(no subject)
Our garage now has a door! It's a sort of light grayish green, which doesn't match the rest of the house or the garage, but that will be changed soon. But at least it has a door! I've even put a few things into the garage! Just a rake, a weed wacker, some paint cans ... that sort of thing ... but it feels quite luxurious to have somewhere to put that stuff! And no one can steal it! And the garage isn't going to fall down to bury it in a pile of rubble!
The city inspector (inspector *from* the city, rather than one who *inspects* cities) will be coming on Thursday to do the final inspection. And then all that remains is the painting of the door! And then the Extended Garage Building Adventure will finally end! And the Extended Garage Usage Adventure will commence!
I also chatted a bit with Ting about some other home improvement projects we might like to hire him for in the future, since I love him so dearly (and our house needs lots of work), and he said he would do some thinking and give us some quotes. Hurray for someday living in a less dilapidated house!
Today, while hanging around the house, unable to read due to the occasional very loud machine-type noises emanating from the garage, held captive by the presence of Ting the Contractor Man and Wayne the Garage Door Installation Man (well, "Boy," really, as he looked about 20 years old) and their occasional questions for me and such, I got a bug in my ear to get dim sum. "Mmmm," said I to myself (while watching the famous episode of "The Twilight Zone" that ends with the anguished cry "It's a cookbook!"), "going out to dim sum
by myself isn't a terrible lot of fun ... but I *could* go down to Sun Sing Pastry (on 8th Street in Oakland Chinatown), a little takeaway dim sum place Katherine introduced me to many many years ago. Their buns and dumplings are very tasty and *very* cheap, and then I could just bring some home, and Shannon could get a treat when he took a break from slaving over his computer!" So I decided to do this once the garage was dealt with for the day, and Shannon urged me to just get enough dim sum to give us both dinner, instead of just picking up a snack. Yum!
So I headed out to downtown Oakland and walked to Sun Sing and bought all kinds of wacky stuff. There were the usual baked bbq pork buns, sesame balls (as big as your head!), and ha gao (steamed shrimp dumplings), but I also just pointed at a number of interesting looking things, asked if they had beef in them (Shannon can't eat beef), and then nodded and figured we'd see whether we liked them or not. I got myself some kind of coconut bun (shaped like a hot dog bun), too, which I'd never had before but which was terrific. I also picked a hockey-puck-shaped steamed dumpling I'd never seen before that had pork, vegetables, and corn inside. (In my experience, you don't see a lot of corn in dim sum, or in Chinese food in general.) Shannon said it was kind of weird, but he ate it.
I got us plenty of food for both of us for a delicious dinner, and it only cost $7. Sun Sing rocks! Even with the $3.50 I paid for BART fare, it was still very affordable for something so enjoyable, and for a nice change of pace. Not as healthy as I would have eaten otherwise, but it's pleasant once in a while.
Now Shannon is back to his writing (he seems to be feeling a bit stressed about finishing by the deadline tomorrow) and I'm going to return to reading Franzen's Freedom, now that all's silent on the garage front. I need to return the book to the library on Wednesday (I can't renew it, because there's a queue of other people wanting to read it.), and I'm only half done reading it, but I'm working on obtaining another copy so that I can finish the entire novel before my book group meets on March 16. I thought about just buying the book (what a concept!), but I don't think that will be necessary.
The city inspector (inspector *from* the city, rather than one who *inspects* cities) will be coming on Thursday to do the final inspection. And then all that remains is the painting of the door! And then the Extended Garage Building Adventure will finally end! And the Extended Garage Usage Adventure will commence!
I also chatted a bit with Ting about some other home improvement projects we might like to hire him for in the future, since I love him so dearly (and our house needs lots of work), and he said he would do some thinking and give us some quotes. Hurray for someday living in a less dilapidated house!
Today, while hanging around the house, unable to read due to the occasional very loud machine-type noises emanating from the garage, held captive by the presence of Ting the Contractor Man and Wayne the Garage Door Installation Man (well, "Boy," really, as he looked about 20 years old) and their occasional questions for me and such, I got a bug in my ear to get dim sum. "Mmmm," said I to myself (while watching the famous episode of "The Twilight Zone" that ends with the anguished cry "It's a cookbook!"), "going out to dim sum
by myself isn't a terrible lot of fun ... but I *could* go down to Sun Sing Pastry (on 8th Street in Oakland Chinatown), a little takeaway dim sum place Katherine introduced me to many many years ago. Their buns and dumplings are very tasty and *very* cheap, and then I could just bring some home, and Shannon could get a treat when he took a break from slaving over his computer!" So I decided to do this once the garage was dealt with for the day, and Shannon urged me to just get enough dim sum to give us both dinner, instead of just picking up a snack. Yum!
So I headed out to downtown Oakland and walked to Sun Sing and bought all kinds of wacky stuff. There were the usual baked bbq pork buns, sesame balls (as big as your head!), and ha gao (steamed shrimp dumplings), but I also just pointed at a number of interesting looking things, asked if they had beef in them (Shannon can't eat beef), and then nodded and figured we'd see whether we liked them or not. I got myself some kind of coconut bun (shaped like a hot dog bun), too, which I'd never had before but which was terrific. I also picked a hockey-puck-shaped steamed dumpling I'd never seen before that had pork, vegetables, and corn inside. (In my experience, you don't see a lot of corn in dim sum, or in Chinese food in general.) Shannon said it was kind of weird, but he ate it.
I got us plenty of food for both of us for a delicious dinner, and it only cost $7. Sun Sing rocks! Even with the $3.50 I paid for BART fare, it was still very affordable for something so enjoyable, and for a nice change of pace. Not as healthy as I would have eaten otherwise, but it's pleasant once in a while.
Now Shannon is back to his writing (he seems to be feeling a bit stressed about finishing by the deadline tomorrow) and I'm going to return to reading Franzen's Freedom, now that all's silent on the garage front. I need to return the book to the library on Wednesday (I can't renew it, because there's a queue of other people wanting to read it.), and I'm only half done reading it, but I'm working on obtaining another copy so that I can finish the entire novel before my book group meets on March 16. I thought about just buying the book (what a concept!), but I don't think that will be necessary.