Los Gigantes!

I don’t know much about baseball, but I LOVE baseball games. It is prime people watching and a perfect place to display hometown pride. I have noticed when traveling that it is always good to know the best player on your hometown team and how good your team is this season, because people will try to talk to you about it. (note: I also recommend you know how your college team is doing especially if you are going to a job interview – they always ask).

This trip to the ball park was no different. Boyfriend always insists on parking really far away by Mission Bay, where they are putting the new hospital, and walking to the ballpark. While I am occasionally annoyed, I generally like seeing all of the shenanigans that are going on outside the park. I like the people selling hats, and scalping tickets, and that guy who holds the sign that says “I’m too ugly to get laid. Give me money!”

This Sunday we bought tickets on our way in from one of these uncouth salesmen on the street and saved some money. We barely got ticket though because the scalpers were trying to sell them for $40 each which is outrageous seeing as we just wanted to sit in the bleachers. Luckily Boyfriend is pretty good at street bargaining so we got in for $20 each which is $5 less than if we had planned ahead and bought our tickets online or something. Lovely!

I love when jumbo-tron has the kiss-o-meter and the Carleton dance-off. Unfortunately they did not have a lot of activities on the jumbo-tron at this game. The lack of Jumbo-tron was not missed however because apparently there are a lot of Phillies fans in San Francisco. I would say that where we were sitting (back by the giant mitt) there was almost a 50/50 mix of Giants and Phillies fans. It lead to lots of good heckling, and fortunately no fights.

We won, even though I’m pretty sure if I was getting paid big bucks to play baseball for my job I would not drop easy catches so frequently (eh hem second base-man on the Giants, I think his name is Sanchez and he’s new).

Boyfriend got sunburned.

The Farmette

My parent’s garden is the best I have ever seen it. They have finally given up on their lawn and are allowing the garden bed to take over our giant back yard. There are now 5 large beds, 2 small beds, and a planting area behind a low retaining wall. There are also various fruit trees planted aound the property, and the chicken coop which we just incorporated 10 more chicks into on 4^th of July weekend. These little guys were in addition to the ten hens we already had and the one min rooster, Santino.

This weekend we harvested strawberries, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, and blackberries. It has not yet been hot enough to ripen the tomatoes and zucchini, and the pumpkins and squash will be ready in early fall.

I am working on my canning and preserving skills. I made blackberry jam, and made my first attempt at refrigerator pickles.

- 1 qt white vinegar

- 1/8c Creole Seasoning

- 1/8c salt

- 1/4c dry mustard

- Peppercorns

- Sliced lemon cucumbers with the peels on

The jam turned out really well. I will let you know if 3 weeks how they turn out. My mom made blackberry pie and strawberry ice cream. Delicious!

When the tomatoes finally do ripen we are going to be overwhelmed! I look forward to attempting to preserve them, and eat them too!

Little Baobab

On Friday night we of course had tacos for dinner at one of my top three favorite taquerias: Taqueria Cancun. Everything I have tasted from here is delicious. I particularly recommend the carne asada super taco, or for something a little lighter, the ceveche. After filling up (and returning to our nearby apartment to get my forgotten wallet) we went to the best place for dancing ever! It is called Little Baobab. It is approximately the size of my one bedroom apartment, and had the best atmosphere and DJ I have heard in a long time. The music was a mix of pop, and world, and oldies, and everything good in music all sped up to a good dancing tempo. It was not too heavy on any particular music type. I also loved that everybody inside the tiny club was dancing! There wasn’t really anybody just lurking awkwardly in the corner. I also put my jacket down against the back wall, and it was still there when we went to leave.

There was a $5 cover and drinks were cash only, but I was dancing so much I only had one drink anyways.

I would highly recommend this club to everybody! It was especially fun with out of town friends.

Academy of Science

This was not my first time to the academy of science. It is actually my second time since it reopened last summer, and the millionth time since it existed as the Steinhart Aquarium. When I first went after the reopening there were a couple of things that struck me. This place reminds me of why I love ecology and want to hurry back to school and travel and save the world and do lots of other amazing things. It also reminds me of two other things 1) I hate crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and all other similar water animal types, no matter what their size is or how much or little pigment their skin has (God damn albino crocodile) and 2) Unless they are your own kids, they should be kept in a cage. There were literally thousands of kids crying, and running, and snotting all over the glass of the exhibits. Don’t get me wrong, I was once one of those running, crying, snotting, very sticky little kids at the aquarium. But the moral of the story is that the 21+ age limit on the Thursday Nightlife program makes it very enjoyable. While it is still crowed, I didn’t trip once! I visited the rainforest area which then spit us back down into the underground aquarium part. It was just as amazing as I remember from my first visit to the new museum.

Because we rushed over to meet friends there right after work without eating dinner, we also sampled the food. It was a little pricey, as all venue foods are, but quite delicious. There was Mexican food (tacos & tamales), pastas (your choice of sauce), and fried foods (calamari, French fries, shrimp), and there were also a couple of other booths that weren’t as popular, I think they were a sandwich place and something else.

While almost impossible to capture with my powershot without reading the manual and mastering all of those different settings it offers, the living roof is breathtaking at night. On the night we went it was very misty, but nonetheless provided great views of the city, and highlighted the alien features of the roof.

The DJ was good, but not my style. He was playing house/trance type music, but the sound was good, not overwhelming to all of the exhibits, but as loud as a dance floor once you got to the exhibit where he was set up. It was also pretty awesome to see everybody dancing amidst the displays. I would say it was the coolest club I have ever been to! It had all of the elements; a cool venue to draw you in, loud dance music(depending on who you are), several locations in which to get drinks, crowded, possibility of VIP entrance, and I even got hit on by who I am pretty sure was somebody’s dad when boyfriend and I were momentarily separated.

I love the idea of making a place we typically think of as purely educational into an accessible, fun, (and still educational), community building activity. My only regret was that I didn’t really dress for the occasion. I came home from work and threw on leggings, a t-shirt, and a jacket, but it quickly became apparent that I should have taken the extra 30seconds to find some high heels and put on eyeliner.

I would definitely go back to this event!