December 2019
Summary: Dinner at our house with Chris, Andy, and Patrick; B-Side and Pink Martini at SFJAZZ with Patrick; Recharge Medical holiday party at 15th Avenue House; dinner and performance with Micah at Berber with Patrick; Robyn Crawford and Michelle Meow Holiday Special at The Commonwealth Club with Patrick; Beach Blanket Babylon with Patrick; lunch with the Honmas at Chou Chou; The Great Dickens Christmas Fair with Patrick; Night Bloom with Patrick; Holigays Are Here by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus at the Castro Theatre with Patrick; Christmas day treats with Patrick, Sam, Kerry, and Mom Ryan; Kabuki Springs and Spa with Patrick; Union Square shopping with Patrick; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Patrick; New Year's Eve at Chris and Andy's
Dates on this page
Sun Dec 1, 2019
Slept in. Breakfast: leftover beef noodle soup to which I added another 12 ounces of beef broth, sliced pork, and sliced mushrooms; hot water with the juice from half a lemon. Nap. Software updates for home computers and websites. Patrick began preparing a three-layer red velvet cake today. Washed dishes while Patrick cooked. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken pot pies with potato and leeks. I made cocktails: fleur de lis. Washed dishes. Hand mended a blue, long-sleeve Abercrombie knit shirt that had developed some holes. Troubleshot the problem I had in which visiting email.ucsf.edu would redirect to an address on adfs.ucsf.edu with a blank page. I created a new user account on my Mac and visited email.ucsf.edu; the result was the same. I removed and reinstalled my wifi item in Network preferences and this resolved the problem. I guess it didn't like one of the DNS IP addresses I had had for home internet service or maybe 8.8.8.8. Washed dishes.
Mon Dec 2, 2019
Pre-breakfast: a handful of blueberries. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Staff appreciation breakfast and raffle: one sausage link, one waffle with built-in syrup (?), one mini souffle, cup of fruit salad, hot water. Virtual sprint standup. Continued manually converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Errand. Continued working from Kalmanovitz Library. Nextbus predicted over 30 minutes for the next Bus 66, so instead I rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: wild mushroom ragu with polenta and fried eggs. Dessert: Patrick and I shared a slice of the red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting that he completed today. I also had a glass of kahlua and milk on the rocks. Recharge Medical work: email campaign editing, updated the PRF pdf. Washed dishes.
Tue Dec 3, 2019
Breakfast at home: I made a dozen blueberry muffins using a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for iOS. They came out great. I ate four of them. (They were small.) Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. MOC redirect followup. Siteimprove work: QBC and grad programs. Continued manually converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML. No lunch except for a few roasted, unsalted peanuts. Answered a question for Scott N about UCSF Box. Answered a question for Joel about saving as PDF from Outlook. We couldn't figure out why it wasn't working for him, but I gave him a workaround instead: use Print to PDF. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: loaded baked potatoes with bacon, chili, and sour cream; red wine for me, water for Patrick. Dessert: we shared a slice of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Watched a few clips on YouTube.
Wed Dec 4, 2019
Breakfast at home: spinach, mushroom, and salsa tamale with two cheeses; hot water with juice from half a lime. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. At Laurel Street the driver of Bus 1BX forgot to stop. I ran to the front of the bus, and he stopped at Walnut Street where I alighted. He said he thought he was driving a 1AX. That didn't make sense to me, since he didn't miss any stops between 6th Avenue and Spruce Street. Nonetheless he gave the spirit of apology without exactly saying it. He parked the bus and got out, looking back at Laurel Street, wondering if any people were waiting there, and I was surprised that a Muni driver would care enough to do that. I told him I would run back to Laurel to tell anyone waiting that he would wait for them if they were willing to walk/run the long block. When I got to Laurel there were indeed a few people waiting for the 1BX, and only two of them began to walk toward him. Sprint standup. Made live the TRANSPERS newsletters converted from PDF to HTML. Bioinformatics website work for Julia M: add Pollard. No lunch except for a few roasted, unsalted peanuts. Siteimprove work: resolve broken links on QBC and grad programs. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: turmeric-pineapple sausage pizza with garlicky kale, red wine and water for me, San Pell for Patrick. Unloaded photos from my iPhone X and uploaded them to Flickr. Late snack: one banana, one Ferrero-Rocher.
Thu Dec 5, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: one egg over medium and sausage with orange juice for Patrick; one egg over medium, half sausage, and a tamale with water for me. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. I received an unsolicited call today, and my work phone's Caller ID says VIRIDIANA MORFI +17075336253. I suspected that this was a spammer or scammer and did not answer it. I recognize this name from seven other unsolicited calls since June 26, 2019. Weirdly, two other phone numbers that I do not recognize—1-910-247-4253 and 1-415-345-0822—called my work phone repeatedly many times in a row today. Calendar management. Orgchart work. Styling work: various small fixes. Helped Julie E with a question about temporary business cards. Built a content inventory for QBC and grad programs. Lunch today was a small handful of roasted, unsalted peanuts. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. Recharge Medical work: audience updates and email campaign builds. Watched part of Designing Women s1:e16 on Hulu Basic Plan with Patrick. More of the same Recharge Medical work. Late snack: half slice of leftover pizza, one warmed blueberry muffin, water.
Fri Dec 6, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: yogurt with pecans and cinnamon, warmed blueberry muffin. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Content work: began improving the TRANSPERS in the News page by transcribing videos and providing structured headings and other page edits. No lunch. Rode Muni to early dinner at Aziza with Patrick. Aziza reopened in either October (says Eater SF) or November (says our server) after being closed for several years. It has been fully remodeled and is brighter than before with more modern decor such as leather and metal chairs and basket pendant lamps with tubular, antique bulbs. Sparkling water for Patrick, still water for me. Cocktails: Flavor Basket for Patrick (uncle val's gin, Italicus bergamotto, aquavit, orgeat, lime, peychauds), Golden Boy for me (machetazo espadin mezcal, kina l'aero d'or, pedro ximinez aurora, brovo #1 amoro). We shared: moroccan bread with spreads (butter bean with mergeuz, pequillo-almond, dill-lebni-roe), roasted prawns with red charmoula and harissa on the side, hand-rolled couscous with aged butter, beef tagine with spiced root vegetable jam, preserved apricot, almond. Fes Fizz for Patrick (gordon's gin, genepi, giffard aperitif syrup, tamarind, black lemon, soda, egg white). Dessert: chocolate cake with praline cream, chicory, and preserved lemon; espresso for Patrick; glass of Broadbent 5-year madeira for me. Food and drink were all excellent. Service by Silvana was excellent. $178.88 before a $32 tip. Rode UberX home.
Sat Dec 7, 2019
Breakfast at home: leftover wild mushroom ragu with polenta, hot water. Spice and extract inventory management. Researched Scoville ratings and created a list of pepper varieties that might be mild enough for me to safely eat. Housecleaning. Helped Patrick in the kitchen, mostly washing dishes. Electric candle maintenance: dusting and replace batteries. Patrick and I shared lunch to go from Grubbin': sweet mouth-waterin' on sweet french roll, large fries. I picked up the sandwich and brought it home to share so that Patrick could keep an eye on the things cooking for dinner tonight. Nap. Italian dinner at home with Patrick, Chris G, and Andy T: pork and beef bolognese with rigatoni, gratineed cauliflower with parmesan and butter, ensalada mista with homemade dressing, green onion focaccia, farmhouse pear tart—nearly all from Fundamentals of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcello Hazan. To drink: Chris and Frank had the 2014 Darioush cabernet sauvignon that they brought; fleur de lis cocktails for Patrick and Andy; San Pell; tap water. They also brought a December-themed bouquet of flowers as well as a dozen Meyer lemons from their very productive tree. A perfect evening.
Sun Dec 8, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: I prepared a hash with leftover curry sausage, potatoes, onions, and yellow and red bell peppers with one egg over medium, warmed focaccia slice, side of leftover chili, orange juice for Patrick, hot english breakfast tea for me. Cut my hair, showered. Rested. Watched Toy Story 4 on Netflix DVD with Patrick and popcorn. House chores: washed dishes, helped Patrick fold laundry he washed earlier. Watched Harry Connick, Jr.'s Swinging Out Live (1991) on YouTube with Patrick. I first watched this video in Tom and Bev's San Francisco condo with Jeff and Tina, and afterwards I got my own copy and watched it many times over, but it isn't available on DVD, and I haven't had a VHS player—and consequently haven't seen this video—in a very long time. It was pure joy to watch this performance again, even though it was sliced into separate songs and some of the footage in between slices was missing. I found another version on archive.org which might be complete (I haven't watched it yet), but that one has some repeated and annoying brightness-darkness issues. Dinner and dessert at home with Patrick: leftovers from last night.
Mon Dec 9, 2019
Breakfast at home by myself: leftover rigatoni with additional new pasta sauce from a jar, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. The driver of Bus 1BX missed my stop at Laurel—the second time this has happened in four business days. Watched a new draft of the wall cling video with Grant. Spent most of the day finishing work on the TRANSPERS In the News page then drafting a follow-up email to Michael and Kathryn about it. At lunch I accompanied James H to Cal-Mart to buy sandwiches from the deli counter. His took only a few minutes, but mine took a lot longer, and it wasn't clear why. Along with a roast beef and cheddar on French roll I got a half pint of elbow macaroni salad. We returned to the office to eat. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: veggie burgers with avocado and fixin's with crispy shoestring fries with ketchup, San Pell for Patrick, hot water for me. Afterwards we watched clips on YouTube. Washed dishes. Recently Patrick received a new blue Bonobos suit.
Tue Dec 10, 2019
Breakfast at home by myself: leftover rigatoni with additional new pasta sauce from a jar and sauteed diced white onion and cherry tomatoes, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. On the bus, a woman boarding exhaled all the cigarette smoke from her lungs into the back of the bus, and I realized that she had likely taken a final inhalation just before boarding. I didn't say anything because what would be the point of pointing that out to someone so inconsiderate? Luckily I was next to a window and opened it. Webadmin meeting. 1:1 with Eric. Lunch: two clementine mandarin oranges. Walked and rode Muni home. Repaired a squeaky blinds adjuster for the living room window with silicone spray. Dinner at home with Patrick: pepperoni and bell pepper pizza with fresh arugula, hot water and red wine for me, white bordeaux wine for Patrick. Dessert: warmed pear tart, water.
Wed Dec 11, 2019
Breakfast at home: one clementine mandarin orange. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Snack: one clementine mandarin orange. Sprint standup. Began editing our 17-page editorial style guide before adding it to our identity microsite. Lunch at Rigolo: cheddar burger with fries, hot water. They gave me two pickle slices. I was able to eat only part of one after filling myself on the burger and fries. This afternoon our team was talking about which Hogwarts house we each are in. I did the test on Pottermore and got Ravenclaw. My patronus is the dapple grey mare. My Ollivander's wand is the pine wood with a unicorn hair core, 10 inches and rigid flexibility. Walked and rode Muni to dinner with Patrick at B-Side (201 Franklin Street). The restaurant was almost empty when we arrived about 15 minutes early for a 5:45 pm appointment. Drinks: Four Horsemen ($14) for Patrick, Welcome Home ($14) for me (and again later in the meal). Entrees: fried chicken sandwich with side salad ($16) for Patrick, crab cakes with side salad ($22) for me. Patrick's fried chicken sandwich was good but not as good as, say, the one at Hi Tops. The inside was tender and juicy, but the bread coating was not very crispy. I enjoyed my crab cakes and salad. There were only two desserts—a key lime pie and a bread pudding for two—which signaled to us that there was perhaps no pastry chef. We decided to have no dessert. Service by Michael E was good. $89.42 before a $12 tip. B-Side was almost empty when we arrived, and packed by the time we left at 6:48 pm. We attended and thoroughly enjoyed a performance by Pink Martini at SFJAZZ.
Thu Dec 12, 2019
Breakfast at home: quesadilla with avocado, colby jack, and diced tomato; one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Continued editorial style guide prep. MOC followup meeting with Judy and Eric. Lunch: a few peanuts; oil-free, salt-free popcorn from the microwave popcorn popper. Webadmin D8 planning meeting with Eric and James. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: crispy beef and pork tacos with guacamole and Cuban black beans, water. Troubleshot a printing problem for Patrick but could not reproduce it. Troubleshot internet speed issues on Patrick's laptop but could not find a cause.
Fri Dec 13, 2019
Breakfast at home: taco fixins leftovers, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Continued editorial style guide prep. Lunch: oil-free, salt-free popcorn from the microwave popcorn popper. Walked and rode Muni to 15th Avenue House, stopping at Cal-Mart for groceries along the way. White elephant party with the Recharge Medical staff. The featured beverage was mulled wine. Drew, Johnny, and I played three-person chess. Phil brought out his game-of-chance spinner. Before others arrived, we ate blue tortilla scoops with sour cream and salsa; mini egg rolls. The others arrived after about an hour. Dinner by Danny (and others?) was a noodle and vegetables stir-fry, asian-style roast pork, chicken salad with nước mắm pha, fried rice. We ate. The results of the white elephant party are as follows. Alex received a garlic press, a sieve, and a cheese cutter. Danny received an herb chopper and a French press but upon opening the French press we learned that the glass inside had broken. Alyssa received a mint candle and an insulated coffee mug. Johnny received a meat injector. Lexi received YSL cologne which she had stolen from Johnny and which he had stolen from Alyssa. Jhaira received a heated throw. Drew received gourmet beans. Tim received kitchen utensils, a sieve, and pizza cutter. Many tried and failed to win the black elephant on the spinner; Johnny eventually did and received an envelope of cash in addition to his other gifts. Afterwards many received additional gifts from the garage. Drew, Johnny, and I attempted to finish our game but Johnny's ride was leaving and it was already late. If I recall correctly, Johnny and I each had three pieces remaining, and Drew had a lot more. Most likely Drew would have won if we had kept playing. A fun evening.
Sat Dec 14, 2019
Breakfast: toasted poppy seed bagel with cream cheese, grapes, one pint of hot water. Patrick made a buttermilk pie today. Continued work on writing a new will. Lunch: fried rice leftover from last night, hot water. Began reading Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers which Patrick borrowed from the library. Attempted to ride Lyft via the app on Patrick's phone, but oddly there were no cars available and the app wasn't responding as it normally did. He canceled the order successfully, and I used Uber from my phone instead and got a car to arrive within 8 minutes. The ride was pricier than normal—$44.42 before a $5 tip—but we had little choice. Lyft wasn't working, and there was no way to ride Muni to our destination in time. Dinner and a show at Berber. We arrived at the stated time (8:00 pm) only to find that the doors to the dining room didn't open until 8:30 pm, so we agreed to have drinks at the bar: two souk de soleil (saffron gin, orange blossom, honey, lemon), one sarab (serrano-infused mezcal, grapefruit, lime, rosemary), and one tatooine (whiskey, jasmine tea, cinnamon cordial): $59.02 before a $12 tip. We were served well by multiple people, but our receipt said our server was Evette. We were identified by a greeter, closed our bar tab, and were led to the performance and dining room to a small, circular table adjacent to a small, circular stage. A drummer was already performing. Still water and pinot noir for me, sparkling water and syrah blanc for Patrick. Set menu: dips and crackers (muhammara, bissara, labneh), kesra semolina bread (nigella, mint), harira soup (french green lentil, medjool date), vegetable bastilla cigars (butternut squash, swiss chard, goat cheese), berber mixed greens (endives, persimmon, walnut dressing), lamb tagine and berber couscous for Patrick (dry black mission figs, cultured butter, seasonal vegetables), upon request for me since I don't eat lamb: the same dish but with chicken instead of lamb. Dessert: baklava with blood orange sorbet, chocolate cremeux with star anise and cinnamon creme fraiche. Patrick also had an espresso with dessert. $239.49 before a $36 tip. Service by Megan G was excellent. In between courses we were treated to vocal, dance, acrobatic, and ballet performances. Emcee Heather sang, entertained, and introduced the other performers. Each was elaborately styled and elegantly costumed. The last performer—Micah—is a friend of Patrick's from a while back who now lives in Los Angeles. We chatted briefly with him on the sidewalk after the show. The performers were moving, the lighting and sound were perfectly arranged and timed. In all, Berber is a class act and a fiscal indulgence that's well worth the price. The stage is small, but there are probably only a few other performance venues in San Francisco where you might be seated this close to these kinds of performers. Patrick's favorite dish was the lamb—he says it was the best lamb he has ever had. Mine was the off-menu chicken followed by the kesra semolina bread. Lesson for next time: there's so much great food that it's hard to save room for dessert. Make the effort and ask to take (entree) portions home if needed. Attempting to get home I tried Lyft, which said "very busy" and predicted getting a ride to us within 3 minutes for $77.54 (!) from Russian Hill to the middle of the Sunset district. Again I switched to Uber. We got a car within a few minutes, and the ride total was $34.27 before a $4 tip. Lyft failed us twice today. Patrick said that if Lyft fails him once more, he will stop using the app entirely. I realized afterwards that what Lyft did to us today was similar to our past, awful experiences with taxi cab companies.
Sun Dec 15, 2019
Breakfast: grapes, egg and colby jack on toasted english muffin, two pints of hot water. Continued reading Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers. Watched Superstore s5:e10 on Hulu Basic Plan with Patrick. Lunch: two slices of creamy peanut butter on toasted sourdough, hot water. Continued reading. Today Patrick made vanilla lemonade with the Meyer lemons that Chris and Andy gave us last weekend. Nap. Continued reading. Dinner at home with Patrick: Yan-Kit's chicken and cashews glazed in hoisin sauce with jasmine rice. Watched part of Tomorrowland (2015) on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Mon Dec 16, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: egg and colby jack on toasted everything bagel. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Built a content inventory for TRANSPERS. Siteimprove work: mostly linkchecking. Began reviewing new year greeting work by Robin. Lunch: one naval orange. D8 planning meeting with Eric and James. Minor content work on the GEECS pages for Kathryn and Michael D for TRANSPERS. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Yan-Kit's braised beef with garlic, jasmine rice, San Pell for Patrick, hot water for me. Finished watching Tomorrowland (2015) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Our consensus is similar to most of the reviews for it: visually exciting, entertaining to a point, and ultimately sadly unsatisfying particularly due to the weak story and weak character development—something I did not expect from a well-funded Brad Bird effort. I enjoyed the tie-ins to Disneyland and Disney World, the originality of a variety of elements (the swimming pools!), and that for a few brief moments we again got to see what the tomorrow of yesterday looked like. Finished reading and enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers.
Tue Dec 17, 2019
Breakfast at home: I made steamed basmati rice and ate that with leftover hoisin chicken, vanilla lemonade, hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Received spam pretending to be a wrong number from 1-803-574-8330 about making companies show up in results when people ask Amazon Alexa for home services like plumbing. Read CSS Layout News by Rachel Andrew. HR email mailing list update. Siteimprove work. D8 planning meeting with Eric and James: issue queue weeding. Read WDRL 279 by Anselm Hannemann. Walked and rode Muni to meet Patrick at Commonwealth Club for Robyn Crawford: Year-end Michelle Meow Holiday Special. Food and drink at the event: beef chow mein, a meat pie of some kind, dumplings; Patrick had white wine, I had red wine. We encountered and sat with and chatted with Joel. The event was interesting and, at times, moving. Dinner with Patrick at Prospect (415-247-7770, 300 Spear Street): still water for me, San Pell for Patrick. Cocktails: suntory solution for Patrick (Toki Japanese whiskey, ancho reyes, Italicus Rosalio, honey, lemon), amaluna for me (inspired by the Cirque du Soleil show: gin infused with orange zest and mint tea, gran classico, passion fruit, lemon vanilla syrup, butterfly foam. For an appetizer we shared roasted sea scallops (crispy artichokes, artichoke puree, barigoule butter). Entrees: filet mignon with roasted broccoli, spigarello, red wine pearl onions, bordelaise for Patrick, Berkshire pork chop with savoy cabbage, fuyu persimmon, and red cabbage agrodolce for me. Dessert: ice cream sandwiches, which was really one ice cream sandwich sliced in half. $174.82 before a $28 tip.
Wed Dec 18, 2019
Breakfast at home by myself: leftover basmati rice with leftover braised beef, vanilla lemonade, hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Asana task followup: an award listing request. Siteimprove work and followup with Vanessa. Rode Muni to a doctor appointment. Chatted briefly with Danny about his secret Santa gift replacement. Doctor appointment. Chatted briefly with Alyssa about projects. Rode Muni back to work. Lunch from Cafe Luna: toasted BLT to go, ate at my desk. HTML email build: new year greeting. More D8 planning with Eric and James. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Campbell's Chunky Soup Chili Mac for Patrick, beef and rice leftovers for me, vanilla lemonade for both. Afterwards we watched various clips on YouTube. Late snack: some roasted salted cashews, one quesadilla with cheddar, water.
Thu Dec 19, 2019
Breakfast at home by myself: leftover basmati rice with leftover braised beef, vanilla lemonade, hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. HTML email build: new year greeting. More D8 planning with Eric and James. Lunch: a few roasted, unsalted peanuts. More HTML email build: new year greeting. Handled a request from Eric: copy and rework Lemonly lead-in from PharmD home to About page. Walked and rode Muni home. On my way home the bus driver forgot to stop at my stop. I ran up to the front and let him know. He stopped the bus to let me alight. Third time this month that a Muni bus driver forgot to stop when I had rung the bell. Dinner at home with Patrick: Patrick prepped and I prepared Rasa Malaysia's vegetable lo mein. To drink: hot water. Afterwards we watched 6 Underground on Netflix instant watch. I loved it! Late snack: red seedless grapes.
Fri Dec 20, 2019
Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Troubleshot an error message on my iPhone X with iOS 12.4.1: Calendar Invitation: Your response to the invitation cannot be sent. (OK) I think my problem was caused by an inactive SMTP server for Gmail. Continued work on HTML email build: new year greeting. Holiday luncheon at The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building Marketplace with the Plancomm team. Susie drove from Parnassus. Levi and Grant each rode their bikes. James, Eric, and I rode Muni. We shared crispy vegetarian imperial rolls, vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian banh bot loc (mung bean tapioca dumplings, scallion oil, thai chili soy sauce), yuba cellophane noodles (hodo beanery yuba noodles, roasted chili, sweet peppers, nameko mushroom), lemongrass chicken (red onion, jalapeno, roasted chili paste, roasted peanut), spicy monterey squid (pineapple, sweet red pepper, jalapeno, thai basil), green papaya salad (pickled carrot, rau ram, crispy shallot, roasted peanut), joyful farm baby bok choy (baby shitake mushrooms), jasmine rice. Dessert: pumpkin cremeux, pear sorbet. Afterwards I window shopped on my way to North Beach. Cocktail at Original Joe's (415-775-4877, 601 Union Street): winkelrita: $13 before a $1.50 tip. Patrick met me there and we walked to Beach Blanket Babylon for one of their last shows before closing after 45 years. Tickets for the first row of the balcony (not counting the Magnin box in front of and slightly below us) were $110 each. The show was much the same as I remember from previous visits. There was a small bit about Trump's impeachment, which the House of Representatives had just approved. A new bit about Star Wars was also new to me. During the standing ovation at the end it felt bittersweet as this long-enduring and beloved show comes to the end of a journey. Afterwards Patrick and I dined at Pesce e Riso (415-872-9997, 1224 Grant Avenue): San Benedetto sparkling for Patrick and still for me. Glass of Falanghina for Patrick. Risotto for Patrick, tagliatelle for me. We had also ordered tuna tartare but after receiving our entrees we realized they had forgotten it and so we canceled the order. The manager soon visited our table to apologize and promised us one free dessert for each of us. When we received the bill, the tuna tartare was not on the bill, but they had charged us for one of the two free desserts. We didn't care that much, so we didn't say anything. It's rare that a restaurant owner will apologize for an error much less graciously offer something for free in return. $82.03 before an $18 tip.
Sat Dec 21, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: for each: one egg over easy, one half of a sausage link, one hash brown with ketchup, one biscuit with butter. Set up a Sodastream Fizzi One Touch (but the sticker on it says Spirit One Touch). It was a disaster because the instructions that come with it are only pictorial and very hard to decipher. I had watched someone's video on YouTube and proceeded. The cap removal process was confusing because in Sodastream's instructions the metal ring underneath the plastic white cap changes color from gold to silver. (Were we supposed to remove the gold metal part? Answer = no, just the white plastic cap.) Upon beginning the carbonation process, the water overflowed the bottle and about one third of the water came out of the bottle and onto our cabinet and floor. The paper instructions don't make it clear that you need to push up while you lean the bottle into the machine. Pushing up causes a seal to be made. We spent a while cleaning the mess and drying the cabinet bottom, which required moving the cabinet out and letting it rest on an old towel. We tried again more carefully with the Sodastream in the sink and succeeded. Patrick tasted and was satisfied for the moment. (Later today he said he could identify an aftertaste, so he plans to try boiling and cooling the tap water before carbonating it. My suggestion was to use Brita to filter it or to try distilled water or to try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime or both.) Walked and rode Muni to Forest Hill Station. Met the Honmas for brunch at Chou Chou. Akemi and Kiana shared beef bourguinon. Lani and I also shared a salmon crepe a la carte. Rob had the prix fixe three-course menu: salad appetizer, for the entree he chose the lamb crepe and this was accompanied by fries (which were forgotten and which arrived late after we asked), and chocolate mousse for dessert. Jeremy had a salmon crepe a la carte. Matthew had a burger, plain, medium with french fries. Most everyone had at least a bite of Rob's dessert. They brought for me a gift bag of candied lychee, coconut syrup, both sent from Bev, and a small box of homemade Chex mix that the kids had made. We leisurely chatted and ate for almost two hours. Afterwards they hurried to drop Lani, Akemi, and Kiana at SF Ballet for The Nutcracker. I returned home. Cleaned mold from the entryway with water mixed with Borax. Napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Perilla on Irving Street via an order on Perilla's website (which was really secretly Grubhub): pho ga for Patrick, brisket pho for me, spring rolls with peanut sauce and spicy sauce on the side to share. To drink: sparkling water for Patrick, hot water for me.
Sun Dec 22, 2019
Troubleshot problems with email filters in Apple Mail. All of my filters had incorrectly specified folders—everything was one folder off or no folder was specified. It took a lot of work to resolve. Patrick tried boiled-then-cooled water in the Sodastream today and decided that it was suitable and with no aftertaste that occurred with San Francisco tap water (but see later today). Rode UberX to The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party. Uber instructed our driver to enter at a gate for cars to park rather than drop off, so there was some confusion over how to be dropped off—use Gate 5 instead. At Gate 5 there was some confusion over whether we should drive in or walk in. We decided to cut our losses and asked the driver to drop us at the sidewalk. We walked in—about a four-minute walk to the entrance, realizing that we could have been dropped off instead. We entered, skipping the coat check until we could determine how comfortable we felt inside. We were hungry even before arriving, and the large newspaper map was very difficult to use to find food quickly. We found meat pies within a few minutes of wandering, placed and received an order, then walked to the nearby Victoria and Albert Bijou Music Hall to watch a performance in progress of Baron Munchausen and Fariy Mopsa Save Fairyland while we ate in the dark. After filling our stomachs we needed beverages. (It was too cumbersome to try to handle the food and beverage at the same time since no tables were near the meat pies place.) We found a nearby pub where we both got hot beverages. After a bit more wandering, we realized we were warm enough even without our coats, so we left them with the coat check. Finally, after maybe 45 or 60 minutes of our arrival, I felt comfortable and began to be amazed at how elaborate the entire fair production was. Everything seems very much like a small Dickens-era Londonesque village at Christmastime, and we saw many people in full costume. Some were playing cards, some were reading, some were resting, and many were eating or drinking like we were. After a number of times consulting the large newspaper map, I realized how useless it was, and we simply wandered without regard to trying to find specific things. The map has many different named neighborhoods, but there is little to help one remember the difference between, say, Nickelby Road and Tinsley Gate, much less what you'd find in either of those neighborhoods. It would have been better to make use of what people already knew, for example, West End, East End, North End, South End. Or, the map could have had letters along one side and numbers along another to assist with location identification, but it did not. The 3D artwork is beautifully detailed, but I found it very difficult to read in poor lighting, and I didn't want to pull out my phone's flashlight because that would have spoiled the effect of stepping into a different era. The map frequently uses centered text which is harder to read than left-justified text. There are a lot of show listings that could have been improved by having the data in borderless tables with times right-aligned. I was confused by names in parentheses following shop names, e.g., Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe (Honor) because I didn't know what the words in parentheses were for. (I thought these were somehow related to the neighborhood names, but I later realized that they are perhaps the names of the persons running each shop.) A pair of shop windows containing live, scantily clad women surprised me, since I saw this as a family event. I realized later that it was a corsetry shop whose entrance was around the corner. (This is also a fine way to legitimize sexist mores since one could argue that it is a somewhat authentic representation of the time and since there was no analog for men.) It seemed clear to me that a very few of the fully costumed women were intent on sexualizing their roles. Later we shared a Christmas dinner from a food vendor on Fish Street: roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding. The food tasted good. We saw chimney sweeps, a man who seemed to have a wooden leg, young women talking quietly amongst themselves, and families in full costume. We stopped at Green Man Inn to hear David Copperfield and Charles Dickens recite from various works. We spent about three hours there, walking each street at least twice, and we were exhausted. When we interacted with others in costume, we frequently received dialogue that seemed in character. There was much more we could have seen, but we decided to return home. $33.95 each after ticketing fees. Upon leaving we walked across the street from the Cow Palace in hopes of avoiding the problem of the Uber driver arriving at the wrong location, but it didn't matter. The Uber driver was dropping off someone else at the same event and got stuck in the Gate 5 drop-off area for a long time before picking us up. In all, I was both amazed and disappointed by the event. I don't regret going, but also I would recommend it only with caveats. Dinner at home with Patrick: I prepared orange chicken from a frozen meal package, spicy shrimp fried rice from a frozen meal package, and sticky rice from an instant rice bowl. To drink: sparkling water for Patrick, pumpkin spice rooibos for me. Washed dishes. Vacuumed. Continued playing Shadowmatic on my iPad Pro after a long absence. Archived documents. Various software updates for home computers. Patrick changed his mind about the aftertaste with the boiled water. Next to try is distilled or Brita-filtered water. Sam sold his car today; Patrick said he needed the money.
Mon Dec 23, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: two eggs over easy, hash brown with ketchup, biscuit with butter. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. HTML email build: new year greeting all day. Sprint standup. Categorized and renamed D8 tasks with James H. Walked and rode Muni to Golden Gate Park. Met Patrick at the Conservatory of Flowers for Night Bloom. We arrived early for our timed entry and so had drinks in HYBYCOZO Hall: hot toddy for Patrick, Irish coffee for me: $20 after a $2 cash tip. We watched people play giant chess and enjoyed the fantastic art by HYBYCOZO. We chose not to do the Bloom Lounge because $46 per person for a flight of alcohol and grilled cheese sandwich bites seemed like a very poor value. I was surprised that they let us take our hot, alcoholic beverages inside. After a quick bag check and ticket confirmation, we were inside. The conservatory is almost entirely cordoned to encourage a counter-clockwise path. Lights of color, laser lights, fog created by maybe dry ice, and loudspeakers with nature sounds project an ambiance and experience that isn't available anywhere else I know in the Bay Area and probably beyond, tho it did remind me of Sensorio in Paso Robles in that it was a unique, light-focused event at night. Outside it was very cold, and inside it was perfectly comfortable with jackets. We sipped our drinks and continued our tour, seeing orchids and many other kinds of plants, the giant lilypads and giant philodondrens, koi fish, and much, much more. We walked to dinner at Nopalito (415-233-9966, 1224 9th Avenue). In retrospect, we should probably have ridden Uber or Lyft instead. The night was cold, the walk was 17 minutes on almost entirely flat ground, and the paths were not always well-lit. Margarita for Patrick. Tacos dorados (crispy rolled tortillas, sweet potato, onions, garlic, queso fresco, crema, salsa de chipotle y tomatillo) to start. Tacos arabe estilo puebla for Patrick (housemade flour tortillas, marinated pork, fresh oregano and parsley, lime juice, spices, onions, cilantro, salsa morita), carne asada for me (marinated bavette steak, fingerling potatoes, Oaxacan chorizo, onions, nopalitos, smashed black beans, queso fresco, salsa de tomate y tomatillo). For dessert, we shared an order of flan with orange slice and pomegranate seeds. The tacos dorados seemed to us to be taquitos. The tacos arabe puebla seemed to us to be a burrito. We had difficulty, as I had expected, in finding dishes for me that weren't spicy. The tacos dorados mistakenly arrived with the salsa on top rather than on the side, but the error was detected and resolved quickly with multiple sincere apologies, which I think is rare in San Francisco restaurants and which was much appreciated. Service by Dylan B was very good to excellent. The $12 margarita seemed a larger size than one would typically receive in a San Francisco restaurant (or bar for that matter) for the same price, and it represents a good value. $76.61 before a $14 tip. Rode UberX home.
Tue Dec 24, 2019
Holiday. Slept in. I helped Patrick make breakfast: French toast with butter and maple syrup, maple-pecan sausage, hot Earl Grey tea. Washed dishes. Installed a CAT6 ethernet cable to Patrick's laptop to improve Internet speed and troubleshoot a problem with slow web page loading. Earthquakeproofed Patrick's reproduction of Brian Kershisnik's Red Horse and Rider by inserting two eye hooks into the frame and using picture wire and a QuakeHOLD! A-Maze-Ing Picture Hook. Rode UberX with Patrick to dinner at L'Ardoise (151 Noe Street): to drink we shared a half bottle of Sancerre. Appetizers: tiger prawn ravioli with sauce vierge and fresh mixed herbs for Patrick, appetizer special for me: mushrooms and puff pastry. Entrees: filet mignon with applewood-smoked bacon, pommes landaises, and white truffle oil; crispy skin chicken breast with potato puree, spinach, and roasted garlic jus. For dessert, we shared an apple tarte tatin. Food and drink were both perfect. Service by Alexandre L was excellent. $141.81 before a $25 tip. Afterwards we walked to the Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street) for Holigays Are Here by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. All three shows tonight were sold out. There was no assigned seating. We caught the 7:00 pm show, paying $45 each for priority admission tickets, failed to get in line very early, and found seats in the center near the back moments before the general admission ticketholders were admitted. The event was festive, fun, and moving. I was impressed. My favorite piece: Silent Night.
Wed Dec 25, 2019
Christmas holiday. Patrick opened the gifts I bought for him: three candles from Dirty Coast (mint julep, magnolia, king cake) and a book called Emma Fick's Snippets of New Orleans. Breakfast at home with Patrick: we prepared maple-pecan sausage, hash brown with ketchup, biscuit, hot water. Nap. Rode UberX to Kerry and Mom Ryan's place, meeting Sam who arrived via first-time, shared UberX. We ate pannetone that Patrick had bought and spicy ham that Kerry had made, then opened cards and gifts. We stayed about two hours then returned home. Snack for me: makeshift taco using leftover carne asada from Nopalito. I read from Snippets of New Orleans. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: deli roast chicken with scallion ginger sauce; spiced, giant matchstick deli carrots, mashed potatoes from a box, water. Rewatched part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens via purchase from iTunes. I had trouble getting the Dolby AC3 sound working as expected, having forgotten that we need to set the Soundblaster input source on #3 in order for it to work with iTunes. Also today we primed and filled the Brita, and Patrick tried the filtered water with the Sodastream and finally was satisfied—no aftertaste, he says. Late snacks: Honmas Chex mix, nachos with cheddar cheese.
Thu Dec 26, 2019
Vacation day. Walked to errands with Patrick: mailbox, library book drop. Breakfast at French Bakery: we each had a bacon, egg, and cheese on croissant. Patrick had a mocha, I had a hot chocolate. Errand: groceries at Safeway. Walked home. Identified and measured requirements for new network cables. We have mostly a mix of CAT 5e and CAT 6, and I'm trying to boost speeds above our current 100 Mbps, so I ordered all CAT 6 cables. Finished rewatching Star Wars: The Force Awakens via purchase from iTunes. Nap. One clementine mandarin. Rode UberX with Patrick to Kabuki Springs and Spa in Japantown. Relaxed for several hours, no massages. Afterwards we spent a few minutes in the mall watching Benihana chefs entertain their customers before a dinner reservation at nearby Izakaya Kou (415-441-9294, 1560 Fillmore Street): we shared happy hour agedashi tofu and happy hour crawfish salad. Entrees: chirashi don for Patrick, chilean sea bass for me. For dessert we shared mochi ice cream, green tea and mango. Patrick had a pint of Sapporo. $69.50 before tax and SF mandate and $14 tip. Service by Cindy S was very good. There was a long delay between Patrick's entree and my entree. Rode UberX home.
Fri Dec 27, 2019
Vacation day. Breakfast at home with Patrick: cheddar and broccolini omelet, hash brown, toast with butter. Rode Muni to downtown Union Square shopping with Patrick: Allen Edmonds, Alden Shop, Zara, American Eagle, Bonobos, The Container Store, and more, stopping at Blue Bottle for a New Orleans iced coffee then later Katana-Ya: karaage ramen for Patrick (6 pieces of fried chicken, half egg, green onion, seaweed), Katanaya ramen for me (2 slices of bbq pork, 2 pieces of fried gyoza, 2 pieces of fried chicken, corn, half egg, green onion, seaweed), water for both. In both bowls the half egg was cold. Along the way we stopped to see the puppies and kittens in the Macy's windows. Rode UberX home with many packages. Watched with Patrick Star Wars: The Last Jedi via $4 rental from iTunes, which downloaded in 9 minutes over Sonic Fiber. (It should be even faster than that after I upgrade our ethernet cables.) Patrick had microwave popcorn. Afterwards, Patrick went to bed. Continued prepping Patrick's laptop for the macOS Catalina upgrade. Late meal: leftover roast chicken and leftover mashed potatoes, water.
Sat Dec 28, 2019
Vacation day. Two clementine mandarins. Polished a (brass?) paperweight shaped like the letter F. Troubleshot internet speed improvements to the TCL television. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: tacos. More internet speed improvements to the TCL television and wireless network configuration. Continued reading from Snippets of New Orleans by Emma Fick. Polished my five-year service award from Adobe.
Sun Dec 29, 2019
Vacation day. Breakfast at home with Patrick: pancakes with butter and maple syrup, sparkling water for Patrick, hot water for me. Lunch at home with Patrick: the baby kale went bad so instead we had iceberg lettuce salad with croutons, homemade mustard dressing, and parmesan cheese; water. Dinner at home with Patrick: lavash with hummus, Whole Foods deli chicken soup, toasted lavash with olive oil and za'atar, sparkling water for Patrick, hot water for me. Dessert: one very small piece each of chocolate depression cake; milk for Patrick, water for me. Unloaded photos from my iPhone X and organized them for storage on the home data drive. Passwords security review. Upgraded from iOS 12.4.1 to iPadOS 13.3 on my first-generation iPad Pro.
Mon Dec 30, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: Patrick made for himself a sausage and egg biscuit sandwich. I made for myself a breakfast burrito with egg, mixed cheeses, sour cream, and leftover nopalitos and black beans. Some holes had developed in one of my long-sleeved shirts, so today I mended it with the sewing machine. Walked and rode Muni to errands with Patrick: Bevmo for Cruzan banana rum, Target for a Sodastream 60-liter spare CO2 canister. I taught Patrick how to use the Transit app for iOS to set up a multi-bus route. Walked and rode Muni to lunch at Brenda's Meat and Three (415-926-8657, 919 Divisadero Street): red beans and rice with a Barq's root beer for Patrick, shrimp po boy with remoulade on the side and tap water for me. We both liked my po boy despite the coating easily coming loose from the shrimp. Patrick liked his dish as well. $32.46 before a $6 tip. Service by Juliana B was great, friendly, laid-back. Rode Muni to 18th Street. Grocery shopping at Mollie Stone's. Rode UberX home. Nap. Listened to San Francisco Chronicle's podcast called Datebook: Babylon Gone 3: Does SF Still Need Beach Blanket Babylon? via Spotify with Patrick. Rode UberX to Alamo Drafthouse New Mission for dinner and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Patrick. Triple chocolate shake and The Rye-sistance cocktail for Patrick, glass of Hotwash Rose wine and water for me. We shared regular popcorn, fennel-sausage pizza, kale caesar salad. Food and drink total was $78.18 before a $14 tip. Rode UberX home. Successfully upgraded from iOS 12.4.1 to 13.3 on my iPhone X. Immediately afterwards, I attempted a new backup in iTunes and received the error "iTunes could not backup the iPhone [name] because the backup session failed." I did not resolve this yet.
Tue Dec 31, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: I prepared for each of us one and a half eggs with diced sausage, mixed cheeses, Spice Ace herbes de provence, salt, freshly ground black pepper; hash brown with ketchup; toast with butter; hot earl gray tea. Washed dishes. Shower. Nap. Rode a car rented via Turo to Redwood City. Dinner and hot tub with Chris and Andy. We met Paul and Bruce for the first time. Appetizers: various cheeses and crackers and candied almonds, veggies with dill dip. Scallops with maque choux, chicken and andouille gumbo, butter leaf lettuce salad. For dessert, Patrick made a bananas foster bread pudding with rum hard sauce. We had a fun evening and enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone. Patrick drove us home shortly after midnight.