Saturday, July 21, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Continued setting up Aaron's laptop. Set him up with mozy.com which provides 2 GB of online backup for free. This covers Aaron except for his music files and a subset of his photographs. House chores. Lunch with Patrick at Noriega Teriyaki (415-664-7766, 1755 Noriega Street) which I liked because the restaurant was cleaner and tidier than most Asian restaurants and the menu had a lot of small photographs so you could see what you were getting. I had beef teriyaki and the quality of the beef wasn't very good (gristly) but otherwise the meal was prepared well and tasty. Shopping at Stonestown with Patrick. Got a non-fat, no-whip, grande iced white mocha at Starbuck's. Bought the new Harry Potter book at Border's. Patrick has already started reading it. This evening I discovered the safest place to observe the crazy and homeless in San Francisco. On suggestion from Quyen delivered via Drew, and after adding Chris and Nate to the list, Patrick and I had dinner at Farmer Brown with Phil, Drew, Danny, Chris, Nate, Quyen, Dave, and Steve. Farmer Brown is on the northeast corner at the intersection of Mason and Turk, very close to Market Street. It's close to Hallidie Plaza and on the edge of the seedy Tenderloin District. The exterior foyer is nearly completely enclosed by metal bars, and while we waited for the others in our party to arrive we were politely but frequently accosted by many of the city's needful inhabitants. They didn't reach through the bars (even though I expected they would). One asked for a quarter, another shouted unintelligible gibberish, and so forth. It makes Farmer Brown feel like the kind of place that's not safe for children or elderly, and that's unfortunate because the place has a lot going for it. At dinner, dim lighting and candlelit tables set an intimate mood for an industrial-influenced interior design using primarily copper, steel, and wood materials. Our hostess was extremely generous in gracefully accommodating our party of 10 despite having no reservation. Patrick found the food to be very close to authentic soul-food cuisine. Jalapeno mini muffins and butter was provided. We started with shrimp creole poppers for the table. Patrick had fried chicken with collard greens and mac and cheese as well as a taste of the gumbo. I had meatloaf with mashed potatoes. For dessert, Patrick had a slice of the pecan pie. I didn't take any photos because the restaurant was so dimly lit. We enjoyed ourselves a lot, and we'd like to return here with Tina one day. Today Patrick found an old movie ticket stub under the driver's seat in my car for The Green Mile playing at Loews Cineplex Redmond Town Center theatre #4 at 8:50 PM on January 14, 2000, adult price was $7.50 (tax $0.35). Patrick took Harry Potter 7 to bed with him.