I've fallen off the blogging wagon!

So sorry it's been so long since there was a post, and I sort of left you hanging with the Alcatraz story. I have to blog from home to post pictures, but I never seem to get a second at home to do it. I have plenty of time at work, but no pics! So, I'm going to do a general update now, and try to finish the story of the visit either tonight or tomorrow.

The main reason I didn't have enough time to post last week is that Neil had a paper due and was hogging the computer! :) To remedy the situation, he thought up the brilliant plan of buying him a new computer! To which I rationally replied - sure! Great idea! He gets a slight discount at the Apple store because he's in school and after we went and looked at the pretty Macbooks in the Apple store, that tiny discount was enough to rationalize the purchase of the new toy. So we have a payment plan all worked out, and Neil has a beautiful new computer that he got to take home from the store last night. This is one of the first "big" things that Neil has bought all by himself, with his own money, so this was pretty exciting for him. I must admit that the shiny new toy makes my old, boring computer look very dull and unexciting and I am jealous. Maybe his computer needs a new, shiny friend? :)

While in the Apple store, I noticed some new software called "The recipe manager". I was instantly sold. For those of you who don't know, I like to plan all of our meals out in advance for the week, which means a lot of catalouging recipes, word documents and shopping lists. I have been doing all of this manually for years now, saving menus and cookbook lists in Word. It's a total pain, but must be done or we would not eat. If I don't have a plan, I'm hopeless. I'm not one of those people who can look at a bag of flour, a lemon and a head of lettuce and make a meal. So when I saw this software, claiming to hold all recipes in a database searchable by meal type, ingredient type, etc., I HAD to have it. Once you put together a menu, the program also generates shopping lists based on the menu that you have created, which is exportable to your ipod. COOL! So I guess I got a new toy as well. I didn't have time to put my recipes into it yet, but it looks really cool so far. I am excited to streamline my kitchen!

We had kind of a blah weekend. On Saturday, I experienced an "I hate San Francisco" day that consisted of bad bus ride, bad Safeway visit and laundry back at the laundrymat. We tried to go to the Soap Box derby on Sat., which sounded really fun. The bus ride to get there was REALLY long because it was on the other side of the city, and everyone else was trying to get there as well. When I finally got there (I was meeting Neil, who was coming from his studio), it was really crowded and you could only watch the cars on big-screen tv's - the course was too packed to get close enough to see anything. So, after standing and watching the tv for 30-40 minutes, we were totally bored and had had enough. So Neil headed back to his studio, which would take him over 2 hours to get back to (bus service was ridiculous b/c of the derby) and I headed back to our neighborhood. The bus ride home was a complete disaster. The buses were PACKED!! And I mean to the point of not being able to breathe. And, inevitably, when buses are packed like this, someone always has terrible B.O. And since we're all standing with our hands above our heads to hold onto the rails, the B.O. is right at nose-level. I had to breathe into my shoulder for most of the bus ride to try and avoid the smell. The bus that I was riding takes you through a poorer neighborhood, so it's kind of interesting to notice the changes in the types of people riding the bus as you get closer to my neighborhood. I think I've discovered a new function of some kind - the strength of the B.O. smell drops is a function of how close you are to my neighborhood. The closer the bus gets to where we live, the less the B.O. smell. The farther away, the worse it gets...

Anyways, by the time I got home and off the bus, it had been about an hour and I just couldn't get the B.O. smell out of my nostrils. It was just hanging with me. Maybe it was me... I don't know, but it was just so irritating. I stopped by the library to try and pick the day up by picking out some new books. I swear the smell was in there too! I just couldn't get away from it! So I took my books and headed for home. I needed to do laundry, but realized that I didn't have any portable laundry detergent or fabric softener, since I had been using Laundry Locker's services up til this point. So that required a trip to Safeway. Safeway, I learned, is PACKED at 5:00 on a Sat! I had to fight my way through numerous crowds, down numerous aisles to get about 3 things, then I had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to buy three said items... There are just so many PEOPLE in San Francisco!! Then another walk home to pick up laundry and head to the lovely, sparkling clean laundrymat. (please note the sarcasm in that sentence). Actually, it's not really that bad, I guess and it's a lot closer to my house than the laundry locker. So I only had to carry 25 pounds of laundry one block. And I only ended up spending about $13. So doing the laundry by myself has some advantages over having someone else do it for me. I'm learning...

I don't like to leave my laundry while it washes and dries, so I sat in the laundrymat and read, which was actually a good part of my day. It was quiet and there was the nice smell of laundry detergent, and the calming hum of the machines. I'm reading a book right now called "Deconstructing the Twinkie" which is about one man's quest to understand all the ingredients of a Twinkie, and where all the ingredients come from. It's actually a little disturbing - the chapter on flour goes on for pages - just flour! And the number of chemicals involved in making the flour that we eat is amazing - it includes chlorine! Yes, the same chlorine that is in bleach!! Yikes. I knew there was a reason that I never liked Twinkies!

While doing the laundry, I got a call from my friend Krista who I haven't spoken to since March, and this made the day all better. Even though it had been a long, smelly day of fighting crowds, it ended well with a great conversation with an old friend. Then Neil and I went out to dinner at this place called "Asqew Grill" that specializes in skewers. Chicken skewers, beef skewers, seafood skewers. That is their speciality. It was very good. I can see that my dining budget is going to have to increase. There are just too many good restaurants in close proximity to us!

Yesterday, Neil and I rode across the city to REI for a class on changing flats and cleaning your bike. There was also supposed to be a section on riding in S.F., which was what Neil was interested in - different routes, etc. - but it ended up being really short, with no real information. But the changing of flats was what I attended for. I haven't had a flat on my bike yet, and I bought it in April, so the longer I ride, the more terrified that I am that I will flat in the middle of nowhere and have no idea how to change it! So, this was a really necessary class. I am now perfectly equipped to change a flat by myself - no more worrying!

Then we rode to Sports Basement, back on our side of town, shopped for a little while, and by the time we got home, it was already 4:00. It was a really cold, overcast day and we were both pretty chilled at that point, so we turned on the heat dish and cooked ourselves in the apartment for awhile. Then Neil got to go buy his computer and I got my software and we spent the rest of the night just really vegging out. We were both so tired from all the riding. It was a nice, cozy evening. Sometimes you just need one of those.

Speaking of nice, cozy evenings - I'm having a little bit of a seasonal crisis. As in, there are no seasons here... My body is so in tune to the northwest seasons - Summer is July - mid September, fall is mid-September through Nov. Winter is Nov - March and Spring is Mar - June. This does not apply in San Francisco. Summer is never ending!! I can't believe I'm complaining about this, but my seasonal clock is SO out of whack. It's been summer now from July through October, and I've had enough. I had this book when I was little that had a story about it being Christmas year-round and how all the joy wears off of it after a few days. That's how I feel right now. I want some crisp mornings with a chill in the air, I want the beautiful foilage that should be out right now and I want some cool, foggy days where I can snuggle up inside and enjoy the warmth. I do not want any more 79 degree days and I've had enough sunshine. It is hibernation time, for goodness sakes! I need some time off - time to just eat and relax, you know? With all this sunshine and warmth, I feel guilty if I'm not outside making the most of it. So yesterday was very welcome! Unfortunately, the sun is back out today... I'm sure all of you in Portland are hating me for saying this and I'm sure I'll be eating my words come April, but for right now - GIVE ME FALL!!

I'll post the remainder of the story about the visit tomorrow.