On my birthday this year, I went up with Tanya, Esther, and Jessica to Rubicon (www.sfrubicon.com) for dinner since they were on the SF Dine About Town menu. (Thank you, girls! The dinner and company were lovely)
It was kinda in an alleyway at the corner of a building, and a bit small. But the decor was nice. Not tacky, but subtle with lots of dark wood trim.
The menu:
First Courses
Crispy Pork Shank & Potato Cake - Winter Chicories, Apple, Quail Egg & Mustard
or
Pumpkin Soup - Mascarpone, Cranberries, Brown Butter & Sage
Principal Dishes
Hand Rolled Ricotta Cavatelli - Ragout of Beef Shortrib, Trumpet Mushrooms & Dino Kale
or
Ginger Roasted Petrale Sole - Bok Choy, Red Miso-Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette
Dessert
Spiced Bittersweet Chocolate-Pumpkin Cake - Salted Almonds, Honey Fudge
or
Vanilla Bean Tapioca - Grapefruit, Pomegranate Coulis
I ordered the shank, the sole, and the tapioca. They were small but delicious. We also got a bottle of wine, but I don't remember the full name. Esther has the label somewhere. It was a Pinot Noir and quite flavorful. They also gave us this anchovie/cracker thingie on the house which I thought tasted kinda like tuna and crackers. Not bad, kinda like an hors d'oeuvres thing.
Many people have heard me talk about the popcorn machine at work. Cuz it's like the only cool thing we have for free, when other people are talking about free snacks, drinks, etc.
Sometime last month, they renovated the central kitchenette.....
And they removed the popcorn machine.
The good news is they put a new one in.
The bad news is that it's tiny. It's like 75% of the old one's size. The kettle has this weird handle that is hard to use. And you know, it's like, wtf? Where'd the old one go? *sigh* This one sucks.
I don't think they'll let me make kimchee popcorn or tobasco popcorn on it cuz it's all shiny and clean still.
*sniff* A moment of silence for the good old popcorn machine.
For the past few weeks, my garage door opener wouldn't open. It'd close, but wouldn't open (unless I open it manually and latch it back on.) Okay, for a few weeks, I could keep pressing the button and eventually it'd open by itself after pushing some 20 times. But lately that trick has stopped working too.
So today, after going to buy some vacumn cleaner bags for my mom, I decided to take a look inside the garage door opener.
Sometime last week, I already verified that the switches outside work. (they tell when to stop the door so it doesn't run off the end of either end of the track.
When I peeked inside the Genie Pro 82, I noticed there's a motor, a control board, and some pieces that I dunno what they do. All I know is that something mechanical isn't working and telling it to switch. And intuition says it's a relay.
I take the board out by unplugging the huge connector and unscrewing one bolt. I mess with the relays and put it back in to test. Worked twice and then stopped working again.
I take it out, pry the casing off all three relays and clean them off with a paper towel. Put it back in, and now instead of closing, it only opens.
Poking and prodding with the voltmeter tells me stuff is most likely okay. I learned the relays are driven by 26 volts DC. Hotwiring a relay causes the door to start closing immediately when I plug the power back in.
Turns out I missed two important details. While cleaning, I took off this jumper that is probably for a safety sensor. Without it, the door always only goes one way. Up I guess. Since it'd be inline with what you want to have happen when something gets caught under the door... if only I had a sensor to detect such items. Putting the jumper back in wasn't the complete fix.
Putting the screw back on was.
Apparently the circuit board requires the mounting screw because some part of the circuit depended on being wired to the metal casing of the garage door opener to work. Bastards. I've heard of cost cutting before, but cost cutting a jumper wire by using the screw is just being truly cheap.
Anyhow, now I can park my car in the garage again.
While it sucks being a bit sick with a sore throat the past week or so, I had a pretty good winter break. I went snowboarding with my little sister, my friend Karen, and one of her friends. I saw a bunch of people from high school I hadn't seen in a while. I fulfilled my New Years Resolution of 2006 :)