Sunday in Berkley

Sunday

I spent the morning and afternoon in Berkley playing the Star Wars miniature game at Games of Berkley.  I played my usual combo of Vader and a bunch of Stormtroopers.  I added Vader’s apprentice to the team for both games to mix things up.  Most of my game pieces are still in Kansas City, but I’m having fun with the pieces I do have in San Francisco.

Came home to go shopping at the Farmer’s Market with Elli, then home for lunch and house cleaning.  I got to clean out the closet that I had junked up while Elli did some sweeping and kitchen cleaning.  The closet took longer than I planned, but I had really junked it up with school papers and such.  I’m not the most organized guy in the world.  It’s all better now, with everything in a place, and easy access to the iron and other things we use most often.

After that I headed to Borders to spend money on a few Billy Collins books for Elli.  He’s a famous poet, and his stuff his good (even I like it, and I don’t like poetry).  Picked up a vampire book for myself, because it is the season for such reads.

It’s October, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but autumn in California (where there are no trees anywhere near my apartment) is kind of a let down.  The weather is warm, no leaves to turn pretty colors, and no drizzly rain to set the mood on the dark streets.  On the plus side, the weather is warm and there is no drizzy rain.  Yet.  The rain is on it’s way, I’ve been told.

I wonder if we should try dressing the cats up for Halloween and then they can trick-or-treat around the apartment?  We tried to put a cat hat on Raven once.  She wasn’t impressed.  Tracer shook the hat off her head and tried to eat it.  I guess I answered my own question.

Elli and I closed out the evening with some reading.  I’m finishing up Cthulhu 2000, a collection of H.P. Lovecraft inspired stories, but none are actually written my Lovecraft.  Elli is reading a book about a ghost who can be seen by someone for the first time in a hundred years.

 

A toyless city

Monday

Today was a work day, no teachers, no students.  Just me and the dust on on the tables and cords and computers.

Elli came to the BART stop to meet me for lunch.  We ate at a place near the school and shared an iced mocha.  Went back to work.  Elli joined me and Facebooked while I finished up my job for the day.

On the way home from work we stoped at Phil’s Coffee for some reading and sitting time.  The coffee was fabulous.  Probably my second favorite in the city (behind Ruli’s).

Took the BART a bit further on the way home and went to the toy store on Market Street to look for Star Wars Legos.  No luck.  Nothing on the shelf except on Bionicle stuff.  It’s a sad existence for San Francisco that they don’t even have a Target store.  There isn’t a Microcenter, either.  Remind why I moved here?

After leaving the toy store, we walked waaaaayyy down Market to visit Flex, a super great art store.  It doesn’t have the crafty stuff that Michael’s does (which is why I was going), but for paints and paper and notebooks, it’s the best I’ve seen in the city.  Outshines the Utrecht and Dick Blick art stores by a long shot.

Walked home for dinner (chicken salad on a bed of mixed greens), and watching the newest Flashpoint episode, followed by Tetris battles, reading and sleep.

 

Going to the movies

Friday

Woke up for work. Planned on going to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars after work.

Spent the day at work throwing out junk and trying to tame the cable mess someone made. Whoever set up the computer network didn’t know what they were doing. I’m putting band-aids on band-aids right now until I can start dismantling it section by section. Two kids were on the computer in the lab while I was also online in the lab. The network ground to a halt. The incoming and outgoing connections are terribly slow and not adequate for the business size. We have a straw (incoming and outgoing) when we need a water main. And we are paying 4 times market prices for the straw connection because the person signing the contract two years ago fell for the snake oil sales pitch and just didn’t know any better. I can’t wait to get out of all the school’s bad contracts (remember – $700 a month for phone rental, not including the price of the actual phone service!).

Came home from work to meet Elli and hang out. We made dinner and watched Dr. Steve O on the computer. It’s a “reality” show where everyone does stupid and painful things (like waxing one eyebrow) and then the host does something stupid and painful. It’s amusing, but not something that we will watch over and over again.

We decided not to go to the movie, and put it off for later.

Standard end of evening routine of Tetris battles, reading and then sleeping.

 

The Other Boleyn Girl

Wednesday

Woke up for sausage and eggs and an episode of The Unit. Now that I’ve watched all the online episodes of Flashpoint (all three of them), it was time to find a new show. Wish I would have jumped on the show from the beginning. Now I have to find them on DVD. I’m sure they are in stock at the local Virgin Record Store, but it’s usually much, much cheaper to buy things from Amazon.com. Just no instant gratification. Oh, well. It’s only TV, right? Our local library doesn’t carry it (the San Francisco Public Library DVD’s we have checked out have been severely scratched. People in this town are animals with no respect for public property). I could go on about the local library or how the Johnson County Library in Kansas is the best library system I have ever used and the San Francisco Public Library doesn’t even compare, but why bore myself with griping? They have books in decent shape that they lend for free, so it’s not all bad.

Went to the Farmer’s Market for fruit and vegetables. Found lots of really good stuff. The berries and peaches are losing their flavor, so it may be time to start skipping these items for more seasonal fares.

Ate lunch and watched another episode of The Unit. To bad there are only three online. One to go.

Read a big chunk of Kabuki, vol. 1: Circle of Blood by David Mack. Great series about near-future Japan and the relationships between organized crime and the government agents that combat it. Then I took a short nap. Woke up in time to go with Elli to the Westfield Mall and engage in some shoe shopping. We visited The Walking Company and Nordstroms. She bought some Keens. Elli is very frugal, whereas I will throw money in the air to watch it dance in the wind. So I was happy she finally found some shoes. (This isn’t the first shoe finding trip, at all…). I stopped at the AT&T booth to see about replacing my Razor phone that only has 20 minutes of talk time before the battery dies. I would love the iPhone, but they have some kinks to work out, and I think the phone plans are to expensive. We pay way to much for way to many minutes that we can’t even use. I would like AT&T to offer a lower plan, but we all know that won’t happen. They are happy to charge me a lot to not talk on their network. Makes more room for all the iPhoners out there. We had to renew our expired plan, but we got two new phones, red for me, green for her. Only $40 after mail in rebate. How about we dispense with the stupid mail in rebate and just charge me $40.00? Wouldn’t that be money saving for everyone? No need to hire people to actually process the rebate? No need to pay for postage, or someone to cut a check. Free business advice that will go unheard. AT&T (and all the others) are banking on the fact that a lot of people won’t actually take the time to fill out the forms, make all the necessary copies, wait for the required time before sending the paperwork in, etc. Shame on AT&T and all the other rebaters…

Mary and Anne Boleyn

Came home to watch The Other Boleyn Girl. Elli had recently finished reading the book and wanted to see the movie. It was confusing for me. Broad jumps in plots, dudes that looked like other dudes so as to create confusion… Elli provided commentary and filled in the big holes, and explained all the parts they mixed up. We both think the movie makers tore each chapter out of the book, put them all in a big hat and then drew them out either to use in that order, or to throw away completely. Go Hollywood. But it had Padme from Star Wars. Oh, wait. She’s Natalie Portman, not Padme.

Played Elli in some midnight Tetris battles. She’s way to good for me, especially when I’m tired. Tomorrow it’s Costco time (we never went today like we planned).

 

Carob balls

Tuesday

Woke up at 6:30am, got to the BART at 7:00am and made it to work by 7:30am. Passed by a store called “The Jelly Donut”. The line was out the door. Must go there someday. Spent work cleaning up the lab (it is filthy), and sorting through all the junk in the closet. Unearthed a beautiful treasure; a Macintosh SE computer!

Beautiful machine...

It’s 1987 to 1990 all over again. I never had a computer like this, but I remember playing Prince of Persia on one at a friends house (in 1989). I just need to locate the other parts, but I really hope this computer still boots.

Spent part of the day comparing PC’s for the secretary’s replacement computer. They all look alike after staring at the screen for 2 hours and clicking all the boxes on the Dell website.

Took a break for lunch; peanut butter and honey. Yummy stuff. Also, a peanut butter cup.

After work, Elli and I went out for coffee and then to Whole Paycheck to get popcorn and ingredients for carob balls.

1 cup unsweetened coconut

1 cup peanut butter (all natural you health nuts!)

1 cup powered carob

1 cup honey

1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

Mix together. Roll into small balls. Freeze and enjoy. Or eat the batter,

because that is good too. Sugar free healthy snacks full of protein.

Talked to my friend Scott on the phone about starting a new gaming group for role playing games. No matter how much I try to get him to play miniature based games like Star Wars Miniatures or Heroclix, he won’t do it. Shame on him.

Dinner was tofu cacciatore (I threw a spicy sausage in mine) while watching Flashpoint. A small bowl of popcorn followed, then it was Tetris time and reading time and then sleeping time. We have our first journey to Costco tomorrow and we are going to the Farmer’s Market and the San Francisco Public Library.

 

Lazy Sugar Day

Thursday

Woke up late. Did not go to Dolores Park like we planned. Spent the afternoon working from home (trying to find a new DSL provider for the school I now work at), and looking at way to many sites for video games that I’d like to play – such as Champions Online and Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

Went to Sugar Cafe with Elli and we got a nice window seat on a comfy leather couch. Read a few chapters of my book, drank way to much caffeine (refills were free today), and then headed to Blockbuster to replace the badly scratched copy of Knocked Up that we rented. The half of the movie I saw was funny, can’t wait to go back and watch the scenes my DVD player skipped over because of scratches.

Dinner was a vegetable lasagna (I love my wife and her amazing talents in the kitchen) while watching 27 Dresses. (Yes, I like movies).

AT&T was acting up today. Internet felt like I was using a 300 baud modem from 1985. Way to go AT&T.

More reading and then an early lights out in preparation for a day at Dolores Park and a visit to Tartine Bakery.

 

Getting me one of those job things

Monday

Woke up for a Keifer and peaches breakfast and an online episode of Kim Possible. When are they going to put the entire series on DVD? ITunes is incomplete; they don’t carry all the episodes. And then your computer might crash and you’ve lost all your ITunes purchases. Cheaper and safer to buy the DVDs.

Ran out the door around 11:30am to hit the library and the clinic to confirm that I am TB free. Amazingly enough, I was. I should have been a doctor. I didn’t need a $35.00 shot to tell me what I already knew. Maybe it was the lack of coughing and pain in my chest, but I’m not a real doctor, so what would I know?

I received a phone call at 1:30pm from the school I interviewed with to see if I was still interested in the job. I was, and a short bus ride later, my new teacher contract was signed and I’m employed in the City of San Francisco (but not by the city).

Watched another online episode of Kim Possible while eating the lentil and sausage soup that Elli made.

Afterwards it was time to head to Borders for reading & hot chocolate. The book of the week is Shinjuku Shark by Arimasa Osawa. Hard-boiled, no-nonsense cop book. I love this stuff. Thankfully I never saw anything remotely like the action in the book when I was in Japan.

Elli has an interview tomorrow, so she spent the evening preparing for that. I tried to help, but wasn’t much use beyond printing out things for her. She is an amazing woman, who should be paid a billion-jillion dollars a year for putting up with me and my stuff.

Off to bed with more Shinjuku Shark.

 

Farmer’s Market

Sunday

Woke up to the soothing strains of apartment 402 and their dj contest. To bad their taste in music was awful. They think Loud equals Good. Sorry to say, but it doesn’t. Apartment 402 is in the race with apartment 501 for most annoying neighbor of the month. There are others in the contest (most especially Loud Talking Annoying Girl), but I can’t pinpoint their locations yet, just listen to the soothing strains of their obnoxiousness echo off the closely packed buildings.

Ate breakfast of egg sandwiches while rocking out to Kim Possible online. Grabbed Elli and headed to the Farmer’s Market. We bought some fruits and vegetables (much better prices than the grocery stores around here), stopped by the library on the way home to pick up Yes, Prime Minister, and headed home for lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the ultra hip Sugar Cafe (where refills were free last time, but were $1.35 today). Found a comfortable chair near the window and finished reading Powers issues 21-24. Sadly, that was the last published graphic novel, so I’ll have to wait until the collect issues 25+ into book form. My friend Kevin says I am a bad consumer in that I don’t buy many single issues of comic books, stating that if the single issues don’t sell, they won’t bundle them into graphic novels. He has a point, but I’ve yet to be disappointed. I do have to have patience though, in that I’m usually six months behind the comic book curve.

Spent the evening looking at the new Lego site and the new Star Wars: Clone Wars Lego sets. I’m a big kid in that I still love toys. My wife isn’t much of a fan, but she tolerates me and my obsession for plastic consumerism.

Apartment 402 started band practice at 7:45pm, filling our tiny abode with the sweet strains of a Cold Play knockoff. The actual music was nice, but they could not manage to get through a song without stopping and starting several times. I suppose that is why they practice.

Elli challenged me to another Tetris battle, and just like before, she won – three games in a row. My Tetris skills are severely lacking.

Ate dinner of stir fry tofu and episode 5 of Hopkins. I think it ends next week. I’m enjoying the online TV experience, but the streaming part has not been perfected yet. Video quality is still choppy and often laggy. I still prefer DVDs. I have not heard much chatter about the online movie rental business, but with my AT&T DSL connection, it would take 3 hours to download a 7GB movie – not sure what they would compress it to, but no way am I patient enough to endure download times like that.

Band practice ended promptly at 10:02pm. Not to shabby, and much appreciated.

Ended the evening with Kim Possible: So the Drama on DVD. No download wait time, although the patrons at the library are hell on the DVDs they check out. This is one of four disks from the San Francisco Public Library that I’ve gotten to play on my DVD player. Most look like they have been used to polish the sidewalk.

 

Beachy Keen

Beautiful and warm Saturday. We decided to head to the beach and watch the water.

Hopping on the 38L bus, we got to the oceanside park in about 30 minutes. It was the first time I’ve seen so many trees together in one spot at one time. On the other side of the park was the ocean. It was big and beautiful. We sat on some rocks and I read Powers 17-20, while Elli rocked out the phone with her mad conversational skills.

I call my friend Scott to see if he wanted to go to Toys R Us at midnight for their Star Wars: Clone Wars toy release event. Of course he said yes.

Then we walked to the sand, put our feet in the icy, icy (icy!) water, and sat on the sand for a short time. The wind had picked up, and we were quickly being abraded by sand. We then left the beach and walked to the Burger King across the road and indulged in an iced mocha coffee drink. This was the smallest Burger King I have ever seen. Five tables and a tiny ordering counter. Mc’Donald’s in Japan and Paris was bigger. So much for the American mantra of “Bigger is always better”. The coffee drink was good though.

Went into a surf shop and I bought a button up shirt, and Elli bought a sweatshirt to wear on the cold days (which turned out to be the very next day).

From there we went back to the park and sat on a bench overlooking the ocean. A lady with two little dogs was sitting on the other end of the bench. One of her dogs looked just like Jennie, our beloved dog that passed on Jan 25, 2008. It was weird to see a Jennie look a like, but I think we both enjoyed the chance to see her again, even if it wasn’t her. I miss Jennie so much. I wish she were here in San Francisco with us, even though we’d have to find a different apartment because we aren’t near any parks.

Came home from the beach, went to Bangkok in Union Square to eat. Waited fifteen minutes for a table, but the food is always great, so worth the time waiting.

Then it was home for sleep for Elli and off to the BART station to catch a train to Oakland to meet Scott. We drove for 30 minutes and pulled into the Toys R Us parking lot, only to find an empty and closed up store. Seems I can’t tell time or read a calendar… The event was the night before… Sad and embarrassed for the mess up, I offered to buy dinner at Denny’s down the road. We were the oldest people (not counting the staff) in the restaurant. There was an over-abundance of high schoolers who looked just like high schoolers from a 1976 yearbook. Every trend that is old is suddenly new again.

We both ate buffalo chicken strips that weren’t quite nuked properly, but it was good to hang out with the only person I know well in the city (other than Elli).

Scott drove me home, paying $4.00 to cross the bridge into the city. You only have to pay on the way into San Francisco. No one cares if you leave, only if you enter.

I arrived home at 2am to find Elli still awake and fuming at the 400 people that live in the one bedroom apartment next door. Seems they decided to hold a family fun night at 1am and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. I’m not sure what the occupancy laws in San Francisco are, but they were in violation of all of them. Not to mention rude and more rude. I’ve never understood why people that live in apartments think that everyone around them wants to hear their music or smell their cigarettes. People act like they live in a single family house, but they don’t. Grow up and join society, people.