I got up nice and early this morning.  Which is pretty amazing because I’ve been so slack since Wednesday.  I was eager to get back on my bike.  I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and stopped at Judah for a pic of the sun just starting to rise:

I continued on the Great Highway to Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  I got a nice shot of sunrise behind Pax Jerusalemme.  Pretty:

And a slightly blurry Palace of the Legion of Honor with reflection:

Me:

I got on Camino Del Mar and rode through Seacliff into Lincoln in the Presidio.  I stopped a little west of the Golden Gate bridge for pics.  Nice:

I stayed on Lincoln and stopped a little East of the Golden Gate Bridge for another view:

Lincoln to Halleck to Old Mason to Marina Blvd and stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts for pics.  Love it here:

Unbelievable architecture:

I took Bay to Scott to Chestnut to Polk to Pacific.  I saw this pretty apartment building on Pacific at Gough (I think)

Such fine detail:

I continued on Pacific to Webster.  This is one of the many pretty apartment buildings on Webster in Pacific Heights:

I continued on Webster.  This is the view up Grove from Webster.

I continued on Webster to Hermann to Church to Market to 17th to Ord and home to get cleaned up for work.  I came in on Muni.  It isn’t my favorite transit but I’m gonna have to live with it. 

Check out my Christmas decoration:

Bike Mileage:

Today 19.4 Week to date 19.4 Month to date 779.8 Year to date 7,579.0 Rolling Year 8,285.6 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,856.7

We got up and took Mom to the airport for her 7:45 flight and then I started cooking.  I had to have Beau, Buzz, and David over to talk about the CAT2 series and since I was cooking anyway I thought I’d invite other people and have a girly tea party.  Except we’re San Francisco fags and most of us drank wine instead of tea.  I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, a butter cake that I’d made before, banana cake that was left over from Thanksgiving, maple pecan scones, and this delicious almond cherry sauce that was vegan and I found myself eating by the spoonful.  We had a pretty good turnout. 

Topher is on my bike team and is a really strong rider.  My hope is too fatten him up to the point that I can keep up with him.  Cue fourth piece of cake:

Wanderson is also on my bike team and is planning on tenting with me on the Lifecycle this year unless he manages to figure out how big of a loser I am before then.  Cue amnesia drugs:

Mr. Chris, David, and Sofi showed up.  With wine.  Always a good idea:

They also brought adorable twink Alex:

Ben and Courtnety showed!  I was expecting Courtney but Ben made an appearance which means he’s going to have to do his community service another weekend.  They’re recently engaged which is fantastic:

We also got a visit from adorable Richard who brought Mr. Poe his favorite Hawaiian cookies which he greedily squirreled away for another day.

Nathan and Russ.  Frequent visitors:

Poor Rufus and Ashley were totally wiped out by the end of the day:

“Stay away from my fucking toys.”

Worn out from a long day of hatin’:

Everybody cleared out by 5 and we had dinner and walked the dogs.  I was totally worn out by 7PM.  Again. 

I got up early and Mom and I walked the dogs down to Dolores Park and then we had brunch and headed downtown.  First stop was the Hyatt hotel.  Mr. Poe had heard that their Christmas decorations had crossed over into the spectacular this year.  We weren’t disappointed:

They have several unbelievably elaborate Christmas villiages:

Mom and Mr. Poe:

Then we headed off for the Ferry Building.  There’s an ice skating rink at Justin Hermann Plaza:

We wandered around the Ferry Building.  This is mom and I at the dock with bonus seagull:

We headed off to my office to print mom’s boarding pass and then headed off to Chinatown.  We stopped at Old Saint Mary’s which mom tells me counts as going to church, and then we headed off to Union Square.  There’s an ice skating rink there too and the Christmas tree is up:

The tree is also up at Neiman Marcus.  Fabulous:

Neiman Marcus’s distinctive facade:

The windows at Macy’s have adopatable pets from the SPCA again.  They’re so cute:

Santa in California is a bit thinner than Santa elsewhere:

Check out this sulky thing:

You will pay for this affront, humans:

Pouty puppy:

Macy is all decked out for Christmas:

We headed up to Holiday Lane which is up on a high floor in Macy which has a fabulous view of Union Square:

They have some super fantastic Christmas trees at Holiday Lane:

From there we headed off to the Asian Art Museum to have a look at the new Burmese exhibit.  It’s really fantastic and is highly recommended.  I immediately felt a little stupid because I thought that Burma and Siam were pretty much interchangeable and that’s totally not the case.  The textiles that are in the exhibit were my favorite.  Very delicate and intricate.  So fabulous.  After the exhibit we headed up to the reading room.  This is the dome in the main staircase.  Perfection:

Then we headed off to see a floor of the permanent collection.  They have these recent Chinese prints on display.  So fabulous:

You know I love me some pottery:

And I also love me some textiles.  This one is so intricate.  And so sophisticated.  Likey:

Unbelievable detail:

I take a picture of this Japanese funerary urn every time I’m at the Asian Art Museum.  I think it’s because it looks like he’s disco dancing:

My mom thought this armor looked like a pre-Darth Vader:

I love the detail:

I love these very intricate Japanese bamboo baskets.  They’re so incredible sophisticated.   They look so organic but they’re very deliberate and very fabulous:

Then we headed home.  We took an N to Noe and then walked home on Castro.  There’s a fabulous place on Castro between Duboce and 14th that’s so incredibly fantastic:

Then we headed home for snack.   It was about time.

I slept in until 5:30 this morning.  If you can believe it.  It was a little wet this morning but Mom and I walked the dogs during a break in it.  After we got cleaned up we headed down to REI where my Mom was dazzled by the variety and then we headed over to Golden Gate Park.  First stop was the super fantastic viewing platform at the de Young but not before getting barked at by one of the rude guards that work at there.  They have the rudest staff at the De Young of any of the museums in the city.  It’s ridiculous.  Yet if you taze them then suddenly YOU’RE the criminal.   The kids today….  I was super glad we decided to not go to the California Academy of Sciences.  Check out the line.  As seen from the ninth floor:
 

Mr. Poe at the De Young.  Hello gorgeous!

A rarepicture of the two of us.  The glamour:

Mom and I:

Then we headed over to the Botanical Gardens.  It was damp and not busy at all.  And it smelled great.  All pine-licious:

Mom and Mr. Poe in the Botanical Gardens:

Cool ass flowers that look like muppets:

Then we headed over to lunch at Mandalay which was delicious.  I love the food there.  We had samosas and egg rolls and I had this eggplant and tofu thing.  Dee-licious.  From there we headed over to Lincoln Park so we could get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Mom loved the view:

Then we headed down to Golden Gate Park to check out the North Windmill.  They had just put the plantings for Christmas in and they have to mature a little bit before they’re gorgeous but it was still very pretty:

Finally we headed down the Great Highway to Sloat to stop and look at the gorgeous coast.  The surf was really heavy and it was windy and cold but I loved it.

From there we went home for movies and dinner.  My netflix movies showed up in the mail so there’s gonna be some murders tonite!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I got up early and finished the cinnamon rolls and waited for my Mom and Mr. Poe get up.  I also made herb cheese biscuits and corn muffins for Thanksgiving dinner.  I’d made both of those before and they turned out as expected.  After breakfast, my Mom and I took the dogs for a long walk over Collingwood and Liberty Hills.  Mom noted that there sure seem to be a lot more hills in San Francisco than Orlando.  But she’s very athletic so she had a great time.  Here she is on Sanchez at 20th:

We headed home and cooked for the rest of the day.  Thanksgiving guests showed up at 3.  Wilfredo and Mike, Nathan and Daniel. and Russ came to dinner and we made a massive amount of food.  A good time was had by all:

I think the desserts turned out pretty good.  I need to work on pie crust flakiness but it tasted delicious and I ate a large quantity of it.  Mister Poe used his magical powers of cleaning the kitchen up very rapidly.  We all went to bed at 9.  It seemed like 3AM!

I got up a little late this morning.  I slept in until 5AM.  I’m crazy!  I got myself together and headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel an down to the coast.  I came down the Great Highway and stopped a little north of Lake Merced for a pic.  The surf was up!

I took the Great Highway to Skyline to John Muir to Lake Merced to Park Plaza to 87th to Washington to San Pedro to East Market and up Guadalupe Canyon Parkway.  It was gorgeous this morning.  This was the view of Candlestick Point on the way down:

I continued on to Bayshore into Airport.  I stopped for a pic of a cool ramp in South San Francisco:

I continued on Airport to McDowell and down to Bayfront Park for pics.  I did not get Oreo’s this morning.  I ate a lot of junk food yesterday and my stomach was kind of upset.  Plus, there’s a See’s Candy factory in South San Francisco and they must have been working overtime because the entire airport area smelled like chocolate.  Yummy, yummy chocolate.  It was intoxicating.  But I wasn’t really hungry for any more so I just ate my GoLean cereal and got some pics of airport movements:

United Airbus coming for a landing:

Delta 737 heading for somewhere:

United 757:

Pretty view of the gorgeous marsh our airport is in:

I love watching the parallel landings at SFO.  These are two United Airbuses:

I headed up Millbrae Ave to Skyline.  I did pretty much the same ride in reverse on Monday.  There are pro’s and con’s to both routes.  Doing Skyline later in the morning involves a lot more traffic and a considerable more eek factor.  Doing Skyline first leads to a very chilly ride through South San Francisco after the break and a scary crossing of the 101 on Millbrae Ave.  I haven’t decided which is preferable.  This was the view coming down Skyline into San Francisco:

I went home and got cleaned up and started cooking.  I’ve got a very ambitious menu planned for Thanksgiving.  I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a banana cake, a vegan apple pie, and macaroni and cheese.  The cinnamon rolls and the macaroni and cheese I’ve made before and turned out great.  The pie was pretty hard.  I’ve never made a pie before and the pastry wasn’t easy.  But it smells good and it looks OK so I’m hoping for the best.  The banana cake didn’t turn out like I’d wanted it it at all.  I was hoping it was going to be more cake like but I put in finely diced walnuts and I think it changed to fat/flour balance and I think it’s cooked all the way through but it’s kind of gooey in the middle.  Originally I was going to frost the layers with cream cheese frosting.  The revised plan is to put powdered sugar on it and serve it with whipped cream.  I think that should be good.  Fingers crossed. 

When I finished getting the kitchen cleaned up and was it ever a wreck it was time to go pick up my mom at the airport.  Her flight from Chicago was like 40 minutes early.  Disaster!  I hope she didn’t have to wait for too long.  We headed off for dinner at the Big Lantern and then we headed home where she was thoroughly enchanted by the dogs.  Even Mimi.  She even caught Rufus giving Ashley his evening bath:

Mom went to bed early and we won’t be up much later.

Bike Mileage:

Today 19.9 Week to date 62.8 Month to date 717.6 Year to date 7,516.8 Rolling Year 8,237.4 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,794.5

I got up nice and early this morning and headed off off on my bike.  I wanted to do practice the kind of rides I’m going to start doing next week and make sure I’ve got the timing right to do everything I want to do.   I headed off Corbett to Portola.  It was freezing cold so I didn’t really have much other choice because I had to warm up.  I continued on Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and got on Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  Which looked gorgeous on the cold, clear morning:

I got on Camino Del Mar and got a pic of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise.  Perfect:

I continued on Camino Del Mar into Lincoln in the Presidio.  I stopped at the new overlook of Crissy Field for pics.  There wasn’t enough sun for pics of everything but I got a few:

I continued on Lincoln and came out of the Presidio at the Lombard Street Gate and then took Lyon to Chestnut to Laguna to Francisco to Polk.  I stopped at the old Alhambra for a few pics:

Me:

I continued on Polk to Pacific to Fillmore to Fulton to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th to Ord and home.  I lounged a bit and got ready.  I’m going to have to start washing my hair at night if I’m going to make it to work on time because I was running around like an idiot to make it to my dentist appointment with full Benny Hill theme music and everything.  Things went well at the dentist.  We’re going to have to see how I heal but it’s looking like it’s gonna be crowns and not implants and that’s a very good thing.  After my appointment I headed down to Union Square and got a few pics of Christmas in the making:

I stopped by Sephora and then off to see Mr. Chris and Sofi.  We went to the park so she could play/poop:

The Bay Bridge from the park where Sofi plays.  Lucky bitch:

Mr. Chris took me out for Korean for lunch and then I went shopping.  I’ve resolved to start taking better care of my skin.  Wrinkles, zits, and having part of your upper lip chaffed off and your teeth knocked out will do that to you.  There’s something so wonderfully comforting about shopping for skin care products because they’re so personal and ultimately unnecessary that’s decadent and it makes you feel good to spend some time on yourself.  I was just about everywhere in Union Square, Fillmore and Union Streets and I came home with quite a haul.  The most super fantastic stuff came from Shu Uemura.  I got a cosmetics bag and mirror from the LE Tsumori Chisato collection that is totally kawaii.  The cleansing oil is also LE with a bottle designed by Moyoco Anno.  The bag and mirror were totally impulse and not needed and I’m embarrassed to admit were only purchased so that I’d have something to put lip balm in so that it doesn’t spill all over my man purse.  The cleanser is another story.  I’m already having a hard time figuring out how I managed to live so long without it.  I was totally grossed out by all the stuff that it dredged out of my pores but my face has never been so clean and not in a paint stripper kind of way.  Highly recommended for anybody who uses waterproof sunscreen. 

I also ended up with a bunch of Shiseido skin products.  Total props go out to the diplomatic SA at Shiseido in Macy’s Union Square.  I was inquiring about an eye cream to deal with my increasingly wrinkled under eye are.  She pointed to a different one and said.  “You should get this one because it takes care of puffiness too.”  Sold!  I went home and had a few cocktails and then everybody got a bath.  Abuelita is coming tomorrow and I want everyone to make a good impression.  You know, til they crap on the floor in front of her or start humping her leg.  Baby steps.  The little ones get bathed in the sink but I have to drag Rufus into the shower with me.  He was such a good boy!  He marched in to the shower all by himself.  The little ones were pretty good too.  Mimi likes getting a bath.  Ashley was minimally squirmy.  The secret is to go really, really fast.  Here they are all wet and dejected:

“You will pay for this affront, human”:

We all had dinner and waited for Mr. Poe to get home from his movie.  It isn’t going to be a late night.

Bike Mileage:

Today 19.9 Week to date 62.8 Month to date 717.6 Year to date 7,516.8 Rolling Year 8,237.4 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,794.5

I got up nice and early on Monday and headed out for a bike ride.  My right hand is still a little banged up but the part that hurts isn’t the part that I brake with so it’s all good.  I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I headed down the Great Highway to Skyline and took that all the way to Millbrae.  Then I took Millbrae Ave down to Bayfront Park where I enjoyed some GoLean cereal and some Oreo cookies.  I love Oreo cookies.  They didn’t used to be vegan but they are now.  I only get to eat them when I’m biking and even then only on long rides of at least 40 miles and so I enjoy them immensely and look forward to them the entire ride.  They were totally worth the wait. 

Here are some pics of the cold, glorious morning.  This salt marsh was jam packed full of migrating birds again this morning.  It’s so amazing that such a delicate, sensitive environment can exist next door to a huge airport:

United 747-400 coming in for a landing:

Alaska 737:

United 777 (I think) taking off:

Another United 777 (I think) landing:

Virgin America:

I took McDowell to Airport into Bayshore to Guadalupe Canyon where I finally warmed up to Market to San Pedro to Washington to 87th to Park Plaza to John Daly to Lake Merced to Higuera to Arballo to Font to Holloway to Harold to Ocean to Phelan to Judson to Foerster to Hearst to Edna to Monterey to Diamond to Wilder to Arlington to Randall to San Jose to Duncan to Valencia to 18th.  I stopped at Mission High for a pic of the beautiful campus:

Check out this amazing belltower:

I continued on 18th to Douglass and home for lunch.  We ran to Kaiser and did some chores around the house and then I headed off to take Rufus to go visit Mr. Chris at State Street Park with sweet Sofi.

Rufus:

Sofi:

After the park I went home and finished the cookies.  I’m seeing my dentist tomorrow and I wanted to bring them some cookies to thank them for saving, you know, my face.  The cookies turned out pretty well, and of course they aren’t vegan.  I want normal people to like them:

The mail came to much fanfare from the dogs.  We got a present from brother.  Ducktastic!

I had dinner and am now contemplating walking the dogs.  I’m not staying up late tonite.

Bike Mileage:

Today 42.9 Week to date 42.9 Month to date 697.7 Year to date 7,496.9 Rolling Year 8,217.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,774.6

We spent Saturday running errands.  We went to the grocery store and then to Costco and then Nathan and I walked the dogs while Mr. Poe rested.  I managed to make him French onion soup mid day.  It turned out really well.  I considered my audience and put some Italian spices in it.  I deconstructed it a little and melted the Gruyere on the crouton and cut that into slices and put it on the side so he could dip it in the soup.  It turns out that what he really wants is the crouton cut into bite size pieces and then put in the soup with the cheese melted on top of it.  But this version looks nice too:

I went to bed really early and slept very soundly.  I got up early and walked the dogs.  I wanted to go riding in the morning but it started to rain and given the week I’ve had on the bike I wasn’t going to push my luck.  So I went back to bed for a couple of hours and when I got up we went to Target where we got Mimi the most adorable Christmas outfit.  She was still too tired from her morning walk to work it for the camera:

We didn’t get Ashley one because we didn’t think he’d wear it.  Here he is lounging on his bed starkers:

I rode my Cannondale down to REI and dropped it off.  I’m having it shipped to Florida so that Sam and I can ride it when we’re visiting Mom.  Then I took Muni down to the office and picked up my commuter and rode it home.  I felt fine.   I’m not sore anywhere that biking is gonna exacerbate.  I’m looking forward to a nice ride tomorrow morning!  When I got back home Mr. Poe, Rufus and I set off to see how the renovations at Buena Vista Park have turned out.  They’ve had the eastern part of the park closed off for months while they installed new paths, retaining walls, and plantings.  It looks fantastic.  Still wild looking but they’ve really shored up the hillside and when the plantings mature in a couple of years it’s gonna be amazing.  Here are Mr. Poe and Rufus on one of the new paths.  Hello gorgeous!:

Here are Rufus and I.  There’s still a lot of the park fenced off.  I think it’s a permanent way to keep people from living in some of the more overgrown ares and isn’t ever going to be opened up.  I think I’m looking very early nineties in the plaid shirt and kind of baggy jeans:

This is the view of Corona Heights from BVP:

This is the view of the East Bay:

We headed down into the Castro and then home for dinner.  I’m not staying up late tonight.  I’m already beat!

Bike Mileage:

Today 6.3 Week to date 134.6 Month to date 654.8 Year to date 7,454.0 Rolling Year 8,174.6 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,731.7

I got into another bicycle accident on my way home from work.  I’m not entirely sure what happened but apparently I was mowed down my a sprinting pedestrian as I moved into an intersection.  I didn’t see anything.  One minute I was on my bike then next I was plunging face first into the sidewalk.  The asshole didn’t even stop to see what he’d done.  I’m pretty banged up and I chipped four teeth pretty badly.  I spent the morning in the dentist and my teeth look great, although one of them is for display purposed only.  I expect to be back on my bike next week.  I’m not going to commute into work anymore.  My multiple visits to the emergency room this year have convinced me that Market Street and the Financial District are too dangerous.  My plan is to ride in the mornings and then come into work on Muni.  It’s going to cut my mileage down a lot but, as my friend Jim pointed out, you can’t ride if you’re dead so it will probably be a wash over the long term.  I’m going to continue to track my mileage, but I’m going to have to reassess what mileage goals are gonna be.

Bike Mileage:

Today 36.7 Week to date 103.2 Month to date 623.4 Year to date 7,422.6 Rolling Year 8,238.3 Since Inception 10/1/07 20,700.3