SF and Witchhunts (and more on the mail)

Did I ever tell you what happened with our car tags? We eventually got the ones that were mailed to us a month and two weeks after the used car lot mailed them to us. (A few weeks after we got replacements, of course.) Apparently the mail, if you mail something in LA to someone else in LA, takes forever. But now I'd like to mention a little bit on our trip to SF.

Friday night, the 12th-We got to SF late, and stayed with our friends Elise and Kathy. The first thing we noticed was that it was cold out. I was freezing all night long so it's a surprise to no one but me that I got sick. Although, I do have to say that Elise's upstairs room is very nice and the cats spent a few hours entertaining us when we were trying to get some sleep. Plus, they warmed up the bed, too.

Saturday, the 13th-We had a late start, but eventually ate lunch with Leif and Susan at Pancho's, a restaurant within walking distance of our old place, that in the 5 years we lived there, never went to until today. We also visited the Asian Art Museum and saw the exhibit on Tibet. They had a lovely sculpture and tapestries of Avalokiteshvara, the deity of compassion. I only mention this because this deity is very important to my friend Christian, who since we've moved here has embodied compassion for us in not only letting us stay at his place for a month, rent-free, but also by hiring me to work for him when he can't really afford me. (And he continues to pay me despite not being paid by his clients. He's a really nice guy.) So I got him two postcards with pictures and explanations of the deity. We followed Leif and Susan around when they went armoire shopping and then repaired to their place for games. Diane even showed up and we had a very long game of Cities and Knights of Catan, which Leif eventually won. Susan shared olives that her dad canned and they were the best olives I've ever had and dried peaches which her dad dried and they were so good. We had so many snacks there that we didn't even eat a proper dinner afterwards. We just sped out to Oakland to stay with our friends, Michael and Rik, who also have two lovely cats, who decided to sleep with us.

Sunday, the 14th-Well, today was the main reason we came to SF. Michael and Rik set up a series of games for us to play all based on the Salem Witchhunts. They decorated the place up and even made the bathroom look like an outhouse. (It was truly lovely.) Daryl was out for the morning working with an old client in SF. I stayed behind sick as a dog and after helping to put up one garland, I was exhausted, so I spent most of the time on the couch with the cat. (The other cat was freaked out by the activity and decided to hide under the futon.) We got to see a lot of old friends and catch up on news. And the games were really fun. In the first game, where we got to choose our character, I ended up being a governess named Mercy Radcliffe. I should have tried to be Alice Warren, who hates, but honours her husband, which would have been fun because the husband turned out to be Daryl's character, Jacob Warren, skilled marksman. The first game was a balancing/trivia game, with two teams (families) competing against one another with trivia and sticks. The trivia was mainly on colonial times and the Wiccan religion. And after that people got excommunicated. Yikes. We also played a game that involved playing cat's cradle, after which more people were excommunicated, then another game which was a creativity contest, where we had to create a "Scare-Witch" (like a scarecrow) with clay, construction paper, string, etc. and were judged on things like creativity and adherence to colonial times. Then there was the obligatory excommunication. Man, you lose so many people in a witchhunt it hardly seems like there are any people who aren't witches. And then we found out that there were no witches at all, but that we just excommunicated innocent people. Well, Michael and Rik were just lying liars then, weren't they? The first group of excommunicated were then placed back in the game as their own team. Then there was a game called "Burning Bridges" which was an interesting game as the board got smaller and smaller and more and more people were "burned out" of the game. Eventually, the most canny players figured out how to end it and there were three people who could have concievably won. (By this time I am dying and am just wanting to be excommunicated so I wouldn't have to think.) They had to have a trivia-off to figure out a single winner and I'm proud to say the winner was my husband. And we both got Hello Kitty pencils and expando-sponge-dogs as prizes. And as the Grand Prize Winner, Daryl got a lovely beeswax candle, which is currently sitting next to our TV. Fun! But I was so glad to go to bed as I was seriously ill.

Monday, the 15th-Well, we hung out a little with Michael and Rik and with Rik's friend Jeanie and we went to the Scharffenberger Chocolate Factory. We didn't have time for a tour, but we got a few chocolates for the road and tried to get chocolate sandwiches at the cafe. Apparently, they're not on the menu, but they make them if you ask. I had soup as I had no stomach for anything else, but I did have a bit of hot chocolate, because how can you go to a chocolate factory and not have something chocolate? I fell asleep a few times on the way down. Poor Daryl, he always has to drive, but in my defense I was in no condition to drive. I was so glad when we got home. I just wanted to sleep. Oh, and not only did I get sick, but the skin on my knuckles broke open again from dryness. So I'm back to wearing half-gloves. This is what I get for going back to SF.