This is all over the place. Sorry for the lack of a unifying theme. Not all blog posts will be gems.

Sure, we 're having record-breaking heat today (as it's supposed to be 82 degrees in SF), but we got nothing on Mankato, Minnesota. From today's SF Chronicle:


Wow! 91 degrees on November 14 in Mankato, Minnesota! Oddly, the website of the Mankato Free Press doesn't mention this weather anomaly at all. Instead, it discusses the ChiliFest (success), the Campus Kitchen program (going strong!), the "Gusties" (ending the 2010 season with a win), and "businessman's LSD" (i.e., drug bust turns up a pound of DMT, whoa).

That change in weather must be even more shocking, given that it's 28 degrees in Mankato today. And you thought our temperature swings were bad!

ANYWAY. Couple of things from the weekend:

- Can't recommend Barbacco highly enough. Wow, really fantastic food, excellent service, not too expensive. We sat at the bar and were attended by Gretchen, who looks sort of like Catherine Keener with blonde hair and was totally helpful and nice and everything else. Make reservations, though. Some people standing behind us (we were seated at the bar near the door) were waiting half an hour, easy.

- Went back to Burritt Room for the second time in three days. It's a little different on Friday night. First of all, maybe not so surprisingly, it was pretty fucking packed. Second of all, also probably not surprisingly, it was packed with decked-to-the-nines Marina girls ordering vodka sodas, despite the presence of a thoughtful, interesting cocktail list. Oh well. Man, they wear a lot of perfume, don't they? If you're into Marina girls, though, this is the place. The Female to Male ratio was like 2 to 1.

- I know "Marina girls" is a stereotype and a well-worn trope and so forth, but at least the New York Times isn't writing boring, self-parodic pieces about What Being a Marina Girl really means.