Browse Author: beakatude

A Day with My Bike

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I went for a bike ride with some friends to Sausalito. At 9:30 am, Ryan was waiting downstairs for me and we took off. I was a little shaky at first since I hadn’t ridden my bike in over a year so the clips, gears, and I all had to get reacquainted. We rode along The Embarcadero, through Fisherman’s Wharf, through Fort Mason, and over to the Bangs’ in the Marina. Then we rode up to the Golden Gate Bridge where there was a steep climb to the start of the bridge and then it was smooth sailing over the bridge. It was a beautiful day in SF with the sun shining and slightly cooler temps than yesterday.

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Once we got over the bridge, we rode down the hill to Sausalito. It was ALL downhill and I was going superfast…scary fast. At the Sausalito Ferry Station, we met up with Michelle, Jack, and Amy and then headed over to Fred’s Coffee Shop for some brunch. They believe in table sharing so the 6 of us had to share a round table with a pair of two annoying fellas. Fortunately for us, they sat down towards the end of our meal and I had a fantastic meal of pancakes, sausage, and hashbrowns. It was just enough fuel for the ride back.

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On our way back through town, I lost my footing while trying to make a curb stop and bailed in the street. It wasn’t my most graceful moment and I guess it’s not a successful riding day if you don’t come home with a little road rash on your knee. At least I wasn’t the only one. Bang actually bailed earlier on our way to brunch and he suffered a harder fall and a bigger boo-boo on his knee. After almost deciding to take the ferry back to the city, I mustered up enough energy and motivation to get myself back up the hill to the bridge. It was a long climb and I made it – bloody knee and all.

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Once we got back to SF, the Bangs went home and Ryan and I took off for a second adventure. We rode through the Presidio (yes, more hills) and over to Michelle’s friend’s house in the Richmond District to pick up the car they had been borrowing. That’s where I got a taste of city riding with having to stop at traffic lights and watching for cars. At about 2:30 pm, Ryan and I logged a total of 20 miles and we were exhausted. Taking the car ride home was awesome.

Here are photos from today’s adventure.

Cupcakes and Tootsie Pops

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Last night we went to The Gallery Lounge for a double 30th birthday celebration for Kevin and Regina. Jenn reserved the entire bar for the party and they managed to fill it up and then some. The place is your usual dive bar and they actually don’t charge rent for reserving the place for the private party. All they ask is that you and your guests cover the tab for the night, which I think they managed to do as well.

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The night was very warm and it felt like we were in Southern California again.  Jenn baked 100 cupcakes for the party and had bowls of Tootsie Pops out for everyone to enjoy. It was fun hanging out with everyone and luckily the walk home was easy.

Muni loves me.

p1010892.jpgRiding public transporation in the morning is usually a quiet, somber ride with everyone hiding behind their newspapers, furiously typing on their Blackberrys, sleeping, or staring into space with their iPods on. However, there are two trains that I can take to the BART station and they each give off a different “vibe”. First there’s the N-Train, which starts just down the street and usually carries a bunch of people in suits or scrubs on their way to the Financial District or UCSF Medical Center. The second is the KT-Train, which starts in the ghetto, goes through the Financial District, and then ends in the ghetto on the other side of town and usually transports people from the projects. It’s also very crowded, often littered, tagged all over, and just plain sucks.

Anyway, I’ve somehow managed to catch the same 7:40 KT-Train every day this week, which has made my morning commute a little more of a pain in the butt. However, there has been a silver lining in this. The driver of this particular train is someone worth writing about. Typically on any of the trains, the driver will usually announce the next stop. For example, “next stop, Folsom”. It’s helpful, brief, and impersonal. It’s good. Well, this particular driver has come from a different planet. It’s like he’s at Disneyland or something because he talks to us like we’re VIPs on a tour of San Francisco. Today, in his heavy Hispanic (I think) accent, he said, “The next stop is Embarcadero Station. Thank you for riding the KT line. I hope you have a wonderful, beautiful, fan-TAstic day and I will see you tomorrow again on the KT line at the same time on the same train. Remember that Muuuuni loves you and I love you. Thank you for being such good passengers and don’t forget you belongings.” Haha. I can’t help but smile. In fact, even some of the thugs couldn’t help give a chuckle or give a confused look to the guy standing in front of him. He’s done this every day this week, which makes me think that Mr. Muni is making somewhat of an impact in his seemingly mundane job. If he can make a sleepy thug smile, he’s doing a good job. Keep it up, Mr. Muni.

Zip it up!

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I took a second sewing class today that involved sewing a zipper and ending up with a nifty bag for toiletries or whatever else you want to store. This project was much more complicated than the pillow I made last week but was still very do-able.

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I chose three different fabrics (red, dots, and corduroy), used interfacing to give the fabric some stiffness, made a handle, made an inner liner (still needs to be handsewn later), and used some contrasting thread for my top stitching detail. I tried to find a “snazzy” fabric combination so that I could give it to Brother but this may not be what he had in mind. It was the best combination that I was comfortable with. Everything else was either a solid color or had a flower print on it. I guess I may have to keep this one for myself…that is unless you still want it, Brother.

Vote!!

Snapfish is having a photo contest and I submitted two photos of Koa.

Click on each of the photos and give it a rating of 5 stars.  Voting ends on Sunday, April 13th.  Tell your friends! 🙂

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This one is under the category of “best friends”.

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This one is under the category of “baby pets”.

Sunday Supper

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Sunday evenings are probably my least favorite part of the week. The anticipation of having to go back to work on Monday is not a fun experience. Luckily, we’ve been able to distract ourselves by cooking a big supper with friends just about every other week. So far, we’ve been into a very “whitey” theme. It was pot roast one night, then corned beef and cabbage, and now beef stew tonight. It’s sort of a challenge that we have going with Ryan and Michelle to see who can “out-white” the other. I’m looking forward to the possibility of meatloaf or chicken pot pie one of these Sundays. Yum yum!

Anyway, this evening, we went over to the Sokol-Juns a little earlier than usual so that Jes could make a big fat mess in their kitchen instead of ours. That was a total win on our part. Ryan also made his first attempt at a chocolate and peanut butter soufflé, which I enjoyed. Meanwhile, Jack got to eat his oatmeal with molasses and got some of our mashed potato at the dinner table. He’s such a funny little guy who LOVES to eat already at just 5 months of age. He’s probably the happiest and most enthusiastic when there’s food coming at him. It was a lot of fun to watch a normal kid learning to eat. I need to to videotape him one of these days to use as a training video for the parents I work with.