Where I put my attention creates my experience

I went to Cafe Gratitude last night and they have inspirational paintings around the restaurant. They actually sell posters of them, but apparently not all of them.. The one I loved was in the bathroom, it was a big mural and in the middle was a kid drowning in negative words, around him were positive places and the word choose repeated. Around the kid in the center and before the other places were the words "Where I put my attention creates my experience." I thought it was an amazing piece, but it's one of the few they don't sell posters for. I have emailed the artist asking him if there was a poster or print of it available.

So... I got out of class around 4ish and went straight up to SF. I love the fact that in California they let hybrids drive in the carpool lane. Actually the law has been changed, it used to be *any* hyrbid, now it's only select hybrids. I guess they are not allowing those crazy SUV hybrids which still only get 14-15 MPG in the carpool lane, you have to be above a certain MPG to get access as a solo rider. Well, using the carpool lane it took me about 40 mins to get up to SF. When I left work it was something like 82 degrees, as I was driving with the windows down, it started getting real cold. After a bit I rolled the windows up and looked at the temp gauge in the car, it read in the 50s, I looked up and saw signs for "Candlestick Park - this exit". I was pretty shocked actually, I had heard the stadium was built on the side of a mountain but what I didn't realize is that it *was* built into the side of a mountain. It was a beautiful view of the mountain, bay and stadium (didn't get pics because I wasn't ready for it). By the time I got into SF proper it was back up into the 70s.

First stop - AT&T Park. I don't count this as me being at the stadium for my stadium list, but I had to drive by. I actually parked on the side walk by the stadium, I asked the attendant and he said I could park there since I was only going to take some pics. I walked around the stadium and took some pics (uploaded to Flickr). The stadium is right on the bay and the outfield wall is open to the bay so people walking by can look into the stadium, there are signs asking people to please only stand in "viewing areas" for an inning at a time. You can actually see a good portion of the field from these "viewing areas", they were inside setting up for some concert. Anyway, around the front of the stadium there is a nice steak house built into the stadium. There are no doors into the stadium from the restaurant but I imagine it would be packed on game days, I went in to use the bathroom and there were a few people but not a mob.

Second stop - Lombard St.. There a few theories behind why this street is the way it is. Some of the locals say that the people who lived there didn't want the traffic so they convinced the city to screw with the road. Lombard is a short cut from the Eastern section of the city to the Golden Gate Bridge and they were getting tons of cars driving that way. If that's true it backfired because now people come from all over just to drive down the street. Other stories say that they made the road that way because the incline of the road was too steep and was causing problems with cars going up and not being able to and with cars not stopping as they go down. I don't believe that theory because there are steeper roads in SF and even in the surrounding area and they didn't do it to those. Either way this is one crazy fuck road, you really have to see it and drive it to really get the grasp of it. I stopped at the bottom of the road and took some pics, then I drove around and down it, back around and parked at that top. I walked down and back up and took some cool pics and videos. The best pic I found is one that was taken from a nearby building top, I posted it on my Flickr along with my pics. I also posted videos of people driving on it on my YouTube.

Third stop - Golden Gate Bridge.. Nope.. It was getting very foggy and the traffic was out of control going there so I decided I would go after dinner..

Third stop - Cafe Gratitude.. The restaurant was very pretty, as I stated above I loved the paintings they had. The staff was really nice too, the place was mobbed so I ended up sitting at the bar which worked out well because I got to chat with the guys working while I waited for food. All of the menu items are things like "you are wonderful", "you are insightful", etc. I got a White Bean and Kale Soup which was cooked, a raw Bratwurst which was made of nuts, fennel and had kimchi and a mustard seed sauce wrapped in romaine lettuce. For dessert I had a raw chocolate moose which was so good. I really never understand why people insist milk should go with chocolate to dilute the flavor. Nothing like a good strong raw cacao.

Fourth stop - Golden Gate Bridge.. Nope.. The fog was even worse and I didn't feel like going if I wouldn't really appreciate it. Maybe I'll go back on of the other nights I'm here, if not I'll get there eventually because after all it's just another bridge right..

Fourth stop - Candlestick Park.. On the way home I drove up to Candlestick Park. If you think it was cold at 4:45 you don't know cold. The car said it was in the high 30s! I got out and walked around and took some pics but it was too dark and none of them came out. It is a very pretty area, the stadium is generic but the area around it is very pretty.

Drove back to the hotel and relaxed in the hot tub a bit before bed.

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Oh, going back to yesterday's blog.. Rice-A-Roni.. I was going to post a big long thing about how I doubt Rice-A-Roni is the SF treat. I mean seriously, lets think about who lives in SF.. Gays and Asians. Can you possibly imagine an Asian whipping up some Rice-A-Roni? And as for the gays, I certainly can't see it. SF is probably one of the most "hippie" areas of the country (aside from maybe Portland) and I can't see people who care about food eating tons of Rice-A-Roni.. Anyway, so I was going to post this long blog about that and I decided I would post a little video clip of the old commercials. Well, I did a search for "Rice-A-Roni: The San Fransisco Treat" and the first hit was a blog ranting about the exact thing.. A guy answered that blog with a history lesson about why Rice-A-Roni was indeed the San Fransisco Treat..

The DeDomenico family all enjoyed an old Armenian dish consisting of rice, vermicelli pasta and chicken broth. The rice and pasta were sauteed in butter before the liquid was added, giving the dish its distinctive taste.

In 1958, Vince DeDomenico decided to take this recipe and produce it for sale in grocery stores. He placed the rice and pasta in a box, and added a dry seasoning mix in place of the liquid chicken broth. Because this product was made up of half rice and half pasta, he decided to call it RICE-A-RONI®.

Chicken RICE-A-RONI was first introduced in the Northwestern states in 1958. With it came the first RICE-A-RONI commercial, featuring San Francisco's Cable Cars and the now famous jingle. Created in San Francisco, RICE-A-RONI would soon be known to all as "The San Francisco Treat®!"

The RICE-A-RONI jingle, The San Francisco Treat® slogan, "Saute and Simmer" and scenic San Francisco became familiar to every household in America in the 60's as the product was introduced through television advertising.

Well, I guess I've been told..

All in all.. I think SF is a very nice city, it is easy to drive around, easy to park and pretty to look at.

BTW - I'm reading this blog realizing how much of a "gay hater" I sound like.. For those of you who know me you know I'm the furthest thing from that.. For those of you who accidentally stumbled on my blog, first off "welcome, hope you enjoy my tangents" and secondly I can assure you I'm not a gay or Asian or really an anything hater.. :D Well, ok, maybe I'm an Atlanta Braves hater.. :P