Home Again

It's deliciously cool outside. mmmm, fog.


Today's earrings: would have been compasses, but for the metal detectors

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Vacation: All I Ever Wanted

Today I got to meet the shopping carts with the built-in cars. OMG, bestest thing ever. I got pictures. :)

Other than that, I mostly flollopped about while K&S thought deep thoughts. Oh, and I had breakfast with D, and helped read him bedtime stories. So cute!

I shall relay the alternate venue selection to S. (Thanks M!)


Today's earrings: bees, peas

Bedtime reading: Children: The Challenge, Rudolf Dreikurs and Vicki Soltz

This boat and all who sail in her

K made banana muffinlets first thing this morning. mmmm, banana.

R stopped by midday. The leg that was bitten by the leech yesterday was swelling. K gave him some literature on the symptoms of scary infections and sent him home, in hopes of scaring his folks into going to the emergency room.

Laxity...laziness...indolence...

K & I went to visit a neighbor who has a small boat and no clue. K got the sail rigged (lateen, not fore-and-aft, so it took an extra minute to figure out & set up), gave a quick lesson in which way to turn the tiller and how to sheet in, urged them to keep the centerboard down, and launched the neighbor's niece & nephew in the newly-christened boat, Fred. Fortunately, they also took the paddle, George, with them.

We came home. Made & ate guacamole. Finished a crossword puzzle.

D woke up from his nap, and S took him by R's. Shortly thereafter, got a call from S. The swelling wasn't going down, and R couldn't really walk. R's parents were taking him to the emergency room. Could K bring by the crutches from the upstairs closet? So we took them by. D busied himself moving a mound of dirt for R's father while we talked on their lawn. After sufficient dirt had been moved, we came home. Had dinner. Retired, exhausted.


Today's earrings: turtles, other turtles

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Potluck Picnic

Today was the Annual Meeting of the H's Lake Society. S went, and talked about sterile fish and speed limits. We all tagged along after for the potluck. The food was good. Even better: a rolling-down hill close a hand. K&D rolled down it. R, who seems to want to be Bill Irwin when he grows up, rolled down with acrobatic & pratfall embellishments. I taught him the Interrupting Starfish. More important, I got pictures. :)

By the time we got home I was melting, so I stayed in the house with the ceiling fan. The menfolk went to watch horses jump, and later visited the frogs [brek-kek-kek-kek, brek-kek-kek] up at the Gardens.

We grilled dinner out back. Fortunately, we got everything in before the skies opened up. There was thunder and lightning, and lots of rain all falling at once.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling

My nephew: Even cuter than a wee froggy on a lilypad

Slept in.

In the afternoon, went to the tiny local zoo w/ S&D. That zoo has two emu. We saw one of the emu lunching on tree. Elsewhere, there were several red pandas flolloping about. In another elsewhere, an otter. He was lively.

Then we went to the Wethersfield Gardens. Strong recommend, d/t
a) excellent views, plus a bunch of Formal Vistas
b) peacocks, in both white and technicolor.
c) great big huge hedges
d) perfect places to have tea
e) frogs in the water features. Ribbit!

K&S each took a spin in Deadwood, while I daintily sipped lemonade and read HP on the lawn. D was immersed in earth-moving endeavors (he's moving the mulch from the place mid-lawn that used to hold a tree to the place under the kitchen window that now holds lavender).

Homemade pizza for dinner, plus G&N+G-A turned up. (A is studying German, in Germany.)

D turns out to be a contrarian. Ask a question, and his first response will be "no." Ask again, and the answer tends to be different. I'm trying to teach him to say "contrarian." I'd appreciate everyone's help with this.

S says he'd like to be taken to the Blue Nile for his birthday.


Today's earrings: little flowers, floral deco triangles

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Busy busy day

K&D&me went to story hour at the library, and checked out some books
...to a coffee shop for muffins
...to a totally excellent playground, with a cannon, and a digging device, and a train, and a really tall spiral slide, and shady swings
...to the supermarket for fruit and cheese, and also sausages and other good stuff
...to the window store for screens, where we met two mellow dogs lying in the shade, who rolled over to have their bellies scratched
...home for lunch on the lawn
...and then K&me took a nap.

S&D went to the beach and to drop off books at another library, and when they came home, D took a nap.
K&S went for a swim in the lake.
D woke up, and we all changed for K's birthday dinner. The food was delicious. There were basil mashed potatoes, and it was good.
S&D got up and walked around some - they went to the little library across the street from the restaurant that's open until 9. After dinner, we went back and checked out more books.

I have a sunburn, and wish to begin experimenting with adding basil to my potatoes.


Today's earrings: strawberries, citrine teardrops

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling

Arrived!

I'm at K&S's. Got here, took a nap, had dinner, read to Daniel with sound effects, discussed the deplorable state of sport in the world, going to bed.

It's been a full day.


Today's earrings: no earrings, d/t metal detectors.

Bedtime reading: Children: the Challenge, Rudolf Dreikurs & Vicki Soltz

Happy Harry Potterday

Today's purchases:

• 1 set housekeys
• 2 pairs black cloth mary janes
• 20 yds brown 3/8" curtain cord
• Games, September 2007
• wordless diagrams, Nigel Holmes
• The American Way of Death Revisited, Jessica Mitford
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
• 3 scrumptious cheeses
• 2 links chicken-basil sausage
• 1 herb slab

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do.


Today's earrings: spiders, green webs

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Little earthquake

Not so very little, really. Thank heavens for the California Building Code.

Another interrupted night's sleep. d/t my accumulating sleep deprivation, I believe the fates are conspiring against me. Be good to get some rest...


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Gruß aus Kalifornia!

The tourists on the bus today were kind of cute. Pleasant, bewildered, and anxiously reading every street sign, even though they had at least another mile to travel. I hope they enjoy their stay.

There was a manic local standing right next to the driver who was less cute. It only took six stops of constant yammer for the driver to tell him to get off the bus. Fortunately for everyone, he did.


Today's earrings: flowers, peapods

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Not working

The busy bees with the typewriters keys were supposed to ensure a productive day. That didn't happen. I did get through everything I planned to get through... it just took until 7pm.

Between the long day and Top Chef I decided to treat myself to the pretentious restaurant across the street. That was a good call. They deep-fry garlic slices in with the fries. Plus, the nice wait staff bought me a drink with my nummy chocolate dessert. Thank you, nice wait staff!

Not pleased that they booted Lia tonight on Top Chef. I like her.


Today's earrings: bees, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Google foul

I chose my earrings sort of randomly this morning, figuring I could come up with a decent rationalization by tonight. I was vaguely thinking some kind of amphibious superheroine. Fifteen hours later I'm sitting here feeling insufficiently rationalized, so I googled. Bad move. All the deformed frog websites came up, and some of them had pictures.

*shudder*


Today's earrings: frogs, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling

Death warmed over

Just plain insomnia last night... damn, I'm tired. I'm turning this off, going to bed, and hoping for the best.

Sweet dreams, everyone.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling

Bastille Day

Happy Anniversary to K&SC!

SD's birthday revels here - Ethiopian for dinner, chocolate dinosaur cupcakes for dessert, and the new Potter movie to round off the evening. I shared around the Interrupting Starfish bit. SD followed up with the Incognito Starfish, the Celebrating Starfish, the One-Armed Starfish of Derision, and the Morphing Starfish (becomes the Jellyfish of Doooom). Dude is creative.

We ended the evening beheading chocolate dinosaurs. Many happy returns of the day. :)


Today's earrings: strawberries, chocolate

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

A little shut-eye

3:30 in the morning the phone rings. They wanted to talk to Erica.

There is no Erica here.

I have gotten calls for Erica before. From what those people said, they're just calling every E. Mylast in the area code, hoping that I'm the right one. My feeling on the matter is that if you don't know someone well enough to have their current phone number, you don't know them well enough to call at 3:30 in the morning. But hey, standards differ.

I wish Erica's friends and family would never call me again, though.


Today's earrings: eyes, alien eyeballs

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

Bitten off

Newbie stopped by my desk last thing today, and could she ask me a question? I said yes, of course. She wants to know about something I (actually, my boss) said in today's meeting. Fortunately, my boss was passing on her way out the door and allowed herself to get sucked in.

The original question was about why companies might make apparently sub-optimal economic decisions under particular conditions. Two follow-up questions later, and we're explaining the Enclosure movement. One more question, and we would have hit the Black Death and the Little Ice Age. It all comes back to climate change eventually.


Today's earrings: hands, alligators

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

Bird's nest of raw tuna... unsalted. WTF?

Top Chef: I like that Casey cried. Not that I'm happy someone had occasion to cry, of course, but it showed that she got it. She was the one who did the worst work, and someone else was likely to pay for it. She reacted, not as her prissy veneer, but as a person who was sincerely sorry for (maybe) blowing someone else's chance.

Also nice was Joey & Howie trying to comfort her. They won't forget and they won't forgive, but when she was crying and saying how sorry she was, their automatic reaction was to soothe.

None of them are perfect people, but all of them are decent people underneath.


Today's earrings: fish skeletons

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

Aquarium

http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/efc_kelp/kelp_underwatercam.asp
Kelpcam. Baycam. Ottercam.

Life is good.



Today's earrings: fish, aqua glass beads

Bedtime reading: The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell

Tortoiseshell

There's a lot of shells in the sea.


Today's earrings: turtles, oliva spicata

Bedtime reading: Venus on the Half-Shell, Kilgore Trout

Hot hot hot

Caught a PBS thingy on Chihuly tonight. It takes like eight people at once to make one vase. At least two of them are doing nothing but wielding the blowtorches.

And now, somewhere in America, some kid is dreaming of growing up to carry a torch for a one-eyed glassmaker.


Today's earrings: flatirons, peppers

Bedtime reading: Shattered, Dick Francis

Feels like Monday...

...but it's not.

Ticklemore cheese is soft and almost spreadable in the middle and rindy at the edges. A really yummy two-cheeses-in-one. Samples can be provided at a later date. :)


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell

Sloth, pride, gluttony?

For lunch today, I had Ticklemore cheese on toast points with bergamot jam. mmmm, jam.
That's about all I got done today.

Party! Good company, many of whom brought good food. Then I got to watch fireworks through the M&S's picture window. They have killer view. There was a display from PacBell Park, and another from Jack London Square, and one from the Mission, and... lots of pretty sparklies.

I totally spaced this morning, and missed the live broadcast of the hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. Joey Chestnut won. Local boy, which is nice. But the rejoicing at his win is unpleasantly disproportionate to the actual acheivement. And I really don't like the way they've decided that Kobayashi's sore jaw is a preemptive excuse. The guy just had surgery, for heaven's sake. No need to call him a liar. And he still beat the world record. But hey, Chestnut won, fair & square. Good work, Chestnut!

Also in the news: many of the pretty fireworks this evening were illegal fireworks. Huh. those were some pretty damn elaborate illegal fireworks. (I can still hear them outside. Hope nothing burns down.) Newscritters talked to the Sheriff down in Santa Cruz - they were searching people on the main beach, trying to keep out fireworks. What they didn't realize was that people had come in the day before and buried stashes of explosives. Sun went down, they dug them up and set them off. Provident scofflaws.


Today's earrings: sparkly diamonds, sparkly yellow chandeliers

Bedtime reading: Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

Hither & thither

I do not understand the commercial in which the people are in the forest kicking trees until the guy in the Pippi Longstocking wig raises the cry for better hamburgers. It makes no sense. And if it was meant to have made no sense, I'd think they'd have had a kangaroo hop by, just for accent.

Another commercial I saw this evening, for map software for your phone, or some such. Anyway, it was set at a gas station in the countryside, and the little example text was "El Toro Road." I used to work at a gas station on El Toro Road. There was no countryside there.

I have bought the cheese. The cheese does not buy me.

Borrowed The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell from my boss
Lent my boss The Black Death: A Turning Point in History?, William W. Bowsky, ed.


Today's earrings: dragonflies, other dragonflies

Bedtime reading: The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell

Reconciling the seemingly disparate

Plenty of minutia to whine about, but...

...when I left work, my colleagues were watching the Argentina-Colombia match on Al Jazeera live feed. And I just watched the History Channel program on the Star Trek auction at Christie's.

These things fill me with optimism.


Today's earrings: elephants, ebony teardrops

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.