A Little of This

I really wanted to make a grid of photos on my blog. I even got help from Mati (who makes the best photo grids ever). But something was wrong with the Flickr code for making badges, so I'm going to have to try it again, when I'm feeling less sick and more patient and techie-like. In the meantime, I'm including some photos I took around our apartment, which would have looked a lot cooler in a grid.

I will report that we visited our adoption agency today, to meet with our very sensible and down-to-earth (in a bleached-blonde sexy-mom kind of way) adoption counselor and renew our home study. You see, it's been a year since we first became part of the pool of waiting families, so we had to let them know that we're still in good health and tell them about changes in our lives.

It was also time for a low-key pep talk. We got some reassurance that we're still within the average wait time for an adoption, that our letter (the one that possible birthmoms see) is great, and that with two match possibilities over the year, we've done well, in terms of the response to us as an adoptive couple.

We just haven't adopted yet, and we were told again that if we are willing to just hang in there it will happen. I think I believe it, too, which I couldn't say three months ago. It certainly has helped that I've seen other folks signed up with our agency go through long waits, matches that didn't work out, and failed adoptions like ours, and then I've seen them adopt.










Top to bottom:
Big Boy among the produce in our kitchen.
Valentine's Day tulips in the living room.
A vintage fan we bought in texas
Vintage matches and more in an old printer's drawer
Doll head among the books in our office
Two guys duke it out on the cowboy movie poster in our bedroom.

I Heart Tu Lan

To say I've eaten at Tu Lan hundreds of times would not be an exaggeration.

I've been eating there for about fifteen years. For about six years, I worked nearby, and went there once or twice a week.

During all the time I've known Tu Lan, a debate has been raging. Is Tu Lan a disgusting, grease-covered place, where cockroaches climb the walls and irascible cooks buy stolen goods from crack addicts? Or is it an incomparable cheap-eats find, with a certain reverse, Sixth Street cache for those in the know? Such is the debate, but I long ago lost all objectivity, and cannot answer that question. The flavorful, abundant and somewhat greasy Vietnamese food is like Proust's Madeleine to me, full of comfort, memories and associations. I was rather pleased to see that, on Tu Lan's last inspection by the health department, they received a score of 86, which is really quite respectable.

Tu Lan is a loud, narrow, old-fashioned place with dingy white walls and an open kitchen. If you sit at the counter you can watch the cooks make each dish, a process that involves a lot of leaping flames, tongs and clattering pans. The cooks don't look happy and they sweat a lot. On a number of occasions, I have indeed seen them examining goods for sale by residents of the local single room occupancy hotels. Once, a cook shouted at me after I complained that my shrimp salad had onions on it, when I requested it without. He angrily claimed that I had made the same complaint last week, which I denied vehemently (I hadn't).



Another time, I saw a man who was being pursued by the police jump from a crawlspace above the dining area into the middle of the restaurant and escape out the front door. It was truly like being in an action movie.

Though the male:female ratio at Tu Lan is usually about 3:1, I've never felt the least bit unsafe or uncomfortable there. The place is a veritable melting pot of San Francisco society from the poorest street person to the upper middle class. Many of the items on Tu Lan's menu still cost less than five dollars. And the servers have a gruff kindness about them, especially my favorite, a stooped man with a mustache who has called me "sir" many times.



And of all the enterprises I've ever been associated with, Tu Lan has the lowest turnover rate. Last night, 90% of the staff had been working there for at least eight years. Most had been there since I started going to Tu Lan. They've gotten older right along with me.

Lastly, I recommend the shrimp-fried rice, the ginger fish (pictured above), the tofu salad, the bean cake with crispy noodles, and the spring rolls. Don't get the soup.

Thanks to mswine, tempo and vanderwal for their excellent flickr commons photos.