Janelle Monae and a Great Weekend!

Thornton Beach Overlook hike

This past weekend was a mix of study and play as I worked on a paper for my "Strategy and War" class but also did several fun things with SMS.

Friday night, we headed out to Antolian Kitchen, a Turkish/Kurdish cuisine restaurant.  I had the broiled whole fish, which was really delicious.  I'm on the tail end of a Whole 30 month so I'm trying to go to places that fit within those strict parameters.  I'm sure I've inadvertently broke the rules with a tiny bit of added sugar, butter and oils but nothing major.  SMS had a baked meat-stuffed tomato eggplant dish that was awesome.  I think we'll be back, even off of a diet!

Saturday was a study/paper-writing day.  SMS and I started the day with the I'm taking my course through the Naval War College Distance Learning program and it's interesting to learn more about military history.  Some of the books are very dry so focusing is tough, but that's what blog entry writing breaks are for!

Hanging out!

The next day was Sunday Fun Day.  SMS and I went up to San Francisco to the Stern Grove Festival.  It was opening day and Janelle Monae was the headliner.  I saw her at Coachella a few years ago and she was fantastic.  We were supposed to go with friends but their son was sick so they bailed.  The show was amazing with a great setlist:

Suite IV Electric Overture

Dance Apocalyptic

Sincerely, Jane.

Q.U.E.E.N.

Electric Lady

One Fine Day

I Got You (I Feel Good)

I Want You Back

Cold War

Tightrope

Yoga

Let's Go Crazy Come Alive (The War of the Roses)

Sitting on the stump!

Our concert seats were...interesting.  The place was packed!  We arrived at 1:15, 45 minutes before the start of the show.  We climbed up the hill and found an awesome tree stump.  We stayed there through the opening act Midtown Social and then headed down the hill for most of Monae's set.  The sound was better and the energy level higher.  It was great!

Thornton Beach

Afterwards, we went out for sushi at a place with a TV so we could watch the first half of the Warrior/Cavs game.  It was Game 7 and I think most of the Bay Area was watching!  It was a great game- very competitive.  We didn't want to stay for the whole game so we headed back home and listened to it on the radio.  I even streamed the last few minutes on Periscope with mixed success.

Thornton Beach

On the way home, we stopped at Thornton Beach Overlook and hiked down to the beach cliffs.  It was so beautiful and a good impromptu hike along the Pacific.

Bay to Breakers 2016 weekend

This past weekend was amazing and packed with fun events.  There was even a special bonus on Monday (teaser alert!).

Pretty Mountain View Garden- not ours though!

On Friday, we picked up our keys to the new place and did our walk-through.  The house is absolutely lovely.  The property manager spent two weeks between the two tenants fixing up the place- and it had already been quite nice!  There's new paint, completely clean interior, new recessed lighting and a backyard drought-resistant landscaping, aka, mostly gravel.  SMS and I love the place and are so happy!

SMS moves rocks.  Literally.

Saturday was a little less glamorous as we rented a truck, bought and picked up a couch on Craigslist and moved SMS' stuff from storage to the his new garage!  We met a neighbor building an electric go-kart and overall, we're looking forward to our new place.  It was really a very lucky find!

Beautiful SF day!

After moving, I headed up to the city to pick up my Bay to Breakers bib.  The expo was pretty cool and absolutely mobbed.  Thanks to the power of Facebook, I messaged and met up with two friends from San Diego.  We belonged to the same book club and they are so much fun.  They had originally come to San Francisco for the Spartan Race but when they heard B to B was going on, they signed up for that too.  I was so happy to meet up with CL and Beth!

This is how I will take my coffee from now on!

Plus, we met up at The Buena Vista Cafe, famed for its Irish Coffee.  The cafe has been on my "SF List" and through serendipity, I ended up there with two great friends.  The coffee was delicious and I highly recommend.  Well, actually, there's a caveat because we actually went to two places with Irish coffee.   The second was one that Darren, SF native, knew about called the Gold Dust Cafe.  Here, hidden in plain sight among the tourist traps in Fisherman's Wharf, is San Francisco's "best and cheapest" Irish Coffee.   Unlike the Buena Vista with its white-tiled, bright interior, Gold Dust is more lounge-y with lots of crushed red velvet.  Both are awesome and really, can you ever have too many Irish coffees? Yes, I'm sure the answer is actually yes but if you have two spaced out over a few hours, you should be alright.

Yummy shabu shabu!

After leaving CL and Beth, SMS and I met up for a late shabu shabu dinner at Shabuway in Mountain View.  It was pretty tasty and brought back good Japan memories!

The Ladies!

Costumes from Bay to Breakers

More Bay to Breakers photos!

The next day, I met up with CL and Beth for Bay to Breakers.  They were actually fairly hungover thanks to several Irish Coffees (see above) with more drinking after that.  But they rallied like champs!  We jogged/walked the race and had an amazing time.  There were so many people with costumes to see.  It was an incredible event and I'm so glad I did it.  I've been wanting to do it for years and since this is the year I live here, I made it a priority.

Costumes included: a group of chickens, men in Franzia boxes, a Pintrest-worthy homemade rocket pack, male Disney princesses, oompa-loompas, many Princes with a heavy “Purple Rain” contingent, a few David Bowies, old naked people (not technically a costume) and so many more costumes that it was hard to remember them all.  It was costume overload!

I wore my Japanese fuzzy monster costume from our Amazing Race days.  I’m glad I had something because I would have felt out of place in normal running clothes although there were many people in just that. 

Andytown

After the race, we met up with SMS and headed to Andytown Coffee for a Snowy Plover.  Oh man, that drink is so delicious.  Since it's been awhile on the blog, I'll remind the reader that a Snowy Plover is espresso, Pellegrino and whipped cream.  Delectable!

Then we headed out to Lale cafe in Inner Sunset.  It was very good and best of all, no line for brunch!  I got an egg scramble with a homemade English muffin, which was delicious.

After brunch, we dropped CL and Beth off at their house and went to Glass Key Photo where SMS sold a camera.  It was a cute shop with a lot of old cameras.  We headed home and relaxed for the afternoon.

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires

That evening, we went to Mountain Winery for a John Prine concert.  He's an excellent performer with great songs, although I want to listen to some of his older recordings since his voice was a little clearer when he was young.  The opener was Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires.  They were excellent and a new-to-me find.  I also want to seek out some more of their work, which shouldn't be hard since Jason Isbell is a very well-known performer in his own right, even though I hadn't known about him before the show.

The venue was absolutely gorgeous.  It was also so cold!  There was a mountain breeze and the temps were in the low 50s/possibly high 40s.  Yuck!  We were definitely not dressed for it.

Weekend: Mt Diablo Hike and Jack London Square

This weekend was a lot of fun.  SMS and I were pretty mellow since we have a big weekend planned next weekend when Mom and Dad come to visit!!!!  Hooray!

Coffee purchase by SMS

On Friday, SMS made a delicious baked egg dish in our little ramekins.  Sometimes I feel like we rediscover a way to cook things and I think ramekins will be showing up with more frequency in the near future!

Saturday, SMS and I went to the Mountain View Running Club Saturday run.  We talked to a lot of nice people both during the run (3.5 miles) and afterward at Starbucks.  I'm so glad SMS came.  We're going to be doing more running and hiking in preparation for Summer adventures!  The afternoon was pretty lazy.  That evening, we met up with a really nice couple for dinner at Doppio Zero.  I had met the woman at my book club and got along really well so we decided to meet up for dinner.  It could have gone poorly but I think everyone had a really nice time.

Flowers along the trail

Sights along the trail- do you see the turkey in the top left picture?  We even saw him flying, which looked as
ungraceful as I would have imagined if I had ever thought of a turkey flying.

 SMS planned our Sunday adventure.  He found a great book detailing local hikes and he decided we'd do the Mt. Diablo State Park Donner Canyon Waterfall Loop.  This time of year, the wildflowers are out and it's not too hot so...perfect!  The hike is a little over 5.5 miles with some decent inclines.  It was beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves.  There were a fair number of people out but not uncomfortably so.

Waterfalls along the trail

Afterward, we headed into Oakland and explored Jack London Square.  The day was gorgeous and we sat outside for awhile for lunch at !!!Plank, a restaurant/bocce ball/bowling alley/arcade.  It was a really cool place and would be really nice for a group event.  After lunch, we played a couple rounds of SkeeBall and one round of Air Hockey.  

!!!Plank

We headed home afterward and have just been enjoying the tail end of the weekend.  I have some exciting work research plans in preparation for my next job so I'll be working on that for the next three months.  

Napa Marathon Weekend

Although Napa is fairly close by, J and I decided to make a short getaway out of our trip.  On Saturday, we met up at the Runner's Expo in the Napa Marriott.  There we picked up our bibs, our duffel bags and tech shirts.  The lines weren't too long and things were well organized.  I also tried several Nuun flavors at their booth.  They weren't terrible (great recommendation) and if I ever needed to get into hydration supplements, I'd probably pick the watermelon flavor.

After the Expo, we booked it over to the Whole Foods to get our other swag bags.  The bag was awesome!  Lots of drinks, bars and little snacks.  Not everyone got one so I'm glad we hustled over to pick one up. 

There was a lot of rain but we were becoming happier with the developing forecast that was predicting little rain the next morning.  We headed up to Calistoga to check into our hotel and then headed downstairs to the restaurant for an early dinner.  A lot of dishes were shared.  SMS and I got pizzas and his mushroom pizza seemed to be the table's favorite dish.  It was generous with the mushrooms and the cheese was perfectly paired.  It was pretty delicious.

Then it was off to bed.  I didn't sleep all that well because I was more nervous than I thought.  But I woke up feeling fairly rested and most of all, excited!

After the race, we headed to Oxbow Market for lunch.  I really sold the group on the place saying it was like "a food court in a big shed."  But no one put up a fight and when we got there, A&J really liked it.  A suggested that it was more like a food hall in a European Train Station and that is definitely a better description.  We went to Kitchen Door, which is a restaurant with its own seating section.  I didn't want to have to deal with hovering and snagging the limited tables in the central area.  It was really crowded and I didn't have the energy!  The food there was great.  I enjoyed a plate of Singapore noodles.  SMS had a delicious beef tartare breakfast plate.  My favorite was A's salmon eggs benedict.  Those were pretty phenomenal.  

Next, we went to Hess and Alpha & Omega for wine tastings. When in Napa!  We met a really nice group in Hess that we talked to for a bit.  J and I wore our medals all day and they were definitely conversation starters!  Maybe I'll start wearing it all the time!  But, yes, wearing the medals helped us identify fellow runners (most everyone recovers so nicely once the race is done!).  We also talked to people who were curious to know what event had shut down the roads earlier in the morning or thought that the idea of a marathon was cool.

For dinner, we went to Evangeline in Calistoga.  My favorite dish was actually the pickled vegetables.  They were so good!  They were crisp and fresh tasting, even though they were lightly pickled.  Amazing!  I also had the salmon appetizer for dinner.  It's delicious although my description isn't- salmon with creme fraiche on a hash brown. 

I was a little less impressed with the maitre'd initially because he tried to seat us outside on the patio saying, "It's heated."  Um, no.  It's raining and there are tables inside that I just called about and you said were free.  I think it was because we had a toddler with us but guess who is awesome?  That kid!  He is so cute and well-behaved.  And sure enough, he was quieter than some of the other patrons.  So, even though I sometimes cringe when I see kids at a less-than-family friendly restaurant, there are definitely some kids who can handle it.  

Scenes from the Museum: De Young, Pierre Bonnard and Highlights from the Collection

Tartine, a great start to our day!

On Sunday, we woke up, checked out and headed over to the Mission District for breakfast.  I hadn't been to Tartine yet since moving here and I was in the mood for some delicious carb-y carb carbs!  SMS and I stood in line for awhile and then bought several things- a Croque Monsieur, a frangipane-filled croissant, a savory scone, a hazelnut tart and a morning bun.  The purchases lasted until the next day (honest!).  My favorite was the morning bun.  It was amazing!  I think it is an under-the-radar Cronut, since it had the flaky layers of a croissant with some excellent fried/baked with-so-much-butter-it-may-as-well-be-fried goodness.  We also talked briefly to the girls next to us who were having a reunion after many years.  One of the girls was from Japan and had spent time as an exchange student at the other girl's house in Philadelphia several years ago.  

A safe in Room and Board.  Not for sale.

After desser- I mean, breakfast, we went to Room & Board, a furniture shop where I had seen a desk I thought SMS would like.  After some debate and browsing, it was deemed a winner and SMS ordered it in charcoal.  He's going to have the nicest furniture in the house soon!

Does it look like someone in Heaven has an upset stomach?

After Room & Board, we headed to the de Young museum.  I wanted to see the Young Woman with a Unicorn by Raphael, which is on loan from the Galleria Borghese in Rome.  I heard about it from my Aunt Maria's friends so I was excited.  It was a beautiful painting.  Some of the permanent collection pieces on the way there were also pretty epic in their own way.  I took pictures of two of my favorites.

I imagine there are several expressions one could have while holding a severed head, but
I feel like this expression of bored detachment would not be one of them. 

Pierre Bonnard- I really liked this sequence of four.

After we acted like mature art aficionados, we headed downstairs to the Pierre Bonnard retrospective.  It was an excellent exhibit and I feel lucky to have seen it.  I actually preferred his Japonaise-inspired prints in addition to some of the colors and patterns seen in his interior paintings, including his nudes.  If you have a chance to go, I definitely recommend it.  I'm not the biggest fan of his late work of huge murals with more muddy green but that actually speaks to the strength of the show.  The viewer gets to see examples from his entire career in an exhibit that flows very smoothly.  

Snowy!  Plover!

After the museum, we headed to Andytown Coffee Roasters in Outer Sunset, which is my favorite neighborhood.  I ordered a snowy plover, a delicious concoction of soda water, espresso, brown sugar and a huge dollop of freshly-whipped cream.  Intensity!  It is so delicious.  SMS got a decaf espresso.  He also noted, while we were in line, that I "know all the places in San Francisco to stand in line."  I told him to channel it into a Japanese-type experience, where standing in line is part of the deal.  I'm not sure he bought it.  

Then we headed home.  It was nice to have a full weekend but still get home while the sun was still out.  We watched some more of Mozart in the Jungle, which we both really enjoy and recommend.  It's pretty unusual for us to find a show we both like but this one is a major win!

San Francisco Saturday

Saturday was light on pictures, so have some cats
from Neko Atsume!

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful weather-wise. SMS and I decided to spend most of it in San Francisco. The main reason was for a Williams alumni event emphasizing the continuing relevance of a liberal arts education in various disciplines. The San Francisco event focused on Science and Technology but there are other events in different cities focusing on health, finance, etc.

We headed up Saturdgamba our best and I think we stand a fairly good chance of achieving a BQ!
ay morning after I went for a run with the local running club. It was the weekly Saturday run, a 3.5 mile loop that ends at Starbucks. I ran with 3 guys and we ran two of the miles at a 7:30 pace!  I felt pretty awesome!  I'm looking forward to the marathon. I feel really ready training-wise so as long as I feel good on race day, it should be a pretty good day. J and I want to qualify for the Boston marathon. Unfortunately, we're right on the border pace-wise so there's no time to spare which is a little nerve-wracking since there are things like water stations, bathroom breaks and the fact that runners often run a little more than 26.2 miles due to not being able to "follow the line" exactly due to banking of the road.  But we will

Anyway, enough running talk.  We went to Japantown and ate at Kushitsuru.  It was fine.  On the menu it said it was the best restaurant in Japantown.  SMS pointed that out.  Later in the meal, I said that I was so happy we were eating at the best restaurant in Japantown.  SMS was drinking tea at the time and laughed, which almost caused it to come out his nose.  I didn't even mean to be funny!


After lunch, SMS headed to the Kabuki spa.  They have a traditional Japanese onsen, but it's single sex on alternating days so only he would be able to enjoy the baths.  I went to the Korean make-up shops, where I looked at all the character masks and marveled at the incredible mark-ups on the snail goo products compared to the prices in Seoul.

SMS was done more quickly than I expected.  A person can only hang out in hot baths for so long!  We headed to the Financial District and checked into our hotel.  We stayed at Club Quarters, which was very nice.  It was clean, functional and fairly inexpensive.  I booked the trip through Priceline as a hidden 4-star hotel.  Although the hotel is nice, I wouldn't quite call it 4-star.  When I was looking on their FAQ checking regarding parking, there was also a question about the 4-star rating and where it came from.  It was hilarious because the answer was basically, "Not from any outside agency but we think our amenities compare favorably to four star hotels."  Self-rating doesn't seem like the most objective way, but it does show a high level of confidence, I suppose!

We headed over to the Williams event and had a really nice time.  The event was really well-done.  The lectures were excellent and we spoke to some interesting people.  I saw some people from my class and overall, it was a really good afternoon.  There was a cocktail reception afterwards that seemed to go on for awhile so SMS and I left, thinking that I had misread that there would be dinner. Oops, there was dinner.  I feel a little badly leaving when I had been in the head count but really, I thought it was winding down.

Leo's Atrium

One positive for not believing what I read (hey, the critical liberal arts mind strikes again!) is that we had an awesome dinner at Leo's Oyster Bar.  Oh my goodness, it was delicious.  We had two California oysters each and then were treated to a pair of St Simone by a really eager maitre d'.  He was very enthusiastic about oysters and the restaurant.  We had a really nice time talking to him.  He also delivered the wrong order to our table which we didn't realize until we had a bite.  We had been waiting on uni toasts and when we were delivered a lump of something surrounded by toast, we thought it was our order.  It was actually the salmon tartare.  The waitress said not to worry about it and to enjoy it so really, even though we went out to eat, we continued our evening's trend of getting free food!

We also enjoyed (and paid for) the lobster roll.  It was really delicious and the bun was absolute perfection- toasted, golden and with a near-perfect ratio of bread to lobster.  I think the perfect ratio would be hard because can there ever be too much lobster?

We also really liked where we sat. We were on the side of the bar, in the atrium.  The atrium has a very vintage decor feel with high ceilings.  It was nice to sit in an area with the best of both worlds- the energy of the bar and the uniqueness of a creatively decorated space.  Our area was called the "Low Bar," which felt slightly like a kid's table since the seats were smaller and lower than normal bar seating.  It was lovely and unique.  If you want a table, reservations appear to be a must but we were very happy to get in and our seating was perfect.

How do you back-in a dragon?  Very carefully!

Afterwards, we headed out and saw the tail-end of the Chinese New Year's parade.  The highlight was seeing a human-carried dragon puppet get backed into the lobby of a building.  The dragon was super long and navigating the head with the tall horns was a bit challenging.  But they did it!  Then they set off the remainder of their noisemaker fireworks which was really loud.  I feel very grateful to live in a country that is safe enough that when people hear explosions and loud sounds, they look for the fireworks instead of worrying about bombs.

Then we headed back to our four-star abode.  It was a really nice day and we were excited to see a little more of San Francisco the next day.

Pebble Beach, CA

Sunset at the tide pools in front of the Inn

Take two non-golfers and a world-famous golf resort and what do you get?  A great weekend!  SMS and I headed to the Inn at Spanish Bay this weekend after my boss gave us the stay as a gift.  Apparently, he and his golf partner each had a room through an event they were playing but his friend wanted to stay in the house he owned in the area.  Based on the houses around Pebble Beach, I'm sure it was a real dump.

Well, we were very happy and appreciative and off we went, battling rain and end-of-rush-hour traffic to get to the hotel.  The room was really nice.  The main room had a gas fireplace with two armchairs across from the two double beds that had really luxurious bed linens.  The bathroom had a separate vanity/sink area and an inner toilet/sink/shower and bath.  The bathtub looked like an amazing soaking tub but I didn't check it out because, despite all the recent rain, CA is still in drought status.

We saw a Chinese woman feeding the seagulls.  It looked dangerous.

We woke up in the morning and noticed that are room was a partial ocean view room- beautiful!  We lazed around until the siren call of pancakes became too great for SMS' stomach.  We headed over towards Sticks, the small restaurant by the first tee.  We shared blueberry pancakes and poached eggs and hash.  Fortified, we headed off to the Coast trail, where we walked 2 miles each way between the Inn and Bird Rock.  It was high tide and the ocean waves were pretty turbulent.  It was so beautiful.  It was nice to walk because I've driven on 17 Mile Rd before and it's hard to sightsee to my heart's content while driving.

After our walk, we split a club sandwich by the outside fire pit.  It was so delicious- lots of turkey on sourdough toast (yeah!) along with perfectly ripe avocado and cooked bacon.  So delicious, in fact, that seagulls tried to join our lunch (boo!), so we moved inside.  One gull was tolerable but then it opened its big mouth and called all its friends.  I know a flock of circling seagulls may not sound as scary as, say, hawks or vultures, but it was still disconcerting.  I was not about to share my sandwich!

Then we went upstairs and I laid down on the bed for 5 minutes.  It ended up being a two hour nap that even SMS participated in, which has never happened before!  It was awesome!  Unfortunately, the one experience does not seemed to have converted SMS to the love of naps but hey, maybe I can work on him.

I went for a quick run and cut it slightly short when I saw how beautiful the sunset and the light was on the nearby dunes.  I ran and got SMS and we walked along the shoreline, exploring the tide pools and walking on the boardwalks among the dunes.  It was fantastically beautiful.

After our sunset walk, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.  I thought it would be nice to eat in one of the Inn's restaurants so I had made reservations at Peppoli.  We had a great Italian dinner.  The highlight was how amazing the pasta was.  It was super fresh and homemade.  It was the best pasta I've ever had.  The sauces didn't quite hold their own against the pasta, but they were still pretty good.  We ended with a shared almond cake for dessert and it was really a great meal.

On Sunday, I slept in.  I woke up at 7 but then started dozing until after 9!  Usually when I'm up, I'm up but I guess I was getting into the resort lifestyle.  We ordered room service because I've loved room service ever since ordering it with Jenny and Theresa one New Year's.  It felt very luxurious and I'm glad we did it!  SMS had the waffle and I had scrambled eggs.  After breakfast, we headed over to the tennis courts where we played for about an hour.  SMS was a total ringer since I didn't find out until we were there that he had been on a tennis team for two years.  Unfair advantage!

The Lone Cyprus

After tennis, we headed over to the main Pebble Beach Inn to check out the famed Lodge.  Along the way, we stopped at a few 17 Mile Dr. sites to include the Cyrus Lookout and the Lone Cyprus Tree. 

At the Pebble Beach Lodge, SMS wanted to see the clay tennis courts, which were waterlogged and closed but still interesting to see.  We ate lunch on the terrace even though I was completely underdressed.  Whah.  I like meeting attire requirements but apparently, they're loosened during the day and lunch was delicious so it was worth looking like a slob, I guess.  We went all out and started with a  dozen oysters (yay!) followed by an artichoke and a hamburger, which we shared.  It was really awesome and the view was spectacular.  We were overlooking the bay with Carmel across from us.  Even though they were setting up tents for the AT&T Pro-Am in mid-Feb, there was still plenty of beautiful scenery to take in and enjoy.

The Lone Cyprus' not-famous cousin, Pt Lobos

Whale watching!

 After lunch, we headed out to Point Lobos State Park, which was stunning.   We hiked in the Cyprus Grove, where the Monterey cyprus and other local trees are in their natural element.  We talked to a nice older couple manning the Park Service Info Booth and after turning over our car keys (yikes!), we got a pair of loaner binoculars.  I'm glad we had them because we got to see whale spouts and the backs of gray whales!  I was really hoping to see a tail or a whale flipping through the water like the old Echo the Dolphin Sega game, but I wasn't that lucky!

Near China Cove, Pt Lobos Park

After the park, we headed back to the Inn.  We decided to head back and be responsible adults.  No snow days for us unlike so many people on the East Coast!  It was a great weekend and a beautiful setting to stay and explore.

Anchors Away!

SMS and I had a great weekend. On Friday, we went to Shiva, a local Indian restaurant that was delicious!  I had been eyeing it for awhile but had read somewhat mixed reviews. SMS likes being more spontaneous and not as review-dependent. Either way, we both wanted to go and it was awesome. I won in the ordering department that night since I got a delicious palak paneer with lumps of delicious paneer. SMS' was also good but the paneer was pressed out and cut into triangles, which we didn't like as much. His dish was a honeyed tomato sauce which was good but not as yummy as the palak. We also ordered bread and I had a masala tea. 

The next day, Jyostsna and I met up for our 18 mile long run. I felt pretty good through the whole run and I'm really happy with how our training is progressing. 

Afterwards, there was no time to sit on the couch because it was time to rally and go on our tour of Anchor Brewery. I booked our tickets awhile back and the tour was excellent. The factory is amazing and quite small for its output. The beer is made in three large boilers with each boiler sequentially used for a separate stage of  the process. The boilers are copper and apparently can cycle through 5-6 batches a day, although that makes for a very long day. 

Afterward, we tried six of the beers including Anchor Steam, California Ale, Liberty Ale, a double IPA from the Argonaut collection, a dark Winter Wheat and the Christmas Ale (41st year). There's one I'm leaving off but I misplaced my tasting list.

Carb-repleting!

Afterwards, we walked up Potrero Hill, which led to pretty views of the city. We tried walking to the Dogpatch area but I got a little turned around so that was a fail.

A secret path!

We went to Japantown where I had planned to try Yamada ramen but the line was long and we started talking about Chinese pulled noodles. So, off we went to Inner Richmond to San Dong Best. We ordered the same beef stew with pulled noodles and it was really good and really filling. I also placed an order of dumplings that were also pretty standout.

I love noodles!  Also, they make dumplings in the window (see background).

Sunday was pretty mellow. I read some chapters from the textbook I had just ordered.  I also made some cookies for a blog bake-off and a work cookie Exchange. I also took a long nap. It was a perfect lazy Sunday on a cool, gray, rainy day.

Delicious Christmas Cookies!

Weekend, weekend!

This weekend was pretty nice.  SMS and I did a lot, but at the same time, it was all local and didn't feel particularly rushed.  It was just a really pleasant, overall relaxing weekend.

R&W Estate Vineyard

 On Friday, I went to my book club meeting.  We had read Pretty Girls, which I do not recommend at all.  The only reason why I even read it at all is this is the first book club I've belonged to where people actually read the book.  Pretty Girls is in the genre of sex crimes mystery/thriller and I just think it's kind of a gross genre.  I don't watch those types of TV shows either.  I know there are horrible things in the world, but I don't find them as a source of fictional entertainment.  I'm not trying to sound holier-than-thou (and I did read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, that was a huge trend a few years back), but it's just a genre I don't like.

Anyway, book feelings aside, it was a great club meeting.  We each write two questions- one book related and one not- and then put them in a bucket and draw them out.  On Friday, we also had a White Elephant gift exchange, which focused on nicer gifts rather than sad-sack gifts that no one really likes (which I think is what a White Elephant is about).  Anyway, I brought an awesomely funny mug that got stolen once, a key sign that the gift is awesome.  I had a wine glass stolen from me that said "Treat Yo' Self" and I ended up picking the last present.  Karma has rewarded me for all the bad presents I've brought in the past because it wasn't that great- a bunch of samples from The Face Shop in a cute tin.  However, the samples are still cool and I will use the tin for my work's upcoming cookie exchange so still, winner!

UC Berkeley's Sather Tower, too early on a Saturday morning

On Saturday, SMS was going to meet up with a "friend" to go rock climbing but the guy is turning out to be an A+ flaker.  Hopefully, SMS will meet other climbing partners soon.  I had to head up to Berkeley for a 7 am (ugh!) meeting and PRT with the NROTC unit.  I like the staff up there and I had a great run.  It's fun being the old lady and still beating a fairly sizable portion of the other, younger runners.  Comparatively, I didn't do as well as other PRTs that I've run b/c this one had several recent USNA male grads who are in very good shape and take the run seriously.  One guy even had his Theristick out, rolling out his muscles before the run.  Keep in mind, the run is 1.5 miles.  I ran it in 10:15 and the fastest guy ran it in about 8 minutes, I would guess.  

After the run, I headed into work and drilled some temporal bones in the lab for awhile. It's nice to practice and reinforce some anatomy lessons and relationships.  I got a text from SMS and we were invited to a party by the neighbor.  I stopped at the store to buy crescent roll dough and hotdogs for excellent pigs-in-a-blanket.  Not super elegant but definitely super delicious!

The party was a lot of fun.  Most people were from an electric car start-up so there stories were interesting, especially since a lot of them knew each other from the UK and working on Lotuses.  There were also some other start-up people and it was just really a lot of fun to talk to such a different crowd.  Everyone was super nice and mingle-y and it was a great party.  The food highlight for me, apart from my own, was homemade pork-and-cabbage dumplings with homemade dough.  Sagoy!  They were so good!

Mile 11 was our last RP mile, which was 7:57.

Yesterday, I went for my weekly long run with Jyotsna, my excellent training partner.  We went for 16 miles with 6 miles at race pace in the middle, which we ran even faster than race pace.  Our 6 miles ranged from 7:54-8:16.  We were very happy with ourselves and how we felt.  I felt like I was pushing myself but not hurting myself so that's good!

I like to pretend this is my home ;)

After the run, I felt a little wiped but SMS and I decided to head up to R&W's holiday party.  We sampled some wine, listened to bluegrass and took in the incredible view.  Afterwards, we went to San Pedro Market and had some tacos as we watched the nail biter end to the Panthers-Saints game.

Merry Christmas!  Maybe not Christmas Card worthy with the lighting, but still festive!

So, it was a pretty great weekend and with a few parties thrown in, it feels like the holidays.  I tried to decorate last night but I fear I pulled a Clark Griswold and ended up shorting out several strings of lights.  Hmmm, will have to try again (putting up lights, that is, not shorting them!).

Even dogs in Silicon Valley are smarter than you