I was in SF for five days, and managed to fill them pretty chock full.
On Wednesday I met up with Joe and Jerry for lunch at Chow at Church, and then we wandered around the Castro trying to burn off all the calories. That evening, on the way to Jerry's for dinner, I had a major brain fart on the J-Church. I lost track of where I was, thought I was turned around, and got off much too early (at 16th and Church). I was reading a book, it was dark, and in my mind, I had gotten on at 16th and Church, not at 29th and Church. The trip over the Dolores Park hill with the high walls made me think I was actually where the train goes underground, and when I next paid attention we were above ground, and I couldn't understand how that could be. A year or so ago I took a J-Church inbound that turned into an N-Judah outbound, and that's what I thought had happened. Dinner was spicy wings and an episode of Project Runway. I had never seen it before, and I can see how it's fun to watch in a group setting.
Thursday I did my traditional SF tour: I took the N-Judah train out to the ocean, wandered through the park, then along the beach, up to Cliff House, the old Sutro Baths, and the 38 Geary back home. I spent a long time on the beach. There was a guy doing something I don't know the name for it. Parafoil-waterboarding? No, unfortunately, waterboarding means something different now. Anyhow, look at the picture. He's strapped into something very similar to a snowboard, and rigged to the parafoil. Climbing around the Sutro Baths I whacked my left foot against some rebar hard enough to tear a hole in my shoe and make me see stars. My left big toe had no visible damage, but it hurt. I decided to limp to the bus directly, without walking on all the cliff trails. I hung out that evening with Bruce and Marcus, and got addicted to another television series, Heroes. I know, I'm a bit late to the game, but hey.Friday I went to West Sacramento to visit Russ. He's lived there for years, but he's always come into the City when I've been in town; this time I came to him. We had Indian food for lunch and then went to Auburn Ravine for the day. It's a swimming hole on the American River and is quite beautiful. Very cold water. Cliffs and water deep enough to jump off of them into. A long, steep, hike down into the ravine. It was a really great way to spend the day. Also, since the weather in SF has been the typical cold, misty, foggy, cloudy, summer weather, it was great to get off the upper peninsula and into some sun. It was 30ยบ warmer in the Central Valley: 80s/90s instead of 50s/60s. I got back to SF in time to hang out at 440 in the Castro with Mutt afterwards. We got bored/tired/hungry and ended up leaving to grab food at Bagdad Cafe.
Saturday morning I went to the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young with Scott and Scott. We got there just as the museum opened, which, although it was a bit painful getting up that early on a Saturday, meant our time-group was the only one in the exhibit. Afterwards we went to Park Chow for breakfast. Scott has mentioned a Skechers outlet on 22nd and Mission, and since I needed new shoes (having torn one up on Thursday, for which my toe was now very black and blue), I went there. Man, what a nice shoe store! I ended up with three pairs (it was buy one, get second at half price, any purchase over $65 gets you a free pair of crocs). Yes, I was the last person in Vermont to own a pair of Merrills, and now I'm the last person to get a pair of crocs.
The rest of Saturday was a series of softball world series benefit beer busts. Mutt's team, the SF Inferno, and another team, the F-Liners were both having fundraisers to send themselves to Seattle for the world series. The SF Inferno had the afternoon beer bust at the Lone Star, where I had a lot of fun catching up with the usual cast of characters (Scott, Bruce and Marcus, Paul and John). Then it was a benefit drag show (my first drag show in SF, ever!) at Buck Tavern for the F-Liners. After that (10pm? We started at 3pm.) we met up with Eric at Home for a comfort food dinner. Eric kept touting how much I'd like the new apartment he's moved into, but wouldn't say why "I can't describe it; you just have to see it", so after dinner, Mutt went home (it was pretty late) and I walked with Eric to his apartment. On the way there, noticing where we were walking, I commented that he must live pretty close to our mutual friends Carl and Jeff, who I had wanted to see this visit but didn't think I'd have the time for it, so I didn't call them. Well, eventually we turned onto Carl and Jeff's block, and stopped in front of their house. Eric rents a room from them. It was a fun surprise. They were both up, Eric having prepped them ahead of time, and we stayed up pretty late catching up. I walked home at 1:30am to Church and Market, and was waiting outside The Transfer to take the J-Church Owl, when a guy who was getting on the N-Juday Owl mentioned that I could call 311 any time to find out information about the lines. I called it, and discovered that there is no J-Church Owl. So I took a cab home, with a detour to an ATM.
Sunday was hanging with Mark and John and Kyle and Kimberly in Mountain View. We had fun in the park; I got to see where Mark works (Linden Labs), and generally got to be part of the family for the day. This was my first time meeting Kimberly (who is 20 months old). Kyle is 6, and really tall. Mark says that if Kyle's height percentile keeps up, by the time he's 13, he will be taller than Mark. John made a delicious polenta with tomato garlic sauce for dinner. Yummmm. They showed off a project of theirs, Context Free. If you're a geek, you should check it out. It's a deceptively simple language that generates incredibly interesting, and complex, images. It's open source, and there's a community behind it, and Mark and John published a book about it: Community of Variation. I played with it some while I was there, but when I got home that night, Mutt and I played with it some more. It's very cool and we both stayed up way too late playing with it.
And that was my time in SF.
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