Assassin's Lair

Monthly entry - May 2026

scolaro — Sun, 31 May 2026 12:27:19 GMT

May...in which we meet Stella the puppy, clean out the attic for real (meaning with some proper progress that made both of us very happy) and get used to life without a dog.
It does mean much greater freedom and flexibility overall, although I feel guilty for being so relieved about it.

Stella
This is Stella, the new Rottweiler puppy our friends got recently. 9 weeks old when their daughter picked her up from the breeder. A tiny little bean in the beginning, growing so fast you can almost watch while it's happening. Just a cheerful little pup. She got all her shots, already sniffed through our garden to find cat feces (um...yay?), and visited our other friend's apartment to be inspected by the resident cats. (Who showed clearly that they disliked the new addition to that family, even though they're fine with their other dogs. Guess it'll take time.)

Attic cleanup
On Saturday of the pentecost weekend we had a friend of Mum's over and took another stab at cleaning out the attic with her. And I swear, she was telling my Mum the exact same things I had about why she probably shouldn't keep certain things, but this time Mum actually listened!
I kept to the sidelines and only carried stuff up and down as needed, but it was so much in the end that I was busy throughout the whole process. My Mum's friend drove away with a whole car full of stuff Mum had finally decided to let go, plus our neighbours took everything else I'd put in front of the house within two days! I was so happy I can't even express myself properly.

Of course overall the attic still looked the same as there is still far too much stuff, but Mum's friend returned yesterday for another round (and a free asparagus lunch for her trouble, obviously ^^), and took away another car load, so currently my hopes of getting the attic in order are...a fair bit higher than they were before. (We should try to get that woman to live with us for a week or two - surely the whole house would be free of clutter afterwards, lol.)

Mum seemed really driven, but of course due to her condition she can't work all day - plus at ~30°C it was getting warm in the attic around lunch time. She did insist on working around half the day PLUS refused to let me make lunch and did that herself as well.
She was pretty spent afterwards both times, but not as bad as I'd feared.
Before/After pics will follow eventually.

After Vesta
We also got rid of a lot of dog stuff and only kept what would be needed to have one over in an emergency or so. Our friends (the ones with Stella) took the dog pool both Samy and Vesta had always hated/ignored, some snacks, toys and other odds and ends. After posting in the local community a nice couple we didn't know came and took all the remaining food and a whole box of random things to share between them and their medium sized dogs, their friends with bigger dogs and a shelter they knew.
We happily saw all this go to people who would use it and our friends already sent us a video of Stella playing in the dog pool. \o/

I also finally cleaned the walls Vesta (and Samy before her) used to scratch her sides on, especially after eating. It got a bit brighter altogether, but after all this time I'll have to paint these walls.

Garden in May

Strawberries from the garden

Food
I made "egg pizza bits" (instead of dough you use eggs in the pan and add pizza sauce and cheese). There were...alright, but not amazing. There was likely a bit too much milk in the eggs and instead of one big "pizza" I had to make smaller pieces.

The Cart
Now that Vesta is no longer with us I've repurposed the little red cart for shopping trips with the bike. Initially I thought I would have to close it at the front in order to keep the content at the top from sliding off, but with the handcuff bike/escooter lock I can easily keep the bags in place. Already made a few trips to Aldi and the butcher in the industrial area and it went great.

Monthly entry - April 2026

scolaro — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:49:39 GMT

April...in which our sweet girl Vesta has some more amazing adventures in her little red cart before she is put to sleep at 17 years of age.
I take some action on AI programming and ETF saving plans.

Don't be surprised at the length of this entry. Most of the text I'd written before the final vet appointment because I knew I wouldn't do it afterwards.

Vesta
Easter holidays came rather early this year, at the beginning of the month.
Mum had tried to walk Vesta by herself before (with me chaperoning, but not interacting), but wasn't quite ready yet, so I took some more days off in order to not need to go to the office those two weeks around Easter. It worked out well, and afterwards she managed the midday dog walk and I could go back to the office without fearing for either of them while I was away.

On a normal office day I was doing the morning walk, gave Vesta her meds and changed the bandage of the cancerous tumor underneath her left armpit. (We switched from harnesses to a collar for that reason, too.)
Mum did the midday walk and after work I return for the evening walk.
It was of course easier and more time efficient when I could work from home (two days a week, normally). Then I could do all walks OR take the cart around midday OR Mum did the evening walk if she felt up to it. It was just a bit more flexible - and I spent less time commuting, of course.

During the holidays I took Vesta out with the bike whenever the weather would allow, even for a morning grocery run in the industrial area and twice to the hardware store. She loved riding in the little cart - it was such fun to watch.
To the point where I actually took several videos of our trips by attaching the phone holder to the back of the saddle. First to see whether she actually had as much fun as it seemed from my turning the head every now and then. Now I think I will cherish those videos for years to come.
Like I found this thing she really loved and could entertain her with it until the end, you know?

After a few weeks I bought a pair of bike mirrors to be able to check on her easily, and also on the traffic behind me. They work exceptionally well, better than I'd imagined. Should have gotten them ages ago. (Got a second pair for the old non-e-bike, too.)

We even took a trip into the next town. I had never gone there by bike and wasn't sure whether I would find the right way (as the entry is a bit hidden) and whether the road would be suitable for the cart, but spotted the opening to the bike path easily and had a blast riding through very acceptable roads between the two towns. Ended up in this very nice park on a Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine. This was definitely a trip we would take again, I thought back then.

Close to the end of the month it became clear that there wouldn't be many opportunities for this any more as the damn tumor grew more and more, and Vesta got weaker.
We made the final vet appointment for her on Monday 27th at 10:00 in the morning.

Her final weekend (this last weekend) was spent riding the cart and having her favourite snacks at random times.

On Monday the vet came over and we said our good-byes.

And of course there will always be guilt because we could have squeezed out another week or two or maybe even three. But that big, ugly tumor had grown through a hole in the skin and was just an open smelly wound we were treating with antibiotics...no chance of improvement and she wouldn't have survived an operation. She also spent ages every night licking it, even though I bandaged and covered it up...so I try not to forget that when I look at her joyful face in those photos and videos and feel like a heartless murderer.
And when I'm relieved about not having to get up at 7:00 every single morning anymore to take her out, and have freedom again to do things spontaneously without making sure that it fits her schedule. And not worrying about her constantly anymore, as she was e. g. forgetting to drink, even though the full water bowl was sitting right next to her. She would start panting and when you offered her water she would drink like there was no tomorrow. Dog Alzheimer or something. Things like that.

So let me spam you with those photos/videos one last time...

Data backup, NAS, Drime
I'm posting this here in case anyone feels like they need this in their lives, too:
There was a really good offer on Techspot Store the other day, 6TB of online storage (lifetime) for ~$250, with discount code minus 15% even. (EDIT: Now there are options with even more space.)
It's a French company establishing itself, and one of the few European ones in the field.
I took the offer as my NAS is rather old and I'd thought about a backup solution for a while now, but always try to avoid regular payments for anything. (And yes, I know lifetime doesn't mean "my" lifetime, but that of the company which could be short-lived. It is a gamble.)

Uploading manually is a bit of a drag, though, because you'll have to keep track of which files aren't uploaded for some reason and (manually) try again. BUT Drime offers a native rclone feature, so Gemini Pro wrote me a .bat script that runs the file upload of any folders I choose automatically, with specific settings tailored to the content.
After some tinkering it now lists the files with errors, and tries by itself to reupload them. Also, whenever I stop the upload (e. g. because I don't want to have the PC running all night), and restart it, it checks which files have already been uploaded and continues with the unfinished ones, all by itself.
It's phantastic.

EDIT: Drime had some trouble with rclone for a few days and the auto upload wasn't working properly, but now the rclone code was updated and it works again! \o/

Halfway down the road of running the backup, one of the hard drives of the NAS gave out and I ordered a new one.
Gemini Pro checked the remaining ones and mentioned that it's pretty miraculous how long they'd all been running without any sector errors (>7 years, except for one I swapped out like 3 years ago) and that due to the strain that would be put on the old ones when restoring the content back to the new one it may be that more will give out, so I should finish with the online backup before hotswapping the deprecated drive for the new one.

That makes sense, of course, so I spent some time transferring the most important content over to Drime, before restoring the NAS HDD successfully.
I will have to swap out another one due to errors soon, but for the moment everything is running fine again.

Related AI scripts, Jules, Gemini Pro Plan
Gemini Pro is awesome for scripts, but for "serious programming" (namely the LJ backup tool) I ended up turning to Jules (also part of the Gemini Pro offering).
Initially I thought "he" (yes, "he", sue me!) was much better (much more "thinking" on his part and he automatically read some LJ FAQs prior to writing his first bit of code without me even suggesting it. There is also a lot of testing, verification, review and reflection done while he works, at least that's what he claims).
The initial script produced a download of all entries and also comments, without any complaints about LJ responding badly or timing out.

Then a mistake in the code led to the entries appearing all over the place and I tried to go back a couple of steps to retrack where it had gone wrong (because I'd given him a bunch of things to improve on all at the same time).
He chose to ignore explicit instructions on which features to implement and which to leave out twice and broke the html page again both times. Finally I told him to check the code adjustment he used to revert the order of the entries and find another way as this was apparently the culprit. That way he was finally able to see and fix the problem.

He's even trying to solve the poll problem - tests are looking promising.

The layout will take some more time as well, but I sent out the first version to trobadora to give it a shot if she finds the time.

BTW, Gemini Pro gave me a hint on how to extend my Pro status. Both Mum and I bought the Pixel 10 Pro last year. While I started the 12 months Gemini Pro plan that came with it at the beginning of December Mum hasn't even used the basic version much. By the end of October of this year the offer runs out, so before that happens I'll switch her to the Pro plan and have her open a family account which I will then join. This way - according to Gemini - I will be able to continue using the Pro plan for another 10 months or so which would be rather cool.

ETF Portfolio
I'd had two ETF saving plans set up for a while now (one on Finanzen Zero, the other on Scalable Capital), but knew that the weighting (Gewichtung) wasn't perfect and had to be adjusted at some point. Again, I pulled out Gemini Pro, fed it with the monthly amount I was investing and asked it to suggest ETFs for a widely spread portfolio which I then vetted, looking for inexpensive ones that I liked.
After some to and fro I now have laid to rest my initial S&P ETF at Finanzen Zero and am currently transferring it to SC to have everything in one place. Everything else is set up at Scalable Capital and spread to my liking. It's certainly nothing that will make me a millionair, but I feel it's a good basic investment structure and hopefully I can also use it for the upcoming government retirement saving accounts coming in 2027.

A few days ago my nephew called to check in and of course I badgered him on his own investment plans that he's had for ages, but never actually set up. We did talk a bit more and feel like he's on the verge of actually starting - he's just unsure of how to choose the best ETFs and I told him (again) that he didn't have to set up things perfectly right away, he could always adjust his approach later like I did. The important thing was to get started. He's going to come around to visit in mid May, so hopefully will have done his "homework" until then, and starts investing while he's still so young. Boy, I wish I'd had the financial opportunities back in my day these youngsters have nowadays (/feels ancient).

Garden in April

Tomorrow is a holiday and I'm going to sleep in like nobody's business...

"Poll" Poll

scolaro — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:39:19 GMT

View Poll: Polls for testing purposes

Monthly entry - March 2026

scolaro — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:18:15 GMT

March...in which Mum finally returns home and I have to go back to the office.
My dad and brother visit to help out. My aunt dies.
The dog gets her own cart and loves it.

Mum
She returned home mid month and had a bit of a difficult time to adjust because unlike the care facility this ancient house was not built with disability in mind, of course.
But she can walk up and down the stairs and get around as she wishes, albeit slower and with more effort than before.
She also got some appointments with the physiotherapist further up the road from the house, so thankfully she can walk there with her walker and not have anyone come for house visits (because frankly there is hardly any practice offering house visits anymore).
My brother came over to help out with the dog while I had to go back to the office three days last week. My dad drove over on the second day as well - he got Mum to the optician to analyse her eyes and order new glasses and we all had pizza together afterwards, like ancient times. Overall it went well, but Mum and I were happy when the weekend was there and we had the place to ourselves again.

My aunt died
She used to live by herself in the upstairs apartment in my grandparents' house (that my dad and uncle inherited when he passed).
When my uncle hadn't heard from her in three days (they're separated) he opened the door with a drill and found her in the bathtub. Running theory is that she took some painkillers and underestimated the effect it would have on her body to bath in hot water with these meds running through her system.
My cousins (her two daughters) are calm and collected. She'd had mental problems for years and wasn't incredibly social, so it's not a major surprise that this happened. It's still sad that she had to go like this, all alone.

A dog and her cart
A few weeks ago I built a little cart topper for the dog. So basically I bought this cart for pulling by hand or bike, but even though it's the most spacious one I could find it's a bit too small for the dog to lie in comfortably. I made a plan for a simple topper, got wooden boards cut to size at the hardware store and screwed everything together.
Granted I should have painted the thing once it was ready to make it waterproof, but at this point I'm only using it when the sun is shining and my priority is for Vesta to get the most out of it while she is still alive, so it stays "natural" for the moment.

She loves this thing. She is usually moderately happy about going outside (for like five minutes, then she wants to go back), but when I get the cart and bike out she becomes as excited as the old lady can get, even following me back into the house and pushing against my leg with her muzzle to tell me to hurry up. In the cart itself she's just "grinning" the whole time.

We made several trips in our area and I'm planning for us to go into the next town if the weather is nice around Easter. First she always has to walk next to the cart so she gets her steps in, but then I'm perfectly happy to chauffeur her around in the fields. Most people we meet think it's a great idea and smile at her enjoying the ride.
(I think the grumpy ones are just silently envious of her in her private rickshaw.)

At one point we even went to Lidl and I got some groceries while she was waiting outside. She had to get off for the few minutes it took me to put the groceries away and was irritated. But then the top came down again and I left with a happy dog. Cart and bike are excellent as they were able to deal with the extra weight of the groceries plus the cart topper plus the dog.

Her health has been declining for a while now, with a subcutaneous tumor growing on her chest in the region around her right armpit. There is no point in operating anymore as she's too old, but she's getting pain medication, of course.

Feeding takes a while, because she doesn't eat out of her bowl anymore - she insists that someone picks up a piece and holds it over the others, then she may (or may not) take it.
If you just leave the bowl out she will lie next to it and wait. I've let her lie there for up to an hour, then she wears me out because if I wait longer it throws off our schedule.

So I don't argue anymore, but just sit down with her bowl, put a dog towel over her legs like a napkin (as she can be messy) and feed her directly the way she prefers.
Priority is that she gets the food in. How we achieve this goal in the end is secondary.

My long Easter weekend starts today as I took a few more days off to avoid having to go to the office. We'll need to use the extra time to get Mum up to speed, so she can walk the dog when I do have to go back.

Happy Easter to you all!

Monthly entry - February 2026

scolaro — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:46:30 GMT

February...in which Mum starts walking again (albeit slowly and with walking aids).
It snows again like crazy before we feel the first spring-like temperatures.

Mum
She is making some progress now, with the walker and crutches. No stair climbing yet, but she can finally use the bathroom by herself again which is a relief. We're planning on her to return home mid month, but nothing's official yet. /fingers crossed

Dog, Walks

Food
The keto bread was...alright, but it's annyoing that I cannot get any bread to fluff up.

Stuffed bell pepper, cheese/minced meat/leek soup, chicory casserole
The bell pepper was okay, but next time I won't follow the recipe, but use my own minced meat sauce approach. The soup is somehow always phantastic. The chicory casserole...is fine, but the sauce didn't really work this time, as it completely broke in the oven.

Test poll

scolaro — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:56:41 GMT

View Poll: Tickety-tick

Monthly entry - January 2026

scolaro — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 14:12:34 GMT

January...in which the main event is still Mum's situation, but things calm down a bit. She caught a bug and felt like crap for a few days, but is getting better now. Maybe from the end of next week on she can start standing/training to walk properly again. /fingers crossed

We finally get fibre glass (after five years or so), I set up the home network anew and use Gemini 3 to program some phython scripts for me.
The dead tree in the garden is finally removed.
Work has ups and downs, but is more or less fine and I'm glad I didn't take (or had to take) extended vacation.
Vesta enjoys the snow.

Mum
No idea how long it takes for a younger person to get back on their feet after such an accident, but it's been almost 9 weeks now. Hopefully from the end of next week on Mum will be able (and has all the necessary equipment) to put some weight onto her feet again. So far she was doing daily exercises for the joints and a little moving around for the muscles, but at least the muscles seem to disappear very quickly. She will need physio training to get them back. Earlier this week she caught some bug that was flying around in the facility and was sick until now. She's still sniffling and coughing, but the worst seems to be over. On Monday the doc is visiting her for a check-up again.
He'd already written a prescription for walking aids which I'd taking to a store right away, but they need to check with the insurance first, so it'll take another couple of days until it's ready. I mean it's only a few extra days, but if you have some days here and some there it adds up, that's the annoying thing.
(High level complaining about small frustrations, it could certainly be far worse.)

Towel holder
My brother broke the towel holder off on one side during his last visit in December. I got Pattex glue and glued it back onto the wall. For now it's holding up well.

Tree removal
What a difference. That tree looked amazing only a few years back, but the past dry summers killed it in the end. For more than a year now it's been leaning more and more to all sides, threatening to damage the garden house, and a long part even went over to the neighbour's side. Our neighbour asked if he could cut it off, which we of course agreed to. In spring of last year we talked it over and I called the same company that got rid of the two very high pine trees at the back of the garden a few years ago. Due to their workload they could only come by for a quote on the day of Mum's accident in December (not that anyone knew that this would happen on that day, of course).

I was expecting them to take care of the tree in the same month, but frankly wasn't mad that it took until now. At least everything around Mum's care, the dog and my work had settled down somewhat.
Four guys came out in the blistering cold morning, even half an hour early, got to work immediately, waved off my offerings for tea or any other kind of assistance, took the tree down, cut off two branches of the leftover pine tree that were already hanging over the fence, removed the construct around the trunk that had looked good for years, but was falling apart now, cut the upper part of the bush off, cleaned everything up and went on their merry way with the tree itself and related garbage. They started at 8:00 and were gone before midday. Excellent work, I paid the bill when it arrived a few days later (nothing unexpected added to it, everything as agreed) and made a note to give them a great review.

2019

2025

2026

Fibre glass & router setup
After some massive to and fro that lasted for YEARS, with companies going bancrupt, others jumping in etc. we signed up with the latest fibre glass company, TNG, that actually delivered!
It wasn't all smooth sailing, but now the line works and I hopefully won't have to worry anymore about sudden speed drops on the weekend and suchlike.

The first 6 months have a special price attached to it (same for all tiers), so I took the best tier as it allows to switch later, and set a reminder to switch to a lower one by mid year. We'll only have one telephone line then (now it's three), but we really don't need more than one. The only person who receives phone calls on the landline is my Mum anyway, so we'll keep her number. There will be less upload speed (/shrug) and the router TNG provide comes with a 5 € monthly fee on the "lesser" contract.
Since I always wanted to have my own router (which the government ruled people had to be able to use, no matter which provider), I got the Fritz!Box 5690 Pro which is one of the best on the market. No monthly fee for a restricted provider router anymore! I will be able to update my machine whenever a new update is released instead of waiting for a year until the provider decides that the update can be run.
I set the router up, and after some tinkering and with the help of Gemini 3, our wifi is now the best it's ever been. I didn't even have to buy the latest repeater for 200,- € - the Fritz!Repeater 3000 we still had plays nicely with the 5690 Pro, even covering the attic which it didn't do before.
The only things I did buy were the Powerline Set 1220E (replacing the 10 year old 1000E Set), a long network cable to connect one of these units to the repeater, and a network switch to cover for an additional network plug I needed for that repeater. Now the 1st floor repeater is directly connected to the router via cable, so no wifi signal loss.
And outside on the terrace I again set up the Wonlink Repeater I'd bought for the garden quite a while ago. Due to the excellent signal on 1st floor it amplifies it into the garden and the cameras outside go online quicker than before.
It took a while to get all of this right and many initial attempts didn't get great results, but it did distract me for a while and now the "engine" is set up perfectly, to my immense satisfaction. (I'll never stop being a nerd.)

Garden/Yard in January
We did have some snow during January, even more than usual. The dog loves it. At least for 15 or so minutes, then she's adamant we go back in and enjoy the warmth. I love the sight of the snowy garden, but agree that after that time it's enough.

Dog, Walks
It's amazing how different the same area looks covered in snow.

Gemini 3 as personal programmer
It's no accident that I'm using that AI over any others right now, as the Pro version came as a 12 months offer with the Pixel 10 Pro that I'd purchased last year.
I activated it out of curiosity, but didn't really think I would use it much. Sure, for small questions you need no Pro version, but I've started using it as my personal programmer. Despite a handful of shortcomings it wrote me some amazing python scripts.

Network Asset Scanner: A script that calls out for all network devices currently running in the network and lists them with some additional information (name, MAC address, IP address, vendor). I used it to create a master list of all my wifi devices as I added them to the network. (Since I had to set everything up from scratch.)
Fixed a few mistakes in my original list and now have the ultimate network overview.

Asset Tracker: Nothing to do with network devices, just a little program in which I can add any items of my choice with additional information, photos and bills, track where everything is and create an Excel extract for the insurance. There are programs/apps out there that do this and I've tried a few, but they didn't give me what I wanted and the restrictions on the free tier were considerable.
With this one I can change it to my liking, use it on PC and phone and store the photos on my own harddrives or cloud space.

LJ Archiver: My current project is a LJ/DW archive program that pulls down entries and comments from both services to store them in an easy to access html format.
I've started with the little program ysilme mentioned here, ljdump. It didn't work for me, so I poke Gemini about the errors I got and it suggested adjustments.
Eventually I stopped using that script as a source, started from scratch and let Gemini build its own program. It meant some backtracking on things I'd already got to work earlier, but at least I knew that there wouldn't be leftover code in the new script, only the things I'd picked personally.

Gemini managed to get the entry download process to work and after some fiddling and "ban breaks" even built in some behaviour that would take the download process longer, but not constantly trigger a ban from LJ. (They seem to be very strict on bots and data scraping, so the idea is to make it look like the user themselves is downloading the content. Which means slower speed, but at least no 12 or 24 hour waiting time between attempts.)

It works pretty well for entries, but the problem is the comments. I cannot get it to download all of them. First level ones it catches (mostly), but everything below it just doesn't. Not sure if there's anything that can be done about that, but I'll continue trying.

The process is easy enough. Tell Gemini 3 what you want to do and it will suggest some ways how it can be achieved. From then it's hit and miss. It will create the code, you test it, you tell it what works, what doesn't, and what you like and dislike, it adjusts it, you try again etc.
It's not quite as straight foward as this, because sometimes it will make mistakes or forget things you already agreed on or will add random things you never asked for. However, slowly, but surely you're circling around and get closer to what you want. It's pretty damn awesome to live in times like this.
And some of Gemini's random suggestions I hadn't even considered, but improved the scripts.
I'm nowhere near marrying an AI, but very much enjoy our current "work relationship".

Has anyone used AI as their personal programmer (or otherwise) and created something amazing for their life yet? trobadora, for fixing a bad case of writer's block, maybe?

Monthly entry - December 2025

scolaro — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 22:28:12 GMT

December...in which my Mum is hit by a car and breaks both her legs. The month is filled with related organisation (yay, German bureaucracy) and getting work stuff done before the much needed Christmas break.

Thank goodness she's such a tough cookie. She tried to cross the street to take the dog out for her walk, and a lady coming from a side road with her car turns and hits her. I wasn't even supposed to be WFH that day, never heard a thing. Only when I opened the blinds did I see her sitting on the sidewalk on the other side of the street, surrounded by people. No dog.
I ran out to check on her. She had a huge black eye like a price boxer, and clearly no clear idea what was going on. She just repeated that she wanted to go home. Someone said the ambulance was on the way, and then I also saw police officers walking around talking to people.

I asked around where the dog was (fearing she may be running around somewhere endangering herself and others in the process), and was told that a neighbour had taken her with her to make sure she was safe. No one knew who it was, and while I didn't think someone would steal a dog from a random accident site I wanted to find her to make sure she was okay.

The ambulance came and the EMT asked Mum if she was taking any medication. She said "no, nothing", to which I remarked that yes, indeed, she was taking heart medication. She insisted she did not, and the EMT asked if I had a list, so I ran back to the house to print out the one we'd prepared for our trip to SF, to make sure everything would go smoothly at the border.
They took it, a police officer asked for some details on her which I gave, and when I started running around the neighbourhood again the lady who'd taken Vesta came out with her. The dog was right as rain, no scratch on her.
I wanted to tell my Mum that she didn't need to worry about her, but in that moment the ambulance took off.

So I was standing there with the dog and the elderly couple who'd previously taken care of Vesta while we were in SF. They'd been called by yet another neighbour and came down immediately to take Vesta with them (as of course no one knew that I was home that day). They would have taken good care of her, but thankfully I was able to do it myself.
The cops had everything and I took Vesta for her walk, as she had only reached the other side of the street by that time. We didn't go far, of course, and turned around at the bridge when she'd done all her business.

Then back to give her her medicine, called my boss to tell him I wouldn't be working that day, and the hospital where they only told me she'd arrived, but said to call again in the afternoon as they wouldn't be able to say anything before.

I don't really recall what I did until then, tidied up, cooked some food and talked to friends on the phone, I suppose.
Then finally she was in the intensive care waking room and to my great surprise the gave her the phone and I could talk to her immediately. She was lucid, but asked me what exactly had happened and I filled the blanks for her. She was so relieved that the dog was alright, she later said she wouldn't have forgiven herself if anything had happened to Vesta. Not that she had any hand in this anyway.

Friends drove me over to her the same evening and we visited her in her intensive care room. The staff was very friendly, and she was looking...alright, considering the circumstances.

She broke both legs and her cheek bone. They operated on her legs the next day, so now she got ~~bionic legs~~ some metal in them. They decided to not operate on her face, but let it heal by itself which will take as long as the legs (around 8 weeks) and she can't chew, so only soft foods for that period.

The hospital stay was tough on her, especially not being able to use the toilet. Would be tough on anyone, surely. She tried to get used to the bed pan. Having room mates didn't really help.
I continued to work from home to take care of the dog, and went to visit her when it was possible. There were a lot of phone talks and email to care providers, and eventually I managed to get her a room in the same care facility where my grandpa had stayed.

Now she's there for short term care as she cannot put weight on her legs, and our house is full of stairs. Even if we swapped rooms she would have three steps to the bathroom, so it's a no go.
I got a single room for her in the facility which she appreciates a lot.
Finally she got some privacy, and peace and quiet to heal.
Plus it's not too far from home, so I can visit more often, and also bring her stuff she wants on short notice.

Christmas was...different this year. My brother and nephew came around and visited Mum until she had enough and kicked them out. We did the "dance with the dogs" in which my brother has his dog in the living room upstairs while mine was downstairs with me and we closed the doors when needed. It went alright, no fighting, just some whining from Vesta who was not on board with the furry house guest.

I love my brother and nephew, but was more than happy to see them leave on the second day, so they could hop on the train to visit my dad.

This morning I visited Mum and brought her some more things (fresh clothes etc), and we had a nice chat while she was doing her leg exercises in a machine in the bed. She's keen on walking again as soon as possible and does her best to prepare for that as per doctor's orders.
She was going to the New Year's celebration event downstairs with her wheelchair in the afternoon.
When she went to lunch I took my leave, had lunch at home, took the dog out and did a few things around the house.

Now it's 23:25, my neighbours called to invite me to their celebration like...2 hours ago and I think I'll show up just to say hi and be back home with the dog before the rockets really start flying. (Thankfully Vesta doesn't fear fireworks, but I don't want this to change.)

Hopefully your December was less stressful than ours - have a great start into 2026, everyone!

Monthly entry - November 2025

scolaro — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 22:33:18 GMT

November...in which I lean more into the low carb approach, the dog wears clothes and I go wild with a label printer.

Food
This was the first delivery of substances to switch out regular cooking/baking ingredients with low carb ones. Finally I had "fake" powdered sugar for baking cookies! It tastes like the real deal, too!

The meat is not hiding anymore (Recipe) - I skipped the egg and sauce, though:

Peanut butter mouse (Recipe) - I should have gone with the creamy one for a smoother feeling, but it still wasn't bad.

Regular chicken leg and veggies, no specific recipe:

Fried (cauliflower) rice with eggs and veggies (Recipe). Nice, but next time I will more soy sauce and also add some heat:

The waffles (Recipe) were great when they were hot and fresh, but utterly cardboard-y after they had cooled down. Threw them into the oven after I'd made something else in there to see if it'd help, but it didn't work:

Soft chocolate cookies (Recipe) - not as sweet as you would expect, of course, but nice and soft, not dry at all:

The first bread (Recipe) came out rather flat and not fluffy at all. Not sure what I'm doing wrong when it comes to baking powder, stuff never seems to rise for me. But at least it tasted nice. The second bread (Recipe) I tried came out...an omelet. Total failure.

Peanut butter cookies (Recipe). They came out pretty good, even though they didn't look as elegant as in the original recipe.

Minced meat/cabbage pan (Recipe) - threw in some mushrooms for good measure. Very yummy:

PIZZA! (Recipe) - yes, the dough doesn't taste as amazing as real pizza dough, but it was the closest I'd been to real pizza in ages, and the salami helped a lot, too:

Champignon pan again (Recipe), this time with Konjac noodles, also called shirataki noodles. They're the best "fake noodles" I've tried so far.

Very much not keto, but it's hot chocolate time again, and since trobadora shared her recipe with Ritter Sport Peppermint chocolate I ran some tests (for SCIENCE) and came up with what Mum and I consider the best attempt so far, that has the peppermint flavour, but also tastes a bit more like chocolate:

- add two pieces of Ritter Sport to the mugs
- fill up with milk, but leave a bit of space at the top for the whipped cream
- 1 minute in the microwave, then stir, then another minute in the microwave (whip cream in the meantime)
- stir and depending on the state of milk and chocolate another minute in the microwave, if everything has dissolved and it's properly hot remove, stir
- add 1/2 bag of Massimo chocolate powder to each mug
- stir until it's dissolved as well
- add whipped cream and marshmallows
- add a bit of chocolate powder

(It does take longer to go with the Ritter Sport chocolate, so I will continue using just the Massimo powder if I don't want to wait for it, but this works well if I feel like peppermint chocolate.)

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Garden

Dog, Walks
We had a phantastic moon the other night. The dog is in good shape, apart from some issues related to aging. One of them is that she slips more often on the laminate floors in the house, the other are some bald spots on her breast and tummy area.

So I did what I never thought possible: I bought her clothes.
Non-slip socks for indoors, and a coat for outside. I couldn't find any coats that protect also her belly, so we're using our neck gaiters - we pull it over her hind legs and tail and it sits snug over the belly like a large soft belt. No problem with peeing either.
Last weekend it was -8°C, so we were really glad we could get her some proper covering.

She doesn't mind the outdoor clothes, and once she has the socks on she's good as well (no more slipping, it's great!), but she doesn't like us putting the socks on. (She never liked people touching her paws and legs.)
A slightly annoyed dog is a small price to pay, though.

Home Improvement: Ingredient labeling
Black Friday made me do it...I stumbled over this label printer which is now my new favourite toy and I will use it EVERYWHERE around the house.
Starting with the kitchen drawer that was getting completely overloaded in the past couple of weeks. Found a new home that made sense for everything in the kitchen, got two wooden boards cut to size at the hardware store, a bunch of ball mason jars which I already love, created entries on Trello for each individual ingredient - so info like best by dates etc. can be added and easily accessed with the QR codes I incorporated into my label designs. It's like magic.
(Some tweaking will still be necessary, but overall I'm pretty happy with the result already.)

BEFORE

Label Printer and glasses

AFTER

Oh man, tomorrow is already the 1st December. Where did the year go?
Only a few weeks until Christmas (and finally some peace and quiet, I hope).

Monthly entry - September/October 2025

scolaro — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 17:40:44 GMT

A late two month combo entry, because I just didn't get my shit together until now...

September...in which we prepare for the trip to SF and I get the last pieces of my gift for my prof.

Strolling through the city

Rearranging the window plants

Garden

Dog, Walks

October...in which we rest up from the trip and prepare for the colder days. I decide to switch my eating habits up a bit and try low carb. The new doorbell is installed by yours truly. The fibre glass cable arrives at our home. We have a 'fire protection assistant refresher' at work and I'm responsible for the fire. (MUAHAHA)

Food

The roast was nice, if a bit dry. Maybe don't keep it in the freezer too long.

Beef/broccoli pan (Recipe)
Very nice. I probably overdid it a bit with the amount of beef, but I rectified it by "tasting" a lot of it when it came out. Yummy.

Pizza muffins (Recipe)
They are alright fresh from the oven, but a bit dry after a short amount of time.

Cucumber/Ham rolls (Recipe)
Not a new recipe, but I haven't made them in a long time. They're amazing when fresh, but get soggy after a day or so.

Veggie casserole (Recipe)
I adjusted the recipe a bit with the veggies I had available. It wasn't my best attempt and tasted a bit flat.

Cauliflower/Ham casserole (Recipe)
Could eat this every day of the year, just a wonderful combination. So easy, too!

Just a few dishes thrown together, one of them this champignon pan. Very smooth as it contains lots of cream.
The last one is a cheeseburger without bun (the patty is just hiding).

Blueberry cupcake (Recipe): Better than nothing, but a bit on the dry side and not very sweet.

Garden

Dog, Walks

Doorbell installation

Fiber glass cable arrives

Fire Protection Assistant course

This little arsonist's heart was singing... :P

Trip to San Francisco - Overview

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:36:47 GMT

Unbelievable that took me so long to put all the photos and info from our San Francisco trip together. This was supposed to be done the week after my return (in October!!), with the regular (but smaller) monthly entry for October following at the end of that month, as usual.

However, putting together the photos (and occasional videos), sorting out and adding the expenses, Google Maps and the overview the way I wanted it all took ages; at some point it became too much and I just had to do something else. Suddenly I had to work again, catching up with whatever had been brewing during my vacation. After three long weeks with >9 hour days things are seemingly calming down a bit now, and this weekend I swore to myself that I would complete the DW/LJ part.

So here is the report on my San Francisco Trip. One entry per day with lots of photos and a few lines of text to account for what happened are public now.

What we had not expected or accounted for was the US government shutdown, but the only issue we had was that Muir Woods closed down before we could get there, and considering all the other amazing things we saw (including Yosemite despite the shutdown!) it wasn't that bad. Even the lines at the airport on our way back were moderate, so no chaos as some people and outlets had indicated (at least not at that point).

Overview

Day	Date	Locations
01	23rd September 2025	Flight to SF, The Chapter
02	24th September 2025	Union Square, Nintendo Store, Chinatown, North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, Cable Car Turnaround, The Cannery & Lombard Street
03	25th September 2025	SF Premium Outlets
04	26th September 2025	Palace of Fine Arts, Bob's Lookout, Marina District Lighthouse & Wave Organ, The Presidio with the Yoda Fountain & the Lucasfilm Lobby
05	27th September 2025	MBA Event
06	28th September 2025	Lands End Trail Eagles Point, Legion of Honor, Stonestown Galleria
07	29th September 2025	Alcatraz, Painted Ladies
08	30th September 2025	Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito, Ferry Ride, Ferry Terminal Farmer's Market, Tony's Pizza (North Beach), Musée Mécanique, Cable Car Ride
09	1st October 2025	Cable Car Museum, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf
10	2nd October 2025	Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park
11	3rd October 2025	Oracle Park, Treasure Island, Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, Coit Tower, Cheesecake Factory
12	4th October 2025	Yosemite
13	5th October 2025	Japan Town, Salesforce Park
14	6th October 2025	Baker Beach, Fisherman's Wharf
15	7th October 2025	Coffee at Chris' place, flight home

San Francisco Trip, Day 15 (7th October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:29:31 GMT

My prof had invited us to his house that morning, so we hopped on the bus with all our luggage and went to the Caltrain station to catch the train to Burlingame. Due to bus delays we were lucky a nice lady helped us with our luggage because otherwise we might have missed that train. (Imagine our faces when we raced off the bus frantically looking for the entrance to the train station...and then realising it was three flights of stairs down, no elevator. And I had to take Mum's suitcase and my own because it was too heavy for her. Bless that lady who carried Mum's suitcase all the way down.)

Coffee at Chris' place
We made it, got our tickets and took our first Uber ride from Burlingame station to Chris' house. (There is no public transport in that area at all.)
Everything went well. Chris greeted us kindly, gave us something to drink and showed us his beautiful home, including the wild rabbits in his garden. We also met the family cats, one of which my Mum accidentally let out. But I caught her again, thank goodness. I wouldn't have been able to ever show my face on the video call again otherwise.

We cut the meeting short because Chris generously offered to drive us with all our stuff to the airport, so we didn't have to take another Uber. It was a fun ride.

Flight home
We were 6 hours too early, but didn't mind at all. At least we had decent seats near the check-in counter and knew we wouldn't miss that plane.
Funny enough we even had a delay, because when we were on the way to the runway they noticed that 12 passenger hadn't show up, but their luggage was still on the machine. So they took us back to remove it. Uh well, there was some more space on this flight, so we both had two seats to ourselves which was nice (even though still not enough space to sleep properly, so I didn't).
Sadly the food, finger-shaped potato dumplings, roll and snack croissant, was super dry (except the noodle salad, that was nice).

It was a loooong flight and we were happy when we reached Frankfurt.

We dropped our luggage, made sure the house was fine, turned the heating on and went out to get the dog. On the evening walk with her I picked up a pizza from our takeaway for dinner.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
8,58	10.00	Clipper: CalTrain to Burlingame
8,58	10.00	Clipper: CalTrain to Burlingame (Mum)
10,61 & 3,58	11.87 & 4.00	Uber & Tip: Drive to Chris
12,90	-	Train ticket home (Mum)
13,00	-	UZR Karibik: Dinner - Pizza Margarita

San Francisco Trip, Day 14 (6th October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:29:08 GMT

Our last full day in San Francisco. The weather was perfect as if to give us a proper send-off. We went to Baker Beach and got our best shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. A guy was standing around on the beach completely nude and looked as if he was expecting that someone would tell him off. No one gave a fig. My kinda state.
We walked barefoot through the sand and waves, and tried to soak up as much sun as possible as we knew the weather we'd experience upon our return.

Baker Beach

For lunch we went to a place that serves Louisiana comfort food, namely chicken & waffles, a dish on my bucket list. They also gave us home-made muffins that were fantastic.
The food (we shared everything and also added a pear salad) was excellent, but I can't say I "get" why waffles are served with chicken. One is a main dish, and one is a dessert (with syrup and everything!). It still makes no sense to me. It's like serving sausage with ice-cream.

We went back to the city and I finally got my Bokoblin Chest from the Nintendo Store. One of my team mates at work had suggested I try to get one as Nintendo employee as he'd received one in the Nintendo Store in Japan a few years ago. ("Not sure if it was legit or if they just gave it to me because I was a stupid tourist." he'd told me.)
Here they actually checked my credentials and lo and behold, gave me $5 off for this pretty little thing. \o/

Then we visited IKEA, just because. It must be the only IKEA that has windows to the outside world. Mum couldn't help but get a soft-serve (which happens to be both larger AND cheaper in the US). Then we took a tram to Fisherman's Wharf to see the Sea Lions one last time.

Fisherman's Wharf
Somehow you always find something new at Pier 39. This time we actually went into the Christmas shop, and, later on, into an oddity/adventure shop.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
37,92	44.41	Hard Knox Café: Lunch - Chicken & Waffles & Pear Salad
18,54	21.71	Nintendo: Bokoblin Chest Light
1,62	1.90	IKEA: Soft serve (Mum)

San Francisco Trip, Day 13 (5th October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:28:45 GMT

Since Mum had gotten tickets to see the Haas-Lilienthal House while I was on the MBA event we went to Japan Town in the morning to be back when they'd open at 12:00. After some waiting around I googled the place and it turned out the Haas-Lilienthal House wasn't even open on Sundays. XD
So we just went back to Japan Town and took a trip to the Salesforce Park afterwards.

Japan Town

Salesforce Park

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
12,14	14.22	Daiso: Gifts & Souvenirs
6,26	7.33	Daiso: Gifts & Souvenirs
5,98	7.00	Daiso: Gifts (Mum)
4,59	5.38	Soko Hardware: Kite gift for friend's granddaughter
11,29	13.22	Best Boy Electric: Coffee, hot chocolate

San Francisco Trip, Day 12 (4th October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:28:21 GMT

Guess we were lucky the trip was still on, despite the US government shutdown. We got up at 4:25, turned off the alarm and slipped out as quietly as we could to not wake John up...just to find him dozing in one of the comfy chairs in the dark kitchen. Uh well, to each their own.

Yosemite
We got ready, grabbed our stuff and walked about a block and a half to the Holiday Inn, the pickup spot. Glenda came around in her bus to pick us up - we were the first guests who got aboard. First choice of seats, yay us! She stopped twice more to pick up more guests, then we were off to Raley's store in Oakdale, about two hours on the way to Yosemite, to stock up on food, just in case there was nothing open at the National Park. Then more driving (and shut-eyes for me).

We arrived at the center which was bustling like there was no tomorrow, and watched the chipmunks run around while eating lunch. Afterwards we peeked into the gift shop and then made our way to the waterfall. It felt like being at a theme park, with tons of tourists taken the same route.

We took our shots like the million people around us. On the way back a bear appeared. An honest-to-God free-roaming brown bear. Not to far from the walkway. It was not scary at all, because some people actually left the walkway and went into the forest to get as close to it as possible and I figured by the time it would reach us it would not be hungry anymore. But it seems the bear strolled away and we went on the search for our bus.

We went to the next spot, after 20 minutes or so trying to get back to the road amidst the masses of cars and busses. Glenda remarked that it felt like the peak of tourist season in July.

This is El Capitan, one of the hardest mountains to climb as it goes almost straight up. Just the previous week a young climber had lost his life trying to scale it. We still spotted other climbers on the way up and the zoom did its amazing work again as you could barely see them with the naked eye.

Then came the Giant Sequoias, giant trees at the bottom of a long way to the forest which we would have needed to get down to and back up in 45 minutes. About half-way down we abandoned this particular adventure as we knew we wouldn't otherwise make it.

Last stop at the park was the Yosemite sign for photos, then we passed through Raley's again and were dropped off at the Holiday Inn.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
375,65	439.92	Dylan's Tours: Yosemite Day Tour for 2
24,72	28.95	Raley's: groceries
10,17	11.91	Raley's: groceries (Mum)

San Francisco Trip, Day 11 (3rd October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:27:52 GMT

Oracle Park was on my list of place to see, not because of a sudden interest in Baseball, but because I'd watched the second part of "San Andreas" (the disaster movie with The Rock in which San Francisco is destroyed) by coincidence before the trip and I absolutely wanted to see this particular location to compare it to the scene on a rewatch. It was pretty cool seeing the same area we'd previously been in surrounded by debris!
I added some comparison screenshots from the film below my own set of photos!

Oracle Park

Oracle Park (San Andreas, 2015)

I haven't watched the rest of the movie yet, but ordered the Blu-ray and will surprise my Mum with a SF destruction feast at some point.

Treasure Island
Since I'd had the MBA event the previous Saturday we sadly missed a food truck event on Treasure Island on that day, but still wanted to take a look around, especially since it wasn't far away by bus.
It was a kinda...boring place where we got off, but at least we walked past these three very cool dachshund statues.

The area we were roaming got us some nice photos, but overall it was an industrial area with companies, a smelly water treatment plant, and low income housing. We may have missed some amazing sights, but the sun was burning down on us, and by the time we found another bus stop we were very hungry and just went back to the city with bus 25.
We ended up not going to In 'N Out Burger again as it was too far away, but found a Super Duper Burger near the bus station. The garlic fries were okay overall, but swam in oil. The burger was even a bit better than at In 'N Out Burger, really amazing. And they make their own pickles that weren't bad either.

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory
We went on to the Fortune Cookie Factory we'd passed by the other day and it was not easy to miss it, a tiny shop in a small side alley.

My Mum had a quick interaction outside with someone's very enthusiastic pooch and her hand ended up with a tiny cut. Seeing the blood drop on her hand the lady at the counter immediately got her a band-aid, she was so nice.

The machines were impressive. You could watch one automatically squeeze a blob of dough onto the plate which was then closed and moved through an oven in a circle. There were still flames around it when it came out on the other side. The worker then would remove the still bendable cookie and decide whether to add a fortune or throw it into the bucket with the "fortune-less" cookies which were sold by the bag.

You could sample the fortune-less cookies which were amazing, fresh out of the oven. No comparison to the garbage cookies you get in Germany after a meal in most Chinese restaurants, sorry to say. I seriously had no idea fortune cookies could taste like that!

We took a small box of proper fortune cookies as souvenir which the lady threw into a bag and added some more fresh sample cookies. Then we started on the long journey to Coit Tower.

Coit Tower
If I'd known how long and how UPWARDS the walk would be I may have skipped this attraction. Oh boy, so many hills and so many stairs. But the view - the many views - were worth it.
What was also worth it were the murals inside. We didn't pay to take the elevator up, but enjoyed what was there to begin with.

On the way back we were nibbling on the fortune-less cookies and spontaneously decided we needed a bag of them to take home, so we stopped at the Fortune Cookie Factory again before taking the bus to Union Square.

Cheesecake Factory
The name is famous, and I had a certain expectation of what to find on the top floor of Macy's. But instead of anything "factory-like" it was a high class restaurant that also sold cake. We'd initially planned to sit down to eat, but changed our minds and only took a piece of Key Lime pie with us. (Which was amazing, with far too much tasty cream.)

Then off to Target, since we were in the area, for bread and some watermelon juice. In the long queue at the cashier we met a German guy who's lived in the States for 30 years and chatted with him until it was our turn.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
16,51	19.28	Super Duper Burger: Lunch - Burger & Garlic Fries
5,35	6.25	Super Duper Burger: Lunch - Soft serve
11,10	13.00	Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory: Fortune cookies
8,56	10.00	Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory: Fortune-less cookies
8,26	9.67	Target: groceries
13,46	15.76	The Cheesecake Factory: Key Lime Pie

San Francisco Trip, Day 10 (2nd October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:27:07 GMT

It had been raining in the early morning, and was still grey and wet outside.
That's why we took the bus to Golden Gate Park to see the Conservatory of Flowers, but when a few rays of sunshine came out on the way, we changed plans and went to Ocean Beach instead.

Ocean Beach

Okay, it was still neither sunny nor bright, but we were going to enjoy the beach, dammit!

My feet were wet and sandy when we left for the bison enclosure in Golden Gate Park.
Yes, you read right, the BISON enclosure!

Golden Gate Park

We hung around the area for a while as the bisons were locked up in the back and could barely be seen, but luckily at some point one of the rangers(?) opened the gate to the open field and slowly they stuck their heads out and walked out.
Aren't they AMAZING?!

When we left we were starting to get hungry. There was a pizza place at a tiny joint about two blocks away from the park that we wanted to try out (20 minutes away on foot), but they had only bagels until dinner, so we went to Fuwa Dumpling to try their beef pancakes and corn & chicken dumplings. Both dishes were excellent.

The restaurant was rather empty, so we (mainly my Mum) took the opportunity to write some more postcards.

Afterwards we went back to Golden Gate Park to see some rabbits in the "Bunny Meadow". After some searching around and finding some...interesting statues...we realised that "Bunny Meadow" was just the name of an area, not a place to find actual bunnies. So sad...
However, there were still many squirrels around to watch.

And a little "Positive fox" we first spotted in an area with tables and benches, and that had actually moved to a bench in a different area when we walked by later. XD

Eventually we spotted the Conservatory of Flowers building, but they seemed to to be in the process of closing up (maybe because of the storm that was approaching) and we decided to get out of there instead. I wasn't anyway super excited about paying a bunch of money to see some flowers to begin with, no matter how impressive.

On the way back we passed by a big thrift store, "Out of the Closet" I'd wanted to check out, and found a few t-shirts for a small price. Afterwards we got some fruit from the grocer our roomie John had recommended and went back to the hostel to have dinner.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
32,81	38.43	Fuwa Dumpling: Lunch
1,71	2.00	Out of the Closet: 1 T-Shirt (Cash)
10,79	12.60	Out of the Closet: 2 Tops (Mum)
-	5.28	Golden Farmer Market: grapes & bananas

San Francisco Trip, Day 9 (1st October 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:26:42 GMT

We started the day by tidying up our pods as we would get new linens, and buying new 7-Day passes for public transport. This time I got a Clipper Card for Mum as well as I didn't want to chance it with her Muni app.
The day started out rather grey again, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to visit the Cable Car Museum to find out how the system works. We walked past a huge hotel which had a statue of Tony Bennett standing in the front, near the zebra crossing underneath a small sign labelled "Tony Bennett Way".

Cable Car Museum
We continued on our way and reached the Museum not long after. It's pretty impressive. Such an old system, and it still works to this day. The massive wheels pulling the cables the cars ride on throughout the city. One of them was out of commission, but the others were running. All kinds of items related to the cars were on display all over the place, and at the far end a documentary film from the 70s or 80s ran on a loop on a small tv. The best part was when they explained how the Cable Cars move; they basically grab onto the cable in the ground and are being pulled.

Chinatown
After the museum we walked on towards Chinatown for an early lunch of rice rolls at a small place with a huge sign. We wanted to find the Dragon Gate which was all the way down south. We took some photos of graffiti, stores and statues, and finally the actual Dragon Gate, and only THEN saw that the other attraction we'd been after, the Fortune Cookie Factory, was actually located just around the corner of the small restaurant we'd had lunch at. Because of course it was.

Instead of turning back towards the Fortune Cookie Factory (it would have been another walk all the way up as no buses or trams were going there), I found an ice cream parlor with great reviews and after a short stop at Target we took the tram to "The Philmore Creamery" for three scoops of excellent gelato, then wandered further up the street and stopped at paper shop to check out their Halloween decoration and some of the funny cards and other merchandise.

Fisherman's Wharf
Somehow we landed back on a bench near the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. I had a bunch of postcards to write and decided to do it right there.
We found some more stores we'd missed the first time around on the upper floor.

Back at the hostel John recommended a nearby supermarket for fresh produce at reasonable prices.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
41,57	47.00	Clipper: 7 Day Public Transport Pass
41,57	47.00	Clipper: 7 Day Public Transport Pass (Mum)
-	3.26	Cable Car Museum: Postcards (Mum) (Cash)
-	10.00	Rice Roll Express: Lunch (Filled Rice Rolls)
13,24	15.50	Philmore Creamery: Ice Cream
10,14	12.18	Target: groceries

San Francisco Trip, Day 8 (30th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:26:21 GMT

Bridge Day! The plan was to go over the bridge to Sausalito by bus (130) and take the ride back on the ferry, the checking out the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Terminal. And that's exactly what we did!

Golden Gate Bridge
Going over the bridge is not covered by the regular public transport ticket, and neither was the ferry trip, but we were prepared, and with the Clipper ticket you can easily charge up, even while you're already on the way.

Sausalito
My brother and nephew had spent two nights or so here while they were travelling together a few years back. It's pretty, but I was glad that our hostel was directly in the city.

Ferry Ride
Oh dear, SO MANY photos of the bridge and the city skyline, but I just couldn't remove any more...

Farmer's Market
Fittingly pidgeons were sun bathing with gusto near a status of Mahatma Ghandi next to the Ferry Terminal building. I'd made a note to buy some olive oil at the stand to take home as a souvenir, and we also took a second batch as present for the couple who'd taken care of Vesta. (They kept sending "reports" with photos via WhatsApp every once in a while telling us that she was fine which was very sweet.)

The steel(?) mermaid seemed to be a new installment they'd just set up. At least there was a crowd and people gave speeches.

Tony's Pizza
The lady at the Olive oil stand had directed us to Tony's for pizza. It was a looong way and we almost found a place before as we were so hungry, but eventually made it. The pizza was indeed very nice, but I think our pizza places in Germany are already pretty cool, so there was no "revelation" or anything. The price tag was a bit more steep this time, though, despite the fact that we were sharing.

Musée Mécanique
After lunch we walked back to Fisherman's Wharf to go see this particular museum. We just walked through and didn't spend any money on machines - they were interesting enough all by themselves. And some of the puppets looked like something out of a horror movie...looking at YOU, "Laughing Sal"!

Cable Car Ride
It's very cool watching the driver work with the ancient levers to keep the car on track, break and go up and down the...well, streets of San Francisco.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
10,12	11.80	Clipper: Bus over the Golden Gate Bridge
6,53	7.60	Clipper: Bus over the Golden Gate Bridge (Mum)
10,12	11.80	Clipper: Ferry Trip Sausalito-SF
6,53	7.60	Clipper: Ferry Trip Sausalito-SF (Mum)
58,13	68.00	Stonehouse California Olive Oil: 2 sets of oil, 1 for us, one for friends
~10,00	~12.00	Fog City Flea Trading Post: SF Tea towel (receipt lost) (Cash)
31,39	36.72	Tony's Pizza: Lunch - Napolitana Pizza

San Francisco Trip, Day 7 (29th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:25:54 GMT

We got up earlier than usual to be at the Ferry (Pier 33) in time for the Alcatraz Tour. On the way we realised that we'd forgotten our water bottles, so we dropped by a 7/11 (the only store open at the time) to buy two small bottles for the trip.
We took photos on the way as it was eerily empty in the area.

Alcatraz

At Pier 33 flies were already swarming and I remembered reading the review of someone complaining about being surrounded by very annoying flies on the island. We got in line and onto the boat.

The audio tour was pretty amazing, and thankfully it was available in German for Mum. We walked through the building from cell to cell while people who'd spent time on Alcatraz (either as inmate or guard) explained about their life in the blocks while it was still a prison. Pretty gruesome, altogether. I can't even imagine staying in one of these tiny dirty cells for months or years on end. Let alone the solidary confinement cells.

At least while we were inside the buildings the flies let up a bit, but outside you felt you were eaten alive. Even taking photos was difficult because you wanted to constantly wipe your arms and face. We got a few postcards and returned to the pier. Had lunch at the In 'N Out Burger at Fisherman's Wharf (now full of tourists again), grabbed a box of sweets at "It's Sugar" and strolled a bit further down the street, then went back to the hostel.

Painted Ladies
At the hostel we changed quickly, as the weather had changed and was now sunny and warm. We went out again to see the Painted Ladies, and even found a post office on the way to buy some more international stamps.

Took photos of the "Ladies" from all possible angles and enjoyed the sun in Alamo Square Park.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
3,50	4.08	7 Eleven: 2 bottles of water
17,16	20.00	Alcatraz: Postcards etc.
12,02	14.01	IN 'N OUT: Double Double Burger
17,15	19,99	It's Sugar: Candy box
8,75	10.20	US Postal Service: 6 international stamps

San Francisco Trip, Day 6 (28th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:25:27 GMT

What a grey day. We took the bus to Lands End Eagles Point to get a better look at the Golden Gate Bridge, but the weather was not on our side.

Lands End Trail Eagles Point
You hardly saw the bridge at all, and halfway there it had begun to drizzle. Slightly depressed we went on to see if there was a bus to take us to some nicer (and drier) place.

Legion of Honor
We stumbled over this war memorial and took a few shots while we were waiting for the bus.

Stonestown Galleria
Thank goodness we found some light, colour, warmth and good food in this mall. And Mum was happy about her soft-serve. I wanted to get a box of Scooby Snacks, but forgot, so I just have a picture as proof of their existence.
We got a few things for dinner from Target and went back to the hostel a bit earlier for a long shower and dinner afterwards.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
10,44	12.17	Panda Express: Lunch (Noodles & Orange & Sesame Chicken)
3,86	4.50	Uncle Tetsu's: Mini Cheesecake
5,96	6.95	Matcha Café Maiko: Soft serve for Mum
-	8.97	Stonestown Galleria Target: groceries

San Francisco Trip, Day 5 (27th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:25:05 GMT

Finally, the event I'd initialised the whole trip for - today I met my professor and some of my fellow MBA students in person, and officially received my diploma. There aren't too many photos as it was a bit of a private affair and I didn't want to publish the faces of a bunch of people willy-nilly. My prof is fair game as he's very much making himself a public figure to begin with. XD

Unfortunately I haven't received the diploma photos from him yet, will have to inquire in the next video chat.

MBA Event
I took the bus to Caltrain station pretty early, so I would have some buffer time, but it wasn't even necessary. At last these were "proper" trains, unlike BART - comfy and running properly.
Downtown Burlingame on a sunny morning is a picture perfect example of a beautiful residential area for wealthy people - it has attractive parks, top-rated schools, elegant architecture, and upscale shops and restaurants.

Not much was open yet, not even the event location where I met Devon, a fellow student who'd arrived from South Africa with a friend and colleague. Since the sun was pretty hot I moved around a corner into the shade where I ran into Gary, a student-turned-teacher who also logs in regularly on the Thursday open office calls. We talked a few minutes, then walked back to the event location which had opened up in the meantime.

There was Chris (of course), but also Christina (who'd arranged the graduation event), Brian, Jason, Eric, Michelle, Shawn, Mildred, Jiaming and other people I didn't know from our Thursday evening online meet-ups.
I'm not great at this kind of get-togethers, but it does help if you are at least a bit familiar with the people, and everyone was super nice.
Breakfast was followed by some speeches, an intro to the new community platform and a "You 2.0" workshop.
There was also a great selection of dishes for lunch and dinner on the little buffet, so no one went home hungry.

At some point the people receiving diplomas including myself went onto the stage one by one, got theirs, shook hands with the prof and got a photo taken. At the end everyone was asked on the stage and in the front and group photos were taken.
I haven't received those yet, unfortunately, but I'll inquire about them next week.

Chris was constantly around talking to people and signing his book for them later in the evening. I gave him the gifts I'd brought - totally went with the "apple for the teacher" theme: a bottle of (alcohol-free) apple cider my area is famous for, plus a small glass of apple spread, a book (Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods") and some spicy gummies from the Bärenladen.
He was appreciative and signed his book for me as well.

It was already dark when I got out. There was a band just finishing playing on a little stage not far from the event location. I took the next train back into the city and had to wait for a while at a bus station - where someone had parked a very cool car.

Was it all I had envisioned? It came pretty close overall. Some of the speeches contained a lot of what I'd already heard before, either during the course or in the open office meet-ups, but it was nice nevertheless, and I feel between the food, the goodie bags everyone received and getting to know my fellow students a bit better Chris had overdelivered on his promise, and the price we'd paid for taking part in this event.

If I'd been in the States by myself I would have taken part in the trip to Nappa with the group on the following Monday, but I wasn't going to leave Mum all by herself for another day. And as nice as everyone is, being around a bunch of people talking English all day, while not understanding anything (and not knowing anyone) would have been too much for her. So I swapped that particular adventure with our trip to Alcatraz.

What was very cool, though, was that before I left Chris invited both myself and my Mum to his house for coffee on the day of our flight back.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
13,84	16.20	Clipper: Transit Fares (26th-29th Sept.)
13,01	15.20	Clipper: Transit Fares (26th-29th Sept.) (Mum)
6,86	8.00	Haas Lilienthal House

San Francisco Trip, Day 4 (26th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:24:42 GMT

This time I managed to sleep until 4:00 in the morning, but was awake from then on. After breakfast (without milk for tea and coffee as the hostel's delivery hadn't arrived, boooh) we took the bus to the Palace of Fine Arts.

Palace of Fine Arts

Bob's Lookout, Marina District Lighthouse & Wave Organ

From the palace we walked towards the Marina. At Bob's Lookout we saw the Golden Gate Bridge properly for the first time. Google Maps showed Lighthouse and Wave Organ nearby, so we continued walking all the way to the end. Apparently the best time to actually hear something through the listening ports is during the full moon - we didn't hear much apart from some splashing sounds. Still, a very interesting construct.
It was getting late and we were both hungry.

Next on the list was the Yoda statue in The Presidio, so we turned around and walked by the other side of the Palace of Fine Arts to the park entrance.

The Presidio with the Yoda Fountain & the Lucasfilm Lobby

The hunger was becoming more intense, so we decided to go to Café RX first and check out Yoda afterwards. After some walking around the building we found the entrance to the place. It had a school/office canteen feeling, but the food was excellent. We even got some nice lemonade on top.
It was our first time eating quesadillas, and the apple salad with blue cheese and walnuts went with it perfectly.

Now it was Yoda's turn. From two colleagues who'd visited only a few years back I knew we could also go into the lobby of the Lucasfilm building, so we did and took some more photos of the cool exhibition inside.

Cable Car Ride
We were a bit unsure about where to go next. We'd only scratched The Presidio so far, but were not really in the mood for a "walk in the park", so we went back to the Turnaround and took the Cable Car to Union Square. The Bokoblin Chest Light was sold out, but Mum got a San Francisco bag and some more postcards and stamps from the souvenir store next to it. (By the way, quite obviously: Don't buy stamps from souvenir stores, they rip you off. We got them cheaper from the Post Office later on.)

Since I had the Graduation event the following day, we decided to head back to the hostel a bit earlier, so I could take a shower and get ready. On the way we stopped by Whole Foods again and picked up some things. The bill showed a whooping $55, mainly because the bacon Mum thought was $6 was actually $22. XD (At least it was great bacon we could enjoy until the last day thanks to the hostel fridge.)
Since there still was no milk for coffee and tea Mum went back after I'd had my shower and got some condensed milk in a can that...turned out to be nowhere near anything like the condensed milk we know in Germany, but a thick, super sweet stuff for baking.
Sadly we learned from the girl at reception that Mike had already left after he'd received some negative feedback on his inquiry at the consulate. He'd left a nice message, though.
I packed my gifts and clothes for the next day.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
-	25.00	RX Café: Lunch
38,42	44.74	Union Square 4K: Bag, Postcards (Mum)
47,50	55.37	Whole Foods: groceries
3,17	3.69	Whole Foods: condensed milk

San Francisco Trip, Day 3 (25th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:23:56 GMT

You would think that a visitor to San Francisco checks out the highlights in the city first (starting with the Golden Gate Bridge), but I was on a bit of a time table as the MBA graduation event I'd come for in the first place would take place on the following Saturday.
So I had strategically planned to do some clothes shopping beforehand.

SF Premium Outlets
Finally bit the bullet and got a Clipper card due to my problem with the Muni app. It meant that I had to buy the 7 Day Pass again, but at least we were both "legit" bus/tram hoppers now and I wouldn't have to explain my situation if anyone checked. The Clipper app couldn't be installed from the Google Play Store because I was supposedly "in the wrong country", but side-loading it worked, and adding it in Google Wallet was a breeze.
Of course I sent messages asking Muni to refund my money for the ticket I couldn't use. So far I hadn't received an answer to my original messages via their email address and X.

After that was taken care of we took the BART train to Dublin (had to pay extra for that, but the cost for transportation is much cheaper than in Germany), and from there bus 14 to the SF Premium Outlets as I was looking for something nice to wear to my MBA event, and Mum had a US Outlet Center on her bucket list. The ride was again tough, with the train constantly accelerating and breaking. I was truly beginning to hate BART.

Once at our destination the weather became more beautiful than before and we strolled through the open air shopping area happily, visiting all kinds of stores. It was fun, but Mum was disappointed as she'd imaged the location would be much grander and not so similar to these kinds of places in Germany. (When she'd gone to her first US mall 25 or so years ago it had still been much different from German shopping places, and clearly much more impressive.)

Lunch was at Popeyes at the food court, but the burger was only mediocre (fries were nice).

The expensive labels in the small Outlet stores didn't do it for me, but at Ross across the street I found a nice black dress shirt that fit the occasion (and my stupidly pear-shaped body).
Unexpectedly we also found a pair of cool fabric shoes at a place called "Hey Dude", and pretty much at the last minute a formal black vest for me that didn't go with the shirt, but fit so well that I just had to take it.

It was already dark by the time we returned to the city.

We had a pleasant chat with our roomie, and found out about an additional toilet in the reception area of the hostel (which is obviously nice to know during busy times).

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
40,08	47.00	Clipper: 7 Day Muni Pass (new one b/c Muni app wasn't working)
13,43	15.75	Popeyes Burger & Fries
23,82	27.93	Ross: Black formal shirt
101,24	117.89	Hey Dude: 2 pairs of shoes
65,93	76.77	Express: Formal vest
20,77	24.36	Whole Foods: groceries

San Francisco Trip, Day 2 (24th September 2025)

scolaro — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:23:30 GMT

Gah, jetlag. We were both awake at 2:00 in the morning and tried to rest as much as possible, but in the end got up quite early.
There is no breakfast at The Chapter, but they have complimentary coffee and tea, so we poured a cup each and planned the day.

Muni support hadn't responded, which was no surprise because I'd sent them an email rather late and it was surely before their starting time. At least I could prove that I'd purchased the ticket, so I wasn't too concerned about being caught without one. There is a support center not too far from the hostel which was our first stop that morning, but they couldn't help as the issue concerned the app and they're not affiliated with that. Note to self (and anyone going there): Don't use the Muni app, use Clipper instead! You can use the very same tickets for the same price and it's far more dependable. (At least for Mum the Muni app was working.)

Union Square

After that dissatisfying event we continued to Union Square. It was still early, so there weren't many people around and the shops hadn't opened yet.
It didn't take long at all for the first driver-less car to drive by (last picture). Our excitement over its appearance dissolved a bit over the next few days as those things are virtually everywhere.

We rested a bit on the square, then checked out a souvenir and a clothes store nearby (next to a cool graffiti wall). The Halloween hoodie was very tempting...

And at last the Nintendo Store also opened...

The Daruk PVC Statue (photo 3) cost $135, so as beautiful as I thought it was no way I would buy it. The Bokoblin Chest (photo 4) was tempting, but I held back. In retrospect I should have just bought it then and there as it was sold out the next few times I got to the store and only returned on the last day (when I finally nabbed it). Hindsight is 20:20.

We picked up some SF postcards from the souvenir shop, then walked through Chinatown...

...and North Beach...

...to Fisherman's Wharf.

We were already pretty beat at that point, but still walked on as Lombard Street wasn't too far away and on the way back to the hostel. Not considering that it would be a steep uphill battle to even get there, let alone all the stairs from the bottom of Lombard.
On the way there we spotted the Cable Car Turnaround at Powell Street.

Pretty damn cool, considering it has been around for such a long time and still works.

Then we passed by The Cannery and I immediately remembered that it appears in an episode of "The Streets of San Francisco". Went in, took some shots of the staircase and captured the images of the episode when I got back. I'd wanted to return to the location at a later point to look around some more, but we were too busy with other things, so I didn't get any shots from the first floor, unfortunately. The staircase itself still looks exactly as on the show, only the construction next to it had been removed in the meantime.

Captures from "The Streets of San Francisco - 2.01 - A Wrongful Death:

We walked on and somehow made it to Lombard Street.

Also, first time we saw the Golden Gate Bridge AND a Tesla Cybertruck out in the wild (both in the last pic). Admittedly I had to ask Perplexity what the name of "the weird looking car of Elon Musk" was, but it knew right away what I was talking about. XD
There weren't a lot in the city altogether, but we saw more of them that I'd anticipated.

We shuffled back to the hostel, thinking that we'd packed more into a single day than others into a whole vacation week...what a great start!
Also, we finally met our room mate John properly, and he turned out to be a very nice guy after all, only...a bit stressed and absent-minded, especially after work.
We also met an elderly guy named Mike who lives in Spain and came to the city in the hope of getting some sort of longer-standing permission from the consulate to keep living in Spain, and not having to come to the US every couple of months to renew this permission.

Google Maps Timeline

Expenses

Euro (€)	Dollar ($)	Description
12,11	13.13	Union Square 4K: Postcards (Mum)
-	17.89	The Hook: Fish & Chips (Cash)
69,26	81.58	Hard Rock Café Hoodie
21,50	24.36	Whole Foods: groceries