Dinner tonight

Sushi rolls and beer.  The sushi rolls are vegetarian.  Sometimes I get ones with beef in it but this time I went veggie.  I think these taste better than the ones with beef but sometimes I feel like eating animals.

Strung Nate’s racket

Strung Nate’s racket.

Quick groceries run

EM Market is the local grocery store around here that sells Asian foods.  It’s on the way home from the BART station so I often stop by to get these items.  I pretty much only buy these items…except for the instant noodles.  I don’t eat instant noodles much these days but I thought that in a pinch it would be a good backup plan.  I know this food has a lot of sodium so I’m trying to keep it to a minimum.

Match vs Memorial Albany

We played against Memorial-Albany today.  They are one of the toughest teams that we have to face during the season..twice.  We lost.  Doro and I played number 2 doubles and lost 1-6, 3-6.  Basically, we go killed.  We lost because we were less consistent than our opponents.  We hit a lot of double faults (free points for them) and we didn’t get balls back both on service returns and during regular exchanges.  Nate’s observation was that the other team (all of them) had a good service game.  That’s important because it puts a lot of pressure on the returner to hit a good ball.  If not, then it gets put away.

I walked to the courts today.  It took me just about 1 hour to walk the 2.6 miles to the courts from my place.  In my backpack, I had my video camera, tripod, scoresheet binder, tennis racket, and 3 cans of tennis balls.  Of course, I had my wallet, keys and phone with me too.  The load wasn’t too bad but towards the end, my shoulders were starting to feel a bit sore.  I took a one minute break at mile 2.  I got a ride home with Doro.

Davie Tennis Stadium in Piedmont is one of the nicest public courts in the Oakland area.  It’s probably the nicest, actually.  It’s nestled in an old quarry so wind is really cut down and the ball makes a wonderful pop sound when you strike it.  It sounds like you’re watching the pros play.  The downside is that in the winter, it takes a while for the courts to dry because the trees put the courts in the shade.

Lunch today

My match today starts at 3PM.  I typically try to eat and drink 3 hours before a match so I had my lunch at noon.  I just ate the left-overs from last night and some Calpico.  Hopefully this will give me enough energy to get past the match.

On weekends there aren’t many public transit options for getting to Davie Tennis Stadium.  I’m going to walk.  It’s 2.6 miles so it should take about an hour to get there.  I’ve done a good portion of the walk already today when I went to Cafe DiBartolo.  Unfortunately, I came home.  ;O)

Suit

Adena helped me get my measurements for a dress shirt.  Looks like I need a 14.5″ neck with 32″ sleeves.  From yesterday’s search for suits, I found that I have a 34″ chest.  JoS. A. Bank has shirts that fit this description online.  I checked Hickey Freeman where I ordered my suit but their shirts start at $160.  I’ll go with Jos. A. Bank but not before checking to see if I can get a made to order shirt around here.

Small suits are hard to find.  There were a couple here and there but they weren’t black which is what was requested of the groomsmen.  We went to a Nordstroms Rack, Nordstroms in Stonestown Mall and then to a Nordstroms in downtown San Francisco.  None of them really carried very many suits in my size.  Donovan had much more selection.  They had to head-off for a wedding so I stayed and looked at Hickey Freeman because I heard that they carried smaller sized suits.  They didn’t have one in stock but they offered to make one.  It’ll take 3 weeks for them to get one made up and then I still have to come in for the final fitting.  I assume that’ll take another week or so.  The suit cost $1430.  Given that I’ll wear this thing every 3-4 years, it’ll last a lifetime….as long as I don’t gain too much weight.

Cafe DiBartolo

I’m having breakfast at Cafe DiBartolo. This place got some good reviews on Yelp so I decided to check it out. It’s about a 35-40 minute walk from my place around the lake so it’s a bit tough in the morning. The small coffee and toasted bagel with butter came out to just over $4 which I thought was pretty steep given that the coffee is really small. It’s a full $1 more than the coffee and bagel I get from my local coffee shop, Good News Cafe. I’d say the bagel here tastes better though. The ambiance is much better. It’s a larger facility, the tables and chairs are superior, the music is better, and there’s more traffic which is nice if you’re hanging out.