Happy Anniversary

So, seventeen years ago, Jennifer and I had our first date.  This weekend we celebrated.

On our first date, I had taken her all around San Francisco giving her various views of the city.  We had a picnic in Golden Gate park, ate clam chowder on Fisherman's Wharf, and just had a great time.

This weekend, we celebrated us.

Friday night, I made me new personal specialty, chicken pad see ew.

Saturday, we went for a long ride.  Possibly our longest ride together.

We started off with breakfast at Starbucks, but then rode south.  We raced an Amtrak train from Emeryville to Jack London, and ended up beating it.

We continued on and crossed onto Alameda.  We followed the road around the south end of the island, and came back up to Shore Line Drive.  And there we discovered that they are in the process of installing a two-way bike lane along the water side of the road.  It was great having our own lane that allowed us to mostly ignore car traffic and not have to dodge foot traffic.  There are little concrete islands that have been installed, and they had barricades with an electrician's name stamped on them.  I'm guessing that the islands will have some sort of light.  Based on the plans on the web, these may just be street lights.  Still, we were very excited.

After stopping for lunch at Sushi House. we rode on north, and made it to St. George Spirits.  Unfortunately the new vodka isn't ready yet so we didn't taste.  We did go next door to Faction Brewing for some beer.  It was okay beer.  They poured either full pints, or 5-ounce glasses for tasting.  We chose 8 and sipped our way through them.  As you can guess from the logo, they're into hops.  We're really not, so we doubt if we'll be going back.

On our way off the old navy base, we came across some pyracantha bushes that were thickly covered in berries, and the berries on the individual bushes were different shades of red and orange.  We stopped, and Jennifer took some pictures.

After that, we were pretty much ready to head home.  Until we came across a Foster's Freeze.

Then we rode home.

At the end of the day, we had gone about 32.5 miles.

Sunday, I took Jennifer to Cooperage in Lafayette.  We had a wonderful brunch, and then walked a bit through downtown Lafayette.

We had talked about watching movies later that day, but we weren't sure which ones we wanted to see.  When we got home, "Inherit the Wind" was on TMC, and that was immediately followed by "Forbidden Planet".  With a little pause for homemade chicken nachos as dinner, that completed the night and the weekend.

The Mundane and A Celebration

So, it’s been a couple weeks, but not a lot has been going on. Work and such.

This last weekend was great as I celebrated my birthday with my wife and friends.

I got to work a half day after a 15 hour workday on Wednesday. Upon arriving home, Jennifer had presents for me to open and an incredible made from scratch chocolate cake that she was just finishing icing. We put Theo cocoa nibs on top or added excellence.

Jennifer and I then drove into the city, and after parking in our secret location, we had a beer at Kennedy’s (I’d link to it, but they’ve apparently got some malware associated with their fav.ico). Then we met John and Steve at E Tutti Qua.

That night we went to the Kabuki to the “The Dark Knight Rises”, and finished the evening at Local Edition. Again, the two best things about the Kabuki are that you can drink in the theater and they have reserved seating. Local Edition was louder than the first time we had gone. Apparently it’s been discovered. The drink of choice? The Laphroaig Project. (And I just found the recipe.)

Saturday, Jennifer, John, and I went tasting at St. George Spirits in Alameda. When we hit the island, I played “The Ballad of Hangar One” for Jennifer and John. They have a bourbon blend (Breaking and Entering Bourbon) they’ve made from bourbon distilleries all over Kentucky. The tasting room has been remodeled again, and it’s gorgeous. Plus we got dog tags for tasting. Then we had lunch at Picante in Berkeley where we all entirely too much food, and finally went tasting again at Takara Sake. John used a gift certificate we’d given him for his birthday last year, and I got a bottle of sparkling sake that I look forward to trying the next time we bring sushi home.

Then we went back to our place, and had more cake, and after John went home, Jennifer and I took a nap.
The future is hazy as to when I’ll be heading to Santa Cruz for the next excavation, but it will probably start in the middle of August.

Ups and Downs

Tonight, Jennifer asked for a cocktail, so I made her her latest favorite: a trader Joe's cherry cider with half a lime and a shot of vodka.

She asked me what I thought I'd have, and I decided to have the drink I had devised in my head the last time I was at St. George Spirits on Alameda.

I made a large mug of homemade hot chocolate. Then I added a shot of St. George's Firelit coffee liqueur. And it tasted wonderful.

The downside to this is that it contains quite a bit of caffeine. And I've cut down my caffeine intake in the past few months. Like down to cups of tea and a Throwback Pepsi once a week.

So when it turned out to be 11:00 and Jennifer was falling asleep watching television with me, and she asked why I was so awake, I remembered the caffeine content of the Firelit. Then I started to giggle, and Jennifer said it was definitely the caffeine.

So she's in bed, and I'm sitting up at the computer. It's a good thing I've got nowhere to be tomorrow.

And addressing that, I've written to the person I interviewed with a few weeks ago, and haven't heard back from him, so I've got no idea if I'm still being considered for the job or not.

No, the Rum is Not Gone

Saturday was entirely wonderful.

We began the celebration of my birthday at Angel Fish Japanese Restaurant in/on Alameda. We had seven of us at the time, and I was told later by people who had their backs to the wall that we had a variable staff between 2 and 4 who were constantly waiting to help us.

The fish was wonderful. Truly some of the most tender ahi, I have ever had. And the typical sushi was only the tip of what was available. One person had a gorgeous ahi salad that was a pile of various green leaves, with chucks of raw ahi, and liberally sprinkled with flying fish roe. Jennifer and I will definitely go back when we're out that end of the bay.

Then we migrated to Forbidden Island. There I was tenderly cared for by my friends. We began with a Virgin Sacrifice, a multi-serving bowl that was prepared by pouring the rum into it, and lighting it and the volcano at the center on fire. Then it was sprinkled with spices (mostly cinnamon) which sparked and flared, then it was topped off with more rum, mango juice and ice. I was in heaven. And despite what some people might say, it did not have too much cinnamon. Following the Virgin Sacrifice, I was given a Scorpion Bowl which is my favorite rum drink. This one is similar to the Virgin Sacrifice, but centers on citrus and pineapple.

An added bonus was the discovery that Forbidden Island had St. George's Spirits whiskey on hand. It's a pretty good whiskey that they age in recycled bourbon barrels. It was our first taste (because we did not get to taste it at our tour two years ago), and it's really a fun whiskey. It was fun listening to different people describe the flavors they got out of it. I just enjoyed it.

Sunday, Jennifer enjoyed in our own way, and I shed my minimal hangover headache. I've actually had worse headaches from caffeine withdrawal, so I wasn't in too bad of shape.