Chris Bjuland’s blog

Sunday

My friend Scott says that I am an anomaly because I like French (and other “foreign”) food. He likes food that goes well with ketchup. We met up (with our spouses) on Saturday night and went Persimmon Cafe. I ate a falafel sandwich and Elli had a persimmon salad. Scott ate ketchup with a steak sandwich and Jen (his soon to be wife) ate a falafel sandwich, also. We stayed up way to late talking, but we all had a great time, parting ways shortly before eleven pm (which is late for me).

The next morning, Elli and I awoke early to catch a BART train to downtown Berkley to eat breakfast at La Note, which turned out to be a very enjoyable place. Much like a combination of Axios and Bluebird Cafe (both in Kansas City, MO), it was great. I ate gingerbread lemon pancakes with poached pears and blueberries on top. It was like eating the best cookie in the world. Elli ate a ham and cheese omelet that was very light and creamy. We sat in the shade on the back patio where it was quiet and the weather was nice. After breakfast, Elli took the BART back home which I went to Games of Berkley to play a game or two of Star Wars minis.

Spent the afternoon working on homework for the Academy of Art. You’d think will all the money I’m spending on education (and being a Grad Student) that I wouldn’t have to do anything, but you’d be wrong. I still have a few rolls of film to get through and a few small papers to write.

Elli spent the afternoon working on a baby blanket for the homeless prenatal center.

Spent the last few days running around the city, getting a history tour of city hall and putting off going to the grocery store.  Now that the fridge is empty it is time to venture to Whole Foods once again…

There is a donut shop on every corner, and more donut shops per square mile than Starbucks (my estimation, not statistical fact).  I have very little willpower when it comes to donuts (fact, not estimation).  Needless to say, I’ve had three donuts this week.  Yum.

Spent the last few days catching up on homework and getting acclimated to grad school.  Elli and I have been hitting the coffee shops and enjoying the town, going out to eat at a local Thai restaurant that we love.

I went to play Heroclix again today and my Dr. Doom team made mincemeat out of the Fantastic Four.  It was fun, but I was glad to finally win a game again.  My winning streak wasn’t very good as of late.

Been catching up on internet TV.  Most of the streaming shows have audio sync problems, but nothing so annoying as to ruin the show.  I’ve been especially fond of “Fringe”, with it’s “X-Files” style drama.  Maybe Flukeman will make a guest appearance on the new show.

Elli is finally going to get her hair cut on Tuesday.  She’s been researching stylists and finally decided to try one.  Pictures of the new Elli will follow soon.

The cats are still ruling the roost.  They each have a spot that they have claimed as their own.  Raven’s is a nest of blankets in the closet, and Tracer’s is my office chair.  They are so cute when they are sleeping.

Monday

I finally took the oldest printer at work offline and replaced it with a slightly newer one.  The principal wants me to put a PC and a printer in each classroom, but he hasn’t handed over the school credit card yet, so I’m not sure what miracles he’s looking for.

Finished setting up the school email system, only to have the hosting company crash (thankfully it wasn’t our computer system), but it was still annoying.  I think it’s back up, but I haven’t checked in a few hours.

Took the BART home from work and went with Elli to Whole Foods.  I like having food in the fridge.  It makes eating dinner much easier.

Started reading Cyptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.  It promises to be a great mathmatical tale.

Elli is cooking dinner tonight.  We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night because Raven decided she needed to wake me up every two hours…

Sunday

I survived the first two weeks of school.  I dropped several classes that were just to easy for me, and have added a new batch of classes that seem to be better suited for me.

The weather in SF keeps changing.  Sometimes sunny and warm, sometimes sunny and cool, and sometimes foggy and cool.  October supposedly is the “warm” month.  I’m looking forward to that, but I think I’ll miss the cool chill of autumn and the turning of the leaves.

I added a photography blog at http://bjulandphoto.wordpress.com/ as part of a class assignment.  The idea is to keep posting new work, even if it’s not “up to standards” and get you to keep looking at your images ina fresh light.  I put up some pictures of seagulls from my trip to Angel Island a few weeks back.  I was happy with the images.  It’s hard to photograph a moving subject on a moving boat with a manual focus camera.

Friday

Elli and I survived our first California quake:

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake happened at 9:00 p.m. and was felt in parts of the Bay Area. The epicenter was located 2 miles ENE of Alamo. There are currently no reports of damage or injuries. (Reported from cbs5.com, San Francisco TV 5)

Elli was very concerned, and I was mostly oblivious.  Our building did one big shake.  The dishes rattled, and the lights dimmed.  I was waiting for second big shake, and trying to figure out what we were supposed to do in the event of an earthquake.  Fortunately, the second shake didn’t happen, and Elli’s panicked concern was dissipated.

Finished up my first week of class at the Academy of Art yesterday.  Looking forward to going back to school.  I’m trying to change my schedule around to give myself more challenging classes.

Our plans for the weekend include visiting Costco, the grocery store, eating at a Thai restaurant down the street, and going to Berkeley for breakfast.  After breakfast I’m going to play Star Wars minis at a game store in Berkeley, and Elli is going to hang out at a coffee shop and shop for yarn (she likes to crochet).

I’m currently reading a book called Twilight by Brendan Dubois.  It’s not the vampire drama that has swept the nation (Interview with a Vampire for a new generation), but rather a book about a follow up attack to America’s 9/11, the civil war that followed in it’s wake and the UN peacekeepers deployed to the Eastern seaboard to investigate alleged war crimes.  It’s simply a great read, very tense, and hard to put down.  I found the book on the New Books shelf at the library.  I’ll be reading more by this author soon.

No Tetris battles tonight.  Elli is on a winning streak and I need to rest my hands for the weekend rematch.

The cats have taken to throwing up about twice a month.  Usually on the bedspread, a pile of important papers left careless in the middle of the bedspead, or on Elli’s clothes.  So far I haven’t been a target.

Tuesday

Elli and I enjoyed the Labor Day weekend.  We drank coffee at several places, walked around the city, sat in a lot of parks, read a lot of book pages, and enjoyed the fabulous weather.  I may have even taken my camera out once or twice.  It’s the weather that everyone here is paying for.  It’s certainly not the dirty smelly streets… (SF is the dirtiest city I have ever been in.  People litter all the time.  It is very gross.  The street cleaners are out every morning trying to undue the damage from the night before.  It is sad that a city chooses to operate this way.

We love it here, don’t get me wrong.  It is just that there will always be things that I think should be changed.  Like littering and drug use.  SF has a soft on crime outlook, and it doesn’t help.  I’d rather they follow New York City and crack down on even the “minor things”, cleaning the city from the ground up.  Maybe I can get a job with the city government and let them know how it should be.  I’d be happy to consult at phone company repair rates ($630/hour.  I kid you not).

That number comes from the fact that our phone system at work went out today, and calling the company that we pay $700/month to netted me an earful about how our system isn’t covered under maintenance, etc, and that they would be happy to investigate the problem for $630/hour, starting with on-phone support.  I told them we paid $25,000 for the phone system and that better have bought us some fix-it time.  Needless to say, that payment wasn’t going to happen.  A few phone calls later learned me that someone else had our phone maintence contract.  A lot of people have their hand in the nearly empty pot of our school budget.  We were able to resolve the problem on the phone in about 30 minutes.  I think it is time I upped my photography fees tremendously.

School (school school, not work school) starts on Thursday.  I’m excited to be going back.  I can’t wait to check out and use some the lenses I’ve been wanting for years.

My desktop computer is still broken (this is the longest I’ve been without my computer).  Still not used to working on a laptop.  The screen is soooo small.  I hope I can repair it soon.  I need it for school.  I miss the days of driving to Microcenter and getting the help and parts I need for my Mac.  Now it’s expensive taxi and BART rides to strange places in the city trying to get help and parts.  It’s a crazy way to live, but I’m learning to enjoy it.