Hello Cupertino

Sorry for the hiatus. Moving down here has been a pretty all-consuming process, but in summary:

1) Eli did a great job driving the U-Haul (and thanks to all who pitched in with helping us unload)
2) I'm over my food poisoning
3) Miracle of miracles, the Ikea furniture survived with minimal scarring

We're mostly settled into our apartment in Cupertino. The apartment is great: it's much bigger and nicer than our old place, with higher ceilings and a charming little patio. The walls are a cheery yellow, the A/C is fresh, and the digital cable is glorious (how did we survive for so long without it??!?). It's peaceful at night and I no longer have to watch out for that singing crackhead on 3rd and Harrison or those B&T's stumbling out of Club NV (wait, am I a B&T now?). Our commutes have been cut down to a third of what they used to be, so I now have more time to iron my shirts in the morning and attend to personal hygiene obligations--always a plus, especially for people who sit near me at work.

Most of you already know this... even though I tried really hard not to, I bought the same car as Eli. Yes, I did get a different color. No, it would not be very original of you to leave a "his 'n' hers" joke in the comments.

Some good cheese, some bad cheese.

San Francisco has amazing restaurants, charming bookstores, and some breathtaking views, but the thing I'll miss most about this town is my friends.

Who knew my first years of full-time employment could be so much fun? Thank you all for being there, for destroying me at Scrabble, for giving Eli the very last piece of string cheese, for waking me up at 4th and King, for all the Korbel (and TIME), for accepting me even when I leave the club at 12:15am, even when I announced my move to the suburbs.

I was originally planning to upload a picture of Young pretending to be a roast quail from Thep Phanom, but I couldn't find my camera cable.

In other news, you know what really grinds my gears? Family Circus (click the pictures to enlarge).















Never mind the uproarious puns--what I love best is that even after 60 years, it's just as "hip" and "fresh" and "down" with current events as it ever was! I bet all those factory kids in Bangladesh getting 5 cents an hour for sewing XXL cotton briefs would be proud to have an ally in Jeffy or Billy or whatever the hell his name is. Zing!

Pre-Move Jitters, or: Why I Am Doomed to Become a Cat Lady Sipping Mai Tais On Her Barcalounger Whilst Ordering Marie Osmond Dolls from QVC

This past weekend, Eli and I took a spin through the North Bay, stopping at the Marin Headlands for a few photo ops and a chat with some friendly folks at the Marine Mammal Center before continuing on to Healdsburg and Dry Creek Valley. Some highlights of the trip: seeing an adorable little quail family (that’s our state bird!), running up the hill toward a vista point overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, trying an old vine zinfandel at Quivira with a badass dark chocolate finish. I hear there are vineyards in Cupertino, too, some of them award winning! I’m trying, I’m trying.

I’m starting to get pretty anxious about the move. There’s probably nothing I hate more than moving, though its less frenetic but more demeaning cousin, apartment-hunting, comes in at a close second. I suspect my need to feel grounded and nested stems from that crazy summer in college where I moved from couch to couch about a dozen times, relying on the kindness of friends and shuttling my belongings from one end of Cambridge to another by cab in a sagging, beat-up laundry bag. I’ve used up all my moving points.

I’m also starting to notice that I have a lot of stuff. What drove me to order all these cookbooks from Amazon? Why do I have thirty pairs of shoes? What might an inventory of all the hair products I’ve amassed in the past two years look like? Well…

Shampoos

· Aveda Scalp Benefits Balancing Shampoo
· Garnier Fructis Fortifying Anti-Dandruff Shampoo
· Kerastase Resistance Bain de Force
· Shiseido Tsubaki Oil Shampoo with Japanese Camellia Oil
Conditioners
· Aveda Black Malva Color Conditioner
· Aveda Curessence Damage Relief Conditioner
· Shiseido Tsubaki Oil Conditioner Japanese Camellia Oil
Styling
· Aveda Elements Finishing Solution
· Aveda Elements Smoothing Fluid
· Dove Extra Hold Hair Spray
· Dove Straight & Soft Sleek Styling Cream
· Framesi Chill Paste
· Kerastase Resistance Volumactiv Spray with Complexe Amplicament
· Kerastase Lait Nutri-Sculpt

And yet, the only hair product I use on a regular basis is the $3.99 Garnier Fructis. Oh, and my Kiehl’s hairbrush with picots (pictured), without which my hair would converge into a single, glorious one-dread.

Simplify, man!

I have a new car

I have been the proud owner of a brand new Scion xA for three weeks now, which has shaved my ludicrous 1.5 hour morning commute down to a puny 40 minutes. Thank you Scion, for finally figuring out how to make a car as hip as I am, for 38mpg highway fuel efficiency, and for giving me enough trunk space to hold one grocery bag from Trader Joes.

In terms of the impending leap to suburbia, these last few weeks are truly a time of transition, where Sheena and I have been able to live in the city at last year's rents but with next year's car. This has meant taking frantic apartment-hunting trips to the South Bay, but it has also meant getting to visit interesting spots closer to home, like Bernal Heights. Being a sucker for "spectacular vistas" and an avid map buff, I have always had my eye on Bernal Heights Park. I love the sudden way it slopes upward between the houses in the landscape, and the way its rolling grass surface changes color with the seasons, more intensely than other open spaces. This picture is from the brief hike to the top, which was a little on the scary side. We also walked around Bernal Heights' Cortland Street, where we saw some of the coolest dogs ever, checked out Red Hill Books (see post about bookstores), and ate at Moonlight Cafe.

In other news, this morning while driving to work I found my car had been violated when I looked over at my right side view mirror and found that it was missing. I spent a few minutes being fascinated that it took me 15 minutes to use my right side view mirror just once, but then I got angry. Three weeks is all it took for something like this to happen? I started to think maybe this is why people move to the suburbs. I think my mind is halfway to Cupertino already...

Things I'd drive 45 miles for, part 3: Bookstores

I love Amazon, but sometimes you want to look up at a real-life shelf of books. I can usually find out about good novels and good poets from friends and book reviews, but lately, I've been all about getting my hands on well-written non-fiction. The big challenge in hunting for your next dose of elegant, crystalline prose is that if you don't have a particular subject in mind, you can't simply run a search on Amazon and get what you want.

That's where brick-and-mortar bookstores come in. As much as I appreciate Amazon's recommendations, there's something to be said for taking a random walk through a section you weren't originally in the market to explore. I love scanning over carts and table displays (admittedly judging many books by their covers, at least initially) and lingering over staff picks.

Here are some SF bookstores I particularly like:
1) City Lights - Great poetry selection, but the real clincher for me is the bizarre, eclectic basement and close proximity to Gelateria Naia.
2) Green Apple Books - Narrow aisles make this place a really cozy hangout, as long as you've come to terms with the idea that we live in earthquake country.
3) Chronicle Books @ the Metreon - I love a good coffee table book. This is a fun place to kill time.
4) Cody's Books - The staff here is thoughtful about their table displays and reviews, and that's where I think the battle is lost and won for independent bookstores. Lots of in-store events, though I have yet to attend one thanks to my commute.
5) Kinokuniya Bookstore - If I could read Japanese, my life would be so much cooler. Thanks to Kinokuniya, I found my Next Big Craft Hobby once I move down to Cupertino: making "bead mascots" (see left). HELL YES.
6) Red Hill Books - I just discovered this place today... it's pretty small, but it totally feels like you're in your cool aunt's house, checking out her library. There are lots of comfy chairs and they even put snacks out.

So what have I been reading lately? The last two books I read were The End of Oil by Paul Roberts (really interesting and well-written, though it got repetitive toward the end) and The Places In Between by Rory Stewart (amazing).

Welcome, Eli!

I just discovered that you can do "team blogs" on this thing, so please put your hands together and welcome Eli to the blog.

Eli brings with him an extensive knowledge of option portfolio risk management strategies,* a love of spectacular vistas and all things Seinfeld, and a wet-my-pants hilarious imitation of the guy who narrates all the movie trailers.

*Yeah, I randomly flipped to a page in your CFA book.

Things I'd drive 45 miles for, part 2: The Food Entry

I've always had a passion for eating, cooking, and trying new restaurants, but after the culinary wasteland that was Tucson and a short but heavenly stopover in Shanghai, I was thrilled to come back to the Bay Area and squander my disposable income on some serious food.

Here are some of my favorite haunts around San Francisco, places I've found to be reliably good and will miss terribly, in no particular order:

1. Taylor's Automatic Refresher - Toasty eggy hamburger buns!
2. Golden Gate Bakery - Perfect custard tarts
3. Just for You Cafe - Best brunch ever... the cornbread here is a revelation
4. Fringale - Simple, good Basque food and excellent service
5. The House - Been here five or six times in the past three months... everything on the menu is finger lickin' good and reasonably priced
6. Zushi Puzzle - Happiness is sharing a Sales Force Roll with your friends :)
7. Yank Sing - Delicious highway robbery, death by xiao long bao. Mmm.

In other news, I roasted a chicken for the very first time last night, following Thomas Keller's instructions. I was skeptical at first--the recipe is so "set it and forget it" simple and I really thought my conventional oven wasn't going to cut it.

It was phenomenal. Eli proclaimed it the best chicken he'd ever had, even better than the one we had at Zuni Cafe the week before, though he'd had quite a bit to drink by then, so definitely take that with a grain of salt. But I was so happy with the results--the chicken was succulent and juicy with perfectly crispy skin. The key to this recipe appeared to be drying off the chicken thoroughly so that there's no steam in the oven to carry all the flavor and juices away. I served it with a little baby romaine salad with a handful of french green beans, a few red bliss potatoes I baked up in the pan juices, and a dressing made with champagne vinegar and dijon mustard. Delicious!