Friday

lj-mood: bored

Just a couple of days before I drive to San Francisco. I'm excited, happy, and bored at the same time. Today was a good day. The consignment people finally picked up the table and chairs, and I got the title to my car in the mail.

I am now a patron of the arts. (Or member of two musuems, at least.) I joined SFMOMA and FAMSF yesterday. I've liked the exhibits that I've gone to at both places in the past, and it's nice to be able to support the arts. Gotta blend in with the SF crowd anyway. :)

House for sale...

My realtor called today. The buyers of my house are in negotiations - it looks like the deal will go through. Only issue is that it's contigent on another house that closes on the 25th, which is contingent on a third house that closes on the 20th. (That's 4 houses involved, including mine, if you're keeping score.)

I think I've managed to get rid of the extra bed. Either the church of a guy at work will take it as a donation, or a coworker wants it. (The same church got my '95 saturn last year and gave it to a needy family.) Now I just have to figure out that table - that consignment place seems to suck. I may give up and donate that too, we'll see. I did manage to get rid of almost all my trash this morning, just have some bottles to recycle, and the misc garage stuff that I want to give away, if possible. Last night David, from work, picked up the futon frame, and offered to take a few other pieces later (ladder, futon mattress, shelving). It's good to see that stuff go to good use.

I have lunch and dinner with various coworkers today, and maybe lunch on saturday. It'll be nice to see them again, I didn't get a chance to properly say goodbye to some of them last week.

It does suck to not have all of my stuff here. Most of my cooking stuff is packed away. I manage a digiornos pizza yesterday, using a knife and paper plate to chop the garlic and get it in and out of the oven. I can't even buy wine for lack of a corkscrew.

Moving

lj-mood: content

Friday the 21st was my last day of work. It was an interesting week, wrapping things up at work, dealing with apartment stuff, coordinating moving, and anticipating Emily's visit.

The weekend was a lot of fun. I got to cook for us twice. Made the rigatoni dish saturday and the indian dish on sunday.

On Friday, we went to Il Fornaio in Green Valley Ranch. It's a nice little Italian place. Afterward, I showed her my house, and we saw the Triplets of Bellville.

On Saturday, I made my rigatoni dish for lunch. We watched A Mighty Wind. For our big evening out, we had a nice steak dinner at "Joe's Prime Steak and stone crab" in caesars before going the Cirque du Soleil's "O" show. We both got a nice petit Filet Mignon. And we both got it medium rare - she knows how to eat beef, it was excellent steak. The show was also very impressive, although I'm not sure if I like "O" or Mystère better. I guess they're just different.

On Sunday, I tried to take her to Panevino, but they were closed so we went to a mexican place where I frequently had lunch with coworkers, SuperMex. Despite the name, they have an excellent Chile Verde. We picked up "Waiting for Guffman" on the way home and watched that. For dinner I made (with my lovely sous chef) Rogan Josh - an Indian stew. We made it with beef, although lamb is more traditional. We also watched most of the Dark Crystal, but had to stop to take her to the airport. It's hard to say goodbye...

On Monday the movers came and picked up all the stuff I want in San Francisco. Now I just have to get rid of the rest. I only took one of the beds, and I'm putting my dining table up on consignment. I'll also ditch the futon and a few ghetto (e.g. Kmart) pieces of furniture. For now the house is empty, and I have a bunch of trash that needs to go out.

I'll drive up to SF this Sunday and start work tuesday.

Movie reviews:

The Triplets of Bellville is a french animated film with some fun characters and almost no spoken dialog. It's put together really well, and you don't even notice that there is no dialog. It almost beat out Finding Nemo for best animated film, but I don't know if awards really mean anything.

A Mighty Wind is a mockumentary about folk singers done by the same guy that did best in show. Entertaining, but I preferred Waiting for Guffman. (Emily prefers A Mighty Wind.)

Waiting for Guffman is another mockumentary by Christopher Guest. This one is about a small town putting on a theatrical production for their sesquicentenial, with hopes of hitting broadway.

Penultimate day

It's been too long since my last entry. I'm now an IBM employee, as of a couple of weeks ago. They bought the company that I previously worked for, a startup called SRD. I had already put in my notice that January 21st was my last day, so I'll be an IBM employee for about two weeks (ending tomorrow).

The weekend of the 8th, a few days afterwards, I visited Emily. Unfortunately, her car was broken into the first night, but we managed to enjoy ourselves nontheless.

Shortly afterward she started to have some doubts about breaking up with Mic. I suggested she take a few days away from us to decide. She ended up deciding that it wasn't going to work out with him, and we'd see how things go with us.

The weekend of the 15th, I flew to San Francisco to find an apartment. I went with one in mind and ended up getting a different one, which I found the last day I was there. It doesn't have a garage, but it's a very charming SF apartment in a great neighborhood. (Noe Valley.)

This weekend, Emily is visiting Vegas. I wanted her to check out my house and see the city while we still have the chance. We'll see "O", have dinner, and hang out. Should be a lot of fun.

Next week, I get to move. Should be interesting. Still negotiating things with the movers. I'll have an extra bed, futon, and a couple of tables to get rid of or store, because they won't fit in the apartment.

the day after

So I ended up going to the party. I had a fun time, but stayed up way too late. I went with the wife of a coworker who refuses to go to parties. The had plenty of the promised sushi, which was of acceptable quality. Also had decent appetizers going around. There was a bit of a line for the food at first and for the bathrooms throughout the night. I only got one drink at one of the bars and didn't really check out the liquor, but I didn't see any decent beer. There was also a decent source of cafe drinks in front of the house (next to the hookah lounge).

There was a black lit room, with markers to write on people and mirrors, a cigar lounge, and a chocolate fountain. And the kitchen has a very nice Viking range - I want one. :)

The fire breather was entertaining, and there were a few cirque mimes and a guy on stilts mingling with the guests. And, of course, there were go-go dancers on pedestals, 4 at a time, rotated throughout the night. (The fire-breather has his own two girls who essentially were dancers with flaming devices in their hands.)

Met some coworkers, had a bit of a cigar (not a big cigar guy, but I'm willing to try a decent one occasionally). Oh and I danced, albeit badly - Brian's wife likes to dance and didn't seem to mind me not knowing what I'm doing.

The show before the new years moment was put on by guy named a Moebius 8 - kind of a laser/music/projection screen thing. It seemed cheesy to me, but to each his own.

During the day yesterday, I made the Rigatoni con Salsiccia again. It's a simple but tasty dish. Over christmas break I taught my mom to make it. It's nice to see her branching out to new dishes.

I think I'll do the Chile Verde today and have left-over rigatoni for lunch.