December 2015
Summary: BK visits; winter solstice cocktail party canceled due to a cold I caught four days before my winter vacation began; cold recovery; pre-Christmas chat with family via FaceTime; caught a cold; built a new website for Tina using Grav; Christmas Eve dinner at Shotwell House; Christmas dim sum at Ton Kiang with Patrick, Sam, and Mom Ryan.
Dates on this page
Tue Dec 1, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Continued learning Spanish on Duolingo. It says I'm 19% fluent now. Breakfast from The View Cafe: egg and cheese on english muffin, small coffee with half and half: about $5. Listserv management. 1-on-1 with Susie. Aborted a double-booked meeting with Jamie K. Comm team meeting. Handled external comms for a website outage that was a duplicate of yesterday's. Lots of project management docs build for Calpoison (CPCS): project charter, statement of work, responsibility matrix. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: red beans and rice, ginger tisane for Patrick, water for me. Watched Superstore Pilot (season 1, episode 1) on Hulu with Patrick. It stars our friend Nico.
Wed Dec 2, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Followup with a student about computer problems. Followup with Marisol G about encrypted usb drives. Followup with Calpoison team. Handled a student's preferred name change request including listserv management and updating the students spreadsheet. Followup comms for yesterday's outage. Met with Susie, Paula, and Eric about the future of our Update from the Dean publication. Followup with a student about problems with ExamSoft SofTest and Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan. Listserv management: CSHP. Tried submitting a surplus pickup request but encountered trouble with the instructions. Sent a status update on encryption activities to key interested parties. No lunch. Rode Lyft Line to the Mission. Met Brendan at Benders, but it had been overrun by SF Fun Run runners, so we walked to Urban Putt and ate there instead. Brussels sprouts for him, chicken and waffle skewers and empanadas for me. Beer for both. No dessert. Afterwards we walked through the course and did not play. Rode Lyft Line home.
Thu Dec 3, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Breakfast at the JCC: egg and cheese wrap, small coffee with cream. Sprint standup. Followup with John I about CERSI. Responded to a request from Courtney A about photography and permission. Responded to two outage reports. Asked Cindy how she wants to proceed with the new recordings consent form. Met with Susie and Eric about the retheme project. Another web outage today but for only 10 minutes starting at 2:44 pm. Responded to Tran L about getting started with Drupal. Followup with Jamie K about training. Prepared pcard paperwork. Followup with Linda B about SofTest issues. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover enchiladas with steamed white rice. Sparkling water for Patrick, red wine for me. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 11, pass 1. Answered a question from a student encountering computer problems.
Fri Dec 4, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Got free staff appreciation breakfast at Moffitt Cafe: breakfast tacos, fresh fruit, pumpkin or ginger quickbread. Forgot to join today's sprint standup. Ate with almost all the office staff at the back table. Ilios 3.0 demo. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Phone meeting with Cliff B to walk him through edits on Renslo Lab. Competed building Calpoison's content inventory by hand since spider tools wouldn't work on it. No lunch. Lyft Line to SoMa. Dinner at AQ with Danny, Romy, Drew, Phil, Paul, Quyen, Dave. While the food was delicious, I most enjoyed the cocktails. Afterwards we returned to Shotwell House for cake and more libations. Rode Lyft Line home.
Sat Dec 5, 2015
Rearranged the bed in my room. Resolved a very strange problem on Patrick's iMac computer running Yosemite in which typing certain special characters like backslash or tilde would result in a different character with an umlaut like o with umlaut or u with umlaut. In Terminal, ls listings would appear with @ characters replaced by capital E with accent acute. And man ls would also show the incorrect characters. It was really freaky. All OS X updates had been installed. I restarted the computer, and that did not resolve the problem. I opened Disk Utility and repaired the startup volume once then repaired permissions several times. One more restart and it seemed the problem was gone. No breakfast. John S picked me up at home in his car and we drove to Fort Mason Center. We visited a printmakers exhibition and sale, and a ceramics sale. We stumbled upon Janet Cardiff's The Forty Part Motet (#40partmotet) and subsequently secured walk-up tickets to attend. The performance reminded me a little of Audium in the sense that it is an exploration of audio performance and space, but it's very different in a lot of ways. She recorded the Salisbury Cathedral Choir performing the choral work "Spem in alium nunquam habui" (Thomas Tallis) and each of the 40 singers were recorded individually. During the performance, 40 speakers are arranged in an oval, and the audience is permitted to walk throughout the space or sit—only two small benches are provided at the center. The large, waterfront warehouse room is entirely unheated; I found it uncomfortably cold. The performance lasts about 11 minutes. The view of sailboats passing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge provided an exquisite, unexpected beauty to the experience. During the performance, like everyone else in the room I remained still. However, near the end I realized that it was probably more valuable to walk around during it since you normally don't have that opportunity in traditional settings. Afterwards we stopped briefly at The Interval then drove to Japantown for a late lunch at Ramen Yamadaya. I had tonkatsu ramen with yamadaya topping ($12.45) with hot green tea and John had a kara-age chicken bento ($7.95) with Sprite. One of the thick chunks of meat in my ramen was noticeably and disappointingly dry in the middle, but another chunk of meat was perfectly tender. Not worth complaining about, and I did enjoy the dish otherwise. Among other things we talked about Japan, D.C., London, France, Oracle, startups, BMWs, and DoorDash. He dropped me off at home. Nap. Late dinner at home: small pastrami and cheddar sandwich with butter leaf lettuce, mayo, mustard; carrot juice; orange juice mixed with mineral water.
Sun Dec 6, 2015
Rode Muni to Civic Center Station then walked to brunch at Brenda's with Danny. Asian Art Museum with Danny. The Grove by myself. At Dirty Water I attended the Big Holiday LGBTQ Mixer supporting Equality Federation and hosted by Mark Daniel Snyder, $15 donation. The event sold out. Met or encountered conrad, chris, laurence, anis, willy, nick, adrian, jim, dale, martin, matt, yen, keith, tianfan, ricky, sharat. Conrad wore a memorably ugly Christmas sweater that was much too large for him. He found it at Cliff's Variety. Rode Lyft with Conrad to the Castro. Dinner at Tacos Orgasmico with Conrad. Lyft Line home with Conrad sharing the ride.
Mon Dec 7, 2015
Followup with a student and SofTest issues. Breakfast at home: one pink lady apple. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Sprint standup. EdTech meeting. Computer maintenance for Cindy and Joel. Microsites work: prelaunch signoff update for Burchard in Spanish, followup with Jamie K about training. Added new discoveries to the issue queue. Updated and distributed a new phone number cheat sheet. Walked to errands at 9th and Irving. Lunch at Perilla: vermicelli noodles with imperial rolls and bbq pork, iced vietnamese coffee. Rode Muni 44 and 1 from the Inner Sunset to Laurel Heights. Submitted a surplus pickup request (2 monitors in the Dean's Office Administration). Web updates for new hire Erin H. Followup with Mike H and Millo P about Mike's new profile page. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. No dinner. More room rearranging: rotated the bed 180 degrees. Lots of Recharge Spa work: task followup, lightbox final, another promo biz card final.
Tue Dec 8, 2015
Breakfast at home: fruit and nut granola with fresh diced pear and unsweetened soy milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Completed resolution of the four boxes problem on the admissions page for Joel. Orgchart work: OEIS. Tried and failed submitting a surplus pickup request. Followup activities for new hire Erin H. Made live Burchard in Spanish, performed postlive activities. Sent Tom and Stu completed prep documents in Google Drive. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: cheese ravioli with sauteed lacinato kale and shallots, water. Ripped and scanned my Young Sherlock Holmes two-disc soundtrack by Intrada which had arrived today.
Wed Dec 9, 2015
Breakfast at home: fruit and nut granola with unsweetened soy milk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Followup web outage notices. Followup with Burchard in Spanish golive. Lunch with BK at Artesano. Altered the job postings form for Lisa: Added Qualifications/Requirements field. Altered grad rate and grad performance page for Megan and Cindy (transposed tables). UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Stopped at Arizmendi Bakery for a few items. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: pizza using dough and salami from Whole Foods, red wine. Dessert: dark chocolate cookie from Arizmendi. Recharge Spa work: December newsletter. Installed lots of iOS, OS X, and other software updates for various devices.
Thu Dec 10, 2015
Breakfast at home: half each of a pecan roll and a pumpkin muffin. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Sprint standup by telephone. OSACA staff meeting. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Styling work in Drupal: adjusted tables and table headers on the grad rate page so that they fit on mobile. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: vegetable and tofu curry over steamed white rice. To bed early.
Fri Dec 11, 2015
Breakfast at home: granola with unsweetened soymilk. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Completed removal of course descriptions from core curriculum pages. Listserv management. Microsites work: status followup with Matt J. Received new OSACA e-letterhead from Lisa. Rode UberPOOL to SoMa: $4.75. Out in Tech San Francisco Holiday Party at Oasis, free but rsvp required. The event sold out. Met or encountered millo jon abe tim c keith nick jonathan jacob rob f philip adam (edthena) pele max chad emery scandy andrew c akshay laurie john npm sharat peter mike kenny jeff mark erik wing mark benjamin. Learned about yoshirts.com. Barhopped with some that I met to Powerhouse (carl long jason eddie jack jason henry) then The Cafe (brian, brian, michael w, michael). Rode UberPOOL home: $12.68.
Sat Dec 12, 2015
Slept in. Late lunch: leftover vegetable and tofu curry over steamed white rice. Dinner at home with Patrick: tofu tacos. Watched Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) on Netflix DVD with Patrick and popcorn. Edited and uploaded a photo to Flickr. Organized photo files. Archived documents. Late dessert: one scoop of burgundy cherry gelato from Holy Gelato.
Sun Dec 13, 2015
Breakfast: one-egg taco tofu hash. Updated my medic alert notices. Sewing projects: two small repairs. Watched Peak Design instructional videos for The Everyday Messenger and The Field Pouch. Did some tidying in the garden. Helped Drew with a mini photo frame project. Organized and deduped bookmarks in Chrome with help from Fast Bookmark Scanner by N.Zetoutou. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 11, pass 2. Dinner at home with Patrick: vegetable and rotelle soup. Watched Anjelah Johnson Not Fancy on Netflix instant watch with Patrick and chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough in a tub. We found it very funny and recommended. Cocktail: Firelit (Weaver's) with Rumpleminze. Submitted my rental car request.
Mon Dec 14, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Breakfast from The View Cafe: egg and cheese on english muffin. Lots of styling work today. Lunch: deli tempura shrimp roll from The View Cafe. Dinner at Shotwell House with special guests Vinh and Anna. Danny, Drew, Romy, Phil, Paul. The 5-course meal: acme bread, cauliflower and butternut squash soup, bacon-wrapped scallop, brussels sprouts, ginger salmon with fried rice. Dessert: pear-rosemary cake from Whole Foods.
Tue Dec 15, 2015
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Breakfast from The View Cafe: egg and cheese on english muffin. 1-on-1 with Susie. Comm team meeting. Lots of styling work today. No lunch. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover vegetable and rotelle soup, water. Started getting a sore throat. Orange juice.
Wed Dec 16, 2015
Had trouble sleeping last night and emailed in sick due to a sore throat. Slept in. Canceled a party. Canceled a visit to Sunnyvale. Canceled my Turo request. Breakfast: leftover vegetable and rotelle soup, carrot juice, orange juice. Rested. Ginger lemongrass green tea with honey throughout the day. Tried downloading and installing Zizmos for iOS and failed; their server seems to be down. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from SpoonRocket. Last time it took 45 minutes, and this time it was 5 minutes and one second. Patrick had roasted chicken breast with creamy mashed potatoes, blue lake green beans, and onion sauce. (contains dairy, wheat, soy) (~570 cal) I had smoked gouda mac and cheese with bbq pulled pork (meltingly tender barbecue pulled pork served over creamy and satisfying macaroni and blend of gouda, parmesan and cheddar cheeses with sweet corn and roasted Anaheim chilies, contains wheat, dairy, eggs) (~750 cal). Dessert: one gingerbread man cookie each. Total: about $20 after a $10 credit.
Thu Dec 17, 2015
Breakfast at home: hash browns, one egg over easy, one english muffin. My first time using the new 12-inch GreenGourmet non-stick skillet. Sick day: sore throat. Rested. Ginger lemongrass green tea with honey throughout the day. Late lunch: chicken and rice soup from a can. Dinner at home with Patrick: split peas with andouille and bacon crumble over steamed white rice. Watched 1:25:29 of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Fri Dec 18, 2015
Breakfast at home: tater tots, one-egg scrambled with taco tofu leftovers. Sick day: cold continues. Bath. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: he had a burrito from frozen, I had leftover split peas over steamed white rice. Finished watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Dessert for me: 6 tiny chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough.
Sat Dec 19, 2015
Breakfast: leftover vegetable soup. Cold continues. Late lunch: leftover ravioli with kale. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: fettucine with andouille, onions, and kale in marinara sauce, water. Watched Star Trek: The Next Generation "Devil's Due" on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Watched Star Trek: Voyager "Death Wish" on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Late snack: one tamale, 6 ounces of orange juice.
Sun Dec 20, 2015
Cold continues. Breakfast: leftover taco tofu with one scrambled egg, chicken apple sausage, 8 ounces of orange juice, water. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 12, pass 1. Late lunch: star pasta with marinara sauce from a can. Chatted with family on FaceTime. Began building a new website for Tina using a NoDB CMS called Grav. Dinner at home with Patrick: hard shell tacos, water. Watched Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. We encountered an electrical issue with our house that we were unable to resolve on our own, then reported the problem to our landlord. My bedroom and the bathroom are without power.
Mon Dec 21, 2015
Cold continues. Breakfast: egg, sausage, and cheese on english muffin from frozen. Continued working on Tina's new website. Lunch with Patrick: half of a buffalo chicken sandwich from Lou's Sandwiches. Tim and a contractor visited to troubleshoot our electrical issue from last night. At the same time, our T-Mobile Cellspot Router became misconfigured, and I tried lots of different things but was unable to resolve it. T-Mobile is sending us a replacement at no charge, and I am uncertain whether that will resolve it. Dinner at home with Patrick: tacos again, water. Watched about half of Diamonds are Forever on Hulu with Patrick.
Tue Dec 22, 2015
Cold continues. Breakfast: egg, sausage, and cheese on english muffin from frozen. Continued working on Tina's new website, sent her a draft to review. Lunch: Patrick brought home half a cheeseburger for me from Habit. Another contractor visits to troubleshoot our electrical issue. Home improvement: cable management, set up toothbrush holders, removed a spice rack I had made from a wooden cassette rack from Napa Valley Box Company and which was no longer in use since I developed a different way to store our spices a long time ago. Recharge Spa web work: new headshot photos, edited January news draft. Dinner: pepperoni pizza from deli dough. Dessert: two mini chocolate chip cookies each. Watched the remainder of Diamonds are Forever on Hulu with Patrick. More work on Tina's new website: markup review and cleanup. Late snack: leftover fettuccine.
Wed Dec 23, 2015
Trouble sleeping. Cold continues. Restored our old network configuration that does not have the T-Mobile Cellspot Router since ours seems to be out of commission until a replacement arrives. Upgraded MAMP from 3.4 to 3.5—success. Breakfast: an apple. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 12, pass 1. Tim and a contractor returned today to continue troubleshooting our electrical issue, and they resolved it. The problem was as John said yesterday: a wire had burned through somewhere between the circuit breaker panel and the two rooms which were without power. Luckily they found the problem location near the panel and resolved it in the late afternoon. My replacement batteries for my heated house slippers arrived, but at least one of them seems to be faulty. Lunch: leftover split peas over steamed white rice. I wrapped a few gifts that Patrick plans to give to others. Chatted briefly with Travis on Facebook. Dinner at home with Patrick: macaroni and shells with celery, chicken-apple sausage, green onion, parmesan. Dessert from Holy Gelato: mexican chocolate vegan gelato, burgundy cherry gelato. I shopped for clothes online after discovering a new store called ASOS. Watched part of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on Netflix DVD with Patrick but had to stop partway through because the disc was damaged. We ordered a replacement disc. More work on Tina's website: added a drop shadow to the paintbrush svg element using filter: drop-shadow and -webkit-filter: drop-shadow. Did some reading about Bernie Sanders' position on issues and read his Reddit AMA. Tidied a bit following the resolution of the electrical issue. Did a tiny bit of cable management in the living room. Late snack: chicken and rotelle soup from a can.
Thu Dec 24, 2015
Cold almost gone. Breakfast: an apple. House cleaning, tidying, and home improvement following resolution of the recent electrical issue. Lunch at home: rosemary ham and cheddar on french roll with mayo and mustard. Rode Lyft Line to Shotwell House for Christmas Eve dinner with Danny, Romy, Drew, Phil, Cricket, Sean, Dongyi, Jane, Annita, Quyen, Dave, Marvin, Richard, Mike, Chris K, Karl, Paul M, Chi, Coung, Wayne. We ate honeybaked ham, roast goose, brussels sprouts, and more. Desserts: christmas pudding (aka figgy pudding), Whole Foods bouche de noel (Richard), rum bundt cake (Dongyi), bourbon bars (Cricket), pumpkin cheesecake (Dave), dark chocolate pecan pie (Cricket).
Fri Dec 25, 2015
Sam picked up Mom Ryan and us, and we brunched at Ton Kiang. We arrived soon after 9:30 am. They normally open at 10:30 am but Patrick called ahead and found they opened an hour earlier on this day, so we were able to beat the crowed. Patrick thought it was a much nicer experience overall than Yank Sing, tho no pistachio ice cream cake. I agreed. Afterwards we all returned to our place and opened gifts. Afterwards Patrick rode along with Sam driving Mom Ryan home, and I napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover honeybaked ham from the Shotwell House party on french roll with cheddar and other dressings, water and sparkling water.
Sat Dec 26, 2015
No breakfast. Day 11 of a cold; coughing fits are almost nonexistent today. Spent today rearranging my bedroom, continuing work on Tina's new website, and completing house chores. Lunch: leftover honeybaked ham from the Shotwell House party on french roll with cheddar and other dressings, water. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Mozzarella di Bufala: mushroom and onion pizza, caesar salad: $38.50 before a $4 tip for the driver. Late dessert: I ate half of the tiramisu cup we had ordered.
Sun Dec 27, 2015
Day 12 of a cold. Breakfast: an apple. Lunch at home with Patrick: leftover pizza. Snack: sesame noodle salad. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover honeybaked ham from the Shotwell House party on two onion hamburger buns with cheddar and other dressings, water. Finished work on Tina's website, sent it to her for review.
Mon Dec 28, 2015
Breakfast at home: two-egg mushroom scramble, hash browns with shredded mozzarella, mini chicken apple sausage, orange juice, carrot juice, water. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 12, pass 2. The replacement T-Mobile CellSpot Router arrived today. Made some minor style updates to frankfarm.org: tightened spacing on mobile. Troubleshot problems with furthest page read synching properly across Kindle applications I own. Did lots of ironing and organizing. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Xiao Loong: small hot and sour soup, xiao loong bow, snow peas and prawns, lemon chicken, broccoli and soft tofu, pork chow mein, steamed white rice. Patrick's fortune: Investigate new possibilities with friends. Now is the time! My fortune #1: Trust others, but still keep your eyes open. My fortune #2: Now is the time to call loved ones at a distance. Share your news. My fortune #3: You have a charming way with words and should write a book. Finished watching Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Late snack: a small bowl of leftover pork chow mein.
Tue Dec 29, 2015
Day 14 of a cold. Brunch: one-egg scramble with leftover taco meat, two hash browns, mini chicken apple sausage, orange juice, water. Cold recovery, home improvement: velcro, installed door opening limiters (I don't know what you call them), installed more Command Strips to organize our bathroom cabinet. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers from last night. His fortune #1: Your friends will soon give you a great surprise. His fortune #2: You will soon receive an email of great importance. His fortune #3: Now is the time for peace in your life. Go along with other's ideas. My fortune #1: Now is the time to set your sights high and go for it. My fortune #2: You will have many friends when you need them.
Wed Dec 30, 2015
Breakfast: one-egg tomato scramble, chicken apple sausage, water. Successfully configured the replacement T-Mobile Cellspot Router. Errands and shopping: stopped at UCSF Parnassus to pick up my drill and drill bits which I needed for projects at home, shopped in Union Square: Apple Store (bought an iPad Pro via cousin Johnson's discount), Zara Boys (bought a beige scarf), Godiva, Club Monaco. Dinner at The Cavalier in the Blue Bar: service by Joshua: eggnog, fish and chips, vesper: $58.24 before a $12 tip for a total of $70.24.
Thu Dec 31, 2015
Breakfast: one-egg scramble with grated cheese, chicken apple sausage, water. Laundry. Home improvement: mounted a power strip to the wall, set up a new Anker 10-port charging station mounted with velcro on the back of a bookcase, drilled holes to run charging cables through to the front, anchored the bookcase to the wall for earthquake safety, patched holes, vacuumed. Lunch at home with Patrick: we split a cheese and leftover ham on sweet french roll sandwich with mayo, mustard, and lettuce; water. Moved the large mirror into my bedroom. Helped Patrick with bedroom rearrangement advice. Created (in Adobe Illustrator CS5), printed, laminated, and mounted a circuit breaker box label showing what rooms are on what circuits. Built a new map of Patrick's bedroom in Illustrator CS5. Dinner at home with Patrick: cavatappi e fazioli, red wine, mineral water. Watched Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on Netflix DVD with Patrick and popcorn from a saucepan. Did housecleaning in our Netflix DVD queue. Purchased Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi on Apple iTunes because we're seeing Episode VII tomorrow night and wanted to watch it beforehand and could not get it from Netflix or the library quickly enough.