4 days, 4 nights

The best of President's Day Weekend in San Fran....

.....a Top 10 List in No Particular Order

(except for #1. which really is #1.)

10) It is obviously cool to view the biopic of the Mayor of Castro Street at The Castro Theatre on Castro Street.

The film earned all its Oscar nominations, too.

9) It is obviously cool to buy a Dave Eggers' hardcover for very cheap at a bookstore 1 block over from his pirate shop.

8) This is the number, roughly, of $3 Shiner Bock pints drank at the 500 Club.

Yum.

7) This, roughly, is the number of glasses of red wine drank at my cousins' apartment.

Yum, again. (See #6.)

6) Here was our Saturday night feast, per person, in this order:

1 glass syrah, 1 fresh mozzarella and cherry tomato sandwich, 1 baked spinach ball, 1 glass syrah, 2 fried risotto balls, several mega asparagus (steamed), 1 glass California red blend, 1 scoop cream-based carbonara, 1 inch-thick pork chop baked in homemade pesto, 1 glass cabernet sauvignon, 1/8th of chocolate cream pie (homemade), 1 round of sot-brained laughter at the Flight of the Conchords new episode, 1 ridiculously sound night's sleep.

5) My amount of guilt over zero-level participation in Week VI of the Bikini Challenge:

Zero.

(And no. No sit-ups were harmed/executed in this diet meltdown.)

4) Even on second viewing (and while on some level it works because the owners wear tie-dye), still can't quite fathom that Ben & Jerry's is the corner store at Haight & Ashbury.

3) Running 15 miles on a Saturday morning in SF is just like running 15 miles on a Saturday morning in Boston.

Except the hills are steeper. The ocean faces a different way. Nylon shorts were possible. And the palm trees! (yes!)

2) This is the number of Pacific Ocean views.

First, on a fogless afternoon from the height of Twin Peaks, with D & Kh, the distance painting the scene with calm.

Second, on a fogless morning, alone, running south on the Great Highway, waves higher than the cars on the road.

(Thank you, fogless weekend.)

1) This is the number of times Gustav Holst's "Jupiter" came on the plane's radio on the flight home. Appropriately, at 34,000 feet above Wisconsin with the sky black in the east and pink in the west and thick clouds seemingly steps below. That middle section....where it feels as if you, the listener, should be floating in orbit, too.....celestial bodies all around....

Do it again, God! I'll take those perfect 2 minutes, whenever, again, you want to provide them.

(Random addendum: This is blog post #216. It was posted on 2/16. Someone give me a high-5!)