The Grove

[Marathon post alert! Four new posts from today!]

Right next to The Daily Scoop is The Grove, a shop that sells "books, yarns, art, clothing and home furnishings". It's on the corner of Juniper and 30th. We saw it as we were going to Rebecca's and figured we'd check it out before we went back home.

Sorry for the blurry photos - I was trying to take these on the sly. The store is divided into different areas. There are several sections for women's clothing, another for children's clothing, jewelry, as well as half of the store devoted to yarns and other knitting and sewing accoutrements (fabrics, zippers, thread, etc). KD was excited because she saw a really cool scarf pattern (it's kind of a floppy ruffle - very cute!).

The downer was that the yarn used for the sample was silk and cost $16.50 a skein. That's pretty expensive and that particular scarf (which wasn't even long) used about two skeins of that yarn. She ended up buying the pattern but will use a different type of yarn for that project which I hope I get for Christmas later this year! If you're reading this KD, please make mine eggplant or some dark shade of purple! I wish I knew how to sew. That 7th grade Home Ec class didn't really help me. C'mon, who really needs a fkg tote bag with a draw string? Plus, the fabric my mom bought me for that project was some horrid mustard burlappy material that looked like it belonged in some drugged out tiki-enthusiast's living room.

They also sold stationary, paintings, artwork, home decor, and lots of handcrafted items. Such a cute place! They had something for everyone it seemed.

While KD got her scarf pattern, TORC got a small haiku book and I bought a SALE item. This is a pleather bomber style jacket with ruffle detailing that was on sale for $36 (down from $78, not that it was really worth $78). It's by a brand called "RYU". Even though I'm not large, this was a size "L" because the "M" seemed to be cut for much smaller people. Like, WTF, not everyone is a size 0 you know.  The "L" was comfortable and I didn't feel like a damn sausage when I zipped up the front.

It's got vertical ruffles from front to back and no collar. It's also cropped and looks more so because the bottom band is knitted as is the v-neckline and the cuffed sleeves. I like how it makes my waist look longer (also because I'm wearing a black shirt underneath, thus continuing the monochromatic look)! The black leather belt with brushed metal buckle is men's Banana Republic; the buckle has a metal tab that goes over the belt holes. Ugh, Bert wasn't home to take a photo of me so this is me in our downstairs bathroom. 

The jacket has that '80's vibe to it. Kind of Michael Jackson'ish but more feminine because of the ruffle. If it was red, it would totally look like something Pat Benatar would have worn.

Hey, it was just payday and I, uh, needed wanted a new lightweight jacket anyways! So there...

I wore my new black peeptoe Bandolino wedges today with my skinny jeans and a sleeveless black shirt with little ruffles at the shoulders. Yes, I broke out with the sleeveless again because damn, it was 80+ degrees today! Can't complain though! Better sun than snow!

What I like about these wedges are that the wedge itself is black. Most wedges I've seen are not the same color as the shoe and I don't really like the "wooden" look. These wedges aren't really that high. They are only 3" high. And no platform either. I like how the black "wedge" grounds the look. If I wore stilettos with skinny jeans, it would kind of give of a whorish vibe, like how Olivia Newton-John looked at the end of "Grease".

Not that there's anything wrong with that (although I'd never wear that myself), but I think these are a bit more dressy. Trivia - those are Red Candies that Olivia was wearing, circa 1978. One of my younger aunts had about four different pairs of those wooden heeled shoes. Very hooker like.  Uh huh.

I also love the leather flower detail at the toe...

I need to stop going to DSW...

In all, a really fun day with TORC and KD! Wished D could have been there but she will definitely join us next month for our next planned outing...my birthday!

Rebecca's Coffeehouse

Here is the view of Rebecca's Coffeehouse from the Daily Scoop. We headed over to use their, uh "facilities"....

Their counter was totally laden with all kinds of baked goods:  Muffins (some flavors included Strawberry and Banana Muffins plus Pear), as well as sweet breads, cookies, brownies, and cakes too. There were so many pretty glass domed cake stands enticing you with their contents (lemon bundt cake, chocolate cake, etc). The rest of their counter was lined with a load of Italian soda bottle flavorings...

It's pretty spacious inside. There's free wi-fi and lots of people were on their laptops here. Lots of seating as well. It reminds me of grungier Central Perk in "Friends" but without Gunther as the barista.

There's a cute mural one of of the walls which is right next to a stage. In fact, local band Afromestizo was set to perform that evening (they perform the first Saturday of every month at 7 pm). I saw one of my districtcolleagues who is one of the musicians in the band. I've seen them perform before at another colleague's retirement party and they were pretty damn awesome! Unfortunately we weren't going to be sticking around until 7 pm so we would have to watch them perform at Rebecca's another time.

Sorry, this looks ugly because it's still wrapped up, but I bought a GIGANTOR pear muffin for TC and Bert. Damn. Let's hope that it tastes good! I've had their cranberry orange scones before. One of my other colleagues loves this place for their scones and he's brought them in before for the department.

Using the same line of thought, TORC bought a slice of Lemon bundt cake for her husband. She got it in a cute takeout box...Looks delicious with that lemon glaze!

Who else has been to or blogged about Rebecca's?

Alice from Alice Q. Foodie went back in 2006 (She also mentions the newly opened Vagabond and the old M-Theory),
The blog Sustainable Evil also also went here back in 2009 and and had their tangerine chocolate chip scones (Man, that sounds good - I should have bought that instead!),
plus the reviews from yelp and a short blurb from the SD Reader.

We still wanted to check out the place next door to the Daily Scoop so crossed the street yet again...

Return to the Daily Scoop

Instead of going somewhere else for dessert crepes (there was a fleeting moment when we considered going to Little Italy's Fabrison's but we didn't want to deal with parking and coins for the meters), we walked a block away to the Daily Scoop on Juniper. I'd been there a few months earlier when Bert, TC and I had lunch at the nearby Station Tavern.

It's so cute inside...I also noticed that the red awnings outside still had "M-Theory CD's, LP's, etc" on the inner part. M-Theory has since relocated to Mission Hills. It's such a cool record store and when I went back in September, they had a "buy one CD/get one free" deal going on. Hell yeah man, more music for my buck.

I had the Red Mint Chip in a cup. The ice cream is supplied by Niederfranks, located in National City. Everything is handmade there. Just to the right of those curtains is a tiny little gallery/second hand store, Fuchsia Design Studio which features works and art by local artists. So many cute things there. Lots of vintage items like plates, cups, books, trinkets, housewares and more in such a tiny little space. I didn't take photos there. It would have been too conspicuous but I was eyeing some handmade jewelry as well as this pair of vintage milky white candlestick holders with a textured dotty base. I was contemplating on getting it for my cake stand craft obsession but refrained.

This was KD's ice cream - the Pistachio which is next to a brownie-like cookie that we all shared. Not pictured (until I get KD's photo of all 3 of our ice creams) is TORC's cone with Triple Chocolate ice cream. My camera was on the fritz so I took a shot with KD's...I liked how the Pistachio ice cream wasn't a wierd shade of green. There were also real pistachio pieces in there. Very nice. 
If there was no risk in getting fat from eating shit that I like such as ice cream, I'd be eating it every damn day.

I love how there are so many mom and pop businesses here in this neighborhood. I think it's great and we saw a lot of families walking around as well. South Park has a really cool vibe to it, you know, that old time neighborhood feel.

We headed across the street to Rebecca's for a quick pitstop...

Return to Cafe Madeleine

Today 3/4 of the Educator GF's went out for a late lunch to celebrate some good news for TORC. Unfortunately, D was out of town, so it was just me, TORC and KD. A few weeks ago, I scoped out Cafe Madeleine...so it was there that we went today for a late lunch/early dinner.

Again, here is that awesome Shepard Fairey mural next to a courtyard of cute yellow bungalows:


Here's my post from last month. It was already 3:45'ish when we arrived. We didn't know they were going to close at 4 pm and they didn't tell us either. More on that later...

We placed our orders and sat outside. We were the only customers there. The French lemonade was KD's, while I had the canned Illy coffee (strong stuff!), and TORC's Orangina.

KD ordered the Arugula Salad which came with chicken, blue cheese, walnuts, sliced pears (those were really good and buttery soft) and some sort of mustard dressing. She really enjoyed her salad. Although I didn't have any of it, other than a small pear slice, the flavors sounded intriguing, especially since aurgula is so strong. I tend to like salads that have texture (nuts) and some sort of sweetness (pears). The mustard added bite and the blue cheese added creaminess.

TORC got the Ham panini which had a grainy mustard spread greens, cheese, and a tomato slice inside. I think I will try this next time we go since it was really delicious.

You can see the mustard....

Well, since I liked the beef crepe so much last time, I got it again but in panini form (beef, tomato, caramelized onions, greens, and horseradish).

This time I asked for my salad to be plain. The downside to this was that there were a few pieces of salad that looked "off". I picked them off my plate. You know how it is when you see some greens that are on the verge of slimy because they were wet and probably stuck together? Well, I had a few pieces of those. Ugh.   I liked the bread though - nicely toasted. The crunchy top and the beef

So back to the time thing. When we got there it was around 3:45 pm. We weren't aware that they were closing soon. When we walked in, we were the only customers and I had the feeling that they were ready to close up shop and then we came along. I told the server that we'd probably order a dessert crepe for later. But unfortunately, there was no later because when we went in at 4:30 to order our crepe, I noticed that their desserts in their cases were already wrapped in plastic and that they were cleaning up. I had to ask if they were already closed and the girl replied that they were.

I liked the colors of the VW van across the street (below):

I guess we should have been more aware of their hours? But a small warning might have been nice. Especially if we were going to order a dessert crepe, I could have ordered it ahead of time and they could have given it to us. We were a bit disappointed and I also felt that they weren't that nice about it and had the feeling that they wanted us to GTFO.

So instead of having a dessert crepe, we headed off to get some ice cream a block away at the Daily Scoop...

VF Rob 2011 vs. VF Rob 2009

Yes, I bought my copy even though the cover was MoFUG.

Behold, the April 2011 issue of VF featuring the normally hawt RPattz:

One of my GBF's said he looks kind of "retarded". I expected more from famed photographer Annie Liebovitz. I'm not feeling this look. The hat looks Amish. I think I have that same belt. Ha ha, men's Banana Republic? The alligator is just plain gross and dirty. If it's possible for RPattz to take a really unattractive photo, this is it.

Compare to the VF cover from November 2009:

Bruce Weber should be canonized for this epic photo shoot.

Below: The 3 VF Covers, except the middle one is from Italy. Even that one is better than Rob wearing an alligator as a man scarf.

This is kind of a crappy scan from another blog - The obligatory RPattz at the "piano" pic (okay, not so bad). Can he play "Superfreak" by Rick James please?

Versus this one...Look the sex hair is in full force...

OMFG - WTFkg FK is this? Can they uglify him any more?

Annie: "Let's have him resurrect the old man shoes from "New Moon", wear an old "Barney Miller" era suit from Abe Vigoda's closet, top it off with an Amish hat, and sit cross legged in front of a dumpy shack next to an alligator infested bayou".

I half expect him to smile with his Billybob teefs and whip out a corn cob pipe and start puffing away on terbacky or start playing a harmonica or banjo or shit. Oh wait, he's an alligator wrassler, remember?

That awful cover shot reminds me of Crocodile Dundee but without the orange leathery skin. And the knife.  "Now THIS is a knife!"

Annie Liebovitz needs to take some lessons from the Bruce Weber shoot. Classic black and white. Do not cover the HAIR. Smolder. Include lots of Jawporn.

Even the papparazzi take better pix of RPattz than Annie Liebovitz.

Utter complete FAIL. I believe I just wasted my $4.95. Well, the article was all right but isn't as good the the April 2009 GQ.

On another note, here is an Aerosmith classic from the vault. I wanted to watch this video again because Steven Tyler's dance moves are fkg hilarious! How old is he now? In his 60's? He must have been in his  early 40's here!  And Joe Perry is so badass with his low slung guitar and the cig hanging off his lip...

As I watched it with TC, I had to shield her eyes from the practically nekkid chick in the high waisted thong as well as Steven Tyler's overly enthusiastic raunchy pelvic gyrations with his mic stand. Heh heh.

Red Lobster

It's been so long since I've last been here. Went to Chula Vista location of Red Lobster with some friends...

I was kind of excited because I remember Red Lobster's cheese biscuits...

The Lobsterfest menu looked good but the items were kind of too pricy for lunch as well as too heavy.

I had my eye on  the Shrimp Flatbread on the Lunch menu....

But first, the biscuits....these weren't as good as the biscuits from Urban Solace but they were just as good as I remembered them to be. No butter needed. These were piping hot and nice and flaky on top. Loved the salty and cheesy flavor with the hint of chives.

This was my friend's Clam Chowder in a bread bowl grilled shrimp salad. Now the salad wasn't anything exciting. It was your typical bagged salad mix. She also said there was hardly any soup, like not enough to even be a cup and a half's worth. It looked impressive because of the bread vessel but other than that, eh.

Another colleague went all out and got something from the Lobsterfest menu. She had the Lobster tail with a baked potato (with everything), a skewer of shrimp with some sort of sauce (forgot what kind) over rice pilaf. That was a lot of food. She ended up taking more than half of the skewer home. If I was here for dinner, I would have wanted that.

This was one half of my lunch, the Shrimp on flatbread with chopped tomatoes and three kinds of cheeses. It was like eating a rectangular shrimp pizza. These were cut into triangles, so there were 6 good sized pieces there. The bread was also nice and crisp while the shrimp were on the smallish side.

My salad was the same as my friend's. The lightly grilled shrimp was added last so the salad wouldn't get too wilted. I think there were about 8 or 9 pieces of shrimp in there. It was just okay and again, the shrimp was small.

The salad was run of the mill and the shrimp not as exciting as I would have thought. I liked the flatbread. Seems like the same dough used for the cheese biscuits! Yum!

Who else ate at Red Lobster?

Mary from Foodies - A Southern California Food Blog also raved on their biscuits.

And here is a recipe from the blog Pinch My Salt approximates the Red Lobster cheese biscuit, Sour Cream Cheddar and Chive Biscuit. Ooh, I may just have to try making that myself! It uses Bisquick which I like! Memories of childhood pancakes...

Oakland Bay Bridge and back to the City...plus SPAM!

Finally - It's the LAST SF Day 3 post! This was way back during the first weekend of October.

To recap SF Day 3 - We went to the SoMa and saw street signs named after Philippine revolutionaries and saw the 8 story high Lapu Lapu and Filipino American history mural at the Dimasalang House, ate at Jollibee, saw some cool roadside oddities ("Berkeley Big People" statues and the "Berkeley Fish House", had awesome beignets, decadent chocolate espresso twinkies, funky flavored ice cream and drove up a steepa$$ hill so we could relax at a park.

It was time to head back to Thane's place in the city...I tried to get another shot of the "Berkeley Big People" statue and this is what I got...

Well, you can kind of see it if you squint!

Heading back on the uppder deck of the Oakland Bay Bridge...

They're building another bridge right next to it. YOu cansee some of the equipment in the corner.

Thank goodness there was no suicidal jumper that day!

Back to the city near Thane's place in the South Beach area...

So tired!

I love Thane's place. It's close to everything, the Bridge, the Muni, the Embarcadero, AT&T Park, the Ferry Building...

Since our dinner plans were kind of shot (cousin sick and former student coming back to SF late), we didn't feel like going out again for dinner. We had a late flight out and just wanted to relax at Thane's. TC played Beatles Rock Band with Thane while Bert  occupied himself online. I scrounged around Thane's cupboards and came up with this gourmet quality  delectable dish standard desperation dinner that most Filipinos would like, FRIED SPAM. That's one can between the four of us (not enough in my opinion!). Just a splash of soy sauce on that low sodium spam kind of negates the low sodium eh?

I cooked some white rice and heated up the only vegetables Thane had, frozen mixed. There you go, a complete meal.

Dessert was leftover "It's It Ice Cream Sandwiches" - I had the mint.

On a different note, Darlene sent me an email about the John Hughes tribute at The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma. Hot Fudge also sent Bert a message on his FB wall about the same event. Every Wednesday this month, they will play a different John Holmes Hughes movie. Turns out tonight was "16 Candles"!

Currently listening to M83's homage to vintage 80's music: "Saturdays=Youth

I read in one of my John Hughes' tribute books that Anthony Gonzalez (M83 frontman) used vintage synthesizers and instruments from the 80's for this album. Although this came out in 2008, it sounds like it could have come from 1988! There is also a red headed girl in this video (shades of Molly Ringwald maybe?).

Rave reviews of this album:
Pitchfork
Drowned in Sounds' 50 Albums of 2008
Urban Outfitters blog - Best Music of 2008
and Pop Matters