Forgive this silly post.  But for my birthday Julie gave me an "acrylic-based resin pigment expanding frog".  As cool as it is, this is not one of those instantly gratifying gifts: you have to place it water, and over the course of ten days it grows to 600% of its original size.  Here's the time lapse of how it all went down:

I'm such a proud frog daddy. :^)  In the off chance that the above video doesn't satisfactorily convey to you the full experience of my frogrearing, the HD version is here.

But wait, the story gets better!  Julie's birthday is a few weeks after mine, so for her gift I went into the Mission and got a princess doll to dress her up:

That's not a casket by the way, it's a princess frog display case. :^)

Here I am sharing a final tender moment with Lily in the park before handing her off to her new adoptive family:

Good luck Lily, and thanks for the memories! :^)

Sure, I'll take credit for this fantastic idea. ;^)  The Friday Night Skaters knew for a while that we're are at least somewhat welcome at the Rouge Night Club on Broadway and Polk, roughly at the halfway point on the Friday Skate.  But for whatever reason it never really caught on as a rest stop despite my pointed questionings to the contrary.  So, last night I recruited enthusiastically and convinced my cohorts Princess Nine, Hip Hops and Valkyries to make a surgical strike on Rouge's bar before skating through the Broadway Tunnel.

The second we skated in I knew this mission was going to be a success.  The place is gaudy and red-velvet foofy... or "like being in a bad rap video" as one Yelp review put it.  It was full of Russian Hill types wearing makeup, designer labels, and shoes without wheels.  We received a small "wooo wooo skaters!" cheer from the patrons upon entry.

I rolled up to the bar and ordered three cran-vodkas and a Coors Light.  The bill?  $12!  O-yeah. That's cheaper than most places in the TL.

The girls weren't alone for long before the prowling douchebags made their moves:

Prost!

I definitely foresee this becoming a regular stop on The Skate.

In SF you have fog haters and fog lovers.  I'm a lover because it looks cool and is great air conditioning.  Granted, I live near it more so than in it which is good because it's one of those things that's usually best experienced from afar.

Everyone's seen Mt. Sutro look like this:

But not everyone has seen the reverse view.  When the Pacific fog rolls over the hill, this is what the view of SF looks like from inside that evanescing blanket of former seawater:

Here's the nighttime view.  It's really cool to hang out and watch various parts of the skyline appear and disappear as the random patches of fog blow eastward.  Market Street is the bright line, and you can see a car's headlights and taillights on a nearby hairpin turn:

Full res pics can be found here.