a busy (and meaty) 4th

Man, I can't believe that its only Sunday. This has been one of the longest weekends that I can recall. Of course, I've been unemployed for 2 months now, so days / weekends have far less meaning, but I feel like the weekend has lasted close to 4 days.

Bar Tartine & Elixir
We kicked it off on Thursday night with dinner at Bar Tartine, followed by drinks at Elixir. Vicky and I have both been dying to try Bar Tartine, and boy, was it worth it! I mean, South was good - and lots of fun - but the food at Bar Tartine was sublime. We started off with a cold Pea and Mint soup that was topped by a dollop of Bacon Cream, paired with Sea Urchin with Egg and Toast, and Scallop Crudo. Each was delicious in itself, but best of all, they worked really well together - especially the soup, whose cool mellow flavor balanced out the intensity of the sea urchin.

For the main course, we chose only the duck, which was also amazing. Again, the details really just made the meal: not only was the duck and the sauce itself flavorful, but even the baby turnips that garnished the dish were delicious. We ended the meal with a charcuterie plate that consisted of pork ear terrine, chicken pate, and figs, and then headed out to meet up with Alex, Fernando, Nathan, et al., at Elixir for my I-Got-A-Job celebration drinks.

A Foggy Fourth
Friday was the 4th proper, and in true San Francisco style, it was foggy and cold. I was pretty hungover from the night before, so my day didn't really get started until 2, and I was sort of foggy myself for most of it. Pumpkin and I did finally make it out to Nathan's for his BBQ, which was a lot of fun because there were 4 other doggies there. I made plans to go to meditation and dance class with Jess, while Pumpkin did laps from the backyard, up to the house, down to the hall, and through the garage back to the backyard.

This was probably one of Pumpkin's most exciting weekends, since we went to not one, but two BBQs. Not only did she get out to socialize with families and doggies, but she also got the treat of being allowed to eat people food for once. I figured, since it was a bbq, she could have something special. So it was Nathan's special chicken on Friday, and some hamburger patty yesterday at Corinne's.

Serena & Vicky's Big Adventure (courtesy of Google Maps)
Yesterday was both an extremely good, and an extremely frustrating day. On balance, it ended up being good, but there was an hour there that I felt like I was in some bad comedy starring Keanu Reeves.

Pumpkin, Vicky and I headed out towards the East Bay for Corinne's BBQ. Mmmm... more meat. Since she's out in Livermore, I decided to actually stop in EQ3 to order my couch, instead of doing it over the phone. I wanted to double check that I had the right fabric color name. In any case, I got there, and there was this HUGE sale going on for the weekend. I had planned on getting the couch this weekend regardless, so I was happily surprised to get 15% off! When you're talking about a big-ticket purchase, 15% comes out to about $250 in savings, so score!

I also managed to lose my parking ticket in the black hole that is my Pumpkin bag. I figured I'd just pay the lost ticket fee, since it was only $12, but the guy was so nice that he let us through for free! He made my day... and I am definitely adding him to my Kindness of Strangers hall of fame :-)

Vicky and I were chatting the entire drive out to Livermore - so much so that I completely forgot to stop by Marie Callender's (in San Ramon) to pick up some pies. You see, I have been dreaming/craving a strawberry pie for about 6 months, so I was excited to be headed towards a Marie Callender's. So we pulled off the highway, fired up Google Maps, and got some directions to get to the shop.

Well, I don't know if GMaps didn't pinpoint our location correctly, or if its being subsidized by the gas industry, but we ended up on a grand tour of San Ramon Valley. It instructed us to head back 15 miles west on 580, exit, make two turns, get back onto 580E (towards where we came from), and then get on 680N. Why we could not have just gone back the 5 miles from where we were to the 680N exit, I will never understand. Eventually, we got there, and we got our pies, but by that time, we had driven about an hour / 40 extra miles, and Pumpkin's bladder was about to burst. AND, to add insult to the injury, when we actually drove towards Corinne's, we realized it was about 10 minutes away from where we originally stopped.

Well, we made it. And by that time, we were ravenous. So we chomped down lots of meat, had some beer, and then finally settled in for some good talk and good food. Pumpkin had a blast trying to dig food out of the paper bags where the plates were thrown. At one point, she came up to me and Christine with whipped cream all over her nose! Nola, Christine and Mark's 2 year old, was so brave and cute and chased Pumpkin around for a while. Finally, it got late, so the three of us headed back to the now freezing cold city.

All in all, a fun weekend filled with lots of good friends, good talk and good food. And Pumpkin fun, which is always a bonus!