Gamecocks and Car

We have the car, as I said earlier.  Don and I drove to a bar down by the east side where the Gamecock Club meets to watch the games.  We played Kentucky and the whole bar was decorated with Kentucky paraphernalia.  There were about 6 or 7 Kentucky fans and just as many Carolina fans.  Well as you know Kentucky played very well the first half (and we didn't).  They were ahead going into half-time.  But in the second half we pulled ahead.  One of the fellows watching the game with us pulled out his clarinet and started playing the Carolina fight song:

How cool!

After the game we went to Union Street for dinner and back home.  The dogs were left inside for most of the day so I was worried about them.

That was the good news.  Now the bad.  Yesterday when we went to get the car from where we parked it on the street, we noticed the drivers side side-view mirror was bashed in.  I mean the mirror was dangling by some wires and the whole housing unit was in shambles.  So we spent the morning going to the police dept to fill out a claim then trying to find a Toyota place to get an appointment to fix it.  But we were successful in all of the above and will get the mirror fixed next Tuesday.  It'll be interesting to see if parking on the street will really be cost effective.  Then we get up this morning and Don decided to take Missy for a walk while he went to get the Sunday paper.  When he came back he declared that the car was gone.  He called all the places is San Fran who might have towed it and was unsuccessful.  So, he called the police back to report it stolen.  The police officer said she would come by to fill out a report but that it would be a while.  So, Don decided to take my clicker to try again.  He came back to report that he had found the car.  Whew!  But we really have to find a better method of  remembering where the car is.  We have to move it every three days more than a block away and they do street cleaning every first and third weeks of the month and it varies which day of the week it is depending on the street.  I thought I could drop a pin on my iPhone maps but I'm not able to get the to work right.  So the bad news is we have to replace our side view mirror.  The good news?  We only have to replace the side view mirror.

Ah, life in the big city!

Car, Rats and Play Dates

We have our car!  I'm so excited that I can actually travel around the city without getting on the bus or walking.  Of course as I said earlier, parking might be an issue but when I walk the dogs and walk to the grocery store, I can see lots of parking spots.  During the day, that is.  But that's when I'm going to be driving!  Yay!!!!

Next, rats.  I got up the other night to use the rest room and when I was on my way back to bed I saw Bailey standing in front of the door like he wanted to go out.  So I thought I would buy myself some time in the morning by letting him out on my way back to bed.  As soon as I opened the door, both dogs went charging out the door and one rounded the corner in hot pursuit of something that I couldn't see.  They rounded the tree together and that's when I saw little brown puffs of something that were running from them.  I knew they were the rats and fearing they would get bitten, I turned the light on and yelled at the dogs to come in.  OMG there were lots of little brown furry things out there.  But I was told the exterminators were going to be here today to start getting rid of them, but alas, no exterminators.  I'll text the land lady tomorrow and ask what's going on.  Or I might ask Don to text her...  Anyone heard of Willard?

If you have a house with hard wood floors, and rent the bottom floor out, it should be against the law to ever host a play date at 8 am no matter what day it is!!!  I'm just saying...

Enjoying the afternoon sunshine.  Or is Missy watching for rats?

Dinner in Oakland

Don and I were invited to dinner in Oakland at the house of Don's contact at UCSF.  I was a little nervous but really excited about this.  I knew there was an opportunity to meet people, other than the clerk at the Marina Market.  There were 3 other couples from UCSF going and there was going to be a wine tasting "game".  There was a description of three wines and 3 unlabeled wine bottles containing the wines in question.  We were supposed to taste each wine and match it to the description given.  Well I got none of them right.  Don got one right but by default.  Everybody was very nice and the wife of one faculty member  talked to us about joining them to visit one of their favorite wineries in Napa.  This winery is pretty small and family owned.  I might like to do that.  Don's not too sure.

The dinner they served was amazing.  We had two appetizers, a green olive tempanade on crustini and mini bbq pork sliders.  For dinner they served potato au gratin, skirt steak with balsamic glaze and roasted fig, salad with grilled peaches and candied pecans.  There were three mini desserts, a rum raisin ice cream, salted dark chocolate bark and panna cotta with fresh berries.  The husband did all the cooking.  I was truly amazed at how wonderful the meal was.  I felt like I was at a real grown-up dinner party.  But by the end of the evening I found I had nothing in common with anyone at the party, other than our love of good wine and good food.  But they didn't talk about that, they talked baseball (The Giants (?) were vying for the playoffs) and the difference between living in Portugal and Brazil.  I know nothing about what they were talking about.  I kind of wished they talked Statistics since I know a little about that!  Don commented that they were a little more worldly than we are.  We've traveled over seas several times but I felt like a country bumpkin listening to them talk about stuff.  It was quite the experience.  The wife who invited us to the winery was not a faculty member so she may call still, but I'm thinking her husband won't want to do that.  If they call, I'll try to convince Don to go.

We're getting the car!!!  The guy who cut my hair the other day mentioned that we could get a pass for $88 for 8 weeks to park on the street.  The only condition is that we have to move the car a block away every 72 hours.  So we downloaded an application from the city and sent it off with the check.  Hopefully it won't take long to get the decal.  This will save us hundreds of dollars.  We were paying $300 a month to park the car in a garage far enough away that we have to get a bus to go get it (rather, Don has to get a bus to go get the car) and now we'll pay $88 for 8 weeks and I'll actually be able to drive it!

Since we had the car yesterday so that we could drive to Oakland, we did our wine shopping at BevMo and drove around for a while.  I don't know why we haven't done this before.  It seems we're always driving to get somewhere and not really enjoying the area with the car.  We found Union Street which looks to be a better shopping area than Chestnut Street so we're going to go Tuesday and actually do some Christmas shopping.  I'm determined to buy more gifts for other people than for ourselves!  So after driving around for a while, we tried to find a place on the street to park the car until we had to leave for Oakland.  We drove several blocks until we found a space big enough to fit the car.  Finding spots to park on the street could be a little difficult.  I imagine during the week might not be so bad when everyone's at work, but the weekend might be a problem.  Oh well.  I think it's great that we spent the first half of our trip walking everywhere and the second having easier access to the car.

Did I mention that we almost stayed in Mill Valley while we were here?  I read in the paper this morning that Mill Valley Film Festival begins the weekend Don will be in Columbia, leaving me here by myself... with no car.  Guess who's going to be at the Film Festival?  Billy Bob Thorton, Ben Affleck, Ewan McGregor, Dustin Hoffman and Stevie Nicks to name a few.  Don will be in Columbia the first weekend, but some family and friends will be here the second weekend.  Maybe we can catch a glimpse of some famous faces!

Not much else to report.  Other than the fact that the exterminator will be here this week to take care of the rat problem.  When he came to check out the back yard, he said it was a "haven for rats".  And rats can climb:

Our Front Entryway

When I walk outside or walk back inside I have to look up to make sure there's not a rat waiting to pounce.

We're off to watch last night's new on Hulu.

Video Update

I was really embarrassed about my video of the messy apartment I posted the other day so I spent the 20 minutes required to tidy up and took another.  Here it is:

Okay, I tried for 3 days to upload the video and it gets stuck.  I'll continue to try but you might have to make do with the messy apartment video.

But, I have my herb garden:

There's parsley and thyme.  There's also lots of ivy that I couldn't pull up.

And where I saw a rat the other day:

I was sitting on our "couch" and saw him out of the window.  He scurried underneath the lattice under the boards.  He was huge!

Okay, I need help.  Don is going home for a conference and to hear his student's PhD defense.  He told me he's going to be there the weekend of the Georgia game.  We have spent around 10 weeks together so I was kind of looking forward to having a weekend on my own.  But he told me yesterday that he's going to be gone for 5 days.  5 days!!!  How could he not have told me this before?  What am I going to do for 5 days?  2 days okay, but 5???  So we have to start thinking of things I can do for 5 days.  I'm a little worried that the only human voices I'll hear are the waiter asking what I want for dinner or the check out person at the market asking me if I found everything okay.  This might get me back on the bus before he leaves so I can get used to it in case I need to get out of this area when he's gone.

We went to the wharf area yesterday and then downtown. We were supposed to go on a culinary walking tour of Little Italy but when we got to the meeting place we were told the guide had laryngitis and couldn't make it.  I don't think he was telling the truth.  I think we were the only ones who booked that day and the guide just wanted a day off.  But since we were there we had a nice dinner in Little Italy and did a little shopping.  

Don is getting so good about just getting on a bus and knowing the general direction it's going.  I just know we're in the Marina district but don't know what it's north or south of.  I don't know what side of the road to be on to get a bus home.   I just followed along like a little puppy as he made our way through the crowds for the appropriate bus stop.   Since I'm so bad with the bus, I told Don I'll try to go to the wharf area again today.  We found part of a birthday gift for somebody whose birthday is coming up but didn't have enough cash and the guy wouldn't take credit.  So the guy told us we could have the gift if we come back today and pay him what we owe.  We were only $5 short but I feel obligated to go pay him.  And I saw some possible Christmas gifts there yesterday that I would like to pick up.  I'll let you know if I go and if I make it back home safely.  Wish me luck.

Bus Update

Well, I got on the bus heading toward Pier 39.  I had to get off our bus, cross the street and get on another bus.  I did that just fine and got off at the stop for Pier 39.  I was so happy.  I shopped a little (got some small Christmas gifts) ate a fantastic salad with fresh crab, had a glass and a half of wine and started to head home for an afternoon nap.  I walked down the Embarcadero looking at all the tourists until I got a little tired.  I then asked the GPS on my phone which way to go to get a bus home.  Then my trouble began.  My phone kept changing it's "mind" which way I should go.  I went to where it said I should go and the screen showed I was somewhere else.  I walked around the block several times, backtracked, asked a few people (one being a UPS guy who told me the wrong way) then finally decided to walk.  It's only a mile and a half but there are a lot of hills here.  I walked up a hill (not as steep as Fillmore!) and caught a bus 30 Stockton that was really full but I got on as it was heading my way.  Off we went.  A little while later, the bus stopped and we were told to get off; the wires kept getting disconnected.  So I trekked up the hill once again.  Again I asked if there was a bus and when I looked up I saw the bus 30 Stockton Jefferson Loop and knew I could make it home.  That bus stops a block from our house.  So much to the relief of the dogs, I'm home.  I just finished eating a mint dark chocolate truffle that I bought for myself today.  Heaven.  Maybe I'll try again.  But not tomorrow.

One Month in

We've been in San Francisco for one month already.  Where has the time gone?

We spent a lovely evening with Don's San Francisco family.  His Uncle Bob and Aunt Delores live here in the city.  They have always been very nice and I've always liked them very much.  Their daughter lives north of here but not far so we all went to her house for dinner.  We couldn't stay long as uncle Bob needed to get home to bed but I'm sure we'll see them again before we leave.  But the gift we bought for Delores mistakenly got opened by Don's cousin.  Oh well.

We spent a night in Mill Valley last weekend.  We left Saturday morning and just drove north.  Don had never been to Muir Woods so we went there.

We had a nice dinner in Mill Valley.  While it would have been a huge commute for Don, I could see myself spending Sabbatical there.  In SF I feel kind of claustrophobic, but Mill Valley is more open.  But we've gone for the experience of living in a big city.  So here we are.

Speaking of the experience of living in a big city, my goal today is to get on a bus by myself and going somewhere.  I think I'll go down to Pier 39 since they have a huge shopping area down there and I still haven't bought any Christmas gifts.  I think I can get down there, but I'm a little nervous about getting home.  Don thinks I'll be much happier if I can get around by bus instead of just staying in the Marina district.  I'm not sure.  There are shops and groceries here.  I can walk to anything I want.  But I'll try it today and we'll see.

We're making our first trip to Sonoma this weekend.  There aren't a lot of dog friendly places to stay within our price range, so we're just going to take lots of day trips.  There's a limo bus tour here in SF that takes people up to several different wineries.  They give you breakfast on the way up. tour 4 wineries, give you a snack on the way back and you can drink your purchases on the way home.  Don doesn't want to do that because they don't go to some of the places we want to go to (J, Coppola to name two) so we'll go on our own.  Maybe some of our visitors might want to do something like that when they come???  You know who you are.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had my final visit to an orthopedist.  My foot has officially healed!  The doctor in San Diego said that while I didn't have to wear the boot anymore, I needed to wear shoes that tied, like sneakers.  Well, I brought about 20 pairs of shoes and could only wear my walking shoes.  So now I'm free to wear whatever pair of shoes I want.  However, it's like 60 degrees everyday and we walk a lot, so some of my shoes are not practical.  And when we leave here in December, it'll be too cold to wear the sandals so, I'm out of luck there.  But I can wear my boots, so I have that.

Okay, I can't procrastinate any longer.  It's 11:30 so I only have around 4 or 5 hours before Don comes home.  I need to get down to Pier 39.  I can always take a cab home, right?  Wish me luck.

Some miscellaneous pics:

And our very messy apartment.  I'll post another when I've straightened up a bit.

Week Four in San Fran

So much has happened since we've been here.  The dogs are adjusting, a little.  We got an amazing dog whisperer for Bailey, Jeff Stallings (look under the reviews for a picture of Bailey!).  He's actually from Georgia but has been living here for a while.  He came over to the apartment and the dogs took to him immediately.  He tried to get Bailey to walk with a head collar but Bailey was having no part of that.  Jeff said this was the first time he couldn't get a dog to walk on that collar.  So we got him a harness and a better leash, relearned how to walk a dog and he's much better.  He's still really skittish around the traffic noises but we take him for short walks and, with the help of some Prozac, temporarily, he's getting better.  Jeff and I took him and Jeff's dog Otis to the dog beach without Missy and he did really well.  There were no other dogs there so Otis played with the Chuck-it and Bailey just stood by my side.  After a while a few other dogs came and were playing.  Bailey watched them for a while and after a couple minutes he actually joined in!!!  I was so excited.  Small steps.

Jeff also told me about these amazing treats the dogs absolutely love.  I can get the dogs to do just about anything with them.  We're working on basic training with Bailey; sit, stay, etc and using the clicker.  I'm having Bailey sit for 10 - 15 seconds before I click and give him the treat.  But sometimes he gets so excited looking at the clicker waiting for the treat, that he can't stand it any longer.  He puts his haunches up in the air and wags his tail.  I'll get a video and post it.  It's adorable.  But since Missy already knows how to do these tricks we're teaching her other ones.  The latest is "turn around" when she has to turn in a complete circle.  She's getting pretty good at it.  But surprisingly she's having trouble with "shake".  She's watching the treat if it's in sight or looking around for it if it's not to pay attention to what I'm trying to get her to do.  It's fun though.

I cannot find a job.  Rather I can't find one that sounds exciting.  There was a help wanted sign on the window of a paper shop on Chestnut St that Don suggested I apply for.  But that seemed kind of boring so I haven't done that yet.  I applied for thousands of online teaching jobs but can't get a nibble.  I guess that line of work is really hard to get into and without any prior experience actually teaching online (lots of training and experience incorporating online instruction within my classes) I can't get my foot in the door.  So I looked for volunteering.  There's a website that lists opportunities to volunteer and I found one that puts books online for the blind or visually impaired people.  I work with textbooks and have to describe the images in words to be read online.  It's actually really difficult.  I described a figure from a Geometry textbook to Don to see if he could draw it:

"The figure is of a ray and a triangle.  The ray is horizontal and points to the left.  The endpoint of the ray is also a vertex of the triangle.  The second triangle is above and to the left of the first and the third vertex lies on the ray.  The interior angle of the vertex formed by the endpoint of the ray and the triangle is labeled 72 degrees.  The interior angle of the vertex above the ray is 42 degrees.  The exterior angle formed by the ray and the third vertex is labeled x degrees."

Of course this requires knowledge of the math terms, ray, endpoint, interior/exterior angles, etc (which apparently Don had forgotten) but he eventually drew the figure.  It was hard!!

Between that and a special project I'm working on for some people for Christmas, I'm keeping pretty busy.  When I get cabin fever or if I just need a break, I walk up to Chestnut St. and shop or walk to the market to buy stuff to make dinner in our very rustic kitchen.

There are three issues that we  have not been able to get over.  They are the noise issue, the lack of comfortable seating and not being able to watch the news.  We can hear nearly EVERYTHING upstairs.  I've become quite the expert on ear plugs just so I can sleep past 6am.  I can almost make out conversations.  I can hear different voices but can't quite make out all of the words being said.  And if I can hear them, they can probably hear us.  And when that baby gets on his little scooter??? Arg! I have more of an issue with this than Don does, he gets up really early anyway.  I like to sleep in the morning.

The apartment has a table and three chairs, a wicker rocking chair and a white futon.  Why anyone would have a dog friendly apartment and put a white futon in there is beyond me.  But that's what we have.  And for a coffee table, we have a wicker basket that is very unstable.  So we have one of the dining chairs to act like a coffee table.  I got comfortable the other day sitting sideways on the futon with the computer on my lap watching a rerun of "Locked Up Abroad" and a glass of wine sitting on the chair.  I reached around behind me to pick up my wine when my elbow knocked the back of the chair sending the wine flying.  It spilled onto the wall behind me and, you got it, the white futon.  The cushions of which are dry clean only.  And it was red wine.  So I'm sitting on the stuffing of the cushion covered by a towel while the covers are at the dry cleaners.  But we bought two cheap vinyl chairs (like we use for tail gating) so at least we have a choice of where to sit.

Lastly, the news.  I didn't even know there was a hurricane last week or that the Republican Convention was going on.  Well I don't care about the convention, but what else is going on in the world that I don't know about?  I'm watching reruns of "Locked Up Abroad" and "Downton Abbey" (which is really good).  So we miss the news.  Don wondered aloud last night what it would cost to get cable in here.  It's all part of the adventure I guess.

This is a really long post and I haven't even gotten to the football club we found or the side trips we've been taking.  But that'll have to wait for another day.  My rear end is getting sore so it's time for a stroll up to Chestnut.