Fahv-ruh and the Anti-Catch

by Colleen

Okay okay, much has been said about Minnesota's Miracle Man by the East Coast Biased MSM so I'm not gonna harp on it too much other than to voice my own reserves over the ending - both feet were in bounds? really? really?

Nonetheless, I'm as happy as a fan can be considering we walked away with a loss. The 49ers came to Minnesota, played an early game in a weird time zone, lost Frank Gore in the first few minutes, and still had the lead in the final drive of the Vikings' Home Opener - a game that the Vikings were supposed to win anyway, because, well, it's the home opener. Who doesn't win that? Oh yeah the Rams and the Browns. wah wahh.

From what I hear, our defense was awesome. Let's just get this next week over with, I'm not going to say anything to jinx the outcome, but once we're out of the bye week, it's gonna be an interesting 10 weeks of football, I can tell you that much. Can't wait to see how we're gonna match up against the Jags, since the Cards ripped them apart and we edged out the Cards. And should be interesting to see what the defense does against Indy's offense....ooh I just noticed it's in Indianapolis..maybe I'll try and go!

Let's end this thing on a better note:

Day One, in San Francisco, with Pictures!

About time I uploaded some pictures...

I saw this poster before even hopping on a cable car!



"Experience Gender Transcendence"? "Our world famous transgender stars"? How many would famous transgender people are there?



The Golden Gate Bridge when I first got there.



A great view of the city from the Golden Gate Bridge!



A view of the Golden Gate Bridge after I left its gift shop.



Click on the picture so you can see those stats!



Scarfy Blue at the Palace of Fine Arts.



This is from Ghirardelli Square...a daycare methinks. Cute turtle!



Outside Kara's cupcakes. You can see Scarfy Blue salivating.



One set of cupcakes!



More cupcakes!



A view of the San Francisco skyline from Coit Tower.



Another view from Coit Tower. What a hilly city!



Looking at the top part of Coit Tower.



And the bottom part of Coit Tower. Not that interesting, really.



Penguino!

Next post: Day two in San Francisco

Day One, Part Four, in San Francisco

by Hubert

I walked from Fort Mason back to Ghirardelli Square to get some food. It was almost three o clock, I had gotten up before 10 AM, and I still hadn't eating a damn thing. Why...I do not know.

I couldn't find anywhere that would give me a sandwich-to-go. The Square is a boutique mall, as in there are no big chains here. So I eventually ate at Lori's Diner, a small 50's style diner-chain in San Francisco. How many 50's diner-chains are there in the country? I got a patty melt. It had onions and mushrooms in it. Is it supposed to? I have no idea.

Afterwards, I walked around Ghirardelli Square some more, and found Kara's Cupcakes. What did Scarfy Blue say after he saw the place?



Succinct.

I got the chocolate velvet cupcake. And then I dropped some on my shirt and backpack. It was still very good.

Next stop was Coit Tower. I got there by bus, thanks to my iPhone, which knows EVERYTHING EVER DONE BY MANKIND. Just click on the link to see what it is, because I don't feel like explaining it.

See what I saw below:



I wasn't there for very long. Luckily, that bus in the clip didn't go anywhere, so I hoped on that bus to get down the hill. Took a different bus through Chinatown, and I haven't been a bus with that many Chinese people...well, ever. Not even in Taiwan. Took the bus to Union Square, and walked to the Metreon, a mall that Sony used to have their flagship store in, but they moved out earlier this year, and the mall is current half-empty, to be redone starting next year. But there was one good surprise to be had, as I found the following at one of the entrances:



Next entry: Pictures from Day One

Day One, Part Three, in San Francisco

by Hubert

From the Golden Gate Bridge, I took the bus over to the Palace of Fine Arts. According to Wikipedia:

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition...It was one of only two buildings from the exposition not to be demolished...Many forms of wildlife have made their home there including swans, ducks (particularly migrating fowl), geese, turtles, frogs, and raccoons.

It is big, as you will see below.



Clearly this was a terrible angle so I walked to the other side.



Now you see why I mentioned the wildlife above.

Scarfy Blue was especially amused by all the wildlife.



Here's one last view of the place.



Oh, and a fellow tourist asked me to take a picture of her with the Palace in the background. Why she was not scared off by Scarfy Blue, I'll never know. People do crazy things on their vacations!

The Palace of Fine Arts is a completely outdoor affair, so I didn't spent much time here. I took the bus back to Fort Mason and went inside the converted-fort-to-community-center instead of around it, and stepped into an art display.



Yes, this qualifies as art. You can actually buy parts of it, assuming your place of residence is lacking in mesh balls.

Next entry: The rest of my first day in San Francisco.

Day One, Part Two, in San Francisco

by Hubert

Just a block away from where the last video was shot, I hopped onto a bus that took me straight to the Golden Gate Bridge (thank goodness for iPhones).

This sight greeted me upon arrival.



I had traveled three miles, from gorgeous weather to fog city. Couldn't see any of the top spires of the bridge.

So I walked onto the bridge, and this is what I could see:



This was no better. And people were looking at me. Or Scarfy Blue Penguin. It's hard to tell.

Time to walk to the first spire of the bridge.



STILL CAN'T SEE THE TOP OF THE BRIDGE!

I head back to the southern entrance of the bridge and take about 15 minutes mulling over purchases in the gift shop. Gotta get something for my troubles!

I buy a bunch of trinkets, step outside, and see this!



Woohoo! Success!

And here's a bonus video:



Next entry: Palace of Fine Arts

Guess who got a little too into following the pro-cycling circuit this summer?

by Colleen

With the end of the third Tour of the summer, La Vuelta, this past Sunday, the cycling season is officially over. Or at least the Grand Tour portion of it is. There was talk of world championships coming up, or something. I’m not quite sure – I didn’t get that into it.

Know Your Grand Contender Cyclists:

Don’t be fooled by their skinny appearance! Cyclists aren’t jockeys. They’re taller. To put it in some perspective, if jockeys are like hobbits…well hold on, hobbits are kind of fat. Okay, if jockeys are like skinny hobbits, then pro-cyclists are close to, but not quite elves. Better than humans though. Right, jockeys are skinny hobbits and cyclists are a human/elf hybrid. Except Lance Armstrong. Lance can be full elf.

eh?

Alberto Contador - 2009 Tour de France Winner

 

Frank and Andy Schleck (the younger one is Andy) Andy came in 2nd in the Tour de France and 1st in the under 25 years category.

Lance riding for Team Astana in this year's Tour de France - the Kazakhstan team (yakshimash)

Cav(endish)

Oh those Brits..

Brice Feillu

Won one of the Tour de France stages, looks vaguely rodent-like.  But in a 'small furry mouse that you want to hug' way. And hey, how about that name? Clearly, Europe is decades ahead of us when it comes to nomenclature.

Alejandro Valverde. Won the Tour of Spain - La Vuelta Espana

Showed up wearing gold (1st place colors) on the first day of the race - classy.

Cadel Evans

Oh, Cadel. He has the dubious distinction of being the only rider to "blow up mentally" (actually said by a commentator) towards the end of the Tour de France, finishing in 30th place and almost getting fired by his cycling team. Admittedly, he also has the dubious distinction of being Australian, hehe.

He finished 3rd in the Vuelta, but may have been able to take 1st. His fall down the podium was due partly to a punctured tire during a critical portion of the race. His team car was supposed to hand him a new bike in under 30 seconds and his teammates were supposed to pace him back into the race. Well, the team car took a minute thirty to show up and his teammates never showed up. wa waaa.

A random rider from Team Milram

Hey-oh!

by Colleen

As one of the contributors here, let me just go on record as saying I am never going to watch that tool-y cable car video, ever. What, you filmed it turning around? Whoop-de-flippin do! You know what else turns around? CARS. I saw 47 of them turn around just today.

Day One, Part One, in San Francisco

By Hubert

I was in San Francisco from 9/15 to 9/20 and thought I'd share it will all three of my readers. So let's go.

Worked at half day at work on the 15th, took an afternoon flight to SFO, and arrived at the hotel at 11:30 PM PST. I stayed at the Oakland Airport Hilton despite landing in San Francisco International Airport because I was in town for a wedding and my friend got the group rate at this hotel. It was only 15 minutes away from the wedding place. The Hilton was slightly less than an hour and half away from the SF airport, but when the hotel room is less than $65 a night, I don't complain.

So this takes us to the 16th, and the first thing I did was ride a cable car. You can see what a cable car is below!



Nifty, huh? Somehow this thing goes up and down the hills of San Francisco, pulled by a cable built into the road.

For the first half of the trip, I hung onto a pole in the front part of the cable car, sat down for the latter half. This cable car route takes people to the western end of Fisherman's Wharf.

I walked west and stumbled upon San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, with a beautiful view of the ocean.



Onward, to the end of the park's pier:



Fort Mason was just next door. It was a former military base, now turned into a community center. I could "sort of" see the Golden Gate Bridge from it.



Before taking the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, I walked by a lovely grassy area. Scarfy Blue made some observations.



Next entry: Golden Gate Bridge