Dismal

It will not stop raining.

Today's high was 59 degrees. The furnace kicked in.

I woke up chilled, with a stiff neck. If I sit down, I immediately doze off.

I couldn't get out into the increasingly weedy garden because it was pissing down relentlessly and will continue to do so for the entire weekend. All through the dark cold winter, I think about how hot and dry a Utah summer is and I can't wait for it to arrive. If I wanted this, I would have moved to Seattle. The weather is the same, but the politics are more my style.

Long Lost

Tired, so just a short post. I was sitting on the plane, coming home from San Francisco, and giving my wallet a bit of a sort-out. I reached into a little-used slot and pulled out £20. I was totally dumbfounded. Why did I have 20 quid in my wallet? Crisp, new bank bills. Then I remembered the £20 Simon had given me last year in England when I had asked for some cash. I KNEW I hadn't lost it. I KNEW I had put it someplace really safe!

'Kay. I'm Full

Chinatown.

After crunching numbers for nine solid hours, this was the only "bar graph" I was interested in looking at. Mine is second from the left. Obviously, I have the best retention.

Found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with the BEST damn Chinese I have ever eaten and a ton of attitude as well. People crammed in there any which way. I ordered Bao Bin Pork, and Mu Shu Chicken appeared. She set it down on the table and no one claimed it, since no one had ordered it. She came back in a minute:

This for you.

No. Not mine.

She went away and came back a few minutes later.

This for you.

I ordered the pork.

No. You eat this.

Well, I ordered pork, but I like chicken...

Good. You order this. Eat this.

It was good. I'm so STUFFED! I have to say that I am tired of food. And I am tired of data. But I am not tired of San Francisco.

Up to My Elbows in Crab, not Data...

...although the meeting wasn't too bad today. We were seated with the Samoans. Adult basic education is, as you might imagine, somewhat challenging when the students need to island-hop in order to get to class.

After 9 hours of number-crunching, the Utah, Montana and Alaska folks headed down to the waterfront. Here's where we had supper.

This back view is what I call the crab entrance. They got off the boats, go in the back door...

...and their legs end up here. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I have never eaten crab-meat still in the shell. My colleague from Juneau gets to experience this sort of maritime bliss on a regular basis and instructed me on the use of my shell cracker. I gave up trying to be dainty after a couple of minutes and just let the sauce run down my arms.


Then it was off to the Buena Vista for Irish coffees.

I need to come back here for a real vacation one of these days.

Arrived in San Francisco

You can smell the briny smell of the Bay, here. I can't wait to get down by the piers tomorrow. The hotel is antique, but restored in an interesting way. Check out my room.

Yeah, the coffee table and the nightstands are orange acrylic cubes. The armchair has two front legs, but then a wheel in the back, like a wheelbarrow.

All these huge mirrors!

Right downtown.

All Packed

Very late. Just a quick post. Off to San Francisco tomorrow for a conference on using data to make decisions about adult education program management. Are we excited yet? It's called "Diving Deep into Data". For three looooooong days. But, I have never been to San Francisco!

Before I travel, I always make a list of how I hope it will be. Or think it might be. Or whatever.

1. The hotel will be a groovy "boutique" hotel downtown, and I will be able to walk to the piers.
2. I will get to eat in Chinatown.
3. I will take some awesome pictures with my new camera (which I am transporting in my hot little hands the whole way. I almost bought it a seat of its own.)
4. I will find a place down by the Bay to go running. Or maybe I can get up to the Presidio, if I have enough time.
5. I will get a chance to pester the Utah Director of Adult Education about policies that drive me crazy that I think she ought to change. This is how I drive her NUTS when we travel together. It's a hobby...
6. I will find and purchase San Francisco-themed salt and pepper shakers (Si broke the handle on our pepper grinder the other night. It was only 16 years old...)

Gotta go to bed!

Alone, and Loving It!

I got to be alone again last night (Second time in two months! My kids must be growing up.) Here's what I did:

1. Took the time to go out and admire my irises.
2. Watered my pepper plants and talked aloud to the vegetable patch, as in, "Oh, my pwecious pets! Are mommy's little darlings thirsty?"
3. Blew off supper. Didn't cook; didn't eat. No time to cook! I was busy reading!
4. Read three chapters of Madame Bovary and two chapters of Lamb. Read Bovary aloud, so as to really soak it up. Reading aloud keeps me from rushing, but it's hard to do when people are home.
5. Bought Creamies and had a banana one late in the evening (so I guess that counts as supper?). Wondered if I looked erotic eating it. Thought that I would go find Si and eat it in a suggestive way while waggling my eyebrows at him. Realized he was not home. Missed him. Just for a second, though.
6. Painted my toenails a frightening shade of ...what would I call it..hot scarlet. Looked at the effect and thought that it looked cheap and tawdry. Added a sparkle top-coat. In for a penny, in for a pound.
7. Took a bath. Lay perfectly still in the bath. Enjoyed the fact that, since I have cut my hair short, I can rest my head against the back of the tub without the clip poking my head.
8. Read more Bovary until I dropped off.