Triscribe

Blog

  • Friday in the Bay Area

    Morning: breakfast at Lori’s Diner.

    City Pass thing – kept trying to make sure we have it, because we’d end up forgetting in which bag or pocket we misplaced our passes; these passes are good for a week, useful for Muni rides. But, God, do I miss my MetroCard or what.

    Cable Car ride to Fisherman’s Wharf. Really interesting stuff. “Bay Area Adventure” with “Captain Nemo” – all aboard the Blue and Gold ferry tour, and the audio recording of Nemo to give you an ambiance. Really nice views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

    Pier 39. Really nice – great shopping (love the bargain souvenir shopping).
    Aquarium – nice stuff. Loved the idea of walking underneath the tank, to make you feel like you’re underwater and among the undersea stuff. (“Under the sea…” – oh, God, thinking about The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo Disney stuff; I so need to get a Real Life).

    Thanks to the City Pass: did Boudin Bakery, which has a museum on Boudin family and the history of baking and French baking style and sourdough bread in the American frontier. Thumbs up on the museum – charming. Plus, bread tasting in the end. Mmm. So love bread. Thumbs down to the Atkins diet for its disfavor of bread, I say! Did the real clam chowder in bread bowl at the Boudin Bakery; have to say that was the best clam chowder I’ve had – well, then again, I usually don’t like clam chowder. Sourdough and soup is quite good.

    Walking to Ghiardelli Sq. Chocolate. Mmm. At least the City Pass allows one to get free chocolate samples. But, buying bargains at the bargain souvenier shopping place at Pier 39 – meant buying Ghiardelli chocolates at almost half the price – far more preferable.
    The climbing up the steep hill to get to see Lombard St., the most crooked street, at its peak – well, I was hyperventilating, to say the least. Real smart to let someone as out of shape as me (despite my trying to do more walks in NYC) and who has fear of heights go up a steep hill. The going up part kept reminding me of the feeling of sliding down part. I was probably not very good company for my traveling companions. Ugh, more of this? The view’s spectacular, but if I’m freaking out just trying to get to the top of the hill… well, cable car, please!

    Oakland Atheletics v. California Angels baseball game on Fan Appreciation (fireworks) night – well, I’ve rooted for the Angels in the past, not big on the A’s, but figured I’d try to root for the A’s since more ex-Mets are there. An ex-Met Marco Scutaro (who’s still cute) helped win the game in extra innings. A’s magic number to clinch for post season is now 2. Fireworks: amazing.

    Brave enough for more steep hills tommorow? Boy, has NYC’s flat gradient and sea level tendencies really spoiled me (my college years can’t count, since campus – while on a hill – was not a drastic slope at all, and you couldn’t tell how high a real hill it is until you (a) stand at the edge of Faculty House and faced Morningside Park or (b) head to Riverside Park and see more heights, or (c) stand on the bridge atop of Amsterdam. Yeah, big slope going down, facing the south and a higher one facing north – none of which had me losing my breath unless I was late for class).

    Anyhoo, tips on how I may avoid losing my marbles (again) are alway welcome.

  • San Fran

    Flight – Delta. Snack – processed cheese and crackers (“ooh, processed cheese…”). Some kind of chocolate chip shortbread which tasted a little stale. Some kind of raisin cranberry mix, which I never did get to eat. My brother took the peanuts.

    Turbulence. Ugh. Was not a good feeling.

    Finished reading John LeCarre’s “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.” What a chilling book. Very well written, tightly plotted. Tragic. The spy business is ugly, and John LeCarre, the guy who used to be in the business (to what extent, who really knows?) wrote it as such. Alec Leamas, in 1961, is getting sick of the business, but has to do one more mission…. highly recommended.

    Cartoon Art Museum – fascinating.

    Yeurba Beuna Gardens/Metreon – interesting.

    SF MOMA – interesting. But, I’m not big on modern art, I guess.

    Asian Museum of Art – really amazing stuff. So impressed to see one museum on Asian art and its diversity and in such a beautiful building. Why don’t we have that in NYC? Hmm…

    I wonder if NYC spoiled me; SF seems to have more of a presence of the homeless on the streets. Or is it really just me, since as New Yorker, I developed my own mental guard about that?

    Stay tuned.

  • Pre-Vacation… Panic?

    Ok, not really panicking, but kind of got a little frazzled cleaning my office before I left for my 4 1/2 day vacation in San Fran. Tomorrow – off to San Fran. It’s been years since I’ve been on a plane; uh, yeah, I’m a little worried, but hopefully I’ll just sleep it off. I really hope so anyway. At least bring a book to keep me really distracted. Maybe even get to do some writing. Fiction-writing beckons my attention.

    If I do blog, hey, think of it – the blog already has SF as a category, thanks to the FC and P trip. Hmm…  what to do… what to do…

    Oh, and the secret story of Elmo, the furry red monster (who supplanted all the other Sesame Street characters…)

  • Manic Antic

    Went to the 34th annual Atlantic Antic, Brooklyn’s largest street festival, Sunday with P-. This was interspersed with laundry, which happened to be directly in front of the laundremat. The place was mobbed. Won $2 at the NY Lottery stand, which I then proceeded to lose on the next ticket. But I got a MegaMillions fanny pack. Ratner pro and against groups were out in full force; it appeared the Ratner group had the better of it. Food included: Jamaican beef patty, red velvet cupcake next door to the Downtown Atlantic bar, sorrel, ox tail stew and jerk chicken from “The original jerk chicken” stand. All good stuff, and I guess I’m getting back into form after last week’s episode. Being after the primary, the only politicians that were actively working the crowd was the Green Party.Plenty of musical entertainment on 6 bandstages and the NY Transit museum smarted up and had their annual bus show coincide with the fair. Definately out did itself this year.

  • “Soho South”?

    Interesting article on the luxury condo development in NYC’s Chinatown, which apparently some morons have taken to marketing as “Soho South” (which probably would cover just about everything below Soho). Concerns about gentrification, and just a touch about discrimination and the rising costs of affordable housing in this city.

    A sad NYC story – on the passing of a NYC Chinese restaurant owner and how his restaurant moves on.

    NY Mets are making us all wait one more day before they finally clinch for the playoffs. If they do it today, it’d be in time for the 20th anniversary of the 1986 team’s clinching.

    Such nice weather yesterday and so I checked out the Brooklyn Book Festival – great turnout. Lots of interesting stuff. I missed the panels (just couldn’t get to Boro Hall in time). Saw journalist Pete Hamill in passing in the subway (he was one of the panelists at the event, I believe, so wow…). Then tried to do some walking at the Promenade as exercise, but sooo lazy and tired, so I just read and then did some walking back to the subway.
    It’s Little Italy’s San Gennaro Festival this week. Hmm. Wonder if I’ve time this week to hop over there.

    Finished reading: Blood of Victory by Alan Furst (World War II clandestine operation); Equivocal Death by Amy Gutman (legal thriller; ok reading good for the subway – kind of makes me not want to work at a Big Firm – but then I never was someone who would).
    Enjoy the nice weather…

    An article on Ivy League football.  People don’t believe me when I say that the Ivy League started because of football (back in the days when Eisenhower was president of Columbia and Ivy League football was actually high caliber, not to say it isn’t, but no one’s expecting to see Harvard winning a Rose Bowl or the like these days).

    My Alma Mater beat the other NYC college football team yesterday.  Let’s hope for a better season than last season!  Hope springs eternal.

    Let’s go Mets!

  • Health Health Days

    I’m on day 3 of Cipro, which is not a real fun thing. Right now the cure is worst than the diseas that it killed off 2 days ago, E. coli., similar to the other 100 episodes and 1 death so far in the U.S. The antibiotic supresses the appertite — it’s really wierd when you’re tasting food going through your mouth, but you have no idea about how hungry you are or if you are full or not.

    P’s B’day was yesterday – couldn’t go out with her dinner party yesterday, or a similar buffet at Todai on Saturday, but will go out tonight.

  • Mental health days

    Just took 2 mental health days, Wed & Thurs.  First day was strange, I didn’t know what to do.  Shocked my system.  Didn’t sleep all that well and then tried to nap but only fitfully during the day.  At least I got to play some hoops later in the day.  Not at all that peaceful.

    Second day, was a bit better but was suffering through some severe tooth pain from before.  Tooth pain causing big headaches and couldn’t think straight nor sleep. I finally located my dentist’s pills but it’s only a short term strategy. 

    Overall, just tired, but was getting in the mood of forgetting work.  But got back in and there was 235 mails waiting for me, all just in the past 2 days.  Doing 3-4 jobs is starting to wear on me so need to be careful of my health.  Weather change and typhoon coming.  It’s wet and cooler now…

    I need more mental days…at least more time to exercise.  Hoops was nice.  I think that’s what I need more of and less eats.  Oh well, hope next time I’ve got some time off, i’m less pathetic at relaxing on my day off.

  • Midweek Special

    Some stuff from the NY Times – weird stuff.

    An article on Condoleeza Rice’s life as the single secretary of state.  The writer Helene Cooper got on a bit much, I daresay, as she wrote:

    There are perils to being unattached in the stodgy world of diplomacy[…]

    The single, sophisticated American secretary of state once drew notice for wearing black stiletto knee-high boots with an above-the-knee black skirt while reviewing American troops in Germany, so she is bound to attract gossip. [….]

    But it took a two-hour flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, this week, followed by a 90-minute motorcade north up Highway 102 to Pictou County, for Ms. Rice to find herself linked to someone with similar star appeal: Peter MacKay of Canada, the single, sophisticated foreign minister, routinely named Canada’s sexiest M.P. by The Hill Times in Ottawa, and the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic circuit. Tall, athletic, young, blond and recently dumped by his girlfriend, a fellow member of Parliament, Belinda Stronach, who parted with him when she switched parties, Mr. MacKay does not look like your usual foreign minister.

    He has a tan and the build of someone who spends his time on the rugby field, not holed up reading G-8 communiqués. Sure, at 40 years old, he is younger than Ms. Rice, who is 51, but that did not stop gossips from engaging in baseless speculating.

    Even the protesters who routinely show up wherever Ms. Rice goes got in on the act. “Pete, Condi, Make Love Not War,” read one sign, carried by a grinning demonstrator who had roused himself to take a position early Tuesday morning in front of the Museum of Industry here, where the two spoke to local leaders and the press.

    O.K., there needs to be a disclaimer right here. Foreign ministers rarely have a lot of alone time together. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Ms. Rice and Mr. MacKay are linked by anything more than their shared status as singletons. [….]

    So, Cooper proceeds to write about how all this gossip entertains those poor bored foreign correspondents covering the diplomat beat.  But, the odd pictures of “Condi” and “Pete” holding hands (probably all very innocent) and ending the article with:

    On Tuesday morning, Ms. Rice and Mr. MacKay strolled up to their side-by-side daises to talk to the folks here. “I am just delighted to have Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, here in my hometown,” gushed a beaming Mr. MacKay, wearing a pearl gray suit, pink and blue striped tie.

    He switched to bad French, even to some American ears, and said something about Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline.” He mentioned Nova Scotia’s rich black history, citing the “black loyalist community, Canada’s oldest community of African heritage.”

    Then, he said, “Something else I’ve learned about Secretary Rice is she loves the cool Atlantic breezes here in Nova Scotia, and she left the window open last night.” The audience tittered.

    At the end of his speech, he took off his glasses, turned to Ms. Rice and said, “Please come back again.”

    Ms. Rice, clad in a yellow jacket, black pencil skirt and black heels, also offered plenty of fodder. She repeatedly called Mr. MacKay “Peter” (he called her “Secretary Rice” or “Miss Rice”), confirmed the sleeping-with-the-window-open bit, and told the assembled local leaders that Mr. MacKay had introduced her to his family, including his father and stepmother, the night before.

    Family is important, she said, with a sly smile, because “they remind you of the things you did when you were 5 years old.” Beside her, Mr. MacKay grinned and blushed.

    Uh, ok.  This is a strange NY Tiimes article.  Are the reporters that bored?

    Plus, the Times is a bit behind the times: everybody in NYC already knows that the Mets are THE team.  All those jerseys of “Wright” and “Beltran” and “Reyes” kind of prove that.  That and the whole thing about all the eyes of women in town fluttering at Mr. Wright (yes, he’s such a cutie! 😉 but I guess that means I’m not better than anyone else…)  – no, what it comes down to is that they’re Amazin’, that’s what.  That photo of Mr. Met – aww.  He seems happy.  The Times caring about Mr. Met?  That’s sweet.  Let’s Go Mets!
    An article on tea and tea bags.  Me, the tea addict.  Me happy.

  • On the DL Again

    They weren’t kidding about the Dog year not being too good for me. I picked up a really strange stomach bug Sunday night – severe chills, fever, running to the bathroom continuously. However, no sore throat or throwing up. Waiting for the doctor’s appointment at 3 today to figure out what it is.

  • Thoughts

    This night – seeing the Tower of Lights from my Brooklyn cement backyard – quite something. Still something that seeing the pictures of what happened back then and reading the stories of mourning then and now: it’s still heartbreaking; it still makes you want to cry.

    FC’s post is most eloquent, and I can’t add more to that.

    A link, though: NBC’s Brian Williams’ touching essay on what this anniversary meant to him.