Wednesday, January 16

It was cold this morning!  I slept in a little because some dogs were playing.  On the bed.  At 12:30.  And Mimi was barking at them.  Jeff ran Rufus so I still managed to get a good bike in.  I rode Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast where it was even colder.  I came up the Great Highway and went into Golden Gate Park at JFK.  I noticed that the Rose Garden has been cut back for the winter.  So sad.  I got a pic of the De Young with the sun behind it:

And one of me as well:

I came out of the park at the panhandle and rode through it to Baker to McAllister.  I stopped in Alamo Square to take some pics.  There are a bunch of beautful Victorians in Alamo Square on McAllister:

  

I've photographed these three identical buildings before.  The crappiest of the three is getting painted.  Finally:

I continued down McAllister into the Civic Center.  I got a couple pics of city hall.  Which is a little garish:

And this is the Hayes side of Civic Center with ugly Fox Plaza on the right:

I continued on McAllister to Larkin to Bush to Sansome and into work.  

Tuesday, January 15

I headed home for lunch to check on the dogs who were delighted to see me as usual.  Mimi seems to be a whole lot happier since we got Ashley.  I think she likes living in a house full of dogs.  Update on the house down the street that's getting a new foundation:  it survived the rainstorms and they're laying concrete.  The construction workers even posed for a photo:

Too bad it wasn't the hot Irish guy.  I headed home up Market after work because Ashley had gone to the vet for shots and we had to watch him to make sure he wasn't having a reaction to them.  I went through all my comics.  There's a couple missing and I have no idea where they could be.  I think I'll likely replace them.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                   27.7
Week to date                        34.7
Month to date                     243.4
Year to date                        243.4
Remaining to Goal            9,756.6
Over (Under) plan             (166.4)

Tuesday, January 15

I felt a lot better after a good nights sleep and I headed out Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the ocean.  It was FOGGY!  I was a little scared on Taravel because there was NO visibility and I was afraid I'd be mowed down by a sleepy driver.  I came up the Great Highway and went into the park and took JFK through the park.  I came out 8th Ave.  I got a shot of Star of the Seas at 8th and Geary.  It was still very, very foggy:

And one of me as well:

I continued on 8th to Lake to Arguello into the Presidio.  I came out the Lombard Gate and took Greenwich to Franklin to Francisco to Van Ness to Bay.  Ghirardelli Square was still very foggy when I rode by:

I continued on Bay to the Embarcadero and then rode into work.

Monday, January 14

I slept in and came to work down Market.  I had to run errands over lunch and then came home back up Market.  I fed the dogs and started to sort out my comic book collection.  A daunting task.  Then I headed down to REI to get a new tire for my commuter and then work to pick up some stuff.  I brought Ashley who got car sick and vomited on my four times.  Yuck.  And then, something seems to be wrong with the new tire I got for the commuter because I cant inflate it past 80 psi without the tube exploding.  Which happened twice.  And it was very loud.  I ended up fixing a flat on my road bike and that is currently the only bike I have without a flat tire.  By the time Mr. Poe got home from his meeting I was almost in tears.  But he walked the dogs, cleaned the kitchen, and didn't complain about the hundreds of comic books I never did get off of the dining room table.  What a guy.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                    7.0
Week to date                         7.0
Month to date                     215.7
Year to date                        215.7
Remaining to Goal            9,784.3
Over (Under) plan             (166.8)

Sunday, January 13

My brother's flight was a lot earlier than mine so I got to the airport incredibly early.   I had my comic collection with me so I had to check luggage.  We weighed it.  It was 80 pounds of comic books.  This increases my geek factor exponentially.  Southwest doesn't let you check luggage in until 4 hours before your flight and by the time I got to the front of the line it was 4 hours and 8 minutes or something like that.  The counter personnel can't do anything about it because it's a self check in and the system just doesn't take it.  Instead of sending me to the back of the line, they had me wait until I could check in and then checked my bags in.  I walked around the airport for a while and then went through security and had lunch and a few drinks and took a few pics:

A Continental 737

A Midwest 717

It started raining pretty hard and everything pretty much came to a stop.  All the flights started getting delayed but I had so much time I figured that the weather would have passed by the time my flight came around.

Jetblue ERJ190

and an A320

Canjet 737

A Delta 767 heading for Atlanta.  I love how they send all these cool heavies down to Orlando

Here's one at the gate:

Southwest at the gate.  With a rainbow!

The control tower in Orlando:

And a view back towards the main terminal:

This is a United A319

01-13-08 Southwest Flight 1948 MCO-MDW Dep 4:20 PM Arr 6:10 PM 737-700

This flight was completely full and we were just a little delayed getting out because of rain in Orlando.  We got in on time to Midway.  I was expecting it to be a pretty crappy airport but it's really nice and it had perhaps the best airport food court I'd ever seen. 

01-13-08 Southwest Flight 2987 MDW-SFO Dep 6:55 PM Arr 9:40 PM 737-700

This flight was only about half full.  I sat in the exit row with 2 seats in the row and had the whole thing to myself.  I tried to sleep but I was very excited about getting home to Mr. Poe and the dogs.  We got in a little early and I went to get my luggage.  My comic books made it but my duffel bag did not.  The guy at the baggage claim was really nice, really cute, and really dumb.  It was a great combination that worked for him.  It always sucks when they lose your luggage but he was so nice that you couldn't be too pissy about it.  I went home and went to bed. It had been a very, very long day.

Saturday, January 12

I went for another bike ride.  This one had a lot less traffic and was much more fun.  I watched a bunch more Scooby Doo with Eugene and went to bed early.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                   36.7
Week to date                      136.6
Month to date                     208.7
Year to date                        208.7
Remaining to Goal            9,791.3
Over (Under) plan             (119.2)

Friday, January 11

I headed off on the bike and got incredibly lost.  It was kind of fun, but I was on a lot of pretty busy streets and it was a little scary.  I saw this vehicle hit a turn too fast, slide off of the road and get really banged up.  Immediately after it came to a stop the driver jumped out and started running.  I'm guessing the car was stolen:

Some houses still had Christmas up.  I loved it:

This is the Main Street entrance to historic Kissimmee. 

Downtown was kind of cute.  It looks like they're building a big development on the lake which is sure to bring a lot more people onto Main St.:

I made it home in time to head off with Sam, Youngran, and the kids.  Hannah though she was going to drive.  Luckily, she did not.

  

We went Celebration, an engineered community by Disney.  It's a pastiche for sure, but it's pretty, walkable, and clean:

  

There was a big fountain on the lake downtown and Hannah got soaking wet.  But she had lots of fun.  Euguene kept trying to take his pants off but thankfully Sam and Youngran were having none of that:

We got Indonesian food and headed home for dinner.  I was beat.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                   48.6
Week to date                        99.9
Month to date                      172.0
Year to date                        172.0
Remaining to Goal            9,828.0
Over (Under) plan             (128.5)

Thursday, January 10

My nephew Eugene loves Scooby Doo.  As do I.  He says "I'd like to watch the Doo now."  Look how great his posture is while he's watching it:

Mid day I headed out on my Dad's old bike.  First I headed to the Disney Nature Conservancy Center.  It's a pretty couple of buildings in the middle of the swamp.  But it has a lovely verandah:

Here is me lounging on it:

This is a view of the preserve:

From there I headed to the south shore of lake Tohopekaliga.  There were rednecks everywhere!  It's a pretty lake and it doesn't seem like it's been ruined by development.  Yet.

I'm looking forward to when my niece and nephew are old enough for the fan boats.  How much fun does this look??

All of the trees in the area were covered in Spanish Moss.  Which is really pretty.  But parasitic.  Like Paris Hilton.

  

I headed home for dinner and then we went to bed early.  We had to because we were up at 5 every morning.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                   29.1
Week to date                        51.3
Month to date                      123.4
Year to date                        123.4
Remaining to Goal            9,876.6
Over (Under) plan             (149.8)

Wednesday, January 9

I got up excruciatingly early for my 7:10 flight to Orlando to see my parents.  A lucky bonus was that my brother would be there with his family.  I got to the airport pretty early but it was too dark to take a lot of outside pictures but I did get a shot of this Alaska Airlines 737 in sweet Disney livery:

Southwest is in Terminal 1 and it's a pretty crappy terminal.  It seemed cramped even at 6AM when there wasn't a lot of people there.  And the layout is a little confusing.  It isn't nearly as nice as terminal 3.  Maybe after they finish working on terminal 2 they can expand 1. 

I decided to fly Southwest because their fares were a LOT lower than anybody else's to go to Orlando.  I paid $240 for my round trip ticket which was almost shockingly low given that when I made my reservation the next cheapest fare was $375.  It seems that everybody who works for Southwest is really friendly and easy to deal with.   They are also a bit younger than staff at other airlines but I'm not sure whether that indicates a higher turnover or a growing organization although I tend to think it's the latter.  I like the new boarding system.  You are assigned a number when you check in and you board in that order.  I don't fly a lot, and good seats in coach are never available to me when I book and I'm almost always towards the back of the aircraft.  With Southwest, I checked in online 24 hours ahead of my flight and I was seated in one of the first few rows for every segment I was on.  Nice! 

01-09-08 Southwest Flight 797 SFO-LAX Dep 7:10 AM Arr 8:40 AM 737-700

Southwest has recently restarted service to San Francisco and the flight from SFO-LAX was not full.  We left on time and service was friendly.  They only offered juice or water and no snacks.  We hit the coast north of Malibu and the coastal mountains had snow on them!

Here is a shot of the cabin from my seat:

LAX is a really cool airport with tons of stuff to look at:

This is the old control tower that is undergoing refurbishment.  I'm glad they didn't tear it down because it's beautiful:

The new control tower is pretty awesome too:

Southwest and USAir share a terminal at LAX.  I'm really loving the new USAir livery.  It's a huge improvement over the old one:

OLD

NEW

This is the inside of the terminal.  It's light and airy and there are a bunch of restaurants.  I think it's a lot nicer than the terminal United is in at LAX:

Southwest at the gate:

Horizon airways is Alaska's regional airline.  I think this is a Q400

Delta is expanding massively at LAX, mostly with regional jets.  They were everywhere! 

They're also using mainline.  This is a 757:

This is a Continental 767-400 getting ready to go to Honolulu.  Why couldn't my parents have retired there??  Because then maybe I'd be on that flight.  Sigh.

I saw this ANA 747-400 landing.  So awesome.  My picture isn't the greatest but it was moving really fast:

This is an American Airlines SAAB 340B:

I don't know what this thing is:

This is a pretty ATA 757:

This is a United ERJ145:

This is a Southwest 737.  It's either a 737-700 or a 737-300.  I'm guessing it's the latter because it doesn't have winglets.

I love Frontier!  Their aircraft are so cool looking!  They only fly Airbus A318's and A319's.  I think this one is an A319:

and this is an A318:

I'm loving this TACA A320(?):

Ah Sun Country.  Such a funky looking 737-800L

01-09-08 Southwest Flight 3245 LAX-ABQ-MCO Dep 9:40 AM Arr 6:10 PM 737-700

I got another good seat up at the front of the aircraft.  I can report that the two male flight attendants were both cute bordering on hot.  Such a change from United where the flight attendants look like extras from Cocoon.  Zing!  We took off towards the ocean and I got a few shots as we headed back:

Drink service was standards and they were handing out snack packs which I declined.  We stopped in Albuquerque which looked dusty in the winter sun.  That's the Sandia mountains rising behind the city.  Quite good hiking in them:

Downtown Albuquerque doesn't seem to have grown much since when I lived there a decade ago.  Which is surprising because the city otherwise has grown a lot:

The Rio Grande River surrounded by bosque:

The Airport:

The  control tower:

  

The airport shares runways with Kirtland Air Force Base and there's tons of cool stuff to look at there:

I think this is a 747-200.  Sorry for the blurry shot:

The gate:

Our winglet with the Monzano mountains in the background:

Another view of the Monzano's

Cabin view as people deplaned:

A few people boarded and we were off again.

We took off to the west and then started heading east.  The area around the airport is pretty bleak:

These are the Monzano mountains from above:

Interesting cloud formations as we were heading into Florida:

We finally got into Orlando.  Southwest is in Terminal B with Jetblue.  It's a pretty space with lots of food choices:

My brother collected me at the airport and we headed over to my parents.  Long, long day.

Tuesday, January 8

Another rainy, crappy day.  I came down Market into work and then headed home over lunch.  It was still pretty wet, but not so rainy.  I shot some pics on the way back.  This is Market and 16th St. 

This is me we with Noe Street behind me:

This is the beautiful apartment building at Church and Market:

These buildings are on Market between Gough and Rose.  There are a lot of antique stores on this part of Market:

This is the view down Market from Gough and Market:

This is the view down 10st from Market.  This is the San Francisco Mart building with a modern structure behind it:

M2M??  Is it the gay building??  Shouldn't I have an office??

This is the Crocker Bank building with a spooky-cool office building behind it:

After work it was raining again so I just came home up Market home.

Bike Mileage:
Today                                   14.0
Week to date                        22.2
Month to date                       94.3
Year to date                          94.3
Remaining to Goal            9,905.7
Over (Under) plan             (124.3)