May 2007
Summary: Danny's spa opens, Hawaiian vacation, Nate's graduation, Exploring San Francisco with Geordie and Jake, Kerry leaves San Francisco, Dinner with Suzan at Gaspare's.
Dates on this page
Tue May 1, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Disk level disk check for my computer. SCC meeting, Doug C guest stars. Posted new current student news for student PA. Posted new homepage news for Susie. Archived data to DVD. Presentation template work. Computer lab reservation handling for Cindy. Lunch: takeout from the cafeteria: cow sandwich with cheddar, greek lemon chicken soup. Vacuumed computer innards for Lucia and the spare computer. Computer maintenance for Joel, Carol, Scott, and me. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers: korean beef, Japanese rice, noodle soup from Danny. Dessert: Patrick made chocolate banana pecan bread pudding with bourbon hard sauce. Reviewed photos with Patrick. Uploaded photos. Began setting up Tina's new computer. Home backups. Archived documents.
Wed May 2, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. I brought some of Patrick's chocolate banana pecan bread pudding with bourbon hard sauce to work for the office to enjoy. PowerPoint template work. Lunch: panda express. Patrick's bread pudding is a hit with the office. My fortune: Any troubles you may have will pass very shortly. LGBTI visibility committee meeting. Staff meeting. Joel went over graduation details. I received a bear hug from Robin C for helping with her scanning emergency last week. Thanks, Robin! Dinner at home with Patrick: ravioli with marinara, garlic bread. Watched new episode of Heroes. Danny's spa Refresh SF opened to the public today. Mom Ryan and Patrick both got manipedis. Patrick's nails look beautiful and perfect.
Thu May 3, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Management online training. Job posting followup work with Fanni and Susie. Alyssa reported a problem with our key cabinet, and I sent a problem report to the vendor. Installed IE6 for Lucia. Sent Scott a link to some online training for webdev stuff. Created a map with Google My Maps for the LGBTI Visibility subcommittee. It was very easy—I essentially built off the work that Alex K had already done. Scraped the out list to attempt to gather locations from CCSO (CLS) for the map—mixed results. Lunch: beef stroganoff with brown rice, mixed vegetables, dinner roll. CSC steering committee meeting. Resent survey links to Rebecca. Key cabinet followup: GE Supra technical support, sent e-mail again to our vendor. Created a draft of the June CSC survey—encryption—and sent it to the steering committee for review. Made live computer requirements for fall 2007. Sent Garrett link to final computer requirements. Graduation banquet on the 10th floor of the Marine's Memorial Building with the graduating class of 2007. Ena was there—a nice surprise. Only students got raffle tickets this time around, which didn't bother me—I think that's the way it should be. Joel still won 2 gift certificates—one by answering a trivia question (Lady Vols) and the other by not participating in musical chairs. However, he forgot both of them when leaving—oops! I gave both Claire and Lucia a ride home.
Fri May 4, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Cindy brought Noah's Bagels for the office. I received another spot award—this one for helping out with the student awards ceremony. Forwarded non-spam. Posted our open job position to sfhewp, evolt, and our own webmastr mailing list. Linkchecking. Jamie at patientpower.info responded quickly and accurately to my broken link report—very unusual. Followup with the drug studies unit who has a web server down. Followup with Mark B about an e-mail account that needed to remain open and was mistakenly closed. Exchanged e-mail with Geordie who is looking for a job. Jon J told me today it took him 15 minutes to open his Microsoft Vista product box. PowerPoint template followup with Susie. Checked that a number of our listservs are set up correctly—found some problems and am tshooting them. Lunch: dos chicken enchiladas from Carmelina's. Helped student ZK identify a scam she got in her inbox. Scanned a document for Alyssa/Joel. Network scanning troubleshooting: got some computers working, some still don't. Installed Winamp 5.34 for lots of office computers. Home. Cut my hair. Dinner at home with Patrick: lemon chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes.
Sat May 5, 2007
Woke up early. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Helped out with our graduation ceremony at Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium. One of my responsibilities at the ceremony was to hand out programs as people entered. When we open the gates there's such a rush that I hand out a hundred or two programs within about 60 seconds. Somehow after the initial crowd surged through I looked down at the programs I had left in my hands and I saw blotchy dark spots all over them—oh no! I looked closer, and it apppeared to be blood! How did someone get blood all over my programs, and did anyone get a program that had blood on it?! And then I realized—it was my blood! I had somehow gotten a paper cut on my thumb while handing out programs and simply didn't feel it. It was only about 5 millimeters long but somewhat deep even though it didn't seem to hurt very much at all. I threw out the one program on top that had all the blood and went to the restroom to clean up. A few minutes with a paper towel and direct pressure stopped most of the bleeding. After that I changed the towel again and Scott helped me wrap masking tape around it to create a makeshift bandage. The ceremony went without any problems that I could see. Conan MacDougall won the teaching award, and JoAl Mayor won the Bowl of Hygeia. Deke Shelton and Carolynn Woo were the speakers from the Class of 2007. Afterwards I met Patrick at Danny's spa, and we hung out a few minutes with Danny, Phil, and Quyen on Danny's 4th day of business. Phil's mom Kim and his sister (I didn't remember her name) were in town and we met them for the first time. Patrick and I got a small meal at The Crepe Place on Polk. Back to the spa. Then Patrick and I went shopping at Macy's then at a greeting card store. Drove home. Ordered pizza delivery. Burned photos to CD for Mom Ryan. More new laptop setup for Tina: installed Flip4Mac, Firefox, Thunderbird, Real Player, VLC, Adobe Reader. Organized the Applications folder. Turned on FileVault. Installed Burn-OSX. Installed AbiWord 2.4.5 and NeoOffice 2.1 Patch 3 on my PowerPC Mac Mini.
Sun May 6, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Celebrated Mother's Day one week early with Mom Ryan. We brought her a big bouquet of flowers then took her to dim sum at Yank Sing Rincon Center. Afterwards we dropped her off at home and then I dropped Patrick off at Aaron's to help Aaron with his sidewalk sale. I drove back to the Mission to park the car and walked SoMa to the How Weird Street Faire. Suggested donation admission was $10. I had a lot of fun taking photos and dancing. I really enjoyed the music. A woman with a small pouch of buttons asked me to choose one to keep. The one I randomly picked has some Japanese looking robot on it. Ran in to Ray S, chatted briefly with him and took his photo. I ran out of film before I ran out of batteries. Home. Showered. Started some work for Danny (services order form). Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover pizza, mac and cheese. This was the first time we tried Annie's deluxe mac and cheese after hearing from Steaven that it was good. It's really good, and all natural too! Processed photos. Uploaded all but the street fair photos. Investigated interisland trip options.
Mon May 7, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Met with Susie. We talked about the forthcoming interview process, web pages for other dean's office staff, and PowerPoint templates. Followup with student KB about computer security. Helped student HW set up voting for student of the year. Began creating a written exam for our interview process. Power outage this afternoon takes down our web server. Julie is keeping an eye on it. Helped Alyssa with a problem with the fax machine. The display said Printing but nothing was happening. I fixed it by unplugging it for a few seconds and then replugging it back in. Resume filtering. Home. Worked on Danny's website. Dinner at home with Patrick, Quyen, Dave, Phil, Drew, and Danny. Patrick made an Italian hearts of romaine salad with marinated mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, organic croutons, with a roasted garlic dressing topped with 4 Italian shredded cheeses. Garlic bread. The entree was rigatoni with stewed chicken breast, garlic, and mushrooms marinara sauce. For dessert, the guests brought a delicious tiramisu-inspired cake from Whole Foods. Afterwards we played Cranium, which was fun—my first time playing. The game was really hard to figure out; it would have been a lot funner to just pick teams and then take turns randomly picking cards.
Tue May 8, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Followup of web server outage due to a PG and E power outage at Mission Bay. Resume filtering. Chatted with student HW about the student of the year voting. Answered a question about Apple Mail from student SL. Helped Lucia resolve problems with network and sound (loose cables). Lunch in Saunders Court by myself: Panda Express. My fortune: You have a yearning for perfection. Initialized P2 site listservs for Claire and Carol. HTML e-mail work: employment opportunity. Lessons learned: single-pixel GIF is now useful and required again for creating HTML e-mail that views nearly identically on Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 because width attributes are not always honored when viewing messages in Outlook 2007. Always avoid padding and use margins or single-pixel GIFs instead (or vice versa). Simple is better. Some styling must be placed inline to avoid problems when, for example, creating the message in Outlook 2003 as Rich Text and sent to a Gmail account. It seems impossible to get Outlook 2007 to view a message and also honor margin:0 and padding:0 on the body of the message. You can, however, set a background color on the body to mitigate the visual ugliness this creates. Cleared registry entries of Brother and PaperPort to set up a clean install for Alyssa's computer. Ooh ahh - Flickr finally improved its slideshow feature - very nice so far. I have long lamented its lack of full screen mode. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers from last night. We ate the leftover tiramisu with a cup each of hot chocolate with hazelnut kahlua—yum! Worked on a services order form for Danny. Mass e-mail to friends asking about possible job openings for Geordie.
Wed May 9, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Set up and secured the new hi-fi stereo that the Class of 2007 gave to the office as a parting gift. Restored remote desktops .msc file from backup—I had accidentally overwritten it yesterday with a configuration I didn't intend. Responded to entering student SB who had a question about the computer requirements. Met with Cindy, Joel, Alyssa, and Scott about admissions communications. Added Jayson and Ricki as viewers to Google Analytics. Minor web update for Cindy. Listserv followup with Carol—she found some errors that no one else had spotted! HTML e-mail template work—started working on the revised OSACA template that will work fine in Outlook 2007 and older clients. Got a first draft done but didn't have time to test it yet. Slow computer troubleshooting with Joel. It seems that yesterday's Patch Tuesday has caused Joel's computer to respond very slowly when creating a new message in Outlook 2003. None of the usual settings fixes fixed it, but reverting to Monday's configuration did. Resume filtering. Started issuing rejections. Lunch today was swedish meatballs over brown rice with a dinner roll and Promise and a side bowl of fruit with cottage cheese from the cafeteria: $8.86. Danny's grand opening party for Refresh SF: sushi, roll-up sandwiches (I forgot what these are called), grands fours which tasted a lot like ding dongs, macaroon (?) cookies, chocolates, wine, juice, apple cider, beer. Phil drove me home. Work for Danny: logo package, services order form, take down party from website home page. Patrick and I are leaving for a 10-day vacation tomorrow morning, and I won't be updating the journal until we return. Don't freak out.
Thu May 10, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Flew to Honolulu via Hawaiian Airlines. Web check-in failed, counter check-in took a really long time. At the counter another passenger had on an extraordinary amount of cologne, and we were glad when he received his boarding pass and left. We changed our seats at the gate so that we could sit together. The woman who helped us had beautiful french tips on her nails and a square-faced watch studded with (real?) diamonds. We found our seats on the plane and out of the hundreds of seats on the plane we get ones directly behind the man wearing too much cologne. Picked up the rental car, drove up to Chris and Nate's. Freshened. Lunch at South Shore Grill with Patrick, Chris, and Nate. Patrick had a mix plate: fish taco, bbq chicken and beef, macaroni salad, cole slaw, rice. Chris and Nate each had a bbq chicken plate. I had fish tacos. Drove to Waikiki, walked along Kapiolani Park Beach. The weather is about 80 degrees with fairly strong, warm breezes. I love this weather! Stopped at The Cookie Corner where Patrick bought a chocolate chip with nuts cookie. Picked up toiletries at Long's: sunscreen, toothpaste, shaving gel. Back to Chris and Nate's. Napped. Kevin and Tony arrived, we chatted with them. I hadn't seen Kevin in many years. We used to work together (with Chris) at Adobe so long ago. Jen and Lou arrived. Brian and Kate arrived. Informal dinner at Chris and Nate's: poke, sesame crisp bread with hummus, tortilla chips and 3-layer dip, rice/wheat crackers. Kevin and Tony left for the airport. Jen and Lou and Brian and Kate left for their hotel. Chris and Nate left for the airport. Patrick showered. To bed early (9ish).
Fri May 11, 2007
Woke early. Showered. Tai chi warmups. Tea. Chris and Nate woke. Nate and Patrick went to Leonard's to pick up malasadas (1 dozen plain, 2 custard, 2 coconut, 2 chocolate) and milk from the grocery. Malasadas and coffee for breakfast. Leonard's malasadas are one of the things we enjoyed most about our trip. Chris went to work. Patrick and I planned our trip to the big island. Nate left with his parents for their tour of the island. Chris returned. We joined him for lunch with his parents and Jen and Lou at Tiki's Bar and Grill. Home. Napped. Woke. Picked up Jen and Lou, dropped off Chris. Drove to Paradise Cove luau. Got a group photo taken. Patrick got a temporary tattoo (a turtle) on his arm. Frank won a puka shell necklace in a game of skill involving a bag of (beans?) and a handle with a hoop at the end. Other activities: making lei bracelets, making headdresses from leaves, spear throwing, knock sticks over with a ball, purchase jewelry and souvenirs. 4 drink coupons. Small outdoor stadium, singing, dancing, introduction of the food, kalua pig comes out of the in-the-ground oven. Amazing colors from the sunset: orange, pink, red, blue. Salad, dinner rolls, and I can't believe it's not butter, kalua pig, steamed rice, chicken (something?), fried chicken. Dessert: slice of pineapple, (carrot?) cake, jello custard thing. Singing, dancing, fire knife dance. Patrick and Lou learn the hula dance. End of show. Pick up group photo, drive back to Waikiki. Dropped off Jen and Lou. Home. Bed.
Sat May 12, 2007
Woke, showered, coffee. Chris drove us down to the hotel. We dropped off Nate so he could pick up his dad. Then Chris, Nate, Brian, Patrick, and I met at the Kapiolani Community College Farmer's Market. Patrick got a Pacifikool ginger cooler (Hawaiian ginger syrup, sweet basil, lemon, carbonated water) to drink. We bought some produce for Wednesday night's dinner. We saw a machine which made rice cakes—it spit them out with surprising force. Patrick and I had breakfast: packaged Japanese food from Xotic Eats—very delicious! I had soba noodles. Patrick had a lunch combo with rice. We drove to the entrance of Diamond Head and met up with Lou. The six of us did the Diamond Head hike, and it didn't seem as hard to me since the last time I did this hike a year ago. This restaurant is freezing cold inside! After dinner we got cream puffs at Beard Papa (808-593-0107, Ward Centre, 1200 Ala Moana Blvd, Bldg 6, Bay 25, Honolulu), stopped at Long's on the way home, then chatted in the living room. Peter and Nate and Brian arrived after picking up Peter at the airport. We chatted until about 10 PM about kitchen disasters, unusual pets, snoring, collector's edition spam. Bedtime.
Sun May 13, 2007
Mother's Day Sunday Brunch at the Sheraton Surfrider Beachside Cafe—fantastic all-we-can-eat buffet. Home. Short nap. Graduation ceremony at UH. The commencement speaker was Buster Pruitt, EdD, professor and associate department head of the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. Patrick really enjoyed his speech. Afterwards we met Nate at Murakami Stadium outside and inundated him with congratulatory leis. Party at home.
Mon May 14, 2007
Breakfast at home: party leftovers. Visited the Bishop Museum (1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu) with Patrick. $16.00. My favorite building was the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center. If you bring kids to Hawaii, this is a great place to take them—there are lots of fun activities to do which happen to also be educational. Inside we saw a simulated volcano, watched a demonstration of melted lava, got to touch cooled lava rock, learned all about volcanoes, controlled underwater motorized cameras, controlled wave generators. Patrick accidentally sprained his ankle on the stairs here. We forgot to use the $2 off coupon we found in a free tourist map and magazine which we found somewhere along the way (the airport?). Lunch with Patrick at Diamond Head Market and Grill, aka The Grill at Diamond Head Market (808-732-0077, 3158 Monsarrat Avenue, Honolulu): teriyaki chicken sandwich with fries for me; teriyaki chicken, char siu, (hamburger?), with rice and potato salad for Patrick. Drinks: plantation iced teas. $20.25. Sat on the grass at Queen's Beach for a few hours. Home. Showers. Sat on the deck and chatted with Patrick, Brian, Kate, Jen, Lou, Jim, Celeste, Chris, and Nate. Patrick went to bed early. Among other things, we talked about beekeeping, raw honey, allergies, homeopathy, pollen.
Tue May 15, 2007
Picked up Mike P at his home on Richards Street. Did a drive around the island of Oahu with Mike P as our guide. Mokuleia Beach, got shave ice at Matsumoto's (no line on a Tuesday morning around 10:00 AM)—$2.00 for a small cone with ice cream. Bought a souvenir at Strong Current (808-637-3410, 66-208 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa). I was looking for something that had the words "Strong Current" on it but they didn't seem to have anything like that, so I had to get something that didn't say "Strong Current" on it. Bought bottled water at Haleiwa Super Market (808-637-5004, 66-197 Kamehameha Highway, Haleiwa). Stopped at Sunset Beach, then ate at Giovanni's Shrimp Shack—$12.00 for 12 shrimp with rice. Patrick and Mike had garlic shrimp. I had lemon and butter. (The garlic shrimp was better, I thought.) Patrick got a coconut juice drink served from a fresh coconut (with a plastic red cup as a holder). A bee bothered us while we ate. Continued driving. Stopped at Valley of the Temples Memorial Park to visit the Byodo-In Temple (808-239-8811, 47-200 Kahekili Highway, Kaneohe). Patrick continued driving since I was really tired. Stopped at Lanikai beach. Discovered that my sunglasses had broken because of a missing screw. Stopped at Pali Lookout. Dropped off Mike P at home. Bought gas. Got a bite to eat at Ono Hawaiian: chicken combo plate and pork lau lau, strawberry soda, iced tea. Stopped at Long's for more alcohol treatment supplies. Home. Relaxed a short while. Patrick did an alcohol treatment on his ankle. Halekulani with Chris, Nate, Jim, Celeste, and Patrick. Music tonight was by—I believe—Po'okela, and the hula dancer tonight was Kanoe Miller. She's perfection. Chris and Nate had met her previously at the party of common friends, so she took a moment to chat with us a few minutes in between sets describing her method of hula as a kind of a new traditionalist. Patrick, Jim, and Celeste had mai tais, Nate had gin and tonic, Chris had a Hawaiian Sunset, I had coffee toffee something. Random notes in my dead tree journal at this point (grocery shopping and other advice from Nate): "Kokua Market Natural Foods Co-Op (808-941-1922, 2643 S King St, Honolulu, HI 96826) has free-range chicken. Don't go to Good Earth because it's run by fascist Christians. Don't go to the Polynesian Cultural Center (800-367-7060 or 808-293-3333, 55-370 Kamehameha Highway, Laie, HI 96762) because it's run by Mormons."
Wed May 16, 2007
Pineapple for Frank for breakfast. Visited the home of American heiress and philanthropist Doris Duke. It's called Shangri La, and following her death it was opened for public viewing. This was one of the highlights of our entire vacation, such a pleasure to see her integration of Islamic art and architecture into an American home. My favorite parts were seeing the technology and architectural features that she employed in her designs—pocket doors, ornately carved wooden doors which block and permit light at the same time, glass door walls which descend into the ground via elevator lifts, and so forth—so nice to see so much money spent so smartly. Lunch at the Honululu Academy of Art Pavilion Cafe (900 S. Beretania Street, Honolulu). Bought souvenirs and gifts at the Academy Shop (808-532-8703, 900 S. Beretania Street, Honolulu). Star Market (808-564-7660, 2470 South King Street, Honolulu) for groceries. Home. Relaxed. Patrick did another alcohol treatment on his ankle. Chris, Nate, and I watched episode 19 of Heroes from the web while Patrick prepared dinner and did laundry. Dinner at home with Patrick, Chris, and Nate: lavender and Meyer lemon roast chicken, caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes, Kahuku corn on the cob, garlic roasted potatoes, lime-mint water, rosemary bread. Dessert: chocolate macadamia nut ice cream. Among other things, we talked about friends and lovers we had known, eating and digestion, parents and health, and (bonanza?).
Thu May 17, 2007
Packed. Breakfast: pineapple for Frank, rosemary bread for Patrick. Drove to the airport, returned the rental car. Ate at the airport. Patrick had Burger King: chicken sandwich, fries. I ate at Lahaina Chicken (Honolulu International Airport): one quarter roast chicken, macaroni salad, corn, carrots, lemonade. This chicken was surprisingly juicy and perfectly cooked. There was a weird chemical kind of flavor near the end of my meal with some meat near the bone, but aside from this weirdness the chicken was extremely delicious. Flew to Hilo on the Big Island—the flight was quick and painless. Picked up a rental car at Alamo. Checked in to the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (808-935-9361, 71 Banyan Drive, Hilo). Drove around trying to find a drug store, had difficulty. Found Long's at Prince Kuhio Plaza. Bought gifts and toiletries at Long's. Drinks at Starbucks: emergency grande caramel macchiato for Patrick, grande tazo chai for me. Drove highways 11, 132, and 137. Stopped at Lava Tree State Park, Ahalanui Beach Park, Issac Hale Beach Park. Just before Isaac Hale Beach Park the road was flooded out. We drove through a huge and treacherous-looking puddle but the car didn't stall, and water didn't get in the car like I thought it might. We made it through and gave sighs of relief. Back to the hotel. Showered. Queen's Court in the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (808-935-9361, 71 Banyan Drive, Hilo) for dinner. The Thursday night buffet offered was prime rib and crab legs, $25 per person. It didn't look worth it, so we ordered entrees instead. I ordered a chicken stir fry and a cup of tea. Patrick ordered garlic butter mahi mahi and a (Heinekin?). The meal was awful. My stir fry had way too much celery and the fried noodles it came with were old—not cooked to order—and very tough. Patrick's fish was not accompanied by the sauce he ordered, and it was dry and tough. His iced tea was presweetened. Patrick ordered mashed potatoes but instead got a baked potato. When he opened it, he found that it was cold in the center. Patrick complained to the hostess (our server was somewhere else at the moment), the manager came over and after a brief discussion removed both the entrees from our bill. We left still hungry, drove to Pizza Hut in Prince Kuhio Plaza, and had 2 personal pan pizzas: pepperoni and mushroom for Patrick, chicken and garlic for me. $11.78 after a $1.50 tip. Back to the hotel. (After we had checked out 3 days later, I found that they didn't even charge us for the Heinekin and the tea—so nice of them!)
Fri May 18, 2007
Breakfast at Ken's House of Pancakes (808-935-8711, 1730 Kamehameha Avenue, Hilo), aka KenHOP, with Patrick. Patrick had really good kona coffee with banana pancakes, ham, bacon, and 2 eggs over medium. I had the same kona coffee and "Da Sistah"—char siu and shrimp egg scramble, hash browns, whole wheat toast, small oatmeal. Drove to Rainbow Falls. This is low-hanging fruit for tourists: a short drive from downtown Hilo, no hike required to see the falls. Drove up highway 19 stopping here and there. The World Botanical Gardens and Umauma Falls entrance fee was $12; we decided to not visit. Drove further up the coast, stopped at Waikaumalo Park. Drove back toward Hilo then took highway 11 to Volcano. Stopped briefly at Volcano Village, stopped at a visitor center for restrooms. Patrick bought Hawaiian herbal tea from a small gift shop. Continued to the real visitor center inside the park. Park admission was $10 for one car. AM 540 gave helpful information on the drive in—"feel the power." The visitor center and nearly all the park signs and information were very helpful and well-designed—a nice change from the rest of the island. One notable exception is the Jaggar Museum—many of the exhibits inside had wording that wore away from the displays making them illegible. Patrick's sprained ankle was still not fully healed, so we didn't do any real hiking. Sulphur banks, steam vents, Jaggar Museum, southwest rift zone, halema'uma'u crater, drove down Chain of Craters Road, saw the holei sea arch, came to the road's end. Late lunch at Lava Rock Cafe. Patrick had a bacon cheeseburger and potato salad. I had one of the best chinese chicken salads ever. Chocolate milkshake for Patrick, water for me. Drove back to the hotel. Rested and showered. Watched television: Austin Powers 2 The Spy Who Shagged Me. Late dinner at Hilo Bay Cafe (808-935-4939, 315 Maka'ala Street #109, Hilo) in Waiakea Shopping Center. Appetizer: split plate baby butter lettuce with blue prawns and proscuitto and (manchego?). Patrick had pork tenderloin with risotto cake and spinach, Cadillac margarita. I had macadamia nut and praline scallops with noodles, peppermint tea. This "cafe" is really a fine dining restaurant and bar which happens to be in a strip mall. It was a surprising and welcome find. Everything about our meal was perfect except the baby butter lettuce had edges which were not simply wilted but had gone bad and other portions of the lettuce at the stem were stained reddish orange, clearly indicating a lack of freshness. I considered sending it back but didn't want to ruin the good mood we had going. In the end, I think it was the right decision—everything else about the meal was great. Back to the hotel. Watched part of a Golden Girls episode before bed.
Sat May 19, 2007
Drove around downtown Hilo looking for someplace new to have breakfast, didn't find anything. Drove back to KenHOP but it was packed—we wasted 5 minutes stuck in the parking lot trying to get out. Drove up to Prince Kuhio Plaza and ate at Kuhio Grille. Patrick had eggs over medium with hash browns and toast and portuguese sausage, coffee. I had oatmeal and french toast, orange juice served in a plastic bottle. Drove highway 11 to 130 again. Tried to find Kehala Black Sand Beach but there was no sign for it. The maps don't show it well, but the roads do indeed connect. We eventually found a small beach with a sign that said, "Private property—everyone please enjoy. NO CAMPING." We stopped for a few minutes, walked on black sand, watched small crabs dart amongst the black lava-formed rocks. Back to the hotel. Checked out. Dropped off the rental car. Flew back to Honolulu. Chris and Nate picked us up at the airport. Drove back to their place to quickly freshen, then drove to the old Dole Cannery to see Spider-Man 3. We all agreed that it was very different from the first two films and that #2 was better. Too many villains. After the movie, went to the home of 2 Mikes in a high-rise tower apartment with a view of the skyline and harbor including Punchbowl, the military graveyard, and Mike P's workplace Gordon Biersch. We had drinks, looked out from the balcony at neighboring buildings and apartments, munched on snacks including black seedless grapes, cheese, crackers, smoked salmon, and apples. Patrick and Mike 2 talked about Tibetan and Hawaiian independence while everyone else fled the room. Nate and Mike 1 walked over to Mr. Biersch's and brought back gourmet pizzas. Being the designated driver, I drove us all home. We fell asleep easily.
Sun May 20, 2007
Woke up to the smell of plain, cinnamon, chocolate, and custard malasadas that Nate picked up. Coffee. Packed, tidied. We all watched Heroes episodes 20 and 21. Chris and Nate drove us to the airport. Flew back to San Francisco. This was the first time we used a digiplayer to watch entertainment on a small portable electronic player. We watched Eragon, an episode of The Simpsons (Lisa's substitute teacher), and The Well-Seasoned Traveller (on Spanish olive oil, tapas, New Basque cuisine). Home. Installed Flip4Mac 2.1.1.70. Late snack: french fries, coffee frozen yogurt. Night run: 15 minutes. Cut my hair.
Mon May 21, 2007
Morning run: 10 minutes. First day back at work in San Francisco after 10 days in Hawaii. ForecastFox says it's 46 degrees Fahrenheit outside, high predicted to be 65. It's freezing here! I'm somewhat of a weather wimp, so I wear long underwear today even though I really don't need it. Just the first day back, I think to myself. Breakfast at the cafeteria: oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins. I forget to snake some half and half before checkout so I eat it without milk of any kind—I don't mind. Passionfruit mango juice. Chatted briefly with Susie. Caught up on e-mail. Listserv maintenance. Troubleshot dead phone lines for Scott and Alyssa, submitted a problem report. Reviewed resumes. Assisted lots of students via e-mail (SC, AC, RC, KL, another KL), deflected a support request from a faculty member who is supposed to get support from a different unit, scheduled appointments for others to meet with me. Someone for ENS showed up to fix the phone lines. A few minutes after he leaves, Carol reports that her phone line is now dead. I submit another problem report. Processed audio originals (conjoin and edit) and converted to mp3. Checked in on backups—all is well. Late lunch: chicken mole special with refried beans and mild salsa and a flour tortilla from Carmelina's, raspberry iced tea—$7.10. The mole is considerably saltier than I like but otherwise tasty. Checked in with Brian W about how to upload a podcast to his new system. Posted Luquetta class action notice for Doug. Helped Joel with orientation web pages. Helped Carol with Exchange mailbox too full issues. Reviewed resumes while waiting for final draft of the 2-hour mp3 file to save. Eye doctor appointment at Urban Eyes (415-863-1818, 2253 Market Street). I got a comprehensive exam and contact lens evaluation. VSP insurance covered the eye exam but not the contact lens evaluation. I paid a $10 copay and $42.50 for the contact lens evaluation. The person who gave my exam had me try new lenses from Acuvue called Oasys. Previously I had been using Acuvue 2. Dinner at Blue with Patrick: rosemary chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli, iced tea for Patrick; meatloaf with surprise "zesty" marinara sauce and mashed potatoes, peppermint tea for me. Grocery shopping at Safevay with Patrick. Did some catching up on e-mail. Reviewed, processed, uploaded photos. Flickrd. Late tonight I notice that UCSF e-mail is down—the server is simply not accessible. Is there maintenance scheduled that I missed seeing? Patrick meets Esteban online today.
Tue May 22, 2007
Morning run: 15 minutes. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Reviewed resumes. Cindy, Joel, and I visited the SNPhA bake sale, I bought two slices of frosted lemon cranberry (?) pound cake for $2. Staff meeting. Finished up podcast prep and did the upload. Brian W's new system made it very, very easy. It doesn't appear to stream, but I'm not complaining. Populated new listserv for entering students. Some unexpected back pain in the afternoon. Helped Lucia with InDesign questions. Reviewed resumes. Back pain continued for several hours, so I took some acetaminophen and got Patrick to pick me up in the car and went home early. Home. Napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: cacciatore chicken with angel hair, bread and smart balance. Did more catching up on e-mail. I realized a while ago that Tina's black MacBook comes with a white power adapter. Why doesn't Apple ship these computers with black power adapters so that everything matches when you're sitting in a cafe? My back feels a little better after my nap, but it's not completely better yet. I'll still go to work tomorrow, armed with some pain medication.
Wed May 23, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast and one slice of frosted lemon cranberry (?) pound cake. Worked from home instead—some sharp pains when moving around this morning. Reviewed resumes, narrowed the list. Helped student MH with e-mail questions. Listserv management. Responded to entering student inquiries: e-mail and computer requirements. Linkchecking. Minor web edit for Cindy. Chatted briefly with Susie, then Frank M. Lunch: leftover pasta and chicken. Dinner at home with Patrick: hazelnut-encrusted trout, bread and smart balance. Watched episodes 22 and 23 of Heroes with Patrick. Dessert: one Ferrero Rocher. Worked on Lodestar. Patrick has decided to stop publishing new issues of Lodestar Quarterly, but we'll keep the issues we have online now. Today we listened to free music we received after ordering underwear online. One was Mika and the other was Kelly Sweet. Both discs had 3 tracks. Neither really registered with me. Patrick liked the Mika disc enough to keep it. I'm giving Kelly Sweet to Joel.
Thu May 24, 2007
Morning run: 10 minutes. Usual oatmeal breakfast and one slice of frosted lemon cranberry (?) pound cake. Interview process preparation. Helped Cindy and Steaven with a PharmAdMIT permissions issue. Interview process preparation. Lunch with Heidi at Ten. We talked about her new position and Met with student NG about various laptop issues. Made a small correction for Joel to the job postings html e-mail template. Interview process preparation. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover cacciatore chicken, bread and smart balance. Worked on forms for Danny. Uploaded more Hawaii vacation photos to Flickr.
Fri May 25, 2007
Morning run: 15 minutes. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Chatted briefly with Jina about a student name issue. Interview prep. Minor web edits and linkchecking. Laptop maintenance for student Incident response session with Tiki, Teresa, and Stephen L. Lunch with Joel and Ena at Lime Tree. I gave Ena some lip balm from Hawaii and bought lunch for both of them. We shared 2 orders of flat bread. Joel had chicken satay and a salad. I had yogurt chicken with rice. Ena had some kind of chicken with rice. About $35 after tip. Made live the web page showing the graduation ceremony date for next May for Joel. Cindy said we could leave at 3:00 PM today. Left around 3:30. Dinner at home with Patrick: bourbon and black peppercorn shrimp and lemon butter shrimp salad with heirloom tomatoes, bread and smart balance. Watched Barbra Streisand: The Concert (1994) on DVD with Patrick. My back feels almost completely better. I think it just needed some rest.
Sat May 26, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Met Geordino at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market. He introduced me to some really excellent coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee Company. We browsed the market stalls taking photos here and there—he's a photographer, too. Geordie stopped for a sausage sandwich. One stall sold burrushi (or burritoushi). We ran into Susan from Honolulu who was also at the market with her friend Carol. A fire truck was parked at the curb on the Embarcadero. A small boy jumped out, and a waiting fireman offered me a chance to sit inside. It was really neat, and I didn't want to take photos of the inside in case anything was top secret. I hopped out after a minute and asked him why the truck was here, was something going on? and he said, "No, we're just here for coffee," which made me laugh. It seems they prefer Peet's instead. Geordie's cousin Jake showed up, and we met. The three of us wandered more through the Ferry Building. I had mentioned I was looking for shoes, and Geordie and Jake had no other plans, so we headed into town on a shoe hunt. Along the way we ran into Mo from San Diego, we saw an elderly Asian man playing an erhu, we saw the Flatiron Building, we stopped at See's Candies. We stopped at North Face. Rex showed me the dial-on-the-back shoe which uses wire instead of shoelaces, but I wasn't interested. We went to Puma and Adidas. In both stores you can build custom shoes with the colors and detailing you choose. All the athletic shoe designs I saw today were too flashy or showy or complicated for me—I like clothing to be unbusy. One pair of non-custom Pumas might have worked except the shoe had a thick white edge/sole and I didn't want to spend time worrying about getting that dirty. We stopped at Bloomingdale's and I showed Geordie and Jake the fancy restrooms. We stopped briefly to watch the Louis Vuitton color wall. I went to H and M boys where I bought some clothes while Geordie and Jake waited and rested. We then headed to Kay Cheung in Chinatown for delicious dim sum. In Chinatown we saw a store where you can buy live chickens, ducks, pheasants, and other fowl. We saw a tea bar with a woman at the storefront playing a guzheng. Lunch at Kay Cheung was $30 after tip for 3 people. We watched a woman at a neighboring table pick out the fish she wanted from the live fish tank and see it show up cooked and whole on her table in only a few minutes. We walked along the edge of North Beach and found a really cool revolving door in the American Zoetrope Building. We walked under the Transamerica Pyramid tower and looked through the gate at the cool park next door. We walked through Embarcadero Center, stopping at Banana Republic for some shopping. We parted ways at Embarcadero Station—I needed to get home to get ready for dinner. Home by Muni. I fell asleep on the train and luckily woke up before my stop. Home. Tired. Nap. Woke. Dressed. Dinner at Remi and Jesse's with Remi, Jesse, Chris, Andy, and Patrick. Remi and Jesse prepared a lavish grill-on-the-table meal with vietnamese rice wrappers, shrimp, various marinated meats, lettuce, parsley, basil, tofu, cucumber, marinated cucumber, carrots, broken rice, kim chee, and more. We were warned to save room for dessert: Remi had prepared a fantastic coconut almond raisin clafouti. Afterwards we played two different board games. One was like the Newlywed Game, and the other made it fun and interesting to learn new things about the people playing the game. I can't recall the names of either of the games. Left around 10 or 11. Home.
Sun May 27, 2007
Breakfast: half of a blueberry scone. Brunch with Mom Ryan and Patrick at Pork Store Cafe (415-626-5523, 3122-16th Street at Valencia). I got eggs with tasty nest—a hash with bacon and green peppers and onions. It was very greasy and rich, so I only ate about half of it and save the rest for later. Patrick and Mom Ryan both got grits and biscuits (49ers sausage no gravy for Mom Ryan, eggs platter for Patrick). Large orange juice for me, tea for Mom Ryan, coffee for Patrick. Our server was M.C., and service was okay—she could have been more attentive with refilling coffee and water. Afterwards we walked back to Mom Ryan's and found Kerry at the laundromat and coffee shop across the street where we said goodbye to him. He's returning to New Orleans after not being very successful at making a living in San Francisco. Patrick and I went shopping at H and M boys. I didn't have measurements yesterday for what size pants I fit at H and M boys, and I didn't want to try clothes on while Geordie and Jake were waiting, so I returned today with the correct measurements (13-14Y) and bought a few other items including underwear and socks. I am pretty confident now that I can fit most things in the boys department at H and M, but the sizes of the items aren't consistent for me. After H and M we got a skinny chai tea latte at SBC inside Borders. Home. Dinner at home with Patrick: corned beef with carrots, mushrooms, and corn on the cob. Stayed home this evening. I reorganized my Flickr contacts, updated filter settings, etc. Uploaded some new photos (but haven't released them yet).
Mon May 28, 2007
Memorial holiday. Slept in. Showered. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Patrick and I packed a picnic and went to Golden Gate Park. Although it was sunny, we got lots of cold breezes. We got back in the car, crossed our fingers and drove out to Dolores Park where it was just as sunny but the breezes were slightly warmer and less frequent. We had a picnic on the grass in the sun. I read from Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran. Patrick read from The First Man by Albert Camus. We bought ice cream from a vendor walking through the park with a freezer cart. Patrick had a neopolitan sandwich, I had a piña colada fruit bar. Home. I vacuumed and dusted. I assigned safety filters and made public photos I took at the How Weird Street Faire. Installed the latest version of Flickr Uploader. OS X updates for Tina's new laptop. Uploaded more Hawaii trip photos. Started backfilling journal entries for the Hawaii trip. Dinner at home by myself: organic greens salad with heirloom tomatoes, frozen pizza. Home backups. Lots of photo uploading. Discovered urltea.com thanks to Jason S. It looks promising.
Tue May 29, 2007
On the morning bus today, as I got on, I noticed that one seat had a little bit of water in it. This usually happens when a window is left open overnight and rain falls inside and is not cleaned up by someone before the bus is put into service. I was careful to avoid sitting in the small pool of water and took a seat opposite that seat. At the next stop, an older Chinese woman boarded and without looking she sat down in exactly the one seat which had the pool of water. I expected her to immediately jump up and complain, but she said nothing and her face revealed no discomfort at all. A few stops later she got up to leave and since she was wearing light gray sweatpants I could easily see that the pool of water was now entirely soaked up and stained her bottom, and I had to surpress a small laugh. Fortunately for the next riders, the seat she left behind now appeared to be completely dry. SCC meeting - very short. Met with Susie (amgen grant, new hire, computer questions, met Frank Morales and Gary Meisner and Amanda Smith. Followup with AL about interviews. Followup with student MH about Outlook 2003 in Windows Vista. Followup with GE about key cabinet problem (Patty was very curt with me on the phone). Applicant resume review. Comp maint for AL: uninstall and reinstall Sygate, clean out registry of all brother and paperport entries. Street View in Google Maps is fantastic. Where art thou, A9? We missed you! Lunch by myself at a new restaurant called Good Earth Cuisine (415-661-1455, 9th and Irving). Flies in the dining area bothered me, but the food was tasty. My meal arrived on a paper plate. I thought it strange that the back of the menu paid such great attention to their scientific (or pseudoscientific) food formulations but they used paper plates instead of washing reusable plates. They provided silverware instead of plastic forks and knives. I guess plates were too much to handle. In the Bay Area, it's typical to see progressive foods and menus hand in hand with progressive kitchen practices, but not at Good Earth Cuisine. The entire experience is vaguely similar to nearby, well-established Pluto's. Dinner with PDD at PDD: Danny made noodles with long, crunchy greens. He said they were similar to (or a kind of?) watercress.
Wed May 30, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Interview prep, interview. Helped student RC with computer questions. Lunch: Panda Express. My fortune: Be daring, try something new. Lots of small web edits: health services co-pays web page and paper form, added graduation ceremony to academic calendar, updated all web calendars. Helped student MB with computer questions and setup. Installed QuickTime 7.1.6 for nearly all office computers. Cleaned out the registry of Brother and Scansoft entries for Alyssa's computer. (Did I do this before? I think now that I had.) I met my mom for dinner at Gaspare's, and it was the first time I had seen her in perhaps 6 years. The only reason I agreed was that she had finally done the right thing by asking if I was available and what time would work for me rather than simply dropping in unannounced or with only one day's notice without me agreeing to a visit. The night held many surprises for me. Dad had led us to believe he would join us and drove off in the car trying to find parking, but after half an hour of waiting we decided to just start without him. I had known after only 5 minutes of waiting that he wasn't going to show up, and his not showing up disappointed me. Mom had spaghetti with meat sauce, I had the full dinner of half spaghetti and half ravioli with meat sauce. She ate the salad, I ate the minestrone soup. We both ate bread. We shared one piece of tiramisu for dessert. We talked about herbal medicine, her family, friends, Social Security, what it means to be gay, whether people are born gay or not, one's age in American years versus one's age in Chinese years, Alzheimer's, asthma, hernias, prostate cancer, eye problems, Patrick Ryan, the Ninburgs (Becky or possibly Rebecca, Patrick, and—she says Scott, but I think it was not Scott but I can't remember his name now—maybe Mike or Michael?), the police. I didn't know (or possibly didn't remember) that my mom had worked in her father's herbal medicine store in Taiwan from age 11 to age 25. She said her sister Julie did also a lot and her brother James did also a little. Her innocence (or ignorance) about some things like gay people surprised me a little, and I had to admit there was a charm to the manner in which she spoke which I had missed. Many times I wanted to laugh not in a mean manner but instead because I was amused; I was laughing on the inside. "I have walkie-talkie!" and "I am just a housewife" and the walkie-talkie ringing loudly in the middle of dinner ("Hello? Hello? Hello?")—you had to be there. She seemed a lot more lucid than I remember her being in the 1990s. Previously I thought it was my father who needed to be saved from my mother mostly because of a particular incident involving a kitchen knife and the police, but now (at least from tonight's events) it appears that my mother is the one who needs saving from my father, and who knew that she would be more accepting of gay culture than my dad? I actually had fun talking to my mom even though she would switch back and forth between lucidity and nonsense throughout our entire conversation. She still goes on and on about money matters, Social Security, and who owes the government what money, none of which seems to make much sense. When we discussed my being gay I could tell that she wasn't very accepting of it, but she readily agreed to no longer call it a problem after I had asked her to, and that surprised me. Gaspare's turned out to be a really good place to meet because I didn't want anyone to hear our crazy and possibly embarrassing conversation. The dining crowd's conversation during prime dinner hours (6:00 to 7:30 PM) and the golden oldies jukebox essentially prevented anyone from overhearing us. She told me that my grandmother (her mother) was 88 years old—but 89 years old in Chinese years. I asked her to explain, and she said that Chinese people add 10 months to the age for the time the child spends in the womb (-- I didn't ask why 10 and not 9 --), and this gets rounded to one additional year. Every Chinese New Year it's added. I asked her if all Chinese count age that way and she said yes. As we were leaving the restaurant I saw that she had her beige overcoat on her shoulders without her arms through the coat's arms and told her, "Are you sure you don't want to put your coat on?" We went outside and spent a few minutes waiting to see if my dad might magically show up in the car. She was outside all of 5 minutes before she was adjusting her coat so that she could put her arms through the coat's arms. I took her photo a few minutes before she pulled out a thin, red scarf and tied a half knot under her chin to keep her hair tidier. She wanted to walk around just to see if he was parked nearby, and we ended up walking 2 blocks up and 2 blocks back—nothing. All the while she's pressing the CALL button on the walkie-talkie—breep-breep-breep-breep, Hello? Hello?—but no response. While in the restaurant we thought there was no way to reach him because she was carrying their only cellphone, but now as she tried to find her cellphone so we could call for help (cab, information about a nearby hotel, etc.) we realized that the cellphone was probably in the car and not in her purse at all. I thought him very irresponsible for leaving my mom stranded like that. I reminded my mom that she had done the same thing to me and dad a long time ago—she had left us stranded at a faraway shopping mall just as it was closing and my brother had to come pick us up after we discovered that she had driven all the way home. I think I was in high school when it had happened. Immediately she burst out laughing, and I had to as well—it was indeed a very similar situation. "I had to go to the bathroom" was her explanation tonight when I reminded her of that event, and there was no further explanation or discussion about it. I was all set to hail her a cab and have her check herself in to Holiday Inn or something like that. (She didn't like the Days Inn at the beach because it was coooooooold!) But then—45 minutes we had left the restaurant—we hear him on the walkie-talkie and he drives up about a minute later. He refused to say hello to me even though I said hello to him quite cheerfully. I gave my mom a hug and said goodbye with a smile and they drove off. I took the bus home. One bus I think didn't show up or was late, so it took me about an hour to get home even though I walked about 10 blocks. Good old Muni. Good old San Francisco. My mom wants me to call or write her, and I think quite possibly I shall.
Thu May 31, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Interview prep, interview. Late lunch: sandwich, Sun Chips, and Dr. Pepper from Subway. Chatted briefly with Michael K. Chatted briefly with student JC. GE returned my e-mail; they will send a replacement lock—hooray! Archived documents. Chatted with Dr. Kishi briefly about listservs. Helped Joel set leading on text in one of our Word templates. Web edits: grievance procedures, Hansten's commencement speech, tour page, current students news (Firefox 1.5 users should upgrade to Fx 2.0.0.4). Visited the Manga preview at the Asian Art Musuem with Patrick. Dinner at Indian Clay Oven with Patrick: members only Manga preview. My first time ever playing 2addicted.com. I got a score of 940—985 without mistypes—and 99.1% accuracy which was (currently) 161th place. The game ended because Workrave kicked in and I tried to set it to suspended to disable it. Thanks to Andy for the fun link.