Oracle Open World '08 and the Treasure Island party

Oracle Open World est toujours l'une des conférences les plus importantes au Moscone Center à San Francisco. Cette année, je reussi à m'extraire une journée de mon project pour assister à des conferences, voir des démos sur la Release 12, faire du 'networking', mais aussi profiter de l'énorme Fête Foraine Party à Treasure Island avec notamment Seal et UB40. Oui, ça valait vraiment le coup d'y aller !

Photos ici !

Elegant Party

Après s'être creusé les méninges pour trouver un thème, nous lançons les invitations pour fêter mon anniversaire sous le signe de l'"élégance". Tout le monde, surtout les filles n'est ce pas, à toujours une robe de soirée que l'on a jamais ou rarement l'ocasion de mettre. Alors, pourquoi pas se mettre sur son 31 en plein milieu de l'été? Près de 100 personnes ont repondu présent... Merci à tous pour avoir joué le jeu !
La soirée fut un enorme succès ! Un peu trop même quand la police est venue sonner à la porte à cause du bruit...
Pictures here / Photos ici !

WHITE PARTY II

This Saturday, we hosted the "White Party Season 2" for Jean and Marthe's Birthdays !
Remember, last year we launched the first White Party at our home for Jean, Shiu and Laeticia's Birthdays!
We did it again this year and it was a big success: around 70 persons attended and made the effort to dress only in white !

Thanks to all of you ! And Happy Birthdayyyyyyyy to Marthe and Jean !!!!

Pictures of the White Party II here! / Photos de la Soiree Blanche II ici !

Wine-and-Cheese Party chez Clément

Saturday night, we were invited to the Wine-and-Cheese party at our friend Clément's place.

The concept is simple: each guest brings some cheese and bread or some red/white wine and share a drink and a toast with other guests.
The party was great and I liked the idea to taste so many cheeses and wines in a single evening...
Clément had also the good taste to add some foie-gras and others pâtés.
However, this is the kind of party you don't want to wear white clothes, accidents always happens, especially when there is a wooden floor...

Photos of the Wine&Cheese Party here!

Fabien's Champagne et Petits Fours Party !

Samedi soir, nous avons célébré la soutenance de thèse de Fabien.

Au programme: Champagne, petits fours et bonne humeur !

Après cinq années et demies de recherche en Génie Electrique à la fameuse Université de Stanford, Fabien présente enfin sa thèse sur "Comment détecter les défauts de fabrication sur les circuits intégrés". Un sujet très Silicon Valleynesque...
Et comme une bonne nouvelle n'arrive jamais seule, il a aussi recu une proposition d'emploi plus qu'intéressante.
Nous lui souhaitons une brillante carrière professionnelle et mon petit conseil avant de commencer: prendre des vacances !
Les photos de la cocktail Party ici !

Party time !

February already started... let's throw the first party of the year!
The word was to bring home-made food and chat, dance, eat and drink.
Around 50 people came by and the food was good: Crepes (mardi gras in 3 days oblige!), waffles, cremes caramel, cake marbre, tarte aux cerises, tiramisu, yogurt cake, salad, sushis etc...
Special thanks those who bring something they made and helped. Clement, you were the perfect doorman! Marthe, you are now the waffles' expert. Thanks again!

Pictures of Party Party here! Photos de la soiree ici !

La Fondue du samedi soir

Saturday night, we hosted a 'Fondue Dinner Party' at home.

For those who don't know what is a fondue , it is a winter dish made of Swiss cheese melted in a pot. It is usually flavored with dry white wine, garlic, paprika, pepper... Then, guests use their fondue fork or wooden skewers to dip in it crisp bread or vegetables (carrots, potatoes, celery...). Many versions exists: among others there is the "Fondue Bourguignonne" with beef to dip in oil or "Chocolate Fondue" with fruits to dip in chocolate .
It is a very convivial dish when you follow the traditional way: everybody share the same cheese pot and drink dry white wine !
From left to right: Kareem, Servane, Virgile, Jean, Lior, Clement, Marthe and Monique. We were joined for the dessert by Sunil and Yann. Thank you all for your presence tonight ! Next time, let's try a Raclette !

Halloween Party!

Tonight, we went to a huge Halloween Party (around 450 guests!) which was a fund raising at the same time.
Those guys really know how to make a sensational party!
There were live music bands performing all night long, inside the living room and along the swimming pool. We even had a children dancing performance and firedancers.

The decorations were fantastics and everybody played the game by wearing a costume. Pirates, nurses for a night, witches, vampires, firefighters, Obi-Wan, Popeye, Pharaon, bunnies, angels, demons, cow, policemen etc took assault of the place. We even saw a siren but the poor was having difficulties to walk and everybody was stepping on her tail...
For Americans, Halloween is an important event. They either rent or buy a costume in one of the many stores that propose everything from the wig to the entire costume and even panties and socks... For the occasion, I was in Princess of Thieves ("Robin of the Woods") and Jean was the pirate "Jack Sparrow". We had lot of fun. This is the kind of party you don't want to miss. Hopefully, they will do it again next year! See you there with your best outfit!

Pictures of the Halloween Party here! Photos de la soirée Halloween ici !

Scary first Birthday

Today, we went to a special Halloween party organized by our friends Sam and Kim to celebrate their daughter's first Birthday.

Yep, already a year since Vannalys frightened her parents by deciding to arrive in the world on Halloween day in 2006!

The theme party was Halloween with a pumpkin carving workshop for children.
Happy First Birthday Vannalys! Don't grow up too fast and stay cute!

Black Party !

October, month of Halloween, winter approaching, time for a party!

As we did the White party this summer, let's do a Black party, kind of pre-Halloween celebration... The theme is simple: dress in black! This time, no excuses to not follow the dress code! And I must say it was pretty well followed by our guests.
We were around 40 people and a half... yes, there was a 6 months pregnant women among us...
We hope you all enjoyed the party!
Special thanks to the ones that stayed to help us clean up after the party around 3 am...
Next time, we will have to find an even better theme. Suggestions are welcome!
(As usual, more pictures on the links to your right)

4th Annual San Francisco LoveFest

Global DJ - San Francisco

This Saturday, it was the 4th San Francisco LoveFest and, we were IN!
There was over 65,000 people partying to more than 20 floats and 200 DJs spinning.
Pink underwears, pink heels, pink wigs... pink pink pink everywhere! People were all dressed up as if they were in a huge sex shop... and sometimes they wear nothing at all...
I felt like it was a mix between the Gay Pride and the Techno-Parade I have seen in Paris. A king of huge street pre-Halloween party celebrating electronic music, dancing, and, well, love. Except that I was surprised to see so many people naked... Obviously, it is allowed in this king of event because there were also lots of cops but nobody got a warning... For Americans, it is only on those events that they can get loose without almost no limits!

For the record, a festival called Loveparade originated in Berlin in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but in 2003, the city denied the parade a permit and the event moved to San Francisco. Last year, when German organizers were able to secure permits back in Berlin, North American organizers decided to continue their own event here and called it the Lovefest. Three other cities around the world sponsor similar celebrations every year.

We also had the chance to assist the wonderful performance from the dansing group BellyQueen. I recorded a sample of their appearance:

Saturday Night fire

Saturday night, we went to the farewell party of a friend leaving for a job in London.
Among the people present, there was "Elektra", a fire eater! She performed a demonstration for us and I catched the moment:

Mariage Vietnamien

This week-end, we were invited to the wedding of Vy and Khang, a couple of vietnamese friends.

The vietnamese tradition wants that the groom and his family arrive in procession at the bride's home.
They are bearing elaborately decorated lacquer boxes, covered in red cloth. Inside these boxes are gifts representing the wealth the groom's family will bring to the bride's family. Gifts include: betel, wine, tea, fruit, cakes, a roast pig, and an abundance of jewelry for the bride.

A banquet party was held later in the day at a vietnamese restaurant.
It was interesting to see the different habits among the cultures.
Vy and Khang, once again, our most sincere congratulations, what a nice party !

Mariage au Château du Maréchal de Saxe

One of the first reason we came back to France at that time of the year is to assist to the wedding of Jean's eldest brother, Basheer. He and his longtime girlfriend Linda live in the IVth arrondissement of Paris. This morning, all their family and friends gathered to the town hall of the IVth arrondissement to witness their civil union. The building are fantastics with high ceiling, marble stairs and old paintings. It was a nice solemn moment.

Then, a reception was held later in the day at the "Château du Maréchal de Saxe" , booked the entire week-end for the occasion.
We were lucky to have a bedroom for the night and enjoy fully the castle for the week-end.

The reception in the gardens, the dinner in the 'Galerie des Trophées', the music, the castle, this indefinable atmosphere, all those people nicely dressed... everything was magic during that week-end! It was a parenthesis in our life, in a dreaming place with happy people, without forgetting the fine food and the exquisite French wines! Aaaah, I want some more, again and again! NOoooo, please, stop the clock!....

Sixth Annual Google Dance Party !

Tonight, we went to the Google Dance Party in Mountain View, where their headquarters are.

Lot of people dream about working for this company so their annual party is usually very popular. We missed last year party but we heard about it so, we did not want to miss that one! If you have never been to a Google Party before, I recommend that you try it once.

First impression: a friendly atmosphere where food and drinks are available in abundance.
It is there I experienced my very first "Root Beer"... This drink is very famous in the US but for me, it tasted like... toothpaste. I guess you have to be an American to appreciate this drink. In fact, it has nothing to do with beer even if it looks like beer. Out of curiosity, I also tried the "Root Beer float" where a big spoon of Vanilla ice cream is added in your glass. It is making lot of foam, but still, it tasted bad...

So, apart from the Root Beer, to entertain you all night long, people have the choice between many games:
- play bowling or tennis with the famous Wii
- play beach volleyball
- pool
- twister
- karaoke where you can record your own video-clip!
- and my favorite: "Dunk Google Guy". The goal is to hit a ball on a target so that the poor Google Guy is plunged into the water... Go see my pictures!

Also, the music was great. In fact, Google has its own DJ, can you believe it?!
Their was a big dance floor inside where people were really dancing like crazy. The DJ was good with all king of hits.
That was a nice big party! Hope to be there again next year!

Bienvenue à “GeekLand”…

… and Happy Surprise Birthday Party Pau Din !!!

Ce samedi après-midi, nous avons célébré l’arrivée d’une nouvelle ‘geekette’ dans la Silicon Valley : Pau Din, la sœur de Cam (nos amis Québécois).

Elle a décroché un poste au service informatique (forcément…) dans une grande compagnie de la Bay Area. Félicitations !
Après quelques années à Chicago, nous sommes certains qu’elle saura apprécier le soleil californien.

Au menu, outre les chips, dumplings, pot stickers et buns, nous avons pu goûter le fameux « Pâté Chinois ». Avec l’accent Québécois, du Pauté Chinois …
Expérience…. que dire…. inoubliable !

Alors, vous allez me dire : « Mais c’est quoi du Pâté Chinois ? ».
Et je vous réponds : « Excellente Question ! ».
Comme Cam nous l’a expliqué, c’est de la viande hachée avec des oignons, sous une couche de purée, saupoudrée de paprika, avec en plus du « Blé d’inde »….
Alors, vous allez encore me dire : « Mais c’est quoi du blé d’inde ? »
Ben en fait, c’est comme ça que les canadiens appellent le maïs… Personne n’a prévenu ce peuple que ça s’appelle en fait du maïs ?
Pour revenir au fameux Pâté Chinois, c’est un peu l’équivalent de notre Hachis Parmentier pour les français mais sans fromage avec en plus du maïs et… petite touche finale : du ketchup !?... Sacrilège !
Perso, étant française, je préfère la version hachis parmentier…

Pour finir, je vous ai trouvé cette séquence de "Meurtre au blé d’inde":

Merci Shiu et Cam pour l'invitation et encore une fois, bonne installation à Pau Din !

Au Revoir Virginie !

Jeudi soir, c'était la dernière soirée de Virginie sur le sol Californien. Alors, comme elle retourne dans sa région natale, je n'ai pas résisté à lui faire un petit clin d'oeil...
Attention, c'est de la grande chanson française de 1987 ! Paroles et musique signées Gérard Blanchard !
Désolée, c'était trop tentant...

En tout cas, Virginie, on te souhaite un excellent retour en France et à très bientôt !

Chapeau Servane !

Chapi Chapo...

Coucou,

Un grand merci à tous pour avoir participe à ma soirée d'anniversaire. J'espère que vous êtes bien rentres et que vous avez pu faire la grass' mat'. Pour ceux qui n'étaient pas là, le "dress code" était de porter un chapeau... Mais même pour ceux qui étaient là, le message n'est pas bien passé...

Bon, alors comme pas mal d'entre vous me demandent les photos à chaque fois que l'on fait une soirée et que ça fait un petit bout de temps que je songe à créer mon blog, voilà, je me lance ! Vous pouvez cliquer sur les liens à droite pour visionner les albums. N'hésitez pas à m'envoyer des conseils pour améliorer ce blog. Je commence déjà a trouver que blogger.com est assez limité pour la mise en page et les fonctionnalités disponibles... Aie, je ne me fais pas traiter de 'geekette' pour rien. A très bientôt !