Bay Bridge
On my commute home the other day, I noticed that part of the old Bay Bridge was gone! 
Crazy!
the kindness of strangers
On Friday afternoon, I came home from work, packed up the kid and her stuff, and headed back out to Oakland for a little Happy Hour with co-workers. When we transferred between Muni and BART, the escalator that does down to the train platform was out of service. That meant we’d have to walk down two flights of stairs together with the stroller. So, I packed everything up, folded the stroller, and took Kumquat by the hand. We didn’t take more than 4 steps before a nice man behind me offered to take the stroller down for me. It was so helpful because then I was able to pick up Kumquat and carry her down the stairs at a quicker pace. I thanked the nice guy and we went our separate ways.
When our train arrived, it was packed with commuters heading out of the city. I had Kumquat in one arm and the stroller in my other hand. Once we squeezed our way in, I found a nice spot for us to stand, held the strap hanging from the bar above me, and straddled the stroller to keep it from tipping onto someone’s legs. Before the train even moved, a nice lady got up and gave me her seat. She was too far in the crowd for me to make it over there without plowing a few people over so I declined. Then a lady behind me kindly said, “You should go and I’ll take the stroller over for you.”
Wow, people can be pretty nice sometimes. Or I must have looked really pathetic. Either way, we were snuggled safely in seat amongst the crowd of commuters heading under the bay and down 4 stops to Rockridge Station. And thanks to some very nice strangers, we arrived safely and comfortably and made it to our destination without delay or injury. We also had a nice time at Happy Hour but the ride into Oakland was the most memorable part of the evening. Thank goodness the trains on the way back into the city were super empty.
Second Dinner
We joke about Kumquat being a hobbit since she’s always begging for some of our dinner after she’s already eaten hers. Maybe we’re a FAMILY of hobbits considering what we did tonight. This evening around 8:30, Jia texted to say that her landlord (a crab fisherman) dropped off two live crabs. She didn’t know what to do with them so she actually drove them up to SF and dropped them off to us.
They came in a cardboard box and looked dead.
Jes put one in the sink and as soon as he turned the water on, it started to move around! Creeeeepy.
Here’s a video of the poor guy trying to stay alive.
He steamed them while I went out to pick up a bottle of white wine, lemons, and butter.
When I got home, one was cooked and the other was waiting in the sink for his turn.
We ate the smaller crab tonight at 9:30 after we had just finished dinner around 7:30.
This is a true picture of gluttony. The two of us just sat there quietly cracking, dipping, and eating while the kid slept in her bed. Freshly steamed live crab really is tasty – especially when it’s free.
I took apart the larger crab and got this much meat out of it. I think it’s at least 3 cups of crab meat. We’ll have to figure out what to make for dinner tomorrow. Crab fried rice? Crab cakes? Mmm. Mm.
Friday Commute
When I left for work on Friday morning, I heard the traffic report just as I was going up the on-ramp to the bridge. They reported an overturned SUV just before Treasure Island and to expect long delays. Just a minute before, I had 3 emergency vehicles pass me. No wonder. Luckily my on-ramp is already on the bridge so I didn’t have to fight the 101 back-up. I stayed on the far right lane and we all just crept along smoothly with all the action happening on the far left. My commute to work usually takes only 15-20 minutes and traffic is typically light so the fewer number of cars having to squeeze by really helped. 
As I approached the scene at a snail’s pace, I got a clear view of the accident. Crazy. In the 7 years I’ve been driving to work, this has not yet happened on my commute. How do you flip your car in such a narrow roadway anyway?! Fortunately, I was only about 10 minutes late to work just in time to join Stephanie for our Greasy Food Friday breakfast.
On my way home, there was another accident at the 280-101 interchange so my westbound commute on the bridge was slower than usual. What a crazy Friday. It’s just funny to think this is a heavy traffic day for me (10-minute delay both ways). I’m pretty lucky right now and I certainly do not miss LA traffic.
I love the Olympics.
I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics online and the same 3-4 commercials come on all the time. One of them is this one about a woman who is a full-time mom and full-time Olympic athlete training for the skeleton event at the Sochi Games.
I looked her up and her story is pretty crazy. She missed the 2006 Torino Games because of a freak accident involving a bobsled that crashed into her at practice and broke her leg in multiple places. Then she got back to training in time for 2010 in Vancouver and lost the bronze medal by 0.10 seconds. She then retired to be a mom and had a second child. She later became pregnant with #3 but then miscarried at 18 weeks. Whoa. After that happened, she and her husband had a long talk and decided they’d get her back in training. Her husband even designed and made her skeleton sled (works for a steel manufacturing company). She trained early in the morning, took care of the kids during the day, and then trained more after they went to bed. That’s some dedication and stamina! Sliding down a icy course head first and on your stomach on a tiny sled is not something you can do when you’re exhausted from a full day!
Anyway, after all that, she went to the 2014 games and won silver yesterday. Here’s a link to the article. I’m officially inspired.
Somewhere to Sit and Sleep
Our new couch arrived this morning. It was a little stressful trying to coordinate with the shipping company this morning but it made it upstairs. Unfortunately, “they just dropped off the box and boned out.” That’s what Jes said. I’m not sure how he did it but Jes actually took it out of the box, assembled it, and put it in the spot I cleared for it all on his own. It’s leather, has no sharp corners, it’s easy to clean, and converts to a twin-sized bed by folding the backs down to flatten it out. It’s just what we needed. Boy, slowly our house is getting furnished by Costco. First our bedroom set, then Kumquat’s shelf system, and now this.
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