Saturday, October 29, 2005

Patrick did staff practice at Simmone's. A few days ago I designed a shelving unit for one of our closets and today we picked up supplies for it from Cliff's Variety (415-431-5365, 479 Castro Street). Erik was our cashier, and Tom (Tommy?) cut our lumber for us. We also got groceries from Tower Market. We got back in the early afternoon and I spent the rest of the day putting it together while Patrick napped. I unexpectedly ran out of plastic wall anchors, so I got some from Chu Supply Inc (415-682-2323) near our home. The project is all finished and cost us about $135. We had desperately needed this to keep things organized. It created 17.4 actual square feet of storage, but since we store most of our stuff in cardboard boxes measuring 10.5 x 12.5 x 16, it's essentially 18.22917 cubic feet of storage space. We might add one more shelf. Each shelf gives us over 6 cubic feet of additional storage space. Patrick woke up and did more studying while I showered then napped. Late dinner: angel hair with sauteed chicken boobs in a creamy garlic sauce. Went to Tony Q's Halloween Party at Phil, Drew, and Danny's place in the Mission. We surprisingly found parking right on their block. We enjoyed seeing their very tastefully decorated home, sampling Danny's delicious egg rolls, and chatting with old and new friends. Marck surprised everyone by knowing for what BDU stood. Andy explained most everyone's IRC nicknames. Tony was dressed as Count Fagula, Marck dressed as a tissue box ("Blow me!"), I dressed in the BDUs I picked up in Paris and camoflage face paint, Phil used Tony Q's priest/monk outfit from last year, Emery and Danny coincidentally both dressed in single-strapped denim overalls, Scott and Andy dressed as a power plug (Andy) and power socket (Scott), Peter dressed as a SWAT team member, Galen was an American sailor, ? was a strange kind of Mr. Potato Head, Rachel and ? dressed as Prince and David Bowie. Patrick talked about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina with Phil, who (we learned) was also from New Orleans. Around 11 the party closed down so that people could go to Castro Street to show off their costumes. The Saturday before Halloween, I learned, Castro Street is closed off from 18th to Market for these festivities.