November 2019
Summary: Mexico City trip ends, Alan and Mitchell's wedding, jury duty for Patrick
Dates on this page
Fri Nov 1, 2019
Mexico City vacation, day 3 of 6. I woke unable to find Phil, who usually awakens before me. Turns out he was in the missing bathroom. He discovered the missing bathroom this morning but had cancelled our reservation around 3:00 am. The second bathroom seemed to have been missing because its door was completely hidden behind the door to one of the bedrooms. When the bedroom door was completely open, it fit perfectly into the wall adjacent to a wall unit such that there was no indication that another door was behind it. Since Phil and Drew always sleep with the door open, they never found the second bathroom. Efra attempted to undo the cancellation but failed even though the property manager was understanding and sympathetic to our complaints. We had to vacate the unit. Phil found a different place for us to stay, but we still had some time before we could move in. We left our luggage with the guard at the entrance then walked to breakfast at Maison Kayser (Reforma 408), which was very French, right down to the very slow and inattentive service. We stopped at MacStore Torre Reforma (Reforma 483) so that Ef could shop. We picked up our luggage, then walked to the new place which was alongside the park on Campos Eliseos 69B. The property manager greeted us and showed us the unit. It was about a zillion times larger than our previous Airbnb and more luxurious. The decor was entirely masculine, and we suspected that the owner or designer was gay. Two elevators opened directly into the U-shaped unit. Bedrooms and bathrooms along one wing, living and dining rooms in the center, kitchen and service bathroom and laundry and outdoor patio in the remaining wing. There were so many excellent lighting options that the plethora of light switches was difficult to master. Eventually, though, you could set the lighting perfectly. Sleeps seven, and more in a pinch. Two bedrooms have master baths. After settling, we rode the metro from (I think) Chapultepec station to Pino Suárez station to Plaza de la Constitución at Zócalo station. We walked the plaza, which was filled with Dia de Muertos displays, vendors, street performers, and visitors. We attempted to stop for refreshment at Pacos de Rosa rooftop restaurant, but after waiting several minutes for an 8-top table to leave then watching while a seated 4-top got up and took the 8-top right as those people left while the staff did nothing, we decided to go somewhere else. We got beverages from a nearby 7-Eleven then walked through the historic center area along Avenida Francisco I. Madero, a tight pedestrian street bordered with restaurants and shops and filled with vendors, many of whom were disabled and asking for money. We stopped briefly to observe the massive holiday display in front of Palacio de Bellas Artes, then, walking through the park called Alameda Central, passed nearby Hemiciclo a Benito Juárez. At the west end of Alameda Central we attempted to drink and dine at La Azotea at Barrio Alameda, but it had just begun to rain and they immediately closed the kitchen. Instead we went downstairs to Butcher & Sons for drinks and burgers: limonada, tarro clamato, two orders of negra modelo, two orders of Mr. Tambourine, sweet mello, mac and cheese b&s, La Original, Cash, two orders of Hendrix, two orders of Bowie, mini burgers, three orders of papas fritas. 1,960 pesos ($103) before tip. We walked along Reforma and split up outside Sonora Grill: some of us went to buy mezcal from a liquor store, the rest of us returned to the Airbnb. Back at the Airbnb, we held a mezcal tasting and talked for hours, mostly about parenting and coming out. The mezcal was 400 Conejos Joven Espadin Tobala Oaxaca and 400 Conejos Espadin Reposado.
Sat Nov 2, 2019
Mexico City vacation, day 4 of 6. Ef and I woke early. Ef's friends Oscar (general practitioner) and Mayte (organization president, pronounced my-tay) arrive and nap after a six-hour bus ride. Ef and I talk in the kitchen. Dave awakens and has coffee from a Nescafé coffee machine. We walked to get coffee filters at Circle K and decided to breakfast again at Ojo de Agua: acai bowl, chilequiles, baked vegetables topped with cheese, various juices. Stopped again at 7-Eleven for milk (17.50 pesos ($1)). Returned to the Airbnb. The others had awoken. Quyen had discovered that the laundry room had flooded. They cleaned what they could and reported the problem to the property manager. Julio arrives. Despite having eaten breakfast, we accompanied the others to breakfast for them at Cosecha Natural Polanco then coffee at Starbucks, where there was valet parking and car washing. We walked a few minutes and watched the end of the Parade from near Estala de Luz. We watched for maybe 45 minutes. It was very rainy, but nonetheless we enjoyed seeing many floats, costumes, musicians, and dancers. The people seem to love this parade. After the end of the parade and nearby Julio encountered some friends and chatted briefly with them. We walked towards Zona Rosa, stopping to browse at Plaza del Angel, Centro de Antiquedades (Londres 161). We stopped for drinks at La Terraza: beers, whiskey, and for me a giant but weak margarita. Another table had a medium-sized contraption with three spigots and a center tub full of beer. The place was very noisy. They wouldn’t take a credit card at La Terraza. I wouldn't return. We walked back to the Airbnb along Reforma past many vendors and alebrijes. At the Airbnb we found that there was no running water due to the repair of the flooding issue. Rested. Woke. Water is working. After some convincing, Oscar joined us for dinner while his wife and her colleagues ordered pizza delivery and continued working through the evening. We rode UberXL to Sonora Grill Prime Masaryk in the Polanco district. We started with special Catrinas cocktails, which displayed the face of La Catrina on the surface of the cocktail served in a martini glass. We suspect that the image was inkjet printed onto some kind of meringue sheet with food inks. For this meal I had ordered sea bass, but when it arrived it was salmon. I spoke with a waiter and told him I had ordered sea bass and he pointed at my salmon and said, "Yes, that is sea bass." At that point I knew and stopped complaining since I was okay eating salmon even though it wasn't what I had ordered. Afterwards we visited Magnolia Bakery to get dessert to take home. The shop was closed even though Google had told us they would still be open. Somehow Oscar convinced them to open just for us, and we bought five small cheesecakes and a few other items. 1,222 pesos ($64) before a nice tip. We also stopped at a Circle K for a few items. Walking past Lincoln Park we overheard a concert by Oscar Chavez. Rode UberXL to the Airbnb. At the Airbnb, Mayte, Pancho, and Genesis finally stopped working and socialized with us. We drank mezcal and ate cheesecakes: chocolate, rose, lemon, pecan caramel, blueberry, then, later, natural-flavored Act II microwave popcorn. In addition to the mezcals from last night, we also had Amores Espadin Oaxaca Joven. We talked about films, ages, doppelgangers, eating crickets, scorpion venom, tarantula venom, travel. Someone broke a glass. Genesis recommended La Gruta at Teotihuacan.
Sun Nov 3, 2019
Mexico City vacation, day 5 of 6. For breakfast I had a small bite of Magnolia Bakery pan de dulce purchased yesterday with water. I ironed a shirt. Phil, Drew, Quyen, Dave, Julio, and I walked to Museo Tamayo where I saw art from many Mexican artists I didn't know as well as other artists with whom I was more familiar such as Picasso, Miró, O'Keefe, Rothko, Nevelson. The major exhibitions were: En Apariencia Otro México, Bocetos Para Murales De Rufino Tamayo by Rufino Tamayo; Otros Cuerpos Detrás by Adriana Varejão; Los Senderistas by Rashid Johnson; Colección Museo Tamayo. Entrance today was free (every Sunday). We continued walking through the park passing a monument for Gandhi. We rode UberXL to Abraham Lincoln Aviary, which was small and disappointing because many of the birds seemed to be in poor condition. The peacock was the highlight for me. We stopped at a nearby Starbucks for coffee and breakfast sort of to go and sort of quickly eaten there. We met a driver arranged earlier for us by Ef, and the driver arrived in a sedan with a small girl in the front passenger seat. We had six people, so there was some kind of miscommunication about our needs, and we apologized and told him that we could not use his services. Instead we arranged an UberXL and drove to Teotihuacan. Like last time, along the way we arranged for the return trip. The driver dropped us at a different entrance than last time, but because we didn't know about different entrances we were thinking on the way in that the shops and buildings along the entrance were new but they looked old. Now we know that it can be helpful to ask the driver to drop you at a specific entrance if you know where you want to go inside the sizeable city area. After we entered and I saw that we were at the Pyramid of the Serpent, I realized what had happened. We continued walking northward up and down stairs multiple times (or, once, some of us went through a narrow tunnel) to get to the Pyramid of the Sun. This was my second visit to Teotihuacan, and my second hike to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. This time, unlike last time, there was a very long line at the middle level to climb the top half of the pyramid. Most of our time at the pyramids this time was spent waiting in line, and it felt a little like being at Disneyland that way. While we waited in line on the middle level of the pyramid for perhaps 30 minutes, the partly cloudy sky slowly turned darker. We reached the stairs then reached the top, took a few photos, and within a few minutes rain began to fall. As the rain grew steadier, we realized that not everyone hiking the pyramid was prepared for rain, so there was suddenly a rush to exit, which meant that again there was a long line to descend the steep stairs, which were now wet and getting wetter by the minute. We got in line. I put on my rain pants and opened my umbrella, sharing cover with whoever in our group needed it. People continued taking photos even as it rained and even as we waited in line to descend. Our driver picked us up outside the entrance without much difficulty, and we rode back to the city center. At the Airbnb, we rested. We walked to dinner at Los Arbolitos de Cajeme. I ordered tortilla soup and shrimp mignon, which turned out to be a shrimp patty wrapped with bacon—like a filet mignon. Ef sang a song by John Sebastian called Eso y Mas (This and More.) Returned to the Airbnb. Julio gave small gifts of Christmas ornaments made in his hometown of Chignahuapan, Puebla. Chignahuapan is famous for producing Christmas baubles, 60 million annually. Ef recommends a visit to Queretaro. Packed.
Mon Nov 4, 2019
Mexico City vacation, day 6 of 6. Rode UberX to the airport. Pre-breakfast in the VIP lounge with Drew and Phil. I had scrambled eggs with some kind of red-colored sauce, biscuit with butter, sweetened yogurt. Breakfast on the flight: scrambled eggs with mushrooms, dinner roll, cup of cut fruit. The meal included sweetened yogurt which I skipped. Again I tried watching videos downloaded with Hoopla but the Hoopla screen was unexplainably blank. Instead I rewatched Iron Man 2 on Amazon Prime downloaded video and started watching Black Hawk Down (2001) on Netflix downloaded video both on my iPhone X. UberX two-destination ride with Phil and Drew. Nap. Unpacked. Dinner at home with Patrick: angel hair with meatballs in marinara, side salad, Hint water. Watched Superstore s5:e6 on Hulu Basic Plan with Patrick. Installed various software updates and executed backups for home devices. Washed dishes. Late drink: water with fresh lime juice. Finished watching Black Hawk Down (2001) on Netflix on the living room television.
Tue Nov 5, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: Patrick prepared eggs sunny side up, bacon, sourdough toast with butter, cup of raspberries. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Confusion over the time and location of today's move planning meeting. Reworked and published a primary image for a news story for Eric. Move planning town hall. Chatted with Eric about a request from Shanthi. Mailchimp audience list updates. Began work on a Codepen experiment to reproduce artwork that Robin had created. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Walked to 9th and Judah. Met Patrick at Nopalito (415-233-9966, 1224 9th Avenue) for dinner: two el diablos, mine with tequila and Patrick's with mezcal. We shared tacos de pescado, tacos arabe puebla, quesadilla de calabaza. Dessert: flan. Patrick had a cafe con leche with dessert. $84.88 before a $14 tip. We received excellent service from Alex who guided us in avoiding the spicy things. All the food and drink was delicious. Afterwards we looked in at Hometown Creamery but didn't buy, then we went to Green Apple Books for a reading by Shannon Pufahl for On Swift Horses and in conversation with Anthony Marra. The event was a nice one, but we were falling asleep, so we left early and rode UberX home.
Wed Nov 6, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: eggs with tomato, deep-fried hash brown with ketchup, english muffin with butter, water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Continued a Codepen experiment with boxes. Spent most of the day editing news stories. Lunch: no-oil, no-salt popcorn from the silicone microwave popcorn popper. Walked and rode Muni home, stopping at Cal-Mart for some groceries. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp burgers on sourdough pretzel rolls with lettuce, tomato, mustard; side of salt-and-pepper shoestring fries; Hint water. Dessert: pralines and cream ice cream topped with Evan Williams honey whiskey and a little of the same whiskey to sip from shot glasses. To bed early.
Thu Nov 7, 2019
Woke at 3 am, washed dishes, tidied in the kitchen. Pre-breakfast: one comice pear, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights, stopping at Starbucks along the way. I think this might be the first time I used the order ahead feature in the Starbucks app. It worked beautifully. I placed my order a few minutes before I expected to arrive. Upon arrival I had to wait only a few minutes before receiving my order, saving probably 10 minutes or so. Sprint standup. Calendar management. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Mount Zion. Walked to lunch at My Ivy: chicken pad thai with complimentary lunch special soup, ice water, hot water. Ran an errand. Walked back to UCSF Laurel Heights. Reviewed some slide decks from presentations at Sharecase. Helped Erin H with an editing request. Initiated conversation with Kathryn P to rework content in her News and Media section, primarily to convert PDF to HTML. Walked and rode Muni home, stopping at Cal-Mart for some groceries. Dinner at home with Patrick: Patrick's red beans and rice with andouille sausage, water and Hint water. Rested. Washed dishes. CMS updates for home websites.
Fri Nov 8, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: toast with labne and za'atar, fruit salad with raspberries, grapes, and sliced banana tossed with lemon juice and honey, hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights, stopping at UCSF Parnassus along the way to retrieve a package, help Joel with a question about an error message he receives after upgrading to macOS Catalina, and chat with Joel about the District 5 race and the district attorney race—both close races still undecided following election day as mail-in ballots remain to be counted. Chatted with James H about whether automated news can deliver all the body of a node. (Answer: probably yes.) Followup with Kathryn P and Michael D about converting newsletters from PDF to HTML. Responded to Alexa R regarding submitting updated info for an event. Edited a news story to remove an unintended anchor. Watched Adobe tech demos from Adobe MAX 2019. Uploaded a recent news image comp to The Archive, notified Grant and Levi. Left early per convention due to holiday weekend. Walked and rode Muni home, stopping at Wine Impression along the way to buy St-Germain. The store owner had St-Germain only in a box set that included two glasses styled similarly to the beautiful bottle. I hesitated, not sure if we had space for the two glasses, and then decided to buy it. About $40 before tax. At home, rested. Dinner at home with Patrick: veggie pizza from prepared dough and sauce with mushrooms, shallots, rosemary dust, and kosher salt; side baby butter leaf salad with ranch, parmesan, tomato; hot water. To bed early.
Sat Nov 9, 2019
Slept in. Brunch at home: leftover angel hair with meatballs in marinara, one pint of hot water. Somewhat caught up on journaling. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: beef and bean hard tacos with guacamole and other fixins, water. Watched John Wick 3 on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Regular microwave popcorn for Patrick; no-oil, no-salt microwave popcorn for me; one salted caramel chocolate truffle each. Patrick went to bed. Late snack for me only: grapes.
Sun Nov 10, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: french toast with maple syrup, earl gray tea. Caught up on journaling. Patrick made a coconut-almond syrup today from scratch. Archived souvenirs from the Mexico City trip. Downloaded, processed, and organized trip photos, then uploaded them to Flickr and Google Photos. Prepped for dinner. Nap. Rode UberX to dinner at Petit Crenn with Patrick. We sat at the counter with a terrific view of the chefs at work. Tasting menu was $105 with service included. There was an optional caviar supplement with one course which we both declined. We ate: canapes (nettle espuma, comte gougere), leeks en vinaigrette (oyster emulsion, sea grapes, horseradish), acorn squash custard (sea urchin, brown butter, fennel flower), squid ink boudin (shelling beans, grilled zucchini, borage flowers), McFarland Springs trout (sauce vierge, potato [three ways], spring onion), cacao sorbet (cacao fruit, carmelized cocoa nibs), tarte normande (brown butter, juniper ice cream, compressed apple). Rode UberX home.
Mon Nov 11, 2019
Last night the Blue Pure 411 air purifier in our bedroom turned off by itself, and we could not figure out why. The power was not out. Even if it did go out the machine is designed to turn on at the previous setting when power is restored. Veterans holiday. Breakfast at home: leftover red beans and rice while reading from Randall Munroe's How To, a gift from Chris and Nate. Created antiquated forms of correspondence. Lunch: leftovers from taco night with rice and corn chips, hot water. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: roasted Moroccan chicken with persimmons, couscous, and za'atar yogurt sauce. Created a medical emergency spreadsheet and card for Patrick.
Tue Nov 12, 2019
Created a stolen wallet spreadsheet for Patrick. Breakfast at home with Patrick: two eggs over easy, toasted english muffin with butter, extra-crispy hash browns with ketchup, side of yogurt with cinnamon, sliced banana, and fig jam. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Mailchimp list updates: deans using info from Joanna H. Posted updated info for an event for Alexa R. 1:1 with Eric. Snack: a yellow orange. Calendar management. Snack: sunflower seeds, tamari pumpkin seeds. I notice today that Pinboard again supports colons in tags after having stopped support for it for many months. Two email messages I had sent reporting the problem were ignored. Read lots of blog posts on webdev and other related topics. Began editing Zaro Lab content and an UFD. Rode UberX home with a medium-sized package. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. Dessert: TJ's mini panettone, kahlua and milk on the rocks. Lots of Recharge Medical web and promo and print work. Recently one of the two orchids I received in November 2014 again had a dried stem before flowering, and I decided to give up on it and threw it in the compost bin. To bed late.
Wed Nov 13, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: egg, cheddar, tomato, and lettuce on toasted english muffin. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Finished editing the UFD. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus. Visited the Open Enrollment helpdesk with a few questions. Lunch from Panda Express: bowl with half chow mein and half mixed vegetables with orange chicken, bottled water, fortune cookie. My fortune: Inspire those around you. Got the meeting room key from the OSACA, chatting with Lucia briefly. Meeting for the Academic Affairs page and the Faculty Resources microsite. Chatted with Joel on the way out. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: butternut squash ravioli with brown butter and crispy sage and warm ciabatta, Hint water. Watched part of Ladyhawke (1985) on SFPL DVD with Patrick. Recharge Medical work.
Thu Nov 14, 2019
Breakfast: one sliced pear. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. UFD email prep, stage, and publish all day. Lunch: oil-free, salt-free popcorn from the silicone microwave popcorn popper. Walked and rode Muni to dinner at Jannah / Yaya Cuisine: warm pita with za'atar sauce, red wine for me, hot tea for Patrick. We shared chicken perdaplow and tikka kabab (steak and salmon) with rice. Dessert: we shared an order of baklava. $65 before tax and tip. Food, drink, and service were all very good. Not crowded at all at 6:00 pm on a Thursday night. Afterwards we walked three blocks to Baker Street and visited the grand opening of Bob's Donuts in Hayes Valley, eating a sugar donut in the store and taking a few others home. Rode UberX home. Lots of Recharge Medical web work.
Fri Nov 15, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: with coffee we shared three Bob's donuts: chocolate cake, chocolate-glazed yeast, maple-glazed yeast. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Styling work: various fixes. Siteimprove work. Prepped images and staged Zaro Lab then sent it to Balyn for review. Drinks with Eric, Levi, Grant, and Sarah at Laureate. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: vegetarian tamales with spicy mole sauce (Patrick) or mild taco sauce (me) and a side salad. Watched Superstore s5:e8 on Hulu Basic Plan.
Sat Nov 16, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: grits, bacon, thin bagel with whipped cream cheese for me, sourdough toast for Patrick, scrambled egg for me, hot earl gray tea for both. Spent about an hour figuring out how to make Google Sheets update a particular cell with the current date if any cell in the sheet had been modified. Cut my hair, showered. Rested. Late lunch: brown basmati rice with quinoa and pumpkin seeds from a pouch with taco leftovers, water with lime juice. Finished watching Ladyhawke (1985) on SFPL DVD with Patrick. Nap. Fall Party at 15th Avenue House with many followed by UberX rides to Badlands until late with some. Eats: Empanadas, charcuterie platter, rum bundt cake, flan, rose cheesecake, and much, much more. Alex tended the bar in the kitchen. Badlands played mostly oldies when we arrived, so much so that I called it Time Machine Badlands. Afterwards Vince and I got pizza slices at Oz while the others waited, then we all got Uber rides home. Patrick made a ginger-molasses cake today.
Sun Nov 17, 2019
Breakfast: leftover red beans and rice, water with lime juice. Nap. Recharge Medical web work. Lunch: leftovers. Cocktails: fleur de lis. Dinner at home with Patrick: old-fashioned beef stew with mashed potatoes. Recharge Medical web work. Organized photos and archived everyone's shared photos from the Mexico City trip.
Mon Nov 18, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: scrambled eggs, bacon, sourdough toast with butter, grits, hot earl gray tea. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Spam management. Lately more and more messages have been making it past our server-side spam filter called Proofpoint even if I have blacklisted those addresses or domains in the Proofpoint interface. In response, I created rules in Outlook Web Access, but ones based on the From field are failing there as well. I am switching to Message Header filters rather than From field, and we'll see how it goes. Resolved broken links pointing to ucsfalumni.org. Completed a request to separate synched pages on grad program websites for Rebecca and Nicole. Resolved markup issues with news pages on the TRANSPERS microsite. Built a filmstrip negative comp effect for Grant in Photoshop. Reviewed Typewolf bonus materials. I did not find the lookbooks very helpful, but maybe in the future. Notified Grant of a display problem on iPad with the filmstrip image he added. Successfully resolved a problem with iOS Simulator crashing upon startup by executing "sudo killall -9 com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService" followed by "sudo rm -rf ~/Library/*/CoreSimulator" as answered by Paul King and Diego Carrera on Stack Overflow. Archived the SOP IT Wiki then asked Zach S to close the site. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: butternut squash soup with asian pear, curried pepitas, creme fraiche, cilantro; za'atar naan. Patrick began a 24-hour fast after dinner tonight.
Tue Nov 19, 2019
Breakfast at home: leftover grits, leftover beef stew, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Siteimprove work all day: resolving images larger than 1 MB. 1:1 with Eric. Webadmin team meeting. Added James F as an editor to the Biophysics website at Nicole F's request. Snacks: one orange; oil-free, salt-free popcorn from the microwave popcorn popper. Performed an assessment of migrating the QBC and grad programs websites to our current microsite system in advance of our Drupal 8 migration. Webdev news and videos. Handled a logo request from Angela G. Walked and rode Muni home. Patrick made a New Orleans wedding cake syrup today. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover beef stew turned into beef stroganoff with egg noodles, naan, hot water for me, san pell for Patrick. Dessert: ginger-molasses cake with pumpkin cheesecake ice cream. Patrick made and drank a soda with san pell and wedding cake syrup. Edited and uploaded photos. Archived documents. Unpacked new emergency water storage containers. Cable management. Organized stuff into boxes.
Wed Nov 20, 2019
Breakfast at home: leftover grits, leftover beef stew, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Virtual sprint standup. Granted permissions for Sandra S to edit the CPT site. Siteimprove work: resolving images larger than 1 MB and other tasks. Confirmed that recent styling fixes reached production. Snack: one orange, tamari pumpkin seeds, no-salt peanuts. Siteimprove policy work. Asana become unavailable today. It hardly ever goes completely down. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home by myself: leftover beef stew, one pint of hot water.
Thu Nov 21, 2019
Breakfast at home: leftover beef stew, one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Task followup. Three-hour Gallup action plan meeting, including lunch from Mandalay. I had Mandalay special noodles. Susie got balada and one of the fruit salads to share. We also played a fun game of Just One, which involved guessing words given non-matching clues provided by others. Began manually converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML. Walked and rode Muni to Hayes Valley. Dinner at Suppenküche (415-252-9289, 525 Laguna St) with Patrick: Patrick had a Grevensteiner Kellerbier, I had a glass of Karp-Schreiber Red Karp Regent. We shared a pretzel with two kinds of mustard. Patrick had a breaded pork chop. I had a pork wiener schnitzel. For dessert we shared a Bienenstich (bee sting cake), with which I had a glass of Spätlese riesling (because they were out of muscat and there was no other proper dessert wine). $108.82 after tax and before tip. Service by Sarah T was excellent. We enjoyed all the food and drink. Entree portions are very large. Table 13 in the back was probably quieter than the raucous front room even though all seats were filled and it was still very noisy. Rode UberX home.
Fri Nov 22, 2019
Breakfast at home: one toasted thin bagel with cream cheese, hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Virtual sprint standup. Continued converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML. Snack: leftovers from yesterday's lunch. Rode Muni to a doctor appointment and back, stopping for lunch at Pho Vietnam (415-921-1901, 1406 Polk St) for bbq chicken with vermicelli and nước mắm with thai iced tea: $19.03 before a $3 tip. Paused converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML since some of them were image-only PDFs and running OCR on them resulted in space characters strewn throughout, so I decided to ask Michael and Kathryn if they have the Microsoft Word originals. Michael pointed me to Constant Contact archives for about half of them, so I can continue to work on those while they find the rest later. More conversion work. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: carnitas and mushroom enchiladas with refried beans, Hint water. Watched Dark Phoenix on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Patrick went to bed. I made adjustments to the power cable routing for the router, washed dishes, cleaned the range and range hood, set the range hood grease filter soak overnight in ammonia inside a 2.5-gallon ziploc bag, and tidied in the bathroom. To bed late.
Sat Nov 23, 2019
Slept in. Breakfast at home with Patrick: scrambled eggs, hash brown with ketchup, sourdough toast with butter, leftover wiener schnitzel. Washed dishes and did other cleaning in the kitchen. Finished cleaning then put the range hood grease filter back into place. Recharge Medical work in Mailchimp. Nap. Showered and dressed. Rode UberX to St. John's Presbyterian Church at 25 Lake Street for Mitchell and Alan's wedding, reconnecting with many from, or related to, the Syndicate after a long time and meeting for the first time Allan S, Chris and Raphael from San Diego, Marcus (who accompanied Ray), Justin, Nhan (accompanied by Michael I). The church was recently under renovation, and earlier it was uncertain whether the construction would be completed before today's wedding, but they finished and it looked beautiful. Afterwards we shared a Lyft ride with Emery to drinks at Moongate Lounge, arriving some minutes later than others in our group. Titan (scotch, barolo chinato, lapsang souchong, toasted brown rice) for Emery, Deimos (bourbon, oolong, green walnut, brined black sesame honey) for Patrick, Io (mezcal, montenegro black garlic, cherry flamed nine spice) for me. My drink had a large cube of ice with a Moongate Lounge logo embedded. $51.27 before a $9 tip for three drinks. Walked to China Live for the dinner reception on the second floor. Upon arrival while finding our assigned table we realized that the table had placements for 8 persons but all the other tables were for 10. Within minutes the issue was resolved and we had a place to sit. Others at our table: Scott T, Andy M, Bryan L, Ray F, Marcus, Emery, Allan S, Scot B. The menu: char siu pork crunch baked bun; chili-encrusted calamari with basil, mandarin orange, and asian spices; sichuan working hands dumplings with sesame butter and peppercorn-chili broth; wok-seared aged prime filet mignon with celtuce and lily bulbs; chengdu authentic pock mark ma's ma pa tofu with minced pork; shanghai fat chow mein with pork, shrimp, and chicken; charred chinese broccoli with washington white trumpet mushrooms and roasted sesame; assorted chinese tea cookies and pastries. Open bar, including two featured cocktails—Gold Mountain (Knob Creek rye, Camus V.S. cognac, coconut sugar, housemade iron buddha bitters, and california poppy liqueur) and Sweet and Sour Mischief (sichuan peppercorn-infused altos blanco tequila, fresh lime and pineapple, honey-almond syrup)—and two featured wines: Landmark Overlook Chardonnay 2015 (Sonoma, California) and Skyside cabernet sauvignon 2017 (North Coast, California)—and two featured beers: Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Tsingtao. We had a surprise visit from a young dragon dance group. Food, drink, and service were all excellent. Rode UberX home.
Sun Nov 24, 2019
Recharge Medical email campaign followup with Drew and Alyssa. Breakfast at home with Patrick: leftover enchiladas and added a fried egg, water. House chores: laundry, dishes. Snack: blue corn chips. Watched Superstore s5:e9 on Hulu Basic Plan with Patrick and popcorn. More laundry. Snack: Patrick and I made homemade potato chips using the 2-millimeter Cuisinart blade and topped with Spice Ace pink himalayan salt and Spice Ace black truffle and parmesan. Some potato chips came out tasty and others were soggy with too much oil in the middle. This was our second time making them, and we probably won't try to make them again—too much work. Dinner at home with Patrick: fried chicken tenders and honey mustard sauce with a side of pesto pasta salad with winter squash and pistachios, a white bordeaux.
Mon Nov 25, 2019
Breakfast at home with Patrick: scrambled eggs, pancake, and chicken finger; water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Continued manually converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML, now with help from Constant Contact campaign archives. Helped Eric with a question about using our PowerPoint templates in Google Slides. (It works; just import the presentation as a theme.) Snack: oil-free, salt-free popcorn from the microwave popcorn popper. Rode Uber Pool to the Mission. Met Patrick for Queer Bowling Night at Mission Bowling Club (415-863-2695, 3176 17th Street), a benefit for Larkin Street Youth Services. Patrick and I arrived right at 6 pm and donated $20 cash. There are six lanes, and I believe each lane can handle six players. We were hungry and decided to eat in the restaurant before bowling. Richard and Stephen arrived shortly after we did and said hello and went straight to bowling. Patrick and I had cocktails (Adam's Quest for Patrick [botanist gin, lemon, cucumber syrup, apricot liqueur, genepy mist], Asensio Silencioso for me [mezcal, lime, chicha morada, pineapple shrub]) then shared fried chicken (served on a stick with a pool of ranch) and a cow burger, medium (served with monterey jack, carmelized onion, caper aioli, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a side of fries). Food and drink were both delicious. Service by Ciarra was very good. The chicken was particular juicy inside and the crispy breading stuck perfectly. The burger was perfectly cooked to medium as ordered. A chunk of mine fell out as I ate it, perhaps a consequence of it being medium, and that was the only issue I had with it. Everything tasted excellent. $59.86 before an $11 tip. The bowling was free, and a STI testing van was parked outside and available. Games were limited to five rounds, which seemed fair in order to let everyone have a chance to play. We waited about 25 minutes in the slightly quieter (relatively speaking) upstairs lounge before being able to play. Our team: Qwen, Howard, Stephen, Richard, Patrick, and me. We met Howard, a friend of Richard and Stephen, and Qwen, previously unknown to all of us, for the first time. Part of the way through our game a drag show was held. We clapped and appreciated the drag queens, but it didn't feel like a good venue for a drag show. There was no stage or runway, and the bowling games were not stopped during the show, forcing attentions to be divided. I could tell, though, that the queens made the best of the situation. Final score: Qwen 38, Howard 50, Stephen 33, Richard 48, Patrick 39, and me 48. We all had a fun time, and I left with an excellent impression of the venue and of the event (despite the misstep of the drag show circumstances). Afterwards we said goodbyes and rode UberX home.
Tue Nov 26, 2019
Breakfast at home: leftover pork chop and potatoes, one egg over easy, one bosc pear, water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Laurel Heights. Sprint standup. Continued manually converting TRANSPERS newsletters from PDF to HTML. Handled a manual unsubscribe for our mailing list. Webadmin D8 migration planning meeting. Read WDRL and CSS Layout News. Filed pcard paperwork. Siteimprove work following the addition of QBC and grad programs. Edited a draft of Title Standards for Personnel Display for Eric. Patrick completed jury duty today. He was on call for Monday and Tuesday, and after learning that he didn't have to report for Wednesday, he has completed his service since it's a holiday week. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: pork and beef ragu with fusilli and a side of sauteed greens, red wine for me, water for both.
Wed Nov 27, 2019
Breakfast at home by myself: egg and cheese breakfast burrito, one pint of hot water. Telecommuted on a half day of work. We were notified in advance of today's 12:00 noon closure and the option to telecommute in the morning—nice! Siteimprove work for QBC and grad programs. Sprint standup. Outside, a little bit of light hail fell for a few minutes. Lunch: leftover pasta in ragu but there wasn't enough sauce so I sauteed some diced tomatoes with herbs to go with it, hot water to drink. Troubleshot a problem connecting to email.ucsf.edu. IT phone support could not figure it out, either. Patrick baked a chocolate cake from a recipe similar to what he recalled from his childhood. It's called chocolate depression cake because it was an inexpensive cake that was popular during the 1920s Depression. Washed dishes. Recharge Medical work: created a Men's Clinic flyer, other task followup. Archived product manuals. Washed dishes. Earthquakeproofed one of Patrick's paintings. Created an antiquated form of correspondence. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken noodle soup with parker house rolls, hot water. Listened to Joel McHale's Live from Pyongyang on Spotify with Patrick during dinner. We both enjoyed the show. I was not familiar with him or his work at all; Patrick knew him from Community, his game show, and his talk show. Washed dishes. Late snack: large soft taco with pork and pickled red onion, hot water.
Thu Nov 28, 2019
Thanksgiving holiday. Washed dishes. Pantry organization. Breakfast at home by myself: one-egg shallot and mushroom scramble, toasted english muffin with butter and garlic powder, one pint of hot water with juice from half a lemon. Earthquakeproofed one of Patrick's paintings and an old, framed photo of Jason W and me that Tina took. Lunch: Dr. Praeger's California veggie burger on a pretzel bun with shoestring fries—all from frozen—with lettuce, mayo, ketchup; hot water. Nap. Because Patrick had jury duty this week we decided that his uncertainty of availability meant it would be best for him to not attempt to cook a Thanksgiving meal even for just the two of us. So instead we arranged to dine at the Commons Club, a restaurant inside the Virgin Hotel, which we were told opened in February 2018. Rode UberX there. Essentially no traffic at 4:30 pm. Cocktails: Shooting Star for Patrick (Glenfiddich 12-year single malt scotch, Jack Daniels, brown sugar, tobacco bacon bitters, served on a rock), Millennium Bell for me (Los Vecinos mezcal, blood orange agave, lime, pinot noir, lavender salt, served up). My drink came with the pinot noir in a separate glass, which I was told I could sip separately or dump it in the larger glass. I chose the latter. Drinks were delicious. Fixed price, three-course meal: $85. An optional wine pairing was available for an additional $30, which we declined. Your choice of item for each of the three courses from a small set of choices. Starter: Patrick had pork belly with mustard and persimmon, I had pumpkin bottoni with chestnut, brown butter, and sage. Entree: we both had roasted turkey which included gravy, bread pudding, sweet potato, and cranberry. Our plates seemed to also include a terrine of some sort that was not mentioned on the menu. Dessert: Patrick had bourbon pecan pie with malt vanilla ice cream, I had chocolate flourless cake with pepita tuile and a side of pumpkin ganache. One deliverator almost attempted to hand us food before we had ordered. He tried to see if it was for table next to us, but it was not. On the menu one appetizer was called sunchoke volute which confused us until we realized that volute was misspelled and should instead have been velouté. I overheard that the table next to us (whom we chatted briefly with) had received the wrong wine pairing with the dessert course. With dessert, Patrick had ordered a single espresso. When it arrived, the deliverator announced, "double espresso" and we didn't say anything. Our bill erroneously failed to include the espresso, and I didn't realize until later because we were in a hurry to leave. Despite many errors, the food and drink are excellent. The space and decor are luxurious. We'd definitely return. We walked upstairs and down and peeked in the fireplace room before riding UberX to Alamo Drafthouse New Mission for Knives Out. We ordered popcorn no butter, a Dr. Pepper, and a Shanghai Bastard: $29.28 before a $6 tip, not including the movie tickets which Patrick had purchased earlier online. We enjoyed the film very much, and it is everything everyone is saying about it: sharp, twisty, fun, hilarious. Not many people seem to be talking about the social justice, immigration, and human compassion subtext plot elements, which I adored. It walked the line perfectly, encouraging discussion over holiday meals and outings.
Fri Nov 29, 2019
Breakfast at home: two hash browns; stir fry with pork, shallots, mushrooms, thyme, and deli spicy broccolini; hot water. Walked and rode Muni by myself to Powell Street Station; Patrick remained at home to write. Muni was checking proof of payment at the exit. (I had paid, as I always do unless I forget.) Walked to lunch at Ippudo (18 Yerba Buena Lane) at around 12:30 pm. I was told the wait would be 15 minutes. It turned out to be 28 minute wait. Hot green tea, shoyu ramen firm. Service by Andy was very good. Cashier was Miley. The ramen arrived quickly, was delicious, and the noodles were firm as ordered. The half egg included in my ramen was cold in the center, but I did not report it. $21.45 after a $3 tip. Shopping in and around Union Square. The only thing I bought was a six-pack of macarons for Patrick and a large bottled flavored iced tea from a street vendor. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Old Mandarin Islamic via Uber Eats: egg fried rice, green onion pancake, five-spice beef noodle soup, three flavor dumplings. Ordered around 4:45 pm and it arrived quickly—within 30 minutes. The order was complete, and all the food was delicious. The fried rice includes two things that are not often found in the fried rice from other Chinese restaurants near us: diced zucchini and coarsely chopped water chestnuts. The water chestnuts particularly add a delicious crunchy texture. The noodles for the soup were packaged separately and smartly oiled so as not to stick together during the delivery. The beef in the soup was very thinly sliced and very tender. Flavors in all dishes were full and interesting. Finally an Uber Eats order where nothing went wrong. $60 before a $5 cash tip. Software updates for home computers. Late snack: leftover fried rice.
Sat Nov 30, 2019
Holiday. Slept in. Breakfast and lunch: leftovers from last night, hot water. Watched Lady and the Tramp (1955) on Netflix DVD with Patrick. Nap. Dinner at Orexi (415-664-6739, 243 West Portal Avenue) with Patrick. We shared avgolemono soup, zucchini fritters (which were similar to corn cakes), tiger prawns, orexi flatbread. Fix 1864 for Patrick, glass of moscofilero white wine for me. No dessert, but Patrick had a Greek coffee, and I had a glass of commandaria. Service at the bar by Panos was terrific; food and drink were excellent. $98.74 before a $20 cash tip. Walked a bit in West Portal, then rode UberX home.