Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The long, long, long weekend

Hi everyone! It's been a while, I know. That's because I took a few days off work and God knows I can't be bothered to blog if I'm not at work. At the risk of boring the fuck out of you, here's what happened:

On Thursday we went to the 12:45 pm Giants game. It was terrible. Once Barry Zito gave up four runs in the first inning, it was pretty much all over. BUT it was actually really sunny and nice and it's always pleasant to sit in the sun and drink some beers while other people exercise in front of you. One dubious decision we made, though, was to walk to the game from our house in the Inner Richmond. Now, it's about 5 miles away and we're both in pretty good shape but The Wife was wearing Chucks which don't exactly offer a lot of foot support and by the time we reached Townsend and 9th (which is like 90% of the way there), she had become (as she will freely admit) somewhat grumpy and I probably wasn't helping but the upshot of the whole thing was that we made it in time and whatever.

Then afterward we couldn't find a cab and we didn't really want to deal with Muni so we saw a town car cruising around and paid him $40 flat to take us home. (I don't know if this is just a San Francisco thing or not, but here you see black town cars that sometimes just aimlessly drive around and then pick people up, like cabs, except they're not cabs and they don't have meters and you negotiate your fare with the driver and I think the whole thing is unlicensed and shady but it still is the best option sometimes.)

On Friday we went to Costco. We just became members. It was my first time in a Costco. Wow, I had no idea. All the jokes about the gallon-sized mayonnaises and 64-roll packs of paper towels are true. We kind of aimlessly wandered around because we don't really NEED anything and we ended up buying a case of Pellegrino and a few bottles of wine and champagne and 1000 Ziploc bags and 2 watermelons and some other stuff. Mostly because once you get in there you feel like buying shit all of the sudden.

On Saturday we went to eat at Broken Record. BR is this dive bar with a kitchen in the back that everyone raves about. In what is either the best thing or the worst thing that can happy to you, Guy Fieri dropped by and put it on his show.



Anyway, we had been hearing about how great this place was and finally decided to go check it out. It was OK. The Wife had the crawfish grits, which also came with house-made sausage and was probably the best thing any of us had. Tom had the lobster mac and cheese which was good? I guess? And I had the pork tenderloin sandwich which also came with a thick slice of heirloom tomato and the tomato overpowered the taste of the pork, oddly. It was still good though.

One moment of panic that also explains a little about the crowd here: We're hanging out at a table by the front door when The Wife suddenly gets up in a panic and says "There's a guy with a huge snake by the door" and bolts for the back room. I should explain that The Wife has a serious snake phobia. So I look out the window and there's a guy in a wife beater with a shaved head and what looks like a full complement of prison tattoos and curled around his shoulders and torso is a large dark green snake. It appears that the door person at the bar has told him he can't come in with his python or boa constrictor or whatever which seems like a sensible policy, given that I've seen at least two chihuahua mixes wandering around since we've been there and those are probably Good Eats for a snake like that. Anyway, the guy seemed to take it in stride and didn't stab anyone or unleash his snake on the crowd.

On Sunday we had brunch at our house because it was The Wife's birthday. If you know anything about how we do brunch, you know how this ended up: 5 full bags of recycling and a lot of conversations I don't remember.

Yesterday we laid on the couch and watched Food Network and HGTV for about 6 hours.

5 comments:

  1. Snakes are pretty chill. There's no danger they're going to eat anyone's dog or toddler in a crowded, noisy place like that. The less scary, but more realistic objection would be that snakes can carry salmonella (as can turtles and lizards), so it's not a great idea for people to be handling them in an area where people are eating. BTW, my ex-boyfriend has a snake phobia and when he first moved to Chicago we visited the Shedd Aquarium and he found it VERY difficult to get near the anaconda enclosure, even though he was standing six feet away and the snake was behind 3-inch glass. Phobias are hilarious! :)

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  2. TK, you should definitely get the Uber app if you have a smartphone. It's how you hire those black Lincoln towncars in a much easier, safer way than negotiating rates ahead of time. Unless there's a taxi directly in front of me, I just use the Uber app. It's a better experience and safer than taking a taxi, too (record of everything).

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  3. I'm bummed that you guys didn't have the amazing Broken Record food experience. I love their bacon burgers. Oh, and the bar has a great selection of bourbon and beer.

    I have warm, fuzzy feelings for that place, because that's where my husband and I had our first date.

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  4. GG -

    Oddly, the snakes behind glass in the Academy of Sciences don't bother her that much, but snakes out in the world are a different story.

    Scurvy -

    I've used Uber before (on someone else's account) and liked it but thought it was expensive. I guess I should just have the app anyway.

    Sonia -

    It was perfectly nice, and the bartender was super-friendly, but I can't see trekking all the way out there again.

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  5. Yeah, I'm about to take a few days off myself. I've been asking Mr. Cabrera to work out for a while now and suddenly he has all this time. Not sure why we're meeting at a doctor's office instead of a gym, but when in Rome... What, too soon?

    You guys are quite the explorers! I'm pretty sure if you go to the Excelsior and see a snake, it counts as a safari. The Wife gets off pretty easy; my mask phobia is a lot harder to deal with in this costume-happy town.

    Btw, it would be way too preachy to suggest a nice bike ride to the game, right? If anything, it's a way to feel self-righteous when you compare parking prices with your rowmates...

    As for BR, I've been a fan in the past, but now that Guy Fieri has been there, I'll just taste hairgel in everything. Same thing happened last weekend at Louis' Basque Corner in Reno. Alas...

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