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Danny and I haven’t done anything for Halloween except open the door occasionally and dole out sugary goodness to neighborhood kids. We were going to go to the castro halloween thing, but I felt like bailing once I found out what an ordeal it would be to get to and from it. Danny was happy to stay home as well.

Yesterday, Danny and I went to the museum of modern art in SF. It was cool, but it didn’t take very long for us to wander through the whole thing. They had some special exhibits for more $$$, but we skipped those. Afterward, we went to Japantown (Nihonmachi) just to check it out. We’ve both been to Chinatown several times but had never made it to Japantown. Anyway, I thought it was just a few shops and restaurants next to a pagoda, but it turned out that there was a huge underground mall with tons of shops, restaurants, and bookstores. We had dinner at a neat little place called Sapporo-ya where I tried okanomiyaki for the first time. My friend Jeff had recommended that I try this during my last trip to Japan, but I never got around to it. I probably won’t order it again though because it comes covered in this thick, sweet brown sauce that I don’t really like. We shared some good tempura vegetables and shrimp which makes me crave tempura udon. We’ll definitely go back to Japantown.

Before leaving, we went into this little shop which reminded me of the “dollar” or “yen” stores in Japan. They had a nice little assortment of Japanese candy and snacks along with basics like toothbrushes, chopsticks, and various tupperware items. Danny found a cool jar shaped like a chicken or duck head. Whatever it is, it is cute and it was only $1. It came filled with these nasty (in my opinion) individually wrapped marshmallow candies that we’ve been passing off to trick-or-treaters tonight. Actually, the candies probably aren’t that bad, but I just don’t like marshmallows.



Here is a picture of the “juicy yummy marshmallow” jar. Danny finished off all of the yummy marshmallows and filled the jar with yummy boxes of cigarettes. Good thing we didn’t pass those out to the kids. The parents might have liked them though - maybe next year.

This is a picture Daniel sent me of the salmon he cooked the other night.

Background: He called me earlier that evening from the grocery store. Catfish was on sale, so he wanted my recipe for baked catfish. I told him that I always bought the preseasoned kind, but with plain catfish I pan-fried it with salt and pepper or baked it with lemon pepper. The more we talked about it, the more he wanted to spring for the salmon.

The next day, I received this picture in my email. Although I’m sure it tasted really really good, it looks kind of scary. I think it’s cool though. Mmmmm…..salmon anyone?

Danny and I voted today. It was a little more complicated than I had planned, but it worked out well. One thing I do miss about Texas is that there is an early voting station at nearly every major grocery store in the city. I would go vote at lunch or on my way home from work. There was never a line and sweet, old ladies working the polls would give me a sticker and tell me to have a nice day. It was great.

So far, the only way I know to vote early in California is to either fill out an absentee ballot or go to the county tax assessor’s office and vote there. We chose the latter. Oh yeah, and they’re only open on weekdays from 8-5.

Fortunately, I have a cool boss who told me to just do what I needed to do to vote. This morning, Danny and I drove down to our local tax assessor’s office in a neighboring city. It was only a fifteen minute drive. The only weird thing was that there were roadblocks and what appeared to be a media tent set up outside the county courthouse. Danny reminded me that this is where the scott peterson trial is being held. We parked, went in, and voted.
After performing our civic duty, I treated us to a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and then we shuffled off to work.

Lately, I’ve been listening to The Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I realize that I’m a little late getting on the Lips bandwagon, but their music has really kept me going at work. Work is fine - typical stuff, but it’s good to hear something deceptively cheerful sounding in the middle of a long afternoon.
I’m also enjoying music by a Welsh singer named Jem. The radio stations here are playing her first single titled They, but her whole album is quite good.
Anyone know of any other good music I’m missing out on? Suggestions are welcome. In other words…..comment!

Danny and I have really gotten into the fall TV season. We both have our favorites (Enterprise, Smallville, America’s Next Top Model) and a new one, Veronica Mars. I hate to admit that I have no life on Wednesday or Friday nights, but I don’t! I’m obsessed with ANTM and Danny is a longtime fan of Enterprise and Smallville. I don’t watch Enterprise, but Smallville has definitely grown on me. To Danny’s credit, he watches ANTM with me and then listens to the choice comments I glean from the online forums. My current website for all of our smallscreen obsessions is Television Without Pity. You know it’s good when they’re comparing the fashionistas to oompah-loompahs.

The only bad thing is that Smallville and ANTM are on at the same time Wednesday night, so I am the TV martyr and wait until they rebroadcast ANTM on Friday night. It is so hard to stay away from the forums and find out who got booted on Wednesday, but I manage it somehow.

In other news, I LOVE getting presents in the mail. I used to get lots of presents when I was doing the online makeup swapping thing, but I had to give something to get those presents and it just isn’t the same as coming home and finding a giant box of Sephora (thank you Lisa) and Amazon (and Amy) goodies waiting in your hallway. I got a kickass travel makeup brush set from Lisa and a luxurious foot massager/spa from Amy. I think I’ll have to bust out the foot spa tonight to watch TV. My friends know me too well.

Why did I make french roast coffee? I hate french roast. It doesn’t even smell good, which is one of the only reasons for drinking coffee in the first place.

I used to make a cup of coffee at home in the morning to take on the train, but since I’ve developed my early-morning-nap routine on the train, I don’t need coffee yet. Actually, I drink decaf usually, so I guess I don’t “need” it, but I like the taste anyway.

When I get to work, I make a pot of decaf and then read my email. This morning I did that, but about 30 minutes ago, I decided that decaf was not going to get me all the way until lunch. I dug around in the coffee packets and grabbed french roast. We have house blend, but I thought I’d be a little adventurous and try something different.

The first sign that I had made a bad choice was when I noticed the unpleasant aroma which replaced the usual, yummy coffee smell. It reminded me of the scent of manure - seriously. I thought that they served french roast in restaurants all the time and that this can’t possibly be as bad as it smells. Oh, how wrong I was. Maybe it’s just the st*rbucks brand, but the french roast is total and utter crap. I brewed the pot and added about a 1/2 cup to my mug of decaf. After tasting it, I wondered why I had ruined the good decaf flavor. For most people, “good decaf” is an oxymoron, but not for me. Now I have a whole pot of french roast in the break room. Maybe someone else will smell the manure and be tempted as I was….or maybe not.

This weekend was a weekend of shopping. Danny and I paid our monthly visit to insanity outlet mall in milpitas. Beforehand, we got a large dose of chain-mexican food at On the Border. Their food is a little overpriced, but it’s so much better than any of the other mexican food chains we’ve found in the area. Plus, Danny got queso and I got shrimp enchiladas - yum.

Visiting the insanity mall is like going to the mall the week before Christmas. Why do we brave it? Because we are only shopping for ourselves and there are some really good deals if you have the patience. I got a cool new long raincoat and hat as well as a new sweater and earrings. I’ve already lost one of my new earrings, but I’m not too annoyed because they cost me a grand total of $4 - not a big deal.

After visiting the mall, we hit the grocery store and target grabbing all of the necessities (soda, milk, and hershey’s minis among other things).

Today has gone pretty smoothly aside from the tragic loss of my earring. Last week, I saw something in the local paper about how Tony Bennett was going to be unveiling his heart artwork in Union Square. This is part of the hearts in San Francisco project. I’ve just started listening to Tony Bennett and couldn’t pass up the chance to hear him sing “I left my heart in San Francisco” as he’s unveiling the heart he’s leaving in San Francisco.

There were a few hundred people at the unveiling, but I still had a great view of Tony, the mayor, and some other organizers. The day was gorgeous and Tony did not disappoint. He didn’t sing the whole song, but he did belt out a few lyrics before unveiling his heart.

I’ve been procrastinating about posting lately. Sometimes I get all wordy and post two, sometimes even three times in one day. This is usually toward the end of the workday when my brain is tired and I just want to pass the time. Anyway, it is 1:30 am Sunday morning and I’m not yet that tired. Granted, I slept late, ate breakfast and fell asleep for a couple of hours on the couch this afternoon. I will suffer this time tomorrow when I’m desperately trying to go to sleep knowing that my alarm will go off at 6:15 am. Fun times.

This week has been really nice. I had a great birthday. See the pics here. On Friday, Danny and his coworkers were scheduled to leave the office for the afternoon and do a group activity since it was their last week as trainees. They all start with their official groups on Monday. They were supposed to go bowling or something like that when their director decided that they were going to Alcatraz. That’s fine - free afternoon of sightseeing. Danny didn’t really know what the whole plan was, but we agreed that if he was in SF during the day, he and I could meet up once I got off work, have dinner, and then take the train home. He called me around 9:30 in the morning and said that they’d be there around lunchtime and then take the ferry to alcatraz. He then asked me if I wanted to go with them. I immediately said no, but then rethought it. Why couldn’t I take the afternoon off? I mean, it was friday, the weather was gorgeous, and I’d only have to take off a half day. I called him back and arranged for them to pick me up at noon. He and his friend meet me near my office and we ride down to Fisherman’s Wharf. I HATE going to FW, but only if I have to drive and cover the parking fees on my own. We get there and stand around waiting for the other coworkers to arrive. It turns out that nothing had been planned except to meet, buy Alcatraz tickets, get a quick lunch, and take the ferry out there. We realize that no one really knew how to get to FW, and that maybe the tickets were sold out. I didn’t really care because I was just happy to be off work and if the Alcatraz trip didn’t work out, we could go some other time. Once everyone got there, we noticed the sign that said “Next tour - Sunday.” Hmmm…not a good sign. Yep, all tickets were sold out. We lamented for about 2 seconds, then went to Hooters for lunch. Why Hooters? Not expensive and they could seat large groups. It was fine and we all got to chat. I felt kind of bad but kind of annoyed at this one chick.

Background: I hate dealing with large groups. Nothing is organized and no one is ever willing to make decisions. Not Danny and I. We just kind of took over. We were hungry and tired of this disorganized bullshit.

We got to Hooters. We got a table, we started to be seated when the single vegetarian chick asked if they had vegetarian stuff on the menu. They had some grilled cheese and some salads. I know that isn’t a huge selection but c’mon. We’re at a damn Hooters. Couldn’t you have said something 30 min ago when we all decided to come here? So anyway, then she doesn’t want to eat here because it smells like chicken. Duh. Hot wings anyone? Eventually, we sat down and she dealt with the awful meat smell. She didn’t want to make a big deal of it. If you don’t want to make a big deal out of something, then open your damn mouth before we walk the 10 fucking blocks to a crappy restaurant while we’re starving. At that point, I could have eaten a pack of chewing gum and been satisfied I was so hungry. Suck it up sister, suck it up.

We ate, roamed around a bit, and the group started to break up. We couldn’t all agree on something, so we decided to bail. At this point, I was a little annoyed, but not as much as before we had eaten. Danny and I found a bus that took us back to my office. It was jam packed, but it was better than paying for a cab ride at rush hour. I took him up to my office to get my bike and meet my coworkers. We then had a really nice walk/ride along the Embarcadero and caught the 5:45 train home. We both decided that everything improved once we had a plan. We’re usually pretty patient, but just hanging around a packed tourist area with a dozen indecisive people was not a lot of fun. I still had a nice afternoon and got to chat with some of his cooler friends.

It was a dark and stormy morning. That’s how my day began on Tuesday. It was still dark when I left the house. I was running a little late and I had to turn around and go back inside once I realized that it was not just rainy but cold. I normally like this weather, but not when I’m trying to catch my train. I got to the station right as my train was pulling up. I still didn’t make it to the door in time. I guess I could have hauled ass and splashed all over myself trying to get there, but it didn’t really matter. There is another train that arrives six minutes after my usual ride so I just caught that one. I thought I had been through the worst part of the weather, but when I got to the city, the wind had kicked up and the rain was blowing sideways. I had to wait on the platform for the light-rail along with the other poor sods who were desperately trying to block the rain while keeping their umbrellas from flipping inside-out. I just got a little damp and windblown, but I was quite happy to hop into a nice, dry railcar.

I looked out over the embarcadero and the waves were crashing hard along the wall. There were people out there actually riding their bikes. They probably got just as wet from the splashing surf as they did from the rain. The rain has let up for now. Apparently a lot of folks on the east side of the bay lost power that morning.

Yesterday was much better. It was supposed to storm, but it was sunny all day. I went out for lunch and everyone I saw was enjoying the crisp, fall weather. There were new scarves, hats, and gloves galore. I felt like I was in a gap commercial.

It rained yesterday for the first time since we moved here. We’ve been here for three and a half months. I was surprised at how excited I was about the rain. I don’t like driving in it, but there are few things better than listening to the drizzle outside as you snuggle up in your covers to go to sleep at night.

The weather in SF today is chilly, but sunny. It is in the upper 50’s and clear. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and Wednesday, so I probably won’t ride my bike. That’s fine though.

I’m sitting at my desk wondering how it can look so warm and inviting outside and in reality be so chilly. I have on my black, hooded sweatshirt, my black scarf, and my ‘lectric blanket “turned up to 11.” Brrr…

In other news, besides getting my driver’s license and various birthday cards (*shameless reminder*), my friend Steve sent me a copy of his recently published book “Back Roads To Small Towns,” a collaboration he did with his friend Joe.