March 13, 2013
The Ferry Building is one of my favorite places to share with people. It is a tourist-traffic heavy location which isn’t usually my cup of tea but here that’s part of the fun; there’s usually some sort of performance artist(s) out front and the vendor stalls are always fresh, bright and stocked. The poorly lit photos here are down to my impromptu photography.
It’s best enjoyed at a slow meander, picking up a chip of chocolate or a taste of bread dipped in different flavors of olive oil, checking out the cheeses, desserts and fresh oysters on offer.
Food trucks line the pierside, produce and flower stalls interlock the front and back side of the Building.
The piles of fresh produce are positively enticing. Those vendors are no fools: plenty of fresh citrus wedges and apple slices were available for sampling. Even at those prices I still have to talk myself out of spending upwards of $4/lb for a bag of fruit or vegetables. They look so pretty. (Though microgreens for $24/lb? Really?)
There were canning jars that looked like a good deal at $3/jar. They’d be perfect for making ahead two-serving apple pies. If it weren’t for the thought of trying to take them home on BART without breaking them, they would have been mine.
Also, the flowers are so bright and cheerful, nestled in their big bundles, I was thistempted to buy the five bundles for $25 of tulips. Again, not being in the mood to schlep them home was pretty much my saving grace. Otherwise: flowers, jars, random veggies I’m not sure how to cook, even more chocolate…
Edit: I did go back this week to blow $100 on gifts. California honey,3 boxes of made in SF by a small business chocolates, apple butter, and a chunk of triple creme cheese. Just needs some bread and crackers to make a really good picnic. Except I can’t keep it. Drat.
November 19, 2012
As a general rule, I avoid going into the city. No offense to the city of San Francisco, although I do hate driving in or having to find parking there because let’s face it – Market Street mixed among other wackadoodle streets and city parking are the pits, but this homebody is far too easily fatigued and thus unmotivated so can easily push off any single errand to SF until there are at least several things to do or someone’s come to town.
We had such a confluence this weekend with mutual friends in town so PiC and I had a bit of a lark. With nearly 12 hours of sleep under my belt, I had my fingers crossed I’d make it all the way into the evening. We had one errand each, and then an open-ended “we’ll meet with you for ….. ”
We had Clipper cards with varying amounts of money on it for travel, but his card required an agent to work some kinda something on it to make it work again.
My travel: Free.
His travel: $3.55, no agent at the booth and I’d accidentally left behind my backup Clipper card in case his didn’t work. Whoops.
It was a surprisingly long two-thirds mile trek through groddy-town to get to Hayes Valley. Disturbed flocks of pigeons there, along with all the smells of back alleys, discovered a freeway entrance where one didn’t seem to belong and then found ourselves suddenly in an utterly too-nice nice neighborhood. I guess this is how gentrification works/worked in San Francisco?
My errand: his belated birthday gift, a secret thing, a coffee, $42
Back again, through the puddles and the pigeons, and ponderings if we should just walk all the way to Union Square. Pondered all the way right back onto Bart. Hopped on, hopped off.
Meandered up and out, moved as part of the crowd up the way toward Powell, toward, Geary, toward Post, toward all the major landmarks of the Square. H&M (one of three), a new Uni-Glo, Bloomingdales looming(dales), Macy’s. The tree was up, the ice rink was out and holiday crowds were out in force. Oddly, I was ok with this.
His errand: a shirt, value, $80. Free with coupon.
Unscheduled stop, H&M: poke and pruned until we find a blouse, $30.44, with 20% off coupon. Still a little steep given my ambivalence (oh and I forgot to try it on), and btw, I was stung by the 10 cent bag fee, thanks a lot, forgetfulness!
I was chilled, nibblish and shaky by 2:30. We’d only been out and about for… an hour? Yeah. Stamina, spamina. The food and sugar kept me going for another several hours so even though I rarely buy random street food like this around home or go to Starbucks, we made a beeline for the first one we saw. NOM. There’s something delicious (pun intended) about just getting what you want.
Street dog: $4.25
Starbucks venti Hot chocolate: $3.15, free with coupon
We settled into the Westfield for a while to wait for friends who were, in fact, much closer by than we had expected, I caught up on some Twitter and PiC snagged a free Ghiradelli square. Jealous. It was peppermint. Less jealous.
Dinner was a non-glamorous booth affair at a standard chain restaurant with children clamoring and clambering all over the place. Crayons only held their attention for as long as they could race to an ungainly win, assisted absentmindedly by one adult or another; I was starting to see how the mom was so keenly aware of the judging stares of others when they went out. As normal as it is for kids, and boys at any age if I remember growing up with my cousins rightly, to be unruly, attention hungry, wound up or full up with energy, these fellas were like sprung-loose jack in the boxes, wound up and loosed to wreak havoc. It took fast thinking to talk them down from, off of, out from under, apart, or back from wherever they’d gotten to and that was entirely apart from the chattering at hypersonic speed and three decibels higher than an inside voice. Oh, kids. It was entertaining until we started becoming public nuisances, then we had to start clamping down. Gently and teasingly since they’re not ours but still. No one around us was amused when they stopped up the doors.
We trekked back, exhausted, quiet and sleepy, late.
Through heavy lids, we watched my joints puff up like wee sausages on the ride back. Cute. Chasing down and hefting kiddies was fun but more than a little strenuous.
All in all, not a bad day.
October 2, 2012
It only took nearly three years before we finally did that lunch we’d always talked about doing: meeting up during the week and having a fun lunch away from the offices.
Boccalone is one of my favorite places to take people around to, if only because it’s so amusing. They have these salami cones full of an assortment of sliced deli meats for $3. Delicious.
It’s not an extensive menu but the sandwiches are well made and tasty. Pricy, though, and I really have to remember to bring my own water. A bit silly to pay a dollar for a cup of water.
Now this is something new – mortadella hot dog?
So you know I had to have one!
The best part about having meals with PiC is that he usually chooses the other thing I wanted. The prosciutto cotto sandwich was my second choice.
September 15, 2012
Doggle is finally learning to play a little bit.
- I’ve been chasing him around the yard when we travel to places that have yards, and he chases me in turn. Hilarity.
- He is crap at visual recognition. He couldn’t figure out that he’d knocked his toy under a piece of furniture and in his panic to find a toy, any toy, he ran to a pile of towels and tried to pick them up. No, dear, those aren’t for you.
Once in a while, I fondly look at my husband and wonder: how did we end up together? We’re so different.
- He loves Groundhog Day. I haaaaate that movie. I didn’t have an opinion on Bill Murray until that film and to this day, I have a near-allergic reaction to his character’s smarminess.
- His love of Coming to America baffles me just as much. But it doesn’t bother me.
- He’s a compulsive cleaner. I’m comfortable with cyclical cleaning or cleaning as stress relief. I did grow up stomping about barns, after all.
The new horizon is so bright and shiny. It was hell on the innards traipsing my way to the conclusion and Things To Come. But so worth it.
- A new thing to learn: pacing myself. I am so very bad at this.
- I have added at least one, sometimes two! walks to my day. That’s pretty good for a new routine where I could have backslid into none.
Finances feel neglected. Not like they’re dwindling while I’m off playing or working necessarily, just that I’m not 100% on top of every detail.
- This is true because I missed a credit card bill. Called to have the late fee waived but not within minutes.
- Karen, regular reader, tells me that HSBC notified her of intent to implement a $12 inbound transfer fee which we both think is crap. I’m not a customer though I was considering opening an account there – wonder if they followed through.
- Very happy about the salary bump though not ready to start the calculations of how far away we still are from a refinance and a small yard.
I suspect I just have brain overload at the moment – too many commitments and for the first time, my survival doesn’t depend on knowing where every penny lives. My gut still doesn’t love that idea though so it’s taking note.
September 15, 2008
I put all other stressful parts of my life on hold yesterday starting at 2 pm. I didn’t take work with me, as I always do “in case of down time,” and I resolved not to even worry about getting back in time to put in another two hours of work. I was going to spend time with friends, end of story.
It was amazing.
I had organized a mini-massage day at a girlfriend’s house since we sickies were in sore need. My masseuse friend was happy to make a house call for me and two other friends, and a fourth came over just to spend time with us because she couldn’t afford the massage. She was recently laid off due to governmental budget cuts, so hosting friend and I agreed to split the cost of her massage to treat her.
At $40/hour, it was the right thing to do: she’s been searching for a job since July, on unemployment, and I could swing half the cost, as could hosting friend.
All in all, masseuse friend worked for four hours, with a nice break in between, so I know that helped her financially. I got to catch up with masseuse friend during my massage, we spoiled four hung out, chatted, ate Godiva chocolates and potatos chips and watched football. And a LOT of Food Network. Did you know that Alton Brown has yet another “Feasting on …” show? And I finally saw Dinner Impossible.
After the massages, we had an impromptu pizza party, AND I made use of hosting friend’s multifunction, multipage scanner to scan two inches worth of auto insurance and Rollover IRA documents. Which, I hasten to add, was not work, it was organizational and I loooove organizing. It’s good for my soul. As are good friends, massages, chocolate, potato chips, and maybe one less slice of pizza for dinner. Four slices of Pizza Hut pizza plus honey barbeque wings were, perhaps, a bit much.
Massage, mine: $40 (I’m not allowed to tip, masseuse friend scolds me when I do)
Massage, friend: $25
Pizza/wings: $6
Scanning services: 1000 calories burnt, running up and down the stairs from scanner to computer
Total: $71
Lucky me, the massages will come out of my FSA/medical account, so I don’t even have to feel guilty. And coming home without a single nagging bit of guilt about how much work I didn’t get done that day? Priceless.
I hope everyone had a great weekend! And if not this past weekend, then this next one!
July 15, 2008
Brooke’s post on holding onto old things reminded me that I’d never checked on the pricing of a replacement battery for my old Sony Vaio. (I’d been having new-tech cravings, and had been contemplating getting a new lappie. I was all set to justify it, except that it’s not really justifiable. I want a new laptop that runs perfectly, I don’t need it. Even if I did need it, I don’t have the spare cash for it anyway! So there.) Even though I feel like I can’t trust eBay for something like this, I checked there first, and found nothing.
I Googled it, and found one laptop battery site that lists it for $99. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, and a 1 year warranty, shipped new.
Other sites don’t even list the battery needed for this model. (It’s times like this I’m glad that I’m so ridiculously Asian that I left the information stickers on my computer. Quick and easy model reference right under my left wrist!)
Sony doesn’t even have the model number in their database anymore, or at least I can’t find it on their site anywhere.
So how much is too much for a replacement battery? In comparison to the original purchase price, it’s no more than ten percent of the cost of the notebook, but I doubt that the computer’s worth half that price now.
At this point, it’s likely to be more a matter of what’s more worth it: paying $100 for a battery or $XXX for a new computer. Drat. I know that Option A is the most frugal because there’s nothing major wrong with the computer … but I still covet a new lappy. 😛
July 12, 2008
Ho boy. If this is how tired I am after a night and afternoon of socializing, I’m going to be in trouble at the end of this month when I’m going to be on the road for 8 days. I’m an inveterate correspondent, and I don’t even want to look at emails I intended to respond to, today. That’s how tired I am. My brain is *done* with talking to people. Well, why are you posting? you ask? Because you’re not just any people, you’re MY people. 🙂
A girlfriend was back in town last night, and I haven’t seen her since the wedding in January when we certainly didn’t get a chance to really socialize at all. She invited everyone over to dinner, and five of us sat down to the most amazing home cooked dinner ever. When did we grow up and when did she learn to set a table like that??? It was in-cred-i-ble!!!
Picture this:
A platter of sliced beef, brisket style.
Baked beans in lightly spiced barbeque sauce.
Perfectly crisp green beans.
Fresh, crisp, sliced cucumbers, with a squeeze of lemon and dash of salt.
Ripe, red, succulent tomatoes.
Roasted baby potatoes.
Freshly baked, made from scratch, apple tart, with homemade bechamel sauce.
Heaven. Sheer gastronomic heaven. Everything was fresh, picked from the garden or from the farmer’s market. I made a total pig of myself, and doubled up on helpings of everything. And there were still leftovers! We had a red wine from Paso Robles, and an Australian white. Seriously, it’s one thing to pretend I’m an adult and drink wine with the grown-ups at work functions, but there’s something strikingly poignant about realizing that we were staging our very own dinner party. Nothing so formal and constrained as one with place cards and hostess gifts and such, but still the real deal. Conversation went ’round and ’round the table, taking everyone in turn, telling our stories, catching up on lives. There was a lot of love and a whole lot more laughter as everyone gave everyone else a hard time. It’s comforting to know that there are still relationships that are just easy after so many years.
Then, today, we had our little college reunion lunch. The college pal that I kept in touch with and I were kicking around ideas a few months ago and I proposed that we get the old gang together. It took a lot of coordination and calls, but we pulled it together and got six of our nine intended guests to show up for lunch today. Actually, that sounds like they weren’t interested, but I think everyone was happy that we’d put this together. I think it was quite a success: we laughed and talked for FOUR HOURS. We never even got around to catching up, we were just enjoying each others’ company and telling funny stories and picking on one another like the old days. It felt like hardly a day had passed since we graduated four years ago. Everyone’s changed a little. I could see it. We aren’t those gangly 20-year-olds anymore, and there was some complexity in their eyes, some sadness that wasn’t shared, and a little tentativeness that was only mostly covered up by banter. I think we’d all forgotten what it was like to have fun, just stupid, loud, dumb, funny, gratuitous fun. That might be why we were just happy to be together, and we’ll be doing it again.
If only I weren’t so busy for the next several weeks…. but I’m going to be out of town or otherwise engaged every weekend from next weekend through the end of August. Eeep! My schedule is actually pretty daunting, but I plan to milk it for all I can. Who knows how much longer I’ll be in the area or have a stable income from this job! Oh, don’t worry, I’m not trying to spend it all now or anything, I just want to reconnect to people and remember what it’s like to have a life. It’s going to be important to find that confidence again for interviews and finding a new job!
Anyway, I found myself unable to keep my eyes open after I finally got home after 4 pm. Eventually I caved to the inevitable and just napped. Mmmm…sleep….