In a Western Place

After exploring a Niña replica over by Pier 9 on Saturday, we were walking toward California and Market Street when a flock of birds with an unfamiliar shrill passed over our heads. I couldn't identify them until another flock swarmed by... green birds with red heads. I racked my brain, Parrots! Wild Parrots were flying excitedly past us, landing on top of street lights, snacking on top of small buildings, and cavorting on treetops throughout the small block of grass on Washington and Drumm. I rubbed my eyes, "Parrots?" Then I remembered that Parrots live up on Telegraph Hill, a short jaunt from where we were standing. I wonder what brought them downtown?

Here's a super, zoomed-in shot. Fearing for my head, it was the best I could do.

Well, who doesn't!?

Matty got me this shirt because he's the tops and I'm going to wear it every night to sleep. Or, frame it. What do you think?

Yesterday was hot. Insanely hot. Too hot. Grouchy hot. Hot hot hot. Don't believe me?.

Thankfully, I have Thursdays off, so I was able to avoid my non-air conditioned office in favor of my air-conditioned salon. My apartment also managed to stay relatively cool (it's shaded by other buildings and plant-life), and aside from walking around outside, I wasn't too uncomfortable. Now it's Friday and I'm back at work, sweating and panting because the air from yesterday is still trapped in the building. We're baking! Not only that, but the weather report says it's going to stay hot through the weekend. It's only 9:15 and I already want to move my workstation over to the pier. The cool, cool pier.

Heat wave induced grumpiness aside, Bay to Breakers is this Sunday! Full update to follow... happy weekend!

More like the race from Nob Hill to the Beach Chalet, 2008.

I had every intention to run in this year's Bay to Breakers, but thanks in part to my undying love of procrastination, Zone 1 sold out and I would have been forced to register for Zone 2. Zone 1 is for folks that will complete the race in under 2 hours, and Zone 2 is for the folks that will complete it in 2-4 hours — mostly walkers. While could have registered in Zone 2, then play "catch up" to the Zone 1 pace... no, this is Bay to Breakers, and it would have looked a lot like this:

and this:

and this:

and ew, this:

We're talking hundreds of thousands of costumed people, drinking, urinating, laughing, fighting, dancing... all before noon on a Sunday. This isn't a race you might say, and you'd be correct; at least not this part. It's just another one of these bizarre San Franciscan traditions that you don't question, you just sort of go with it, even if it means have your retina's burned out by the sight of some REALLY old naked dudes. Naked and against the war. They had the body paint to prove it.

In brief, Matty and I overslept and we started the race from my home at 10:30am. The race officially started at 8:00am, so the real runners were long gone. We caught up to the pack around Fell street, next to Alamo Square — (the location of the infamous Painted Ladies, otherwise known as the Full House houses). I had every intention of photographing the event, but I stupidly swapped the charged battery in my camera with a dead one before we left. Dumb.The top photo is mine, the rest are Matty's. After my mistake rendered me fairly grouchy during the rest of the Fell Street leg (to put it lightly), but my attitude brightened once we entered Golden Gate Park, where it was impossible not to smile at the random things people dressed up as. Matty and I moved at full speed, and barreled through the parade, knocking over anyone in our path. Once we reached the end, our finish line being one of our favorite out-of-the-way restaurants, the Beach Chalet (on the Great American Highway), we had completed 7 of the 7.49 miles.

We ate buffalo wings and creme brulee, then hopped on the #5 bus for a long ride home... until a fight between a fairly inebriated dude in skimpy shorts and an another guy dressed as a Double Dare contestant broke out, forcing the bus to stop. There's never a dull moment in this city, that's for sure.