Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Breakfast at home: hemp granola with fresh, diced braeburn apple and 2% milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Picked up equipment (camera, laptop, external hard drive), moved some files from my computer to the network. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Distributed account info for P&T email account to student VC. Reopened my problem report with Barracuda not working properly. Kiosk work. Continued editing M through Z photos. Chatted briefly with Eric in person for the first time since my return from vacation. Early lunch to go from The View Cafe: vietnamese bun with vegetarian imperial rolls and fish sauce, water. Finished editing M through Z photos, announced to the OSACA. Followup on pharmchem website firewall whitelist request—all works now. Submitted two more tickets to ITS regarding same or similar name issues with entering students. Responded to Sara G about Google Analytics with Eric doing most of that work. Resolved some permissions issues with the OSACA laptop calendar. Sat in with Eric, John K, and Greg H while John demoed how simplesaml autoassignment of roles worked—nice work. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Supp app work: I accidentally broke backend PDF downloading because while uploading an updated one I was not presented the mapping fields interface. I reported the problem to Lisa. Drupal module updates for apply2012. Lots of email followup from messages that arrived while I was on vacation. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at Caña with Patrick, Phil, Drew, and Kitho: drinks: various cocktails and beer. Patrick asked about aqua frescas but they were unavailable. Appetizers: cod fritters, shrimp with garlic rum sauce, two kinds of empanadas. Entrees: Patrick, Drew, and I had chicken fricassee with saffron rice; Kitho had Angus flank steak; Phil had eggplant and garbanzo stew. Desserts: we shared a chocolate something and a bread pudding of some kind. Service was mixed: mostly very slow (particularly the cocktails) and inattentive (nearly everything seemed to come out of the bar or kitchen too slowly) but occasionally very attentive (water glasses almost always kept full, candles relit after being accidentally extinguished). Service was pleasant when it arrived and occasionally laughable and/or awkward. One example: Phil was pouring his wine glass and our server happened to be pouring his water glass at the same time but because she was watching the wine glass instead of the water glass she accidentally overfilled it, causing water to spill onto the table. We laughed about it with her not at her and she promptly exchanged and refilled the glass even though you could tell Phil didn't care it was wet. Another example: following the appetizers our appetizer plates were taken but not our silverware, then our server asked us if we wanted our silverware changed. (We declined.) Generally, if you're a fine dining restaurant you change it without asking, and if you're not you leave it without asking. Meaning that nobody ever needs to ask. Awkward. Food was delicious but not hot enough temperaturewise in all cases and not special enough to make this a destination, I thought. Patrick felt the chicken fricassee was tasty but wasn't terribly special. The chocolate dessert was just a jumbled mess. I don't remember what we ordered, and I couldn't guess what it was after it had arrived. I enjoyed the bread pudding better, and Patrick had determined that the bread pudding dipped in the chocolate stuff was a nice combo, and I agreed. The dining room was too cold for me; after a few minutes I had put my jacket back on. The boys brought a bottle of Viansa to share. Our total was about $50 per person including tip. The dining room main floor was less than half filled, and the bar had only two or three people. This restaurant shows promise but is probably not polished enough to survive for very long. Perhaps weekends or nights that have live music hold a different outlook. Patrick drove home. Made some quick adjustments to my journal styling so that it is more legible on screen sizes smaller than 400 pixels wide. I pushed the changes live but then realized I can see them correctly on my iMac but they do not appear correctly on my iPhone. Will have to troubleshoot later.