Our third year in San Francisco
and counting …Archive for October, 2007
One more double digit year
Opening birthday presents
My grandmother turned 99 on Friday. Now, that’s a milestone! Here’s the pictures of us celebrating with her this year. I’m hoping I inherited her genes for a long and happy life. And I look forward to the big triple-digit party next year!
Back from the big trip to Texas
K.’s first Texas high school football experience
I have to say, going to my 20-year high school reunion was pretty awesome. It was a weekend that had everything: laughs, nostalgia, cheap beer, old pals, football, fist fights, rock and roll, nakedness and Mexican food. The rest of the long weekend was great too; I’ll have more pictures up later, but my reunion pictures are all here.
Big weekend coming up!
It’s nearly 11:30 p.m., and we’ve finally finished packing for our trip to Texas for my 20-year high school reunion in Sweeny, followed by a quick stop in Houston to see M. and K. and our lovely goddaughter, and then finally off to Wichita Falls for my grandmother’s 99th birthday. Yee haw! Our flight leaves at 7 a.m. That sucks. But other than that, I think it will be both an fun and fascinating trip.
It’s not even Saturday yet …
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.
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Our third year in San Francisco 