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Tuesday 20 September 2005
	I've been adding to my Treo 600 pages, moving the photo gallery, detailing how to retrieve Google GMail from Snapper, and starting to muse about what's on my Treo. All that, plus client work.
Monday 19 September 2005
	Before heading overseas Rose decided that Lila absolutely needed a professional haircut. Because it turned out that my amateurish attempts were better than what we received for cost the salon shall remain nameless. That afternoon we found ourselves with Dad but sans kids at West Portal, so we tried a new eatery: Roti Indian. The menu is a trifle pretentious, but the presentation wonderful. The food isn't so much better than the less expensive generation of restaurants to grace our fair city but it's not a bad place to entertain...
Sunday 18 September 2005
	This morning Lila decided that she wanted to apply her kid nail polish (instead of decorating herself with a permanent magic marker). Here she's alternating pink and purple. Then Lila starts applying eye shadow (!) which I didn't even know she had. I'm not sure who she's copying, since Rose is a pretty natural gal. Asking didn't get any good answers; a girl's got to have her secrets, evidently. Later in the day we're enjoying Lunch at Fune Ya, on Clement Streets. The sushi boats are always a winning choice with the kids. Dziadziu seems pretty happy about it too. Late afternoon snack time, and Isaac is wowed by Mama's tri-color presentation of tomatoes, mozzarella olovini, and something green. It's nice to have kids appreciative of good food. Thanks, Isaac.
Saturday 17 September 2005
	Very early this morning Isaac woke me. So early, in fact, that Lila and Rose were fast asleep. What to do? I started by reading him a book or two, and then doing a jigsaw puzzle together, but Isaac was too awake and too boisterous to not wake the girls. So I bundled him off to May's Coffee Shop in Japantown. Lately Isaac's favorite here has been the SPAM musube, seen here. Evidently it tastes even better if you get to pick your own. I don't know why he looks so solemn; perhaps that's a cute face about to be. This is what I look like to Isaac, via the phone camera. We're back home, parked in front of our house. That's my car in the front, and Rose's car in back. It's not often we get both spots. Okay, this is where it gets a little complicated. Why is Lila smiling? Because she's in the convertible, wrapped in a toasty warm Scottish Hector Russell blanket? No, because she's persuaded me that it's not fair that I took Isaac whilst she slept, so I have to take her to May's as well. So, 45 minutes later, I'm back in Japantown. Here's Lila chowing down on her SPAM musube and Martinelli's apple juice. Later in the day it's time to burn off some of that SPAM up at the Corona Heights playground, just above our house. That's Isaac's bicycle behind him. Lila decided that she wants to recreate a photo of old, with big brother pushing baby sister. This is pretty good. Self-portrait. More playground tomfoolery. Having two kids seems like a grand idea when they're not throwing household objects at each other :-) The kids have had really great behaviors today, and I want to reward them. On the way I take this photo from just north of Castro & Market Streets, looking south towards the Castro. Okay, we've arrived! Here's a proud Isaac posing at Krispy Kreme. I'm not sure which he prefers, the donuts or watching the machine move the dough around as it makes the donuts.
Friday 16 September 2005
	At long last, almost a year after my last Handspring Treo 180 gave up the ghost due to poor engineering and even worse customer support from Handspring/Palm, and many long months using a non-PDA telephone, I finally find a really great price on a Palm Treo 600. Allegedly many of the things which vexed me about the earlier model have been fixed in this one, plus a color screen, a 0.3 megapixel camera (really!), and always-on instant messenging are to be had. I'm excited. It's a quad-band world phone, which may come in handy; that was foreshadowing, folks. One of the first photos taken with the new camera phone: Isaac and Lila doing arts and crafts in the eating nook. Dad was in a mood to hang out tonight, and the kids were too tired to do anything but fall asleep, so we went to Der Schnitzelhaus for some German cuisine. Very tasty, and the beers went down smoothly!
Thursday 15 September 2005
	I guess all that third-person we read to the kids is wearing off: Lila: Hurry up, I'm still waiting! snapped Lila. Do you remember the story of Burning Man - A Band of the Same Name? I thought not.
Wednesday 14 September 2005
	I just finished uploading all the Burning Man 2005 web pages. Even better, I discovered a cache of scans of the Burning Man tickets, which I was able to convert into a menu of the years I've covered in my travelogues. 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Tuesday 13 September 2005
	Lila isn't feeling so well, she says, and isn't happy wherever she is. We try the bath, a snack, in Papa's arms in the office chair, but to no avail. So I pull out my spare PowerBook and offer her a choice of movies. Physically still uncomfortable, I offer to wrap her in my blanket. Now she's calmed and happy. After a bit I see that she's fidgeting. I demonstrate how she can watch the video lying down, relaxed, after I tip the PowerBook sideways. Now she's really happy, and in a few minutes she's fast asleep. (Several hours later she wakes, refreshed, and no longer ill. Who knows?)
Sunday 11 September 2005
	Finally, after walking by it several hundred times, we find an occasion to venture into Il Cantuccio, on 16th Street. I think it took us this long because the prices are just a bit more than is usual for an Italian eatery. (Yes, I know this panorama is hard to see. Soon I'll switch all the panoramas on this site to something that'll pan around, but not today.) The kids have a great time waiting for the food (the pane e burro - bread and butter having been eaten) by coloring and trading ideas back and forth. Mugging for me - I just explained the idea of "I'm blogging this" - are Dziadziu and Zofia. The food is well-prepared, and I think all of us enjoy our choices, but upon leaving all of us feel a bit taken. Everything is about 15 per cent too much for our satisfaction level. A damn shame, because the owner is charming, and this could be quite the place. Oh, well.
Monday 5 September 2005
	We're back from Burning Man 2005, and boy are we dusty! Worse, the kids seem to have come down with a mild stomach flu, so we're home a day early. The van is unloaded, cleaned inside and out, and returned to the rental agency.