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a week (well spent) in the Bay Area
Oct. 1st, 2011 11:00 pm“If you hand me one more beautiful book, I’m going to have to kill you.”
That’s what a friend’s 13-year-old daughter said to her 15-year-old brother this last week after we left Berkeley’s Bongo Burgers to check out nearby Moe’s Bookstore. The young lady was contemplating the depletion of her meager income due to her being unable to resist buying books that seemed interesting – in this case, books about 1980s punk groups.
Basically, my visit to the Bay Area went as I had hoped. Better, in some cases. Some of our users took me out to lunch near San Francisco’s Chinatown, and my fortune cookie said “You will be selected for a promotion because of your accomplishments”. The message didn’t turn out to be true though: when I finally met my normally East-Coast-based boss and mentioned my earlier disappointment at realizing I would not be a leader in the project I was assigned to but only its resource person, he only replied “I’m sorry to hear that.” That’s pretty much what I had expected though. It was disturbing though that, of our lunch’s various fortune cookies, mine was the only one that, on the other side, contained its translation in… French. To a French-Canadian. In San Francisco. Maybe the Universe was trying to tell me something. No matter what, I focused on being busy at work, which led a co-worker to suggest I’m actually chained to my laptop. Some of our contractors must be appreciative of what I do for them while thus ensnared because they too took me out to lunch. One night, I had dinner with my friend Yoko, and expressed the wish that she’d let me pay for the whole thing, thus making the whole affair her belated birthday gift to me.
I stayed at one of my sisters-in-law who lives in the Oakland Hills with her hubby and their 4-year-old son. That meant watching out for dinosaurs on the floor on my way to the shower. That also meant a one-hour walk downhill all the way to the Rockridge BART station, and my thus fighting off gravity may not have burned out enough of the calories ingested throughout the week, but my legs got a good workout. When I turned in at night, I watched “Terra Nova” and “Golden Girls”.
I read Madeleine Robins’s Regency mystery “Point of Honour”, a novel that I very strongly recommend.
I was disappointed that my other sister-in-law couldn’t visit with her youngest, who’s my favorite nephew. Alas, the young boy did what young ones like doing, but this time his jumping around resulted in his colliding with a wall, which required a trip to the ER for a few stitches. He’s OK, aside from that, thanks goodness.
Again, this was a great week.
I was glad to return home though because, well, it's home.
One last thing... I brought back with me the birthday presents my wife gotten for me a few weeks ago, but which she had 'mistakenly' had shipped to my inlaws. One of the BluRay of "The Blues Brothers" and the other was "Flash Gordon".
About the latter, she again made clear she wouldn't stay in the living-room, should I intend to watch it.
Some people can't appreciate good cheese.
That’s what a friend’s 13-year-old daughter said to her 15-year-old brother this last week after we left Berkeley’s Bongo Burgers to check out nearby Moe’s Bookstore. The young lady was contemplating the depletion of her meager income due to her being unable to resist buying books that seemed interesting – in this case, books about 1980s punk groups.
Basically, my visit to the Bay Area went as I had hoped. Better, in some cases. Some of our users took me out to lunch near San Francisco’s Chinatown, and my fortune cookie said “You will be selected for a promotion because of your accomplishments”. The message didn’t turn out to be true though: when I finally met my normally East-Coast-based boss and mentioned my earlier disappointment at realizing I would not be a leader in the project I was assigned to but only its resource person, he only replied “I’m sorry to hear that.” That’s pretty much what I had expected though. It was disturbing though that, of our lunch’s various fortune cookies, mine was the only one that, on the other side, contained its translation in… French. To a French-Canadian. In San Francisco. Maybe the Universe was trying to tell me something. No matter what, I focused on being busy at work, which led a co-worker to suggest I’m actually chained to my laptop. Some of our contractors must be appreciative of what I do for them while thus ensnared because they too took me out to lunch. One night, I had dinner with my friend Yoko, and expressed the wish that she’d let me pay for the whole thing, thus making the whole affair her belated birthday gift to me.
I stayed at one of my sisters-in-law who lives in the Oakland Hills with her hubby and their 4-year-old son. That meant watching out for dinosaurs on the floor on my way to the shower. That also meant a one-hour walk downhill all the way to the Rockridge BART station, and my thus fighting off gravity may not have burned out enough of the calories ingested throughout the week, but my legs got a good workout. When I turned in at night, I watched “Terra Nova” and “Golden Girls”.
I read Madeleine Robins’s Regency mystery “Point of Honour”, a novel that I very strongly recommend.
I was disappointed that my other sister-in-law couldn’t visit with her youngest, who’s my favorite nephew. Alas, the young boy did what young ones like doing, but this time his jumping around resulted in his colliding with a wall, which required a trip to the ER for a few stitches. He’s OK, aside from that, thanks goodness.
Again, this was a great week.
I was glad to return home though because, well, it's home.
One last thing... I brought back with me the birthday presents my wife gotten for me a few weeks ago, but which she had 'mistakenly' had shipped to my inlaws. One of the BluRay of "The Blues Brothers" and the other was "Flash Gordon".
About the latter, she again made clear she wouldn't stay in the living-room, should I intend to watch it.
Some people can't appreciate good cheese.
