the beard stays, YOU GO!

agh. sorry for the poor posting, people. i probably should have given y'all a heads up that after spending a week in san francisco for nonstop work, i was coming back to new york for all of two days -- for more nonstop work.

and then mrs nice guy and i packed up and went to jamaica. without the kid. for six glorious days. of nonstop chillaxing.

a brief timeline of the past two weeks: i said i was going to SF and indeed i did. i schlepped my wounded knees over there to attend this massive conference about things too dull to get into here, but suffice it to say i was working. a lot. but i did get to do some eatin':

• lunch at the surprisingly tasty Ducca (in the lobby of the Westin, of all places), stone's throw from Moscone.
• i dined one night at the decidedly hip -- and delicious -- SPQR (i took a cab there after an aborted attempt to walk found me kicking hypodermic needles on 6th street and feeling vaguely menaced 'round every corner. and here i thought i was an urbane, sophisticated brooklynite only to be scared by a gaggle of latenight SF toughies. i am ashamed.)
• had lunch at some mediterranean/italian place whose name i can't remember but it starts with a Z and they have their own cookbook because the food is quite tasty.

i spent the rest of my free time hanging out with my good college friend Crazy Legs and her not-quite-so-new-anymore daughter. she lives nearish to haight-ashbury, so i pilgrimaged to Amoeba and picked up a stack of rekkids (ray bryant, chet atkins and jerry reed, abdullah ibrahim, emmylou harris, syreeta). then i remembered that i must be in the vicinity of the Grateful Dead house, so i looked it up on the old blackberry, and indeed i was but a block away. so i paid my respects to 710 ashbury -- a lovingly restored victorian with some crazy mojo. keep on truckin', jerry ... i wonder how much the current occupants hate you.

anyway. i stayed at the new intercontinental hotel and they tell me that i was either the first or second guest to ever stay in the room that i had. i only wish i could have defiled it a little more for the next.

so, yeah. not all that exciting. what was exciting was getting on a plane last week to jamaica. we stayed at a tiny little resorty place in negril. the in-laws drove down and watched the kid while wife and i sat in the sun for six days, arising only to swim, eat or drink. more on that later. first, i must conquer the severe depression i have lapsed into upon returning to my desk and realizing that now i must work.

but first, let me leave you with this -- a grim peek inside my current state of mind: