Saturday I went to training ride leader recertification in the morning and then I went to lunch with Mr. Poe and we went shopping at Macy.  I decided to walk home from Union Square via the Lyon Street steps.  It was a gorgeous day and I had a fabulous walk. 

Union Square:

Grace Cathedral:

Some of the fabulous homes in Pacific Heights:

The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from Pacific Heights:

Vallejo Street:

Senator Feinstein’s house:

The Swedenborgian church was open for some reason and I didn’t need an engraved invitation to snoop.  Gorgeous:

The inside of the church:

I headed home for dinner.  Mr. Poe and I are heading out to the Castro for the Japanesese.

Thursday we went to the zoo.  Oh it was a panic.  Eugene spent the day plotting an elaborate revenge against his sister for vaguely established reasons utilizing an especially spicy soup for comedic effect.  Clearly he takes after me at least a little.  Hannah spent the day being generally adorable:

Hannah and Youngran:

I got stuck taking the train with Eugene because we only had two free tickets, Hannah thought it was gonna be too scary, and I was the adult with the least amount of ability to say no:

The main lure was the tarantula room which turned out to be a pretty lame exhibit.  Still, the kids were riveted.  Here we are in the tarantula room:

I was exhausted by the tine I got home.  I was delighted when the children went to bed.

My brother and his family are in town from Baltimore on their way to visit my sister in law Youngran’s family in Korea.  Good lord are his two kids ever exhausting.  They chase the dogs–  which can be deadly if they’re chasing Mimi.  She exercised remarkable restraint and didn’t kill them.  My nephew Eugene is all over the place and surprisingly technologically savvy and it was a challenge to allow them to watch TV shows off of my Itunes but stay away from my movies for some reason.  Eek. 

This is my nephew Eugene.  Half Korean with green eyes and golden brown hair.  He’s gonna be pretty hot when he’s older:

Hanna’s sassy and gorgeous.  The scratch under her eye was delivered by an overly sassy Rufus.  It didn’t phase her at all:

Here she is with Ashley Jr:

Poor Rufus got the brunt of their terror but he’s such a good boy he actually seemed to enjoy it:

Here they are together with Ashley Jr:

I love them but these kids are fucking exhausting.

Tuesday after work I went on my first after work ride since mid June.  Ugh.  How is it that I’ve been so fucking lazy??  I headed off Columbus to Stockton to North Point to Van Ness to Francisco to Laguna to Bay to Cervantes to Marina Green and into the Presidio.  I stopped at Crissy Field for pics:

Me–  note I got a new helmet!  I cracked my old one in April when I fell coming down Market into work before Easter and I’ve been using the one I had before that which was old and pretty gross.  But they went on sale finally so I got a new one.  Much better:

Crissy Field Lagoon:

I headed up to Lincoln and then stopped a little west of the Golden Gate Bridge for pics of the Marin Headlands and ocean:

I continued on Lincoln into Camino Del Mar.  I stopped around McLaren for some pretty pics of Seacliff:

I continued on Camino Del Mar up to the Palace of the Legion of Honor.  Which had missed me dearly:

Pax Jerusalemme:

I headed down to 34th to Balboa and down to the coast.  Ocean Beach looked fantastic:

I took the Great Highway and went into Golden Gate Park at JFK.  I took that to the Panhandle to Stanyan to Page to Duboce to Castro to 17th to Ord and home for dinner.  Mr. Poe is still out of town so I had to feed myself.  I had vegan sausages with white beans in a garlicky tomatillo sauce served over mixed greens with a little vegan cheese on top.  Verdict:  solid.  Then I walked the dogs and watched a movie before heading to bed. 

Bike Mileage:

Today 26.0 Week to date 33.0 Month to date 47.0 Year to date 4,162.5 To Goal 3,837.5 Over (Under) plan (221.1) YTD Mileage vs Last Year (604.7) Rolling Year 6,757.0 Since Inception 10/1/07 32,668.0

I went home for lunch today on my bike for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Which was a lot of fun fun and sorely missed.  The weather’s gorgeous in the city today and I took some pics as I headed home and back on Market.  This is the view looking up Leavenworth towards the cathedral:

The beautiful Palomar hotel:

The Gay and Lesbian Center:

Which is across the street from an enormous Baptist church which I’m guessing would result in a ton of drama everywhere but here:

The pretty De Young building:

Heading home for lunch means I can ride a little after work which I also haven’t done in a couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to it.  Stay tuned!

Mr. Poe’s out of town again which gives me the sads.  I didn’t do much all weekend.  I don’t understand why I don’t even do thing that I normally do without him while he’s out of town but I tend to hunker down in the study with the dogs and watch movies the whole time.  I had yet another cold all last week and took Muni in to work until Friday but I’m back to commuting on my bike and I’m finally feeling better.  I had Nathan over for dinner on Monday night which was lots of fun.  I devised a Texas comfort food menu of frito pie, mesclun salad with green chili and tomatillo salsa vinagrette and cebolittas.  Nathan had never had frito pie before and was dazzled by the intersection of junk food and actual food.

Ahley Jr and Mimi waiting for Nathan on the stairs:

Rufus:

Frito Pie!  Take a bunch of fritos and put them in a bowl.  I used scoops but I think regular fritos are better because the scoops are too thick and never get gooey.  Cover the fritos with a chili of your choice.  Make sure it’s very hot because it needs to be hot enough to melt the cheese which you put on top of it.  Then goes on raw onion and a big dollop of sour cream.  Mine didn’t have any dairy on it but Nathan’s looked spectacular:

Ashley Jr. sat in his chair and guarded his dinner:

After he finally ate it he came out on the porch to give Nathan the business:

Nathan left around nine and I was sleeping by ten.  It was a long day.

Sunday we had Daniel and Nathan over for lunch.  Mr. Poe made sausage sandwiches and I made macaroni and cheese with monterey jack cheese, spinach, artichokes and sour cream in it.  Kind of like that cheesy spinach artichoke dip everybody loves except macaroni and cheese.  It turned out very well and seemed popular among its demographic.  I didn’t get any pics of lunch but I did get one of Ashley Jr. and Rufus both angling for Daniel’s attention.  Adorable:

Mimi sat in her chair and growled at all of it:

We headed over to the De Young to look at the Picasso exhibit.  Which was kind of a yawn.  Then we walked over to the AIDS Memorial Grove and then headed home.  It was a really fun day and it totally made up for how hard the death ride kicked my ass.

I’ve been laid up with a cold for a couple of weeks.  Two colds I think.  Seems to happen every summer.  Sunday Ben and I headed up to Markleeville and rode the Death Ride.  And I promptly had my ass handed to me by it.  The name of the ride should have been my first cause for concern–  it wasn’t called the “Happy Bunny Ride” for a reason.  It was very, very hot and the ride was at a much higher altitude than I’d ever ridden in.  Some of it was at almost 9,000 feet.  Do you know what they don’t have at that altitude?  Oxygen.  And I discovered that I absolutely need that for breathing.  The route is star shaped and there are five possible peaks.  I managed four of them. The route is unbelievably pretty.  I look forward to returning to it in a car:  I think I might have finished had I started earlier and been a little more prepared for the altitude and not been fighting a cold but I’m not sure that I’m gonna try this ride again to test that theory.  I’m glad I tried it but I’m not sure it’s what I’d characterize as fun.

I met this dog at the top of peak 3.  She was a little shy at first but she gave me a good sniff and then plopped down in my lap.  I didn’t know what her name was but I called her Sadie:

I saw the aftermath of a spectacular accident at this alpine lake.  I’m not at all sure exactly what happened but somebody’s bike ended up hanging upside down in a tree and somebody was still attached to it.  I got a couple of pics of the pretty lake before continuing on.  Mr. Poe would love this lake.  If he got here in a car:

I got to lunch as it was closing which was unusual for me.  They were out of Diet Coke and it broke my heart.  I got back to the start at about four and of course Ben had completed the entire route and was finished hours before me.  I had a little food and we headed back to San Francisco.