So I made it back. A whole trip to SF for a 2 1/2 hour meeting, which was actually worth it. I slept on the way down, only waking up to think, “Geez, someone farted. I sure hope it wasn’t me,” and then falling back asleep. The guy at the Hertz counter in San Jose totally led me astray and told me to take the 101 and it took 1 hr 20 min to get about 5 miles. I switched to the 280 and the rest of the trip took me 40 minutes! Keeping up with traffic on the 280 is fun. It’s somewhere between 65MPH (the posted limit) and 90MPH in the fast lanes and you know what it’s like to drive a rental car.

The first thing I did was go to Beard Papa for cream puffs. I say it was for my sister, but I got 18 of them, gave one to Megan on the way back, and ended up with 6 of them for my ma. They’re delicious, by the way. However, they slightly smell of feet, and if you have them in an unknown car you don’t know if the smell is coming from the cream puffs or from the air conditioner. (I think it’s the yeast or something in the tasty pastry shell.) The guys are totally nice and will let you pick up the cream puffs later in the day.

I wandered around before my lunch meeting to see if I could pick up birthday presents for my sister, but didn’t find much but HOT HOT HEAT. I found where they moved the Sanrio store, but she’s not doing that much Hello Kitty stuff any more. I also went to Peet’s Coffee and I found it much like Portland but no one had piercings or tattoos. In fact, San Francisco was a lot like Portland, except there were lots of Asian people, the Asian people spoke English, and the white people did not.

I almost missed my plane back, and I hope it doesn’t get back to my employer. I started by leaving the Apple WWDC late. I was meeting guys who I only know online. I told one guy, “You look younger than your picture,” (he’s a college prof), and he said, “That’s because that’s an old picture.” The other guy I knew looked more dashing in person, but he’s Irish and married and moving to Winnipeg or something. Anyway, after leaving that gathering late, I went to visit Megan, and I left Palo Alto with very little time to spare. So, of course, I stopped at In-N-Out Burger for a single cheeseburger, animal style, to go. I got to the airport after check-in started, and went to the WRONG END OF THE AIRPORT! I barely got there in time, and when I got to the counter the guy said, “You must be Todd.” But I didn’t miss the flight. It even boarded early after I got there.

When I got back, I drove straight to my sister’s place to deliver the pastries. You can see proof! I did not eat them all myself!