hrj

I decided to take yesterday off from house-closing work and actually have a "vacation" day during my vacation. Since I'd totally ruined my hands with the cleaning on Wednesday, I decided to splurge and went on yelp.com to find a well-recommended local place for a mani-pedi. The recommendations were dead on: for the "deluxe" version I got a total of about an hour and a half of soaking, clipping, filing, massaging, and whatnot. Next, I headed to a bike shop in Palo Alto that advertised not only the ability to try out the Brompton folding bikes, but the possibility of buying one of their in-stock models off the shelf. It was a bit of an extravagance, but I'm totally committed to not driving in to work except on special logistical occasions, so in the long run I'll consider it worth while. That left me several hours before I needed to be at the Peachwoods Grill for Seth's birthday dinner, so I took a scenic drive along Skyline and looping through Big Basin park. Dinner was a perfect steak and fine company (then an hour and a half drive home).

Today it's back to Oakland to finish up some details. And it occurs to me that if I'm going to bike/BART in to work on Monday, I need to swing by the office to pick up my bike helmet. I parked my old bike at work and left the gear in my desk on the assumption that it would take me a while to pick up a BART-able bike and that it would be useful to keep the bike at work for errands. Hmm, or maybe I should swing by work on Sunday when I could actually pop the bike in the back of the car as well (can't do that today) since I won't need it there. Also: on Sunday there's no chance that I might get shanghaied into doing actual work.

I'm planning to day-trip Beltane on Saturday. I've been seeing all sorts of descriptions of people's contributions for the Saluminati gathering and have been contemplating whether I should try to find some sort of compatible side-snack to bring (like some palate-cleansing fruit) or whether I can get away with taking a pass based on the thread-worn "in the middle of moving" excuse and show up to nosh anyway.