April 2013
Summary: Day with Will (Museum of Craft and Design grand opening, G.I. Joe: Retaliation), Amber and Eric's Housewarming, Matt and Jaime visit, new dining table arrives, Will's going away bar crawl
Dates on this page
Mon Apr 1, 2013
Rode Muni to 9th and Judah. Breakfast by myself at M's Cafe: two eggs scrambled, home fries, wheat toast, and one pancake. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Helped Mike W resolve a problem with the main display in the IRC. I was unable to resolve a problem with the lights failing to light. Followup with student NN about a problem reported last year. Listserv management. Resolved small errors on the Bowl of Hygeia page for Sue A. Management activities. Resolved small edits for Cindy on the proposed technology requirements, still waiting for Frances to review. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Helped student LV with a question about APeX support on tablet or other small computers. Coded the current students calendar, sent it to Cindy for review. Checked with OEIS about Peter A's request for a new mailing list solution, Kylie will call him to determine whether CLE is a viable option. Followup with many about a new video featuring Esteban B. Supp app PDF and InDesign followup with Lisa D and Jon J. Followup with Cindy about the RB podcast. Errands: dropped off my night guard with the dentist for cleaning. Lunch at Perilla: vegetables and tofu over steamed rice, thai iced tea. Errands: snailmailed federal tax returns, bought some groceries, picked up the night guard. Files synch script work: now done (again), must test (again). Archived documents. Rode Muni home, encountered Chris G on his way to meet Theora for kickboxing practice, got stuck in the door to bus 66 because it automatically closed on me shortly after the driver turned the bus off. The driver was very apologetic, and it didn't hurt, so I didn't make a fuss over it. Dinner at home with Patrick: pinto bean stew with pig over rice, hot water. Installed some new cables in my computer area. Finished watching Red Rock West on Netflix DVD with Patrick. This film was great, and I especially loved the ending. Late meal: leftovers: rosemary chicken, diced carrots and parsnips with sausage.
Tue Apr 2, 2013
Various stretches. Weight training: tricep kickback. Breakfast at home: pecan-ginger granola with diced bosc pear and hemp milk and soy milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. 1-on-1 conf call with Rodney. Reviewed lab use Qualtrics survey, sent to Cindy. Check-in meeting with Susie and Eric. Followup with Peter A and Marisol G about mailing lists: they will use Excel spreadsheets. Footer fixing, lab sites styling. Reviewed new furniture proposals, sent Valerie a decision. Late lunch by myself at Beautifull: half sandwich and soup: tuna salad, tomato basil. Water from my Contigo water bottle. Errands: Walgreens. Lab sites styling. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Created a spendgo account following lunch at Beautifull.
Wed Apr 3, 2013
Breakfast at home: granola with yogurt and soy milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus, chatted with Christina C on the way about Drupal 7 projects, Chapter Three, and B'stro (aka Creative Bistro or Creative B'stro). Linkchecking, kiosk work. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Theming. Handed the synch files script to Eric and Greg after Eric and I tested it out a bit. More decisionmaking for new office furniture. Lunch at Noah's Bagels: lunch lox and schmear on sesame bagel, toasted; side of potato salad; pickle; raspberry lemonade; $10.64. Theming. Content management: Renslo, Desai. More technology requirements work. Posted an updated current students calendar for Cindy. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. Dessert: one chocolate-covered cherry. Wrapped a gift. Recharge Spa work for Drew: forms, facials (one page). Craigslist ad maintenance: renewed ads, lowered the price on Patrick's iMac. Late snack: popcorn, one chocolate-covered cherry.
Thu Apr 4, 2013
Weight training: standing dumbbell curl. Breakfast at home: 2 eggs scrambled with cheese, fresh dill, and a can of tuna; hot water. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Picked up a network cable order that had arrived at my Parnassus office. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Tried using one cable but found that the external hard drive I purchased a few weeks ago doesn't work. I need more hardware to troubleshoot this. Set up Time Machine on the laptop, didn't do this until now because I was too frequently on the go and TM needs to sit still for a few hours for at least the first backup. Linkchecking, kiosk work. I've been using Microsoft Office 2013 in my Windows 7 VM for about a week or two now. Outlook 2013 is a nice change from Outlook 2010 except that it is so slow I forget what I'm doing. Sometimes it just hangs Windows completely. I spent about an hour today turning off all unnessary features: unnecessary sounds, unnecessary animations, unnecessary hardware acceleration. I also made optimizations in Windows 7. Basically I felt like I had to turn off everything that made it graceful and pretty such as Windows Aero. I'm very disappointed in the MIcrosoft Office and Microsoft Windows team. There are only a few main reasons why I still use Windows: (1) calendaring in Outlook for Windows is not supported in the same way in the browser or on Outlook 2011. You can't get the calendar overlays or side-by-side calendars anywhere else. You can't get the forever-scroll feature anywhere else (e.g., seeing the last week of one month followed by the next month). And you can't do some of the delegate work on any of the other platforms. (2) I still use HTML-Kit a lot (but that's changing). (3) Some things in which I have to work in Windows because someone eise is in Windows and I have to match a test case (e.g., testing behavior of disabling Java). (4) browser testing. Installed Office 2011 for Mac on my iMac at Laurel Heights. I had trouble finding the installer on the network because someone filed it under Apple instead of Microsoft, Jerry T helped me find it. Began form activities for Susie following team planning. Began planning for DrupalCon Portland (May 20 to 24). Calendar management. Lunch at Pasta Pomodoro: lunch special: conchiglie with grilled chicken, sundried tomatoes, and broccoli; side caesar salad; water. My main course tasted really chemically to me but I ate it all anyway. I couldn't determine exactly what was causing the off taste. It was partly because the broccoli was more bitter than usual, which can be normal. I think it also had something to do with the grill since I got more of the chemical taste when eating the parts of the chicken that touched the grill. Perhaps the chicken seared too long (the black lines were particularly dark) or perhaps the chicken picked up lighter fluid or something else. Bought a cherry bomb from Cal-Mart, which I ate later in my office. The cherry bomb is a meringue filled with cherries and almonds. It's a delight of flavors and textures. Upon the first bite it basically fell apart in my hand and mouth (but I didn't drop any of it). The outside is crunchy, the middle is soft and chewy, almost gooey. Parts of the middle got on my fingers, making them really sticky. In between the soft center and the crunch of the crust is yet another texture that is not quite foamy and not quite spongy but a little of both. I put this in the same exalted category of particularly tasty delights in which sits the ricciarelli from Arizmendi Bakery. Small web update for Susie: interim dean. Posted an updated schedule for Lucia. Theming, worked a bit with Eric 1-on-1. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home, chatting with Bill S briefly. I forgot to mention that in the past day or two I saw Karl B eating at Millberry Union on my way home but was catching a bus so I didn't have time to stop to say hello so I waved instead and he waved back. Dinner at home with Patrick: thai food delivery from Sri Thai (4621 Lincoln Way). Food is tasty, no problems. The tamarind dipping sauce that came with the fresh rolls was distinctively tasty. Newsletter work for Lani: nameplate build. I'm helping my sister create a newsletter for a school that the kids attend.
Fri Apr 5, 2013
Weight training: front raise. Breakfast at home: ginger-pecan granola with fresh, diced apple and lactose-free reduced-fat milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Styling and templating of lab websites. Attended the MCCA renewal session by teleconference. Resolved a problem with giant thumbnails in the admin interface by creating a new subtheme of Seven called Seven Adjusted. Sent an announcement to students about the Mac Minis in the computer lab following Rodney's action to join them to the domain. Followup with David and Eric about ITFS: you're now on it (basic). Followup with Thanh and Shirin about Win 7 64-bit install. Followup with Adam R, Kevin L, Eric, and Susie about lab website content. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. I can't remember what I had for lunch or dinner.
Sat Apr 6, 2013
Weight training: dumbbell fly, wrist curl. Breakfast at home: ginger-pecan granola with fresh, diced apple and lactose-free reduced-fat milk. Rode Muni to Church Street Station. Bought some soap at Walgreen's. Met Will at 24 Hour Fitness. Brunch at Chilango: tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa to start, chicken enchiladas and Coke for him, veggie tamales and lemonade for me. $42.41 before a generous tip. We walked to Dolores Park. Will hadn't seen the new playground before, so we explored that a bit. We watched Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence try to fly kites. (It wasn't windy enough.) We walked to Bi-Rite Creamery and stood in a really long line for ice cream: mint chip and cookies and cream single in a sugar cone for Will, coffee toffee (Ritual coffee, almond toffee) and hazelnut with dandelion chocolate's cocoa nibs. We drove to Dogpatch to visit the grand opening of the Museum of Craft and Design. Current exhibits: Michael Cooper: A Sculptural Odyssey, 1968-2011; Arline Fisch: Creatures From the Deep; and Rebecca Hutchinson: Affinity. I enjoyed the exhibits by Michael Cooper and Arline Fisch. The Michael Cooper exhibit was particularly excellent, representing a mind-boggling number of hours of exact craftsmanship. Drove to Fifth and Mission garage. Watched G.I. Joe: Retaliation (aka G.I. Joe 2) at AMC Metreon, $12 each. I enjoyed it despite not being able to follow the thin plot exactly, perhaps due to many characters with masks and not being familiar with the earlier cartoon series or the first film. Some scenes I was laughing because they were so implausible. Still, a good time. Parking: $4.50, pretty cheap. We had wanted a late dinner and I called ahead to Specchio which had tables but we couldn't find parking in the Mission at 9 PM so we drove to Noe Valley instead. Lupa was our target, but it was soon to close. We next tried Pasta Pomodoro, but it had appeared to already be closed. So we ate at Paxti's, which Will had never had before and which he seemed to enjoy very much: butter leaf lettuce salad to share, Coke for Will, iced tea for me, The Favorite in 12 inches to share. We each took two slices home. $42.41 before a generous cash tip. (Coincidence!) Will dropped me off at Castro Street Station before driving home. Rode Muni home, chatted with Whitney and Emron who were in town visiting from the east coast. A fine day.
Sun Apr 7, 2013
Rode Muni to Powell Street Station. Met Danny at Union Square. Breakfast with Danny at Sear's Fine Foods. He had never been and did not seem particularly impressed, perhaps because they didn't prepare his hash browns as he had requested: extra crispy. Shopping: Apple Store (Thunderbolt-to-ethernet adapter for home), Crate & Barrel (a housewarming gift), Brooks Brothers (Danny shopped but didn't buy anything). Danny hadn't eaten much of his breakfast and was hungry again so we stopped at Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant and he had a spicy noodle soup. He wanted to go to the Asian Art Museum which was free today, but the line was much too long for us. Instead we visited the Civic Center farmer's market. He bought eggs and vegetables. I bought 4 bundles of herbs for $3. The organic eggs were a particularly good deal: 20 for $5. Rode Muni home. I made myself a mung bean noodle soup with herbs and hearts of romaine with shrimp broth. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: he had leftover Paxti's pizza and a small hearts of romaine salad, I had a small hearts of romaine salad, we both had white wine (Chateau Ducasse bordeaux 2011). Small edit for Patrick's website: replaced a photo of Simmone. Edited and uploaded photos to Flickr. I started taking photos again recently. Because the screen doesn't work well I've been using the viewfinder more. I'm still in the market for a new camera but haven't found time to make a decision about which one I want. Late meal: a few bites of leftover quinoa spaghetti in marinara; gardenburger.
Mon Apr 8, 2013
Breakfast at home: oatmeal with diced gala apple, cinnamon, lactose-free reduced fat milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Helped Joel resolve a problem with PharmAdMIT: probably corrupted tables. Dirty reinstall did not fix it. Clean reinstall did. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Found a small editing error in our news, reported the problem to our team. Found errors with links in the UCSF banner on Drupal Web Content Starter Kit sites, notified John K and Courtney A. Found that SCUR broke banner links across hundreds of UCSF web properties, notified them and others of the problem. Followup with student CY about Box. Listserv management. Chatted with Alex about the situation with Java. People in our office still need it, and there's no good way that lets them operate safely while still getting work done, so I decided today to leave Java installed, not mess with whether it's working in the default browser, and to warn staff about opening links or attachments that are untrustworthy. Lunch to go from Panda Express: panda bowl with brown fried rice and mixed vegetables. My fortune: You will soon find new adventure in life. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Social Media meeting with Eric, Paula, Shirin, and Sara. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Notified Susie that the orgchart for which SCUR is responsible still shows Mary Anne as our dean. Followup with OSACA about the Java situation. Followup with Tran about my unresolved problem with PGP and external hard disks and unreadable data. Tried to add a new user to Radian6, failed. There is no obvious way to delete existing, inactive users. When I try to add a new user, I receive an error: "The domain in this email address is not in the approved list of domains. Please contact support to have this domain added to the list of approved domains for your account. (OK)" Patrick picked me up in the car. We drove to the Mission. We originally planned to eat at Limon on South Van Ness, but that plan was aborted. Dinner with Patrick and PDDR at Hi-Lo BBQ: BBQ feast for six (St.-Louis-cut spare ribs, beef brisket, beef hot links) with six sides (pull-apart potato rolls with whipped butter, bbq baked beans with burnt ends, potlikker collard greens, old guilford mills cheezy grits, fried brussels sprouts, salted butterscotch cookies), house red syrah, Deschutes Obsidian Stout. About $200. Food is tasty, but this isn't the best BBQ in town. The ribs were not fall-off-the-bone tender. However, if we return, Patrick would like to try the chicken. Drew loves the salted butterscotch cookies. (I do, too.)
Tue Apr 9, 2013
Breakfast at home: oatmeal with diced gala apple, cinnamon, 1% milk. Installed my Efficient Velo Tools Safe Zone bicycle helmet mirror using zip ties. It is comically large, but it works, and I'm not that worried about how others think I look. Connecting the two main pieces was harder than I expected, and it separated unexpectedly when I adjusted it a certain way. I think these are things I'll get used to over time. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Calendar management. Followup with Iana about Radian6 account setup. Followup with Tran about my unresolved problem with PGP and external hard disks and unreadable data. Followup with student CY about Box. Purchased additional fonts required for the redesign project. Followup with Dan P about a problem student AC reported last year. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Styling and templating of lab websites. Lunch by myself at Beautifull: 3 sides: asian noodle salad, broccolini, curried tofu, water from my Contigo water bottle. Styling and templating of lab websites. Calendar management. Dinner by myself at Rigolo: mac and cheese, side of grilled green beans, water: $13.03. After dinner I saw a BMW that had the California license plate of ORKUT. Rode my bike home. Weight training: tricep kickback. Late meal: two veggie burgers, leftover corn bread, salted butterscotch cookies.
Wed Apr 10, 2013
Weight training: lateral raise, standing leg lift, crunch, lying leg lift. Tennis ball back massage. Breakfast at home: granola with milk. Rode my bike to UCSF Parnassus. OSACA staff meeting. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Mount Zion. Lunch at My Father's Kitchen: noodles with three-animal imperial rolls (crab, shrimp, pig). UCSF shuttle from Mount Zion to Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Followup with student CY about Box. Followup with Doug M about an order placed on March 22. Followup about UCSF banner issues. Radian6 work: added Iana. Styling and templating of lab websites. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode my bike home. Shower. Dinner at home with Patrick: indian food delivery from Clay Oven. Watched half of Bam Bam and Celeste on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Answered an HTML color question for Sara.
Thu Apr 11, 2013
Breakfast at home: granola with milk. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Small web edit for Cindy and Joel: entering students page. Finished the table cover job for Shirin. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Styling and templating of lab websites. Late lunch at Beautifull: curried cauliflower soup and half sandwich of albacore tuna, water from my Contigo water bottle. Styling and templating of lab websites. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home: leftover indian food. Began 1st-pass editing Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book: pages 109 to 126.
Fri Apr 12, 2013
Breakfast at home: oatmeal with lactose-free milk. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Troubleshot a problem with QBC sites news and announcements nav item missing. Grad ceremony pages updates for Danielle: flowers. Followup with purchasing teams regarding the order I placed on March 22. It was lost, so I placed it again. Lunch from The View Cafe: small bowl of brown rice with tofu and vegetables, two small egg rolls: about $6. In troubleshooting server delays, I switched from using wireless to wired. This seemed to resolve a lot of the delay. I ran a speed test on the wired connection: 92 Mbps down and 74 Mbps up—amazing. Styling and templating of lab websites. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home: small bowl of corn off the cob, veggie burger with red onion, 8 ounces of carrot juice, hot water. Weight training: standing dumbbell curl. Late snack: shoestring french fries from frozen, popcorn from a saucepan, 8 ounces of carrot juice, water.
Sat Apr 13, 2013
Breakfast at home: 2-egg omelette with diced red onion and cilantro, 2 hash browns, 3 strips of tempeh bacon. Laundry, took photos of things to get rid of, moved the coffee table and extra dining chairs to the garage. Shower. Drove to Oakland for Amber and Eric's housewarming party with Dickie, Jim, Lauren, Summer, Alex, David J, Paula J, Kailen and Zoe, and many others whose names I could not remember. A group played Cards Against Humanity, which I had never played or observed before. I enjoyed their homebrewed English bitter and a fruit punch. From the grill came hot dogs, cow burgers, and veggie burgers. Sides of chili and (I think) cabbage salad, chips and dips. Dinner by myself at Whole Foods Ocean Avenue: chicken burrito, cold peach tea. The burrito was spicy even though I was assured that it was not. Bought groceries. Home.
Sun Apr 14, 2013
Slept in. Breakfast at home: Whole Foods bulk cherry vanilla granola with soy milk. This granola is way too sweet, and I would not buy it again. Snack: half of a char siu bao Patrick received from Simmone. Lunch: rice vermicelli noodles with mint, basil, cilantro, fish sauce, bean sprouts, and chopped peanuts. Long nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: true cod grilled with mint, cilantro, basil, and rosemary; side of mashed potatoes; cocktails: rum, kahlua, and hazelnut torani. Finished watching Bam Bam and Celeste with Patrick on Netflix DVD. Watched The Simpsons "Black-eyed, Please" on Hulu with Patrick. This episode included a really cool opening sequence by Bill Plympton. Late snack: one navel orange.
Mon Apr 15, 2013
Breakfast at home: peanut butter granola with fresh, diced pink lady apple. Began required-every-two-years UC Sexual Harassment Prevention Training. Rode my bike to Laurel Heights, then realized that I am supposed to be at Parnassus today. Forwarded Sara a possibly relevant news story. Redirected a request from student CJ to the education team. Continued Sexual Harassment Prevention Training. Followup with QBC sites missing news and honors and awards pages. Followup with Ray C and now Jeff U about slow network behavior. Web edits for Susie: faculty listing. Chatted with student CY in the elevator, sent a link afterwards. Rode my bike from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. WCWG meeting. Late lunch from Panda Express: panda bowl: chow mein with mixed vegetables. My fortune: Happy events will take place shortly in your home. Continued Sexual Harassment Prevention Training. Began editing new student profiles for Shirin. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home with Patrick: rice capellini with grilled herbs, red onion, and asparagus with feta cheese. Did research for a vacation to Disneyland.
Tue Apr 16, 2013
Weight training: front raise, lateral raise. Breakfast at home: oatmeal with fresh, diced pink lady apple and cinnamon. Rode my bike to UCSF Parnassus. SCWG meeting. Chatted with Dan P and Kirk H about motorcycling and court cases. Chatted with Dan P about student AC and the problem reported last year still unresolved. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. PID page update for Shirin. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Job description work for Susie most of the day. Lunch from The View Cafe: veggie california sandwich on rye with everything on it and a side pickle, water from my Contigo water bottle. Sprint end meeting with Susie, Eric, Rodney, and Greg. Errands: hardware store, bought two cherry bomb meringues from Cal-Mart. Snack: a cherry bomb. Finished reviewing new student profiles for Shirin. Snack: a banana. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home by myself: I made rice vermicelli noodle soup in vegetarian broth with mint, cilantro, mushrooms, tomato, cabbage. Dessert with Patrick: one cherry bomb each.
Wed Apr 17, 2013
Weight training: standing dumbbell curl. Breakfast at home: oatmeal with sliced banana, cinnamon, soy milk. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Job description work for Susie most of the day. Also: 1-on-1 with Eric: we began setting up dev.pharm. 1-on-1 phone call with Michael W. Lunch at Beautifull: seafood and vegetables stew (which was really salmon and vegetables stew) over golden quinoa, water, chocolate-chip cookie. Chatted with Eric twice about images and caption handling. Encountered loss of data while saving a Microsoft Word 2011 document on the network, reported the problem to ITS. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home with Patrick: veggie burgers with shoestring fries from frozen, hot water.
Thu Apr 18, 2013
Breakfast at home: small bowl of peanut-butter granola with soy milk. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Posted updated P1 and P2 schedules for Lucia. Followup with blinds order with Paula. Followup with Tran about data loss and slow network issues. Followup with Michelle A about SDMC and lab website new copy. Videoconference 1-on-1 with Cindy. Lunch at Beautifull: special: cheese ravioli in marinara sauce (hot), caesar kale salad, asian noodle salad, water. Followup with Shirin about including the computer services handout in the next provisional admit mailing. Followup with OSACA staff about the renaming of printers. Followup with Connie D about a question about Radian6. Followup about RB podcasts. Followup with student RC about continuing at UCSF. Chatted briefly with Eric. Met 1-on-1 with Susie. We replaced Joe G's photo with a newer one. Updated Joe G bio for Susie, sent it to her for review. Edited SMDC copy from Michelle A. Followup with Mark B and Kwong L about too much spam and about Barracuda not working as expected. Reminded Dan P about the issue we talked about on Tuesday regarding student AC. Snack: oatmeal-raisin cookie from Beautifull. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home: Trader Joe's asian noodle salad, a cocktail: banana schnapps, creme de cacao, vodka, almond extract. I used too much almond extract—it really needs only a drop. Snack: tortilla chips and pico de gallo. Late meal: Joe's O's (pasta in tomato sauce) from a can.
Fri Apr 19, 2013
Vacation day. Slept in some. Cut my hair. Skipped breakfast; not enough time. Rode Muni to Civic Center Station. Met Max, Alex, Paul, Akemi, Kiana, Matthew, Jeremy, Lani, and Rob at Asian Art Museum for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. We lunched at various restaurants along Larkin Street. I ate a chicken-fried impersonator (battered, deep-fried meatless chicken patty served on maple waffles with jalapeno cole slaw and maple bbq sauce) with a side of potato salad from Soul Groove ($11). It was yummy, best if you add maple syrup with the bbq sauce for the sweet and tangy. Paul and Alex left early for soccer practice. The rest of us continued to Bi-Rite Creamery for ice cream. I had a single regular cake cone with salted caramel (regular menu) and milk chocolate peanut-butter swirl (seasonal). The swirl is particularly dense and creamy, more so than the other flavors I have tried. Afterwards we spent about an hour at Helen Diller Playground at Dolores Park mostly riding slides. A few photos from the top of the hill. They dropped me off at home. Lani gave me some chocolate-chip scones she had made. I gave them a batch of Honolulu Cookie Company cookies I had purchased recently. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: mushroom risotto from frozen with fresh, grilled asparagus; hot water. Drove to SFO, picked up Matt and Jaime, drove to the Castro. Pizza slices at Escape from New York Pizza, then drinks at Toad Hall, then we drove to Twin Peaks (the city overlook, not the bar).
Sat Apr 20, 2013
Pre-brunch: two small chocolate-chip scones. Waited in line at Outerlands for over an hour. (I didn't keep track.) Brunch at Outerlands with Matt, Jaime, Holly. Holly had a grilled cheese sandwich. Matt had eggs over toast. Jaime had a turkey sandwich with side salad. I had a roast beef sandwich with side salad. Espresso for Matt and Holly. I had a lemon-apple cider, cold. Food was excellent. Afterwards we walked on Ocean Beach for a while, then we drove in Holly's white Prius across Golden Gate Bridge to Conzelman Road for the view. We drove closer to the bridge and discovered a small parking lot on the northwest corner of the bridge that had lots of spaces available. We crossed to the northeast side of the bridge via an underpass for pedestrians only, then walked to the north tower before returning. Holly drove us back to my car, then Matt, Jaime, and I drove home. They refreshed then took Muni to dinner with friends who canceled at the last minute. They dined at Heirloom Cafe then went to Twin Peaks, Hi Tops, and Blackbird before cabbing home. Patrick and I had dinner at home: chicken legs from frozen and fresh vegetables in thai yellow curry from a jar with biryani from frozen, naan from frozen. Patrick and I went to bed early. I couldn't remember if it was okay to put bones in the compost and rediscovered my journal entry of April 24, 2006. It wasn't until a bit later that I found my journal of January 9, 2007. Basically, in most places you should not put bones in compost but in San Francisco it's okay.
Sun Apr 21, 2013
I slept for 10 hours straight last night, then returned to sleep for another 3. Woke around 9:30. Pre-brunch for Matt and me: Whole Foods cherry-vanilla granola with milk (Matt) and soy milk (me); orange juice for Matt, water for me. Jamie declined but had a glass of water. Today I learned from paintsquare.com that the Golden Gate Bridge is painted in PMS 173. Spent the day with Matt and Jaime. Coffee at Rolling Up. Brunch at Kingdom of Dumpling: pork dumplings, shrimp and chive dumplings, double order of onion pancake, chinese donut (which was really a bean paste pastry, not a donut). This was the perfect amount of food for three. Walked home. Drove to Outer Mission, parked next to Precita Park. Walked and shopped in the Mission, mostly taking photos of murals. We encountered outerbody.org which looked fun but we didn't go in and considered returning later. Got drinks at Sidewalk Juice where there was an unfortunate and upsetting 20-minute delay between Matt-and-Jaime's order and mine. Window-shopped and shopped. Matt encountered an ex of his named Chris at Buffalo Exchange. Frances joined us. We stopped at Bi-Rite Grocery to pick up refreshments. I bought a turkey and swiss sandwich ($9), Honest Tea honey green ($2), Vitamin Water ($2), and Rusty's Island Chips ($2.89). We sat in Dolores Park and chatted for a while. Clare K joined us. Frances took off to do some errands. We walked with Claire back to her place which was also Matt's former home. Met Chris, Leif (Leaf?), and Sophie. Matt, Jaime, and I walked back to my car at Precita Park. We drove to the Inner Richmond. Dinner at Cafe Europa with Matt, Jaime, Frances, Holly, and Will. (This is where I met Will.) I had beef stroganoff. Frances and Will each had goulash. Matt had cabbage rolls. Jaime had homemade sausage with lamb and beef over sauerkraut. Holly had schnitzel (I think it was pork not chicken). Appetizers to share: mushroom crepes, cucumber with some kind of white sauce, beet salad. Dessert at Toy Boat with the same group: ice cream and warm chocolate cake.
Mon Apr 22, 2013
Weight training: standing dumbbell curl. Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh, diced pink lady apple; cinnamon; soy milk. Rode my bike to work. The new MacBook Air for the OSACA arrived, so I took photos of the box labels, unpacked it, took more photos of the inside box label, and fully unpacked it, then labeled it with the Brother P-Touch. It fits perfectly inside the black Quickie I had ordered from Timbuk2, perhaps a hair too snugly. Forwarded an announcement from Zenas H. Followup answering a question for Kate V. Resolved a broken link for Joel. Image work for Susie: portrait of Joe G for Alumni Weekend. Followup with CPFM about work in the restroom at Laurel Heights. Followup with Nancy about documenting the department names as they appear in CLS. Followup with Alex about the new laptop setup. File upload for Joanne W and Sue A: biotech symposium. Followup with Melanie D and a postdoc fellow about email after leaving UCSF. Followup with Cindy about keeping old academic calendars. Followup with Shirin about the next provisional admit mailing. Began content insertion for two lab websites. Followup with Susie about the accreditation link in the footer. Chatted with Lisa about immortality and eternal life. Lunch to go from Perilla: vegetables and tofu over vermicelli noodles, thai iced tea. Walked to the botanical garden, encountered Shirin and Danielle finishing burritos from Gordo and in search of an ice cream truck rumored to be present in Golden Gate Park. We tried to visit the botanical garden since I had planned to eat my lunch there. They started charging but San Francisco residents can get in free. I didn't have my wallet, so I instead ate by the the baseball diamond. After finishing, I realized I did have my wallet after all, so I visited the botanical garden for a few minutes. It hasn't changed much since my last visit, and I overheard that the California wildflowers are currently in bloom. Headed back to work. Stopped at the no-name grocery store at 5th and Irving for basil and tofu. Encountered Jason in the elevator, chatted with him briefly. PharmD website content migration audit. Rode my bike home. Matt and Jaime had left a bottle of wine for us with a thank you note—nice! Dinner at home with Patrick: salad with feta, baby beets. Patrick also added a soy sauce egg and some tuna salad. Hot water. Patrick and I chatted on Facetime then Google Hangout with Tina. (Facetime was too choppy on our end and too echoey on her end whereas Google Hangout worked almost flawlessly.) Dessert: one warm chocolate-chip cookie each.
Tue Apr 23, 2013
Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Quick planning meeting with Eric and Susie. Lunch: california veggie sandwich with pickle slice, water. Sprint start meeting. Eric and I worked through some issues setting up the lab websites. Rode my bike home. The fog was starting to roll in, and the weather had turned frightfully cold to my dismay. My ride home was very chilly. Sold Patrick's four-year-old iMac for $629 to Martel T via craigslist. Dinner at home by myself: rice vermicelli in vegetable broth with cabbage, sliced baby zucchini, and basil. Unloaded weekend photos from the camera. Continued 1st-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book: I'm now on page 169. Late snacks: pistachios, cashews, popcorn from a saucepan, one navel orange.
Wed Apr 24, 2013
Breakfast at home: pumpkin flax granola with fresh, diced bosc pear. Rode my bike to UCSF Parnassus. Marshall Strategy meeting. Susie gave me a ride to Laurel Heights. Lunch at Beautifull: tea-smoked salmon, cauliflower salad, yellow beet salad, water from my Contigo water bottle: about $15. Lab website work: Renslo. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. ExamSoft SofTest installation on my computer. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home with Patrick: whole wheat rotini with grilled vegetables and fresh mozzarella. We opened the bottle of wine that Matt and Jaime had left for us—it's delicious.
Thu Apr 25, 2013
Today we expect to receive our new dining table, so I took photos of the old one in anticipation of selling or giving it away. The event also made us wonder how long we had had this dining table, so I found the receipt for it. We paid $118.80 on November 17, 2001 at 12:05 PM at the Crate & Barrel Outlet in Berkeley (510-528-5500). I remember that it was heavily discounted even though it was new and without defects. We've had the table for 4,177 days, or 11 years, 5 months, 9 days. It will soon be goodbye, and it has served us well. For about 2.8 cents a day, it has been a great investment. Selected my Thermodo color choice; I chose red. Breakfast at home: three-egg omelette with baby zucchini and grated three-cheese blend, two hash browns from frozen, two muffins from a tube, hot water, 8 ounces of apple juice. Telecommuted today so that I can receive the new dining table. Listserv management. Lots of email followup. Coded a new page for Joel—technical standards—then added it to the son of content inventory. Lots of styling work for the new sites: resolved footer quote at smaller browser sizes, added drop shadows to make a gift and search, added more hover behaviors, resolved lots of mobile device issues, set whitespace to nowrap for person-name so that the degree is not orphaned. Installed the replacement remote control for the Intelliseat—this one works, finally. This is the fourth remote control for the Intelliseat. #1 was the one that came with the toilet seat. #2 was a replacement that worked properly when #1 failed. #3 was a replacement that failed to work properly upon receipt. #4 was a replacement that worked properly when #2 and #3 failed. I fully expect to ask AMDM for another replacement within 8 months. We'll see how it goes. The new dining table arrived today. Two men from Crate & Barrel were right on time, and it took them only a few minutes to set it up. I was satisfied with their work but when the telephone survey asked me specific questions about what actions they were supposed to have taken, it seemed to me that the management expectation differed from what was actually happening. The survey went so quickly that I didn't know how to clearly communicate that. To me at the time the two men did a fine enough job, but in retrospect it could have been better. Dinner at home with Patrick. For our first meal together on the new table, we ordered delivery from Clay Oven West Portal and finished the wine we opened yesterday. Watched Life of Pi on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Delightful. Dessert: one chocolate-covered cherry. Replaced an ethernet cable not because it was broken but because it was too short and created a disturbing visual line across the wall so I replaced it with a longer cable.
Fri Apr 26, 2013
Weight training: tricep kickback. Breakfast at home: two eggs scrambled, two hash browns from frozen, two muffins from a tube, one pear, hot chai. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. Updated SOP IT documentation for Marketo. More lab website work. Rode my bike from UCSF Laurel Heights to UCSF Parnassus. Encountered Bill L at the elevator, said hello briefly. Content migration training session with Rodney and students KH and SD. Lunch: veggie wraps that a student had extra from an event. Assigned work to content migrators in Asana and Google Drive. More lab website work. Began content insertion for Desai Lab. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. Encountered an activation problem with Windows 7, reapplied my product key—unsuccessful until I logged in to VPN and started Network Connect. Windows updates. Continued 1st-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book: I'm now on page 179. Awoke in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep. Made a meal: shoestring french fries from frozen, veggie burger, hot water. Continued 1st-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book: I'm now on page 188.
Sat Apr 27, 2013
Slept in. Archived documents. Changed my account information for Living Social. Bicycle maintenance: washed the seat stem, remarked the seat height indicator, filled the tires with air. Spent some time browsing the 23andme website and my results. Late breakfast at home: three eggs scrambled, two hash browns, two biscuits with butter. Installed Windows updates. Folded and ironed laundry. Small meal with Patrick: corn and cheese tamales from frozen, hot water. Shower. Joined Will for his going away bar crawl. Lookout with will phi chad trevor hamish clarissa edgar françois. DJ Shawn P spun, music was excellent as always with Shawn. Dinner at Chow with Will: potstickers to share, Will had an albacore tuna melt and a Coke, I had a medium prawn louie salad and water. Will had never had the ginger cake with pumpkin ice cream, so we shared that for dessert. Our server was Steven 276. Service was excellent. After that the evening continued with a stop to 24 Hour Fitness where we chatted briefly with Lucas, then to Toad Hall with lisa vanessa (from virginia) wil joshuah najet jason sergio victor stephanie chris amy. Our visit was disturbed by a man who seemed really drunk. After brushing my knee with his hand a few times he took a drink from my drink! I asked Jason P to remove him from the bar, and he did. The creepy guy returned a while later and did the same thing to Jason in our party. I again asked staff to remove him, and they did. I took the last Muni train home and picked up tofu and vegetables fried rice from King of Thai Noodle to go before arriving home to eat.
Sun Apr 28, 2013
Uploaded photos to Flickr. Tried to change my Facebook cover photo, but the procedure failed twice, and I gave up. Repaired a broken seam in my black 511 Levi's jeans. Weeded Flickr contacts. Edited and uploaded more photos to Flickr. Brunch with Danny, Drew, Romy, Phil at their place with Quyen, three Indian co-workers of Quyen whose names I didn't record, Dave, Richard, Rob, Raphael, Scott, Francis. Phil prepared the brunch: sausages, ground turkey, veggie omelettes, meat omelettes, apple-liqueur-infused strawberries, grapes, veggie biscuits, meat biscuits, chilled fruit-and-herb-infused water, and more I forgot. For dessert Richard prepared bread pudding. Car wash at Divisadero Car Wash. Grocery shopping at Whole Foods on Haight, encountered Garrett V and said hello. Home. Applied some touch-up paint to the car. Dinner at home with Patrick: soup that Patrick made yesterday: cabbage, kale, sweet pea, basil, coconut milk, lemongrass; hot water. A little while after dinner Patrick and I opened the new extension dining table to its full length for the first time. Everything works as expected, and all three of the leaves are finished just as excellently as the rest of the table. We left the table in a new configuration with its short edge against the wall. I spent some time on chair foot pad maintenance and prepped 3M command strips for reconfiguring the lighting. I decided today I have to switch away from using Asana for our grocery list because most of the time Asana takes too long to open, crashes upon attempting to open, or I receive a busy signal error message ("trying to reach Asana"). Asana works great when I'm at a computer wired with ethernet, but it's a waste of time on my iPhone 3GS over 3G. Patrick says he encounters similar behavior on his iPhone 5 over 4G LTE. Web work for Recharge Spa. Weight training: standing dumbbell curl. Late meal: vegetable soup from a can. Continued 1st-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book: I'm now on page 197.
Mon Apr 29, 2013
Breakfast at home: oatmeal with fresh, diced gala apple. Rode my bike to UCSF Parnassus. Completed edits for the technology requirements, notified OSACA, OEIS, and SCWG. Followup with Alan W about registration services (e.g., EventBrite). Spent a lot of today on some much-needed, long-put-off linkchecking and kiosk work. Cleared away a lot of broken links, regenerated many kiosk slides with slightly updated information. Filed pcard paperwork. Lunch at San Tung: shrimp and scallops with noodles in peanut sauce. This dish needed more salt. My fortune: Next week, green is a lucky color for you. (13 14 16 21 23 34) Bought packaged ramen from a small Japanese store on Irving Street. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home by myself: leftover soup, naan from frozen. Lots of work on the Recharge Spa website for Drew. Finished 1st-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book.
Tue Apr 30, 2013
Organized stuff and labeled boxes in the closet. Weight training: front raise. Rode my bike to UCSF Laurel Heights. Linkchecking, kiosk work. More linkcheck followup and small web edits. More examination of current Drupal roadblocks and issues. Lunch at Eliza's: broccoli cashew chicken with brown rice, hot tea. My fortune: "Now is a good time for you to explore. Take a vacation." Bought some treats at Abundant Market. Beverage from The View Cafe: large chai tea latte. Met 1-on-1 with Eric to do Drupal work: resolved lab website URL alias issues, resolved panopoly issues in news pages. Some news page styling on my own. Helped Michelle K set up and use Box. Rode my bike home. Dinner at home: I made and ate mung bean noodle soup with vegetable broth, clove, chinese five spice, ground ginger, Dorot garlic, fresh basil, fresh bean sprouts, sliced mushrooms, lemon. Patrick ate leftover soup with naan from frozen. Dessert: Patrick and I shared one Ines Rosales' sweet olive oil torta. For about $1.40 you get a Spanish, circle-shaped pastry about 5 inches in diameter that tastes a little like a French palmier but half as thick and with a subtle flavor combination of sesame and anise. Delicate in flavor and texture, it's quite delicious. Began 2nd-pass editing of Patrick's second 100 pages of a new book.