Weekend with car

Right after my last post, I headed to Dolores Park to watch the fireworks. It was super, super foggy and you couldn’t see anything except for the illegal fireworks people were setting off in the neighborhood. That was kind of cool.

Saturday I work very early and threw on some hiking gear (by which I mean, I wore tennis shoes) and headed to… car! Yay car! Anyway, I drove through the city and onto the Golden Gate bridge. It was mad foggy so the columns looked pretty cool emerging from the mist. I drove from there on the world’s curviest road down to Muir Woods park, paid my $5 admission fee and walked around some enormous redwoods. I walked about a mile circuit of paved road, and there were like a million other people. It was like being at Disneyworld, only instead of rides and funnel cakes, there were trees. On the upside, that meant no waiting in line, but on the downside, funnel cake is pretty delicious.

After I had my fill of redwoods, I drove to Highway 1 along the coast and arrived at Point Reyes National Seashore. It was quite spectacular and I have a million pictures so I’ll let the inevitable slideshow do the describing. Unfortunately it was too foggy to see the famous lighthouse or any whales, but I got some quality time with a lot of beaches and foliage. On the way back I stopped a lot of times on Highway 1 because the fog had lifted and the views along the coast were really spectacular.

Thanks to my northern journey, I slept in very late on Sunday but eventually hauled myself over to Chinatown for lunch. I went into the first bakery I came to and got mochi with lotus and a Chinese pancake with red beans. The pancake was a little greasy at first, but if you know anything about me it’s that I’m a sucker for red bean desserts. Srsly. The mochi was excellent, excellent. I wandered around a lot of shops and stopped for lunch at the first place with lots of “Best Eats in San Francisco” type awards in the window. Name escapes me, but I had Chinese Sausage and Preserved Duck in Rice in Clay Pot. It was pretty good, and it wasn’t dessert so that was what I was looking for.

I walked north from Chinatown up into North Beach and then climbed a half gazillion stairs up to Coit Tower and took the elevator up to the observation deck. Pretty cool views. Oh, and then I went to Fisherman’s Wharf. Now that was actually like Disneyworld (rides + funnelcake + sea lions, check). Finally, I went home and did laundry on Dolores street where a hipster gave me some detergent with the caveat that it wasn’t organic, killed the earth and he suspected it might be both racist and sexist.

On Monday, it was back to work for me. I had a litigation emergency so I skipped lunch (luckily I was packing a granola bar), and then went to a firm reception afterwards with Sara and Ben at Embarcadero. Firms, they live it up. I sat on plushy deck couches in the 72 degree weather with a panoramic open-air view of the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge as waiters came by every few minutes to offer Mediterranean fusion food and refill my wine glass. It was nuts! After that, we walked down Embarcadero to Palamino and then back to the Ferry Building for Osha Thai. Super fun!

Today I went to Pick Me, the old standby for cheap sandwiches and complimentary cake. Then in the evening, I picked up Amy from the airport and we headed to In ‘N’ Out Burger? I don’t know, California thing. It was talked up exactly enough for me to be disappointed in the food, but still happy to be eating.

Happy Independence Day

Hope everyone is enjoying their BBQ/fireworks/Will Smith movie, I had an awesome day.

Since Amy is in Michigan for the holiday, she asked me to drive her to the airport and keep her car for her. So today I added some superfluous pollution to the San Francisco fog. I started by thinking of all the places I wanted to go that would be hard to reach by public transport. First on the list: Nordstrom Rack (I still want a new suit!), which didn’t have any nice suits, but from which I bought a shiny emerald blouse. I also hit the Trader Joe’s in the complex… just because I could. After that, I got back in my gas-powered Chevrolet Cobalt and headed from SoMa to Alamo Square. Oddly enough, parking was ridiculously easy. I took some of the obligatory pictures, but there weren’t many people around so I didn’t linger. I continued West to the Inner Richmond and Clement Street.

Lunch: Burma Superstar (4th and Clement), Tea Salad, Tan Poi and Ginger Lemonade. This was maybe the best salad I’ve ever had. It’s changed my whole idea of what a salad can be. And good thing too, because my name was on the waiting list for 40 minutes before I was seated at 2:38!

After my really fabulous lunch, I walked into the store next door and grabbed some shoes and a necklace ($2.50 for the shoes, $1.50 for the necklace for a combined total that’s barely more than my lemonade at lunch). Then I headed to the store next to that and grabbed some Bubble Tea with tiny, tiny bubbles. Taro Milk Tea = $2.16. Srsly! At this pace, I thought, I’d probably never leave the block (and, you know, I’d be okay with that).

So I headed to my car and drove down Clement to the Pacific and Land’s End. On one side, you can see Ocean Beach and all the surfers. Then you walk uphill and the ocean crashes against really big rocks. It’s awesome! And you could theoretically see the GG Bridge — I could see the bottom of it and lots of fog. Pictures forthcoming! I also drove through the Presidio and then up and down Russian Hill and Nob Hill. Pretty area, lots of hills! I had visions of the brakes failing and my car plummeting through the city into the Bay.

Wow, long time… as they say

My bad. I can’t remember everything that’s happened in the past week or so, I’ll just cover the highlights.

Yesterday: Lahore Karahi for lunch and the best Butter Chicken and Naan I’ve ever had, Pluto and Tart-to-Tart for dinner/dessert (meh and meh respectively). Lahore is very small, and just one guy cooking everything so service takes awhile… but man, that food was good. I mean, really scary good.

Today: Brenda’s for lunch (French soul food), which is also super small and you put your name on a waiting list outside. When we finally got in I had chicken, ratatouille, and goat cheese omelette (guess how many times I had to spell check that dish… I think you’ll be disappointed) with potato hash and the most buttery delicious biscuit. For dinner, I fed my soul with thrift store shopping — picking up 2 dresses for a “fair price.” They are super cute. Yesterday, I should mention, I also went to A Miner Miracle SHOP. It’s a charity store that sells professional-type clothing (much of it from Ann Taylor) at 1/2 price or less with all proceeds going to fund (I believe) education and empowerment programs in the community. I bought a pretty awesome coral blouse, but no new suit I am really on the verge of growing crazy with my suits.

Last Sunday I signed up for the free 2-week Netflix trial to get my fix of The Wire, and everyday I come home just hoping to see those stupid red envelopes. Everyday My Queue says they’re shipping it tomorrow. So today I called and apparently there was a “hold” on my account, and she’ll alert the administrators and it’ll be fixed sometime next week — Wednesday at the earliest? Are you kidding?

“No ma’am, I’m not kidding.”

I have no beef with the customer service representative, it’s not remotely her fault. But seriously, srsly even, this is silly. It must cost them a lot of money to get new clients, and I’m guessing not a lot of money to send emails. If I had known earlier and called Monday, I would have it fixed by now, I would have “The Wire” and I’d be super-happy. Instead, I am going to cancel my account and be bitter at them forever. Is this a good business model? Take home point: Netflix, tools. Jimmy McNulty, awesome.