Guinea Tonic

At the behest of Celery Boy, aka Rowan Cavia, and the twenty-toed giant who cares for him, we trooped out to the SF Center to watch Jerry Bruckheimer’s “G-Force” on Monday night. A grand time was had by all. Too bad Mr. Cavia wasn’t able to infiltrate the theater, like his secret agent cousins.

The film itself was … entertaining. If you happened to be in the theater where it was playing, at the time. I’ll link to our favorite Guinea Pig’s review when it appears, but in the meantime, and as a special request, I present here the recipe for the drink that started our evening … just right.

Guinea Tonic

• 2 oz Tanqueray gin (it comes in a green bottle you know)
• 3 oz tonic water
• 1 celery stalk (as garnish, or swizzle stick, or nibbly bit)

Stir over ice in a rocks glass. Don’t forget to eat the celery when you’re done …

One excited Earthquakes fan

If you were watching last night’s 2-2 Earthquakes-DC United draw, you may have noticed a cute guy jumping up and down with enthusiasm after the Quakes scored their first goal [you may want to freeze at 2:54- 2:55 –he’s in the top right quadrant of the screen]. This retired member of the “Tennessee Dads of Confusion” apparently was still a little confused –wearing a navy blue Tottenham Hotspur shirt to a MLS game, but at least he was rooting for the right team.

mixed loyalties

5 1/2 nephews

We had a great good time visiting my brothers’ families in Utah over a long weekend. Sure, the weather was 100º worth of hot, there were no nieces to be found (anywhere!), and our rented Prius was almost run off the road by a monster truck with an axe to grind, but it was pretty much non-stop fun from the moment we met up at the site of the 2002 Olympic Ski Jump competition near Park City.

Some highlights: Dan’s first look at Park City. Seeing Joel and Jenica’s new house and the prototype (currently under construction in Daybreak) of “Emmy Nominated” ® Brad and Susan’s soon-to-be house in Provo. Visiting new sites in SLC like the Gilgal sculptures, the Memory Garden (complete with shady hike/river walk) and various third wave espresso joints downtown. Being blown away by Jonah and Koen’s video-gaming abilities. Playing “Manclada” with Silas. Resounding wins for the “Tennessee Dads of Confusion” (mostly not dads or Tennesseans in this case) vs. the Chinese Characters @ Golden Goals. Brotherly bonding while jogging through rain and thunder along the Jordan River at dusk. Jenica’s Cafe Rio pork. Game-testing Sticheln –”Ein bestechend gutes Kartenspiel” ®. Watching the ultrasound of “Emmy Nominated” ® Brad and Susan’s baby on the way (name TBD). A tour of “Emmy Nominated” ® Brad’s office at BYU.

Thanks to all the Utahns for their wonderful hospitality!

P.S. Congrats to Brad on his Emmy nomination!

Fortress of Solitude?

Living Library roof

Former secret sculpture garden of LDS artist Thomas Battersby Child

Big part of my holiday shopping now done

Please–  no one else get Dan this Jean-Charles de Castelbajac Kermit the  Frog creation for xmas.

Siphon in Salt Lake

I’ll write more about the fun visit with all the Utah Barbers, but wanted to slap up this quick live-blog of my breakfast. Most Salt Lake recommended coffeehouses are closed on Sunday, but I found lovely nobrow at 3rd E and 3rd S. It’s a sparse industrial gallery space with Intelligencia beans and siphon coffee. Awesome. And bonus vegan Twinkie and extra bonus gay front page SLTrib content.

Croc tears

I learned today that the Crocs company is likely to be bankrupt very soon. Demand dissipated, just as the company took on massive debt to expand production. A familiar tale in these trying times. But page two makes the point: “the problem with a nearly indestructible product is that shoppers rarely need to replace it.”

Of course. So anyway, Joel, thanks for that link to Walmart earlier. ;-)

Now craving Chunky Monkey

Commuting home, I ran into this new subversive marketing campaign which has taken over the entire Embarcadero station:

Ben & Jerry’s sure know their niche marketing, don’t they? Not that they needed to convince *me* to buy more of their product. Even if they are now owned by some German food conglomerate. I’m curious to see how their ad campaign is used in other parts of the country –maybe emphasizing Vermont’s ruralness? It’s distinction as the birthplace of Joseph Smith?

After the jump, another new “only in SF” ad campaign on Muni. Safe for work, IMHO and rated PG, but I know a *few* readers might be squeamish about cartoon representations of genitalia –even happy, healthy ones.

Happiest day of the year?

Well, ok, maybe second to Inauguration Day.  One of the “need to do around the house” items that recently become the most urgent had been the lack of a screen on our bedroom window.  When the evening SF “air conditioning” comes roaring in from the Pacific Ocean each night, this is its main portal of entry into the flat.  Sadly, with no screen, many a bug would also float in at night.  We had a makeshift lean-to over-sized screen that become a quasi-permanent, non-perfect quick fix.  Dan had been planning a reconnaissance trip to various stores in town yesterday when he happened upon… the missing screen…  which had been behind the dryer for all this time…  oops.  The pic doesn’t quite capture the joy we felt last night with this firmly in place.  Champagne was uncorked and I now eagerly await the next red-letter day– when the cracked microwave door is fixed and we will no longer have to stand there holding it closed while heating… 

Our 4 yr long nightmare is over

You know you live in San Francisco when …

(1) … a guy comes up to you in the grocery store, as you’re standing there looking at a shopping list on your iTouch, and says, “Will you download an app right now?”

You say, “Excuse me?” And he offers to pay you, if you’d write a good review for it. “It’s a game,” he explains, “it’s lots of fun.”

When you apologize and tell him that you’re not holding an iPhone, and would thus need WiFi to do this, so … he says it’s no problem. You ask, out of curiosity, if this app is one he made himself, and he says it is. Something about “bowling” and “dominoes.”

You can’t find it when you search the iTunes store though.

(2) … you sit down on CalTrain, headed south at 5:15 on a Saturday afternoon, and see this written in black ink on the plastic back of the seat in front of you:

“This graffiti is fleeting human contact. Both of us lost … but for a moment, we’re lost together. I wonder who you are?”

Let me guess … a grad student in English literature at Stanford? Okay, I don’t know, but if they’re smart enough to Google the phrase they wrote, perhaps they’ll learn who I am some day.

Rerun

We repeated the 8/8/08 entry today.  Just read previous post.  It was all the same. Oh –but our redheaded friend came along and shined this year.