Flags!

I don’t really know what the point of this competition is, but I like it.

This is my favorite:

Thanks, Troy, for sending that around!

Dan’s head injury

Dan seems to have had a little accident and sustained some minor head trauma recently. I wasn’t there to see it and he has no memory of the event, but witness the evidence:

-Wednesday: He eagerly agreed to see “My Winnipeg” at the Castro Theater with me.

-Thursday: I invited him as an afterthought to Jason’s place to see “Frozen River” on DVD (to satisfy Mike’s Oscar obsession) and he said … wait for it … that he’d be interested in seeing that film … and actually joined us.

-Friday: He took (yes sir, yes sir) three bags full of his beloved books to Green Apple and Goodwill as part of a spring cleaning thing.

And most shocking of all: At Jason’s, he made friends with a little dog, speaking lovingly to it and even holding it in his lap during the movie!

So, I’m trying to figure out how he hit his head without leaving the apartment on Wednesday. Or maybe it’s that even after 7 years together, there are still sides to Dan that I haven’t yet seen. Or maybe it’s the influence of the ghost of St. Valentine haunting our street prior to tonight’s celebratory dinner at Orson? Whatever –if he joins me for Americanos in the morning at Four Barrel, I’ll be scheduling a CT scan.

Chasing Jackie

After Dan’s favorite mixologist, Jackie Patterson, left Orson last year and signed up to create the drinks menu at the North Beach newcomer Zinnia last year, we’ve been planning a trip out there. We still love Orson, but have

Stop moving!

definitely missed her amazing cocktails. Our dinner at Zinnia was great, but sadly, we were too late to see Jackie, because I missed the news on SF Eater (blame it on the holidays) that she had been snatched up by Charlie Phan (of Slanted Door) for his new Chinese restaurant, Heaven’s Dog. Although it’s located on the ground floor of a building that I personally feel is a crime against nature, we will soon be heading down there. Our waiter said the Dog’s food was great.

The day started with morning routines, followed by a BART trip over to Oakland to man the Kaiser booth at a health fair. I got to watch Billy Blanks lead a Tae Bo routine and spotted Danny Glover. I mostly sat in the pediatric area and gave out asthma coloring books, chewable reading books, etc. Not many people were interested in taking my free pediatric advice (which is why I was there), but I did worry that I might have to help out if there was a mishap behind me:

No bones were broken

So, then I BARTed back to meet Dan near the Transamerica Pyramid. Emerging from the Embarcadero station, I was greeted by this surprise:

Overheard at work

Post-partum. 12:15. Setting up for one last circumcision.

Nurse to me: “Here he is. Dad said to make every inch count!”

Troy: “!?! … um … if he wants every inch to count, shouldn’t he opt out?”

25 things in 25 states

It’s a game, see. Here are 25 things I’ve done in 25 states:

1. I visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

2. I witnessed the “Opening of the T” at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

3. I spent a windy night in a tent in Goosenecks State Park in southern Utah.

4. I learned how to make Cosmopolitan cocktails in Scottsdale, Arizona.

5. I participated in the Smith College Model United Nations, in Northampton, Massachusetts.

6. I snapped photos of the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin.

7. I ate Skyline Chili in Cincinnati, Ohio.

8. I watched a bicycle race in Lincoln, Nebraska.

9. I was shoulder charged in a beach soccer game on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina.

10. I wished I lived on Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

11. I got really, really drunk at Connecticut College in New London.

12. I stayed at the Library Hotel in New York, New York.

13. I rode a horse in my great-uncle’s stables  in Blackfoot, Idaho.

14. I bought one of my favorite books in Carson City, Nevada.

15. I put my hand in the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

16. I performed Monty Python’s Cheese Shop sketch in Dillon, Colorado.

17. I shopped at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

18. I was impressed by the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

19. I had a lovely breakfast at a B&B in Asheville, North Carolina.

20. I ran around Enchanted Lake in Kailua, Hawaii.

21. I volunteered for the Kerry campaign in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

22. I took the Dinky Line from Princeton, New Jersey.

23. I delivered papers in North Chicago, Illinois.

24. I loved the fish ladder at the Ballard Locks in Seattle, Washington.

25. I love the light in San Francisco, California.

Weekend Report 2/1/09

If you’ve visited us from out of town in the last 3 years or so and we took you to the DeYoung museum in Golden Gate Park, you might remember the nice views from up in the tower. You might remember gazing down from that Mayan temple onto a construction site. That would be the new California Academy of Sciences building which opened to great acclaim last September. We finally made the trip to check it out and despite the crowds, the Renzo Piano building and museum really lived up to its buzz. Russ and Wayne joined us for the afternoon and we enjoyed the penguins and aquarium and rain forest and the famous roof and a snack outside … everything but the planetarium which was sold out. :-(

up on the living roof

Eureka delayed: I realized only at the end of the trip that Sunday –today– would have been a much better day to visit. Surely the Super Bowl would have kept away some of the crowd. Instead, I went for a run in the straightest part of town I could think of –thru the Marina Green, which was indeed deserted.

Jellyfish