After work last night I headed up California Street.  The beautiful red tree in front of the Bank of America building continues to be the nicest Christmas decoration I've seen this year in the Financial District:

I headed up to Grant Street and took a few pics of Chinatown on my way to Union Square:

Grant Street around Union Square was all bustle:

I like this building by day but it is amazing by night.  So luminous:

This is the Phelan Building intersection of Grant and O'Farrell:

The Humboldt State Bank building--  my favorite building in the city:

I went home and had dinner and then got to decorating gingerbread building.  One of the things that I like about baking is that it forces me to be patient and I am not a patient person normally.  At all.  This is somehow relaxing.  However, as slow as I tried to take the decoration of my gingerbread men, they still look like the output of activity day at a lunatic asylum.  A kind coworker described them as "A little frantic" and then noted they look like Mr. Bill.  Oh no! 

Here they are cleaned up a little.  Apparently they taste pretty good.

I was up until 11 cleaning up.  There was sanding sugar everywhere and I had frosting in my hair.  I almost just left it and went to bed but figured Mr. Poe would not like being confronted by all the mess when he got up.  That, and I didn't want to be woken up by dogs tasting my hair.

It was pouring down rain this morning and way too wet for either biking or walking Rufus so I had breakfast, went back to bed for a couple of hourse, and then had a second breakfast before heading into work.

I saw this oddly painted car on California Street as I was heading to Muni after work.  I wonder if it's the first Mary Kay car?  By the way,  thePinkTruth.com has a lot of information about Mary Kay and their business practices.  It's pretty interesting.

I got a few outside shots of from California Street on my way to the subway:

I got home only to find early Christmas presents from Mr. Poe's niece Gabrielle.  She sent me tasty cakes.  Which I used to love.  The peanut butter ones are the best by a huge margin.  Note the Philadelphia Eagles packaging:

I went home and made dinner and then made some gingerbread cookies.  I've about had it with the Joy of Cooking gingerbread recipe.  It's so hard to roll out and it's crumbly and I wasn't crazy about the results.  Luckily, frosting can hide just about anything so I still think they'll look OK.  Here's me rolling them out:

The finished product.  The round ones are going to end up with chocolate and marshmallow melted on them.  Like smores:

I didn't get to bed until 10:30.  So late!  But I managed to crawl out of bed on time and headed out on my bike.  I rode 17th to Eureka to 18th to Valencia to Mission to Sagamore to Brotherhood Way to Lake Merced to John Muir to Skyline to the Great Highway and up the coast.  I went into Golden Gate Park at MLK and took Chain of Lakes to JFK and stopped at Spreckels Lake for a pic just as the sun was coming up:

 
I came out of the park at 36th and took Cabrillo to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  They've been getting ready for a big party there and the main courtyard is glassed in for it:

 

Pax Jerusalemme and the reflecting pool:

The Marin Headlands as seen from Camino Del Mar:

I took Camino Del Mar to Lake to 23rd.  I stopped at Geary for a few pics of pretty St. Monica's:

God's pigeon:

I continued on 23rd to Cabrillo to 8th and into Golden Gate Park.  I took JFK to the panhandle to Stanyan to Page to Scott to Duboce to Catro to 17th to Ord and home to get cleaned up.  Muni was having a meltdown and it took forever to get into work.  Still not missing coming in on my bike.  I like that I smell great all the time and that I haven't had a close call or accident on my bike in almost a month.

Bike Mileage:

Today 20.5 Week to date 37.8 Month to date 194.5 Year to date 7,773.5 Rolling Year 8,088.2 Since Inception 10/1/07 21,051.2

The rain finally tapered off yesterday and it was reasonably dry this morning.  And warmer!  It was 50 when I left the house and it was awesome.  I wasn't too cold and my fingers didn't get numb and I had a great ride.  I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast.  I came up the Great Highway and then got on Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  I got on Camino Del Mar and took that into the Presidio into Lincoln.  I stopped a little west of the Golden Gate Bridge for a pic of the Marin Headlands at sunrise:

I continued on Lincoln.  This is the firehouse in the Presidio.  It's beautiful:

Me in the Presidio:

I continued on Lincoln to Presidio and came out of the Presidio at the Presidio gate.  From there I climbed up the big hill to Lyon.  Very steep:

I headed over to Broadway for a pic of the Lyon Street Steps:

Some of the fabulous homes on Broadway:

I continued on Broadway.  This is the view over the Marina from Divisadero:

I took Divisadero to Sacramento to Scott to Duboce to Noe to Market to 17th to Ord and home to get cleaned up for work.  It's gonna be a glorious day!

Bike Mileage:

Today 17.3 Week to date 17.3 Month to date 174.0 Year to date 7,753.0 Rolling Year 8,067.7 Since Inception 10/1/07 21,030.7

I got up at about 6 on Sunday morning and started cooking.  I made peanut butter kiss, gingersnap, chocolate chip cookies and dough for sugar and gingerbread cookies to work on later.  Mr. Poe documented me in my pajamas baking up a storm:

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You can see the kitchen is a total disaster.  I think cookies that have to be rolled in sugar are the messiest because it gets everywhere. 

The dogs are not interested in Christmas cookies at all.  Mr Poe put on a pot of bean soup that included the ham bone from Thanksgiving.  That got their interest.  Ashley came walking into the kitchen sniffing the air.  "What is that heavenly aroma??"   I finished baking and cleaning up around noon because were going to our friend Kurt's tree trimming party.  We brought him cookies and I also deviled him a few eggs.  They've got capers and Kalamata olives in them and I put Tony Chachere's on top.:

Here's Kurt posing with the deviled eggs.  He picked this outfit out himself.  No, seriously.  He wears it every year.

This is Bill and JR with their adorable daughter Mary:

The lovely Courtney Pearson:

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We headed home about 4:30.  Courtney gave us a ride which was very nice.  I sent her home with some cookies and started rolling out sugar cookies.  I made star sandwich cookies topped with royal icing and filled with raspberry jam.  I think they straddle the line between cookie and tart.  I think they turned out OK:

Here they are with the rest of the cookie horde I've baked this weekend.  I went though 10 pounds of flour!  We're giving away most of these as gifts.  I think I'll be making a few more to have cookies around on Christmas day:

Nathan came over and hung out and had dinner with us.  I also managed to finish Mimi's gingerbread house.  I added coconut snow in the yard, a pretzel fence and a marshmallow Mimi.  I love it:

Here's sweet little Ashley eating a dog biscuit under the Christmas tree:

It took a long time to get the kitchen cleaned up to everybody's satisfaction.  Then I got cleaned up and went to bed.  It was 10:30.  So late!

I stayed in on Friday night and made cream puffs for the Different Spokes Christmas party and I started on my massive weekend cookie project.  I made M&M cookies and brownies.  I used the same brownie recipe I had used the week before but I didn't try to frost them and they turned out great.  I slept in a little bit on Saturday but we had to be out of the house by 8AM to go to the grocery store because I had a hair appointment at 11.  I go to Pastel in Union Square where my friend Anthony has been cutting my hair pretty much since I moved here from New Mexico in 2000.  They have this cool space across the street from Banana Republic on Grant.  Here I am processing:

Beauty is exhausticating.  Just ask this guy:

Anthony gave me a lift home and I resumed on the cookie making.  I made these interesting pecan bars and Nutella cookies and then I filled the cream puffs for the party and also made them herb cheese biscuits.  Then we got cleaned up and headed over to the party.  It was at Chris Contos's house this year and he's got a nice place over by Mission Dolores.  I enjoyed seeing everybody.  There was a bunch of people there that I hadn't seen in quite a while.  I think people liked the cream puffs.  I filled half of them with chocolate pastry cream and the other half were vanilla that I'd flavored with violet syrup.  The syrup made the pastry cream grey so I tinted it purple thinking that would make it more appetizing.  Not so much.  People do not want to eat purple pudding.  They just don't.  The chocolate ones got eaten right away but the violet ones languished on the dessert table until word got out that they were edible.  I think people would have been less afraid of them if I had tinted them pink instead of purple.  Mr. Poe isn't so sure.  I think I might have to confine my violet syrup to frostings because people are conditioned to eating frosting of any color.  We left the party pretty early because I was drunk exhausted and we headed home.  I picked up a couple of vegan pastries on the way home.  They were delicious.

It was cold all day Wednesday.  I headed home over lunch and stopped by the comic book store in the Castro because it was Wednesday and that's the day the new comic books come out.  I got five:

Guardians of the Galaxy #20 -- Me love it long time!  How can you not love it??  It has a gun wielding raccoon and a bald lesbian.  Plus I think the lead guy is hot.  Don't judge.  I keep hearing rumors that they're gonna cancel this book but I hope not.  It's probably my favorite comic right now.

Nova #32 --  I really like this book and think it's a lot of fun to read.  And lots and lots of action.

Amazing Spider Man #614 -- They've dusted off Electro again and used a very retro drawing style to commemorate it.  I missed #612 so the first I saw of the style was #613 and I wasn't crazy about it.  It's grown on me.  Loved the cover art.

Black Widow & The Marvel Girls #1 --  Was OK.  I have high hopes for this book as Black Widow has been one of my favorites for years and years.  It was kind of a meh on the first read and I'm not 100% behind the artwork.  It's a four issue limited series and you're kind of tempted to get all of them whether you like them or not because there's only four but I'm not doing that anymore.  Case in point--  Marvel Divas was a lot less about kicking ass and a lot more about failed relationships and beating cancer.  What the fuck is that all about??  If I wanted "people coming to terms with things", I'd watch Lifetime.  Because then at least you get Meredith Baxter.

Adventure Comics #5 -- Ugh.  I probably could have gotten something else.  I'm getting really sick of the Blackest Night crossover.  It just isn't that interesting and it isn't that clever.  Blackest night is no Secret Invasion.  The second feature was Superboy and I really liked that but it was pretty short and probably not worth the price of the book

There were a couple more I wanted but I'm just not going to spend more than $20 a week at the comic book store.  Which breaks down to $17 for comics plus an Atkinson Chick-O-Stick which is about the yummiest thing ever.  It's like the inside of a Butterfinger rolled in coconut.  I polished it off before I got back to the subway.  I read my new book on the way back downtown.  Mr. Poe gave me The Alchemist to read.  It's good but I think I'm going to hit my brother up for crappy fantasy fiction.  I have a feeling he's got boxes it lying around and I'm going to see him next month.  I may institute a moratorium on reading books without elves.

The subway was broken when I was headed home so I took BART to 16th and walked home from there.  I got a few pics of some of the signs on 16th as I headed home:

I went home and had dinner, walked the dogs, and went to bed.

It was cold this morning but a little bit warmer so I headed off on my bike.  Rufus did not seem too disappointed at all not to be going.  He's pretty beat from walking every morning this week.  I know I am.  My legs are very sore from all the walking.  I'm deciding now whether I'm going to start walking one morning a week for cross training.  It was in the low forties this morning but I wore full finger gloves which reduced the amount of finger numbness.  I headed off Corbett to Portola to Woodside to Dewey to Taravel and down to the coast and came up the Great Highway.  It started raining on my and I actually tried to argue with the weather.  "The internets said it isn't supposed to rain until tonight.  Stop that right now!"  I argued.  Not effective.  Luckily it was more drizzly than anything else and I was able to get a nice ride in.  I continued up to Geary to 34th and up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  I came down Camino Del Mar to Lake to 8th and into Golden Gate Park.  I stopped at the Music Concourse where there was finally enough light for pics an attempted an arty shot from behind the colonnade looking at the California Academy of Sciences:

I got on MLK and came out of the park at 9th and too it to Judah to 7th into Laguna Honda into Dewey to Claremont to Portola to Santa Clara to Saint Francisc.  I got a shot looking down Saint Francis from San Anselmo:

I continued on San Anselmo to Santa Paula to San Pablo to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home.  It was a nice ride and I was glad to be back on my bike.

Bike Mileage:

Today 18.9 Week to date 18.9 Month to date 156.7 Year to date 7,735.7 Rolling Year 8,152.4 Since Inception 10/1/07 21,013.4

After work I stopped by Walgreen to pick up some candy canes for my gingerbread house and then got a couple of pics of the Christmas decorations in the Embarcadero on my way to Muni.  I like the lights on the buildings.  They really emphasize the verticality of them, particularly at night:

They also have some pretty trees and lights up:

I finished reading the Lightning Thief on the way home.  It's pretty good-- Mr. Poe will like it a lot.  And I'm sure he'll love the movie.  It seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to Harry Potter.  But then maybe all books for that age group are like that.

I thought long and hard about riding this morning. The internets said it was 40 degrees when I got up and I was on the fence but a little later it said it was 39 degrees and that's just too damn cold for biking so I walked Rufus again.  We walked up Corbett to Portola and then through Forest Hill Extension to Taravel and then up 14th Ave.  The view from Golden Gate Heights is amazing:

I made my way up to Grand View Park.  It was a gorgeous morning but very, very cold.  I was really happy I wasn't biking.  Too cold!  Grand View Park is a very pretty park.  Not so easy to get to but just gorgeous and is highly recommended.  Check out these views:

This is the view looking Southwest:

The view looking Southeast towards Twin Peaks:

The view looking North towards Marin:

The view looking Northeast towards the Financial District:

The Financial District:

The Golden Gate Bridge:

The VA hospital at Land's End with the Headlands in the background:

Me:

From there I headed down to Judah.  This is pretty St. Anne's:

Rufus loves to go!  But he isn't used to all this walking and it's really tiring him out.  I don't think he's going be very blue when it warms up and I'm back on my bike:

Today was a little shorter than yesterday-- only 6.7 miles--  but there was a lot more climbing so it took a little longer.  I got home a little late and had to rush to get to work.  But it was a good workout and I'm pretty sore from it.  I hope my feet forgive me.

After work I walked to the Powell Street Muni through Union Square.  It's getting increasingly Christmasy.  I've been trying to get a good shot of the Neiman Marcus Christmas tree from outside at night for a while but that's kind of a tall order because the best angle is from the middle of the intersection.  I love the play of the lights on the tree against the glass against the architecture.  Likey:

I went home and proceeded to decorate my gingerbread house.  I think it turned out very well and I'm exceeding proud of it.  It was kind of a relief because pre-decoration it looked like something that was excecuted by somebody not only mentally handicapped but also physically handicapped to the point that they operate a motorized wheelchair by blowing into a tube.  I still have to work on the yard which will be frosted with coconut snow and I have to make a little marshmallow Mimi to decorate Mimi's Place.  Keep out!:

I was up til 10 finishing up and cleaning up the kitchen.  Way too late!

It was 34 degrees when I got up this morning.  I thought about biking but there was a voice in my head that was shouting "screw that!" and it kept getting louder and louder.  I'm only barely comfortable at 44 degrees and I concluded it was just too cold so I took Rufus out again.  We headed over to Golden Gate Park and then up 9th to Forest Hill where the sun was just coming up:

The view of the Twin Peaks radio antenna from Forest Hill:

The little shiny thing is the moon:

Me:

This is Pacheco and Merced. There's quite a bit of frost on the ground.  I kept seeing bikers and was vaguely jealous but I think under 40 degrees I'll be a lot happier just taking Rufus out instead:

He loved to go!  But these long walks (about 7 miles again this morning) are kicking his ass.  I think he'll be very happy when I get back on my bike:

Laguna Honda hospital with the Twin Peaks antenna:

I came down Market and got some great pics from around 24th St:

I went home and got cleaned up and went to work.  Rufus and I had a really fun time.  I think it's going to be warmer tomorrow morning and I'd like to get back on my bike.  But if it's in the 30's again I'm planning on walking with Rufus again.

We had a major winter storm come through overnight.  Snow in Livermore, apparently!  I had pretty much decided no biking for me before I'd gone to bed but I was hoping that I'd be able to take Rufus out for a long walk instead.  The radar looked pretty ugly but I figured we could at least go a block so I got all bundled up and headed out the door with him.  The other dogs through an epic tantrum and I could hear them the whole way down the driveway.  Sorry guys! 

It turned out the storm had broken and sun came out.  I probably could have gone riding but it was very cold and soggy so I think a long walk was the right decision.  I took Rufus over to Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.  We got to the Chinese Pavilion just as the sun was coming up:

This is the waterfall at Stow Lake.  The pic I took showed these strange globes that most certainly weren't there.  What is that??

Stow Lake:

The Sharon Building in Golden Gate Park:

The Children's Playground:

We headed home through Ashbury Heights.  Pretty:

Rufus loves to go!

This was the view of the storm moving over the east bay from the Levant steps:

I headed home and got cleaned up and went into work.  It was a good workout.  A little under seven miles.  I think I'm going to try walking Rufus on wet morning where I would have otherwise slept in and done nothing.  It was fun.

Sunday I led a Different Spokes ride out to Fairfax.  I would never have gotten on my bike if I hadn't put that ride on the calendar and I'm so glad I did because we had such a good time.  My friend Cameron and two other riders showed up.  It was a good group.  It was foggy and pretty miserable in the city but it was sunny by the time we got to Sausalito and I think it even warmed up a little.  We had snack at tasty Perry's in Fairfax and then headed home.  The fog was rolling back in by the time we got to Corte Madera:

This is James who's hadn't done Camino Alto before.  He's already a pretty strong rider and he's gonna have a great time on the Lifecycle this year:

James took the ferry back and Cameron and I headed up Marin Headlands.  The weather was very unsettled:

Cameron and Me at the top:

The view out to the ocean from just over the top.  It was already raining in some places:

Land's End:

We got a little wet coming up Ike Turner hill but the bridge was dry which was nice.  I headed home and got cleaned up and then we took the dogs for a walk before the rain started.  This is me with the dogs on the Saturn steps:

Mr. Poe.  Hellog gorgeous:

The view from the Saturn Steps:

Then we went home and I got started on my Gingerbread house.  The pieces don't fit together very well and my royal icing was way too thin.  My house is going to be a lot better next year.  Mark my words.   This is what it looked like with the walls up:

I was having trouble getting it to stay together so I ended up trussing it with twine.  I think that will be able to come off on Monday but if it starts to crack I'm going to retie it but a little higher and then disguise the twine with more royal icing.  The end result looks a little rough.  And I'm being kind.  But I think most of the mess can be disguised under candy and frosting.  Stay tuned:

Mr. Poe's tree turned out a lot better.  We're using glass ornaments for the first time since we got Rufus.  Cue ominous music:

Hello gorgeous:

Mimi waiting for Santa:

What to do with the gingerbread men.  I elected to turn them into gingerbread Voodoo Dolls which made their thickness a little less weird.  Mr. Poe thinks I'm crazy.  I think these are hilarious:

I think I got the kitchen cleaned to everybody's satisfaction before going to bed.