Pornography for the Homeowner

Real Estate Times of San Francisco

I know that I am blessed to have had the means to purchase part of a building four years ago. But I still pick up this bi-monthly publication whenever I see a new one in the bins that are strewn across the city. I bring it home and it sits right on the bedstand table for a few days or lingers in the bathroom as toilet reading.

I love where I live, but I'm always looking for that "bargain" (an oxymoron here in the Bay Area) in Telegraph Hill or Russian Hill or some cute neighboorhood that I have this perception of being the apex of gentility and chicness. Why do I do that given that I am a person who rarely cares about image and such. But I have these crazy dreams that it would be the ultimate to live in a cute duplex on Telegraph Hill on one of the crazy dead-end streets or even better, on either the Greenwich or Filbert Street steps. A man can dream can't he? And he is most certainly allowed to be have delusions of grandeur!

What you say to your kids does stick

I have numerous memories of childhood in the Chen household in Seattle, WA, circa late 1970's through mid 1980's. The one constant was my Mom's consistent message of eating vegetables and fruits. It might have bordered on "pushing" my sister and I to eat fruits and vegetables, like perhaps a drug dealer pushing drugs onto little kids. "Come on my little friends.....you'll like it and it's good for you."

A couple of decades later, I find myself up at 6:45AM (Scott out coaching his marathoners) trekking down to the local farmer's market right on the other side of my neighboorhood. It's the Saturday morning Alemany Farmer's Market (much better, less pricy and not nearly as fufu as the farmers market downtown by the Ferry Building) right where I-280 and Hwy. 101 intersect.

Sunrise hits the already busy Alemany Farmer's Market

A stall that has no Asian Women pushing each other out of the way with their pink plastic bags, a rare occurance.

You literally have to watch out for recently killed chickens when their purchasers set their bags down and suddenly there is a decapitated chicken in a paper bag running around with it's head cut off.

I have my routine, coming in from the West and doing one loop around the stalls, making a final purchase of eggs just outside the entrance and then back to my car and home. But this morning, my mushroom people weren't there. I was too EARLY?!?!?! That never happens. So when I finished, I violated every principal of shopping that I adhere to (yes, Shahana, listen to this...) I went back to the stall and they were just starting to set up.

A mural on the wall of my stall that sells mushrooms.

I am loathe to admit but since I was in a hurry, unlike the picky old Asian women who sit there and pick over each mushroom one-by-one, I got my paper bag and reached OVER a woman and was taking handfuls of brown button mushrooms. When my hand hit her as I was coming back with a fistful, I got a dirty look from her. Man, I out Asian-womaned an Asian-woman shopper. WOW!

So, here's the loot for the morning all laid out at home.

All this for $39.50

Three things to take from this mornings shopping adventure:

1) Scott and I will be eating well, and healthy this upcoming week!
2) Life in California is sweet...
3) Mom's haranging in my adolescence paid off and here I am eating my fruits and vegetables!

A resolution kept (at the moment)

At some point during the summer, I got it up my rear end, that I would take public transportation more often, specifically to and from work. For years, I have been paying lip service to the idea, but for some reason this fall, I finally got my act together and found out exactly how to do it, experimented a bit with different times and routes and have settled on a general plan of action. Now, for those of you familiar with the Bay Area and the BART system know there desparately needs to be a 30th and Mission BART station built. Right now, the system goes right past a major intersection a mere 2 blocks from my home but doesn't stop. This intersection is smack dab in between a long stretch between the 24th and Mission station and the Glen Park Station. There have been plans talked about for years, but I don't think I'll ever see it.

This being the case, getting to the 24th and Mission station is pretty simple by bus and takes about 15-20 minutes from my front door to the station and costs $1.50. I then take BART from 24th and Mission to the Fruitvale station. The BART fare is $3.20. From Fruitvale, there is an AC Transit bus (the 53) that runs every half hour to a stop a mere two blocks from school. This ride takes 17 minutes like clockwork and costs $1.50. So a roundtrip on public transportation is $12.40 a day, which is still more expensive than driving and takes about twice as long when there is no traffic.

So, I've instituted some time and cost saving measures to make it more time and economically efficient. Instead of taking the bus in SF, I drive the 3 minutes to an area about 3 blocks from the BART station and find parking. I take the bus uphill in the morning, but afterschool, I have been able to hitch a ride with any number of colleagues to a BART station and hopped the train home. Total cost = $7.90 which is easily cheaper than driving (which includes Bay Bridge tolls).

So, I haven't tooted my own horn yet in public, but I am doing so now. In the first month of school, I have taken public transportation to and from school 50% of the time. I have learned to build it into my day and it seems easy now. The only thing I have to even think about in the morning is whether or not I have a first period class and am I prepared for it. If I am, I catch any train around 7:15AM, catch the 8AM 53 bus and in my office getting ready for class at 8:25AM for an 8:35AM first period class. I have first period three days a week on Monday, Thursday and Friday. If I need to get to school early, back everything up either a half hour or full hour.

"The Swamp"

In the world of college football, there are places that teams dread playing away games. There are great nicknames for many of them, such as "Death Valley" for those teams having to play a game at Clemson's Memorial Stadium, "The Big House" at Michigan or when "The Sea of Red" convenes to form the third largest city in the state of Nebraska when the Cornhuskers play in Lincoln. However, as Lee Corso states,


There is no better place than The Swamp! When the Gators run out of the tunnel, it is absolutely the moment of moments in college football.
Make sure to click on the link above as it is a virtual tour of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Come on, do it!!! You know you want to experience "THE SWAMP".

This past weekend, Scott and I travelled to his alma mater, to watch his (and now mine as well)Florida Gator's (and new coach Urban Meyer's) SEC opener against long time hated rival Tennessee. The Gators beat the Volunteers 16-7.

We arrived Friday evening and promptly met his friends at a bar called none other than the Gator Dockside. The next morning, his friends, at 7:30AM set up a tailgate tent whose key feature was a satellite television with feeds to all the different games played throughout the day. We made a run to Burrito Brothers (something I've been hearing about for months), I had friends Thom and David come up to visit from Orlando and we took a walk around campus to see the key locations of Scott's years on the Gainesville campus.

One highlight was watching the marching band go through their warmup's right across the street from our tailgate tent.

When Scott was a student at Florida, he was a member of the band as well as serving two years as all important drum major. Most of the friends I met were also in the band as well. When the band played Mahler's #3, it brought both of us to tears. I think I can attribute it to the fact that for both of us, our years in college were some of the best of our lives. It is rare in our adult lives to be apart of a group, working together towards a common goal and having fun at the same time. I don't think one experiences that in the corporate world, and as a teacher you sometimes can have that but never to the extent as one had on a team or with a group back in college.

At 730PM, we finally walked over to the stadium to watch the game. Here are some images...

Scott M. and one of his best friends Scott S.

The Florida Gators Marching Band during pregame festivities

We made it, baby!! We're at "The Swamp"

The Gators huddled on the "F" just before kickoff

We spent most of the game on our feet but I was particularly impressed by the amount of noise 90,176 people (the most ever to watch a game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) could make. More than once the Tennessee quarterback (coach Philip Fulmer switched between two quarterbacks the entire game, that in and of itself was quite an event) was seen running up to his players trying to audible or the like. The place was a zoo. The best part of the game for me was watching the ball-breaking double reverse touchdown run that Florida executed in the first quarter at our end of the field, the north endzone. It happened right in front of our eyes.

Overall, I think that Urban Meyer revealed enough of his offense to beat Tennessee and nothing more. I'm guessing that there is much more up that sleeve of his and he'll pull it out when he needs to. The offense is still getting itself up to fighting condition. However, defense and special teams are already there. Hold on to your hats people, it's going to be a wild ride in the SEC this year. Florida plays at Alabama, at LSU, Georgia and Florida State this year and all are ranked in the top 25. Lastly, at this point, they are looking up in the standings at, of all unlikely teams, Vanderbilt. This year Vandy makes a trip to "the Swamp" and the game becomes a surprising game of importance. Go Gators.