Monday, the 15th was a gloriously warm day. I could hardly contain my excitement at walking in SF on a mid-November day in a t shirt and skirt (no stockings!). The week started out slow, not too much new until Wednesday when Texarkana came to town. This isn't my friend, Texas, who lost the bet regarding the Giants and the Rangers, this is another colleague who also happens to be from Texas, is also a Tea-bagger and claims Obama is a communist (sigh). I had invited Texarkana to join me and two other colleagues for dinner. Picking a place to eat was may early week challenge.
me: what do you like to eat
him: chicken fried steak
This would be a challenge. Chicken fried steak is akin to fascism or tea bagging in San Francisco. You won't find it. That said, upon doing a little open table research, I did find Town Hall, a venerable SF restaurant, with upscale comfort food. You can find a pork chop or a steak on the menu, just prepared a tad different Texarkana chose the wine, "fisticuffs" (for real - check the link). There were a couple of issues we were dealing with: 1) business - the them vs us (field vs home office) and 2) red state vs blue state. The wine was a perfect fit. It was delicious. Thankfully all went well. Our business discussion was productive and we helped educate Texarkana such that he left feeling more knowledgeable and more attuned to our goals (those which pay him in his US greenbacks). Of course no evening would be complete without at least one political dig and at the end of the evening the gloves came off and he did start in on Obama. I did my best to stay true to myself without throwing myself across the table to throttle him when the "C-word" came out (communist).
Thursday night I took dear Dale to see Cavalia for her milestone 60th birthday. We ate at Momo's first. I had a french onion soup and crab louie and honestly, I was too engrossed in my cheese to even notice what she ordered. Cavalia was amazing! We marveled at how happy the horses were - not an ear turned back. The gymnastics paled to what the horses could do. I loved how the trainer could get the horses to line up and rest their heads on each others backs with what must have been the most subtle of all cues. This was in fact one of the best shows ever for its performance, relevance and beauty. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth every penny. The vision of the Lusitanos resting together will forever be burned in my memory.
By Friday, fall had arrived. The temperature had dropped to the normal high 50's / low 60s. The morning air had the fall chill and the light had changed. There was "that smell" indicating the season had changed - no more Indian summer. And by Saturday, the sky opened up and dumped. I was driving about 15 miles to Neo's house where he was hosting about 45 people (in his 2-bdr bungalow) for a food-sharing and wine tasting dinner. I was sadly solo once again. But as this was my second event at Neop's at least I had met a couple of the folks before. I wished that John could have been there. We were all sharing our recipes and admiring each others unusual dishes. There was one: Israeli couscous with mint, pine nuts, lemon and ... not sure, but delicious. Someone else made polenta toasts with wild mushrooms. I had felt inspired earlier in the day and pumped out two different fall cupcakes: persimmon eggnog with a salted caramel butter cream and then a pumpkin cupcake with a tangerine/ginger cream cheese frosting. I met a former baker who very graciously told me that even though he was a baker, he resents baking now, however my cupcakes were an exception and he thought that they were fantastic. He ever so gently broached that they could be commercial - I shuddered, "been there, done that."
Sunday afternoon I was preparing to head over to Charla's for book club. I headed up the hill to pick up Sue. Through the turned-up volume of the radio I heard a chunka-chunka sound. I slowly turned around and as I was doing so, a car pulled up along side of me, "you have a flat tire." UGH. Well, a few months ago the BMW guys told me I needed new tires, I guess this was a sign - an expensive sign, and an unfortunate sign during a short, holiday week. Sue picked me up as I was marveling at the flatness of my tire. I don't think it could have been more flat. Book club provided a lively conversation and we agreed on two new books for our next meeting: Just Kids by Patti Smith and the The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls - date tbd. Getting 6-8 women together on the same date has proved to be a challenge, however I discovered a tool, called Meeting Wizard which allows you to pick a bunch of dates and have your attendees select their available dates. It saves all of the back and forth, excuses, reasons, etc for who and why people aren't available. If only everyone would use it...
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