Fantabulous Long Weekend O' Fun

Out of the blue one of my best friends, S, (I have many...I am very lucky that way!) e-mailed and said that she would have Monday off and was also able to find a good deal on a ticket from LA to SF. This was wonderful news since we (Y and I) did not have much planned for the weekend outside of resting and completing our ever present chores. I went to bed delighted as could be. Before turning out the lights, I decided to check my Palm and realized that I did have something planned for Saturday after all. I completely forgot that another friend of mine, M, and I bought tickets for Eve Ensler's The Good Body more than a month ago. Realizing my overplanning fiasco, I freaked! Y gave me the bright idea to buy another ticket for the show. I bought two b/c I didn't want my friend to sit alone. Since Y did not want to join us, I sent out an e-mail to a select group of friends hawking the extra ticket on a first come first serve basis.

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Saturday evening was filled with a night at the theater, a late snack at Mason Cafe, and drinks until 1:30ish A.M. at Twin Peaks Tavern, the first gay bar in the Castro with windows that let the sunshine in and visible gayness OUT ;-) -- a fact a Siberian exprisoner, we met at the tavern, did not want to hear from us girls at the bar. You see, toward the end of the night (bar time in SF is 2:00 A.M.) this guy in his mid-30s...(maybe more) demanded that we not only explain the Twin Peaks Tavern to him but also all of American gay culture. He was annoying and obviously wanted to relive his past traumas at the Siberian prison camp, New York city in the 1980s, and his mother's ambassadorial prowess back in the day among other bizarre revelations. The bartender did as much as he could to rescue us from the self-imposing and salivating Slav. He fed us his lover's homemade rice pudding.

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July 4th was spent driving around SF and showing my friend a bit of the sights and sounds of this magical and foggy city. Starving we headed to Yummy Yummy, one of our favorite pho restaurants in the city. Filled with pho and bun we picked up a few items at the grocery store to take to a friend's bbq in Berkeley. We BARTed to the East Bay and spent a lovely and drunken afternoon/evening eating grilled treats and enjoying each other's company.

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Monday passed as quickly as it arrived, but not w/o its share of delights and pleasures. We started the day with a late lunch at Noe Valley's Le Zinc. After filling our bellies we drove up to Twin Peaks to show S yet another view of SF. Unfortunately, the fog and wind made it quite unbearable to endure for more than 5 minutes. I guess that was OK since we had to drive her to the airport anyway. Off she went! Like the day, S also departed as quickly as she arrived. Back at home Y and I had a few hours to spend relaxing before making our reservation at The Slanted Door(a little b-day treat from my co-workers). So, I took the time to complete my first hand knit ribbed (2x2) scarf (pictures will be posted in due time).

The Slanted Door was absolutely delicious! We spent a total of 2 hours there consuming the following:

Appetizers::
daikon rice cakes with shiitake mushrooms and shallots
niman beef carpaccio with rau ram, peanuts and lime juice

Entree::
catfish claypot with cilantro, ginger and thai chilies
grilled Australian free-range lamb rack with potatoes and tamarind sauce
spicy eggplant with green onions and coconut milk
and, of course, rice

Dessert::
Frog Hollow yellow peach and blackberry crisp with buttermilk ice cream

Beverages::
riesling, strub, kabinett, niersteiner, rheinhessen, 2002 (liter) (the cheapest bottle of riesling listed on the menu)

All in all, the experience was lovely and one that we do not get to enjoy too often!
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