you guys at Mel's Diner on Van Ness Street in San Francisco. We ate dinner together and then went to see "Meet the Parents" together at the AMC 1000 theater. We had a blast... just laughed our heads off throughout the whole movie.

Mike and I invited you guys over for dinner one night, and "cooked" frozen lasagna for you guys. Mike made it Korean style with a bit of Tabasco to "give it a little kick". Steve was sweating and wiping his forehead. We had some good red wine to wash it all down.

Another time, you guys met us at Ti Couz, that crepe place in the Mission. We had a horrible waitress that botched up your order and gave us lousy service. We were all pretty pissed off and Steve suggested that we gave her a smaller tip. We all agreed to that. Afterwards we went walking around the Mission and he was so excited to take us to Bi-Rite, his favorite grocery store. He wanted to see if they had a particular tomato that only came once a year. No such luck with the tomatoes, but we did find a yummy bakery nearby. It smelled so good that we just had to walk in and see what they offered. We ended up getting an amazing fruit tart.

Then there was that time in LA when you took us to Blueberry Cafe. Mmm... that was so good. You ate so much that you had a little belly showing through your sundress. I remember Steve patting it and saying, "This is what you would look like if you were pregnant." :) Afterwards you guys came over to see our place on the beach. The three of us - you, me and Steve - went walking on the sand towards Santa Monica Pier. Steve insisted that he wanted a pair of flip-flops and you couldn't understand why he was so obsessed. He said that he was wanting a pair the last time he came down to LA and you guys were too busy then to buy a pair - so he was determined to buy some this time. We ended up checking out some vendor stalls on the pier, and the first pair he found was some cheapo Chinatown-like foam sliders. Man, was he a happy camper! He took off his shoes and socks and threw on the flip-flops. He was in heaven. We then walked back to our apartment and he saw these iron rings on the beach and wanted to try and swing across them. He jumped up to go but then dropped off quickly when he realized that his shoulder was too weak to handle it.

A day or two after New Year's this year, you guys came down to Orange County. That was so much fun. It was so last minute, but I remember you telling me that you wanted to take him to Disneyland and he said, "Let's wait 'til we have kids." You then tried to tempt him by saying, "We can see Mike and Trish if we go." He convinced you to just come down to see us instead of Disneyland and I suggested that you guys spend the night so you wouldn't have to deal with traffic. We had dinner at Kitayama (Steve ordered the stuffed salmon) and we had some good chilled sake. The next morning, I remember Steve telling us that he had breakfast with my dad before everyone else woke up. He said my dad was eating some pretty weird stuff which I thought was really funny since I'm so used to it by now. For lunch we went to Taiko and had some really incredible sushi. Steve ate a ton and I remember he tried an oyster shooter. He liked it so much he couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. I met up with you guys later on Laguna Beach, and Steve told me how Mike dragged you guys to this bakery and made you try a baklava. You guys were so full after the sushi but you ate it anyways. We sat on the beach for a while to watch the sun set. Steve was milling around the sand for seashells and gave them to you. I remember you saying, "These aren't pretty... they're all broken." He pointed out some really colorful purple pieces and then you were like, "Yeah, I guess you're right." We took a bunch of pictures as the sun was setting and he was really getting into it. It was so beautiful and the sky was orange and it cast a warm glow on everything. I remember he took one last photo of the two of us facing the ocean...

-Trisha Ting

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