Month: December 2003

I just got the dreaded “let's be friends” talk today. To be honest, I was expecting it, as signs and portents were pointing to it, but it's never fun to hear. What's really disappointing is that it's been a while since I've been attracted to that extent to someone. Meh, I'll live, and as the lovely lass says, we can still be bookstore, sushi and sarcasm buddies. I can live with that.

Today was another tour day, this time going to Muir Woods, a national park filled with redwoods, and a drive through Sausalito on the way back. The forest was breathtaking. The road going there snaked up the mountain, with loopbacks that seemed to go on forever. Once we got off the bus, the air was crisp and fresh, smelling of eucalyptus and other natural smells that just brush worry away. We had a one-hour stroll planned. The wooden walkways were covered in loam that gave off a pleasant smell when you walk on it. Mg and I could have stayed there for the whole day… Sunlight filtering through the canopies, the sounds of a babbling brook, the smells of nature. I'm not normally a man of the outdoors, but I found it wonderful.

Sausalito seems like a nice place to live, but in retrospect, I could have done without the visit. We walked around the waterfront, but the tons of galleries and doodad shops didn't do it for us. They have beautiful glassworks, but we don't have the budget nor the house to properly appreciate the them.

On the way back, we stopped for 5 minutes at a lookout over the bay with a great view of the golden gate bridge. If it had been up to us, we would have split the time spent in Sausalito between Muir and the bay view, but hey, it wasn't up to us.

The weather forecast is calling for rain for the rest of the week, so we decided to cram as much outdoor walking as we could today. We came back to the hotel, dropped off the camera to recharge (we almost ran out of juice during the tour) and went to lunch. We ended up going to Fior d'Italia, apparently the oldest italian restaurant in america. It was good, but the expresso was crap.

After retrieving the camera, we headed off to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. Instead of taking the wussy way up and going by cable-car, we walked up the hill. After a big meal of pasta in cream sauce, I thought I was going to barf up a lung, as well as part of my lunch. Gawd, I'm out of shape… Anyway, after wheezing my way up the damn hill, we snapped a few pictures and headed off to Coit tower. I always knew that San Francisco was hilly, but dear lord, it's ridiculous. The sidewalks are covered in traction aids embedded in the cement to prevent people from falling to their deaths.

After admiring the view from the tower, we headed towards Chinatown. IMO, it's a letdown. It might be the biggest one in the world, but it looks pretty much like the one in Montreal (and Montreal's main gate is nicer). Anyway, I spent a few bucks to get some foo dog bookends and that was our Chinatown experience. A very odd moment though: when we walked into the shop where we made our purchases, we both did a double-take as the music playing in the background was gangsta' rap :)

Had dinner in a little italian cafe, where the food was ok and the expresso was excellent. We've been eating a lot of italian food recently (our hotel is just next door to little italy) but we're going to branch out starting tomorrow.

There are more pictures on the webpage, but I'm tired and I'm going to bed now. You can see them at your own leasure.

Today was our jaunt to wine country. The weather was really crappy, which sucked, but we managed to have a good time nonetheless. A shuttle bus picked us up and we were off to Sonoma Valley. Our tour driver was amusing, and was pointing out little details along the way. The golden gate bridge can sway 27 feet in gale-force winds, but can't stand an earthquake bigger than 8. A quote: “The cushion underneath you isn't a flotation device. If you feel water underneath you, kiss it goodbye, you're history. The good news is that our insurance is paid up and your heirs will be well off.” Other fun facts: a room with a view on the bayfront costs 500$ per sq. foot. A houseboat on the bay can go up to 1 million dollars!

The first winery we went to was the San Sebastiani Viansa. It looked quite promising from the outside, as the pictures on my webpage will attest to. The wine was very bleh though. The white was good, but the cab, merlot and zinfandel were dishwater-caliber. The atmosphere was also bad, as we went from a mock-up showpiece aging cellar to their gift shop. Very ordinary.

The second estate was the Cline winery. The people were much more relaxed in their commercial attempts, and the wine was quite good. I bought a very refreshing rose and a full-bodied, peppery syrah. At that point, it wasn't even noon and we were both tipsy. A nice way to spend a rainy day.

On our way to out lunch stop, we saw road flooding, and the driver had to improvise another route. It's never a good sign when your tour guide tells you “ladies and gentlemen, we're officially lost”. We got there nonetheless. An old estate that had been converted to a retail center, with decent shops and a good restaurant.

Out last stop was in Napa Valley, the Sattui winery. I bought a superb rose, and a top-notch riesling. I'm going to have to invite someone special to try that one. strychnyn, as I'm already bringing two more bottles than I can legally bring, you're first on the list :) I won't be able to bring you back any wine.

After a brief stint of “retail therapy”, as the driver repeatedly put it, we were headed back to the city. It took us forever to get to our hotel, at which point we were both fed up of the bus, the driver, and the FDA crowd.

One thing that came out of this trip is that Mg and I spend way too much time together. It's now at the point where we're synchronized in the idiocies we say. And we can answer each others questions BEFORE they're asked. That's scary…

Another thing that's coming out of it is that my wireless sucks.

The day started out well. We were well rested, and got up in a languid fashion. We walked down to the wharf for breakfast and had a walk by the shoreline. It's really funny to notice that the seagulls here are as fearless as the pigeons in Montreal. And they're everywhere.

After breakfast, we walked to pier 39 to see the sea lions during the day. We we'd planned to go see Alcatraz, but the tours are sold out until friday! We've fiddled with our schedule a bit, because we want to see it. We'll probably end up going on the 3rd or the 4th. We have time enough to see it.

We'd noticed a big ship the first day we were here. Turns out, it's the Jeremiah O'Brien. It's a merchant marine ship that, along with the submarine USS Pampanito, is open for a visit. The merchie was interesting, but the submarine was really, really cool. I can't imagine living in such cramped quarters for months on end. That ship is the model of space utilization, with bunks in the torpedo rooms and everywhere else you can cram in a mattress.

After that, we went to visit The cannery, a nice little shopping center with cool shops. We had a beer at a pub called Jack's. It had a nice atmosphere, but it was weird to see kids in a bar.

Went back to the hotel to freshen up and dump the pictures on my laptop. Went for a bit of a walk and wound up in little Italy. There are really appealing restaurants. We picked a little place called Washington Square. The food was good, the waitress was cute, it had the makings of a fun dinner. Michel suddenly didn't feel well and went back to the hotel, so I ate a quick dinner (he told me to eat and then meet up with him) and came back here. Hyde_grrrl, my quest at your request will have to be delayed for one night, sorry. I promise to do my best :P

There are more pictures on my main website, so go there

Michel and I went walking on fisherman's wharf last night. A low-impact activity, cause we were both f'ed up from the flight. Walking on the wharf was fun, but we're not the only tourists, and it shows. The wharf is full of little curio shops like this one. Imagine, a shop that sells only fridge magnets :D People sell chowder and seafood here like people sell sausages in Ottawa or Toronto. That's really disturbing… it's like actively looking for food poisoning. We stopped in a place called “The endangered species shop”, where they raise money for well, endangered species. They have a lot of cute stuff, esp. some stuffed animals. I couldn't help but say “awwwww, they're so kyooooooote”, which garnered me another “dude, you're a chick” comment. Meh, I'm used to it :) After our walk, we went to this little italian restaurant. I wasn't really hungry, so I just took a hamburger. I realized that I was in the land pf plenty when the waiter kept stealing my glass of coke for free and unwanted refills and the smallest burger was 1/2 pound of dead cow. Got back to the hotel, had a few drinks (we bought a decent bottle of scotch at the duty-free) and then went to bed.

Oh, before i forget, I'll be putting the pictures we take here

11am PST – on the plane

Altitude: 30000 feet
Speed: 900kph
ETA: 1h30 min

I am bored out of my skull. Normally, I like air travel, but waking up a 5:00am after only 2h of effective sleep doesn't do wonders for my mood. Someone called me last night at half-past midnight, and I never really got back to sleep afterwards. The coffee I had at the airport is slowly boring a hole in my stomach and my back is killing me. But, on the plus side, it's a beautiful sunny day to travel, leg room isn't an issue, and we're off to Frisco :)

3:30pm PST – At the hotel

After much hassle, we're here. When we got to the hotel, we had a bit of a scare, in that no rooms were available. The desk manager told us to come back in 2 hours – people were checking out and housekeeping was tidying up the rooms. We went to the hotel restaurant – very ordinary – and now we're all settled in and online, yay. We're both tired as hell, but we're going to go for a walk around the wharf for a while.

Food overload!!!

Golden turkey, spicy stuffing, juicy ham, mashed potatoes, buttery carrots, gravy, wine, cheese, homemade xmas log, hot apple pie straight out of the oven…. sensory overload.

It's a good thing that I'm wearing sweat pants right now, cause my jeans wouldn't fit.

But it's a great feeling.

A friend of mine recently wrote that everybody seems to be writing retrospective entries. As I'm warming myself by the fireplace, I figure that's not a half-bad idea. This year has been … spectacular in some way, horrendous in others.

I've met many new people this year, some of which have touched me in very significant ways. I saw a little sparrow for the first time, to finally put a face to the wit. That didn't last long, as she moved across the country, but she's still someone I talk to as often as I can. On the bleh side, things went from neutral, to bad, to worse with Tw. I loved her, but that's now dead and buried. I'll always have very fond memories of her, as she was the first woman I ever said “I love you” to. Unfortunately, that's not the only thing I'll remember her by, but now is not the time for that. Misunderstandings led to miscommunication and anger.

Family-wise, things could have been better. My grandfather died, and that was rough on my family for many reasons. That also highlighted another problem, that I feel hasn't been fully resolved yet. I'll keep working at it, but I have a feeling it'll be a long process.

Romance-wise, well, I'm still single as I write this, but I can say that I've never had as much support from my friends as I did this year. There have been fun moments with some very special people, and i think I'm finally working on my chronic shyness :) I've gone on more dates this year than ever before, so that's a very good thing. I still feel that sleeping alone is a pain in the butt, and I'm still looking for someone to cuddle with while watching movies, but that'll come when it comes.

Work-wise, this year has been hard. I realized that I become way too emotionally attached to my projects, and take them to heart. That may be good in the sense that I love my work, but it also means that when things go badly, I worry. To the detriment of my health. That's something I need to work on. I need to be deal with stress in a more sane way, or I'll blow a fuse. My health has been a negative point of this year. I've gained weight, my blood pressure increased, and my diet went to shit. My resolution to go to the gym twice daily went to hell and gone when the CGI project started to go sour.

So, overall, I'd give this year a 7.5/10. The lessons I've learned from this year will influence my resolutions for the upcoming one;
– Shape up! If I maintain this way of life, my body will rebel, and it'll win.
– Dare. I let slip some occasions, and regret is a bitch.
– Be with the ones you care about. I love my friends and family, and I want to spend more time with them.

That's all for now. I need to go put more wood on the fire.

Germany's top-selling newspaper has published nothing but good news, dropping its normal fare of crime, violence and scandal for stories about tax cuts, falling petrol prices and accelerating economic growth.

… cause I didn't get coal in my stocking.

In fact, I got some really cool things:
– a columbia winter coat (it rocks! and I know some friends will be ecstatic that I'll be getting rid of the McGill dead-cow jacket)
– a 25-piece sushi serving kit
– sushi making material and recipes (rice, seaweed, candied ginger and WASSABI!). I'm going to need volunteers to try out my concoctions. strychnyn and eniran, want to be my first victims?
– aftershave
– various pieces of clothing (it's not xmas unless I get at least one pair of boxer shorts from at least one family member – it's becoming a running gag)
– a fridge magnet (don't ask, another long-standing running gag)

Xmas is going well, which is a big relief (touch wood). Now, I plan to spend hours in front of the fireplace and do nothing except munch on tidbits of my mom's cooking, pet the dog and listen to music. It will be marvelous.

Hope you're all having a wonderful time.