Low-Key Bay Area Visit

Sorry about my lack of recent posting--I just got back from another visit to the Bay Area. I have an ongoing project working out there--I'm planning on being back out there come mid-April--knock on wood. I realized that this was not a go-and-do-San-Francisco-things trip. It was more of a low-key-see-friends-all-over-the-place visit. And I'm damn good with that.

First, taking a break from a Boston February in the Bay Area is just simply extraordinary--wandering around in a fleece and feeling warm, and opening up the windows to cool off. We had two days of meetings over in East Bay, and got to hang out in Berkeley for a little bit.


Sadly, though, we had beautiful weather--for the two days we were cooped up in meetings. The remainder was cloudy and rainy. Ah well. Meetings went well, though--very productive.

On Friday evening, I got dropped off at BART, and the lovely and brilliant Dr. O (a.k.a. Paramecium Woman) met me there after work. Huh... who would think that the sun setting over a BART Station in Oakland would look that nice. Then again, remember, I'm the guy who feels silly affection when hearing, PITTSBURGH/BAY POINT TRAIN APPROACHING 9 CAR TRAIN.


Went out for Vietnamese with Dr. O., where she kvetched and ranted at entertaining length. Caught a late CalTrain down to crash with Jofish and Perlick in Mountain View. Dropped my bags, got rid of the dress shirt, and decompressed with a lovely single malt.


The next morning was a relaxing brunch (Jofish-crêpes with filling) with Jofish, Erin, Perlick, and Jofish's friends from out of town. Brunch out by the pool... not at all bad. Incidentally, though, it appears that they will be forced to move soon... ah well.

However, afterwards, Jofish went off with his friends to entertain them, and Perlick is getting completely smooshed by work, so he couldn't hang out. Huh. I considered going back up to the city, but I figured while I was in South Bay...

Hi Jen, hi Schmooz! It's about 2 on Saturday... I'm visiting Jofish and Perlick, but they both have plans for the day. I was considering heading back up to the city, but if you were around and not doing anything, I'd love to stop by and see you...

And spontaneous plans ended up working out! A day (and dinner) hanging out with Jen, Schmooz, Max, and Delaney. Wonderful catching up with them.


The next day was the Social Event--Dim Sum at Legendary Palace in Oakland. As my invitation put it:

Come stuff your face with pork buns, creatures from the ocean, and unidentified poultry parts! ("I think it's chicken, at least. Hrm... tastes like chicken... kinda. Um.. I'm going to stop thinking about this now.")

Join us, and I'll regale you with many great stories about... um... never mind, my life is boring.



Some surprise guests--Quincy actually made it over from the city... Qwidgibo was there ("Wait... don't you live in Boston, man?"). And many of the usual suspects.

An afternoon puttering around with U-Boat and Christy, and then an evening and dinner at Lucky and Karthiga's. It's really neat to periodically see folks, and watch the kids get older stepwise between visits.


Man... it is seriously awesome to have friends with such wonderful hospitality. I unfortunately don't get the chance to reciprocate often enough. Really, I can't say it enough--thank you, thank you, thank you.

My flight out was Monday morning... unfortunately, SFO is a bunch of bastards who won't let you check luggage if you arrive within 45 minutes of flight departure. They claim, "Oh, it takes 40 minutes at least for the bags to get from the gate to the plane."


So... had to sit around SFO for an extra three hours. Ah well. Had a quiet-but-overpriced breakfast, and then bought net access and logged a few hours of billable time