Bookshelf:

Currently reading:

• Dave Barry, Big Trouble

Next up:

1. Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
2. Analog, June 2001 issue
3. Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
4. Barry Hughart, The Story of the Stone
5. Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
6. Derek Nelson, Off the Map: The Curious Histories of Place Names
7. Kage Baker, Sky Coyote
8. Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers
9. Sean McMullen, The Centurion's Empire
10. Sean Stewart, Resurrection Man

A Whole Weekend

Yesterday morning I met Debbi and we spent the day in San Francisco. A very long, very enjoyable day!

We drove to North Beach and found a good (free!) parking space, and then wandered around trying to decide where to eat. Neither of us had any strong preferences, so it took us a while to make a decision, but we finally went to an Italian sandwich place, which turned out to be a fine choice. The pastrami sandwich I had was very good. Then we hiked up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower and took in the lovely view, and the murals inside the tower. (We didn't pay the fee to take the elevator up, though.) Then we relaxed in a park at the foot of the hill before pushing on.

Debbi was willing to indulge some shopping I wanted to do. We went to Borderlands Books' new location on Valencia. Their new store is about three times as large as the old one, although their stock is (so far) about the same. Hopefully they'll ramp up to have three or four times as many books, too.

We also found a parking space at the edge of Golden Gate Park and walked the length of Haight Street, which I've never done before. I bought some CDs at Amoeba Music, and we went into Forever After Books, which must be the most packed-to-the-brim bookstore I've ever been in, with about three feet of books stacked atop each of their 8-foot-tall cases, many books on the floor in the aisles, and many more atop the front desk. Definitely not a store to be in during a major earthquake! I did find several books there, though.

But we had a fine time walking down the street and looking in windows, and bought some ice cream and then walked through the eastern edge of the park for over an hour. Yes, we did plenty of walking around! And we wrapped up the day by eating at a little gyro place on (I think) 9th street and then driving to Treasure Island and taking in the view of the city at night.

We got together again on Sunday, but we were both so completely exhausted from the day before that we spent most of the day lying around Debbi's apartment. We both fell asleep a couple of times, so tired were we. I finally did rouse myself and called Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day. Then we walked to the nearby downtown and hung out in Starbuck's for a while, as I'd had a yen to have some coffee, and felt like a walk would be a nice thing.

It was a really fabulous weekend. Great weather, great company, lots to do and see. Can't ask for much better than that!

On top of all of this I also had my usual assortment of "art experiences", too.

For instance, I finished reading Nancy Kress' novel Beggars in Spain, which was a solidly entertaining novel. Kress' writing style feels a bit like Connie Willis only more serious in tone. I'm not sure I enjoyed it quite enough to read its two sequels, though. At least, not with my to-read stack in its current (large) state.

Tonight Debbi and I wound down (as if we hadn't been wound down enough) watching my tape of last week's Nero Wolfe episode from A&E. It was the second of two parts, so we had to catch up on the story, but it was very well-done, with Timothy Hutton playing the "skunk" Archie Goodwin and Maury Chaykin as the detective himself (playing Wolfe very much like Jeremy Brett played Sherlock Holmes, actually). The assortment of jazz music used incidentally added to the show's feel greatly. It's worth a look if you're looking for something to watch. And I'm starting to think maybe I should read some of Rex Stout's original novels about Wolfe.