Shortly after my last blog post, power went out at our house. This is quite a storm, worst in five years or something like that. PG&E is warning that some customers won’t get power back this weekend. Sounds like a great weekend to have visitors!

We have returned from The Bronx and are back in San Francisco. Re-entry from the holidays hasn’t been particularly easy; I have fond memories of being in school and getting a month plus off.

When we came back to the city the weather was beautiful, and we have visitors coming this weekend, so it seemed like it was going to be great. Alas, they’re in for a damp excursion, as the West Coast is seriously stormy. At the moment I’m looking out my dining room window at the heavy rain and severe winds the Weather Channel has been promising us for the last couple of days. I’m actually seeing rain being blown back up into the sky, and now and then a chunk of something will fly off our neighbor’s roof.

All of this is supposed to die down by tomorrow, when the tourists arrive, and just go back to the showers I’m getting used to. But for today we have real weather. If I didn’t have meeting to attend today, I’d use this as an excuse to miss work. Taking the bus today, this is no good for scootering.

awakened by the paparazzi

The holidays are in full effect. This weekend we went to see a performance of “A Christmas Carol” in a theater near Union Square, and it was really a good time and a good show. Our one complaint was that there was only one person working the bar at intermission, so we couldn’t have a glass of wine. We remedied that by going out to dinner at 1550 Hyde (finally!), which had a delicious and well-priced prix fixe, and where K. had a flight of sauvignon blanc and I tried the recommended wine pairings with my meal. Very tasty. Eating in San Francisco is good.

This entire week has been a whirlwind. We had a big holiday office party Thursday, which was extremely successful — in fact, 10 times the number of people who actually work in my office showed up. At home, we’ve managed to entertain friends on two separate evenings in one week, fairly successfully, I think. And, of course, we’re prepping for our trip to New York tomorrow.

Haylee looks very sweet under the tree in this photo, but, of course, most of the time she tries that trick she knocks down ornaments and fake branches when she gets up. But that’s better than Tex, who’s been eating any low-hanging ornaments made with felt or fabric. Ho ho ho!

One Elf Burger, Please

I’ve just decided to put this picture from our San Jose trip a couple of weekends ago at the top my blog because I don’t think it’s getting enough holiday love. Elf burgers! Ha ha ha! (It’s possible that I find this more funny than anyone else does, and I’m willing to acknowledge that.)

Last night’s trip to Boulevard was great. We had a fantastic time. We had some champagne, we had some wine, we had some fancy appetizers and tasty entrees, we had a yummy cheese course and a couple of over the top desserts that had little white chocolate signs on them that said “Happy Anniversary.” Our wallets got significantly lighter. A woman complimented K.’s dress. A well-dressed gentlemen told me I had a great scarf. We people watched — an older woman who sat in the bar by herself did crossword puzzles in the newspaper and ordered the $44 lamb chops; the May-December couple next to us paid in cash, and spent less than we did.

The only downside to the evening happened before we left the house, when I broke my beloved Screwpull wine opener trying to get a solid synthetic “cork” out of a bottle of wine. Damn those plastic corks! If real cork isn’t the answer, I say go the screw-off route. I may be able to salvage the Screwpull, if the Crazy Glue holds.

Woof!

Yesterday, I flew to Portland for the premiere of Nothing But the Truth (actually it’s second premiere, if there can be such a thing; it debuted in LA on Tuesday). The movie is fun, lots of crazy-to-watch skateboarding, with a interesting handmade feel. My ego was stroked when I saw my name under “Thanks to” in the credits.

The flight up there was kind of a nightmare, due almost entirely to the Blue Angels, who were practicing for a “Fleet Week” air show this weekend. Because they were using the runways, flights all through the airport were delayed. We were delayed getting on, and then spent an hour sitting in the plane with no air conditioning, finally departing nearly an hour and half late. I hope the people who go to the airshow are very entertained. I heard them practicing today as well, buzzing loud low over the city. Great. And good for the environment, too! I personally need to go buy a few carbon credits; I’m flying 10 round trips this year.

But, back to Portland … we stayed at the fairly new Ace Hotel, which I will recommend, with a caveat that it did get a bit loud in my room due to a bar across the street (nothing like the nightmare of being above the bar at the Seattle Ace, however). The place is nicely done; my room was quite comfortable, with a glass shower right by the bed that was so enticing I showered immediately. Every room has different art; one of my compatriots had some topless mermaids, the other had a mountain/man portrait, but I got this awesome puppy you see above. Perfect.

The restaurant/bar there, Clyde Common, was yummy, with a sweet happy hour. I had a drink called the Anemic Mary that was so good I had to have another one. They also had generous low-priced happy hour aps. Off the lobby opposite the restaurant was a Stumptown Coffee cafe that is apparently open all night, or at least enough of the night that I was able to visit there after 11 p.m. and again at 6 a.m.

I flew back this morning on an 8:25 flight (before the Angels got back to practicing), so tonight I was back in town to see Helvetica, which I really found funny and engaging, and that was great because I’m exhausted and was afraid I might fall asleep during a documentary about a font.

K. had her scooter so I rode home by myself on the BART, still carrying all my clothes for the trip in my backpack and armed with my iPod loaded for flying. I listened to Steve Reich’s “You Are Whereever Your Thoughts Are,” which had the effect of making me a little freaked out and disoriented on the train. Probably just the effect he’d hoped for.

This sign appeared stapled to a fence next to the mini-park near our house this week. It’s so San Francisco, with it’s international multi-lingual bent. But the best thing about it, I think, is that there was actually no wet paint anywhere near it.

USS odopod

On Friday night my office had a party. It’s theme was “Yacht Club.” I wore my terrycloth nautical flag shirt, and K. wore a perfect yacht club dress. On Saturday morning, thanks to that party, I didn’t feel so good. Thank heavens for prescription headache medicine. I made it to my 9:30 a.m. ukulele class, but just barely.

K. rides off to work for the first time

K. rode to work on her scooter for the first time on Thursday last week, making her an official scooter commuter. Then, this weekend, we took our first ride together — we scooted over to The Haight for lunch at Massawa on Saturday. I’m still looking forward to being ready to carry a passenger, but we had a lot of fun riding our two scooters simultaneously. We were a gang of two. It gives you a real feeling of freedom to think that you can go to the museum and it won’t take you more than an hour to get there. And it was a beautiful weekend for a ride.

Yesterday I got my for-real M1 motorcycle endorsement, making me a 100-percent-legal scooter driver. I’m now allowed to carry passengers, and I haven’t done that yet, but I did try carrying home a 36-pound bag of dog food yesterday. That’s kind of like carrying a passenger, albeit a very small one with no muscle control. I used bungees to strap it to the bag hook under my seat and set it where my feet would usually go. I had to put my feet on the little passenger foot spots. This seems to work fine, as long as I don’t try to park and dismount on a hill; I also only really have to go about half a mile like this.

I’m also legal to drive at night now, so I did, meeting K. out at We Be Sushi for dinner.

Today K. got her license too, and is talking to insurance folks about getting her scooter all 100 percent legal. I expect she’ll be commuting to work on it by the end of the week.

Another good thing that happened yesterday is that Haylee’s tests came back, and the growth on her toe is nothing serious. Whew.

Waiting for our tea at Samovar

K. went with me this afternoon to Yerba Buena Gardens, where they were having a ukulele festival, with lots of free music. It was fun and pleasant to sit on the grass in the garden, but we were hungry, so we had lunch at Samovar.  It was really lovely and pleasant, and we could hear the music, at least sort of, from our outdoor table. It seemed really nice inside, too. It was very relaxing and lovely.

We left for a while, then I came back for the big finale, a performance by Jake Shimabukuro. He’s pretty darn impressive. Here’s a video so you can see what I mean.