busy weekend!

What a weekend! Thursday was the conference, then afterwards JR & I hung out with our friends Mandi & Mike who came in for the conference from San Antonio. The four of us went to Swatdee right around the corner to have Thai for dinner. After dropping M&M off at the place they were staying, we drove out to the airport to pick up Colleen & Jeff, JR's sister and brother-in-law, at about 10:30pm.

On Friday morning we had breakfast at Tartine. I had the always delicious bread pudding.



The whole day was essentially a slow photowalk; down 24th and Dolores, up and down Valencia for a while, taking photos and shopping. It's great to just ake your time to notice what's around you.



After having lunch at Papalote, we came back up to the house and I took a loooooong nap. We left at 6pm to head downtown for the Giants vs. Dodgers game. It was great (albeit freezing cold)! We got to have totally bad for you ballpark food, because that's the law, you know.

Saturday morning we went down to Kookez and had a delicious breakfast, which includes enjoying the company of Shy & Deano. We loaded up on carbs to be fully fueled for our visit to Muir Woods. It was beautiful as always. Got to see an otter, and several chipmunks. We continued on to Muir Beach, and then Stinson Beach where we had a late, late lunch that was pretty meh. Unfortunately, I was messing around with the settings on my camera, and came out with hardly any decent shots. Colleen's photoset of this weekend kicks my photoset's ass. Check hers out.



Everyone started working on photos and blogging and doing computer work, and it was nearly 9pm when we realized we needed to get some dinner, and most places around here close at 9:30. We almost ordered in Chinese, but decided to drive up to a little place we know. We were afraid they were about to close, but imagine our surprise when we open the door and hear karaoke streaming from the bar. We had a great meal and a number of alcoholic beverages before we moseyed on over to the bar area to watch the karaoke.

My favorite singer of the night was a middle-aged Chinese man in a Metallica t-shirt who only sang heavy metal. I'm talking 'Feed My Frankenstein' & the like. And his wife was dressed in full San Antonio style headbanger getup, complete with teased up hair and mini-skirt. Very entertaining.

I was literally pushed into doing a song, which I promptly slaughtered: Sweet Caroline, by Neil Diamond. Apparently the number of Tsing Tao beers you drink is not equivalent to the same number of Mai Tais everyone else is drinking which make them bulletproof on stage. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Fun times.

On Sunday, we split up; Colleen & Jeff went down to the wharf, while JR & I ran a ton of errands in an effort to be ready for the party we're throwing this coming Saturday to launch "Backyard 2.0", which we've finally finished. It's awesome. Still much party prep to do though, and since I woke up pretty damn sick Monday morning, I haven't been much help. The turnout is going to be frighteningly good - I'm not sure where all these people are going to fit!

Back to coughing and moaning and generally feeling sorry for myself. And pizza - pizza is on the way has arrived, which makes everything better.