September 2025
Summary: Oakland Zoo with Sam and Patrick, Renovation Open House at Keith and William's, Patrick attends Felice's memorial in Los Angeles, I escape jury duty, Eric D visits, Ferry Building Marketplace with Patrick (Parachute and Lunette)
Dates on this page
Mon Sep 1, 2025
Pre-breakfast: spiced hot tea, plain yogurt with leftover fruit salad. Power outage in some parts of the house while Adrian changed some manually switched exterior lights to dusk-to-dawn lights. Breakfast by Mark and Jonathan: popovers with four kinds of jam and apple butter, cheesy scrambled eggs, pineapple pork sausage. Francis, Josh, and Sheening departed. Sunny and 87 degrees. Lounged poolside with Jonathan, Galen, and Mark. Galen gave me a ride home. Dinner at home with Patrick: cacio e pepe ravioli with alfredo sauce, toast, white wine. After dinner we continued drinking wine on the balcony. Galen returned briefly to drop off a rotary sander for me to borrow. We watched The Sandman s2:e4 on Netflix then Big Mouth s2:e1 on Netflix. Dessert: we shared half of a very small apple pie from Whole Foods deli, heated. Patrick went to bed. I caught up on email and fighting spam.
Tue Sep 2, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a two-egg breakfast burrito with grated mixed cheeses and sour cream, hot water. Marble countertop and slate tile floor repair in both lower level bathrooms with epoxy and dye. Attempted to clean minor grout stains in the primary bathroom, but the tile and grout cleaner I used did not seem to do anything. Applied carnauba wax to a wood putty fill in a hardwood floor crack in the living room, as recommended by Galen. The fill did darken, but only halfway to what we need. Patrick and I walked to lunch with Hap at Wooden Spoon: Hap had hangtown fry (folded eggs, bacon, fried oysters, cornbread, fresh herbs), Patrick had soft scrambled eggs (with smoked salmon, mascarpone, arugula salad, fruit, potatoes, dill creme fraiche), I had a smoky paloma and house hash (with sunny side egg, short ribs, potatoes, spinach, pickled vegetables, whole grain mustard cream). Afterwards Patrick and I said goodbye then got groceries at Whole Foods and walked home. Later, dinner at home with Patrick: bean, cheese, and arugula quesadillas with guacamole. Cocktails: margarita variant. We watched The Sandman s2:e5 on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen.
Wed Sep 3, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself two eggs scrambled with butter and leftover short ribs from yesterday's lunch; hot water. I continued research for purchasing a new kitchen faucet. I began building a table of possibilities listing their overall heights, spout heights, and spout reaches. Most kitchen faucet vendor websites have terrible filtering abilities, and nearly all don't understand my website needs. For example, it would be useful to see all faucets with a spout reach greater than 8.5 inches and less than 10.5 inches and order them largest to smallest (or smallest to largest), but I have found no website that can do this. Sam came over midmorning and Sam, Patrick, and I went to Oakland Zoo in Sam's car. It was the first time at this zoo for all of us. The zoo was not crowded at all, and the weather was sunny but not too hot for Patrick. We first rode the gondola to the upper section and explored the California Conservation Habitarium. Then outside we saw bald eagles, gray wolves, and California condors. We double-backed to the wolves to hear them howl, which occurs only on Wednesdays at noon when the emergency siren sounds. Next we saw jaguars, mountain lions, grizzly bears, black bears, bison, and the San Francisco Bay outlook. We rode the gondola back down. Lunch at Tusker's Grill. Sam had a cola Icee and a burger and fries. Patrick had a cola Icee and three chicken strips with fries. I had a cherry Icee and a burger and fries. Some (yellowjackets?) swarmed us, but I covered each of our Icees with a paper napkin with a hole for the straw and they seemed to go away. A nearby woman with a small child dealt with them differently; she laid a few pieces of chicken tenders a bit away from their seats and let them swarm that instead, and this method I thought was less effective because it drew more of them. Next we saw camels, flamingoes, sun bears, parrots, tamarins, chimpanzees, squirrel monkeys, the rainforest aviary, tortoises, reptile and amphibian room, goat and sheep petting yard, alligators, river otters, lemurs, the House of Bugs, warthogs, and giraffes. Patrick was too tired to explore the last section: African savanna. We did not ride the train which explored the wild Australia region with emus and wallaroos. The Sky Ride was closed, but it seemed short and did not seem very interesting. The gondola goes farther and higher and is more fully enclosed. The Sky Ride is open-air seating like a simple ski lift. Patrick wanted coffee, but the cafe did not have espresso—only drip. We exited the zoo without intention to same-day return. This zoo experience was good but not great. To connect to their wifi you had to give up a lot of personal info, so I didn't bother and just did without. Our cellular connection was poor. I guess due to the low traffic many refreshment stations were closed. Some animals were mentioned on the map but not visible anywhere we could find. In one or maybe two cases we saw a sign explaining an animal's absence. The food was reasonably good, though predictable for a zoo restaurant menu. Tusker's Grill had no salads—perhaps few or no people order them? The paper map was simple to use and easy to understand. The parking and ticketing process was easy except it was hard to figure out the best place to park because you can't see the entrance location easily and there are no signs telling you which way to walk. The next time we return, I would try eating at The Landing Cafe for the amazing view, and we should see the regions we missed today: Wild Australia and African Savanna. We did not visit the Rides Area since it looked like it was for kids and since we didn't take the train. Afterwards we drove to the nearest Starbucks where we got pumpkin-flavored drinks. Sam drove us home, and we said goodbye. Patrick napped. Later Patrick and I walked about 20 minutes to dinner at Nopa for a small milestone celebration. Cocktails: Nopaloma for Patrick, Pisco Punch for me. We shared: little gems salad, tomato bisque, fried fish (on the salty side), ham flatbread. Our server comped us a full order of fries with two dipping sauces saying something about delayed water. We didn't feel there had been any great delay, but we accepted them anyway. Dessert: warm peach crumble. Patrick also had a glass of barbera with the meal and an espresso at the end. All food, drink, and service by Zach O (who wore a pin saying "Ru Paul for President") were excellent. Walked home. Patrick read from his Kindle in bed before going to sleep. I continued research for purchasing a new kitchen faucet.
Thu Sep 4, 2025
Breakfast at home: plain yogurt with toasted coconut, flax meal, blueberries, local honey, cinnamon; hot water. Started the dishwasher. Walked and rode Muni to a doctor appointment and back. Lunch at home: chinese chicken salad from a kit, hot water. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from The Little Chihuahua: garlic shrimp burrito for Patrick, steak and shrimp al diablo burrito for me, watermelon mint agua frescas for both. Dessert: one salted chocolate chip cookie each. We watched Wednesday s2:e5 on Netflix then Star Trek: Strange New Worlds s3:e9 on Paramount+. Patrick went to bed. I joined a few hours later.
Fri Sep 5, 2025
Patrick hankered for Orphan Andy's pancakes, so we walked to and broke fast there. I had chicken apple sausage with eggs over easy with toast and home fries. Coffee with cream for both. All food, drink, and service by V were excellent. Walked home. I walked and rode Muni to Recharge Medical. Continued development website build. Resolved issues created after I added a right-side column to the layout. Began adding content. Lunch: turkey and smoked gouda sandwich with lettuce and mayo, pretzels, water. Walked and rode Muni home. Emergency hand-sewing repair. Walked with Patrick to The Academy where we met Phil, Drew, and Tai. This was their first time visiting. We got drinks from Tommy in the speakeasy then moved to the patio. The weather was overcast and cool, so we warmed ourselves at the rectangular fire pit. We chatted with Jess. We encountered Tony and invited him to sit with us and chat. Afterwards all of us left for dinner. We had intended to dine at Orphan Andy's. The diner was essentially full. We were told the wait for a party of 6 was 10 minutes, which I did not believe, but we waited a few minutes and decided the wait was going to be longer than 10 minutes and too long for us. We walked to Sausage Factory (517 Castro Street) and were seated immediately. Garlic bread to share. Shrimp piccata for Tai and me, baby salad (which was still huge) for Drew, spaghetti and clams for Phil, chicken parm for Patrick, and chicken milanese for Tony. Water all around, no alcohol. All food, drink, and service by Jose Or. were very good. Afterwards Patrick and I said our goodbyes and we returned home. Patrick went to bed. I archived documents that came with our home.
Sat Sep 6, 2025
Breakfast at home: one egg over easy, leftover chicken apple sausage from last night, one hash brown from frozen, leftover buttered toast from last night. Processed documents that I scanned last night. Continued Recharge Medical development website build: continued adding content, resolved slug naming for non-English languages, began altering non-English outgoing links to go to automatic translations of those web pages. Lunch for me: leftover french fries and fish from Nopa, hot water. Patrick and I walked and rode Muni to the Russian Hill home of Keith B, William, and Howie to help them celebrate the completion of a recent remodel. The home has great views of Coit Tower, the Transamerica Pyramid, and more of the San Francisco skyline. We enjoyed blueberry punch, a wide variety of small bites, and lots of great company. We met or encountered Gary, John, Gray, Martin, Robin, Roxane, Carmen, Chris, Peter, Brian, Feng, David, Monty, Keith R, Pablo, MJ, Felix, and more. Hours later we said our goodbyes. Patrick and I walked to dinner in North Beach. We attempted to dine at Tony's, but it was a 90-minute wait. We attempted to dine at Original Joe's, but it was a 60-minute wait. Instead we walked to Sodini's where we were seated outdoors (at my request) within a few minutes. Ice water and menus arrived shortly. Then there was a long wait for a waiter—perhaps 10 or 15 minutes. We placed our order. Bread and butter arrived. The bread was disappointingly room temperature and seemed a bit stale but we ate it anyway because we were hungry. Caesar salad arrived. It was watery as though it had been washed but not dried. Some parts of the lettuce weren't the best quality. The croutons were great, though. Pizza #7 arrived. Fresh ingredients, lots of mozzarella made it fun/hard to move a slice to your plate. Service was also very slow at the end of the meal particularly when requesting and receiving our check. Walked and rode Muni home on a crowded bus 8 before Powell Station and the underground. Patrick went to bed. I joined not long afterwards.
Sun Sep 7, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a large breakfast taco with two eggs, leftover refried pinto beans, grated mixed cheeses, guacamole, sour cream; hot water. Repaired a holey throw pillow (Matisse Leaves #3 Sand) with the sewing machine. Killed gnats found inside the sliding glass doors. Washed my swimsuit with Woolite. Patrick napped. Cleaned the bathroom, cut my hair, showered, cleaned the bathroom. Evaluated LB's work and completed requests. Helped Patrick resolve running out of space in iCloud. Skipped lunch. Instead I had one green apple and tortilla chips with guacamole. Purchased Microsoft Office. Trash management. Tightened all toilet seat attachment brackets. Continued development website build: added and tweaked langswitcher. Dinner at home with Patrick: arroz con pollo Cubano, hot water, white wine. We watched Wednesday s2:e6 on Netflix. Facetime chat with Dex and Lani. Late snack: pumpkin cinnamon granola with yogurt and blueberries, water.
Mon Sep 8, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself two breakfast burritos with two eggs, one pork link sausage from frozen, leftover refried pinto beans, grated mixed cheeses, leftover crema dip from the fries order at Nopa, guacamole, sour cream; hot water. Created a safe space sign for Recharge Medical. Continued development website build: translated TOC, added more content, nav styling fixes for two levels deep. Dinner at home with Patrick: tofu and broccoli in hoisin sauce with steamed rice, hot water, white wine. We watched various YouTube videos then Foundation s3:e9 on Apple TV+ then Wednesday s2:e7 on Netflix. Backups for devices and websites.
Tue Sep 9, 2025
Breakfast at home: small bowl of plain whole milk yogurt with toasted coconut, toasted slivered almonds, Mexican vanilla, flax meal, blueberries; hot water. Galen recently lent me his random orbital sander kit, but after evaluating it I decided to buy my own because his wasn't meant for wet-sanding and because I needed different grits than the sanding discs in his kit. Spent all day researching purchases for random orbital sanders, sandpaper, marble polishing compound, and kitchen faucets. Lunch at home with Patrick: leftover pizza, hot water. Dinner at home with Patrick: linguine with tomatoes, herbs, and parmesan. I processed dirty dishes. Dessert: we shared a Whole Foods chocolate chip cookie, warm milk to drink. We watched various YouTube videos then Wednesday s2:e8 (season finale) on Netflix then The Sandman s2:e6 on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. I processed more dirty dishes. Archived documents related to end-of-life planning. Late small meal: pumpkin cinnamon granola with whole milk.
Wed Sep 10, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a tartine with one scrambled egg and one chicken sausage patty from frozen with diece green onions, salt, and pepper. Hot water to drink. Continued development website build: replaced langswitcher labels for simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese to be shorter and simpler to understand; reordered the default typography page to be at the end of the menu instead of the start; added pages in 5 languages for appointments, policies; altered page-toc to correctly handle Chinese characters; restored page-toc css after trying without it for a while. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover arroz con pollo, hot water. Patrick and I walked to and attended game night at The Academy and had a very nice time.
Thu Sep 11, 2025
Breakfast at home: plain yogurt with pumpkin cinnamon granola, hot water. Party planning. Cleaned the soles of my heated slippers with Dawn PowerWash. Lunch with a subset of The Syndicate at Hulu Wa (3970 17th Street): Tuan, Scot, JY, Pachooey, Andy, Tim C, Ray, Stavros. We shared around 11 dishes. All food, drink, and service were very good. We talked about Texas, Dallas, San Antonio, San Diego, Disneyland, Anaheim, Alien: Earth, Foundation, dogs, the newly announced iPhone Air, Reed L, gay cruises, Grindr, restaurants, The Cafe, the Japanese decor inside this Chinese restaurant, Michael I, Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, parents and their health issues, and more. My fortune: Do not underestimate yourself. Human beings have unlimited potentials. Continued marble repair: light sanding in a small spot on the kitchen countertop. Printed safe space signs for Recharge Medical. While doing so I encountered smeared ink on our Epson XP-7100. Paper guide cleaning did not fix it. Print head nozzle check revealed smearing. I ran print head cleaning twice and that seemed to fix it. I ran out of blank white index cards, so I walked to Cliff's and back to get more. After printing the four cards I laminated them. Sent some invitations. Organized paperwork. Dinner at home with Patrick: shrimp and pineapple tacos with lime crema, avocado, and cilantro; hot water. I processed dirty dishes then started the dishwasher. We watched The Sandman s2:e7 on Netflix then Star Trek: Strange New Worlds s3:e10 (season finale) on Paramount+. Patrick went to bed. Cutting board wood butter treatment.
Fri Sep 12, 2025
Breakfast at home: toasted sesame bagel with whipped cream cheese, hot water. More marble repair followup for the kitchen countertop. More mending of faded black jeans crotch with needle and thread. Financial planning meeting with Ron. Continued development website build: added pages in 5 languages for About Us, Kamal, Phil, Sanjay. Confirmed the sitemap was working as expected, particularly for multilingual. Lunch: I prepared for myself a toasted poppyseed bagel with deli chicken breast, smoked gouda, butter lettuce, and mayo. Cold water to drink. Troubleshot a permissions problem involving editing documents on a shared external drive over the network. ChatGPT helped me understand why my problem was not resolveable and gave me a workaround to try. Resolved a software license expiration by purchasing a new license. Walked to dinner with Patrick at Takara Sushi: pink dragon roll, red dragon roll, tsunami roll, dinosaur roll, one large hot sake. All food, drink, and service were excellent. Walked home, stopping at Hot Cookie. We watched Foundation s3:e10 (season finale) on Apple TV+ then various YouTube videos. Patrick went to bed. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Continued development website build: stylesheet tweaks. Resolved a problem with a washed-out or desaturated image that appears on first page load only: the image was saved with a ProPhoto RGB color profile. I regenerated it with sRGB and that fixed it.
Sat Sep 13, 2025
Breakfast at home: toasted poppyseed bagel with whipped cream cheese, hot water. House chores: washed the tablet pillow stand cover, watered the orchid, washed and dried microfiber towels, cleaned the garbage disposal, changed air purifier prefilters. Continued development website build: image borders; revised images to have light backgrounds behind dark-haired headshots; added, configured, and styled breadcrumbs; added page in 5 languages for Visit Us; restructured pages and hierarchy for existing dev pages; upgraded Font Aweseom from 4.7.0 to 7.0.1; added add to address book, view medical record, and join us on Facebook links with icons. Lunch at home: leftover linguine with tomatoes, herbs, and parmesan; cold water. Patrick departed on a two-night trip to Los Angeles by himself to attend a memorial for Felice. Dinner: leftover shrimp with leftover arroz sin pollo in tortilla with avocado and cilantro, water. Watched various YouTube videos. Late snack: one navel orange from Chile. Today in order to resolve issues with eye strain I began using our 55-inch television as a primary display for working with my laptop. I can sit on the couch or stand just behind it at the bookshelf that has long served as my standing desk, and already it seems to be much better for me. If this continues to work, then it might mean we won't need to buy new furniture which will also make our living room space feel smaller.
Sun Sep 14, 2025
Breakfast at home: plain yogurt with mexican vanilla, diced pineapple, and mint chiffonade. I am on call for jury duty this week. Today I did not have to report for jury duty. Errands: walked to Cliff's and Walgreens and back for some supplies. Refinished the marble countertop in the secondary bathroom, my first time doing this work with a random orbital sander. I had laid plastic wrap along the front and one side of the cabinet, but this work was not messy enough to need it. The plastic on the side got a few spatters, but not much. I wore earplugs, an N95 mask, safety glasses, clothes I didn't care about getting dirty, and gloves. The earplugs and gloves helped the most. Nothing was flying up to my face, and there was no visible dust since I was wet-sanding. As mentioned earlier (I think), I had borrowed a sander from Galen but decided to buy my own because my use was "off-label." I sprayed water only at the beginning and a bit during as it dried. I started with 600 grit and a lowish speed, but after a few minutes I switched to 400 (the lowest I had in wet/dry silicon carbide) and higher speeds. Then back to 600 then 1000 then 2000 then 3000. This countertop was not in bad shape except for the epoxy putty repair of the large crack in two places. I focused on those areas and did only a few passes of the rest. It's such boring work. I finished with marble polishing powder to create a paste and applied it with a microfiber towel. This small sink took a few hours. Cleaned workspaces. Trash management. Dinner at home by myself: arroz sin pollo with newly stir-fried broccoli with Dorot garlic, hot water. Afterwards I watched the 77th Emmy Awards on Paramount+ with host Nate Bargatze and a margarita with salt. I vacuumed during the 4- and 5-minute commercial breaks. I snacked on pretzels and red licorice.
Mon Sep 15, 2025
Today I did not have to report for jury duty. Today marks six months of my position at UCSF being eliminated. I ran errands all day. Walked and rode Muni to get the latest COVID vaccine. Walked and rode Muni to Recharge Medical to drop off safe space signs and chat with Drew about current work. Walked to Bunn Mi for lunch: lemongrass steak saigon noodles with imperial roll, viet iced coffee. While there I encountered Jess from The Academy, and we chatted very briefly. It was so nice to see her in a different context. While there I also happened to open the DoorDash app and was credited $10 for taking a photo of my food. I didn't even have to write a review. Walked and rode Muni to a credit union to get a claim form notarized. Walked and rode Muni to a store where I purchased a kitchen faucet from Jennifer who was very helpful. Walked and rode Muni to Ikea. I had intended to get a paper catalog, but I learned that they stopped making them a while ago. The first person I asked said I could double check on B1, a lower floor. A second person on B1 I asked laughed then cried then said to check in the kitchen department where they have a few but very small catalogs. I looked in kitchen but the catalogs were all about installing new kitchen cabinetry. I left with no catalogs. Walked and rode Muni home. Patrick has returned from his Los Angeles trip. We chatted about his trip and Felice's memorial, which we are both glad he attended. Dinner at home with Patrick: delivery from Thai House Express via DoorDash: fresh rolls with shrimp, tofu with chinese broccoli, chicken khao soy (deep-fried egg noodles with rice noodles with curry sauce), sticky rice. All food was delicious. We watched The Sandman s2:e8 on Netflix then half of the 77th Emmy Awards on Paramount+ (after I had watched it last night but Patrick did not yet). Patrick went to bed. I did some catching up on email.
Tue Sep 16, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a breakfast taco with one egg and sauteed broccoli with garlic; hot water. Resolved a shared files permissions problem on Patrick's MacBook Pro. Patrick recently finished or is finishing revising a collection of short stories. Today I read the first one of these: ANITRD. Napped. Late lunch: leftover tofu with chinese broccoli and sticky rice with leftover steamed white rice, hot water. Recharge Medical work: began reviewing new web page copy and preparation for a new html email campaign. Resolved a software problem on Patrick's computer by having him join the plan I recently purchased. Dinner at home with Patrick: ginger-chicken slaw, a variation on a Martha Stewart recipe. Red wine and water to drink. Afterwards we watched the remainder of the 77th Emmy Awards on Paramount+ then The Sandman s2:e9 on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. I archived documents. I processed dirty dishes then started the dishwasher. Notes and edits for ANITRD.
Wed Sep 17, 2025
Breakfast at home: plain yogurt with blueberries, toasted coconut, mint chiffonade, diced and charred pineapple; hot water. All day: Recharge Medical work: content prep for a new primary care plan and corresponding email campaign. Lunch at home: leftovers melange, cold water. Afternoon snack: pretzels. Later snack: one dekopon. Dinner at home with Patrick: deli ravioli with tomato sauce and grated parm, hot water. Dessert: Ben and Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake ice cream. We watched various YouTube videos then The Sandman s2:e10 on Netflix then Jordan Jensen: Take Me With You on Netflix.
Thu Sep 18, 2025
Breakfast at home: toasted Wise Sons everything bagel with whipped cream cheese, side of blueberries with local honey and mint chiffonade, hot water. Recharge Medical work: edited and posted a new web page for annual wellness exam, reviewed email list quality, made some corrections by hand, submitted the list to bulk validation which will take about 14 hours, more content work for other old and new pages. Lunch at home: leftovers melange, cold water. Afternoon snack: seaweed, potato chips, ginger ale. Continued and finished editing one of Patrick's stories (ANITRD). Dinner at home with Patrick: charred asparagus, onion, and cherry tomato bruschetta, hot water. Afterwards, Patrick made us cocktails with bourbon, cointreau, pumpkin spice torani, macerated dekopon, btters, and ice. We watched The Sandman s2:e11 on Netflix then various YouTube videos. Patrick went to bed. I continued watching various YouTube videos.
Fri Sep 19, 2025
Breakfast at home: toasted Wise Sons everything bagel with whipped cream cheese on one half and peanut butter on the other, hot water. Continued Recharge Medical work: content editing, bulk email address verification followup, email campaign revisions and prep. Napped. Continued Recharge Medical work. Lunch while Patrick napped: I prepared for myself yakisoba from frozen with mixed vegetables: spinach, broccoli, onion, shredded carrot, cilantro; cold water. Continued Recharge Medical work. Swept the patio. Swept in front of the house. The sidewalk and gutter seemed overrun with debris. I swept the gutters and in the street, too, since the nearby drain was almost entirely blocked. A man walked by and mentioned that that made such a mess. I asked what was it? He said a water main had broken up the street. I said, and after the main down the street broke? Crazy! Later Patrick and I walked the Castro Night Market then to dinner in the garden at Fable: little gem caesar salad with anchovy-garlic dressing, parmesan, and herbed crouton crumbs to share; Patrick had chicken breast on panzanella with mixed stone fruit, arugula, sourdough croutons, and champagne vinaigrette; I had pork chops with creamy polenta, rainbow chard, and yellow peach chutney. Two glasses of wine each. Dessert: we shared chocolate mousse with whipped cream, sea salt, and mint. All food and drink were delicious. Timings were not great tonight. The salad arrived before wine or even water. There was a noticebly long delay between the salad and the mains then again another long delay before ordering dessert. But we were focused on talking, and it did not bother us too much. Service by Alejandra was very good when it arrived. It seemed every table in the restaurant was filled—even in the middle throughway leading to the garden. $167 before a $25 tip. Walked home. We watched various YouTube videos then The Sandman s2:e12 (season finale) on Netflix. Patrick went to bed, and I joined after resolving issues with Corinna's website. Jury duty on call ends. I escaped.
Sat Sep 20, 2025
Cleaned the tub in the primary bathroom. Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a small one-egg and spinach breakfast burrito with grated mixed cheeses, sour cream, and cilantro; hot water to drink. Gathered expenses data. Continued marble countertop repair and polish in the secondary bathroom. Lunch: leftover ginger-chicken slaw, tortilla chips and guacamole, toast with guacamole, water. Archived documents. Cleaned in the secondary bathroom. Cut my hair, showered. Cleaned in the secondary bathroom. Dinner at home with Patrick: black bean quesadillas with cherry tomatoes and guacamole, hot water. Afterwards we drank red wine on the balcony and watched the sunset. We returned inside and watched various YouTube videos.
Sun Sep 21, 2025
Noticed and removed a spider web in the corner of our bedroom next to my side of the bed. Noticed that both of the switches of our Crate & Barrel Boveda Stone table lamp had hard plastic nubs from their molding that made it somewhat painful to turn on and off. I sanded them smooth with a new, disposable emery board, then discarded the emery board. We've had these lamps for four months and I noticed only now. Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a breakfast taco: one egg, spinach, diced onions, one sausage link from frozen, salt, pepper; hot water. Sanded a small patch where I had earlier repaired a chip taken out of a corner of a wall in the living room with spackling. Tile grout and tub caulk repair prep and cleaning in the secondary bathroom. Cleaned one row of slate tiles in the secondary bathroom in preparation for sealing. Sam came over and Patrick made us beignets using a recipe that he is testing. I did more repair work then napped. Dinner at home with Patrick: sausage on pretzel hot dog buns with mac and cheese bites and red wine and water. Afterwards we watched Beastie Boys Story on Apple TV+. I had seen it, but Patrick hadn't, and he enjoyed it. We shared butter microwave popcorn starting partway through. Patrick went to bed. Trash management. I cleaned in the kitchen then chatted on Facetime with Lani and Dex.
Mon Sep 22, 2025
Breakfast at home: plain yogurt with blueberries, flax meal, toasted coconut, mint chiffonade. Worked from home for Recharge Medical: minor web edit to add new content to direct-pay primary care, made live a new web page for express care, added express care to the forthcoming email campaign and sent it to Drew for review, proposed how to add safe space notices to the website, mailing list cleanup and prep. Patrick napped. Lunch: I prepared for myself a small black bean burrito with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, lime crema, grated mixed cheeses, spinach; cold water. Removed clothes from the dryer that Patrick had washed and dried earlier. Unloaded photos from my iPhone 16 Pro. Uploaded photos to Flickr. Continued new Recharge Medical website build: men's clinic. The hard part was converting an SVG that had text into it into four other languages and then manually implementing dark mode within the svg for each of the five versions. Snack: cheddar bunny-shaped crackers, water. Dinner at home with Patrick: tofu, garlic, and asparagus stir-fry over steamed rice with scallion pancakes, hot water. Dessert: Ben and Jerry's pumpkin cheesecake ice cream. We watched Alien: Earth s1:e1 on Hulu then Big Mouth s2:e2 on Netflix. Patrick went to bed. Continued Recharge Medical work: men's clinic svg diagram: dark mode. Played with the copyright notice in different places and ended up just making the text smaller. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen.
Tue Sep 23, 2025
Breakfast at home: breakfast sandwich: one egg over easy with cheddar on two slices of sourdough toast, hot water. Continued marble countertop repair and polish in the secondary bathroom. It's better now than the two previous times I did work, but the epoxy repair keeps chipping in a new place each time I try to remove a chip from a previous place. Giving up for now. This took the whole morning. Lunch: I prepared for myself a veggie stir-fry with broccoli from frozen, green beans from frozen, grated carrot, spinach, white onion, cilantro, Dorot garlic, Dorot ginger, and Soy Vay teriyaki sauce. Served over leftover steamed white rice. Cold water to drink. Installed iPadOS 18.7 and iOS 18.7 on my devices. Continued new Recharge Medical website build: added new content to the community section of the About page. Read another new story of Patrick's (OAHDDC). Continued new Recharge Medical website build: added the Medical Clinic page, added pdfs and thumbnails to Jobs and Medical Clinic then styled it. Dinner at home with Patrick: split peas with andouille sausage over steamed rice with bread, water. Afterwards we watched various YouTube videos. Continued new Recharge Medical website build: link style adjustments.
Wed Sep 24, 2025
Breakfast at home: Whole Foods pancakes from frozen with salted butter and hot maple syrup; hot water. Recharge Medical work: email campaign analysis and suggested action items. Walked to lunch at Hi Tops with Andy, Scott, Scot, and Tuan. We talked about ordering food at the bar instead of at the back for lunch, new iPhones, AirPods, AirPods tips, AirPods tips tips, trans men in traditionally gay men spaces, hot tubs, wood-paneled iPhone cases, television shows (Wednesday, Silo, Foundation, more), Jimmy Kimmel's return, huskies, signing receipts at restaurants, eyeglasses, local opticians, The Academy, Truck, Truck bus to Guerneville, VPL, and more. Walked home. Napped. Recharge Medical work: created the translated versions of the Medical Clinic page. Patrick and I walked to meet Eric D for dinner at Thai Chef. Eric had flown in for BADCamp which runs tomorrow and Friday. We shared cucumber salad, fresh rolls, chicken raad na, tofu and vegetables in yellow curry, sticky rice. Thai iced teas all around. All food, drink, and service were very good. Afterwards we returned with Eric and I gave him a tour of our new home. Patrick went to bed. It was a warm night, and Eric and I sat on the balcony a while chatting and watching lightning in the distance. Later I showed him the garage, and we talked about the boilers and hot water tank a bit. So good to catch up with him. He returned to Oakland. Recharge Medical work: twig work to make the source look prettier.
Thu Sep 25, 2025
Breakfast at home: two-egg veggie scramble (spinach, celery, carrot, zucchini, white onion, salt, pepper); two small links of pork sausage from frozen; hot water to drink. Cleaned the soles of my heated slippers with Dawn PowerWash. Cleaned the inside of the laundry machine door with vinegar solution. Walked and rode Muni to meet Patrick at Church and Market. We visited the Ferry Building Marketplace. We ate pastries at Parachute, looked in the windows at the yet-to-open Arquet, walked the entire marketplace, walked around the building, visited nearby Joyride Pizza, returned to the Ferry Building, lunched at Lunette Cambodia. We shared pork noodle soup and dry noodle. We each had cold cardamom tea. It was just before noon, and it was very busy. We were lucky to get a table. Between 11 and 11:30 a.m. seemed noticeably less busy. The dry noodle was too spicy for me. We enjoyed both dishes and the beverage. Afterwards we walked and rode Muni home. Patrick napped. I continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: added three more pages: express care, annual wellness exam, and lab tests; table styling. While I was working on the balcony the left side of the draperies partially fell I guess because the wind gently pushing the drapes was enough to unseat it from the bracket. This required an emergency repair that Patrick helped me with—successful. Dinner at home with Patrick: grilled cheese and fig-balsamic jam sandwiches with tortilla chips, hot water. We watched Jimmy Kimmel's return monologue then Alien: Earth s1:e2 on Hulu then The Simpsons s36:e1 on Hulu. Continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: added location pin icon and main image for all non-English languages. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen.
Fri Sep 26, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself fried rice: leftover rice, carrot, celery, zucchini, sliced deli chicken breast, soy sauce, Dorot garlic, Dorot ginger. Later, second breakfast with Patrick: we shared two pastries we took home yesterday from Parachute—heavenly! Attempted to resolve a problem with our Sub-Zero 650 refrigerator in which the light fails to turn on. The problem was seen occasionally since we moved in, and the workaround was to tap the left triangular switch at the top of the inside of the door. Spraying compressed air into the switch did not fix the problem. A Cidyaust straw brush was too big to insert because of the protective nub on the end. A standard art supply pipe cleaner did fit inside, but working it in and out did not fix the problem. I removed the grill above the fridge, using my selfie camera on my iPhone 16 Pro to identify the springs with hooks on the inside that needed to be unhooked in order for the grill to be removed. Inside it looked like it had never been cleaned. I cleaned with a soapy and lightly wet sponge, then vacuumed thoroughly. I removed one screw holding in place the metal panel protecting the two switches, then unhooked and removed the switches. Continued cleaning, mostly with the vacuum, including the inner (grill?) on the right side. I retrieved three loose screws found behind the outer grill. After the inside was as clean as I could get it without taking it further apart, I fully cleaned the outer grill then let it dry in the sun on the balcony. I retrieved the 90-degree door stop pin from the plastic bag attached to the inside and installed it. Lunch at home with Patrick: Patrick prepared mandarin chicken salad from a salad kit to which we added sliced deli grilled chicken breast and mandarin oranges, water. More house chores: trash management, vacuuming. Ordered one replacement light switch. Removed cobwebs from corners on the balcony and brushed animal poop from the railing. Vacuumed the upper level. Stored tools and cleaning supplies. Patrick and I walked to Midnight Sun to meet a subset of The Syndicate for happy hour. Along the way I stopped at Cliff's Variety to drop off a burned-out fluorescent tube light bulb for disposal. In attendance: Scot, Scott, Andy, Tim, Kevin, Jose, Galen, Brendon, John B, Timmie. Afterwards most of us dined at Dumpling Kitchen. Weeded flagged emails. Continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: floated TOC right. Noticed some scratches on the secondary bathroom countertop that must have been there but I never noticed them.
Sat Sep 27, 2025
Continued Sub-Zero fridge repair from yesterday: restored left and right switches to original positions; they are not identical like ChatGPT had claimed. I had moved the right switch to the left position and left the right switch empty thinking that would temporarily resolve the light problem, but instead that left the freezer and fan not working, and this I learned from someone's review on Amazon for the replacement light switch. Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself a one-egg sandwich with smoked gouda and sliced deli grilled chicken breast; hot water. Deep-cleaned the refrigerator grille with Goo Gone. Continued slate tile repair in the secondary bathroom by masking the area and spraying the fix with two layers of matte acrylic. Removed brackets that previously held a roller shade for a windowed door between the secondary bedroom and the patio. When we had moved in, the shade was left behind by the previous owner. I sanded the holes and patched the holes with white wood putty. Continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: finished warning and heading-and-price styling for Lab Tests in English then translated it to four languages. Lunch: I prepared for myself a roast turkey sandwich on lightly toasted english muffin with cheddar, mayo, salt, and pepper; side of celery sticks with peanut butter; cold water. Afternoon snack: three mandarins. Nap. Dinner at home with Patrick: spaghetti and bucatini with savory golden tomato sauce, fresh basil, and fried butterfly shrimp, water. We watched various YouTube videos then Alien: Earth s1:e3 then The Simpsons s36:e2, both on Hulu. Patrick went to bed. Continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: added rollover styles for tbody tr elements upon hover, removed from all translated files trailing spaces inserted by ChatGPT.
Sun Sep 28, 2025
Breakfast at home: toasted english muffin with one microwaved egg and white cheddar; hot water. Repaired the refrigerator light switch with a new switch—successful. Continued marble countertop repair, polish, and seal in the secondary bathroom. Cleaned area of tools and detritus. Vacuumed and spot-cleaned the carpet in the office. Lunch at home: corndog and mini mac and cheese bites from frozen, side of tortilla chips, hot water. Finished all marble work in the secondary bathroom. In the early afternoon Patrick and I shared a coconut-flaked glazed yeast doughnut from Grand Mission with milk. Patrick napped. I handled some tax paperwork. Continued the Recharge Medical dev website build: added pages: driver exam, travel health, IV therapy, immigration, i693, n648; various styling. Dinner at home with Patrick: chicken cacciatore over seasoned basmati rice, hot water, red wine. Afterwards we watched Alien: Earth s1:e4 on Hulu then Big Mouth s2:e3 on Netflix then various YouTube videos. Patrick went to bed. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen.
Mon Sep 29, 2025
Breakfast at home: I prepared for myself one fried egg with diced red bell pepper, salt, and pepper over a bed of refried black beans; hot water. A bit later I walked and rode Muni to Ikea (945 Market Street). There was a problem with Muni. When I entered Castro Street Station, an announcement said there was slowness traveling eastward. A train arrived shortly, and we rode one stop, but at Church Street Station the train waited with doors open for a really long time. I got tired of waiting and decided to try an F car aboveground. The first F car expected to arrive did not arrive. The second one did. It took me about 50 minutes to get to my destination when it should have taken 10. I shopped at Ikea seeing very little that I wanted. Patrick joined me for lunch at neighboring Saluhall. We ate at Curry Up Now. Patrick had chicken tikka masala bowl with dal. I had a butter chicken burrito. Two Topo Chicos. My burrito was quite spicy even though I was told it was mild. We walked and rode Muni home, encountering no delays. I napped. Patrick did laundry and other tasks. Dinner at home with Patrick: Delfina pizza from frozen with added cured meat and fresh herbs, water, red wine. We watched movie trailers on Apple TV then Alien: Earth s1:e5 on Hulu. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen during a break in watching. We watched Big Mouth s2:e4 and half of Cristela Alonzo: Upper Classy. Patrick went to bed. I joined a while later.
Tue Sep 30, 2025
Breakfast at home: pancakes from frozen with microwave-cooked bacon and maple syrup; hot water. Patrick napped. I cleaned the surface of the door to the garage and its lock and handle fixtures with dish soap solution and then again with vinegar solution. I archived documents and set up a city account for water backflow something or other and coordinated with Pang for forthcoming testing. I took care of administrative details for a credit card transition. Patrick woke. Lunch at home with Patrick: leftover chicken cacciatore with basmati rice, hot water. Later in the afternoon the second replacement switch for the refrigerator door arrived, so I completed the fix and stored the original switch which still works for the fan and icemaker behind the grill. I labeled everything for the next person in the future who has to do the same repair. Dinner at home with Patrick: butternut squash soup and warm butternut squash and caramelized onion tart, hot water. We watched Alien: Earth s1:e6 on Hulu then the remainder of Cristela Alonzo: Upper Classy then Magic for Humans s3:e1.