Blog

The signs of seasonal change in SF are a bit more subtle than in a four-season climate. But one sure sign is when the summer colors are removed from urban flower beds and replaced with “fall colors”. Appropriately, the flower bed pictured above is situated between a Starbucks, Peets, and Tully’s…all of which have removed their summer drinks with “fall drinks” of pumpkin.

Of course, you can always mark your calendars by the start of the fall TV season. At least one highlight for us…this week, we caught the season premier of “The Office”, which has turned out be one of the most consistently enjoyable shows. (An up-and-coming second favorite is “30 Rock”…which I find amazingly funny.)

On Sunday afternoon, we ate lunch at the Park Chalet, where Golden Gate park meets Ocean Beach. This sunny restaurant is a recent expansion of the popular Beach Chalet. The Park Chalet has a very casual, festive feel…with breezy indoor and outdoor seating. This afternoon, there was a live jazz trio entertaining.

After lunch, we zipped across the street to the beach to see the crowd enjoying the late afternoon sun. I particularly liked the tie-dye salesman (below) with his “magic bus”.

This week, I spent a few short days in northern Virginia. As with most of my trips to VA recently, I ended up spending most of my time working virtually with west coast folks. Nevertheless, I did get to catch up with some of my coworkers from across the country. I always enjoy that camaraderie.

An unexpected highlight of the trip was an invitation to watch an MLS soccer game at RFK Stadium. The matchup was D.C. United hosting Chivas USA. (I don’t pretend to fully understand the story, but it seems that Chivas is a former Mexican team from Guadalajara that was transplanted to Los Angeles…kinda like the Baltimore Colts packing up and moving Indianapolis, Mexico.) Anyhow, my work buddies Josh and Mark–in the center of the photo below–invited me to join them and another of their season ticket friends to see the game, which was chock full of energy, sound, and color.

(Thanks guys!!)

As James mentioned in one of his posts this week, I did get to VA a day earlier than anticipated and was able to visit with James and Ginger a bit out at the Estate. The TV may have been un-notable, but I sure appreciated the conversation. Oh, and yes, I did get to try out their Wii, and play some Wii Sports bowling and baseball. I certainly wasn’t a NATURAL at either game, but what an innovative concept…no wonder they are flying off the shelves.

Unfortunately, the McLean Hilton–like most hotels I seem to land in–can be a bit sterile. Now…if they would just put a Wii in every room!!

By the way, a note to United Airlines and their advertising partner NBC: “You have already reduced the size of aircraft to fill every last seat, made upgrades nearly impossible to find, and even taken away the tiny bag of “party mix” you served with drinks. At least provide me with distracting entertainment. That does NOT mean producing an in-flight show advertising NBC’s exciting fall lineup…and then showing it three times during the flight. That just pisses me off, and it still won’t make me watch “Chuck”…which you showed 2.5-times during the flight.”

Jeff and I were running errands in the Marina and decided to drive through the Presidio and Lands End to have lunch at the Legion of Honor museum–a little gem focusing on European art, including its popular Rodin sculpture collection. Along the way, we stopped at China Beach…a tiny, tucked-away cove in the Seacliff neighborhood. It was a gray day, so there wasn’t much activity on the beach…just a few isolated folks, like this girl feeding the birds.

I think in the next scene, she catches them and pops their heads off.

The Legion of Honor uses the same food concessionaire as the de Young museum…one of our favorite lunch spots…so the menu is small, but organic and tasty. I tried this yummy Asian salad.

A tip of my cap to a brave coworker who was bold enough to grab a wedge of blue cheese from a communal cheese platter–the entire wedge, mind you–and to dip the aforementioned wedge into a cup of ketchup…twice.

The look of disgust on his face was classic. The looks of surprise around the rest of the table were priceless.

I suppose you never know where the next great food trend will come from!

FYI, I'm happy to report that tonight's pot roast turned out wonderfully. I mashed up a tried-and-true, crowd-pleasing recipe from Jeff's mom with some tasty additions from Emeril. The result was easy, but with some punch…primarily from the ten cloves of garlic I buried into crevices in the meat.

The wine was nicely complimented by an Australian red wine that Chris brought us from his recent trip down under.