The Christmas decorations are down at my house but there wasn't any room in the compost for my gingerbread house so that has won a temporary reprieve.  I think I'd like to keep it for a couple more weeks but it definitely has to be gone by Valentine's Day.  I got a pic of it while I was home at lunch:

After work I headed off down Sansome and got a pic looking up California towards Nob Hill:

I took 2nd to Howard to 11th to Harrison to 24th to Valencia to Tiffany to Monterey to Ridgewood to Flood to Hazelwood to Greenwood to Plymouth to Wildwood to Faxon to Ocean to San Benito to Monterey to Santa Clara to Portola to Claremont to Dewey into Laguna Honda into 7th to Lincoln to 6th to Hugo to 3rd to Frederick to Stanyan to Beulah to Cole to Waller to Masonic to Haight to Scott to Duboce to Castro to 17th and home for dinner.  Our hot tub is broken which gives me the sads.  Here's hoping it gets fixed soon.

Bike Mileage:

Today 27.6 Week to date 82.4 Month to date 82.4 Year to date 82.4 To Goal 7,917.6 Over (Under) plan (27.2) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,846.8) Rolling Year 7,399.9 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,587.9

I slept in a little on Wednesday but still managed a little ride before work.  I headed off Corbett to Clayton to Parnassus to Cole to Haight to Stanyan  and into Golden Gate Park at JFK.  I came out of the park at Arguello and took that to Sacramento.  I stopped for pics as Lafayette Park:

Me:

I continued on Lafayette to Gough to California.  I stopped at Polk for a pic of the work they're doing on the cable car line:

I continued on California and stopped for pics at Jones.  Grace Cathedral:

The view looking down Jones towards Market:

I continued on California and stopped at Taylor for a pic of Huntington Park:

I continued on California and stopped for a pic of the Fairmont at Mason:

The view down California from Powell:

I continued on California to Leidesdorff to Halleck and into work.  Note to asshole on bike who almost ran into me in front of my building:  You suck.

I didn't go home for lunch on Tuesday.  I had to return a cable to Apple that I didn't need--  and returns are very, very easy at Apple and make me want to shop there more.  After, I got some lunch at Chipotle which was very, very yummy.  I got some pics of Union Square on the way there and back.

Christmas, it would seem, is very 2010:

This is new I think.  It's a Spanish company out of Barcelona.  I don't get the name.  It makes me think of that word for extra nipples.  Inside, the clothes are a riot of color and pattern that bring to mind some of Edina's outfits on Absolutely Fabulous.  It also kind of smells like the inside of a Chess King circa 1988 but maybe that's just me.  I saw a few things that were kind of cute but it was all too much for me:

Sketchers:  awful shoes, fabulous building.  It should be their motto:

This is a sneaky peak of the Transamerica Pyramid as seen from the alley behind my building:

After work I headed off on my bike.  This is the view looking down Bush from Sutter:

I took Sutter and stopped at Japantown for a pic.  They still have Christmas up and it looked fabulous:

I continued on Sutter to Presidio to Clay to Spruce to Washington to Arguello to Lake to 23rd to Cabrillo to 47th to Fulton and down to the coast.  I got to the beach just after sunset and it looked like an abstract expressionist painting.  Fabulous:

I took the Great Highway to Kirkham to 7th to Hugo to 3rd to Frederick to Stanyan to Page to Laguna to Market to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.

I got most of my travel arrangements for the Lifecycle worked out on Tuesday.  I'm planning on princessing two nights--  Paso Robles and Ventura.  The Paso Robles hotel is the Adelaide which I stayed in last year and I liked quite a bit.  In Ventura I'm staying at the Marriott which is going to end up being more expensive than I want it to be but I think my whole day 7 will be a lot more fun if I spend night 6 in a bed in a room with a shower and an electric outlet with which to recharge my phone.  I'm heading back to San Francisco on Saturday night again because I think I'll be missing Mr. Poe much too much to have any fun without him.  I had a great day 7 last year and hope to repeat it except without the horrible cold this time.  I'm going to finish early, pick up the car, have lunch, go shopping, pick up my luggage, get a milkshake from Millions of Milkshake (the large this time what was I thinking with a medium last year?), go to the Los Angeles County Museum, drop off the car and show up at the airport very early.  I'm already so excited!  It's gonna be a fabulous year.

Bike Mileage:

Today 28.8 Week to date 54.8 Month to date 54.8 Year to date 54.8 To Goal 7,945.2 Over (Under) plan (32.9) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,855.5) Rolling Year 7,390.5 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,560.3

I'm doing the AIDS Lifecyle again this summer!  This will be the seventh time for me on the AIDS Lifecyle and I'm honored and excited to be a part of it again.  I'm a training ride leader (yet again) and we've already started training new riders ready to ride down to Los Angeles in June.  We’ve got a new crop of riders and we are all training to challenge ourselves physically to raise money for a cause we believe in.
 
It's a tough year for non profits and the SF aids foundation has had a hard time funding vital services for people living with AIDS.  At the same time a high unemployment rate has resulted in more people needing these services.  This ride is one of them main sources of income for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and I'm proud to ride for them.   I hope you’ll make a fully tax deductible donation to help me meet my goal of $6000.  Here is the link to my pledge form:

Click here for donation form
 
SFAF offers a comprehensive array of critical services such as financial benefits counseling, needle exchange, client advocacy, housing assistance and the California AIDS Hotline(800-367-AIDS), annually serving 120,000 individuals impacted by HIV and AIDS.  In addition, the SFAF runs the Pangaea Global AIDS foundation which provides treatment and vaccine research in Sub Saharan Africa. 

See you on the road!

I managed to get up at a reasonable hour this morning which was refreshing.  It was very cold and I almost decided to not ride and just walk Rufus but in the end I headed out on my bike.  I took 17th to Eureka to 18th to Valencia to Tiffany to 29th to San Jose to Monterey into Santa Clara to Portola to Claremont to Dewey to Pacheco to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Ulloa to Portola to Twin Peaks and up to the viewing platform.  It was a spectacular morning.  There was a little fog layer, but I was above it on Twin Peaks:

Looking south to San Bruno Mountain shrouded in fog:

Close up of the antennas on San Bruno mountain:

Me:

The view of the city:

The view looking west:

I continued on Twin Peaks to Clayton to Ashbury to Masonic to Haight to Buchanan to Page to Laguna to Golden Gate to Market to 2nd and into work.  It's supposed to warm up this week.  I can't wait.

Predictably, I slept in on Monday and came down Market into work.  I headed home for lunch and got some pics on the way there and back.  This is City Hall as seen from Market and UN Plaza:

Looking down Market Street from Guerrero:

When I got home I noted that the wisteria in Mr. Poe's garden is about to lose its leaves.  Not to worry, they will be back:

On the way home I got a shot of the Gay and Lesbian center:

After work I headed off 2nd to Howard and got a bunch of pics at sunset as I headed south.  3rd and Howard:

5th and Howard:

6th and Howard:

8th and Howard:

10th and Howard:

I took Howard to 11th to Harrison to 22th.  I got one last pic at 22nd and South Van Ness:

I took 22nd to Valencia to Tiffany to 29th to San Jose to Wilder to Diamond to Monterey to Ridgewood to Flood to Hazelwood to Greenwood to Plymouth to Wildwood to Faxon to De Montefort to Ashton to Holloway to Junipero Serra to Winston to 20th to Ocean to Clearfield into 34th to Yorba to Crestlake to Wawona to 30th to Vicente to 17th to Taravel to Merced to Hernandez to Laguna Honda to Portola to Corbett to Ord and home for dinner.  It was very cold so the dogs got a short walk and we went to bed early.

Bike Mileage:

Today 26.0 Week to date 26.0 Month to date 26.0 Year to date 26.0 To Goal 7,974.0 Over (Under) plan (39.8) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (7,866.1) Rolling Year 7,361.7 Since Inception 10/1/07 28,531.5

Happy New Year!  Saturday I spent at home helping Mr. Poe take down Christmas and migrating all of my movies to Itunes so that I can watch them on one of the Apple TV's.  I had to convert all of my AVI's to MOV's and that took a while but everything is pretty much in one place now which I like.  I'm really impressed with the video quality of Apple TV to far.  The TV in our bedroom isn't enormous but as far as I can tell the picture quality is awesome for both stuff I'm streaming from Netflix and stuff I've bought on Itunes.  I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special which was special effects and color heavy and it looked great.  Likey!

I was pretty disgusted with my bike mileage in 2010 given that it was much lower than 2009 and in 2009 I was off the bike for a quarter of the year.  Ouch.  I attribute this to all the traveling we did over the summer and a lot of laziness on my part.  I really want to get it together this year and I bet I will.  I've dropped my mileage goal to 8,000 from 10,000 because I thought that 10,000 was just to high to be a realistic goal for this year.  Developing.

Sunday night I headed over to David Duncan's going away party in Bernal Heights.  It was a wonderful party with lots of great food and I had a lot of fun.  Here are the pics:

I went home about 9 and went to bed.  It was a long day and I was beat.

New Years Eve was lots of fun this year.  Two of my favorite people, Ben and Courtney, got married in a glamorous evening ceremony at the old federal reserve.  Mr. Poe and I had a wonderful time.  Most of the pics from the night didn't turn out but here are the ones that did.

This is Ben's son Arthur:

This is Courtney's cute brother Joe and his girlfriend:

The ceremony.  I think Courtney can totally wear the dress again.  She can dress it down with a cardigan and wear it to Whole Foods.

Hello gorgeous:

Me, Mr. Poe, and Courtney:

We skipped out about 10:30 and stopped in at Mr. Chris' on our way home.  We greeted the New Years on Muni which was lovely because the train wasn't crowded and there wasn't any drama getting home.