hey look, it’s snowing!

it’s snowing on my blog again this year!

 i heart wordpress.

red velvet

28 november 2009.

sidebar:  it’s been quite a while since i have written anything in this damn thing.  hope all 2 of you are still reading!

currently, making a red velvet cake.  duncan hines of course.

also made some soup tonight.  CrazyCzech bought me a new soup pot, so i’m tryin it out.

in other news, one holiday down, and 2 more to go.

good times.

 

 

kulaniapia

tues. 15 sept 6:05am

on the Big Island now!  landed yesterday, and drove to Hilo. experience fog thicker than i’ve ever seen in SF.   hiked over to the volcanoes at the end of route 130 to see the lava flow.

it’s super early, and i watched the sunrise.

our B&B is a kick-ass place called the inn at Kulaniapia Falls.  they’re a green B&B because they produce their own electricity! how very hippie-dippie, but oh-so very green!

breakfast starts at 8am.

sidebar:  the beds are “sleep number beds.”  i don’t particularly care for them–they make too much noise!

generally, hilo is kinda hippie dippie. it reminds me of theCruz. but it’s ok.

gonna explore more of hilo today, and then drive to see more waterfalls on our way back to the Kohala coast to check into the Fairmont Orchid.  schwanky!

[where: 96720]

schwag

this pic isn't my schwag.

tues 8 sept 2009.  11:43am

went to a few events lately.  and i’m going through all my schwag.  its lotsa useless stuff.  so wasteful.  it’ll all go to the goodwill soon.

i gotta feeling…

tonight’s gonna be a good night!

after starbelly last night, went drinking in the castro.

toad hall, badlands, qbar, trigger.

and i heard this song several times.

and its still damn good.

afterwards, i went to CJo’s new place in NorthBeach and drank some more. stopped at CrazyCzechs place on the way home–mostly uphill!

[where: 94114]

what a weird name for a restaurant

sat 5 sept 2009 11:10am

went to starbelly last night.  everything about it is very typical SF:

weird drinks?  check.

“local/organic/sustainable whenever possible”  ?  check.

long communal table?  check.

recycled/repurposed decor?  check.

old-style vintage lightbulbs?  check.

so i sat at the bar with CrazyCzech, and ordered some weird-ass drinks.  how weird can they be–they only have beer&wine?  try lime juice, maggi sauce, tabasco, worcestershire, and Lagunitas IPA on the rocks with a spicy salt rim?  weird.  but strangely tasty.

food is typical SF “comfort” food–basically, “expensive american” food.

corn dogs were suck-ass. all-natural hot dogs don’t really taste like anything. the mustard was kick-ass.  the homemade ketchup didn’t have enough salt or vinegar.

cheese grits were good.  not too cheesy.  salad or greens or something came along with it.  excellent.

starbelly salad–kickass!

cheese plate!  kick-ass.

oh, i had another drink, too.  it was a pimms cup.  they make it with ginger beer and a cucumber and an entire forest of rosemary. very refreshing.

afterwards, me and CrazyCzech went drinking. more on that later.

[where: 3583 16th street, san francisco, ca 94114]

step it up

click above to see where i borrowed the photo

fri 4 sept 2k9. 10:15am

i decided to run up n down the lyon street steps yesterday. on monday, i ran up n down the filbert st steps and green st steps, so…uh, i felt like i should run up n down all the steps available to me in SF.  i dunno why. it made sense at the time–just humor me, ok?

afterwards, i luxuriated around fort mason park, talked on the phone, and then rode my bike around fisherman’s wharf to get in touch with my inner tourist.

trauma drama

friday 4 sept 2009 9:51am

went to crunch alhambra last night.

the streets were closed, lights were blazing, film crew were a-buzzing. and about 150 extras were dressed in halloween costumes.  (strange, even by SF standards.)

what the hell’s going on?

i walk up to the PA and ask him if the gym is open.  he says: yeah, you need to go through the side door, though.

Crunch was dressed up as a nightclub, hosting a halloween party! drag queens, pirates, jailbreakers, gypsies, tramps and thieves, pimps, etc.  all crowded onto polk street.

i just looked at the website.  i don’t see how this show can be entertaining.  if anything, its scary to imagine all the death disaster and destruction at the next major quake, for example.

whatever….

and if a double decker bus…

3 sept 11:56am

went to a concierge event yesterday to the New People building in Japantown.   and the Fillmore Jazz District

Japantown’s newest building, New People, is the home for all things wacky japanese! we went on a tour of the building.  it’s got bule bottle coffee!  and a theatre that plays wacky japanese movies in japanese (with english subtitles), an art gallery with wacky japanese art.  and a boutique which sells wacky japanese clothes/books/stuff.  excellent.

we then went inside one of the malls. maybe it was the Kintetsu?  (the one in the middle), where we had some green tea, and walked around for a few moments.

back on the bus, and we headed to the Fillmore Jazz District.  specifically, the Fillmore Heritage center, next to yoshis, and 1300 fillmore.

we ate some fried stuff from guselas’ (?) chicken n waffles place, and pulled pork something from 1300 fillmore, and also ahi tartare (*yawn*) from yoshi’s.

all while a jazz band played.

and the cereal place was there, too.

we went inside the theatre to watch some short presentation on the Fillmore and how in its heyday it was the shizz-nat.

and then we got back onto the bus.

and went to twin peaks!

photo courtesy of carlos baena

haven’t been to twin peaks in a few years.  it was fun.  and windy!

i got tons of schwag from the event.  i should go look at it!

who’s that?

mon 31 aug 10:21am

Brazilian Doll sent me an email on wed, and mentioned that her aunt and uncle were checking into the Hotel on Thursday, and can i do anything for them, etc.

i didn’t look at the email until thursday and i’m off wed-thur-fri, so i couldn’t do anything for them until i got into work on sat.

i get there on sat and i see that they’re still in-house, checking out on Sunday. i was planning to upgrade them, or give ‘em free breakfast during their stay, but it’s too late for all that stuff.  so i decide that a bottle of wine is appropriate.

i print out a note, explaining to them that their niece, Brazilian Doll and i were coworkers, and she mentioned that you were staying here at theHotel, etc. etc.  please enjoy this bottle of wine with our compliments, etc.

yesterday (Sunday) at work, Uncle Brazilian Doll comes up to me with a thank-you note, looking for the woman concierge named (mylastname). apparently he got a little confused. whatever.

he wanted to thank me for the bottle of wine, but he didn’t know who it was from.

at first, i thought i sent it to the wrong room.  he confirmed that he was Uncle Brazilian Doll. so i went into my whole spiel about his niece, Brazilian Doll, etc. etc.

and still has no idea who she is.

so, either Brazilian Doll isn’t their “niece”, or they’ve got Alzheimers.

it’s not the heat, it’s the humidididity

sunday 30 august 9:07am

[sidebar:  how is it the end of august already?]

it’s been hot lately. hot like east-coast hot.  it’s weird.

and in other somewhat-related news, i’ve noticed a lot of NewYorkers at the hotel lately.  and i’ve said it before, i’ll say it again.  NewYorkers really enjoy complaining. a lot.  about everything.  and they won’t shut up about being from NewYork.  why is that?

and clearly i wasn’t that bad when i was a NewYorker.  or at least i wasn’t that vocal about it.

hello, insomnia

wed 26 aug 6:11am

i woke up at 5:15am. goddamit. what’s with the insomnia?   too bad i’m not working the morning shift today.

drama, dinner and scandal

sat 25 july 8:41am

i don’t know why i’m so awake this early.  i’m already dressed and ready to go to the gym!

went to see improv last night.  czechxican’s boyfriend likes to do this as a “hobby”, and homeslice and i attended, you know, in support.

this was a “herald” as they called it.  the audience screams out a topic, and they build a story based on it.  seems simple enough.  but, rather than comedy, it’s experimental drama-dy, for lack of a better explanation.  the actors were going for was “serious drama” rather than hilarious comedy. (both of which can fail miserably)

it was painful to watch at times, because it was a became embarrassing and awkward for us viewers.  at times, the three of us were huddled down in our seats, feeling the pain and awkwardness of watching a train wreck in slow motion, and knowing that there was nothing that could be done about it.

afterwards, we went to the new vineria ristorante in mint plaza, aptly named, 54Mint.  only later to find out that–gasp–it’s actually located at 16 mint plaza.

it was pretty crowded, which is understandable for a friday night at about 9:45pm.

we stand there, and the chef/owners are hangin out, schmoozing (possibly in eye-talian) with some of the bar patrons.

we check in with the hostae.  she tells us it’lll be about 10 minutes.  cool.

we retire to the bar area.

then i run into monnie.  we hug, and catch up for a second. she tells me that she just got her tooth pulled.  ouch.  there’s a downstairs wine cellar too. she’s working on the main floor. she says she’ll probably be our server. cool.

decor is cool.  light colored wood tables, lots of bright white, weird jugs of stuff on the shelves.  lots of wine bottles. various cured animals hanging from large hooks near the bar. big wheels of cheese, huge jars of different kinds of salts.

check out some photos from SFGate.

a busser of sorts asks us how long we’ve been waiting. he says he’ll get a table ready for us. it seemed a little weird. i felt like he was stealing us from the upstairs area for the downstairs.

whatever, we get sat downstairs in the wine cellar area.  it’s cool. it’s storage-slash-dining room.  i like how they don’t try to hide all their wine/dry goods storage, but rather, make it part of the decor. 

the busser-who i later find out is a “manager” seats us and starts schmoozing and blah blah blah blah by trying to perform and entertain us.

it’s one of the worst thing that a food service person can do to me.  i don’t come here to be entertained. i come here to eat. whatever.  we talk about wine and a little bit about the food.

he comes back with everyone else’s wine, and then he says something like, oh, so you’re only having water, right?  being very playful, etc. ok, no wine for you.  and then launches into descriptions of almost every single item on the menu.

meanwhile, i still don’t have my wine.

then he goes on about the olive oil and the 20year old balsamic and blah blah blah.  meanwhile, i still don’t have my wine.  i’m wondering why he’s playing so much. and then i realize he’s trying to buy time so that he can try to remember what i ordered.

another thing that i hate about food service folks.  if you don’t remember what i ordered, own up to it, rather than doing some silly song and dance to try and distract me.   and next time, use paper!

eventually our server came by and we ordered.  home slice and i shared the squid ink risotto ball and some gamberi with sea salt.  the risotto ball was actually a fried rectangle, and it was kick ass! the prawns came in their shells with the heads on.  usually i find it annoying, but this time, i found it to be very cool.  and they were delicious.  can’t remember what the other apps were at the table.  a salad and something.

next course pork belly. pretty tasty but so damn full of fat.  and also caprese salad. yummers.  there was also ravioli: light simple and very very fluffy pasta.  and pesto, but made with walnuts (?) pistachios (?) instead of pine nuts.  so it wasn’t green, it was sort of grey-ish brown.  kick ass!

dessert was chocolate something or other. rich, but very dry.  some sort of cake. and biscotti. and all the cream comes from Straus farm.

moments later, the busser/”manager” brought out a panna cotta with 20year old balsamic.  everyone was raving about how delicious the panna cotta is.  i wasn’t feeling it so much with the balsamic.

don’t get me wrong, i like balsamic. i like panna cotta. and together?  they’re…ok.  i’m not gonna have raging orgasms over it.

meanwhile, upstairs seemed like lotsa loud music and clapping and partying. i felt like we were missing out on the fun, because this busser/”manager” person stole us from upstairs.

and it took forever to get the check.

and the busser/manager kept coming back, and egging us on to drink more wine.  “come on, more wine, i’m not kidding, why not?”  meanwhile, it’s 12:45 and we’re the ONLY ones in the restaurant.    hell yeah i was ready for another drink, but it wasn’t gonna be at this place!

then he launches into another story about how he’s the “manager”, (so he claims) and the owners are drinking a lot tonight, and sorry for the long wait for a table, and some people waited for an hour, and i’ve pretty much lived at this place for for the last 3months, and i there was a server here who got fired, but then she showed up and blah blah blah blah.  STFU already, buddy.

eventually we got the check, but it took another 10 minutes for them to pick it up, and run the credit cards. this made a very long meal even longer.

overall, the food is solid, simple, clean.  and i enjoyed it. i’ll have to try it again.

on the way home, i ran into jacko.  he told me that Hell just got fired from the Restaurant.  stfu!  i’m surprised because i never thought it’d happen.  and i’m also not surprised, because he was a suck-ass manager.

i told him i just came from 54mint and i saw monnie.  he thought she didn’t work there anymore because he got a txt from her the other day asking if he knew about any jobs.  i told him that yeah, she was working, i just saw her. then me and homeslice realized that when busser/”manager” guy was talking about one of the servers who got fired, but came back, he was probably talking about monnie.

wow.

glasses with a “G”

fri 24 july 13:42

got back from the eye doc this am. follow-up appt.  i’ve been trying out new contact lenses.  and i decided on my new eyewear frames.

how very exciting.

i pick them up next week.

it’s great to have insurance!  mine covers $150 towards eyewear, and also allows a 20% discount on the lenses and contact lenses.   while it may not be as much as some other places of employment, i ain’t complaining!  for 1year supply contact lenses + eyewear frames/lenses/coating/polycarbonate lenses–my grand total was just shy of 4-bills. and without insurance, i woulda paid 6.3-bills!

i still want crazier ones like the eye-talians wear, although, i’ll have to save some $$ for them.

good times.

the meeting of the minds

22 july 1:06am

went to a concierge association meeting earlier this evening.

good food.

some concierges are really full of themselves, and can be very condescending.

i gave the membership director a piece of my mind, and pointed out errors in the website and basically made glaring references to areas they’ve neglected.   we are only as good as our resources available to us, and there haven’t been very many resources or information provided to me via the website.

and i listened while we discussed things like integrity and ethics–supposedly, we’re not allowed to accept incentive plans.  like the one from the restaurant in the mun-NOCK-o. but i don’t understand how that’s different than our receiving commissions based on the tours that we book?

i also met some new vendors.  it’s always good to have more options.

i thought i had more to say. but i can’t remember it at the moment.

when i got back to my property, i saw the FD Mgr from the mun-NOCK-o.  and earlier i saw several other kimpton bigwigs, who can be quite pompous and irritating, too.  i’m glad i’m a concierge, and i don’t plan to climb up the ladder any further.

boobs came in to say hello.  but i was on the phone.

she and her friend went into the bar.

when i popped in to say hi, there was an old guy with them.  apparently, he’s a frequent guest at the JayDub.

and god-fucking-dammit! i have to work tomorrow at 7:00am! covering for L, because she got called for jury duty.

FUUUUUUUUUCCKKK.

ING.

AY.