My Micro Visit to to San Francisco

This week I ended up in San Francisco (I almost wrote Chicago) for less than 48 hours. Most of the time I was away consisted of flights and work for a client, but I did have a tiny adventure on the way back to the hotel after work. During a chat last week with Hannah I mentioned that I'd be here and she suggested I stop Britex Fabrics. I didn't get my hopes up because I knew I'd barely be here at all, but I got to the end of my work day and found that not only was Britex on the way back to my hotel, but I did in fact have a little time before they closed, so I nipped over. The office I was working in was right in the middle of the union square area and I followed my handy Google Map and turned the corner to find this:

How perfect was that? And next to it I found this:

Inside Britex I was in artsy-craftsy heaven. The store is filled with all kinds of fabrics ranging from designer materials to basic cottons, buttons, trim, yarn and all sorts of other fun stuff.  The fabrics in particular were amazing, but the prices helped me to resist.
  

I barely managed to stop myself from buying a whole set of stuff for needle felting or some lovely purple silk yarn. Truth be told, if the dark purple yarn were the silk blend instead of the synthetic blend I might have succumbed to temptation. Look at the yummy yarns I managed to resist:

While I was playing with Google Maps and trying to get my bearings I accidentally clicked on the street view which I ordinarily find annoying. But this time it showed me the street around my hotel, including a Curry n Naan and a liquor store. Dinner?

After Britex I continued along to the liquor store where I procured an Anchor Porter and a tiny container of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream.  Then I stopped at the Curry n Naan where I ordered my favorite Indian food dishes: paneer tikka masala, naan, and samosas, and was offered unlimited free chai while I waited. Winner!

Overall a very nice little trip, if short. I hope to make it back there one day when I can see the Golden Gate Bridge for more than a minute in the taxi on the way to the hotel and the bay from a better vantage point than a conference room.

We carved pumpkins!

Our local supermarket, like many supermarkets, started stocking pumpkins and Halloween practically in August so we did a good job when we managed to wait until after our trip to Turkey (post forthcoming) to buy our pumpkins instead of letting them rot while we were away. In any event we went over to Stop n Shop this past weekend only to discover that we were almost too late. There were barely any pumpkins left at all and the best looking ones were the ones at the checkout - so we selected two of the best display pumpkins and settled down in from Robin Hood (the one with Russell Crow) to carve them. When we were done we ended up with these:

Todd made his a scary toothy face and I ended up deciding to make a bat.  Woo hoo!  Let the holidays begin!