Monday, November 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.