Weekend notes!

[gayathri]

Friday ended up getting picked up and heading over to Secession to help everyone celebrate. I was hungry, but we were drinking some yum Barbera from Seghesio which mellowed me out tout suite. It was nice checking out the new artists and items at Secession when the crowd had not yet taken ove

Headed over to Tasty Bite for dinner as byronium had been sushi'd out over the past few days and I couldnt convince anyone else to have fish, but reasonable indian food was always a good second bet. basmati and jong joined us and we spent the evening distracted by Bollywood TV and eating - I ordered everything the way I wanted it.

I'm distracted by spicy pickles - I'm needing to either give in and buy some or just bite the bullet and make the time to make some Escabeche or south indian mango/lime pickles...

Went to bed, got up way too early to head across the bridge. I had to take hits of oxygen to make sure I could make it a whole day in Berkeley!! We went to the Berkeley Kite Festival, (unknown to me originally) suggested by rhiannonstone , and enthusiastically seconded by byronium . 'Cause peculiaire and ferlatte had another thing in the afternoon, we met early for brunch at ferlatte's favorite place, Venus, and had an awesome brunch with rhiannonstone, byronium, ferlatte, peculiaire, samatakah - I had stuffed french toast that was so good, I almost overate it - stuffed with ricotta, marscapone, with good maple syrup covered in a almond brittle! The corncakes that B had were also tres yum.

Heading over to the kite festival was exciting, as we drove - this resulted in the folks taking the bus actually beating us by quite some time as the traffic was reallly awful. The long walk in the sunshine was great until I  realized I  was really glad I  hadnt listened to anyone's advice on the weather and had brought a fleece and a windbreaker - it was REALLY  windy and REALLY  cold. Blergh! Glad also I  was wearing warm woolen socks.

Seeing the golden gate bridge from this point of view was great!  made me wish I had my long lense on my film camera. Or that I  had my film camera.  Took some pics of the huge flights of octpods which were giant windsocks...

I  knew byronium couldnt resist getting another kite but the line was so long taht samatakah and I  wandered around to watch kite ballet, and candy drops and just enjoy the various kinds of kites. When he and rhiannonstone returned from their great shopping expedition, he'd found one that I  could put in my bag and carry around! I was missing my little box kite I  used to carry on the motorcycle.

Finally, we got to a space where I could try flying my little EO - I  think the wind was actually too strong, because it was a little crazy and jerky and hard to control, but still a ton of fun.

byronium had ended up misplacing one of the struts on his trick kite, but still got it up in the air and played with it for a while. It was fun watching him and samatakah playing with it.



I did actually end up kite fighting on accident with a little kid, but we untangled and I putmine away. I wanted to be out of the crowds and out of the cold, but we had a long walk back to the car. Which was exacerbated by my getting us lost. :(  By the time we hit the footbridge, my blood sugar had dropped and I  was suddenly ordering an expresso mocha with ice cream. Which right now sounds pretty gross, especially with the not great ice cream they were using. :(  

Drank that, and perked up enough to walk back to the car, but had of course, sent my blood sugar thru the roof, which meant no yum ice cream at ICI!  :(  I really was sad about this - I'd been looking forward to having _good_ ice cream. B let me have a lick of his but the sugar taste alone made me sick to my stomach, so I  didnt have any more.

We headed over to Vintage Berkeley, where I think I had the most fun that afternoon aside from watching people fly kites, and I bought about 6 bottles of good wine for under 80$ - bighuge MONSTER  thanks, peculiaire!!! What a great recommendation! I  can't wait to drink all of this stuff. :)  


Dropped people off from one side of the universe to another. Drove by what looked like either corn or pot growing and greenhouses. Will have to look that up later.

Heading back over the bridge was the usual pain in the ass - terrible traffic, alleviated by good music and better company. I was hungry again and knew by the time we got across the bridge, it would be time to eat, so had suggested Maya earlier in the day. We were vacilitating between dinner out and dinner in, but chicken mole was on the menu!!

Maya was an awesome choice - I'm glad I finally got to go - dont let their website fool you, its a very classy place, with really yummy food - classic guac,  two kinds of ceviche, I had the mole poblano, B had the pechuga adobada - I  think we'll have to try and make the ceviche - the one with the scotch bonnet sauce wasnt very spicy! as well as the corn and green salsa mix that was with byronium's chicken.

Really awesome margaritas here too - simple - lime juice, cointreau and tequila. :)

Continued perfect end to a really good day - my blood sugar was bad briefly because I'd been dumb, and not paid attention to the time, and had eaten brunch at 11 and nothing until almost 5 pm, but I  managed it well, and enjoyed a good brunch and dinner, and lots of good exercise.


Sunday woke up early and enjoyed coffee while watching Grosse Pointe Blank again - headed over to Park Place for Brunch - where ratwerks  fed me the most amazing yummy awesome pancakes EVER. EVER, I tell you. I'm spoiled for pancakes now, and will only want his.


THEN, the great bicycle ride - we headed up thru golden gate park up to Arguello, which leads into the Presidio - this hill KILLS   me, and today was no exception - I   had an asthma attack on the hill, and had to stop, catch my breath, and walk up the last third of it. Looking over the golden gate bridge from THIS view is also pretty nice, and I'm glad as always that byronium is so patient with me.

Neither of us had a map!   So I was brave and tried to remember a route we'd done before. Getting lost again, we end up overlooking the ocean and then heading uphill again to get to Land's End. GORGEOUS. I   want to come here again, and soon, tho the uphill was killer!

Ended up having to walk up the hill to the Legion of Honor and then headed back to Park Place where I   fell over and drank a bunch of Cytomax, and packed up and headed back to my place to put the bicycles away. It was after 4 pm at this point, and we werent making it to Dore Alley, sadly. I did convince some friends to meet us for Sushi where I did my amazing Shamu Impression. 

We then headed over to H.  Slocombe's where I   finally had the olive oil ice cream, and this amazing passionfruit/milk chocolate...


Spent the evening screwing around on the computer sort of working, sort of watching byronium work, listening to old time radio shows and went to bed early for an amazing night's sleep. Drank a ton of electrolyte water and didnt have any cramps except walking up the stairs to my apartment where the muscles around both knees cramped up so badly I   couldnt stand up straight and had to cry a little.