October 2, 2006

Tonight, there's only you tonight!

We pick up the apartment key tonight!! As wonderful as it's been to stay with friends we enjoy, I'm looking forward to having my own space to organize. It's been hard not to have a permanent home. Of course, after seeing Darfour photos recently, I feel like a spoiled American as I whine about not being settled...

After tonight, I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have for the rest of the week. I did discover on my last trip that people here in NoCal don't believe in free internet access. Starbucks has a subscription room for wireless, the library had 15 minutes free for 'guests', and the bookstores don't seem to have cafes. Seattle this is not. Therefore, until I hook up the apartment, I may not be able to tell you much about it.

A bit of randomness:

Muttola has finally recovered from a case of limber tail syndrome. We think that playing in Pyramid Lake and then sleeping in the car messed her up for the weekend. It was so sad, yet funny, to watch her try to play and then whip around to nudge her flaccid tail.

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Our friends are both Taiwanese. While driving to dinner the other night, Mr. J commented he'd forgotten to switch to his contacts so he could see better. O offered to drive for him. In the back seat Jrex grinned, "Cool, we can have a Chinese fire-drill". I glared at him mockingly, "That's terrible!" He looked confused, then chagrined, "Why? Oh, because they ARE Chinese?"

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Found out yesterday that there is a fantastic farmer's market at the Mountain View CalTrain station. I'll be two blocks from the Menlo Park CalTrain, so it will be easy to hop down two stops and get fresh produce. Mmmmm....sage honey! $3 Pancetta. Pluots.

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The food here has been fantastic. So far we've had Vietnamese noodles, then Vietnamese Pho, Japanese 'tapas' and Mexican burritos (complete with South of the Border pacing as the waiters all watched futbol). Most exotic of all, we were introduced to InOut Burgers. A California institution, these burgers are available for the price of value menu items at most other restaurants. There is an unwritten set of shorthand for ordering them: "animal style" includes grilled onions and extra sauce; "neopolitan" gets you a shake with all three flavors swirled together; "a home run" gives you one single burger, one double burger, a triple, and a four-stack. None of those options are listed on the menu. Ah, mentoring at its best!


Do any of you have advice for other fun things I should be doing in this area? I've yet to get up to the city, so San Francisco suggestions are welcome!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have no suggestions on what to do but I do have a suggestion on what to read.

One of my favorite books growing up was called Calico Palace about the early days of San Francisco. It's a good story although it reads a little bit like a Dad recommendation (probably because it was). But don't let that stop you.

Anonymous said...

West Side Story. This title challenge is fun.

weigook saram said...

Oh, I envy you. The farmer's markets are amazing up there. It sounds like you're diving head-first into the awesome food scene. There is so much to do in SF, I don't even know where to begin. This might help:

SF Neighborhood Guide

In SF we were always able to pick up free wireless from the neighbors, but I'm sure it depends on where you live.

Anonymous said...

In N Out. DROOL. You're so lucky.
Glad to hear you had a safe trip to Cali. I'm totally behind on all blog reading so I'll have to catch up with all the other cross country excitement later.

Pinterest Failures said...

It sounds like your move is going really well. I absolutely LOVE SF--you will NEVER run out of things to do!

Anonymous said...

My husband is a big fan of In and Out from, I think, childhood. His burgers are always "animal."

Wish I knew some stuff to do...but I've never been to SF! Good to read you're starting to get settled, though. Hang in there!