The Small Family     

Well, we’re back from our big weekend getaway! As I mentioned last week, we had a dinner planned with some of my coworkers on Friday, so we arranged for Theo to stay overnight with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom while Chris and I spent the night in San Francisco. And a great time was had by all!

We drove down to San Jose on Friday morning to drop Theo at his grandparents’ house, and we visited a bit with them before heading up to the city. Theo seemed to barely care that we were leaving, so involved was he in having Grandma Kathy read to him. And Chris and I had a lovely three hours to spend wandering the city before our dinner. We checked into our hotel, which was a beautiful Hyatt right across from the Ferry Building. I got a great deal on Priceline, so even though the parking was typically horrendous (it is everywhere in SF), the hotel cost itself wasn’t bad. Given that parking in SF is a nightmare and very costly, I suggested to Chris that we leave our car in its $57/night space at the hotel and just hoof it around the city. No point in paying yet MORE parking fees, and besides, San Francisco is a city best experienced on foot.

So, after checking into the hotel and dropping our stuff, we wandered over to the Ferry Building so I could indulge in a couple oysters. Then we took BART a couple stops up to Union Square to poke around. We haven’t been there in years--it tends to be very crowded, so not much fun to go with a toddler. But since it was just the two of us, we were able to just wander through the crowds, browse the three-story bookstore, and enjoy watching them start to put up the giant Christmas tree in the middle of the square. Bliss!

Our dinner was held at Maya, an upscale and very delicious Mexican restaurant about a half a mile from our hotel. I was a little nervous about meeting some new people (a few of my authors), but we ended up having a fantastic time. Orren and Mark are two acquisitions editors I work with, and they were both there, though at the far end of the table from us. I really, really like both of them--they send a lot of work my way, and they’re just very nice people. I’ve probably mentioned Orren before--he and his wife life in Southern California, so we’re occasionally able to meet up with them (most recently when we went to Disneyland). But Mark is in Cincinnati, so I’ve only ever gotten to see him once. We also got to see a marketing manager I work with frequently, from Boston--another Mark. (There were three Marks at dinner--we began to wonder whether all the men should just go by Mark for the evening!)

Author-wise, we got to meet one I’ve worked with in the past and have maintained a friendship with--yet another Marc. Turns out Marc and his wife (who also came to dinner) live in Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom’s neighborhood--small world! It was good to finally meet Marc, as he and I have kept up a friendship, and he is my Apple guru (in addition to Orren) whenever I need help with my Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.

We met another author I’m working with right now--Nick. Seemed like a really nice guy, although I wasn’t sitting close enough to get to talk much to him. And finally, we met Bobby--an author I’ve worked with several times in the past. He was sitting right next to us, so we talked to him a lot. Fascinating guy--he’s done a lot in the music/TV business, so he had some good stories to tell. (Many of you know Chris is a big Fleetwood Mac fan. Bobby has met the Fleetwood folks and says they’re “um…interesting.” Ha ha, I’m not surprised! Lots of drugs going around the music biz in their heyday…)

Funny thing about Bobby is, the first time he worked with me, I was pretty sure he thought I was an imbecile. He sent me a couple really terse emails, and I figured, “Okay, you think I’m stupid. But I know I’m not stupid, so I’ll just ignore you and do my job.” A year or so later, he requested to work with me again--and I was really surprised, given that I didn’t think he had the greatest opinion of me. And then he requested me again after that, so I finally decided he must think I’m okay. So I was naturally a little nervous to meet this guy, but he turned out to be extremely nice. I guess he just comes across a little brusque in email sometimes. I shall no longer be intimidated by him, as he's really a nice man. A good lesson for me in not judging someone solely by email contact...

Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed an evening of adult company. Chris and Bobby hit it off and talked for much of dinner, so he didn’t feel at all left out in the group of music-tech nerds. (I say this loving, as I am one of those music-tech nerds. I have no musical talent at all, but I’ve worked within this industry long enough that I think I’m a full-fledged nerd now.)

And the food…mmmmm! Chris had an orange mojito, and I had a pineapple-coconut mojito. (The beauty of having a room in the city--we could each enjoy a cocktail without requiring one of us to be the designated driver!) Chris ordered mahi-mahi tacos, and I had chicken enchiladas, but they were different from standard enchiladas. The tortillas had cheese in the middle, like a quesadilla, and then the chicken was prepared and laid on top, along with cotija cheese and some sort of fancy “slaw.” Wow…best enchiladas I’ve had! We split a chocolate tres leches cake for dessert.

And in case that’s not enough talk about food, let me tell you about Saturday morning!  Because we didn’t have Theo with us, it was a little easier to venture out and about to further reaches of the city. So I had in mind to try Dynamo Donuts, which we had seen profiled on the Food Network. We watch a show called Best Thing I Ever Ate, and on one episode, they featured a maple-glazed bacon apple donut from a shop called Dynamo Donuts. Now, I’m not a huge fan of bacon in sweets, but I am a huge fan of donuts, so I decided we needed to go. So after checking out of our hotel, we drove to a gnarly part of the city in search of the donuts. And wow…we were not disappointed! It was worth dealing with the very sketchy crowd surrounding the place to get these donuts! We bought four donuts to sample, and in order of our favorites, they were: vanilla bean, maple-glazed bacon apple, chocolate rosemary crunch, and chocolate spice. Yes, that’s right--the chocolate were our two least favorites, which is very out of character for me. And they were very good…but the first two donuts were just out of this world. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I’ve had a lot of donuts in my 36 years, but these were just far and away the best. I guess the woman who opened the place is a classically trained pastry chef who has a background with all sorts of fancy restaurants, but then she decided that what she really wanted to do was open a gourmet donut shop. I have to say, I’m glad she did!

But enough about food. After our donut feast, we drove back down to San Jose to visit with Chris’s parents for a bit before heading over to Aunt Carol and Uncle Erryl’s house for a wedding luncheon for Jeremy and Monica. (Jeremy is Chris’s same-age cousin (along with Bill), and he and Monica got married in Vegas a few weeks ago.) Unfortunately, we could only stay at the lunch for an hour, as we had to race back up to Roseville to pick up our dogs before the kennel closed, but that at least gave us a chance to congratulate the happy couple and visit with some family. Theo enjoyed exploring Carol and Erryl’s backyard, though he wasn’t overly thrilled that I wouldn’t let him climb in the pool….  (And by the way, we made it back to pick up the dogs with 10 minutes to spare. Good thing we didn’t leave any later!!)

Sunday morning was rainy and gross, so we searched for an indoor activity for Theo and found a discovery/science museum in Sacramento. It’s a very small place, but he enjoyed it anyway. I think his favorite part was the room with animals to look at--a couple rabbits (one HUGE--I swear it was as big as Theo), some cockroaches (ugh), a tarantula (double-ugh), and, Theo’s favorite, a couple rats. He was just crazy about the rats, and he was so disappointed when they finally went to sleep!

We ended up buying a membership to the museum because it’s reciprocal with 200 other science museums in the U.S.—about 50 of which are in California. There are several within driving distance of our house, so we’ll definitely check them out. Perhaps most notably, we now get free admission to the Exploratorium in San Francisco! We’ve been meaning to take Theo there, but he’s a bit young to REALLY enjoy it. But since it’s free for us, we might as well take him. Even if he can only really experience 10 or 20% of the museum, it’s still worth a trip. No more excuses!

And last but not least, Chris did full-time daddy duty for a couple hours on Sunday night so I could go to dinner with some friends from Sac State. One of our friends has been diagnosed with breast cancer (at age 39, I believe), and she starts 18 weeks of chemo tomorrow, before undergoing surgery. In typical Sylvia fashion, she doesn’t want any of us being sad or mopey, so instead, we decided to have a “let’s celebrate Sylvia’s boobs and thick, lustrous hair” night before she starts chemo and has her surgery. One last hurrah before she undergoes many months of nasty treatments…. I’m optimistic that she’ll beat this, as my Mom was able to. The world needs Sylvia in it--it’s a more fun place with her!