I admire the originality in using a can of spray foam instead of spray paint to make this tag, but it leaves a bit to be desired as to what the hell it actually says. Anyone have any ideas? I think this was somewhere around Larkin & O’Farrell (could be mistaken) if you felt like going for a look-see in person.

Certain elements of life are beyond my comprehension and fall under that, “damned American crap” category in my fuddled brain. The big one that makes me scratch my head the most is any place trying to serve every effin’ need to their customers under the sun. One such example of this is gas stations selling groceries. Another is vodka at drug stores. And it appears yet another new one is chicken wings with ranch or blue cheese dressing at a Mexican joint.

I saw this at my local go-to Mexican spot, El Tesoro. There, nestled between all the point-and-shoot, with-flash-on portraits of their dishes was the sign for freakin’ chicken wings. Why do they do this? They’re a Mexican joint. They do it well. Every time I get ready to go on a big trip, I have burrito from there to bless the voyage. But friends, I can tell you that I shall not and will not buy chicken wings at a burrito shop. It’s just wrong no matter how good they might be.

It appears that Pink Diamonds (home of cap in the ass busting) is apparently going to be the new home of the Power Exchange as CW Nevius reports on The Chron. This apparently came as news to everyone around, including the San Francisco City Academy next door. Probably not the most pleasant of thoughts to think that K-8 graders will soon have the potential to monitor the City’s finest pervs.

I think one of the best quotes in the whole article is this:

…and if you were a world-class optimist, you might say that the Power Exchange is an improvement. Although the sex club has been controversial, it hasn’t had the outbreaks of violence that made Pink Diamonds notorious.

I couldn’t agree more. Sticky seats and funky humpin’ beats kill-y bullets any day.

I know how it is, in that Valentine’s Day just kinda sucks. Doesn’t matter who you are, because if you’re single going in, it’s a recipe for disaster. I say avoid it altogether and just get drunk instead with or without friends. After all, you might actually stand a better chance of some get-some if you’re not actually looking for said get-some.

If you decide to go this route, there are a great many bars in the Loin lose yourself in quite happily, especially as it seems hipsterdom is on a teensy, tiny decline in the neighborhood. I might be so bold to suggest Koko Cocktails while I’m at it. I’ve been meaning to mention this bar for awhile as my neighbor is one of the owners and it’s a cool place. As to why go for Valentine’s? Why not? It’s there, they serve booze, and you need booze. Oh yeah, it’s also at the 38 & 38L stop on Van Ness in case your drunken romance needs a little public transportation to get home for the get-some.

I was told that Koko will also have some yet-to-be-announced drink specials as well for the day, so keep an eye out.

Both tenderblogette and myself enjoy the travel-travel and as such, we’re on CouchSurfing. It’s not really to host so much as to meet fellow travelers, since the hosting thing got old after the 6,000+ emails I’d get each week from a group of 4 or more people looking for a free place. On the flipside, when trying to get hosting in Paris, no one was willing to put up either, so if you’re looking to freeload places to stay, it’s not a good site for that. It is good for a traveler’s community though, and they do a lot in San Francisco.

That said, tonight, at Cafe Royale CS is having one of their social events called, Underground. I’ve no idea if it will be like totally out of control-insane-whack, but it’s an event at a bar in the Loin with drink specials and we all like drink specials if nothing else. Won’t be able to make it myself as I’m out of town, but for those around, maybe it’s worth a check out and see. Enjoy.

Since as long as I’ve been in the hood, and probably longer than that, the Chinese joint, Jenny’s at the corner of Sutter & Larkin has been closed. I’ve no idea if that was a good or bad thing given that we do indeed have a lot of Chinese places in San Francisco and just a few blocks down on Larkin, there are some really great Thai and Vietnamese places.

For some time, I had designs on opening up something in that spot. I have no idea as to what, but it would have been cool, because my tastes are amazing; at least in my imagination. It’s a great spot and I was amazed that nothing had opened there to date. Well, a bit over a week ago, that changed. The restaurant is now Yemeni’s, as apparently the new proprietor enjoys apostrophes as much as the previous one.

I was holding out hope that it might actually specialize in Yemenese Yemeni dishes. Blown out of proportion Al-Qaeda news references aside, there is some tasty, tasty food from that region and it would have been really cool to have a restaurant in our neighborhood that specialized in just that. As it sits, it is not to be the case. The food will be a smattering of various dishes from around the Middle East as the fellow I talked to told me. Maybe there will be some Yemen dishes tucked away in there still, or maybe Yemeni is just the dude’s name and I’m being thick about that whole Yemen thing. I’ve no idea as I haven’t had a chance to taste the offerings yet. Maybe someone else has and would like to share?

I was walking down Mason a couple of days ago and realized that the Hertz rental office which was up between Geary & Post is now down between Ellis & O’Farrell. While seemingly unimportant, for anyone who has had to drive down Mason when those Walmart Greeter rejects had to coordinate parking more than two cars, there will be rejoicing. It was really quite terrifying to see such a clusterfuck of sitting cars on a daily basis and let’s keep in mind that this is a one way street with three lanes, of which, they usually took two.

Oddly enough, they’ve now moved in to the old Budget space. This is going to be hard for them to screw up as all their Parkers will be tooling about on the second floor of a garage instead of the middle of the street, entertaining the tragic crowds that still frequent Ruby Skye for some godforsaken reason.

I don’t have a car and I do sometimes rent, but I have to admit that I defect from our hood and head up to the Hertz at Pine & Van Ness. The rates are cheaper as you get out of the downtown, hotel district, and it’s a lot easier to get in and out of. Of yeah, there’s also a gas station next door to it so that you can squeeze the exact right amount of gas back in to the car to not overspend on refilling it. Leaves more money for chicken tika masala.