Full weekend

 

Intern has been working a lot on the weekends for the past few months. When Intern works on the weekends, sometimes it forces me to work on the weekends too, and I generally disapprove of this practice. This weekend he decided (!!!) to take a break from his usual serious-business of wire frames and systems and things, to join me in my weekend full of kittens and green smoothies. YAAAY.

We did more than snuggle kittens and drink delicious green health drinks though, especially since our good friends Jason and Taylor came to town. Oh, and it was sunny again. We started our weekend with French 75s at Lone Palm, met a few new future-friends and walked ourselves to several spots in the Mission in search of dinner and just one more drink. We had dinner at Locavore, followed by a nightcap at Iron & Gold. We did not need said nightcap.




On Saturday we went to a knife sharpening class at Town Cutler, and learned a ton about sharpening knives (and actually sharpened knives!) with Japanese whetstones. We met up again with our previously mentioned friends for an attempted visit to the Tonga Room, but we gave up when we saw the absurdly long line, JUST TO GET IN. Turns out, Tonga Room is quite popular with EVERYBODY, so we left.

We settled instead for a glass of wine at Bouche, then had a quick bite to eat at Chow before going home to rejoin our house full of cats for a full 8 hours of glorious sleep.

Skill Exchange part two

While there are still a few workshops to be added to the schedule, I am happy to share some of our newest collaborators, along with a few old friends. Our eventbrite page has a sneak peek at a few of our workshops coming up in February and March. I'll be adding more workshop dates and descriptions throughout this week and next.

After our fall workshop series, we surveyed over 100 people who had participated in our fall events. We received a lot of great feedback, particularly from those who couldn't get a ticket for their favorite workshop, and a lot of sad emails from people, wanting more tickets. Sad emails guys, really sad emails.

In response to the popularity of our events, and our small workshop size, we have decided to institute a $10 ticket reservation fee. Offering skills through free workshops has always been an essential part of this project, since I believe very strongly that these skills are valuable, and should be available to everyone.

This $10 ticket reservation fee doesn't mean we're changing our free workshop model, but we are working hard to ensure that we are able to serve as many people as possible.The goal of this fee is to cut down on no-shows, and late cancellations, to ensure that our classes are comfortably full and we can share these workshops as many participants as possible. There is nothing sadder than a waiting list full of people, and a class only 2/3 full.

This $10 fee is fully refundable when you attend the workshops. Simply pay the $10 ticket reservation fee on eventbrite, then check in at the workshop, and you'll be refunded online within 24 hours. No-shows, and late cancellations will unfortunately, not be refunded. Yep! We're calling any no-shows "kind investors" in our project, and we'll put that money towards supporting our workshops with printing and other costs associated with giving valuable things away for free.

Every workshop listing on eventbrite will now include all the details about our policy change, including an explanation on how to get your refund, so this will hopefully be an easy transition for everyone. Donna and I are very excited to share our next round of workshops, and we're looking forward to meeting more of you through these events!

Cat vibes

There is some intense love happening in our front window this morning. Loud purring, eyes closed, loving. Sofia woke up feeling particularly friendly, after a not-so-nice attempt to bite a friend last night. It was horribly embarassing, and completely unprovoked. Sofia didn't actually bite, but she did attempt it, which is very unlike her, but also very worrying.

Sofia is not happy with us, because we've been withholding treats (crackers, chips, steak) lately because its just not good for her. She is a maturing lady, with maturing digestion, and she needs less human food. Sofia does not agree, and is trying to let us know. Sofia has always been our spiciest cat, but attempting to bite a fairly cat-tolerant friend on her first visit to our house? Not making a good impression here guys.