A seething mass of turgid drama.

Wells Fargo is closing their longtime building on California Street to move to smaller and cheaper offices. Along with that, they are "de-accessioning" their longtime public museum in said building. Nothing has been said about the exhibits, but I hope that some of them (the actual stagecoach, etc.) go to other CA history museums rather than being sold off to collectors.

I think I probably visited with my dad, but that would have been in the early '80s so I have no memory of it. Anyway, the wife met me after work - the museum is down the street from our office. It was worth seeing the Gold Rush history exhibits while we could.

In SF: Echo and the Bunnymen.
'80s me really wishes I was going.

Change of plans: we went to the Botticelli drawing exhibit at the SF Legion of Honor yesterday. We've been planning to see it after Twelfth Night - it's only here until mid-February, and no other US stops - but we hadn't settled on a date. The curator was giving a talk on Saturday though, so that was our impetus. We did our usual morning shopping, had a quick breakfast, then drove over. Parking wasn't too bad and it wasn't horrendously crowded, at least by Saturday standards, because it was only 11 AM and rainy.

It's not a huge exhibit, around 40 works I think. Botticelli doesn't have a huge catalog, apparently because he fell out of favor late in life. When he died in debt his studio was liquidated. But many of them have never been to the US before and some were reunited (i.e. preparation cartoons and a final painting). It was enthralling and fabulous. We spent about 90 minutes going over the whole thing. I got chided by a security guard because my "foot was too close". There wasn't a line and I was still a foot away (ha!), but whatever. I think they have a chiding quota they have to meet.

We had mulled over walking out and getting lunch, but as it was rainy and there aren't that many places close by, we ended up going through the usual suspects before the talk. (Renaissance gallery and Rodin.) Then we waited in line to get in as it was fully booked. The talk itself was okay but really was a restatement of what was written on the walls.

Didn't get anything else accomplished besides dinner yesterday, so I have a lot of general domestic stuff to do today. I should probably get to it.

Friday we went to see "The Treasures of Ramses II" at the DeYoung. I didn't feel strongly about it but the wife really wanted to - and unfortunately the membership is in my name, so I have to attend with her as my plus-one. Last time I renewed I tried to switch it to her, since there are more exhibits she wants to see without me; but no luck.

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I picked up my new prescription sunglasses. Actually I went yesterday, but I had to get them adjusted as my ears aren't level with each other and the optician wasn't in, so back I went today. They are a significantly different style than previous. I like them, and it's nice to have a not-four-years-out-of-date prescription. Apparently I should have gone with the anti-reflective coating on the inside lenses though...

It's October Crown this weekend. We're not going. I continue to enjoy not having to go to SCA events. I guess it's officially Autumnal Crown now that it's in September, but if Oktoberfest can begin in September I'm going to continue to call it October Crown.

I was going to make some cured Spanish chorizo this weekend, but the duck proscuitto that I was going to cold-smoke at the same time is still a bit squishy. I'm giving that another week in the fridge and punting the chorizo a couple weeks as next weekend won't be free for that sort of project. I'm honestly a little relieved, so clearly not doing it was the right call for inspiration's sake.

Our local Sonoma apple vendor only shows up at the market on the last Saturday of the month. That was today, so I bought quinces from them. They need ten days or a couple weeks to ripen, but that's fine. I'm not sure yet whether I will make 15th c. cotignac, or quince jelly and quince butter. We'll see what I feel like when they're ready. I also bought a few heirloom apples to make a pie tonight.

One of my cow-orkers gave us a couple large trout he caught a month back, so we're grilling one tonight along with fresh corn. I'm looking forward to it.

It's roughly 30 degrees cooler than it was a couple days ago at this time.
I'm glad, but whipsaw much?

Ahh, the A/C is back today. (aka Karl the Fog)

Accomplishments, in no particular order:

Did some light reading

Made bread (which exploded far beyond my expectations - good, but weird)

Started 4 lbs of pork loin in a brine for lonza

Played a bit on the computer

Made fabulous strawberry ice cream

Did some exchequery things that needed doing

Vegged out with the wife and cat

Had a wonderful summer dinner of grilled beef bavette, grilled corn, aforementioned fresh bread, and grilled padron peppers, followed by leftover strawberries and whipped cream

Saw the pre-Raphaelite exhibit at the Legion (well worth seeing)

ursulav mentioned ginger-honey crystals. This sounded worth trying. I found out that GMC supplement shops carry them, and there's one near my office. So, I went in today.

The store is packed full of huge jars of body-building supplements. And a few other things, but mostly that. This is probably where Mark McGwire stocked up on creatine and andro. Eventually I find the package and go to the register, where two dudebros are standing.

DB: "Dude, do you put that in your tea?"
Me (looking at package prominently labelled "makes hot or cold beverage"): "Uh, yes."
DB: "Sweet. So what does it taste like?"
Me (looking at package even more prominently labelled "Ginger Honey Crystals"): "Ginger. And, um, honey."

I pulled out a $20 bill to pay for it.
DB: "Just swipe there and..." (notices me prominently holding out cash)
Me: "It's this new thing we have called paper money."
DB: "...What do you mean?"
Me: "...Don't worry about it."

These may be fabulous, but I can buy them elsewhere I'm sure. Way too high a dudebro quotient for my taste.

My shiny new (and much, much lighter and faster) laptop is almost completely configured and ready for use. The last step was setting up e-mail, which I managed with minimal hassle yesterday. Sadly I can't figure out how to copy over all my saved messages. That's probably a good thing in disguise - it forces me to go through and decide which five of the 300 are actually worth forwarding to keep.

Probably not today, though. I have to make a squash custard pie. We're driving over to my dad's place and cooking him dinner for Father's Day. (He isn't comfortable driving at night any more.) Since it's summer, I'm bringing a loaf of bread to bake and then we're going to have pimentos de padron flash-cooked in olive oil with shrimp, garlic, and saffron. With warm bread to dip in the oil.