Finally got my stuff in, on Friday, after spending both Thursday and Friday working from home. I’ve got the second bedroom upstairs converted to my personal office and study, until I find a good roommate for it (you hear that, Austonians?* When’s somebody gonna sack up and move out here with us?), and have most of my stuff unpacked. It’s probably going to take a week or so to finish the job.
Work is everything I’d hoped it would be, so far. It’s located literally directly south of San Francisco Bay, with a park next door where there was a mountain lion sighting a few weeks ago. The people I work with are old-school Unix geeks and cool peeps of uniformly high caliber. I have a MacBook Pro and a Linux-based HP desktop to work with, both hooked up to a shiny 24″ flat panel that has become my new vision of God. The Espresso drinks are free, the gourmet lunches are cheap, and there’s a nice gym with free yoga classes.
Now all I have to do is be worth it. I’m pretty confident I can do that. The peeps out here are sharp, but I’m no rusty edge myself.
The first weekend we were out here, we went to Big Basin on Saturday afternoon, and San Francisco on Sunday. I took some pictures in both places, but haven’t had the time or equipment to get them ready to upload. I’ll get right on that, and post here when I get it done.
Yesterday I went and found my closest Whole Foods, which is 12 miles away, and a small, relatively tawdry affair compared to the Taj Mafoods at sixth and Lamar. Here’s the thing about it, though: the food is the same price as it is in Austin. Ever since I’ve moved out here, I’ve been paying–I’m not exaggerating–like 50% more for food at Safeway than I did in Austin. Loaf of bread? $1.50. Hillshire Farms honey roasted turkey breast? $5.00. Six fucking ounces of domestic Havarti? $6.00. I shit you not. Whole foods, on the other hand, still has soup for $7.99 for a quart, Pastrami for $12 a pound, ground beef for $4.00 a pound, etc. etc.
The ridiculous upshot here is that it’s cheaper to shop at Whole Foods than it is to shop at fucking Safeway. The meals I’ve bought at Safeway have averaged $8. Back home, the HEB cost me about $4.50 a meal, Central Market $6, and Whole Foods $7. Yesterday I bought 11 meals and two snacks at Whole Foods for $85, so that’s like about $7.50 a meal. My advice if you ever come to California is this: Fuck Safeway. Fuck them and their fucking Safeway card. Eat at Whole Foods or one of the Mexican grocery stores.
Anyway, one last thing I did find time to do: make some panoramas. The other day I posted some pics I said didn’t do justice to the view from my place. The two below still don’t (I miss you, Rebel-XT-take-pictures-in-the-dark-super-awesome-camera! Sob!) but they come a lot closer. They look better larger than they are below; click on the links to view them at the original size (warning: they’re pretty large..
*–Yeah, I know. I always liked Austonians better.
