I'm finally dry

Yesterday I went in the rain to Butter, a dive bar where I wasn't quite sure if it was a real dive or an ironic dive.  At any rate, it was fun, and not nearly as hipstery as I thought it might be.  They had a popcorn machine in the bar and had a menu that featured all sorts of comfort food, including deep fried twinkies.  (Note: Under no circumstances should anyone eat a deep fried twinkie.  Two wrongs don't make a right.  They just make a particularly horrific wrong.)

It has rained all day, which would have been fine except that the intense wind made umbrellas useless.  It meant that my desire to head to Fisherman's Wharf for pushup photos after a eucharist at Grace Cathedral had to be delayed.  I just didn't fancy getting more soaked than I had to, especially when I can do a run there first thing in the morning.  I did, however, make it to the Cable Car Museum, on account of having an aspie style interest in trains.

We have a schedule for our time in the bay area.  I've also met more of the others on our trip, and we were given pre paid visa cards with our per diem allowances loaded on to them.  Tomorrow we visit the organisers of our program and later go out to Oakland to meet the local electoral commission to talk about voting procedures and technologies (I don't know what's so hard about paper) and then to talk to the local paper about blogs and their impact on the election, then to visit a Senator (but not the one in a tight race at the moment.)  We should be all done in time to have the evening off.

That means I can get a workout in.

TW: 10 rounds - 10 incline press, 10 clean and press.  10 rounds - 10 dips, 10 bicep curls.  There is heaps of cardio equipment in the hotel gym but not much in the way of weights.

Also, I am getting a bit better at tipping.  Tipping at the bar was easy.  The price of drinks seems to be designed to make it easy.  No confusing amounts of change.  If I get two dollars back I can just leave one on the bar.  I also managed to tip the porter who brought my bags up after I dropped them off in storage.  I wasn't sure how much to tip for two bags, so I gave him $3 all folded up.  Later on I found out $2 per bag is the norm, but I reckon not tipping at all or tipping a huge amount would be noticed and remembered.  Under tipping by a small amount will probably slip under the radar.  I did, however, managed to slip him the folded up bills in a handshake after thinking through how to do it.  It is a bit of a pain having to have lots of small bills around (and feeling like I need to buy something I don't need just to break a $20.)  This is what I don't like about it.  It's not the money (I actually felt kind of like Mr Smooth when I successfully pulled of the handshake tip move this afternoon) but it does complicate transactions, especially if you're not accustomed to thinking in these terms.  And you have to be prepared for tipping and have singles at the ready rather than getting caught having to rifle through your wallet.

Tonight bakerypenguin and I had crepes for dinner at Ti Couz, also a recommendation of minxyminou.  Man they were good.  I've never had much in the way of savoury crepes but ham and tomato goes very well, and the coffee ice cream, chocolate, and whipped cream dessert which I had to drink the dregs of because I hate to waste things was wonderfully good, though I may not sleep any time soon.