August 2017
Summary: Whitewater rafting: Middle Fork of the American River organized by Sneeper, Pool party at Peter's with The Group With No Name, Viewed the Solar Eclipse from UCSF Mission Bay with Eric and Grant, New Orleans Southern Decadence vacation begins
Dates on this page
Tue Aug 1, 2017
Breakfast at home: one apple, two-egg omlette with diced breakfast sausage from frozen, one english muffin with butter, 8 ounces of milk, 8 ounces of orange juice. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Chatted with Denetra about websites and sitebuilders. Sent my old 2012 MacBook Air to ITFS to be reimaged. Minor web edit for Cindy: Let's Talk image. Followup with Munson at DM about our business cards orders and UR requirements. Errand: Standard 5 and 10 Ace hardware store: bought aluminum hooks to mount our new electric toothbrush in the medicine cabinet. Lunch at Vixi: table bread with sundried tomato and olive oil dipping sauce, fresh lemonade, minestrone soup, chicken panini: $21.45 after tip. Rode UberX to Martuni's, met Phil and Drew, then later Paul and Wayne for drinks and popcorn, then dinner at Nomica. Julian appeared briefly at Martuni's to say hello but otherwise did not join us. At Nomica, we encountered Irene, just as Paul had predicted a few minutes earlier. We chatted briefly with Irene and friends, which included David M, then left them to dine: beet zuke salmon belly (ora king salmon, myoga, aged ponzu): $18, tuna poke (tofu mousse, ponzu jelly, puffed rice cracker; on the house but normally $18), seaweed salad, kurobuta pork belly (herbed sunchoke, baby carrots, hazelnuts: $19), karaage chicken (bearnaise aioli, turmeric daikon, matcha salt: $16), dashi #1 mashed potatoes ($10). Drinks: Phil had the Mr. Moto's Gamble (tequila, mezcal, hibiscus, orange blossom honey: $12), Wayne and I each had a Fountain of Youth (vodka, pineapple shiso awamori, kumquat, lime, tonic: $14). Paul had (I think?) The New Gibson (gin, lemongrass, house pickled rakkyo: $13). Everything was exquisitely prepared, and service was excellent.
Wed Aug 2, 2017
Breakfast at home: applewood-smoked ham omelette, 8 ounces of milk, 8 ounces of orange juice. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Identity retheme work all day. Walked to Bevmo to purchase a bottle of Fireball. I can't remember what I ate for lunch today. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: extra-thick pork chops seasoned with Spice Ace French Basque seasonings, side of caprese salad. Set up the new TCL 32S305 32-Inch 720p Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model). It took about 40 minutes, including creating and entering an email address and password and PIN and Netflix account credentials and installing the Roku app on my iPhone. Patrick and I tested it by viewing a few minutes of Rogue One. So far so good.
Thu Aug 3, 2017
Breakfast at home: applewood-smoked ham omelette, 2 sausage links, 8 ounces of milk, 8 ounces of orange juice, lots of hot water. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Identity retheme work all day. Plancomm team lunch at Ella's: James and I had the cow burger (his with bacon). Susie and Paula each had the chicken pot pie, which was huge. Eric had ?. Rode Uber Pool to the Castro. Drinks and onion rings at Harvey's with Patrick: pineapple chamtini for me, grande margarita for Patrick. Errand: Walgreens for sunscreen. Tacos dinner at The Castro Republic. Dessert at The Castro Fountain: two scoops: roasted banana chocolate cookie and ricotta citrus. Rode UberX home.
Fri Aug 4, 2017
Whitewater rafting trip, day 1 of 3. Breakfast at home with Patrick: slow-cooked scrambled eggs, garlic and rosemary bread toast, sausage patty, fried heirloom tomatoes, 8 ounces of orange juice each. Rode UberX to the Castro. Lunch to go from Saucy Asian: tonkatsu bowl, water. Around now is when we learned that Reed L had to back out of the trip. Picked up José. Left at 3 pm with Scott driving. Encountered standstill traffic on the way to the freeway. Crossed the Bay Bridge at 4:15 pm. Drove. We encountered many road delays from traffic jams. Gas stop followed by dinner at Whole Foods Folsom (916-984-8500, 270 Palladio Parkway) from the buffet: mango chicken, lemon-grilled vegetables, brown rice, Sonoma Cider sarsaparilla vanilla the washboard: about $11. This was probably the worst meal experience I've had in months even though the food was good. We encountered others who were driving to the campsite: Tim C, Ryan D, Michael C, and more. Everyone else ate indoors but I was forced to eat with strangers in the biergarten because I purchased a bottle of cider. (Why was no one else drinking? They weren't all driving.) Arrived at the campsite around 7:30 or 8:00 pm. My tent and sleeping pad rental is already set up. Drinks, snacks, chatting, helping others set up their tents, and watching some take a quick dip in the cold river until bed late. I shared a 750 ml bottle of Fireball, and by evening's end it was almost entirely gone.
Sat Aug 5, 2017
Whitewater rafting trip, day 2 of 3. Since I rented my tent and sleeping pad from the rafting company, there was no need for me to break it down this morning before our rafting trip departure. The tour company was Mariah Wilderness aka Raft California aka Adventure Connection; there had been some mergers or buyouts since my last rafting trips in 2005 and 2007. Jeremiah provided our instructions for the morning as we ate the provided breakfast and completed our waiver forms. We originally had 36 persons. There was one cancellation—Tony G—and one switcheroo—Reed L canceled at the last minute, and Khalid A took his place—for a total of 35 persons. Another group of six men were joining our trip as a separate group. So we had 7 boats of 5 guests, and one boat of the 6 guests from the separate group. Each boat had a rafting guide. My boat included Ben C, Khalid A, Eddie J, Bill S, me, and our guide Ross. Other guide names I recall: Irish, Joey, Tigra (or maybe Tigre). We seemed to spend relatively little time training as compared with what I recall from my 2005 trip, and in retrospect I think all that training wasn't really needed. We did fine enough this time, even with two inexperienced rafters in my boat (Khalid and Eddie). Within about half an hour and after some mild rapids, we hit the hardest run of the trip called Tunnel Chute. Our boat flipped after the first big dip, running directly into a cliff protruding from the right side. I found myself in the tunnel that followed the rapids and underneath the flipped boat and somehow was able to hold onto both my paddle and the boat. The water was freezing, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. A few seconds later I noticed Khalid next to me and was able to grab him and pull him closer to the boat so that he could hang onto it. We floated downstream somewhat as I waited for instructions from our guide, but I found out later that he had been thrown out of the boat. Other guides and boats approached and helped us restore the raft and load us back into it. We rested some minutes, Ross found his way back to our boat, oars were magically returned to us, and a few minutes later, we were on our way and laughing about it. Ross said later that we were very close to making it through properly. He had lost his expensive and favorite sunglasses (even though they were secured with a strap), and his helmet had also gotten torn off when he was thrown. (It was found and retrieved soon afterwards.) Two other boats on our trip had flipped in Tunnel Chute, and a few other guests were thrown out of their unflipped boats. No one wanted to take another dip after that; the water was too chilly. A few more not-super-challenging rapids, then we stopped for lunch alongside the river: make-your-own sandwiches, Pringles potato chips, trail mix, cookies, fresh pineapple, and more I'm forgetting—seemingly identically prepared to the lunch on my rafting trip with Mariah Wilderness in 2005 except with tortillas and pita instead of (I think we had) sandwich bread. (I'm guessing that they switched to tortillas and pita because they are less likely than a loaf of soft sandwich bread to get smushed or ruined if the boat carrying the food is flipped.) To drink: Capri Sun and probably water. More rafting, then we camped overnight by the river. Tents were already set up by the rafting company, two persons to a tent; we just had to claim our own. A few insisted on their own tents, so I ended up not having to share. The rafting company provided three kegs that chilled in the river as well as a few boxes of wine. I was super tired and went to sleep right after dinner. I learned later that a chocolate-covered espresso bean I had eaten was of a special kind. I apparently did not read the canister closely enough or did not have my reading glasses at the time. Woke around 1:00 am, then returned to sleep after some time.
Sun Aug 6, 2017
Whitewater rafting trip, day 3 of 3. I participated in a riverside yoga class by Toby which was also attended by Ben C, BJ, and Chun L. Breakfast. Group photo. We continued rafting, stopping at times along the way to pick up trash that we encountered or to pick wild blackberries. We stopped for lunch at a place where water entered the river from a higher source, and a somewhat fun yet treacherous path of sorts uphill led us through a glen to a few sets of waterfalls where we took many photos. We continued rafting then alighted so that the rafting guides could take our rafts through a particularly tricky run on their own. We hiked a short path over a large hill of rocks and had a pretty good view of the run from far above. We continued rafting until the end of our trip. Rode the school bus back for about an hour drinking cold bottled water along the way. Back at the campground where we camped on Friday, I successfully retrieved my LuminAid inflatable solar lamps that I had laid out to charge Saturday morning and forgot to pack. We retrieved our gear that had come along with us on the river, packed it in our cars, said our goodbyes to both rafters and guides, gathered tips for the guides (I put in $30), and drove home. In the car I rode, we agreed we wanted to get home more than we were hungry, so we chose to not stop along the way for dinner. We dropped Jose off first, then at Scott and Andy's I said goodbye and rode UberX home.
Mon Aug 7, 2017
Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Parnassus. Breakfast at Moffitt Cafe: Moffitt potatoes, english muffin with margarine, water. Sprint standup remote in S126. Ed news meeting with Alexa and Marisa to instruct them on how to build an html email newsletter in Mailchimp using the custom template I created. Visited the OSACA. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Created Mailchimp accounts for Alexa and Marisa. Ed news template work. Briefly met Grant B, who started today as our new editorial director. Accidentally skipped lunch. Chatted with Eric about requirements for Update from the Dean: Special Edition. Chatted with Eric and James about homepage hero dimensions so that James could complete some new work to resize them. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: sauteed chicken thighs, sauteed brussels sprouts, bucatini with diced heirloom tomatoes, red wine, Spindrift. Did some catching up on journaling. Today I noticed that my Touch ID fingerprint disappeared from my new MacBook Pro. Touch ID had been working fine since I had set it up on the first day, and now it no longer prompts for login like it used to. After logging in with my password I checked Touch ID in System Preferences, and it appears as though I had never added my fingerprint. I readded my fingerprint, and now it works again.
Tue Aug 8, 2017
Breakfast at home: leftover shrimp pad thai from Sunday night. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Touch ID failed again. Readded my fingerprint for the third time. 1-on-1 with Eric. Identity retheme styling work all day. Lunch from The View Cafe: veggie california on rye, water. Eye doctor visit, my first time in their new office on Sanchez Street after moving from Market Street. I ordered a pair of Oakley Shifter (polished brown) eyeglasses for reading and to correct for astigmatism. Dinner at Finn Town (415-626-3466, 2251 Market Street) with Patrick. I think this is my second time and his first time. Show Girl for me, Caged Bird for him. We shared deviled eggs x 3, fried chicken sandwich, mac and cheese, a happy hour pilsner (kolsch), and for dessert, a key lime and coconut pie hole with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. $104.15 after a $15 tip for Kelly T. Rode UberX home.
Wed Aug 9, 2017
Breakfast at home: two eggs over easy with spices, one english muffin with butter, two hash browns, two sausage links, 8 ounces of orange juice, water. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Print stylesheets identity retheme work all day. Also worked with Eric on the UFD:SE html email template. Lunch at Artesano: albondigas sandwich, limeade: $18. Rode Uber Pool home. Configured a new Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD for home. Ordered some new cables. Delivery from Sushi Raw: miso soup, gyoza, sesame chicken, inari nigiri, ebi nigiri, haight street roll, free spicy tuna roll. To drink: white wine, san pell. Watched part of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children with Patrick on Netflix DVD.
Thu Aug 10, 2017
Breakfast at home: two eggs scrambled with spices, ham, and cheddar; leftover chicken thigh; 8 ounces of orange juice. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Helped Megan with an issue related to Box. Answered questions from Zoraida about the process for ordering and configuring an iPad with cellular service. Identity retheme print stylesheets work all day. Lunch at Picnix: vietnamese imperial rolls with rice noodles, greens, and fish sauce; vietnamese hot coffee. Minor web edits for Cindy. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: pizza from frozen. Continued watching Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children with Patrick on Netflix DVD. Caught up some on journaling while watching Jellies silently on Netflix instant watch as background video.
Fri Aug 11, 2017
Encountered a problem with my new Roku TCL 32-inch television: diagnostic information about the current stream appeared in the top left corner of the display and seemingly no way to turn this off. The informational text is four lines: Line 1: elapsed time and total time. Line 2: Video speed in Mbps and HD setting (e.g., 720). Line 3: Audio details. Line 4: TimedText caption or possibly audio description details. I tried all the buttons on the remote and searched through the many options menus. After many minutes of troubleshooting and searching the web, I happened upon a solution that worked described by onebadger at 11-09-2015 06:02 PM on an Insignia products forum, paraphrased here to describe what worked for me: from viewing the problem press Back twice to stop playing and back out one more screen, then press OK twice to go forward one screen and to resume playing, pressing * quickly after the second OK press. The informational text should now be gone and your video should now continue to play as expected. I still don't understand why the text had appeared since I played this same stream yesterday with no informational text appearing. Breakfast at home: ham and cheddar on english muffin with a dash of ground rosemary, 8 ounces of whole milk. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Donut Savant meeting to welcome Grant. In the middle of it I ran to get coffee with half and half from The View Cafe. Sprint standup. Identity retheme mostly print styles work. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Mount Zion. Lunch at Sweet Lime: yellow curry chicken. Walked back to work. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Ed news Mailchimp training with Alexa and Marisa. Chatted with those in the OSACA. Joel has returned from his Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu trip. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef grilled pesto chicken (frisée panzanella with zucchini & white beans). Finished watching Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children with Patrick on Netflix DVD. This film was disappointing and unsatisfying to me despite having seemingly everything a successful film needs. If it was trying to create a film with a very Tim Burtony feel, it succeeded, but the story and characters for some reason just didn't resonate with me. Reversed my decision from about a week ago and reinstalled macOS Sierra on the tiny Samsung 128 GB usb drive. The process worked same as before, and now the slight delays don't bother me as much.
Sat Aug 12, 2017
Breakfast at home: an apple, a small piece of leftover chicken from last night, chai with honey then again without. Repaired zipper pulls on two Atlantis Cruise gym bags from 2012 by intentionally breaking the pulls that came with the bag because they were all constructed weakly. Lunch at home with Patrick: Green Chef turmeric tahini pasta (chickpeas, zucchini, frisée salad, cauliflower). Nap. Finished watching Raiders of the Lost Ark via iTunes purchase with Patrick, popcorn, and watermelon margaritas. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Eagle Pizzeria via EAT24: 12-inch veggie special, caesar salad.
Sun Aug 13, 2017
Again after restarting my new MacBook Pro my fingerprint is missing from Touch ID in System Preferences. Readded my fingerprint for the fourth time in a week. Breakfast at home: leftover caesar salad. Rode Uber Pool to Shotwell House. Rode with Phil, Drew, Danny, and Romy to Peter's place, stopping at Ranch 99 and Popeye's along the way. Pool party at Peter's. Paul and Richard and Michael arrived later, then later still Ron and Beignet. We ate Popeye's fried chicken, corn on the cob, dirty rice and rice, fresh fruit (blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, jackfruit), dim sum shrimp balls, roast duck, roast pork, egg rolls, Beard Papa cream puffs. Many kinds of drinks, including many blended ones. This was the first time we saw Peter's swimming pool after it had been resurfaced, and it looks very nice. Afterwards Danny and Romy harvested peaches from the tree in the front yard, and Paul joined us for the ride home. Drew did not feel well for most of this event. Back at Shotwell House, Danny and Romy prepared dinner and Paul and I joined: steamed rice, chayote squash, prawns, leftover roast duck, and a few other dishes. Rode UberX home.
Mon Aug 14, 2017
Breakfast at home: two hash browns, two eggs with herbes de provence, two sausage patties, half of an english muffin with butter. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Shuttle from UCSF Parnassus to UCSF Laurel Heights. Identity retheme print styles work all day. Some Mailchip and Email on Acid work for ed news. Errand: post office. Tried unsuccessfully to eat at Kaiju Eats Ramen & Izakaya then Hong Kong Lounge II before settling on Mel's Diner: cheeseburger, fries, lemonade: about $21 after a $3 tip. Rode Uber Pool home. Successfully installed and tested some new cables connecting the TCL television to the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 dock and the Logitech Z906 speakers. Ordered another new cable. Patrick talked with Mitchell for about exactly one hour tonight by telephone about his new novel. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Sushi Raw: gyoza, house special ramen with pork broth, chicken katsu rice plate with miso soup, free california roll. To drink: san pell.
Tue Aug 15, 2017
Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Parnassus. Breakfast at Cafe Bellini: ham, egg, and provolone on croissant; caffe latte. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights, chatting with Lynn O along the way about her returning on recall. Identity retheme styling. Ed news followup. Met with Eric and Susie to review images: current students, identity retheme homepage hero images and landing page images. Calpoison followup and review meeting. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef mojito shrimp (coconut-sesame rice, cucumber-mango salad, almonds). Successfully installed a new kitchen sink swivel spray. Reconfigured CrashPlan for work to exclude a bunch of folders like Virtualbox VMs, Box Sync, and most of my Git repo.
Wed Aug 16, 2017
Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Parnassus. Breakfast: bacon and egg burrito from Carmelina's, caffe latte from Cafe Bellini. Errand: the bank. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Calpoison work. Identity retheme work. Scheduled the July/August issue of PharmD Education html email for delivery. Lunch at Vixi: chicken penne with pomodoro sauce, caesar salad, ice water. More identity retheme work. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: shells and cheese from a box with peas and corn from frozen. Recharge Medical work: blog post editing, task followup.
Thu Aug 17, 2017
Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Breakfast at Cafe Bellini: breakfast sandwich on croissant, caffe latte. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Identity retheme work, Calpoison work. Lunch at b on the go: porchetta salad, water. Met with Susie to discuss a new print project: the curriculum chart. Rode UberX to the Castro. Picked up new reading glasses. Dinner at Eureka with Patrick: pom margarita for me, manhattan for Patrick. For dinner: heirloom tomato salad, fried chicken with slaw, gumbo with shrimp, a glass of malbec each. Dessert: bread pudding with whipped cream, an espresso for Patrick. Service by Rafael was personable, and we forgave him for punching in the wrong salad. Rode UberX home, realizing along the way that we did not receive the leftovers we had requested to be packaged, but we did not return for them.
Fri Aug 18, 2017
Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Breakfast from The View Cafe: bacon, egg, and cheddar on english muffin; coffee. Sprint standup. Curriculum chart work all day. Lunch: seaweed snack. Susie gave me a ride to near her place. I rode Muni the rest of the way home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef curried tuna melt (broccoli salad with raisins and hummus dressing).
Sat Aug 19, 2017
Breakfast: leftover broccoli salad from last night. Midmorning snack: leftover miso soup from delivery a while back. Lots of home improvement today. Cleaned the front door and part of the garage door of mold using a solution of vinegar, dish soap, and water. Repaired a small leak with the new kitchen faucet spray by adding the included washer I earlier didn't know we needed. Asked our landlord to address a number of other items. Uploaded a bunch of old, assorted photos to Flickr. Lunch at home with Patrick: I prepared grilled cheddar on garlic-rosemary bread, side of corn off the cob from frozen. Repaired a loose door hinge that resulted in the door hitting the door jamb. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef bangers and mash (corn-studded mashed potatoes and green bean salad), san pell, red wine. Watched Amy Schumer: The Leather Special on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Somewhen in our recent past we ate this meal but I failed to properly record it in the right place: Green Chef balsamic-glazed chicken (grilled zucchini, tomato salad with olives, pesto).
Sun Aug 20, 2017
Pre-brunch: an apple. Rode UberX to Union Square. Met Danny. We walked to City View for dim sum. Afterwards we shopped at Zara on Post Street, then Uniqlo on Powell Street, then the Le Labo counter at Barney's with Mario and ?. Danny took off. I rode Muni above ground (since the underground was closed) to Church Street, then walked the rest of the way to Jane Warner Plaza to see the Klipptones perform, which I enjoyed while drinking a Vitamin Water from the nearby Chevron station. It was pretty windy today, but all seemed to go well with the performance and the tent above them did not fall or fly away. Browsed and ran an errand at Cliff's Variety. Had a slice of meat and mushroom pizza and a Lagunitas pale ale at Oz. Attempted to buy coffee and then abandoned my purchase at Philz after chatting with Chris D about what he needed. Rode Uber Pool home. Took the trash out. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef veggie pad thai (broccoli, peanuts, tamarind sauce, scrambled eggs). The Uniqlo boys short-sleeve t-shirt size 13 fits me perfectly.
Mon Aug 21, 2017
Pre-breakfast: two bananas. This morning Lyft estimates for my ride from the Sunset to Mission Bay was $51.60 for a Line ride and $85.97 for a Lyft ride. Instead I rode UberX to UCSF Mission Bay for $27.31 (which I realized after I saw this price that it seems significantly higher than I remember my estimate being, but I didn't take a screenshot of my estimate). Met Grant in Koret Quad, viewed today's 75% partial eclipse for a bit, but it was pretty overcast, then took a break for breakfast at The Pub: breakfast bowl, which was tater tots, a sausage patty, and two eggs over easy in a bowl: $5.50. Afterwards we went outside again to view more of the partial eclipse using special eclipse sunglasses that we had gotten from Paula, who with her husband was finding her own viewing spot east of her home. Eric joined us, having just returned from time off with Amber at a gaming conference in Indiana, and we traded the special sunglasses among us for some time, able to see the eclipse clearly when the clouds parted. Susie was in a meeting in Mission Bay but viewed it briefly from the steps at Genentech Hall. James H I think was not participating. I got the three of us an UberX ride back to UCSF Laurel Heights. Identity retheme work. Landing and hero images work. Task followup. Lunch at Beautifull!: three vegetarian sides: butternut squash, curried tofu, kale and seaweed salad; water. I couldn't finish, so I took about half of it back to the office. Rode Uber Pool home. A Good Eggs delivery had many mistakes and Patrick couldn't make the dinner he had planned, so we dined out at Kingdom of Dumpling: $45.10 after a $7 tip. Did some catching up on journaling.
Tue Aug 22, 2017
Breakfast at home: one egg scrambled with two sausage links from frozen and a slice of sharp cheddar on Firebrand sourdough batard, 1.5 pints of water, 8 ounces of apple cherry cider. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Microsites work: Calpoison. 1-on-1 with Eric. Lunch: leftovers from yesterday's lunch. Today I brought my folding bicycle in (via the Uber Pool car's trunk) to give to Grant who is thinking about buying it. I showed him how to unfold and fold it, and Eric joined us when we took it for a test drive. Grant likes the bike a lot, so it seems he plans to buy it. In the afternoon I met with Cindy, Susie, and Eric to discuss the curriculum chart draft which Cindy didn't like, so I began working on a new design. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: pizza margherita with fiore di latte and Sonoma County Meat Company sweet italian sausage and fresh basil, side of mediterranean herb salad, red wine, san pell.
Wed Aug 23, 2017
Breakfast at home: two eggs scrambled with two sausage links from frozen and a slice of sharp cheddar on Firebrand sourdough batard, 1 pint of water, 8 ounces of apple cherry cider, one nectarine, a handful of fresh raspberries. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Curriculum chart: two new versions. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Mount Zion. Lunch at My Father's Kitchen: #6 with thai iced tea. UCSF shuttle from Mount Zion to Laurel Heights. Microsites work: Calpoison. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Good Eggs meal kit: heirloom tomato caprese salad, Firebrand sourdough batard with butter, san pell. Recharge Medical work: blog post editing.
Thu Aug 24, 2017
Breakfast at home: one egg scrambled with two sausage links from frozen and a slice of sharp cheddar on Firebrand sourdough batard, 1 pint of water, 8 ounces of apple-cherry cider, one nectarine, a handful of fresh raspberries. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Microsites work: Calpoison. Chatted with James about broken images on Calpoison. Chatted with Mom by telephone. Lunch at Rigolo: mushroom gruyere cow burger, french fries, water. Lots of task followup. Identity retheme work. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Good Eggs meal kit: cast-iron roasted chicken, broccolini, cannelini beans, san pell. Dessert: sugar cones with Humphrey Slocombe Blue Bottle Coffee ice cream with a pinch of Maldon salt, side of raspberries, an ounce each of Firelit coffee liqueur, san pell.
Fri Aug 25, 2017
Breakfast at home: Nona Lim ramen noodles with beef broth from a jar of bouillon, baby bok choy, chives, garlic, ginger, mushrooms; 1 pint of water. Rode Uber Pool home. Sprint standup wherein Susie announced that she is making a run to Arsicault Bakery, having wanted to try their croissants for a very long time. The bakery opened in 2016 and received Bon Appetit's best new bakery of 2016, and it's only a 10-minute walk from our workplace. She soon returned with croissants for everyone. Mine was ham and cheese, and it was the best croissant I had ever eaten. It's extremely butter; my fingers were quite greasy when I was done. The flavors, crispness, airiness, and pillowyness are all perfect. Identity retheme work: mostly print styles. A small web update for Lucia in the curriculum course listings. Lunch from The View Cafe: one pork bun, two pieces of dim sum. Rode Uber Pool to the Castro. Got my reading glasses adjusted so that they are less tight around the temples. Rode Uber Pool to a bar called Benjamin Cooper, which is very small, with decor that is subtlely steampunk-western. When I arrived at 6 pm there were only a handful of empty seats. Drew and Phil arrived around 6:30 pm. We had one round of drinks. Afterwards we walked to Hotel Nikko for dinner in the lounge at Anzu from the Summer of Love menu. Danny met us there a little after we were seated. Three-course meal with wine pairing for Phil: oysters rockefeller (oyster & spinach baked in a half shell, the original Rockefeller sauce; paired with Taittinger, NV, Brut, Champagne, France), boneless rainbow trout (almandine butter sauce, English peas, saffron jasmine rice; paired with Domaine de Triennes, 2016 Rose, Provence, France), bananas foster (banana sautéed in rum with vanilla ice cream; paired with Eldorado 12 year old dark rum); two-course meal for Drew: melon and prosciutto with basil granité, chicken cutlets cordon bleu (pomme de terre macaire (crispy mashed potato cake), French beans); Danny canceled Phil's order of udon noodles for him and instead ordered The Rock; two-course meal for me: melon and prosciutto with basil granité, boneless rainbow trout (almandine butter sauce, English peas, saffron jasmine rice). Rode Uber Pool home.
Sat Aug 26, 2017
Slept in. Brunch: leftover ramen from yesterday, 8 ounces of apple-cherry cider, a small piece of dark chocolate. Trip planning all day for Anaheim and San Diego in October. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from 4505 Burgers and BBQ via DoorDash: choose three meats (chicken, pork, beef) with two sides: baked beans, cole slaw; 6-pack of Lone Star beer: $38.25 before a 15% tip for the driver. Watched 25 minutes of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with Patrick.
Sun Aug 27, 2017
Breakfast: a nectarine, 1 pint of hot water. Purchased Gay Days Anaheim (Disneyland) park tickets: 4-day Park Hopper, which was a better discount through Gay Days than through UCSF. This purchasing process failed when using Chrome but worked when using Safari, perhaps due to adblocking extensions, since Chrome is my preferred browser. Shower. Rode UberX with Patrick to the Fillmore. Brunch at The Elite Cafe with Patrick, Phil, Drew, Romy, Paul, Wayne, Peter. We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes past the scheduled time of our reservation. Drew and I were disappointed with the coffee whereas Patrick liked it. The table in general was disappointed by the beignets, which had good airiness inside but were not as good as we had at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans due to a different texture or structure to the dough. Entrees were well-sized for the price. Cocktails were excellent. About $44 per person split evenly after tax and 20% tip on the pretax amount. Rode UberX home with Patrick. Nap for me. Patrick worked on edits for Mitchell. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef caribbean chicken (collard-strewn coconut rice and pineapple salsa). Cut my hair, showered. Decided to not renew LastPass Premium since now (as of November 2016) all of the premium features I used are now free, and I confirmed that I think I never made use of the premium features that still are part of Premium.
Mon Aug 28, 2017
Breakfast at home: egg and cheddar on english muffin, 8 ounces of orange juice, one pint of hot water. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Filed pcard paperwork. Sprint standup. Asana task followup. Calendar management. Set up a new wobble board since lately I found that after switching to a standing desk I need more movement in my legs to hopefully prevent future health issues. It's pretty simple to use, and no accidents so far. Lunch from The View Cafe: deli sushi, water. Microsites work: Calpoison review meeting #2. Styles work. Curriculum chart edits. Asana task followup. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Green Chef cumin-coriander steak (farro tabbouleh with green beans and carrots), san pell. Dessert for me: Humphrey Slocombe Blue Bottle Coffee ice cream. Dessert cocktails for both. Watched more of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with Patrick. Recharge Medical work: edit to the USCIS page, restored ssh key configuration for Bluehost following migration to MacBook Pro.
Tue Aug 29, 2017
Breakfast at home: leftovers from The Elite Cafe with leftover salsa from last night's dinner, 8 ounces of orange juice, 12 ounces of 2% milk. Rode Uber Pool to UCSF Laurel Heights. Microsites work: Calpoison followup. Ed news next meeting prep. 1-on-1 with Eric. Began taking over his responsibility of updating our email mailing list for the Update from the Dean by sending email requests to various sources. Identity retheme work. Lunch at Noah's Bagels: turkey avocado club sandwich on sesame bagel, potato salad. They forgot my pickle again and I forgot to mention it. Errand: hardware store for Comet and an air freshener for my office. Identity retheme review meeting #3. Identity retheme work. At Grant's request yesterday, the Plancomm team met today for drinks after work. We went to Swank, which turned out to be a great choice, even if it was a bit loud and we needed to order at the bar. I had an orange creamsicle, which was delightful for the few seconds it took me to finish it—it had a lot of ice. The half and half in it had been whipped to create a sweet, orangey foam on top. We talked about Paris and French; James H is departing for a visit there tomorrow. I mentioned my trip to New Orleans. Paula is cleaning her garage for Labor Day weekend. Rode Uber Pool to the Castro. Got my reading glasses adjusted again. Got takeout at Kitchen Story. Rode Uber Pool home. Dinner at home with Patrick: mango salad with prawns (mild), yellow curry chicken (mild), roti.
Wed Aug 30, 2017
sam drove patrick and me to sfo. UA sfo to denver. UA denver to nola flight, long wait before entering runway to burn excess fuel. uberx from airport to melrose mansion took shorter than we expected. Weather was very warm and very humid, partly cloudy with no rain. We arrived less than a week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, and New Orleans does not appear to have been affected much by that huge storm. Checked in to Melrose Mansion. Patrick booked our hotel, and I believe it's the most expensive hotel stay I've ever had. We have the Prince Edward Suite on the second floor: a small sitting room with television, fridge, and coffee machine leads to (a) a restroom with a jacuzzi tub and (b) a bedroom with a king bed and (c) a sunny, semi-private, shared patio with chairs, lounges, and tables. Down below, the property has a beautiful, large swimming pool with chaise and tables. A gym takes up the entire smaller third floor. Patrick included an add-on package as a surprise for me: champagne, scattered rose petals, and a large set of macarons from Sucre. We unpacked, rested, and refreshed. Chatted with front desk people about minor room issues. Walked to dinner at Paladar 511 in Faubourg Marigny (511 Marigny). A glass of croatina for Patrick. We shared a little gem lettuces salad, egg yolk raviolo, and an italian sausage pizza. The raviolo was particularly good. The restaurant had a nice setting. Stopped at a corner market for bottled water. Champagne and macarons by the pool, chatted with front desk people about minor room issues. We're very happy with our room and the staff.
Thu Aug 31, 2017
Gym then light breakfast in Melrose Mansion. trip planning. I helped Patrick with ironing, which he doesn't do very often. We rode UberX to Salon by Sucre. Walked in the French Quarter. The pharmacy museum was closed for filming. Stopped briefly at Cafe Beignet then a few bookstores. Rode UberX to the Free People of Color Museum where Kim spent several hours with us giving us an interesting history which I had not known before. We rode UberX to Melrose Mansion. Rested, dropped off book purchases, did trip planning. Rode Lyft to New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Visited the museum. Sat on steps resting. Walked through City Park to dinner at Ralph's on the Park (504-488-1000, 900 City Park Avenue). Rode UberX to Melrose Mansion. Finished the champagne from yesterday while using the jacuzzi in the room. We also ate more of the macarons.