How to tell you're NOT in a classy joint

Saturday we had friends over, and they suggested we get dinner together. They were passionate about Chinese food. It's not really our thing anymore, and with all the restaurant turnover of the past several years we're not even familiar with what's good locally. "If it was just us, we'd go to Panda Express," we warned them.

Cue friend whipping out a gargantuan phone and punching up a map on Google. "Here's one a mile away that's rated 4.1 stars!"

I squinted at the map. "I think that's the one that always smells like fish that's gone slightly bad and is empty even on Friday/Saturday nights."

We went anyway. 'Cuz what do I know, I just live here.

Well, good news/bad news. Good news: the awful Chinese restaurant that smelled of spoiling fish and was dead even on busy nights is finally gone. Bad news: the restaurant that's replaced it is only... somewhat better.

The new restaurant offers both steam-table service and ordering from a menu. The ready-to-serve food in the steam trays all looked disgusting. Well, okay, the rice and lo mein looked fine, but everything else... some thirty choices... screamed "Pass!"

We ordered from the menu. The food was decent to good. (Note: "decent to good" for this area. Standards for Chinese food in the SF Bay Area are high!) But I couldn't shake my concerns about what might be happening in the kitchen given the shitty looking food they were happy to leave in the plexiglass covered steam trays up front. Then as we wrapped up the meal I excused myself to the restroom and saw this:



Wow, talk about getting a clear sign to answer the question, "Is this a classy place or not?"

That is going to knock a whole star off my eventual Yelp review!

Another Relaxing Weekend

So, what did we do this past weekend other than eat at a skeezy restaurant with a sign illustrating how NOT to pee on a toilet? Well, a lot. And also a little. It was a mostly relaxing weekend at home.

Our relaxing began Friday night with a soak in the hot tub. Saturday morning I planned to get up early and spend at least an hour on housecleaning before going out to run a few errands. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. I got up early but then went back to bed and slept in/lazed in until about 9. I did get up after that and do some serious housework, though not all that I had hoped to. By the time we went out for our errands we were running two hours behind.

After lunch we had friends coming over to join us in our pool with their son. We had to delay those plans an hour because of our running behind. That was fine for everyone. And we didn't miss anything... Saturday morning was bleh with cloudy skies and cooler weather than we're paying for. We still enjoyed the pool and the sun deck for a while, but with more of a rotation to the hot tub than the pool.

Late afternoon, after a few hours at the pool we went out for that aforementioned dinner. After that we said goodbye to our friends and headed back home. I started feeling a bit ill shortly after that. It could have been lunch... or it could have been dinner at a restaurant where apparently people piss on the floor.

Sunday we had plans to go hiking. I got up in the morning feeling 100% again, but Hawk was too sick to want to go out. Ming's Revenge? The weather was bleh again anyway. I suggested since the days are so long we could relax at home a few hours, get some lunch, and decide in the afternoon if or where to go hiking. That worked... to a point.

Hawk started feeling better, we enjoyed a tasty lunch, got donuts for dessert at one of our favorite donut shops, then drove up into the hills toward Russian Ridge. It was a positively beautiful day for a drive in the mountains with the convertible top down... until we got to 1/2 mile short of Russian Ridge where the Pacific fog wall had just risen over the ridge. Fucking fog.

Undaunted, we turned around and drove the opposite direction, seeking out an old favorite, Summit Rock. We used to go there a few times a year but haven't been in... I dunno... at least 10 years now? Except when we got to Summit Rock it was closed. For falcon nesting. Fucking falcons.

Sunday afternoon and evening we rounded out the day at home. The time I spend last weekend cleaning the patio and balconies paid dividends again as I enjoyed sitting outdoors. We made dinner at home then went out to the hot tub for another soak at sunset.