September 2024
Summary: Sorrel celebration dinner. Lookout with Paul. Codecademy with Tina. Patrick joins The Academy, and we attend many events. Patrick receives second runner-up in the Faulkner-Wisdom Award and participates in the Faulkner for All Festival in New Orleans.
Dates on this page
Sun Sep 1, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Cleaned all screens with water and lint-free cloth. Restored the OXO pepper grinder to operation. There still seemed to be a little water under the cuff, but since it was on the outside I believe it will not be a problem. Troubleshot problems with Siri constantly asking "Who is speaking?" I turned some settings off and then on again to see if it would make a difference. Troubleshot problems with automations for some lights in our small bedroom. I switched from using automations in the light bulbs' app to using automations in the Apple Home app. Made a small change to the styles for Lodestar Quarterly: why did I ever set a min-height: 100px for interviewer and interviewee classes? Orchid maintenance. Lunch: Patrick had an avocado salad with toast with butter. I had leftover wagyu dumplings with shrimp spring rolls from frozen. Cleaned the bathroom. Cut my hair, showered. Cleaned the bathroom. Later we walked to CVS at 19th and Ortega. Patrick got flu and covid vaccines. We paid out of pocket and will attempt to get reimbursed by our health care provider. We bought toiletries and other supplies. Walked home. Rested. Lemonade. I prepared dinner: Real Simple's mustardy kale salad with roasted sweet potatoes and apples. We subbed a nectarine for the apple. Hot water for Patrick, cherry lemonade for me. Afterwards we watched Oppenheimer on Amazon Prime Video with butter microwave popcorn. I was supposed to chat with my brother and sister on Zoom tonight but I forgot—so embarrassing.
Mon Sep 2, 2024
Slept in. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries, about a third of a cup of diced mango; hot water. Lunch: delivery from Mahalo via Doordash: kahlua pork and bbq chicken plate with white rice and salad for Patrick, BLT sandwich with onion rings for me. I ate in the back yard in the sun. Midafternoon snack: one Venus orange (which seems to be a Sumo orange but from Australia). Added dark mode css styling for bookmarks on frankfarm.org. Dinner at home with Patrick: Martha Stewart's three-bean mild chili with cheddar to which we added leftover kahlua pork, hot water. I also had a glass of red wine. We watched Warrior s3:e7 on Netflix then Comedy Central Presents s2:e12 Patton Oswalt then Comedy Central Presents s5:e9 Tom Papa. I washed dishes at breaks in between. Patrick went to bed. More css styling for bookmarks on frankfarm.org. Dessert: a small piece of cherry chocolate bar. Later snack: sourdough toast with butter, water. Linkchecking for home websites.
Tue Sep 3, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Began rereading the UCSF Editorial Style Guide version 1.3 (dated October 10, 2018). Began rereading the UCSF Brand Identity social media standards and policies and best practices. Late lunch from Moffitt Cafe: vietnamese shrimp salad bowl, which had a peanut sauce which I was told was mild but I thought it was spicier than mild. I ate it anyway. To drink: Starbucks coffee and cream in a carton. I ate in Saunders Court in the sun with my Tilley hat. Edited a news story for Suzan. Posted an updated school orgchart. Added a link to our Instagram account to the School of Pharmacy home page. Answered a question from Angelie K about a specific email address. Helped Katherine determine if a UCSF news story included any of our postdocs; answer is no. Reported to IT that a recently resolved problem with medicine.ucsf.edu has returned. Redirected a misdirected request for digital letterhead. Team meeting in Zoom with Suzan and Katherine: mostly new year message and social media strategy. Dinner at home with Patrick: spring pea mezzaluna with creamy white sauce and toasted bread crumbs, hot water. I also had a glass of red wine. Home improvement: partially reapplied window film to remove air bubbles that were created when the film was lifted for cleaning during the recent mold remediation, removed a cable track above the closet in the small bedroom using a hair dryer, a metal spatula, and various solvents and cleaners. During the day today Patrick transferred basil propagations to pots with soil. A while ago we had watched a YouTube video that described how to buy a single basil plant and then have basil forever via propagation. It's coming along nicely so far.
Wed Sep 4, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. 45 minutes door to door because the bus schedules seem to be wonky. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Suzan and I met with Michael S to discuss new year message imagery. 1:1 with Katherine, including social media campaign imagery with Katherine. Lunch: salad from Moffitt Cafe, ate with Suan in her office. Comm team met with Julia S a few weeks before her departure to UC Berkeley. Workflow and tools meeting with Katherine and Suzan. Finalized social media campaign imagery with Katherine. Walked and rode Muni home, avoiding my usual route because of problems with reliability. Dinner at home with Patrick: fried tilapia with mashed potatoes and greens, hot water. Afterwards we watched various YouTube videos. Patrick went to bed. I washed dishes.
Thu Sep 5, 2024
Ran in place while watching YouTube videos. Lately I haven't been remembering to include in the journal this running in place when I do it. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Worked from home. Troubleshot problems with Time Machine backup, which said it could not back up because it wasn't connected to power but it was. Made updates and minor changes to the list of social media accounts for the school. QBI orgchart work for Jacqueline F. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work all day. Academic Affairs content build followup and work. People pages and HR report work, including figuring out how to convert text dates to date dates in Excel that refuse to format as date: cut, paste into text editor, then cut and paste back. I think. A while back I rebuilt my Spotlight index using a rather unusual method, and it eventually did seem to fix things completely, but it took a lot longer than I had expected—perhaps a week or so. Troubleshot problems with Time Machine backup: stuck on "preparing backup" then stuck on "checking the object map" in Disk First Aid. Small web edit to School Retreat for Sahru. Helped resolve a Powerpoint slide issue for Katherine for Joanne. Met with Sabrina V over Zoom to discuss ordering a new laptop. Doctor appointment by telephone. Patrick and I rode UberX to and from Sorrel for a celebration dinner—another perfect meal. For our second visit we had the five-course instead of the nine-course tasting menu. We both included the $50 wine pairing. We can't remember all the details, but all the food was delicious, every one of the wine pairings delighted us, and service by Paige N and company was perfection.
Fri Sep 6, 2024
Troubleshot Disk Utility problems related to Time Machine problems: disk utility stuck on creating partition map. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced mango left over from a few days ago; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Bus schedule is still wonky but today it worked in my favor. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work all day. Finalized and scheduled an html email reminder for the forthcoming school retreat. Prepared for ordering AP Stylebook licenses; we are switching from Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) to AP Stylebook. Did some account credential hardening for work credentials. Digital letterhead work for new faculty member Diego C. Team meeting with Suzan and Katherine. Met with Anne S about the Merced pathway. Prepped for styling work in Drupal by downloading a new database from Acquia Cloud to update my local dev environment. Confirmed that an infrequently used listserv still exists for OSA. Met with Jayson J who showed me how to order a MacBook Pro in BearBuy. Walked and rode Muni home. Patrick and I walked and rode Muni to the Castro. We dined at Wilkommen. Patrick had a schnitzel sando with fries and a 0.5-liter stein of Playa mexican lager. I had a lemonade and angus burger with fries. The curry ketchup on my burger was a little too spicy for me but I was able to eat it. Afterwards we walked to The Academy for our first evening visit since Patrick joined with a Metropolitan membership a few days ago. We attended the Bare Chest Calendar mixer and the Friday Cocktail Social. We had a great time, then walked and rode Muni home. Outside our home a dog from across the street wandered over to us to say hello, which we enjoyed. We met neighbor Jade who lives across the street and cares for dog Charlie once a week.
Sat Sep 7, 2024
Slept in. Late breakfast: Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Napped briefly with Patrick. Late lunch: small bowl of Martha Stewart's three-bean mild chili with cheddar to which we added leftover kahlua pork, hot water. Helped Patrick with laundry he washed earlier. Weeded in the front yard. Walked and rode Muni to the Castro with Patrick. We dined at Detour: sucker punch (mezcal, lime, bitters, cucumber, tajin) for Patrick, lemonade ($6!) for me. We shared a ginger chicken wellness bowl (baby greens, rice, radish, carrot, cucumber, edamame, ponzu, cilantro, chili oil, scallion). We forgot to ask them to omit the chili oil. It was spicy but I ate it anyway. We also shared a ponzu salad (baby greens, cabbage, scallion, ponzu vinaigrette, fried shallot, black sesame, almond). Aside from the chili oil and the exorbitant price of lemonade, we liked everything. We walked to The Academy and attended Academy Live: Queer Comedy Showcase featuring host and comedian Marcus Williams and comedians Wonder Dave, Micheal Foulk, Frida Sierra, and Emily Van Dyke. A good time was had by all. Patrick and I had a fourth meal at Taco Boys: one pollo asado taco each. We shared a watermelon Jarritos. Rode UberX home.
Sun Sep 8, 2024
Continued troubleshooting Time Machine problems. After reformatting the external hard drive, the new first backup took much longer than expected; overnight it had backed up only 100 GB which it should have done in one or two hours. I canceled the first backup and again attempted to run Disk First Aid, but it again got stuck on one of the steps. Slept in. Late breakfast: medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Spent two minutes removing all occurrences of Google profiles urls (google.com/profiles/) from my address book. Napped with Patrick. Late lunch: small bowl of Martha Stewart's three-bean mild chili with cheddar to which we added leftover kahlua pork, sourdough toast with butter, sliced half peach, hot water. Patrick and I walked and rode Muni to the Castro. He visited Kerry and his mom. I met Paul for drinks at Lookout. I hadn't seen Paul in several years, so we did some catching up. We talked about health issues, Spain, Italy, Irene, Greece, Peter, Clovis, Nick, common friends, Romy, Jeff, David, UCSF, Herzog and de Meuron, and more. We walked to dinner at Thai Chef: beef curry with rice and water for Paul, crispy egg noodles with pork and hot tea for me. Afterwards we walked to Castro and Market Streets. He left to take the F train home. I walked to Beaux to meet Patrick on the sidewalk. We walked to Copper for a round of drinks. There we met a stranger whose name we could not recall but we think it started with O. He was recently arrived from a Latin American country and told us via Google Translate his harrowing story of coming to America. We also encountered or met Alonzo and Mahdi who were celebrating 10 years of friendship and told of their story meeting at Rich's in San Diego. Walked and rode Muni home.
Mon Sep 9, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Encountered a kernel panic in macOS in AppleAPFSMediaBSDClient upon opening my laptop. I have no idea why. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Edited a news story for Suzan. Followup with several Siteimprove issues. Followup with a facilities problem report. Katherine, Suzan, and I waited outside a classroom to hand out flyers to encourage students to follow our new Instagram account. Afterwards Suzan and I visited Kiyomi in OSA and chatted a while about various topics. Requested new badge access for Suzan and Katherine. Followup with computer order for Sabrina V. Prelunch snack: one nectarine. Fast, late lunch from Panda Express: panda bowl with half chow mein, half mixed vegetables, mushroom chicken; water from my water bottle. My fortune: You are open and honest when it comes to matters of the heart. Team meeting with Katherine and Suzan. Styling work in Drupal: accordions. Upgraded Docker Desktop from 4.33.0 to 4.34.0. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: falafel in warm pita with tahini and tomato, hot water. Afterwards I Zoomed with Tina and together we walked through a set of Codecademy exercises. She is wanting to learn more about how to code. Codecademy kept disconnecting, and we couldn't figure out why. The exercises were cumbersome to complete largely because of the frequent disconnections but also because the course was not designed to work well with her MacBook Pro screen size. The exercise workspace was too small, and we were unable to see the instructions at the same time as the exercise. At the end of the set, I decided that what they presented was a dumb way to teach programming. I would not recommend Codecademy based on this set of exercises. I washed dishes. Late snack: a tiny piece of cherry-almond dark chocolate, sourdough toast with peanut butter, hot water.
Tue Sep 10, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to get my flu and covid vaccines and get other medical things done. While at the medical facility (which had really awful wifi speeds) published a news story. Web edit for Rebecca B. Identified and weeded unpublished news stories from a long time ago. Many were tests that could be deleted. Some were dupes that could be deleted. Some seemed like finished news stories but were never published, and it's unclear why. Late lunch at Moffitt Cafe: lemon chicken orzo soup, dinner roll (awful, and I knew this but had forgotten) with butter, packaged asian salad with ginger sesame dressing (surprisingly good). Purchased licenses for AP Stylebook. Attended Julia S's farewell party. In attendance: Tram C, James F, Alexa T, Robyn K, Lauren A, Leslie CS, Edgar M, Kiyomi N, Julie R, Sharon Y, Anne S, Igor M, and maybe one or two others I might have missed. A very large chocolate sheet cake was served, and no one knew what to do with the leftover cake. Walked and rode Muni home. Rested. Walked and rode Muni with Patrick to The Academy to watch the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presidential debate. We sat on the patio. We weren't near any heaters, but they provided blankets which helped a lot. I of course was prepared with two handwarmers. In addition to drinks, Patrick and I had sausage and mushroom flatbread and the beehive cheese platter which included toast points, spiced nuts (not too spicy for me), and a slightly spicy jam. We were pleased with Harris' performance. Walked and rode Muni home. To bed.
Wed Sep 11, 2024
Continued troubleshooting problems with macOS Spotlight being slow. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Turns out I probably had a corrupted Spotlight index. I found the solution I needed from an article called "How to Rebuild Spotlight Index on macOS Sequoia - 3 Ways" on drbuho.com: sudo -i, mdutil -Ea, mdutil -ai off, mdutil -X, mdutil -ai on. Asana task followup. Met with IT and Microsoft to explain the problem of missing images due to proxy image failure as seen with (but not exclusively with) Campaign Monitor email campaigns. The meeting went well and they are going to investigate. Met with Suzan and Katherine: investigated analytics and talked about social media campaigns and graphics and AICD3. Filed vaccination paperwork for work. IT ticket followup. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Honors and awards followup: began considering how best to proceed both short-term and long-term. Late lunch by myself at Moffitt Cafe: pasta primavera, side of mixed vegetables, ice water. Investigated Zoom accounts and whether we are still paying for an account we no longer need to. Did some organizing of files in Box and OneDrive. Dinner at home with Patrick: falafel in warm pita with tahini and tomato, hot water. We watched various YouTube videos including part of Nateland #215 Etiquette with Leanne Morgan. To bed.
Thu Sep 12, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, dried cherries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Updated the OSA orgchart and performed tasks following Julia S's departure. Followup with Liang Z person page and website. Performed tasks following Marley Q's departure. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Mission Bay, working along the way. Met with Sabrina V to hand off a MacBook Pro and mouse then helped her get set up with it. While on my way to lunch I encountered Bernard who told me about his weekend. We parted, and I headed to lunch by myself at Gott's. After placing my order (hamburger, fries, lemonade light ice, about $18), I got a phone call from Joel. I said, "Hey, what's up?" and he said, "We're watching you order." Joel, Lauren, and Edgar were finishing lunch after an admissions retreat nearby, so I joined them and we chatted. Afterwards they went to Parnassus. I walked to Valley Tower and worked on the patio (4). The patio is always in the shade, but the day was not too warm and not too cool with light breezes. A few minutes later it got breezier, so I donned my jacket. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. I worked about an hour there, then I picked up some books and equipment from our workspaces. UCSF shuttle from Mission Bay to Parnassus. Dropped off equipment. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: gluten-free spaghetti carbonara with zucchini and without pork, hot water. Afterwards we watched Murder by Death (1976) on SFPL DVD which Patrick discovered after reading something about Truman Capote.
Fri Sep 13, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Team meeting. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Social media work: switched from creating Instagram templates in Photoshop then Illustrator to InDesign. Illustrator doesn't do text in tables well. And neither Photoshop nor Illustrator has paragraph styles. In the end I didn't use the tables, but the paragraph styles and the primary pages were what made InDesign far more efficient than Illustrator and Photoshop for creating 19 images for Instagram. Pre-lunch: one Venus orange. Lunch from Cafe Bellini: ham and cheddar sandwich with fries: $9. Water from my water bottle. Ate at desk while rewatching 17 minutes of Oh, Hello on Netflix. Continued Instagram templates. Followup with an IT request about a retired website. Followup with annual teaching awards work. Attempted to harden or otherwise resolve more account credentials. Walked and rode Muni home, watching more of Oh, Hello on Netflix. Walked and rode Muni with Patrick to dinner at Detour: wellness bowl with pork adobo no chili oil, hamburger with nori tater tots. Patrick had a limeade, I had a pale ale in a can. Afterwards we walked to The Academy for Academy Live: Katy & Karina who sang and played piano and drum for a memorable performance involving perfect vocalizations and harmonies and original songs mixed with songbook classics. They opened with Cantilever Bridge and ended with Dream a Little Dream of Me. Along the way we heard songs by Wham!, Chappell Roan, Yaz, and more. We enjoyed our evening very much. Rode UberX home.
Sat Sep 14, 2024
Finished rewatching Oh, Hello on Netflix while running in place. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Delivered misdelivered mail to a neighbor. Discovered a pool of water under the kitchen sink while gathering cleaning supplies. Cleaned mold from the front door and the garage door. Emptied the cabinet under the kitchen sink. A portion of the drain pipe has cracked. We placed a container underneath to gather drips. I washed dishes then ate a light late morning snack: TJ's green onion pancake from frozen. I deep-cleaned the dish rack and washed dishes. Patrick napped. I practiced Duolingo. Midafternoon snack: two shrimp spring rolls from frozen with dipping sauce; hot water. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp stuffed red bell peppers, hot water. Showered. Patrick and I walked and rode Muni to The Academy for From The Vault: Film Lovers Meetup: Kung-Fu Hustle. Before arriving we had hoped they had popcorn, and they did! We enjoyed watching the film with a small group of others, and afterwards one shared knowledge about some of the film's trivia and interesting facts. Afterwards we walked to Marcello's for a slice of pizza: combo and root beer for Patrick, basil-tomato-feta and bottled water for me. Our pizza slices weren't hot even though they were reheated. I had asked for plain water but what we received (and paid for) was bottled water. We were too tired to complain. Walked and rode Muni home.
Sun Sep 15, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Attempted to repair an Oxo bottle brush with Elmer's glue. Cleaned the bathroom. Cut my hair. Cleaned the bathroom. Showered. Snack: one TJ's bambino pepperoni pizza, hot water. Later: snack: one Venus orange. Set up eSIMs for Patrick and me for our forthcoming trip to Europe. Midafternoon snack: cashews. Rode UberX with Patrick to dinner at Keeva Indian Cuisine with Tony, Tai, Drew, Phil: palak chaat (chickpea-battered fried spinach—delicious and unusual), butter chicken, whole tandoori chicken, lamb vindaloo, fish curry, and some kind of paneer, two kinds of naan, rice, and rasmalai. We talked about pottery, airports and air travel tips, my recent visit with Paul M, New Orleans, Uber and Waymo, The Academy. The food and service were excellent, but they were very busy tonight and it took a while for the food to come out after the palak chaat. We didn't mind much, though. We learned from Rita that her brother owned A Desi Cafe on Noriega Street which Patrick and I frequented before it recently closed. Rode UberX home. Zoom chat with Lani and Dex. Lani was driving, so Dex and I chatted a bit before rescheduling. Recharge Medical work for several hours: forms: remove provider line, typographic adjustments throughout. To bed late.
Mon Sep 16, 2024
The Oxo bottle brush Elmer's glue fix held! Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blueberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Today the school held a faculty and staff retreat to which I wasn't invited. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Followup with various tasks. Spent most of the morning archiving and weeding UCSF documents still remaining in Google Drive and organizing remaining files under multiple accounts. Lunch: today I felt I had to leave campus for lunch, so I rode Muni to 9th and Judah and wandered without a place in mind and ended up at Perilla. Vermicelli with pork and imperial rolls. Walked back to the office. Continued resolving accounts that still used an old work email address of mine—either closing them or changing the email address to use my current one. 1:1 with Suzan to troubleshoot hardware (battery) and software (searching to find student names) issues. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: eggs in tomato sauce with chickpeas and spinach and warm bread, hot water. Performed a financial operation. We watched Warrior s3:e8 on Netflix then part of After Midnight s2:e7 on Paramount+ then four-fifths of Comedy Central Presents: Mike Birbiglia on Paramount+. Patrick went to bed, and I joined after a while.
Tue Sep 17, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Worked from home. Weeded account credentials. Seed award work all day: editing. Social media post template work. Brand work in Adobe Express: fonts and colors. Lunch at home by myself: leftover eggs in tomato sauce with chickpeas and spinach in pita. Spent a lot of time weeding safe senders in Outlook because I had reached the arbitrary limit for the number of safe senders you can have and could not add anymore. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Dinner at home with Patrick: fried tilapia sandwiches with crispy fries, hot water. Afterwards we watched the remainder of Comedy Central Presents: Mike Birbiglia on Paramount+ then Warrior s3:e9 on Netflix then Phil Wang: Wang In There Baby! on Netflix. My black Patagonia sleeping bag—I mean jacket—tore while I walked past a tree encircled with chicken wire yesterday, so today I fixed it by hand with needle and thread. I honestly don't know why people like Patagonia jackets so much. I have mended so many holes in mine since I purchased it. It tears so easily. They have some kind of policy which says they'll mend it for free if you come into the store, but it would take me an hour each way on Muni. So many holes. I don't have time for that. I'm so unhappy with Patagonia. Read from Museum-Palace of the Countess of Lebrija borrowed from Susie and Jeff. Late snack: a very tiny piece of cherry-almond chocolate, peanut butter on sprouted wheat toast from frozen, water.
Wed Sep 18, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Linktree work: thumbs. MAK seed award followup. Asana task followup. OSA listserv followup with Tram C: moderation, roman to arabic numeral naming, static to dynamic maintenance. SCM followup. Listserv testing: attachment filesize too large causing messages to disappear with no notice. Social media template work. For lunch we celebrated Bernard's one-year work anniversary at UCSF. We walked to Park Gyros. Bernard got a plate, and the rest of us each got a wrap. We walked back to the office and tried to not fall asleep from food coma. Workflow and tools meeting with Suzan and Katherine, including Suzan's laptop and battery issues—maybe resolved?, Adobe Express custom brand fonts and colors setup, Email on Acid explanation, searching photos with Siri on iPhone, and email signatures discussion. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at the relatively new Chaa Roen Pohn with Patrick: fried spring rolls, crispy chicken over fried rice, kao piak, two thai iced teas. All food and drink were delicious. The kao piak was notable for being something we don't usually see at other restaurants; the handmade noodles were formed with perfect texture and bite, and the flavors were balanced. Service was noticeably slow but friendly. We received the rolls first, and later the other two dishes came out too quickly afterwards, so they sat losing heat for several minutes as we continued to enjoy the rolls. After all the food had arrived we reminded them that we still hadn't received our thai iced teas, and they were delivered soon afterwards. Next time maybe ask them to hold mains until after the appetizer is finished. Although, Patrick isn't sure if he wants to return because of the timing issues. If we return I want to try the nam kao tod (crispy rice salad with pork sausage), fresh rice rolls with either pork or shrimp, rad nah mee grob (crispy egg noodle with chinese broccoli in gravy) or the bamee kiew (wonton noodle soup with vegetables). They are still in the process of receiving their liquor license. Walked home. We watched Agatha All Along s1:e1 and e2. Patrick went to bed. Linktree work: thumbs. Unloaded lots of photos from my iPhone 12 mini to archive. Installed macOS updates for Patrick's computer. Uploaded to and organized photos in Flickr. Installed app updates for my computer.
Thu Sep 19, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Worked from home. Followup with SCM compliance work. MAK Seed Award web edits, CCI digital letterhead work, and other followup. Zoom meeting with Kimberly N: CPT website changes. Replaced Edgar M's photo at his request. Lunch at home by myself: leftovers from last night's dinner. MAK Seed Award html email prep all afternoon. PAWS meeting. Updated orgchart process documentation. Handled a request from Sahru K to add a link to a bunch of non-accessible PDFs stored in Box. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Dinner at home with Patrick: warmed pita and pasta e fagioli from frozen; hot water. We watched Warrior s3:e10 (season finale) then part of Inside the Mind of a Dog, both on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. Late snack: half banana, pretzel from frozen with cheese salt, hot water.
Fri Sep 20, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana, blackberries; hot water. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Deleted an old Google account that had been set up in the OSACA days that we no longer needed (and barely used at all when we had it). Edited a news story for Suzan. Reviewed social media graphics in Photoshop for Katherine. Added Instagram to the footer of our html email template for MAK Seed Award. Comm team meeting. Lunch: bbq chicken salad from Ladle and Leaf, bread, water from my water bottle. More MAK Seed Award followup. Met with Katherine and Suzan to train them on uploading images to The Archive. Afterwards I spent some time updating fields. Altered the future pub date of a news story for Suzan. After work I walked and rode Muni home to drop off my bag and refresh then walked and rode Muni to meet Patrick for dinner at Fisch and Flore (2298 Market Street), our first time since they reopened in April 2024. A glass of lemonade here is $7—exorbitant! We sat at table 55, which is the two-top just inside the front door. The interior is a big upgrade from what we remember of Cafe Flore: seemingly new everything yet they retained the wall of windows (but with new windows) that make it feel like you're inside a giant greenhouse. Outside the front door steps are somehow gone, new concrete seems to be everywhere, and there are no heat lamps but there is a fire pit. Cocktails: Drain or Shine (tequila bianco, italicus, elderflower, lime, rhubarb bitters) for Patrick, L'Etude d'Or (brandy, benedictine, pomegranate, chamomile, honey, lemon, egg white) for me. Patrick had a grilled oyster. We shared fisch and chips (beer battered cod, hand cut fries, Old Bay seasoning, walnut tartar sauce) and grilled fish tacos (rockfish, coleslaw, pickled red onion, salsa verde), which come three to a plate with a sauce to spoon atop. The menu says the dish comes with salsa verde, but I thought it was more of an avocado crema, which I thought had a bit of spiciness. The fisch and chips both had Old Bay seasoning. I could barely taste Old Bay in the fisch, but it was quite notable in the chips. The chips (fries), about a quarter-inch to three-eighths-inch thick, were a little spicy for me, but I was able to tolerate it. The fry exterior was crisp, and the interior was notably soft—like mashed potatoes. All the seafood was notably fresh and prepared excellently. Patrick didn't realize his cocktail would be so diminutive, and mine didn't seem to get me any woozy, but we enjoyed them. Service by Z'amir S aka Z was excellent. About $100 after tax and tip. While departing we saw a neighboring table receive what appeared to be a plate of four off-menu head-on prawns, and Patrick thought they looked especially tasty. When we return we want to try the salmon sandwich with fries, and Patrick wants to try more oysters. Afterwards we attended and enjoyed Academy Homeroom: The Bee's Knees with Barr Hill Gin at The Academy. Walked and rode Muni home. I had accidentally left my eyeglasses behind. Both to bed soon afterwards.
Sat Sep 21, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana, blackberries; hot water. I deep-cleaned the electric toothbrush. Lunch: Patrick had an avocado salad. I had ramen from a package with fish balls from frozen, shrimp from frozen, red onion, green onion, soft-boiled egg, tofu, cilantro, lime juice, fish sauce. Continued studying Spanish on Duolingo as I have been doing daily but not always mentioning it. Patrick and I finalized our tax returns; we had filed for an extension because we were waiting for additional documents. Walked and rode Muni to dinner at Super Duper Burger: Patrick had a double burger and iced tea. I had a veggie burger and lemonade. We shared a salad which I did not like much because it had more arugula than I wanted. We attended Academy Live: Gay Cabaret Open Mic with Russell Deason and Friends at The Academy. I retrieved my eyeglasses that I had forgotten last night. Through the course of the evening, Patrick sang five songs accompanied by really wonderful piano playing: Someone to Watch Over Me, My Man, Maybe This Time, Smile, and I Don't Know How to Love Him. About 25 people attended, and we enjoyed meeting them and hearing many of them sing. Rode UberX home. To bed.
Sun Sep 22, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana, blackberries; hot water. House chores. Lunch at home: Patrick had avocado salad, hot water. I prepared whole wheat spaghetti with tomatoes, side of corn off the cob from frozen, hot water. Forthcoming trip prep: printed info cards to insert in our luggage in case it is lost and opened by baggage handlers. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: Martha Stewart's black bean, cucumber, and feta salad; hot water. We watched It Happened One Night on SFPL DVD. Zoom chat with Lani and Dex. Late snack: leftover chickpeas and spinach, water. Reconfigured Apple text replacements because I couldn't remember them well enough.
Mon Sep 23, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana, raspberries; hot water with squeeze of lime. Walked and rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Followup with an IT ticket which was closed and marked completed but seems to not be completed. Requested a new listserv for Joanne C's new students. Edited a news story for Suzan. Ran a Proofpoint test with Jeffrey W from UC Berkeley. Granted permissions to edit a microsite to Michael D. Walked and rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: steamed dumplings with dipping sauce and green onion pancake, hot water. We watched some extras from the two-disc set of It Happened One Night on SFPL DVD.
Tue Sep 24, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, raspberries; hot water with squeeze of lime. Worked from home. All morning: Mailgun Email Camp via Goldcast. This year's theme is pro wrestling. Today's path is Deliverability Domination. Early lunch at home: leftover Martha Stewart's black bean, cucumber, and feta salad; hot water. Ordered a new Time Machine backup drive in BearBuy. Tried to find my nameplates template and failed. It was sunny and warm enough for me to work outside, but it didn't last long and the clouds returned after about an hour or so. Downloaded and archived retreat images for Sahru. IT ticket followup. Followup with Sahru about adding retreat results to the retreat website. Upgraded from iOS 17.6.1 to iOS 17.7 on my iPhone 12 mini. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Lazy Susan via DoorDash: shrimp fried rice, pepper steak, spring rolls, general tso's chicken. Hot water to drink. My fortune: A romantic evening awaits you tonight. Set up some new AirTags today. We watched various YouTube videos then the remainder of Inside the Mind of a Dog then 45 minutes of Ellen Degeneres: For Your Approval, both on Netflix. Patrick went to bed.
Wed Sep 25, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, raspberries; hot water with squeeze of lime. Worked from home. All morning: Mailgun Email Camp via Goldcast: Email Geek Supershow. 1:1 with Katherine. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Published a news story for Suzan. Small web edit for Biophysics for Nicole F. Followup with IT about renaming two microsites. Lots of MAK Seed Award followup and changes. Followup with EFD about remaining IT consulting hours. Midafternoon beverage: limeade. Met with Michael S and our team to review his really great first drafts for the new year message. Name plate work for Angelie and Judy. Microsite work: TEC. Patrick returned from a trip to the dentist. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. We watched Agatha All Along s1:e3 on Disney+ then the remainder of Ellen Degeneres: For Your Approval on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. I washed dishes while listening to Good One: A Podcast About Jokes: John Mulaney's One Hundred Million Dollars. Late snack: baked pretzel from frozen with pretzel salt, hot water. Foot care and toenail care.
Thu Sep 26, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Worked from home. Today Patrick left for New Orleans. His new manuscript, Fancy Gumbo, his second collection of short stories, was short-listed and named second runner-up in this year's prestigious Faulkner-Wisdom Award. He participates in the Faulkner for All Festival today through the weekend, returning on Monday. He participates in one panel. All morning: Mailgun Email Camp via Goldcast: Omnichannel Smackdown. Published a news story for Suzan, then immediately discovered and soon resolved a problem with it. Reviewed a proposed web maintenance plan for Katherine. Lunch at home: leftovers from Lazy Susan, lemonade. Followup with Microsoft about the missing images problem. They have no more details to share. Hopefully the problem will not return. Siteimprove linkchecking, spellchecking, and policy work. Filed pcard paperwork. Populated a new student listserv. Met with Sharon and our team about the DEI web page. Followup with an IT request to reset credentials and change owner of a resource email account. Other seed award followup: small changes. Dinner at home by myself: medium butter leaf lettuce salad with heirloom tomato, cucumber, toasted sliced almonds, feta, maui onion ranch dressing; one slice of sourdough toast with peanut butter; hot water. Continued reading from Museum-Palace of the Countess of Lebreija.
Fri Sep 27, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, diced half banana; hot water. Worked from home. Team meeting: ResourceSpace, breakfast with the dean feedback, editorial strategy, website management. Lunch at home by myself: medium butter leaf lettuce salad with heirloom tomato, cucumber, toasted sliced almonds, feta, avocado oil ranch dressing. Updated mailing lists with new HR data. ResourceSpace settings config. Shared Drupal planning documents with IT. Teaching awards followup. Followup with Nathan D about new faculty member Liang Z. Seed award followup. Reviewed planning documents that Katherine wrote and put out for team review. Met with Katherine to discuss Facebook ads. Reviewed Katherine's notes from the most recent Breakfast with the Dean. Dinner at home by myself: pork-flavored ramen with tofu, green onions, cilantro. Chatted on SMS with Chris D. Late snack: TJ's bambino pepperoni pizza.
Sat Sep 28, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted shaved coconut, sliced and toasted almonds, raisins; hot water. Cleaned the bathroom. Uninstalled Grammarly because I usually didn't need it and it would keep bugging me to sign in when I didn't want to. Pre-lunch: sliced cucumber with feta and za'atar, water. Lunch: tofu with green onions in oyster sauce over jasmine rice. Made very minor updates to the journal at frankfarm.org. Dinner at home by myself: I prepared mac and cheese using macaroni, cheese powder, corn off the cob from frozen, and tinned branzino. Cold water to drink. Afterwards I watched Muriel's Wedding on Netflix.
Sun Sep 29, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, sliced and toasted almonds, raisins; hot water. While eating, I began listening to the audiobook of Glory Days by Simon Rich and read by John Mulaney. After 13 minutes in, I am laughing more than I have ever laughed to an audiobook. Password database organization and credentials hardening all day. Lunch at home by myself: star pasta from a can with torn italian parsley, hot water. Cleaned the bathroom. Cut my hair, showered. Cleaned the bathroom. Google Search Console work for frankfarm.org. Dinner at home by myself: leftover mac and cheese, hot water.
Mon Sep 30, 2024
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, sliced and toasted almonds, dried cherries; hot water. Worked from home. Calendar management. Submitted my timesheet. Handled a misdirected digital letterhead request. Followup with new year message. Left comments for Katherine on her Breakfast with the Dean notes. Followup with a problematic timesheet submission. Followup with Katherine and Suzan about badge access. Followup with Brand Identity team about a request; they resolved my request but did not let me know they did. Followup with Erik W about a report about custom css failing to work in Qualtrics. Followup with Katherine and Sabrina about a stalled request with IT. Mailing list management: added one new temp employee to three lists. Purchasing work. Patrick returned from New Orleans. Lunch at home with Patrick, Sam, Kerry, and Mom Ryan: Popeye's Fried Chicken: 12-piece family meal, beans and rice, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits. Online IT training: Keeping Your Privileged Users Aware. Spent 29 minutes on the phone with IT Service Desk trying to get a problem resolved. Quickly read a Sinch Mailgun research report PDF called Email and the Customer Experience. Listserv work: resolved a problem for Sabrina and Joanne. MAK Seed Award announcement send. Dinner at home with Patrick: Patrick had oatmeal. I had leftover Popeye's fried chicken and biscuit. Hot water for both. Patrick went to bed early. I washed dishes then joined hours later.