Yesterday, about 4.30 in the afternoon I notice it’s a little hotter than usual. I check Google and this is what it tells me. It’s absolutely roasting. In fact I think it’s a record for San Francisco, it’s usually sunny but never this warm. The good weather is expected to last throughout the weekend.

In other news, this weekend is shaping up to be good. The annual Bay to Breakers Race is taking place is taking place this Sunday, which draws huge amounts of people. It’s a 12k race from Embarcadero on the east (the Bay), to the breakers at Ocean Beach on the west side of the city. Of course there’s all the hills on the way which makes it considerably more difficult than it sounds.

The reason it gets a lot of attention, aside from being the longest consecutively running race in the world, is that it attracts more people either in costumes or in nothing at all than actual runners. Do a search for Bay to Breakers on Flickr and you’ll see what I’m talking about. There’s thousands of people dressed as Elvis and other things, and about the same about turn up for the race in the nude. Interesting.

Also interesting is that my friend Paul turned up in SF the other day. He’s on a ’round the world’ trip and has been mainly visiting Asia and Australia so far, but he arrived here a few days ago and is staying about a week. He says I have an American accent now, but I think he’s just taking the piss a bit. At least, I hope he is…

Valerie attempted to cut his hair last night with my $5 shaver from Walgreens, but with no success. It was a combination of his hair being a total mess and my shaver being of expectedly crap quality. I advised him to visit my favourite little hairdressers in Chinatown, where they only charge $5. They don’t understand English but they can interpret a ’shave my head’ gesture.

I have both Saturday and Sunday off this week. For most of you on placement or at university, this is nothing unusual so be thankful. My last weekend off was about a week after coming home from Hawaii. So about 5 months ago. Rejoice!

Prince Caspian comes out today so I will go see it. I’m gearing up for disappointment, since it got a pretty bad review from the SF Chronicle, which is generally quite accurate at reviews. I’m more looking forward to Indiana Jones next week, for which I purchased a replica ‘Indi’ hat to wear to the special occasion. Expect pictures.

Valerie’s pet, a dwarf hamster named Steve McQueen (after escaping from his cage), died last night. He was about 7 months old so it was kinda sad. Early in the evening I watched him running in his little wheel and he seemed to be fine, but then later at about 11 I checked on him and he was lying on his side with his eyes open and was having obvious problems trying to breathe. He wasn’t moving either, so I’m not sure exactly what caused it. Either way, this morning when we checked on him he was gone.

He was a small little thing, and loved his little wheel. In fact, he wore out the first wheel he had, so I bought him a new one (apparently with silent operation, but that turned out to be lies). I’m sure he ran several miles every day because he never seemed to stop running on it. It required regular cleaning because he pooed in it while running so it was sort of muddy. Almost like the hamster equivalent of a cross country.

I don’t know yet if we’ll replace him. Val talked about getting a fish or something, but I don’t really see the point. I sang him a tribute (to the tune of Candle in the Wind). RIP Steve.

Those of you that visit Digg.com on a regular basis will no doubt have come across today, but otherwise, I give you Homeless James Bond. Kind of a James Bond for San Francisco!

There’s also a sequel that you can see here, and also check out Operation Kitty Calender which is hilarious too!

May the Fourth be with you…

Sorry.