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Tonight I met crism, who I had been introduced to by Charlotte, who I had been introduced to by Fiz and Jeremy. He held a whiskey tasting party. Twas a good time! There was whiskey and bread pudding with whiskey and salad with whiskey flavored dressing ;-). The bread pudding was actually excellent!

I gave Sean (who had just tried out for Jeopardy in LA and sadly just missed his shot) a ride home and met a bunch of nice folks. Crism even plays Cosmic Encounter. I’m going to have to ping him on that!

Wee!

Bed time now.

Running/urban hiking in the morning. I’m going on a hike in Sonoma County Sunday and want to be as ready as I can. This is my last chance. I might try to tackle Twin Peaks. I’ve already gotten my running times in the last 3 weeks down from a hopeless 18 minute mile to a pitiful 11 minute mile.

Then testing the latest server-side feature of TVTonic, sucking blogs into our distribution system (with permission, of course). And trying to do some good marketing for TVTonic. I’m liking the marketing stuff.

I may be soon buying weights to excercise at home. But then my apartment might get stinky sweaty and my downstairs neighbor might think the sky is falling…

I’ve been feeling pretty good lately. Running has taken off a few pounds and Laura even said my arm muscles felt tighter (flattery is the devil’s food cake (-; . I’ve been eating/drinking lots of veggies with the Veg-o-mat^H^H^H^H Magic Bullet that Carmen gave me (in response for me giving her a Magic Bullet).

There is even a good chance that I’m getting a bed tomorrow!

Christmas eve morning, my dad’s organization, The Twelve Santas delivered toys and food coupons to 37 needy families in the area. All of the money for gifts and gifts themselves were collected by the members of the group, which now number more than 12. I got the tremendous privilege of playing Santa. I’ll try to write more about it later but it was incredible seeing the expression on kids faces. Even the older kids that didn’t “believe” would look at the huge bag of toys I had just handed them and then back at me…. and then to the bag again and then to me waving goodbye without asking for a thing in return. The possibility of Santa became real again.

I had dinner with my dad’s side of the family on Christmas eve. C, a friend of mine from SF joined us since she was spending Christmas in New York with a friend. She hasn’t really told me why she didn’t spend it with family but that’s ok.

My uncle Frank “Sglick” (pronounced sss-click) Cavagnaro died Christmas morning in his bar at age 77. The thought I can’t get out of my mind is how much he loved owning his bar. He had regulars that came in at 10am just about every day. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t ostentatious, it didn’t have a big sign, the only special drink I know of was local beer he served on draft in tiny 6 oz glasses for about $0.50. I imagine that his was the kind of place that he’d pour your drink as you walked in the door and it’d be ready for you before you finished your hellos and sat down. I’ll be at the viewing Wednesday.

I wrote 175 personal holiday cards over the last 2 weeks. If I missed you, please forgive me and send me your email address. The responses I’ve gotten back have universally been touching. It’s good to have friends.

Christmas Day dinner was at Bean’s house with much of my mother’s side of the family. It was dinner for 16 or so.

Tonight was dinner and Barry & DeAnn’s. More of my mom’s side. There were 18 places at dinner! What a family!

My cutting board came with instructions in 18 languages. I’m almost surprised that English was at the top. It cost me $10, 75% less than similar ones I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. And by appearances, it is one of the better and more attractive cutting boards I have owned. The instructions it came with are clear, concise and useful. All hail the Swedes!

My new kitchen table is just about exactly the size I needed, 47″x30″. It’s stylish in it’s simple lines and real wood construction. It’s rather small but it’s a small eat-in kitchen. I’ve been shopping around and I nearly bought a set at Macy’s that wasn’t quite the right size for $750. I found some that were close to right at “Furniture 2000” near my office. But no.

I’d like to find something that totally grabs me but I’m getting tired of shopping, and tired of eating dinner on the edge of my bed. I’m not sure the table I got is exactly what I want, but the Swedes took 85% off the price and sold me a quality eat-in-kitchen table and chair set for $100.

Purchases like this are blowing my budget for shopping for my apartment. I had set aside $6000 (great thanks to my folks) to furnish the place and so far my expenses, top down have been:
$900 bed (that I might get rid of, it’s giving me a back ache)
$400 tableware for 4 (they make me happy :-)
$120 office desk off craigslist (It’s the right size, I can’t think of what more expensive things would replace it)
$100 table and chair set (see above)
$90 overpriced but fabulous santoku kitchen knife (satisfying my kitchen nesting instinct)
.. umm..
$18 cookie sheet
$15 shower hanging thing
You can see where I’m going with this…

My budget is being blown in the other direction. I can’t think of what to spend this money on. Though I still have 2 rugs, a desk chair, some kind of comfy chair and wall art to buy. Four grand for all that stuff? I’m going to have to get like… real art or something. Now I’m seriously thinking about that Sharper Image massage chair too.

Oh and I need a bike (motorized?) but that comes out of the transportation budget and not the housing budget. Maybe Housing will float a bond ;-)

I’m getting a lot of my stuff out of storage tomorrow. We’ll see what that spurns.

I signed the lease on my new place.

Here are some shots of the place. The furniture belongs to the previous tenant.
Continue reading ‘Signed the lease’ »

West Of mission Street – If you like it interesting and culturally fun, get a place also between Mission Street and the Castro, but closer to Mission street. If you can swing it, and if you like gentrified instead of funky, I would get a place between Mission Street and the Castro, closer to the Castro. The closer to Castro, the more wonderful, well-cared-for and personal the neighborhood gets. This area stops at Church street, which is parallel to Mission street. Church and Mission are about six blocks apart.

(source) (photos of the area by the same author)

I’m finishing the paperwork with the realtor on Friday! I’ll be moving into my new well appointed studio apartment in San Francisco on November 15th!

It’s a nice studio apartment in a very nice building, in a nice sunny part of town, near lots of things and culture and -stuff-, and (I grumbled at the realization that this had to be on my “must have” list) near 101 for my thrice-weekly carpool commute to Cupertino.

Now that I’m getting what I feel I need to thrive, I feel obligated to the universe to do something great with it!

.

Yipe, I have no furniture!

I just accepted a full-time position with Wavexpress. :-)

From an email to a friend

>Are you still looking for a permanent apartment?
Yup. Do you have any pointers?

>How is the hunt for a meaningful existence going?

I’m wearing comfortable shoes and I’ve found a steady path but I’m not sure if it’ll lead into the fire swamp, the pit of dispair, or true love. I’m hoping for more of the latter and less of the former.

My dad is feeling great :-)

My product shipped. It’s still beta but it’s really good. Check it out!

I saw my Tara’s band at CBGB’s last night, The Crevulators. Twas fun!

I’m going over to see Niece Julia right now. :-)

My dad got out of his procedure fine. Phew! (apparently it’s not technically called an “operation” or “surgery”). They weren’t able to put the stent in because they couldn’t get around a tight corner but the balloon angioplasty was successful. Right out of surgery (or whatever it’s called) he looked and felt really good. He’s getting another one in a couple weeks but that angioplasty is much less risky.

He’ll be home tomorrow.

PHEW!

I’m in New Joisey. Family is well. Julia missed me a lot. I’ve been working at home today. I still haven’t figured out how to send email. Surgery is tomorrow.