Slainte

Saturday. Lazy Saturday. My Harry Potter book came at 9am but I wasn't awake to receive it so I missed the delivery. I went to the post office but the truck wasn't back so I won't get my book until Monday. I walked from the post office to the gym. Long walk + muggy day = bad workout. After 25 minutes of cardio I was done. Zoning out followed shortly in the form of ANCHORMAN:The Legend of Ron Burgundy on HBO on demand. That movie is so bad, it requires absolutely no thought.

Saturday night, after a 2 hour nap brought on by Anchorman, I met Jon in the city. I was so hot and uncomfortable standing on the platform, I took this picture when I got into the subway so I could see how I look which is tired, very tired. I was disappointed to see my hair frizzing up like that because I got a deep conditioning on Friday night at Pritty Woman Boutique.

I met Jon in Union Square for dinner and we went to Heartland Brewery. We split a salmon burger and some incredibly spicy gazpacho.


As I sat there across from Jon at Heartland Brewery

talking to him, admiring him and eating his fries, it felt like we were on a date and it was nice.

Our next stop was Slainte where we helped Michael Malice celebrate his birthday. Slainte is an Irish toast. Here is a picture of their toast wall which features toasts in different languages. By the way, I LOOOVVVVEEEEE the bathrooms at Slainte - they are unique to the lower East Side because they are spacious and they have paper towel dispensers.


We were having a nice time but had to cut it short because of an early Sunday morning appointment with our photographer. We opted to take the subway for a change because I had this feeling that the traffic on the Queensborough bridge was going to be bumper to bumper. Why spend $20 when you can spend $2 for a commute that's going to take the same amount of time? We got into the train at Bleecker and we documented both the old and new signs at the station.

The Giraffe Kangaroo

My co-worker brought her 5 year old daughter "E" to work today. E is going to summer camp a few blocks from our office so when camp lets out at 2:30 my co-worker goes to get her. We've been hanging out every day.

She kept me company today while I was doing some pretty tedious work - basically listing and sorting rankings and addresses blah blah blah. Every twenty minutes or so I told her to come and get me so I could have a few minutes of playtime here and there. E made a giraffe out of empty ink cartridge boxes. She named the giraffe Katie and it probably won't surprise you that Katie is also five years old. Katie's home was another box that E found. E made Katie a bed out of some tissue. When she discovered that her tissue pillow was too small for Katie's house, she made it into a pouch for Katie thus creating the first giraffe/kangaroo hybrid of 25th and Broadway.

Around 5 pm, my third playtime break, I was a doctor to E's nurse and we had to operate on Katie because she had a broken brain. While I operated E took notes, in make believe script and referred to them for the next 20 minutes regarding Katie's care. The last word about Katie was that her family sent E an email with directions to Katie's house so we could take her home.

Make believe is still fun every now and then.

Just Another Day

Just another day on 25th and Broadway. I eased back into work holding on to my vacation vibe as long as possible. I still had the vibe when I got home tonight. I caught up on the last two episodes of Six Feet Under. The last two episodes were particularly well written - exploring issues like being married to a crazy person and how to handle the death of the woman who deflowered you when you were a 15 year old boy.

I indulged my TV mood further by watching Ask Dr. Baden on HBO. Apparently, HBO viewers have been writing in for Dr. Baden's help with unexplained deaths of their loved ones. The first woman broke my heart. She asked for Dr. Baden's help in explaining the unexplained deaths of three of her four children. The first one, a little girl, died of SIDS at 8 days old. Several years later, her three month old twins died in the middle of the night. Local police questioned her for fourteen hours assuming that she must be responsible after the deaths of three children, so she wrote to Dr. Baden for help.

After interviewing her he blood tested everyone in the family for genetic abnormalities to rule that out as a possibility for her children's unexplained deaths. Then he had her polygraphed to make sure she wasn't lying about her involvement in their deaths. Then he looked at the reports from the coroner in her little town. He ruled that the little girl's death was indeed SIDS. But, ruled that she was inadvertently responsible for the death of the twins because she rolled over onto them while they were all sleeping in the same bed.

Dr. Baden told her as best as he could that she was responsible for their deaths even though she meant them no harm. She had read in several books that sleeping with your babies was good for them because the mother's heartbeat calms babies and that it helps you bond with your children.

Apparently, a lot of parents accidentally kill their children this way.

So, in case you didn't already know it because of good old common sense "DON'T KEEP YOUR BABIES IN BED WITH YOU. NOT ONLY CAN IT DESTROY YOUR MARRIAGE BUT IT COULD KILL YOUR BABIES."

First Day Back

We just flew in from California and boy are my arms tired.

Bleary eyed I write this with jet lag in my heart.

Our flight felt like 10 hours. In San Fran flight 2022 was delayed half an hour. On the plane, the woman in front of me put her seat back within 2 minutes of takeoff and kept it back for three hours of the flight. When she went up to go to the bathroom I put her seat back about 2 inches just so I could breath and the people next to me could get in and out of our row. I was sooooo boredand restless on the plane. Back in NY we circled JFK twice before landing. Then our luggage took about half an hour to come out on the carousel. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for a taxi. We didn't get home until 10pm.

Now I am sitting here deciding whether or not I have it in me to work a 9 to 10 hour day. Actually I know I don't have it in me but I have to decided whether or not I want to do it. Of course I don't want to do it so I guess the only decision to make now is what I am going to wear.

YAWN.

Final Post from San Francisco

Jon and I are leaving on Wednesday for New York so this is my final entry from the Pacific Coast.

We spent five wonderful days in California. It was nice to spend this time with Jon. The more time we spend together and the more we travel together the more I like him. He is a great travel companion. He is upbeat and energetic and open to anything. Hopefully, I am as easy to travel with. Sometimes, I think I might be a little challenging - depending on the day.

Thank you to Steve and Marge for making our trip so enjoyable. You gave us a place to call home while we were away from home. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to miss you.

Day 5 - Sausalito

On the way back from the Red Woods we stopped in Sausalito - town square pictured above. From Sausalito, you can see beautiful views of San Francisco, because it sits on the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay. But that was too hard to photograph. Besides, some things are just for you - they can't be shared.


What I will share is this photo of a sign for a store that sells humorous art.

Guess what. It didn't.

Jon in the woods

Self Portrait - Woods

Muir Woods Restroom

In the John C. Muir woods, toilet paper is kept locked up tight. I'm sure this is to prevent people from going off and taking a crap in the Red Woods.

Day 5 - San Francisco

Today Jon and I had to make a decision on what to do on our final day in the Bay Area -- go to the Napa Valley or to see redwoods, which the guidebook told us we could find at Muir Woods in Marin County. The redwoods won out because I convinced Jon that you can see vineyards anywhere in the world, but California is the only place on Earth with redwood trees.



We rented a car, and in only 10 minutes or so we got onto this bridge which you may have seen in movies that take place in San Francisco.




Fortunately the only four-legged critters we saw were deer and a chipmunk.



The sun was shining brightly and making some nice shadowy contrasts.





These redwoods could be as tall as 35 stories, and are 800 years old. We learned that the red in their trunks comes from tannic acid, the same stuff that makes their bark invulnerable and keeps them alive forever.


This is actually a Douglas fir.










It turned out to be a way better trip than Napa would have been, because the high temperature was something like 90 in Napa and 75 in the Muir Woods. This is the result of something called "microclimates," which is the one word used to explain every single weather event in San Francisco.

Day 4 - San Francisco

This morning I decided to wear my new pink shoes from Chinatown.



But, today was all about Alcatraz and cable cars.



We rode the famous San Francisco Powell/Hyde cable car to get to Fisherman's Wharf so we could take the ferry to the famous prison. On the ferry I was feeling a little motion sick so I took a picture of myself to see if I could see myself turning green.

I discovered instead that I was turning redder. Since we've been here, San Franciscans have been experiencing unusually sunny weather. I have to remember to wear sunblock tomorrow otherwise I'm going to look like a tomato.

I don't have much to say about Alcatraz so I'll show you.




Tomorrow we're renting a car and driving out to John C. Muir woods to see the enormous redwoods and then spending some time in Sausolito. I really like it out here. California is pretty and San Francisco doesn't have any humidity. The air feels clean and fresh.

Day 3 San Francisco

We woke up relatively early and walked to the beach so we could get a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach.


Then we backtracked a couple of blocks and visited the San Francisco Zoo. We all sorts of animals which is always fun but they were mostly sleeping or chilling out because most animals are active in the evening. The only animal we didn't really get to see was the Chimpanzee because he was hiding under a green blanket.






We had lunch at a little beach shacky kind of place and then went and met up with our host Lloyd Ackerman for the Giant's game. We had a really great time at the game. The stadium is beautiful. It's designed to help control the wind so the balls don't go flying all over the place. Also, the way the stadium is design you get a perfect few of the Bay. If you have a chance to see a game here, definitely do it. We had GREAT seats, one level up and behind home plate. You can see every play in its entirety from these seats. It was a truly fun experience.

Here are Jon and me posing at the game with Mr. Ackerman.

Old St. Mary's

San Francisco's oldest catholic church is Old St. Mary's on the corner of California Street and Grand (I think it's Grand) Anyway, Jon and I went it to check it out after our lunch at Far East and when we saw there was a wedding just beginning we decided to stay for a little while and observce. We observed the bride's family filling up one side of the church while the groom's filled the other and we observed a special guest. When I saw him I told Jon, "Hey isn't that a guy a Californian mayor?" Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown sat on the groom's side of the church. He is not pictured here. I stopped taking pictures of the church when it got close to the start of the wedding.

Day 2 San Francisco

On our second day, we started our adventure with a quick bite at the famous Mel's Diner (although I think it wasn't the original location used in American Graffiti). It was very "retro 50's" inside. There was a jukebox and cool art on the walls. We ate very lightly because we were headed toward Chinatown and expected to eat well while there.




We walked over to California Street and rode a cable car down to Chinatown.


While in Chinatown we saw interesting things including these giant wooden penis sculptures.


this cool sign for an insurance company


and the Store With Beautiful Things.


Of course we saw the famous Chinatown Gate published in all the literature about San Francisco. Here is Jon sitting in front of one of the lions. The lion's eyes are dusted with some kind of day glow powder and give the appearance of glowing which I think is a nice touch.


We had some lunch at a restaurant called Far East where we dined on Chow Fun and Chow Mein which is not pictured here because we ate it quickly after ordering from the menu I'm holding in my hand.


We ended our day time adventure in Union Square where we admired the palm trees and surrounding buildings.


Honorable mentions from yesterday go to The Transamerica Building in downtown San Francisco and the little boxes of Parasite Pals I saw in one of the shops.