We wanted to do something fun this weekend, and Ben found the Forney museum. They have antique trains, cars, bikes, carriages, and all sorts of strange things. Jack seemed to think it was really cool, and I was surprised at how interesting the museum was.

Work has been trampling me down hard since our vacation ended.

 I tried to have fun tonight.   There was this:

(sorry for the vertical frame)

and then this:

But then I got some work info that put me back in a funk.   My actual job is pretty good.  When I'm there with a patient, doing my thing, I think: what a great nursing gig I have.  But the call stress and the hours and the drama and the regulations and all the other crap is getting harder and harder to bear. What's wrong with this summer?  So many people I've talked to are depressed too.  When will it get better?

Wow, child care problem solved! Thanks to SitterCity we found a girl we are very excited to hire. Actually, we found FOUR girls who we were excited about, but had to nit-pick to narrow it down to one.  I can't believe how quickly we got ourselves a nanny.  Ben posted our ad on Friday night.  We had 9 applicants by Monday morning.  We interviewed four of the best Monday and today.  Tonight we made her an offer and she said yes on the phone.  We're just waiting for her reply to our emailed, formal job offer before we sadly tell the other girls they didn't get the job.  I HIGHLY recommend SitterCity if you need sitters.  It costs to join but it's completely worth it.

We have wonderful news! Before his diploma was even printed Ben landed an amazing job with Zing Studios. We are so excited and thrilled with it. He has two weeks to find a nanny for Jack. That's a challenge in itself, but we will take that one step at a time.

We took a cable car from union square to Ghirardelli square. No SF trip would be complete without those, right? Then we skipped the long line for a cable car back in favor of a taxi (only 30 cents more plus tip--totally worth it). I finishes my ice cream on my fluffy bed and then we quickly collapsed into a wake-less sleep.

We are both very sore this morning and trudging through the crowds to get back to our little boy. It sounds like he is having an absolute blast with the grands. I'm writing this from my plane home, they just closed cabin doors so I will sign off now!

We came off the island voyage thoroughly wind blown. I wanted to squeeze in the MOMA or a yarn shop, but the MUNI buses thwarted us. They've been terrible this weekend. In 2.25 days we were passed by 8 buses for being too full, and 2 buses we were on didn't make it to our destinations, despite correct schedule matching on our end.

So both other places closed and we made it back to the hotel just in time to change for dinner.

Once refreshed we said "F the F train" and took a cab to the theater district.

The Grand Cafe is attached to the hotel Monaco in their ballroom. Apparently it was one of the few art deco ballrooms to survive the 1906 earthquake. It was beautiful and the food delicious-French contemporary.

Fried squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese with fennel and lemon.

Black kale salad and watermelon/ heirloom tomato gazpacho.

Seafood cassoulet and marrow and fig flatbread.