Masters of the Universe

Last night was my combination belated-birthday-slash-getting-my-masters-degree party, which LL decided should have a Masters of the Universe theme. The party was in SF at a bar called Shine and it was pretty much awesome (So thank you, LL, for throwing me a party!).

To get there, we took the Caltrain up to Millbrae and transferred to the BART, which runs through downtown. That’s basically our “usual” method of getting to the city on weekends. It takes about twice as long as driving – a 2-hour ordeal no matter how you spin it – but it saves LL the trauma of watching my blood pressure rise like a bottle rocket while I try to find a place to park (not to mention the 45-minute cool down period following, when I lecture on revolutionizing urban parking and devise effective-but-nonlethal punishments for various parking offenses spotted while driving around…LL really is a saint for putting up with me sometimes). On top of that, we needed to stay overnight (mostly ‘cause LL had to come into work today/Sunday), and parking can cost upwards of $50 in a hotel garage.

The hotel we got was great. It’s called the Adante and it‘s right on the edge of being in perhaps a bad neighborhood. Well, on the way there we walked by lots of homeless people, one of whom was screaming about how his girl stole his meth and another who was looking for his kingdom but had not yet managed to find it. I hadn't seen it either. But the hotel’s immediate surroundings were cool and the rooms were spectacular. I knew we had scored with this one when we walked in and the lobby music was provided by The Kinks.

Here’s me in our room. I personally like the cottage scene set against the purple-dabbed walls, but LL was more taken by the random boat in the surf at sunrise above it (hmm...without the aid of any obvious landmarks, is it possible to tell a sunrise from a sunset in a photo? Are the colors affected by differences in air temperature or something like that? Sorry...). Anyway, the bathrooms had some really nice fish painted on the walls. The great thing, though, was that we only paid $72 including taxes and surcharges and everything. And the rooms were squeaky clean. And it’s a short walk to Union Square. We really were just super happy with it.

Oh yeah…Ruby Skye. We didn’t actually go there, but we did go to the dentist earlier in the day, and apparently our dentist had been at Ruby Skye the night before (I think this is why she rolled in late for our 1:30 appointment). So, in case you ever question how cool LL and I really are, just keep in mind that even our dentist goes clubbing and she knows the DJ. That’s how we roll.

Bocadillos is where LL and I grabbed dinner. It’s a tapas place and we loved it. My two favorites were the ceviche and the aged, thin-sliced Serrano ham with olive oil. So, so good. Plus we had a gift certificate (thanks Liz and Meg!), so, when in doubt, order more. Yum.

So...moving on to the bar. Shine is bar/club/whatever just up Mission from where LL works. There’s just a small sign out front…I don't think they were going for that whole you have to know where it is vibe, but as a practical matter of finding it, you do actually have to know exactly where it is. It has a great setup for small parties...for a reasonable cost, you get your own little booth with a built-in mini-fridge, which is stocked with a semi-customizable array of drink options. There are two really cool things about this. First, you don’t have to go to the bar to get drinks, because you can just make them yourself. And second, you can use your own glassware, like so:

Here’s me making a vodka tonic for LL. I have the power! (Actually, the entire quote is “By the power of Castle Grayskull, I have the power!” I think it's such an awkward phrase. I mean if it’s something that’s gonna come up in every episode, and, you know, it does, you might as well make it better).

And because I feel like you need to know these things, our mini-fridge had the following:

• 1 bottle of vodka
• 1 smaller bottle of raspberry flavored vodka
• Plenty of tonic
• A carafe of cranberry juice
• Four Red Bulls
• Two airplane bottles of Jamesons
• Two airplane bottles of Jager
• Two airplane bottles of some nasty Jager-like stuff that I’d never seen before
• 1 bottled water
• 1 can pf pineapple juice
• 1 Stella Artois
• 1 Corona

The two beers were totally random. And why Corona? Strange. You might think that this is a lot of alcohol for nine people. We agree.

Not only did we provide our guests with free drinks, but everyone also got party favors. Each guest got a goodie bag filled with toys, bubbles, bracelets, tops. Pretty much everything you’d expect for a six-year old. They were a big hit.

Here’s Liz and Bart playing with their new toys. Actually, Liz is double-fisting (pocket pinball in her left hand). Bart said he wasn’t good at this game. He was right.

Here’s Kim, realizing that she is engaged to someone who is actually blowing bubbles in a bar (they got engaged a couple weeks ago!). The funniest part was how Kim told us (earlier) that they had picked a date for the wedding and Jim saying, “I didn’t know we had a date for the wedding.” Haha. Welcome to my world, Jim. You’re lucky you’re even invited to the wedding. And it won’t stop there. All the big decisions in your life are now out of your hands, which is actually liberating once you get used to it. For example, I have given LL write-access to my Google calendar. That way she can just schedule me for stuff without having to tell me about it. In fact, you should probably go check your Google calendar and find out when your wedding is.

Here is most of the group (except for our hot photographer). Left to right is Jim, Kim, me, Alireza, Liz, Bart and Pedram.

SWAP!

After the party we made a pizza run. Is there anything better in the middle of the night than hot, cheesy pizza? Judging by LL’s squinting (which is usually the most accurate gauge of her present happiness), she rates her slice of pepperoni just above a full-body massage in the Bahamas. I kinda look completely savage…definitely taking my pizza a little too seriously.

These are the guys who made the pizza. Being the kind of joy-spreading people we are, LL and I presented the pizza guys with some of our leftover party favors. I think they look pretty excited. And did I mention there were airplanes too? Airplanes, with rubber band launchers. And a box of Hot Tamales.

I also wanted to point out what a better bubble-blower this guy was than Jim. Way more bubbles.

For no good reason, I took a bunch of blurry pictures from the back seat of Liz and Bart’s car and made a big blurry collage out of them (Bart apparently lost an arm wrestling match with Liz and had to be their designated driver). It was nice of them to drop us off at the hotel on their way home (“on the way” in the sense that they had to go in the opposite direction of their house to drop us off. LL uses this one all the time, like “can you stop at Safeway on your way home?” “No,” I answer honestly).

Melissa's bachelorette weekend: Clay's perspective

See LL's perspective below!

Last weekend, (LL's sister) Melissa flew out to CA for her bachelorette party, which LL (and I, sortof) hosted. I was actually pretty excited about it. I like having people out here for a visit and showing them around and all that. Plus Melissa is especially good for this sort of thing cause she's such a blast to hang out with. And she genuinely appreciates any effort you make on her behalf, which makes hosting a party for her a piece of cake. She probably would have been happy with dinner and a movie, but we tried to maybe do a little better than that :)

Of course, being male, I rightfully only played a modest part in the weekend. Counting LL and Melissa, there were five girls out here, and they were obviously the (hard?) core of the party. I was more like the sixth man (though technically the only one). In the end, I mostly just had two important duties to perform:

1. Help clean the apartment
2. Lead the Fab Five on a hiking trip

Item 1 was fine. I know the drill...people coming to visit; we can't let them see how we really live. Well honestly we aren't very messy...it's rare that I would feel embarrassed for someone to stop by unannounced. But we were still due for a thorough cleaning. And I think LL and I are a pretty good team in this regard because she likes things to look nice, but isn't much of a germ freak, while I, on the other hand, don't care that much if we have papers piled on the table, as long as, underneath, the table has been wiped down. This leads to the following natural breakdown:

LL's cleaning tasks

• Dust all shelves, picture frames and knock out any cobwebs
• Swiffer floor
• Make bed (doesn't matter if sheets underneath are messy)
• Put out fresh flowers
• Do laundry
  
• Put out clean towels

Clay's cleaning tasks

• Attack bathtub/shower tiles/sink with Comet
• Dismantle fridge and clean all shelves
  
• Do all dishes
  
• Attack kitchen sink with Comet
• Tuck/straighten all sheets and blankets on bed (doesn't matter if decorative pillows are still on floor...which is where they end up when we sleep)
• Mop and vacuum (doesn't matter if blankets/pillows/backpacks/etc are left out)

The advantage of my way is that we look like very clean people who nonetheless allow for some superficial messiness. The disadvantage is that I can clean all day and the house doesn't look any different, leading LL to say, "It looks like we still have so much to do," at about the point that I think we're done.

To illustrate, I give you the following examples:

This is an example of LL's cleaning style. It involves putting up decorations of bumblebees wearing green bows. This one is hanging from our ceiling fan above the dining room table. Doing something like this would not have occurred to me in 1000 years.

This, however, is an example of my cleaning style. After cleaning the kitchen, I decided to decorate using a cereal variety pack. A cornucopia of goodness! I love cereal!!

Next up was the hike, which was fun to plan. Surprisingly, going on the hike was not my idea! Melissa's list of things she wanted to do here in SF included drive over the Golden Gate bridge and go on a hike. Therefore, I chose a trail on the other side of the GG Bridge so that we could do both things at once (Brilliant!). I also decided we should hike to The Tourist Club, which is a bar in the middle of Muir Woods that you can only get to on foot (seemed like a nice twist).

But, first things first. The Golden Gate Bridge:This is the whole party crew in front of the bridge. The camera is pointing south and you can see SF across the bay. It was a nice day...no fog! Left to right in the pic are Kristin, Susan, LL, Melissa and Erin (for those who read this blog regularly...both of you...this is in fact the third Erin you have come across in the past two weeks...of course all of them are special).

We also stopped in Sausalito for a bite to eat (I got fish and chips) since all the girls were FOPs (fresh off the plane). In fact, all of them were good sports about the sudden flurry of activity they were thrown into the moment they got in.

Here are the six of us crammed into the Xterra. Melissa and I are in the front, Erin Kristin and Susan are in the second row, and LL is in the third row. Two observations: 1) Xterras have three rows of seats? Well no. LL is actually sitting on the floor behind the back seat (I believe this is universally called "the way-back"). She's probably sitting on our new and unused snow chains, which I now refuse to take out of the car...ever! 2) Where's Melissa? For some reason she ducked out of the photo. But no matter...

There she is! I also have a lot of pictures of LL like this...maybe someday I'll put them all on the blog. Anyway, I can only assume this is a Box family custom, though I have not yet had my own hand-face portrait made. Behind Melissa is the place where we ate! Now, for the hiking...

Here we have Girl Scout Troop 101 (I named them after the highway nearby). Seriously, was it mean to make them walk several miles through the woods right after they got off the plane? I think everyone had a good time. Plus it gave them all a chance to get to know each other better since it's the first time some of them had met. So everyone got to talk a lot (even though it got quiet on some of the long uphill parts) .

We also saw this awesome lizard. It was the second one we came across, but the other one had been smushed :( The other reason this guy is featured so prominently is that The Tourist Club turned out to be closed for renovations, making him the highlight.

Here's everyone walking back to the car. I think they had a good time! But my part in this weekend was about over...I drove them all back to Menlo Park, carried some luggage up the stairs and said my goodbyes.

Since the girls were staying at our apt, I walked over to Liz and Bart's and spent the night there. We grilled chicken and had a nice time. By the time I walked back home Saturday morning, the girls were already off to SF. Since they stayed there Saturday night, I had the whole apt to myself. It was pretty sweet.

Melissa's bachelorette weeked: LL's perspective

Yay, for the bachelorette weekend! I was really, really excited for Melissa to come for a visit...we don't get to see each other often enough and on top of that she's been a sortof shy bride and hasn't let us heap all of the parties and showers on her that we wanted to. This first picture is one of my favorites from the whole weekend. We don't look particularly cute or anything, and actually you can't even see the GG bridge. But we were just so giddy and excited to be together and happy to be at the beginning of a fun-filled weekend.

After our Friday afternoon hike (see Clay's post for more details) we headed back to our apartment and kicked Clay out for the night. The five of us girls hung out and continued the stream of non-stop chattering. I "made" dinner for the group--Euro-style cheese, crackers and fruit (purchased by Clay...that guy comes in handy!). The highlight of the evening was definitely the home videos. Erin brought a dvd of her and Melissa when they were awkward pre-teens and they were HILARIOUS. The best was their school report on the Comanche Indians. Clearly they were obsessed with horses at the time because they mentioned them and showed them at every chance they got. Erin was dressed in (authentic, I'm sure) traditional Indian attire and Melissa was wearing gigantic blue glasses. I'm sure she was wearing other clothes as well but really, all you could see was the glasses--they were that huge! As a side note, pre-teen girls look like a lot of work. I think I want boys that sit in their rooms and play violent video games all day. Less shrieking and screaming that way.

Anyway, after a restful night of sleeping on air mattresses and couches everyone rallied in the morning (no doubt fueled by Clay's cereal-scape) and we caught an early Caltrain into San Francisco. Above are Melissa and Erin on the train, looking quite chic for so early in the morning. Though perhaps that's because I spent so much time looking at them as awkward 11 year olds the night before? Nah...they're just cute.

After a train ride and a BART ride and a 4-block hauling of the luggage we arrived at the Sir Francis Drake hotel, dropped off our bags, and jumped straight into tourist mode. Our beefeater (yes we had a beefeater...doesn't everyone?) found us a nice cab driver and he squeezed us all five in and drove us through Chinatown, and then down Lombard Street, famous for being the crookedest street in the world. Above is Melissa enjoying the windy road--we are big on cheap thrills!

Next we tackled Peer 39, where we admired Alcatraz and the local sea lions. Note the sea lion showing off for Melissa and Erin in the background...clearly a male trying to impress. Next we went down to Boudin for clam chowder in a bread bowl. Kristin had never had clams before but she loved it as much as the rest of us!

Next up was Ghiradelli square, where Susan and Melissa humored me and posed in front of a mermaid fountain. We walked through the store and got our free chocolate samples (the new peanut butter flavor!). Some of us (I won't name names) walked through twice to get an extra sample. Necessary sustenance for the long day ahead!


After our chocolate break we took a ride on the Powell-Hyde cable car. Here we all are, happy to be finally be toward the front of the line. I am embarrassed by my ugly sensible shoes...I'm used to hanging out with Clay and having cute shoes scorned, but this group was clearly pro-style. I'm kicking myself for the missed opportunity!

Here is Melissa on the cable car...it's just a cute picture. She pretty much looked cute and happy the whole weekend!

After a quick shopping trip in Noe valley we got all dressed up and went up to the Starlight room to get the evening started! Here we all are in our big city finery: Kristin, LL, Melissa, Susan and Erin.
Melissa opened up her gifts, and for someone that dreads having people pay attention to her she sure looked like she was having fun. She also gave us a teary and touching little talk about how important we all are to her and how happy she was to have us there. But then I ruined it when I blurted out in shock "Oh, wow...you just made a speech!". Sorry, sissy!

The best gift was the Bride Caboodle from Erin. They were both obsessed with Caboodles back in the day, and what bride doesn't want to take a plastic sparkly-filled Caboodle on her honeymoon!? It was filled with fun bracelets and shot glass necklaces and all sorts of girly goodness.

Ever the good sport, Melissa let us dress her up a little bit! Erin brought the lovely veiled tiara, and I had the "Mrs. Stromblad" sash custom made by Mema. Melissa's dress was so cute I sortof hated to cover it up with the bacheloretteyness, but it turns out she still looked great.

Next she gave me my hostess gift...the cutest apron ever! I absolutely love it.


Here we are all piled into another cab and off to dinner. We had tapas at Cafe Arguello, compliments of Erin's dad, Paul "Legs" Steinhoff. Every single thing from the calamari to the mushrooms to the sangria was fantastic! And the mood was even more celebratory with Paul picking up the check. A huge thanks to the Steinhoffs! Dinner also featured a Spanish dancer, who was super sweet and spent some time trying (unsuccessfully) to teach Melissa to play the finger cymbals.

After dinner we were off to the Bubble Lounge. We took a cab, hailed by Erin and her bare right leg. Perhaps we should call her "Legs", too? Once at the Bubble Lounge we enjoyed a few rounds of Bubble Bellinis and deflected the advances of random guys eager to join in the fun. After that we headed back to the hotel where Susan treated us to one last bottle of champagne. Brilliant!
The next morning there were flights to catch, so we got up impressively early (well, most of us did) and went across the street for breakfast. We also took a second to pose with our faithful beefeater. He is sortof like a member of the family now.

Alas, next came the good-byes. After such a busy weekend we were all tired, but not too tired to realize that saying good-bye sucks. Fortunately the wedding is only a month or so away, so we don't have long till we get to celebrate again!

Poor Melissa broke her suitcase making it almost impossible to roll, so the four block walk to the BART station was tougher than it sounds. Considering that it was filled with her new flimsy lingerie, that bag sure was HEAVY!

I had to hop off of the BART one stop before the airport, so after a (not too teary!) good-bye I managed to take this funny picture of Melissa being whisked off into the yonder. All in all a perfect weekend!