I didn't realize how burned out I was from lab until I took today off to go play in the city. The owner of 4th State, the company where I make my samples, occasionally gives me tickets to Giants games when he can't use them (he has season tickets, great seats just past first base), and one such game was this afternoon. My roommate Suchi came along to what turned out to be her very first baseball experience, and an excellent one at that. She got to see good pitching, bad pitching, a home run, lots of foul balls flying into the stands (twice appearing to injure fans, which I've never seen before), even a wild pitch - which looked an awful lot like a ball that the catcher just couldn't hang on to - that resulted in a player scoring a run from third base while the catcher rummaged frantically at the back of the batting area. Unfortunately, Suchi left to get some work done right before the game really heated up, with four more home runs, some excellent fielding, and a tense two and a half innings where San Francisco's bullpen did its utmost to squander a five-run lead. Fortunately, they failed, and the Giants won 8-6.
Afterward, I walked back to Union Square to indulge in a bit of shopping and a long-awaited taste of the eponymous wares of Citizen Cupcake (the cupcakes, not the citizens). Sadly, the chocolate mint cupcake disappointed: the chocolate cake could have come from a mix, and the frosting was granular, pale green, and tasted weakly of peppermint extract. The only saving grace was a lovely bittersweet chocolate ganache filling that I encountered, to my surprise, at the center of the cupcake. Excluding the ganache, however, I could have made better cupcakes at home, for far less than $3.50 a pop.
Later in the evening, Suchi, Ying, and I met up for further food indulgence - that is, dinner - at Catch in the Castro. En route I encountered the Muni problems that made the front page of SFGate, but the meal did wonders for destressing afterward. Interestingly, the appetizer (tuna tartare), side dish (swiss chard with caramelized onions and parmesan), and dessert (a brownie with bourbon pecan gelato) were all delicious, but my main course (seafood stew, a soupy rendition of boullabaise/cioppino) was nothing special. I would go back again and try their hunks of fish, though, especially with the promise of another fantastic brownie.
And, after a day of enjoying the best of San Francisco, I'm ready to go back and tackle my lab issues in full force. Overflowing biohazard bin and inexplicable friction data, here I come!
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