I Have Already Tasted My Piece Of One Sweet Love. . .

It's Sunday!  And what are Sunday's great for?  Brunch!

Today my friend Shagun and I decided to try Mama's in North Beach.  I was excited to go to Mama's because I had passed by this restaurant once before and seen a line of people waiting to get in.  I equate lines to mean that this place must be good!

Shagun and I decided to meet at noon.  I arrived at 11:30 and immediately joined all the other people in line waiting for breakfast.  (Please see the people lined up along the side of the building in the picture above.)

Shagun arrived on schedule at noon and joined me in line.  We waited for two hours!

As we got closer to the entrance we were able to see the menu and start thinking about what we wanted to order.  We decided that we would get two of the specials and split it.  We chose the Dungeness Crab Omelet with Avocado, Sour Cream and Green Onions and Mama's French Toast Sampler Plate with Cranberry Orange Walnut, Banana Nut, and Swedish Cinnamon Topped with Bananas and Assorted Fresh Berries and a slice of Banana Bread for starters.

I know this is going to come as a big shock, but I am actually the one who picked the Dungeness Crab Omelet.  As soon as the plate arrived I realized I don't think I have ever had "Real" crab meat before.  This omelet was filled with large chunks of decadent rich buttery flavored crab meat.  The omelet was almost too rich when combined with the sour cream and avocado.  To help tone the richness down the omelet came with a side of potatoes and toasted sourdough baguette.

The French Toast Sampler was also very good.  I enjoyed the Cranberry Orange Walnut slice the best.

I also have to say the toasted slice of banana bread that we started out with was delicious.  The meal was definitely worth the two hour wait.

After brunch you could have rolled me to the bus stop!  But instead of heading directly home we walked across the street to Washington Square Park where the North Beach Jazz Festival was taking place.  We shopped at a couple of booths and then realized that the fog had aggressively rolled in while we were at brunch and it was now really cold and neither of us had the appropriate layers on to hang out in the park.  So we both went to our respective bus stops and called it a day!

The Song Of The Day - One Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Give It 2 Me. . .

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to the In-N-Out at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.  My cousin Jacqueline works there...code name "Jackie."

Might I suggest my new favorite, a cheeseburger with grilled onions or the reliable stand by Double Double.  Both very satisfying.

If you are not in the mood for meat you can always ask for a grilled cheese.  Trust me you won't even miss the meat.  It's part of In-N-Out's secret unpublished menu that is really not a secret.

And be sure to check the bottom of your drink cup for bible verses.

Oh, and by the way, In-N-Out is only like two doors away from Coldstone.  I suggest the Cake Batter ice cream with chocolate chips, graham crackers, and chocolate sauce mixed in.

Hmmm...I don't know how I keep putting on weight!

The Song Of The Day - Give It 2 Me (Jody Den Broeder Edit) by Madonna

A Way Out On The Ocean. . .

Modern world met old world in San Francisco today as a parade of tall ships passed under the Bay Bridge.

The ships were here to take part in the Festival Of Sail from July 23 through July 28.  

The view of these "pirate" ships was a welcome distraction from my fourth floor cubical.  

Later in the afternoon when the ships had come back to dock, I looked out the window and realized there were people hanging from the cross bars of the masts rolling up the sails.  This can be seen in the picture below.  Pretty amazing.

The Song Of The Day - Blanket For A Sail by Harry Nilsson

Darkness Falls Across The Land. . .

Ok...this mannequin made me laugh out loud. He clearly has a broken leg, which happens.

I think why it was so funny is how the leg juts out like the mannequin is about to start Michael Jackson's Thriller Dance. Can't you just see it?

It reminds me of when one of the stores I worked in inherited some mannequins from another store. The other store accidentally gave us two left arms. We still had to put "Lefty the Gimp" on the floor to maintain the presentation so he always had to be positioned in a way to try and hide his backwards facing hand.

I always got a kick out of watching customers stare at the mannequin trying to figure out what was wrong. Eventually some of the customers would come over and say, "I think his arm in on backwards."

"Yup."

The Song Of The Day - Thriller By Michael Jackson

Breakaway. . .

In one of my first blog entries I mentioned my fear of the Muni buses breaking free from the overhead electrical wires.  I went on to express my concern about the possibility of the bus rolling backwards down the steep hills of San Francisco.

One of my dear readers sent me an email after seeing the blog and asked if this was another one of my irrational fears.  She assured me that there were highly skilled engineers who were probably paid lots of money to design a breaking system for the Muni bus system.  

Ok...I see where she was coming from on this point.  But what about the Cable Cars?  Their systems are WAY old.

So I would just like to share with you that this week a Cable Car did break free from the underground cable and went careening down the hill until it eventually derailed injuring several passengers.  

Allegedly both the Cable Car operators had stepped off the car at the time of the accident and this was a violation of Muni policy and procedure.

Anyway, I would just like to say that maybe my fear was not so irrational after all.

Here is a link to the newspaper article about the accident:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/15/BAEG11ORV7.DTL

The Song Of The Day - Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

So Real. . .

The fake people who fool me are multiplying!

When I was in Santa Barbara recently I came across these two gentleman on State Street.

Be aware the fake people are everywhere and they are out to make you look twice!

The Song Of The Day - So Real by Mandy Moore

Uh Oh, Don't Let Go. . .

It's been awhile since I have blogged about the 30x and last Friday I had the distinct pleasure of riding the bus pressed against the front window.

And because I am always thinking about you my readers I wanted to share this picture I took as I held onto the fare box for dear life.  The black vertical line in the middle of the picture is the windshield wiper.

I want to talk about a pet peeve of mine about the 30x.  There are signs all over the interior of the bus that say "Move To The Back."  That basically means that you should always be aware of who is on the bus and if the back of the bus is empty you should move towards the back to allow more people to get on.

Because the Marina folk who ride the 30x are likely to know a fellow passenger they like to sit next to each other and talk.  So if the bus is thinning out of passengers at the back, 30x riders are not going to "break" their click up to allow more people on at the front.  In fact the Marina folk can be downright rude pretending not to hear you kindly ask to them to move back.  That is the great thing about the iPod generation, you can just pretend you didn't hear someone.  When in fact you heard everything they said.  

Another thing 30x riders are guilty of is not leaning in to allow you to pass them in the aisle of the bus so that you can at least move back for them if they choose not to.  And God knows they will not bend down and move their gym bag or brief case to allow you more room.

I bring this up because even though the bus let off lots of passengers after the second stop in the Financial District on Friday morning, the front passengers did not move back which meant I had to stay squished against the window for four more stops.  

Grrrrrr.

The Song Of The Day - 2 Hearts by Kylie Minogue