I managed to get a ride in this morning.  I started a lot later than I would have liked.  Why does it take me at least 90 minutes to get out of the house in the morning??  I don't get it.  But it was OK because it was very cold so it had started to warm up by the time I started riding.  I headed off Corbett to Portola to Twin Peaks and headed up to the viewing platform for pics of the glorious morning:

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Golden Gate Bridge:

Sunrise:

Me:

The radio tower with the moon next to it:

I continued on Twin Peaks and stopped a little down the hill for more pics.  This is the view looking west to the ocean:

Pretty Saint Cecilia's on Vicente at 18th:

I continued on Twin Peaks and stopped again for more pics:

Flawless view of the Marin Headlands:

I continued on Twin Peaks to Clarendon to 7th to Judah to 9th and into Golden Gate Park.  I got a pic of the mist rising off of this playing field:

Then I headed over to the Music Concourse.  There's such a great mix of styles:

I headed over to 8th to Lake to Arguello to Clay to Fillmore to Pacific to Powell to Jackson.  I stopped at Grant for pics of Chinatown:

I continued on Grant.   This is the view from Kearny and Jackson:

I continued on Jackson to Columbus into Montgomery to Clay to Sansome and into work.

It was soaking wet but not raining in the morning when I came into work so I rode in.  I headed home for lunch and got a few pics of the dogs.  Mr. Poe has been home all week and they're exhausticated:

Poor Rufus looks like he might even be too tired to go!

The table of sugar:

It rained on me a little on my way back to work from lunch.  I pledged to not go riding if it was still wet and miserable at the end of the day because cold + wet = sucks.  After work it was definitely drying off so I decided to give it a go.  This is the view looking up Sutter from Montgomery:

I continued on Sutter to Scott to Clay to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 23rd to Cabrillo to 47th to the Great Highway and down the coast.  I took Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner. 

After dinner we headed off with the dogs to go drop off some cookies at Ben and Courtney's.  Ben's parents and son are in for the wedding and I met them.  Then we headed home and went to bed.  I was beat.

Bike Mileage:

Today 25.5 Week to date 73.8 Month to date 361.8 Year to date 7,152.0 To Goal 2,848.0 Over (Under) plan (2,601.4) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (701.8) Rolling Year 7,190.3 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,321.8

It slowly dried out all day.  I headed home for lunch and then went for a nice ride after work.  I headed off 2nd to Howard to 11th to Harrison to 25th to Valencia to Tiffany to San Jose to Wilder to Diamond to Monterey to North Gate to Darien to San Benito to Saint Francis to Santa Clara to Portola to Claremont to Dewey into Laguna Honda into 7th to Hugo to 3rd to Frederick to Stanyan to Waller to Masonic to Haight to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  It had just started raining as I pulled in the driveway.  Mr. Poe and I had dinner and then we made Christmas cookies.  We had a delightful visit from Mr. Chris and David and when they left we cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed.  Long day.

Bike Mileage:

Today 31.6 Week to date 48.3 Month to date 336.3 Year to date 7,126.5 To Goal 2,873.5 Over (Under) plan (2,599.5) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (727.3) Rolling Year 7,164.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,296.3

I got up to go riding this morning because the man says it's gonna rain tonite and I won't be able to ride.  I was a little late out the door because I was finishing up some cookies I'd made last night.  These are cream cheese hear cookies filled with raspberry jam and covered with thinned out royal icing and pink sanding sugar.  Girly:

I headed out Corbett to Clayton to Parnassus to Cole to Haight to Stanyan and into Golden Gate Park at JFK.  I stopped at McLaren Lodge for a pic of Christmas.  Not the Giant's theme locomotive on the train:

I got on Arguello and took that into the Presidio and then Washington over to Immigrant Point where I stopped for pics.  It was very wet but otherwise a nice morning:

Me:

I headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge and stopped for pics:

Then I headed down to Crissy Field.  Here's the bridge again from there:

I got on Old Mason and took that over to Marina Blvd and then up to Fort Mason.  This is Russia Hill from Fort Mason:

I headed over to Van Ness to Beach to Jones to North Point to the Embarcadero to Washington to Sansome and into work.  I'm hoping that the weather holds up all day.  I'm over the rain.

The rain died down on Monday morning and I came down Market into work on my bike.  I headed home for lunch.  Mr. Poe is home for Christmas and he's trying to get all of his holiday stuff done so the house is kind of crazy right now.  The poor dogs are exhausticated from just looking at it!

I stopped by REI on my way back to work to drop off some cookies for my favorite bike shop and stopped at Mission and 2nd for pics:

I headed home vie REI again and made it home before the rain started up again.  After dinner I baked cookies and then we went to bed.  It was a long day and I was pretty beat.

Bike Mileage:

Today 16.7 Week to date 16.7 Month to date 304.7 Year to date 7,094.9 To Goal 2,905.1 Over (Under) plan (2,603.7) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (758.9) Rolling Year 7,213.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,264.7

The weather was pretty awful all weekend.  Which was OK with me because I did a lot of baking.  I started with Tamales on Saturday afternoon:

I made a bunch of cookies while the Tamales were steaming.  We had Mr. Chris and David over for dinner that night and Mimi wore her Christmas dress which she looked spectacular in.  Mr. Poe grilled steaks and I made Bernaise sauce and french fries.  My Bernaise sauce is coming along and it was pretty much perfect.  We went to bed pretty early on Saturday.  I was beat.

Sunday I baked again.  I started off with the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kisses that everybody likes:

Nathan came over for lunch and then we went for a walk.  We took Rufus over to BVP and then up the Farnsworth steps and then over to Tank Hill  and finally through the Castro before heading home.  Mr. Poe made salad for dinner which was nice because it was a rich eatin' weekend and I was ready for something light.  I cleaned up a little after dinner and then got ready for bed.  We were asleep before 9.

TV warned of dire weather on Friday.  We were supposed to get torrential rain and gusty winds.  I decided to take Muni all day.  But the weather wasn't really that bad and I probably could have come in on the bike.  I had to go to Union Square on my way home for lunch to pick up some Demi Glace at Williams Sonoma for Christmas dinner.  I took some pics on the way.  This is Christmas at the Bank of America building.  They have a lot of outdoor space and it's always lovely:

Union Square:

I headed home and had lunch and then stopped by the Castro on my way back to work to get my suit fitted for Ben and Courtney's wedding on New Year's Eve.  Then I stopped by the comic book store and went back to work.  Mr. Poe was going to a movie so I had the night free.  I hung out with Mr. Chris for a while and then I hung out with Nathan before going home.  Nathan and I boozed it up a little and I was a little wobbly when I got home to find that we had no power at all.  I just went to bed.  Mr. Poe found that reaction hilarious when he got home half an hour later.  The power eventually came back on, the dogs got their dinner and all was right in the world.

I'd hoped to ride in the morning but it was 40 when we got up so the dogs and I went back to bed and I just rode down Market into work when it got a little bit warmer.  I headed home for lunch and did manage a nice ride after work.  I got a few pics at Sansome and Pine when I was heading off:

I took Sutter to Fillmore to Clay to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 8th to Cabrillo to 47th to Fulton to the Great Highway and down the coast and then I took Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner. 

I tried to take the dogs for a walk after dinner but the rain had already started up.  We're supposed to get almost 2 inches in the next couple of days which is an awful lot.  I don't think I'll be doing a lot of riding because of it.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to get Rufus out instead.  Rufus loves to go!

Bike Mileage:

Today 25.5 Week to date 68.7 Month to date 288.0 Year to date 7,078.2 To Goal 2,921.8 Over (Under) plan (2,510.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (695.3) Rolling Year 7,196.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,248.0

Wednesday I slept in a bit and just came down Market into work.  I headed home for lunch and got some pics of the Financial District on my way back to work.

Market and Kearny:

The view looking up Market from Kearny:

Market and Montgomery:

After work I headed off Sutter to Steiner and stopped for a pic of pretty St. Dominics in the last light of the day:

I continued on Steiner to Sacramento to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 8th and into Golden Gate Park.  I went through the Music Concourse and came out of the park at 9th and took Judah to 7th into Laguna Honda to Dewey to Claremont to Portola to Santa Clara into Monterey.  Monterey is currently under construction and was kind of an eek because of that.  I'm going to try to avoid Monterey between Plymouth and Santa Clara until they finish working on it, especially at night.  I continued on Monterey to Diamond to Wilder to Arlington to Randall to San Jose to Duncan to Valencia to 18th to Douglass to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  I walked the dogs after dinner and then we went to bed early.  I was beat.

Bike Mileage:

Today 24.7 Week to date 43.2 Month to date 262.5 Year to date 7,052.7 To Goal 2,947.3 Over (Under) plan (2,508.9) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (720.8) Rolling Year 7,191.8 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,222.5

Tuesday was a bit of a mess.  I had to work from home because our phone died on Saturday and AT&T had given us a window of 8AM-7PM.  Seriously.  In addition to the phone being dead internet service was extremely slow and the router had stopped recognizing Mr. Poe's computer even though it was connected via an ethernet cable.  Not good.  Internet service was crappy to the point that I had to log into my work machine about ten times yesterday which was a pain in the ass.  The guy came and fixed our phone at about 3 and I got cleaned up and headed downtown.  I wanted to take care of the router situation once and for all because our finicky router had been a thorn in my side for many years and there may be an additional device that may need to attach to it after the 25th of this month but I don't know anything about that and neither do any of you so keep your pie holes shut.

I went to the Apple store and got the Airport Extreme because that's what Mr. Chris recommended and he has a very high rate of reliability when it comes to computers and networks and I tend to follow his advice.  They're a lot more expensive than regular routers but they're supposed to be a lot better and a lot easier to use.  Then I headed into work to pick up my notes before heading over to my final at City College.  My final was in the big new building that they've built across the street from their main campus on Phelan.  It's basically a long hall with classes on either side on three levels:

It's a very nice building but it seems a bit narrow and they have a huge space to deal with and I wonder why they went with this design.  There's no real communal or seating areas.  It seems to be all classrooms.  It's a beautiful building, though.  I even like the exterior.  I didn't get any pics of that it was dark.

I did pretty well on my final.  I blame AT&T.  I'd printed out my class notes and quizzes on Monday and I was going to print out my homeworks on Tuesday but since I had to work from home I never got around to that.  And predictably, it was the homeworks that I needed.  But I did well and I'm sure I'll get a good grade.  After my final I walked home which I haven't done in forever and was lots of fun.  I winged Mount Davidson Park and then walked home Portola to Corbett to Ord.  It only came in at four miles which kind of surprised me but it was a lot of climbing.  when I got home I had some dinner and then started working on the new router.  It was very easy to set up.  I did need to call AT&T once before it was all over but I figured that was going to happen because I hadn't set up the router it was replacing and didn't know a lot about it.  I had it running by eleven only to find that Mr. Poe's computer wouldn't connect with it either.  Fuck!  Some research on the intenets suggested that I needed to repair the TCP/IP stack which required commands issued at a command prompt.  Is Windows seriously that crappy??  Apparently yes.  Then I did a full disk scan which revealed some malware that was the likely culprit behind the problem in the first place. By 1AM, every computer in the house could connect to the internet via the new router and my Iphone could connect wirelessly.  I declared victory and went to bed.