Saturday, August 22, 2026
Cleaned the kitchen. Breakfast: leftover hash brown casserole, water. Filed claims for my Ocoopa handwarmer recall. Prepared for giving away or selling more items. Lunch: three small Chinese steamed buns from frozen, hot water. In the evening Patrick and I walked and rode Muni and BART to Coliseum Station. We arrived earlier than expected and waited about 20 minutes before riding Uber to dinner at Gary and John's place in the hills overlooking the freeway and with a great view of the San Francisco skyline. Andy T and Chris G arrived not long after we did. We enjoyed drinks and appetizers on the porch until sunset: shrimp cocktail, turtles, bacon and jalapeno on club crackers. Later we moved to the dining room for Chicken Marbella (from The Silver Palate Cookbook adapted by Christine Muhlke via The New York Times Cooking), mashed potatoes, roasted veggie salad, bread and butter. Dessert was a strawberry pudding cake topped with rum butter glaze, freshly whipped cream, and more sliced strawberries. We talked about gardening, parenting, bougie white trash cuisine, Duolingo, home repairs, neighbors with hot tubs, leaving and not leaving the Bay Area, the South and the Midwest, AI, SNL, and more. Patrick and I rode Uber home.