Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Oh wow the Sun

Published
by
mai
on May 28, 2007
in crumbs from your table and heartland
. 5 Comments

It was surprisingly sunny in our part of San Francisco today so instead of just going to the grocery to do some shopping we decided to go to a few wine shops so J could get his bottles (he’s currently in a weird wine acquisition phase, but hey if this means we get more steak because we need food to have with red wine I’m so not complaining).

First we went to Noe Valley.  I’ve heard it called “baby valley” and now I know why — maybe every third person has a child with him/her. The place was sunny, nice interesting shops, a handful of restaurants, the people looked like they knew each other and the shop people were really friendly so I can see why it would be a nice place to live with your children, if you could afford to. No hipsters here, I didn’t see a single pair of checkered Vans and there were only a few bikes (thankfully).

J bought a bottle of wine for us and  pair of shoes for me (hehe)

tn29 Zadie

Forgive the dirtiness of the mirror we live in an old apartment*.

We also got some chocolates from this shop called Chocolate Covered. I’m feeling very salt-added candy nowadays (Don’t you love how the sweet plays against the saltiness when you take a bite of candy?) and the owner pointed out a couple ofs sea-salt backed chocolates from Poco Dolce (we got one each of the Burnt Caramel which is toecurlingly yummy and the Aztec Chile), and a couple of lavender sea-salt caramels.

Then we went to K&L which is J’s usual wine shop and picked up a bottle of pinot noir. We went to our favorite discount clothes store which is near K&L but I think we’ve exhausted their stock…there’s nothing they have that I want anymore.

Sun was still out so off to North Beach we went. Man, it’s hard to get parking there. When J makes a turn up a steep road I get a knot in my stomach thinking of the walking we’ll be doing.

Luckily we got parking a few blocks from the wineshop, and the path was flat(ish).

J bought another bottle of wine and then we passed by XOX truffles on the way back and bought a small box of chocolates.

I usually get some Casimira’s favorites, and some Earl Greys and J picks the rest, but this time I saw they had a few new flavors so we got 1 each of the Cinnamon, the Lemon Ginger (surprisingly bitey and mildly lemony), the Orange Curry (delicious!) and the Green Tea.

So end story, it was a non-working Monday, the sun was out, J got his wines, and got me my shoes (thanks J!), we walked and chatted, the laundry and groceries got done, and the night will end with some yummy chocolate in my tummy.

Nice day.

* excuses, excuses

What’s up Catty?

Published
by
mai
on May 21, 2007
in conversation on a barstool and zooropa
. 4 Comments

Sometimes Sophie sits beside me and when I look at her she has this really strange expression on her face.

Gambas

Published
by
mai
on May 20, 2007
in crumbs from your table and things to make and do
. 5 Comments

Erika cooked gambas al ajillo for her birthday. It was so good we decided to do it ourselves. The saffron was 1.99 from the Bargain Bank (I found quite a lot of goodies in this store — my friend got to buy a bottle of muscat for 6 dollars when I paid 14 for the very same wine a few weeks before).

Recipe here.

Fish is good sometimes

Published
by
mai
on May 16, 2007
in crumbs from your table
. 4 Comments

I’m not terribly fond of fish, but J found a recipe that makes me want to clean my plate.

Recipe here.

The mysterious brown liquid

Published
by
mai
on May 15, 2007
in conversation on a barstool
. 3 Comments

The 22 bus I take to go home everyday passes the 16th and Mission St. BART station, and it is almost always full (the bus is). So although I don’t really like sitting beside errr…how do I say this…interesting people, most of the time my body gets the better of me and I choose a nice buttrest over my sense of emotional well-being.

Anyway, a few days ago I entered the 22 and it was once again, full. Except…for that one seat right next to the rear exit which I consider prime real estate (extra leg room and quick escape route).   I quickly walked to the seat and asked the sort-of-scruffy-in-a-grateful-dead-way man if he could take his backpack off the seat so I could sit.

He did. And as he lifted his bag I sort of stared in grossed amazement at the brown liquidy puddle that was left in its place. I thought “What the hell??? Puta the last seat and its ….wet. With BROWN stuff” Staring a bit more I decided it wasn’t the dreaded shit (literally) and so I resignedly took some tissues out of my bag and wiped the seat down. Yes, I was that desperate for the seat.

The man was actually pretty nice. He took a look at the brown liquid and me wiping and apologized.

Our conversation:

“Oh no, is that from my bag? I’m sorry”

“It’s ok, I’ll just wipe the stuff off”

“Oops, I got it on me as well, seeing I placed the bag on my lap…oh no my pants are wet”

“……”

“Gee, what could it be? Lemme see…” fumble fumble

“……”

“Oh here it is..eew its really wet in here”

“????….”

“Here we go…its just my cup of coffee that spilled…sip sip slurp slurp….yumm It’s still good, just what I needed”

“!!!!….”

Plant for a day

Published
by
mai
on May 14, 2007
in happiness is a warm gun
. 1 Comment

I was walking out of my office one evening when I saw a sign beside some pots of succulents right outside the office next door. “If you would like to have one (or more) of these please feel free to do so” I inspected the 5 pots and stepped onto the street.

I had barely walked a block when I turned around to get one of them.

Not my plant

I selected the aeonium arboreum — which I had always admired when I passed by — and lifted the pot to see if I could lug it the 5 blocks to my bus. I thought it was too heavy, and took the plant into our office so I could keep it by my desk until a time when J could fetch me by car.

It was my eagle-eyed seatmate who took a look at the plant the next day and pronounced it “pestified”. Fuck. What I thought was just some sand on the leaves were some sort of plant-rash or bug. I thought of returning it to the neighbors, but decided I would keep it. Maybe “quarantine” the plant outside for a while and treat it with some bug-remover.

So Friday comes, J fetches me from work, I take succulent home, and leave it just outside our garage door. Not in a messy way, but very neatly so that no one thinks I mean to throw the plant away. It looked so nice there that I thought of keeping it there permanently.

We spent the entire Saturday in Dry Creek Valley (another post on this once I get to it), and when we get home that night, what do I see but a blank wall where the plant was.

Fucking thief! Who woulda thought??? In this motherfucking corner of the fucking Richmond district. Grrr.

Shit I hope the bugs from the succulent infests that thief’s garden. Karmakarmakarma.

Warming up

Published
by
mai
on May 8, 2007
in conversation on a barstool
. 5 Comments

It’s been in the high 80s here recently and everyone is keeping their coats at home and going around in single-layer tops and sundresses.  Even I, the refugee from the tropics, am feeling the “heat”.

When I tried to convert I found that we’re at the high 20s Celsius.  Shit, sa Manila you’d be pretty happy to have that temperature.  My sister told me it’s almost hitting the 40s there and that as soon as you get out you start sweating like a waterfall. Naknangpota, can you imagine???

Is this global warming or el nino or what?  I never thought that the change in temperature would go this fast.