Random Dialogue

I have another article in the Escapist today. Their Casual Friday for today involves some ‘other’ aspects of horror and videogames, giving me a great opportunity to write about the connection between Lovecraft and games. This was a very challenging article to write for me, simply because of logistics. Life lesson: Don’t write an article and do 11 hours of driving in the same day.

I’m sitting in my easy chair in the new apartment, surrounded by the physical artifacts of our previous home. This place isn’t quite home yet, my brain assures me. There’s no ‘Zenke’ sampler on the wall; the only thing in the refridgerator is some water and a few things for lunch today.  Just the same, this place is a huge improvement over the glorified efficiency we’ve lived in for the last two years. We actually have two bedrooms, one of which is going to pull duty as an office. There are two entire bathrooms, for double the flushing pleasure. We even have an ‘accent wall’, a wall that we could have painted. It’s just one wall, but it makes a huge difference from the stark white we’re used to. We chose a sort of rusty red for a wall in the dining room area, and it looks fab.

I was hoping to have some sort of reflective, thoughtful comment here about ‘empty walls, full life’. Maybe something sweet about our first married domicile. I’ve got nothing. Even after a good night’s sleep, I’m just too tired. Today’s going to be yet another long day.

I have blog entries for the end of our trip sitting here on the laptop hard drive, but they need to be finished and cleaned up. Wednesday we had interweb access, but I was to tired to use it. Thursday we were in Ferndale, and both Friday and Saturday I drove an ungodly amount of time. So: They’re there, I promise I’ll put them up, but I need a little time to decompress from my decompression.

Today we’re going back to the old place to pick up a few remaining odds and ends, and clean the crap out of the place. Mrs. De Smet has kindly allowed us the use of her steam cleaner today, and so we’ll be giving the place the one-two-punch. The rest of the place, I think, will not be so lucky. We’re already dead tired from three straight days of traveling and moving. As much as I’d like to say that we’re going to do an amazing job and they’ll never know we were there and we’ll totally get our deposit back … not so much.

Tomorrow I work all day, and Katie works in the evening, so I’m not even sure we’ll be able to go back … which is bad, because the place sure could use two days of work. In the evening I have made plans with Mr. Davenport to come over and do some craftyworks with me; we have some furniture to assemble and a little Cat 5 to run, nothing big but four hands required. It will be nice to have a place other than the floor to put my PC and TV.

Beyond that … empty walls have to be filled, I guess.

Every vacation has to have a low point. A good attitude and perseverance ensured that our low point wasn’t even that low … we’re cool like that.

We headed out of SF yesterday with an upbeat attitude, but much redder than we’d arrived. Tuesday’s excursion to Alcatraz pushed us over the solar saturation line, and we were both suffering from a little sunburn come morning. Despite a little discomfort we made good time to Healdsburg, a town dead center in the Sonoma Wine Country. We’d been told to do lunch at the Oak Valley Grocery Store, and our first order of business when we pulled into town was to do just that.

Actually, our first order of business was to feel the heat. While it had been in the low 70s for much of the week in San Francisco, the Italian climate in Sonoma was approaching 100 degrees. Undaunted (initially) we found the grocery and grabbed a bite. I’m duly impressed; I’ve been to some froofy grocers in my time but this was probably the most froof I’d ever seen. I had a turkey and pancetta sandwich, Katie had a small order of a potato salad, and we shared a cold corn salad that was very refreshing in the heat. Fed, we headed back out into the sun. In order to ensure that our limited en-reddening stayed limited, we purchased some sunscreen from the Safeway just off of Main Street. The looks from the locals as we gooed ourselves up were pretty priceless.

Protected, refreshed, with water in hand, we took in the sights on the main street in Healdsburg. A bunch of interesting boutiques line the street … with some being questionably useful. The Hand Fan museum was closed when we went past, as was the Japanese cloth store, and the cheese shop. We did stop in at Susan’s Basement, where Katie picked out a really cute t-shirt cloth dress for a birthday present. We also went through a really crappy kitchen supply store, and I marveled at the uselessness of most kitchen devices. Lame.

After a few hours of window shopping, we checked into our hotel. A Best Western, just off the freeway. You can smelly the Klassy. The room was clean enough, but we had a devil of a time getting the internet connection working. It involved several visits from the bellhop and a lot of annoyed phone calls on my part. We ditched our stuff in the room, and began the winery portion of our day.

Despite the heat, despite the not-so-great hotel, seeing the wineries and tasting the wine was a good bit of fun. We hit the Bella wine caves, which are nice to look at but didn’t offer much in the way of taste. They were also kinda snobby. All they do is red, and when I asked where a good place to try white might be one of the employees said ‘Is white even really wine?’ One of his fellows was more helpful, and we tried whites at the hippy-dippy wine tasting room of Preston. Despite the vegan, anti-meat, anti-food-industry propaganda all around, the wine was more than a little tasty. We were hoping to check out Foppiano too, but they were closed by the time we made it into that neck of the woods. Instead, we tasted wine at Armida, a great place with friendly tasting bar attendants. Their award-winning Poizin was as good as advertised, and we ended up buying two bottles (with coffins) as gifts for friends.

By that point it was getting late in the day, and we began the search for food. We actually stopped in at several fairly expensive places, each time determining that we really weren’t in the mood. We decided on a beer and burgers joint just off of the main street, Bear Republic Brewery. My only complaint was the heavy smell of malt hanging in the air, and the annoying table of tourists nearby. The pulled pork and bread pudding made up for small annoyances, and the whole bill was as much as one of us would have cost at the other restaurants we explored.

So, for a day that had a number of setbacks and disappointments, things ended fairly well.

Today we woke early, for a slightly longer jaunt into the farmland of Northern California. Ferndale is a … I won’t call it picturesque because I like my in-laws. Let’s just say it’s a slice of America that I’ve not had the chance to experience very often. It’s set in a very beautiful valley just a few miles from places that would remind any Sci-Fi fan very strongly of Endor. Rolling farmlands, lots of cows. It’s always an experience for someone who did most of his growing up in suburbs of Chicago.

Once in the valley, we headed to the Giacomini farm and caught up with the relatives. Katie’s grandparents very kindly offered to play tourist with us on our one day in town, and we decided to take them up on it right away. We headed up to one of the hills around the valley, where the town’s Catholic cemetary has a commanding view of the entire area. The Giacominis maintain the cemetery, and know every story there is to tell about the inhabitants and history. Besides the interesting stories about relations, we got a lot of the gorey details on horrible things insensitive people have done to the sanctified ground. It was enlightening to know that there were veterans of the revolutionary war in the cemetery. I could have done without the knowledge that someone once took a 4×4 up the central staircase, and used a headstone to pry his vehicle loose when he got stuck. Despite failing batteries I still took some breathtaking pictures, and the natural and historic significance of our surroundings was really wonderful to experience.

We continued our tourist gig in town, where the Giacominis walked us down the main street. Information was less forthcoming … I’m not sure that I would be that great a host on State Street either. Just the same, it was fun to take in the slower pace of the Ferndale downtown. What was interesting to see was the touristification of that slower pace. Many stores have become ‘antique mall’ style odds and ends storefronts. There were lots of people walking the street that obviously didn’t live there. It was hard for the Giacominis to understand, and a challenge for me as well.

After our downtown tour, we took our leave to go visit Wendy, a talented writer and friend to the Giacomini family. We were instructed, strenuously, to meet up with the woman by Katie’s brother Don. When Don was out here working on the farm, he fell in with a project Wendy was running. The valley was flooded in a spot of harsh rain many years ago, and the project was an interview heavy recollection of the events surrounding the flood. Wendy recently had another book published, and Katie was actually reading it (When I Grow Up I Want To Be 60) as we drove up to the Ferndale valley. At Wendy’s, we chatted and talked for over an hour; the issues of the day discussed on the edge of the Pacific. We had a lovely time talking, and agreed to meet up again the next time we were in town.

Instead of heading back to town right away, Katie and I went down to the Ferndale beach to enjoy the wind and water. I don’t want to waste a lot of words on describing the ’standing around and looking at the water’ we did. For me, a person who’s never lived near an ocean for any length of time, it will never get old to do that.

We met back up with the Giacominis in town, for dinner at the Ivanhoe hotel. Heading back into the dining room we passed through the hotel bar, where a trio of local folks were playing songs on the guitar, singing, and drinking. Tourists packed the place, thinking they’d found a great taste of local culture. Except, not so much. One of the guys was, in fact, a gent from the richest family in town. The downhome songs they sing are super simple because, in all honesty, they’re too drunk to remember new tunes. Dinner was enjoyed by everyone but me. I chose poorly; the chicken piccata was a saucy boney mess.

Despite the lackluster cuisine, we had a wonderful time in Ferndale. My suburban/urban mentality buckles under the imagery in this valley: mountains, trees, and endless fields of cattle. It’s so completely removed from everything I’ve experienced during my life; beautiful, natural, and breezily cool. I know they’re used to it … I imagine that they don’t even notice it anymore. I just know that every time I come here it’s like coming to another planet.

The take-away today: my father-in-law is from the cow planet.

Weekends are good, but apparently vacation weekdays are even better.

Monday’s lunch saw me introduced via Simon and his coworker Frank, to a nice little cafe that served pretty good burgers. We talked the nerd something good, and Simon ate my burger instead of the one he ordered. Good times all around. That night Katie and I enjoyed the beautiful scenery of AT&T Park. No hits into the Bay or anything, the score ended up 2-1 Giants, and all of those runs were scored in the first inning. So … not the most exciting game ever. But still, a thoroughly enjoyable experience in the open air of San Francisco. My only mistake: the garlic french fries. While they’re certainly good, eating too many in a row can lead to pain. Every time I took a sip of Sprite, it was like taking a swig of battery acid. T3h P41N! Still, it was an experience!

Yesterday we headed up to Union Square for some lunch and to snag some buttons for a project Katie is working on. We originally wanted to get some food at the Compass Rose, the restaurant that has been in the Westin St. Francis for quite some time. I should have known as soon as I saw the new management notice that we would be disappointed. The Rose has been closed in favour of some new trendy dinner spot. We took a quick picture of the clock, and then headed outside to consider our options. My lovely and intelligent wife suggested we ask the doorman, a gent who was sure to have opinions. Always trust the doorman. Riley, the gent on duty, directed us three blocks down and one to the left, onto Ellis Street. “John’s, Grill, and tell them I sent you”. We went, we told, we ate. A-mazing. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall place mentioned in The Maltese Falcon, and I can totally see why Spade would want to eat there. Sitting at our little table for two in the dark, we found ourselves surrounded by regulars. A businessman at the next table motioned our waiter over and made a point to say that he wouldn’t be coming in tomorrow. A woman came into the bar area asking for her usual. She sipped quickly at a martini, and then left. The food itself was terrific. I had a piece of sole with just a little butter and some slivered almonds. Katie had some really delicious pasta, with just a little bit of meat inside, a velvety white sauce, and some parmesan cheese.  To top it off, not only did it have the best atmosphere and food of any place we’ve been yet, it was also one of the cheapest meals we’ve had here in town. Stupendous.

In fact, after a stop at the Bri-Tex fabric store, we ended up spending less on lunch than we did on buttons for Katie’s project. She bought about 24 beautiful little golden buttons, all in the shape of knotted rope, for a coat she’s repairing. It will look great, but that was still pretty funny to me.

Buttons purchased, we motored down to Fisherman’s Wharf. We had an appointment to meet, but we still had enough time to walk around, look at the ocean, and get some ice cream. When the appointed time came, we hopped a boat for The Rock. After the quick talk from one of the rangers, we made our way to the cellhouse. (From her spiel: “This is federally protected land, so please do not try to take any rocks, twigs, feathers, rangers, or volunteers off of the island.”) We grabbed the audio tour headsets, and headed inside. I expected it to be, somehow, more depressing. Perhaps it’s just the tone of the recordings and the way that the inmate recollections are phrased, but overall the impression I got was more ‘historical interest’ than ‘traumatizing lockup’. I’m sure it was a horrible place for anyone locked up there, but surrounded by blinding wandering tourists it was hard to appreciate the suffering they went through.

I’ve got something like 600 photos to go through, but I don’t expect you’ll see any of them for a few days yet. Still on dial-up here, and that sounds like pain. We might have dial-up tonight, as once we get underway we’re going to be making tracks north of the city. Wine country is our destination today, with lunch in Healdsburg the only real planned event. Yay for the open road.

It’s been two days so far, and I have to say I rather like this whole ‘relaxation’ business. I’ve been on the internet quite infrequently, and have for the most part been enjoying the ridiculously nice San Francisco weather. It’s cool here, probably in the 60s-70s, but there is a lot of sun to make up for it.

Saturday’s travels went basically without a hitch. We were at the back of the plane on the longer ride, and it sounded like a three-ring circus. After we’d tired of reading, we both tried to get some sleep. Katie had a lot more success by putting on her headphones and listening to her iPod. I’m not that smart. I still managed the occasional fitful nod, and it make the overall trip shorter. Once we were in town, grabbing the car and heading over here was painless. The gent at the counter at Enterprise was competent and helpful (a big change from my last rental experience), and Google Maps came through again with the directions. We spent a few hours just decompressing from travel, and then hooked up with our cousin Steff for dinner. He took us to a Japanese noodle place, which satisfied our well-traveled stomachs. The Yaki Udon I had wasn’t the best ever, but it was still a nice ‘welcome to San Francisco cuisine’ moment.

Sunday was pretty much just a blast. We decided for our first day proper that we’d do the tourist thing, and see the city all in one go. Grey Line offers tours of several different varieties. We opted for the ‘City Tour and Bay Cruise’ option. The City Tour itself is a three hour blast around the city, with the driver talking essentially nonstop. If we’d had a different guide, I’m more than a little bit certain it would have sucked. This guy, though, was pretty fun. He had a great patter going within a few minutes of us leaving Pier 43 (our embarkation point), and didn’t stop until we came back to Pier 39 at the end of the voyage. In between we went up through North Beach, into the Financial district, through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate, and back through the Marina district. He had snarky comments about things like Lombard Street (not even the crookedest street in the city), other tour operations (Mr. Toad’s wild ride … not so wild), and the fashion choices of people passing us on the street. We had the chance to get out at the Park, allowing us a chance to wander through the Japanese Tea Garden for about half an hour. That was simply beautiful, and would be reflected more in our copious snapshots for the day had we not run out of space on the memory card. I’m smark ™.

After the tour we had lunch at Boudin, the ‘first place to make sourdough bread’. Among a bevy of touristy options, it was worth the price for relative lack of crowds and the decent food. I had out of season crab cakes, which were kind of eh. Afterwards I wish’d I’d had the Fish and Chips, because Katie’s chicken sandwich came with some truly tremendous french fries.

The tour came with a ‘Cruise around the bay’, a voucher for a 1 hour excursion with the red and white line. Fed and happy, we stood in line for about twenty minutes chatting while we waited for the ferry to return. Onboard, we immediately headed for the ship’s bow. As we walked, we put on headphones and clipped radio packs to our waistlines. The ship broadcast a pre-recorded audio tour over a series of frequencies, with options for over half a dozen languages that I could hear. I found that out, along with the knowledge that my volume was up too high, when a french person began screaming into my ears. Ready for the tour, we braced ourselves just behind the flying flag of California as the boat headed out into open water. We passed the coastline of the city, going north to get a good view of the Marina and the Presidio. We were heading straight at the Golden Gate, and the wind funneled beneath the bridge created a strong breeze and a lot of chop. We hung on tight to the bow as our hair was whipped back and the deck rolled beneath us. It didn’t feel dangerous at all, but it was quite exciting and we both had a great time. Even catching the odd spray of water (me right in the mouth) didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the experience. Just as we were about to pass under the bridge, we stopped, turned, and headed back towards Alcatraz and Angel islands. The audio tour filled us in on Sausolito and the surrounding areas. It also described the less than savory past of Angel Island (the ‘ellis island of the west’) with anecdotal support from some people who had gone through there. To continue the depressing details brigade, the tour went on to describe the history of Alcatraz. A former inmate provided colour commentary. We pulled into port actually quite sad that it had ended so soon. An hour seems like a long time, and it was a satisfying amount of time. We both still wanted to be out on the water, just the same.

Off the boat, we headed back to Pier 39 to do some wandering around. Pier 39 is a big shopping/dining complex along the water, with wares and menus of all types to tempt the wallets of visitors. We were still full, so we just indulged in some window shopping. Katie found a San Francisco Giants sweatshirt for the game tonight, and I enjoyed using one of those quarter-operated telescopes to see the names of the ships out on the bay. (The ‘Tokyo Marine’, a large cargo container flying the Japanese flag, was only slightly more interesting than a sloop of odd-looking folks sailing on the ‘Sanity Check’.)

We headed home after that, and managed to catch Steff in time for another dinner. We had a really great pizza at Georgio’s Pizzeria, while talking about family and books and whatnot. I haven’t had New York style pizza that good in a very long time. Afterwards we were walking back to the car when I heard music coming out of a pub along the street. The Plough and The Stars pub had recently been redecorated, and Steff lamented the loss of character the bar had suffered. Just the same, the Boddington’s the bartender pulled was delicious. There was a group of people doing a jam session around a table laden with Guiness, and while it was fairly empty when we got there the mood became more and more festive as we sat there drinking and talking. A great evening all around.

In about an hour or so I’ll be taking off to have lunch with Simon Carless and some other folks, and this evening we’ll be taking in the Giants vs. the Angels at Pac Bell Park. Ahh, stadium food.

I’m normally ambivalent about vacations before they happen, morose during them, and then regretful once they’re over. Assuming I don’t get sick in the next two days, I’m actually looking forward to this as a great experience. We’ve got lots and lots of time to relax, nothing close to a tight schedule, and we plan on seeing a lot of neat people. Family, friends, friends we haven’t seen in a while, friends we don’t see almost ever … should be a lot of fun.

The moroseness that I’m looking forward to is regarding transportation and big cities. I’m just not a big city person; Give me a town with a ped mall. I’m especially not looking forward to the twisty maze of little passages, all alike. We’ll have Google Maps, though, and my wife is as able a navigator as you’d ask for. Assuming no fender-benders, I’m sure all will be well.

Here’s what our week looks like:

Saturday -
Fly MSN-ORD, ORD-SFO.
We’ll be bunking at Katie’s cousin Suzie’s home, and will probably be doing dinner with her that evening. She shares my enthusiasm for Chinese cuisine, and I’m hoping for some Dim Sum.

Sunday -
Unplanned. We’re hoping to do a walking tour of San Francisco (ala our Lonely Planet Guide), and this might be the day to do it. I’m going to be bringing my camera for sures, and lots of pictures will be taken.

Monday -
I’m going to be hooking up with Simon Carless and some other game journo folks for lunch. Don’t know where or when, but we will by George! That evening Katie and I are going to be taking in a baseball game. Apparently there’s a sporting team in San Francisco called the Giants. I’m told they play some good baseball, and I always enjoy sampling Stadium cuisine.

Tuesday -
Another most unplanned day. Might do the walking tour here, but we’re definitely hoping to go see Alcatraz. During a weekday might be a better choice.

Wednesday -
We’ll be moving on from the Bay area to take in the beauty of Sonoma County. Wineries, vineyards, rolling fields, and a B&B will be the order of the day.

Thursday -
It’s Katie’s Birthday! We’ll be heading up to Ferndale to spend the day with Katie’s Grandparents, and have dinner to celebrate her birthday. Photo shoots at the Ferndale cemetery, Fernbridge, downtown, and at the beach are a requirement.

Friday -
A Long Haul. We abandon the scenic highways for speed, and make tracks very north to Portland Oregon. The rehearsal dinner for Matt and Kirstin will be the event of the evening … assuming we make it up there in time. I trust my driving skillz. We can totally make it.

Saturday -
The wedding day! I enjoy not being in the ceremony, relaxing, and watching the happy couple get hitched. I’m looking forward to seeing WA friends that I haven’t seen since I headed east in 2002. It’s been four years … will we still talk about stupid things? We were planning on staying the night there in Portland, but it looks like the demands of the next day will require that we reverse course and head south.

Sunday -
We’ll be driving for much of the day, aiming to arrive in SFO in the evening. We’ll be meeting up with Brian, who will have been in town for about a week looking for an apartment and getting ready to kickstart his new west-coast life. We’ll be having dinner at Neptune’s Palace, a part of the pier 39 complex. It’s a Katie-favourite, and I’m looking forward to some great west-coast seafood. (The only thing I miss about Olympia is the Oyster House.)

Monday -
We return to the bossom of Wisconsin, via a reverse SFO-ORD, ORD-MSN jaunt.

As SFO is a very connected city, I expect to be able to upload pictures and posts for at least part of the week. Yay for things!

Boxing up your life while watching Good Eats is strangely freeing. It’s also freeing to be (mostly) offline for an entire day. My almost constant presence on tar interweb is entertaining to be sure, but I’m told all this stuff out in the real world is pretty interesting too.

Katie and I spent our time offline today getting some lunch with Joe and Brian. It was the last time we’ll see Brian until we’re all in San Francisco, so we were glad to have the chance. Indeed, we are going to make sure our paths cross the weekend after thiscoming, to have some seafood by the bay of that fair city. The Great Dane on Fish Hatchery is a dang nice restaurant/bar.

Our home is looking ever less like our home, with boxes replacing bookshelves as the dominating feature. It’s hard to see today (with two packing days left) how we’re going to get all of this squared away before Saturday. I know we’ll manage somehow.

After lunch we meandered over to ShopKo to take advantage of a summer sale. We procured for ourselves a small entertainment center, and a small desk. Both are sturdy but reasonably sized, and will replace the rough metal rack we have for a TV stand and the hugenormous monstrosity that I currently call a desk. Our television and my monitor are just not that big. We’ll be dismantling the metal rack for other uses (extra pantry space, maybe) but we plan to leave the huge desk behind as a gift to the garbage men. I’m sure they’ll send us love notes.

I work tomorrow and Friday, but Katie is off for the rest of the week. Which is good, because she’s can run the show packing up what we need for the SFO trip and making sure that my meager muscles wrangle the boxes into place.

We’re leaving in three days. And … amazingly enough … I’m actually looking forward to it.