In San Francisco...

Last weekend we officially moved in to our new apartment. We love it a lot. It's right next to the top of Nob Hill, around the corner from Grace Cathedral and is really close to a lot of very good things. It also has a fantastic view once you step out of the front door. You can see right down to the sea, and to the Bay Bridge on the other street.

The only dodgy thing is our neighbours... but we've put felt pads on the bottom of the furniture (we braved the Tenderloin Rite Aid last night to get them) so that should be better for noise control. And the one downstairs has gone away for a while - I should have asked how long.

Last night we took a drive down to find the supermarket (Trader Joes - the nearest one is next to Fisherman's Wharf which is a while away), a gym, and to take the car to a better (i.e. cheaper but much farther away) parking building - in Japantown. So we got back pretty late. But we also stopped in at Ghiradelli Square to buy some chocolate from the chocolate factory there, so that was good. Mmmm... raspberry chocolate.... I'm amazed at how close we are comparatively to all the tourist areas! We are a block down from the cable car museum, so that should be interesting to check out. And tourists wander past frequently, puffing up the hill.

Actually, come to think of it, we've been in a few "interesting" places recently... the Tenderloin, Bayshore to drop off our U-Haul... not really Brendan's or my first choice. While we were in Bayshore on Sunday morning back at the U-Haul depot, we stopped to get petrol. The guy in the car next to us was the most fashionable gangsta ever. Baggy gansta designer jeans with red writing down the legs, a baggy jersey with a crown logo, and when he opened his mouth, grillz. Yes, grillz. Those metal things that go over your teeth to make them sparkle like diamonds. I never thought people actually wore them, except in hip-hop videos.

When we dropped the U-Haul off on Saturday night in Bayshore, we were trying to find a drop-box to drop of the key. Since we couldn't find one, I called the generic U-Haul number to ask what to do. The guy on the other end of the phone told me to lock the drivers' side door, put the key and my contract into the glove box and leave the passenger side door unlocked. I told him he was not being realistic, given the very high crime rate in the area - it would have been stolen in very short order! So in the end we locked both doors, and took the key with us.

When Alex brought us back the next day to the U-Haul depot, as we walked along the street back to where we parked the truck (past all the illegal Mexican workers waiting for people to hire them to help move!) we noticed that a truck we passed had tagging on the passenger door, and the next one had the passenger window completely smashed. Luckily, ours was unscathed - especially since you're liable for it until you actually give it to the people inside the depot during business hours.

The woman in the U-Haul office sighed when we told her about the other trucks, and said resignedly, "Which window is it?" When we explained what the U-Haul operator had said to us the night before, she said, "What is wrong with those guys? This is a bad area. It would have been stolen." No kidding.

(We will put photos up once we get the Internet back on at our new place. I also want to show you all the pictures from our trip to Denver, Colorado - it was awesome!)