Shake it up baby!

Yep, it's officially Fall in San Francisco. And the quakes begin...

Magnitude
5.6 - regional moment magnitude (Mw)
Time
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 8:04:54 PM (PDT)Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 3:04:54 (UTC)
Distance from
Alum Rock, CA - 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31 degrees)Milpitas, CA - 11 km (7 miles) E (91 degrees)San Jose City Hall, CA - 15 km (9 miles) NE (45 degrees)Sunol-Midtown, CA - 17 km (10 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Coordinates
37 deg. 25.9 min. N (37.432N), 121 deg. 46.5 min. W (121.776W)
Depth
9.2 km (5.7 miles)
Location Quality
Excellent
Location Quality Parameters
Nst=250, Nph=250, Dmin=3 km, Rmss=0.07 sec, Erho=0.1 km, Erzz=0.3 km, Gp=32.4 degrees
Event ID#
nc40204628
Additional Information
map with fault names

Roundup

This weekend was nothing special but at the same time simply spectacular. It was packed and lazy. It was....OK, I'm sick of the see-saw writing approach. Here's what it was:

• Thursday/Friday: I tried and failed to relax. I'm terrible at it. I need to get a hobby - I'm thinking of: going back to teaching, writing (a book, not a blog), knitting, or the more adventurous - rock climbing, kayaking, scuba diving, golf (these four I've tried - I just need to get up the patience to stick with one)


• Friday party: Friday night we went to Prez a Vie (a posh place in Presidio) for my birthday. Lisa, Zack, Linz, and Ashley showed up to toast in my don'twanttowriteitbecauseimfeelingold. We dined on way too much while listening to the pretentiousness sitting next to us - a table of smashed pediatricians (I now think less of them) comparing salaries, patients, and victories (what illnesses they helped overcome). Throughout the dinner we couldn't quite tell if they were swingers, cheaters, or just perves. Whatever/whomever they were, they were loud!


• Saturday dad day: Yesterday Matt and I met dad at the Grove for brunch. The Grove is a meeting spot for beautiful young families in San Francisco - everyone with a baby, a golden retriever, or a mac (or some combination). After eating too much (again) Matt and I made our way to the driving range (I'm working on that hobby) where I tried and failed miserably to hit the ball to the proper flag. I can hit it far - there's just no telling where it'll go, though.


• Saturday new things: Saturday evening Linz and I went to the very posh Bar Otis on Maiden Lane. Feeling quite Sex and The City, we sipped Manhattans while we chatted up architect divas and divos alike.


• Sunday roundup: This morning mom met me in the city and we walked over to the Ferry Building for birthday brunch (I must admit, this has been a glutenous birthday celebration weekend). We enjoyed Slanted Door - more than the food, though, we enjoyed the other diners. A girl in green (literally, all green - tights, top, shoes, hair, and shadow) dined with her very Republican looking parents. A table of Mid-Westerners gawked at the others (again with the Jack Johnson people watching) in the restaurant. I think I enjoyed the people more than the food, but it was a great morning regardless.

OK, time to veg before the rest of the weekend fades away.

Characters

Jack Johnson just about summed up our afternoon: "I'm just people watching other people watching me..." or some similar musical genius. This afternoon Matt and I made it down to Le Petit Robert for snacks and pink bubbly.

Sitting outside we saw it all walk by - the city truly does offer entertainment 24/7 in many forms. The characters:

• Taxi man: across the street from us a man was trying to catch a taxi for a good 30-minutes. It hurt my heart to watch - the cabs kept passing him by (those with and without the light on) and with every cab that passed you could see this poor man looking more and more deflated. Finally one came up, light on, and slowed right in front of him - the man looked so excited (all 5'5" of him, jeans and blazer clad) and started walking towards the slowing cab grinning. The cab drove on. I thought he was going to cry - I nearly did!
• Kissy kissy woman: a man sat next to us half way through our people watching with a tiny adorable dog. Everyone stopped to say hello to the dog - children, women, and even men (although I have a feeling the men were saying hi to the dog owner just as much as the dog). Then came kissy kissy - an older woman with lips and shadow that made the 80s seem muted. "Hello you fine beautiful thing," she said not even looking at the man, "I love you. Yes, I do! I do!" Then she proceeded kissing the dog. I nearly lost my cheese and olives. The horror.
• Gym rats: Le Petit is next to my gym to half the folks walking by were spandex clad gymsters ready to work off whatever they did earlier this weekend. A couple came through in the pack - the man in shorts and a tee that he likely won from a race somewhere, and the girl in shorts with a matching tee and sweatshirt and shoes - maybe she was sponsored. Both seemed to be trying to one-up the other with talk of how they were going to work "haaaaaaaaaarder" today. OK. Good luck to them.
• The rager: just as we were wrapping up, sirens came blaring down the street. An ambulance came speeding up and somehow got stuck in a traffic jam of people with strollers, two cars, and an angry man who was the eye of the traffic storm. Finally the ambulance made it through, and the angry man stayed in the middle of the street howling. At first I felt sorry for the poor man (I think I jump to the sorry feeling first) and then I realized he was just an angry meany yelling at all the cars and people who got in his way. I hope he drinks some chamomile today.

I love people watching. Can't wait to do it tomorrow!

It's my party and I'll...

Today was my birthday (yay me!) and it was spectacular. I decided to take today and tomorrow off work to live the non-IM-computer-office life for a couple days and had a wonderful time vegging in San Francisco. Matt worked from home today which was even better - while I had books and TV Guide laid out, he had blueprints laid out - I felt so spoilt with my architecture husband doing architecture stuff while I ate chocolate and watched daytime TV (literally).

This evening I went to the gym and almost cried as I input my age in the elliptical (to properly track the calorie burn). When I got home the kitchen was a flurry of activity with Matt making homemade enchiladas, margaritas, and guacamole.

Now, stuffed and older we're enjoying LANDO. Perfection. No real isms today - just the ohmygoodnessi'mgettingoldereeeeeeeeeeekism.

Fluff 'n fold obstacle course

This evening on my way home, I picked up our laundry and dry cleaning. Within minutes, I lucked out and found parking at the top of Lombard - woohoo! After parking, I realized "omg, I have two baskets of laundry and two week's worth of dry cleaning... great..."

Ambling down Lombard I had a car of tourists take a picture of me, two men ask if they could help (one of whom I think wanted to run off with my clothes), and a near laundry loss incident.

Oh the pains of clean clothes in the city.

The fast lane

The world now seems to work in the fast lane. People try to finish school quicker - graduating college at 20 or 21 is the new coo. Once graduated, folks strive to be the top - now. I partake in the world-on-5-cups-of-coffee paradigm. Driving fast (but not in front of my office - I don't want another speeding ticket), cooking fast, eating fast.

Matt and I were turning our brains off tonight (Law and Order - simply the best), and it seemed like every commercial was the latest and greatest way to do something faster. On a commercial Mattel was hyping the new speedy games - Monopoly with no need to count money (it's all automated now) - great, teach kids to use credit cards early and forget math.

Well, I've spent too much time online - gtg quickly and hurry to relax before the weekend ends.

They go too fast

Weekends that is. This weekend wasn't anything spectacular - fondue with Scott and Jody on Friday, the Mission (yes the Mission) for a party on Saturday, supporting the local economy Sunday - a good handful of not much.

It is my favorite time of year though - the rains are starting so the city smells a bit like dirt. Not the icky dirty smell - but the clean dirt kind. The kind of smell where you know two days more of rain and the city will be swept clean. I love this season. It toggles between way-too-chilly and warm. So a handful of nothing is just fine - in fact, it's perfect.

Ism # 832

This afternoon when I went to the gym, the cleaner was mopping the carpet ... uhhhhhh...

The D-word

Today the father of one of Matt's good friends died. We're young, he was young. It wasn't supposed to happen yet. When a grandparent or wizened family friend passes, it hurts, but it's also half OK - they got to live, contribute, experience, and even hurt. They got to feel and go through 80-90+ years of whatever.

He was gardening and stepped on a rake which hit his hip and triggered something. An accident. A freak accident. Escalated into a tragedy. It wasn't supposed to happen. Not yet. He was "the funniest man" and "best father."

Hurts the heart.

I hate the D-word. Too many emotions attached - all different, all from different people, none have names (the emotions, not the people).

Loving life comes easy. It's recognizing that we love life that sometimes is tough.

Time to live. Love. Laugh.

Oh when the sun sinks down

October and November in San Francisco are notoriously great weather months. In the past Linz, Zach, and I have adventured to the water (even in it! - not polar club style, we didn't don wetsuits and swim laps). This past weekend was one of these perfect October weekends with excellent weather, non-stop activities, friends, family, and isms.

Now, not so much. The sun has plummeted to grace some other town or city (probably Novato - they always get sunshine) and now we're back to San Francisco mist. Still beautiful though. Still San Francisco.

Tonight I somehow managed to get Matt to run with me - it's a once a year treat and I was thrilled. We made our way down to the water, around Fisherman's warf, past the Marina (singles) Safeway, up Chestnut, and then home. Running around the Marina is always a bit funny because people take on dog characteristics - checking each other out as they pass (who has the latest Lululemon spandex).

Arriving home gasping for air Matt said "You...owe...me...Aux Delice..." Twisted my arm. Aux Delice was packed tonight - actually, everywhere on Polk was. Always bumping.

Bluegrass taking over the park

Yesterday the annual Bluegrass festival took over GG park. The crowd was a mix of hippies, yippies, and everything in between. Some of my favorite characters:

• Overalls no-shirt man: who proudly walked the park thrusting his gut at anyone who got in his way
• Dancing queen: a blatantly blazed woman giving "peanut butter" cookies to anyone who passed then made them dance in wild cirlces with her
• Tree man: who climbed to the top of a tall tree only to fall 13 feet
• Truck man: who was with a party on top of a moving van, jumped, and lunged his foot through the roof of a porta potty (how I would hate to be in that porta)
• Smell this man: who decided Lisa and I had to smell his weed to get the full effect of the concert, then asked us to smoke, then looked completely dejected when we said no
• Fighting hippies: two long haired 70somethings who started brawling

Nothing like a day in the park.

Road rage

Usually I don't mind the commute from San Francisco to Palo Alto (and back again). It's a nice 2-hours in the day when I can turn my brain off and veg - while paying attention to the traffic of course. Fridays are particularly bad - everyone wants to get home, and they want it "NOW!"

Yesterday it seemed like all the cities finest were out in the T-Loin - people were running into the streets, dancing in place on the sidewalks, and blitzing out everywhere. My personal favorite are the people who seem to love teasing traffic by edging into the road and then back out. Cars always drive worse around these teasers, too.

I have a bad habit of giving the "San Francisco wave" to poor drivers - this wave being my tallest finger pointed at the sky with the others down, usually accompanied by words I shouldn't utter. In the T-Loin, you cannot give this friendly gesture - don't want someone to spit on the car, or worse yet, sit on the car.

Happy to be car free and enjoying the weekend.

Off to Strictly Bluegrass!