Totally forgot to mention that we had a raclette party last Saturday, inspired by our raclette dinner in Paris. I ordered a small 4 tray raclette grill from KlinQ.com (via Amazon) which came all the way from Montreal for the occasion.

Stephanie’s dad Jean-Claude and Sabine were both in town to vote in the first round of the French elections, so we decided to make a party out of it. They brought some aged raclette cheese from their Santa Rosa “fromage contact,” as well as some prosciutto, and we supplied the rest. FM Tech was in fullish effect, as was Marcia de Petaluma.

The heating element is beneath the grill surface, so you can cook veggies (and/or meat) on top while the cheese melts in little trays below. Then you use a little wood scraper (in the bottom left) to get the melted cheese out of the tray and on to your dish.

Sliced boiled potatoes on the bottom, followed by various charcuterie, some grilled mushrooms, melted raclette cheese, a cornichon (pickle), and a spear of grilled asparagus.

After the traditional raclette, Stephanie prepared some chevre-chaud (literally: hot goat [cheese]), consisting of a sliced baguette drizzled with olive oil, toped off with some chevre and a sprinkle of herbes de provence, all cooked together under the heat. SO good.

Tuesday is actually my birthday, but I’ve been celebrating it (along with Stephanie) all weekend.

Friday night Conrad was DJing at a furniture store in Hayes Valley. Dawn, Mark, and Marcia came down from Sonoma County to see him, so Stephanie and I came over from our various works and we all stumbled upon some sort of pre-Holiday shopping, food, and music street fair. Met up later Stephanie’s boss Peter and friend Jake and found food at the Algerian Cafe Grillades. Had merguez sausage kabobs. We all wished Stephanie a very happy birthday. Made a mental note to come back to Hayes during the daylight hours, for some shopping and hopefully some Belgian Frjtz.

Saturday was the lazy day I’d been dreaming about for weeks. I slept in. We had lunch out at 2. Came back and showered. Lazed around some more. It was that kind of day. Packed for our weekend out of town, but didn’t actually leave the city until a little after 7. Stopped off in Petaluma for Matt’s cocktail party. While there I got to catch up with Ben Bangert (of Pylons fame) who joined O’Reilly shortly before I left. Saw Marcia—for the second night in a row—and Chris. Experienced my first martini fountain, drank mostly beer. Took off towards Santa Rosa to spend the next two nights at Hotel La Rose, in historic Railroad Square, just a stone’s throw from my old apartment.

Sunday Stephanie and I organized an impromptu birthday lunch with friends at the Russian River Brewery. Got to see Joy and Kyle for the first time in a while, Marcia came out, as well as Adam and Eveline, and Nailah and baby Dacian. Stephanie got her beer bites (pizza cheese sticks) that she’d been dreaming about, and we all shared some excellent pizza, including one with Gorgonzola cheese and pine nuts that I plan to replicate in the near future. Sat outside in the warm winter sun. In December!

After we’d all had enough pizza and beer, we went over to Snoopy’s Home Ice for an hour and a half of iceskating. They had a giant Christmas tree in the center of the rink and dozens of children. I think there were 5 or 6 birthday parties happening at once. We were in good company.

Come Sunday night, we met up with Jean Claude and Sabine to see the last performance of an extended run of the Chorus Line put on by the Santa Rosa Players. The cast included several friends, Monica, and her brother Alex, as well as others that Stephanie had either performed with or choreographed in the past. The show itself, which is an audition for a musical, (and which I’ve never seen before) was captivating. Completely believable and so much fun.

We ended the night at Aleworks (completing our tour of Santa Rosa’s breweries) before heading off to bed in anticipation the weekend’s final chapter: dinner Monday night at the French Laundry.

Woke up early Saturday in preparation for the long-awaited replacement of our bay windows. Switching out the original, single-paned, decades-old glass with insulated double-paned windows. Last night I slept without earplugs—the cars sound far away, but now the refrigerator sounds closer. Is there any such thing as a quiet fridge? Can a noisy one be fixed?

Seeing as though I was up early, I got my haircut, got a retirement distribution form notarized that I’ve been meaning to do for well over a year. Showered, shaved, and then Stephanie and I took the BART over to Berkeley (for the first time, under the bay!) for lunch and a hike with Casey. This is one of the fun parts about living in the city. Walk about 15 minutes through interesting city streets to the BART stop. Hop on a train (which just happens to have pulled in to the station as we got there) emerge on the other side of the bay a few minutes later. Of course it helped that Casey had a car and could pick us up and take us to lunch, but still, it felt pretty radical traversing that distance without a car (for $3.10).

Casey took us out to an organic/sustainable Mexican restaurant called Picante. I had manchamanteles, cause it was the longest word on the menu, and because it was described as “tablecloth strainer” chicken (wt?), but mostly because it came in mole sauce. Food was extra tasty. A woman was making homemade corn tortillas. The food got to our table before we’d even sat down! I left very full.

Hiked for a few hours through Tilden Park. Caught up on Casey’s law school life (and post-school plans), filled her in on our city experience (the last time we’d all hung out was back in August, pre-SF). Took pictures.

On the way back from Tilden, we caught the most amazing sunset. Casey pulled over and I took 60 photos.

Friday night Leona flew in from Oregon, so we met up with her, Chris, and Marcia to show off the apartment and explore our neighborhood. Walked down to Polk and ended up eating outdoors at Shalamar’s. We all ordered at the counter independently, and we all ordered the same things: chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and rice. It’s a good baseline for an Indian restaurant you’ve never been to before. The curry was a little oily, but overall the warm, spicy dish was a nice compliment to the cool night. The ambiance consisted of people talking, eating and every table taken. It reminded me of college.

We met up with some folks Chris met the night before and walked down to the Bigfoot Lodge, which is becoming the first place I want to take people to show them the neighborhood after hours. It’s made to look like a log cabin on the inside. They have a large sculpture of a sasquatch. And apparently if you stay late enough they set the bar on fire. After a few drinks our crew (some of whom had to drive back to Petaluma) was showing signs of fatigue, so we called it a night.

Saturday was a chill day. Only had Leona’s birthday in Petaluma to attend that evening, so we slept in. Made a cornmeal pizza with artichoke hearts and polish sausage for brunch. Stephanie napped. I computed. My car was parked at work in Sausalito, so we had to take a bus to go pick it up before driving to Petaluma. Did a little shopping and then met up with the extended crowd at Volpi’s, a homestyle Italian restaurant. I had a tasty ribeye steak while spaghetti, tortellini, and gnocchi were consumed around me. Later drinks at the fratastic McNears, excellent cupcakes courtesy of Dawn, and driving home after midnight.

Sunday we cleaned, followed by some errands on Polk Street which for the first time gave me that warm feeling: I live here. Browsed through a fancy kitchen supply store, explored a hardware store with high ceilings and impressively diverse inventory, picked up some cheap bottles of wine, stocked up on toiletries from Walgreens. All this in about a three block stretch of Polk between Pine and Clay.

We got back to the apartment just as Stephanie’s dad Jean Claude and Sabine arrived, preparing to spend the night in advance of Jean Claude’s naturalization test Monday afternoon. Popped a celebratory bottle of champagne, and then walked over to Chinatown for dinner at Hunan Home’s on Jackson and Kearny. During dinner Stephanie quizzed me and Jean Claude on our knowledge of US government and history.

Who said “Give me liberty or give me death”? Patrick Henry. Indeed.

Update: added photos taken at Leona’s party

Tonight we finished up the very long spring semester of the Finbar Devine’s pub trivia competition—with perfect attendence no less.

Come to think of it, other than one or two schedule conflicts, I (and several others) have been showing up at Finbar in Petaluma every Wednesday night since last September.

Nevertheless, several of us have found ourselves pondering whether it’s time to stable the Glitter Ponies and take a breather. Is this really the end? Is there life after Glitter Ponies? We’ll have to see.

These are some of the faces of the Glitter Ponies: