Thursday, November 17, 2005
Breakfast at home: pancakes and sausage. Work. Checked on the fix I put in yesterday for the backups problem—it worked. Backups are again taking up only half of our backup tape. Made live some news story edits for Susie. Interview #3 for our pathway position. Figured out with Chris De Lay's help whether I should upgrade memory in the G4 I have at work or buy a new Mac. Answer: buy a new Mac. Some late birthday presents arrived today—I'll open them tonight at dinner with Patrick. Lunch: takeout from the cafeteria: roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sage dressing, carrot slices. Did account setup for our new pathway assistant. The birthday present I ordered for myself arrived today also! Hooray! We also received some special household cleaner called Bar Keeper's Friend. I ordered it from a supermarket in New York called Gristedes since we could not find it in any grocery or hardware stores around us. Isn't that crazy? Created a checklist of things that need to be done when a new employee is hired. Put together an instruction sheet for office staff about how to use the HTML e-mail letterhead templates and Microsoft Word letterhead templates I created, gave it to Cindy for review. Dinner at Pasta Pomodoro Castro (415-558-8123, 2304 Market Street) with Patrick. It's the last day we can use my coupon for a free entree via the Pasta Pomodoro club. You tell them the month and day of your birthday and they send you a coupon for a free entree about a week before, and it's good for two weeks. We started with butternut squash ravioli, Patrick had iced tea and grilled chicken boob with portabello, I had a latte and ribeye (bistecca gorgonzola). I was not fond of the ribeye. It's possible to get good cuts of ribeye, but this was not one of them—fattier and gristlier than I expected, even for ribeye. We've both been tired by recent events, so I did not care about complaining. And just fyi, they give you the most (or more) expensive entree free—just as you'd hope. Our server was Eva who wasn't exactly speedy but we tipped her well anyway. Two days ago Patrick went over to his mom's place in the evening to help her through some problems she's been having with getting her son Kerry to move her stuff out of her old apartment. She also had problems with her medical insurance she needs to figure out. Over dinner, I unwrapped the birthday presents that Chris and Nate sent me. One is The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. The other is The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Thanks, Chris and Nate! I don't remember how exactly these two books made it on my Amazon wish list, but they did, and I think I will enjoy them. After dinner, we went to a Chloe Atkins photo salon at the San Francisco Photography Center (415-554-9522, 50 Scott at Duboce). Our friend Jenny Sampson is in the show—Go Jenny! The show also included Lynnly Labovitz and Shiloh Burton. Each had a slideshow and talked about her photos and working styles. Patrick and I both enjoyed seeing the works of these women and hearing the discussion afterwards. When we left, I felt more cultured than before. We got home late and almost immediately went to sleep.