Long time no squawk

I know, I know.
I will try to update this mo' often. Don't wanna be the next Eric Lindberg or Ross Bryant. Ross, it was almost a year ago that I learned about face transplants from your end-of-year lists. I miss your blog.
I went to traffic court yesterday. In Downers Grove, it's held in the VFW hall, no kidding. This is from the accident I had in late october. I wish I could have taken a picture, but since you're not allowed to stand in the court room ( the Lincoln room of the VFW hall), I doubt you can take pictures.
Anyway, the lady who pulled out in front of me got called, and I went and stood in line behind her. She approached the bench and plead Not guilty. When the Judge asked for witnesses, I approached, and he said, "well, can you stick around for a while? Since she's pleading Not Guilty, we have to have a trial".
I laughed, then when that was ill-received, said okay.
The attorney for the village kept calling for the lady. She didn't answer. I was thinking she slunk out when she realized I was there. Turns out she went and sat in the hallway for some reason. Finally, they talked, and the woman decided to plead guilty and pay the fine. I'm sure she planned to plead not guilty because she though there was no way I'd show. When I did, she had to bite the bullet. That was the middle of my day, an hour and a half. I was glad to get the rest of it off, because here's what I did:
1) Dropped Miette at Daycare
2) Went to Lisle's post office to pick up a package
3) Went home to "Download"
4) Went to Staples to return something
5) Went to Sam's club to drop off film and get new wiper blades
6) Went to Home Deopt for a few things
7) Went to the Bulk Foods store for some raw nuts (YEAH!) and stocking stuffers
8) Went to Oakbrook mall (Restoration Hardware, Mario Tricoci, then Barnes & Noble)
9) Went to Costco (Yea, both Warehouse clubs)
10) Home to shower up
11) Court (see Above)
12) Went to my dad's office to get Kiki's keys (long story)
13) Went to Dominick's
14) Went to Trader Joes
15) Home to go for a walk with Kiki and Miette

It was a crazy day, but I cut my to-do list in half. I only have a few things to get now before Monday. Here's a little something to put you in the Holiday mood:

FUCKING BLOGGER WON"T UPLOAD MY PICTURES. I'LL TRY AGAIN LATER.

Bow down to the/Bow Down to the KING!

I was just in San Francisco from Wednesday until Saturday night moving about 50 phones in their office. The last time I had been, I could scarcely find a decent plate of food in the city, even though several of the places we went were Expense-Account repositories. The single best day was Thursday. I had the griddlecakes at the Meridien (The winston-rate hotel) restaurant. They were lemon-blueberry and they hold the title of best pancakes I've ever had. I got bacon as a side. It, too was amazing. It was like 1/4 inch thick.
For Lunch we went to a German Beer hall called Schroeders. I had the german Sausage plate and at the urging of the manager, a beer. The sausages were magnificent. I'd eat hot dogs all the time if they tasted like the Frankfurter included in the plate.
Dinner I was on my own, and took a walk northwest up Columbus street (The singular most european-looking street in the US, barring only Epcot Center in my estimation) to a Japanese place called North Beach Sushi. I had the tempura. It was amazing. The real feats, though, were the Miso and japanese salad that were the starters. Simple and popping with flavor. I paired it (gay) with a large Asahi.

I made it to the Miette organic bakery in SF in search of Miette-obelia to give my daughter. My sensibilities are still smarting from their $30 t-shirts, and I was positively underwhelmed by the $4 cupcakes. Still, I got Miette some cool stuff, and the ladies there loaded me up with stickers, bags, and Ribbon with Miette all over them.

The SF office is in 101 california st. It's a round buliding, and each (attorney) office has floor-to-ceiling windows that offer breathtaking panoramas of the SF bay area, including all the sites. I wish I'd taken a picture. Instead, the only picture I got was this one, of an AT&T central office switching center. It means nothing to any of you, but it was neat for me to see, especially through a window like this. See, every phone line is represented by a pair of copper wires that run from wherever they serve to a central office like this; hence the sheer scale. In chicagoland, none of the buildings have any windows. They're all brick cubes like the one behind IO if that's included in your point of reference. It's a security risk to have a window. Not sure why it's okay in an earfquake-prone area like SF...