Hayes Valley and What I Have Learned this Year.

I slept in. It was good. Then S & I took BART into The City, bypassing the Christmas Shopping Hell of the Powell Stop. After a successful library run we dashed West to Hayes Valley.

The Citizen Cake's signature cupcake is the closest thing I've had to fantastic sex with all my clothes on. The lemon sandwich cookie was the world's best foreplay, although it was not the Steven's cup of tea. Neither of which recipes can be found in the Citizen Cake Cookbook. Gosh bloody darn it.

Blunch at Absinthe: A French 45, some excellent coffee, superbly crusted biscuits covered with sausage gravy, eggs on the side and the best home-fried potatoes ever (I suspect duck fat to be behind their tastiness). Liberal use of fresh sage & rosemary. Snaps.

What I have learned this year:

• You can redeem yourself through feeding people. My father (who swore he'd hate me forever) now snuggles up to me when I bring him fresh whole wheat bread and positively hums when I filch him extra pickled ginger. The nicest thing you can say to me is: "this is really good". And from then on I will do anything on earth for you.
  
• Sometime experiments can go awfully wrong and it's best not to let them linger. More yarn has been produced in this house that can be filed under then title "Clown Vomit" than I care to mention but it is just best to move right along.
• Chinese medicine works. It might taste like sewage, but it beats having a cold for a week.
• Buy handmade. It's not more expensive.
  
• Sorrow can be inspirational. Or motivational. At any rate: not to be discounted, dismissed or ignored. Roll in it, get what you need out of it, get on with the getting on with it. Let people help.
  
• When someone is hysterical, give them a blanket or fluffy towel to cuddle, make plenty of hot tea and rub their back in a soothing circular motion.
  
• For the shy: People will always talk about their dogs and food.
• Scrambled eggs: in a nonstick double boiler: four beaten eggs and if you are feeling extravagant, a tablespoon of cream or a little squage of butter. Turn heat to low and amuse with a nonstick appropriate implement every 10 minutes or so. In forty minutes (did I mention the low heat?): perfect scrambled eggs. Salt & pepper to taste. The nonstick double boiler will save your ass in clean up.
  
• I love XM Radio. Love.