good things

A few happy things:

* I have recently become (slightly) obsessed with Amanda Palmer and her various endeavors. I saw that her new project, Evelyn Evelyn, is coming to San Francisco in May, and I thought to myself, "Boy, I would love to go see that." And then I thought, "Well, why the hell not?" So today I bought tickets! My friend Shea is going to go with me. I can't wait.

* I finished a painting! I'm sitting with it for a few days to see if it's really done or if it needs a little more tweaking. When it's really done, I'll post pictures. I tried abstract. I like it. I'm, as usual, terrified that it's crap. But really, who cares if it's crap? I mean really. Does it matter? Not at all. Who's to say if it's crap or not? Hello, earth to Daphne, you are not Picasso.

* Am currently reading Auntie Mame and enjoying every sentence. We all need an Auntie Mame. Or maybe we need to be Auntie Mame.

* Terri has talked things out with her doctor and feels MUCH better about things. There were some major problems with the office staff and he also admitted his own responsibility in the lack of response that had been happening. After apologizing sincerely multiple times, we forgave him and she feels good about him again. It's so frustrating when there aren't any answers... you never know what to think. Anyway... there is an exciting new treatment that she's going to try in May (or maybe June/July). It could be a big deal. Crossing fingers. In the meantime, it's enough to have faith in her doctor again. It was also a good lesson for us (for me, at least) in having faith and withholding judgment.

* We watched the Ram Dass documentary Fierce Grace. Wow, that was powerful. We both cried and cried through it, both tears of sadness and empathy, and the sort of tears which come when you are deeply moved by something. Anyway, we loved it. I knew nothing about Ram Dass before this, but now we feel like that spiritual door has been pushed open a wee bit more. So that's sort of exciting too.

* We just got a Netflix player (actually, it's a Blu-Ray DVD player, with NetFlix streaming capability). Woo! It's pretty fun. Our old DVD player broke, and we decided to splurge a little and get the fancy-pants gadget. Terri's home all day long and I keep thinking, if I were home all day long, I would want to be able to watch whatever the heck I wanted, and it would be awfully nice if it looked good and didn't skip or crap out on you. Yippee for new toys! This NetFlix streaming thing is pretty cool.

That's about it. On a little upswing. The hearing is in a week and we are filled with good, hopeful thoughts. Please keep us in your good thoughts this week, through to next Tuesday.

a sunny afternoon in san francisco

For the last two days I've been in San Francisco for an advanced Photoshop class. Just could not have been a prettier two days in a prettier city.

My class was held right across the street from the TransAmerica building (that big tall pointy one). I kind of love the TransAmerica building. It's so huge. (this photo was taken up on the hill at the beginning of North Beach, the old Italian section of the city - and my favorite neighborhood - where I hiked up before class to get a cup of coffee and a perfect almond croissant)

Both days I had a nice hour-and-fifteen-minute lunch. I completely and unabashedly took advantage of the fact that it was gorgeous weather, that we were so close to North Beach, and that I had over an hour to do whatever I wanted in my favorite part of town. Yesterday I didn't have my camera, so I just walked around and ate my lunch and read my book and enjoyed it completely. Today I did the exact same thing, only I took photos.

I am *so* doing this when we have a garden. Love these rusty tomato can planters.

I love Oakland, but I would jump at the chance for us to have a cozy apartment in North Beach. In my fantasy apartment, it's on a quiet side street, with a fireplace and big bay windows like these, and we have both stories to ourselves, and a rooftop garden.

Both days I got an absolutely amazing sandwich at Molinari's Italian deli. For about a dollar and a half more than a Subway sandwich, you can get a work of art that will blow your sandwich-loving mind. I was too preoccupied with figuring out which combination of fresh mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, basil spread and other various amazing toppings to put on my roll (which you choose for yourself out of a bin) to remember to take a photo, but it's total old-school Italian New-York style deli. I love it. Today when I went there, the guy remembered me, which earned him a tip in the tip jar. So friendly and fun. And delicious. Did I mention delicious?

However, after I devoured my sandwich, I did remember to take a photo of where I ate it: Washington Square park. Sitting on a warm park bench, listening to cathedral bells, watching kids and dogs play, and little old Asian ladies doing tai chi in the shade, feeling completely warm and full of amazing sandwich, I was supremely happy for about a half hour here.

On the stroll back to class, I decided to finally stop in to Stella Pastries, a traditional Italian pastry and cookie shop. I've wanted to go here ever since I moved here, but somehow just never have. But today was the day!

I sat at that little table by the door and had my first-ever slice of sacripantina. Holy cannoli, it was good. Light but rich, full of creamy flavor. I could easily have been happy with only half a slice, but there was only me there eating, and really, how can you waste half a slice of this? It was far too delicate to box up and have sitting in my bag for another 4-5 hours until I got home. So... I ate it all, every bite. I was so full but extremely happy.

Thankfully I had thought ahead and so had only eaten half my sandwich (which I am going to have for dinner as soon as I finish writing this), so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I ate entirely too much the last two days, but frankly I really don't care, since I enjoyed every bite, and I also hiked across town a fair bit.

I got back to class with a few minutes to spare, and there were my (two!) classmates, sitting there with Subway wrappers and Starbucks fruit cups in front of them, fiddling around online, still in the stuffy classroom. I had a brief moment of wanting to shake them, to say, "Don't you realize you could have had an orgasmic sandwich experience in Washington Square? Don't you know we're right next to North Beach? Subway? Subway!?!?" But I refrained, and instead, happily sat back down, in a blissful sunny carb-haze.

Anyway. I have lots more pictures but I will dole them out as I work on them (with my new Photoshop skills!). Right now, there is a sandwich waiting for me.

Sometimes I am so in love with San Francisco it hurts. Today was one of those days.

...funny you should say that...

From my favorite astrology site:

"I need a break from watching you work your psyche to the bone. At least for now, I'm not willing to indulge you in your inclination to do your duty so exhaustively that you suffer. And as much as I admire your drive to get things perfect, I cannot in good conscience encourage you to do that, either. It is therefore with a sense of relief that I counsel you to take at least a week off from the behavior I described. Instead, try playful, messy experiments that are in service to your own needs. Be a freewheeling explorer, a wandering improviser. "

Oh, this makes me laugh. Who, me? Doing my (imagined) duty exhaustively? Nah.

Sigh.

The good news is that I've started painting again. Perhaps in a precog moment, I decided to try something different and do some abstract stuff. Inspired by, of all things, an ad for Cost Plus, I'm having a lot of fun with this new direction. Pictures to come soon.

It's been a weird week at work, and an overly thought-filled week at home (too many things to think about, not enough time to just BE). Although I have lots to do this weekend, I'm going to try to have fun with it all. Let's see here. In direct opposition to the horoscope imploring me to not plan stuff, here is what I've got planned:

* some painting

* a walk

* some babysitting (and working on a personal design website)

* making princess cupcakes for dear friend's daughter

* tea with an old friend

That's not too much, right? Mostly fun stuff, and Monday completely free.

Also to add: take stock of current TBR situation. I have to return some books to the library and get some new ones. I'm also attempting to read my first "So Bad It's..." book: Don't Hassel The Hoff. I don't know if I'll be able to read it through, but I'll give it a good skim. Plenty of bad review material already! Unintentionally hilarious! Poor David Hasselhoff.

Columbia Gorge and Mt. Hood

I already shared my goofy ski videos but here are some more images from the trip to Mt. Hood Meadows. We drove up through the Columbia Gorge because it's so beautiful and one of my favorite places on earth.

Got some really interesting shots out the incredibly dirty windows of Matt's car...

and of course the Gorge is always happy to oblige with photogenic green trees and mists...
We used to stop at Multnomah Falls all the time on our way to my mom's family in Eastern Oregon. We always had to peek in the creek to see if we could find any fish. Usually there were a few to be found, but none this time.
Sooooo many memories of playing around this creek and looking for fish...

And just one more because it's so pretty.

Then onward to Mt. Hood! My mom calls this "her mountain" because you can have a great view of it from where she grew up, in Eastern Oregon (a small town called Grass Valley). I think of it as her mountain now, still.

Such a gorgeous day at Mt. Hood Meadows.

And pretty, pretty mountain scenes on the way back to Portland.

It Makes Me Smile

(stole this idea from Tammie)

Wow, I am in a totally blah space. I'm pretty run-down healthwise for some reason (I guess a staph infection plus a sleepless vacation plus an allergic reaction plus getting my period will do that to a person...). I'm not exactly in a bad mood, just low energy and feeling like hibernating. It's gray and cold and rainy out (my favorite weather) which also makes me feel like curling up in a warm little ball in my bed. The cats are setting a perfect example, which is difficult to resist.

However, despite my blank and gray frame of mind, and a number of things to worry about (aren't there always?), there are still some things making me smile these days.

* The first-time homebuyers seminar! Woohoo! It was very informative, and gives me more than a little hope that we will be able to buy a house sometime soon. I am going to finish filling out our paperwork this week to get the process started. It's very exciting. Even if we have to start with a small townhouse, as long as it has an outdoor space, we'll be thrilled.

* My recent upswing in book success! I've had three good ones in a row. Actually two of them are nearly finished: The Bourne Identity and Tales of the City. The third, which I haven't blogged about because it's my book club book and I wanted to see what my fellow bookclubbers thought of it, was Le Divorce, which I also really enjoyed. Also a rare case where all three books have been made into movies and/or series, so I can enjoy them further. I actually really liked"The Bourne Identity" movie, and have many thoughts about comparing it to the book, which will be in my review once I finish it. I can't wait to watch "Tales of the City," and "Le Divorce" looks like it might be sort of fun as well.

* Epic cooking fail! I'm on a bit of a roll with being kind of ridiculous (see before-mentioned health issues... seriously? WTF!), but yesterday I topped it all off with a pretty amazing cooking disaster. I usually have pretty good success with my cooking experiments, but my attempt to combine a couple of Ethiopian-inspired dishes did not succeed. There is a dish that I love which has cabbage, onions, potatoes and carrots all cooked together, and another one with sweet potatoes. So I sort of put it all together in the crockpot, with tumeric and cumin. Sounds good, right? I don't know if it was the ratio or if I added too much water or what, but it turned out absolutely disgusting. I took some for lunch today. Usually I try to suffer through at least one serving of my mistakes, if only to teach myself a lesson (and not waste it). However, even with generous salting, I couldn't eat more than three bites of this. Seriously disgusting. The whole batch goes into the garbage. Thankfully it was a cheap experiment, but I hate wasting food like that. Next time, I'm following a recipe before experimenting. Still, it amuses me that it was such an absolute, unquestionable failure.

My other experiment, puffed millet treats (as opposed to rice crispy treats) turned out pretty well. They're not crispy (next time, I will buy crisped brown rice), but they are relatively healthy and don't taste too bad either. It's what I ended up having for lunch, anyway.

* Golden Temple Coconut Almond Granola! I finally figured out where this is in the bulk foods section at my beloved Berkeley Bowl. It kept hiding from me, and I would buy a different kind, thinking it was the right one, but it was not. However, I located it again, and my goodness, this is the perfect granola (for me). Crispy, not too chunky, with toasted almonds and perfectly toasted large shavings of not-too-sweet coconut. I seriously love this stuff. If I felt like being completely decadent I would eat it with my other current favorite, The Greek Gods full-fat greek yogurt (my favorites are honey and fig). Unfortunately it's a little expensive (and full of fat, although delicious) so I don't buy it often. But OMG, seriously people. Good stuff. I wonder if the grocery store near my office will carry it soon (the yogurt)? That could be dangerous.

Anyway. Book Club is this Thursday, so I will log a report about Le Divorce after that, and I expect to finish my other books very quickly, so a flurry of book reviews coming soon! In the meantime, you can find me (and Terri, and Cleo and Katie) snuggled in our bed, in our WARM (yes, I said it!!) bedroom, crunching on granola, reading books and watching lamentable TV.

I'm Only Happy When It Rains

Well, that's not exactly true. But it's pretty darn close. Today we had a huge rainstorm here in the Bay Area (and I'm guessing all along the West Coast). It made me SO happy. All day I've been in this extremely happy mood. I've just been in this little happy bubble. No little black clouds over me, no sir. I literally felt like smiling all day long.

Big gusts of near-hurricane-force winds, real honest-to-goodness rain pouring down, flooded streets, downed trees, the whole shebang. Oh, it did my soul good.

But we only get two days of it. I bet by tomorrow afternoon it will be freaking sunny again. I'm so tired of sun! Grr. Argh.

Anyway. I'm in a really great mood today. It's raining -- better yet it's storming. I feel very happy thinking about taking a literature course, just for me. The news about the XMRV virus seems like a good thing. My mom is coming to visit in a few weeks. Things are good.

Of course, we still don't have cable in the bedroom, and our bathroom sink is still backed up, and (and this really is bad news) we just found out that Terri's doctor died a few days ago (just like her last doctor did, almost a year ago -- truly tragic and unbelievable both times)... but we'll solve all those things. For now, I am just happy to be happy.

Also, last night I used some of my Valrhona chocolate to make chocolate mousse. It was surprisingly easy and SO FREAKING DELICIOUS. If I remember to take a photo tonight I will. But if you have not made chocolate mousse, you should. It's one of those things that sounds hard but isn't. I don't know why I had a craving for it, but I did, and I'm glad I caved. The best part is that Terri didn't want any so it's ALL FOR ME.

More reason to be happy.