Sunday, September 26, 2021
A lazy, enjoyable football Sunday with Alice's chickens. They're getting bigger by the day!
Meanwhile, it appears as though my Fantasy team is going 3-0. That's the best start I've had in years. Amazing, considering how bad my team was last year. It paid off to put in some effort this year. Let's see how long this can last.
Saturday, January 25, 2021
Austin and Hannah took me and Alice out to breakfast on Clement Street, at a place called Eats. Wow, it was good!
The fog and gray skies were really getting to us, so we broke free of the Sunset and headed to Los Altos to visit Elaine for the afternoon. We hung out in her garden, then walked to an Arts and Wine Festival downtown. I had chicken satay and lemonade, with tea and dessert.
Afterward, we headed back to Elaine's house, then went to her favorite Thai restaurant for dinner. It was exceptional, especially the fried fish dish. So good!
We drove home afterward. Such a fun day hanging out in Los Altos.
Friday, September 24, 2021
At Richard and Lisa's after work for a little hang time with Don and TJ, neighborhood dad friends of Richard's. With Philly cheesesteaks, Don's cocktails and homemade cookies from TJ's wife, we had a nice night in the back yard, chatting about all topics great and small. It was a treat hearing some of TJ's stories about his underground motorcyle racing days. Apparently, he's a legend in the underground circuit.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Evergrande is in the news...is this the first big default that will create a default domino effect? It's sounds huge.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Up at 5:30 for our 6 a.m. racquetball race meeting. Dorian had a lot of energy and facilitated a great one-hour meeting today. We talked about our Monday meeting with Rashidah and our desire to connect and perhaps talk with school about the issues that have come up for us. The discussions are still very real and meaningful.
I spoke with Murry today. Hi Murry! I'm delighted that she's moving on in a new and exciting direction professionally. I have no doubt she will be successful in her new position and will immediately fall in love with DocXTools!
Alice came over by BART and we had dinner with Richard and Lisa at 6, picking up our favorite items from Lin Jia. Oh, so good! And there was ice cream for dessert. Yum yum yum! We stayed until 8:30, then it was time for bed.
Alice and I watched a couple episodes of a show on NetFlix that Patrick and Soren enjoyed...Kim's Convenience. Very Alice friendly. It's a Canadian show. Harmless enough.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Poker study in preparation for another week in Vegas in early November. Cash games and also tournament play. This book is waiting for me at the library:
Monday, September 20, 2021
Busy Monday. Special Monday meeting with my racquetball elders. We had a special guest, Rashidah Grinash met with us from 5-6, talking about police reform and accountability. She's dedicated her life to this cause. It was wonderful meeting her.
Chicks are doing well. I stayed up late watching the news. Trudeau remains in power.
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Quick Target visit in the morning, then home to take care of the chicks and watch a little football. Kind of a do-nothing day. The weather was perfect and hanging out in the back yard was so enjoyable.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
Spent the afternoon in Redwood City visiting Soren and Patrick at their house. It was cool and not too sunny, but still warm enough to sit outside. They're going on a cruise in late April up and down the California Coast. We may join them. It's seven days long, and if the rumors are true that the wi-fi situation has noticeably improved, perhaps I can work a day or two on the cruise ship. That is my dream situation after all!
Friday, September 17, 2021
Not too busy today, allowing me time to catch up on things. Alice's chicks are growing!
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Racquetball in the a.m. after a late night last night. Managed to clear a busy in-box today, then spent an hour or so studying poker and a Masterclass video or two. Gearing up for another week of poker in November with Thom. Work by day, poker by night.
Wednesday, Septmeber 15, 2021
In SF today so that I could make the drive to Half Moon Bay and the Ritz Carlton to meet Michael Bell for dinner. He and his friend Jarimir climbed half dome earlier in the week and are now resting and recovering at this five-star resort.
Traffic was a breeze and I arrived at the resort around 6:15 p.m. We walked along the beach and edge of the golf course, then had a delicious meal. All so good! It was great seeing Michael and catching up.
The drive back home along Hwy 92 and 35 in fog and busy traffic was a bit nervewracking, but I made it home safe and sound.
Monday, September 13, 2021
A warm, sunny morning in Oakland. Alice and I went to Noah's for breakfast, then Starbuck's then she left for SF after traffic died down. I spent the day taking care of items on my to-do list: dental issue that is still unresolved, Stir Fry as diversity training for HB, and looking into Contract proofreading software.
Recall is tomorrow. I hope it's a blowout!
Sunday, September 12, 2021
We headed out to Oakland in the early afternoon for a party at Richard & Lisa's for Sophie, who leaves for college next week. Sophie requested fried chicken for dinner. Good choice! Lisa makes the best fried chicken!
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Twenty years ago today...shocking to believe.
Spent the day clearing space in the back yard for the Omlet Eglu. After leveling an area and going to Home Dept for mulch, I spent the rest of the day putting the Eglu together. Looks pretty cool!
Monday, September 6, 2021
Labor Day was fulld of labor in the garden. 5 and a half bags of leaves and branches were gathered up and stuffed inside big Home Dept garden bags. This was all in preparation for the eglu chicken coop that Alice ordered. Oh she's looking forward to her four chickens. She'll name them Vivaldi Spring, Vivaldi Summer, Vivaldi Fall, Vivaldi Winter. She's been talking chickens for years. It's about time that she's getting them. Once she saw the eglu, she was all in.
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Up at 7, haircut at 9, then to Chinatown with Alice to pick up rolls and bread for her parents at their favorite bakery on Stockton. We had lunch on Jackson at a regular Vietnamese place Alice frequented when she worked nearby. After lunch, we hit Costco for lamb chops and a jar of Vital Proteins Collagen.
Got a text from Thom. He's playing a few events in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas the first week in November with the same VIP setup, three days at Bellagio and four days at the Venetian. He wanted to know if I could join him. We'll see. I could work during the day from my hotel room and play cards at night. Tickets are super cheap and as long as I keep winning, Alice is fine with me going. I like it!
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Helped Alice with her garden this morning, then we went to San Mateo for Ramen and sun.
Went to Hillsdale Mall for dessert and a walk-through of Old Navy.
Bought two t-shirts with Yellowstone and Crater Lake. Came home and talked with Jill about a visit to NC in early December. Looking good! Haven't been there in a few years. Had a yummy dinner, then read and did some computer-related activities until bed.
Friday, September 3, 2021
Office closed early today at 3. Planning a trip to North Carolina to visit Jill and her family in early December. Prices are good to fly right now. I think they're going down because of the Delta variant. It's $300 round trip from SFO to Raleigh, $1,000 first class. That's not bad at all.
Okay, I need to plow through the last half of the Frederick Douglas bio I've been reading this year because it's due last week.
Watched a movie on HBO before bed: Black Death. Loved the atmosphere and the acting was good. A couple of interesting ideas and scary Blair Witch moments, but the last 40 minutes were something of a stretch. Not sure we needed all the gratuitous medeival violence, but I guess those were the times back then. Worth a watch if you're into middle age death pandemics.
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Had my fantasy football draft tonight. I've had my Polysuades team since 1996, so there's no dropping it, even though I don't watch football anymore. I paid attention for five rounds, then had a family zoom call and only drafted players who no one would choose. I'll reassemble my team before game day.
More chaos and destruction, now in NY City and surrounding areas. My goodness.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Better today, but out in the world there's so much destruction and chaos. Wow. What is going on? Oh wait...didn't Al Gore warn us about this 20 years ago? And he was laughed at? Who's laughing now?
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
I slept until 10 a.m. and felt out of sorts the rest of the day. There were other small jobs that came in. I did half of them and will do the others tomorrow. I went to bed early and slept all night long.
Monday, August 30, 2021
The day began innocently enough. Louanne and I walked to the ocean, stopping at Andytown for coffee on our way back. It was cool and cloudy. Before they left, we had egg mcmuffins and watermelon. I took a work call in the morning about a large mail merge project before seeing them off. The project then took on a life of its own, and by 3:30 p.m. I knew it was going to be a late night. The mail merge needed to be run tonight. There were 9 form file documents that needed to be assembled. The problem was the Excel data file was not yet complete. Other Excel documents needed to be brought in. Of course, each Excel document was different from the mail document. There were 151 names total in the mail Excel doc, but the names were different in the other spreadsheets. The data file was fully assembled until 9:30 p.m., and even then, there were inaccuracies. I didn't finish this project until 5 a.m. the next morning. It was ridiculous. I've never pulled an all-nighter at work before. I don't recommend them.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
We were up at 7:30 and had egg McMuffins and lattes before leaving for the Van Gogh event at 9. We arrived at 9:30 and went on it. It wasn't crowded at all. The exhibit reminded me of the Light Museum Alice and I visited in Tokyo. This wasn't as dazzling as the light museum, but it was still wonderful and fun!
Saturday, August 28, 2021
We spent the morning and afternoon preparing for L&L's visit. They arrived at 4:20. We had dinner outside with the heating lamp on. We started off with mojitos before dinner, then had ribs, shrimp, veges, rice, a really good red wine that Leo brought over, and ice cream and watermelon for dessert. Such a nice evening!
Tomorrow, we head out to South of Market for the Van Gogh exhibit.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Spent the day working and prepping the Airbnb for Leo and Louanne's visit tomorrow. I took down my temporary work space, vacuumed, dusted. We'll finished the rest of the cleanup tomorrow.
Ordered take out from a restaurant off 43rd Ave. It was good.
Looking forward to the Van Gogh Immersion Exhibit on Sunday.
