Frog and Goat

This is probably the last San Fran post unless something is either totally amazing or completely pisses me off.

Here’s the obligatory photo from my window:

It looks just like that at 4 and 5 in the morning since I’ve been up at both of those times. Time-shifting is hard.

If you have ever been to San Francisco, then you know when a cable car is coming. Did you know the cables are in the street and pull the cars along? I waited in the window to give you this shot:

I knew the fun had to end, but I didn’t expect zero of it from 8:30-6:30 today. It was a slow day at the exhibit hall.

Yep, I’m (wo)manning a portion of the company booth in an exhibit hall for most of this week.

The best part happened at 5:30 when the wine bottles popped open:

We’re in California and it would be a shame to not sample a glass of free wine. By the time the wine bottles opened, my colleague and I had definitely earned a glass–or maybe we just endured it to earn it.

A bunch of Superman wannabes getting ready to take off:

And there’s Coit Tower in the distance:

The Rock is in the distance:

A better shot of Alcatraz:

Since I accepted that I am, in fact, a tourist, I went to a popular spot:

It wouldn’t be our garden without some troubles.

This garden is pretty empty:

First the cucumber died, then all but one green bean plant kicked it and now the acorn squash is dying off. It looks like we have an infestation of cucumber beetles. Just laid down some chemical death. RIP buggies. The grape tomatoes seem to be thriving.

The other garden is a riot of life with only the cilantro plant calling it quits.

You’ll notice both gardens are covered in netting. There are too many hungry birds in the backyard and the netting has stopped us from losing any more tomatoes. After the fifth tomato hanging on the branch with half of it missing, we laid down the law.

Our entree for dinner tonight is the same as the first meal I cooked for the better-half. It’s funny that we remember that meal so well. The only thing that’s vague is the starch side dish, but the entree, vegetable and wine are firmly in both of our memories.

The entree came out of a cookbook from the bookstore I worked in when I graduated from college. The entree can be considered my first adult dish. That go-to dish everyone should have according to Them. Whoever they are.

It’s called dilly chicken breasts and it is dead simple. Mayo, sour cream, fresh lemon juice, garlic, dried dill (I used fresh tonight) and salt and pepper. Bake until done and eat.

As I was whipping up the sauce we talked about cooking as single people. Neither of us did much of that – I probably did more of that than he did. Mostly because I had no money and it wasn’t anything fancy.

When we first met we ate out all the time. His first dish for me was a chicken and walnut stir fry recipe from his uncle. We still have the recipe and it has lots of instruction along with the ingredients. He had never cooked for anyone before. I guess courtship does things for people.

We celebrated the holiday on Saturday instead of Friday like everyone else. I took this picture before folks arrived:

When the trumpet sounds, it will be Diana Ross singing us home. No. lie.

I only have a blurry picture but that’s really Diana.

I’m on a 3 day weekend. Yay!

It started with the hula woman:

She hula’d for at least 2 hours straight.

Then there was the very long coal train that partially interrupted Neko Case:

The weekend is just getting started.