My former fourth-grade pen pal, Gretchen, was in town this weekend visiting some family. I had planned a fun afternoon for us of walking around the neighborhood and showing her some San Francisco sites, however due to the sturm und drang of a monsoon outside, we instead curled up on the floor of my apartment and caught up over coffee. Later we braved the storm and, raincoats on and umbrellas overhead, scampered down the hill to Magnolia to down some beers. I had about four hours with her, although I wish it had been four days! So great to see her again- it has been almost two years since I’d last seen her. We picked up right where we left off, which imo is on of the hallmarks of a true friendship. Feels so natural and at ease even when you haven’t seen them or talked to them in a while. I love this girl!

Unfortunately, Earl was in Seattle this weekend skiing with his best friend from college, so he missed meeting Gretchen. She did, however get to meet Linus and Lucy, and left E a nice note on our wall calendar:

On an aside, I was dismayed to learn Magnolia has a new chef who changed the scotch eggs from quail eggs to duck eggs! This is NO BUENO. No where *near* as good. Not even in the same galaxy of awesomeness. :( Those quail eggs scotch eggs were out of this world. The meatloaf sammy, however, is still top rate.