December 2016
Summary: Winter Celebration, Recharge Medical Holiday Party at Cease and Decist, Tacolicious and Beach Blanket Babylon Holiday Extravaganza with Chris and Nate
Dates on this page
Thu Dec 1, 2016
Still sick with a cold, but worked from home. Created an AOL account because we still have some recipients of the Update from the Dean who use AOL for email. Dinner at home with Patrick: greek orzo with chicken, bread with balsamic vinegar and orange olive oil.
Fri Dec 2, 2016
Still recovering from a cold. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Free staff appreciation holiday breakfast at Moffitt Cafe. Sprint standup from S126. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Met with Susie to review recent projects and to design identity retheme headings structure. Lunch at Beautifull!: moroccan chicken bowl with quinoa. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef pear-ricotta flatbread with spiced honey, beet-chard salad, toasted walnuts; san pell.
Sat Dec 3, 2016
Still recovering from a cold. Breakfast at home: toasted chocolate bagel with pumpkin cream cheese. Recharge Medical web work: edits to the skin clinic revision. Lunch at home: turkey salad made from leftover turkey on toasted asiago bagel, 8 ounces of carrot juice.
Sun Dec 4, 2016
Still recovering from a cold. Continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Breakfast at home: pretzel bagel with garlic and herb whipped cream cheese. Lunch at home: bowtie pasta with corn from frozen and leftover turkey in greek dressing. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: turmeric tahini chicken with maple-roasted carrots, tahini sauce, chard, and kale. Watched part of The Great Gatsby (2013) on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Mon Dec 5, 2016
Breakfast at home: oatmeal with banana. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Published the first of a new set of orgcharts, using SVG instead of PNG thumbs for the first time. Prepared and submitted to CBW a content currency audit for PharmD. Lunch at Starbucks: chicken chipotle sandwich, flat white. Filed pcard paperwork. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef paprika-roasted pork with roasted cauliflower, farfalle salad, and tapenade; san pell. Watched more of The Great Gatsby (2013) on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Tue Dec 6, 2016
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Breakfast from The View Cafe: egg, cheddar, and bacon on english muffin. Sprint standup. Added a staff photo for OEIS. Followup with OSACA and OEIS on people content quality. Prepped and made live a finad whole-page orgchart. Styling work in Drupal. Lunch at the JCC: chicken sandwich sub spicy sauce for mayo, water. Resolved a display problem on mobile for Ahituv's facility page. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Blue Apron balsamic-glazed onion cheeseburgers with roasted potato wedges.
Wed Dec 7, 2016
Breakfast at home: a banana, fried egg and leftover turkey on english muffin. Worked from home. Followup with last month's PHP vulnerability. Updated the grad rate performance page for Cindy. Purchased Helv Neue web fonts. Spent all day building a new html email template for the Update from the Dean. Lunch: deli chicken noodle soup. Dinner at home with Patrick: Blue Apron spinach and ricotta pizza with sautéed cauliflower and clementine salad. Finished watching The Great Gatsby (2013) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Recharge Medical web work: edits to the skin clinic revision, January news prep. Purchased Email on Acid (The Basics) via a half off offer. Wrote this review for "Pulse - Haptic Metronome for Apple Watch": Works perfectly for holding poses in tai chi, yoga, etc.: I needed a simple metronome to help me count while holding tai chi poses for the requisite number of seconds. I use Pulse on only my iPhone 6 Plus, and it is perfect for my need. I like that it’s visually uncluttered, easily the most elegant-looking metronome I found after browsing the many choices available. It was simple to set to 60 beats per minute. It is simple to activate and deactivate—just tap the screen. It was easy to change the color of the metronome pulse. I love it. [5 stars]
Thu Dec 8, 2016
Rainy today. Waterproofed my Carolina boots. Breakfast: an apple. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. Mailchimp planning meeting. Lunch at Rigolo: mac and gruyere special with side salad. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Cable management for Joel: installed power at desk level and set up cable management anchors underneath the desk. I also helped him resolve a problem with his scanner and smoothed his workflow by switching from the WIA driver to the TWAIN driver. Rode Muni from UCSF Parnassus to 9th and Judah. My bus said it would arrive in 16 minutes. After 18 minutes, my bus arrived except it said it was out of service and I knew that meant it was going to wait 18 minutes until the next headway to depart. Rode Uber Pool the rest of the way home for $3.33. I wish I could get my $2.25 back. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Park Gyros. Finished watching The Princess Bride (1987) on Netflix instant watch with Patrick.
Fri Dec 9, 2016
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup canceled. Followup with Sean R about my problem report: software.ucsf.edu tray icons fail to display when logged in via remote.ucsf.edu. Updated a page in the residencies site for Erin H. Ordered power extension cables for JWG. Followup with DSU closure. Chatted briefly on the phone with John K about A-Z List issues. Lots of work today on a new UFD template with testing in Email on Acid. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Uber Pool home: $8.87. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Park Gyros.
Sat Dec 10, 2016
Slept in. I prepared a vegetarian casserole for lunch for Patrick and me. Prepared for a dinner party. Nap. Winter celebration dinner at home with Patrick, Mom Ryan, Sam, Danny, Romy, Drew, Phil: whole honeybaked ham, roasted turkey breast, cheesy scalloped potatoes , old-fashioned stuffing, turkey gravy, cranberry salad, yam soufflé, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, champagne mustard , cranberry-walnut chutney , four-flavor cheesecake , three-layer chocolate cake, hot mulled winter tea. During the meal one of our dining table lights fell due to a 3M command strip that did not hold. Afterwards PDDR gave Mom Ryan a ride home.
Sun Dec 11, 2016
Rested from yesterday's dinner party. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner: leftovers. Watched House of Small Cubes (2008) on Netflix instant watch with Patrick—a very charming short film. Purchased plane tickets for a trip to Barcelona and Madrid with the Group With No Name in May.
Mon Dec 12, 2016
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. Spent all day on UFD html email, switching to a different template because I couldn't get the one I was working on to look good in various versions of Outlook for Windows. Lunch at Vixi: minestrone soup, whole wheat penne with salmon. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: I prepared Green Chef chicken and veggie pho with shiitakes, carrots, celery, ginger, Sriracha; red wine, peach-plum sparkling water. Wrapped a secret santa gift. Barcelona-Madrid trip planning.
Tue Dec 13, 2016
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. UFD html email build with Susie. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. 1-on-1 with Cindy. Today the OSACA received new used furniture from CP. Helped James F with a problem accessing network drives. More cable management for Joel. Helped Megan arrange furniture in the student lounge. Showed SM where the drill and other supplies were. Lunch: leftovers. Worked in the library: helv neue 45 light webfonts prep, microsite slideshows testing. Rode Uber Pool home: about $3. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef cannellini bean patties with sumac-seasoned roasted veggies and black quinoa. This was my least favorite Green Chef meal in a long time. Watched three short films on findie.me with Patrick: Come Together, The Rebellious Origin of the Video Game Easter Egg, and Mrs. Claus. Watched Twilight Zone s2:e11 (Night of the Meek) with Patrick.
Wed Dec 14, 2016
Breakfast: leftover soup. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. Resolved a problem with the UCSF banner on all our sites by clearing Drupal caches—weird, unknown cause. PharmD web edits for CBW. Announced a new box style ready to SM and Stephen B. UFD html email build. Lunch at the JCC: vietnamese chicken sandwich with fries, water from my Thermos water bottle. UFD html email template build with Susie. Rode Uber Pool from UCSF Laurel Heights to the Mission. Dinner and a movie at Alamo Drafthouse New Mission with Patrick: pizza, popcorn, drinks, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I loved it—10 out of 10 stars. Patrick liked it but just a little less—8 out of 10 stars. Rode UberX home.
Thu Dec 15, 2016
Breakfast: leftover soup. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup from the Dean's Office Administration. Stopped at the OSACA briefly. Rode Muni with Megan, Joel, and Leslie to Powell Street Station. Walked to Scala's Bistro. Holiday luncheon with the OSACA (Megan, Lucia, Lisa, Joel, Rick, Leslie, Cindy) at Scala's Bistro. We enjoyed a variety of appetizers including ricotta zeppole; french fries; a platter of cheeses, pickled vegetables, and cured meats; roasted poblano peppers; and bread with olive oil. Joel had a cobb salad, Megan had pesto-ricotta risotto with lemon cream. Leslie had rainbow trout. Lucia had orecchiette. Cindy had a caesar salad. Lisa had ravioli in tomato sauce. Rick had a burger and fries. I had seafood risotto. Dessert: an assortment. Rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Various issue followup. UFD html email build. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. UFD html email build. Chatted with Eric about current issues and topics. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef lemon-herb salmon orzo with parsnips, carrot, gremolata, lemon-caper sauce; red wine; san pell. Installed lots of computer updates.
Fri Dec 16, 2016
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. UFD meeting with the dean. Secret Santa with the OSACA: Joel opened a cinnamon-bun-scented candle in a small, square cast iron pan. Lucia opened an Urban Dictionary Game (example: Q: What is a question fart? A: a fart with an inflection that raises towards the end.) Cindy opened a gift basket with food snacks and treats. I stole the gift basket from Cindy. Cindy stole the Urban Dictionary Game from Lucia. Lucia opened a package of four doughnut Christmas ornaments. Rick opened Gama-Go's Kitty Egg Mold—a silicone mold for frying two eggs in the shape of a cat head (one yolk for each eye). Leslie stole the kitty egg mold from Rick. Rick stole the doughnut Christmas ornaments from Lucia. Lucia opened a set of five or six mixing bowls. Megan opened a chocolate passport sampler and dark chocolate covered espresso beans, both from Trader Joe's. Lisa stole the gift basket from me. I opened a Microplane herb mill. Secret Santas revealed: Lisa brought the kitty egg mold. Megan brought the Urban Dictionary Game. Cindy brought the Microplane herb mill. Rick pulled a Danielle and brought the doughnut Christmas ornaments up with which he ended. Joel brought the mixing bowls. Leslie brought the gift basket. Lucia brought the cinnamon-bun-scented candle in a small, square cast iron pan. I brought the chocolate passport and dark-chocolate-covered espresso beans. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Drove with Paula, Eric, and James in Paula's Soul to the Presidio. Lunch with Plancomm at Sessions, met Susie and David there. David, Eric, and James each had fish and chips. Paula had chicken salad. Susie had express lunch (cumin chicken with vegetables soup and grilled leek tartine). I had a fried chicken sandwich—not spicy—with fries. We enjoyed lunch and dessert, then visited the Yoda statue and the LDA lobby. Not feeling well, Paula went home. The rest of us returned to Laurel Heights. UFD html email build. Reviewed a proposal for digital marketing from Carnegie Comms. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Rode Muni home. Not hungry, so no dinner. Watched nearly all of The Radio City Christmas Spectacular (2007) on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Today it was announced to OSACA and Plancomm that I would be joining the Plancomm team in full as of January 1, 2017. All this time I have been officially reporting to Cindy and my role appeared on both units' organization charts as a position with dual reporting. As of January 1, I'll be reporting to Eric and my role will appear on only the Plancomm orgchart.
Sat Dec 17, 2016
Slept in. Breakfast at home: Patrick's leftover hash browns and toast from a restaurant, one egg over mostly easy. Made candy cane crush rice krispie treats. Repotted an orchid. Rode Uber Pool to the Mission. Recharge Medical holiday party upstairs at Cease and Desist: many different kinds of drinks. Appetizers included warm kale salad, cow sliders, veggie sliders, pizza, mac and cheese bites, garlic fries, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms. Met Tim and Kamal for the first time. Attendees: Danny, Romy, Drew, Phil, Amanda, Jose, Chris, Alyssa, Tim, Marci, Jim, Johnny, John, John's mom, Chris P. Missing in action: Justine (out of town), Ling. Afterwards I stopped briefly at Shotwell House then walked to the Castro and hung out in Badlands, meeting and chatting variously with mary j blige, ono, will, jimmy terry, kenny, leo. Encountered marc and chad, meeting their friend steve. Rode Uber Pool home.
Sun Dec 18, 2016
Met Danny at Union Square. We walked to brunch at City View: about $25 each. On the way we stopped at a Cailler pop up store and received free chocolate samples. Afterwards we walked to Apple Union Square. I weighed in my hands the 15- and 13-inch MacBook Pros that were released in October. The 15-inch at about 4 pounds feels like more weight than I want to carry. The 13-inch at about 3 pounds seems better. It's still not as light as my 2012 MacBook Air, though (2.4 pounds). I also asked about the new LG 4K and 5K monitors, but they did not yet have them available for display. One of the employees complimented me on my Abercrombie Kids "Rollins" brown leather jacket. Afterwards I walked around town a bit before riding Uber Pool home. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef sage-roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots, sun-dried tomato gremolata; red wine, san pell. Watched Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (1988) on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Caught up on journaling.
Mon Dec 19, 2016
Breakfast at home with Patrick: boiled egg and ham mini sandwich, 8 ounces of carrot juice. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. A small web edit for Cindy and Lucia. UFD html email build. PharmD redesign conference call. Reworked styles in new orgcharts in InDesign. Late lunch at Starbucks: holiday turkey and stuffing panini, grande holiday spice flat white. (Half off the sandwich when you buy the holiday drink.) Rode Uber Pool home. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef chickpea kofta with roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli, bulgur, chutney; san pell.
Tue Dec 20, 2016
Breakfast: mint green tea. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. All-day structured content brainjam in LH105 with Eric, James H, Paula J, Stefan, John K, Courtney A, and Sara S. Breakfast: coffee and bagels. Lunch: Patxi's pizza. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Blue Apron chicken khao soi with crispy wonton noodles except he didn't fry the noodles; he cooked them in the broth.
Wed Dec 21, 2016
Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. Lunch at Rigolo: cow burger and fries, hot black tea. Org charts work. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: TJ's pepperoni pizza from frozen.
Thu Dec 22, 2016
Stayed home from work with a sore throat. Watched Jimmy Carr: Funny Business on Netflix instant watch. Lunch: chicken pot pie soup, water. Watched A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman on Netflix instant watch. Late lunch: chicken noodle soup. Winter break for me begins. Rode Uber Pool to North Beach. Met Chris and Nate at Tacolicious for dinner. They are in the Bay Area for a few weeks. We ate an assortment of tacos including cactus, which had a texture similar to a roasted pepper. Afterwards we saw the Holiday Extravaganza at Beach Blanket Babylon, getting seats in the center center of front cabaret. Chris and Nate enjoyed champagne; I had hot earl gray tea. The show was terrific. Afterwards we walked around a bit before they left to walk to their hotel and I rode Uber Pool home.
Fri Dec 23, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Nap. Lunch: chicken noodle soup from a can. Nap. Breathe Easy tisane, one apple, candy-coated almonds, a few rice crackers. Dinner at home with Patrick: vegetable bibimbap. Watched part of White Christmas on Netflix instant watch with Patrick.
Sat Dec 24, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Lunch: chicken noodle soup from a can, steamed pork bao. Upgraded my MacBook Air from OS 10.11.6 El Capitan to macOS 10.12.2 Sierra. I was surprised that I encountered no issues, but this laptop isn't used for a lot of things. Dinner at home with Patrick: chinese food delivery from Chang's. Watched The Simpson's The Nightmare After Krustmas (s28:e10) on Hulu with Patrick.
Sun Dec 25, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Chicken noodle soup. Began reading Arcadia by Iain Pears on my iPad Pro. Upgraded my iMac from OS 10.10.5 Yosemite to macOS 10.12.2 Sierra. I encountered random hangs for the first hour or so, but then everything started to work normally. Lunch: leftover chinese food. Upgraded Grav for Patrick's website. I encountered the usual problems with permissions and other problems that were harder to resolve because logs were empty. I had to manually delete the /user/plugins/jscomments folder and then selfupgrade and update worked as expected. Watched Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies (2008) via downloaded Amazon Prime Video. Nap. Patrick and I played Obduction for 82 minutes. After reading a few forum threads and after my previous experience with it crashing upon launch, I was not expecting it to work at all, but it did—on a Late 2012 iMac with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB graphics. The latest Obduction update required macOS Sierra, which is why I did that upgrade earlier today. After I started playing with the default settings, I fully expected it to crash, but it did not. It's gorgeously produced. Worth the wait? No, but at least I can say I'm playing it. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover chinese food. Watched part of The Lobster (2016) on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Mon Dec 26, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Breakfast: an apple. Lunch: leftover chinese food. Cut my hair, showered. Prepped the front bedroom for painting. Finished watching The Lobster (2016) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Dinner: leftover chinese food. Continued playing Obduction with Patrick. So far macOS Sierra has been stable for me. Siri is just as laughably stupid and occasionally useful as ever. The only problem I encountered so far with Sierra is that my Finder favorites were lost and I had to rerun ssh-add to simplify pushing updates to my web hosting.
Tue Dec 27, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Breakfast: an apple. Lunch: chicken, barley, and vegetable soup. Recharge Medical work: blog post editing, January news build. Prepped the front bedroom for painting. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken parmagiana from TJ's with linguine. Continued playing Obduction with Patrick.
Wed Dec 28, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Breakfast: chicken, barley, and vegetable soup. Tim and King arrived; King is painting our smaller bedroom for us today. We're buying the paint and paying for his labor. He started around 10:30 am and left around 2:50 pm. Lunch: leftover chinese food. Recharge Medical work: blog post build. Dinner at home with Patrick: meatloaf over steamed white rice.
Thu Dec 29, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Breakfast: Patrick made me a breakfast sandwich with one sausage, one egg, cheddar cheese. Labeled and organized paint cans. Recharge Medical work: various. Late lunch: leftovers from dinner. Continued playing Obduction with Patrick. Dinner at home with Patrick: TJ's chicken piccatta with shell pasta in white cheddar sauce. Watched part of X-Men: Apocaplyse (2016) on Netflix DVD with Patrick.
Fri Dec 30, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Recharge Medical work: editing draft skin care pages, new outdoor sign for wall build. Patrick stopped ordering from Blue Apron today. We like Green Chef better since unlike Blue Apron it is all organic and it does more of the prep work. We are also shifting some of our dinner meals to Trader Joe's prepared entrees, for example adding linguine we cook ourselves to chicken piccatta or meatloaf. Nap. Watched the remainder of X-Men: Apocaplyse (2016) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Dinner at home with Patrick: bbq chicken thin-crust pizza delivery from Baiano via EAT24. Watched Star Trek: Voyager "Deadlock" (s2:e21) on Netflix instant watch with Patrick. Played more of Lara Croft: Go on my iPad Pro.
Sat Dec 31, 2016
Home all day recuperating from a cold. Recharge Medical work: editing draft skin care pages. Late lunch at home with Patrick: delivery from Baiano Pizzeria via EAT24: pizza sub and chicken parm sub, garlic bread, french fries. Didn't eat dinner; wasn't hungry. Continued playing Obduction with Patrick. Patrick fell asleep before midnight. When I stopped playing at around 1:30 am, I realized it was 2017.