Frank Farm

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Spent essentially the whole day working on Danny's website. Lunch at home with Patrick: grilled chicken boob sandwich on Italian whole wheat sesame bread with monterey jack cheese, tater tots. For dinner Patrick walked me through cooking lemon chicken, and Patrick also steamed some yellow squash and Trader Joe's precooked brown fried rice with mushrooms from a bag. For dessert: Boston cream pie. Watched a documentary from the Matrix box set.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. To celebrate Patrick's forthcoming journey to China to teach and do research, his martial arts instructor Simmone who was instrumental in arranging the trip took us out to dim sum brunch along with Sam, who also studies with Simmone. Patrick and I picked up Sam and parked in the garage under Portsmouth Square -- perhaps the least expensive garage parking in the entire city. It was the first time I visited her studio, which faces Portsmouth Square. Inside, the walls were lined with photographs, posters, handbrushed Chinese scrolls, news clippings -- memorabilia of Simmone's career and family. In a stand near the wall were stored bamboo sticks and other stick-like objects of various lengths. At the far end of the room lay other equipment including a computer and a TV and VCR on a small cart. The day was exceptionally warm. We walked a few short blocks to a restaurant, and along the way Simmone pointed out the famous streets of San Francisco Chinatown -- Waverly, Ross Alley, etc. While waiting in the foyer for a table I asked her the name of the restaurant we had entered since I didn't see an English sign on the way in. She said she didn't know -- this was simply the place she came where she knew there was good food. The restaurant was packed with a short line as we arrived. We agreed to share a table in order to avoid waiting. Inside, the restaurant was filled with mostly 10-top round tables, and it was packed with almost all Chinese and Asian people. Chinese women served dim sum from carts winnowing the tight passageways among the tables. We shared our table with 2 other parties -- one an elderly Chinese man, the other a party of 3 who mostly said nothing. We drank chrysanthemum tea and enjoyed a delicious meal including shu mai, ha gow, char siu bao, rice noodles, bean curd, rice porridge with egg, black sesame roll (sweet). As we left the restaurant, Patrick and I picked up the restaurant's business card: Y. Ben House Restaurant (415-397-3168, 835 Pacific Avenue). Afterwards on the way back to the square we stopped in at a dried foods store where hundreds of dried shark fins and dried sea cucumbers were categorized and priced in glass jars along the wall. Dropped Sam off at home. Patrick and I tried to run an errand at a drug store in Daly City but we couldn't find parking. We drove to another drug store closer to home and they didn't have what we wanted in stock, and it was around this time I realized I could possibly have better spent my time ordering it online and delivering it fedex even though what I wanted was $3 (decorating clips from 3M so that I can retrofit a small room heater with a filter to keep it clean). Spent the rest of the day working on Danny's website and refreshing website backups. Snack: popcorn. Dinner at Danny, Phil, and Drew's with Phil, Danny, Lauren, and K.R. (aka Katie Rose). Drew was in L.A. Danny cooked a yummy beef stew with French bread and steamed rice. For dessert, Nate made lemon tarts from scratch, garnished with fanned strawberry slices and whipped cream from scratch.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Worked on Danny's website. Here's a fortune I received recently in a fortune cookie from Panda Express but which I did not eat directly after lunch: Good news from afar will bring you a welcome visitor. Brunch with Mom Ryan at Kate's Kitchen. Afterwards we drove to Golden Gate Park and walked around Stow Lake. Dropped Mom Ryan off at home. Patrick and I got a latte at Peet's in the Castro and walked around the Castro. Home. Worked on Danny's website. Dinner at home with Patrick: roast beef, harvest grains, mixed vegetables. Worked on Danny's website. I only now just realized that years were all specified as 2006 instead of 2007 as stored in the XML files for my journal. Fixed it. I don't think anyone would have noticed anyhow.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. E-mail accounts for recent grads accidentally got shut off. Troubleshot and resolved. School retreat work: presentation loading. LGBT viz work. Made live about admin changes for Susie. Announced availability of School of Medicine electives schedule. Collected non-UCSF e-mail addresses of recent grads from Joel. Announced to UCSF and non-UCSF e-mail addresses problem of e-mail being shut off. More LGBT viz work. Recent grads e-mail followup.

Drove to Sonoma for the faculty retreat at The Lodge. There was so much traffic that it took 25 minutes just to leave the city. I took a wrong turn near a golf course but quickly found my way again. Today's a-ha moment: realizing that the Apple Remote is actually quite poorly designed for presenters -- many presenters could not intuitively press the intended button and thought there was a problem with the computer when the intended action did not occur. I think the problem stems from the lack of clear distinction between the forward button and other buttons on the remote. Dinner by Executive Sous Chef Bill Holt (The Lodge at Sonoma): arugula and endive salad with pine nuts, figs, goat cheese, and white balsamic vinaigrette; grilled chicken breast with lemon caper sauce, asparagus, and roasted fingerling potatoes; chocolate hazelnut torte with creme anglaise and chocolate sauce.

Breakfast: oatmeal with currants and sauteed peaches and brown sugar. During the retreat there was word going around that a fire had occurred on the Parnassus campus. Later I chatted with Alyssa on Cindy's cellphone to reset the server but it didn't work -- I had given unclear directions. The faculty retreat ended around 2:30 PM. Drove home. Washed the car and the front door. Dinner at Dragonfly: Dragon Taste appetizer platter, ginger ale for me, lychee iced tea for Patrick, five spice chicken, stuffed mushroom, coconut rice, hainan rice. About $45 before tip. The receipt said our server was E.T. Went to work to restart the server.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Validated PharmAdMIT databases from home. To work. Reinstalled Nero. InCD burning now works properly again. Completed WeID training (ICRD). Set Alyssa up with stunnel and OLPPS. Set my computer up with stunnel and OLPPS. Reported a Blackberry problem for Joel. Cancelled Joel's ticket because he found the problem wasn't specific to UCSF Exchange. Followup with disconnected e-mail: Joyce A, MH, AM. Lost GALEN password issue for student ZK. Chatted with Nancy about Eric's phone line. Followup notice to Eric. Power outage followup. LGBT viz work: organizing photos from Justin and setting ppi to 300. Finalized and posted style guide and sample 2. Sent out heads up notices to graphic designers. More LGBT viz followup. Listserv followup with MNL. Discovered that network scanning does not work for Alyssa. Posted final fall schedules for Lucia. Helped Carol resolve her full mailbox problem. Sent OSACA reminder about how to handle a full mailbox. Gathered and handed off data for TBS for WeID and ProWatch. Updated PHPM faculty listing to include a new member. Asked Alyssa to add Eric to staff meeting invites. Sent Eric the orientation schedule. Met with Eric briefly, signed his timesheet. Chatted with Susie on the phone. Followup with Mike S about prox lock installation. Send purchases summary and RFOs to Valerie and La'Trece. Reviewed show of hands video from last year. Printed handout and presentation slides for review and editing. Very late lunch: panda express. My fortune: Many people are seeking you for your sound advice. Dinner at Chris and Nate's with Chris, Nate, and Patrick: appetizer: crackers, tomatoes, and mozzarella. Entree: homemade crust pizza with carmelized onions, gorgonzola, spinach, garlic. Dessert: Patrick and I brought Just Desserts chocolate peanut creme cake.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Patrick and I drove to Santa Cruz to get away for a few hours before he leaves for China on Wednesday. On the way down Highway 1 we encountered bicyclists riding side-by-side and the one on the left was clearly not passing the other. This behavior of bicyclists creates a dangerous situation because it's not safe for our car to cross the yellow line in order to bypass two side-by-side bicyclists. Nor is it safe for us to slow down to their speed when we have a trail of cars following us. The thin lanes of Highway 1 are treacherous enough when cars share the road with bicyclists riding single-file. This is an excellent example of the uneasy relationship we have with bicyclists. We mean them no harm and are as friendly as possible when we see they are riding within the law. However, in San Francisco every day I see bicyclists running red lights and stop signs, riding on the sidewalk, and commiting other acts which are illegal yet I never see policemen stopping them for violations even when I see them observe the violations. To these particular bicyclists on Highway 1, I wanted to yell "Share the road!", throwing a frequent message from bicyclists to drivers back at them. Bicyclists frequently expect friendly behavior from cars but do not always behave within the law or are friendly to drivers. In Santa Cruz, we walked the Pacific Garden Mall and saw how everything had changed and stayed the same. We got a coffee drink at Santa Cruz Roasting Company. We happened upon the 2007 Greek Festival and ate Greek food which was mostly delicious. We listened to Greek music. We watched a young boy try to climb a rock wall which was set up for the event. Patrick's $9 sunglasses mysteriously broke, so he bought a new, inexpensive pair. We watched the surfers from West Cliff Drive. Drove home. I napped while Patrick drove. We stopped to buy some local honey to see if it will help with preventing allergy symptoms. Home. Patrick left to spend the evening with Aaron. I worked on Danny's website and cooked dinner: steamed rice with leftovers. More work on Danny's website. Archived documents. Finished initial work on Danny's website, sent link and instructions to Drew for review.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Helped Patrick make business cards with his name and title in Chinese. I napped, then cut my hair. Patrick's mom came over and we listened to Terry Lee Ryan's music while looking at photos of New Orleans on Flickr. Patrick's going away dinner at Houston's with Patrick, Mom Ryan, Sam, Danny, Drew, Phil, Quyen, Nate, and Chris. We gave everyone cookies from Pacific Cookie Company.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. First day of orientation for our new students. I edited tomorrow's handout. Photocopied it. Copier stopped at 38 copies -- no staples. Kim couldn't get it to work even after a new cartridge was installed, so I continued copying using the copier in UC Hall. Helped Alyssa reconfigure PharmAdMIT 2007 so she could log in. LGBT viz work. Tried to do some server maintenance but didn't have everything I needed and one part was the wrong size. Checked backups. Answered a question from an applicant about Form E. Free lunch today -- students essentially get free lunch all during orientation -- was a sandwich and a bosc pear. Set up the laptop for 2 presentations. Dropped off a clipboard for Sue A. Home. Made live Danny's new website: Recharge Spa. Dinner at home with Patrick: lemon chicken. Dessert: peanut butter and chocolate cookie from Pacific Cookie Company. Worked on Danny's website: made live a jobs page.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Presentation prep. Gave my computer services presentation with Chris - all went well. Small meal: half burrito, water. Watched student skits. Handed off domain reg info to Eric. LGBT viz followup: vinyl banner specs. Closed a preview session for Alyssa. Class list followup with Lucia. Computing services followup with two students. Checked in with Julie about versioning on our web server. Gathered September 4 data for the journal which I need to backfill. New news story for Susie, added RSS feed icon to the dev home page, notified Eric of the changes. Management: 1-on-1 meeting scheduling. Computer services followup with one student. Dinner at home with Patrick: frozen pizza. Watched web video with Patrick: Miss Teen South Carolina and parodies, Sierra's Day at the Beach, Judy Butterfield, clips from Will & Grace.

Woke up too early, couldn't sleep. Did maintenance on one of our computers. EncryptionError3 (Encryption Error 3) error on September 8 while attempting to back up with MozyHome (Mozy) was resolved on Mozy's end. Telephone services setup for Eric followup with Nancy, checked in with Valerie about purchases, sent the door code to the new students, sent a reminder about Office file formats and compatibility to all students, backed up data to dvdrw, confirmed that I didn't lose the spare batteries for the office camera. Lunch: swedish meatballs with brown rice, carrots, dinner roll and Promise, pineapple chunks, cottage cheese. Dinner at Holy Grill with Chris and Nate. I expected to also see Nate's dad, but he unexpectedly showed up yesterday instead of today. Afterwards we talked for hours at their place. Home late. Patrick left for China today.

With Patrick gone, I am now taking applications for the houseboy or sex toy position in our home, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please send him my way. Actually, it would be nice to have a houseboy even when Patrick is here, but I don't know that we would be able to afford such a nice situation. Or if you want to be on the interview team that could be helpful as well. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Partners in D web hosting followup with Eric and GoDaddy. Purchasing followup with Valerie. LGBT viz work: more sending out projects and providing status update, followup with Chelsea. Followup with various student computing questions with students. Could not get FancyIndexing to work for file distribution -- will have to think of another solution. Websteering lunch with Erik, Ed, Julie, John, and introducing Eric D (pharmacy) and Amie (sp?) (OAAIS). Cindy forwarded a note saying that Kristina just gave birth to another baby boy. Congrats! Gave Sue the strategic plan URL that Susie had requested. Followup with ITRS and problem reporters of a power strip problem in N-225 -- IRTS was unable to reproduce. Followup with e-mail migration for employee-turned-student ST. Dinner at Dragonfly by myself: deep-fried imperial rolls, green tea. Home late.

Usual oatmeal breakfast. Set up appointments with students needing help. Installed PharmAdMIT 2006 for Scott, but when we tried to use it it crashed with a type mismatch error and I don