The wait is over.

Curbed has some gorgeous shots of the new apartment building recently erected on Folsom and Second Streets. Take, for example, the bathroom above in Penthouse Unit A at BLŪ, which comes complete with marble furnishings. Isn't it divine? And divinely exotic? While many well-funded hipsters would cringe at the thought of, um, dropping the kids off in such an inviting space -- you know, the kinds of kids who live with roommates for a communal experience, not out of economic necessity? -- we would displace an entire continent of people to live here. It looks super nice, is what we're saying. Anyway, check out Curbed for more apartment shots and details on when you can start throwing money at them.

Sunday afternoon they won their ninth straight game, and seventh straight on the road, against the Minnesota Wild (not, as you might guess from the uniforms, the Polar Elf Sniper Brigage). Marleau saved the game with one of the most spectacular defensive plays of the year, batting a fluttering shot that was deflected past goaltender Evgeni Nabokov out of the air as it was heading for an open net in the final seconds of regulation. After a scoreless overtime, Marleau scored the game winner in the shootout. Where you been all this time, Patty?

The improved play of Marleau and Jonathan Cheechoo (who has been scoring goals in absolute bunches lately, signifying he's fully recovered from double-hernia surgery) has been one of the primary reasons for the Sharks recent dominance, but the catalyst was the arrival of slick-skating defenseman Brian "Soup" Campbell from Buffalo in exchange for the promising but unseasoned power forward Steve Bernier. Sharks GM Doug Wilson has been looking for an offensive-minded d-man who can lead the breakout and quarterback the power-play for many years now. Campbell is that guy. His spin-o-rama goal to cement the Sharks entertaining win against the Montreal Canadiens last week is going to be in highlight reels for years to come. He's also good defensively, capable of playing the body, and a good mentor for young defenseman like Christian Ehrhoff and Marc-Eduard Vlasic. He'll also be an unrestricted free-agent at the end of the year, so let's hope that Wilson can work on an extension for Campbell. Like a midwestern hot dish, the universal binding ingredient, what brings all the flavors together, for this year's Sharks is Soup.

By our hockey correspondent, Ian

Whenever a presidential candidate announces his VP choice this early in the game, it's either to try to help him win a state, or to strengthen a weakness. Take, for example, Bill Clinton who chose Al Gore to help him win the South. And in 2000, George Bush selected Dick Cheney to help alleviate his complete lack of experience. So with that, we announce that Ralph Nader's Vice President pick is our very own Matt Gonzalez. Yay!

Also: huh?

Obviously the choice makes sense. Nader has a well-deserved reputation as a bit of a boring drip, so Gonzalez will help him with the hipster/artist types who will instantly fall in love with our one-time mayoral candidate's dreamy eyes and foppish hair. Plus,it will also give Nader a chance to win the electorally-rich Mission and Haight hoods.

As for Gonzalez? Well, we're guessing this awesome VP opportunity will help him grab lingering Nader supporters across the country. As for the almost impossible odds the Nader/Gonzalez team face? Matt says that he "has never entered a political campaign without the idea that it could be won."

Nat: This journey is complex, out of the box. Transformation process. Ontime performance, environmental issues.

Judy Kirshbaum: As program manager of Transit Effectiveness Project, I'll be doing more community outreach. Six more workshops coming up with public.

Our take on all this: it sounds like a good start. Eliminating stops is a great idea; eliminating entire lines would be even better. Muni's always tried to accomplish more than it's able to; and so just like anyone whose to-do list is unmanageable (or like Apple before the return of Steve), Muni needs to delegate some of its bloat to someone else, eliminate the bullshit, and focus on its core competency of moving people from one place to another.

But here's what we'd like someone to cut: lengthy, meaningless, buzzwordy speeches by officials that are just grandiose daydreams instead of specific promises. Just do the damn study, give us the damn findings, and then make the damn changes.

In January we mentioned a global Monopoly board game where you could vote on which cities you want on Hasbro's latest version of the popular board game, Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. Fun, right? Well, not for some. Hasbro recently removed the country name "Israel" after "Jerusalem" when it received complaints from pro-Palestinian groups. And then, you guessed it, Hasbro received even more heat from people online who noticed the only city without a country was Jerusalem.

Hasbro has now pulled all country names from the site. According the Merc:

Hasbro issued an apology today after an employee, responding to complaints from pro-Palestinian groups, eliminated the word "Israel" after the city in an online contest to select names for a new Monopoly board game: Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. The company also pulled all country names from other cities on the site when even more people complained because Jerusalem was listed as the only city without a country.

As of now, it's anyone's guess what country places like Zagreb, Vilnius, or Chicago call home.

Oh, and you have eight days left to vote for your favorite city to get recognition on the Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. (San Francisco comes in today at #17 as far as the write-in votes go. Let's see that number climb higher, people.)

Without providing an answer for firing San Francisco Public Utilities Commission chief Susan Leal, the SFPUC officially sacked her this morning after a nine-minute closed door City Hall meeting. As part of her severance package, she will receive a delightful $400,000. The former city treasurer was asked to pack up and get the hell out last December as part of Newsom's second-term staff cuts.

Although word is she had to go either for not smooching the Mayor's ass enough (she ran against him for mayor), or because she was pushing for public power, even Leal herself has yet to hear a reason for her dismissal. According to the Gate:

In recent weeks, Leal's allies on the Board of Supervisors have rallied in support of her, lobbying the mayor to save her job and attempting to block Newsom's appointments to the PUC board. Leal was not present for this morning's vote, but following the meeting she said she still has not been given a reason for being fired. She plans to continue working for another 30 days..."I've gotten to the point where I could make myself crazy trying to figure out why," Leal said. "I just look at the work I've done at the agency and know that we've done some remarkable things."

That? Is cold.

Anyway, after being "thrown under the bus by Newsom," the mayor will most likely have City Controller Ed Harrington fill her spot.

Chin up, Leal. We here at SFist wish you all the best.

As mother used to tell us, "the smaller the font, the crazier the loon." And how. Frank Chu seems downright lucid compared to this gentleman, who over the years has called us every ungodly name in the book as we passed by him on Market Street. How about you?

Also, just who the hell is he, anyway?

UPDATE: His name, it seems, is Owen Bias

Image credit: flickr's Mai Le