at the foot of the bluff

sneakers, $9.99

Elaine and I met up after work today and went to the best Chinese restaurant in San Francisco (in my opinion) - House of Nanking.  They are amazing.  I just tell the guy (owner, perhaps, he's always there) I am vegetarian, don't like mushrooms, and love tofu, and they bring out several yummy dishes.  Tonight Elaine and I had tofu on baby peashoots, and spinach with garlic and red bell peppers, and house noodles.  The noodles had to be made from scratch either in house or at a noodle place nearby, they were so fresh and delicious.  Yum.  Again, I forgot to take photos.  In any case, whomever comes to visit me next, please remind me we need to eat there.  It's SO DELICIOUS.  Seriously.

Then, despite the very chilly wind, we walked all the way back from the edge of Chinatown/Northbeach where House of Nanking is, and went to Ross to see if we could find any good deals on jeans for Elaine, and to once more check for sneakers for me.  I have been searching for menswear-inspired Glen Plaid or houndstooth sneakers for a long time, and I finally found some "skimmers" - i.e. sneakers on the bottom and more like ballet flats on top.  And they fit quite well.  And they were $9.99!  Woo.  And my feet hurt from all the walking yesterday and again today, and so I put them on literally yards from the door of Ross and wore them home.  Much better than the actual flats I was wearing today.  Not that I can get away with wearing them to work on weekdays, but perhaps on weekends.  Not that I'll be at work the next few weekends, since I am going to be in Minneapolis!

Countdown to Mpls trip: 3 days!  I am taking the red eye on Thursday night and get in around 6 am Friday morning and am having breakfast with all of my siblings.  I love that they would all get up early to have freakishly-early breakfast with me.  Of course we could have later normal breakfast if Bow didn't have to be at work at 9am at Southdale, but that's beside the point.  I can't wait!

On a sad note, Ruth went home today.  Elaine leaves on Wednesday.  I have gotten used to having people around . . . good thing I'll go on vacation soon!

But I am looking forward to tomorrow - Elaine is making guacamole.  Hopefully in time for me to eat some when I get home!

busy busy

Angel Island, co-worker happy hour, and movie Mamma Mia! all with Ruth & Elaine yesterday.

Not feeling well, watching movies at home, grocery shopping & going out to movie The Dark Knight tonight.

AIDS Walk SF tomorrow, and maybe touristy things in the Haight & downtown afterwards.

Too busy to post fully about it, but will soon.  Monday maybe.  I'll try for tomorrow night.

And, since it's past midnight central time, and is therefor July 20th where she is:

a very big

                HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to my sister, Suzanne!  I can't wait to see you next week!

Ethiopian food and 7,186 steps so far

Ruth, Elaine and I made breakfast this morning - broccoli, zucchini & onion scramble with cheddar cheese (yum!) and toast with raspberry jam - and then lounged about and caught a rerun of last night's new episode of Project Runway.  After a bit of beautifying, we were ready to face the world.  Or at least Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, where we wandered about and discovered a Nepalese shop selling lovely shawls and other interesting things.  A brief detour to my chiropractor, and a long walk nearly back to my house brought us to the place we'd decided on for dinner: Ethiopia, which, unsurprisingly, serves Ethiopian cuisine.  It was mostly good, but some dishes were a bit sour.  I loved the split peas and red lentils, and the potato and cabbage was good.  I think Ruth liked her lamb, but it was a bit, well, grey and ground-up looking.  Made me glad I was feeling very vegetarian today (not that I eat lamb anyway).

Oh, and the reason I know we've taken about 7,186 steps today is that Elaine has a handy dandy pedometer . . .

And now, off to Trader Joe's for food for our planned trip to Angel Island for hiking and picnicking tomorrow.

Quote of the Day: Wednesday, July 16th

A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you.  - attributed to Bert Leston Taylor, whomever that is :)

Oh, and I totally forgot to add the latest installment of the Countdown, but today is the day my cousin Ruth arrives for a visit, so that's fantastic!  And perhaps I'll have more photos to upload soon, too!

yum

Elaine and I went to Mandarin Garden for chinese food for dinner tonight, and we tried a dish I'd never had before: Tofu Balls with Chinese Greens.  Turns out it was amazing! I did not, however, think to take a picture - and a photo might not do it justice.  It tasted simply fantastic - and the greens were bok choi, which I love.  You'll just have to experience it to know what I'm talking about.  Elaine loved it too, by the way, and she's a full-on carnivore (in that she eats all sorts of meat, not like me - I'm a part-time carnivore in that I just eat fish and occasionally poultry, and maybe the odd piece of bacon every once in a blue moon).

I didn't fly a flag for Bastille Day

I didn't do anything really much of anything at all today . . . including pay attention to proper grammar, it seems.  I worked.  I went to Target with Elaine and we spent nearly two hours wandering about looking at things.  I bought a bra, and some fruit leather, and some other useful things.  Really, not much going on here.  I am recovering from the busy week when Bow & Katie were here, but I think I am still missing some sleep.  Tomorrow, however, I believe Elaine and I will do something other than grocery shop or go to Target: we plan to go see the potentially so-bad-it's-good Journey to the Center of the Earth and we're seeing it in 3-D!  And we're going to have chinese food before the movie.  Mmm.

Oh, and tomorrow is St. Swithin's Day, according to my Futurama Calendar.  Evidently it's important to pay attention to whether or not it rains on June 15th . . . I have a feeling it's not going to be raining here.  According to the lore, this means it won't rain here for another 40 days.  But since it's June that's not really too surprising.  Does it ever remain dry for 40 days in a row in the UK though?  That seems unlikely.

sunset at Muir Beach

The evening of July 8th . . . after Muir Woods, we went to Muir Beach and frolicked in the water a little while before it got too dark.  A dog with a frisbee, but no visible owner, attached itself to our group for a few minutes as well, shaking water and sand all over the place before trotting off to investigate someone else who might want to play with him.

a walk in the woods

There are many more photos to come, but I thought I'd post the Muir Woods photos first:

 

Quote of the Day: July 12th

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
       - William James

Oh, and a photo for you - which you are unlikely to be prejudiced against unless you dislike giraffes. Or Chinatown, or striped tank tops.  Here's Elaine with a trio of bronze giraffe statues on the sidewalk of Grant Street in San Francisco's Chinatown:

curses, foiled again

I tried to upload photos, but something went wrong between my camera and the computer, and I am out of patience.  Perhaps tomorrow.

This morning Bow, Katie, Elaine and I went to breakfast at Zazie's in Cole Valley before they left to drive down to Paso Robles where the wedding Katie's in is being held (she's a bridesmaid, I believe).  Elaine and I went our own way in the city after I gave directions to Bow & Katie to get on the highway, and we walked quite a lot, so my feet are a bit sore - again.  All this walking.  Elaine has a pedometer, and according to that, we went nearly 12,000 steps today. More on that later.

We saw Wall-E . . . I very much enjoyed it!  And when we got home, we watched the first two episodes of Series 1 of Doctor Who (the new series) because Elaine hasn't seen them before - she was confused about Christopher Eccleston being the Doctor, but by ep 2 she could see how he really was the Doctor, just a different version of him.  Tragically, the latest movie I got from Netflix was horrid, and we turned it off about 20 minutes in when we realized we were both falling asleep.  I am not a fan of the style of animation used in Beowulf or The Polar Express, I guess.  But Wall-E was fantastic and if you haven't seen it yet, I definitely recommend it.

"well at least I didn't burn my face," she said

There was a lot of walking today - and I didn't even do most of it, yet here I am, too tired to post the ridiculous amounts of photos from the day before.  Elaine got a sunburn, but not on her face, as you might have guessed.

After work I met up with Elaine, Bow, & Katie and we got Ciao Bella at the Ferry Building, then rambled up to Chinatown, and then took the bus to the Haight to have dinner at The Citrus Club.  Just a bit later than planned, due to a late arrival of a friend of Katie's, and so here I am, home but too tired to do anything much beyond type this and go to bed.  Sure, this could have waited until tomorrow, but I might have forgotten it by then, and besides, the quote from Elaine made me giggle, and so I had a ready-made title.  Sometimes I think of something I want to post and if I can't think up a title I just don't post it.  Is that weird?

at the end of the day, you're another day older

I am thoroughly exhausted, but in a good way.  It was a long day, and I will post photos tomorrow - at least that's the plan.  Bow, Katie, Elaine and I went to wine country today, and then to Muir Woods and Muir Beach.  Much fun was had by all.  And now, goodnight.

half-asleep

Bow & Katie arrived this evening!  We played Loaded Questions, and made popcorn & watched an old movie, The Thin Man.  And now I am quite tired.  Tomorrow we're planning to go to wine country!  Woohoo!